#1 Consolidate your knowledge.

Whether this be content you’ve forgotten from the year 11 syllabus that might be an important foundation for current year 12 topics such as basic calculus or knowledge that you’ve had difficulty grasping this previous term, the holidays are a critical period to fill in these gaps. Not only will this boost your confidence heading into term 2 but it will help eliminate any unnecessary stress arising throughout the rest of year 12 from any unresolved content issues. This would also be a good time to use the HSC CoWorks Coaches in the learning space during Bootcamp to help out with any of these issues, so use your resources available to the fullest.

#2 Planning to plan isn’t planning.

2 months is a long time and in between holidays, social gatherings and other commitments, it can be easy to lose track of how much time you actually have to accomplish your tasks. Therefore, we highly recommend that you plan both with good intentions and effectively. Look over at what needs to be done by the end of the holidays for each of your subjects, then make goals out of these tasks measured quantitatively (i.e. SMART goals) and always apply a deadline to them. Even better, use the Portal so coaches can check in to see how you’re going to add an additional layer of accountability. That way, it will become a lot more rewarding when you head back to school knowing you’ve completed what you set out to do.

3# Getting ahead of the curve.

The holidays are a supremely useful time for you to start thinking and enacting ways for you to pre-learn and enter into term 2 ahead of the class. Whether by getting more done on your major works (remember to book in for the free Major Work Workshop in January) or by pre-reading the textbook and attempting practice questions provided to you, pre-learning can be a very efficient use of your time. By doing so, classes in school will shift from just learning new content to pointing out gaps and flaws in your knowledge. You can also use the time there and in the space more effectively by asking and attempting more challenging questions. One thing I found very useful in the grand scheme of things was to keep that momentum going beyond the summer holidays. If you’re able to cover even just the first part of a new topic every single holiday before class, you’ll find it a lot easier come Trials and HSC time to focus more on applying rather than learning new knowledge.

4# Don’t skimp on the reading and research

It’s such a simple thing but given that you have so much time, why not use it to catch-up on your prescribed texts that you’ve been neglecting to read, or perhaps even doing that extra bit of reading on a school of history for your history extension major work. Regardless of what subject, the holidays represent a time where you can tick off the less invigorating HSC tasks and yet also allow you to gain a greater understanding of the content that you need to know before you apply. Bottom line is, most students perform better in their essays and works if they have done the reading that is required of them, so why not use these holidays to do exactly that?

5# Thinking about your vision and post-HSC ideas

These holidays represent perhaps the last time where you have a lot of freedom outside of term to explore some of the big picture stuff like what you want to achieve in the HSC, what you want to be doing after the HSC and how this ties into your overall vision for the HSC. For example, use this time to evaluate what marks you might want going into the remainder of year 12 to get into a particular course or adjusting your vision after realising if you put in the effort you could get a higher end result. Furthermore, the vision you create here will be of great use heading towards the business end of year 12 and really giving it some thought can definitely be a useful thing to do over the holidays.

So there you go! These are just some tips and I’m positive you definitely have some ideas of your own so please feel free to use them and share with us any which you found particularly useful. On that note don’t forget that through the Study Bootcamp sessions & Workshops we run the holidays, coaches and the markers here at HSC CoWorks are ready to help you with any issues that you may be facing and help guide you through your HSC journey. Enjoy your summer holidays and we’ll see you back for the New Year!

HSC CoWorks Coach

The post 500 Tips Of Summer (actually, more like 5): How To Use Your Holidays To Their Full Potential appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

Brief Introduction:

This will be the final of the three articles that I will have written to assist you all in achieving your dream ATARs. However of the three, this article will be the most important and beneficial, so if you have the time I suggest you read this carefully and thoroughly. I will begin with a brief anecdote to add some context to this article.

