Something I’ve realised from tutoring senior students is that knowing the content is honestly only half the battle. I see so many Year 11 and 12s who think, “If I just memorise everything, I’ll be fine,” but that’s not how the HSC works. The real game-changer is exam technique—actually knowing how to use what you’ve learned in timed conditions.

The other day I was working with one of my Year 12 English Advanced girls. She literally knew everything about her text—quotes, themes, all of it. But when we tried a practice essay under time, she froze. She spent ages trying to make her intro “perfect,” didn’t adapt her ideas to the question, and ended up rushing the final paragraph. And honestly, this is so normal. The HSC is basically a time management sport.

So we stripped everything back. I showed her how to plan in under two minutes, how to reuse her ideas no matter what the question asks, and how to bring the question into every paragraph. Once she realised she didn’t need to write the perfect essay—just an organised, on-task one—you could literally see the stress leave her face. Her next assessment went from 13/20 to 18/20 just from changing how she writes, not what she knows.

Moments like that always remind me why exam technique matters as much as content. It’s not just about the syllabus—it’s about strategies like marks-per-minute, question decoding, flexible paragraph structures, and finishing under pressure. When students learn both the content and the method, everything suddenly clicks.

Tutoring isn’t just teaching facts. It’s helping students feel confident, calm, and in control when it actually matters. And honestly, seeing that shift is the best part of the job.

Ellie Mceachern