Posts tagged ‘HSC tutoring’

August 25th, 2010

HSC Sciences – improving performance in extended responses

Like it or hate it, the way HSC science subjects (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Biology) are implemented in our HSC requires students not only to have quantitative skills for calculation-type questions, but also be skilled in forming cohesive arguments to support a conclusion – much like essays in English, but about scientific issues. Many students don’t have as much trouble with the quantitative aspects of HSC sciences, but have issues consolidating the qualitative aspects of their courses for essay-type responses.

Summarise essay dot-points that have extended response requirements

It is a good idea to know which parts of the syllabus correspond to essay-type exam responses. As you learn the course, always cross reference the content you cover with the syllabus. Become strongly familiar with the syllabus dot-points for each module. You will notice that most subsections in each module (i.e. the numbered sub-parts in each module) will have one or two dot-points that require ‘discuss’ or ‘assess’ or ‘evaluate’ – words which require students to be able to synthesise content and form coherent arguments.

Familiarise yourself with these dot-points. Revise related content, or ask your teacher / tutor about the relevant issues for each, then make a short summary sheet (probably half a page for each) in dot-point form to lay out everything that’s relevant.

Here’s a couple of examples of how you might roughly summarise the essay requirements for a sample module.

HSC Chemistry

The Acidic Environment

1. Summarise the industrial sources of SO2 and NOx and evaluate the reasons for concern about their release into the environment. For example: SO2 is from coal burning and car exhaust, and causes acid rain. NOx is from automobile exhaust mainly, (older cars, or malfunctioning catalytic converters) and causes photochemical smog, acid rain etc.

2. Trace the developments in understanding of acid / base reactions. E.g. understand the main developments in our definitions of acids / bases, outline the concept of conjugates, discuss the validity of current definition of acids / bases compared to past definitions.

3. Assess the use of neutralisation as a safety measure / to fix acid spills. E.g. outline what buffers are and how weak bases can be useful in neutralising acids. Understand why a weak base instead of a strong base is used. Explain neutralisation and buffer systems in terms of Le Chatelier’s principle.
HSC Physics

Space

1. Contribution of Tsiolkovsky, Obert, Goddard, Esnault-Pelterie, O’Neill, or von Braun to the development of space exploration (i.e. modern rocketry). E.g. Robert H. Goddard, considered as ‘father of modern rocketry’ developed the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket, pioneered research into multi-stage rockets (allowed astronauts to reach the moon), research into gyroscopic stabilisation, and steerable thrusters, allowing greater, safer control of rockets.

2. Discuss issues with safe reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. E.g. backward-facing astronauts (eyeball-in effect is less stressful than eyeball-out), radio blackout prevents communication to ground base during most of re-entry. Optimum angle of re-entry ensures probe does not skip off atmosphere, or undergo excessive deceleration and heating. Heat shields carry away heat. Parachutes are required for final deceleration, or in the case of a shuttle, gliding like a plane.

3. Describe, evaluate and interpret the MM experiment’s results. E.g. the MM experiment produced a null result for the existence of the aether. This result alone does not disprove the aether’s existence, but it does not contradict Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. The latter was developed further and was successful in predicting real-world phenomena, such as time dilation / length contraction observed between inertial frames with relative motion.

4. Discuss the relationship between theory and evidence supporting it, using Einstein’s predictions. E.g. Einstein’s thought experiments were merely conjectures supported by logical deduction – at the time, there was no experimental way to verify Einstein’s predictions. In modern times, with the advent of atomic clocks and space flight, we are able to experimentally verify Einstein’s predictions as correct. The relationship is theory of the unknown comes from deduction of what is known, and experimental verification follows. If real-world results differ, the theory must be modified or superseded. This is the scientific method.

Do this for the entire syllabus, by first identifying which syllabus dot-points require an extended response in order to be tested in an exam. These dot-points are guaranteed to come up in your exams, either in your first assessment, half yearly, HSC trials, or the external HSC exams. Don’t leave this till last minute – familiarise yourself as you go through the course, then revise and re-familiarise. Be sure to include all of the relevant issues, some of which are latent and require deeper analysis. E.g. is Ethanol truly greenhouse neutral? You can argue yes or no, depending on what evidence you include in your response.

