THE

STUDY
GUIDE
screwed
FUCKED FOR EXAMS?
WE’RE HERE TO HELP
 A note from

legend
class

clown

annoying
lil brother

nerd

We know studying is the pits. Whether you’re topping the class or

struggling to stay awake in maths, getting into gear and actually doing
your work is a hard slog. Which is why we’ve put together this guide.

This isn’t your usual, cliché study tips. The Year13 crew is made up of uni
drop outs, class clowns, high achievers and nerds, and we’ve all put our
heads together to give you some advice that’ll actually help.

So read on to get motivated, find some study tips (that don’t suck) and
find out why, whatever happens when you go into your exams, you’re
going to end up being okay (not as cheesy as it sounds, we promise).

Year13 crew
3<

2
 snapped
@phlmxp by
o

PART 1.
GET ME MOTIVATED
For a lot of us, school becomes less about learning and turns more into
a mess of exams and assignments, with the constant feeling that we 
should be doing something but not actually doing it. We get sick of the
same thing day in and day out. We know if we want a decent ATAR we
need to get things done but we can’t be bothered to do anything.

Despite this, we’ve got to find a way to push through. We might be done
but the school year isn’t.

This isn’t some fluffy advice to get yourself in the mood for some light
studying for those exams next month. This is for full-blown panic mode,
exam-is-in-12-hours-and-I’m-still-on-my-phone type situations.

We’re going tell you that you’re probably an idiot for leaving it this late,
but you’d be an even bigger idiot if you do nothing about it now.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, you better bloody read on.

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 tips for getting motivated
1. Get some sleep
We know this seems counterproductive—the whole point of this is to tell
you how to avoid napping and actually get some work done. But hear us
out. Lack of motivation is a symptom of burn out and exhaustion. If you
spend 90% of your day thinking about when you’ll get a chance to have
a nap then you’re probably overtired anyway.

Getting some decent sleep and sorting out your body clock will help you
get your motivation back up purely because you won’t feel so damn
sleepy all the time.

2. Drop everything
Now that you’re well rested, whatever it is you need to do, you need to
do it now. Not after dinner, not after another message, not even after just
one more episode. Just like how you’re never actually going to start
going to the gym if you keep putting it off ‘til later, you’re never going to
get any study done if you let another excuse delay you.

Bonus points if you don’t even make it to the end of this guide because
you stepped up, turned this off and got straight to it.

3. Stop telling yourself you’ll do it when you get home

You’re not going to do it. Same goes for telling yourself you’ll do it in the
morning instead of staying up a bit later to smash it out.

You manage to trick yourself into thinking that future you will be more

motivated; that when you get home you’ll get in the groove and finally
start working on that essay—stop lying to yourself.

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4. Do the easy stuff first
Once you start the work the motivation will build, we promise. Instead of
telling yourself you have to sit down and write your whole essay in one
go, just focus on picking a topic or choosing a question. Once you’ve
taken the first step, the procedure will drag you along the rest of the way
—you just have to trust the process.

5. Kill your distractions

I’m not just talking about changing your passwords to things, I’m talking
about giving your phone away so you literally can’t get distracted by it.

Buy an old computer that only has enough power to run Word and
nothing else. Break up with your boyfriend so he’ll stop sending ‘you
up?’ texts at 1am. Spread rumours about yourself so your friends will stop
talking to you. Really kill those damn distractions. Kidding. Kinda.

6. Go to a public space
Other study guides will tell you that changing your environment can give
you the boost you need to really get into a good study session, but
really it’s because you can’t sleep or watch porn in a public library.
And with those two distractions out of the way, you can do anything.

8. Know motivation is BS
Motivation will never last long enough to push you through the year so
there’s no point waiting for it to get things done. At some point you’re
going to have to suck it up, cut the crap and just do some work, whether
you want to or not.

Motivation won’t come when you’re begging for it the night before an

exam or when you’re procrastinating starting the essay that’s due in 12
hours—so don’t sit around waiting to get motivated to start your work.

