What is the HSC like in 2020?
Written by The Stepping Stones Team
With all the major changes to the NSW Higher School Certificate we feel that it is important to discuss what has changed and how we feel this affects you going into the new HSC examinations. Reading this article may give you the ‘2020’ vision you need to understand what you need to do to prepare and tackle the fast-approaching new academic year!
How Should You Prepare For The HSC in 2020?
Your performance in this school term, being your first term of Year 12 will determine what head-start you want to give yourself for the remainder of the year.
On average, with the limited internal school assessments it is fair to expect that this term you will find yourself sitting examinations for your subjects that weigh 15% – 25% of your overall internal mark. The strongest advice we can provide to all Year 12’s starting their HSC is that you must mature and rise up to face the challenge of the HSC as soon as possible. Based on our history of working with students we have historically found that students who perform poorly in Term 1 do still have the opportunity of catching up and regaining lost ranks and marks BUT would still have appreciated a stronger wake up call before their first HSC internal exams.
So, here is the wake-up call. Your Year 11 Preliminary Examinations that you sat not that many months ago do indeed matter and you should use your results to judge how you approach your study. If you were a high achiever, there is a great opportunity for you to continue this streak and tackle all upcoming content with the same intensity and motivation you showed in Year 11. On the other hand, if you didn’t perform up to your standards you need to use this as motivation and reasoning to take things seriously as every little decision you make to improve your learning and study routine will add up to an improved result in your upcoming examination.
But, for both High Achievers and Aspiring Achievers here is a list of things you can start doing to either check your progress or improve on your habits.
1. Eliminate distractions so you can meet your deadlines and responsibilities for homework.
If you spend time during the weekdays relaxing and this is causing you to fall behind on homework or is preventing you from studying and focusing, it is an achievement in itself to reduce or eliminate it completely. Everyone likes distractions and it is a milestone to learn how to replace the time you waste with things that aren’t important with things that are.
2. Create a personal system for organising your notes, completed/uncompleted homework, upcoming deadlines.
How do you store your work from school, notes from class, etc? How do you manage your deadlines? start simple, make folders on your computer, purchase physical folders to store worksheets, even consider making lists of things you need to accomplish every day/week.
3. Understand your academic weaknesses and figure out ways to work on them!
WHEN do you realise you don’t understand something? Wherever it is in your learning process you need to make sure you are honest with yourself and clearly work out ways for you to identify what does it mean for you to not understand something.
With all HSC examinations, the true success stories come from those individuals who use this test as an opportunity to grow and overcome limitations they thought they had on themselves. It is important to know that self-evaluation and being critical on yourself is often difficult and that is where the mentorship and guidance from others can make a big difference in giving you the pathway to follow so you can improve.
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