Archive for ‘HSC Programs’

May 21st, 2010

Why HSC Coaching is Necessary

Over the past decade, HSC coaching has become an integral part of the culture of HSC preparation. A significant portion of all HSC students, whether they are from public, selective and private schools, attend some sort of HSC coaching outside of their normal school hours. The motivations of these students range from wanting to maximise their ATARs, maintaining their already high internal assessment ranks, or to catch up with the rest of the class.

HSC coaching is an interesting phenomenon, in that it is a symptom of the extremely competitive HSC environment, where students compete for limited places in highly sought after University courses. The fact that an ever-increasing portion of students who score a high ATAR have received some sort of HSC coaching during their senior study makes HSC coaching a self-fulfilling requirement of success to many. What this means is more and more students are finding that they need to attend some sort of HSC coaching service (whether it be private or class tuition) just so they can keep the playing field level with their peers at school. Of course, there are always students who manage to score a high ATAR without any outside assistance, but those remain of the minority.

However, just because HSC coaching is self-fulfilling, this does not discredit the many tangible benefits it brings to young HSC students. Of course, students gain a direct benefit with extra study and exposure to coursework, however there are often additional, less direct benefits of coaching that are often overlooked.

HSC Coaching Provides a Structured Course Schedule

This is one area that many schools, particularly public schools in disadvantaged areas, suffer from (sometimes even selective schools!). Schools often cram the teaching of several difficult topics in a short amount of time after the school’s HSC trial exams are finished. For example, in Maths Extension 2, later topics like Mechanics and Harder 3 Unit are given a fraction of the attention they require, because the faculty could not teach the early part of the course fast enough. Students from such schools have the mindset of “damage minimisation” for the topics that were neglected at school – they are left in the exam struggling to piece together the information from vague memory, because the class teacher had rushed through it so fast to fit it all in the last few weeks before the HSC exams.

Another example is science subjects like HSC Physics and Chemistry – the majority of schools decide to have their internal HSC trials after teaching 3 of the core modules, leaving the last Option topic to be taught in the weeks after the trials. However, in these final few weeks before the HSC exams, teachers also need to allocate time to review the entire course, and students probably have other subjects to worry about before time runs out. The net effect is that the Option topic is often rushed and poorly covered by schools.

An organised HSC coaching / tutoring company will be able to teach the course content in advance of the pace at schools, avoiding the need to rush through and neglect the final topics / modules of a subject in the last few weeks before the HSC exams. You may be wondering, if HSC coaching companies can teach at a faster pace, why don’t schools do this in the first place? The answer is because the students who attend HSC coaching are generally of higher calibre, and can cope with the faster pace, whereas schools need to teach at a pace suitable for the entire class, which may contain lower calibre students, or students who simply don’t care.

HSC Coaching Exposes Students to Healthy Competition

Many students who attend a class tuition type of HSC coaching find that they can mingle with peers outside of their school. The more advanced students often feel unchallenged by their peers at school, and find that high assessment ranks within the school are not difficult to achieve. The benefit of meeting peers outside of school is that students who attend HSC coaching tend to care more about their HSC success and share the goal of ATAR maximisation. By mingling and associating with like minded and higher calibre peers outside of school, HSC coaching can prevent a student from settling in his or her comfort zone from being unchallenged at school.

HSC Coaching Forces Students to Work More in their Critical Final Years of High School

HSC students, still young and relatively inexperienced, often lack the self-discipline to maintain a healthy work ethic necessary for success. While they should have been taught good values, like the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them, they still need external forces to keep them on the path to future success.

A quality HSC coaching service will impose a balanced workload on students, and provide a framework for students to set their own goals and work hard throughout the year in achieving them.

For example, the weekly requirement to leave the house and attend classes outside of school to study keeps students’ minds focused on the goal at hand – it is a constant reminder of what their goals are for year 11 and 12, and what they are working towards (entry into a sought-after University course). Being constantly challenged by moving through coursework at a faster pace keeps students focused, and on the ball. When their first exams come, it would seem like revision to tutored students, allowing them to achieve above and beyond the class standard. Early success builds self esteem, sets a precedent of high achievement for the student early in the year, and allows him or her to gather momentum for continued success.

So those are some of the indirect benefits of HSC coaching. What students and parents need to realise is that the overall benefit of HSC coaching is not simply limited to extra study, but also the indirect benefits discussed above.

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April 22nd, 2010

HSC tip: how to split your study time

Most HSC students are doing 10-12 units for their HSC – that means 5-6 among which you must divide your time. The question is: what is the best way to split up your time between your subjects to maximise your end result?

The answer depends on whether you understand how scaling works. Most students will decide to split their time roughly evenly across their subjects, and for the most part, this works well. The problem, is, this is not the absolute best solution if your goal is to maximise your ATAR.

Remember that your ATAR is a rank which is determined solely by the scaled marks you score at the end of your HSC. The amount of scaled marks you score depends on two things:

  • Your percentile rank within each subject
  • The subject’s scaling

Well you can’t control the second point (since you’ve already chosen your subjects by now) but you can affect the first point. If you look at the statistics published in Table A3 by the UAC scaling report each year, you’ll get to see what scaled marks are scored for each percentile rank. One thing you’ll notice is that the scaled marks increase at a heavily diminishing rate as percentile rank increases. In other words, all HSC subjects experience diminishing returns on your effort. Put even more simpler, the harder you try at a subject you’re already very good at, the less additional rewards you will get.