Compared to the rest of my grade at school I was never a typically strong student. In the second term of Year 12, our school gave every student in my year an estimate ATAR to let us know how we were all progressing. I had a meeting with the vice-principal, and he basically asked me what course I wanted to get into. I told him that I wasn’t sure yet, but perhaps law was an option. Then and there he abruptly told me that I had no chance of getting into law, and that my current estimate ATAR was 7 points under the projected average ATAR of our school. In short, people expected me to fail in reaching my goal.

Cut to the end of Year 12, and I’m standing on stage watching my name being engraved for outstanding academic achievement in senior school. I have been able to leapfrog the majority of my year and take a place among the elite. Thus my parents and many of my friends and teachers were extremely surprised, and a lot of people asked me if I was too.

The short answer was No.

After my ATAR came out, a lot of people were again surprised, and many questioned how I had so drastically improved in the span of a year. The answer was simply that I had played the HSC game, and played it well. However like any game, you can succeed much more easily, if you know all the rules. Thus in this article I will examine the rules of this game and break down the scaling of each subject.

“Top HSC students aren’t the ones who work the hardest, but the ones who work the smartest.”

This was my secret; I hope it can help you too.

** The ATAR calculation is a complicated equation and the views in this article are based on Harrison’s experience and cannot be used as a guarantee for predicting your result. **

How your ATAR is calculated

I believe the majority of you have a brief understanding of how your ATAR will be calculated. That HSC marks are comprised 50% from your school assessments (a set of 5-6 assessment tasks including half-yearly and trial examinations) and 50% from a common external HSC exam paper.

To succeed in the HSC game, it helps to know the rules in more detail. There are in fact 6 stages to calculating your ATAR that you should be familiar with:

1. School assessments are used to determine RANKINGS
2. Common HSC exam – all students sit the common paper
3. BOS determines HSC assessment and HSC exam marks
4. UAC scales each score to a score out of 50
5. Score out of 500 determined from your best 10 units
6. ATAR is determined based on percentiles

Now that we know the rules of this game in more detail, we can use this to our advantage.

Looking at these 6 rules, the first obvious thing that needs to be discussed is the importance of RANKINGS.

Rank Counts for Everything

A misconception that many parents and students have is that school marks actually count for something. So I will set the record straight here.

“Your ranking in each subject is all-important. Your school assessment marks are only important insofar as they determine your ranking in the course; they have no absolute value.”

The process of how the BOS uses your RANKINGS are as follows:

1. The school establishes a ranking of students within the school.
2. The BOS uses the school’s performance in the common paper to calculate what marks should be given as HSC Assessment marks.
3. The HSC Assessment Mark differs from your internal school assessment mark in that it is moderated, or aligned with the school’s performance in the common paper.

Here are some examples to make this clearer:

Example 1:

Let’s say you were ranked 1st in your school in Economics, and you scored 90% in the common HSC exam. Now suppose from your school the person who performed the best in the common HSC exam scored a 98. This would mean that your 1st place rank would be effectively worth 98, and you would receive the following results:

Subject: Economics
HSC Assessment Mark: 98
HSC Exam Mark: 90

Thus your final mark would be an average of the two scores, i.e. 94.

Example 2:

Now suppose that you were ranked around middle in your school for Economics, and the average of your school in the common HSC paper was 85, then the average HSC mark is also worth 85. So let’s say you managed to scored 91 in the common HSC exam, but your rank was average, then you would receive the following results:

Subject: Economics
HSC Assessment Mark: 85
HSC Exam Mark: 91

Then your final mark would be an average of the two scores, i.e. 88.

Therefore from the above two examples we can see that your raw school marks do not have a direct bearing on your HSC Assessment Marks. The two points that I want you to take away from this section are:

1. Rank in school counts for everything.

• It can either drag you down, or give you a failsafe during the HSC. Having a good rank can ensure that you still receive a decent mark despite a bad HSC Exam Mark.
• This may seem unfair, but it is the reward for staying committed through all of year 12.