Remember, it will eventually end

It might feel like the finish line isn’t getting any closer but the mess that
is exams and assignments will eventually come to an end. Don’t get
through it wishing you had pushed a little harder on the home stretch.

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 definitely looking
at memes instead
of doing work
🙄🙄🙄

PART 2.
HELP ME OUT
There are two types of people in the world; people who admit they
hate studying and those in denial. For most of us, studying is actually
just hours of staring at our notes, fighting the urge to lay in bed, watch
Netflix and have a nap.

Here’s some study tips and techniques that’ll help you through the
hard slog and make life a little easier.

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 writing essays
1. The question will help you plan your essay
Everything you need to know to start an essay is right there in the essay
question. You should be able to see a verb, something like analyse,
or compare, or assess—this verb will tell you what kind of essay you
need to write. For example, if you’re asked to compare, this means your
essay will talk about how two or more things are similar or different.

Knowing this, now you can plan your essay structure—will you have two
body paragraphs to discuss the two separate texts? Or one paragraph to
talk about the similarities between the texts and a second to discuss the
differences? Or, get real fancy and have three or more paragraphs that
each discuss a concept that’s either similar or different in both texts.

This one little verb is the basis of your entire essay, so take care with it.

2. Repeat the vocab of the question

Now get yourself a highlighter and pick out any key terms or buzzwords
from the question. Here’s an example:

‘All representations are acts of manipulation.’ To what extent does

your study of conflicting perspectives support this statement?’
Once you’ve identified these buzzwords, you’re going to want to use
them or some variation of them (thesaurus, people!) as much as you can
throughout your essay without sounding too repetitive.

This should hopefully show that you are actually answering the

question in your essay and not just prattling on about nothing.

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3. Structure is everything
Teachers love essays that are structured neatly and it makes it sound
like you actually know what you’re on about. Generally, you want to
structure your essay in a way that resembles this scaffold:


Introduction


Sentence #1 is a conceptual sentence/thesis statement 
This sentence will immediately answer the question by outlining the
main concept you’re going to discuss in your essay. The question and
your main concept MUST BE RELATED in some way.

Usually, you won’t actually mention the name of the texts or composers
you’re going to be discussing yet, just the ideas in these texts. Eg:

Discovery is one of the most vital aspects of human experience,

allowing a deeper understanding of our values and sense of self.
Sentence #2 is your contextual sentence 
This is where you mention the name of the texts and the composers in a
sentence that will look something like:

This  notion of discovery is  evident in the book “The Turning” by Tim
Winton and the film “Muriel’s Wedding”, directed by P.J. Hogan.
Sentences #3-4 outline the points you’ll make 
These will go on to outline what specific points you’ll be making and
concepts you’ll be talking about in each body paragraph.

Body Paragraphs (between 2-4 usually works)



Sentence #1 is a topic sentence 

Like the conceptual sentence in the intro, this topic sentence will outline
what idea you’ll be discussing in this body paragraph. Think of your
conceptual statement in the intro as the main ‘umbrella’ idea and all your
topic sentences as branches underneath that. Again, you don’t need to
mention the text or composer just yet.

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Sentence #2 is another contextual sentence

Like in the intro, this is when you bring in the names of text and the
composers, but only the ones you’re speaking about in this paragraph.
Following sentences are the main body of your paragraph 

A number of points that support your topic sentence (see step 4).
Final sentence is your concluding/linking sentence

The last sentence should sum up what you have discussed and make a
direct link back to the question you are answering and, if possible, lead
on to what you’re going to discuss in the next body paragraph.


Conclusion

Your conclusion is around three sentences and summarises the ideas

you have discussed and draws a final conclusion in relation to the
question. Once again, don’t forget to link back to that damn question.