For example, you may get 49/50 for scoring in the 99th percentile in Maths Extension 2, and 48/50 for scoring in the 75th percentile. This means if you beat 99% of your peers in this subject, you get 49/50 scaled marks per unit (or 98/100 for 2 units), and you’ll get 48/50 scaled marks per unit for beating 75% of your peers. But improving yourself from the 75th percentile to the 99th percentile is a very hard thing to do!

But on the other end of the scale, you will notice that improving your rank from the 25th percentile to the 50th percentile will result in a huge jump in scaled mark. For example, in 2009, the 25th percentile for Physics was 21/50 scaled marks per unit, but the 50th percentile will give you 28/50 marks per unit – a huge jump! Certainly, the jump from the 25th to the 50th percentile is much easier than jumping from the 75th to the 99th percentile!

Now, if you understand all of the above, consider once again the question of how to split your study time. Of course, if you’re already very good at some subjects, spend less time on those subjects, and more time on the subjects you’re struggling with. This rings especially true for subjects that already give very high scaling – e.g. the Extension subjects. You’ll find that these subjects give higher rate of diminishing returns on your study effort than lower-scaling subjects. So basically, if you’re already very good at a subject, spend less time on it, and more time on your weaker subjects.

This all may sound like common sense, but it is actually backed by solid statistics – if you know how HSC subject scaling affects you, you can work it to your advantage! The way the ATAR system has always worked is that it gives the highest ATARs to all-rounders. So make sure you don’t neglect any of your subjects!

Dux College is a Sydney-based HSC coaching centre specialising in HSC Maths, Extension 1, Extension 2, Physics and Chemistry tutoring. Our Maths, Physics and Chemistry tuition programs are intensive and results driven, aimed at giving our students the skills to achieve Band 6, and their highest potential UAI.

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April 16th, 2010

Accelerating a HSC subject

The term ‘accelerating’ refers to doing a HSC subject one year earlier than usual. This usually means completing one or several HSC subjects during year 11. Some schools allow some of their top students to choose a subject to accelerate in – this is certainly a common practice in the higher-ranked selective schools.

The decision of whether to accelerate in a HSC subject is often made early, often near the end of year 9. This is because the student must complete the required Preliminary component of the course during his/her year 10 (as an elective). The school must approve this, and generally only the top students in each school that offers accelerated learning will be approved to accelerate in a HSC subject.

Certain HSC subjects are more commonly accelerated than other subjects; subjects such as Mathematics (2 unit), Physics Chemistry, Economics, Biology etc are examples.

Students who accelerate in a HSC subject are often of above-average ability; after all, they were determined by their school teachers to be capable of learning the course content at an accelerated pace. In terms of achievement, accelerated students often occupy between a fifth and a third of the top 20 ranks in NSW for their subjects, even though they represent a much lower fraction of the total candidature.

Accelerated students also enjoy a number of advantages, such as having a lighter workload during their year 12, or having more completed units that can potentially contribute towards their ATAR (diversifying their risk). However, accelerated students also face a number of unique challenges stemming from being required to complete an entire HSC subject on year ahead of schedule. In this article, we’ll go through some of the benefits and challenges that come with accelerating in a subject.

Benefits of accelerating

Earlier exposure to HSC

Accelerated students are exposed to the HSC assessment regime at school (internal assessments) as well as the final HSC exam one year earlier than their peers. This is probably the biggest benefit of accelerating a HSC subject. Accelerated students therefore have more experience at doing HSC-style exams and HSC-style internal assessments than their peers by the time they reach year 12.

Additionally, because students only accelerate in one subject in most cases, the risk of that one subject having a big adverse effect is relatively low. The accelerated subject is essentially a ‘trial run’ for the student to learn the ropes early, before the main event that is year 12.

Lighter workload during year 12

Accelerated students, having completed at least 2 units by the time they reach year 12, would have lightened their workload by the same amount. That is, students can choose to do as little as 8 units in year 12, allowing for more time to focus on fewer subjects. This is obviously advantageous!

Another possibility is students can choose to take on more units than they otherwise would be able to take. This diversifies the risk of doing badly in any individual subject across more subjects – since the ATAR is calculated from your top 10 units, if you’ve completed 14 or 16 units after your HSC, you have less chance that a particular subject you did badly in would be within your top 10 units.

Subjects with Extension levels

Say you accelerate in a subject with Extension levels, such as Maths or English. For Mathematics (2 unit) in particular (probably the most commonly accelerated HSC subject), the content learned in that course is completely relevant to Extension 1 and 2, which builds upon the concepts covered in 2 unit. The majority of 2 unit accelerants go onto doing Extension 2 in year 12 – these students would have had a total of 3 years to grasp relevant maths concepts, starting from year 10.

Challenges of accelerating

Accelerants are faced with the unique situation of doing an actual HSC exam in year 11. This can be daunting, as accelerants would have one year less practice and exposure to the whole process: the style of exams and internal assessments, as compared to their peers. This lack of experience usually translates to relatively lower ability in exam skills, such as structuring answers properly for full or partial marks. and effective time management during exams.

A more hurried schedule in the subject means accelerants notice less patterns / links / connections between aspects of the subject – a factor that is important to success in every subject.

