As your HSC year comes to an end it is important for you not to give up! Often I see students who have struggled throughout their year and have worked hard, only to not get the marks in the trial that they were hoping for. But don’t let this get you down! You were always going to do worse in your trials than you will in the actual HSC PDHPE exam. These last few weeks and the short “break” before those exams are crucial to your success.
Firstly, I want to point out that 50% of your mark for your HSC comes from your up-coming external exam. That means whatever you have so far, is only worth 50% of your overall grade. With 50% to come, you can still drastically improve your result, as long as you keep at it. Furthermore, you should note that your upcoming HSC exam will also have an effect on the mark you get from your school (it can go up or down depending on you and your class). I must say, that right now, helping others in your class to improve, will also help you to improve! the better you do together, the better you do individually.
I think it is also important to point out that your HSC PDHPE exam is still 6 weeks away. This is heaps of time for you to get in a huge amount of study! I remember the back end of my HSC year and the study I fit in during these last few weeks. I even organised my own study “camp” hosted at my house with a few of my friends, where we all worked hard together, sharing notes and testing each other for a week. I fit in over 10 hours of study each day, and still had plenty of time to fulfil my sporting commitments.
At this point in your journey, you should have finished off your notes, and be spending most of you time doing past papers (including previous trial exams). You should aim to work through 1 past paper a week while you are at school (on top of what you are doing in class) and then do 1 past paper every 2-3 days during the non-school days. Now, of course, just answering the questions is not the best, you should also use the marking guidelines (previously split into marking criteria and sample answers) to work through your past papers and improve your answers. In addition, you should harass your friends and teachers to provide you with feedback on these exams.
So, now is not the time to give up, or to chuck it all in. Now is the time to take your study to the next level! To increase your “practice” time and get as many past papers, or practice questions completed as possible. And of course, it is not practice that makes perfect, it is perfect practice that makes perfect… so get lots of feedback, and ensure that your practice of past papers and other questions is as perfect as it can be.
