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English Tutoring - Why you need me (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter phaedrus900
- Start date
eyeseeyou
Well-Known Member
Everyone needs to read this
phaedrus900
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2015
- Messages
- 96
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- N/A
Hi all,
Hope you are going well, and for those about to enter HSC, that your nerves are settled and your hard work will pay the dividends it deserves. Apologies that it has been a fair while between drinks (posts), I have been very busy since winter. I just wanted to firstly thank all my students for a terrific year, and to those who asked questions and generally participated in these threads - I am sure it makes a big difference to those reading, and I've really enjoyed the intellectual stimulation and getting to know you.
A final note with a couple of thoughts for those about to enter HSC -
How important is the HSC?
1. This is NOWHERE near the most important thing you will do in your life. At 17/18 you will have possibly started working, hopefully have some great close friends, and maybe even some plans for next year - whether thats uni, or travelling or anything else. If you've worked hard this year and you are aiming for a top ATAR, that's brilliant. Doing well in the HSC can lead to scholarships, uni degrees with bright, like minded people, and a lot of fun and open doors. HOWEVER, if that isn't you - if you've done other things, had a tough HSC (many people have all sorts of life events get in the way) year, have different priorities, or you're uncertain about life or where you are heading, that's absolutely fine. There are many, many pathways to your success, many ways to be happy, many adventures to undertake, many twists and turns. Returning home recently, I was surprised and so happy to see many of my school friends and colleagues living wonderful lives and having taken all sorts of interesting paths and - most importantly - happy. Some are in food, some have run successful gin or coffee businesses, some are in fashion, some are working for the government, some advise on leading computer game development. The list is endless.
With that in mind you can really see HSC as a win-win. Certainly, there is no reason not to do your best. Whatever stage you are at now, do your best to achieve. Get old essays, scramble to plug holes in your knowledge, prioritise effectively depending on your exam schedule, talk with your friends, get model answers, get tutors or help from parents if you need. It's only a few weeks and then you are in the vast open space of real life. But just don't plague yourself with unnecessary anxiety that HSC is the be all and end all. If you do well, fantastic and if you don't that could be even better. Oh and just so you know - uni courses are pretty easy to transfer into
2. Time Management (and other priorities)
As to HSC technique itself, time management is always something which I find students struggle with and lose momentous amounts of marks. Unfortunately, if you don't write an answer you don't get the marks, no matter how brilliant the rest of your paper was. Among the multitude of stories on this wavelength, I always think of a guy in my year who was arguably the best physicist in Australia for his age. He basically coasted through the HSC, probably could've done it in yr 10. He completely missed the final page and so physics didn't count. (lucky for him he was a genius so his ATAR didn't suffer too bad, and also he didn't even use his ATAR and is now - I believe - in China doing something brilliant on the world scale haha).
The point is, though, that you must be absolutely pedantic, meticulous, diligent etc about reading through your whole paper and leaving yourself adequate time for each section. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for practicing the real thing, in real time, handwritten. As you move in the last fortnight before exams, this is a prerogative. Although it's a hassle, don't type etc - set yourself up in the clothes you will wear on the day, and do a past exam you haven't seen in strict time limits back to front. You need to be logical and rational - no matter how perfect your short answers are (for example), if you only write half an essay because you run out of time, are you likely to get your maximum marks? Or if you do a rushed but decent job of most short answers and write a very solid essay, will you likely do a lot better. Remember, also, not to be a perfectionist. Against the set of the whole state, a half decent answer usually gets the chocolates, particularly for 1 and 2 mark questions.
This kind of rational thought also extends to your subjects. If you are only doing 10-11 units as many of you will be, you should clearly be working on your weakest subjects (that is, if your priority is highest ATAR). It's understandable that someone who is brilliant and interested in maths/physics would just like to do practices before the exam to go from 93-->95 and feel great, but unfortunately - especially with scaling - these marks are nothing compared to dragging, say, your Eng Adv from an 80--> 90. Many of you will identify with this example, it's extremely common. What's more is that it actually isn't that hard to go from an 80 to a 90 in Eng Adv, and it can mean 5 points on your ATAR. It's not hard, but it is painful. A sacrifice, though, likely worth making (especially if only for a few weeks!)
