So Trials are pretty much over now, and you are probably starting to get some results back. Hopefully, you absolutely smashed it and are feeling super confident for your HSC Exams; go you! There will definitely be some of us, however, who didn’t perform quite as well as we would have liked. Didn’t quite get the marks we wanted. That can be a major motivation killer and extremely stressful, but it shouldn’t be! Screwed your Trials? Here are 5 reasons NOT to panic.

1.   Trial Exams Are Harder than the HSC

When I say Trial exams are tougher than the HSC, I don’t mean in terms of the difficulty of the paper (though that is certainly possible as well, for some of us). I mean in terms of the situation surrounding the papers.

Let’s do a little comparison. For the HSC, you have a month and a half (most of it without school) to study for exams. For Trials, after assignments due end of Term 2/early Term 3, you were probably lucky to get a couple of weeks of solid study. In October, your exams will be spread over about 3 weeks. In Trials, it was 2 weeks. The list goes on; the Trials are more stressful than the HSC for most students.

For this reason, you can’t be hard on yourself. It is meant to be tough, and it is easier from this point forward. Your next exams will be a much friendlier environment, and that will make it much easier for you to meet the goals you set yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’ve screwed your trials up a bit this time, because the HSC will be easier, and you will have way more time to prepare.

2.   You Will Improve

When students come chat to me about their Trial results, it almost sounds like they’ve just received their HSC Marks. Sometimes I have to remind them:

“Um, you know you have like 2 months to improve that mark right?”

You have a heap of time between now and the HSC, and that means heaps of time to improve your results. Just because you screwed your Trials, that doesn’t mean you will mess up your HSC too. Work hard to improve!

3.   The Marks Don’t Matter as Much as You Think

Look, I’m not going to lie, your Trial mark isn’t inconsequential. It’s a pretty decent chunk of your internal mark. But I know there will be hundreds of you asking this question:

“I screwed my Trials, can I still get XX ATAR?”

Yes. You can.

Without getting into the details of moderation and scaling (though if you have questions about it, come ask me here), your Trial mark influences your internal rank and mark. However, these ranks and marks go through a moderation process, and the results are heavily dependent on one thing; the HSC Exam.

A less than ideal performance in your Trials is more than compensated for by a super strong finish in the HSC Exam. Why? Because all your internal marks and ranks are moderated to reflect the exam; the one true standardized indicator of performance. If you screwed your Trials, that’s okay! It just means you have to work a tiny bit harder in October.

Now, don’t get me wrong, doing well in the Trials and in your internal assessments is important and great if you can do it. But the HSC Exam is the big one. Think of your Trials as a security blanket. Do well? Awesome! The moderation process will be kinder to you. Don’t do so well? No dramas. You’ll just have to work a bit harder, and that goes for your cohort too. If your entire cohort performs really well, it will be like you never even screwed your trials at all.

4.   It is a PRACTICE Run

Let’s not forget what these things are called: Trials. Like, the name itself should make it obvious that this is a practice run! Yes, it’s a practice run that counts a bit towards the end result, but a practice run nonetheless.

The Trials are your first shot at a full-fledged, HSC style exam block. It’s tough! You can’t expect to ace it on your first go. So what if you screwed your Trials, it was your warm up. You’ll do way better for the real thing.

The important thing is this; what do the successful Olympians do with their practice runs? They analyse them. They figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to avoid doing it again. It is absolutely essential that you use this opportunity to check your performance and turn “Screwed your Trials” into “Figured out what I needed to work on so I could smash the HSC.”

GO through all your papers and figure out where your marks were lost, and set realistic goals on how to address them

Losing a lot of marks on silly mistakes in Math? Do some more practice under exam conditions to get used to the pressure!

Struggling with the length of your essays in Paper 2? Set some goals to improve your handwriting speed!

Burned for not having media articles in Legal Studies? Get researching!

You get the idea! It is your job to learn from your mistakes and make sure you don’t make them again. That should be your first job as you get your results back, and it is perhaps the most important.

5.   Screwed Your Trials? You Have Support Networks

It sucks to not meet your goals in an exam. It sucks really bad. It’s demotivating, it’s stressful, and it can cause lots of fear and anxiety. In those times, you can feel really isolated, like your sinking in the HS-Seas and you don’t have anything to stop yourself.

Two things. First, there are a HEAP of other students out there feeling exactly the same way you do. Hundreds, probably thousands, all ranging from a little bummed about one exam to seriously anxious about their future. You are not alone.

Support each other, work hard together (it’s good for scaling too), and finish the year strong as a team. The time for competitive edges and withholding resources from your classmates? That’s gone (and should never have been around in the first place).

On top of that, you’ve got the ATAR Notes Forums. Places to ask ALL your questions about English, Science, Math, Humanities and more. Get essays marked. Challenge yourself with tough math questions. Ask about study habits. Any possible way we can help, we will, and when we can’t, you bet your peers will step in to help out too.

The HSC is a team game. You have networks around you to help you get where you need to go, and they’ll be with you every step of the way.

So What Now?

On Friday we’ll be releasing an article on the next few steps, a timeline from now until your last exam in October. We’ll tell you exactly the sorts of things you should be doing, and when you should be doing them.

Until then, breathe. You have got this.