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Afrina shares how she prepares for half-yearly exams to ace Year 11! Read on to see her hacks for exam success.
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Hi, I’m Afrina! As a proud St George Girls High School graduate with a 99.90 ATAR, I know firsthand how tough Year 11 can be. I wrote this while I was still in Year 11, sharing the study tips that helped me manage the HSC and successfully prep for half-yearly exams.
Name: Afrina Tanisha
School: St George Girls High School
Grade: 11 (2022)
ATAR: 99.90
University goal: Doctor of Medicine, University of New South Wales
Hi! I’m Afrina and I’ve been a student at Matrix ever since Year 7!
In fact, my world has been shaped through the constructs of school, home and Matrix.
I’ve made some of the best memories at Strathfield Campus, made life long friends and most importantly learnt to love learning.
Maths used to be my best subject. However, I did not have enough time to actually digest the information throughout the fast pace of Year 11.
My exam performance has also been impacted by time pressure as I often get frazzled or anxious during the exam.
It turned out that my key weaknesses were that:
First, I practised a greater variety of questions and carefully took the time to grasp key concepts (such as trigonometry) at my own pace with Matrix+.
I also noticed that the Matrix Theory Books had some great questions in the lesson reviews, so I have been revising with the different lesson review questions.
To solve my issues with time and nerves during exams, I knew I had to practice more.
The number one tip to improve on time pressure and nervousness is to do timed exams.
In addition, I made the effort to wake up early in the morning, to sit down and take the practice tests as if it was a real exam.
My brain started getting used to working at 9 in the morning and I noticed myself becoming more productive at that time. As a result, I had been finishing the paper on time. Now, I know that at the very least, time is something I have under control, which has really helped with my exam-time nerves.
Year 11 has forced me to reassess the way I study. This has been a mix of failing, reorgainsing, readjusting with changes and learning how to improve my skills.
Setting goals is important but making sure they are achievable is also an something to take into consideration.
In the past, I got caught up trying to do everything at once, but that made me tired and decreased my level of concentration in my work.
So now, I strategise how I am going to get all the work I need to get done for my half-yearlies by categorising all my tasks as either Small or Big.
Small Tasks
| Quick and achievable tasks like homework, quick quizzes or revising theory → should take approximately 30-45 minutes to complete |
Big Tasks
| These tasks take longer to do but I like complete them in small chunks. For example, I dedicate a few sessions to practice tests. The first session is completing the actual test itself, takes 2 hrs to complete. The second session is when I take an hour to review the test and mark it. |
Every time I receive an assessment notification from school, the first thing I do is go and highlight the syllabus dot points.
I had to save time over the term to study for my half yearlies, so I had to utilise the holidays in the most effective way possible. Matrix Holiday Accelerated courses helped me get ahead and stay on track.
Chemistry is one of my favourite subjects, I understand the content easily and enjoy learning it. So, I did the holiday course to get ahead for school. I found it helpful to solely focus on one subject and really pay attention to the modules.
The Chemistry Holiday Course went through a whole module in 5 days, which definitely maximised my productivity because I forced myself to write notes everyday.
By the end of the five days, I finished my notes for Module 3 Chemistry. By completing this course during the holiday, I have more time to revise other content and weaker subjects during the term.
I’ve definitely been experimenting with different methods of studying to find the one that works for me. Normal note-writing (just writing across the page) has been more difficult because it is time-consuming and I felt like nothing was going into my head.
Here’s some of the approaches I take to create visual notes.
The mind map approach helps me just start writing ideas on a blank canvas, and just write a few thoughts here and there. Then eventually connecting everything together with arrows and that led to a whole draft of an essay.
I learned this tip from another Matrix Alumni, James Drielsma, to use flowcharts to organise thoughts. Here’s his blog!
I found this incredibly useful. Many of the Matrix Theory Books also use flowcharts to explain concepts. They summarise concepts and explain how you can demonstrate skills needed for different questions with a step-by-step process.
This makes note-making easier, less time-consuming and more effective for learning.
For my half yearlies, I put up little reminders around my room of some things I had difficulty remembering: Equations, different rules for maths, and laws. I would see them every day, and they stuck to my memory.
There is this amazing site, THSC Online, that I use to access practice tests online. It is a life saver and I hope that everyone can utilise this site for the best.
It has different practice tests from all schools over NSW, and allows for students to have larger exposure to different styles of questions.
For my half-yearlies I was dependent on this site and did at least one practice test for each of my subjects. This accentuated my time management during exams, identified my weaknesses and places I needed to work on and helped me get used to the exam setting.
My top tip is to use practice tests as the main tool to excel in the half yearlies- or in any test.
After every practice test, I take at least 30 minutes to review the tests and see the places I made mistakes.
I have a FAIL (First Attempt in Learning) book. Don’t worry it’s not a place where I bring down my self-esteem. Here’s a snippet of my Fail book, and I’ll explain what I do with it.
I use a red pen because that colour sticks to my head the most. It’s like a warning, “don’t make the same mistake twice”.
I circle the questions where i made mistakes in the practice exams. Then I identify certain things like equations, formulas and different rules that I may have forgotten and write them down. I also give myself different memory notes like “do not forget units” or “Be careful when factorising”.
This has definitely been a great method to help me in my half-yearlies and very useful to revise before my exams.
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Written by Guest Author
We have regular contributions to our blog from our Tutor Team and high performing Matrix Students. Come back regularly for these guest posts to learn their study hacks and insights!
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