Accelerants may also find that their year 11 schedule will be usually busy at times, since their school would likely implement assessment schedules without much consideration for accelerants. There may be assessment periods that coincide with the year 12 assessment period, and during exam periods, accelerants may find they have 2 exams on the same day.

However, these are mere challenges to be overcome, as the benefits outweigh the cost. Year 9 students: if offered at your school, you should consider taking an accelerated HSC subject.

Mathematics (2 unit)

We offer a tailored Accelerated Mathematics (2 unit) tutoring course which is specifically designed to help year 11s doing their HSC for Mathematics (2 unit) in the same year. We believe accelerated students have slightly different needs to normal year 12 students.

For more information on our Accelerated Mathematics (2 unit) tutoring course, click Mathematics (2 unit)

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February 15th, 2010

HSC Exams – How to Manage Time?

Do you always run out of time in exams? Do you struggle to finish your exams?

If you find it hard to finish your exams, it might be a time management issue. In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to manage your

School and HSC exams are 2 – 3 hours each

Whether it’s English, Maths, or one of the sciences, school and HSC exams are structured similarly. Throughout the year, you’re going to have several 2 hour exams for each subject (at least your half-yearlies) and you might get a 3 hour exam in your trials.

Our first tip is: don’t be scared of 3 hour exams. If you’re already used to 2 hour exams, 3 hours is not a whole lot longer. After your first one or two, you’ll be used to them as well. The important thing is to find a consistent pace at which to do the exam, and you’ll notice that time will fly as you’re focused throughout the exam.

Use your reading time In assessable and HSC exams, the first 5 minutes is reading time. The first thing you should do is have a quick look at the entire exam. Flip through the exam pages and get a feel for how fast you’ll need to work. This step is critical.

Sometimes, especially in school exams written by your school teachers, you will get an exam that will be very tight on time. Other times, you will get an exam that is very easy on time.

If you feel the exam is very loose on time, you can work more slowly and carefully – if it’s an English or science exam, you can expand your answers a bit more, elaborate on things to show your extensive knowledge.

On the other hand, if you feel that the exam will be tight on time, you’ll need to work quickly and not expect to have much checking time at the end. This is difficult if you’re not adequately prepared (i.e. you didn’t study enough!), but working fast isn’t hard if you’re prepared.

Know your stuff

Needless to say, to do well in any exam, the number one factor is to know your stuff (know what you need to learn, and learn it well). But this is especially important if you want to score a great mark in an exam that is tight on time. If you need to work at a fast pace, and you don’t know your stuff entirely, expect to be disappointed.

Know the exam format

Another important point is to know how the exam is going to be structured. For example, if you have a multiple choice section in your upcoming exam, pay attention to the differences between issues / facts / arguments / persons / things of significance etc.

The reason why is this: multiple choice questions are great at testing differences between things in your subject. The knowledge stuff will be tested in short / long answer responses and in essay questions. You can usually easily eliminate 2 choices out of 4, but the remaining 2 choices can sometimes be hard to differentiate – so to effectively study multiple choice, pay attention to the small differences!

If your exam is predominately long answer / essay response, focus on deeper discussion of your subject area. For example, if you have a Chemistry exam about Chemical Monitoring and Management, and you know there’s a big essay response question at the end, focus on areas of the topic that feature deeper discussion. For example, learn the reasons for compromise in the Haber process and understand the deeper discussions that link with other parts of the Chemistry course (chemical equilibria) as well as commercial considerations of Haber plants.

Do multiple choice questions last

This is optional and may not be recommended in all situations (because sometimes multiple choice questions give clues to the answers of subsequent sections).

But in most cases, it is OK to do the multiple choice section last. The reason is: in case you run out of time, you can quickly circle the answers randomly at the end in a matter of seconds, and you should still get 25% of the marks (assuming there are 4 choices per question).

This is just a small risk-management technique. As an excellent student, you should be expecting to finish your exam anyway.

Running out of time in Science / English exams

Don’t be averse to using dot-points to quickly convey your answer in case you run out of time. For example, when the examiner states there’s 5 minutes left, and you still have a huge essay section that you haven’t started, then it’s time to do this.

Obviously you won’t get full marks for an essay question if your answer is in dot-points, but you will get SOME marks, and when you’re running out of time, this is better than nothing.

For example, in a long English essay, write out the main points quickly in short dot-points. In long science essay questions, do the same, and scribble a diagram if you can. As long as you get something down that shows you know the theory involved, your marker should give you at least half the marks.

Find more information on helpful HSC exams tips, HSC examination syllabus & HSC course materials at Dux College. Our Physics, Chemistry and Maths tuition programs are intensive and results driven, aimed at giving our students the skills to achieve Band 6, and their highest potential UAI.

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February 6th, 2010

Familiarise Yourself With ‘HSC Words’

A big part of succeeding in the HSC is knowing how to win marks. Merely studying for your subjects and learning the theory is half the work – you also need to be a master of exams.

In all HSC subjects, exam questions are always phrased using the same keywords. For example, you would have seen questions beginning with: “Describe the relationship between…”, “Outline the features of…”, “Compare the perspectives of…”, “Critically evaluate the implications of…” etc.

ALL the questions you encounter in the HSC would be phrased using one of the words in the HSC Glossary of Terms. In order to excel in all your exams, it is essential that you deeply familiarise yourself with the meanings of these ‘HSC words’. For example, know exactly what “Explain” requires you to do; know the difference between ‘Evaluate’ and ‘Assess’; know the difference between ‘Describe’ and ‘Outline’. Knowing the meaning of each word, and what each requires you to do is essential to getting full marks for your answers, especially for longer essay-type responses.

