As this first week of “holidays” begins I am reminded of my October Holidays before my HSC exams. I have very fond memories of running my own little study camp at my house. I invited around 10 other students who came and stayed at my place for the week. During this time we had fantastic fun, but also managed to study for a minimum of 8 hours a day.
We would get up early and study from 7:30-9 am. This was followed by breakfast and then study from 9:30-11 am. We would then do something together as well as have lunch before resuming our study at 1-2:30 pm. We then had a short break and studied again from 3-4:30 followed by afternoon tea/snacks etc. At 5 we studied until 7 pm before going out or eating in for dinner. This then left our nights fairly free to play games, watch movies or go to training.
During this week we spent lots of time helping each other out. My friends came from 4 different schools, which allowed us to get different opinions and different ways of explaining key concepts to each other. I still remember the study session run by one of my friends around how to write our English essays and creative writing pieces.
Our main forms of study in this group were flashcards and doing past HSC questions and then giving each other feedback on our answers, as well as helping each other out when we got the answers wrong.
The whole time the walls were covered in mind-maps and other notes to help us study. We would often stop at the fridge, or at the mirror in order to read through each others notes.
If you are someone looking to succeed in your HSC, I highly recommend that you do a study week, or even a weekend, whatever you can manage. During this time it is vital that you study for at least as many hours as you would normally go to school. These are not so much holidays, as they are non-school days. These days of study can make a huge difference to your end result in your HSC.
