Afrina’s Exam Hacks: How I’m Prepping for Half-Yearly Success

Me, Myself, and I

Name: Afrina Tanisha

School: St George Girls High School

Grade: 11 (2022)

ATAR goal: 99.75

University goal: Doctor of Medicine, University of New South Wales

A little about me

Hi! I’m Afrina and I’ve been a student at Matrix ever since Year 7!

In fact, my world has been shaped through the constructs of school, home and Matrix.

I’ve made some of the best memories at Strathfield Campus, made life long friends and most importantly learnt to love learning.

I realised my love for Poetry in English classes and have been writing my own collections. I also really like to read and lately have been pushing myself to read a few postmodernist works. They’ve been interesting to read about (and not going to lie kind of difficult).

My subjects

• Maths Advanced and Maths Extension 1
• Biology
• Physics
• Chemistry
• English

My School life

Year 11 has definitely been challenging at times. After working really hard, and not getting the results that I expected, it’s been a test to my resilience. It is often very easy to get swept up in the stressful aspects of study, so that’s why I like to unwind by playing badminton.

I also love listening to music; Spotify has been my saviour this year. It’s helped me concentrate with binaural beats and helped me just relax by listening to my favourite artists.

Overall, Year 11 has been flying by so quickly and I am just taking in every moment.

I am pro at:

Chemistry

It’s definitely my best subject.

I love understanding the different ways that reactions occur, and how these are essential for everyday life. It’s a super interesting subject, that probably has more exceptions than actual proper rules. It challenges me to think with logic and improves my problem-solving skills.

English Extension 1

This is one of my favourite classes to go to. In English Extension, we have been studying a key canon text called ‘The Illiad’ by Homer. Studying the stories of Ancient Greece to see the different relationships develop. As the plot progresses, I’ve been able to form more critical analysis skills.

I also like to discuss the themes of the texts, and often my class gets really philosophical and delves into the constructs of humanity.

Taking this subject has been improving the way I holistically analyse literature.

I have been able to acknowledge that there are a number of different perspectives of judgement that I can have while reading.

I struggle with:

Maths Extension 1

Maths used to be my best subject. However, I did not have enough time to actually digest the information throughout the fast pace of Year 11.

My exam performance has also been impacted by time pressure as I often get frazzled or anxious during the exam.

 

The first step I had to take to improve my work was to identify the problems in my study preparation.

It turned out that my key weaknesses were that:

1. The type of questions that I was practising was not at the level of difficulty that would be assessed in the exams.
2. I was struggling to complete exam papers within the time limit, especially in the morning.

So, I made sure to challenge these weakness.

First, I practised a greater variety of questions and carefully took the time to grasp key concepts (such as trigonometry) at my own pace with Matrix+.

I also noticed that the Matrix Theory Books had some great questions in the lesson reviews, so I have been revising with the different lesson review questions.

To solve my issues with time and nerves during exams, I knew I had to practice more.

The number one tip to improve on time pressure and nervousness is to do timed exams.

In addition, I made the effort to wake up early in the morning, to sit down and take the practice tests as if it was a real exam.

My brain started getting used to working at 9 in the morning and I noticed myself becoming more productive at that time. As a result, I had been finishing the paper on time. Now, I know that at the very least, time is something I have under control, which has really helped with my exam-time nerves.

I also struggle with Physics

My love for physics is infinite but my marks have not been reflective of this love. I find it a bit difficult to apply theory content whilst being specific about how different processes work. You can lose marks easily by missing a few details, and since my application was poor, I had trouble responding to difficult questions.

So, I made an effective plan to address these weaknesses.

Here’s my 4-step process to achieving my Physics goals:

How I Am Preparing For My Half-Yearlies

Year 11 has forced me to reassess the way I study. I had to find new ways to process concepts and to develop a concise understanding of the content. This has been a mix of failing, reorgainsing, readjusting with changes and learning how to improve my skills.

1. Planning and Setting Goals:

The first thing I did in an attempt to improve in my half-yearlies is to make sure I have everything planned out and know exactly how I am going to execute it on time.

Setting goals

Setting goals is important but making sure they are achievable is also an something to take into consideration.

In the past, I got caught up trying to do everything at once, but that made me tired and decreased my level of concentration in my work.

So now, I strategise how I am going to get all the work I need to get done for my half-yearlies by categorising all my tasks as either Small or Big.

Knowing what’s being tested

Every time I receive an assessment notification from school, the first thing I do is go and highlight the syllabus dot points. I make sure to break them down and check if my study notes have been completed for each dot point.

1. I start off by highlighting the sections that are relevant to my section. This priortises where I need to focus and recognise topics I may have weaknesses in
2. The next step is to go through my study notes and see which dot points have been completed. I make it an important goal to get my study notes as soon as possible, and complete the dot points that haven’t been completed yet or those that need more detail.
3. I match the syllabus dot points with matrix plus videos/ the lessons in the matrix theory books. They are great resources for studying and have amazing summaries that explain concepts clearly.

