How should my child prepare in the week before the HSC exams?

The HSC written examinations run for roughly three to four weeks from mid October, and for most students the week before the first paper brings a particular kind of panic. There is a version of that week which runs on adrenaline, late nights and a vague plan to look over everything. It is the default, and it costs marks that were already earned.

By this point the learning is largely done. That is not a reason to stop working; it is a reason to change what the work is for. In the final week, study is no longer about acquiring anything new. It is about making sure that what the student already knows arrives on the page, on the day, under time pressure. That calls for a different kind of plan.

The heart of the plan is one page of paper for each examination, written about a week out. On it: the three topics most likely to appear, based on the syllabus and the pattern of recent papers; the two questions the student most fears; and the single technique reminder that has come up again and again in their marked work all year. Nothing else. The final week's study then becomes working through those pages rather than the whole syllabus.

Notice what the week contains and what it leaves out. It contains two full papers under genuine exam conditions, because timing is a skill that fades without practice. It contains the feared questions, attempted rather than avoided, because the fear itself costs time in the examination room. It leaves out new topics, marathon sessions and rereading. A student who spends the last week learning something new usually loses more on the familiar material they no longer have time to secure.

The second half of the plan is not academic at all. Fixed sleep and wake times, set for the start time of the first examination rather than adjusted the night before it. Meals decided in advance. The route rehearsed, including how long it really takes at that time of day. Equipment packed the night before. Every decision made early is attention returned to the examination.

Sleep deserves its own line, because it is the first thing sacrificed and the most expensive. Sleep is when memory consolidates, and attention, working memory and processing speed all fall away without it. A late night spent on one last topic trades marks the student has already earned for marks on a topic that may not appear. Across an examination period of three to four weeks, sleep is one of the few variables still fully within the student's control, and the cost of losing it compounds across papers.

Parents have a clear role this week, and it is not content. It is logistics and calm: meals, lifts, a quiet house, a normal routine. The student already knows the stakes, and a question about how a paper went, asked at the door, adds nothing except a reason to replay it. Ask instead whether they have what they need for the next one. If an examination goes badly, the right response is almost always to put it away that evening. The next paper is the one that can still be won.

The plan does not end after the first paper. The HSC timetable usually leaves gaps of a few days between examinations, and each gap deserves its own short version of the same week: the one page plan for the next paper, one timed attempt at the feared question, and the same sleep and routine. Students who treat the first paper as the finish line often find their energy falls away for the later ones, which can carry just as many marks.

Students rarely underperform in the final week because they suddenly know less. They underperform because chaos taxes execution: a late night, a missed bus, a panicked evening on a topic that did not appear. Remove the chaos and the marks earned across the year actually arrive. At MA99, families in The 99+ Campaign have the final fortnight planned to the day by the Subject Head Coach, with the weekly review and the Sunday family note carrying the plan into the home.

Edward MaDirector, MA99 Education