tips for spending the summer holidays wisely? (1 Viewer)

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Will definitely be relaxing/appreciating my last 'real' holidays as well as catching up on all the homework i have but are there any other tips you might be able to offer in regards to maybe studying ahead or reading prescribed texts early?
 

nourished.

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Will definitely be relaxing/appreciating my last 'real' holidays as well as catching up on all the homework i have but are there any other tips you might be able to offer in regards to maybe studying ahead or reading prescribed texts early?
Here's what you can do: look online for notes for your subjects. Skim through their topic 1 summary, then make notes on it. The key is not to know absolutely everything about the subject, but just enough to be able to explain the main stuff. From a psychology standpoint, the TLDR is that your brain is better able to reinforce, absorb and categorise new information with your already existing information.

I'd say go out to study with a small group of your mates regularly. That way, the studying gets done and you guys get to hang at the end of the study sessions. Use this month or so to practise good sleep hygiene too.
 

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Here's what you can do: look online for notes for your subjects. Skim through their topic 1 summary, then make notes on it. The key is not to know absolutely everything about the subject, but just enough to be able to explain the main stuff. From a psychology standpoint, the TLDR is that your brain is better able to reinforce, absorb and categorise new information with your already existing information.

I'd say go out to study with a small group of your mates regularly. That way, the studying gets done and you guys get to hang at the end of the study sessions. Use this month or so to practise good sleep hygiene too.
They would have already done the topic 1 since the Year 12 starts in the Term 4. So they should go ahead and try do the next topic for a head start on other students
 

jazz519

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I didn't say this before but the amount of work in that summer holidays you do should be based on your goals. If you are aiming for a 99+ ATAR, then ideally you should do more than that the next topic. From personal experience working hard during that time (while still having some breaks to play games or watch videos) helped a lot. By the time I was back in school I was already finished most of the syllabus for subjects other than English and so I could focus my time during the school year to doing the assessments or studying for exams through past papers, instead of spending time on learning content.
 

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They would have already done the topic 1 since the Year 12 starts in the Term 4. So they should go ahead and try do the next topic for a head start on other students
Right, completely flew past my head.
 

Run hard@thehsc

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I didn't say this before but the amount of work in that summer holidays you do should be based on your goals. If you are aiming for a 99+ ATAR, then ideally you should do more than that the next topic. From personal experience working hard during that time (while still having some breaks to play games or watch videos) helped a lot. By the time I was back in school I was already finished most of the syllabus for subjects other than English and so I could focus my time during the school year to doing the assessments or studying for exams through past papers, instead of spending time on learning content.
What would you recommend to be the best - getting a term ahead in content or select subjects during the summer holidays?
 

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What would you recommend to be the best - getting a term ahead in content or select subjects during the summer holidays?
All subjects but some can benefit more from having extra time to understand and perfect concepts such as maths or the sciences where it is problem based
 

chaevely_park

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All subjects but some can benefit more from having extra time to understand and perfect concepts such as maths or the sciences where it is problem based
hey! i am in a similar (but slightly slower haha) position to you now. I'm a little ahead for bio, a module or so ahead for chem, revised maths + future maths topics in the holidays (ext 1 and 2), and prepped for my next module for English Advanced + wrote and edited another essay for the Common Module.

My only question now is, how do I effectively revise all of these things I have already learned throughout the term so that when I get to my exams, I already have a solid foundation of knowledge? I would love to know how you revised during the term, and whether you did any more studying ahead from the modules you were studying in school. I am currently revising with Anki - been a couple of weeks, and I'm really liking it so far.
 

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hey! i am in a similar (but slightly slower haha) position to you now. I'm a little ahead for bio, a module or so ahead for chem, revised maths + future maths topics in the holidays (ext 1 and 2), and prepped for my next module for English Advanced + wrote and edited another essay for the Common Module.

