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December/ January Holiday Period- What did you do?

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Coolmate:
Hey everyone, ;D

As the December and January holiday period has just started, I am curious as to what previous (or current) HSC students did during their holiday period and how they structured their study in order to get ahead of Term 1 next year, and how this lifted their grades. :D

Any advice is much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Coolmate 8)

DrDusk:

--- Quote from: Coolmate on December 15, 2019, 02:17:55 pm ---Hey everyone, ;D

As the December and January holiday period has just started, I am curious as to what previous (or current) HSC students did during their holiday period and how they structured their study in order to get ahead of Term 1 next year, and how this lifted their grades. :D

Any advice is much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Coolmate 8)

--- End quote ---
I actually didn't do that much 'study' per say.

I studied for Maths ext 1 and 2 because I had a really bad result in Term 1 for both of them. I went ahead and learnt some of the topics and did the hardest past paper questions I could find. This definitely lifted my marks and put them in the 90's further on.

As for my other subjects I really didn't do anything because really Maths is the only subject in the HSC that requires a high degree of problem solving which is a skill, something which no other subject has. Other subjects are just memorize and regurgitate content in different ways.

louisaaa01:

--- Quote from: Coolmate on December 15, 2019, 02:17:55 pm ---Hey everyone, ;D

As the December and January holiday period has just started, I am curious as to what previous (or current) HSC students did during their holiday period and how they structured their study in order to get ahead of Term 1 next year, and how this lifted their grades. :D

Any advice is much appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Coolmate 8)

--- End quote ---

Hey Coolmate,

Congratulations on getting through the first term of Year 12!

For me personally, as I had an exam block in the last two weeks of school, I spent the first two weeks of the holidays (up until New Year's) just relaxing. It's a good idea to spend a bit of time recovering from what was likely an intense term. Even though you might feel unproductive, it's worth it in the long run - you don't want to burn out before Term 2 even begins!

In saying this, I did spend a reasonable amount of time preparing for Term 1. On a general note, I'd really encourage you to revisit your assessment tasks (if completed already), look at the feedback and implement strategies for improvement. Aside from looking over assessments, preparing in this break can almost be separated into three steps; (1) ensure you understand all content learned, (2) practice said content, and (3) familiarise yourself with upcoming topics!

As I did relatively similar subjects to you, here are a couple subject-specific things that worked for me:

English Advanced: I made sure to get through my prescribed texts for Modules A, B and C in this break (I covered my Common Module prescribed text in the October holidays). Brief annotations but nothing major - it was just about familiarising myself with the plot, characters, etc. This may also be a good time to practice your writing on the Common Module - you can try drafting essay responses to sample questions, or even practice your short-answer skills.

Sciences (Physics and Chem in my case, I'd imagine that this would work for Bio too) - I had all my notes for the first modules we did finished before the Holidays, but if your notes aren't complete, try to finish them off. In regards to reading ahead, I found that my textbook was a little dense, so I used the ATAR Notes study guides - they were an easy read yet were brilliant in allowing me to understand what we would be covering in the next module. Excel books are also a great resource. Again, it's unfeasible to teach yourself the entire course in this break, but if you familiarise yourself with upcoming Module, come Term 1, you'll grasp it a bit faster and have more time for practice questions. On the note of practice questions, I found it useful to do questions specific to the modules I had just completed. HSC style questions are super helpful (the ATAR Notes topic tests are a really good resource here, as are the Excel and Strive books which have past + sample HSC questions!)

As well as this (and same goes for all subjects) it's not necessary to do tons of questions if you're finding them easy and/or repetitive - I found it useful to be selective, completing questions which I felt were harder / covered my weaker areas.

Maths: Very similar to the sciences, your number 1 priority is to iron out all wrinkles and make sure you understand everything. After this, to practice, attempt textbook or HSC style questions specific to the topics you've just completed (topic tests are great). For me, personally, as I had my MX2 HSC Task 1 almost as soon as the summer holidays ended, I used this time to study for this exam. If you don't have an exam, and have the time, though, you might want to read ahead on the next topic (ATAR Notes study guides are again perfect for an easy yet informative read!)