2. Going to a good school means that the distribution of marks is fairly high

• If you go to a good school, and you have a decent rank, you can be fairly certain that for at least half of your HSC Mark (The HSC Assessment Mark) – you will score relatively well.
• If you go to a lower academically ranked school, make sure that you stay within the higher ranks of your school, or else your cohort will drag you down.

Not All Subjects are Created Equal

The typical wisdom for students is to just study as hard as possible for every subject, but due to time constraints in the HSC year, that is just not possible. Instead you will find it much more advantageous if you pick your battles. Strategically allocating time to different subjects can give you the edge over students who study many more hours than you do. To better understand this, a brief explanation of scaling is needed.

What is Scaling

Essentially, scaling is the process of standardizing marks so that they can be compared across subjects. Thus the common follow up question to this would be why scaling is needed?

The simple answer to this is that, without scaling, it would be impossible to compare a 92 in 4u Mathematics, to a 92 in Photography. It’s similar to converting currency. When people from other countries come to Australia, how do we know how much their money is worth? We simply convert their money into a single currency (AUD) that is nationally accepted in Australia.

In the same way, the UAC converts all HSC marks into a single UAC score and totals the top 10 units including 2 compulsory units of English. Thus to continue our analogy we can see that not all subjects are equal, with the harder subjects having the highest “exchange rate”.

Now that we have established this, we need to know the scaling of the different subjects to be able to pick our battles accordingly. On the next page I have listed out some common HSC subjects in a subject hierarchy to give you a better picture.

Subject Scaling Hierarchy

** This table is based on the average scaling of subjects accrued from ATAR calculators.

How can I maximize my ATAR (Strategy)

Now we have the information we need to strategically allocate our limited time to ensure maximum results with minimum effort. However before we develop this strategy I would like to clarify two points, that some of you may have questions about at this point in the article.

1. Doing relatively ‘good’ or ‘bad’ scaling subjects, does not give you any advantage or disadvantage. Rather the students, who end up with the top ATARs, are the ones who have been able to strategically allocate the correct amount of study time to each of their subjects. They are the students who have had a well-balanced approach to the HSC, and who have understood their strengths and who haven’t disregarded their weaknesses.
2. Following on from above, obviously all students are different. So I believe the best way to illustrate the HSC Game strategy is through using an example student.

Example Student:

Let’s say Hannah does the following subjects:

• English Advanced (2 units)
• Mathematics Extension 1 (2 units)
• Mathematics Extension 2 (2 units)
• Visual Arts (2 units)
• Modern History (2 units)
• Economics (2 units)

There are a total of 12 units. The 10 units that will eventually count are the 2 units of English, and her next best 8 units.

Hannah’s strongest subjects are her Mathematics and Economics. Her Modern History and Visual Arts are average. English Advanced is her weakest subject.

Her ATAR goal is 95. She attends a school that is ranked average, academically in the state.

AT THE BEGINNING OF YEAR 12 (STANDARD STRATEGY):

For any student at the beginning of Year 12, or for any student who has not yet established a proper study plan, the best thing to do would be to study according to the units. For Hannah, English Advanced is 2 units out of a total 12 units (17%). Thus out of her total study time, she should be spending around 17% of her time on English.

This is quite self-explanatory and an intuitive thing to do for most students. However it is how a student strategically adjusts his/her time allocation according to their results later on that will separate them from the rest of the pack.

Let’s say Hannah has finished her first two rounds of assessments, and is now deciding how best to prepare for her trials.

Her current ranks are:

• English Advanced (2 units) = 89/160
• Mathematics Extension 1 (2 units) = 3/84
• Mathematics Extension 2 (2 units) = 10/60
• Visual Arts (2 units) = 20/40
• Modern History (2 units) = 25/40
• Economics (2 units) = 20/50

HANNAH’S IDEAL TRIALS STRATEGY:

English Advanced:

This is the only subject that is guaranteed to count for Hannah, so she should be allocating more time into English. In order for her to achieve her goal ATAR, she would need to be ranked in the top 15-20% of her cohort, i.e. in the top 32 of her year.

