Three keys to academic success

Prefect Hamish Roberts spoke at the recent Academic Colours assembly on the importance of prioritising academics, with consistency, commitment and effort as key factors. This is an edited version of his speech.

Today we are awarding academic colours to honour those boys who have worked hard and prioritised their academics to be in the top 10% of their year levels for last year. They have made sacrifices and put in a lot of time and effort to achieve this.

In general, the boys who perform the best in their academics are not necessarily those with the highest IQs, but are those who apply themselves and put in the most effort – including doing all the work that their teachers set them, and potentially more, in order to extend themselves and be the best that they can be.

A motivator that works for me is considering how being consistent and committed with your studies will help you to achieve the highest ATAR score you can if you’re in year 11 or 12. Doing so will make your life a lot easier and allow you to have a greater choice over what you do once you leave school.

If you’re in a younger year level, how prioritising your academics will help set you up to do well in VCE, and make it a lot easier to understand new concepts and manage your stress levels in VCE once you get older and have more commitments.

Another motivator that I have found to work well is just trying to do as well as you can and be the best that you can be. It’s enjoyable and rewarding to get marks that are as high as possible and that you are honestly satisfied with, like an exciting competition with yourself to see just how well you can do.

As 2020 Dux Jaikob Akinci talked about at the Scholar’s assembly earlier in the year, finding a way to be passionate about your academics, whichever way works best for you, will ensure that you put in the necessary effort and commitment so that you can do as well as possible and be the best that you can be.