In conclusion, be smart and have a logical game plan for how you approach the HSC from here. What exams need to prioritised? Where are you likely to improve marks? Whose practice papers/advice/ideas do you need to seek to shore up your weakest subjects? If you go through this process you'll be surprised about the rewards when you're at the beach and hanging out with your friends come Dec.
3. What if I have two exams in one (or two) days?
Undoubtedly, this is tricky. The less preparation you've done, the harder it will be. But it also isn't nearly as bad as you think. You run a lot on adrenaline during the exams, and your concentration can actually be heightened as you are match fit from close exams together. Either way, though, you need to suck it up, quit lamenting it and do the best you can. My experience is that for most students it had no net effect on their result at all. Again, be smart and prioritise accordingly. Make sure you prepare the stuff that is likely to be highly stressful close to exam. Typically that includes things that you need to think about in depth and can take unquantifiable time e.g. essays. More explicit, right-wrong questions such as MC, rote mathematical learning, short answers are obviously easier to cram and remember closer to the exam.
4. What do I do if I screw up an exam?
Nothing because there is nothing you can do. But as per my answer in (1) above, and also as a general life lesson, it really isn't the end of the world. It's one exam among many, one mistake among many, one experience among many. This is not in any way to diminish how you feel. I remember feeling like I had (which I did, although it was fine relatively speaking) screwed my first English AoS and being devastated and anxious about Paper 2. Ultimately, however, it was fine, and even if it wasn't I can confidently say my life wouldn't have been drastically different regardless. The best thing to do is to let it go however you do that best and focus on what you can change, which is your future exams. In all likelihood, it isn't as bad as you think, and it definitely won't have the impact you expect.
5. Do you advise any particular daily routines or techniques during the exam period?
If you are interested in health and wellbeing, you will have noticed that there has been a huge increase in the awareness of the importance of sleep. And not just sleep in hours, but quality sleep. If you know how to meditate (i.e. just calm your mind from its intense, distracted state), this is a highly valuable tool, especially to help you sleep. Also exercise during the day - even just a brisk walk - helps immensely. Finally, eating in a stable way and eating good food (fruit, nuts, balanced meals NOT fast food, energy drinks, too much caffeine e.t.c) is also very good for the stability of your sleep and health.
These are all no brainer things to boost your performance and wellbeing over the period. Although difficult to achieve all of them all the time (I still have way too much caffeine and prefer late night study and work), even working on some of them can help you dramatically. Other than that, I would advise you to stick with what works and most importantly be consistent. Consistency in your habits and routines gives your brain a good platform to be strong, stable and take in new information as well as boosting both your retention of what you learn and your ACCESS to that information. Obviously the more jumpy your whole psychosomatic (brain body) system is, the more tricky it will be to rely on it at the arbitrary time where your exam falls. So if you have your one energy drink in the morning, or coke, or late night study or whatever that's fine, just make sure it is relatively consistent.
As, again, I spoke of in (1), make sure you don't burden yourself with unnecessary stress and anxiety. Obviously, this is easier to say than do, and many people (as I did) use adrenaline as a motivator, but too much can cause catastrophic freezing and be too harsh on your mind and body. Try to take the middle road, as the Buddha said, keep an even keel and you'll be fine.
As always, best of luck with everything and any questions please feel free to PM me or ask here if you think others would appreciate an answer.
Have a strong, comfortable HSC, and great finish to school, feeling confident that your life can be great whatever happens.
