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As trials get nearer and nearer, it’s hard for us not to think about the work we did to prepare for this major exam block. Some of us look back and wonder how we ever made it through, others wish they had done more in order to achieve a better mark.

Most people’s study routine included hours of work every day, visits to the library a couple of times a week, past paper after past paper and late night skype panics to friend who felt just as screwed as they did. Mine was… a little different, to say the least. Whilst everyone else was at the library, I was in South Africa. When my friends were doing past papers, I was bungee jumping in Zimbabwe. So yeah, you could say that my Trials study was a little different from most. Still, after duxing the year and getting an Atar of 99.80, I don’t think it affected my marks very much.

If I can take a break, you can too

In my final year of High School, I was lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to travel to South Africa with an amazing group of young people to participate in a Youth Forum, aimed specifically at those interested in the Scientific field. The forum was about a week. Still, I was gone for three, and spent the rest of the time on safari, riding elephants, exploring animal reservation parks, trying not to be eaten by lions, sleeping in huts, bungee jumping, sitting around camp fires and just having an all-round incredible time.

I got back to Australia one week before Trials started. I knew that this would be the case before leaving, and deciding whether or not to go was one of the hardest decisions I made in year 12. On one hand, it was an incredible opportunity. On the other, I wanted to do really well in my Trials and smash my HSC in general. After talking to my family for hours at a time, and discussing our options with fellow travellers, I decided to go. I already said it was the hardest decision I made in year 12; it was also probably the best.

I got to see, and pat, meerkats. Meerkats! We saw leopards hiding in trees, alligators attack hippopotamus, and about three gazillion impala (and not the tame kind). But, you probably don’t want to hear about my amazing trip (and it was freaking incredible); you want to know how this relates to you, and your pre-Trials study. And fair enough; trials are a big deal, and so they can seem super daunting to a lot of students (if not all). Anyone who pretends they feel confident about trials, at this stage in the year, is either lying or hasn’t taken a proper look through the curriculum. There is so much information you need to know, and what seems like so little time. You could spend every hour of every day in the holidays on ONE of your subjects, and still not feel like you know 100% of what’s going on.

When it comes to things like studying for exams, sitting Trials, or basically doing anything difficult, I have one motto in life;

If others can do it, why can’t I?

That’s the approach I would always recommend taking to Trials. 50,000 students get through their trials every year; it may seem hard, it may even seem impossible, but if they can do it, you can be damn sure that you will as well.

Now, feel free to use me as an example. I didn’t study that hard before I went to South Africa, and when I get back I only really had 3-4 days to study (once I’d gotten over the jet-lag!). Whilst I was away, I planned to study heaps, but obviously the wildlife took priority and I ended up opening my notes once (only to put them away three minutes later to play a game of Hearts). Still, I got through my trials. In fact, not only did I get through, but I got an Atar of 99.80. I still maintain that most of that was luck, but still, if I can get through the Trials period jet lagged, with only a week study, then you’re absolutely going to get through it as well. I promise.

What to do with the limited time you have before Trials

It’s seriously important that you have a plan. For a great guide explaining how to maximise your study timetabling, click here! If you have the time, it’s really important to get your study notes in order: find out how to do that here! http://atarnotes.com/getting-your-study-notes-in-order/ It’s also absolutely crucial you know how to study smart, instead of hard, in order to save yourself valuable hours. To find out what I mean by that, check out an article I wrote earlier in the year, here!

So what did I do with the week I had before trials? I learnt some of the most important study skills I used in the HSC, and throughout my life now. I like to use Chemistry as an example, because it was the most extreme case throughout my study.

In the week I had, I spent almost all my time on Modern History. That’s just because it’s a seriously hard subject, and I wasn’t as naturally good at it. I prioritised the subjects I was less good at, over the subjects I was more confident with, as Jamon suggests in his great article here! I used Maths as a break, doing a past paper or two a day to relax (yes, I’m a nerd, I get it). I didn’t look at English until the morning of the exam, and that was just to memorise my quotes. I spent a decent amount of time on Physics, just doing past papers and finalising my notes. Chemistry, however, was my last exam. I had Extension 2 Maths on a Tuesday morning, and on Wednesday morning was Chemistry. I calculated that I had about 8 hours to study Chemistry on Tuesday (I like to actually sleep the night before an exam). I wouldn’t say I’m particularly GOOD at Chemistry; up until the HSC, I really didn’t quite understand a lot of what we were doing. I did, however, think 8 hours was enough. I really didn’t think that through…

What I forgot to take into account was that, whilst I was away, I had missed the entirety of Chemical Monitoring and Management. For those who don’t do Chemistry, that’s a quarter of the curriculum, and arguably contains the most information that students need to just blatantly memorise. So, after my Extension 2 exam, I realised I had 8 hours to learn a quarter of the curriculum.

Enter study techniques. When you’re working against the clock, everything else slides away. Your house becomes extra quiet, and your brain because that little bit more receptive. Still, there’s only so much you can do, right?

