Year 12 is a rollercoaster! That’s why we’ve called in Maitreyi to find out how she organised her trials and HSC prep!
Whether you’re approaching Trials or have just finished them and trying to work out how to best prepare for HSC, we know there’s a lot to juggle.
Stick around for insight into Maitreyi’s strategies for staying focused, balancing study time, uni applications and joining the Pathfinder program!
Let’s dive in!
Lead-Up To Trials
Maitreyi’s Best Advice For Trials and HSC Prep
What Maitreyi Wishes She’d Done Differently For Trials
Maitreyi’s Top Tips for Trials and HSC Prep
Final Words of Wisdom
Lead-Up To Trials
Trials always come along a lot quicker than you would think. For Maitreyi’s Trials and HSC prep, she had a bit of catching up to do because her notes were a little bit all over the place.
Trials are tricky because it’s like your first test run, so you’re trying to have all your notes perfect and ready but also do practice questions and study.
It really is a challenge, and no one is ever fully ready.
“ It [Maitreyi’s Trial Prep] was mostly about how I could map out my holidays to maximise my time and sort of find time for both studying and then also making sure I’m catching up well,” she says.
Maitreyi’s mentor really helped her by putting everything into perspective and encouraging her to get back on track during the July holidays before trials.
What Did Maitreyi’s Holiday Plan for Trials and HSC Prep Look Like?
In her trials and HSC prep, Maitreyi made a list of all her subjects and how much catching up she had to do for each one. That way, she could figure out what to prioritise.
For a few of her subjects, she was up-to-date and well-prepared. But, for other subjects, Maitreyi took on a smarter strategy.
“She [Maitreyi’s mentor] recommended putting those lower priority for the first week of the holidays and just focus on catching up and going through all my notes, making sure I have all the information there,” Maitreyi explains.
It was really about focusing on those subjects that she didn’t feel prepared for.
Once she caught up to speed, that’s when she began revising everything she had learned and had to know.
Need to turn your results around quickly before HSC Trials? Need support with your holiday planning? Find out how our tutors in Liverpool can help!
Did Maitreyi Have a Daily Plan for Her Trials and HSC Prep?
Short answer, absolutely!
“If I structured it by weeks, I ended up not doing what I need to do on the day and then I started getting really upset that I didn’t do what was planned,” Maitreyi tells us.
Tip: For Maitreyi’s Trials and HSC prep, she liked to mainly focus on one subject each day. This helped her feel more confident moving forward because she felt like she had really made progress.
For example, she would spend two days on English and English Extension and do just a little bit of Legal Studies before moving on with it the following day.
This way, Maitreyi started the day confidently and knowing exactly what she needed to achieve!
“My mentor suggested at the start of the day, or the night before, you just sort of map out what you want to do on that specific day,” she adds.
Maitreyi’s Best Advice For Trials and HSC Prep
Advice #1: Manage Your Stress
Maitreyi’s mentor gave her some really good advice in the lead-up to trials: “She told me to not overthink it and maybe practice some meditation, stuff like that, to really stay focused and stay positive throughout the experience.”
Taking a break is essential and, in fact, productive. When you take a step back, you allow yourself put the situation into perspective.
Like most people, Maitreyi felt stressed in the lead-up to trials.
“I do always want to achieve my personal best, and so I put a lot of pressure on myself to get the best mark that I can,” she says.
Now, she had received early entry into her dream degree at Macquarie University (Media and Communications) plus a scholarship.
“I just kept reminding myself like, you don’t need to stress this much. What you’re doing right now is more just for you and your personal best,” she explains.
Advice #2: Join a Pathfinder Trials Intensive
“It [Pathfinder Trials Intensive] really helped me, especially with sort of memory retention, revision and practice papers,” Maitreyi say — especially good for learning “how to practice and work smart, not hard”.
One of the Trials and HSC prep strategies Matrieyi learned from the Intensive was how to balance the time spent on practice questions and creating study notes.
“As I was writing up my notes, I would sort of do a practice question and not like answer it, but sort of approach it and see how I would actually answer the question like plan some dot points out,” she says.
“Then if I didn’t have enough information to plan that practice question, then I’d have to add more to my notes,” she adds.
In Year 11 and interested in doing a Pathfinders Intensive? Check out Ali’s story here!