4. Use PEEL or TEAL or whatever the heck they call it

There are a million acronyms for this but they all do the same thing.
Think of every single sentence in your body paragraphs as a new point,
each aiming to prove the idea in your topic sentence of that paragraph. 

Every sentence should have its own point, a language technique (e.g.
metaphor, simile, symbolism, etc), an example if possible (like a quote),
and a link to your topic sentence.

The hardest thing about essays is getting all that into every sentence
without making it a million years long. It’s all about being concise. For
example, if we were trying to prove that Johnny doesn’t like the
education system, one of the sentences in my body paragraph could be:

The metaphor in “his eyes shot daggers at his teacher,” evidences

Johnny’s hatred for Ms. Lee & his disdain for the schooling system.

We have made a point that Johnny dislikes his teacher, we’ve provided

a technique in the metaphor, an example in the quote and linked it back
to our overall idea about Johnny hating the education system.

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5. Make sure you’re answering the question
The most important thing when it comes to writing an essay is making
sure that everything you’ve done, every bloody paragraph, every damn
sentence actually answers the question.

You can write an incredible essay—the best one your teacher has ever
read—but if it isn’t related to the question, you’re not going to get a
good mark for it.

Keep the question open next to you while you’re writing, so you can
always keep it in the forefront of your mind. 

Make sure that, if you could sum up your essay in one sentence, it could
easily provide an answer to this question.

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 Creative writing
The thing about creative writing is there’s technically no wrong answer.
You can’t get caught out making up the names of Egyptian pharaohs or
the year the International Criminal Court was established because
English, especially creative writing, doesn’t need facts. There are a few
things to keep in mind though.

1. Don’t write it on the spot

You really should have an idea or two prepared when it comes to going
into an exam. As much as creative writing is about making things up,
your story isn’t going to have enough direction to get top marks if you
don’t have at least a rough outline of what you’re on about.

You don’t need to have anything memorised. Instead, have a couple of

general ideas that are broad enough to fit with any question or stimulus.
This way, your story won’t turn into one long rambling mess.

2. Pick a moment
You’re going to need to smash this baby out in forty-minutes, so the best
thing you can do for yourself is pick a specific moment to focus on. What
we mean is, instead of going through the entire timeline of a character’s
life and a massive story arc, you just need to pick a single moment when
something significant is happening to them and focus on that.

3. Stimulus
A lot of the time, you won’t need to literally incorporate the stimulus into
your writing, you’ll just need to make sure you’re writing about whatever
the stimulus represents in a symbolic sense. Don’t ignore it completely; if
you don’t somehow reference the stimulus you’ll lose easy marks.

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Along with this, don’t write about the first thing you think of when you
see the stimulus; it’s what hundreds of other students will do. If you want
to set yourself apart, give yourself time to properly think about your idea.

4. Don’t warm up with poor writing

Again, you’ve got a short deadline, so don’t waste time with warm up
paragraphs where you describe irrelevant things like the weather in the
story (unless it’s genuinely crucial). For creative writing you don’t need
an intro, you need a hook to give readers a taste of what they’re in for.

5. Don’t get carried away

Because it’s English, you probably feel the need to cram as many
techniques and flowery words in your creative writing as you can.
Squishing a million metaphors into a single sentence isn’t going to make
it read any better and just because you know a particular technique
doesn’t mean you should use it.

6. Avoid dialogue
Dialogue is hard and requires a lot more punctuation and grammar than
you have time for. If it’s not done right, dialogue sounds clunky and
awkward, rather than something someone would actually say.

Better creative writing pieces won’t need to rely on much dialogue to

push the story forward, so remember this if you feel like chucking it in.

7. Don’t ditch proper spelling and grammar

Think about your markers. They want to see that you know what you’re
doing and making silly mistakes with your spelling and grammar will
detract from the story. Every time your marker notices a mistake they’ll
be jolted out of the story, which isn’t going to work in your favour.

8. Avoid a story set in an entirely different world

Realistically, you’re not going to have enough time to properly set up a
fantasy world as well as bang out a solid story. Stick to a setting that is
recognisable and use that to your advantage.

