When it comes to ensuring your child performs their best in the HSC, motivation and discipline are key. But the reality is, while motivation is essential to your child’s goals, it ebbs and flows like no other. It happens to the best of us!
If you’re looking for some fresh and practical strategies to help your child sustain their motivation during the HSC, you’ve come to the right place!
Below, we’ve collated some of our very best articles for the parents who want the best for their high school students.
Let’s dive in!
Why is motivation important during the HSC?
Part 1: Finding Perspective
Part 2: Creating a Distraction Free Study Environment
Part 3: Remaining Involved and Engaged in Your Child’s Academic Progress
Part 4: Encouraging Your Child’s Success Without Pushing Too Hard
Why is motivation important during the HSC?
Motivation is that wonderful intersection of genuine interest and discipline. If your child understands the importance of performing well in the HSC while also possessing some form of passion for their subjects, motivation is there!
It’s this motivation that your child can dig deep to find when they’re academically fatigued, tired and generally bored, but they persevere! If your child is able to sustain engagement and motivation during their academic life, they’re going to have an even better chance of developing essential, life-long skills that will prepare them for uni and beyond. If your child can sit through a high school class, meaningfully listen and retain essential information, they’re absolutely on the right track!
When this motivation is lacking (which is only natural), discipline takes over. Like we said before, this discipline means that your child can keep going despite feeling uninterested or bored.
Let’s be real, even the most academic child isn’t going to be interested in every single topic they study. There are those tedious maths exercises that may completely drain all of your child’s motivation, and that’s okay! Being able to push through, requires some intense discipline!
Motivation and self-discipline are internally cultivated. If your child is motivated and disciplined, they’ll be able to look past external circumstances like potential rewards, benefits or consequences.
So, we’ve covered why motivation during the HSC and beyond is important, but how can it be cultivated? Good question! Below, we’ve set out a brief guide for your child’s motivational needs. Make sure you click the link after each point to find a more in-depth explanation.
Starting early is KEY to HSC success. Set them up for success with personalised tutoring support! Keen to get started? Check out the K-12 tutoring help we can provide in Bondi Junction, and all across Sydney!
Part 1: Finding Perspective
Do you feel like your child is overly stressed or worried about performing well in the HSC? Perhaps that stress and those worries are actually hindering their performance.
Year 11 and 12 are stressful years. While encouraging your child to do their best is important, oftentimes assisting them in finding some perspective is equally as important.
Let’s be real, getting a disappointing mark in high school is not the end of the world. Sometimes your child needs to be reminded, and they’ll appreciate it too.
What triggers stress?
As part of their Community and Family studies major work, an HSC student evaluated the impact of Year 12 on senior high school students. Their study revealed that the key factors that trigger stress during the HSC include: personal factors, social influences and parental expectations to achieve a high enough ATAR and gain entry to a desired uni.
Let’s break these down:
#1: Personal expectations
Your child’s personal expectations are often produced by the environment they live in and the external expectations that they’ve grown accustomed to seeing, whether that’s from friends, family or in the media. Often these personal expectations are the hardest to deal with, especially when they’re not met.
#2: Parental expectations
Similar to personal expectations, these are often those influences that parents have grown up viewing and consuming. Perhaps you’re a parent who didn’t perform incredibly well in school and now want your child to learn from your own lessons.
Of course, this means that you care immensely for your child but oftentimes these expectations create difficult standards to meet and can be even harder to face when disappointed.
#3: Societal expectations
These seem to all be connected don’t they? These include cultural influence, the depiction of success in the media and news, how movies present academia… the list goes on!
These are often the hardest to handle because there’s nothing you or your child can do to change them. You can always change your attitudes towards them but in the end, societal expectations are pretty stagnant.
With all these expectations, it may cause their motivation for the HSC to diminish.
Strategies to Find Perspective
With all of these influences to consider, it’s no wonder we need to help children find some perspective during these trying times. These expectations can be inescapable but if, as a parent, you’re able to communicate the importance of rationalising these thoughts, you can help soften the intensity of personal and parental expectations!
As Gaby (94.2 ATAR) explained:
“My parents helped me by explaining that it wasn’t the ‘end of the world’ if I didn’t achieve a high ATAR — one can always get to where they want to be (e.g. a particular degree) by various paths and options.”
