365 days of improvement

hello! firstly, thank you for your patience and sorry that it’s taken me so long to get to your ask! i have a few tips for you that i’ll quickly run you over, but ultimately the creative response is a very personal endeavour that can only be monitored closely by a trusted mentor such as your teacher or tutor - they are the ones that will really know your story and your ability!

a good place to start, in my opinion, is going over other students’ responses. talk to your classmates about their ideas, ask your teacher if you could be shown any past responses by students who have scored well. these sorts of brainstorming and collaborative sessions are going to be most helpful to you in determining what the standards are for the creative and what you’re going to need to achieve to gain the marks you want and authentically engage with the parameters of your respective module. 

ALWAYS be thinking about what areas within your module inspire or intrigue you the most, and keep a note of these when you’re considering ideas for your own story! it’s totally okay to be inspired by your texts, as well: for example, when i was studying plath’s poetry last year, i became really interested with the ideology of a 1950s american housewife, and how they may have dealt with the constant social stresses of the cold war and imposed domestic femininity. plath’s poetry made me explore the more fragmented and disturbing aspects of psyche in response to these challenging and unprecedented situations, and i know a lot of people who were inspired in similar manners in reading and researching about their texts. 

do a lot of research when you’re first drafting your creative, or even an outline of your creative. it’s one thing to know the plot inside and out, but what’s really going to boost your marks is having accurate knowledge of the time period laced throughout your piece to make it authentic. transport your marker to another world, a world that you’ve constructed through research of what the lampposts looked like in the 1960s, popular kitchen brands, popular songs, how houses looked, common hairstyles, everyday lingo etc. learning how to integrate this research flawlessly into your descriptions will do amazing things for your marks, and show that not only can you write well, but you can write with purpose. this research doesn’t need to just be limited to content, either - in studying extension 1, you will become familiar with the stylistic compositional components of your period or genre. try using them in your own writing to showcase your engagement! whether this be through breaking up the chronology of your narrative, creating sections of the story led by particular religious verses, creating constant references and allusions to cultural phenomena etc. for example, in my story, i would preface each newer plot development with a quote from sylvia plath’s poetry to foreshadow these newer ideas and show how art of the period authentically reflected contemporary ways of thinking and behaving.

in terms of handling creative preparation before exams, definitely start by looking at past questions. they can really throw curveballs in these exams, and you basically have to be prepared for anything! they can ask for inclusion of a specific object, reference to a phrase or an image, or even a reference to one of your prescribed texts (whether that be in setting, characters, or symbols from your prescribed texts). try not to panic when looking at these, but instead think about how you could try to deal with these concepts in an exam context, knowing the plot progression of your piece. (as a side note, i wouldn’t recommend memorising word-for-word just for the reason that you really don’t know what you’re going to end up producing to effectively answer the question you’re given: know some really effective lines and phrases along the way that hit the key points of the module and showcase your research, and trust yourself to fill in the gaps related to whatever stimuli they provide for you in an exam). 

don’t rely on having only one type of creative piece: if you really want to have all bases covered, knowing a rough approach to a piece that is completely different to what you have prepared could save you in an exam if the stimuli is really off-putting and you can’t see a way to work with it in consideration of what you’ve already prepared. for example, my main creative was really personal and showed that sphere of behaviour much more than a strictly political piece about the relations of more influential individuals. knowing how you could go about doing either of these would be great if you have a lot of time and are really worried about not knowing how to handle a curveball question: but trust that you will probably figure something out and be ok! if you really can’t see how to incorporate the idea of a ‘book’, create a double narrative where a character (perhaps later revealed to be an important historical figure, a future version of your character looking back etc) is reading or writing a book with details about a transformative endeavour (i.e. your prepared story). as long as you reference back to the stimuli a few times briefly during the story and at the end, you’ll be ok. try to think outside of the box - if you’re asked to write about ‘an unwanted visitor’, that doesn’t have to be interpreted literally (although it could certainly be!) - it could be an invasive thought pattern, or a difficult memory that your character is trying to forget. your marker isn’t stupid - as long as you are writing well, they will understand and probably be grateful that you’ve presented them with a unique interpretation of the stimuli!

