A brief guide to the HSC process.

What is the ATAR?

The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank is a scale by which your academic performance is measured.Universities use your ATAR to rank you against other students during the selection process for Unicourses.

Achieving an ATAR of 80.00, essentially means you have performed better than 80.00% of candidates inthe HSC.

How does scaling work?

Not all tests are of equal difficulty and thus not all marks can be treated equally. Achieving a HSC mark(your mark on the day of the HSC exam) of 80 in Extension 2 Mathematics is considerably more difficultthan achieving a HSC Mark of 80 in Extension 1 mathematics. Consequently, an 80 in MathematicsExtension 2 will generally be scaled up. Scaling ensures all students get the marks they deserve for thedifficulty of questions they undertook.

This can also occur between options. For example, in Physics there are a number of option topics youmay choose from, by chance some options may be more difficult than other options, to account for thisthe more difficult option will be scaled up to ensure students undertaking that module are notdisadvantaged.

In summary: Just because you do a harder subject/option than another person does not mean you willbe disadvantaged.

Should I study ‘low-scaling subjects’

If they are your passion absolutely! There is no point doing Chemistry if you do not enjoy it! It is verydifficult to stay focused and study for a subject you despise. Whilst it is true that say an 80 in Chemistryis worth more than an 80 in Engineering studies, if Engineering is your passion, you are more likely toachieve a 95 in Engineering studies than an 85 in Chemistry simply because you are more interested inthe course and it is less difficult for you. More importantly a 95 in Engineering studies is an amazingresult and far better than an 85 in Chemistry regardless of scaling.

In summary: Do the subjects you enjoy, and do them well!

How to study the month before HSC

Hopefully if all has gone well, you should have studied all the content for each of your courses and youare seeking a method to maximise the effectiveness of your revision.

Here are some helpful tips for some common subjects:

Maths - The key to success in Mathematics is past papers. The beauty of mathematics is there is verylittle to memorise, it is simply a measure of your ability to problem solve, there is little value gained fromreading a maths textbook, the best thing you can do is tune those problem solving skills is doing pastpapers. If you’re short of time, try reading worked solutions to past papers to help build your skills inapproaching difficult problems.

Physics and Chemistry - Unfortunately for these big boys, the HSC courses have very little measure ofproblem solving and are largely based on mass memorisation of content. The good news is, it’s very hardto be surprised or overwhelmed in a test. The bad news is you will have to devote a lot of time to someserious revision (basically memorisation). Try and spend time trying to really understand why and howthings work, a true understanding can do wonders for you ability to memorise the subject andrecollection. Write a number of notes on each topic, reducing in detail each time. I.e. for the topic onspace in Physics, you should aim to write 5 sets of notes, each set should be briefer than the one before,hopefully by the end of writing all your notes you should be able to comfortably memorise the final set ofnotes. Your aim is to be able to deconstruct this brief set of notes to the initial set. The reasoning behindmemorising a smaller set of notes and using them as ‘cue cards’, is because it makes the content lessoverwhelming and gives it an ordered structure which is far easier to deconstruct under the pressure ofan exam.

How to stay motivated in Year 12

It’s very easy to say I want a 99.95 ATAR because I wan’t to beat everyone else. With that sort ofmotivation you’ll be deflated when ever you hit a minor setback. Try and have a genuine reason forgetting the marks you desire whether it be your dream job or a course minimum requirement, whatever itis make sure it means something to you!

Don’t study all the time! Do things you enjoy, whether it’s playing tennis or football or maybe just goingfor a bike ride or even going out with a loved one. Everyone needs a bit of time to give their heart what it

wants and more importantly their brain a rest.

Exam technique + strategies.

Time management is crucial don’t be fooled by the length of time questions will take or the lines youhave been provided. A 6 marker does NOT take twice as long to complete as a 3 marker, the time youmust take does not increase linearly. In fact as marks increase, the amount of time you need increaseseven more! The difference between a 1 mark question and a 3 mark question may be 4 minutes but thedifference between a 3 mark question and a 5 mark question could be 10 minutes!

You need to plan your exam so that you maximise the amount of time you have for heavier weightedquestions. A 7 marker in physics could take up to 20 minutes alone! Being unprepared for thesequestions can leave you overwhelmed and out of time.