Headstart Advice on How you Should Prepare for Year 12 | From a 97 ATAR Tutor

Headstart Advice on How you Should Prepare for Year 12

Starting Year 12 can feel daunting. Your entire high school journey has been leading up to this point, and now that it’s really here, you might feel a bit out of depth. In this blog, I’ll share some advice that helped me navigate Year 12, and how you can use these insights to start your year with confidence.

Resources

Before diving into my tips, let me quickly plug by VCE English resources. 

Grab my 2025 Headstart Workshop + Q&A sessions (2 hour recording + 6 digital resources)ering skill-building, study habits, and strategies for success. I also have a variety of study guides available (including High Ground, Castle & AA) and a bunch of free resources too. 

Organise, Organise and Organise!

One of the main things I noticed when asking past Year 12 students about what they wish they'd done differently was about organisation - specifically, creating a more solid study schedule.

It’s so tempting to approach the year with a “wing-it” mentality, thinking that we’ll figure it out along the way. To be completely honest, I did the same, but I quickly learned that having a study schedule is absolutely vital, especially for mentally disorganised people (me) where organisation doesn’t come naturally.

Schedules won’t guarantee an A+, but they will guarantee that you feel more prepared. Just like how you don’t leave your house without your phone, wallet, and keys, a study schedule will help you cover all your bases. However, you still need a level of flexibility as a rigid schedule may work against you especially during SAC heavy periods of time (e.g., you said you’d study English tonight, but you have a looming Methods SAC in two days… maybe study Methods instead). 

Burnout and unrelenting pressure are major reasons students trip up towards the end of the year, but having a good plan in place makes it much easier to avoid that.

Creating the schedule

1. Know your SAC dates – Once you know when your SACs are, map them out and plug them into your Calendar. 
2. Visuals – Put your schedule somewhere you’ll see it every day. Print it out, set it as your phone background, or add it to your Google Calendar. The more you see it, the more likely you are to stick to it.
3. Stay consistent – Stick to your schedule as best as you can, but don’t be afraid to adjust it if something doesn’t work. Flexibility is key!

Playing into Your Strengths and Weaknesses

One thing I learned in Year 12 is to focus on plugging my weaknesses rather than obsessing over turning a 95% into a 100%. Everyone has things they’re naturally good at, and that’s great, but trying to perfect what you already do well is usually not the most efficient use of your time.

1. Maintain your strengths. If you're great at a particular subject, make sure you don’t neglect it. Figure out the amount of study you need to keep your grades up. Think of it like running a 3-minute km: you don’t need to cut it down to 2 minutes, but you can keep it consistent with just a bit of maintenance.
2. Focus on your weaknesses. I often think about exams in two ways. 1) Gaining marks and 2) Losing marks. Our strengths allow us to gain marks, but if you don’t ‘plug’ your weaknesses, you’ll start bleeding the same marks every SAC. All this to say - If you’ve got weaknesses in certain areas, that’s where you should be spending most of your time. (For example, in my general maths class, we had a “mistake book” where we tracked the types of mistakes we made and worked to eliminate them. It helped us identify problem areas and improve quickly)

If you’re stuck on specific issues, don’t hesitate to ask your teacher for feedback, and always work on improving your weak points!

Friends and Ranking… Who’s Gotta Go? 

Now, let’s talk about one of the most important aspects of Year 12: your peers. If you’re coming from a different school system, you might be used to a more competitive environment where everyone is out for themselves.

In Australia, particularly in Victoria (VCE), the competition is still there, but it’s a little different.

While ranking in VCE can be complicated, here’s the general rule: the better your cohort does, the better your chances are, no matter your rank. A strong cohort will always boost your chances of success.

So, NO sabotaging people in your class. No spreading general misinformation. What you’re gonna do is form groups and study, help each other build notes, and cheer each other on. Got it? 

Tailoring Your Approach to Each Subject

Each subject in Year 12 has its own unique demands, and you need to approach them with tailored strategies. For example, subjects like Methods and General Maths might seem similar, but the way they are marked and the types of answers they require can differ greatly.

For example: In Methods, if the answer to a question is 42 days, you technically could simply write "42" and get a tick. But in General Maths, that same answer would require you to write “42 days” in a sentence form to get full marks, even if the calculation is technically correct. (For both I still strongly recommend writing units as this may be different from when I took these subjects).

The key takeaway here is that you need to adjust your approach to each subject based on the specific requirements for success. Make sure you:

• Talk to previous Year 12 students for advice
• Ask your teachers questions (they’re there to help you)
• Read previous years’ VCAA examiner’s reports to understand exactly how your subjects are assessed! This is so underrated but will give you a huge advantage! 
• Consume content specific to each subject to stay sharp. YouTube and Spotify are gold mines for VCE Subject advice. 

Teachers, Feedback & Taking Criticism

Criticism from teachers can feel uncomfortable, but it’s one of the most valuable tools for improvement. If a teacher gives you feedback, don’t just brush it off… ask for examples, seek clarification, and use it to refine your work. Even if it stings at first, constructive criticism will help you grow and get closer to your goal.

I also recommend swapping essays with your friends for feedback - it’s very helpful getting their perspectives if you are all academically-focused. You can potentially ask tools like ChatGPT to critique your work, but be sure to use your own critical thinking and not just rely on AI. It’s not known to be the most critical / accurate, so always refer to your subject’s study design and rubrics at the end of the day. 

Practice Exams: The Secret to Success

Well, it’s not really a secret. If it is, it’s a badly kept one. Every single tutor, teacher and sentient being will tell you that the key to acing VCE is: Practice exams.

The more practice exams you do, the better prepared you’ll be. Familiarity with the exam format will help you feel more confident, and reviewing your marked exams will show you where you need to improve. If I had to pick one thing that contributed to my 97 ATAR, it would be doing practice exams regularly (RIP the environment, I printed so much paper).

Burnout Prevention & Taking Care of Yourself

Year 12 can be exhausting. So if you’re not aware of what burnout is, learn about it now. It’s easier to prevent burnout than recovering. 

Burnout is a common issue especially for students who don’t know when to stop (AKA academic weapons). Although it’s good to have goals, constantly thinking about your ATAR may stress you out more, especially if you can’t turn off your brain while resting. 

To avoid burnout, make sure you:

• Take breaks and engage in hobbies you enjoy (for me, it was TV, art, and playing guitar)
• Physically step away from your study space to give your mind a break
• Get plenty of sleep
• Set aside time during your day to do nothing school-related
• Go out with friends and make memories. Year 12 will have many cool high school experiences like formal and muck up day!

I’m Here for You!

If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You have superb comprehension abilities and an attention span, which are valuable assets for VCE English.

In all seriousness, I’m here for you on this journey. Whether it’s through my resources, workshops, social media, videos, I hope I help support you throughout Year 12. 

Stay organised, stay focused, and take care of yourself. You can do it!