Organising your time for a successful VCE

Often students find the leap between Year 11 and Year 12 to be a big one.  If you have completed a Year 12 subject in Year 11 you might have found that you spent a lot of your time focussing on your Year 12 subject and less time on your Year 11 ones.  You might have struggled with time management. Now you have 4 or 5 Year 12 subjects to complete, you might be asking yourself how will you ever get all the work and study done to stay on top of things.

The key to success in VCE is to stay organised and be consistent.  

A study timetable helps you manage your time in VCE

Stay organised with a study timetable.

Creating a study timetable that takes in to account your prior commitments such as sport and work, and even your favourite TV shows and time with friends means that you will be able to maintain a balanced lifestyle without your study suffering. Although it is not always popular with parents, if there are TV shows you always watch then put them in to your timetable - if you are going to watch them anyway then it is better that they are not interrupting a planned study time.  Put in some time for relaxing things you like to do such as chat online with friends or walking the dog.

To create a study timetable like the one above:

1. Plan out the time you have available for study each night and block out the hours that are already committed to something else.  
2. Spilt your study time in to 1 hour or 45 min blocks as this will give you a good amount of time to get stuck in to each subject.
3. Look at your school timetable for each day.  Try to choose the 3 or 4 subjects from that day you are most likely to have homework for and write these in to your blocks for the night.  Make sure you have a block dedicated to every subject at least 3-4 times per week, even if you do not usually get homework for this subject. By doing this you will find that there is always enough time in the day to get your work done. In fact, you will be quite a distance ahead the whole year long because you will be working consistently each night and rather than leaving everything until the last minute.
4. Grab a few hours on the weekend for study but allow yourself a sleep in or some nights off!

Here is a video I have created that talks you through creating your own study timetable in more detail.
You can also click here for a basic template that you can manipulate.

Being consistent means working on each subject each day, even when you have no "homework."

Leaving things until the last minute does not work in VCE because the work piles up quickly. Being consistent throughout the year means working each night on each of your subjects, even when there is no set homework due the next day.  Here's how it works. On your study timetable you should set aside a time each night for each subject (or a different 3 or 4 subjects each night depending on the time you have available). When you start a block for a subject, for example, English, you first complete any homework or immediate work due within the week.  Once you have finished this work it doesn't mean you can have a break or move on to the next subject.  Instead, you move on to the ongoing study part of the subject.  By that I mean the preparation for the next assessment task or SAC and organisation and creation of your notes for ongoing exam revision.  For English this might involve reading and making notes on your texts or writing practice essays. If you are spending 2-3 hours per week on each subject, and working on exam revision and preparation such as writing practice essays or completing exam questions then by the time you get to the end of the year you will be in a substantially better place than if you had left it all until the last minute! 

Each one hour block on your study timetable should look like this:

Homework (might take only 15 mins or the whole hour depending on what it is)

Ongoing study (an essay plan or some work on a SAC)

Exam revision (practice exam tasks, practice essays, notes)

My advice is the same for every subject.  If you create a balanced study timetable where you are dedicating time to study but also having a life then you will be more motivated to do your study because you are not missing out on all the fun things in life! If each hour in your timetable is utilised to the fullest then you will always be working ahead, consolidating and practising the skills you are learning. Never underestimate the power of a good study timetable!

Preparing for Year 12 English

Just finished Year 11?  Don’t just sit around freaking out about next year.  There are heaps of things you can do now to get organised and give yourself the best chance of VCE English success!

Here’s my to-do list to prepare for 2015 English:

Organise your notes (even though you haven’t started them yet!)

Think about how you will organise your notes because if you are following my advice you will be starting them before you even start classes! A clearly organised notebook that actually contains good notes can be the biggest asset a VCE English student can have.  

I recommend:
A folder with the following tabs labelled OR/ a notebook for each of these instead

• AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
• AOS 1 Text 2
• Context (AOS 2)
• ULTP (Using Language to Persuade)

You could even split these categories up further:

• AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
• Theme 1
• Theme 2 etc
• Character 1
• Character 2 etc
• Motifs
• Language and Literary devices
• Practice essays
• AOS 1 Text 2
• As above
• Context (AOS 2)
• Ideas about the context
• Ideas from the text
• Writing ideas
• Sample prompts
• Practice writing tasks
• ULTP
• Glossary of Language techniques (Metalanguage Glossary)
• Sample articles
• Practise analysis questions

Organising your notes before you start the year will really help you stay focussed on what is important and to ensure that you are making notes on all of the right things.  If you don’t do this you might find that you have focussed a little too narrowly on one or two themes or characters. 

Read all of next year’s texts (twice!)

I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the texts before the start of the year. This is especially important if you don’t like reading because if you wait until classes have started you will just keep putting it off as other things get in the way!
The first time you read the texts you are reading for understanding.  Take notes on your first impressions of the characters and on what you think the themes are.  The second time you read the text you already know what is happening so this is when you make all your notes on themes and characters.  This second read may happen during the year as you study the text in class. 

Read what others say about your texts.

It can be a great help to google your texts and read a bit about themes, characters and what other people think about your text.  This doesn’t mean you are always going to agree with what they write but it can help to know what you are looking for when you are reading.   You may do this before you even start reading your text, but you should definitely do it between the first and second time you read.  This way your second reading is more focussed and you know the notes you should be taking and the quotes to look out for. You should have a section in your notes for each theme and each character and as you come across interesting quotes as you read, you should note them down. 

Start collecting everything you can that relates to your context.  

A context is a  broad theme, idea or issue and as you will have to create your own piece of writing on your context it is never too early to look for inspiration and ideas.
Look in

• newspaper articles
• song lyrics
• poetry
• experiences and memories

Read the newspaper and start looking at issues in the media and how they are portrayed.  

Most schools get you to do a persuasive oral presentation arguing your beliefs about a current issue in the media. You can start thinking about this early and cutting out or saving articles of interest now. 

Doing these simple things between now and the end of January will mean you will start the year feeling much more organised and will help you focus on what is important in your VCE English studies.