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.
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.
Friday, January 8th, 2010, 10:03 pm | 
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