From the Senior Years

Senior Students in Years 11 and 12 are entering a very busy period in the academic school year, as both Unit 1 and Unit 3 studies come to their conclusions. This is a time when study habits and dispositions are at the forefront of student minds. Moreover, it is a time when students draw on their inner purpose and goals for the year and, particularly for Year 12 students, what their aims are beyond St Aloysius College in 2024.

It was in this context that Year 11 students engaged in two seminar sessions with Elevate Education – Ace your exams and Time Management. These sessions were positively received by students that the student voice comments below will attest to – the clarity of engaging presenters close to their age explaining how to think strategically about their study habits, as well as offering practical strategies to maximise their learning.

A key takeaway from the session, was the idea of the ‘extra 15 minutes’ per week on top of the base level of study. For many students, they are working steadily and productively on set work; however, this would be the voluntary additional strategic work that can be done. This is particularly useful in the lead up to examinations, with the focus on exam-style questions being heavily encouraged by the presenters and teachers.

Student feedback from the post-seminar survey highlighted some benefits to students:

“This was very helpful as the advice was broken up into easy steps to follow and the presenter explained things clearly. An important take-away for me was knowing and planning how much time I should spend on each mark in an exam and how to stay clam before exams. The next step is advice about how to make study timetables for exams.”
“What the session reinforced was the importance of key steps before an exam and how it was more important to go over the feedback from the SACs.”
“I learnt how to approach the exam differently especially immediately prior to the exam with strategies like being alone before the exam to avoid compound stress and useful sites to access the VCAA practice papers.”

In addition to the academic calendar, Senior Students have represented the school through their participation in co-curricular activities. Most notable was the recent narrow loss of our Senior basketball team in their recent Grand Final performance as part of the CGSAV carnival. This was a commendable result and performance and our students were gallant and graceful in their narrow loss.

Tom Crowle
Senior Years Leader