Hey everyone. I am aware the Year 12 Trials are coming soon and for those who are about to sit the Trials I want to share with you all how I coped and moved through the stress and anxiousness of the Trials. It was only last year that I graduated from school so my experiences are still very fresh in my mind.
My first piece of advice: Please don't overwhelm yourself with study and unnecessarily stress. I learnt this the hard way by finding out that last minute study is not going to do much for your results and will only make you more overwhelmed and crazy nervous during the exams. Instead ensure that you spread out your study nicely and stay prepared without going crazy, because it's better to balance than to constantly study. It may seem counterintuitive that studying really hard gets you better results, and yes that is generally true, but to balance your study with breaks and some fun here and there is much more effective in academic performance (again something I learnt the hard way).
Second piece of advice: The final exams will be easier. I'm sure you have heard people say the trials are generally harder than the final exams and I think that is most certainly true. If you go through the trials, then the final exams should be more than fine.
Third piece of advice: Chill out the day before the exam. I personally think this is the most crucial step in ensuring you are relaxed and prepared before the exam. I remember for all of my trial and even final exams, I would do a little bit of study from the morning to around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and then just chill out without doing any more study. This gave me some REALLY good headspace to just enjoy my night and perform the next day. Personally, studying from morning to night before the exam just did not work for me. I thought it would help my stress but it did the exact opposite. Relax and have fun at home or outside before your exams.
Remember that you will go better than you think. I reckon you will come out of every exam going "Hey, that actually wasn't too bad". This is just my personal advice for good performance in the trials based on my experience (which actually did give me good results), but it is different for everyone and is variable from person to person.
P.S. Extremely funny penguin 🐧