Cheers,
Dave
Hope you are going well, and for those about to enter HSC, that your nerves are settled and your hard work will pay the dividends it deserves. Apologies that it has been a fair while between drinks (posts), I have been very busy since winter. I just wanted to firstly thank all my students for a terrific year, and to those who asked questions and generally participated in these threads - I am sure it makes a big difference to those reading, and I've really enjoyed the intellectual stimulation and getting to know you.
A final note with a couple of thoughts for those about to enter HSC -
How important is the HSC?
1. This is NOWHERE near the most important thing you will do in your life. At 17/18 you will have possibly started working, hopefully have some great close friends, and maybe even some plans for next year - whether thats uni, or travelling or anything else. If you've worked hard this year and you are aiming for a top ATAR, that's brilliant. Doing well in the HSC can lead to scholarships, uni degrees with bright, like minded people, and a lot of fun and open doors. HOWEVER, if that isn't you - if you've done other things, had a tough HSC (many people have all sorts of life events get in the way) year, have different priorities, or you're uncertain about life or where you are heading, that's absolutely fine. There are many, many pathways to your success, many ways to be happy, many adventures to undertake, many twists and turns. Returning home recently, I was surprised and so happy to see many of my school friends and colleagues living wonderful lives and having taken all sorts of interesting paths and - most importantly - happy. Some are in food, some have run successful gin or coffee businesses, some are in fashion, some are working for the government, some advise on leading computer game development. The list is endless.
With that in mind you can really see HSC as a win-win. Certainly, there is no reason not to do your best. Whatever stage you are at now, do your best to achieve. Get old essays, scramble to plug holes in your knowledge, prioritise effectively depending on your exam schedule, talk with your friends, get model answers, get tutors or help from parents if you need. It's only a few weeks and then you are in the vast open space of real life. But just don't plague yourself with unnecessary anxiety that HSC is the be all and end all. If you do well, fantastic and if you don't that could be even better. Oh and just so you know - uni courses are pretty easy to transfer into
2. Time Management (and other priorities)
As to HSC technique itself, time management is always something which I find students struggle with and lose momentous amounts of marks. Unfortunately, if you don't write an answer you don't get the marks, no matter how brilliant the rest of your paper was. Among the multitude of stories on this wavelength, I always think of a guy in my year who was arguably the best physicist in Australia for his age. He basically coasted through the HSC, probably could've done it in yr 10. He completely missed the final page and so physics didn't count. (lucky for him he was a genius so his ATAR didn't suffer too bad, and also he didn't even use his ATAR and is now - I believe - in China doing something brilliant on the world scale haha).
The point is, though, that you must be absolutely pedantic, meticulous, diligent etc about reading through your whole paper and leaving yourself adequate time for each section. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for practicing the real thing, in real time, handwritten. As you move in the last fortnight before exams, this is a prerogative. Although it's a hassle, don't type etc - set yourself up in the clothes you will wear on the day, and do a past exam you haven't seen in strict time limits back to front. You need to be logical and rational - no matter how perfect your short answers are (for example), if you only write half an essay because you run out of time, are you likely to get your maximum marks? Or if you do a rushed but decent job of most short answers and write a very solid essay, will you likely do a lot better. Remember, also, not to be a perfectionist. Against the set of the whole state, a half decent answer usually gets the chocolates, particularly for 1 and 2 mark questions.
This kind of rational thought also extends to your subjects. If you are only doing 10-11 units as many of you will be, you should clearly be working on your weakest subjects (that is, if your priority is highest ATAR). It's understandable that someone who is brilliant and interested in maths/physics would just like to do practices before the exam to go from 93-->95 and feel great, but unfortunately - especially with scaling - these marks are nothing compared to dragging, say, your Eng Adv from an 80--> 90. Many of you will identify with this example, it's extremely common. What's more is that it actually isn't that hard to go from an 80 to a 90 in Eng Adv, and it can mean 5 points on your ATAR. It's not hard, but it is painful. A sacrifice, though, likely worth making (especially if only for a few weeks!)
