Are you feeling overwhelmed and stressed – like you’re screwed right before the HSC?
While we all want to be super prepared in our exam study, it doesn’t always happen that way. If you’re not sure what to do when procrastination kicks in and you’re overcome with so much pressure, we’ve got some advice to ease your worries.
Below are three key tips that you can use to make the most of the days before your exam!
Let’s get started!
Tip #1: Overcome Procrastination by Defining Your Plan of Attack
Tip #2: Use the ‘Traffic Light System’ to Help You Prioritise Content
Tip #3: Build Your Exam Game Plan
Tip #1: Overcome Procrastination by Defining Your Plan of Attack
Let’s be honest – when you don’t have a lot of time left before an exam, you don’t have the option of wasting time. When you feel like you’re screwed right before the HSC, every little minute and hour needs to be used to its maximum efficiency.
So, making a tight plan of how you will study is key to combat procrastination. To do this:
- Take a piece of paper and write down how many days you have until each exam.
- Identify the specific study actions you will take on each of those days before your exams.
This is a really effective way to prioritise what needs to be completed to help you do your best with minimal time to prepare.
Tip #2: Use the ‘Traffic Light System’ to Help You Prioritise Content
Obviously, when you’re feeling screwed before the HSC, in the time before your exam, you won’t have time to complete everything. If you’ve only got one or two days, you need to carefully choose what you need to work on.
In prioritisation, an effective strategy that we teach is called the ‘Traffic Light System.’ This strategy seems a little counterintuitive, but it’s really critical and also very simple to grasp.
What do the lights mean?
Look at your course syllabus and identify which topics you will label as green, yellow, and red:
- Green are those topics that you feel you know well already
- Yellow are ones that you’re a bit uncertain about, so you might make some mistakes and lose some marks
- Red are those topics that you have absolutely no clue about
Typically, if you had more time, the best thing would be to focus on the red areas. However, instead of focusing on the red areas, you should focus on the yellow.
Why should you focus on the yellow areas?
You can spend all your time working on the red areas, but because they are complex, you probably don’t have enough time to focus on them in detail. It’s probably going to feel overwhelming!
Instead, focus on those yellow topics because those are the areas in which you’ll still have a decent chance at earning marks. In doing so, you can build up your confidence and there’s a higher likelihood of being able to eventually label them as green!
Therefore, when you get to your exam, you’ll be able to maximise marks across the paper – of course you aren’t going to get 100% on the paper. But by focusing on those yellow areas (maybe even getting some of those topics to green!) you can still improve your overall marks.Â
You can find out more about how to use the Traffic Light System here!Â
Tip #3: Build Your Exam Game Plan
So even with all this last minute study, the reality is, you might be going into that exam still feeling a little unconfident. That is why, even if you feel like you’re screwed before the HSC, it’s so critical to have a plan for exactly how you’re going to tackle the exam.
Most of the time we forget to create an exam game plan, and we enter the exam, only to have an “Oh crap” moment. So you’ve got to avoid that because your ultimate performance and overall mark will also be very much an outcome of your exam technique.
We suggest writing down what your plan of attack for this exam is going to be:
- Identify how long you are going to spend on each section in the exam
- In which order will you be tackling the exam? Sequentially? Chronologically? Or are you going to do certain parts before others?
- If you get stuck on a question, what will your strategy and approach be?
You can also take out a past paper the night before an exam and complete it ‘open book’ style, meaning you have your notes with you. You can even answer it in dot-point form.
Looking for some structure for your study the night before an exam? Check out our guides for different subjects below:
Why is doing a past paper beneficial?
While doing this mock exam, think through your plan as you’re doing it. Because you’re familiarising yourself with the exam structure and how to tackle it, you’ll build your pattern recognition for likely questions that will be asked!
Preparing for your exam by doing a past paper will also allow you to road-test your exam game plan, so that when you enter the exam room, you’ll know exactly which techniques work for you.
Good Luck!
So, there you have it – follow these three key tips to increase your overall marks in the days before an exam, so you won’t feel like you’re screwed before the HSC! You can also find multiple study resources on our website to guide you with your studies.
Of course, consistent study is the way to go in Year 12 – but sometimes, this doesn’t always happen! So, best of luck in the upcoming exams and remember that having these strategies and plans in place can really help you achieve your best.Â
Looking for some extra help with your HSC studies?
We pride ourselves on our inspirational HSC 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!
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.