Here is a brief rundown of the strategies to help find perspective that we’d recommend:
#1: Help them feel satisfied in alternate pathways (HSC is not the be all and end all)
To support your child in helping them find some perspective and helping to cultivate motivation, you may consider sitting down and communicating that the HSC is not the most important thing. Try and identify exactly what those alternative pathways are. Create a list! Research these avenues with them and reassure them that there are plenty of other options.
There really are so many different options when it comes to post-school pathways. You could try looking for a university that accepts students with lower ATARs, tell them they can enter a degree with a lower ATAR and transfer into their initial choice later on, help them enrol in a foundation program or diploma course which also offers pathways into a Bachelor program. Seriously, there are so many pathways.
#2: Continue to focus on their core goal
While creating alternative pathways are important to help your child find perspective, make sure you’re still encouraging them to work towards their initial goal. They should keep working towards that ideal uni course!
#3: Put their assignments into context
Since bad exam performance can be a stress trigger, it’s critical to help your child remember that no single assessment can ruin their academic potential. Put them into perspective! Ask questions like:
- How did everyone else in their cohort go?
- How did they rank in this assessment?
- What was the assessment worth?
- Will it have an effect on their final marks?
You can even calculate the marks they’ll need later on. Check out the weighting of other exams and remind them how small this one mark is in the scheme of things.
#4: Encourage them to look towards the real world
Another great way to help your child gain perspective is to remind them of what’s going on in the wider world! This is a great helper for students who are fixated on their own individual performance.
You could take your child outside or switch on the news so they can take a look at the current affairs around the world.
That was a quick insight into the world of help that finding perspective can bring. Make sure you check out the entire article on How to Help Your Child Find Perspective During the HSC. It’s a good ’un!
Part 2: Creating a Distraction Free Study Environment
Feel as though your child is easily distracted and finds it tricky to get enough school work done? It may be a good idea to help them create a distraction-free study environment.
That way, they can work in a consistent and quiet place that allows them to work hard without the distractions!
Below, we’ll briefly outline the varying facets of creating that top tier distraction-free study environment.
The Impacts of Distraction and the Flow State
Did you know that distractions not only cause a task to take much longer but they also reduce the quality of someone’s work?
So, when you’ve spent a couple hours working on a paper but keep getting distracted by your phone, music or those endless emails, it can feel easy to revert to, “Oh well, it’s quality over quantity!” as you read through that half page of work. Unfortunately, with distractions, neither are the case. It’s the harsh reality!
But with this knowledge, you can help your child work through all of those distractions to increase the quantity of the work and the quality of their work!
We can understand this more by using the flow state analysis. The flow state involves the mental functions it takes for a person to feel fully immersed in a particular task.
Every distraction can result in 7 extra minutes used to regain concentration. Let’s put this into perspective: If your child is getting distracted 3 to 4 times in an hour long study session, they’ll spend 21 to 28 minutes of that time trying to get back into that state of flow.
It’s pretty easy to see why these distractions can make such a difference and hence it’s important to reduce them to keep their motivation for the HSC up!
But what can you do to ease those distractions? Follow along!
Strategies to Create a Distraction Free Space
#1: Set up a specific and consistent study space
Here’s our #1 tip when it comes to creating that distraction-free study space. You and your child should co-set up a specific study space.
While your child may be used to studying in their own bedroom, it’s riddled with distractions. Their phone is lying around, their bed is looking comfortable, the photo albums on the shelves are just dying to be gazed at, even the dust-covered books are looking pretty readable.
Everything seems better than studying when the options are accessible. To combat this, consider setting up a study space outside of their room.
Not only are bedrooms filled with distractions but our brains are great at association. So, when we are in the room that we sleep in, our brains will tell us that it’s time for bed!
Speaking of sleep, maintaining a healthy sleep routine can be challenging for teens, check out our best tips here!
We’d recommend setting up a study space in a dining room or a quiet guest room (whatever you have access to). This way, not only will your child find less things to be distracted by, but they may feel more accountable for their studying if they’re being observed in public.
Importantly, it’s best to co-create those spaces. Ask questions like:
- Where do you think you’d work best?
- What are you being most distracted by?
- How can we help?
- How are you finding the new study location?
