Have 7 days until your HSC Physics exam and have no clue where to start?
Now, you might think that 7 days is not nearly as much time to study for a HSC exam. That’s far from the truth!
We’ve outlined the tasks you need to do for each day to ace your HSC Physics exam. As long as you fit in (at least) 3 hours of study per day, you’ll be ready for that exam in a week.
Let’s get started!
Day 1 of HSC Physics Study Plan: List Out Everything You Need to Do
Day 2: Address your Weaknesses
Day 3: Summarise the Content
Day 4 of HSC Physics Study Plan: Complete Untimed Past Papers
Day 5: Complete Timed Past Papers
Day 6: Do a Deep Revision of Your Content
Day 7 of HSC Physics Study Plan: Make Sure Everything is Ticked Off
Day 1: List Out Everything You Need to Do
On Day 1, you’ll want to spend the day looking through resources given to you by your teacher, your own notes that you’ve accumulated throughout the year and your class notes!
Take this day to understand what needs to get done.
Note down how confident you feel about each of your topics on a scale of 1-3.
If you feel like you’d ace a topic, mark it down as a ‘1’. On the other hand, if you feel like you’d flunk a topic, give it a ‘3’.
Make sure you have a good indication of the following points:
- Which topics to focus on for the next few days
- Which modules to do a deep revision
- Which modules to study and revise later in the week
Tip: Following this general understanding of which modules you need to focus on, it is also a good idea to look through your HSC Physics syllabus.
How to Use Traffic Light System
Using the traffic light system is a simple way to plan out your next 7 days of study!
Here’s what to do:
Step #1: Colour-Code your Syllabus
Colour code each of your syllabus points into either green, orange or red.
Green represents an excellent understanding of the content, orange represents, a sound understanding and red – pretty much no understanding.
This traffic light system will give you an understanding of the syllabus dot points you are struggling with in addition to the specific modules, allowing you to organise more targeted revision in the upcoming days.
Step #2: Write Down What Topics You Need to Prioritise
Prioritise which modules/syllabus points you are MOST weak in by differentiating those topics that you put an orange mark next to ‘just because’ and those that you genuinely need to work on.
Example of the Traffic Light System
Day 2: Address Your Weaknesses
We all know that you can’t get better at something if you don’t work on it!
As opposed to procrastinating by working on topics that you are confident in (we’ve all done it before), tackle the topics that you addressed as your weakest yesterday.
Make sure to work through that list as thoroughly as possible. Find study material from the Internet, your textbook, your school notes and even by asking your friends for help on questions.
When you feel as though you have addressed that dot point, change its colour on your syllabus and move onto the next one.
Tip: Ideally, you’ll want to make sure that all your syllabus dot points are green so that you go into your HSC exams with confidence!
Day 3: Summarise the Content
On Day 3, finish up turning the yellow or red points on your list of weakness to a confident green!
To consolidate all the new information, make sure to summarise the content in a succinct and precise manner.
Tip: As awkward as it might seem, pretending to teach the content to yourself will speed up how content much you can memorise!
Your summaries shouldn’t involve large chunks of information. Rather, you should have cues that remind you of specific important points, and even images which tend to capture more info than words!
Make sure that your summaries are clear, accurate, logically sequenced, and specific! This will help with your own understanding and with your exam short responses!
Check out our practice questions for each HSC Physics module!
Day 4 of HSC Physics Study Plan: Complete Untimed Past Papers
Day 4 is when you begin doing practice HSC papers!
After revising over the summary notes that you created in Day 3, find a HSC Physics past paper.
Take a look at our comprehensive Master List of HSC Physics Past Papers here!
The important thing for Day 4 is to complete all the questions in untimed conditions. This will give you a good indication of how difficult the exam will be based on your level of understanding, without the pressure of time.
Tackling a past paper also makes you consider how to properly answer the different question types you’ll get in the HSC Physics exam. Here are some of the key pointers:
How to Tackle a Maths-Based Physics Question
- Identify the key pieces of information that the questions have given you
- Consider the different equations that you could possibly use to solve the question
- Remember that some questions will require you to use multiple equations to find some unknown variables before you can get the answer to the question
- Think about the questions in the context of a real life situation – for example, time can never be a negative number
How to Tackle a Short-Answer Physics Question
- Identify the key terminology in the question
- Identify the module that the question is from
- Think about any inter-module connections
- Ensure that you are answering each question with sufficient detail as though you were explaining the concept to someone with little knowledge of the content
Once you have gone through your chosen HSC paper, pick two trial papers from other schools and go through their questions too!
Remember to mark all of your answers and ask yourself whether the ideas that you have put forward in your responses are clear and backed up with evidence.
Tip: Whilst doing these questions, make sure that you are noting down those that you are struggling with so that you can reinforce those syllabus dot points on Day 6!
Day 5: Complete Timed Past Papers
Today is the day to work through at least two past papers under timed conditions. With any leftover time in your study, complete as many extra practice questions as possible.
By doing timed practice papers, you are giving yourself the opportunity to get a feel of what the real exam day will feel like and thus, reduce your stress levels on the day!
Here’s two tips for making the most of your timed past papers:
Tip #1: One-Mark Per Minute
While you’re completing these timed papers, try to stay to the ‘one mark per minute’ rule.
Tip #2: Give yourself Less Exam Time
complete your paper in slightly less time than what you would get on the exam day! The added stress of trying to complete your paper in a shorter amount of time will help you greatly in the real exam!
Day 6: Do a Deep Revision of Your Content
Today’s the day where things are easing up a bit! The focus of Day 6 is sharpening your active recall.
You’ll want to look through all of your content once more, and try to fit in as many practice questions as possible.
If you have time, do another timed paper just for that extra bit of practice!
Day 7 of HSC Physics Study Plan: Make Sure Everything is Ticked Off
For the last day of your HSC Physics study plan, make sure that you spend your time revising over every possible thing. Take your list from Day 1 and make sure that everything is completed!
When you’ve finished all of this, you’re done! Take some time to chill and remember that you got this!
Tip: We recommend starting your HSC Physics study plan when you have a little more than a week before your exam! This way, you have a few buffer days if anything comes up.
And, That’s All for your 7 Day Study Plan for HSC Physics!
Try to keep calm, and go into your exam with confidence!.
Take each question one step at a time and make sure you take note of all the little details that might be hidden within the question!
Need someone to help you with your HSC Physics study plan?
We have an incredible team of HSC Physics tutors and mentors who are new HSC syllabus experts!
Our experienced HSC Physics tutors can help you master the HSC Physics syllabus and ace your upcoming HSC Physics assessments 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! If you’re based in the Hills, our Bella Vista tutors are here to help you.
We have an incredible team of HSC experts all across New South Wales! Check out our HSC tutoring in Strathfield!
We’ve supported over 8,000 students over the last 11 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 20%!
To find out more and get started with an inspirational HSC Physics tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!
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!