hello! thanks so much for your lovely words, it really means a lot to know that i can help out, even if its just a little bit! in terms of ext 1 essays, keep in mind that i did after the bomb, so my advice is mostly tailored to that and modules which are focused on a particular time period. 

the first thing you should be considering throughout the year as you study and select your preferred prescribed texts is, indeed, which related texts you will also be preparing that will complement your essay and overall ideas in the most natural way. you don’t want to be making inauthentic links between texts, and your essay inherently has much more sophistication if there is a noticeable and purposeful relationship between your texts. selecting texts that, together, can elucidate your broad understanding of your module by hitting different related points is going to help you out so much and make creating essay plans much less stressful and forced. don’t stress too much about having a massive base of texts to draw from at this time of year: i changed my related texts many times throughout the year, and ended with 2 completely different from when i started! there is always going to be time to figure this out, so don’t stress either if you only are looking at one related text at the moment.

once you’ve got your texts and have scanned them for versatile evidence and examples that can hit a few key ideas of the module (look to my earlier post about extension 1 for a little more explanation here), start thinking about the way you would feel most comfortable structuring your essay. a pretty common way of doing it is to discuss each text twice, looking something like this:

- P1: Text 1, idea 1- P2: Text 2, idea 1- P3: Text 3, idea 1- P4: Text 4, idea 1- P5: Text 1, idea 2- P6: Text 2. idea 2- P7: Text 3, idea 2- P8: Text 4, idea 2

i know plenty of people who were able to do this effectively, and there are definitely a lot of benefits including clarity, sophistication etc. but i always have been the type of person to write super long paragraphs even in my advanced essays, so i decided not to take this approach. instead, i did four paragraphs, with one on each text, discussing my general structured response to the question in light of my two broad ideas - i still hit around 1700 words using this method and usually got around 23/24 out of 25, so either approach is definitely valid! 

remember too that you do get an extra 20 minutes in the extension 1 exam to write your response compared to your advanced exams, and this really does provide you with all the time you need to write everything you want to. it seems so intimidating, but once you’ve done it once, you know what needs to be done and have plenty of opportunities to refine your skills before that final exam in october/november. you will surprise yourself with what you can achieve!

remember also that the extension 1 course does mark on your overall understanding of your module/time period in terms of context. adding your understanding of context into your essay can really elevate your marks if it is done skilfully to add detail or if your structure is even based upon it! obviously historical context is a good thing to add in if it’s going to make one of your points clearer, but i found one of the best ways to add in contextual knowledge was through analysing your texts, and, thus, your essay, through the lens of literary context - whether that be through postmodernism, post-structuralism, nihilism, post-colonialism, and many others! so, for my essay, i selected my texts in a manner that captured the nuances of developing postmodernist theory throughout the period of after the bomb (1945-1989): beckett’s waiting for godot and salinger’s a perfect day for bananafish were texts published very early in the period, so were paired together for my discussion of how objective meaning was lost in texts to reflect the despair felt in the immediate responses to the atomic bomb. my other two texts, plath’s daddy and the applicant with márquez’s one hundred days of solitude are written much later in the period, so i used them to discuss the transformation of postmodernist thought to one which embraces this absence of objective meaning and takes a much more repudiative, self-empowering response to disassemble sociocultural ideas once believed to be absolute. 

i think implementing these ideas so deeply into the actual textual analysis within your essay will truly make it clear to your marker that you have an adaptive and authentic understanding of the demands within your module. in the end, the best way to know if your approach is successful is by doing practice writing (whether that’s full essays or just essay skeletons) and showing them to your teacher, tutor, or another mentor. it’s so important to get this personal feedback, because everyone’s approach to extension 1 is different, which is really the beauty of the course! don’t feel like you have to have a super in-depth understanding of your module yet, though: once you’ve studied more texts, this will all fall into place and you will understand your final approach to pairing your texts together effectively. just keep it in the back of your mind consistently over the next few months, and you will reap the rewards, i am sure! 

How to deal with procrastination

One of the biggest problems for students is procrastination! It takes different forms for everyone but ultimately it stops us all at some point. Since there are several reasons for procrastinating, I’ve put together the five main types and a few ideas on how to deal with it. 

You’ve got poor work/productivity habits. You leave things until the last minute since you “work better under pressure”. You probably think you’ll do something after you’ve finished something else, and then never do. You get distracted whenever you’re trying to study and will sit waiting to feel motivated but it never comes. For this I’d suggest:

create a productivity inspiring workspace - find somewhere that you can set up a study space, whether it is an actual office or just a desk. Organise everything that you will need. I have a selection of pens and my few notebooks on the top so I can easily access them. Remove anything that might cause you to be distracted and doesn’t need to be in your immediate reach. If you’re got space, put up some motivational pictures. This could be my motivational printables, some quotes or your own pictures. Plants are also proven to boost productivity, so might be worth putting a small one nearby!

create an action list rather than to-dos - write down a few manageable tasks that you need to do and be specific on the steps you should take. Writing the actions they require will help you see what you should be doing to complete something, instead of just the overall task. If you’re able to break it down, you can take actionable steps rather than mentally having to think of each point.

focus on 20-30 minute periods - generally, we lose focus after a while so taking regular breaks can help give you chance to relax and refocus. Apps like Forest allow you to set a timer and will give you off your phone at the same time. Obviously, if you’re being productive, don’t suddenly cut that off because it is “time for a break”. Here are some other free alternatives.

remove distractions as best you can - I’m always distracted by social media so I will use Forest on my phone or time-lapse myself so I can’t use my phone. With my MacBook, I have two accounts. One for university and one for everything else. I am not logged into any social media on my uni account so I can’t just check it for a minute then end up wasting 20 minutes :’-)

find an accountability partner - pick someone who you can rely on to check on you regularly and see how your tasks are coming along. You can send them your to-do list and then every few hours you can update them with your progress. You won’t want to let them down. Alternatively, you can study with a friend! Tumblr/Instagram is basically my partner!

use the two-minute rule - if something takes less than two minutes, do it. Don’t make an excuse, just do it. Tasks that are longer you can either delegate or defer. Here is a simple visualisation of what I mean.

record your progress - doing a simple “don’t break the chain” in your planner is a great way to see how productive you’re being and therefore get you more motivated to keep it up! The ‘100 days of productivity’ challenge might be worth doing!

You’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Everything seems to be mounting up and nothing seems doable. You don’t know where or how to start. For this I’d suggest:

ask for help - if you’re feeling like this, it is likely you need some help in some form or another. See if a family member, friend, classmate or teacher (or Google) can help or give you a starting point. Emailing your teacher is a great option if you’re a little nervous about speaking to them in person. Plus you won’t forget what they told you because you’ll have a response.

remind yourself that getting started is the first step - you don’t need to finish a task in a matter of minutes. Start doing something small. Maybe organise what you need, highlight the important bits of your assessment, or draft an essay plan. The secret to getting ahead is getting started!

divide and conquer - figure out what is the overall task that you need to do and split it into manageable parts. For instance, with an essay, the aim is to write it! Divide it into planning out what you want to write, any references you need, summarising a final draft and then writing each paragraph. By dividing bigger tasks into actionable parts you can reduce the obstacles and get through each part in a more timely manner.

reward yourself - create a system to celebrate completing a selection of tasks. By rewarding your progress you’ll build an incentive to work and reinforce productivity (great for your self-discipline!).

learn to forgive yourself - if you have an off day, that is okay! When the stress of your education is getting too much, it is necessary to have time out.  Remember to come back to it later and try again.

don’t over schedule - if you’re feeling pressure from the amount of work and then the added pressure of trying to stick to a time limit, you’re just going to go crazy. Set yourself flexible times to get something done instead of being heavily structured. Give yourself time for a break and the ability to change tasks.

stick with one task - it can be so tempting to multitask but try not to. Try to keep the focus on the what you’re doing until it is done. If you struggle with that, you could write down anything useful that you randomly think about for another task, use a break-time to think about that other task or alternate between subjects/tasks every few hours.

You’re a perfectionist. You either don’t want to start something out of fear you won’t get it right or you can get stuck on the small details. There is a pressure to achieve the unachievable. For this I’d suggest:

focus on getting started, instead of finishing - it is easy to get overwhelmed thinking about what something is supposed to be like finished if you’re a perfectionist. Take things one step at a time. It’s also useful to remember the sooner you start, the more time you’ll have to perfect it at the end!

make drafts - if you’re overwhelmed, take half an hour to map out your plan of attack. Drafts can take many forms: summaries, scaffolds/outlines, essay plans, post-it notes, etc. I find it much easier to get on with work if I have a bit of a plan.

remember that your perfectionist tendencies aren’t actually improving your work or productivity but hindering you - you’re continually setting yourself unrealistic objects and (like me) probably feel let down by yourself if you don’t reach them. Be realistic and focus on getting it done!

accept mistakes - you’ve written something wrong, don’t panic! Cross it out with a single line and move on. Things happen and you have to accept it. You can’t rip up the page every time you do something wrong, even if it is so tempting.

put things in perspective - is what you’re beating yourself up about right now going to mean anything in a week, a month, a year? Be honest if it isn’t, is it really worth putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.

praise yourself through the process - try not to criticise yourself but recognise your progress.

don’t compare yourself - this is very hard not to do but remember we are all different. Just because “you’re not as good” or don’t understand something as easily as others, it doesn’t mean you’re any less! Everyone was a beginner once and we all learn at different paces. Work to your strengths!

You want to do something else. You find whatever you’re doing boring. You want it to be over with but don’t want to get started. The ultimate catch 22, right? For this I’d suggest:

remember that putting it off isn’t going to make it go away - if you leave it too long you’ll end up getting more stressed about it. Best to get it over with.

make a plan from the get-go - once you know something is coming up (e.g. a test, an assessment, etc) make notes on it! That could be questions, annotations, potential topics, citations, etc. By making the effort to spend time reading through, you’ll save your future self some stress. Especially if it’s a topic you have forgotten. That way your notes act as a reminder so you can get started.

set a finish time with a reward - tell yourself that if you finish something by a certain time and then you can do something else. Use your self-discipline to not go back on this. Set a realistic time and try to get it complete before. If you can think that you’re doing something fun once it is completed, you’ll be more motivated to get it done.

make a structure - for note-taking, it can be overwhelming looking at a textbook and thinking what you’re going to write out. Make a note-taking layout/colour code that works for you and that subject. Mine is here - it just gives me an idea of how I’d lay everything instead of going in with no action plan.

try to make it fun - this could be using YouTube to learn or starting a study group. Use different methods for memorising information such as flashcards, mindmaps or study guides (like question/answer).

make the effort to refocus - if you’re finding something boring and you’re unfocused, walk away for 5 minutes, get a drink and come back. If you’re really struggling, change topics for a while. Find a point where you can finish and start doing something else that is productive.

listen to some music - generally, music without lyrics are best for focusing. Spotify has a great playlist for studying called ‘focus’. However, I find my regular music good for getting me a little more motivated and awake. I also like writing essays to music because I weirdly sort of type in the same rhythm. Funny study hack I’ve found that works for me haha!

write your thoughts down - Another thing I’ve been trying is externalising my thoughts. If I get distracted by something or have a “gosh, I need to remember that” moment, I will write it down. By getting it out my brain and onto a bit of paper, I no longer have to think about it and can continue. 

