Tips and tricks for getting through high school – from students who just did

Grace McKay graduated from secondary school just a few months ago but already has her career sorted.

Many hours spent in her mechanic dad’s workshop sparked a love of tinkering with cars, so McKay enrolled in the School-Based Apprenticeships and Traineeship program at Rowville Secondary College and now works at a dealership while completing the second year of an automotive traineeship.

Grace McKay and her dad, Ross McKay, in their Ferntree Gully backyard garage. Credit: Penny Stephens

“I always knew VCE wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to go to university, so I didn’t want to go down that path,” McKay said.

Ahead of the new school year, McKay has some advice for senior students who feel the same way: “do work experience at as many places as possible”.

“See if that trade is really what you want. Don’t just throw yourself into the deep end straight away,” she said.

With more than a million students preparing to start school or return to the classroom in the coming days, the state government has developed an online resource, A New Year of Learning, offering tips and advice for families and students from kinder all the way through to senior high school.

Amanda Pudelka had to overcome more than her share of challenges to complete year 12.Credit: Jason South

Amanda Pudelka is better placed than most to offer some pointers, after the challenges she had to overcome to complete her VCE.

The 19-year-old has been legally blind since she was eight, has endured major operations, still undergoes regular hospital treatment and takes medication to manage an autoimmune condition.

But none of that stopped her completing VCE at Footscray High School last year. She is now on a direct pathway to study psychology at Victoria University. Pudelka says an important lesson she learnt was to not be too hard on herself.

“I’ve always been like, ‘I must achieve very high grades; I must put my all into everything’, and I’d be disappointed if I got even slightly less of a grade than what I hoped I would get,” she said.

“So the biggest thing I wish I’d known before ... is you can only do your best in a given situation. You can’t do better than that, and trying to push yourself to do better than that is only going to cause you harm.”

The aspiring psychologist said that getting organised was important to her successful year 12.

“My tactic was, have a schedule for studying, and always knowing when things have to be due, just a lot of time management, a lot of scheduling and being on top of knowing when things need to be done by, how long they’re going to take,” Pudelka said.

“I’d also say don’t put too much pressure on trying to find the perfect course, because there is no perfect course. You’re never locked into one course, so it’s all right to try one course out and if you’re thinking that, hey, this actually isn’t for me, you can always switch.”

Harrison Abbott, who scored a 98.5 ATAR at Montmorency Secondary College, says he understands the pressure students about to start year 12 are feeling.

Harrison Abbott says VCE students should use the early months of year 12 wisely.Credit: Wayne Taylor

But the 17-year-old, who is off to the University of Melbourne this year to study a bachelor of arts, says it is important to use the early months of the year wisely.

“This time last year was my organisational period,” he said.

“I was sitting at home and putting all of the pieces in order and saying this is how I’m going to set out my year, and that was as broad as making some really big goals to the end of the year.

“Then it came down to some more micro-goals and things I wanted to achieve by the end of term, and then it came down to the actual way that I was going to attack each class.”

A stress-beating technique that worked for Abbott was simple: avoid taking classes you don’t like.

“When I was picking subjects for VCE ... I definitely just picked subjects that I both wanted to know more about and thought that I would enjoy and do well in, and in that regard, there’s no real pressure there, there’s no stress.”

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