Learn to use the HSC Standards Packages

For almost all HSC subjects, the Board of Studies has standards packages publicly available for students to read http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/. We recommend students look at the standards packages for their subjects – they will give you an idea of the quality required for a band 6 response. Standards packages are particularly useful for humanities subjects like HSC English where your expression and writing style also come into play. Get a feeling of what’s acceptable expression, and details like general paragraph length, the way literary techniques are referenced, how often a text is quoted and the length of quotes etc. Even if technically your knowledge is as good as anyone’s, a poorly structured essay (where you use poor expression, or reference the text in superficial ways or spend too much time on insignificant points etc) will mean the difference between a band 4/5 and a band 6.

Familiarity with the standards packages will also help with subjects like HSC Chemistry, Physics, Biology and the social sciences (Economics, Business Studies etc). In the case of the HSC Sciences, they give you fresh ideas of novel, acceptable ways of structuring your answer. Some questions can be fully answered in terms of a table or as a dot-point list (e.g. identify / outline questions). Also note the details featured in diagrams / graphs – full marks are given to students that remember details such as labelling the axes, or drawing a line / curve of best fit properly (ignoring outliers in appropriate situations) and being able to justify the choices made.

HSC sciences – always refer to the syllabus

HSC sciences like Chemistry, Physics and Biology, are prescriptive by nature. This means the syllabus tells you exactly what you need to know, content wise, and does a great job at that. While studying for these subjects, it’s always a good idea to have the syllabus in front of you, printed or on your computer screen. The dot-points give you a clear picture of what you need to know, and the scope to which you need to know each aspect of the course. For example, if a dot-point requires you to merely identify the qualitative aspects, this means you only need to be able to name the aspects it’s referring to, and qualitative means you won’t be required to do calculations on them.

Another reason is some syllabus dot-points are worded as if they are paraphrased exam questions. This is particularly true for dot-points requiring you to ‘Discuss the impacts on society of…” or “Assess the environmental impact of…”. You very well might get an exam question, worth around 7 marks, that basically asks you to demonstrate your entire understanding of one of those dot-points if they ask you in a general way.

Be careful for internal assessments however, as school teachers are known to set exam questions that are dubious in terms of whether they fit within the scope of the syllabus, so you must also cross reference your own materials with the notes given by your school teacher to make sure all gaps are covered.

HSC Maths – only do exam questions

When it comes to maths, exam questions and textbook questions aren’t the same. The former type are often are structured as a compound question with several subparts. Exam question are often designed with deeper consideration, and incorporates more unique aspects of mathematics (e.g. in Maths Extension 2 question 7 and 8). In contrast, textbook questions can get repetitive and give you a false sense of security. Because textbook questions lack variation in style, once you master the several types of questions it contains and are able to do its exercises, this does not mean you’ve experienced all types of questions an exam can throw at you, particularly if you go to a school that has a talented maths department.

There’s a limitation on the types of questions for each topic an exam can throw at you. If you do Maths Extension 1 and 2, it also takes great effort and skill to design a truly novel and unique maths question at that level. As an industry insider (yes I’m a teacher) I can tell you that many schools simply take exam questions from past papers of other schools. When I did my HSC Maths Extension 2, I actively sought out past trial papers from top private and selective schools for practice before my HSC trials. What I noticed was in one year, say 2002, there would be a question in school A’s paper, then in the next year, say 2003, there would be an identical question in school B’s paper. So it’s a good idea as a student to use past papers as practice – there’s definitely more exam papers worth doing than your time would permit, that’s why I recommend only do exam papers instead of textbook questions.

I spoke with a teacher who works at a top Sydney selective school about how their teachers set exam questions for their year 12 students – “We get exam questions from schools that are out of NSW – resources we know typical students don’t have access to”. So while exam questions are definitely recycled, they aren’t always from sources you’d expect. But it’s still worthwhile doing exam papers for practice, purely for the sake of familiarising yourself with the general style of exam questions which you can’t get from any old textbook.

1. Exam question asking for correct procedure, safety issues, sources of error, or other related discussion
2. Practical exams

Practical exams are particularly important because all students will definitely have at least one in year 12, and they are often worth around 20% of total internal assessment. We recently filmed some of our in-class practical demonstrations of experiments that are most likely to come up in practical exams at school.