- What would help you study?
#2: Implement some study space guidelines
Our second tip is to co-create a set of rules and guidelines for this new study space. Co-creation is a theme throughout this guide because it’ll help your child feel involved and engaged in their own academic progress.
It’ll feel less like a new situation is being forced upon them and more like they’re making this choice for themselves.
Roderick (99.65 ATAR) explained the guidelines that his parents set were extremely helpful:
“My parents, from the beginning, demonstrated how they valued education and created an atmosphere at home which was conducive to academic success. For example, this involved no television on weekdays.”
Here are some examples of guidelines that you may consider implementing:
Guideline #1: No technology
This one’s a classic. But, seriously, no matter your age, your phone has the potential to be a major distractor. It’s so easy to fall down the rabbit whole of cute bunny videos or strange YouTube challenges. We’re only human!
With that said, you’ll be doing your child a huge favour by encouraging them not to use their phone. It’ll be hard but it can only help!
You could look into a no-phone rule for a certain period of time each day or you could even put it in a hidden spot until they’ve finished a decent amount of study.
Guideline #2: Set specific study times
Getting used to studying takes practice. It’s like a muscle! The more your child works on it, the easier it’ll get.
If you create a consistent routine for your child to follow, it’ll be easier to get that practice in! Consistency is key.
Guideline #3: Quiet Zone
Audio distractions exist too! To combat those, you’ll need to create a space that is relatively silent to help your child work as effectively as possible. It may even be worth making their study room a no-go zone for other family members.
There you go! The value of distraction free study spaces — they’re priceless! That was just a taster.
If you’re wanting to gain a deeper understanding of flow states, some examples for study space guidelines or some extra HSC tips, check out our previous article on How to Create a Distraction Free Study Environment for Your Child. You won’t regret it!
Part 3: Remaining Involved and Engaged in Your Child’s Academic Progress
Keen to get more involved in your child’s academic progress? Want to see how they’re tracking with assignments and exams but don’t want to come across as too pushy?
It can feel like a fine line! We’ve outlined some of the most useful ways to stay engaged and interested in your child’s school work (in the best way).
Here are some of our tips for the best ways to remain involved and engaged in your child’s academic progress to cultivate motivation during the HSC:
#1: Attend parent teacher conferences
A great way to get to know how your child is progressing is by talking to the experts themselves! Their teachers should be able to provide an extensive insight into your child’s progress.
It’s pretty common for parent attendees at teacher conferences to drop off during the senior years, usually in an exercise of trust.
But parent teacher conferences are critical! They’ll give you the tools to get better an engaging with your child.
Jeremy (99.4 ATAR) agreed with this, he said:
“My parents participated in parent-teacher conferences and discussed with my teachers the best methods I could use to further improve my results and study skills.”
#2: Check out their reports and results
By reviewing your child’s reports with them, you’re going to be able to objectively gauge their progress when it comes to marks. It’s a great way to keep your child accountable if you’ve got an idea of long-term progress.
This can be a tricky conversation. Ensure that you’re using positive affirmations and tools when you’re discussing these results.
If your child feels as though you’ll react badly to sub-par results, they may go to great lengths to hide feedback from or even modify the marks, which doesn’t help anyone!
Resist making comments like, “What happened?” and “How come you only got…”. Instead you can ask things like:
Like we mentioned already, this would be a great time to help them gain some perspective to increase their motivation during the HSC.
#3: Show genuine interest in their subjects
You could attend as many parent teacher meetings and read as many reports as possible but until you’re showing genuine interest in your child’s schoolwork, you’re never going to be able to truly engage with their progress.
Our research shows that one of the best ways to study and retain information is to teach someone else the topic.
So, be prepared to sit down with your child and have them explain to you the content that they’re learning. This is a great way to facilitate discussions and have deeper conversations with your child.
It may need to be a gradual process as not all students will jump at the chance to share their knowledge so get ready for it to take a bit of time!
Here’s our 5 step question guide:
- So, what’s that about?
- Cool, can you tell me more?
- How does that work?
- What’s the important/key point you need to know for it?
- How is it usually examined?
Open-ended questions mean you can avoid the conversation terminating with quick yes or no answers.
