Year 12. The penultimate year to liberty from the shackles of the daily school routine.
But to get there, you’ve got to complete your looming final examinations. Oh, and I hear you’re after a high-ranking ATAR because you’d like to study
Degree X with an ATAR just beyond what you think you could achieve. If
Degree X is medicine, it’s worth understanding the broader
pathways to medicine in Australia early, because ATAR is often only one part of the process.
Well, let’s improve your ATAR together. Without more study (unless of course you are void of any revision; in that case, whip yourself together!).
For school leavers aiming for medicine, pairing ATAR strategy with an understanding of
UCAT requirements for medicine can also help you prioritise your time.
Here’s 5 effective methods to improve your ATAR;
1.
Study Smart
- Don’t revise what you know well; leave that to last. Buckle down on the topics that you do not understand or struggle to complete questions quickly.
- But, how do I truly know my strengths and weaknesses? Well, dear reader, read on;
2.
Look to the Past
- By this, I do not mean loom on the events gone by. Rather, study using past papers. Past papers, particularly those from official educative institutions such as The Board of Studies (New South Wales) and the Victorian Board of Education (Victoria). The same past-paper mindset applies if UCAT is part of your entry pathway; free UCAT resources can help you become familiar with the exam style.
- Start recent, then go back in time.
- When completing the papers; actually do them from whatever knowledge you have now. Do not research answers and information using a “I’ll learn as I go” approach.
- After completing said paper, spend sufficient time reviewing given answers, and taking notes how to improve those answers you wrote.
3.
Learn from Mistakes
- Continuing on, actually mark down and keep track of topics. For this writer, this came in the form of 3-point table, into which, for each subject, I would classify any learning objective as: (A) Knows Well, (B) Needs Revision, (C) Don’t Know.
- The above is a proven technique – one employed by many learning apps – that allows you to not only identify weak spots, but revise those topics least known with the greatest frequency.
4.
Start Soon
- Whether it be ‘exam study’ or ‘major assessments’, getting an early start will allow you proper time to complete the task set out. How to get the most out of starting early;
- (A) Research more, (B) Understand marking criteria, and (C) Review your work (self-review, and critiqued by others [this cannot be understated!]).
5.
Play the Game
- Regardless of what state you’re completing Year 12, a process of aligning and scaling your marks will take place. Become familiar with how this works and you might be able to play along.
- This is not the time or place to give a full explanation of how the processes work (against, or in, your favor), but here’s a basic overview.
-
Aligning:
- Adjustment of raw marks within your class; based on minimum and maximum assessment marks, standard deviation, and average mark.
- Aligning is a way of assuring internal and external assessments, completed by the one student, are essentially standardized.
- With this, range of scores affects all students in the class. So, help each others out!
-
Scaling:
- Adjustment of combined raw internal and external mark according to national performance standard.
- Put simply, scaling accounts for how ‘difficult’ a subject is, based on how well students perform in this subject along with their other subjects.
Year 12 is tough. It’s not a year I’d want attempt blindly.
So use these tips to your advantage. Incorporate
effective and
proven study methods into your daily routine in order to boost your ATAR. If medicine is your goal, remember that ATAR is often considered alongside interviews and, for many undergraduate courses,
UCAT scores.
The sky’s the limit.
Written by Dan Wilson
Medical Student at the University of Melbourne