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 memorising
Now that your essay and creative writing pieces are done—how are you
going to remember them? This isn’t about memorising all your work
word for word. Instead we just want to be able to drill them into your
brain enough that when you walk into your final exams, you’re not an
unprepared mess.

1. Try something different

When you’re hours into a study session and feel like nothing will stick,
try taking a break and coming back with a different approach.
Remember that sometimes the weirder ideas work best.

Try recording your essay and playing it back to yourself; you can listen to
your essay on the bus, while running and when going to sleep. Sure, you
might cringe at the sound of your own voice but once you get over the
initial disgust it’s not all that bad.

2. Read before you sleep

This one is super useful when you’ve left memorising until the night
before. Avoid memorising it word for word; instead, read over it a few
times—picking up on the key ideas of each paragraph—then go to sleep.

Studies have shown that when we sleep for as little as 15 minutes after

studying, our brains review and relearn the information while sleeping.
Plus, any excuse for a quick nap can’t be a bad thing.

The catch is that the work you do before sleeping has to be legit, you
need to be focused and alert, not falling asleep. When you wake up
you’ll hopefully have remembered these key ideas and will be ready to
pick up the rest a whole lot easier.

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3. Read, cover, write, check
The read, cover, write, check method is pretty self explanatory and one
you probably used in primary school. Read one sentence, cover it, write
it or say it aloud and then check if you were right.

Repeat for the following sentences until you’re able to regurgitate your

entire essay in order. This is particularly useful when it comes to
memorising quotes from your related texts.


4. Use key words

This one is good for cramming a lot of work into a little amount of time.
Start by numbering each paragraph, then count how many sentences
each paragraph contains. After that, take a look at each sentence and
pull out a few trigger words.

Take this sentence as an example:


Shakespeare displays this idea by overturning Othello’s loyalty.

Pull out ‘displays, overturning, loyalty’ as your trigger words. Now you
can work on memorising just these trigger words. That way you only
have to memorise 20 words per paragraph, rather than 200.

5. Get started ASAP

We know starting early is super unrealistic and you’ll probably only kick
into gear with less than a week ’til the exam. Just keep in mind that
effectively memorising something actually takes a fair while and when
you’ve got multiple essays to learn, the sooner you start the better.

By giving the essay time to stew in your mind, you’ll be able to recall it
later without spending hours at a time tediously forcing yourself to
memorise it. Try to pump out that essay a few weeks prior to the exam
date and give yourself as much time as possible to keep going over it.

The other perk of this is that you’ll have more time to improve your essay
and make sure it’s spot on before you go into the exam.

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 making study notes
Written study notes
The go-to form of notes is your good old piece of paper with some stuff
scrawled on it. But to make it easier on your memory, break info down
into dot points. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be by trying to
remember paragraphs that are a page long. Summarising = success.

Handwriting notes can take forever, but it’s one of the best ways to

ingrain the knowledge in your head. The pen connects your head to the
page and if you’ve got the time, making summary sheets and flash cards
is really going to help you in your exams.

There’s actually a tonne of ways to take written notes:

Cornell Method

This is a way of condensing your notes. You draw up a notebook with
two columns—one side for general notes and one side for summaries.
This system is kind of like when you used ‘look, cover, write, check’ in
primary school to remember spelling words.

Mind Maps

Super helpful if you want to organise and connect ideas on the page.
Best avoided when you’re working with definitions, but great for classes
that have lots of overarching themes (like English).

Outlining
Probably what you’ve already been doing. Headings are key here and
any related info is organised below the relevant syllabus point. This one
can take a lot longer than anything else, but if you can get through it
you’ll have all the information you need in an easy to read format.