You have no motivation. Often we feel that motivation is the only thing you need to get on with something, but this isn’t totally true. You need a mix of motivation and discipline. As the saying goes: “motivation may get you started, but discipline keeps you going”. To build your motivation, I’d suggest:

have a mass organise - usually when I’m feeling unmotivated, I’ll clear out my desk and sort out my computer. This involves throwing out stationery that doesn’t work or scrap paper. I usually make piles of spare stationery and will re-organise my desk drawers. For my computer, I will pull out all my files to my desktop then start working through them. I’ll delete duplicates, rename files properly, and put them in the right place.

find some new stationery - weirdly buying stationery is one of those things that instantly makes you want to be productive. Head to the shops and spend a little something on a new pen, highlighter or notebook!

film yourself - studying generally doesn’t give us any instant gratification which can make it feel like a drag. By filming yourself working you can get a little video at the end which shows your progress. I love watching time-lapses of myself because you see all the work you did super quickly. It also means I’m not touching my phone!

set yourself some goals - write down a few things you want to achieve, in the short or long term. Put it somewhere that you’ll be reminded about it! By externalising your goals, you’re more likely to make the effort to achieve it.

check/make a studygram and studyblr - this is one of most motivating this I’ve done. Having social media dedicated to studying has helped not only improve my work ethic but my whole attitude towards education. Getting involved in the community is a great motivator. Here is a post on how to set up a studyblr.

I hope this post gives you just a few ideas on how to tackle procrastination! If you’ve got any tips you’d like to share, please message me! x

Hey there! Last year, I made a huge text post on how to approach literary analyses, check it out here!

Then I have a post with words to say instead of “The poet/writer/author can…” here, words to use after “an image can” here, and a wonderful list of literary devices that you should definitely check out here. 

Disclaimer: This is how I like to make notes, by no means this is the ‘end all’ of how to make science notes. This is a method that has worked for me that I’m happy to share with the studyblr community! Note that this is for HSC syllabus so I’m not entirely sure how it works around the rest of the world. 

Table of Contents- This is what I use to see what page each dotpoint of the syllabus is, it’s basically a checklist to see if I have all the content needed in the course. Not needed of course, but it is helpful, especially since science (and biology specifically) has so much content!

Dotpoint headings- It’s my preferable way of making sure that I’ve covered everything in the syllabus, my subheadings are always the dotpoint and my information below. e.g. 1.1 Identify the role of enzymes

Secondary sources and practicals- Thankfully the HSC syllabus is ordered into knowledge you need to know and then the practicals you need to do in order to complete the subject. Sort those into diferent headings and ALWAYS take photos of your practical setups (if your teacher allows you too of course). Videos are preferable because you can see how to perform an experiment- very handy when it comes to practical exams!

Examples-  Put draft practice questions in your notes so when you read over them, you can get a feel for what the exam may ask you about a certain dotpoint. 

Glossary- For science, there are so many things to remember that glossaries are super helpful! you can memorise your vocabulary. Would 10/10 recommend.

I’ve got another post (it’s a video) of my biology notes for my first term of HSC- it’s the companion to everything I’ve said in this post, so go check it out!

I hope this helped!

about the network

this network is dedicated to australian students undertaking the hsc in 2018. this is a place to interact with other students from the class of 2018, ask questions and share resources relating to studying and the hsc. hopefully this network will provide some guidance and relief during the last year of high school!

why should i join?

this network will be a space for all 2018 hsc students to talk to one another about their final year of high school. you will be able to share your hsc journey with other students who are in the same position as you and discuss your goals, future plans and any worries you have. the hsc can be a daunting time but hopefully this network will provide a sense of relief for anyone feeling overwhelmed by sharing tips to get through the year and resources for individual subjects that will help your study. our group chat will also allow every member to communicate with one another and talk about anything they like, not just the hsc!

what are the requirements to join?

the only requirements to join is that you must be undertaking your hsc in 2018 and you must reblog this post.

all types of blogs are accepted, you don’t have to own a studyblr!

how do i apply?

simply fill out this form and once an admin has confirmed your application you will be sent a message notifying that you have been accepted into the network, added to the members page and invited to join the group chat.

links

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Disclaimer: As always, this is a guide on how I like to study maths and how I did well in final exams- but of course doesn’t work for everyone! These are only suggestions. ´･ᴗ･`

Mindset- A lot of people dislike maths and a big reason (from experience) is that people believe that it is too hard/ don’t understand. The great thing with maths that is different to subjective classes like English- if you know all of your concepts and formulae, you WILL do well. Your mind will help you pull through. Maths in honestly not that difficult. Everything that is hard is really just the concepts you know, in a more creative way.

