Video Transcription
My HSC Exam Disaster Stories
Hey guys, how’s it going? Sha from That Student Australia here. First video in quite a long time. I just got back into it, and I thought I’d get back to posting now. This one’s a bit of a different video. I’m not going to give many tips today—maybe just a little bit—but I especially wanted to share some funny disaster stories from my HSC that happened two years ago. So yeah, looking back on it now, I can laugh.
The first little disaster I had was during the trial exams—I think it was the trial for English, but I’m not 100% sure. So, the morning of my Paper 2 English exam, which was a three-hour full essay exam, I was super stressed. It was my first time doing Paper 2 as well. I was driving to school pretty early, and I was still in traffic when a car just didn’t stop in time and hit the back of mine. I thought, “Wow, what a day—of all days to be driving to school and getting hit by someone else!”
I pulled off to the side, exchanged details, and it took a bit of time. It rattled me for a bit. I was thinking, “What the heck am I going to do to calm my nerves?” So, I paused and obviously was already nervous. I decided to listen to a podcast to take my mind off things, and I ended up pulling myself back together and did pretty well in that exam. But that was pure panic for about half an hour. You just think, “What are the chances of that happening on this one day?” But I just had to keep going.
My second disaster story happened a little bit later on, during the actual HSC exam. It was the morning of my religion exam, which was my best subject. I’d been doing really well and had prepared heaps. The night before, my phone asked me, “Do you want to update to the latest software?” I thought, “Why not?” so I updated it and chucked it on charge for the next morning. I set my alarm for really early, wanting to make sure I got there on time and avoided the stress of being late.
But when I woke up that morning, I checked the time, and my phone was asking, “What language would you like your phone to be?” I couldn’t believe it! The update turned off my alarm, and I freaked out. I jumped out of bed, skipped my shower, skipped breakfast, and jumped straight into my clothes. I was driving to school and realized I was going to be late. I ended up arriving only a couple of minutes before the exam started, which is not ideal on the morning of your final exam for your best subject that you’ve spent over twelve months working on.
So, yeah, that was another disaster to start the day. But in both situations, I did a bit of Zen meditation in the car to get myself back together, thought about everything I needed to do, and let go of the past. I did well on those exams and overall had a great result.
I just wanted to say that even if you think you’ve got something against you—whether it’s a teacher, your school, your parents, or even if you’re traveling an hour to school every day—something’s always going to try to throw you off. But you can still do it. You just need to keep calm, stay focused, and realize what you can control in your situation. Let go of the past and make the best of every situation.
Whether it’s a car crash before Paper 2 or having to catch a train to school every day, these things shouldn’t set you back. They don’t ruin your chances of doing really well. Even if you get a 97, there will still be setbacks, but you can overcome them. Stay resilient, get a bit of Zen, stay calm, and look forward—not back.
So yeah, when things like that happen (and they will, even in a successful year), you can laugh and get through it. I can definitely laugh about it now, even though at the time it was a bit rough.
It’s good to be back, guys. I made this random video because I thought about these two stories and figured it might be a good way to look back on last year. I’ll definitely be making more videos soon with more tips like these. We’ve got a new HSC syllabus coming soon, so that’ll bring some fresh content.
Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for the support. The channel is growing really rapidly, and I’m really happy with that. It’s good to have a bit of a community going. See you later, guys, and enjoy!
