Julian Abelson – Director of Studies 7-12

HSC, study skills and assessments

Year 12

Our Year 12 students continue to work steadily towards their HSC. Along with internal HSC Assessments this term, an important upcoming milestone is the Half-Yearly Examination block. This will take place immediately after the Term 1 holidays. These examinations are not HSC Assessments, but are highly valued for the opportunity to review the first half of year’s work and to gain feedback on the students progress towards the Trial Examinations in Term 3. Revision and proper preparation are essential to make the most of this opportunity for valuable feedback. The low stakes environment, not being HSC assessments, is all the more valuable as it allows students to focus on their learning, without the additional pressure.

Our Year 12 study skills sessions and supports have been in progress this term. 

Year 12s had a study skills session with Elevate called Ace Your Exams which focused on seven key examination preparation skills: 

1. Give yourself adequate time to prepare
2. Go through past papers and identify where you lost the marks
3. Get your teacher’s advice
4. Learn from the people around you
5. Fix the mistakes
6. Use an exam planner including goal setting and strategies
7. Practice Papers

An ongoing opportunity for Year 12 is to meet with me to discuss individual needs, in particular HSC units of study, scaling and where the students focus needs to be in order to maximise ATAR. A number of Year 12s have availed themselves of this opportunity and all students are encouraged to do so. This can be done through an appointment or when I am present in Year 12 study lessons.

A further study skills session occurred this week, where I led students through Year 12 Examination preparation and discussed the role of scaling and the importance of working collaboratively and collectively towards the HSC. We also discussed the key learning strategies of Retrieval and Spaced learning practice, to ensure learning is embedded, remembered long term and available for retrieval under stressful circumstances, such as examinations.

All students

Years 8-11 also had study skills sessions last week with Elevate. Years 8 and 10 focused on study skills and time management.

Year 9 had a session on memory mnemonics, to support the learning of content, and Year 11 had a session on motivation, goal setting and planning.

Year 7 will be having their evening with Dr Prue Salter next term. A reminder that this is a mandatory session and students should attend with their parents. 

Assessment make-up tasks

In order to support students to complete assessments when they are absent, a Tuesday afternoon make-up session has been instigated. This will take place from 3.30 pm – 5.00 pm. Any student who misses an assessment, for whatever reason, will be expected to attend at this time. Students will be notified at time of any missed assessment.