VCE Journey Journal To Medicine (hopefully):

[peter.g15]

My bio teacher is telling me an A+ is 96%, which means that each sac I can only afford to drop 1 out of my 25 marks which is really stressful, but I feel like this information is what’s making me more careful of mistakes. M

That’s all from me, I’ll try to update more often from now on

Hi! I feel like your teacher is just talking about what vcaa considers an 'A+', i.e. what appears as GA1 on your end of year marks. So this would happen after moderation since your school's sacs may not be comparable to another schools. I certainly didn't get 95% for all my unit 3 sacs (a vcaa a+), but at the end of the year, the results showed an A+ for GA1. As long as you're learning from your mistakes before exam time

[lazaward]

Holidays are nearly over I’ve really been taking the time off perhaps a little too much! Been spending a lot of time with my family and went to a couple parties. The ATAR notes lectures were really long but really useful and I’m glad I have some sort of idea for what to expect next term. For some reason I’ve been obsessed with learning about medical interview processes - yes I am getting ahead of myself, should be focusing more on the UMAT considering there’s only 105 days left. It still hasn’t hit me in the face that I’m in my last year of school competing to get into my dream course which is so annoying because I feel like that’s stopping me from putting in 100%. Putting aside the excuses I’ve had some really productive days and hoping to get everything up to scratch so I can sit down for a couple days and put my mind into focusing completely on the UMAT. I had a talk with one of the ATAR notes lecturers and she said that her biggest regret was not believing more in herself to get into medicine and that if she did she probably would’ve made it into undergrad med. I don’t want to have those regrets at all, hopefully I’ll update right before school starts and I’ll be able to say I got absolutely everything I wanted to finished and that I’m excited to get stuck right into term 2

[sarangiya]

It still hasn’t hit me in the face that I’m in my last year of school competing to get into my dream course which is so annoying because I feel like that’s stopping me from putting in 100%.

So relatable.

I know it's paraphrased but I don't know about the whole "If I had have X I could have made it into undergraduate medicine". It's true that self-confidence, self-efficacy, self-esteem is so important - but in the end it probably wasn't one thing that contributed to the result. I might be a setback, but I think is better to own it, put it behind you, and not make excuses for what couldn't be. I know it's not you, but I hope the potential regrets you talk about take this kind of shape - not the shape of "what ifs" and "if onlys".

[Joseph41]

Holidays are nearly over I’ve really been taking the time off perhaps a little too much! Been spending a lot of time with my family and went to a couple parties. The ATAR notes lectures were really long but really useful and I’m glad I have some sort of idea for what to expect next term. For some reason I’ve been obsessed with learning about medical interview processes - yes I am getting ahead of myself, should be focusing more on the UMAT considering there’s only 105 days left. It still hasn’t hit me in the face that I’m in my last year of school competing to get into my dream course which is so annoying because I feel like that’s stopping me from putting in 100%. Putting aside the excuses I’ve had some really productive days and hoping to get everything up to scratch so I can sit down for a couple days and put my mind into focusing completely on the UMAT. I had a talk with one of the ATAR notes lecturers and she said that her biggest regret was not believing more in herself to get into medicine and that if she did she probably would’ve made it into undergrad med. I don’t want to have those regrets at all, hopefully I’ll update right before school starts and I’ll be able to say I got absolutely everything I wanted to finished and that I’m excited to get stuck right into term 2

Love it. Self-belief is huge.

Glad you enjoyed the lectures!

[lazaward]

Holidays are officially done! I can happily say I got everything I wanted to done, notes are up to date, hw done, ahead a chapter for everything and keen to get back into a schedule tomorrow when school starts. Only thing I regret is my UMAT prep, can’t get it off my mind yet can’t get properly started either. I did some questions but not nearly as much as I had wanted to. I was thinking of doing a drill a day starting tomorrow considering there’s only 100 days left for it now 🤯 I find that different days I have different moods for what sections I feel like doing. I was thinking of maybe writing up my own technique guide for the types of questions I come across and explanations of any tricky ones but don’t know if I have the time for it.
Non-school related news my dad has left again which kinda bums me out but I still talk to him everyday so I guess it’s not that bad. Me and my friends are terrible at organising anything for schoolies, don’t think I’d be allowed to go anyways, my curfew is still 11pm 🤣 I’ve got around 50 hours of driving experience, I turn 18 in December so I guess it shouldn’t be too bad, have no idea how I’m gonna buy a car with $80 saved up ️

[sarangiya]

Lol all of this is so relatable, especially UMAT and schoolies etc
I haven't got any hours on my Ls though ahahaha. I'm convinced I don't need to drive yet. But well... I could just be making excuses.

About UMAT, that all sounds like a great idea. 100 days doesn't seem like so long, but it is all of this term, Term 2 holidays, and like a week into Term 3. Don't worry - you have lots of time!

I'm so glad you had a productive holiday! Sounds awesome. All the best for this term!