Getting low or less than ideal marks in Year 11 can really knock your confidence down a bit — you may feel more nervous and anxious starting Year 12 and question your ability to complete your particular subjects!
This is often even more so the case with a subject such as Maths, which students are known to generally find a little more difficult! So how do you come back from low scores in Year 11 and start Year 12 with the confidence that you need to succeed?
Well, we’re going to discuss just that with a case study from Ben, one of our previous Art of Smart students, who was getting below pass marks in Extension 1 Maths in Year 11, but put some amazing effort in to get a final HSC score of 75% in the subject — an over 40% increase in results!
So, let’s hop into it — below are a few tips that Ben used to boost his marks from Year 11 to Year 12!
Tip 1: Change of attitude and mindset
Tip 2: Stay consistent
Tip 3: It takes a little bit of grit!
Tip 4: Give yourself clear goals
Tip 5: Get organised
Tip 6: Prioritise
Tip 7: Don’t overdo it
Tip 1: Change of attitude and mindset
Receiving disappointing results can really affect your confidence in yourself and your abilities, especially if you are a Year 11 student heading into Year 12. Despite this, it is super important to keep your head up and power through by celebrating every single win that you get, no matter how small, and try to keep a positive attitude!
Perhaps it’s the case that you realised your attitude toward study and your senior year wasn’t serious enough — if this is the case, it’s also a good idea to think about a change in attitude to one that is determined and ready to smash out your final year of high school!
Like Ben said, “You have to want to do something, you have to want to learn, you have to want to get better because I think that’s the main thing about wanting to improve in anything.”
To further expand, Ben mentioned that “it was sort of at the stage where I realised I couldn’t just go into a test without studying and you know, to actually get good marks, I had to actually start studying”.
Tip 2: Stay consistent
Like they always say, Year 12 is a marathon, not a sprint. The same goes for Year 11.
Now, due to this, staying consistent in your senior year is super important. Trying to get a little bit of study in everyday will not only help you stay organised and on top of your work, but will help in the long run when it comes to studying for your exams as spaced study is the best way to remember and recall information!
Like Ben shared, “Learning the knowledge is quite easy to do for some people…however retaining it is a different matter and unless you go back and look over old work you won’t remember anything.”
To try to increase his consistency and thus, remember his course content a little better, he tried a few methods, some of which included “looking at online programs and studying ahead of the class”.
Tip 3: It takes a little bit of grit!
Change isn’t something that comes quickly. If you receive a low, or less than ideal mark, the time it can take to improve your marks can be long and at times, tedious — so it is probably a good idea to accept and appreciate that it will take a little bit of determination and grit to succeed in your studies!
“A smart person isn’t somebody who naturally knows like the whole dictionary, it’s someone who has grit,” Ben shared.
Tip 4: Give yourself clear goals
Often students will create a list of goals for themselves. Perhaps a singular goal will sound something like ‘do some maths study.’
The narrative then goes that students become overwhelmed by the possibility of things that ‘do some maths study’ can encapsulate and end up procrastinating through their study time, realise that they haven’t completed what they need to and find themselves in a position of high stress and anxiety.
To try and avoid such situations (that may seem all a bit too familiar), try to clarify your goals and make them SMART!
SMART goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
and….
Time-bound
To use this in a more tangible example, rather than perhaps phrasing your goal in a manner like ‘do some english study’ which is ambiguous and overwhelming, perhaps phrase it as such — “Read through the first chapter of my set text for common module in the next 1 hour.”
This goal is super clear, specific, measurable (you can tell if you completed it or not), achievable (a reasonable amount of time has been allocated for a reasonably sized goal), relevant (relates to the subject and the content required of you), and is time bound! By phrasing and structuring your goals in this way, you are not only learning more efficiently and getting more done, you are setting yourself up for success!
“Once you have goals and clear things to do, you can do it [in an easier fashion],” said Ben.
Tip 5: Get organised
As previously mentioned, getting organised is a super important step in bouncing back from a low score!
Learning that effective time management and organisational skills can save you time, stress, and still get you good marks is most certainly the way to ensure that you are smashing out your next exam and doing well in your respective subject!
Tip 6: Prioritise
This tip leads on nicely from the previous in that a lot of getting organised involves being able to prioritise your tasks efficiently! Ben was able to effectively organise his tasks using a ‘priority matrix’:
“Spend perhaps 10 minutes everyday writing the priorities you have, number them, then draw up a cartesian plane and label each quadrant with, urgent, not urgent, important and not important, then you plot all of the different activities you need to do on the cartesian plane and then you prioritise the activities on there based on their position,” Ben mentioned.
Tip 7: Don’t overdo it
Now, although all of this is super important, and hard work will get you the marks that you wish to achieve, it is important to not overdo it.
Like Ben said, “Another thing I learnt is to not overdo it” — try to get a good work-life balance in, leaving time to relax and spend time with family and friends!
There you have it!
By shifting his attitude, getting organised and getting some help from Art of Smart, Ben was able to turn his marks for Extension Maths around during the period from Year 11 to Year 12! And you can do it too!
As long as you have a little grit, determination and chuck in some quality study time, there’s nothing you can’t achieve!
Looking for some extra help to ace HSC Extension Maths like Ben?
We pride ourselves on our inspirational HSC Maths coaches and mentors!
We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!
To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor get in touch today!
Give us a ring on 1300 267 888, email us at [email protected] or check us out on TikTok!
Yasmin Hasan is a current first year psychology student at UNSW. She loves making art, playing piano or reading in her spare time. She graduated from high school in 2021 so her memories of her own high school experience are still quite fresh. She would love to use her own experiences to help other students build their confidence and improve in their academics!