A good place to start is to read the Marking Criteria published for each past HSC exam.

The Marking Criteria

The Marking Criteria for past HSC exams is published every year for every subject. This is an invaluable resource as it lists out the exact criteria on which marks were awarded for each type of question. For example, in science exams (e.g. Physics, Biology or Chemistry) pay close attention to the 7-8 mark ‘Evaluate’ or ‘Analyse and assess’ questions – the marking criteria for these provide valuable information on what HSC markers award marks for. The difference between a 6/7 mark response and a 7/7 mark response is usually very subtle.

Minor details matter

A mark can be lost for a minor detail that the HSC marker was looking for, therefore thorough knowledge of the content (including background information) is necessary for high marks.

For example, Question 23 in the Chemistry 2008 is a typical Haber-Process question for 4 marks: “Using Le Chatelier’s principle, justify the choice of temperature and pressure conditions used to optimise the yield in the Haber process.” For full marks, students needed to identify typical temperatures and pressures used in a modern Haber plant, in addition to answering the question. This may seem confusing at first, since the question could be addressed without needing any real-life examples, but for full marks, the HSC markers required a mention of actual typical temperatures and pressures.

As you read more Marking Criteria, especially for the longer questions, you will familiarise yourself with exactly what the HSC markers are looking for, even if it does not seem obvious at first.

Read sample answers

The Marking Criteria also features sample ‘ideal responses’ that are of a full-mark standard. Read through these and pay close attention to what information they contain. Notice how each sample answer addresses the Marking Criteria for that question, and become familiar with how information can be incorporated to satisfy the Criteria.

Notice also the options available to you in how to structure your answer. For example, in science exams, there’s really very little restriction on what format your response takes, as long as it contains the information the HSC markers are looking for. Just because the writing space in the exam booklet is in dotted lines, this does not mean you are limited only to words in constructing your response. You will notice that even the official sample answers often use tables and diagrams in addition to text. Knowing this fact already puts you ahead of most students.

Practice them!

Apart from reading the Marking Criteria, the best way to familiarise yourself with different ‘HSC words’ is to practice. You should take every opportunity to do more practice exams, particularly actual past HSC papers, as well as exam-style questions. You should have your practice responses looked at by someone experienced, either by a good teacher, or a good HSC tutor.

In class, pay attention to the teacher when he/she discusses the requirements of different keywords. If this topic never comes up in class, request that it be covered before your exams. Ask your teachers if you are unsure about any detail, such as the subtle differences between words that appear synonymous.

Just remember that knowing how to approach different questions is a very important aspect of HSC success, and thus should not be neglected in your study!

Appendix: HSC Glossary of Terms

Source: Board of Studies

Note: merely memorising the definitions of each keyword is not useful enough. Ideally, you should do practice exams, or exam-style questions, and have them marked by someone experienced. At the least, you should read through Marking Criteria and sample responses, and note how each keyword was addressed.

Account, Account for: state reasons for, report on. Give an account of: narrate a series of events or transactions

Analyse: Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate implications

Apply: Use, utilise, employ in a particular situation

Appreciate: Make a judgement about the value of

Assess: Make a judgment of value, quality, outcomes, results or size

Calculate: Ascertain/determine from given facts, figures or information

Clarify: Make clear or plain

Classify: Arrange or include in classes/categories

Compare: Show how things are similar or different

Construct: Make; build; put together items or arguments

Contrast: Show how things are different or opposite

Critically (analyse/evaluate): Add a degree or level of accuracy, depth, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to (analysis/evaluation)

Deduce: Draw conclusions

Define: State meaning and identify essential qualities

Demonstrate: Show by example

Describe: Provide characteristics and features

Discuss: Identify issues and provide points for and/or against

Distinguish: Recognise or note/indicate as being distinct or different from; to note differences between

Evaluate: Make a judgement based on criteria; determine the value of

Examine: Inquire into

Explain: Relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident; provide why and/or how

Extract: Choose relevant and/or appropriate details

Extrapolate: Infer from what is known

Identify: Recognise and name

Interpret: Draw meaning from

Investigate: Plan, inquire into and draw conclusions about

Justify: Support an argument or conclusion

Outline: Sketch in general terms; indicate the main features of

Predict: Suggest what may happen based on available information

Propose: Put forward (for example a point of view, idea, argument, suggestion) for consideration or action

Recall: Present remembered ideas, facts or experiences

Recommend: Provide reasons in favour

Recount: Retell a series of events

Summarise: Express, concisely, the relevant details

Synthesise: Putting together various elements to make a whole.

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January 27th, 2010

Extracurricular Activities – During the HSC

If you want to apply for scholarships, go into Medical studies or get a highly sought-after part time job after leaving school; it is always a good idea to get some extracurricular activities under your belt during schooldays. On the downside though, good extracurricular activities often take a large amount of time, and might distract you from your studies. Therefore, it is important to practice time management.

In this article, we’ll take a brief look at what extracurricular activities you can do in high school that would help you with things like scholarships, entry into Medical College or while searching for a job later on.

