Year 11 and 12: Are you putting in enough effort?

One of the most important things to do in year 12 is to take a step back to evaluate where you are sitting and what you need to do to improve before the next lot of exams. Trying to judge how well you’re doing can be very confusing because it’s all determined by what you’re actually comparing yourself to. Do you compare your marks to other students, or use your ranks to establish where you’re sitting, or maybe you're one of those people that puts all their current marks into an ATAR calculator and measures themselves off of the number that spits out?

Whatever method you choose, how do you know how much more work you need to be putting in and what work will get you the results you want?

We are going to try and solve the following scenarios:

• Scenario 1: Your predicted ATAR is less than you want
• Scenario 2: Your rank isn’t as high as you would like
• Scenario 3: You’re not getting the marks you’d like in your internal assessments

These are all linked and there are a number of ways you can tackle this before it’s too late, so here they are:

1. Review the content

Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s important before you freak out or throw yourself into a million practice questions to make sure that you have the basics down first. This means making sure you not only have all the content in your notes but that you also understand it. So go through the concepts that you probably brushed off in class and actually make sure they make sense to you. Don’t just memorise the content, actually, understand the depth and meaning behind it. Deepen your learning. This type of in-depth studying is what the top students would already be doing.

There are a number of techniques you can implement to take your learning to the next level:

• Mind maps – turning your content into visually appealing stimulus is a technique that can take your learning to the next level. Mind maps force you to collect all relevant bits on information and organise it for yourself in a way that you can understand and relate to. This really helps your brain make connections within the content and helps your understanding.
• Case studies/examples – The best way to give a comprehensive answer is by using examples or case studies in your responses, so start preparing them from now. Applying the theory to a practical situation shows the marker that you are critically thinking about the content and solidifies your understanding even more. Win-win !Group study – Simply talking about the content that you’re learning in a group study situation will help you make sure you understand the ideas and will help you remember it.

2. Check your understand with the syllabus

Now that you know the content and have an understanding of the concepts, theories and ideas of the subject, it’s time to actually check your understanding against the syllabus. This means actually making sure you know where the content fits so you know when you need to use that content in an answer and what types of questions will require you to use that knowledge to get full marks.

Learning your content in the context of your syllabus is the kind of studying that pushes the lower students up into the higher bands and what will give you higher marks (and ranks).

3. Practise

The only way you’ll know whether you’re ready for an exam or assessment is to put into practise the content you know. The best way to do this is to gather all the practice questions and exams you can find and start at the top and just work your way through the pile. But not only that, you must be able to use the marking criteria to grade your responses. Testing your knowledge allows you to familiarise yourself with how you can use the same content in different ways to respond to specific questions. You can even do some of the practise questions closed book and under timed conditions.

You can also spend some time going through the exam layout and perfecting your timing, order, and strategy. If you can eliminate the element of surprise from an exam and you’re prepared, it’ll have a huge (positive) impact on your marks.

4. Get feedback

What separates the top students from the rest of the year group is the amount of time they spend going back and forth with their teacher reviewing their work, getting feedback, implementing that feedback and then starting the whole process all over again.

Such an important part of year 11 and 12 is really taking advantage of your teachers and the expertise and knowledge they bring to their subject. Make sure you’re giving your essays, short answer responses and practice paper solutions to your teacher to mark the same way they would for an assessment or exam. Yes, that may seem daunting and you might not love the idea of maybe having to re-do your whole essay because your teacher isn’t happy with it, but that’s the only way you’re going to be able to improve.

5. Use Atomi

Now I know you might be inclined to just roll your eyes and skim past this section but that would be a bad idea. We have some great resources that are specifically designed to take your marks up a notch and get you into those higher bands.

First off let's talk about our actual content. We have thousands of videos and text lessons that teach you exactly what you need to know in terms of the content for your subjects. We explain things to you really simply and help you make sense of what it is you’re actually learning. In our videos, we also take you through exam-style questions and will teach you how to use exactly what you’ve just learnt in an exam style response. This will help you perfect the technique and structure of answers, as well as get you familiar with the way you need to be thinking about certain questions.

Now let’s go through what you do once you’ve been taught everything. Watching a video can be great, yes, but as I said earlier, practise is essential. That’s why I would highly recommend jumping on and doing some of Atomi’s Challenges. With Challenges, you’re able to complete quizzes in order to test your knowledge and get you even more ready for exams.

If you make the most out of your Atomi account, you’ll be able to improve your marks and your ranks.

6. Have a one-on-one with your teacher

So if you’ve tried all of the above and are still having trouble lifting your marks, then it’s time to have a one-on-one chat to your teacher to see if there’s anything you should be doing that will help you to improve. Your teachers know you best and they’re always there for you to chat to, so make the most of this and ask them what other work you could be doing. Get them to set you homework or extra activities for the topics you find the most challenging and work closely with them outside of class time to tighten up the strings.

Summary

At the end of the day, your senior years are all about your own motivation and determination to do well and succeed. There are ways for you to improve your marks, your ranks and your predicted ATAR and all it takes is a bit of consistency, deep thinking and the ability to recognise and use the resources around you such as Atomi and your teachers. So, throw out the ATAR calculator for now and start focusing on your future marks rather than being stuck in the past. Good luck and happy studying!