From the Leader of Wellbeing and Learning - Senior Campus

On Friday 18th February 2022, Year 12 participated in a Wellbeing Lesson that centred around being ‘Goal-Getters’. After watching 2021 Dux Shanelle Silva’s speech from the High Achievers Assembly, Year 12 were lucky enough to hear some motivating and inspiring words from a guest speaker - Maryssa Ghazaleh. 

Maryssa Ghazaleh was the 2021 2nd place Dux and achieved fantastic HSC results including 3 Band 6 and an ATAR of 95.05.

Maryssa was interviewed by our current College Captains Wasim and Hayley, and Year 12 thoroughly enjoyed listening to Maryssa’s advice about motivation and balancing school and wellbeing. 

Below is a transcript of some of Maryssa’s inspiring and useful responses.

What did a normal day or week look like for you? Did you work or have any extracurriculars that made it difficult to balance your social and school life? 

A normal day would consist of school and study. I would make time some afternoons  to catch up with friends so I could balance a social life, However, I would often use free periods and then go home or even to the library and study for the rest of the afternoon. Also going out on Saturdays but then leaving Sundays for any assignments or studying I needed to catch up on. I also only got a job towards the end of the year and I would tell my work to only put me on weekends and Thursday nights (during exam times I would N/A) which helped me manage my time with school work. Also in the weeks leading up to the HSC I made the most out of my spare time. Even using a hairdresser appointment to study my flashcards.

We are always told to study in our spare time but many of us don’t fully understand what to do when that time comes - what does study look like for you?

You can still have a social life on weekends and some weekdays as long as you fit study in and it is also important to find what works for you. For me I found using flashcards, practice papers, and visual mind maps the most helpful. As I mentioned before I would find any spare time and use that to study, often if I was in the car I would use my flashcards, which are amazing as they are travel size and you can take them anywhere, or after school I would pretty much spend the whole afternoon studying or doing assignments. On my lunch breaks at work sometimes I would read over notes or the syllabus, and if I was bored I would honestly do those quizzes you can find on the NESA website - they are just a bunch of past hsc multiple choice questions. When I did more of a thorough study session I would mainly be revising through active recall using flashcards as they help you retain information better so you can remember it and apply it in exams. Using this strategy I would write one syllabus dot point on one side of the card and the information on the other side, that way I had to think of the answer and kind of quiz myself. I also did a lot of practice questions and papers. These are extremely important as you're simultaneously learning and understanding the content as well as practising for your exams. Sending them to your teachers is also key as they tell you what to improve on. The most important thing though is finding what works for you. Just because your friends like to make notes and read over them doesn’t mean you will learn that way as well. It took me multiple efforts to find what study techniques worked for me which were flashcards and practice papers because I found they improve your memory and mimic exam situations. But once you find how you learn best you will notice that you're honestly working smarter not harder. 

If you had to narrow down your efforts to one specific thing that yielded the most success, what would it be?

It's hard to narrow it down to one but honestly just talking to the teachers and sending drafts. I would often email and ask for feedback or a question I had on a specific dot point because at the end of the day they know what the NESA markers are looking for so you have to use their knowledge to help better your work and improve your responses or assessments. Also once your teachers see that you are working hard their encouragement always makes you want to do better. For me, doing well in the HSC wasn’t just about achieving my goals and making myself proud but it was also about making the teachers proud because they want the best for us whether you believe that or not. So build good relationships with them! I feel like that helped me tremendously, along with flashcards and practice responses - I couldn’t have done year 12 without those!

How did you balance school and homework with external commitments?

I balanced both of them, but I prioritised my school work first because it was most important for me. You don't have to study 24/7 to get a good result, if I had some external commitments I would only attend if everything with school is up to date, and if it wasn’t I would find a way to do it prior just so I could minimise stress in the future. Also creating study timetables was beneficial as I could manage my school time and any external commitments. Another important point is don’t leave your work to the last minute! As much as you may think you work better under pressure you probably work better when you have sent drafts and when you are not in a rush. You could go from band 5 to band 6 just because you sent drafts and didn’t do It last minute.

Did your attitude towards your education or time at school change between Year 10 and your senior years, if so, what instigated that change?

My attitude changed so much. In years 7-10 I didn’t care about school and put in little effort... at one point in year 10 I was considering dropping out because I used to think that school wasn’t for me. However, I then realised in year 11 that you don't have to be naturally smart or gifted to do well in school. You just have to work hard and set your mind to what goals you want to achieve. I never thought I was capable of achieving good results, and really everyone is capable of it as long as you put your mind to it. Positive self-talk and building up your self confidence by setting goals really instigated that change. It’s what helped me achieve an ATAR that I didn’t think I could ever get. 

Where did your motivation stem from? Were you always motivated throughout year 12? 

My motivation stemmed from a lot of things, one being my own goals. As much as my goals were to get a good ATAR and to get into my desired university course, it was mainly just to feel proud of myself. One of my fears throughout the year was opening up my ATAR and being disappointed in it. The best feeling ever is when you are proud of yourself because you know you worked hard to achieve it, no matter what the mark is as long as you are happy with it no one else's opinion matters. Also the encouragement from my teachers gave me motivation. When my teachers would say to me that they know I can achieve my desired mark it not only built up my confidence but it also encouraged me to make them proud. However the strongest motivation comes from wanting to do it for yourself, wanting to achieve those marks because you know you can and because you deserve it. Don’t worry about anyone that thinks you can't do it just because you have never been someone who tries hard at school, people used to laugh when I first started studying because it so wasn’t like me but I did not care because at the end of the day it's only your future that matters not anyone else’s. So do it to make yourself feel proud because that feeling can motivate you to do well in other future challenges and is one of the greatest feelings.

Thank you to Maryssa for coming out and speaking with Year 12, we highly value all of your advice and which you luck in your future studies and career. 

Miss Emily Pett
Leader of Wellbeing & Learning - Senior Campus
Leader of Wellbeing Year 12