Mathematics:

These are Hannah’s strongest subjects, and also her highest scaling subjects. In order for her to achieve her goal ATAR, she would need to be:

• In the top 90% of Mathematics Extension 2, i.e. ranked at least 54/60.
• In the top 50% of Mathematics Extension 1, i.e. ranked at least 42/84.

As you can see, her current ranks are much higher than needed. Say she spends 40% less time on her mathematics, and her ranks for both subjects drop by 30. She would still comfortably be achieving the required mathematics marks to reach her goal ATAR, whilst perhaps giving herself an extra hour every day to spend on her other subjects.

Visual Arts/Modern History:

These are Hannah’s two worst scaling subjects, and also her two weakest subjects after English. Again it would be much better for Hannah’s overall ATAR, if she re-allocated some of her time spent studying mathematics, and used it to focus on improving her ranks in these two subjects. For some context, to achieve her goal ATAR Hannah would need to be ranked:

• In the top 10% of Modern History, i.e. be ranked at least 4/40.
• In the top 8% of Visual Arts, i.e. be ranked in the top 3.

Economics:

In order for her to achieve her goal ATAR, she would need to be ranked in the top 15-20% of her cohort, i.e. be ranked in the top 10. So despite her decent rank, she would also need to allocate some of her time spent on her Mathematics into her Economics to improve her rank.

Breakdown of the main advice I’m giving you:

1. You have a limited amount of time, so use it wisely: a. Focus on improving the subjects, which would increase your overall ATAR the most. For example, say you were on par to achieving 90 in both 4U Mathematics and Advanced English. Increasing your 4U marks to 95 would have an equivalent ATAR increase of less than 1. Whilst increasing your English marks to 95, would have an equivalent ATAR increase of around 2 points. “In short, further improvements in lower scaling subjects, produce proportionately larger gains in your ATAR”.
2. Be an all-rounder: Many students unconsciously tend to study the subjects they like the most and neglect subjects they are weaker at. This is disastrous from an ATAR perspective because it leads to over-studying subjects in which you are already receiving relatively highly scaled marks and understudying the very subject in which there is the greatest scope to boost your ATAR.
3. Study smarter not harder:  If you can take this advice which the Coaches and I consistently remind students at HSC CoWorks, you will find that your time spent studying will be much more effective. I have friends who have studied 6-7 hours a day (outside of school), and tired out in crucial times during the HSC year. Studying effectively ensures you get the most return for your effort and prevents you from burning out. Eg. Complete practice exams, push yourself outside of your comfort zone, ask lots of questions..

Briefly how this strategy helped me

Like I said at the start of the article, I wasn’t doing very well at the beginning of year 12. The main reason being that I was spending too much time trying to come first in Mathematics, whilst basically spending no time on my English and Chemistry.

I realized that I was picking the wrong battle to fight. Coming first in mathematics would require me to study at least 2 hours of math a day and I knew that based on the strength of my cohort, being first as opposed to average, would only equate to a small increase in my overall ATAR. So I tactically decided to allocate these 2 hours to my English and Chemistry.

I knew that I would drop several ranks in Mathematics, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make, as I knew it would be better for my ATAR in the long run. In fact, I ended up dropping 20 places in 4U, but managed to increase my Chemistry rank by 30 and my English rank by 60, and when my ATAR came out, I leapfrogged a lot of students who traditionally outperformed me.

Conclusion:

This has been quite a long article, so I thank those of you who have taken the time to read it. I know a lot of the knowledge, which I have imparted, may seem a little controversial; as most students believe honest hard work alone will ensure that they achieve good results.

Honest hard work is crucial to the HSC, but having a little strategy and understanding scaling can really give you a strong competitive advantage, especially over those people who have the time to study 6-7 hours a day.

