The HSC can feel pretty overwhelming at times. With multiple subjects to juggle, assessments popping up left and right, and the pressure to do well constantly hanging over your head, it’s easy to feel like you’re drowning in it all. That’s where a study timetable can really make a difference.

Having a timetable isn’t about being rigid or taking all the fun out of your life. It’s about giving yourself structure and making sure you’re not leaving everything to the last minute. Breaking things down into manageable chunks can help you stay on top of your workload and actually reduce stress. It’s a good feeling to know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it.

What’s more, a good study timetable helps you keep balance in your life. You can plan in time to catch up with friends, go for a walk, or just binge your favourite show for a bit. It’s not about working non-stop, it’s about working smarter. When you know you’ve got time set aside to relax, it’s easier to stay motivated when it’s time to focus.

And let’s face it, distractions are everywhere. Phones, social media, Netflix, you name it. A timetable gives you a clear plan so you’re not constantly second-guessing what to study next. That way, you waste less time and get more done.

Of course, things don’t always go to plan. Some days you’ll be tired, or something unexpected will come up. That’s okay. Your timetable isn’t set in stone, it’s there to guide you, not stress you out!

In the end, a study timetable is a small thing that can make a big difference. It helps you stay organised, feel more in control, and get through the HSC with a bit more confidence and a lot less panic.

Sophie

Since I had a late cancel I have decided to write a blog on key things to keep in mind when trying to study effectively.

1. Set Clear Goals
Start each study session with a clear goal. Whether it’s understanding a concept, completing a chapter, or revising a topic, having a specific objective keeps you focused and motivated.

2. Use Active Learning Techniques
Rather than passively reading or highlighting, try active methods like summarizing information in your own words, teaching the material to someone else, or creating mind maps. These techniques help deepen understanding and improve recall.

3. Follow the Pomodoro Technique
Break your study time into 25-minute focused sessions followed by 5-minute breaks. After four sessions, take a longer break (15–30 minutes). This method helps maintain concentration and reduces mental fatigue.

4. Eliminate Distractions
Find a quiet place to study and keep your phone on silent or out of reach. Consider using apps that block distracting websites or help you stay on track.

5. Test Yourself Regularly
Practice quizzes and flashcards are powerful tools for reinforcing memory. Self-testing helps identify weak areas and improves long-term retention.

6. Stay Organized
Keep your notes, assignments, and materials well-organized. A tidy study space and a clear schedule reduce stress and make it easier to focus.

By using these strategies consistently, you can study more efficiently, reduce stress, and boost your confidence before exams.

Julian Podgornik

Studying can often be difficult, mentally taxing, and requires a lot of focus and concentration. That’s why, especially in the leadup to exams such as the HSC or school end-of-year exams, it is vital to have a suitable study space, to foster the efficiency of a student’s time spent on their work. In study spaces that are noisy, full of distractions, or not motivating, concentration is ultimately drawn away from the work, which is much less likely to be completed.

Some key ways for students to ensure that they are studying in a suitable environment is to consider the following factors:

Keeping away distractions. Make sure that key distractions – especially phones – are left far away from the study space, minimising their ability to distract the student. Having a phone within reach greatly increases the temptation to simply procrastinate with social media or mobile games, but this is minimised if the phone is put far away. Out of sight, out of mind!

Choosing a quiet location. Loud, busy areas can be incredibly distracting and often lead to interruptions, breaking focus and concentration. If a student’s home is busy and loud, a library is often a good alternative. They may choose to study in their local library, or bigger libraries such as NSW State Library or a number of different University Libraries.

Ensuring good lighting. Poor lighting can lead to eye strain and headaches, whereas good lighting improves concentration. In particular, students should make sure that when they are using their laptops, they have suitable light to diffuse the blue light from the laptop, which can cause eye damage and impair sleeping on its own.

Having comfortable seating. Having a proper chair and table that allows the student to work with good posture and comfort minimises back and neck pain in the long term. This is especially important in periods of high studying, such as in the lead-up to the HSC, in which back and neck pain can easily arise.