In conclusion, be smart and have a logical game plan for how you approach the HSC from here. What exams need to prioritised? Where are you likely to improve marks? Whose practice papers/advice/ideas do you need to seek to shore up your weakest subjects? If you go through this process you'll be surprised about the rewards when you're at the beach and hanging out with your friends come Dec.
3. What if I have two exams in one (or two) days?
Undoubtedly, this is tricky. The less preparation you've done, the harder it will be. But it also isn't nearly as bad as you think. You run a lot on adrenaline during the exams, and your concentration can actually be heightened as you are match fit from close exams together. Either way, though, you need to suck it up, quit lamenting it and do the best you can. My experience is that for most students it had no net effect on their result at all. Again, be smart and prioritise accordingly. Make sure you prepare the stuff that is likely to be highly stressful close to exam. Typically that includes things that you need to think about in depth and can take unquantifiable time e.g. essays. More explicit, right-wrong questions such as MC, rote mathematical learning, short answers are obviously easier to cram and remember closer to the exam.
4. What do I do if I screw up an exam?
Nothing because there is nothing you can do. But as per my answer in (1) above, and also as a general life lesson, it really isn't the end of the world. It's one exam among many, one mistake among many, one experience among many. This is not in any way to diminish how you feel. I remember feeling like I had (which I did, although it was fine relatively speaking) screwed my first English AoS and being devastated and anxious about Paper 2. Ultimately, however, it was fine, and even if it wasn't I can confidently say my life wouldn't have been drastically different regardless. The best thing to do is to let it go however you do that best and focus on what you can change, which is your future exams. In all likelihood, it isn't as bad as you think, and it definitely won't have the impact you expect.
5. Do you advise any particular daily routines or techniques during the exam period?
If you are interested in health and wellbeing, you will have noticed that there has been a huge increase in the awareness of the importance of sleep. And not just sleep in hours, but quality sleep. If you know how to meditate (i.e. just calm your mind from its intense, distracted state), this is a highly valuable tool, especially to help you sleep. Also exercise during the day - even just a brisk walk - helps immensely. Finally, eating in a stable way and eating good food (fruit, nuts, balanced meals NOT fast food, energy drinks, too much caffeine e.t.c) is also very good for the stability of your sleep and health.
These are all no brainer things to boost your performance and wellbeing over the period. Although difficult to achieve all of them all the time (I still have way too much caffeine and prefer late night study and work), even working on some of them can help you dramatically. Other than that, I would advise you to stick with what works and most importantly be consistent. Consistency in your habits and routines gives your brain a good platform to be strong, stable and take in new information as well as boosting both your retention of what you learn and your ACCESS to that information. Obviously the more jumpy your whole psychosomatic (brain body) system is, the more tricky it will be to rely on it at the arbitrary time where your exam falls. So if you have your one energy drink in the morning, or coke, or late night study or whatever that's fine, just make sure it is relatively consistent.
As, again, I spoke of in (1), make sure you don't burden yourself with unnecessary stress and anxiety. Obviously, this is easier to say than do, and many people (as I did) use adrenaline as a motivator, but too much can cause catastrophic freezing and be too harsh on your mind and body. Try to take the middle road, as the Buddha said, keep an even keel and you'll be fine.
As always, best of luck with everything and any questions please feel free to PM me or ask here if you think others would appreciate an answer.
Have a strong, comfortable HSC, and great finish to school, feeling confident that your life can be great whatever happens.
Cheers,
Dave
Last edited:
eyeseeyou
Well-Known Member
Thank you so much Phaedrus900 for putting in the time and effort in making this for all of us. We all greatly appreciate itHi all,
Hope you are going well, and for those about to enter HSC, that your nerves are settled and your hard work will pay the dividends it deserves. Apologies that it has been a fair while between drinks (posts), I have been very busy since winter. I just wanted to firstly thank all my students for a terrific year, and to those who asked questions and generally participated in these threads - I am sure it makes a big difference to those reading, and I've really enjoyed the intellectual stimulation and getting to know you.