To attain the best mark is not about being the smartest or most talented kid in the room, it’s about being the best at playing the HSC game. Remember it’s about studying smarter not harder.[/one_half]

The post Playing the HSC Game appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

Just like a gym has different styles of classes to support members achieve their fitness goals, at HSC CoWorks we are introducing a new style of session to support students achieve their HSC Vision. The Study Burst Session is based on the time management tool taking over the world, the Pomodoro Technique, which allows for 25 minutes of focused effort followed by 5 minutes of break followed by another 25 minutes of focused effort.

What are the Study Burst Sessions? 

These sessions are an alternative to the Weekend Support Sessions and are perfect for when a student just needs to get some focused work completed by working independently and taking responsibility for their own performance instead of getting any support. This will also allow them to gauge how well they are performing in particular tasks and then get the necessary support from our coaching team at their next session.

In this  3 hour intensive study session, which is broken up into 25 minutes of serious concentration and performance followed by a 5 minute break followed by another 25 minutes of concentrated performance.

Students will determine what they need to work on in each 25 minute block of time whether it be completing an essay for English, attempting 10 challenging Maths Questions, finishing an Economics essay, revising a topic for Biology, accelerating ahead of the class for Modern History, updating your Basecamp project etc the focus is completing focused work with zero distractions. We repeat the 25 minutes ON and 5 minutes OFF until 6 x 25 minute sessions are completed.

If you would like to complete a 55 minute burst, no problem, just skip one of your 5 minute breaks and keep working through to the next break.

Benefits of the Study Burst Sessions

Zero Distractions

Mobile phones, internet surfing, Facebook, talking, getting food/coffee will only be able to done in the 5 minutes of breaks. Silent and focused effort at all other times.

Accountability

Be kept accountable to your focused effort so that you can increase your output and preparedness for assessment tasks and exams.

Improve your brain function

We know that multitasking is completely at odds with the deep reflective thinking needed for successful study. Furthermore multitasking (including digital distractions) is an energy sapping exercise for our brain so if we are working on only ONE task per 25 minutes without any distractions, we will preserve the limited energy of our brain (specifically our Pre Frontal Cortex).

Frequently asked questions

Can I get support in the Study Burst sessions? 

During the Study Burst sessions there will be limited support during the 5 minute breaks however this session is more geared towards students making serious progress towards any assessment tasks, exam preparation or revision with zero distractions. As a result of completing 6 x 25 minute focused efforts students will be able to find out specifically where they need support for their next session with support from the coaches.

When are the Burst Sessions run? 

This coming Sunday in Bondi Junction and Mosman the Burst Session will be a bonus weekend session so students can still attend their normal number of weekend support sessions (1 for Standard Package students and 2 for Premium Package Students).

Bondi Junction: 

1. Sunday 16th November 4:15pm to 7:30pm (first 15 minutes will allow for setting up, planning and going over logistics)
2. Sunday 23rd November 4:15pm to 7:30pm
3. Sunday 30th November 4:15pm to 7:30pm

Mosman: 

1. Sunday 16th November 1:15pm to 4:30pm (first 15 minutes will allow for setting up, planning and going over logistics)
2. Sunday 23rd November 1:15pm to 4:30pm
3. Sunday 30th November 1:15pm to 4:30pm

We will trial a few different times for these sessions next year to see which is the most popular however for the remainder of Term 4 they will be run in the above Sunday time slots.

Who are the Burst Study Sessions best suited for? 

• We would recommend that students on our Premium Package attend 1 x Weekend Support Session and 1 x Study Burst Session each week.
• The burst sessions are also perfect for the student who isn’t currently achieving their recommended 3 hours study/homework per night. The Burst Study Sessions will get students used to sitting down and working for 3 hours.
• For students who need to be doing more well intentioned and EFFECTIVE study as opposed to doing well intentioned and INEFFECTIVE study
• Students who have assessment tasks piling up and need to make some serious progress towards their completion rather than needing specific support on how to approach the task.
• Students who are used to multi tasking (texting, Facebook, watching TV etc) while studying.
• Students who still need to come to terms with the study demands of the HSC year.
• Students who work slowly on tasks and don’t set deadlines for task completion and as a result feel overwhelmed as the deadlines approach.
• Students who have poor study habits at home can develop their study skills and transfer these skills to their home study performance.

