30 Jun 2017
HSC Study days are available for year 12 students to refine their knowledge and understanding of the content. The guest speakers quite often reiterate what their teachers have been telling them for months, but hearing it from someone else has the required impact. The staff at West Wyalong High School understand the benefits of these days and encourage the year 12 students to attend.
During first semester, there have been HSC study days in Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Senior Science, Legal Studies and Business Studies. Other subjects will be offered in term 3 and students will be informed and encouraged to attend.
On Thursday the 22nd of June, seven year 12 students travelled to Leeton to attend the HSC Science Study Day. The workshops were broken up into each of the four science subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Senior Science, as well as presenting a ‘Maximising Your Marks' session.
Stephen Fogwill was the Physics presenter and provided some great insight into the marking process, as well as highlighting some useful tips from examiners to maximise your HSC Physics marks. These included using diagrams to support your answer and understanding the ‘validity, reliability and safety' aspects of practical experiments. He was quite animated and was well received by the students. Stephen also suggested many different study methods specific to Physics which could be used to enhance student performance in the HSC.
The Chemistry presenter Robyn Lauder gave our students some techniques for improving their HSC Chemistry results and highlighted some of the more common ‘failing factors' in regards to examination technique. These included misreading instructions, not answering the questions and inaccurate timing.
Brendon Fotheringham presented the Biology lecture which focused on adequate preparation and performance in the HSC. He highlighted the areas students need to work on to maximise their marks. These included work ethic, reading for understanding of course material and comprehension of first hand investigations, including safety practises.
In addition, all presenters highlighted the importance of understanding verbs when answering questions and following the hierarchy of verbs, explicitly the ALARM matrix. Our students also received many useful resources to take home with them all of which should assist them later in the year when studying for their HSC.