As a result, I thought I would dedicate this article to providing some suggestions about studying over the next fortnight.

At the present moment as I write this, there is just under 1 month remaining until trials. So that means that the next fortnight is crucial in terms of the studying. The aim of this holiday should be to achieve two things:

1) Build a strong knowledge base

2) Write Practice Essays/Complete Practice Exams

As I have been working with many students, the onset of the trials has created a panic, and many students wanted to immediately jump into practice papers this holiday.

While this certainly gives you plenty of time to work on questions and practice exam technique, there is a risk in jumping into papers too early.

If you begin practice papers without learning the content in lots of detail, the answers you provide are likely going to be not specific enough, and potentially inaccurate. The repetition of them will therefore reinforce in your memory content that will not get you top marks!

So, how should you begin? I would suggest by writing out details notes for all your subjects. Follow the syllabus and integrate past HSC questions as a guide.

Secondly, I would then begin re-writing your notes. (For the importance of this, see previous articles)

Then, after this knowledge base has been created, I would begin working on writing essays, and working on past papers.

The idea is to work on the notes and re-writing during the holidays, as these are the most time consuming tasks. When you return to school, you will have only a couple of hours a night to study, so working on tests and essays fit in better.

When you begin working on essays, make a point to perfect them and then file them away. A couple of days before you should dust them off, and practice re-writing them to different questions. This will help you memorize content (themes, quotes, stats etc) and help you develop skill of adapting content to fit questions.

One exception to the above rule is for Maths. During this holiday it is prudent to set time aside each day for maths. Maths is one of those subjects where practice is the key!

How many should you be studying? That really depends on how much you have already done! The aim however should be to begin conditioning yourself for the length of exams in your trials.

All the best,

Rowan