The day has finally arrived, 2 years in the making and the quotes are swirling around your mind, you have your thesis prepped and are itching to write out your creative writing.
But then you suddenly think to yourself, have I done everything required of me? Am I ready? What if something happens? These fears and concerns are completely normal feelings and are echoed amongst all of our students.
In order to ease these feelings and concerns, we have put together a simple daily checklist that will keep you track and make sure that you have prepared for every possible situation!
Sunday 14th October: Take some time today to run a practice test to stimulate exam day. Have a final read over your notes. Then pick a past paper 2. Prep your area so that your desk is clear and you have no notes around you. Set the timer and off you go. Be aware of your time. If you have a blank,let it ride. Remember that we need to stimulate the day of the exam so you need to practice your reaction if you have any hiccups on the day. After you complete the test, have a read over your papers. This works well done in pairs so that you can keep each other accountable and then provide comments on the essays. Look carefully for the holes in your work as this will make for tomorrow’s task.
Monday 15th October: Start with revising the holes from your module essays. Understand where you went wrong and how best improve or overcome them next time.
Then move onto paper 1. Look at the unseen questions. Time yourself and really engage with the questions and rubric. Similar to yesterday’s task look at the gaps in your work and make a list of them.This list is to make sure they don’t happen again.
Tuesday 16th October: The 2 outstanding items to look at are your creative and area of study essay. Take some time today to set aside a past paper and complete this like you did your modules. Don’t worry if you think that you’re not ready yet. This is the point. You need to face your realities sooner rather than later so you give yourself enough time to fix and modify them so that on the day, you are ready.
Wednesday 17th October: Cramming the night before means that in order for new information to stay in your short term memory, something from your long term memory will miss out. So we want to avoid this happening. Take the time the day before to revise any areas that you struggle with the most and don’t over do the studying. You don’t want to be up all hours of the night. Instead we recommend a solid night’s sleep and if you can factor it into your schedule, go to sleep an hour earlier so you can wake up an hour earlier and have a read over your notes the morning of the exam.
Thursday 18th October: It’s exam day and you are ready. Trust in your self confidence and remain calm. Avoid letting the stress of those around you mess with your preparation. Keep to yourself if need be and stay in the zone.
The most important thing to remember, have fun and enjoy the experience! It is a once in a lifetime experience and want to bring with you as many happy memories. It will all be over before you know it.
Have a ball, good luck to all our 2018 HSC students!