The Mistake Palm card- Any silly errors you make- put down onto a palm card in terms of topic. For example, on my “Sketching graphs” topic, a mistake I make is not marking the point of inflexion. Things like not forgetting to mark your axes, label a point etc. go here.

The Mistake Word document- your mistakes from practice tests, exams at school and questions you don’t know how to solve initially all go on this. Scan/ take a photo and dump it into Word. This is for you to go over a few months later (or before your test) to make sure you know how to do the question! Mine ended up being 20+ for my HSC exam and it definitely helped!

Formulae Palm card- Same as the mistakes palm card, just dump all your formulae and you can carry it around in your pocket to read on the train or wherever you go.

Practice!- Practice papers are the most important thing. Exercises from your textbook are great, but you have to do past papers more so. This is to get familiar with format, tricky questions that could be asked and how fast you can do one.

Study depth, not breadth- Doing question after question from the textbook is not smart studying. A lot of those questions are the same thing but with different numbers so you’re not really giving yourself benefit of different formats. A lot of people saying they “study a lot” when they do this but you have to expose yourself to different kinds of questions. Know when to skip questions if you get the concept and to repeat if you don’t understand.

Timed Conditions- Practice papers under timed conditions are great at home. Aim to do the whole paper in 80-90% of the time to make sure you have time to check in tests! However in Australia, the HSC exam is 3 hours for mathematics when it only takes 1- 1.5 hours to complete- if you’re at home and you finish checking before time is up- just mark it. You’re wasting time by waiting for 3 hours when you could do two more tests in that time.

Don’t Repeat Papers- Don’t repeat papers! Repeat the questions you got wrong. This is because you’ve seen the questions before, and you know what to do. Try to find more practice papers on the internet instead.

I hope this helped anyone who does Mathematics- this probably works best with HSC since I don’t really know how overseas exams work. Thank you!!

Jade

Hey! I haven’t given a speech in a long time, but I think the most important thing with a speech is to engage your audience whilst asserting your points convincingly! I’ve actually done a search around tumblr for you for masterposts that may help more than I can!

- tips for writing speeches and talks (x)- 5 tips for speeches (x)- public speaking (x)- speeches + debating (x)- more public speaking tips (x)

This is a compilation of all the websites that I know that help with studies of subjects (well, the ones listed anyway). This probably benefits HSC students the most but is definitely a universal list as I’m pretty sure every student needs one of these websites from time to time.

MATHS - Desmos- a graphing website which can graph on any plane (even complex plane) - Geogebra- Another graphing app (for Chrome, Windows or Mac) - Derivative Calculator- for all calculus needs - Integral Calculator- in the name - Khan Academy- website with youtube videos and practice questions - Eddie Woo- (very helpful for HSC maths students) A Youtube channel with maths explanations from basic –> complex.

ENGLISH - Paperrater- rates your essays - Grammarly- Proof reads your essays - Hemingway Editor- grades readability of essays - Cliche finder - Another readibility scorer - Creative writing tips - How to improve essay response - Creative Writing now- A list of prompts - Word counter- ranks your most frequently used words - Tip of my Tongue- Find a word that you can’t remember based on the letter it starts with, definition or letters in it - Lisa’s Study Guides- English Youtube - Literary techniques for analysing written texts - Analysing a visual text - Analysing a cinematic text

SCIENCE (mainly biology and chemistry) - Chemical Equation Balancer - Facts on Elements - Khan Academy- Practice questions and videos - Crash Course Biology playlist - Crash Course Chemistry playlist - Stated Clearly- Youtube on Evolutionary science - Andrew Weng- (super helpful for IB students) Youtube on chemistry - Let’s learn Science- Youtube channel

HISTORY - History Essay tips - World War I Glossary - Guide to Referencing - Cite this for me- Referencing website for different styles of bibliographies - JSTOR- Academic journals on history, art, English and more