Smiths Hill High School teacher Jonathon Dallimore contributed to two articles for this year’s HSC Study Guide, published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.
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Managing stress and supporting wellbeing is the focus of the guide, designed to help this year’s students prepare for their HSC exams.
As such the guide includes practical advice from Macquarie University experts for tackling procrastination and perfectionism, which can negatively impact on students’ results.
Macquarie University Centre for Emotional Health director, Professor Jennie Hudson said learning to think more realistically is a helpful strategy for students.
‘’When you are stressed your mind is primed to look for threat, to look for the negatives. If you want to improve your performance and your stress levels, then invest some time to first monitor, and then challenge unhelpful thoughts,’’ Professor Hudson said.
NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) CEO David de Carvalho said it is incredibly important that students keep the HSC in perspective and maintain a balance.
‘’Students will achieve their best if they’re happy and healthy. Your wellbeing is important,’’ he said.
Your wellbeing is important.
- David de Carvalho
‘’This year’s guide includes a greater focus on strategies for tackling exam questions with more detailed information provided for students.’’
The guide produced by NESA and Fairfax Media includes more than 50 articles covering over 100 HSC courses, and 15 videos, by experienced HSC teachers, NESA curriculum and assessment experts, and past students.
Mr Dallimore, who took a sabbatical from Smiths Hill HS this year, said he was happy to contribute to the Modern History and History Extension components of the study guide.
‘’It was a great experience working with other teachers to think about some advice to offer students who may not have immediate access to HSC workshops,’’ he said.
‘’I think its great that NESA is trying to reach out to different audiences through the popular media. You never know who is going to read the articles and watch the videos and what support it might give some students looking for some reassurance.’’
Mr Dallimore said the HSC was a stressful process and students looked for support from many different mediums.
‘’Online tools and the popular media have a lot to offer in this regard because they have such a wide audience,’’ he said.
Some 2017 HSC: Facts and figures:
- More than 60,000 will sit the compulsory English exam on Monday, October 6.
- Around 69,000 are on track to complete their HSC program – making the HSC the most popular school credential in Australia in 2017.
- 118 HSC written examinations totalling around 300 hours are scheduled from October 16 to November 7.
- Performance exams and oral exams for 52 language courses will be held in August and September.
- Each student will have their English exams marked by at least 11 markers, and their Mathematics exam by at least six markers.
- HSC results will be issued online, by email and via SMS from 6am on Thursday, December 14.