Preparation for Preliminary HSC (1 Viewer)

infinityandbeyond

New Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2017
Messages
3
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Female
HSC
2019
Hey guys,

I am starting Year 11 next year. I chose English Ext 1, Maths Ext 1, Physics, Chem (accelerated) and Eco.

What should I do over the summer holidays to prepare me for Year 11? I know for English I need extra preparation. Any tips and advice on starting Year 11?

Thanks.
 

gallen88

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2016
Messages
92
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2018
Hi,

I do Maths Extension 2 at the moment (although I may drop depending on my rank and mark for first assessment). For Extension Maths I suggest you go over concepts you didn't understand in Year 10 - for me it was probability, but more importantly I worked through the chapters (Cambridge textbook) that my school didn't cover (Hyperbolas and Polynomials - Chapters 9 and 10). This helped me quite a bit as I made notes and I was able to develop an understanding of the topics. However, Extension Maths is difficult and my best suggestion is to pay attention in class, make notes, and do some CHALLENGING PAST PAPERS. It's a difficult subject but very rewarding especially if you're achieving 80% + in your exams (especially especially if you're achieving 85% - 100%). Do practice papers and keep in mind that this isn't a subject you can "wing" - unless you're a human robot. Seriously my class and I just did our first HSC Maths Extension assessment, we thought it wouldn't be too bad as it was the end of the year and we were exhausted. We were wrong about the perceived difficulty of the exam and the paper was much harder than we expected, so I would also recommend challenge yourself with the practice papers. I do James Ruse Papers and Baulkham Hills Papers which has helped me maintain a top 3 ranking throughout Year 11 to the first HSC task. However, I do know that people will pick up their game and ranks change over time and this will happen for you aswell. SO MAKE SURE YOU DO CONSISTENT PRACTICE! It's important that consistent practice is done in Year 11 and 12 for Maths to achieve Band 5s and 6s/High E3s/E4s and maintain top a strong rank. Seriously don't do a "I came first in the first task I'll wing the next" - it's just a recipe with disaster written all over it. But that being said don't do 24/7 and devote your life to Maths. Just make sure you study throughout the week and you will be fine. Consistency is key, it's better to do 7 x 20 minute study sessions for Maths Adv/Ext than doing a 7 hour Maths Adv/Ext study session the day before the exam.

English - read over the NEW syllabus and see what you are up for next Year and in Year 12. What I suggest is if your teachers have given you your first text for the Advanced and/or Extension course, is to read over the text now. Try to gain an understanding of the text and if you truly know what the topic is you can write down quotes (I did that for Journeys), however this can be difficult and I suggest if you don't feel confident with writing down quotes, I suggest doing summaries of each chapter. Since the syllabus is changing I suggest looking at this:
* https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/as...ons-new-hsc-english-adv-paper-2-exam-2019.pdf.
* https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/as...ons-new-hsc-english-adv-paper-1-exam-2019.pdf
Note (as the paper clearly outlines) - THIS IS NOT A SAMPLE PAPER it gives you examples of questions and an idea of what you could be expecting in the HSC exam paper in the future.
Throughout the Year once you feel more confident with the topics/modules, write up practice essays and get them marked by your teacher. This can help you improve your essay writting skills (if you didn't too do well in your first task or if you are struggling with essay writing in general). Improve the essay, and hand it back to your teacher until they say "This is perfect/you don't need to do anymore changes/you shouldn't be stressing on this essay anymore/etc.".

Finally ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAYS. Seriously, you're meant to have a break, don't work on studies too much throughout the holidays because it can tire you out by the beginning of the Year which can give you a bad start to the Prelims/HSC. Trust me from experience - fatigue doesn't help you achieve top marks with hand ins or exams during Year 11/12. However, there are some people who are MACHINES and can achieve high marks while being exhausted. If you (and to anyone else on the communityboredofstudies community) can do this I take my hat off to you and I'm impressed. :p (I'm not good with fatigue and assessments). DON'T STUDY 24/7 IT WILL BURN YOU OUT, MAKE YOU STRESSED and just ruin the purpose of having a holiday. Do some study if you want to but hang out with your family, friends or watch TV too. : )

Since you're doing Maths Ext 1 and English Ext 1 AND sciences I highly recommend reading Strawberrye's thread on how to excel in senior year studies.
Here is the link while she did the HSC a few years ago (2013 from what I remember she stated on the thread) and the syllabus is changing it will give you a guide line of how to study, which will be helpful for you.
Link: http://community.boredofstudies.org...r-year-studies-yr-11-12-99-atar-graduate.html

All the best for the future and by the way Merry Christmas. ;) (I know it's a day early haha).
 
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