By Grace Hartley, Tessa Haire and Abbie Geoghegan
Creating a Vision Board
Lets make your pinterest dreams come true, whilst focusing on your own dreams coming true! Although they may look like a lot of work, they are quite simple and very effective. As someone who made a 2024 vision board, I can testify that having a visual reminder of my goals in view at all times provides excellent motivation to keep progressing, as well as having worded prompts.
Categories to start compiling photos of:
Academic goals - study habits, dream grades or ATAR.
Personal goals - fitness/health, journaling, reading, new skills to learn.
Things to be grateful for - family, friends, pets.
Things to look forward to - concerts, music fest, family events.
Motivational phrases - “everything happens for a reason” and “take a moment to just enjoy where you are now”.
You will need:
A printer (or some way of printing photos - Officeworks/Big W work great).
A picture frame or large poster cardboard (Kmart has some cheap frames).
Double sided tape or glue.
Steps to create your 2025 vision board:
Compile all of your images and phrases onto a word/google doc.
Print the images/phrases and cut them out.
Arrange on the board to ensure there are no gaps (take a pic to remember the layout).
Use double sided tape or glue to stick the images down.
If using a frame, insert backing and hang somewhere visible for inspo.
And you’re done!
Discover your perfect pencil case
This may seem a little silly, but having the perfect black pen can make a massive difference in exams and even writing out notes in class. Going into Officeworks can be overwhelming, especially when faced with the great-wall-of-pens, so here are our top picks, tried and true, to make your writing smooth sailing, plus a few extra stationary recommendations to inspire your 2020-thrive pencil case:
This is by far the best pen out there! Super smooth, lasts ages and smudge-proof. You can even get a rainbow pack for your pretty notes!
Another crowd favourite among Year 12. This pen, like our first pick, is very smooth and smudge-proof. Muji also sells a multipack of colours for your aesthetic notes.
The prettiest and most practical highlighters; these are very slim compared to normal highlighters so you will save precious pencil case space. This 6 pack has the entire rainbow, so you can colour code notes or match with your coloured pens
Gone are the days of messy pots of white-out, which stink out the classroom. Forget about those pesky white-out tape rollers, which get tangled and run out quickly. This white out pen allows you to correct small errors without the hassle.
How to have an Academic Comeback - The Three P’s
I’m sure we’ve all had the thought that we need to lock-in and be an academic weapon but when it comes time to work, you’ve got no idea how to study, revise or zone out of distractions. As fresh year 12 students, we don’t have our study routine down-pat but we’ve picked up quite a few tips over the years which may help you lock-in too!
Plan, plan, plan
Teachers drill this into us but not without good reason. It is essential to plan for your assessment tasks or any upcoming assignments in advance so you don’t fall behind. Our student handbooks are the perfect way to keep track of when tasks are due and add your extra-curricular activities to get a visual of your packed week. When it gets closer to end-of-term and there are lots of assessments in a row, making a study plan is a great way to ensure you spread your time out wisely.
Playlists
Although you may love to play your favourite jams while you study, your music choice may actually be distracting you and preventing you from getting your work done quickly. Dr Prue Salter taught us year 11’s to listen to music with no lyrics, that has a slow tempo. After trying this hack, I can personally promise you this has helped me focus while studying and I get so much more work done. Search “study music” on Spotify or any other music platform, plug in some headphones and grind out your homework in no time!
Practice makes perfect
This is so cliche but the more you practice your study skills and build habits, the easier it will come to you when it matters most! This ties into our first P, but it is very important to prepare from the start of the year/term for your assessments and one way to do this is developing your routines and perseverance, so when it comes time for a big block of exams/assessments, you have perfected your study techniques and routine which will save you so much time and stress!
Ideas for study techniques:
Create mind maps with key ideas and make branches with information.
If you can teach it, you know it - teach a sibling, friend or pet about the topic.
Old school - physical flashcards or online quizlet flashcards.
Ask teachers/older siblings and friends for past questions to practice responses.
That’s all the advice from us for now! We hope you are super excited to get stuck into your learning in 2025, and that some of these tips help you to thrive in ‘25!
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