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Charting
This method is helpful for classes with a lot of dates and events to
remember, or if you need to memorise things like quotes or definitions.
Basically, you draw up a table to hold all the key info you need, like so:

Technique Definition Example Explanation

replacing the name “The pen ‘pen’ =
of a thing with the is mightier written word
Metonymy
name of something than the ‘sword’ = military
else with which it is sword.” aggression/violence
closely conceptually
associated

The real key to written notes is to document your content in a way you’ll

understand. You can copy stuff word for word from the textbook, but if
you can’t understand something now, it’s probably not going to make
sense later. While this might help you memorise things in a last ditch
attempt to cram, writing your notes in your own words will help you
much more in the long run.

Visual study notes

Not a fan of writing out lines and lines of quotes and historic dates? Time
to get creative. Visual notes can work so bloody well when it comes to
making facts stick, especially for those of us who hate re-writing the
same thing over and over.

You’ve got a lot of options when it comes to making visual notes and it’s
really up to you with how creative you get (which will probably depend
on how late you’ve left your revision). Try pie or column graphs for stats
and numbers, tables for definitions or quote analysis—but don’t make
them too complex, otherwise you’ll never be able to remember them.
These sorts of notes are perfect for roughly planning essays too, with
dot points and arrows.

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If you’ve got a lot of numbers or info to crunch, try colour-coding. Those
rainbow highlighters aren’t just pretty, they can be super handy when it
comes to organising your study information. Highlight formulas, quotes
or dates you need to remember so they’ll pop off the page when you’re
doing a last-minute cram.

Audio study notes

When your hand is about to fall off from writing a novel’s worth of
notes, give audio a go. Recording your own notes are great for
memorising quotes and dates, as well as if you’re trying to fit an entire
essay into your tired brain. They’re also perfect if you’re feeling
super unmotivated and just want to lay in bed—if you’re listening to your
notes at the same time it definitely counts as studying.

Record yourself reading your notes on your phone when it’s nice and
quiet and listen to them whenever you can; in bed, on the bus or the
walk home from school. 

Mixing all of the above

You might be a written kind of person, a visual learner or an audio lover,
but a mixture of all three study methods is likely your best bet. When
you’re knee deep in study and feel like you’re just not making any
progress, give yourself a break and come back with a new tactic. It gives
your notes some variety and you’ll be remembering the information in a
bunch of different ways.

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 pulling an all-nighter
In the lead up to exams, you might find yourself gearing up for an all-
nighter to catch up on all the work you didn’t do during your Netflix
binge sesh yesterday. It’s terrible, but sometimes you’re just going to
have to suck it up and push through the night, bleary-eyed, to get some
studying done. Here’s some tips for that all-nighter.

1. Go in with a game plan

Don’t decide to pull an all-nighter without some idea of what you need
to get done. If you have a massive to-do list, figure out what’s most
important and prioritise by deadline and weighting.

The more work you give yourself the harder it will be to get anything
done and you’ll feel like you’re running towards a finish line that isn’t
getting any closer. Break work into achievable goals and you’ll be fine.

2. Don’t fall for the ‘I’ll do it in the morning’

When you’re starting to fall into the gales of sleep deprivation you’ll
probably start making these sorts of promises with yourself, ones like ‘If I
go to bed now I’ll get up early and finish it in the morning’. You know
you’re lying—once your head hits the pillow you’re down and out, so
don’t trick yourself into falling for these false promises.

3. Stay away from your bed

It’s tempting to set up shop in the middle of bed, cocooned by study
notes and blankets, but don’t do it—you’ll find yourself fast asleep in five
minutes. Get out of bed and out of your room if you can. You want to be
comfortable, but not comfortable enough to fall asleep because at 3am
even your bedroom floor will start to look like a good place for a nap.

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4. Know when to give in
Sometimes, the all-nighter isn’t going to work. You might be running off
too little sleep in the first place and your eyes will refuse to stay open no
matter how hard you try to focus on the notes in front of you. If this is the
case, give it up. Try a power nap and if you still can’t get into gear pack it
up and call it a night.

