Five Lessons from Five Years of the HSC.
It’s that time of the year again. We’re on the countdown to HSC English Paper 1, and everyone’s feeling it. The stress levels sky-rocket – parents and siblings all start walking on eggshells at home, teachers are getting panicked emails about practice essays and my inbox is suddenly full of last-minute requests for special consideration paperwork. It’s chaos. And it happens every year in September.
With five years of adolescent mental health under my belt, I’ve supported a lot of young people through their HSC. I’ve seen so many tears and so many meltdowns. I’ve seen all the self-doubt and all the stress. But then, two months later, I also get to witness the relief, the sense of pride, and the accomplishment.
Year after year the same patterns play out. It generally goes something like this.
With all these years (plus my own HSC included), I’ve collected some wisdom along the way. So, here’s five lessons I’d give to any seventeen-year-old freaking out about 9:50am on October 12th.
1. You are one of approximately 76,000 students sitting the HSC this year. And every year before you, the same number of students have also sat their HSC. Anything that could happen to you, has likely been dealt with before. Bedridden with sickness before the exams? Probably fine. Major family disaster the day before? Probably still fine. Panic attack that stops you from getting to the exam? Everything will still be okay.
2. An ATAR is a *super important* number that literally means absolutely nothing in the real world. After December of this year, no-one* will ever ask you whether you got a Band Six in bio again.
3. Everyone gets very focused on “getting in” to their university course of choice. But this stress comes from people not understanding how university courses are structured. Credit points (i.e., the points you get for completing subjects) are accumulative and often can be used across degrees. Once you’re enrolled, it is very easy to transfer to different courses. Just because you might start off in a Bachelor of Social Sciences, does not mean you will finish as a social scientist if you don’t want to.
4. The HSC finals will probably be the most prepared for any exam you will ever be. If you choose to go onto university level study, you will likely do exams twice every semester (mid-session & finals). Some of these exams will be on topics you’ve only covered in class once or twice. Other times these exams will be on materials the lecturer skipped over. You’ve been studying these HSC concepts for twelve months. I promise you that you know enough to get through.
5. The only thing the HSC represents is your application to your studies across a single year in your life. It does not measure your capacity for success and it’s important these concepts are not confused. Once you graduate from high school, the world literally triples in size and your ability to succeed is endless.
*no-one important. Perhaps somebody on the dance floor at schoolies might ask you. But I think in this context they’re not particularly interested in your academic abilities.
Until next time,
Courtney.
The Wattle Tree Clinic, Youth Psychology Wollongong