Finally, don’t be afraid of those 6 mark or 7 mark discuss / evaluate / assess exam questions. As long as you’re familiar with most of the relevant issues that particular question entails, you will be fine. Good luck!

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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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October 1st, 2009

Does going to a ‘Normal’ school disadvantage me?

This is a common question of many students who wonder whether attending a ‘normal’ non-selective government school would disadvantage them in any way in their HSC.

The short answer is: there is no technical reason why you should be disadvantaged as a result of attending a ‘normal’ school.Normal School

However there may be other factors that can affect the correct answer to this question.

The system is technically fair

The way in which your ATAR / UAI is calculated is technically fair. It implements statistical methods of scaling to equate achievement levels in different HSC subjects on a common scale, in the form of scaled marks. The process of scaling for different subjects is the same, and applies in the same way to all students attending all schools.

But what about your internal marks? The component of your HSC that is assessed from internal school assessments are calculated from your rank at school. That is, how well you did (as a rank, not a mark) relative to your peers at school. The process that converts your school rank for each subject into a scaled mark is called the process of moderation.

Basically, with moderation, your internal HSC assessment component is mapped to your school rank for each subject, from the pool of external marks. For example, suppose Amanda, a Chemistry student, comes 5th overall in Chemistry within her school. Her external HSC exam mark was 92/100, which was the 2nd highest in her school. The 5th highest external exam mark in her school was 84/100. Then for Amanda’s overall HSC mark, it would consist of 50% of her own mark of 92/100, and 50% of the 5th highest exam mark (because her rank was 5 th in Chemistry), which was 84/100. This leads to an overall mark of 88/100. However, note that in fact, this is an approximation only (Amanda would actually receive a mark close to 84/100 for her internal component, as there is an adjustment made due to the fact that marks distributions are not the same across different schools).

Basically, what this means is regardless of whether your school is considered ‘good’ or ‘bad’, your end result should not be affected, since your internal component is solely based on your school rank. If you do significantly better than your peers in a ‘normal’ school, your ranks would be 1t or close to 1 st for all your subjects. In this situation, you would end up receiving your own external HSC exam mark as your internal component. Effectively, this means that those students passing from any institute could count their final HSC exams for their final assessment. Now, other than the risk of placing too high weighting on the final exams, there is no inherent direct source of unfairness in this system – that is, you are not being ‘pulled down’ in a direct way by your peers in a ‘normal’ school.

However, as we see certain schools perform well year after year, there must be other factors in play, despite the system being technically fair.

The positive effect of being in a competitive environment

Schools that tend to do well consistently (e.g. look at the list of the top 50 schools in NSW) would have a culture of academic excellence. From this culture, students in these schools are more focused on their studies. Students have an amazing effect of pushing each other, motivating each other and the mutual competition drives students in these schools to high standards.

What can I do?

If you find you go to a school where students are not primarily interested in doing well in their HSC, you should firstly identify the few of your peers that are keen to do well, and form working relationships with them. Study together, motivate each other, share notes etc. These things are mutually beneficial, and the healthy competition you get from each other will be beneficial to your marks.

Another suggestion is to find a quality tutoring service and attend their classes. Reputable tutoring colleges will have no problem attracting bright students who are keen to do very well in their HSC. Students can benefit from the structured environment a class offers, and being able to learn at the same level as other bright students will be beneficial to your marks.

The quality of teachers and teaching

Generally speaking, students at ‘good’ schools receive a better learning experience. This is due to a number of factors. For example, in ‘bad’ schools, teachers need to spend more class time on classroom management (managing the disruptive students, making sure their behaviour is acceptable etc), leaving less time for actual teaching. Disruptive students also pull the class behind in terms of schedule, as teachers are forced to move at a slower pace to cater to all students.

