It’s a standard that, as an HSC student, you will need to put in more work than in your primary school days. Just how much time is not precise. The study hours required vary depending on the student and how seriously they are taking HSC. For some students, this can be confusing because they don’t know if they are putting in enough hours and more importantly, students need to know when they are doing too much.
So, an excellent place to start when preparing to enter HSC is to find out how many hours you should dedicate to studying.
How Much Should You Study in HSC?
Everyone is different, and so is the number of hours they study. There’s no definite number of hours to determine the effectiveness of the quality of your study. Therefore, there are no minimum hours that you should study. However, a few factors can determine typical hours of study and suggest the recommended amount.
The Bare Minimum
Although there are no set amount of study hours for HSC students, a bare minimum of hours is required per week. For HSC students, consistency is key to consolidating knowledge and efficiently retaining most of the information.
The bare minimum study hours for HSC students is one hour per day which equates to seven hours per week.
Although there’s no saying how many hours you should study, many students have studied an hour a day and have performed relatively well in their HSC. Spending less than an hour a day studying isn’t nearly enough to complete the vast amount of work that the HSC level demands. You need at least seven hours a week.
The recommended study time
The ideal number of hours to dedicate to study in HSC depends on the number of units undertaken by the student for their HSC. Consistency of the dedicated commitment to survive and thrive in HSC are also factors worth considering in this case.
If you have studied 12 units in your HSC year, as with most students, you need about 24 hours of study per week. That’s about three and a half hours per day.
If you study 10 units, that is about 20 hours per week or roughly three hours of study a day. 11 units require about 22 hours a week, 13 units require 26 hours and 28 hours for 14 units which are about 4 hours.
These recommended study periods don’t apply to everyone. Some students will easily put in 50 hours of study per week and show tremendous commitment and drive to succeed in their HSC. On the flip side, talented students study less than 20 hours a week and still manage to score ATARs in the 90s range.
What’s important is finding a study routine that works for you, committing to it, and sticking to it to the best of your ability.
Quality Vs Quantity
There’s always a debate on whether you should focus on the quantity or the quality of the study hours. The truth is, you need to find a balance of both to succeed in HSC.
There’s no point in sitting in front of your study material for eight hours with no plan or procrastinating most of the time. Also, you can take the shortest time to study with complete concentration, but you need at least half an hour for your mind to retain the information.
Factors that Affect Study Hours
One of the significant determinants of your study hours is the subjects you take and the degree of difficulty of each subject.
Subjects like Extension 2 Mathematics has enormous amounts of coursework. It is easily one of the most challenging subjects in HSC for most students.
Science subjects like Physics and Chemistry also require substantial study time and commitment because they are complex and content-heavy. You will need to spend more time studying to stay on top of your work.
Higher scaling subjects in the HSC require more commitment and study time. But subjects are not the only factor.
Individual strengths also have an impact on your study hours. Every student is unique, which impacts study hours differently. Some students are naturally good at some subjects and will require less time to pass those subjects. If you find areas where you’re strong, you can use that to your advantage and allocate more time to focus on your weaker subjects.
The only mistake you can make is allocating more time to subjects you’re strong in. Unfortunately, it is a mistake that many students make often.
