With Trial Exams just 75 days away, the countdown is officially on. But the real question is: how are you training for game day? If you’re relying on notes, rereading textbooks, or highlighting passively, you’re only half preparing. Your true secret weapon? Practice questions.
Read our top exam training tips below.
1. Active Practice Beats Passive Study
Passive study feels safe. It feels productive. But reading your notes isn’t the same as applying your knowledge. The exam room doesn’t ask if you’ve memorised the syllabus, it doesn’t check how good your notes look — it asks if you can apply it under pressure.
When you do practice questions:
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You activate your brain to retrieve and apply knowledge.
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You simulate real exam conditions (pressure, time limits, uncertainty).
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You expose what you really know—versus what you think you know.
This is why active practice is the most powerful study you can do. This does not need to be practice questions but some sort of active recall such as;
- Syllabus Mindmaps from memory.
- Flaschcard training.
- Quote memorisation write outs.
2. Train for the Exam Room, Not the Classroom
The students who come out on top in the exam room don’t just study and they don’t just do what the teacher asks them to. Top students are training every day for the exam room and going above and beyond what is required in class.
At HSC CoWorks, we call this Key Behaviour 3: Train Daily. Even just one set of practice questions each day is enough to build a strong habit, test your knowledge and train for the exam room.
If you are aiming for a 90+ ATAR.. ask yourself “Am I doing more exam training than 90% of NSW students right now?”
3. Practice Questions Help You Find Gaps (Before It’s Too Late)
Every time you attempt a question, you’re testing your understanding. Got stuck? Great! That’s gold. Now you know exactly what to revise.
The more you practice, the better you get at identifying and fixing your weak spots before they show up in the trials. And with CoWorks, you don’t have to figure it out alone. We have 1000s of practice questions for you to submit your responses and receive detailed marker feedback, showing you exactly where to improve.
4. Simulate the Exam
Want to walk into your Trials with real confidence? You need to simulate the exam. This means:
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Timing yourself strictly under exam conditions.
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Completing entire past papers in one sitting.
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Handwriting your essays and responses, just like you’ll have to in the real exam. You might be surprised how hard it is to write out that typed essay in 90 minutes.
This kind of training builds your mental endurance, improves your timing, and gets your brain (and hand!) ready for the pressure of exam day.
🚀 75 Days Until Trials: What Now?
The next 75 days are your training ground. Treat them like a lead-up to a championship. Practice daily, simulate the exam, track your improvement, and go into your Trial Exams knowing you’ve done the work.
Because in the end, the exam room rewards those who’ve trained for it.
