How to get the most out of your teachers in year 12

Year 12 kind of makes you look at school a bit differently.

See, it can be tempting to keep treating your teacher like you did year 7 - 10 but in the HSC year, your teacher is way too valuable to just be doing the hi-bye thing in class.

I’ve seen people turn their Band 4 responses and marks into a Band 6 by being pretty open with their teacher about their work and taking on every piece of specific, personalised advice.

Not all of us are super comfortable being a keen bean and reaching out to teachers so we’ve ranked the ways to make the most out of your teachers from super low key to most intense. Seriously though, if you’re willing to be a bit OTT here, you’re going see some major improvements in your work.

Level 1: Ask questions in class

This is so not the year to mess around. If you don’t get something in class, ask your teacher about it straight away so you don’t waste time or get super confused. Otherwise, you’ll get home and try to study that idea, realise you have no clue and will be pretty much stuck.

If you’re tackling the essay thesis in class but you’re really not sure exactly what a proper thesis is, well that’s going to hold up every single one of your English essays. Ask your teacher to clear things up straight away and really hope they have that whole “There are no stupid questions…” motto.

Level 2: Ask for extra resources so you can learn beyond class

It can be pretty hard to know what/how to study when you’re not being told exactly what to do in a classroom. We all know year 12 needs a decent amount of work to be done outside of school and if you’re not sure what the best resources are (other than us, obviously), time to hit up your teacher.

Most teachers have taught this subject for ages and have a decent bank of resources: exemplars, past questions, notes, wider reading, etc. they can help you out with. Send them a cheeky email explaining what you think you need to study and you’ll find that you can really work smarter, not harder at home.

Level 3: Email them work to be marked

Did you catch that post a little while back on past papers? If you did, you’ll be in the know that past papers and questions are one of the best ways to completely smash the HSC and well, they really need to be marked. What does that mean? Bring on the teachers.

Most English teachers ask you to send in essay and creative drafts anyway but you can always do the same with other work like practice long-responses in PDHPE or short answer responses in Business. Not only will you get a good idea of where you need to pick up your study, your teacher should also tell you exactly what to do to bump up your marks.

Don’t forget, your teachers mark the assessments that make up 50% of your total HSC marks so it’s worth finding out what they want to see from you and delivering!

Level 4: Set up a meeting to touch base with your progress

This is going to sound like a massive overkill but it’s seriously not a bad idea to try and set up a one-on-one meeting with your teachers.

Maybe you think that you’re travelling quite nicely in Modern History but it’s good to get an expert opinion. Your teacher could just confirm you’re heading in the right direction, tell you that you need to focus a bit more on working evidence into your answers and walking you through the mess that is a long-response that needs to draw on different syllabus points.

These are the kind of conversations that help you tackle any weak spots in your study and be 100% ready for whatever the hell NESA throws at you during that HSC.

Level 5: Sit down for a d&m when you get stuck

Who knows if anyone will really take this advice but I’ve seen it work wonders for the year 12 students who are willing to have a crack at it.

So, in year 12, you’re going to come up against some challenges that completely derail your grand plan or your ability to study. Some examples:

• Something (health/family problems) is going on in your life that makes it hard for you to study or learn
• You keep getting bad marks in a subject and you don’t know why
• You’re getting pretty good marks but you just can’t seem to crack that Band 6 response
• You’re feeling super overwhelmed and just want to vent

If you’ve got that one teacher you can kind of click with, ask them to sit down for a bit and take them through whatever is going on. Not only will it be pretty therapeutic, they should be able to offer you a super practical and clear solution.

Remember

Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, teachers have been through this whole HSC year so many times and if you approach this right, you could be getting much better marks without any more effort and no sucking up! Take the baby steps (asking questions in class, asking for extra resources) and work your way up to some bigger moves (getting work marked, meetings and d&ms) to get the most out of their experience.

It will be so worth it!