Veer’s High School Advice: How to Achieve Highly (In Marks and Beyond)

Me, myself, and I

Name: Veer
School: St Andrew’s Cathedral School
University Goal: Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at UNSW
ATAR: 99.7

A little about me:

My name is Veer. I graduated as HSC dux of 2025 from St Andrew’s Cathedral School, getting dux in Year 11 as well. I have a variety of enjoyments I actively engage in to this day. I love to play chess and actively participate in tournaments. I like debating and playing video games with my friends. I also like reading Shakespeare (weird, I know, but it’s really fun once you get over Shakespearean English). I also watch the Sidemen religiously, especially their Among Us and GTA uploads. Finally, I’m a passionate Penrith Panthers fan as well as a Sydney Sixers fan, and I like going to NRL and BBL games.

My subjects/results

English Advanced: 91
Biology: 92
Chemistry: 93
Physics: 96
Mathematics Extension 1: 99
Mathematics Extension 2: 96

My school life

In school, I participated in all sorts of enjoyable community events. As a senior house officer of Westminster House, I took active roles in MakeOff (our school charity bake sale), SACS factor (our house dancing competition), Swimming Carnival, and Interhouse debating. I like to work my hardest in academics but also believe in having fun because otherwise what are we here for? I also completed my Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award, played squash until Year 11, and went on a 20-day-long hiking and rafting camp that started in the Australian Alps and ended on the Victorian Coast.

My Year 11 subjects were all of the above plus English Extension 1 (and I picked up Mathematics Extension 2). If you’re someone who wants to get ahead in Year 12 English Advanced but isn’t the biggest fan of critical theory or major works in English Extension 1 or 2, consider doing English Extension 1 for Year 11 and then dropping to Advanced in Year 12. I found this especially useful in Textual Conversations and Critical Study of Literature because I could use research skills from English Extension 1 to refine and enhance my analysis and contextual links.

I picked up Maths Extension 2 because I wanted to keep advancing my mathematical knowledge and really enjoyed doing Maths: don’t just pick it for the scaling alone, but only if you have a genuine interest in Maths.

I am pro at:

• Mathematics Extensions 1 and 2: I think because of my personal fascination with mathematics, I did a high level of preparation in quality and quantity. My study included learning the basics and, therefore, the advanced concepts well, which was aided significantly by my maths teacher, who posted videos about harder Extension 2 concepts. I also kept note of what question types I found challenging and remembered any obscure pathways (like harder mechanics questions or certain proofs). Finally, I did Maths every day for at least an hour, so I grew in ability by sheer volume of practice. My sources include Matrix Maths for both extensions (Extension 2 is especially useful), Steve Howard’s 1000 Extension 2 questions, past selective school papers and past HSCs.
• Chemistry: Chemistry was also a subject I found interesting and elegant, and because I liked Chemistry, I committed to it hard. I always had Matrix Chemistry a few days before or after school Chemistry, so they complemented each other in reinforcing difficult concepts. I also made sure to update my notes actively, even in the lead-up to the HSC, by scouring Matrix and school textbooks and finding any obscure concepts (inert gas question in 2025) or harder problems I may have not completed. Finally, like Maths, I did dozens of past papers under time pressure (2 hours) to think faster on the day. Whilst my HSC results were below Maths or Physics, I got 100 in my trials and was consistently 96+ in school assessments.
• Physics: In full honesty, I struggled early on in Physics because extended writing questions often demand certain keywords and clear structure, and failing to put those down cost me dearly in the past. But Matrix Physics really came to the rescue in Year 11 because it crafted even harder questions than school and trained my writing skills, including how to incorporate an equation, key terminology, and clear reasoning. Those skills only grew in Year 12, with regular practice of exam-style questions from THSC and Matrix, alongside brushing up on older content as regularly as learning new content, boosting my Physics grade.
• English (comprehension, essays, discursive and persuasive writing): Let’s face it. Who hasn’t struggled in English? But essay writing and comprehension are a science in that there’s a verified method to get guaranteed gains. Namely, I read several past Band 6 essays to explore ideas, context and language required by certain texts and used that understanding to refine and broaden my own analysis of the key themes in every text. I also improved my linking to the question ability by continuously using the words of the question in every single essay: that is the one thing HSC markers look keenly for, and that’s what ultimately determines high or low essay marks. Comprehension was much simpler because I just increased my technique repertoire, improved my time breakdown using repetitive exam-style practice, and practised the ability to squeeze the meat out of the lobster that is a passage.

I struggle with:

• English (Imaginative Writing): Whilst I was strong at the other two forms of Module C, the prospect of having to come up with a story on the spot if my pre-prepared one failed was very difficult. Despite repeated practices with imaginative writing, I found that certain aspects of the impromptu stories I had written weren’t sophisticated or consistently linked to the stem. To get better, I read more short stories and books for pleasure whilst increasing the number of stories I knew and could reproduce, borrowing some aspects from creative writing in English Extension 1. I also tried (with moderate success) to write a new story every week and have my teachers grade it. And whilst it still remained my weakest link, I think I improved on it in the end.

My routine

During the term

During school term, I used Google Sheets alone to print a rigorous weekly timetable for myself to follow. I also set goals I wished to achieve on a monthly basis (complete 20 Maths papers in 3 weeks). My study would essentially include revision and practice of what was learnt in school, including doing Matrix Homework or reading relevant sections from Matrix that school only covered later. I centre variability around my Sciences whilst fixing Maths every day and English every alternate day.

My study process included taking a detailed, comprehensive set of notes for each concept. I was a big user of flowcharts, shorthand notation, mnemonics and diagram drawing because they condense large volumes of text into smaller, more visually memorable chunks. I also included worked examples and exotic questions I would find from Matrix/past papers such that I could review them in later assessments.

Matrix integrated really well with my subjects. Matrix Chemistry particularly, as it was sandwiched between my Chemistry lessons on Tuesday and Thursday and also kept pace slightly above my school. Thus, I could learn content at a faster pace and polish up on complicated areas like Ksp or back titrations. I also made sure to do at least 50% of my Matrix homework the night after Matrix classes, as it reinforced what I had already learnt.

Other than Matrix, I relied heavily on my textbooks, sample English essays, ScienceReady videos and past papers.

During my holidays

I took the Maths Extension holiday course every time and also did Physics occasionally. The head start they provided on content allowed me to refine skills that others only learnt later on, like Vectors or Astrophysics. Whilst studying that, I also worked on English for an hour a day and didn’t just do practice essays but also used critical readings and contextual research to elevate my analysis beyond typical essay structure. I also participated in chess tournaments, outings with friends, travel and video games.

My holiday study schedule was centred around about 4-5 hours of study (not including the holiday courses). I would do Maths and English every day for about 3 hours cumulatively and spend 2 hours on a chosen Science, introducing daily variety.

In concurrence with the holiday study, I would intersperse periods of enjoyment and downtime, such as going to chess tournaments, playing squash or meeting up with friends. A holiday schedule should be followed, but breaking it occasionally made me feel more positive and receptive towards enjoying the experiences that Year 12 brings.

Staying on top

I fight distractions by

My primary weaknesses whilst trying to study were an inability to stay away from YouTube videos and a tendency to get bored. To address YouTube videos, I bought a Nokia Brick that largely stopped my scrolling for 2 years, and I also set punishments that I would enforce on myself (like studying an hour extra at night) if I watched too much YouTube. And to stay focused and not bored, I stayed in the school library until 5:30 every day after school to study with some friends, which motivated me to stay on task due to positive peer pressure. Studying with friends also has the benefit of being able to explain hard concepts to them, not just benefitting theirs and your own HSC mark but also your understanding of that concept.

I keep healthy by

I prepared for and participated in house activities like the Swimming and Athletics Carnival alongside the House Dance Competition, which were physical pursuits that helped me keep fit at a time when many people stay chained to their desks. I also went to the gym thrice a week and danced at least once a week, which was a practical but enjoyable way to keep fit. I also ate relatively healthy, relying on home-cooked meals for the majority of school days (except before Matrix classes, where I’d have something sweet to carry through into nighttime). To de-stress, I would play table tennis with friends, watch Sidemen Among Us, and read good books.

My secrets to exam preparation

Everyone stresses before exam week, and I was no exception. But I prepared long-term in advance to reduce that worry. This is because I set a rigorous timetable to follow on most weekdays (no house activities/get-togethers included), allowing me to remain on track to have fully understood (and maybe mastered) everything related to the exam at least a fortnight before. Matrix made substantial contributions to being fully prepared due to its accelerated model and was a lifesaver in Chemistry, Maths and Physics as it covered the hardest topics either a few weeks or sometimes a day before an exam, allowing me to understand/brush up on topics immediately.

There’s only one significant difference between exam preparation and regular study for me: the proportion of time spent on exam questions and past papers shot up vastly. I’d spend maybe 30-40% of time on content and the rest on completing the hardest exam questions and past papers I could find (often choosing the top 10 schools from Better Education, but all trials are generally worth doing). I say exam questions and past papers separately because the former involved hand-selecting hard questions from certain papers/Matrix books/Excel HSC books, whilst the other was doing a full paper in accelerated (-1 hour) conditions.

My subject tips for every subject Matrix offers

English Advanced

My study process was systematic and had three stages. First was reading, knowing and analysing the text. I would read the text three times: first for pleasure, next for themes, and finally for quotes/context. That way, I could build up a bank of quotes/contextual knowledge that I could apply to the variety of themes a text might have. I particularly liked quote tables and classifying quotes based on chronology, context, analysis and link to a certain theme. I made sure to have at least 25 all-rounder quotes (which means one quote can be used for 2-3 different themes).

Second was research for analysis and context. I learnt from English Extension 1 the power of using resources like JSTOR or Bloomberg to elevate English analysis, particularly in Year 12. If you come up with some idea you think is original, a marker out there has likely seen it before (not my words, my English teacher’s). Critical readings aid you in bringing freshness and refinement to your essays because they introduce unseen ideas and concepts for widely used quotes. One might also discover interesting and unique contextual links, which become crucial in context-heavy essays like Keats-Campion and King Henry IV Part 1. They also use sophisticated sentence structures and vocabulary, so they’re great ways to improve control of language and variance in essay structure.

Finally, I’d use the Patent Pending 3 rounds of feedback technique from Matrix and do timed practice. I recommend finding one fairly generic question (the best one is “Texts are a product of their time and place”) and writing a master essay to that. It’s a foundation that helps you integrate your contextual links, your actual analysis and question links in a clear manner, but it shouldn’t be blindly memorised. You should remember the key points from your master essay but also build “hidden aces up your sleeve”. That includes writing evidence clusters for other important texts and backing them up with context. Then I’d test these practically by doing at least 3 exam practices with medium/hard questions from past trial papers/actual HSCs, getting my teachers to grade them when they could.

Maths (Extension 1 & Extension 2)

Mathematics study is a lot less complicated. It only had two steps for me.

First, take some good, clear notes. It’s not nearly as important as English or a Science, but you want to create a good foundation of knowledge and skills. Notes include some explanation of key words (Bernoulli/binomial distribution, Reduction Formulae, etc) and some easy level practice problems to build an understanding of strategies to answer questions. Unlike other subjects, you rarely return to notes in the end, but they’re good for keeping track of obscure things you might forget (like the possibility of a single outcome for a continuous variable is 0).

Second, questions, reflection, repeat! This should take up 99.9% of your time because doing questions is the way you build your mathematical repertoire and tackle unfamiliar or unintuitive scenarios, especially in areas like Proof and 3D Vectors proofs. Using a variety of sources maximises your exposure and, frankly, your tenacity to keep trying a hard problem even if the result can take 20 minutes. Reflection on mistakes is also important, as it reduces the chance of repeating again. For me, this was harder combinatorics, 3D vector problems and harder inequality proofs. Keeping track of harder questions and reattempting them later on broadens your thinking capability and speed for your trials and HSC.

I used Matrix Extension 1 and 2 workbooks and theory books, Steve Howard’s 1000 Extension 2 questions, dozens of past papers and school textbooks as question banks. You shouldn’t find a shortage of questions in Maths until the very end.

