Are You in Year 12? Looking After Your Body Through Exams

Published: October 13, 2026

Are you in Year 12? Then this one is for you. The HSC exams are here, and for the next few weeks your days will look a lot like this: long hours at a desk, notes spread out everywhere, and a body that quietly gets left out of the plan. That's a completely normal way to study — but a few small adjustments can make a real difference to how you feel by the last paper.

None of this is about studying less. It's about making the hours you do study more comfortable, so your neck, shoulders and lower back aren't the thing you remember most about Year 12.

We also know most of our readers aren't sitting exams this week, so this post is set out for three different people. If you're the one in Year 12, the next three sections are yours. If you're the parent, partner, sibling or housemate of someone who is, the fourth section is written for you. And if you're neither, keep reading — the final section shows how the same advice crosses over into any demanding few weeks.

Set Up Your Study Space So Your Body Isn't Working Against You

You'll spend more hours in that chair over the next few weeks than anywhere else, so it's worth ten minutes to set it up properly. Good setup isn't a posture you have to hold all day — it's about taking away the positions your body has to strain to stay in.

• Sit with your feet flat on the floor, or on a box or stack of books, with your knees roughly level with your hips
• Bring your chair in close so your elbows stay near your sides and your forearms rest lightly on the desk
• Raise your screen so the top third of it sits around eye level — a stack of textbooks under a laptop works well
• If you're on a laptop for hours, add a separate keyboard and mouse so you're not looking down and reaching forward at once
• Keep what you use most — notes, water, phone — within easy reach so you're not twisting or stretching for it

These details matter more than they sound. A screen that sits too low, or reaching across the desk every few minutes, means your neck and shoulders are working all day while your mind is working on the exams.

If you wear glasses, keep them on for screen work, and check the light in the room. Squinting and leaning towards a dim screen is one of the most common ways a study day turns into a headache.

Change Position Often: Movement Breaks Are Part of the Study

No single posture is the problem. Staying in one for hours is. Your joints and muscles respond well to variety, so the goal is simply to change position often — even a little.

• Use a 50/10 rhythm: fifty minutes of study, then ten minutes away from the desk
• On each break, stand up, walk to another room and let your shoulders drop
• Move gently as you go: slow shoulder rolls, easy head turns, a stretch through the arms
• Change where you study across the day — desk, kitchen table, standing at a bench, floor with your back supported
• Keep a water bottle beside you and refill it yourself; that's a built-in reason to stand up

A break doesn't have to be productive. Ten minutes of standing, stretching or wandering around the backyard will do more for the next hour of study than pushing through with a stiff neck.

If you're the type to forget, set a timer on your phone. Once it becomes a habit, most people find they concentrate better in the second half of the day.

Keep the Basics in Place: Sleep, Meals and Gentle Movement

When an exam is close, sleep and meals are usually the first things traded away for more study time. In our experience it tends to backfire. A tired brain holds onto less, and a body running on nothing doesn't sit comfortably for long.

• Keep a fairly consistent bedtime, even in the week before a big paper — late-night cramming costs you the next day
• Eat at regular times rather than waiting until you're starving; steady meals are easier on mood and concentration
• Keep some gentle movement in your week: a walk, a bike ride, a swim, or a stretch before bed
• Get some daylight each day, ideally in the morning, which helps your sleep rhythm stay on track
• Go easy on late caffeine and energy drinks; they're a short-term loan with a long repayment

This is the part that's easiest to let slide, because it doesn't feel like study. It's what keeps you steady across several weeks of long days.

If you're getting headaches, neck or shoulder tightness, or lower back pain that makes it hard to sit and work, it's worth mentioning rather than pushing through. Sometimes a few changes to your setup are enough. Sometimes it helps to have someone look at what's going on.

Supporting Someone Who's Sitting the Exams

If you're not the one sitting the exams, you might be a parent, a partner, a sibling or a housemate. People in all of those roles ask us the same question: what actually helps? Mostly it's the quieter things — keeping the household running so they can concentrate, and being steady about the fact that they're doing a lot.

• Encourage breaks without turning them into another instruction — "come and have some lunch with us" works better than "you should take a break"
• Keep meals and bedtimes roughly regular, and make the basics easy to reach
• Watch for late-night study spirals and long stretches without food or daylight
• Keep some movement on the family calendar, even if it's just a walk together after dinner
• If they keep mentioning pain or headaches, offer to book an appointment rather than letting it slide

Pressure rarely improves how someone studies. A comfortable setup, regular food, enough sleep and someone noticing they're tired does far more.

Not in Year 12? Here's Where This Advice Crosses Over

Long study days are really just long days with a deadline attached, and plenty of people have those. If you're in the middle of a demanding stretch of your own — a work crunch, a new baby, a house move, a busy season on your feet — the same habits hold up.

• Setup applies to any workspace: screen near eye level, feet supported, elbows close to your sides, and what you use most within easy reach
• Movement breaks fit any long day — a minute or two of change every half hour, whether you're at a desk, in the car or on your feet
• Sleep, meals and daylight do the same job during a work deadline as they do during exams
• If you're the one holding a household's routines together, the section above works the same way for anyone in your life who's stretched thin
• Gentle, regular activity is what keeps you comfortable in the middle of a demanding patch, whatever the reason for it

So whether you're the one with the exams, the one making sure they eat, or the one with a completely different deadline, the principle is the same: look after the basics, and change position often.

Looking After Your Body Is Part of the Plan

These weeks are demanding, and you don't have to feel perfect to get through them. Adjust your setup, move often, protect your sleep and meals, and deal with discomfort early rather than adding it to the list of things to worry about.

Our chiropractors across Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Morisset, Narrabri and Watagan Park are always happy to have a look, explain what they find, and tell you honestly whether care is likely to help — whether you're in Year 12, supporting someone who is, or simply in the middle of a demanding few weeks of your own.