Year 11: Exam Reflections
Exam Reflections
Arad Khalili
The exhilarating exam period started with Mr Bradley sending out a fairly strict study schedule for us which gave us the perfect balance of revision time for our exams and our very important free time – which we used effectively by spending time on YouTube, watching movies and listening to various Spotify playlists. The email Mr Bradley sent to us suggested (mandated) the following schedule:
Weekday Study Schedule – Exam Fortnight
Session 1 | 8.30 – 10.00 | (90 minutes) |
Morning Tea | 10.00 – 10.30 | (30 minutes) |
Session 2 | 10.30 – 12.00 | (90 minutes) |
Lunch | 12.00 – 1.00 | (60 minutes) |
Session 3 | 1.00 – 3.00 | (120 minutes) |
From the perspective of a Year 11 boarder I believe the study time set for us was perfect. It had a good balance between revising for our exams and having a couple breaks for refreshments. Then for the rest of the day we could choose our own fate – obviously, many of the boys still had sport commitments, some did some extra work in the afternoon before evening Prep and others used the downtime to forget about study altogether.
There is no doubt that many of us suffered from procrastination during the study period, so this will need to be a focus for us when start our preparations for exams next term. Furthermore, as a teenager living in the 21st Century, us boys are endangered by a truly threatening obstacle. SOCIAL MEDIA! This includes the wide variety of apps and resources that are provided for us such as YouTube, Snap Chat, Instagram and Facebook. Not procrastinating, staying away from social media and other extremely tempting stuff is incredibly hard – as it definitely draws us in and often gives us an extremely fulfilling feeling of being a part of a bigger community; it allows us to get entertained by cat videos!
Although, most boys are definitely not heavily affected by this frightening technology bug, it certainly is one of the roots to our procrastination. Knowing that we’re living in a community where there are rules around using our electronic devices is particularly helpful, but it still is something us boys need to work on further, especially during our exam time.
Tom Graham
The exam period came around quickly despite there being 4 months breaking up the beginning of the academic year and the first week of the exam period. Personally I was looking forward to exams more than fearing them. My view was that this would be a good test to where I sit in the year for my selected subjects and whether or not the notes I had been developing were going to be able to refresh my memory to the extent I needed.
My preparation was an interesting experience as there were moments of self-doubt. There was also an overwhelming amount of work to be remembered, but there were also the moments of satisfaction that came with finishing my study and notes for the day.
The first week of exams was a time for routine and mentally stabilising yourself for the end-on-end exams that would occur during the time. In itself, an exam is quite remarkable in the way that it reveals your capability to concentrate and focus for a period of two or even three hours on multiple sub topics.
Overall, my experience of the exams was a huge learning curve that revealed some of my strengths under pressure but more importantly the areas that are needing to be improved and developed to allow myself to achieve those higher levels in the future.