Students who achieved an ATAR of 85+, what did you do differently? (1 Viewer)

[PopeXIII]

Students who achieved an ATAR of 85+, what did you do differently?
Tips are also welcome

 

[siakhan]

first describe the concept of norm ,then I can answer

 

[vflaash]

Firstly I got an ATAR of 88.75. It's not the best but I didnt care about my atar as much until the holidays before trials which was kind of my wake up call. I needed around 80-83 to get into my desired course. During that time I tried to studying everything i needed for trials, which meant practice essays and papers, I honestly think doing them really helped me instead of reading and highlighting. After trials i would learn from all my mistakes and do further papers and such until it was HSC and study around 3-4 hours a day, and on weekends I would try to do 1 past paper each day. I know it sounds a lot but its what you need to do to be very consistent mentally. What made it harder for me was that for engineering and ipt, my teachers didnt teach anything. So I had to learn a lot of content from those after trials.

My advice is to be very consistent with your routine, its okay to skip days and not study but you should start asap and not cram it like me esp when you can get crap teachers. Also stick to higher scaling subjects. One regret was to definitely increased my rank because my assessment marks dragged me down, as I would of gotten 92+ with my HSC exam marks. Just to show you how much you can improve during trials to HSC, these are all results from CSSA paper.

Eng Adv 56%
Engineering 58%
IPT 62%
Physics 73%
Math 2u 85%
MX1 60%
SOR1 72%

HSC marks


School rank: 280~

 

[turntaker]

One word: consistency

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[etxpy]

What subjects do you do?

 

[Butterscotch]

With me, it was all about a continual effort over the course of the year. I made it my goal to do at least 2 english practice essays per week - under timed conditions in the lead up to the exams. Pester the hell out of your teachers, if they dont sigh when they see you walk up to them - youre not bothering them enough. In STUVAC it was mainly about not being complacent- ensuring you know all the content and understood it, not just memorised block phrases without understanding what it meant. I got an ATAR of 99.15 with PDHPE, Modern, Ancient, History Ext., 2U math and advanced English- it entailed doing 1 practice paper for each subject (especially math) per week. All in all, its about continual effort over the course of the year - achieving a solid internal rank and minimising the amount you have to cram during STUVAC, giving you time to practice time management and the harder topics for each subject Just make sure you study efficiently!!!

 

[Kolmias]

With me, it was all about a continual effort over the course of the year. I made it my goal to do at least 2 english practice essays per week - under timed conditions in the lead up to the exams. Pester the hell out of your teachers, if they dont sigh when they see you walk up to them - youre not bothering them enough. In STUVAC it was mainly about not being complacent- ensuring you know all the content and understood it, not just memorised block phrases without understanding what it meant. I got an ATAR of 99.15 with PDHPE, Modern, Ancient, History Ext., 2U math and advanced English- it entailed doing 1 practice paper for each subject (especially math) per week. All in all, its about continual effort over the course of the year - achieving a solid internal rank and minimising the amount you have to cram during STUVAC, giving you time to practice time management and the harder topics for each subject Just make sure you study efficiently!!!

Congratulations on your formidable results.

 

[Shadowdude]

yeah i'll echo everyone else's "work consistently"

It's what you need to do - work consistently to make sure you accumulate the knowledge you need, and are comfortable with the topics and the content.

In the end, I got 95+, even though I had like two months off during the HSC year because my cardiologist was like "LOLJKS you need to have open heart surgery next month - pls sign this form now"

 

[puneet98]

I got an atar of 91.3. My biggest advice is that its never too late. Honestly if you fail one exam or don't get your desired results, don't get upset or feel like you have failed completely. There are always other chances. For e.g. i did really bad in my legal half yearly's (only 56%) but i managed to do really well in my trials and the hsc exam and ended up with an overall mark 89. Also, studying in the morning was really effective for me ( especially before an exam). Making flashcards and writing my notes rather than typing were other effective techniques that worked for me esp. for hist, legal and sor1.
Aim to complete a certain no. of past papers this year for maths and other science subject e.g. for gen maths i did this past hsc paper from 2001-2014 and a number of trial papers.

Goodluck for next year.

 

[DepressedPenguino]

Got an ATAR of 97.4 (boredofstudies predicted an average of 85) which is wayyyyy off. I even screwed up some subjects in my HSC but it didn't matter.

Advice: Know what you are doing --> understand rather than rote learn (coming from a 450+ ranked school)

 

[Queenroot]

Honestly tbh I didn't study as much as I should have

I think as long as you put in a half-assed effort in all of your subjects 85 is pretty easily achievable

 

[EarthSci34]

TBH I got above 85+ thinking I was never good enough and kept working towards improving myself and my results.

WORK HARD AND JUST KEEP AT IT!!

 

[band6man]

In all honesty I didn't do anything different from my friends that got mediocre atars, it's just that I'm genetically blessed.

 

[spatula232]

In all honesty I didn't do anything different from my friends that got mediocre atars, it's just that I'm genetically blessed.

Is there a dislike button?

 

[Ekman]

In all honesty I didn't do anything different from my friends that got mediocre atars, it's just that I'm genetically blessed.

Why are you still showing off mate, didn't you miss out your estimated atar by like 2.5?

 

[BlueGas]

Why are you still showing off mate, didn't you miss out your estimated atar by like 2.5?

AND didn't get the state rank for Business...

 

[BLIT2014]

Slept

 

[Ekman]

AND didn't get the state rank for Business...

Exactly, band6man you talked yourself up but you didn't deliever...

Maybe you just aren't as good as what you seem to believe...

 

[aanthnnyyy]

Key is to not be complacent and make necessary sacrifices to maintain consistency.

I'm so proud to say that I achieved 95.55 coming from a school ranked 460+. It really is true that no matter what school you come from you can make it, all you really need is the mindset. If you believe you can achieve it then nothing's stopping you!

Ofc if you went to a bad school you should be able to kill the ranks but it all depends on the externals and looks like it paid off!

 

[lastofus]

I slept in classes I found boring. lol being serious though. But I still put in a lot of work and effort. Emailed teachers my essays and asked questions when I was unsure of things.