Unsure if you’ll be able to bounce back from initially bad marks and improve your results for HSC Economics?
Even though it may feel like you’ve screwed up the rest of your HSC, there’s still a chance to make up those lost marks.
In today’s video, we talk to Clara, who scored 25% in her first HSC Economics assessment. She shares her remarkable story of turning that result around and achieving an 88% overall for HSC Economics — which led to her achieving a staggering 63% mark improvement!
Keep scrolling to find out how she did it!
What went down with Clara’s first assessment?
How Clara Began to Turn Things Around
Attending Art of Smart Group Classes
Other Study
How Clara Prepared for the Trials
Clara’s Trial Marks
What went down with Clara’s first assessment?
Clara’s first HSC Economics assessment was an essay graded out of 25 marks. Her class was never taught how to properly structure an Economics essay, so this was scary!
Unfortunately, Clara also lost her Economics notes from the term, which meant she didn’t have a lot of information to include in her essay. When it came to the exam she said, “I just wrote as much as I could even if it didn’t really relate to the question, which was probably worse than if I had just tried.”
Clara was “very shocked” when she received her marks back from her assessment. She tried to remain positive, but scoring 25% was very daunting for her in terms of wanting to succeed in HSC Economics.
Our HSC Economics Tutoring Sydney is here to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes!
How did Clara start to turn things around?
Clara first went to her teacher and asked her for advice. She then rewrote the essay and gave it back to her teacher for feedback, and her teacher ended up being really impressed with her work.
Then, Clara told her mum that she needed tutoring for Economics. Being a social person, Clara wanted to participate in class tutoring sessions — a friend had recommended the Art of Smart group tutoring sessions, so she thought she would give them a go. The positive environment of these classes helped Clara feel supported in her economic studies.
Overall, Clara’s two largest recommendations for improving your HSC Economics marks is to stay positive and ask for help if you need it — whether you’re requesting the assistance of an external tutor or asking more questions in class.
These two recommendations were helpful for Clara, who improved her HSC Economics results and received an overall mark of 88, all the while scoring a 93 in the HSC exam!
What did the Art of Smart group classes typically look like?
During the classes, Clara’s tutors would help her break down the syllabus and would begin working ahead of her school class in terms of content. This pre-learning helped her to better understand the Economics content and develop her skills in essay writing.
She was also encouraged to ask many questions throughout the classes, and found it to be a particularly social space. Clara found the Art of Smart tutors and teachers to be extremely helpful, as they had experienced the HSC and therefore had some useful advice for Year 12 students.
Other Study
Outside her school and Art of Smart classes, Clara studied at least once a week for Economics to consolidate her knowledge. Throughout each term, she typed up her notes according to the syllabus dot points, which were a helpful reference when it came to the Trial and HSC exams, as Clara didn’t have to cram her note writing.
Check out our guide to writing HSC Economics study notes here!
As Economics is highly informed by statistics, along with her syllabus notes, Clara also kept a document for recent statistics and articles that she frequently updated throughout the year.
She also made lots of palm cards for each concept. She found it helpful to stick these palm cards around her room and on the bathroom mirror so she would remember each concept. Clara made sure she used lots of colour on these palm cards to make them more distinguished and memorable.
How did Clara prepare for the Trials?
First, Clara looked through notes that she had kept updating throughout the year. Then, she would attempt multiple choice and short answer questions targeted on different topic areas, such as inflation, protection, and exchange rates, as a way to work towards improving her HSC Economics marks.
After this, Clara completed 2 or 3 past papers and wrote many essays. She handed her essays to her teacher for feedback.
Clara also found it really helpful to write essay scaffolds when she was time poor. Usually, she would write an introduction and a first body paragraph and then plan the other two paragraphs for her study.
Overall, Clara ended up writing about 15-20 essays for Economics during the HSC period!
Clara’s Trial Marks
Clara received a mark of 70 for her Trial Economics exam! She was “pretty happy” with this mark, as it was a major improvement from her 25% score for her first assessment.
However, she wanted to aim for a Band 5 for her final HSC mark. So, she studied really hard before her HSC exam and ended up with an overall mark of 88!
Clara received an ATAR of 93.15 and was accepted into the Media in Communications and the Creative Intelligence Program at UTS. This demonstrates that you should never give up on your HSC studies!
Clara’s journey through HSC economics is a really powerful story. It highlights that if you work hard, ask for help, and get feedback on your work that you can turn things around. All the best for your Year 12 studies!
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Grace Mitchell hopes to one day stand in front of a Year 12 Modern History class teaching the history of the Soviet Union, or have an insightful discussion with a Year 10 English class on race relations in To Kill a Mockingbird. Either way, Grace is beginning her teaching journey studying a Bachelor of Education (Secondary: Humanities and Social Sciences)/Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University. Grace loves to learn new things, write short stories and opinion pieces, read, and play contemporary Australian compositions on the clarinet. When she is not learning – if that is possible – Grace loves to sit and watch the sun set.