Half-baked ideas and sentences that trail off into nothing are not going
to fare well with your marker and sometimes the penalty for handing in
the assignment a day late will be worth the extra time. For exams, you’re
not going to be getting any marks if you’re dozing straight through it, so
take the sleep and hope that something from class has sunk in.

When it all boils down, you put yourself in this situation. Accept defeat
and just give it your best shot. Maybe next time, don’t leave it until the
last minute, you fool.

Although it’s encouraged that you do give Year 12 a red-hot crack, it’s

also important to remember that life beyond school is not determined by
the results of your final exams. It’s not the be all and end all and once it’s
all over you’ll be able to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

5. Get a good sleep the next night

Pulling constant all-nighters might be a trademark of student life, but you
need to give yourself a chance to catch up on some good, solid sleep.
For the following night, make sure you’re banking some deep sleep and
if you really need to keep yourself up to power through more work, at
least take a good nap.

With your naps, aim for no longer than 30 minutes so you can avoid
waking up feeling groggy and not knowing what year it is and have
some sort of caffeine boost beforehand. By the time you wake up the
caffeine should have kicked in and keep you going for that little bit
longer.

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 PART 3.
YOU’RE GONNA BE OKAY
At Year13, we just wanna make sure that you know that no matter what
happens with exams and the end of school—you’re going to be okay.
We don’t say this just to make you feel better about leaving all your
study to the last minute—we’re serious when we say these exams
won’t dictate your entire life.

We’ve chucked together a couple of our favourite articles to remind

you that whatever kind of student you are and whatever happens,
you’re going to be just fine—trust us.