The extreme example is that in particularly ‘bad’ schools, teachers are so fed up with disruptive students that their motivation to teach diminishes, and these situations despite being very unfortunate, are quite common.

Generally speaking, many teachers gravitate towards transferring to the ‘good’ schools, mainly because the easier classroom management (less need to manage disruptive students) provides a more pleasant working environment for them. Now, this does not apply to all teachers, but it is likely to be true on a wide scale. Such teachers represent a migration of quality teaching from the ‘bad’ schools to the ‘good’ schools, as their transfer requests to the DET are granted over time.

This leads onto the second point of teacher retention. Retention rates tend to be highest at well-off private schools or high-ranking selective schools. Most teachers working at such schools are happy where they are, and would not seek to leave their post until they retire. However, retention rates at other schools tend to be lower for various reasons that we will not go into. For example, how many times have you noticed ‘good’ teachers leaving for another (often higher ranked, or private) school?

However, this is NOT to say that there are no ‘good’ teachers in ‘normal’ schools. There are countless dedicated teachers out there that do not work at high-ranking selective or well-off private schools, and they are rightly well respected for the good work they do.

What can I do?

This problem is a tricky one to solve or avoid. If you find that there are no good teachers for certain subjects you are taking, we really suggest seeking a tutoring service, or even a good private tutor. Reputable tutoring colleges will always have high quality teachers as part of their academic staff.

Conclusion

Although the technical details of the scaling and moderation processes are inherently fair, and that there are no direct sources of disadvantage to students attending schools that are neither high-ranked selective or private schools, there are other factors that may cause a disadvantage in real terms. While not every student can have the luxury of being surrounded by other hard working bright peers that push and motivate each other to do well, this effect could be emulated by attending a reputable tutoring college, or by seeking like-minded individuals at school. Students and parents should also consider seeking a tutoring service if they feel that their school teacher is not offering adequate support.

But most importantly, don’t leave it until too late! Every assessment in year 12 counts to your HSC and UAI / ATAR, so make sure you receive adequate support from day one of year 12, at the very least!

Dux College is a reputable tutoring college based in Sydney, Australia specializes in delivering high school tutoring services that aims at improving UAI score. If you are among those bright students who are keen to do well in HSC then join HSC tutoring at Dux College and learn with like minded individuals.

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May 12th, 2009

HSC tutoring: don’t leave it till late!

Many students wait until Term 3 or 4 of year 12 before deciding to find a tutor. While seeking tuition support late in year 12 is better than doing nothing, this is far from ideal. Generally, higher ability students tend to find a good tutor early in their Preliminary course, or even in year 10, and sticking with them until the end of the HSC. There are several advantages to finding a good tutor early in your High School career.

Find a good HSC tutor and stick with them! HSC Tutoring Quality tuition providers often have set structures for their courses. For example, at Dux College, we offer a structured schedule, so we make sure all our students cover all topics well ahead of time. This leaves for revision and discussion on optimal exam technique, reinforcement of skills and perfecting overall knowledge. However we find that students who join mid-way through our schedule may have covered some topics we are yet to cover, but have skipped over topics we have already covered. This mismatch in the new student’s knowledge poses a difficulty for them in that they must spend extra effort in catching up with the class.

Our highest achievers are students who have been with us since year 10 or 11, and have gained the fundamental knowledge throughout those early years. Students from this group are generally more adaptive to new concepts as they are introduced, because they have a strong foundation in conceptual understanding, instilled through following our course structure over a longer period of time. It is less common to see spectacular improvements in school rank from year 12 students who join us in the middle of term 3 or 4, because they have not had the same opportunity as most of our other students who have been with us in the long run. However we do see spectacular improvements on school rank from our students who have joined us in year 10 or 11, as the extra tutoring makes a large difference to the bottom line: exam results.

Seek help early! We get the most phone calls from interested students and parents during the weeks after major assessment marks are released back to students. The biggest example is probably at around late April, when year 12 students start to get their half-yearly results back. Some receive a nasty shock at disappointing marks, and feel the sudden compulsion to seek tutoring. Although we are happy to help these students, and we try our very best to bring in and improve students in these situations, we feel that these students would have gained so much more if they found us EARLIER.