Use the accelerated holiday courses to get ahead

I had to save time over the term to study for my half yearlies, so I had to utilise the holidays in the most effective way possible. Matrix Holiday Accelerated courses helped me get ahead and stay on track.

Chemistry is one of my favourite subjects, I understand the content easily and enjoy learning it. So, I did the holiday course to get ahead for school. I found it helpful to solely focus on one subject and really pay attention to the modules. The Chemistry Holiday Course went through a whole module in 5 days, which definitely maximised my productivity because I forced myself to write notes everyday.

By the end of the five days, I finished my notes for Module 3 Chemistry. I like that by completing this course during the holiday, I have more time to revise other content and weaker subjects during the term.

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2. Finding a study method that works for you!

I’ve definitely been experimenting with different methods of studying to find the one that works for me. Normal note-writing (just writing across the page) has been more difficult because it is time-consuming and I felt like nothing was going into my head.

While it may work for other people, after many years of using that method, it was not working for me anymore. So, for my half yearlies I thought it would be a great idea to try out the visual learner approach.

It completely transformed how I wrote notes and made a style that was accustomed to my method of learning.

Here’s some of the approaches I take to create visual notes.

Mind mapping

The mind map strategy is an effective way to learn and scatter out ideas. I used this strategy for more creative subjects like English and also used it for Chemistry too. Sometimes I have writer’s block and don’t know where to start with assignments, and this leads to procrastination.

The mind map approach helps me just start writing ideas on a blank canvas, and just write a few thoughts here and there. Then eventually connecting everything together with arrows and that led to a whole draft of an essay.

Flowcharts

I learned this tip from another Matrix Alumni, James Drielsma, to use flowcharts to organise thoughts. Here’s his blog!

I found this incredibly useful and also noticed that many of the Matrix Theory Books also use flowcharts to explain concepts. They summarise concepts and explain how you can demonstrate skills needed for different questions with a step-by-step process.

This makes note-making easier, less time-consuming and more effective for learning.

Putting up signs on my walls

For my half yearlies, I needed to remember a lot of things so I thought it would be helpful if I put up little reminders of some things I had difficulty remembering. I would write things like equations, different rules for maths and laws I needed to remember around my room. I would see them every day, and they stuck to my memory.

• Left image: Calculus terms that my class at matrix used to remember mathematical definitions. We actually won the hoodie competition at for the Strathfield Campus.
• Centre images: I wrote out Newton’s three laws and important kinematics formulas and have them right next to where I study so I always remember them. Helps me when I’m answering physics questions
• Right image: A table of solubility rules for chemistry, this is a life saver when I was doing revision questions and needed a quick revision over the rules.

Practice exams!

There is this amazing site, THSC Online, that I use to access practice tests online. It is a life saver and I hope that everyone can utilise this site for the best.

This website has practice tests for Maths, Science and Social Science subjects and is a great tool to find resources. It has different practice tests from all schools over NSW, and allows for students to have larger exposure to different styles of questions.

For my half-yearlies I was dependent on this site and did at least one practice test for each of my subjects. This accentuated my time management during exams, identified my weaknesses and places I needed to work on and helped me get used to the exam setting.

My top tip is to use practice tests as the main tool to excel in the half yearlies- or in any test.

Be your own critic

After every practice test, I take at least 30 minutes to review the tests and see the places I made mistakes. I annotate the tests, marking the places where I went wrong and how to improve, so I make sure I don’t do it again.

I have a Fail book. Don’t worry it’s not a place where I bring down my self-esteem. Its other name is the First Attempt in Learning Book, and I utilise it to the best of my ability. Here’s a snippet of my Fail book, and I’ll explain what I do with it.

I use a red pen because that colour sticks to my head the most. It’s like a warning, “don’t make the same mistake twice”.

I circle the questions where i made mistakes in the practice exams. Then I identify certain things like equations, formulas and different rules that I may have forgotten and write them down. I also give myself different memory notes like “do not forget units” or “Be careful when factorising”.

This is the best way to revise my mistakes, so I don’t do them a second time. This has definitely been a great method to help me in my half-yearlies and very useful to revise before my exams.

3 things I wish I could’ve told myself before I started Year 11

1. A number does not define you

I get carried away with ranks and marks sometimes. But the important thing to note is continual improvement is the best thing to happen. No one can stop a person that continually improves from achieving greatness

2. You can’t do everything at once

I had a lot of things on my plate to get done, but i had to priortise the more important things. In the end I got the best out of studying sessions.

3. Be prepared for things not to go to plan

Even after I studied hard and put all my effort into a test. I sometimes did not get the marks I wanted to achieve. So having resilience and adapting with change is important.