Must you be Gifted to Achieve Outstanding Results in the HSC? (1 Viewer)

[Ambility]

I have been pondering the roles which a decent work ethic and a gifted mind play in the achievement of a high ATAR recently. If you have experience in the HSC, I'd like your opinion on these talking points:

1. How much of a role does a naturally gifted mind play in achieving a high ATAR? How much of a role does a outstanding work ethic and motivation play in achieving a high ATAR?
2. Of the people who achieve an ATAR of 99+, how many of these people are naturally gifted? Are there people of this rank who just work hard?

 

[strawberrye]

1. Depends on what you mean by a high ATAR. I would say outstanding work ethic and motivation plays a significant part to achieving great academic results.

2. No idea how many are naturally gifted, but almost certain most will have worked very hard.

 

[Katsumi]

1. How much of a role does a naturally gifted mind play in achieving a high ATAR? How much of a role does a outstanding work ethic and motivation play in achieving a high ATAR?

They compliment eachother. Being naturally gifted certainly helps you achieve a high ATAR provided that you do the hard yards and put in effort. However outstanding work ethic and motivation is truly the key to doing well in the HSC and achieving your utmost potential. Pretty much everyone who has achieved outstanding HSC results has poured themselves into their studies and made a large investment of time in order to achieve what they have, regardless of natural talent. I have personally witnessed a few naturally gifted people crash and burn in their HSC due to riding too much on their IQ and not putting in the hard yards needed to achieve their goals. I personally do not consider myself as naturally gifted (D's and E's throughout my junior school reports, C's when i tried) but find that i achieved quite a high ATAR with low scaling subjects through consistent hard work throughout 2014

TL;DR
If you are naturally gifted, make best use of your talents and smash the HSC through hard work and effort
If you are not naturally gifted, smash the HSC through hard work and effort
I am a firm believer that a genius of hard work and devotion can easily outclass a genius of natural potential

Of the people who achieve an ATAR of 99+, how many of these people are naturally gifted? Are there people of this rank who just work hard?

I personally only know one >99 student in person who achieved a 99.60 and i have to say that regardless of his natural talent this guy poured >7 hours a day into his studies and worked his ass of to get where he did. I personally believe that the barrier between >99 students and everyone else is how much work they put in and has very little to do with them being naturally gifted. I'd say that there are a multitude of people in this rank that are not naturally gifted and work hard for their ATAR

 

[laura-jayne14]

Achieving well in the HSC is all about motivation, commitment and about how much you put in.

From my experience with friends of mine. Despite being naturally smart, if you have too much going on with work, sport and socializing and neglect school work e.g. cramming for exams, leaving assignments to the last minute your marks will reflect that.

If your someone that is willing to work hard consistently all year than your marks will follow.

 

[enoilgam]

When it comes to academics, I dont believe "intelligence" constitutes talent. Some people are highly intelligent yet they struggle at school because their "intelligence" isnt suited towards academics. To me, "talent" when it comes to school is your ability to learn and apply information within an academic context. In that sense, you do need a degree of talent to do well, but as has been discussed above, work ethic and drive is much more important. Irrespective, you still need talent.

 

[Librah]

To the OP,

Did not work hard (relatively speaking), and i'm not "intelligent" or talented. But still achieved 97.80.

 

[Ambility]

To the OP,

Did not work hard (relatively speaking), and i'm not "intelligent" or talented. But still achieved 97.80.

If I may ask, how?

 

[photastic]

1. How much of a role does a naturally gifted mind play in achieving a high ATAR? How much of a role does a outstanding work ethic and motivation play in achieving a high ATAR?

Being naturally gifted is an advantage but that does not mean they're guaranteed. Like every top student would say, the hsc is about organising yourself, motivation to work, study, to continue working hard for every assessment and exam. Remember its 10% talent and 90% work ethic.

Simply do your best and be proud at how much you worked hard for (unless you ain't bothered)

2. Of the people who achieve an ATAR of 99+, how many of these people are naturally gifted? Are there people of this rank who just work hard?

Can't answer since i didn't get 99.

If I may ask, how?

hes trolling, otherwise everyone would be getting high atars.

 

[babylon77]

From my own experience, I wouldn't consider my self to be anywhere near gifted at all and I managed to achieve over 99. It's important to remember that, although obviously this varies depending on the subjects that you are doing, the HSC is about repetition and preparing correctly across the whole year, rather than testing how 'gifted' you are. You also need to remember that being 'gifted', as I observed amongst people in my own cohort, doesn't automatically translate to amazing marks > I had a good friend who could tell you really eloquently about all of our english modules and texts, but his HSC marks were mediocre (at least in comparison to what he could've achieved). The reason that this happens I think is because people fail to think of the HSC exams as a skill to be practiced and learnt rather than just testing how smart you are or even how knowledgable you are within the subject > for example, you could be really 'gifted' at creative writing and get a great mark in Extension 2 English, but your marks in the creative writing sections in EE1 and Advanced could be much lower because you fail to practice writing under pressure, in timed conditions and recognising that you're going to have to write this piece whilst in the back of your mind considering the next section of the paper. In this sense, I think that what really differentiates people is the amount of preparation they've put in, and then from a certain point how good their exam technique is (which, as with the case for a lot of people in my cohort, I think is often the difference between just scraping a B6 for example, and moving upwards from there.) It's also important to remember that, whilst you'll obviously never know the actually question on the day, knowing the format of the questions, the general format of the marking criteria and the syllabus dot-points you can be assessed on makes getting a good result much more about the effort you put in. The trick I think for people going into the HSC or doing it currently is to realise that you actually have a lot of time to prepare, but that to succeed you need to be spending a sizeable amount of the time you spend studying actually practicing under exam conditions > if you can force yourself to do this consistently, I think how 'gifted' you are becomes pretty irrelevant. From my experience, being 'gifted' at particular subjects can get you to a certain point, but, as mentioned by the first poster, the vast majority of people who get 99+ get it from hard work more than anything else

 

[QZP]

It's all a balance between natural aptitude and work ethic. If you lack one, then you must make up for it with the other. Of course, a person with both will excel quite ahead. Though, there are varying degrees of "natural aptitude" and "work ethic" so it really is just a spectrum.

