So last year, you picked your senior subjects and you’re thinking now what? To make Year 11 a breeze, we’ve created just the ultimate Year 11 study planner for you!
Year 11 is a whole different ball game so get some guidance below to make the most of it!
But firstly…
What’s the difference between Year 11 and Year 12?
How many hours should I be studying?
What does a good study plan look like?
Downloadable Year 11 Study Planners!
Resources
What’s the difference between Year 11 and Year 12?
#1: Less terms
Most notably, Year 11 is only three terms while Year 12 is four. Therefore, the assessment structure and weightings may vary more from subject to subject.
Make sure you check out the NESA website which has sample assessment schedules for every subject for both Years 11 and 12 to get a better understanding of its structure!
#2: Content tends to be more general
The content you learn in Year 11 will generally be easier and broader than that in Year 12.
While it can differ, it’s important to master these as they usually get built upon in Year 12 — especially in STEM subjects!
Want a sneak peek of what’s coming this year? See our Guide to Year 11 Advanced English Module B as an example!
#3: Your marks don’t count towards your HSC and ATAR
Lastly, remember that Year 11 does not count towards your HSC marks and ATAR!
This is good news! Why, you may ask?
Because if you didn’t do as well as you hoped — you can identify where you went wrong and have soooo much room for improvement!
Check out our full breakdown of why you should do well in Year 11 here!
And if you did do well, you too can improve upon your marks and challenge yourself even more!
Unfortunately, doing well in Year 11 doesn’t guarantee a great ATAR but it can secure you early entry into almost any university — so don’t wait!
While your ATAR isn’t everything, the higher it is, the greater choice you have when picking degrees for uni right out of high school.
How many hours should I be studying?
We highly recommend studying at least 2 hours per unit a week outside of class time which assuming you are completing 12 units adds up to 24 additional hours of study.
This is about 3 and a half hours everyday!
Note: this will vary for everyone and is dependent on which subjects you are doing!
You can spread out your weekly hours to a schedule that works for you just try to make it consistent because once you make a habit, it’s hard to break — so make some good ones!
While this may seem like a lot, it’s super important to be revising the content you do in class and do some extra research if you haven’t fully grasped the info.
If you’re not reaching this goal, it’s not the end of the world however you might find yourself needing to cram later on!
Pro tip! If you don’t want to study as much outside of class, use your class time wisely and get ahead while others are playing games on their laptop — you know who they are.
We delve deeper into how to figure out the right amount of study for you, here!
What does a good study plan look like?
A good Year 11 study plan has SMART goals for each day.
This is probably not the first time you’ve heard the acronym SMART but hopefully this time it sticks!
SMART stands for:
Specific
You know what you need to do/are doing.
What syllabus point are you completing notes for?
Which math exercises?
If you don’t, ask for clarification from your teacher, tutor or peers!
Measurable
You know when it is or isn’t done and by how much.Â
You can choose which metric you will use but whether it be quantitative or qualitative – you should know if you’ve completed that task or not or how much progress you’ve made!
It needs to be trackable!
Attainable
You can actually do it!Â
Don’t say you’re going to smash out an essay for each English module, if you’re not – be realistic!
Having multiple things to work on can relieve some boredom but also reduce your chances of getting one thing fully done.
If you want to set a big goal, make sure you’re providing an appropriate time frame.
If your goals aren’t attainable, they can lead to lost motivation and burn out – which we really don’t want!
Relevant
Work on what is in the syllabus
If it’s not there – you don’t need to know it!
If you are already a pro at multiple choice questions, practice more short answers!Â
This also means doing what will help YOU most.
Time-based
Set how long you want to spend on it and stick to it!
It could be minutes, hours, days, weeks even but whatever it is, assign a number to it and plan to stick to it.
This could mean scheduling in time to work on your task after dinner for the week to make sure it’s done by next week.
Downloadable Year 11 Study Planners!
We’ve created two types of Year 11 study planners: a calendar version for a wider overview of the year and a Google Sheet where you can plan your whole day!
To use, just click the links and simply download or make a copy to edit!
Click here for the calendar version!
For the Daily Year 11 Study Planner, click here!
If you want all the official dates for school and public holidays, NESA has one here!
Resources
For subject specific tips, practice papers and more on how to study and manage your time, check out our ‘Resources’ tab!
Other helpful free study resources include:
Lanes.io
This website allows you to time your study, create an easy checklist and organise tasks by subject.
If you’re competitive, you can also see how much your friends are studying with the leaderboard!
Click here to check it out!
Notion.so
This platform lets you customise your workspace with almost anything you can think of on your laptop or phone!
It’s a great dynamic set up for your to-do lists that hopefully keeps you on track!
You can try it out here!
Pomofocus.io
A favourite of some of our tutors, this website helps administer the Pomodoro technique which breaks up your study into 25 minute increments and 5 minute breaks with the option to customise!
Have a go, here!
We hope you’ve learnt some valuable things about studying and found some beneficial resources to utilise — good luck!
Looking for some extra help with Year 11?
We have an incredible team of Year 11 tutors and mentors who are new HSC syllabus experts!
About to make the jump to Year 12? Take our Year 12 readiness quiz here!
We can help you ace your upcoming Year 11 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 6,000 students over the last 11 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 19%!
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!
Gabrielle Wong is currently the Digital Marketing Assistant at Art of Smart. She is a second year student at the University of Sydney studying a Bachelor of Arts/Advanced Studies majoring in Media and Communications and Marketing.