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 How I Stopped Freaking
Out About My Exams
It was about three in the morning
when I finally broke. I was on my
fifth cup of instant coffee of the
night and had already finished my
emergency supply of study snacks.
I was buried in a textbook but only
because all my friends had gone
to sleep and there was nobody left
to distract me. The thing is, after a
lot of coffee and very little sleep,
the words stopped making sense.
To me, doing poorly in school was
something I had never even
considered. I was at a selective
high school and it was just
assumed I would go on to
university and get myself a degree.
But before that, I had to finish my
final exams and unfortunately for
me, I turned out to be quite lazy.
21
I was disorganised and didn’t like
to start assignments at convenient
times, and so this is how I found
myself awake—but not lucid—at
3am, trying to make sense of
squiggly lines that were
supposedly Biology terms. It was
the fourth time in two weeks, so
naturally I was freaking out a little
more than usual.
The thing about these kinds of
panic attacks is that they’re self-
induced. It was me who went out
with friends that day instead of
locking myself in my room to study.
It was me who spent hours on my
phone watching dumb conspiracy
theory videos. It was me who kept
messaging my girlfriend instead of
reading about some monk doing
experiments with peas. I had no
one to blame but myself and
blame myself I did.
But it was BS. I let my sense of
self-worth get so caught up in how
I did at school that I started to feel
bad about the things that actually
made me happy. I wanted to see
my friends that day because they
were great and I smile more when
I do. I wanted to watch conspiracy
videos because they’re bloody
hilarious and I want to be prepared
for when Avril Lavigne clones
come to take over the world. I
wanted to message my girlfriend
because I was feeling crap and
she always knows what to say to
me when I’m like that.
I tossed the textbook aside and
looked around at the mess I made
in my room. In the pursuit of
academic success, I had made
myself miserable and if that’s what
accomplishment looked like, then I
didn’t want a lick of it.
We shouldn’t have to jump through
so many hoops just to prove to
everyone that we’ve done well at
school, and those hoops definitely
shouldn’t get in the way of all the
other things that actually add value
to our lives. Wanting to relax is
normal for a teenager, and so is
spending time with friends and
playing sport and going to parties
and getting drunk for the first time
and getting your heart broken and
22
mended and everything else in
between. Staying up making study
notes until the morning birds start
their songs—that isn’t normal.
When I realised this I went straight
to sleep. When I woke up for that
exam I was what most people
would call unprepared. But I did it
anyway and you know what? I
did fine. Same with the rest of my
exams.
And now, several years later,
my ATAR is as irrelevant as my
MySpace password. I can’t
remember the last time somebody
asked me what it was and I’ve
ended up exactly where I’ve
wanted to be anyway. I’m happy I
broke the cycle of freaking out
over exams and I’m proud to be
the kind of person that values
things like a good conversation or
a shared sunset over marks and
scores and other arbitrary
indicators of success.
So shout outs to coffee-induced
delirium—you get some wild
epiphanies that way.
 I Flunked My Final Exams
(And I’m Doing Just Fine)
I was the kind of student that didn’t
care about final exams. You know
those exams that ‘determine your
entire life and what you will do
forever?’ Yeah, those.
The night before my first English
exam I was up until 3am dancing
around the room in bed socks with
my best friend and a stomach full
of sour worms. We were delirious
with the realisation that we should
care but didn’t. We hadn’t studied
that day at all. In fact, we spent
most of the time lying in bed on a
chat site talking to strangers. We
knew we were screwed but our
parents told us we would be okay,
that we as human beings were not
defined by the final exams we had
been so-called ‘preparing’ for over
the last 13 years. We took this
23
sound piece of advice to mean we
didn’t have to study. At all.
I always wanted to go to university,
though. I really did. In Year 11 I
knuckled down and killed every
subject. My ATAR calculator was
sitting on a nice 95.00. I wasn’t
complaining. But then, at the end
of the year, after burning out and
realising those ‘top of class’ pieces
of paper on Presentation Day
meant nothing in the scheme of
things, I gave up. I finished Year 12
with a 62-point-something ATAR
and I didn’t get the mark I needed
to get into university. At the same
time, I didn’t work myself to death
and leave Year 12 anxious,
exhausted and copping an insane
study hangover. I had a photo
album full of memories.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t study
and work hard, but the truth is,
there are some of you out there
who are feeling the same as I was.
You’re feeling like at the very core,
you just don’t give a damn. You’re
over school because it doesn’t
challenge you in the way you
crave. The structure and that silly
curriculum that doesn’t encourage
creative thinking or self-directed
learning is frustrating to you, but
you live in a world that doesn’t
listen. You live in a world that
seems, for the most part, not to
give a damn about a young
person’s perspective on school.
I am now five years out of high
school. I have achieved more than
I thought possible because in high
school I had no idea exactly
what was possible. I’ve lived in
four share houses and overseas,
I’ve got an undergraduate degree,
I’m doing my Masters, I’ve
travelled for 12 months (with my
own savings). Turns out that ATAR
didn’t mean anything at all, not for
what I wanted to do nor for who I
wanted to be.
If you want to go to university, you
can. Honestly, don’t let your ATAR
determine whether you’re smart
enough or not. The skills you need
for uni are different and you learn
everything there. All you need is
passion for the subject you’re
paying to learn. And how are you
supposed to do that without the
24
right ATAR I hear you ask? Call the
uni you’re interested in—they have
so many pathways and options
available. Don’t forget—
universities are run like businesses
and without you, they won’t exist.
Your enrolment brings them
money, so give them a call (it’s
what I did, and it worked).
Your ATAR doesn’t decide your
success in life, you do
I don’t define success as a seven
digit income and five investment
properties. I won’t be dropping my
ATAR into conversations when I’m
50 and I doubt anyone will ever
ask me what it was ever again. I
have no use for it except to write
this article. For me, success is a
pile of indescribably joyous
moments that have challenged
and progressed my character,
which in turn has affected my
intelligence.
Your potential is in your hands, not
the hands of your parents, your
teachers and most of all, your final
grades. If you enjoy the challenge
of working hard at school, that is
amazing—keep going, keep
achieving. But you’re not less of a
person if you can’t do that either.
GOOD LUCK!