Once all of this dies down, and the school holidays begin, it will be time to start knuckling down and studying for the HSC that looms ahead.

During the holidays, and the immediate weeks prior to the HSC exams, how should you be structuring your study time? How long should you be studying for?

In my interviews with 98+ UAI students, some clear answers emerged to these very questions.

Despite rumours of 8 -9 hours study days, most students on average during this period studied approximately 5-6 hours each day. Student’s would usually wake up around 8 am, and begin studying by 8:30 am.

The day was commonly structured in 3 x 2 hours study period, or 2 x 3 hours study periods. This often depended on the concentration of the particular student. What was interesting however is that by the week prior to the exams, all students unanimously stated that they would study 2 x 3 hour periods. Why? A large amount of exams extend for 3 hours, and therefore, students thought it imperative to mimic exam length in their own study time, so that they could develop strong concentration levels for the exams.

So how would a day look?

Wake Up: 8am

Set Goals: 8:30am

Study: 9 - 12am

Lunch: 12- 1pm

Study: 1 -4pm

Rest/Relax: 4pm onwards

98+ UAI students also made a point of relaxing each night and trying to do something fun. Many related that this helped motivate them to study the next day, and prevent burn out.

Keep tuned for the following weeks editions – I will be covering how to make your study more efficient, what tasks students should focus on, and exam technique.

On another note, I was fortunate to win the Hill Excellence in Youth Awards Business Category for Art of Smart Education which was great. What became clear from the night is that the Hills area certainly has many very talented young people!

If you have any question or queries, please feel free to shoot me an email at info@artofsmart.com.au