Content warning: this article discusses anxiety and depression.
Come this time of year, you can feel the tension in the air as recent year 12 graduates across Aus early await their results.
In NSW alone, more than 77,000 students will receive their results via text on Thursday morning. And while dates are different across state and territory lines, generally most students will receive their HSC-or-equivalent marks in mid-December, with their ATAR, the ranking mark needed to apply for uni, arriving a week later.
For many, that week will stretch out ad nauseam, the last hurdle at the end of such a long year.
“It’s one of those complicated things by its very nature,” says Dr Stephen Carbone, a clinical advisor at Beyondblue. “You’ve worked hard all year, and there’s a lot riding on it. Or so young people believe, so it’s a massive build up of anxiety.”
With that in mind, Stephen offered some tips to settle the nerves – and how to mentally move forward if the mark you receive isn’t what you hoped.
THE WEEK BEFORE
“You just have to wait and see and deal with the results, since you can’t change them,” says Stephen.
Unfortunately, you’ve heard that before. You will hear it again. You can hear it in this super calming Blood Orange song.
And yes, it’s one thing to hear repeatedly, but it’s another to take it on board and actively busy yourself in the interim.
It’s inevitable you’ll think about your marks, especially if there’s been a specific goal, pressure or expectation placed on you. But Stephen is wary of what he calls “catastrophising”, where the year’s worth of anxiety snowballs into constant thinking of only the worst case scenario.
The solution, of course, isn’t to pretend you don’t care. It’s important to express your anxiety in order to avoid a bubbling-up: if friends or family aren’t proving helpful, try journalling to clear your head.
But in terms of the day-to-day waiting game, Stephen’s advice was pretty clear: go have fun. There’s power in distraction.
If your brain is stuck on a loop, switch it up – go outside, see a movie, go for a drive. Make plans for the week to come. Have something on every day, so you’ve always got something to look forward to.
You deserve a break, and now – before you go on to study or tackle whatever the world has in store for you – is the perfect time for it.
OH, HAI MARKS
(Photo credit: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images for Disney)
“Then there’s the question of what to do once you have the marks,” says Stephen. “If you’ve done well, that’s fab and you should feel proud of yourself. It’s important to recognise and feel good about what you’ve achieved.”
But that’s not really the part we’re worried about.
Judging by the many, many stories shared by the PEDESTRIAN.TV office, there’s a whole spectrum of potential disappointment to be felt. Of course, there’s the crush of completely bombing, and inevitably comparing yourself to everyone you know and feeling worthless.
“I remember at the time thinking how well all my friends had done compared to me and feeling really embarrassed,” said one of our ads team. “When I look back now, it was unnecessary stress and embarrassment it didn’t define me as a person or how smart I actually was.”
You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: your ATAR mark does not define you. It’s not a test of IQ or character. It’s a ranking, based off the results of very specific tests and rubrics and topics that, for a variety of reasons, some people have more of a natural aptitude for. See how gaudy that sentence was? That’s the ATAR, right there.
Of course, it’s difficult to keep perspective. There’s even the weird self-inflicted anger at going well, but not going quite as well as you wanted.
“I was very disappointed with my mark,” said P.TV’s editor. “I got really good results on the first day, and my whole family and friends predicted I’d get in the high 80s or even 90s. Then on the second day when the UAI (as it was called back in 1955 when I graduated high school), I ended up with 77, which even though is isn’t a bad mark, it didn’t seem nearly high enough. I was crushed and inconsolable.”
Spoiler alert: it worked out fine. And you have to trust it will for you too.
“Don’t be scared or frightened about how [your ATAR] will ruin their lives: it’s so easy to get locked into these ideas. What happens and what you do in Year 12 is important, but it’s not the end of your life,” says Stephen.
“It’s really about keeping things in perspective. Nothing’s black and white, the best or the worst: sometimes you have to take the middle-ground.”
THE AWKWARD QUESTIONS
“How did you go?” “What was your ATAR?” “What’s the plan?” “Are you happy with your mark?”
It’s a minefield. When it’s all that friends and family alike want to ask about, how do you break the news if you didn’t land so hot?
“Its a very personal thing,” Stephen said. “It’s up to you whether you want to share or not. I do think what happens unfortunately is that people assume those who don’t share their mark don’t do well, which might not be the case.”
It’s a Catch 22: by not sharing, people assume. Gah.
With this in mind, it’s probably best to set some ground rules with friends. To avoid more upsets than necessary, Stephen advises that maybe at first it’s best to keep answers “more generic than a blow-by-blow breakdown” in most situations, even if you bloody blitzed it – and especially if it’s clear whoever you’re talking to didn’t.
Refocus the day and celebrate your achievement in getting through the year, whatever your mark was. There’s so much time to map out future plans later.
SLOW DOWN
Speaking of time, it’s worth remembering that you have a lot of it – whether or not you get the marks you wanted. While you’ve probably spent the past year with a narrative in mind – ‘I’ll get X mark for Y job’ – the truth is, life so, so rarely goes to plan.
“You don’t have to be in a rush. It’s ok to find out whats important to you, to find out what you really like doing within 3-4 years,” says Stephen. “Find what’s right for you and don’t worry about how quickly you do that.”
Most people fumble through the world to work out what they want and who they are, even when they do reach their goals. Who knows, maybe you won’t!
For anecdotal proof though, I definitely did (and continue to do so). During school I was super keen for International Studies, which I didn’t receive a high enough ATAR for. Through wriggling and working hard at uni, I was on a slow path to transferring into it: then, taking pre-req classes, I learnt that at its very core, I found my ‘dream degree’ to be an absolute painful bore.
My point being, any ATAR setbacks you have aren’t anywhere near as massive as you think, and, retrospectively, might even offer a perfect path for you. If you’re disappointed by your mark, feeling that is completely valid: but just remember, it’s by no means the end of the road.
“You should never start to imagine all your options are closing and there are no pathways,” says Stephen. “There are always options. There are always possibilities.”
“It’s a bit of a cliché, but life’s a marathon not a sprint. Just take your time.”
Photo credit: aaduk_ala/Imgur