Worthwhile Extracurricular Activities in High Schoolextracurricular-activities

Sportsextracurricular-activities2
As a high school student, the best activity to be involved in for most people is to get into some sort of sporting activities. Sports are an excellent to list on your resume, as it communicates several things to your interviewers:

  • You can work in a team (most sports are team-based)
  • You are competitive (that’s a great trait to demonstrate for things like scholarships and jobs)
  • You are a well-rounded individual (that is to say, you’re not just into computer games or Facebook)

The important thing here is to choose a sport that you truly enjoy. Do more than just play the sport – enter competitions, tournaments etc. This gives you more to talk about in an interview, other than merely saying “Oh I play soccer every weekend”. The point is to separate yourself from the rest – if you stand out, you will have a greater chance of success.

School related positions

High school students can also opt for school-related events or position. If you’re the School Captain, that’s an excellent portfolio. But even if you are not, try to be a School Prefect or an SRC representative. These positions convey that you possess leadership skills – a trait that is very favourably looked upon by interviewers for scholarships, entry into medicine or jobs.

Besides these, volunteer for as many things as you can at school which allows you to take responsibility for something. For example, if you’re good with computers, try to volunteer to help manage the school’s computer networks. If you have a knack for audio equipment, volunteer to help set up the audio equipment for the school hall for each event (e.g. dances, Talent Quests, general assembly’s etc).

Achievements

Extremely competitive activities such as joining the Maths, Chemistry, Physics or Biology Olympiads reflects very well on your abilities in these subject areas, as well as your ability to manage your time effectively. For things like academic scholarships and jobs that require related skills, such activities are worthwhile, should there arise an opportunity.

One-off activities

You can also consider participating in one-off volunteering / fund-raising events, such as things like “40-hour famine” or those like “Duke of Edinburgh” awards. Keep in mind that these are often of lower significance to your resume than on-going activities, or achievements mentioned above. Only do these if you really enjoy them.

During the HSC

You should be more careful about how you spend your time in year 12th. Generally, it is a good idea to pause most of your extracurricular activities once year 12th starts (i.e. end of term 3 of year 11), since HSC is most important at this time. If you can intelligently manage time with your management skills (which is also very important), you can easily choose to continue doing all activities related to school duty.

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January 12th, 2010

Make good use of your holidays- Get Prepare for your HSC.

The Christmas / summer holidays are the longest holiday period in your HSC year. You have about 6 weeks to relax and refresh yourself before the 2010 school year starts. However, students often use these holiday periods to gain a competitive advantage over their peers by reading ahead in their textbooks, or reading all of their English texts in advance. One of our students finished her entire English Extension 2 major work in these holidays!

Of course, the advantage with working harder in the holidays, is that it lightens the load later on in the HSC year. Given that you have 6 weeks of holidays in the summer, it is probably wise to spend 3 or so weeks preparing for your HSC. Every bit of extra preparation translates to results in the HSC, since you only have a year. Once school starts, you may find the pace very fast, and everything examinable is taught once only before the teacher moves on.

So how can you prepare for the year ahead? Study ahead, of course.

This is one of the examples of how successful students study differently from average students. By learning ahead, you gain familiarity of the topics and content that would be taught to your peers for the very first time later in the HSC year. Shortly after this event, the exam comes. So who would do better? The student who has seen the same material before, has experienced and overcome the common pitfalls and challenges, and has had plenty of opportunity to ask their teacher relevant questions before the exam? Or the student who let it all go during the holidays, and had a great time, then learnt the content for the first time at a rush-pace prior to the exams?

Of course, it is perfectly OK to relax during the Holidays – after all, it’s holidays! But now is early January, you’ve already had a couple of weeks to enjoy the Christmas and New Year festivities. You’re now well-rested, relaxed and refreshed. It’s time to get seriously serious!

What can I do in my holidays, on my own?

During the holidays, you’re all on your own. Most likely, your friends are still partying, and probably your teachers too. Tutoring colleges are closed, (except those few running holiday courses), and everyone’s still on holidays. So whatever self-study you do, it would have to be something you can do by yourself.

Luckily, for most students, teachers and tutoring helps most AFTER you’ve done some self-reading. With some self-discipline and solid effort, core content can be learned on your own.

For science subjects

Read a GOOD textbook. get-hsc

For Chemistry, pick up a copy of Conquering Chemistry, or Chemistry in Contexts, and read as much as you can. For Physics, you can’t go wrong with Jacaranda, or Macquarie. As a guideline, completely revise the first module (you would have done this at school in term 4, 2009) and read the entire second module. If you have our notes from term 4, re-read all of them too! Avoid the Excel ones as they are a bit superficial in depth.

Don’t worry about practice questions yet, but make sure you UNDERSTAND concepts

At this early stage, don’t get too caught up with practice questions. Do one or two per section to test your knowledge, then move on. Remember, you have other subjects to study for! The most important thing is to UNDERSTAND the concepts. For example, make sure you KNOW how Lenz’s law works, how those right-hand push/palm/grip rules work, etc.

Read the syllabus and reconcile it with what you’ve read in textbooks

After you’ve read the textbooks, read through the syllabus for the modules you studied, and make sure every dot-point in those modules have been covered by what you’ve read. It’s a good idea to do this after you read the textbooks, as textbooks often give you richer background information necessary to understand the full picture of certain concepts. However you can choose to read the syllabus before you start reading textbooks.