Wrong. In the HSC, the best advice I ever received was this: “There is only this much stuff”. There is a limited, finite set of knowledge you need to sit ANY HSC assessment task, from half-yearlies to the HSC. That stuff is outlined in the syllabus dotpoints. If you’ve studied Hamlet, they can’t ask you about King Lear. If you do Mathematics, they won’t ask you to perform inverse Laplace transforms on non-linear second order differential functions spanning seven dimensions parametrically. If they did, Year 12 students would storm the Board of Studies offices (something you should probably all do anyway, given what they put you through) until they through out the question the question. There is only this much stuff, stuff that can fit on a page, stuff that can fit on a word document, and certainly stuff that can fit in your brain. And guess what?

If others can do it, why can’t you?

Cram the curriculum, every single day

I fully believe that cramming is the best form of study. If you cram every day for three weeks, you will know the curriculum back to front. If you cram for 8 hours straight, like I did, you can get 90% in that section, like I did. I learnt a quarter of the Chemistry curriculum in a day, and did not study AT ALL for the rest of the subject. I ranked second, missing out on the much-coveted first by two marks. Effective cramming is your best friend as Trials approach. Which means that coloured pens, paper, and some decent notes are also your best friends.

Even the absolute top students cram for exams. I’ve had to cram countless times, both in High School and at University. Cramming doesn’t necessarily mean you haven’t studied at all in the weeks/days preceding a test; it just means that you still have a lot of content to memorise, and you haven’t done it yet.

In reality, the notion of ‘cramming’ is really just trying to condense all of the most important information into an easy to access, readable form, whilst ignoring all of the red-herring you could easily get caught up on. It is getting as much information as possible into your brain, in as short a time as possible. Sounds pretty good, right? Reading over study notes isn’t cramming. Reading your textbook isn’t cramming, and neither is doing past papers. Cramming is writing succinct notes, reading succinct notes, talking to yourself, using colours, finding online resources to help you cheat, spending a few hours smashing through the curriculum with a mate. Cramming is your best friend, when done correctly.

Here are my tips for the best way to cram. It can be a really effective study tool, and honestly there is no reason NOT to utilise these tips the night before an exam, or a week before the exam.

The Preparation

What you will need:

• A set of notes, preferably ones that follow the dot points. Ideally, these should be your own notes, but if you haven’t made any check out some of the notes on Atar Notes HERE.

• Lined paper

• Easy to write with, colourful pens

• Space

The key to a good cram regime is having something fairly concise to study from, in order to produce something EVEN MORE concise to aid in your final hours.

This means having a set of notes, following the dot points, which you can read from. For subjects where classical ‘notes’ are more difficult (Eg. Maths), replace the notes with worked questions and answers that (hopefully) you have from your teachers, or work you’ve done in class.

In the next section, we will see what we need the papers and pens for (although I’m pretty sure it’s obvious). However, you need to come up with a colour system. Are you going to write in Red for super important things that you’ve never heard of? Are you going to use a different colour for each topic? Are you going to put dates in Orange, statistics in Blue and quotes in Green? Come up with a plan, and stick with it. Be smart, and allocate your colours to what your subject requires.

Finally, you are going to need a quite space. You don’t want your parents coming in and out making sure you’re okay, you don’t want your sibling bothering you about their homework. You need some space to concentrate, and maybe a coffee. Try not to listen to music, if you normal do this to study. If you find yourself falling asleep, though, pump out “Not Giving In” (Rudimental).

The Execution

The paper is in front of you. You’ve got a beast system for using colours when you write out your super succinct notes. All of your pens are those fancy ballpoint ones, and you’ve got a decent set of notes in front of you. A hush falls over the crowd, and the cram session begins.

I recommend just reading through the notes on each dotpoint and writing out only information that is absolutely crucial. I’m talking about stats, facts, and things you’ve never even heard of. Stick to your colouring system. Use subheadings. These notes need to be absolutely beautiful.

Don’t put down information that you could, conceivably, make up in the exam. Things like advantages/disadvantages, things you’re fairly confident with but not 100% on; just leave them out. When you cram, you’re trying to get as much of a wide range of material into your head as physically possible. You don’t need everything to be super detailed, and you definitely shouldn’t be writing out sentences. Headings, and dot points, that’s it. If you can summarise the ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL information in a dot point into one sentence, do it. And do it with colour.

Here’s a bit of a pro tip: swear at yourself. When I write my cram notes, I will literally right things like “Not that you’re ever going to [email protected]&%ing going to remember this, but Einstein’s paper came out in 1905”. I swear at the curriculum, at myself, at the content. For me, for some reason, it genuinely helps: It may not for you, but this is just something I like to do!

Writing out the notes is the best way to remember things. When cramming, some students tend to just read over past notes. THIS IS NOT VERY HELPFUL! Writing the notes, identifying your weak points, using colours and other memorisation techniques is the best way to improve your mark in the upcoming assessment.

The Repetition

A lot of the time, you will only write out these notes and leave it at that. You won’t have time to go over them, or anything else like that. However, if you’ve done it within a sufficiently small time frame, you may be able to do some further work.

