Avishek’s Hacks: How to Beat Your Lack of HSC Motivation

In this post, Cherrybrook Technology High School and Matrix student Avishek Chowdhury explains how to how to beat your lack of HSC motivation.

Me, myself and I

Name:

Avishek Chowdhury

School:

Cherrybrook Technology High School

University course goal:

Bachelor of Advanced Science, Doctor of Dental Medicine

ATAR goal:

98

Dream career:

Dentist! I love the idea of forming close relationships with patients and making a positive impact on their life. It also overlaps with my passion for science.

My HSC subjects

HSC subjects:

• English Advanced
• Mathematics Extension 1
• Mathematics Extension 2
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Economics

I performed the best in Physics:

I absolutely love learning about the world around me and question why things the way they are. My passion for science keeps me motivated to study for my science exams.

Being the science enthusiast that I am, I also enjoy researching about physics concepts in my downtime, purely because I find it fascinating. This is helpful because some of the information overlaps with what I am doing at school.

My worst performing subject is English.

I struggle with interpreting texts (especially poetry) and understand their meaning.

At the end of the day, English still counts towards my ATAR and having an ATAR goal keeps me motivated to try my best in English.

I try to submit practice essays and responses to my teacher as much as possible and ask questions when I’m confused about the material.

My #1 problem in Year 11

The number one problem I had was staying motivated throughout the entire year because I rarely had any time to step back and take a breather.

In term 1 of Year 12, I was very demotivated and burnt out from Year 11. I obviously didn’t give myself a break. As a result, although my marks weren’t poor, I knew I could have performed significantly better.

My study strategies

Habits I use to stay motivated throughout the year:

• Giving yourself breaks: You are human and your brain has a limited capacity. Taking breaks gives you a chance to clear your mind and not get overly stressed.
• Forming a study schedule: This keeps you on track and minimises procrastination
• Reminding yourself of your end goal: Getting into dental school was mine. In Year 12, it very easy to lose your sense of purpose as I continuously question my decision to continue through the year.

Reminding myself of my goal allows me to persevere and stay focused!

The 4 most effective strategies I’ve been using in Year 12

1. Making a study timetable:

This allows you to plan out your day and minimises procrastination. A timetable keeps you accountable to complete all the work set.

I find that having a study time table allows me to maximise my efficiency. It also gives me the most satisfaction at the end of my day, because I can look back on amount of work that I completed in a day.

This is my study schedule during the week:

2. Adopt more engaging forms of study

This involves documentaries or YouTube videos

I find that reading over notes can get very dull, especially for the heavy content subjects.

Watching videos and documentaries can be more engaging and equally as useful as reading notes.

This technique expanded my knowledge. I gained so much information and learned smaller details, that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten from reading a textbook.

However, you need to be disciplined if you use this technique. It can be very easy to get distracted.

3. Past papers

At the end of the day, you will have to sit exams.

I find that the best way to prepare is by doing past paper questions.

They give you an idea of the question styles that you will be asked and the level of difficulty of your exam.

It also allows you to perfect your exam technique, as you practice your time management and answering long response questions, so when you walk into the exam hall, you feel prepared for anything they can throw at you

4. Use your holidays wisely!

To any future students attending Matrix, I would highly recommend attending holiday courses.

I attended Chemistry and Mathematics Extension 2 courses during the holidays and Physics and Extension 1 Maths during the term.

I find that doing the holiday course allowed me to focus on doing as many past paper questions as possible in preparation for the exam at school, especially for Extension 2 Maths.

This is extremely beneficial because Extension 2 Maths is such a challenging subject.

Furthermore, Holiday courses allow me to free up time to work on subjects that I struggle with, such as English.

5. Work ahead during the term

I took Matrix term courses for subjects that I excelled at.

This meant that I could focus on doing practice questions for the subjects that require more work… which in my case was Chemistry and Extension 2 Maths.

However, every student is different, and you must find what works best for you.

My Regrets

If I could start the year again, I would:

Start doing past papers at the start of every term… rather than a few weeks before an exam.

Doing as many past papers as possible is crucial as you can perform absolute best in your exams. By doing pas papers at the start of the term, I have more time. This means that I am able to spread out the workload throughout and reduce the level of stress I put myself under. In year 12, being stressed is the last thing you want.

Consistently make notes on each topic for appropriate subjects throughout the term

I tend to write my notes all at once before an exam. However, this is not a good idea.

Consistently writing notes throughout the term allows you to have readymade before an exam. This means that you can use your time more effectively by doing past papers before an exam instead of finishing up your notes.

My Advice to future year 12 students:

Things to do:

• Try your absolute best. You can never do anything more.
• Do subjects you are genuinely interested in.
• Ask your teachers for help whenever you are unsure about anything- there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Never do these:

• Do NOT compare yourself with other people.
• Do NOT cram the night before a test. Trust me, it does not help.
• Do NOT get cocky in subjects you excel at.