Doing well in HSC sciences requires a slightly different approach than HSC maths or English subjects. HSC sciences, like Chemistry, Physics and Biology, place a heavy focus on the syllabus. Detailed knowledge and familiarisation of the syllabus is very important.

TIP 1: Know the syllabus

Knowing the syllabus very important. Firstly, all HSC science exams can only test you on content within the syllabus. Most of the time, HSC exam questions will simply be a syllabus dot-point that has been reworded.

For example, an actual HSC Chemistry syllabus dot-point is "Describe hydrogen bonding between molecules". A corresponding exam question can ask something simple like "Describe hydrogen bonding between water molecules". Alternatively, exam questions can be slightly more complicated, for example: "Identify a compound that exhibits strong hydrogen bonding and descbribe how hydrogen bonding affects its melting and boiling temperatures". However in both cases, the question can be reduced to simply describing your knowledge of how hydrogen bonding works as between molecules, and how this phenomenon affects some of the chemical's physical propertie(s).

If you have an excellent understanding of the syllabus and have covered in detail each dot-point, you will know enough to get a Band 6. We emphasise the fact that exams can only test you on what is in the syllabus. If you ever don't understand a concept because it has been poorly explained to you at school, or the concept is very difficult, ask your teacher whether it is in the syllabus. If it is not, understand that it will not be examined, so don't worry too much about not fully understanding that concept. However, if a concept is within the syllabus, or required by one of the dot-points as background information, you should know it well.

TIP 2: Know what's important for practicals / experiments

HSC Sciences' syllabi contains many dot-points requiring students to "conduct a first-hand investigation", or "gather data from a first-hand investigation". These dot-points are responsible for the regular experiments you conduct at school. It is very important that you do not neglect the information presented to you during one of those experiment classes at school. Many students think of experiments as fun (and they are), but they ignore the fact that each experiment deals with at least one dot-point in the syllabus, sometimes several at once.

The things you need to know in ALL experiments are:

• The scientific principle being tested / used (for example, an experiment to demonstrate Newton's second law requires you to firstly understand the formula F=ma and how to use it in calculations)
• The correct procedure. A very important example is in titrations, where washing procedures will sometimes be tested in exam questions (E.g. "Explain what is a primary standard", or "Explain the need to finally rinse a pipette with the solution it is to contain, before using it")
• Safety issues / appropriate precautions. For example, when doing a flame test, never burn lead compounds. Or when burning magnesium, use tongs and don't stare into the flame. (Other examples include: know which metals / chemicals are toxic, when goggles and gloves are required, how to deal with fires / flames etc)
• Sources of error: this last one is important because many HSC exam questions may ask you to talk about the sources of errors in experiments you should have done at school. For example, "Identify three sources of error in this experiment, and suggest ways to minimise their effect on your results."

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