How to study for SACs/Exams

[courtney2502]

I know this is probably way too early for me to be asking considering I don't even start Year 12 until next year, but I wanted to post this now so that people have a chance to add to this/find use out of this thread come the time of their own SACs and exams.

My biggest problem with studying is that I don't know when I should start. In regards to SACs, for example, if I knew I had a Psych SAC in a weeks time, I would think to myself I had plenty of time, and would generally start studying two nights before, and sometimes the night before.  I feel as though this is because I believe I wouldn't remember what I started to study the week before, and would only remember what I studied the night before. Additionally, I'm not sure how to balance study when I have more than one SAC on different subjects in the same week.

This is similar to exams. I'm not too sure what is a suitable amount of time in advance to start studying before an exam, and how I should avoid just studying for one single subject until that exam is over, and than moving onto which ever subject is next.

Basically, all I'm asking is simply - how do you manage your study, and how early in advance should you start studying.

Any tips would be useful & thank you in advance!

[nice!]

I managed my study mainly through use of checklists. I basically wrote daily ones in my diary and ticked off boxes as I went (very satisfactory, highly recommend). It made me feel motivated bc it literally was so satisfying to tick each box. This way I could make sure I firstly completed homework for all my subjects, and then could start studying for SACs.

For SACs, how long before you should start studying varies so much. Personally, I would try to start about a week before a SAC, or earlier if I knew I had multiple in a week. However, I know one girl who started studying 3 weeks in advance because that's how long it took her for the information to really sink in.
When I did have three days of consecutive SACs, I would make three separate checklists and stick them on my wall in front of my desk. There I could tick off the boxes and make sure I had done all the revision I wanted to before each SAC. For example, I would start by doing content summaries, followed by all the textbook questions, chapter reviews (chem or spec), edrolo videos, and finally, checkpoints questions. I'd say make these about 2 weeks in advance for a SAC and you can just chip away at these tasks over the weeks. I'd probably start stuyding for the one earliest first, but I definitely wouldn't neglect the other subjects. You would just have to make sure that you were completing tasks on the other subjects' checklists too.

For exams, I had english 1st of november, and then spec on the 10th and 13th, chem 14th, and legal 15th. Having 3 SACs in one week three times over the course of the year helped me prepare for my exam timetable very much so. So I made an exam timetable on google sheets, and had 4 spots under each day for a different task. To begin with I would try to complete at least two exams a day (easier said than done) and I would alternate between which subjects I would study. I made sure to do one english essay a day as well as attempting one chem and one spec prac exam a day. The next day, I would switch out a chem exam for a legal exam. Don't worry too much if you don't do all the exams you had planned to do in a day though. After english I had 9 days until my next exam, and tried to smash out more spec than other subjects. When it came to the friday after spec exam 1, I started focusing more on my last two exams. Some people recommend not doing any prac exams that night before an exam, but in my case I think I had to.

So if your exam timetable somehow works out to someway resemble mine, or you just want some advice for multiple SACs, those are my tips from this year's experience 

[PhoenixxFire]

Ok so i've only done 3/4 sciences so far, so this may not be entirely relevant to other subjects.

The post above me explains when you should study - and the checklist idea is very good however to use that you need to know what to do as study. Simply rereading textbooks and writing notes is not effective study.

The first point I wanted to make is that you should never not be studying - I'm not saying you should be studying every night, but see all of your classes and homework as preparation for the SAC - because it is. Don't tell yourself that its okay that you don't understand it, because you can study it later. Find out what it is now, you should not be learning anything new when studying. You shouldn't have to try and remember what you studied first, because you should have learnt it in class. During class/after school is when you should make all of your notes, when you first learn the content, rewriting your notes is a very ineffective way to study.

Timing of when you start studying is up to you, it depends how well you already know the content that is going to be on your SAC. If you don't know it very well start earlier. Adjust this as you go through the year, if you do badly on a SAC, start studying earlier for the next one.

What I did was go through the content that would be assessed on that SAC and create posters (obviously this won't work for all subjects). My posters did not have much writing, they were just very quick visual representations to sum up the content (I've attached photos of some of my biology posters to the bottom of this post so you can get an idea). As soon as I had made these, i stuck them on my bedroom walls and they did not come down until after the exam (in fact, some of them are still up - I really should take them down now lol). This meant that I was regularly exposed to the content. Waiting for a computer game to load? Look away and glance at the poster. Every time you do that it jogs your memory, and will help you remember it faster during your tests. This was the only form of 'writing notes' I did as study.

