A first-year medical student who achieved an ATAR of 99.95 shares her tips on how to prepare for the upcoming VCE exams and the techniques she relied on to deal with stress.

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With VCE exams just around the corner, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. You’ve come so far in your school journey and can finally see the finish line. Unfortunately, it’s on the other side of the largest obstacle you’ve ever had to face.

Here’s my advice to help you succeed in your exams:

Abigail Gardiner.Credit: Wayne Taylor

1. Plan for stress

Throughout my studies, I tried to replicate exam conditions by completing practice papers in quiet spaces at the scheduled times. I knew exactly how long each section of each paper took, and even planned my breakfast to ensure I didn’t get hungry.

However, I didn’t expect that on the day of my first exam, I would be too nervous to eat and my hands would be so shaky that it took me twice as long to write as I’d prepared for.

No matter how prepared you are, you’re likely to feel stressed on the day. So rather than fighting to eliminate your nerves, try to develop strategies to manage them during the exam.

2. Take intentional breaks

At the start of year 12, I made a plan: read ahead, write multiple essays every week and watch the French news each night. It didn’t take long to realise I couldn’t keep this up.

You need to give your brain a chance to relax, and fully commit to this time. There’s no point taking a break if it’s interrupted by a constant stream of “I should be doing an exam right now,” and likewise, you won’t get anything out of a practice exam if you pause every few minutes to check your phone.

I found simply leaving my phone in another room was enough to help me focus.

3. VCAA past papers

No resource is more important than one made by the people writing your exams. It’s no longer important how well you can answer SAC questions made by your teacher – the way VCAA writes and marks their questions is unique, and adjusting to their application-based style is challenging, but essential.

Thankfully, VCAA provides you with insight into how they mark their papers through the examination reports on their website. Each report not only breaks down the reasoning behind each mark allocation, but is filled with dot points of vital content, definitions and explanations that they expect you to know

4. Make studying fun

At this point in your studies, you’ve probably read your notes more times than you can count, and grown tired of flashcards and practice questions.

I certainly reached this point, so I came up with creative ways to stay immersed in the content. For example, I’d tell my family the plot of my English texts like it was gossip, I watched a French TV show about time travel to improve my accent and I spent hours drawing colourful diagrams of my biology content.

Was this the most efficient use of my time? Not always. But forcing yourself to study in ways you don’t enjoy will only lead you to procrastinate.

5. Remember your why

It’s difficult to motivate yourself when the content you’re working so hard to remember might become obsolete the second you walk out of the exam. While I loved expanding my knowledge of biology, memorising the general solution of sine functions didn’t feel as important. I wanted to become a doctor, not a mathematician.

While feeling confident in your exams is important, don’t forget the big picture – your ATAR is simply a tool to help shape your future. For me, that was my dream university offer, and scoring well in every subject, even maths methods, would help me get there.

So if you’re struggling to write one more essay about a text you’ll probably never read again, remember why you’re studying in the first place. You have an opportunity right now to invest in your future and set yourself up for success, and you want to look back on this time and feel proud that you gave it your all. So don’t waste it.

Abigail Gardiner attended Haileybury Girls College and received an ATAR of 99.95 in 2022. She is currently studying medicine at Monash University.

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