#4: Check in with them weekly
As with any strategy we’ve got, consistency should be paramount! A great way to sustain consistency when it comes to keeping up with your child’s academic progress is to check in with them weekly.
Maybe you always bring up schoolwork during Sunday dinners or on your weekly walks! Often, casual conversations work best. You don’t have to create a formal environment.
You can ask how your child went in any exams or assessments that week, how they’re coping emotionally and whether they can give you an overview of what they’ve learned.
#5: Be aware of important dates
Another helpful way to stay involved and engaged in your child’s academic performance is to be well aware of their important due dates or exams coming up.
Perhaps you could both co-create a schedule each term which includes all important dates. That way, you can have informed conversations and can ask how they went when the day comes to an end! They’ll really appreciate it and it’ll help to foster motivation for the HSC.
As Stephanie (96.1 ATAR) explained,
“In terms of keeping me accountable, my parents would always ensure they were aware of important due dates so that they could know and check that I was on track.”
You’ve come to the end of our truncated analysis of the importance of remaining up to date with your child’s progress throughout high school!
Check out our more in-depth article with student testimonies and know everything there is to know about How to Stay Up to Date With Your Child and Their Overall Progress.
Part 4: Encourage Your Child’s Success Without Pushing Too Hard
Wanting to keep your child accountable? But hesitant to come off as pushing too hard?
We hear you. It’s a fine line, but we’ve got some tips for you!
The Power of Encouragement
Sometimes a bit of encouragement is all your child needs to feel supported. Encouragement produces positivity and is great if your child is feeling a little stressed for the looming HSC exams, it’s an overwhelming time!
By showing your child encouragement, they’re going to be consistently reminded of their importance and value, especially to their parents. If they’re being told that they’re great by their parents or others that mean the most to them, they’re going to start believing it themselves!
They’ll have an improved attitude and will be pushed to take action with their studies for the HSC, because of your motivation! Get ready for plenty of meaningful study sessions once your child is aware of their own potential.
Aiden (94.75 ATAR) confirmed this,
“I, like most people, procrastinated and would temporarily lose the drive to study, and my parent’s support helped me overcome this.”
The key to meaningful encouragement is to steer clear of nagging. Of course, as parents, you want the best for your children, even if that means you’re pushing too hard.
But comments like, “Why aren’t you studying? You have to study,” may be quite counteractive since your child is no longer taking responsibility for themselves.
By taking a step back, providing some positive encouragement, it’s likely that your child will start studying in their own way because they understand the importance of themselves and their work.
Communicate With Them
During the HSC, when it comes to striking that balance between motivation and pushing too hard, it can be a good idea to have these conversations with your child. Figure out what methods best suit them and how you can be meaningfully engaged in the process.
All students are different and there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, so create that dialogue with them and allow them plenty of chances to give you ideas.
Here are some comments you could make:
Of course, a little nudge never hurt nobody. Sam (98.9 ATAR) said having his parents set a couple boundaries really helped him achieve his goals.
“They frequently asked me what my plan was during the day when I am meant to be studying and they helped me avoid temptations such as TV.”
Importance of Not Pushing Too Hard
Without positive encouragement, you may risk demotivating your child if you’re having too many ‘discussions’ about their progress and goals.
Lianna (96.55 ATAR) explained,
“My parents helped by providing emotional support and by knowing when to leave me alone.”
It’s all about being aware of how much support and encouragement your particular child needs. As we’ve said, everyone’s so different. Just be sure you’re using strategies that help rather than hinder.
There you go! The art of encouraging your child’s success without pushing too hard. It’s a fine line but will make all the difference.
If you’re keen on knowing more, check out our previous article right here!
Are you looking for some extra help for your child during the HSC?
We have an incredible team of HSC tutors and mentors!
We can help your child master their HSC subjects and ace their upcoming HSC 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!
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 tutor and mentor, get in touch today or give us a ring on 1300 267 888!
Gemma Billington is a Content Writer at Art of Smart and an undergraduate student at the University of Technology Sydney. While studying Journalism and Social and Political Sciences, Gemma enjoys spending her time at the gym or reading about Britain’s medieval monarchy – ideally not at the same time. She currently creates and administers social media posts for Central News and writes for the student publication, The Comma. After completing her undergraduate degree, she hopes to study a Masters of Medieval History and is very excited about the prospect!
