Written by Prithvi Santana - HSC Biology/Chemistry Mentor
The HSC can be a daunting year, with difficult school concepts, homework, exams and assignments that push students to understand, appreciate and master their conceptual knowledge of subjects.
The implementation of an effective, personalised evidence-based study plan is one of the most important factors overlooked by students. It’s a concept that schools and tutoring centres don’t teach, yet is fundamental to your success in the HSC. Ever felt burnt out that the hours of hard work put in haven’t translated to improved marks? Confused by information despite the number of times you’ve tried to understand it?
Well, the team at EDx Learning are here to help!
Below are proven strategies to learn efficiently and master content ahead of your peers - strategies that were integral to helping me secure an ATAR of 99.95, 3 State Ranks and a First in the State in my HSC. (Secret - you DON'T need to study 8 hours a day to succeed!)
I've classed the following strategies as:
1) High Efficacy - Must Use to maximise marks
2) Moderate Efficacy - Ideal to use to maximise your marks and success
3) Low Efficacy: Must not be used individually. Use in conjunction with another study strategy.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0aee2_0563b816fb2a4a2f8a006a8dfe571c1b~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c0aee2_0563b816fb2a4a2f8a006a8dfe571c1b~mv2.jpg)
High Efficacy
1. Practice Testing
Practice testing tests an important skill known as retrieval practice - recalling knowledge without the use of prompts (notes, textbooks). Numerous studies confirm this to be the most important study tool, with more past papers completed correlating to improved exam performance. Retrieval practice strengthens neuronal connections and consolidates concepts into long term memory and provides a practice run for the final HSC Exams, improving application ability due to exposure to many different question types.
Short of past papers for the new HSC Syllabus? Join the EDx community to gain access to trial papers from top HSC schools, and practice exams carefully crafted by our state-topping mentors.
2. Distributed Practice
Cramming never works. For the select few in which it does, it is short-lived, with no long term retention or mastery of content over the year. Distributed practice is a learning technique that progressively increases intervals of time between each subsequent review of content in order to learn, understand and memorise vast amounts of knowledge. Don't believe us? Check out "the spacing effect" on Google.
The following graph highlights the importance of spaced repetition:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0aee2_ea6a62a4740b4f3cb9f914e960968d5c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_813,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c0aee2_ea6a62a4740b4f3cb9f914e960968d5c~mv2.jpg)
Moderate Efficacy
1. Mnemonics
Research shows there’s no such thing as photographic memory, with mnemonics instead being relied upon by world memory athletes to recall anything almost immediately. Yes, this means that improving your memory is trainable! Mnemonics have been proven to improve knowledge retention compared to rote-learning - our mentors recommend combining mnemonics with distributed, retrieval practice. Stay tuned to our academic blogs to find out exactly how to use mnemonics to maximise your study productivity and success.
2. Elaborative Integration/Self Explanation and Teaching
When not completing past papers, self-explanation is the most important tool in understanding a difficult concept, whether it be special relativity, Homeostasis or Le Chatelier’s Principle. Our mentors recommend reading through a concept, then closing all information and explaining it to oneself.
A general rule of thumb is: “If I cannot explain the manner in a simple, direct manner, I do not understand it well enough”.
This is the basis of the Feynman technique, for a powerful learning method named after one of the greatest physicist and teacher to have ever lived.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0aee2_00f6fb156ef146bcb0c4afe82133fe04~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_868,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c0aee2_00f6fb156ef146bcb0c4afe82133fe04~mv2.jpg)
3. Visual Images
Drawing your own personalised visual image is critical to digesting and understanding a complex topic. Our mentors recommend completing this in conjunction with your module notes.
See below for an example visual image tackling a difficult concept:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0aee2_d928a1d0135c4f2cb80a0b88955e6991~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_560,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c0aee2_d928a1d0135c4f2cb80a0b88955e6991~mv2.jpg)
Unsure how to create effective module notes? EDx Learning has you covered, hop onto our website blog to find out more.
Low Efficacy
These should in NO way be the backbone of your study routine, but rather supplementary tools in conjunction with the above learning strategies. Often students feel productive in highlighting and reading content, but scientific research concludes no significant effect on improving exam performance. This often explains why students may study long hours, only to experience stress and burnout from poor exam outcomes.
1. Rereading
2. Highlighting
3. Summarising
Do you feel like your study strategies could be improved?
Written by Prithvi S
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a27d24_d68fab41c8494982a5cc1fc7d05980b2~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_352,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/a27d24_d68fab41c8494982a5cc1fc7d05980b2~mv2.jpg)
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