Senior School Report – February 15, 2018

This week we celebrated the 2017 achievements of our best students in the Academic Assembly.- Joshua DeVoogel, our 2017 Dux spoke incredibly well and it is worth reiterating some of what he had to say.- He thanked those who had helped him along the way: his family, teachers and peers. He acknowledged Lachlan Furlong, the runner-up, they had encouraged each other throughout the year.- Josh talked about the importance of having a balance, he played his sport, socialized and completed his school work.- Josh was able to transfer his discipline in sport (playing soccer for Mid-City) to his studies.- I particularly liked his quote from his soccer coach -enjoy the hard work-.– Josh did this, whether doing fitness drills for soccer or embracing whatever work his teachers gave him, and sometimes looking for more.- A deserving dux, a fine young man and I am sure we will be proud of his future achievements.

Congratulations to all of our award recipients on the day, our Subject Duces, boys with ATARs in the 90s and our Chris Nolan Award winners from Years 10 and 11.

Some of the work our successful students put in is staggering.- Generally speaking, to receive a study score in the 40s, a student will need to have completed and learnt from 15 practice exams for each exam in that subject (i.e. 15 exam 1s and 15 exam 2s for maths).- Typically, 7 practice exams will not see students exceed a Study score of 35, sometimes less.- To complete 15 practice exams per subject, students need to have started doing them in Term 3, in addition to keeping up with the never ending SACs at this time.

What does the research tell us about the effectiveness of different sorts of study?

What is very effective?

• Practise tests / practise exams

• Spacing – i.e. doing small amounts of work often -“ rather than cramming lots into one day

What is fairly effective?

• Making connections/thinking about why the things you have learned make sense

• Doing a mixture of questions, not just all of the same type at the same time.

What practices have been found to be not overly useful?

• Highlighting / underlining

• Reading over notes

And get the phones away.- We know that performance is decreased when phones are present even if they are not being used.

This week our Year 12s have been given some study planners to fill in, so that they will have planned time for getting their work done.- Please ask them about their progress regarding setting these up.