Sciences (Biology, Chemistry & Physics)

The three Sciences I did all require different but overlapping methods of study due to the nature of what each one assesses. High-scoring Biology students rely on mastery of content and constructing well-thought-out, logical answers for the unfamiliar 7, 8 or 9 mark questions that every HSC has. Due to the sheer volume of content in Biology, it can be difficult to achieve part A, but a few practical steps do the trick. Firstly, use all your resources and cut out the riff-raff. Because some Biology textbooks may exclude important details and include unimportant ones, you should sift through textbooks with awareness and only include material that actually comes up in exams (unlike genetic disease tests at birth, which I knew anyway). Matrix does a phenomenal job by condensing Biology into four manageable books, but you should ideally use your own notes/flashcards to remember, understand and apply content. I relied heavily on flowcharts and mnemonics as well as regular practice questions to touch up on prior content.

Physics introduces the mathematical requirement but overlaps with Biology because it requires knowledge of the content and clarity in extended response questions. Physics from Matrix strongly covers all the content you’ll ever need and keeps you on your toes with exam-style practice. In addition to flowcharts and mnemonics, I also refreshed calculation questions and extended writing questions on a daily basis, doing at least 5 of each every day I studied Physics. Physics is also very diagrammatic, and a few diagrams might be all you need for a certain concept (One HR diagram covers all important types of stars and their relationships between luminosity and temperature). Such visual learning comes handy in assessments, where drawing diagrams indicates a high level of understanding for extended response questions and can be instrumental to elevate that 6 or 7/9 to a 9/9.

My achievements

I was really proud of getting Dux of Year 11 and Year 12, because it’s rare at any school to double Dux. I was also proud of topping Mathematics Extension 1, Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Year 11 and topping all those minus Physics in Year 12. I was also proud of spearheading Westminster House to the Dean Pitt Shield (our house cup) by winning the final debate that was the tiebreaker. Additionally, I was proud of growing in maturity and friendship with the people at school, Matrix and beyond, and forming bonds that would last a lifetime.

My regrets

The one thing I regret the most is not preparing harder for Imaginative Writing in the Craft of Writing. Of all my subjects, imaginative writing was specifically my only real weak point, although my discursive and persuasive skills were strong. I sometimes also regret not engaging in other activities such as drama at my school.

My advice to future Year 11 and 12 students

Keep calm, try your best and grow in mind, body and soul.

3 things you must do in Years 11 and 12

1. Past Papers: These are the ultimate tools everyone should use much more than they do! Past papers test you for hard questions you haven’t seen before and force you to extend your knowledge into unfamiliar scenarios, which is the exact premise of your HSC trials and HSC. I recommend doing the top selective schools because they release harder/longer papers and are renowned for specific subjects (Sydney Grammar and English). By the end, I had done hundreds overall, and you should do the same.

2. Writing all your essays more than 3 times: Flashcards and note-taking are useful ways to remember notes for English, but writing them out in answer to a range of questions is paramount. Testing yourself on unfamiliar extracts or obscure concepts (anarchy in Julius Caesar) allows you to not just regurgitate your contextual links and analysis but also practise actively linking to the question, which all English teachers look for in essays.

3. Study from a variety of sources: School textbooks are useful, but can be long, clunky and sparse on real questions. Use a diversity of resources like the Bronwyn Hagerty textbooks, Steve Howard’s 1000 Extension 2 questions and Matrix Theory/work books to prepare because those will build up your knowledge systematically and keep you on your toes.

3 things you must not do in Years 11 and 12

1. Give up your social life: Year 11 and 12 are the final 2 years of school, meaning you should end them well on the academic and social frontier. Get involved in school community events, take on leadership roles, and stay devoted to your hobbies and sports. Those pursuits make you happier and thus more able to retrieve knowledge/apply learnt skills.

2. Stay up too late: You are not an elephant that can survive on 2-4 hours of sleep, and you’re not a camel that can be satiated by a single meal. Sleep before exams can be more valuable than flashcards because it helps consolidate all your knowledge. Additionally, I recommend having some chocolate/sugar-rich food before an exam because the short-term sugar rush boosts your thinking, as your brain draws on glucose for a quick energy boost.

3. Lose belief in yourself: I found myself questioning my ability in all my subjects at one point and temporarily lost motivation after some tough results in Maths and Physics. But soldiering on and trusting in your own ability is the best way to succeed.