In addition to learning the theoretical content of the course, students should remember not to neglect preparing for first-hand investigations and other practical skills-based dot-points that are in the HSC Chemistry or Physics syllabus. These dot-points can be examined in one or several of the following ways:

Exam question asking for correct procedure, safety issues, sources of error, or other related discussion

Practical examsPractical exams are particularly important because all students will definitely have at least one in year 12, and they are often worth around 20% of total internal assessment. We recently filmed some of our in-class practical demonstrations of experiments that are most likely to come up in practical exams at school.

HSC Chemistry

Perform a first-hand investigation and solve problems using titrations including the preparation of standard solutions, and use available evidence to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the reaction between selected acids and bases

This experiment is important because it is one of the most commonly chosen experiments for Prac Exams. Prac Exams could come any time throughout year 12 — but most of the time they occur as part of your trial HSC exams, and usually worth around 20% of total internal assessment. Therefore it is important to pay close attention to proper titration procedure and understand the underlying processes of neutralization reactions.

For this titration, our unknown was a solution of NaOH (the analyte) and our standard solution was oxalic acid (crystals in dihydrate form) — the titrant. Glassware was rinsed properly with either deionised water or with the solution it was to contain (conical flask, volumetric flask — water / pipette, burette — solution). A total of 1 ‘rough titre’ and 3 accurate titres were done. The average of the 3 accurate titres were recorded and used to finally calculate the concentration of the unknown NaOH. Our indicator was phenolphthalein due to its slightly basic endpoint (the titration was between a strong base and a weak acid, therefore the equivalence point would be slightly basic). Tip: If required to make your own standard solution, make sure you design your standard solution so that it was enough moles for you to do 3 titres.

How many times have you left an assessment task to the last minute because you didn’t pace yourself correctly, or you submitted low quality work / received low marks due to being overwhelmed by exams and assessments?  Have a read of the following insights and think about what you can do to improve your time management skills – this will surely be one extracurricular skill to have that will translate to higher marks!

Urgent vs. important

Firstly understand the difference between a task that’s urgent, and a task that’s important. One thing that separates successful people from the rest is that successful people spend most of their time doing important things, rather than urgent things. For example, on any given day you may have one or several friends on facebook to reply to, send birthday reminders, or reply to people saying ‘hi’ on msn – these are all urgent, non-important tasks. Stop doing these things!

Important tasks are things that count. For example, studying for your school assessments / exams – it’s a certainty that you’ll need to do that assessment or exam so why ignore it until the last minute? Starting that assessment task now rather than later – you’ll eventually need to do it so why not start sooner rather than later? Do you really need to stop everything and get distracted by ‘urgent, non-important’ things like if your friends are inviting you to join their multiplayer online game, or your dog needs a walk, etc? Obviously we’re not saying ‘lock yourself in your room and study for 18 hours a day’ – you need to strike a clear balance between study and recreation (see next point).

Set clear boundaries: work while it’s work time and rest while it’s rest time

It’s important to find a good balance between work and rest. Set a clear time of the day after which you’re ‘off the clock’. This time should be dedicated to leisure. Avoid things that remind you of work – e.g. you could have all school-related stuff in your study room, and keep your bedroom free of any school-related material, or keep your school-related material in your room and spend your leisure time in your lounge. Resting and working in the same room could be stressful as you can be interrupted by emails, msn messages from friends who stress you out, or simply glancing at unfinished assignments left on your desk. Just like work, rest is best done without distraction in order to fully regain energy for the next day.

Also never plan to do important tasks in your ‘spare time’ – there’s no such thing as spare time and if you have this habit, you’ll certainly leave many tasks undone and neglected. You’re either working or resting, both activities are important to maintaining a healthy and sustainable work ethic.

The 80:20 rule

Also known as the ‘Pareto Principle’ or the ‘law of the vital few’: when applied to the field of time management, this ‘rule’ states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions. While there’s no mathematical significance of the 80:20 split, this rule alludes to the non-linear return of time invested – i.e. if you only put in 50% of your effort, you will get close to 0% of the results. But if you put in 100% of effort, you will get 100% of the results. That’s why it’s important to invest as much effort as you can, maintain a sustainable healthy work ethic throughout the year, and not be distracted by non-important tasks.

Keep a todo list and follow through with your plans

All effective time-managers keep a todo list. Split your tasks into 3 categories and put a number / letter next to them to remind you of which they belong to:

1. To be done within the day
2. To be done within the week
3. To be done within the year

Your student diary can fulfil this task. In our modern age, you can also consider using your iphone to synchronise with google docs so that you have access to your todo list everywhere (while at school, or on the train etc).

Watch your sleep

The human body works most efficiently when you maintain a constant sleep schedule. Sleeping at around the same time every night (not too late) will ensure you’re energetic and motivated during the day. It’s impossible to follow through with any time management plan / todo list if you’re lethargic all day. As a general rule, aim to reserve 8 hours of sleep each night – and you can’t sleep bank (i.e. sleep 6 hours for 3 nights, then 10 hours over the weekend) – it doesn’t work and will leave you fatigued and unmotivated during the day.

About the Author

Terry Wu is a maths tutor at Dux College. Having achieved an almost perfect ATAR himself in 2009 and HSC state ranks, he is an expert at time management and study skills. He is a passionate advocate of the ability for students to do well in the HSC through ‘acquired skills’ such as effective time management, effective study skills and learning exam technique.

Joining at the beginning of the year

Joining at the beginning of each year is the ideal because most tutoring colleges start their programmes for each year start at the beginning of the year (beginning of term 4 for year 12). Joining in the middle of the year is disadvantageous because you may have missed a module or two, or several topics. While you can catch up through self study and attending our tutorial workshops, it is obviously healthier and less stressful if you started at the beginning of the year. One of the major advantages of attending a tuition college as opposed to private tutoring is you get access to a structured programme that guarantees you will cover the entire course at a pace that’s advantageous to you in internal assessments (because remember, you’re up against your peers at school competing for the same top ranks, and if you learn ahead, you’re in the best possible position to secure the higher ranks). But this advantage is lost if you join in the middle of the year, when the class is already up to the end of module 2, and you need help with module 1.
Of course, late is better than never, and we’re not saying it’s a futile exercise joining in the middle of the year. As mentioned, we offer free services like unlimited free tutorial workshops, and we can give you the notes you missed out on, allowing you to catch up. But our point is it would’ve been healthier for you (in terms of knowledge retention, depth of course understanding and exam technique – these things build up over time) if you had joined at the beginning of the programme.

Switching tuition last minute

If you’re already attending a tuition college, you’re well advised to stay in that programme until its conclusion (unless it’s actually not helpful at all). Switching to another tuition provider after the middle of the year or near the end can do you more harm than good – and we’re saying this even though this may reduce our customer base (since many of our students come to us after being unhappy with other tuition companies). We tell these students “unless the place you currently go to is terribly bad, you should stay because if you switch now, you may have not covered some topics we’ve already covered, and vice versa”.

Again, I refer back to the point that HSC tutoring centres offer a structured programme designed to be comprehensive, and if you switch near the end of the year, this could be harmful because the order of topics covered at one place will differ significantly to the order of topics chosen by another place. That’s why we urge you to act sooner rather than later – if you feel the place you currently attend is not helpful at all, switch early rather than later.

Get the information you need before enrolling

It’s important to ask the questions that matter – find out where the classes are up to at the place you’re considering. Obviously if the class is covering topics not relevant to your school assessments, it’s of little value to you. Most of our subjects have parallel classes, some of which are deliberately a module or several topics behind because the students in those classes joined us later in the school year. Those classes will still cover content ahead of school pace, but you will be able to cover topics that should be covered early in the year.
Another thing to check out before enrolling is what sort of revision the classes will be doing, or whether there’s any revision scheduled at all. Revision is essential before assessment periods – the content covered over the months in the HSC year become a staggering amount and students need a few weeks worth of classes dedicated to consolidating knowledge – putting it all together and practice doing exam papers. Our programmes are scheduled in such a way as to allow a healthy amount of revision weeks before each key assessment period. During these periods, students focus on exam-style questions (as opposed to textbook style questions – a very important distinction!) and covering up any gaps they identify by doing exam papers. The earlier you start doing past papers, the better you will do in all your exams – that’s a fact!

The subjects you choose in year 10 determine how much you will benefit from the process of scaling. Briefly, scaling refers to the process by which raw assessment marks (e.g. from your internal exams and external HSC exams) are converted into scaled marks, which are marks on a common scale that allows the degree of achievement in different subjects to be compared against one another in a statistically fair way. The scaling process is undertaken by the UAC and the result of this process – your aggregate scaled mark (out of 500) – is the sole determinant of your ATAR. Therefore we can safely say that HSC scaling is a big deal if you intend on scoring a high ATAR.

In order to maximise the positive effect of HSC scaling, one must choose courses that are ‘scaled high’ – or in technical terms, have a high scaled mean. The scaled mean for a subject is an important statistic, which tells us the average scaled mark obtained by the subject’s cohort. The higher this statistic for a subject, the higher the subject is scaled generally. Scaled means are publicly available in Table A3 published each year by the UAC.

