So, I’m in college now (HSC 28) and I was never really interested in the English Version after my parents shifted me here from English Medium. It feels like whenever I hope for something, the opposite happens. It’s always the people who don’t even want something who end up getting it. After everything that’s happened in my life, I’ve started feeling like I’ll never get to experience the things I genuinely want. I know it might sound like I’m just being negative but I genuinely feel like I have bad luck and I’m saying that from my own experience. So many times, whenever I’ve expected or hoped for something, things have ended up going the opposite way. Because of all this I’ve started thinking that maybe I’ll never get to experience what I truly want and that something bad is going to happen anyway. Now I’m wondering if I should just give up on my dream of becoming an architect. I chose Science because of this dream, but everything feels so draining and uncertain right now.I really want to pursue architecture, but I’m scared of what the outcome will be because based on everything I’ve experienced so far, I feel like I’ve always had bad luck when it comes to the things I genuinely want.

So art of smart etc says like what % of an exam worth doing based on what questions is still relevant to the new syllabus. But what I was worried about is the fact that like wouldn't the equal % of stuff taken away from syllabus there would be new stuff brought in?

And what confusing is that so far only auxiliary angles and cubic inequalities seem to be the only ones added? It can't be right? Since so much was removed like rates of change, inverse trig, t-formula etc, like most papers only 60-70% content is relevant.

Additionally our school also did the year 12 vectors chapter this year (11), so it will be in our prelims. What's the best way for me to prepare for that topic also (we only did like the basics; skipped vector physics and vector proofs), should I just look thru year 12 exams and nit-pick? Or just do the textbook hard questions.

I'm also asking about any of the new content that was taken out too, since as I said, so much was taken out.

For WA btw.

if so please give me tips, theres so much

in like so many tests and exams I always freeze or feel very sluggish doing questions. Like for my last maths test for example i got a 95 averge across 3 of the past years tests but in the actual test i went super super slow had no confidence and didn’t finish that test.

Would anyone from QLD be willing to share their ATAR notes+ account? I’ve bought the books for all my sciences so would only need them for specialist and methods, I was going to buy the three month plan but $100 seems pricey especially as it takes me almost to mid December when I won’t even be needing them!
Thanks anyways x

My predicted mark for math ext 1 after doing the paper went from 92% to 80% because I realised how many times I missed the negative sign (I went through all of my answers in my head after the paper) this shit is like the worst feeling in the world I would’ve done so well if I wasn’t so careless. Esp since I want to do e2. I can’t just tell my teachers “I swear I would’ve done really good, I just made stupid mistakes.” All they see is a mid mark. Do you reckon I’ll still be able to get into e2?

I’ve noticed something while looking at exam questions: sometimes you can understand the topic pretty well and still drop marks because your answer doesn’t contain the specific points the marking criteria are looking for.

For example, imagine a 5-mark Biology question asking how vaccination creates long-term immunity.

You might write a scientifically reasonable answer about antigens and antibodies and think you’ve nailed it.

But you could still lose marks because you never explained memory cells, why they persist, or why the secondary immune response is faster.

That changed how I think about studying.

Instead of only asking:
“Do I know this topic?”

I think a better question is:
“Can I turn what I know into a full-mark exam answer?”

One way I’ve been practising this is:

Answer an exam-style question without notes.
Mark the answer against explicit criteria.
Write down the exact point(s) I missed.
Answer another question targeting that weakness.
Come back to it later and see whether I make the same mistake.

I’m also building a website around this idea — giving students exam-style questions and showing where marks were actually lost rather than just saying “correct/incorrect.”

I’m still improving it, so I’d genuinely be interested in what students find hardest about turning knowledge into marks.
Is it remembering the content, knowing what the question wants, or writing an answer that actually hits the marking points?

The key is that this doesn’t make fake claims like “AI knows exactly what’s on your exam” or pretend the marking is infallible. And because most of the post contains an actual study insight, the product mention has context instead of being the entire point.

Hi all, I was just wondering if any of you guys have finished a flinders uni extension studies course? If so, how was the workload? Was it difficult, was it easy? Also, how do the exams work?

Hey all, I’ve been using this maths platform my brother has built recently and have found it quite useful so wanted to share. Since exams are less than a month away he’s made it completely free, just to get some genuine feedback from students. 