Other than this all I did was practice questions, for biology I had checkpoints and the ATAR Notes topic tests - Both of these separate questions by topic, so it is easy to find questions relevant to the content you are doing. If you want more questions you can try asking your teachers for previous years SACs, some won't give them to you but some will.

One other point - One of the best ways to learn is explain things to other, jump on the threads for your subjects and try and answer questions - If you can't answer someones question then it is something you need to study.

[courtney2502]

I managed my study mainly through use of checklists. I basically wrote daily ones in my diary and ticked off boxes as I went (very satisfactory, highly recommend). It made me feel motivated bc it literally was so satisfying to tick each box. This way I could make sure I firstly completed homework for all my subjects, and then could start studying for SACs.

For SACs, how long before you should start studying varies so much. Personally, I would try to start about a week before a SAC, or earlier if I knew I had multiple in a week. However, I know one girl who started studying 3 weeks in advance because that's how long it took her for the information to really sink in.
When I did have three days of consecutive SACs, I would make three separate checklists and stick them on my wall in front of my desk. There I could tick off the boxes and make sure I had done all the revision I wanted to before each SAC. For example, I would start by doing content summaries, followed by all the textbook questions, chapter reviews (chem or spec), edrolo videos, and finally, checkpoints questions. I'd say make these about 2 weeks in advance for a SAC and you can just chip away at these tasks over the weeks. I'd probably start stuyding for the one earliest first, but I definitely wouldn't neglect the other subjects. You would just have to make sure that you were completing tasks on the other subjects' checklists too.

For exams, I had english 1st of november, and then spec on the 10th and 13th, chem 14th, and legal 15th. Having 3 SACs in one week three times over the course of the year helped me prepare for my exam timetable very much so. So I made an exam timetable on google sheets, and had 4 spots under each day for a different task. To begin with I would try to complete at least two exams a day (easier said than done) and I would alternate between which subjects I would study. I made sure to do one english essay a day as well as attempting one chem and one spec prac exam a day. The next day, I would switch out a chem exam for a legal exam. Don't worry too much if you don't do all the exams you had planned to do in a day though. After english I had 9 days until my next exam, and tried to smash out more spec than other subjects. When it came to the friday after spec exam 1, I started focusing more on my last two exams. Some people recommend not doing any prac exams that night before an exam, but in my case I think I had to.

So if your exam timetable somehow works out to someway resemble mine, or you just want some advice for multiple SACs, those are my tips from this year's experience 

That’s so smart to do with the checklists and everything! I didn’t even think of that!! Thank you so much, and good job on your study scores- you did so well!!!

[courtney2502]

Ok so i've only done 3/4 sciences so far, so this may not be entirely relevant to other subjects.

The post above me explains when you should study - and the checklist idea is very good however to use that you need to know what to do as study. Simply rereading textbooks and writing notes is not effective study.

The first point I wanted to make is that you should never not be studying - I'm not saying you should be studying every night, but see all of your classes and homework as preparation for the SAC - because it is. Don't tell yourself that its okay that you don't understand it, because you can study it later. Find out what it is now, you should not be learning anything new when studying. You shouldn't have to try and remember what you studied first, because you should have learnt it in class. During class/after school is when you should make all of your notes, when you first learn the content, rewriting your notes is a very ineffective way to study.

Timing of when you start studying is up to you, it depends how well you already know the content that is going to be on your SAC. If you don't know it very well start earlier. Adjust this as you go through the year, if you do badly on a SAC, start studying earlier for the next one.

What I did was go through the content that would be assessed on that SAC and create posters (obviously this won't work for all subjects). My posters did not have much writing, they were just very quick visual representations to sum up the content (I've attached photos of some of my biology posters to the bottom of this post so you can get an idea). As soon as I had made these, i stuck them on my bedroom walls and they did not come down until after the exam (in fact, some of them are still up - I really should take them down now lol). This meant that I was regularly exposed to the content. Waiting for a computer game to load? Look away and glance at the poster. Every time you do that it jogs your memory, and will help you remember it faster during your tests. This was the only form of 'writing notes' I did as study.

Other than this all I did was practice questions, for biology I had checkpoints and the ATAR Notes topic tests - Both of these separate questions by topic, so it is easy to find questions relevant to the content you are doing. If you want more questions you can try asking your teachers for previous years SACs, some won't give them to you but some will.

One other point - One of the best ways to learn is explain things to other, jump on the threads for your subjects and try and answer questions - If you can't answer someones question then it is something you need to study.

Thank you so much! All of your suggestions are such good ideas!! Good job on both your Psych and Biol scores too!!