Now that you have your summarised notes cheat sheet, throw away everything else. You haven’t memorised everything on it, obviously, and nor will you, but there’s not point extending yourself beyond that set of notes. So, with that in mind, let’s go about utilising the set of notes as efficiently as possible.

Read through it a few times, explaining concepts out loud. Whilst you SHOULD have very, very succinct dot points, often in unintelligible sentences, you should explain the concept in full out loud to PROVE that you know what’s going on. You could talk for a few minutes about each dot point, and then move onto the next.

If you find a bit that could be more succinct, make it more succinct. However, since you want the whole thing to be utterly beautiful, you’re going to need to rewrite the entire page. That’s totally fine, because it means you’re more likely to remember the content. Don’t just thoughtlessly spurt out the words: think about what you’re writing, and swear at yourself a little bit more for fun.

Perhaps, you want to look at some typical past questions and apply your sheet to them. I think that this is a good approach, although if it’s the night before I doubt you’ve gotten up to this stage. Don’t necessary write out answers; explain them, out loud, using your notes. If you want to add or subtract things from your set of notes, that’s totally fine. Just keep them beautiful!

This set of notes will honestly be so useful in the coming months. Whilst you only prepared them in a few hours, I promise that keeping them, making them perfect, and using them well will make a big difference in how much knowledge you retain.

The Prestige

To cram is to do a magic trick: Making content appear in your brain, as if out of nowhere. And, every magic act needs a prestige. A moment that completely defies expectations, something that sets you apart from everyone else.

This is going to shock you, perhaps even horrify you. The secret itself is totally unimpressive: the way you use it is everything.

Sleep.

You are going to go to sleep.

The night before an exam you haven’t studied for, at all, and you have a ridiculous amount of content to memorise that, frankly, you just haven’t yet. Despite everything you could be doing. The weeks before exams, where you don’t think you know everything, and haven’t done everything you wanted to do that day.

Go to sleep.

There is no way to get all the content. Feeling well rested, or at least not like a zombie, is the best thing you could do for yourself. Let yourself sleep on all the knowledge you’ve just gained, and then keep looking over your notes the next morning. What you aren’t going to do, however, is stay up all night cramming and rock up to school with 20 minutes of rest.

It might seem hard, with all thoughts of class rushing through your head. But sleep is an essential part of doing well, and you want to do well.

So, sleep. It might not feel good, or right, but you need to do it anyway. Sleep, and then smash the assessment the next day, or feel rested by the time the exam comes around.

There are so many more study tips you can, and should, be utilising as your trials approach. I can’t get them all down here, but we’ve written a whole bunch of articles that could be seriously useful, and only take a couple of minutes to read. If you have any questions, about any subjects, or about studying in general, head over to the Atar Notes forums and people will be there to answer you. Trials are stressful, and having a community to help share that stress is seriously useful. Plus, I’m on holidays, and I get bored easily; why not spam me with difficult HSC questions?

Catch you on the forums.

FAQs

How did you manage to study effectively in just a week?

I focused on the most crucial topics by creating a prioritized study schedule. I identified my weaker subjects and spent extra time on them. Effective time management and targeted cramming allowed me to maximize my study sessions, ensuring I covered the essential material without feeling overwhelmed.

What are some tips for creating effective study notes?

Start by organizing your notes according to your syllabus dot points, which helps ensure you cover all necessary content. Use color coding to highlight important information and differentiate between topics. Focus on summarizing key concepts in bullet points for easy review, and incorporate visuals like diagrams where applicable to enhance understanding.

How can I handle stress as Trials approach?

Acknowledge that feeling stressed is normal and that many students share your concerns. Create a structured study plan to break down your workload into manageable chunks. Take regular breaks to recharge, and practice relaxation techniques like deep breathing or exercise. Don’t hesitate to reach out to friends or teachers for support—sharing your feelings can lighten the load.

What should I do if I feel unprepared before the exams?

If you’re feeling unprepared, focus on what you can control. Review your study notes, concentrating on the material that’s most likely to appear on the exam. Prioritize key concepts and practice effective cramming techniques. Also, remember that getting a good night’s sleep is essential for clarity and retention.

Is cramming a good study strategy?

Cramming can be effective if done strategically. It involves condensing essential information into easily digestible notes that you can review quickly. However, it's most effective when combined with regular study sessions leading up to the exams, allowing for better retention of the material over time.

How can I stay motivated while studying?

Set achievable, short-term goals for each study session, and reward yourself after completing tasks—this can boost your motivation. Remind yourself of the end goal, whether it's achieving a specific mark or gaining acceptance into a desired program. Visualizing your success can also help maintain focus and motivation throughout the process.

What resources do you recommend for additional study support?

I highly recommend exploring ATAR Notes for comprehensive study guides and forums where you can discuss topics with peers. Additionally, consider online resources tailored to specific subjects, which can provide extra practice and clarification. Engaging with a community of fellow students can offer valuable support and insights.

How important is sleep before an exam?

Sleep is crucial for cognitive function and memory retention. A well-rested mind performs better under pressure, allowing you to recall information more effectively during the exam. Aim for a good night’s sleep before your exams, as it will help you feel alert and ready to tackle the questions confidently.