Starting Year 12, I always compared myself to others. “How did he beat me when he didn’t even study?” People I never saw as competition suddenly surged ahead. They somehow seemed to have it all figured out, with a level of confidence that I just couldn’t relate to. Geniuses. I thought I would never be able to reach them.
I remember my friend and I would plug numbers into the ATAR calculator after every assessment. As more and more assessments went on, the number would just keep slipping down, further and further away from the 99.50 ATAR requirement for my dream course, Commerce and Law at USYD.
Hi, I’m Ethan, and I graduated from Knox Grammar School in 2025 with an ATAR of 99.70, and I’m now studying a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney.
As I progressed through Year 12, I started to understand that there are no geniuses. It just so happens that others figure out their rhythm before you do. While there’s no shortage of HSC tips out there, most only tell you what to do. But I’ll tell you what not to do, so you don’t make the same mistakes as I did.
Tip 1: Find the Environment Where You Work Best
Throughout high school, I’ve always been the type to study at home. It was where I felt the most comfortable. Snacks within arm’s reach, dressed in comfy clothes, and accompanied by the ambience of my brother practising the violin downstairs. But in Year 12, more and more people around me started doing study sessions together at the library.
If it’s working for so many people, it must also work for me, right? It sounded pretty productive, everyone is there, laptops open, workbook questions laid out, all grinding together. Well… turns out that wasn’t exactly the case. A maths question would spiral into a 20 minute conversation followed by another 10 minutes of Clash Royale, and a “quick” lunch break ended up taking an hour. Six hours of studying at the library felt productive, but it was only when I got home that I realised how little work I had done.
Once I switched back to studying at home, the difference was huge. I was able to cover what I spent a day at the library doing in just two hours.
The takeaway here isn’t “don’t go to the library to study”, but rather to give everything a try, and find what works best for you. The library didn’t work for me, but maybe it will for you, and it’s best if you find out sooner rather than later.
Tip 2: A Study Plan Means Nothing If You Don’t Follow It
I’m sure you’ve heard of this one many times, make a study plan, make a study plan, make a study plan. That’s exactly what I did, and here are the steps of how you can do the same:
- List out all the days of the exam block and your subjects
- Write down what you are going to do for each subject, the more specific the better
- Estimate how much time you need to spend on each subject
On paper, my study plans looked perfect. In practice, I would fall behind by day three. A topic took longer than expected. Stayed up too late and slept through the next morning. Went out with mates rather than studying. Before long, I was playing catch-up every day, and it was back to cramming whatever I could in the last two days before the exam.
At last, I realised making the study plan is the easy part. Anyone can make an aesthetically pleasing study plan on Excel. What’s hard is to actually follow the plan. The “smart” students aren’t the ones building perfect study plans, but the ones that are actually disciplined to hold themselves accountable.
If you make a schedule that is too tightly-packed, there is just no way you can stick to it.
Here’s what actually works:
- Add in “buffer days” in between your studies to account for any delays and setbacks
- Actively check in with your progress and make any adjustments needed
- Be conservative about how much you can actually fit in a day
So, at the end of the day, it’s not that “geniuses” don’t study and get top marks, it’s that they started earlier and stuck to a plan, rather than cramming.
Tip 3: Social Media Isn’t Your Enemy
In Year 12, I remember at every one of those “HSC study tips” sessions, the teachers always said “Put your phone away when you study, remove all the distractions from your room…” And look, they are not entirely wrong. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m guilty of doom-scrolling reels way past midnight, and woke up the next morning feeling sleep deprived, which only contributed to the cramming I mentioned in Tip 2.
But the truth is, scrolling reels isn’t necessarily bad. Social media isn’t inherently the problem. The problem is how you use it. I found that scrolling for 5 minutes in between my study blocks was the perfect de-stressing tool by giving me a short dopamine boost. Take the break you need. We are not robots, we can’t just study six hours straight. Just make sure the 5 minutes doesn’t turn into two hours (which definitely didn’t happen to me).
Most importantly, don’t underestimate the value of staying connected with your friends during the HSC. Humans are social animals, we are not meant to be lone wolves, and certainly don’t just lock yourself in a prison for an entire year. During my most stressful times, it was often a funny gif my friend sent in the group chat that put a smile on my face. Some of my best insights in Economics came from a discussion I had online with my classmates. That’s not procrastination. That’s collaboration, and it’s honestly one of the best tools you should take advantage of.
So don’t delete Instagram. Just make sure you’re using it to your benefit, and don’t let it control you.
Tip 4: Stop Cramming, Start Sleeping
Unfortunately, this is one piece of advice that I didn’t always follow myself, so don’t make the same mistake that I did. The night before the maths assessment, I would go on THSC and find the hardest questions from the list of trial papers and try to solve them. My logic was simple. If I can solve the hardest question I find, then nothing can stop me in the exam, right? But after 10 minutes, I couldn’t solve it. After another 10 minutes, I still couldn’t solve it. And that’s when I started to stress out. As I checked my phone, my friend just sent me another one of those “monster” questions. But by now, it was already past 12am.
The next morning when I walked into the exam hall, I was feeling exhausted, and the anxiety from the night before made it even worse. The “monsters” in questions 15 and 16, I still couldn’t do. And I even made silly mistakes in the easier questions.
The reality is, you either know how to do a question or you don’t know how to do a question. No matter how many “monsters” you do the night before, it won’t really help you perform better on the day.
The same applies for humanities subjects that require memorisation. Be confident that by the night before, you’ve already got everything memorised. Reading over everything until midnight is not going to improve your memory.
So what to do instead then? Sleep. Try to get at least eight hours of sleep the night before your exams, and be confident that you already know everything you need to know going into the exam.
Final Words
If I were to sum up all the tips I’ve talked about into one, I would say just be confident. At the end of the day, all the cramming and staying up all night is a result of me not being confident in myself. I thought I wasn’t ready for the exam, so I kept studying. But that’s how you burn out.
Don’t give yourself too much pressure, and just have an optimistic outlook. I used to live by the quote “expect disappointment so you won’t be disappointed”. But that’s not the play. That only makes you feel more nervous and anxious.
On top of studying, keep doing what you enjoy. Whether that’s playing sport, watching movies, or hanging out with your mates. Year 12 isn’t all about the HSC. Having fun didn’t stop me from getting a 99.70, and it certainly won’t stop you either.