Ceara Kearnes

Students have different studying abilities – whether it is writing essays, using palm cards, mind maps on a white board, and various other methods. A tutor can help a student find their best study techniques, and these can be incorporated into the lessons.

Effective study methods include active recall, spaced repetition, and mind mapping. It is important that these techniques are used primarily by the student through great encouragement from the tutor. In order for a student to study, they will want to study. A tutor can guide them in finding techniques that best suit them.

Start by setting clear, specific goals for each study session to stay focused and motivated. Use active learning techniques such as summarizing information in your own words, teaching concepts to someone else, and testing yourself with practice questions rather than passively reading or highlighting. Implement spaced repetition by reviewing material over time rather than cramming, and use active recall to strengthen memory by retrieving information from memory rather than just rereading notes.

Tamiah Mahoney

During my time studying for the HSC, like all students I spent a lot of time studying for my exams – so which methods did I use and which ones were the most effective?

The most common and most traditional method would be repetition, performing the same action repeatedly until you completely master it. While this method has its uses it is probably the most misused and over worked method within education, students repeatedly writing out their essays trying to memorise them or mechanically doing 100 math questions of the exact same format is not effective in the long run as it takes away any thought required to effectively answer questions. What is much more important is understanding the concepts behind what we are doing and understanding when we can apply them – which is why answering a range of questions is much more effective. Students can do this by using past papers (if they are available) and if not completing the topic tests in maths textbooks/writing responses to each of the main themes being explored during english class.

Another key skill is managing your own attention, sitting down for 4+ hours and trying to study effectively from start to finish is a lie we have all told ourselves, and with our phones being with us at all times you will almost always end up scrolling for significant portions. A way to manage this is breaking your work down into blocks or setting smaller achievable goals – such as completing a set amount of short answer/extended response at a time or completing specific pages of questions. Then after each milestone is reached, taking a short break where you can go walk around/have a drink of water and get your mind off studying for a moment, allowing you to reset. Doing this, you can often studing for much longer periods and stay on task much longer – making your study much more efficient.

Charlie Curran

As a tutor with five years of experience guiding students through the HSC, I’ve witnessed noticeable changes in the structure and difficulty of exams, particularly in mathematics. Over the years, predicting the types of questions that will appear has become increasingly challenging. Previously, exams typically consisted of around 16 questions, but now they feature approximately 36, while still being worth 100 marks overall. This shift has not only altered how students approach their studies but has also raised questions about the fairness and effectiveness of this evolving assessment style.

The increase in the number of questions has led to shorter, more diverse problems that require students to think quickly and apply their knowledge across various contexts. While this approach can better assess a student’s overall understanding, it also places more pressure on time management. Many of my students find it difficult to maintain both speed and accuracy, especially when faced with unexpected question formats.

This trend towards more unpredictable and complex exams seems to be driven by the increasing number of students undertaking the HSC each year, as shown in the attached image. With more students competing for university placements, harder exams may be intended to better differentiate high-achieving students. However, this raises an important question: is increasing exam difficulty the best way to achieve fair and accurate scaling?

From my experience, while some students thrive under the challenge, others who have a solid understanding of the material may struggle to demonstrate their abilities within the time constraints. This can lead to stress and anxiety, which ultimately impacts performance. As educators, our goal should be to help students develop both knowledge and confidence. Striking the right balance between assessing critical thinking and maintaining a fair testing environment is essential. Moving forward, it’s crucial to consider whether the current approach truly reflects students’ capabilities or if adjustments are needed to ensure a more equitable system.

Theo Tselonis

I can think back and remember a time when I was learning 2 unit Mathematics during the HSC. I remember this new, wonderful (and hard) thing called Calculus, that could magically describe the gradient of a function as another function, or inversely, find the area beneath a curve. As a fledgling Aerospace Engineer, I can happily say that the maths itself hasn’t gotten any easier, but one constant between my university and high school studies were the fact that there was always something new to learn; always another facet of the topic studied formerly that delves into another situation in which to complete a certain operation, or perhaps applications of the operation itself. Addition turns to multiplication, turns to exponentiation, turns to tetration, and so on.

