HSC Exams during the pandemics

Published: 03 Sep 2021 Tagged: ATARAustralian Tertiary Admission RankHigh School Certificatehigh schoolersHSClearning differenceslearning difficultiessecondary schoolersstudy

COVID-19 is an unprecedented event that has changed, maybe forever, the way we live and relate to each other. New social dynamics, workplace operations and even school practices. One crucial detail of Year 12 is the HSC exam, the threshold to the student’s academic future.

However, the pandemics and lockdown procedures have caused a huge impact over the students’ confidence and curricular consistency throughout the year. It made the government reschedule the date for HSC, which is not determined by the time of this post.

Nevertheless, when the day finally comes, you can help your children not only with emotional support, but also by helping them focus at the day. There are some interesting techniques and habits to perform well during an exam. We have listed some of them for you to recommend to your children and train them with those techniques.

1. Read the paper thoroughly, making sure there are no surprisingly hard questions that demand more attention, identifying compulsory questions and estimating how much time to spend in each question to solve them with no extra pressure.
2. Try to solve the questions in the easy-hard-moderate order: the easy ones help calm down the anxiety and sparks brain connections to better access the memory; with high confidence and the brain properly stimulated, the hard ones become easier and time management in the middle of the exam can be better conducted.
3. Make notes whenever thinking about an answer or essay – such written keywords help the brain focus on the question and bring knowledge from the brain to surface.
4. When thinking about higher-mark questions, organise keywords related to them in order to make sure you are answering exactly what’s asked. As well, try to visualise your long answers before writing them, ensuring you use the expected number of paragraphs and in the expected formatting.
5. When you finish all questions, don’t consider that the exam is done. Double-check the answers (especially the complex ones), check if all of them are properly answered and your personal details were correctly put on every booklet.
6. Once you really finish this double-check, you are free to go! However, make sure you really left the exam: stop thinking about it and try to relax doing other activities!

These tips can make that anxiety-causing day a lot better to be conducted with lower stress levels. If you want more tips for the days before the exam to be better prepared, please read our blogpost about it by clicking here.

Speakable wishes great results for all the children and we are always here to help you improve your study habits!