Teacher:
“Good Morning class. Today we’re going to be covering the third dot point on the syllabus, can anyone tell me what topic that is?”
You:
“What the heck is a syllabus?”
The rest of your class:
I know the feeling. The ever-illustrious syllabus is just as confusing as the HSC itself to those who have never encountered it.
If this is how you’re feeling, you’re not alone. To most, the syllabus is something heard of often but never fully understood.
However, this commonly over-looked part of the HSC is quite possibly the biggest secret to success in what is the final year of highschool.
For this reason, it’s super important that you understand what a syllabus is and exactly how it should be used.
Read on to learn just that…
What is a Syllabus?
In simple terms, a syllabus is a subject-specific document that highlights exactly what the subject requirements are, what the areas of study are, and what the subject outcomes will be.
A subject’s syllabus is essentially its bible. It dictates what is taught, what is examined, and in what order.
A NESA syllabus (such as the Business Studies syllabus or the PDHPE syllabus) is typically broken up into two smaller guidelines, one for the Prelim year and one for the HSC year.
These guidelines are then broken up again into smaller categories (such as Operations, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing) in order to separate different units of study.
All schools have to teach at least the content specified within the syllabus, however, they can decide in which order it is taught and how in-depth they teach it.
Here is a screenshot of one category (Operations) within the HSC Business Studies syllabus as an example:
Outcomes + Content 
Students Learn About
The syllabus is broken up into Outcomes (the eventual skills you will acquire), Content (where the HSC questions will come from), and Students Learn About (the actual subject content).
When a teacher says we will be focusing on dot point three today, they probably mean the third dot point under ‘Students Learn About’.
Why is the Syllabus important?
As I said, the syllabus outlines all the specified content within a subject, as determined by NESA. This means that NESA can ONLY EXAMINE YOU ON THIS CONTENT.
The reason why the syllabus is the key to HSC success lies within this fact.
If you know your entire syllabus and understand how each componennt works and links together, you will nail your exams.
HSC exams (and your internal exams) are written based on the syllabus. They can only ask questions in relation to specific syllabus dot points and they can only expect answers that include content covered under those dot points.
How should I use the Syllabus?
The syllabus is there to guide you in your studies throughout the preliminary and HSC years.
This guide is very rough and includes only the main subject of each topic area.
The most effective way to use the syllabus is in unison with your in-class notes.
Each time you write notes in class, they should link to a specific dot point in the syllabus. Your teacher should be following the syllabus reasonably closely, so this shouldn’t be too hard to link together.
Most teachers will explain how they approach the syllabus at the star of each new unit of content, this is important to listen to so you can see the order in which they are teaching content.
Here is an example from when I was completing Year 12. The following image shows my in-class Business Studies notes, aligned with the specific syllabus dot point that they related to.
I first wrote the notes out in class and then typed them up so they could be paired with other notes under the same dot point, all in one document. The documents were separated by main syllabus headings (i.e. Operations, Marketing) for easy navigation.
If you want to learn more about my note-taking method and HSC strategy, take a look at this post…
To sum it all up
And there you have it. You’re now a professional syllabus understander. Congrats, I guess?
Let’s sum it up for you lazy people who skip straight to the end (go back and read it, don’t cheat):
- The syllabus is your guide for each subject. It shows the content that you will learn, how you will learn it, and what questions they can ask you in exams.
- The syllabus should be used in unison with your in-class notes.
- Syllabus = structure
- Notes = content
That’s basically it! I hope it’s much clearer now why these are so damn important, especially in year 12.
You can find all of the Stage 6 (year 11 and 12) syllabus documents here at the NESA website.
If you have any questions at all, don’t be afraid to slide into my emails or leave a comment down below.
Stay classy,
Uncle N.