From Saturday, you have 30 days. If you manage to average  four hours per day of study, then you have approximately 120 hours to study five to six subjects - that is between 20 and 24 hours per subject. A study plan will enable you to be strategic about the use of your Trial HSC preparation time.

The Art of Smart team offer an example plan for English:

Image source: Art of Smart: How to Create Your 30 Day HSC Trials Study Plan in 4 Simple Steps to Boost Your Marks

This establishes an organised To-Do-list for each subject.

The second part of the preparation process is to think about how to study. Some tips include

• Use the Syllabus so that you know 'the dot points' - or the content that will be examined. HSC and Trial exam writers base questions on syllabus content. See if you can match past questions to dot points to practise the type and style of question to expect in each subject's paper.
• Complete any outstanding study notes. Condense them to make them clear - then find some past questions that target that summary.  Index cards from Office Works can be useful.
• Build wellbeing strategies into your study plan. Trials can be stressful. Preparation will help with this stress. It is important to make healthy choices about exercise, sleep and downtime.

You will find past HSC questions from papers completed in the Tuesday study sessions and on NESA's HSC exam papers website. If you run out of questions, ask your teacher for more.

A study plan will help to reduce that overwhelming feeling as we move towards the examination block. It will structure your time so that you do not spend too much time on any one subject.  Follow this link to a Google Sheet to help with your planning. Copy (FILE--> Make a Copy) the sheet and personalise it with your subjects and study goals.

Debra Bourne - Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching