Students in Years 7 to 10 will be entering an Examination Block during the second half of Week 6. In addition, students in Years 11 and 12 will also be administered assessment tasks over the next few weeks. Please click here to access the Study Sumarai tips on ‘Preparing for Exam Blocks’. Students are recommended to familiarise themselves with the Assessment Task Notifications which provides details on the nature of the tasks. Further, following are test taking techniques students can implement to support them in the lead up to and during the examinations:

A few days before the test or exam:

At least a few days before the exam, make sure you do the following:

• Plan out how much time you should spend on each section of the test.
• By looking at past papers, get a feel for the types of instructions that will be on your paper.
• Do some exercise so you can burn off the pent-up stress that can come before exams.
• Look after your body – lots of water to juice up your brain, healthy food, decent sleep.
• To calm nerves, make mental pictures of yourself sitting down and doing well in the test.
• Purchase any equipment you may need, extra calculator batteries, pens, rulers etc.
• Ensure you know what equipment is allowed in the test or exam.
• Focus on reviewing the key points, perhaps a condensed version of your summaries.
• Practise as many past test papers as you can get your hands on.
• Check the timetable to ensure you have a clear picture of when each exam is being held.

The night before the test or exam:

• Pack your bag with everything you will need for the next day, ensuring you have all necessary equipment.
• Plan what time you need to leave to ensure you have plenty of time for unexpected delays.
• Don’t go to bed too late – you need to make sure your brain is fresh and alert.
• Don’t ring friends and discuss your preparation or the examination.
• Just before you go to sleep, look through your notes briefly.
• If you have a number of exams, check the timetable to doubly confirm the date, time and location of the exam.

The morning of the test or exam:

• Visualise success.
• Review your notes.
• Eat breakfast.
• Be on time.

At the start of the test or exam:

• Read the instructions carefully.
• Look through the whole paper.
• Quickly jot down anything you are worried you might forget.

During the test or exam:

• Have a plan of attack as to which questions you will do first.
• Take note of how many marks each question is worth.
• Read the questions carefully before answering.
• Brainstorm ideas before writing essays.
• If you have a mental blank leave the question and come back to it later.
• Set your work out clearly, write as neatly as possible and do nice large diagrams.
• Show all working and space your work out.
• When you finish go back and check all of your answers – don’t leave anything out.

Click here for the Year 7 to 10 Semester 1 Examination Timetable.

ELEVATE EDUCATION

This week Elevate Education presented the ‘Ace Your Exams’ seminar to our Year 12 students. The session provided strategies on how to best prepare for assessment tasks, how to fix mistakes to ensure constant improvement, allocating time during exam preparations and managing stress and time pressure in exams. 95% of students who attended this session considered the seminar time well spent. Following are some comments made by students in their evaluation of the seminar:

• I would rate this program highly, as it helps reinforce good study habits at the most crucial point in one’s schooling life.
• I learnt that it is important to commence preparing three weeks before an exam.
• Today I learnt how I can best manage my time to prepare for an assessment.
• I learnt of the importance of completing many test papers in preparation for the HSC.
• I learnt that making plans to help you through the exam period can help you.
• The session was very helpful. I learnt how to do better in exams and how to manage my time before, during and after an exam.
• I will now use an exam planner and know how to learn from my mistakes.

STUDY SUMARAI LIBRARY

All families have access to the Study Samurai Library. The Study Samurai Library includes the Study Skills Module website which provides advice and resources on developing essential skills for academic success. To access the Study Samurai Library website, go to  www.studysamurailibrary.com and login with these details:

Username: edmundrice

Password: 13achieve

This week, families are able to spend time watching a video and review related resources on the Study Skills unit: Study Notes 3. Click here to access the resources.

Please do not hesitate to make contact if you have any questions.

Year 8 Science students in Mr Stutchbury’s class used microscopes to observe cells (guard cells) and structures (stomata) from the underside of the leaves of various plants. They used both 40x and 100x magnification. The Topic was ‘Growing and Multiplying’.

Gerry Sozio

Director of Learning & Teaching