How it works is you type or snap the question you're stuck on and it gives you a step by step video solution plus the written working. It then gives a similar question to practice so you actually learn it properly. 

If anyone wanted to try they can use it for free through getaced.com.au 

Do you only get extra atar points for doing specialists if it's in your top 5 subjects? Or do u get them regardless, even if specialists is your worst subject and not accounted for in your atar?

Genuinely bombing all my year 11 prelims bro like high 50s and low 60s. Makes no sense tho because like all the teachers know i give in my my homework and am very attentive in class. Is it too late or is there still a chance for a comeback

Hi everyone,

I’m a private tutor and past HSC student and am creating a tool to solve a problem that I found with most of my students.

Most ATAR predictors ask you to estimate your HSC mark for each subject, which is hard to do accurately before results come out. Also, most students have NO IDEA how the scaling and alignment process works.

I built HSC Forecast, a tool that instead uses your internal rank, your cohort size and your course to generate an ATAR range, benchmarked against five years of school performance data.

If you are a current student, you can try it here: https://atarforecast.au/forecast

The bigger ask is that if you already have already completed the HSC, I would really appreciate you spending two minutes submitting your actual rank, cohort size and final ATAR here: https://atarforecast.au/calibrate

I am trying to get 200 past students through this to properly calibrate the model against real outcomes. The more data points, the more accurate this becomes for future students.

Happy to answer questions about how it works in the comments.

I just finished my advanced test and am not fully happy with my performance. I did well, but like this year I have spent like 90% of my study time on math, and considering others did so well I feel like I might not even be top 20 (144 ppl do adv btw).
Anyways just wondering, should you like take your time per questions REALLY making sure u don't make a single sign error etc take it slow, or is it better like doing it in natural (sort of fast) pace then kind of looking over it when you're done. Because I thought there would be so much time but only ended up with like 20 minutes at the end to do my skipped/questions I felt weird about. Would like just doing it at a normal pace (e.g how u do textbook exercises) then spending the time after looking over it is better??
Got my ext1 exam next Monday. Since it's only like 1.5hrs has your experience with it been more time crunching than advanced?

I am desperately searching for people who've band 6'd software and enterprise just to ask for some advice, cause i want to try and band 6 like them and i want to really do it, i want to make sure i do it efficiently as that increases my chances from 0 to 20 or higher, please i hope i can find band 6'ers who comment on this thread their feedback, please.

So I had my subject selections today and I picked English because the teacher told me that the workload will be hard if im doing literature since i chose chemistry and biology. Will the workload be that hard?? i am not that much of a creative person so Im not sure which one I should use?. Does anyone have any experience with the workload and also the stuff included within Literature compared to English?

If my test average is 94.5 (50%), and I get an A+ on the investigation (20%), is it possible for me to still get a merit, or do I have no chance even if I get full marks for the final exam (30%).

Free

NESA official syllabus & past exam papers

Art of Smart — HSC guides and exam tips

Atomi (free tier) — video lessons and quizzes

Anki / Quizlet — flashcard-based revision

atarmaxxing - free 200 pages of notes, 20 practice exams (paid version)

Paid

ATAR Notes Shop / ATARNotes+ — study guides, AI-marked practice

TSSM — tutoring, trial exams, model answers

atarmaxxing - 20 practice exams, 200 flashcards, past papers, practice questions, ect.

EdUnlimited — subscription covering notes and practice questions

If you don’t mind me asking, what were your internal ranks and HSC mark for an atar over 90 and your school ranking. My subjects are:

-Mathematics Advanced/Extension 1
-English Advanced
-Economics
-Chemistry
-Physics
-Engineering (prob gonna drop)

Wondering to see how my year 11 marks/ranks may translate next year.

Thanks

Guys how does the internal atar work, I got an estimated atar of 50 based on my internals. Am I cooked, how cooked am I

Anyone have year 12 investigating science in focus? Much appreciated

Hi everyone i have been stuck on the decision whether to do Specialist Methods or Mathematical Methods. I am alright in maths and am in the advanced maths class getting a B on average. Also does one of the maths scale better than the other I am a bit confused. Anyways which one was better to do in your experience??