09 May 2025
By the time this newsletter is published, the Class of 2025 Year 12 students will have nearly reached the halfway mark of their final year in high school.
Being one of only two boys at the school who has already completed Year 12, watching the current Year 12s go through the same experience is bittersweet. The difference is, they’re still surrounded by friends and laughter, while for me, those familiar places now hold memories I’ll always carry – and a reminder of how lucky I was to have them.
Anyway, I’d like to dedicate this article to the current Year 12 students by sharing some things I did—and some things I wish I’d known this time last year—whether study or wellbeing related.
To begin with, my two-word academic advice is this: baby steps.
As the Chinese idiom says, “Dripping water penetrates the stone.” Doing a little revision each day from now will add up to significant experience by exam time. In my opinion, familiarity, experience, and confidence are the holy trinity of effective exam preparation.
By familiarising yourself with the concepts covered in class and understanding how exam questions test these topics, you’ll develop a strong sense of pacing. Generally, the easier questions are at the front of the paper, while the harder, more time-consuming ones are at the back. A smart student maximizes points by securing the easier marks first.
To achieve familiarity, you need experience. “Spamming” practice tests and past papers is the most efficient way to identify gaps in your knowledge. Once you know which topics you’re confident in and which you’re not, the problem becomes tangible—just target your weak areas while reinforcing your strengths.
As Sun Tzu might say: “If you know yourself and your enemy (the exam and what it’s testing), you can fight a hundred battles without danger.”
Finally, confidence comes after familiarity and experience—and it’s the one factor you can control, since it comes from within. The student who revises for five months, doing a little each day, will always outperform the student who crams 10-hour days for three weeks.
Confidence plays a huge role in exams. The pressure of the exam room is completely different from regular class tests—even if the questions are similar, your mental state dramatically affects your performance. I’ve seen many top achievers crumble under exam pressure. Often, they revised more than I did—while I did around three hours a day, they did 10. But our mindsets set us apart.
They studied 10 hours a day out of fear—afraid time was running out, convinced that if they didn’t cram everything in, it was over for them. Meanwhile, I gave myself more time. I controlled my revision because I started early. I even had time to finish Loudermilk and After Life during exam prep because I scheduled breaks. By exam time, I was just as prepared as my peers—but more confident, in a better mental state, and far less stressed.
If I could change one thing from last year, I’d have started even earlier. I only began serious revision around halfway through Term 3. But if you start now, before we even reach the midpoint of Term 2, you’ll give yourself so much more time and flexibility in Term 4.
Your future self will either thank or resent you for what you’re doing now. Might as well make it a “thank you.”
I hope this advice makes sense and helps you.
Tiger Liu
School Captain
