Studying In Year 12; How Much Should I Really Be Doing?

Term 1 of the new year is about to start, you've done one term of year 12 already, but this is the real thing. You're going to sit the HSC this year. You start to think, how many hours should I really be studying during the school term? Your friend Rachel says she's studying 30 hours a week, no breaks, but your other friend Jackson says he's studying only 10 hours a week. Does this sound like your situation? Do not worry, we are here to help you!

Everyone at some point during year 12 worries about how much the should be studying, its completely natural! It doesn't matter whether you are aiming for a 99.95 ATAR and want to study medicine at UNSW, or you don't even want an ATAR, everyone has different study goals, and the amount of time they need to study varies.

At the beginning of year 12, everyone always says that they will study so hard, and that's all they'll be doing, all day long, all weekend long. Trust us, that's not going to happen! You will still need to have a social life, you will still have breaks, there will be days where you won't study at all, that is completely normal!! In this article, we break down how much study is expected of you during each term and how you should manage this alongside your social life!

School Term Study: Holidays have finished, and you're starting to get back into the groove of how much study to do.

Term 1-2: During the school week (mon-Fri) it is expected you do at least 2-3 hours in the evenings. This is where you consolidate notes from class time and do any homework. During the assessment period, take this time to work on any assessments and tasks as well. During the weekend it's expected you do at least 5-6 hours both days. Here, do all your practise questions, you assessments or assignments, finish any homework or leftover work. It's also the time to prepare for the next week, to make sure you have finished all due work.

Term 3:

This is where you really need to amp up your study hours. During the school week (Mon-Fri) it is expected you do at least 3-4 hours in the evenings. This is again, where you consolidate notes from class time and do any homework. Ideally, homework should be done during free periods in the day to help maximise your time in the evenings. During the weekend, it's expected that you do 7-8 hours on both days. Since trial exams are coming up in the next term, you need to be finishing notes and just practising and practising your work. Prepare for the next week and if possible, do extra work.

Term 3 Holidays (July):

This is such a crucial time, use it wisely. You're probably exhausted by this point in the year, and that's fair, but don't give up! During the weekdays, pretend like you're still at school and use your timetable as a guide. So, if it was a school term and let's say I had maths, English, biology, legal studies and economics on that day, I would get up, at 8 am, do an hour of maths, then have a 10-minute break, then do an hour of English, a 15-minute break, then an hour of biology, a 10-minute break, then an hour of legal studies, a 30-minute break, and then an hour of economics, and then an hour break. Afterwards, I'd do an hour of notes, and then an hour of practise questions etc. So you can see how I'm still doing a full day of study, but I'm not wasting my time doing 5 hours of biology, I'm incorporating all the subjects to fully maximise my day. The table below is an example of what my holiday study timetable looked like.

During the weekends, usually, Sunday for me was a rest day. That means Saturday, I was doing the same thing, breaking up my day into hours and studying. Sundays I only did a couple of hours and it was usually preparing for the next week or if I had any work left to do I would do it then. This is where you can have a break and rest, watch Netflix or just hang out with your family. It is so important that during the week you work hard and don't waste your day. Trials are squished together and thus, it doesn't leave you much time to study. Term 4 (Trial exams and graduation):

Okay, this is the big term. Trials are usually squished into 2-3 weeks, therefore giving you less time to study between exams. This means you must, must, MUST be super prepared so you go into each exam knowing you have studied and prepared well. In another article, we will cover study techniques.

During the weekdays, I'd be doing again 3-4 hours of study each evening. By week 2 of term 4 (term 3 for others), most teachers would have reached the content that needs to be covered by trials. You will definitely still have content in the course that needs to be covered, it just won't be taught until after trials and it won't be assessed in the trial exams. This term is where you need to work hard and smart. Forget about everything else, you will have 4 months at the end of the year to watch Netflix and go out with friends. Put your head down and study. Do practise paper after practise paper. The more you practise, the more you are likely to do well. Spend your evenings and weekends wisely, and spend equal time on each subject.

By now, all notes should be done and dusted. You should not be writing any more. Use the notes as guides when doing practise questions, because that's all you should be doing. Forget the environment for now (sorry), print those practise papers. However, one of the biggest problems with practice papers is that people don't actually time themselves. Put the 3-hour timer on, and do the paper within that limit. By doing this, it will help you by telling you which areas slow you down and which areas you can work faster in, so during an exam, you aren't leaving the paper half-finished because you ran out of time.

Once the trial exams are done, you can relax a little, but don't get too comfortable. You will still be learning content, so don't slack on the studying, but as graduation rolls around, it's expected that you won't be getting any work done!!

Holidays before HSC Exams:

This is it! By now, you'll be feeling overwhelmed, excited, exhausted, a range of emotions, which is perfectly normal! Having just graduated, there will be some highs and lows! But, you have almost reached the end of HSC, just a few weeks to go and you'll be done!

This is the time you've been waiting for so put on your thinking caps and get to work! Everyday, you should be doing at least 7-8 hours of solid practise papers. Choose 3 subjects each day and do past papers for those. Spread it out evenly between the holidays. When the school term resumes, this is where you prioritise. English HSC exams are always first, so ensure you are doing all the past papers for the English modules and any practise questions. Art of Smart has heaps of amazing practise questions and all the past practise papers on their website so make sure you download those. Forget Netflix, forget your friends, this is where you really knuckle down and study. It will all be over soon, don't worry.

As the exams move forward, make sure you create a study plan in which you are practising for all your papers, but also prioritising the next exam. So for me, in the couple days before the English exam, I was only doing practise questions for English. However, the next exam day which was a Monday, I had Investigating Science, so the whole weekend after English, I only did past questions for Investigating Science. I then had a whole week in between, however, that next week, I had 3 exams. So i made sure to evenly spread out my time between the three exams, but prioritising Biology and History Extension as I had those two on the Monday Week 3. This is how I prioritised my practise for the exams, and it worked well for me. Obviously, you need to find what works well for you, and you should have already found it out!!

This year will go by so quickly, you'll wonder why you were stressing so much! I hope this helps a little and as we always say, everybody is different, so the examples above may not suit everyone, work out what does for you!

Good luck!