For full technical details on how the scaling process works, see our article on the topic: http://www.duxcollege.com.au/hsc-scaling-i-49.html

So why is subject selection important

It’s important to get your subject selection right the first time, because there’s limited to no chance to change after you’re well into year 11. Also the beneficial effect of scaling could be huge, or could be non-existent, depending on which subjects you chose. If your goal is to maximise your ATAR, you should also consider the scaling of a subject on top of whether you think you’ll enjoy it. The general rule is to select subjects you’ll be good at, amongst the subjects that offer a scaled mean of 29/50 or above.

What are some good subjects?

Have you noticed a pattern with graduates that score an ATAR of 99+? A significant portion of them do a combination of the following subjects:

• English Advanced
• Maths Extension 1
• Maths Extension 2
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Economics
• Modern history
• History Extension
• English Extension 1
• English Extension 2

What these subjects all have in common is that their scaled mean is all above 28/50 (most are around 30, with the best scaling from Maths Ext1 and Ext2 which goes as high as 45/50).

These subjects have higher scaled means due to the way in which the scaling process works. Year after year, the candidature of these subjects does comparatively better than their peers who do other subjects, including compulsory 2 units of English, which is used as a common scale to compare. What this means is that a high scaled mean often indicates higher subject difficulty, due to the fact that those students who do high-scaling subjects tend to do comparatively better than their peers in other subjects.

However, when it comes to advising students on what subjects to choose for year 11, we always advise students to go for as many of the aforementioned subjects as possible – so long as they can handle them.  For example, a student with aptitude and interest in maths should always choose Maths Ext 1 in year 11 – this opens the possibility to take up Extension 2 in year 12, which has a massively positive scaling effect (the majority of ATAR 99+ graduates have completed the Extension 2 course). If a student absolutely hates maths, that’s OK – choose some sciences and some humanities subjects (e.g. English Extension 1 and Modern History with History Extension, or Economics). Many graduates with a combination of humanities and social sciences have scored 99+ without having done any level of maths! What’s important is the ability to understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and choosing decently-scaled subjects based on this understanding.

For many of you entering year 11, this is a timely article reminding you that year 11 is an excellent opportunity to learn your content in advance. No assessments in the preliminary year count towards the HSC, and some students take advantage of this fact by using this time to learn ahead of the pacec at school.

Students who are finding the year 11 pace a bit leisurely can, in some circumstances, begin to study some of the year 12 content to ease the load when year 12 starts. For example, students can self-study  or seek tutoring in Extension 2 maths – certain topics (e.g. Complex Numbers) have no overlap with Extension 1 or 2 unit, and therefore can be self-accelerated without complications. Some preliminary modules in science subjects (e.g. Physics, Chemistry and Biology) have little value in terms of relevance to year 12 content. For example, the ‘Electrical Energy in the Home’ topic has almost no overlap with ‘Motors and Generators’ or any other HSC Physics module. Students should first seek some honest advice (e.g. from their tutor or an unbiased school teacher) of what content is actually important / relevant to year 12, and what content isn’t. This information is useful as it allows students to allocate more time towards self-study and learning ahead. The advantage is the fact that no exams or assignments done in year 11 (testing your knowledge of year 11 content) will count towards the HSC, so students can effectively ‘gain time’ that their peers would not have.

Collect notes, make notes and ask questions

Explore your personal network to expand your collection of notes (e.g. do you have family friends who have recently completed their HSC? Try to get their notes). If you attend tutoring, ask your tutor for notes and revision materials – start gathering notes as early as you can, especially year 12 notes.

In terms of self-study, it is a good idea to write down any questions you have as you read through your notes / textbook during year 11and ask your teachers when you get the chance. As year 12 comes, you will find more of your peers will be doing the same, and your teachers will no longer have the capacity or energy to answer your questions with as much detail / enthusiasm as before.

Settle your plans for HSC tutoring early

All reputable HSC tutoring colleges have an internally set course schedule that ensures their students cover the requirements of the syllabus comprehensively. It is always a good idea to settle on your tutoring plans early and join these programs earlier rather than later in order to avoid missing important content early in the term. (Tutoring colleges often teach at a slightly accelerated pace in order to give students familiarity to content before it is assessed, unlike at schools which assess content immediately after it is taught)

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!

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.

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

Sports
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.

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