Look forward to completing a few Study Bursts with you all to get you to the front of the pack climbing Mount HSC.

The post Introducing Our Study Burst Sessions appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

The work being done by students in the office has been outstanding over the last few weeks so we have decided to run six “Bonus” supervised study sessions at both the Bondi Junction and the Mosman office next week (Week of 6th Oct) and the week after (Week of 13th Oct). These sessions are in addition to the Friday and Sunday sessions which are still available for students to attend.

Prior to the final exams commencing (Bondi & Mosman)

Wednesday 8th October

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

Thursday 9th October

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

Friday 10th October 

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

During the final exam period (Bondi & Mosman)

Wednesday 15th October 

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

Thursday 16th October

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

Friday 17th October 

• 9am to 12pm Supervised study session

 Saturday 18th October

• 9am to 12pm Supervised Study session

The post Bonus Supervised Study Sessions appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

Sally Pearson recently won the 100 m hurdles at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  How she focused on winning that race and achieving her goal can be applied to our HSC students.

Here are 3 winning tips that Sally shared post race that can easily be applied to all our students.

1. “I don’t want to win I HAVE to win.”  

How could changing the way you look at your HSC Goal into something you HAVE to achieve rather than something you WANT to achieve impact on your own HSC result?

• I need to get 90+ ATAR
• I need to get into that Arts degree course
• I need to get into UNSW

2. At the start of each race she looks down the track and finds some green and gold to focus on. This reminds her of why she is there. Knowing that she is an inspiration to others who look up to her and representing her country is what motivates her?

• What is your motivation/vision?
• How can you find your own ‘green and gold’ to focus on at the start of an exam, trials, study?

3. Sally had a difficult run up to this important race.  She was trying to retain this title from the last commonwealth games, she had injuries leading up to the race and there was a lot of behind the scenes drama that were distracting.  She said she just had to get the job done and that she had ran that race a million times.

Fergus often says you can have excuses or you can have results but you can’t have both.

So as an HSC student practicing exam style questions under timed conditions over and over again is as Sally puts it ‘going to get the job done’ in the HSC.

Thank you Sally Pearson for being so inspiring.

The post Top Tips From A Gold Medalist appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

Cadbury is a major global confectionery company employing 50,000 staff worldwide, operating in more than 60 countries, creating and marketing brands people love! They are number 1 for chocolate in Australia with a 53% share, and a strong presence in lollies. In New Zealand they have a 56% share in chocolate. Some well known brands include Cadbury Dairy Milk, The Natural Confectionery Co., Pascall and Green & Black’s.

But whilst the products are fun, the business of creating them is very serious. At Cadbury, they are performance driven and values led. They value their people believe in inspiring each other to achieve great things.

From the website:

“People tell us that the great thing about working at Cadbury is that our people are friendly and our work environment is open and welcoming. We also know from our regular employee surveys, that our colleagues feel a strong sense of pride in working for Cadbury. We treasure these aspects of our culture because we recognise that they are essential in fostering an environment where teams and individuals can contribute to business results.

People stay at Cadbury because they feel they can grow personally and professionally – being stretched, offered new challenges and finding the scope to make a difference to the business.

Career management and development is an essential part of our people strategy at Cadbury, which is based on attracting, retaining, motivating and developing our colleagues.

Since each colleague’s career expectations are individual, everyone is responsible for owning and driving their own career, with the support of their manager and the business. The organisation is responsible for setting clear expectations and providing tools, resources and opportunities to help colleagues succeed including assistance with further education.”

