High-achieving Year 12 graduates from 2024 share their exam season secrets to ATAR success
These three students excelled with stellar ATARs in the class of 2024. Here’s their advice for other teens on how to approach year 12 exams.
It always pays to learn from the best, so year 12s about to sit exams have plenty to glean from those who achieved stellar results in 2024.
From study methods to what content to focus on, from eating and sleeping routines to staying positive and motivated – and even hiding your phone to avoid distractions – high-ATAR scorers of last year have offered their tips for success.
Miranda Liu, 19, graduated from Emmaus College in Melbourne with an ATAR of 99.
She said structure and organisation are vital.
“I’d have my phone in a different room and all my practice exams and school books would be all around me on the floor or on the shelves so that studying became the easiest accessible option,” she said.
“I liked to block out and plan my days, so it was quite a structured approach, rather than just ‘oh, I want to study English today’.
“I instead had a very specific plan.
“For example, from 9-11am I will work on this specific task with this specific goal in mind.”
Ms Liu warned students against “pouring so much into it really early on” because of the risk of “crashing and burning”.
“It’s just all about positive reassurance, telling yourself that you’ve got this and getting yourself in that right headspace,” she said.
For English, Miranda advised students to “go beyond what is taught in school” by seeking out academic papers and immersing themselves in the content.
Perfect ATAR scorer Lewis Gilbert, 19, said he was too easily distracted at home so went to libraries to study, sometimes with friends.
“You’re kind of forced to be quiet and forced to work,” he said.
“When you see other people around you working, you just feel bad for not working.”
The St Peter’s College Adelaide graduated achieved the best possible ATAR of 99.95.
He said he read subject text books multiple times and watched relevant YouTube videos.
“I always found visualisations and geometric representations helped me a lot, so there’s quite a lot of YouTube videos online showing these animations on how maths works,” he said, adding he would do a past exam paper a day for each subject.
Kevin Hua, 18, made sure he got plenty of sleep and had a nutritious breakfast each day as it “psyched me up (and) got me ready to go”.
He said he also took breaks for exercise and socialising.
A graduate of St Columba College in Adelaide with a 98.05 ATAR, Mr Hua urged classmates to go into exam rooms with a “team” mentality.
“You’re from the same school, you grew up together over the years, now you’re ready to go into this exam … so go in as a team and not as an individual,” he said.
Mr Hua also urged Year 12s to read the questions carefully, saying for English it was all about “picking up on very minor details” and being able to construct a quality analysis.
Elite tutors with 99.95 ATARs from 50Coach, Vishaak Gangasandra, 23, graduate of The Southport School on the Gold Coast, and Ronan Ahl, 20, who attended Scotch College in Melbourne, both scored 99.95 ATARS and are now tutors with 100Coach and 50Coach respectively.
Mr Ahl recommended keeping a record of mistakes when doing practice exams.
“On the front of each practice exam, write your mark and include a box listing all the mistakes you made on that paper,” he said.
“This way, the night before the exam, instead of cramming, you can quickly review each exam and remind yourself of pitfalls to watch for.”
Mr Gangasandra recommended for physics, “doing as many practice questions as you can is the highest-yield study technique” in the fortnight before the exam.
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Originally published as High-achieving Year 12 graduates from 2024 share their exam season secrets to ATAR success
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