HSC Tips #2
It’s important to have a good balance between study and life.
What did you do to ensure that you had a healthy balance?
A large factor of my HSC success can be attributed to a healthy study-life balance. It is so crucial to maintain this harmony and balance between study and life because whilst striving to excel in your school assessments is important, your mental health, wellbeing and relationships with family and friends is equally important. In fact, this in turn ensures optimal academic functioning as it allows for better concentration, better retention rates, increased productivity and reduces a little HSC foe called ‘Burn Out’. There are two main principles and tips I used to ensure I had a healthy balance in Year 12.
#1. Keep Studying to a Minimum by Studying Effectively
In Year 12, I fell into a little trap and myth where I thought that I should be enjoying and having fun during my study all the time. I would listen to music, go on my phone or even watch movies whilst I “studied” or made my notes. Not only is this form of “studying” extremely ineffective as it’s very rare and difficult to retain information or learn this way, but it also increased the amount of time I had to dedicate to doing a task or studying. For example, let’s say doing one piece of English homework should take me 30 minutes in theory. But, when I choose to listen to music or watch Netflix whilst I did that task, that 30 minutes easily transformed to a 1-2 hour task because of how distracted and unfocused I would be. And this had a rippling, cascading effect on that healthy study-life balance because that extra time I needed on completing a task takes away from my personal ‘me’ time such as seeing friends or doing hobbies. So instead, I ditched the ineffective study habits or strategies that unnecessarily prolonged the time needed for studying and was able to keep studying to a minimum and gain more time for my personal life.
#2. Plan Ahead
I was able to attend all the events in my life such as birthdays, dinners and weddings whilst still having optimal time for study and all my assessment tasks and exams. But, this was only possible because I was able to plan ahead and ensure I scheduled time properly and prioritised. I used a calendar-style table for each term where I would write down every event coming up as soon as I knew. I would also write down all my exams and assessment tasks in each term as soon as the assessment timetable was released. This allowed me to have an overview and map of which events and assessments were close in proximity and therefore enabled me to think of a plan of action that would allow me to have enough time for study whilst still being able to attend all the events or plans I wanted to.