 

[iStudent]

You don't "have" to be gifted, but it does help. Also, remember that you don't necessarily have to be born with natural talent (lol doesn't make sense does it?). You can sort of develop it? (yea, idk)
Using myself as an example - I failed the OC + selective test (despite going all out on it) and yet 6 years later I still was able to score decently in the HSC (99.90 ATAR) as well as the UMAT (95%ile) which is itself considered an aptitude test. I certainly had no "gift" or whatnot in primary and I'd say even parts of high school.

Although, hard work and determination plays a significant role as well.

 

[Librah]

1. How much of a role does a naturally gifted mind play in achieving a high ATAR? How much of a role does a outstanding work ethic and motivation play in achieving a high ATAR?

Being naturally gifted is an advantage but that does not mean they're guaranteed. Like every top student would say, the hsc is about organising yourself, motivation to work, study, to continue working hard for every assessment and exam. Remember its 10% talent and 90% work ethic.

Simply do your best and be proud at how much you worked hard for (unless you ain't bothered)

2. Of the people who achieve an ATAR of 99+, how many of these people are naturally gifted? Are there people of this rank who just work hard?

Can't answer since i didn't get 99.



hes trolling, otherwise everyone would be getting high atars.

semi- troll, i didn't really apply myself until just before trials and towards the HSC. But i really don't think i'm all that gifted/naturally talented.

 

[dan964]

^, ^^, ^^^, ^^^^ etc.
Ignore the trolls
Yes you can get a good atar (even 99+) Provided you are willing to work hard and get organised. Do subjects you enjoy (and are good at), then apart from English, it shouldn't be a problem. In fact just because you are "naturally gifted" does not mean good atar.

An atar of 90+ isn't as bad as some people make it out to be.

 

[photastic]

^, ^^, ^^^, ^^^^ etc.
Ignore the trolls
Yes you can get a good atar (even 99+) Provided you are willing to work hard and get organised. Do subjects you enjoy (and are good at), then apart from English, it shouldn't be a problem. In fact just because you are "naturally gifted" does not mean good atar.

An atar of 90+ isn't as bad as some people make it out to be.

It is kinda bad, regrets for lyfe.

 

[RivalryofTroll]

I have been pondering the roles which a decent work ethic and a gifted mind play in the achievement of a high ATAR recently. If you have experience in the HSC, I'd like your opinion on these talking points:

1. How much of a role does a naturally gifted mind play in achieving a high ATAR? How much of a role does a outstanding work ethic and motivation play in achieving a high ATAR?
2. Of the people who achieve an ATAR of 99+, how many of these people are naturally gifted? Are there people of this rank who just work hard?

I agree with most of the points that have been made so far. I'm a firm believer that the most talented students have the competitive edge that will allow them to become the very best students (every student can theoretically work 'hard' or work 'smart' but not every student can be as gifted as their peers). However, as we all know, not every 'talented/gifted' person will maximise the use of their potential.

1. Being naturally gifted is always an advantage, whereby it's an element you and your peers cannot really develop (I.e. it's something you have or you don't have). However, when it comes to the HSC, I believe work ethic (as well as motivation) is the ultimate key to success.

I'd say one's HSC results is a combination of factors - including strategic subject selection (playing to your strengths), motivation/work ethic, natural aptitude, one's competitive environment, etc. The one that plays the biggest role is work ethic but being gifted probably comes 2nd.

If anything, I think being naturally gifted will help you more in university and later on in life than in Year 12. Nevertheless, a strong work ethic will take you far throughout your entire life (school, work and whatever pursuits you may have).

2. In my view, if one has achieved 98+ or 99+, there has to be a small degree of natural aptitude at the very least. However, in the end - it's fair to say that many students who have achieved an ATAR above 99 have put in the effort.

In most cases, a 99+ is achieved by a student who has achieved great results in MULTIPLE subjects. If you're talented in one subject (for example, Extension Mathematics) but don't bother with your other subjects, you're most likely not going to hit 99+. So from this perspective, it's fair to argue that most students who have gotten 99+ have solid work ethic.

I achieved 99+ and personally, I think I'm not that gifted or talented. I think my subject section (choosing subjects that suited my strengths) and my motivation/work ethic played the biggest roles during my HSC year.

 

[Librah]

"naturally smart." Let me refer you to a thread that exemplifies what happens when you think your very "smart" http://community.boredofstudies.org/1092/atar-hsc-marks-class-2013/316517/what-happened.html. It's a good read/10 anyway even i'f it doesn't really apply to you.

 

[nexusbrah]

1. Hard work and determination
2. No matter how gifted you are; hardwork outweighs it. I know people who are book smart who smashed the HSC but have no clue of the world around them.

 

[BLIT2014]

I reckon to top the state you needed to be 'gifted' .

 

[HecticSandWitch]

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work.

 

[happypeople]

HSC is not about who is the most talented, but rather, who works the hardest

It's also important to be motivated.

If you study efficiently and confidently know all of the key concepts whilst doing lots of past paper questions to learn to apply your knowledge, you should be able to do great!

Good luck everyone!