For mathematics

Do exercises off a good textbook

Mathematics is really a practice game. The more practice you get, the more experienced you become. There are only so many ways a maths question can be designed for any topic area, and the more experience you have, the less likely you will be caught unaware in the exam. Simple, really, but success in maths requires dedication, which is easier said than done.

Good textbooks are Fitzpatrick (for 2U and 3U), Cambridge, and don’t forget the forgotten classics like Coroneos (excellent for 4 unit harder questions).

For English

Read your texts in advance

Find how what novels you need to read, and read through them these holidays. This subject is probably the easiest to study ahead for, as it involves a leisure activity (for some) – reading!

Just be aware of the thematic considerations that are relevant to your module as you read through your texts.

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January 8th, 2010

Maintain your focus

Now that you’ve finished your first term of your HSC, and with 2009 behind us, you are well and truly 25% of the way through your HSC. No doubt you are resting and relaxing these summer holidays, while some of you may even study ahead a little on your own, it is important not to lose focus of your goals.dux

Success in the HSC has little to do with natural talent and mostly to do with endurance, self discipline and enduring hard work. Extremely successful HSC students (those who break the 99+ ATAR barrier) achieve greatness because they’ve maintained their focus on their goals throughout the HSC year. These students are able to keep up a steady study regime throughout the HSC year because they can stay motivated throughout their HSC year.

It is a good idea to set up a study regime that you can handle (a couple of hours a day of study, perhaps) and commit to. Promise yourself a minimum amount of study every day, and keep the promise. It may seem like a herculean task, but it’s only a year, and when you look back after you’re in Uni doing your dream HSC course, you’ll realise how short of a time the HSC actually is.

The hard part, of course, is sticking to your study commitments. It is extremely easy to get sidetracked – by friends, distractions (cut down on facebook and try to quit computer games for a year, it will seriously help), family events, or even for no reason at all. That’s why you will need to also constantly remind yourself of your goals.

Successful students have clear goals (read our article on goal setting), for example, they may have certain University courses they want to get into, which have high entry ATAR requirements. In order to maintain the razor sharp focus needed for great success, you will need to always remind yourself what you are working towards, and why. Think of the happiness that will come with your eventual success, and remember that everything you are doing will improve your future. Be intrinsically motivated, that is, work hard for yourself and not anybody else.

The HSC is like a marathon, not a sprint. As long as you have a healthy work ethic and stick to it throughout the year, you can’t go wrong.

More habits of the successful

There are more habits of successful HSC students that we want to share. We’ve asked some of our previous students that have been extremely successful in their HSC.

These are some of their tips:

• “Learn ahead, so you can revise later” – obviously those that have had the most experience / exposure to the content being tested will score the most marks.

• “Always ask questions, leave no gaps in your knowledge. Begin to see the connections between topics / concepts you’ve learned.”

•”Practice practice practice!!! Repetition is the mother of all skills.” Experience beats natural intelligence every time. Especially in maths: there are only so many ways a question can be constructed, so see them all before the exams, and you’re set.

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December 8th, 2009

Is the HSC a Game?

You may have heard people call the HSC a game, or liken it to a game. Well there is an element of truth to this view, depending on how you look at it.

In order for the HSC to be fair in ranking students for the purposes of University entry, a comprehensive system of HSC scaling is used, hence why we have the UAC and the notion of ‘scaling’ and ‘scaled marks’. The scaling process itself is firmly justified mathematically, and is technically fair (to those who understand the mathematics of it – first-year statistics anyone?). This is also PART of the reason why English is a compulsory subject (because the HSC scaling process relies on having a common subject taken by all HSC students as a sort of ‘parametric variable’ to enable comparison).

Now, without going into how scaling works (read our HSC scaling explanation for more info), it’s a given that this scaling system has a HUGE effect on your final result – your ATAR. Obviously choosing subjects that have scaled well in the past would have a big positive impact on your ATAR, simply because of the effect of scaling. Of course, these subjects scale high because they are comparatively ‘harder’ to get higher marks in, according to the scaling system. But the problems with advising people to choose higher scaling subjects are:

  1. If you don’t enjoy the subject, you may get a low mark anyway. No amount of scaling can save a disinterested and unmotivated student from getting a low mark in a particular subject.
  2. Choosing subjects for their scaling will not prepare you for the University course you may end up with.

But perhaps the biggest problem of all is the fact that the all-important subject selection decisions are made at the end of year 10. Effectively, the effect of HSC scaling would already be set in stone before you even started year 11! So why advise year 11s and 12s about HSC subject scaling at all when they aren’t able to change their subjects by then anyway? (with the exception of taking up Extension 2 maths). So in this respect, yes the HSC is like a game, because if you understand the rules of scaling, you can use it to your advantage in choosing your subjects wisely at the end of year 10.

Therefore, YES it is an EXCELLENT idea, if you are in years 7-10, to familiarise yourself (at least on a basic level) of how HSC scaling works, and how this should affect your subject selection decisions (if at all). However, if you’re already in year 11 and 12, this is not an option for you.

Nevertheless, year 11s and 12s that have already chosen their subjects for the Preliminary and HSC course should note that there’s actually one more important benefit of knowledge about HSC scaling.

The efficient allocation of study time

The main benefit of knowing how HSC scaling works, is to use it to plan your study schedule effectively. The reason is since some subjects are more highly scaled than others, some subjects have different rates of diminishing returns than others. Put in another way, some subjects are worth your time more than others.

