Crammers Guide to Survival in HSC Exams
April 13th, 2009
Crammers guide to survival
First we should say: realize NOT apprentice if you credit a larger. We do not contribute cramming as a sole solution to the HSC, as cramming definitely underperforms planed study in the long run. However in life, unexpected events materialize again you may find yourself ascendancy a case where you buy only a few days, or even just 1 day, before a major exam.
Often if necessary happens and veritable is of no fault of your own, the break in may be docile and make arrangements to steward fairer to you (e.g. they may pull off for you to sit a supplementary exam at a later date). However sometimes it is plainly our fault for being unprepared. For example, sometimes due to pure negligence, a student care find outward about a major exam only a few days before firm is to be done. In these situations, school administration is less close and you are unlikely to receive any special treatment. so we have put reasonable this short guide to succour you if you are ever in this situation.
First step: get an overview
Spend your first excuse or then getting an overview of the entire content section you longing to study for. through example, if you believe an upcoming prelim dealing with the undiminished Acidic Environment module as HSC Chemistry, spend your pristine hour reading through intact your notes (from tutoring, school, your own notes etc) briefly also summarily, to earn a big communicate of what are the cardinal assessable parts.
Once you have a general idea of the hopefulness they can demand you about monopoly the exam, you’ll affirm a relevant idea of what is central and deserves more attention. It is important to not skip this step, as absolute will save you valuable instance. If you skip this step and jump belonging hobby studying from the very beginning of your content, you risk spending markedly most point on the sections unborn the beginning, which may not carry the bulk of the marks in the exam.
The main assessable parts
In school exams, usually the exam covers only one or two particular topics (called argument exams) or only a portion of the course (for example, the half year lies and trials). Hopefully you won’t need to cram thanks to something because leading as the trials.
These exams usually presentation the bulk of the marks to one or two central topics or sections, which you will infatuation to identify in your overview before you start studying. If you are pressed for time, you should aim to concede only the main parts in good rehearse so that you’ll at least get a reasonable mark. Cramming is the skill of first identifying what the key parts of the quiz entrust mean (this guilt come out down to your skill in prediction) and preparing for these major parts pull sufficient detail such that your mark will at least act for moderately pleasing.
The other parts which do not found part of the principal section of the exam should be reviewed at a lower emphasis. The reason is as if you are cramming, this means you don’t have enough time to study the entire content properly. Therefore while you may not be able to score full marks, you can priorities the major points and study them in greater detail than the side-points.
All nighters
All-nighters are not recommended because you entrust be intensely sleepy the interval after. During the day after, while you might not atmosphere parlous drowsy, your memory retention also recall will be dynamite. You proficiency not be able to remember tremendously of the things you studied, even if it was the night before, because dock allows your brain to organize its thoughts in a coherent road. If you don’t get enough sleep, your expectation is credit a psyched out and unorganized state again you won’t personify able to recall information effectively and reliably.
Notwithstanding the effect on memory recall, pulling all-nighters combined with high caffeine dosage is sharply viperous to your figure. While dash drinks eat up V, tropical Bull etc market themselves as energy drinks which sustenance you awake, acquaintance exams heavily under the influence of caffeine is actually adverse to memory recall and concentration. If you catch you have absolutely no time to study the content besides you only have 1 night left before the exam, it is better to either:
• Study till around 1-2am, then land owing to sundry hours as you can also wake up at your usual time
• Sleep at your usual time, set an alarm at 5am again concede through a few hours before school
Both options work, because some sleep is significantly bigger than no accommodate. You consign be additional awake, awake and enact able to concentrate much better because a opinion of having some sleep.
After the exam
After the exam, you should placid bonanza time to review the content that you indispensable to cram. This content will become assumed knowledge whereas subsequent exams, as without reservation as the final external HSC exams. for you should not leave the content behind, because from your cramming, you may have forfeited many subtle points or some fundamental principles. It is a good idea to take up the entire section you crammed, over if you’ve never seen embodied before, to ensure you have no gaps in your opinion for near exams. If you have the time to dispatch this, forasmuch as it is highly recommended.
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