5 Tips Ahead of your HSC!
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There’s no denying the importance of your HSC.
Whether you’re aiming for a place as a medical student at Oxford, the University of Melbourne, or Monash University your HSC marks will significantly influence the direction you take!
In order to prepare sufficiently, you can look to source HSC tutoring and support from expert HSC tutors, but the best way to improve your HSC score is to learn how to self-motivate yourself!
It can be intimidating but when it’s all over, you’ll look back on this period fondly and remember how hard you worked.
Sometimes, though, a little bit of structure is as good as a break. Organising your study for 10-14 units of HSC study is as hard as the study itself.
“How am I supposed to study anything at all when Advanced English has two papers?!”
These exclamations of desolation are far more common than you think, and it’s hard to know whether the work is worth it.
So here are a few tips to help with your HSC preparation
Five things I’ve learnt from teaching hundreds of HSC students to help you prepare for your final years of high school and become successful medical students:
1. Make sure you get organised early!
Hitting the snooze button on preparation is enticing, but it could mean you hit a wall early on in the year.
To put it less cryptically:
The earlier you start preparing for your HSC, the easier you will find it later in the year.
When someone comes out of the summer holidays and they’ve already finished a first draft of their Extension 2 English major work, they have just saved themselves countless hours of stress.
It may not have been a Hemingway masterpiece, but when I put the final full stop on an 8,000 word draft of my Ext 2 short story on January 12th, I celebrated knowing that at least one of my 13 units was under control.
It may have been only half way done, but the psychological impact of having it under control had immeasurable benefits for me.
It’s not just limited to Extension 2 English. Entering term 1 having read all of your English texts and revised last term’s Physics notes putting myself one (or two) steps ahead of everyone else.
And remember, you're actually competing against your peers!
So there's no excuse to not:
- Make a timeline for your internal assessments.
- create a weekly timetable that has all of your after school activities and schedule in school work around it.
- learn how to use your school diary ... properly.
- Being organised will not only ensure you get everything that you need to do done, it will do wonders for your mind and halve your stress.
Early HSC preparation is key to HSC success. Find out more about MedView’s HSC preparation and tutoring services for ambitious medical students!
2. Always learn from your mistakes
One step backwards, ten step forwards.
That's how effective studying often works. There’s a reason our teachers mark our essays and give them back to us. The feedback teachers give is gold, and the amount of it that is totally ignored is crazy.
Knowing exactly what your weaknesses are, and what your weaknesses aren’t, lets you adapt your study schedule to suit those areas. Do your introductory paragraphs need work? Write introductions per your teacher’s advice and ask them to mark them for you.
Did you get 10/15 for that Biology topic test because you couldn’t remember what the difference between renal dialysis and kidney dialysis is? Copy a table in from the textbook and then from memory.
Mistakes should never be feared. How else are we supposed to learn without facing our mistakes head on? Embrace the opportunity to learn and take errors in your stride.
3. Seek help from others
There's absolutely no need to fly solo through your final year!
While at times it might seem like locking yourself in a room alone and burying your head in the books (or possibly sand) is the best approach to your HSC.
But that just ain't so:
No one expects you to take this journey by yourself.
It’s a long road, the HSC road, but there are people everywhere who will help you. I found a study buddy (someone I didn’t know very well) and every Wednesday afternoon went to the library with them. We quizzed each other, exchanged insights and read each other’s essays. Having access to a second mind will open up your study to such an extent that you’ll wonder what you were doing before.
Teaching someone is also the fastest way to learn and build excellent interpersonal skills for post-HSC, according to a 2005 study. The author, Claudio G. Cortese, writes, “Teaching proved to be an important opportunity for recognising one’s own ignorance and thereby rendering oneself open to the possibility of learning”.
Basically, explaining complicated concepts to someone who doesn't understand them will help you practice your grasp of the material and reveal areas for improvement.
You don’t have to do it alone - countless people are here to help you on your way!
4.Consider the HSC syllabi your shining light!
Why stumble around in the dark only to walk into a wall? It’s no coincidence that all past English and History questions sound the same.
Why have I done so many essays on dictatorships in Germany and Italy for Modern? It’s the first dot point under that option in the syllabus.
Why do they keep saying, “personal and political” while I study After the Bomb for Ext 1 English?
Because it’s straight out of the syllabus. As much content as there is to cover in all of your HSC subjects, you can practically know the exam before you walk in.
It is well worth an hour or two of your time to download the syllabus and read through it.
Tip: If you’ve run out of questions to answer, ask your own ones by reading the syllabus and picking out key terms.