General rules

Generally, the best way to allocate effort and time to your subjects is:

  1. If your skill is about the same in all subjects, spend more time on the higher-scaled subjects
  2. If your skills are much more advanced in high-scaled subjects than in lower scaled subjects, focus slightly more in your lower-scaled subjects
  3. If your skills are much more advanced in lower-scaled subjects than in higher scaled subjects, focus MUCH more on your higher-scaled subjects

The above may appear to be ‘common sense’ to some students – and rightly so, it is not a magical formula or a breakthrough strategy in HSC study. The key to a 99+ has always been to do well in as many subjects as you can!

But to illustrate the above, consider the following simple example:

Say you’re doing as well at Chemistry, and as you are doing at Maths Extension 2, then instead of splitting your study time equally between the two (just because they are both worth 2 units each), you should spend more time on Extension 2, simply because it scales higher. The higher scaling means that your return on effort is higher in Maths than in Chemistry (basically the benefit from studying is higher in Maths than in Chemistry, in this case).

In a similar example, say you are very, very good at Maths Extension 2, and terrible at English Advance. In this case, simple logic states you should spend more time studying for English and less time on Maths (despite the fact that Maths would have a much higher scaling effect than English). The reason is because if you’re already very good at a highly scaled subject, chances are you’re going to get close to a 50/50 scaled mark per unit for your Maths subjects, whereas if you spend more effort and time into English, you may raise your English scaled mark from 40/50 to 45/50 – all in the noble cause of maximising one’s ATAR.

Diminishing returns on scaling
Looking at Table A3 statistics gives an indication as to how scaled marks taper off at higher percentiles for different subjects. Generally, higher-scaled subjects have a greater diminishing return at higher percentile achievements than lower-scaled subjects.

To illustrate what this means, compare the 2008 scaled marks for Mathematics Extension 2, and Chemistry (both are highly scaled subjects, but the former is extremely highly scaled). At the 99th, 90th and 75th percentile, the scaled mark for Mathematics Extension 2 is 49, 47.5 and 46 respectively, whereas the same for Chemistry would be 48, 45.5, and 42 respectively. This shows that, assuming raising your percentile rank from 75th to 99th percentile is of similar effort across subjects, it is far more worth your time spending it on Chemistry than it is on Mathematics Extension 2. If you raised your percentile from 75th to 99th in Chemistry, you would have gained 6 scaled marks per unit, instead of 3 scaled marks per unit for Maths Extension 2.

The best way to understand exactly how to optimise your study time allocation, it’s best to have a close look at the most recent Table A3 statistics for your subjects. Look at how many scaled marks you’ll gain as a result of equal leaps in percentile ranks, and decide how to best allocate your study time from that analysis.

Conclusion
So to answer the original premise – yes the HSC is like a game. It has a set of rigid rules, and those that understand the rules can use it to their advantage. However, as we discussed, the advantage to year 11s and 12s is only in allowing you to better allocate your time and effort across your subjects. No amount of scaling will save you if you simply do badly in your assessments and exams.
To get a 99+, there’s still no substitute for hard work.

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December 7th, 2009

Minimising human error during HSC exams

By virtue of its definition, human error is something we all do. In the more quantitative HSC subjects such as Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, human error can be a big cause of losing marks in exams. For example, how often have you walked out of an exam room, and realise only moments later that you’ve lost a few marks in a question or two due to ‘silly mistakes’? Or when, coming out of an exam room, you chat with your friends about how they did question X Y Z etc and realising you missed a tiny detail that cost you marks? This happens all too often for many students, and the truth is, human error happens to all students, even the top ones.
during-hsc-exams
Common places to make ‘silly mistakes’

In HSC exams (as well as assessable school exams, since they are all similar to HSC exams), students mainly make their silly mistakes in a few ways:

  • Long, complex algebraic proofs (e.g. long proofs in Maths Extension 2, causing you to copy the previous line’s expressions incorrectly)
  • Long calculation-based questions requiring long working-out and calculator work (e.g. molar calculations in Chemistry)
  • Multiple choice section in science exams

It is quite impossible to make a ‘silly mistake’ in humanities-type subjects like English, or in the long-answer sections of science exams in the same ways as those described above.

Check your work after you finish

Since there’s only a few situations where silly mistakes can be made, students should be mindful of which areas of their exams they need to check over when they have spare time near the end of their exams.

In most cases, you would only have a little bit of time left after you finish your exam. Therefore, it is wise to know how to best prioritise your time in checking for mistakes before the exam time is up. This is assuming you’ve already done all the questions – if you’ve left some questions blank, obviously finish them before you begin checking your work.

Physics and Chemistry exams

For science exams like Physics and Chemistry, after you finish your exam, you should first check your entire multiple choice section (the first 15 questions). A good way to do this is to hide your answer sheet, so you do not see your original answers, reducing their influence. Seeing your original answers is not a good idea, as they may influence you into making the same mistake as you first did. Hiding your original answer forces you to mentally do the question again from scratch, and increases your chances of picking up an error that you’ve missed in your first attempt at the questions.

As you do the multiple choice section for the first time, it is a good idea to circle the questions that you are unsure of (on the question sheet), so that when you finish your exam, you should look at the circled questions first.

After you completely check over your multiple choice section, look over your calculation questions. In Physics, these could be questions involving projectile motion, Special Relativity (time dilation, length contraction etc), motor torque, forces on charged plates / conductors / charged particles etc. For Chemistry, these questions could be molar calculations, pH calculations, volume calculations, galvanic cell potentials etc.

