All I can say is that you really do need to make a full set of your own notes, from various sources- that you've put together throughout the year, it doesn't matter how long it is, organise it according to topics e.g. in 'fact' subjects like legal and history, and then a few weeks (or even a few days?) before the exam SYNTHESISE your notes. When I say synthesise, I mean organising all your long notes into simplified notes according to how you think you'll need them, where the information you have will be best utilised. I'll do an example for eco- I remember I had all my notes, for topic one, two, three and four... then I added to them accordingly from the last three months of news- like, say, the size of the Current Account Deficit or discussions on the Kyoto Protocol or a Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN. And then I synthesised them... like, a whole set of notes on Australia's Trade and Financial Flows- which is not just topic two of the syllabus, then each of the 'internal stability' issues like inflation and unemployment.
But one thing I should have definitely done, knowing now that it is over, is more practise. Where I could have actually considered further how I would use all this information I have prepared, thus providing me with the ability to make my notes shorter
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For English, develop your own ideas. You really need to- like, when you're reading a text have in mind what it is that you're studying, what issues etc. and draw connections as you go, make notes. It will be so much more interesting that way. When you study film especially, take down notes of what happens in each scene exactly- film techniques, developments in character... and consider further what you've read in study guides, what your teachers and other students have mentioned, to develop your OWN ideas. Throughout the year you may have assessment tasks or just homework to prepare responses for each module/elective. Once you have a good response for each question that you'll answer in HSC/ Trials, just draw ideas out of it... set out your structure for ANY kind of response, whether it be a normal essay, feature article, conversation. Maybe for 2006 it will finally be a non- essay for Brave New World/ Blade Runner???
For maths all you can do is practice. By all means do every single HSC paper, Trial Paper etc. that you can find. It will do no harm at all, whereas for other subjects actually writing extended responses may train you to prepare for a certain question. Just understand what are the basic ideas of extended response for humanities subjects like eco and history and prepare that way, with notes on whatever you can get--- and then create your structure with all the information you have from the syllabus.
For really tedious subjects like legal all you can do is memorise. I don't know what legal is to you, but it was really unbearable compared to subjects i enjoyed much more like history, english and economics. Just be PC and straight- forward, but it is really more a memory game for legal than for any other subject that I studied during HSC.
The thing that most of all sucks about the whole HSC final examination is that you don't know what they will ask you- except for subjects like maths and english. With 'facts' subjects like economics, modern history and legal studies... i'm just going by what i studied this year--- (almost last year), you need to kind- of predict what will be asked, turn your huge notes that you've been working on all year- not two weeks before or whatever, into individual smaller synthesised notes according to your educated opinion of what will be tested, looking at the trends. Like, this year, for eco- i was pretty sure they weren't going to ask a question related to the case study, mainly because they'd asked it before two years in a row, and in 2005 the case- study was a non- compulsory component of the syllabus. 2006 is the first year in which they have every right to test it. I also talked to some people on the hsc help line, which is very useful if you get the right teachers. So, I didn't bother learning Poland and it wasn't there.
The things I wish I had done were maybe making my notes even shorter... beware of *over- studying* where you just have suuuch loooong notes, that you just can't be bothered to make them shorter and study from them appropriately, by actually considering how you would best utilise all that information in the actual examination. That's probably where I stuffed up, as my exam marks definitely brought my final marks down. But i still did well. I wish you all the best for 2006!