Also for the reasons mentioned above, the earlier students find a good tutoring service, the better. HSC tutoring is definitely not something to be left to the final few weeks of major exams and assessments. The benefits are best realised over a longer timeframe, and solid knowledge is built over several terms of tutoring, not merely several weeks. Rome was not built in a day!

Having said that, we do not mean that all students who join us in the middle of their year 12 are not gaining short-term improvements. Our students in this category are very happy with their improvement in marks and general course understanding, within weeks of tutoring. However, we feel that their potential is so much higher. What separates a UAI 99+ student from a UAI 90-95 student is consistency in everything they do. The first step, getting into a routine habit of tutoring and doing higher volumes of more challenging curricular work has a large benefit in itself. Another factor may be the fact that many students simply do not have access to quality teachers in their school environment, which is supplemented by finding a reliable tutoring service. However, in order to wholly move into a higher level of achievement (say, aiming to Dux your grade, or attain a 99+)

Short-term tutoring Some students feel the need to seek tutoring services for certain topics out of a subject, then leave after those topics are covered. In these situations, we recommend finding a private tutor. Sometimes students and parents do not appreciate the degree of interconnectedness between topics within any one HSC subject. For example, HSC science subjects like Physics or Chemistry are very conceptual in nature.

If a student is having trouble understanding the concepts in a later topic, chances are they have gaps in their fundamental conceptual understanding. For courses like HSC mathematics, particularly the more difficult Extension 1 and Extension 2 courses, an imperfect understanding of one topic is indicative of faults in conceptual understanding in other areas of the course. For example, in Extension 2, almost all of the topics are linked to each other, and to topics in Extension 1 and even 2 unit.

Students who feel they need tutoring specific to certain topics run the risk of being overconfident in their abilities as a whole. We recommend taking a deeper approach in remedying ‘holes’ in understanding, by investigating all related and associated topics and concepts. This can not happen in the short while available in covering just one topic, but rather over a longer period where the class can cover several topics. This allows enough time to fully explore how individual topics are interconnected. A common prerequisite of a band 6 responses (when HSC markers gather to determine the band cutoff criteria) often draws upon the degree to which students display an understanding of how different topics relate to and interact with each other. For these reasons, we do not recommend students seek out tutoring help intermittently.

Ideally, students should identify early on which subjects they feel they need long-term support (outside of the normal school support, which in many cases is quite minimal) and seek a quality tuition service early on in their course, preferably before year 12 begins. Remember, consistency is the key!

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May 8th, 2009

Doing well in HSC sciences

Doing well in HSC sciences requires a slightly different approach than HSC maths or English subjects. HSC sciences, like Chemistry, Physics and Biology, place a heavy focus on the syllabus. Detailed knowledge and familiarisation of the syllabus is very important.

TIP 1: Know the syllabus3 Knowing the syllabus very important. Firstly, all HSC science exams can only test you on content within the syllabus. Most of the time, HSC exam questions will simply be a syllabus dot-point that has been reworded.

For example, an actual HSC Chemistry syllabus dot-point is “Describe hydrogen bonding between molecules”. A corresponding exam question can ask something simple like “Describe hydrogen bonding between water molecules”. Alternatively, exam questions can be slightly more complicated, for example: “Identify a compound that exhibits strong hydrogen bonding and descbribe how hydrogen bonding affects its melting and boiling temperatures”. However in both cases, the question can be reduced to simply describing your knowledge of how hydrogen bonding works as between molecules, and how this phenomenon affects some of the chemical’s physical propertie(s).

If you have an excellent understanding of the syllabus and have covered in detail each dot-point, you will know enough to get a Band 6. We emphasise the fact that exams can only test you on what is in the syllabus. If you ever don’t understand a concept because it has been poorly explained to you at school, or the concept is very difficult, ask your teacher whether it is in the syllabus. If it is not, understand that it will not be examined, so don’t worry too much about not fully understanding that concept. However, if a concept is within the syllabus, or required by one of the dot-points as background information, you should know it well.

