It’s a common belief that only those who lock themselves in their room to study for eight hours a day, abandon their social life (or stop touching grass?), and never take a break can achieve a high ATAR. At the start of Year 12, I was sold this belief as well. If I wasn’t exhausted at the end of each day, I thought I wasn’t trying hard enough. “It’s a sacrifice,” they said. “Just give up everything for a year and you’ll be fine.” I believed it.
It only took a few weeks for me to realise how terrible this mindset was. I’d lost all but a shred of motivation and I realised I was an inch from burning out. I was spending half of my ‘study’ time fighting fatigue or mindlessly staring at a page of notes. I felt guilty taking a break, but while I was physically at my desk, my brain might as well have been in Timbuktu.
Let Me Clock Myself (And Maybe You)
If you’re anything like me, you’re always close to the bottom of your YPT group. You watch your friends’ timers tick past the 6, 7, or 10-hour mark, and you feel a wave of fear and dread. You ask yourself, “Am I falling behind?” You’d much rather spend your Year 12 days doing something other than studying, yet the dream of a high ATAR remains a constantly nagging thought in the back of your mind, so you continue pushing yourself to do more.
You may also be a procrastination warrior. You know precisely that feeling of opening up a past paper, only to instantly close it and doom-scroll for the next three hours.
But here’s what I think now: if your goal is to study as much as possible, you’re cooked. I believe you should ask yourself, “What methods can I employ to study as little as possible every night while still reaching my goals?” If you don’t have the attention span or the desire to sit at your desk until 1am every night, just don’t. You just need to find what works for you, and if you want to study the least amount possible while still doing well, read on.
“An hour of class is worth two at home”
The biggest mistake I see HSC students make is treating class time as a social prelude to the ‘real’ studying they plan on doing when they get home. They chat with their friends, barely paying attention to what’s being taught, and telling themselves “Eh, whatever, I can teach this to myself tonight.”
Slacking off in class might be the worst thing you could do during your HSC. It is nothing more than a massive waste of time. Why spend an extra hour at home self-teaching when the teacher is literally doing it for you during an hour you have to be physically at school anyway?
