VCE Study Tips

With VCE exams less than a day away, I thought it would be prudent to share some wise advice with you all:

• A strong mindset is essential. Don't tell yourself that you want to 'do the best I can do', but instead set specific study score goals. If you fail to reach these goals, tell yourself you are a failure.
• Don't start revising months in advance - leave all of your revision till the very last minute. This will ensure that all the information is fresh in your mind when you go into the exam.
• The night before, make sure you revise absolutely everything in detail - and if there's one part you don't quite understand: THEN PANIC! PANIC, AND TRY AND RE-LEARN THE WHOLE COURSE! Don't worry about sleeping - what good is sleep if you're not prepared?
• Don't eat breakfast on the day of the exam. A full stomach will only increase your nausea. Avoid low GI foods like cereal - if you must have something, have a Wizz Fizz.
• Don't take a drink bottle with you into the exam - being hydrated is not important, as irreplacable seconds tick past every time you stop to drink.
• Make sure you get to your exam at the last minute - this will heighten the excitement of the morning/afternoon, and create another layer of fear and nervousness.
• When you do arrive, be sure to mingle with other people and ask them lots of questions about the exam, as it is likely they will know something you don't. If they bring up an obscure part of the subject that you hadn't considered, start to stress about it, and try to learn it all in the five minutes before the exam. It is advisable to enter the examination confused, disorientated, and afraid.

Apart from that, there are no 'hard and fast' rules to VCE success. Just remember that plenty of students just like you have done the VCE before you, and plenty of them have done appallingly.