CARDIFF High students Evvey Thomas and Sean Newton have credited a school holidays study workshop as giving them a confidence boost ahead of this month's Higher School Certificate written exams.
Evvey and Sean, both 17, were among around 25 students who attended the school's English Standard workshop on Friday, where teachers gave them activities to complete and exam tips, as well as answered student questions.
"Studying alone can be kind of difficult because we've had a whole year of content and now we've got to try and get our heads around it for one test, so it's really good to come in and summarise it all," Sean said.
"I definitely feel a lot more confident today, I know how I'm going to study now and I feel good about it now."
Evvey said the students "really appreciate" their teachers volunteering their time to give them a "boost".
"The teachers have pumped us up to be ready," she said.
"We had an example and our teacher showed us how to build that from a band one to a band six... today has definitely highlighted the areas I need to go back and look at, like some form questions and the specific language I need to use, so that was helpful.
"It reiterated the stuff we need to do in the test as well, like be specific always."
The duo said the course was content heavy, so they were glad that English Paper 1 Texts and Human Experiences and English Paper 2 Modules were at the start of the written exam period, on October 12 and 13.
Evvey said she felt calm and planning her time - aligning study with a typical school day split into periods of different subjects - helped her to work more productively.
"I will be nervous on the day and the whole four weeks but I can only do what I can do, so I've got to remember that."
Sean is prioritising the subjects he feels need the most attention first for studying.
"I want to achieve my best because I've been working towards it for so long so there's definitely a bit of pressure there to buckle down and get it done, but all the teachers have also been really great in comforting us that it's not the be all and end all and if you want to go to uni there's so many other ways to get there."
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