Top tips from the top HSC top students
What advice do the best and brightest students of 2024 have for the Class of 2025, hoping to follow in their footsteps and rank first in their course?
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The HSC’s best and brightest students have now been revealed — and what advice do those students have for the Class of 2025, hoping to follow in their footsteps and rank first in their course? Here’s what they said.
Adele Kate Cosentino
School: Pittwater House School
Course: Dance
“Give time for yourself as well, because obviously, doing the HSC dance course at the same time as I was doing my preliminary studies, there wasn’t a lot of time for myself, and I found that I really needed to have more time just to relax and enjoy just the small things, like going for a swim.
“One thing that I did actually leading up to my dance HSC was I went for a walk every single morning, and that just cleared my brain before I started the day. And it just helped me get in a nice, you know, focused mood.
“Don’t stress too hard about studies, because the results will come if you work hard.”
Grace Costigan
School: St Columba’s Catholic College (Springwood – Blue Mountains)
Course: English Extension 2
“Choose subjects that you love. Don’t be pressured to do any subjects that you think might get you higher marks. Truly choose something that you love, because that is what will motivate you to do well.
“Find a balance between studying and also living your life, because it’s really easy to put pressure on yourself and forget about what’s important.
“Write something you’re passionate about, create characters that you’re inspired to make real in your world, and that way you will want to do well. Write something that you’d like to read at your age, so then it will go well.”
Asteer Saleem
School: Secondary College of Languages – Liverpool
Course: Arabic Extension
“Follow your hearts … Do what you want to do. Don’t get pressured by anyone. If you want to do it, do it. If you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.
“I was told so many times to drop Arabic Extension. I didn’t end up dropping it. So do what you like to do and do what you want to do. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, and believe in yourself. Confidence is the key.”
Freya Hooper
School: Red Bend Catholic College
Course: Primary Industries
“Don’t spend your time stressing about it. Keep a balance between what you enjoy doing and then your study as well.”
Poppy Starr
School: Scots All Saints College
Course: Primary Industries
“Just try your best. Don’t give up. Don’t feel like you can’t do it, because it is achievable.
“If you just keep trying, put in the effort. Effort is all that matters.”
Anubhav Ammangi
School: Redeemer Baptist School, North Parramatta
Course: Chemistry AND Software Design & Development
“Make sure you’re really understanding things before you dive in. And then once you’ve started to understand things, get going with the trial and practice papers.”
“Start learning what your weaknesses are, try and fix those weaknesses, and then everything will just work out.”
“I had a document where I kept a list of all the mistakes that I would make in any practice. And so before I would do a paper I would review the list to try and make myself aware of the things that I can sometimes fall victim to.”
Oliver Hoang
School: Sydney Grammar School
Course: Economics
“In economics, I think you just need to stay on top of the most recent news and keep in touch with what’s going on with the RBA, and other things like that. It’s really important to always have your finger on the pulse, because economics changes throughout the year – it’s not the same in Term 1 as it is by the time you do the HSC.”
Carla Florit Cuello
School: Killara High School
Course: Society and Culture
“Definitely don’t get discouraged with the subject early on, because I did not do as well as I hoped in my first assessment, and that discouraged me a bit.
“My teacher just kept giving me advice, saying you can always leapfrog from here to better marks later on. And that was the best advice I got the entire year.”
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