My only question now is, how do I effectively revise all of these things I have already learned throughout the term so that when I get to my exams, I already have a solid foundation of knowledge? I would love to know how you revised during the term, and whether you did any more studying ahead from the modules you were studying in school. I am currently revising with Anki - been a couple of weeks, and I'm really liking it so far.
Keep working like you have been, if you simply dont slack off, easily 99.5 plus, and thats simply a fact. In terms of revision, anki like you're already doing is good, but I'd personally recommend that everyday, you pick up some past trial paper/hsc paper and just flick over to a question for which you've covered the appropriate module, and then, simply just answer it. If you can, thats amazing, if you cannot, revise that section quickly and then redo the question. Do this for every sub daily just to make sure you aren't forgetting anything. If that becomes too easy, then you can do that for multiple subjects every day. And if that is too easy/time consuming, then you don't even have to fully solve the questions, just think up the answers in your head, and dot point them in your head and then check with the guidelines.

Also, there's no such thing as 'saving papers', about 99% of those who 'save papers' for pre trials/pre HSC rarely get around to finishing them all, so plz, don't shoot yourself in the foot by doing that. Its better to have done a question 3 times (knowing you've literally finished all trial papers and all the questions, be it in bits), rather than doing some of the questions only once (and still having multiple trial papers completely untouched because you didnt get around to doing it). Hope that made sense lmao.

Honestly if you can actually keep that up daily you'll have no worries this year whatsoever. With that said, make sure that you practise time management for a full trial, I'd say start doing full length papers 3 weeks before your trials, AND ACTIVELY LEARNING FROM THE MISTAKES YOU"RE MAKING. Earlier the better, but thats just a rough timeline.

Good luck, you'll do mighty fine this year xx
 

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hey! i am in a similar (but slightly slower haha) position to you now. I'm a little ahead for bio, a module or so ahead for chem, revised maths + future maths topics in the holidays (ext 1 and 2), and prepped for my next module for English Advanced + wrote and edited another essay for the Common Module.

My only question now is, how do I effectively revise all of these things I have already learned throughout the term so that when I get to my exams, I already have a solid foundation of knowledge? I would love to know how you revised during the term, and whether you did any more studying ahead from the modules you were studying in school. I am currently revising with Anki - been a couple of weeks, and I'm really liking it so far.
I actually finished about 90% of the content before I went back to school for all my subjects so there wasn't much else to study ahead for. I didn't really use any extra apps or things to revise like anki but if it works for you then that's good. During term I would edit my notes as I learnt new things but main way I studied was doing exam papers and questions
 

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I actually finished about 90% of the content before I went back to school for all my subjects so there wasn't much else to study ahead for. I didn't really use any extra apps or things to revise like anki but if it works for you then that's good. During term I would edit my notes as I learnt new things but main way I studied was doing exam papers and questions
How far ahead did you finish the content in each holidays? (eg 1 term ahead, the whole year in summer holidays, etc?)
 

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How far ahead did you finish the content in each holidays? (eg 1 term ahead, the whole year in summer holidays, etc?)
90% of all the content in the syllabus in the summer holidays. You don't have to do that much to get a good head start but I did that much because I was highly motivated and had a big goal I was working towards in terms of ATAR and scholarships, so I sacrificed quite a lot in terms of relaxing in Year 12 to make that happen
 

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Also, there's no such thing as 'saving papers', about 99% of those who 'save papers' for pre trials/pre HSC rarely get around to finishing them all, so plz, don't shoot yourself in the foot by doing that. Its better to have done a question 3 times (knowing you've literally finished all trial papers and all the questions, be it in bits), rather than doing some of the questions only once (and still having multiple trial papers completely untouched because you didnt get around to doing it). Hope that made sense lmao.
So when you have to find questions on particular topics, do you go through HSC papers or trial papers, and also do you just sift through every paper or just ones from 2019 onwards? (for math)
 
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Jojofelyx

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So when you have to find questions on particular topics, do you go through HSC papers or trial papers, and also do you just sift through every paper or just ones from 2019 onwards? (for math)
I'd say its stupid to limit yourself to just 2019 and onwards. Topics like integration and projectile motion, im damn sure youll find some curly ones from the 1990s and beyond. Things like vectors, you could even look at the VCE exams because they've had it in their syllabus long before us. But yes. Wherever you can find a question that relates to our syllabus, do it. The more the merrier. Better to do a slightly unrelated binomial expansion question from 2009, than to watch 10 minutes of youtube, think of it that way. (Unless its the lords eddie woo or sal khan)
 

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