It’s so easy to dismiss it as jargon for your teacher to digest because you’re never going to be asked questions on it, but if someone told you, “I can give you every possible question they may ask you for Romanticism on one or two pages,” would you want to read it?
Yeah, I thought so!
5. Stay Active!
Escape the headspace of HSC by treating yourself to some TLC (Tender Loving Care).
There are countless studies that suggest a very strong link between ability to focus and the amount of exercise you do. The release of endorphins helps you focus and switches your mindset to make you more productive.
What's more, while the increased pressure on your timetable to get everything done forces you to stick to a schedule, your increased levels of fitness, believe it or not, make it easier to sit still.
At some schools, the 99.95 Dux of the year is also the best rower or runner or swimmer in the school. You don’t have to be the best at it, but getting one hour of structured exercise done a day goes a long way in keeping those grades up.
Play for school, join a club, find a friend who lives nearby and go for runs or swims together.
Staying active could be as much as swallowing your pride and going to that Fitness First Zumba class with the Brazilian trainer who winks at all the mums …
No matter how much work you think you have, there is always enough time to get an hour of exercise in, especially with Pablo running your Zumba.
Believe you me, the benefits will speak for themselves.
TIPS FOR SURVIVING HIGH SCHOOL
Final Thoughts
Basically, start early.
Remember, the easiest way to win a marathon, or any race for that matter, is to get a head start on the other competitors - Year 12 is the same.
Start your HSC preparation early. Don't waste the Summer break. Get ahead.
Once you've got a head start, you just need to make sure you maintain a constant pace and stay on top.
Don't get caught napping.
Learning from your mistakes, seeking help, reading the syllabi and exercising are all strategies to help you maintain a consistent study regime and pace throughout the years of HSC.
Final Tip:
Take the year bird by bird, otherwise it can seem like a big task and debilitate you!
Just take it day by day, week by week and make sure you stand by your study plan.
Follow these tips and you'll ace it!
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The UCAT
The UCAT, or the University Clinical Aptitude Test is the medical school admission test required for many universities in Australia and New Zealand. The UCAT is designed to assess applicants for the aptitude, attitudes and beliefs required of a doctor. In order to defeat the UCAT - we should understand what it is. First off, it’s a two hour computer based exam. There are 5 separately timed subtests - Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Situational Judgement. In this blog we break down each of the sections and offer guidance on how to prepare for this important exam.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning is meant to assess your ability to read something and draw appropriate conclusions. You can see why this would be important to a doctor - you’re part of a multidisciplinary team and will have to communicate effectively. In addition, doctors have to keep current with new research and draw reasonable conclusions from published findings. Decision making involves 11 text excerpts with 4 questions each, meaning this section has 44 questions in 21 minutes - that means an average of 29 seconds per question. That doesn’t even take reading the stem into account!
Decision Making
Decision Making is essentially data interpretation from graphs, tables, text and charts. You don’t need to have background knowledge on any subject, because part of what they’re testing is your ability to understand new information. Can you think of a time a doctor might have to do the same? This section has 29 questions in 31 minutes - an average of 64 seconds per question. Compare the timing of section to verbal reasoning, it’s more than double. Consider the length of time per question as an indication of how much the test writers want you to analyse.
Quantitative Reasoning
Quantitative Reasoning is a straightforward mathematics section - there are nine scenarios each with four questions. You’ll have access to an on screen calculator - which is functional but pretty clunky! You’ll have to strike a balance between using mental maths to be quick, and keeping your wits about you, and staying accurate. This section has 36 questions in 24 minutes - an average of 40 seconds per question. It’s not a lot of time to question your maths abilities!
Abstract Reasoning
Abstract Reasoning is used to evaluate your ability to locate patterns and understand logic, separate from your language abilities. If you’ve seen the guides online with pictures asking you to find a pattern - that’s abstract reasoning. This section is sometimes hard for students to grasp, because it’s such a different set of skills. It’s also probably the biggest struggle with time management. This section has 55 questions in 13 minutes - that’s only 14 seconds per question. Don’t even think about going into this section unprepared!
Situational Judgement
Situational Judgement assesses your judgement and character in different situations - the situations are usually clinical or education based. Either situations you’ve likely been in, or a situation you could be involved in future. Then you’ll have to evaluate the appropriateness, importance or consequences of the situation. It’s one way for universities to evaluate the characteristics that are important for future doctors! Situational Judgement has 69 questions in 26 minutes - an average of 25 seconds per question.
With so much to do - how can I set myself up for success?
Prepare
This sounds like a no brainer, but preparation is the most important thing you can do if you want to succeed on the UCAT. Going over questions is one thing but the most effective thing you can do is to practice under exam conditions. That means doing computer based exams - so when you get to test day, you know what to expect. Luckily MedView has a bank of questions.
Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Time is a precious resource when you’re preparing for medical school admissions - you have to continue doing well in your studies, prepare yourself for an interview, and master a new exam. There’s not infinite time - so you have to learn how to study smarter, not just harder. So many students waste their time by continuing to drill skills that they’ve already mastered. It’s important to identify the weak points that need more TLC.
Learn Skills
Each type of question requires a specific psychometric approach to understand and answer so quickly. Skills and strategies to identify the problem and solve the challenging question are essential for success. MedView has a range of 1:1 tutoring, group workshops, practice exams and questions alongside our spiral learning curriculum to help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in time conditions. Our UCAT students are 5x more likely to receive an interview offer.
Sitting full-length practice exams under simulated conditions is the most effective preparation for developing UCAT skills. As this will familiarise yourself with the extreme time pressures, as well as allowing you to practise concentrating on psychometric skills for two hours. It is also important to practice using the computer-based platform that will be used when you sit UCAT as well.
Seek Help
Find friends that have taken the test before and ask for their experience. Better yet, schedule a free Academic Assessment with MedView today! When you start your journey as a MedView student, you are allocated an Education Coordinator who has experience helping hundreds of students get into med school. They’ll help you stay on track with your goals, offer you support, and help you succeed on your path to medical school.
Next Steps
The UCAT is an important exam that is key to medical school admission for undergraduates. We recommend starting your UCAT preparation early and integrating it into your study load to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. If you’d like to learn more about the UCAT or how to get into Medical School, check out our free eBooks and blogs!
- What is the UCAT?
- How Universities use your UCAT Results
- A Quick Guide to Australia Medicine eBook
- A Quick Guide to New Zealand Medicine eBook
- How to Prepare for the UCAT
- What UCAT scores will get me into med?
MedView offers a range of UCAT preparation courses as well as personalised 1:1 tutoring with our expert team. If you would like to know more about the UCAT and how MedView can help, get in touch today.
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What can you do before the year starts?
Before the year starts, it is vital that you understand that the journey to becoming a doctor is a long and arduous process. Medicine is a life-long commitment whose pathway extends beyond the 6 years of study. It includes a progression from a house officer to a registrar, and application onto training schemes if you opt for the surgical pathway.
The vast majority of people who apply for medicine, do not have a clear picture of what they want to do in the future. This uncertainty is not something to worry about now – you have plenty of time to figure out exactly what you want to do. There is something in medicine for everyone. If you are still uncertain about the medical pathway beyond the 6 years of study, I would recommend doing further research.
Another thing you can do over the summer break is to identify your motivation to become a doctor. If it’s for the money, you may not be in the correct profession - it will be at least 10-12 years until you start earning the big bucks that all doctors are known for! If you have an inherent nature to help people and seek to make our society healthier, then you are on the right track.
Once your head is in the right place, enjoy your summer! The year will belong, and you will have to make social sacrifices to make your studies a priority. Make the most of the time you have by seeing friends and family, as you will inevitably see less of them throughout the year. You are likely to experience burnout sometime during the year, so optimising your rest now is important.
The single most effective way to distance yourself from your competitors is to start early and hard. After you have rested throughout December and into the new year, it is time to get started and get ahead. The Flying Start Course offered by MedView was my ticket to success. It is a highly intensive programme starting in late January that covers the first 6 weeks of content for the three core papers in the first semester. The advantages of this course are numerous:
- The most valuable aspect of Flying Start is the content covered. As the first semester contains 3 out of the 4 core papers, it is so important to get a good start. An early lapse within the first few weeks can completely derail your entire year. Being exposed to similar content ahead of time builds your confidence and gives you the opportunity to begin learning before others.
- There is a radically different teaching style from high school to university. Flying Start emulates the style you are accustomed to, while simultaneously teaching university material. This eases your transition and places students into a more comfortable and familiar environment.
- You can meet other motivated people. You may have heard the horror stories of people sabotaging each other, taking their notes and hiding their bags. While these are mostly exaggerated, there will still be those who resort to other measures to gain an advantage. The people doing Flying Start will be motivated just like you, and eager to get ahead. Working together and building these strong relationships before the year starts means that you have a better support group in place. I have met several bright individuals who were passionate and together, we were able to navigate the difficult year and succeed as a group!
MedView believes in a holistic approach to medical school admissions, meaning we surround the student with a team of experts to help develop their candidacy and skills in all three major pillars in their journey to medical school, and now it’s even more accessible with the MedView Hub App!
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Find out more and begin your journey to medical school by speaking with a MedView Academic Advisor for free today!
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