The challenges faced by this year's graduating high school students are beyond the experience of any previous year.
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Aside from the problems presented by life in a global pandemic, confronting the exams and trials is something generations of students have done with success.
Cain Davey finished his HSC last year at Kooringal High School, in Wagga Wagga in NSW's Riverina, achieving a 91.70 ATAR, and topping the state in the entertainment industries exam.
Be honest with yourself
He has two pieces of advice for the graduating class of 2020: Take breaks and find what works for you.
"It's important to remember the experience is different for everyone," the 19-year-old said.
"I think the trick is to not try to come up with a new way of studying now but to think of what's worked for you in the past.
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"Be honest with yourself too, there's no point lying to yourself and saying this is going to work because it's worked for all your friends.
"You've had exams before. What's worked for you then?"
Remove distractions
Since completing his HSC last year, Mr Davey has begun a bachelor degree in business entertainment in Sydney, and started his own entertainment business.
Given the virus-induced economic downturn and the problems plaguing the industry, he considers himself "very fortunate" to have been able to make it work.
Mr Davey said he approached his business acquisition in much the same way as his HSC studies, by "fully committing" to the task at hand.
'When you sit down to study, remove all your distractions so you can have a focused time," he said.
"As important as it is to get your hours in studying, it is also important to get a break.
"So if you're out with friends, or going for a walk or whatever, limit your distractions and try not to talk about the exams because that's only going to stress you."
Celebrate in small ways
Rosalie Lambert finished her HSC last year at The Riverina Anglican College, also in Wagga, achieving a 94.55 ATAR, before beginning a science degree at Sydney University.
Since the COVID-19 lockdown, the 18-year-old has re-eavaluated her career path and recently switched to a bachelor of criminology at UNSW.
The decision to do so, she says, was hard, but she encourages other students to "be brave enough to make that decision" if it needs to be made.
Though she fell just shy of her expected 95 ATAR, Miss Lambert's results have not decided her fate at all.
Her advice to current HSC finishers is to keep the exams in perspective - it's just a few months of your life not everything that will define you.
"I had a lot of anxiety during the exams, I think a lot can relate to that," she said.
"I often felt sick on the way to the exam, it was a complete struggle. Sometimes I just had to take a moment to be proud of myself for something small, like getting a carpark that morning.
"For me it was about learning to be happy with even the smallest achievement in the day, so that even if the exams went badly, at least I had that."
The atypical learner
Far from your "traditional student", Miss Lambert said she could never understand those who said they enjoyed studying or school in general.
"I wasn't very good at traditional study methods, I'd see people who would colour co-ordinate everything and have everything organised," she said.
"That just wasn't me. I was a complete mess. I tried to be organised but I did things as I though of them and just made sure I'd finish each task before I moved on.
"I tried to make a study timetable, but I never stuck to it. I just ended up studying what I thought I needed to."
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Particularly noting the difficulties this year has had during the learning-from-home phase of the lockdown, Miss Lambert's final piece of advice for the year of 2020 is to vary the study vista regularly.
"I really had to change the place where I was studying a lot because I started to associate the same environment with studying and it made me hate doing it," she said.
"It was traumatising to just sit at my desk all day, it just made me not want to be there at all."
When weather permited, studying outside was Miss Lambert's preferred location.
But even indoors, a change of scenery every couple of hours did wonders for her stamina and stability, helping her to achieve at her best.