What to Expect when you’re Starting Year 12?

You’ve made it – to the year everyone waits for, the year where you can rule over the school, to the hardest and most rewarding year of all – year 12.

If you are feeling unprepared and completely lost because year 12 feels completely different to what you had imagined, you are not alone. But fret not, I've been through it, so here is a guide to help ease your transition into Year 12!

Table of Content:

• How Stressful is Year 12?
• How do You Deflate the Pressure?
• FAQs

How Stressful is Year 12?

Year 12 is a beautiful and stressful part of your life. It is going to be a year full of your highest highs, and your lowest lows.

It’s a year where you have the most fun and enjoy what will be your last swimming carnival and house choir, and you go through all the final milestones and events your school has lined up for you. Your year group will learn how to work as a team – or perhaps they already have – and you will start to find joy in the collective joy.

It will also be the most stressful year, that part I’m sure is well known to you already. EVERYONE knows you’re going to be hit with a truckload of work to do. So it’s not the extra workload that shocks you, what actually shocks you is the sheer amount of pressure that comes with being in year 12. All of a sudden every single mark counts - there is no room for silly errors. When you know that getting even a few extra marks can pull your ATAR or rank up, every minute spent procrastinating makes you feel a hundred times more guilty after.

More than that, though, most students find it’s actually the self-imposed pressure you put on yourself to study, or, perhaps, even the pressure of the guilt you feel for not being bothered to study or care at all.

This pressure isn’t something palpable beforehand, but once you’re in it, you will truly feel its weight.

How do You Deflate the Pressure?

But do not get me wrong, year 12 should not be all doom and gloom. It is important to find ways to let go, and relax.

1. Attend the Social Activities

The final events of year 12 that we were talking about before? Participate in them and go nuts! Wear your brightest house colours to the athletic carnival, sing the cheer song the loudest with your friends, take a fun lap in the pool at the swimming carnival. For year 12, these events are not simply fun because it’s your last year, these events are actually there for you all to keep yourselves sane.

This will also be where you bond with your year group even more as you learn to work together in a cohesive manner, and bonding with your house mates in a team to lead your house to (hopefully) victory. It’s thrilling, and exhausting, and is the best way to recharge and prevent burnout.

2. Pair things you Do Not like to do with Things that You Want to do

Don’t like doing maths? Listen to your favourite music while doing it! Don’t like chemistry, but enjoy talking to friends? Discuss chemistry concepts or practice questions with them instead. Doing these little changes of pairing tasks will improve your physical and mental health immensely and will make things that you hate much more bearable to do.

3. Find Pockets of Time to do what You Like

Also try find time out to do your hobbies – listen to music, play some sports! Even if you’re not into sports, studies have found that any type of movement is actually beneficial, so go for it! Knock your dancing socks off, or go for a dip in the pool.

Conclusion

I understand that the Year 12 pressure may keep you staying home alone and studying - but we should get away from that! Put that pen and paper down (or whatever device you are using to study), and go enjoy the final year of high school. If you are looking for more resources, check out these KIS Academics articles:

FAQs

Written by Navleen Kaur who pursued a Bachelor of Medical Science/Doctor of Medicine at University of Newcastle.

Want more personalized study guidance to help drastically improve your marks? A private tutor from KIS Academics can make the biggest difference!