With year 12 starting the HSC course, anxiety and excitement is arising in the grade. What will the next 12 months have in store for us? And was the transition from year 11 into 12 really that big? What does the grade have to say about their experiences? 

Recently, I reached out to a multitude of people from all different groups, admittedly, some that I have never spoken to before, to get their perspectives on the year 11 into 12 transitions.  

Firstly, for the year 10’s reading this article wondering what year 11 will be like, prepare yourselves. When I sent out a survey, my findings were: 45% found transitioning into year 11 harder than their transition into year 12. When asked why, responses varied from, “workload” to “changing friendship groups”.  

In my opinion, transitioning into year 11 was harder, simply because the workload increased dramatically and a lot of people started to make everything a competition, and that was hard to keep up with. Furthermore, the stress of everything starting to matter kicked in and trying EXTRA hard was something that everyone had to incorporate into their routine.  

However, for the remainder of the group that found transitioning into year 12 harder, they gave reasons like, “stress levels increasing”, “struggling with being more efficient and intentional with my time”, “balancing my job, sport activities and schoolwork, and family life too”, and “it was hard to start at the beginning of the term with so much going on.” 

Starting year 12 for most has been difficult purely because of the stress that they are experiencing with their ATAR and HSC courses being in the forefront of their minds; something that is constantly causing anxiety.  

Whether transitioning into year 11 or year 12 was harder, all students are starting to feel the internal and external pressures to do well.  

Something that has made this process easier however, has been the supportive teachers and the strengthening of friendship bonds and relying and dependability on one another has increased. Café Clarke and the amazing coffee is obviously the best source of comfort though, other than the warm cardigans.  

Whilst 100% of interviewees said that they were not looking forward to the HSC exams and/or the competition between peers, and/or the fact that they don’t know what they are going to do with their lives outside of the school gates, we are all looking forward to the next 12 months ahead of us. Whether it be the fact that in 12 months we will be finished with school, or because students want to extend their knowledge and abilities, or because the “graduation will be vibey”, the next 12 months has something that all students can look forward to. 

Regardless of how weird being the oldest students at the college feels, we are all ready to begin the year 12 grind!