Unfortunately, the final year of secondary education reduces many students (yours truly included) across the globe to palpitating masses of flesh and nerves.  Most of those make the effort to complete it would prefer not to have to do so again.  So it follows that if you want success, it is best to aim for it the first time round.Make a goalTo succeed in your final year of high school, you need to make it clear to yourself what it is that you want to gain from the year.  Perhaps you need certain marks for entry into the tertiary course of your dreams or maybe you only want to pass in order to get a job the following year. Maybe the only reason you are doing this last year is so that you don\'t have to say goodbye to all the people you\'ve come to know so well over the past years, in which case you want to spend quality time with them (in which case this article probably isn\'t for you).There\'s only one person who can determine your goal for this last year and that is you.  Be clear in your own mind about what this goal is because it is not for anyone else to judge whether your goal is worthy or not but you do need a goal.  How else will YOU be able to judge your success?Get OrganisedYou have your goal, now its up to you to achieve it.  To achieve the goal you do need to make priorities and stick to them.  Put strategies in place.  My goal was to get an awesome grade.  The strategy to get there was to clock up 20-25 hours of study a week.  My teachers insisted that we all timetabled our daily routines and then scheduled our study into them.  To be honest, I found this method unrealistic and difficult to stick to.  It wasn\'t until half way through the year that I discovered the best approach for me was to record my study as I went, knowing that if I really needed it, I had Sunday free to make up for lost time.  Once I was recording this information, I suddenly felt incredibly relieved.  I had concrete evidence that I was doing enough.BalanceOnce you have a goal, focus on it but don\'t lose sight of the other important aspects of your life.  For instance, when I was doing VCE, my goal was about the grades.  I needed excellent marks to get into the course I wanted.  Pretty much all of my teachers said that to get the marks I wanted, I would have to study 4-5 hours per week for each subject.  Of course I believed them and hit the books every night after I came home.  I was doing well but then I got scared that I wasn\'t doing enough.  I was afraid that somehow all this study just would not convert into the scores I needed.  So I cut back on my tae kwon do lessons and hockey games.  I started going less and less until eventually I wasn\'t showing up at all.  This is probably about the point I began to palpitate.  It\'s a cliche but its the truth; Balance is the key.  To stress less you have to make time for yourself and not just your goal.  Always make sure that you have time to hang out with friends, listen to music, play sports and just have fun.  Let\'s face it you won\'t get an A on your exams if you put yourself in hospital for exhaustion or stress.  Look after your HealthA healthy mind needs a healthy body, so it\'s important to maintain a balanced diet, stay hydrated and get plenty of sleep and and exercise.  While some students lose sleep to make time for studying, they do not retain the information that they study after around nine pm.  You need to figure out when the best time for you to study is.  When you do study, you must take regular breaks.  By this I mean take a ten minute walk, check your emails, have something to eat or even just stand up and stretch for a few moments.  It\'s also a good idea to have a bottle of water next to you while your studying. If you find that you are getting headaches, have your eyes checked.  Lots of studying puts stress on the muscles in your eyes, which can cause a headache.  Glasses can help relieve the strain on these muscles and also the headache.  Headaches can also be caused by muscular tension in the neck, which can happen when you spend so much time bent over a book.  You can fix this by stretching your shoulders and back and rolling your head from one shoulder to the other.Get a study buddyI believe that there are more pros than there are cons to working with someone else.  The best way to learn is to work with someone who is better than you, so grab the brainiac from the front row and study together after school. Better yet, start a group.  You\'ll be able to help each other and who knows you might even start having fun.  You are more likely to study if you enjoy doing it but of course you have to ensure that the study session doesn\'t dissolve into a mother\'s club meeting.  Prepare Yourself for the endEven if you don\'t care about your grades the end of high school is still an incredibly emotional time.  Thanks to the information age it is easier than ever to keep in touch but there\'s still no telling when or where you will see some of your classmates after graduation.  If you really want to stay in touch with someone, then it\'s up to you to make a little effort.  A simple email or a phone call just to see how someone is won\'t cost you much at all and hopefully if you make the effort, the other person will appreciate it and return the favour. All in all...It\'s your last year, so obviously you want to remember it.  Never forget that every single one of your classmates is going through exactly the same thing.  If you talk to each other, support one another and lend a shoulder to cry on when someone needs you to, then you\'ll come out of a difficult year with strong friendships, which is what you need to succeed in life.  Not a fancy piece of paper.GOOD LUCK!!!