The post Cool Company To Work For #19: Cadbury appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

You’ve got just one term to go until you start your own journey up Mount HSC. Just as mountaineers pack their bags to ensure they have all the equipment for the climb, so should you be prepping now to ensure you have what you need for the HSC.

• Have a vision – This allows you to set an end point, a goal that drives you to work hard throughout your HSC campaign.
• Support network – It’s important to ensure that you have a person or people, whether it’s family, friends or teachers who are able to support you up the climb.
•  Tools and expertise – Many students are slow off the mark because they don’t understand the “HSC”. Terms such as ‘scaling’, ‘assessments’ or ‘ranks’ can often be confusing but are vital to help you maximise your potential your HSC. Make sure you ask for help if you are unclear about any of these terms.

We are here to support you in any way possible, so make sure to ask us for help if you have any queries!

The post Year 11 Zone: One Term To Go! appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

While the benefits of having a clear goal when trying to achieve anything are well known, David Rock’s “Choose your focus” model provides a powerful tool which will last long after the HSC is completed for our students.

Through out the HSC year, students focus can vary from one of the five focuses that David Rock has identified in this model.

1. Vision
2. Planning
3. Detail
4. Problem
5. Drama

Having worked with thousands of students over the last 6 years at HSC CoWorks the most common obstacle to the achievement of a students vision is “distraction”. With this in mind I am adding a variation to David Rock’s model where a problem focus is also a “distracted” focus. If you are distracted it’s time to revisit your vision.

Let’s look at how the model relates to the journey up Mount HSC.

Vision focus

What would you like to achieve this year? What is at the top of your mountain? Where are we going with this?

At HSC CoWorks we create a vision focus with our “Vision Sessions” and by checking in with students around their vision every time we see them. HSC Students, just like anyone else will take their eyes off their vision and only be able to see problems and reasons why they can’t achieve their vision which is why our team check in with students visions as often is possible. “Tell me about your vision”, “How important is it that you achieve your vision?”, “What will it feel like when you achieve this vision?” are examples of the questions that we ask when we need to get our students back into vision.

Planning focus

How are we going to get to our vision? What is the path we are taking to get to the top of your mountain?

Breaking down the vision into small and manageable chunks ensures that we are consistently taking steps to the top of the mountain. If we don’t do the planning, the mountain can seem overwhelming and no – one does their best work when they are overwhelmed. The project management tool, Basecamp, which every student at HSC CoWorks uses is the means by which we do the planning for students climb up Mount HSC. As students complete the tasks they determined would get them closer to the top of their Mount HSC, they are able to tick that item off and feel a sense of accomplishment and progress.

Detail focus

What are you going to achieve today towards climbing your mountain? What can you achieve in the next two hours that will support you achieving your vision?

A detail focus is the actual climbing of the mountain and in the context of the HSC, it’s the writing of practice essays, building and memorising mindmaps, completing practice exams and so on. Getting to the top of a students Mount HSC is not possible without completing the detail required however the problem with detail is that if a student spends too long with this focus without reminding themselves of their vision, they will inevitably end up in “problem/distraction”. Therefore it is crucial that as students work on the detail they remind themselves of why they are climbing Mount HSC by returning to their vision.

Problem/Distraction Focus

When a Mountain climber takes their eyes off the peak of the mountain, they are getting tired and sore, they are hungry, wishing they were at home, forgetting why they started the climb in the beginning they will start saying to themselves “I don’t think I can do this”, “I shouldn’t be here”, “I’m never going to get to the top”, “I don’t need to be mountain climber” and with this kind of focus, the mountain climber will struggle all the way to the peak or alternatively turn around and say “Mount climbing is just not for me”. The same goes for an HSC Student climbing their own Mount HSC.

An HSC student with a “problem/distraction” focus will be justifying why they can’t do well, why it’s unfair that they have to do so much work, saying things like “I’m over the HSC”, “my teacher doesn’t like me” and so on. If a student is distracted easily by TV, social media, chatting online to friends or anything else, that immediately tells me that they have lost sight of their vision and the bright shiny new thing that is distracting them looks more attractive than what’s at the top of their Mount HSC.