TIP 2: Know what’s important for practicals / experiments HSC Sciences’ syllabi contains many dot-points requiring students to “conduct a first-hand investigation”, or “gather data from a first-hand investigation”. These dot-points are responsible for the regular experiments you conduct at school. It is very important that you do not neglect the information presented to you during one of those experiment classes at school. Many students think of experiments as fun (and they are), but they ignore the fact that each experiment deals with at least one dot-point in the syllabus, sometimes several at once.

The things you need to know in ALL experiments are:

  1. The scientific principle being tested / used (for example, an experiment to demonstrate Newton’s second law requires you to firstly understand the formula F=ma and how to use it in calculations)
  2. The correct procedure. A very important example is in titrations, where washing procedures will sometimes be tested in exam questions (E.g. “Explain what is a primary standard”, or “Explain the need to finally rinse a pipette with the solution it is to contain, before using it”)
  3. Safety issues / appropriate precautions. For example, when doing a flame test, never burn lead compounds. Or when burning magnesium, use tongs and don’t stare into the flame. (Other examples include: know which metals / chemicals are toxic, when goggles and gloves are required, how to deal with fires / flames etc)
  4. Sources of error: this last one is important because many HSC exam questions may ask you to talk about the sources of errors in experiments you should have done at school. For example, “Identify three sources of error in this experiment, and suggest ways to minimise their effect on your results.”

The important thing to remember here is to pay attention in school during experiment classes, and not to ignore these dot-points during your study and revision.

TIP 3: Understand the concepts We do not recommend trying to memorise too many things. HSC sciences cannot be mastered through memorisation, and all of the top students who achieve a HSC mark of >95 genuinely understand the concepts in their subject.

Understanding the concept is very important to succeeding in HSC sciences. Before an exam, there is no way you can predict what specific questions will be asked of you. You will only know that everything tested will be in the syllabus, but the specific wording of your questions can catch you offguard.

If you rely on memorisation of the course content, you are inflexible. A question that is slightly unorthodox in approach or worded in an unfamiliar way will catch you offguard, and you will run the risk of losing easy marks. However, if you genuinely understand the concepts involved, you can always derive the answer in the spot, even if the question is worded in an unfamiliar way, or requires unorthodox thinking. This way, you are a flexible student, and no matter how the exam is set, you will get a high mark reflecting your good ability.

There are certain situations where memorisation is appropriate. Generally, these are:

  1. Remembering topics for the long essay-type questions. E.g. in HSC Physics, it is a good idea to come up with a list of points regarding the pros and cons of AC versus DC. A common exam question may be “Discuss” or “Compare and evaluate” or “Assess the impact on society of the development of AC electricity”. To tackle these quesitons, it is a good idea to try to memorise a short list of words or phrases which remind you of a general topic to argue, in favour of either side (AC vs DC).
  2. Some facts have no pattern, so it is useful to memorise them. HSC Chemistry is a good example of this. Good students memorise all of the composite ions, their molecular formulae and their valencies through gaining experience in the course. Another example would be memorising certain definitional bodies of knowledge, like Newton’s laws.
  3. Memorise the simple equations. This is highly important, and will save you much time and grief during an exam. Although a formula sheet is provided to you for HSC sciences, it is a good idea to memorise the simple equations or formulae, as always flicking towards the back of your exam paper wastes valuable seconds each time. Also by memorising the simple equations, you are less likely to make calculation errors than blindly copying out the formulae from the data sheet everytime.

But always strive to understand the underlying concept, as it will benefit you in the long run.

TIP 4: Make good use of the resources available to you What we mean by this is, for example:

  1. Whenever you have a question, ask your teacher!
  2. Whenever you don’t understand a concept fully and completely, ask your teacher until you understand!
  3. Work with other bright students who are keen on doing well in the HSC. Share notes with them.

