Everyone has heard the term, practice makes perfect. And even if perfection is unattainable, the general principle still applies. The more you practice the better you get. For HSC PDHPE, what you want to make sure you are good at is exams! I know exams are not everyone’s cup of team, but the more you practice them the better you will get.
Most of you by now have obtained your drivers licence and probably passed quite easily. I have noticed since I got my licence that the Roads and Maritime have changed the way they prepare people for the tests. It used to be that you were given a handbook and told to read it and make sure you knew it. Now they tell you to complete online tests that are much the same as the actual test.
If we take this simple principle, practice makes perfect, which Roads and Maritime are also using and apply it to HSC PDHPE, the shift looks something like this: Rather than reading your textbook or notes, you should be doing as many tests as possible!!
One of the key aspects to the Roads and Maritime test though is the speed at which they provide feedback on your results, allowing you to then retry the test multiple times. Now I suspect that most of you did many online tests, even after you started to get them all right, just to ensure you passed when you sat the real test. You need to do the same now as you prepare for HSC PDHPE exams.
You need to practice as many tests as possible! Get feedback as quickly as possible! And re-test yourself! You should continue to test yourself even after you start to get 100% on every question.
So… where do you get tests, or at least practice questions?
The best place is to access the past HSC exams on the BOSTES website here. This is best not just because they are real HSC PDHPE exam questions, but because BOSTES also provide marking criteria and some form of sample answers. These can speed up the rate at which you get feedback. You could read the sample answer and marking criteria and provide yourself with feedback immediately!! But, you can also give it all to your teacher, and they can provide you with detailed feedback for you to continue to improve. Just make sure that you record the exam year and question number for your teacher. It will save them time searching through exams.
Once you start to run out of these questions, you can start to use the HSC PDHPE syllabus. In the syllabus, there are many questions that can be used as practice questions. Just run through the learn tos and add to these the critical questions for each module/topic and you should have another large pile of practice questions. These questions are good because they are straight from the syllabus and feedback can be quick, simply by looking through the content or learn abouts that match up to the learn to or critical question. Your teacher can once again provide quite swift feedback.
The final source for practice questions should be your textbook/s. Most textbooks have practice questions or review questions that can be used as practice exam questions. Once again give your answer to the teacher and get some feedback.
REMEMBER the most important this is to do lots of practice questions, get swift feedback, but then TRY AGAIN!!! You must redo questions and resubmit them. Do this as much as possible covering all of the syllabus dot points and you will be very well prepared for your exams. Even those of you who stress out, have anxiety attacks and hate exams with a passion, will do much better if you remember practice makes perfect.
