Hi everyone,

Final Note on Trials 2013

Almost all of our students have finished, or are just about to finish, their trial HSC exams for 2013. I’m not going to lie – it’s been a pretty tough couple of weeks for everyone, and the work and the results we’ve seen in the office have been absolutely outstanding. Everyone’s really been putting in the hard yards for these exams and congratulations again on a really solid set of exams.

The tough thing about trials is that they leave you in a weird spot: the weight that lifts off your shoulders when you finish them is only temporary, as we’ve still got the final climb up Mount HSC with the final exams and the seven weeks between now and then can look endless from where we are now. Don’t let that time go to waste, as these are crucial weeks in your final preparation. You now have the advantage of having done trial exams and knowing what it’s going to feel like in that hall, and let’s face it, that’s half the battle.

Using Trials to Your Advantage

Trials are also useful in what they give you afterwards, not just a mark, but feedback that tells you exactly where you are in your HSC campaign.

So you lost some marks in an exam that you wanted to do better in? Think of it this way: now you have it written down exactly what you need to improve on.

That’s invaluable feedback, and it’s basically a guide on how to refine your final preparation.

You’ve also broken the ice in terms of facing unseen questions under exam conditions. For things like English, that’s half the battle, and now you’ve done it once, you can sit down and do it again and again to really dominate that final exam.

A great way to keep the momentum up towards your Trial Exams is to type your actual Trial Exam essays up, make the improvements and submit them for marking.

Working without Assessment Pressures

It’s easy to think that these few weeks between Trials and the final Board of Studies exams are assessment-free, which can shake everyone a little, given that the whole year’s learning has been structured around an almost overwhelming onslaught of exams, assessments, tasks, and endless means of testing your knowledge. Without that, studying can be a little daunting. The thing here is that you’re not working without the structure of assessment tasks, it’s actually that you’ve got about seven weeks to prepare for one final assessment that’s worth 50%. It’s really the final hurdle, and it’s best approached by persistence. Keep pushing yourself, and when you get to that final exam it’s not going to be a surprise at all. You’ll be totally ready for it.

10 things to look forward to after the HSC

1. Sleeping in and Long Weekends

2. Getting your social life back

3. Schoolies

4. Getting to choose what you study!

5. Travelling

6. Going out on Weeknights

7. Getting your License

8. Road Trips

9. Get a Job

10.   Music Festivals