In school (and in uni – though I’ve had the practice by now), it’s so easy to get lost in this sea of new ‘stuff’. This was especially so in my junior years. There was much I had to learn in the moment, and much I had yet to even begin to comprehend. It’s easy to drown in this sea, and it’s a common feeling for students doing their HSC.

How did I even begin to manage?? I think the good thing about maths is that the more you do it, the better you get at it. Think about it. I think there were times when we all struggled with counting up to 100 as toddlers. Though it’s second knowledge now. There are financial skills in our schooling that we apply every day as adults. So repetition and habit is our best friend here.

While a mathematical mind helps, for me it was ensuring I completed every question of every exercise handed out that enabled me to gain a strong grasp of the content learnt in class (you can do this with something like a TV show running in the background). There is something universally satisfying in finally understanding how to complete a certain type of question, and completing similar questions like nothing! Similarly, HSC Past Papers were my best friend when it came to exam-season studying. There are countless free resources online with answers and worked solutions – getting tutored can help you with this also. Another strategy to ensure I knew everything I was being assessed on were handmade summary sheets, crammed with theorems and formulae.

Ultimately, though, the key to success in mathematics is passion. I believe this is possible for anyone. Repetition builds knowledge. Building knowledge builds passion, which encourages the growth of more knowledge – the rest is then history.

Zac Markovina

Critical reading refers to understanding the content of a piece of text, and similarly examining the author’s purpose and craft. Within the NSW HSC Curriculum, humanities-based subjects including History, English, Studies of Religion and Community and Family Studies provide a grounded framework of syllabus dot points for students to learn from, however, in an effort to excel within these subjects, critical reading is an important avenue to encourage a student’s deeper confidence – a necessity within an exam style context. In engaging the student to read something and question its form, authenticity and intentions, critical articles diverge from the rigidity of NESA assigned textbooks to further encourage students to name and examine one’s own feelings, perceptions and reactions during the experience. This, in essence, broadens the scope of learning within the HSC syllabus, prompting active engagement between a student and the syllabus they are drawing from.

In the evolving nature of artificial intelligence within a modern society, Year 11 and 12 teachers alongside HSC markers are demanding students to discern relationships between concepts as opposed to merely memorising facts from textbooks. Articles that examine philosophical arguments, social theories or historical structures allow students to see beyond basic facts and understand the deeper implications of human actions and societal changes. This, therefore, enables a student’s flexibility in their response to unseen questions within their exams and encourages the emergence of a personal voice within their answers – a notable bonus when seeking to attain a Band 6 response.

Furthermore, while textbooks provide a solid foundation of knowledge, they often fail to capture contemporaneous debates and emerging ideas within a given field. Critical articles, on the other hand, equip students with contemporary research and ongoing discussions on the relevance of the syllabus dot point as examined in a real-life manner.

In conclusion, studying critical articles plays a vital role in advancing the scope of a Year 11 and 12 students’ knowledge on humanity-based syllabus content, encouraging the elevation of their work through engaging with their personal voice.

Georgina Maxwell

Staying focused while studying can be rough. One second you’re reading your notes, the next you’re deep into TikTok wondering how you got there. But with a little effort, you can actually train yourself to concentrate better and get through your work without it feeling like a total battle.

First things first, your phone is probably your biggest distraction. The best way to deal with it? Get it out of sight. Put it in another room, lock it in a drawer, or even use one of those timed lockboxes if you have zero self-control. Out of sight, out of mind. If you really need your phone for study, try an app like Forest where a little tree grows while you work. If you leave the app, your tree dies. Sounds dramatic, but it’s surprisingly effective.

Another great way to stay on track is setting up a reward system with Forest. The longer you stay focused, the more trees you grow, eventually building an entire forest. It turns studying into a challenge where you actually feel accomplished instead of just drained. Plus, the app even lets you plant real trees with the points you earn, so you’re helping the environment while smashing your study goals.

At the end of the day, it’s all about making distractions harder to access and using tools that keep you motivated. You don’t have to rely on willpower alone. Just set yourself up for success and staying focused gets way easier.

Eireyna Papinyan