Trying to climb Mount HSC with a “Problem/Distraction” focus is like climbing a mountain with an extra 50Kgs in your back pack. The quickest way to lighten the load is to get back into the creation cycle of “Vision, Planning and Detail” then back to “Vision, Planning, Detail”.

Too long spent in “problem and distraction” will inevitably lead to us falling into Drama.

Drama focus

When we have a drama focus we are highly emotional and not able to complete any productive work towards our vision. A drama focus will often be accompanied by tears, anger and a fear of the task at hand preventing us from making progress. Being in drama is the least helpful focus and the sooner we get out of it the better (obviously). The first step to get out of drama is to acknowledge your current focus is drama. Once you have acknowledged this it’s time to get back to vision and get back into the creation cycle.

Whether we are climbing Mount HSC, growing our business or trying to achieve success in any field we owe it to ourselves to protect our vision by giving it the air time it deserves. Without vision we are not going to get far.

For our parents, the best way to support your child on their journey to the top of Mount HSC is to support them to stay in the creation cycle by helping them have a Vision focus. If you focus on the detail “have you done your homework”, “how much study have you done today”, “what should you be doing right now” the conversation will very quickly slide in to problem and then drama.

Keep the conversation in vision by reminding them what’s at the top of the mountain.

If you would like to know more about how we use David Rock’s “Choose your focus” model please post a message on your child’s basecamp project or email jesse@hsccoworks.com.au.

Jesse Gardiner

Head Performance Coach

For details of our available services please follow the links below.

The post The Importance Of Vision In Becoming A Successful HSC student appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

Authenticity, innovation, pride, confidence and a belief in limitless potential have been the foundations in Quiksilver becoming the largest and most prestigious clothing and apparel company in the action outdoor sports industry.

The groovy sport and surf retailer Quiksilver walks its talk with its workforce. As a retailer promoting an active lifestyle to its buyers, it also promotes a similar ethos to its employees.

Lunchtime surfing and snow trips are a given and helped by the company’s most recent initiative in the form of The Boardroom – a library of boards of all shapes and sizes available for any team member to use before or after work or during lunchtime.

Quiksilver also sponsor some of the biggest sporting events in the world, so there’s always the perk of the opportunity to get to go to these.

Watch the video below for a day in the life of some of the team members of Quiksilver!

The post Cool Company To Work For #17: Quiksilver appeared first on HSC CoWorks.

One way to keep up to date with what is happening is through Basecamp. All parents are members of their child’s ‘awesome HSC result’ project. In this, the students set out tasks in checklists that they want to achieve as well as logging assessments. There is also a calendar which allows due dates to be set. The handy discussion board is a forum for which the coaches, student and parents can interact and make sure that everyone is playing their part in the HSC campaign.

With assessments and Trials coming up, it’s important to also note the characteristics the student is portraying. Are they the signs of a motivated, independent learner who is pushing their way up Mount HSC, or are they showing signs of decreased enthusiasm and procrastination?

Over all, students who are being stretched and challenged will possess characteristics including:

• Focus
• Clear Vision
• Working on high level tasks
• Portrays body language of being focused and calm
• Communicate to look for support around solutions

There are many benefits of recognising if your student is being stretched and challenged, especially in the HSC Coworks space. It allow for a great overall HSC Vision that is well supported by the coaches in the space and we find that the students with such characteristics feel more in control to achieve better marks, and they more commonly perform better.

As a parent, the task of being supportive for your child can often prove just as challenging as the HSC yourself. Using Basecamp is an excellent place to start. Speaking to the coaches at HSC Coworks is also another awesome way to make sure that we are all working together for that awesome HSC result!

The post The Role Of Parents In The HSC appeared first on HSC CoWorks.