"It's amazing what can be achieved in just two days," said Dr Tamara Jones-Hood, director and founder of Achieve Tutoring.

Dr Jones-Hood started as a tutor in 1994, before founding her business at the turn of the millennium.

Each year, the 14 teachers at the clinic would see hundreds of students through the most stressful time of their high school careers.

Over the years, Dr Jones-Hood has picked up a variety of tips and tricks that have helped her students achieve high results while maintaining their health and sanity.

"Having a study timetable that outlines what you should be doing from hour to hour, that helps," she said.

"Organisation and time management, it's something we all struggle with, especially if you're coming out of a structured school environment."

Come Thursday morning, school halls across the state will be filled with students beginning their English exams.

Dr Jones-Hood recommends students re-read their class texts, re-watch their supplementary studies, and tick off syllabus dot points when they feel confident to write on each one.

Additionally, practicing exam papers in exam conditions will allay the anxiety that comes with sitting for the essay section.

Increasingly with each year, a major concern for the written exams is the dwindling state of students' penmanship.

"It's a bit of a poison chalice, students are doing a lot of learning on computers and technology, and they're very good at using that," Dr Jones-Hood said.

"The result of that is that handwriting falls by the wayside. It's tricky, but I say to [the students], try to write bigger, leave a line where you can and make sure there's white space on the page.

"Also spend some time planning your responses, it makes it all so much more cohesive as you go along."

While the exams are mostly framed as an end to school life, Dr Jones-Hood sees it more as a doorway or a stepping stone, with the potential to ignite a lifelong passion.

"The reality has hit now, they're all coming in looking a bit more stressed," she said.

"But we need to put it into perspective, this isn't going to be the defining moment of their life.

"Lifelong learning, that's our motto and that's what we're striving for. You don't stop learning because you've finished the HSC," Dr Jones-Hood said.

"The more you learn, the more you are enriched in life."

An unusual byproduct of the study season, Wagga High School student Sam Croxton and Wagga Christian College student Paige Burkinshaw, both aged 18, have both discovered new hobbies by channelling their stress over the holidays.

"I get up and cook something. I cooked a steak salad last night, and I got it perfect too," Sam said.

"I never was much of a cook before, but now I really enjoy it."

Fellow Wagga High student, James Knott, 18, is most concerned for the English and maths exams. Recognising his mate's newly found talent, he conceded "stress works in mysterious ways".

Similarly, Paige has shifted her stress into a new gear.

"I try to get my study done in the morning so I can spend the afternoon relaxing, with my family or exercising," she said.

"I used to hate running but now I like it. I'm not sure if it's just an angry run, but it burns the stress right off, that's my de-stress."

But whether it takes the form of procrastination or stress relief, the students agree, the distraction is only temporary.

"I'm just ready for it to be over," said Brianna Hatty, from Kildare College.

"English and business studies, they're the exams I'm most worried about. It's just so much to remember, but I'm glad English is first, so I can get it done."