A final note with a couple of thoughts for those about to enter HSC -
How important is the HSC?
1. This is NOWHERE near the most important thing you will do in your life. At 17/18 you will have possibly started working, hopefully have some great close friends, and maybe even some plans for next year - whether thats uni, or travelling or anything else. If you've worked hard this year and you are aiming for a top ATAR, that's brilliant. Doing well in the HSC can lead to scholarships, uni degrees with bright, like minded people, and a lot of fun and open doors. HOWEVER, if that isn't you - if you've done other things, had a tough HSC (many people have all sorts of life events get in the way) year, have different priorities, or you're uncertain about life or where you are heading, that's absolutely fine. There are many, many pathways to your success, many ways to be happy, many adventures to undertake, many twists and turns. Returning home recently, I was surprised and so happy to see many of my school friends and colleagues living wonderful lives and having taken all sorts of interesting paths and - most importantly - happy. Some are in food, some have run successful gin or coffee businesses, some are in fashion, some are working for the government, some advise on leading computer game development. The list is endless.
With that in mind you can really see HSC as a win-win. Certainly, there is no reason not to do your best. Whatever stage you are at now, do your best to achieve. Get old essays, scramble to plug holes in your knowledge, prioritise effectively depending on your exam schedule, talk with your friends, get model answers, get tutors or help from parents if you need. It's only a few weeks and then you are in the vast open space of real life. But just don't plague yourself with unnecessary anxiety that HSC is the be all and end all. If you do well, fantastic and if you don't that could be even better. Oh and just so you know - uni courses are pretty easy to transfer into
2. Time Management (and other priorities)
As to HSC technique itself, time management is always something which I find students struggle with and lose momentous amounts of marks. Unfortunately, if you don't write an answer you don't get the marks, no matter how brilliant the rest of your paper was. Among the multitude of stories on this wavelength, I always think of a guy in my year who was arguably the best physicist in Australia for his age. He basically coasted through the HSC, probably could've done it in yr 10. He completely missed the final page and so physics didn't count. (lucky for him he was a genius so his ATAR didn't suffer too bad, and also he didn't even use his ATAR and is now - I believe - in China doing something brilliant on the world scale haha).
The point is, though, that you must be absolutely pedantic, meticulous, diligent etc about reading through your whole paper and leaving yourself adequate time for each section. There is NO SUBSTITUTE for practicing the real thing, in real time, handwritten. As you move in the last fortnight before exams, this is a prerogative. Although it's a hassle, don't type etc - set yourself up in the clothes you will wear on the day, and do a past exam you haven't seen in strict time limits back to front. You need to be logical and rational - no matter how perfect your short answers are (for example), if you only write half an essay because you run out of time, are you likely to get your maximum marks? Or if you do a rushed but decent job of most short answers and write a very solid essay, will you likely do a lot better. Remember, also, not to be a perfectionist. Against the set of the whole state, a half decent answer usually gets the chocolates, particularly for 1 and 2 mark questions.
This kind of rational thought also extends to your subjects. If you are only doing 10-11 units as many of you will be, you should clearly be working on your weakest subjects (that is, if your priority is highest ATAR). It's understandable that someone who is brilliant and interested in maths/physics would just like to do practices before the exam to go from 93-->95 and feel great, but unfortunately - especially with scaling - these marks are nothing compared to dragging, say, your Eng Adv from an 80--> 90. Many of you will identify with this example, it's extremely common. What's more is that it actually isn't that hard to go from an 80 to a 90 in Eng Adv, and it can mean 5 points on your ATAR. It's not hard, but it is painful. A sacrifice, though, likely worth making (especially if only for a few weeks!)