How Did the Pathfinder Program Help Maitreyi?
The Pathfinder program has three objectives: lift results, find direction, and help students stand out.
“It definitely helped me lift my results because I remember we did a workshop on how to bounce back around term two, and I went from like a C to an A for Maths,” Maitreyi told us.
Pretty impressive! But how did she do every week to achieve that?
Maitreyi did heaps of practice papers, and she did it under timed conditions. Before the Pathfinder intensive, she hadn’t actually done that.
She also learned about the importance of not just knowing her content, but really understanding how to apply the content.
Advice #3: Make the Most of Your Co-Curricular Activities
Maitreyi was very busy when it came to co-curricular activities.
She ran the school’s Amnesty team, was involved in the Environment Club and also had to start thinking about the Yearbook around the same time as trials!
Maitreyi even wrote quite a lot about her involvement in Amnesty for her early entry application — so, it’s great she was able to balance it with her studies.
But, how did she manage it?
For Maitreyi, her co-curricular activities were what she enjoyed doing, so that was her break from studying.
“That’s what really helped me because it’s something I’m passionate about, so it was like, okay, I’m tired of studying, I’m just going to maybe do some work for Environment Club or Amnesty,” she explains.
The power of teamwork and support came in handy for her co-curriculars.
“It was about splitting the tasks between ourselves and being like, we’re all in the same boat right now, let’s just work on it together so that no one person is left with organising everything,” she says.
What Maitreyi Wishes She’d Done Differently
“Start as early as you can, look ahead to see what else is coming and not just the assessment on hand,” she says.
Maitreyi wishes she’d started implementing the techniques she learnt from the Pathfinders intensive a bit earlier – like combining practice papers and content learning.
Check out our master list of HSC English Advanced, Standard and Extension 1 past papers here!
She says this “would have really helped me [her] not feel stressed in like the four weeks before trials.”
Maitreyi’s Top Tips for Trials and HSC Prep
Tip #1: Staying Healthy and Balanced
Always find a spare bit of time for relaxation!
“Number one thing I’m trying to do at the moment is sort of stay healthy and focus on wellbeing,” she said.
Studying 24/7 is not sustainable, and it’s important to take breaks so you don’t burn out.
“Sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves… if I can’t do it right now, [practice question] then I should just take some time off, relax a bit, and then go back to it with fresh eyes,” she said.
For Maitreyi, this was either taking some time for exercise, watching a bit of TV or playing the guitar.
Tip #2: Use Feedback from Trials
The second thing Maitreyi mentioned was “just sort of really honing in on how to improve.”
“So looking at what feedback you receive during trials, and just focusing on those areas,” she tells us, “I just sort of flooded my teachers with practice papers.”
Trials are a great learning experience because it highlights the areas you really need to pay attention to. And that way, you can really try and improve your results in the actual HSC exams.
The main feedback Maitreyi received from trials was to add more detail to her answers.
“That’s my focus, at the moment, just sort of practising to add in all those details and getting feedback,” she says.
And that’s exactly what you should be doing after trials, getting feedback, learning from your mistakes and then practising with that new information in mind.
Find out how Oliver went from a Band 1 to a Band 5 in HSC Advanced Maths here!
Final Words of Wisdom
“The whole Pathfinder program, and especially the mentoring, really helped me put things into perspective,” Maitreyi tells us, “it’s just about staying positive and keeping a good mindset.”
So, one bad mark doesn’t mean you can’t bounce back — in fact, it’s quite the opposite!
And that’s it — preparing for your Trials and HSC has never been easier!
Check out more of our HSC resources here:
- How to Write a Study Checklist for HSC Standard Maths Using the Syllabus
- How to Write a Band 6 Discursive Writing Piece for HSC English Module C
- How to Effectively Memorise Quotes for HSC English
- How James Went From a Band 2 to a Band 6 in HSC Maths Advanced
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Tanna Nankivell is a Senior Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently in Germany completing a year of study for her double degree in Communications (Journalism) and Bachelor of Arts (International Studies). She has had articles published on Central News – the UTS Journalism Lab and wrote a feature piece for Time Out Sydney during her internship. Tanna has a love for travel and the great outdoors, you’ll either find her on the snowfields or in the ocean, teaching aqua aerobics or creating short films.
