HSC Tips

STUDYING TIPS

Schedule your study: It is important to keep your study schedule realistic and avoid over-committing your time. Setting a goal or theme for each study block can help you stay focused.
Be consistent: Make study a habit. If you incorporate study into your everyday life, you will be less likely to procrastinate as it will form part of your daily routine.
Minimise distractions: “Out of sight, out of mind”. Parting ways with your phone, social media, TV or any other form of distraction can be difficult at times, but it is an extremely effective way to remain focused on the task at hand.
Take regular breaks: It is important to take regular breaks during studying to refresh your mind and body, which in turn, increases energy levels, productivity and your ability to focus. Purposeful, energizing breaks may consist of taking a walk and reconnecting with nature, listening to music, stretching or making a healthy snack.
Be prepared: Ensure you have all necessary equipment required for an exam packed and ready. Try and arrive at least 15minutes before exams if possible to allow time to relax before starting.
Plan: Thoroughly read through exam papers and questions. Plan out how long you are going to spend on each section of your exam and prioritize questions depending on mark allocation.
Make notes: Writing notes and consistently reviewing these helps to retain your knowledge of theory. Use coloured highlighters and sticky notes to capture your attention and allow important information to stand out.

SELF-CARE TIPS

Sleep healthily: Keep off electronics an hour before bed, have a dim, comfortable room, do some mindfulness and keep a consistent sleep schedule in order to get the best sleep possible. Students should get approximately 8 hours of sleep every night
Create motivation: plan a small reward when you achieve your study block goal, or after completing a hard task to increase your motivation.
Start your day on top: Before starting your work, do some exercise (even a walk), a healthy breakfast and some mindfulness to release endorphins and set your body- “win the morning, win the day”.
Be aware of burn out: Don’t do tomorrow’s work if you finish today’s work early, give yourself some down time and pace out your study to preserve endurance.
Be kind to yourself: If you are having a bad or stressful day, the best things is to take some time and reset. Do a mentally nourishing activity like cooking a meal, doing some craft, go for a run, and know you are not alone in this.
Stay in touch with your friends: Try and make time for a coffee catch up or a joint study session to break your day up and allow time for socialisation
Be aware of signs your body is stressed and know how to manage it
- Stress symptoms can include racing heartbeat, skin flare up, irrational decision making, difficulty concentrating, moody or irritable, loss of appetite, or poor sleep.
- Stress management strategies include talking your issue through with a parents, friend or teacher, prioritise one or two tasks and leave the rest for tomorrow, taking a break from studying and go for a walk or away from your screen, use a mindfulness app or YouTube video, make sure the rest of your workload is organised

HANDWRITING PREPARATION BEFORE AND DURING EXAMS

Warm up fingers and hands before doing any writing to prepare the muscles for a "work out".
Stretch large muscles also such as arms, legs and back.
Rest breaks: Stretch, manipulate and massage hands between questions or when thinking.
Posture: sit up straight, feet flat, chair pulled in.
Revision notes: Hand write notes from classes neatly to ensure neat notes to study from.
Practice: Do practice papers or questions.
Resilience: Use a weighted pen for short periods, (up to 20 minutes on and then off to reduce fatigue). This helps to develop muscle resilience.
Proof read: Read answers out loud or ask someone else to read to ensure legibility.
Stability: Rest both arms on the desk when writing and hold the page to prevent the page moving.
Legibility is better than more writing. If the examiner can't read it, then marks can not be allocated.
Equipment: Trial different pens for comfort, consider pen weight, grip, thickness, ease of writing.