In conclusion, be smart and have a logical game plan for how you approach the HSC from here. What exams need to prioritised? Where are you likely to improve marks? Whose practice papers/advice/ideas do you need to seek to shore up your weakest subjects? If you go through this process you'll be surprised about the rewards when you're at the beach and hanging out with your friends come Dec.
3. What if I have two exams in one (or two) days?
Undoubtedly, this is tricky. The less preparation you've done, the harder it will be. But it also isn't nearly as bad as you think. You run a lot on adrenaline during the exams, and you're concentration can actually be heightened as you are match fit from close exams together. Either way, though, you need to suck it up, quit lamenting it and do the best you can. My experience is that for most students it had no net effect on their result at all. Again, be smart and prioritise accordingly. Make sure you prepare the stuff that is likely to be highly stressful close to exam. Typically that includes things that you need to think about in depth and can take unquantifiable time e.g. essays. More explicit, right-wrong questions such as MC, rote mathematical learning, short answers are obviously easier to cram and remember closer to the exam.
4. What do I do if I screw up an exam?
Nothing because there is nothing you can do. But as per my answer in (1) above, and also as a general life lesson, it really isn't the end of the world. It's one exam among many, one mistake among many, one experience among many. This is not in any way to diminish how you feel. I remember feeling like I had (which I did, although it was fine relatively speaking) screwed my first English AoS and being devastated and anxious about Paper 2. Ultimately, however, it was fine, and even if it wasn't I can confidently say my life wouldn't have been drastically different regardless. The best thing to do is to let it go however you do that best and focus on what you can change, which is your future exams. In all likelihood, it isn't as bad as you think, and it definitely won't have the impact you expect.
5. Do you advise any particular daily routines or techniques during the exam period?
If you are interested in health and wellbeing, you will have noticed that there has been a huge increase in the awareness of the importance of sleep. And not just sleep in hours, but quality sleep. If you know how to meditate (i.e. just calm your mind from its intense, distracted state), this is a highly valuable tool, especially to help you sleep. Also exercise during the day - even just a brisk walk - helps immensely. Finally, eating in a stable way and eating good food (fruit, nuts, balanced meals NOT fast food, energy drinks, too much caffeine e.t.c) is also very good for the stability of your sleep and health.
These are all no brainer things to boost your performance and wellbeing over the period. Although difficult to achieve all of them all the time (I still have way too much caffeine and prefer late night study and work), even working on some of them can help you dramatically. Other than that, I would advise you to stick with what works and most importantly be consistent. Consistency in your habits and routines gives your brain a good platform to be strong, stable and take in new information as well as boosting both your retention of what you learn and your ACCESS to that information. Obviously the more jumpy your whole psychosomatic (brain body) system is, the more tricky it will be to rely on it at the arbitrary time where your exam falls. So if you have your one energy drink in the morning, or coke, or late night study or whatever that's fine, just make sure it is relatively consistent.
As, again, I spoke of in (1), make sure you don't burden yourself with unnecessary stress and anxiety. Obviously, this is easier to say than do, and many people (as I did) use adrenaline as a motivator, but too much can cause catastrophic freezing and be too harsh on your mind and body. Try to take the middle road, as the Buddha said, keep an even keel and you'll be fine.
As always, best of luck with everything and any questions please feel free to PM me or ask here if you think others would appreciate an answer.
Have a strong, comfortable HSC, and great finish to school, feeling confident that your life can be great whatever happens.
Cheers,
Dave
BUMP
phaedrus900
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2015
- Messages
- 96
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- N/A
Thanks, as always, for your gracious words eyeseeyou.
eyeseeyou
Well-Known Member
Welcome
phaedrus900
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2015
- Messages
- 96
- Gender
- Male
- HSC
- N/A
Bump - for anyone that is interested/needs last minute advice + thanks to everyone I've worked with this year, it's been great
eyeseeyou
Well-Known Member
BUMPBump - for anyone that is interested/needs last minute advice + thanks to everyone I've worked with this year, it's been great