Before the Season Starts
I still remember sitting down at the start of Year 12 and genuinely believing that if I just mindlessly worked hard enough, everything would fall into place by October. Instead, what I learned over that year was less about working harder and more about working smarter.
As it turns out, succeeding in the HSC is a lot like growing a garden. You can’t just throw seeds at the ground, water them once, and hope for the best. The conditions matter, the timing matters, and the quiet, unglamorous work you do between the exciting moments matters most of all.
By the end of it, I walked away with a 99.85 ATAR and 2 State Ranks (3rd in Chinese Extension, 5th in Chinese Continuers), which I’m genuinely proud of. But more than this, I walked away knowing how I got there, and that’s what I want to share with you.
My name is Sophia, and I was in the 2024 graduating class at Abbotsleigh. This is what I’d tell myself if I could go back to the start of Year 12.
Prepare the Soil: Know What You’re Working With
Before anything grows, you need to understand what you’re actually working with. For me, that resulted in a somewhat surprising choice of subjects.
While most of my cohort were either stacking up on STEM subjects or committing to the humanities route, I chose an unusual combination: 12 units of English Advanced, Mathematics Extension 2, Latin Extension and Chinese Extension. I ended up being the only student in my Maths Extension 2 class who didn’t study a single science subject, which made for some interesting conversations.