Most teachers will answer any question a student asks them, as they will be happy to know that their students are so dedicated to doing well. After all, the satisfaction of seeing their students succeed is one of the main reasons why teachers choose this profession! However not every student has access to teachers that are willing and happy to answer many questions or explain concepts at length. In this case, there may be other resources available to you. For example, find good tutoring and ask the teachers there!

Another thing to keep in mind is making your own syllabus dot-point summaries. Synthesise and gather all your knowledge, summarise it and write it onto paper. It is a good idea to submit your notes for review by your class teacher (or after-school tutor) to make sure your knowledge of the course is comprehensive. Going this far may seen daunting, but remember that high marks can only come with hard work.

Conclusion Our top 3 tips for succeeding in HSC sciences are:

  1. Know the syllabus like the back of your hand!
  2. Know what to study for when it comes to the experiment dot-points
  3. Make sure you understand the concepts involved in your subject. Do not rely on memorisation, unless it’s the only way

Following this general advice will improve most students’ approach to HSC sciences, as these are the main shortcomings of most HSC science students of today.

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April 17th, 2009

Developing Good Study Habits for Your HSC

Studying consistently is important if you want a good HSC result. It is important to build up good study habits early on from your Preliminary year and sustain them until you complete your HSC. Cramming should not be thought of as an alternative to consistent study, but rather as a last resort. Students should not leave things to the last minute when doing things such as assignments, assessments and exam preparation.

Of course, this all sounds typical and preachy, but it’s all true. Every student that gets 99+ follow a strict study regiment and have a healthy work ethic. As bright as you naturally are, if you are a student who relies on

cramming, never does homework and leaves things till the last minute, you will get around 95 at the most. While a 95 is by no means disappointing, consider the fact that had you taken the HSC more seriously than you did, you would have had a good shot at 99+.

So what’s a healthy amount of study?

We’ve seen some students who are so dedicated to the point of fanaticism. They write out weekly timetables which incorporates up to 6 hours of study each school night (sleeping at 1am nightly), and 12 hours per non-school day, leaving time for meals and sleep only. We do not recommend anyone do this, nor do we think there is any need to.

We’ve all heard the term “work smarter, not harder”, and this is very true when it comes to study technique. There’s no need to force yourself to study 6 hours everyday – that’s sweatshop labour! Instead we recommend a consistent 3-4 hours of study each school day as a healthy amount. This would allow ample time to do all school and tutoring homework, and time to read textbooks and texts as well. Anything significantly less than this is too little, and anything significantly more than this is unhealthy and unbalanced. Weekends should be spent relaxing or doing some light amounts of study. For example, our students come tutoring on the weekends!

The key to “working smarter” for your HSC is consistency. If you can sustain a constant level of study by sticking to a habit of studying 3 hours a day after school each day, you will have ample time to review everything at least once over, and have a very comprehensive knowledge base for your entire HSC

Make yourself a schedule

This is totally optional. If you’re the organised type and like writing down daily plans, a good organisational technique is to write down a rough plan of how you’d like to study for each school and non-school day. For example:

  • 4-6pm: School homework + tutoring homework
  • 6-8pm: Dinner / rest
  • 8-9pm: Review textbook chapters, read English texts, read ahead etc
  • 9-11: Free time
  • 11: sleep

That shows a 3-hour a day plan for school days. You can develop something similar to this to suit yourself. Maybe you feel you can handle slightly more than 3 hours a day, but you would like at least 1 free day to yourself per week. How ever you want to structure your time usage is up to you, but the golden rule is consistency.

Habits during study

Some students prefer to read and write notes while they study, while others prefer to simply read. Some students read off their own notes written in school, while other students read off textbooks for their subject. Whatever your study method is, it is most likely fine.

However, you should always keep a small notepad on your table, and whenever you come across something you don’t understand, write your question down. You should do this because there are many times when you will come across a small gap in your understanding only during the time you’re studying. If you don’t write your question down, when you see next the teacher at school or tutoring, you would forget what to ask, or forget to ask altogether. As a result, you still have that gap in your knowledge.

