4 things to do after HSC trials
You’ve spent weeks preparing for your trials, you’ve done past paper after past paper (or maybe you haven’t) and you’ve finally sat your exams… NOW WHAT?? For many students, the post-trials period is a weird and awkward transition. Do you get a break when the real HSC is less than 2 months away? Do your bad trials marks mean all hope is lost? Well good news – we’ve got the answers to all your questions! Read on for our top 4 tips on what to do after your HSC trials.
1. Take a break
In the few days after finishing your trials, take a break! Take time to relax, recharge and prepare your body and mind for the final leg of the HSC. You’ve (hopefully) worked hard to prepare for your trials and deserve some ME time. This could include sleeping in, catching up on your favourite Netflix series, or getting a massage. However, it’s important that this mini break is in fact… a MINI break. It’s ok to take a few days off studying, but avoid taking a break that’s longer than a week – the HSC will be here before you know it.
2. Keep doing light study
While you’re waiting for your trial marks, keep up some light study. This could include keeping your notes up-to-date (or completing any notes that you didn’t finish before trials), revising a topic a night, or re-reading important chapters in your English texts.
3. Learn from your mistakes
Regardless if you do well or not in your trials, you can ALWAYS improve and learn from your mistakes. Once you receive your exam paper, carefully read any comments, take note of what sections you did well in and which sections let you down, and think about how prepared you felt for the exam and if your mark reflected this.
Here are some questions you should answer for each exam paper:
Where did I lose the majority of my marks? Was it for a specific topic or section?
Why did I lose these marks? Did I not know the answer? Did I not answer the question? Did I not write enough/too much?
Did I manage my time well? Did I spend too long on any questions and not enough time on others?
Did I make any silly mistakes? Where and why?
Did I get full marks on any questions? What set apart this answer from my other answers?
Did I remember all the content I studied?
Once you have answered these questions, talk to your school teachers and the tutors at Pinnacle on how you can improve on each of these factors. This step is VITAL – you can’t improve if you don’t first identify your mistakes and then do something different to fix them.
4. Work with your peers
Before trials, I’m sure the HSC felt like a battle. Your peers were your biggest competitors and ranking above them was all that mattered. It’s vital to remember that the HSC is no longer a battle, it’s a TEAM EFFORT. Your internal HSC mark will likely be affected by how well your peers/school do in each subject in the HSC exam, so it’s important that you ALL DO WELL. I repeat, the better your whole cohort does, the better you will likely do. So start working effectively with your peers – share resources like a killer set of notes, good study tips and help any peers struggling with a certain topic and in turn accept help.
GOOD LUCK!