How I Scored An ATAR Above 99 – Julia Tsolakis

Choose Subjects You Enjoy

Studying for the HSC is tiring and stressful enough as it is, so I would recommend choosing subjects that you genuinely enjoy and find interesting. Studying for subjects that you find engaging is not nearly as difficult as studying something you find boring and tedious. While many students try to ‘play the scaling game’ and it is important to understand how scaling works, at the end of the day you still have to do very well at a subject that scales well (which also happens to be very difficult) for the scaling to work to your advantage, so don’t rely on scaling, but rely on your strengths and interests.

Practise

One thing that distinguishes great students from good students in examinations is their ability to understand the information they are given, and then formulate a relevant, coherent and timely response. This skill is particularly essential in subjects like English, where you can’t simply memorise a pre-planned essay but have to engage with the question. The only way to get better at this is to practise exam style questions under exam conditions; timed and with no distractions. Rather than simply route learn subject content try to find as many past papers as you can!

Plan Your Study

Rather than simply say ‘I’m going to study maths for the next three hours’ try to plan out specific exercises or homework that you would like to complete. Once you have outlined actual goals you will find that your studying becomes much more efficient, as you have a clear outline of what you are working towards and where you need to get to in order to be satisfied with your study time.  Also make sure you allow yourself to have ‘study breaks’ to ensure your study is effective.

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