What separates a strong student from a weaker one is the subtleties in their level of knowledge. It’s fair to say that it is relatively easy for any student to grasp the fundamentals of the content for all their courses. However, exam questions often differentiate between a full mark response and a 3/4 mark response in terms of these subtleties. Often full marks are given only to answers that show insight and true depth of one’s knowledge of the subject area. You can only demonstrate this if throughout your HSC, you have asked every question you need to ask, and have a solid knowledge without any gaps that you are aware of.

Also, students are sometimes afraid to ask their teachers questions. This is understandable, as we all care what others think of us. Instead of telling you the obvious thing, which is to simply be brave and ask, we advise you to get your teacher’s attention after class and go through your list of questions. Any good teacher will be all too happy to help a student who is genuinely interested.

Just remember, always write your questions down as soon as you find something you don’t fully understand (no matter how subtle or small the point appears to be). Ask the questions you need to ask, and you will have no gaps in your knowledge.

Consistent sleeping time each night

Scientists know that during sleep, our brain restructures all of your thoughts, ideas and knowledge you have gained for that day into an efficient format ready for recall. For those who know how computers work, it’s analogous to defragmenting a hard drive. Sleep is important to allow the brain to reorganise the new things you’ve learnt in a more efficient way. Therefore sleep can be thought of as the last stage to the learning process, that is when the brain commits something newly learnt to long-term memory and understanding.

Keeping a consistent sleep pattern is extremely important for memory retention and learning. If you don’t get your good night’s sleep, your brain can’t learn properly. This is another reason why all-nighters never work. If you’re in an unavoidable situation where you need to sit an exam the very next day and you have a large amount of content to get through, don’t ‘pull an all-nighter’. Instead, study the main points and get some rest. You will tend to do better than if you get no sleep at all for the entire night.

Consistent sleep also means you will never be tired during the day. The #1 reason why we are drowsy in the morning is because our bodies are sleep-starved, probably because we slept in too much during the weekends, or stayed up late playing computer games or chatting on msn. You will tend to feel terrible and won’t be able to function properly during the day after. If you break your sleeping pattern once in a while, this is acceptable, but don’t make this into a long-term habit. Remember: sleeping well is highly important to studying effectively during your HSC.

Self discipline

Consistency is extremely hard to keep up. For example, say you promise yourself you will study 3 hours a day, but then once in a while you need to attend a party or event, or there’s something on TV that must be watched, or you just feel tired and can’t be bothered. That’s ok too, if you’re tired, give yourself a break. Don’t totally neglect your friends over studying either, take a break with them when a break is due.

However it is highly important to strike a balance. You should resume your consistency as soon as possible after the lapse in study. We all get lazy and tired once in a while. The trick with consistency is not actually to be consistent 100% of the time, but rather, to have the ability to pick yourself right up after an instance where you have breached your study regime. Ignore the past, move on and continue trying your best to be consistent.

Keeping yourself motivated

The most precious resource to your HSC is not time – we have plenty of time each day, most of which we spend doing things other than study. Why is this the case? If we had unlimited energy, we would study while on the train, study while eating dinner, study instead of watching some TV or spending time on the computer before sleep, and study in the morning before school starts. If you count all that time up, in 24 hours, you might be able to study for around 8 hours each school-day! Not to mention all day each non-school day.

But we don’t do this. The reason is because the most precious resource to your HSC is your motivation. We as human beings simply can not be made to work nonstop without any break whatsoever, even for our own good. The whole point of making a schedule and trying your best to be consistent with study is so that you can find a sustainable level of study that you can handle in the long term. Therefore it is important to stay motivated throughout your HSC so you don’t break the good habit of consistent study.

There are many ways to stay motivated. One we recommend is to keep reminding yourself what you are working for. Often students get demotivated because the benefits of a good HSC result are not immediately tangible to them. Students tend to lose sight of their goals, which is to get into the course they desire at university. Whenever you find that you are falling a bit behind in your study regime, remind yourself what you are doing this for. Try to evoke the same feeling you had when you made that initial determination to yourself that you will try your best in the HSC.

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