SOR I: Again, I had an exam in Week 2 Term 1 so most of my 'preparation' for SOR I in this break consisted of study for the exam. However, if you don't have an exam, it's useful to again ensure there aren't any gaps in your notes + knowledge, and then afterwards work on particularly Post-1945 5-markers and multiple choice practice. Doing an HSC or Trial Section I every now and then is a really good way to practice and it's not very time consuming either (once I practiced enough, I managed to complete a Section I in under 12 minutes)! My teacher was really great here in that our class was encouraged to consistently practice our writing and multiple choice. If you want, you could read ahead on your upcoming religious tradition depth study, but in my case, as I had an exam, I simply didn't have the time.
 
I also attended the ATAR Notes January lectures for most of my subjects. These were a really great way to get ahead for the next term - if you have the time, I encourage you to also look into them!

Now, you might be thinking, jeez Louis[a] (hehe), I'm gonna be locked in my room for the next 6 weeks! Well, while it may seem like a lot, if you pace yourself over an extended period of time, you won't have to study for hours per day. As well as this, quantity of study does not directly correspond to marks - I really encourage you to do as much as you see fit!

I hope this helps. Have a great holiday and good luck for Year 12!

angewina_naguen:
Hey, Coolmate!

This is going to be slightly contradictory to what has already been said but I gave myself three weeks off to relax! I did a musical during this time so all I did was reading/rewatching my prescribed texts in between breaks and, like Louisa suggested, just use some sticky notes to bookmark important and interesting pages to get a small head start. It's a good idea to reflect on your first term of Year 12 in English and see where gaps in your knowledge might be. The Common Module does constitute to a whole paper so revising it and making sure you touch base with yourself is important  :)

As for my other subjects, I constructed checklists and timelines to help me better visualise how I wanted to approach the new year. This was particularly helpful for my major works and also motivated me to get started on them. You can do the same for your other subjects so you can save time on having to format notes, creating plans etc.


--- Quote from: DrDusk on December 15, 2019, 02:40:26 pm ---
As for my other subjects I really didn't do anything because really Maths is the only subject in the HSC that requires a high degree of problem solving which is a skill, something which no other subject has. Other subjects are just memorize and regurgitate content in different ways.

--- End quote ---

While I agree that maths is definitely a challenging and rewarding subject, please just be mindful about the claim you're making here, or at least how it's worded. Other subjects also require problem solving and logic in their own ways and those that do them go beyond just memorising and regurgitating content. Music and VA are incredibly unpredictable and encourage spontaneous thinking in the HSC exams; being able to analyse and devise creative answers in response to abstract forms and questions is a kind of problem solving. With the new syllabuses for subjects like English, previous issues with memorisation are being actively combated with content and exam questions that encourage critical thinking and problem solving in its own form. Hope that sheds a bit of light on what those subjects may offer in terms of skills :) Your study experience is really inspiring and I definitely agree on focusing on whichever subject you might be struggling the most in to prepare for the term upcoming  ;D

If there's a particular subject you wanted advice on, do let us know. Hope that helps and congratulations for almost finishing your first term of the HSC!

Angelina  ;D

DrDusk:

--- Quote from: angewina_naguen on December 15, 2019, 11:29:43 pm ---While I agree that maths is definitely a challenging and rewarding subject, please just be mindful about the claim you're making here, or at least how it's worded. Other subjects also require problem solving and logic in their own ways and those that do them go beyond just memorising and regurgitating content. Music and VA are incredibly unpredictable and encourage spontaneous thinking in the HSC exams; being able to analyse and devise creative answers in response to abstract forms and questions is a kind of problem solving. With the new syllabuses for subjects like English, previous issues with memorisation are being actively combated with content and exam questions that encourage critical thinking and problem solving in its own form. Hope that sheds a bit of light on what those subjects may offer in terms of skils :) Your study experience is really inspiring and I definitely agree on focusing on whichever subject you might be struggling the most in to prepare for the term upcoming  ;D

--- End quote ---
Well yes of course. I was under the assumption we weren't including those kind of creative subjects as coolmate isn't doing them. They definitely require a VERY large amount of skill but it is a different kind of skill. It's an artistic skill.

Subjects like those are on a different league of their own honestly and require a whole different type of skill that of course is very hard to master. So yes I forgot to mention what subjects I was talking about but I meant the stock standard subjects that most of us take that are just memorize and regurgitate.

To clarify subjects like:
Physics, Chem, Bio, SDD, English(old syllabus), IPT, etc, the standard a lot of which I did myself.

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