Some topics in Physics could be assisted with methods covered in Mathematics subjects. For example, in the Space module, we learn how to do projectile motion calculations – these questions are much easier when analysed within the Extension 1 framework of projectile motion. Of course, it would be faster if you use the formulae in the formula sheet, but for checking purposes, you can use the Extension 1 method to verify your answers.

Science calculation questions often require the use of calculators, so not only do you have to check your algebra and working-out, you also need to check your final answer, making sure you didn’t key in something wrong on your calculator. A good tip here is to become very familiar with your calculator – learn how to use its memory slots so you can do an entire question very fast without needing to waste time writing things down (for checking purposes).

One last scenario that is unique to science HSC exams is that in some extended questions worth 5-8 marks (e.g. discuss, analyse, evaluate, assess), you may be required to identify a list of factors / issues. You should briefly re-read your long answer responses, making sure you’ve covered all the factors / issues that are required, and also check that you’ve concluded the question with an assessment or evaluation, if required. The final conclusion in assess / evaluate questions are worth a mark, and while this appears obvious to some students, many still make the mistake of leaving their questions unconcluded.

Maths exams

There are two approaches to doing maths exams, and which approach you choose depends on your style. Some students prefer to move through their exam as quickly as possible, leaving much time at the end to go over the entire exam again (where possible). Other students prefer to go through their exam as carefully as possible, leaving much less time at the end, for selective checking. There’s no right or wrong approach, and we have 99+ students who adopt either approach.

As a general recommendation, higher achievers should aim to do their exams as quickly as possible, with the aim of having enough time at the end to comprehensively go through their entire exam a second time. However, not all students are able to do this. The important thing is to be comfortable with your chosen approach.

As always, it is a good idea to circle the questions (on your question sheet) that you have difficulty with on your first attempt of the exam. This way, you can selectively check over those questions first as you begin checking your exam.

One important thing to note is that in maths, there are many little mathematical tricks that allow you to check your answer very quickly. For example, in Maths Extension 2, it is advised for students to memorise the general equations for tangents for ellipses and hyperbolae, as this gives them much convenience when verifying answers in algebraic form. If you’re familiar with the many properties of the parabola, this would help in guiding you through the difficult proofs involving parametric equations. In Probability questions involving Permutations and Combinations, sometimes it is easier to arrange a set of possible actions, rather than the objects themselves. These little tips and tricks cannot be explained properly in words, as they need proper examples to demonstrate, but students should pick these up throughout their study.

In Maths Extension 2, students who are serious about achieving a high mark (e.g. a raw mark above 100/120) should realise that they should not allocate their time linearly to the questions from 1 to 8. Basically, questions 1-4 should take 10 minutes each, tops, and questions 5, 6 should take 20 minutes each, leaving plenty of time for questions 7 and 8. It is your performance in these last questions that set you apart from other high achievers, since most Extension 2 students are perfectly capable of doing questions 1-6 relatively well.

Practice makes perfect

As with every skill in life, reducing the occurrence of silly mistakes can be improved through practice. Do more questions, and mark them! Follow up and investigate on the ones you did incorrectly, and redo them. Always challenge yourself with difficult questions. Never become ‘complacent’ just because you’re doing well compared to your peers at school. Always remember, you are up against the entire state.

Practicing for Physics and Chemistry

For science subjects, you’ll need to split your time doing essay-type questions (discuss, assess, evaluate), short answer questions (describe, explain, justify, outline) and the calculation type questions.

For calculation questions, make sure you understand the physical principles behind why the answer is correct. Become familiar with your calculator’s functionality, especially in using its memory slots, as this is extremely helpful when doing those annoyingly long molar calculations. Lastly, make sure you are exposed to all types of calculation questions for your subject. Doing questions from good books (like Jacaranda Physics, Macquarie Physics, Chemistry Contexts, Conquering Chemistry etc) are a great start, but they are not enough. Do as many past papers / practice questions you can get from your school teachers / HSC tuition services, and have them marked.

Practicing for Maths

For all levels of maths, the approach is the same – do as many questions as you can. Some books are better than others – it is important to do the exercises in good textbooks, like Fitzpatrick (2 unit and 3 unit) and Cambridge (2 unit, 3 unit, 4 unit). However, you should note that some of the hardest and most unique questions can only be found inside HSC exams. That is because HSC exams are often written by University professors, and the questions found in them can sometimes be something unfamiliar to you if you only study using textbooks. For example, Maths Extension 2 question 8s have always involved University-level maths and often require very unique and colourful approaches to solve – such uniqueness is often lacking or in short supply in even the best of textbooks. Our tip is to learn ahead of your school, and begin practicing by doing past HSC exams / past trial papers from reputable schools as early in your HSC as possible. The key here is to see as many types of questions as possible, broadening your experience as much as possible before each assessable exam.

One of our tutors who came 2nd in the state for Extension 2 claimed to have completed over 100 Extension 2 papers as practice, back when he did his HSC (he started before his half-yearlies). Another of our tutors who came 3rd in the state for Extension 2 (in a different year) claimed to have completed over 60 Extension 2 papers as practice. Obviously such dedication is not required for most students, even for a 99+, but for an ATAR close to 99.95 or a state-rank, dedication to gaining nothing short of a comprehensive and complete understanding of your subjects is necessary.

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