How these top HSC students studied smarter and got better marks - with less effort

Many students believe that getting a top ATAR means sacrificing sleep, social life, and sanity for endless hours of study. But is that really true? Do the highest achievers spend hours hunched at their desks working away at an endless list of tasks? We spoke to more than a dozen high-achieving students—those who scored 99.5+ ATARs and are now studying medicine, law, and computer science at Australia’s top universities. Despite different study styles, one thing was clear: they didn’t just work harder—they worked smarter.

Here are the strategies they used to get ahead while minimising wasted effort.

1. Time Management Is Everything

Every student we spoke to emphasised the importance of structured study schedules. But they didn’t just block out endless study sessions—they made time for:

• Extracurriculars – Sport, music, or volunteering kept them balanced.
• Social time – They avoided burnout by making space for family and friends.
• Breaks – Strategic short breaks (like the modified Pomodoro technique we talked about in another blog) kept their focus high, frequently motivated them, and avoided loss of focus from a prolonged, hours-long break in the middle of a study session.

Tip: They used tools like Google Calendar, Notion, and physical planners to keep track of deadlines and revision goals.

2. Active Learning Over Passive Learning

Top students didn’t waste time re-reading or copying notes word for word from a textbook or worksheet. Instead, they focused on:

• Practicing past papers – The #1 method every high achiever swore by.
• Teaching concepts to others – If you can explain it, you truly understand it.
• Flashcards for memorisation – Apps like Anki and Quizlet made recall fast and efficient.

Tip: Re-reading is NOT revising. Test yourself regularly instead, using software, AI, your friends, or even your parents to encourage active recall and synthesis of knowledge!

3. Nailing Exam Technique Early

Even the best-prepared students don’t always perform well under pressure. Those who did well in the HSC practiced under exam conditions months before the real thing:

• Timed essays without notes
• Full-length past exams
• Answering unseen questions under pressure

Tip: Get comfortable working within time limits—don’t just revise content, practice how to apply it under real exam stress! Doing that past paper while simultaneously scrolling through reels and listening to music is not helpful, nor is it counted as true practice!

4. Mastering Subject-Specific Strategies

Every subject demands a different approach. Here’s what worked best for high achievers:

• English – Pre-writing flexible essay paragraphs, memorising strong topic sentences, and practicing unseen analysis.
• Maths – Keeping an error book to track and review mistakes, focusing on problem-solving speed.
• Sciences – Understanding concepts before memorising, doing practice calculations daily.
• Humanities – Creating essay scaffolds, writing plans under timed conditions.

Tip: Studying efficiently means identifying what works best for each subject instead of using the same approach for everything. Also, identify what works for you - check out our other blog posts on study methods and whether tutoring is the right fit for you!

5. Reducing Wasted Effort

One of the biggest things top students avoided? Wasting time on unnecessary tasks. They focused on what actually helped them learn, not just busywork like:

• Rewriting notes over and over
• Watching too many “study motivation” videos
• Highlighting everything without understanding it

Tip: If a study habit isn’t directly helping you memorise, recall, or apply knowledge, it’s probably a waste of time.

The Secret? Using High-Quality Notes and Exemplars

We spoke to some of the highest-achieving students from recent HSC years, and the pattern was clear: they didn’t start from scratch. Instead, they sourced high-quality notes, exemplars, and resources from students before them, carefully integrating them into their own study routines.

Here’s what they did differently:

• They used seniors’ notes. Instead of trying to summarise everything themselves, they learned from students who had already been through the HSC. These notes weren’t just summaries – they were refined, effective, and often packed with teacher feedback and high-mark exemplars.
• They bought carefully curated resources. Rather than spending hours searching online, formatting documents, or organising information, they accessed notes from top-performing students through sites like Notes2u and used them as a base to build their understanding.
• They focused on active learning, not admin. Instead of wasting time on retyping content or formatting documents, they spent time actually applying their knowledge—answering past papers, writing practice essays, and working through problems.

Why Gathering Resources is the Real Time-Waster

Many students make the mistake of thinking that collecting, sorting, and formatting resources is part of the learning process. But let’s be honest—it’s mostly busywork.

Busywork is an American term for “work that keeps a person busy but has little value in itself”; precisely the sort of thing that eats up your time, makes you procrastinate, and takes your focus away from actually increasing and consolidating your knowledge.

Think about it:

• Searching for free notes on forums and social media
• Copying and pasting from multiple sources
• Changing fonts, fixing formatting, and organising files
• Printing and highlighting random documents

This isn’t learning—it’s admin. And admin doesn’t get you marks.

The Cooking Analogy: Why Buying Good Notes Works

Buying high-quality notes is like buying prepped ingredients for cooking. You still have to do the work, but you’re cutting out the unnecessary effort. Instead of peeling, chopping, and measuring everything yourself, you start with the best ingredients, pre-measured, and focus on the actual cooking.

Similarly, when you buy well-structured, high-quality notes, you save time and effort, letting you focus on:

• Understanding concepts
• Practicing responses
• Memorising key content
• Perfecting your exam technique

Where Do Top Students Get Their Notes?

Some students were lucky enough to have older siblings or friends who passed on their resources. Others came from school communities with cultures of generosity, but they still had to reach out to random seniors and pray for charitable donations before exam season! Still others pieced together notes they found in various places from tutoring, school, and online forums. But most admitted it was a long and frustrating process, and the resources they found were of varying quality and needed lots of organising, re-formatting, and cutting to get rid of useless or irrelevant information.

Everyone we talked to also wished that there was a platform where you could buy carefully curated, high-quality notes at fixed, low prices from verified sellers during previous HSC seasons.

Why Notes2u is the Best Place to Find the Notes You Need

Well, look no further, because we’ve made that platform! At Notes2u, we take the hassle out of finding the best HSC notes, essays, and exemplars.

• Curated by top students – Our resources come from high achievers who’ve excelled in the HSC.
• Instant access – No more searching, sorting, or formatting—just high-quality content ready to go.
• Trusted and secure – Copyright-protected materials, secure payments, and no plagiarism risks.
• Designed for real learning – Learn smarter with detailed worked solutions, structured study guides, and practical examples.

Instead of wasting time on pointless admin, start studying smarter today. Browse Notes2u for top-quality HSC notes and give yourself the edge that high-achievers already use!