VCE® Exam exams are approaching rapidly.... No doubt you’ve been thinking about this moment all year.
Now that you’ve laid down the groundwork, it’s all about adding the finishing touches to make sure you finish your last year of high school on, well, a high.
Here are some tips that helped me to get a 99+ ATAR and will help guide you through the run home until exams:
Quality over quantity
Practise exams are a staple of every successful student’s repertoire, but that’s only half the story.
After you complete each paper, you should be critically reviewing everything: the things you are confident with, and those that you have difficulty with. Then, keep practicing the questions that have been giving you grief until you are 100% comfortable with them. This sounds laughably simple, however a lot of people avoid doing this because they don’t want to acknowledge areas that they are not comfortable with. This hubris is a big mistake: be humble and accept that there is always room for improvement.
To take this further, sit down with the VCAA
study design and tick off every component that you are comfortable with, then, go back over and address everything that you might be lacking in. Simple? Perhaps. Painfully tedious? Maybe. Essential? You bet.
Simulate
This may sound a little obvious, but if you have an exam that starts at 3pm, make a point of sitting your practise exams for that subject at 3pm. This gets your body and your brain used to focusing around this time. This is especially critical for 3pm exams as the late afternoon is a notoriously bad time of day to concentrate; with school days winding down or ending at 3, not many of us are used to intense focus between 3pm-5pm. Naturally, the more realistic you can make your practise exams, the more comfortable you will feel during the real thing.
Strategise
To perform at your peak during an exam, you simply must go in with a game-plan, that way you won’t waste time deciding how to approach the paper.
Identify the parts of the exam paper that you find the easiest, and start with them. As you do this, you will build confidence and momentum which will allow you to answer the harder questions. You will be able to naturally see what sections of the exam suit you the most as you sit more and more practise papers. Don’t be afraid to start at the back of the paper and work your way to the front — go with what works best for you.
Routine, Routine, Routine
In this department, consistency is key. Make sure that you get up early and at the
same time every morning until your exams are over. This way your body and mind will settle into a nice rhythm and you will be used to concentrating early in the morning — if you are waking up at 9:30am every morning, your brain will struggle to fire early in the day, you are effectively jet-lagging yourself for early morning exams.
Fuel your body with the right energy sources, something as basic as good nutrition can help you feel more alert and give you long-lasting energy to be more productive throughout the day.
Ensure you allocate time for exercise, even something as easy as a 30 minute walk every day will get your blood pumping and allow you to be
more productive when you are sitting at your desk.
Attitude
I know these tips may sound simple, basic even. But if we do the basic things well, everything else should fall into place. At the end of the day VCE® Exam is a competition and you want to be doing everything possible to give yourself a competitive edge against the next person — it could make the difference between
getting into your course and not.
The biggest thing that will set you apart from the rest is to approach your exams with enthusiasm, not dread. You have been working hard all year, have faith in everything that you have done. Exams are your opportunity to show the examiner just how much you know, enjoy them.
