Physics internal vs. external marks (1 Viewer)

occhiolisms said:

I go to a top 5-10 school, and usually do very well, but the stress of Covid this year really impacted my motivation and desire to study. I started year 12 with the goal of getting a 99 ATAR with the intention of getting into medicine, but have lowered it to a 98 (optimistic) or 96/97 (realistic). I'm currently panicking a lot because I have a physics trial on Monday that I'm seriously under-prepared for. My current rank is 9/24 with a mark of 75 (topped the first exam, below average in second).

Hypothetically, if my rank drops to 14-16/24, but I got a really high external mark (I know that I'm capable of it b/c of first exam), could I still scrape a band 6? I'm worried because our school isn't fantastic at physics - in 2019, nine people got a band 6 in it. This situation is entirely my fault lol but any realistic advice would be appreciated.

Edit: I'm hoping to get into Uni of Newcastle med, UWS med or UQ med because my UCAT was decent so I technically only need a 95-97, even though it'll limit my options. I've accepted that I'm definitely not going to be getting the ATAR for unis that need 99/99.5+. I don't think it's going to be detrimental to my uni prospects if I do 'terrible' is all I'm saying.

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dumNerd said:

With a atar of 95-97 keep in mind you need an insanely good ucat score to get into any universities for med

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jazz519 said:

No can really realistically tell you if you will or won't, as it all depends on how much work you do between now and the HSC exam. You will just have to accept that for Monday you are not prepared as well as you would like, but you can still do quite a lot in 1-2 days so try to focus and do as much as possible and stop thinking about the situation you are in as it won't help.

After the trial, acknowledge the mistake and for the HSC exam, start studying seriously as soon as your trials are over. The benefit you have on your side is that you go to a well ranked school so your internal mark will likely still be decent (probably high Band 5 if 9 people got band 6). Also, HSC physics is a subject where doing questions leads to a good mark. If you are to prepare by doing many trial papers and HSC questions post trials then it is possible but it relies on that sharp change in motivation which is really hard to change sometimes if you have got into a bad loop/cycle. So you should set some kind of routine or plan to break out of the lack of motivation, by having short term goals each week e.g. doing 2 papers a week. Just having a goal of wanting to do well in the external HSC is going to be hard to maintain over 2-3 months.

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occhiolisms said:

I got a high enough UCAT to have a shot at UoN and UWS


Thank you! That is reassuring, really appreciate the advice.

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