HOW TO IMPROVE FROM YOUR HALF YEARLY EXAMS

Not happy with your marks? In year 12 and worrying about how you can improve before the HSC? Firstly, don’t get too frantic if you didn’t perform as well as you wanted to. It’s likely that only less than 25% of your marks towards your ATAR have been accounted for (you’ve only done roughly half of the year’s course, and your marks at school only count for 50% of your ATAR – 50% is from your own HSC exam results). Even though you may feel like half of your studies have already finished, there’s certainly still chance for you to bounce back!

Review where you went wrong in your exams

Before doing much else, it is important to realise where your weak points were in your exams. What topics did you do well in and which ones do you need to work on more? If you are able to keep your exams, make sure to redo questions that you were relatively weak in and try to fully understand the topic those questions are from. If you aren’t able to keep your exams, try to jot down what type of questions and which topics you didn’t do well in.

Ask for additional help

Don’t be afraid to let your teacher know where you’re struggling. They’re there to help you, not just to mark you harshly in exams! After identifying where you went wrong, it can be a good idea to ask your teacher for additional material on the particular topic, or if they can go over these topics again during class. Chances are, many other students would have found similar questions difficult too. It wouldn’t hurt to also ask your teacher to go over certain topics with you one on one just after class or during additional spare time in class.

Re-examine your exam preparation routine

It’s also important to examine how you prepared for the particular exams that you did not achieve the results you desired. Did you leave all the revision till the night before? Did you start revising too early that you already forgot some things before the exam started? Revision and preparation can make all the difference, and the way you revise may need to be different for different subjects. For example, maths would require more time spent on practicing questions rather than reading over formulas. It’s also important to go over the simple things. You don’t want to be spending too much time revising topics you struggle in that you forget to go over the simpler things and let go of easy marks during your exam.

Jack Zheng | N° 72