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Author Topic: cdiamond's VCE Journal  (Read 10724 times)

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cdiamond

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cdiamond's VCE Journal
« on: June 03, 2018, 07:00:58 pm »
+13
I have decided to start a VCE Journal just because I think it's interesting to track what I am doing and how I've been coping with school [definitely not because I'm procrastinating pft no]. So yeah... a little late on the band wagon but let's start!

Currently: not confident in anything

Current Subjects + Current SAC scores + Feelings
Mathematical Methods
SAC 1: 66% [33/50 VCAA marks]
Feelings for this SAC - first question had a mistake and it screwed many people up [because we got a different answer that was correct] and the teachers only came in 40 minutes into the SAC to inform us of the mistake. I cried because I didn't finish the SAC so when I did get the SAC back and saw I passed, I was glad but still not happy with the marks because I knew I could have done better.

Chinese Second Language
SAC 1 [Writing]: 57% [11.5/20]
Feelings for this SAC - writing had always been my best so I was upset at this mark. The highest was 18/20; average = 68%; median = 67.5%.
SAC 2 [Listening]: 91%
Feelings for this SAC - glad I got that mark but it is worth little compared to the writing so yeah...
SAC 3 [Speaking]: pending
Feelings for this SAC - did it last week, pretty sure I screwed it up plus my speaking isn't that great. during the SAC, my voice kept breaking and i couldn't remember my script. my teacher also mentioned that there were many people who got 18/20 and above, some getting full marks so I'm going to be pushed all the way to the bottom for this...

Chemistry
SAC 1: 63%
Feelings for this SAC - was pretty bummed about this score... i'm working to do well on the upcoming SAC and trying my best on the experimental SACs as well

Economics
SAC 1: 68%
Feelings for this SAC - apparently not many people did well because it was harder... disappointed since I did well in this subject last year
SAC 2: 53%
Feelings for this SAC - really disappointed, I had cramps during the SAC so I couldn't concentrate, many people did not do as well too but I'm below the average, the highest in the cohort was 93% and i think only 2-3 got above 90% for this SAC. I'm working towards the third SAC.

English Language
SAC 1a [Short answer]: 77% [15 VCAA marks out of 20]
Feelings for this SAC - thought I would get lower and was thankful for this mark
SAC 1b [AC]: 68% [20 VCAA marks out of 30]
Feelings for this SAC - was done poorly overall with the average hovering around 68% - 74%, there was a class that had a lot of 50% and another that got a lot of 70%, meanwhile this genius got a 94%...

Past Subjects + SAC scores
Further Mathematics 2017
Unit 3
SAC 1 [data analysis]: 91%
SAC 2 [financial & recursion modelling: 54%
(the above sac was moderated up internally)

Unit 4
SAC 1 [graphs and relations]: 88%
SAC 2 [matrices]: 48%

As you can see, I didn't do well for two of the SACs, namely financial and recursion modelling, and matrices, which were my weakest topics. However, I did start to work harder for the exam, brushing up on these weakest areas to at least get above 30 [I had little hope of getting a high raw study score]

Final Letter Grades and Raw Study Score
GA1: A
GA2: A
GA3: A
Final Study Score: 37 - will scale down to a 35

Goals for the end of the year
Atar: 85 and above to get into my course
University: Melbourne University or Monash University [only because of my parents]
Degree: Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, hoping to continue to Masters in Teaching [Early Childhood and Primary Education]

I'll try updating everytime I do a SAC and get a SAC score back
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 07:51:15 pm by cdiamond »
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2018, 09:40:47 am »
0
The bandwagon always has heaps of space. ;) Welcome aboard! Love the EngLang selection. How are you finding it in general? Enjoyable?

Re: your goals, Arts into teaching sounds awesome. If it were up to you entirely (so, no parental influence whatsoever), what unis would you be considering? :)

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cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2018, 04:06:52 pm »
0
The bandwagon always has heaps of space. ;) Welcome aboard! Love the EngLang selection. How are you finding it in general? Enjoyable?

Re: your goals, Arts into teaching sounds awesome. If it were up to you entirely (so, no parental influence whatsoever), what unis would you be considering? :)
Thank you so much! Honestly, Eng Lang is something I have grown to like, although I do have to polish my knowledge on many of the metalanguage and concepts. But so far, it is enjoyable.

If it were up to me entirely, I would definitely still want Melbourne Uni and Monash Uni, but I would also consider other unis [in which my parents would not like haha] like Deakin Uni, RMIT and La Trobe Uni.
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2018, 04:09:01 pm »
0
Thank you so much! Honestly, Eng Lang is something I have grown to like, although I do have to polish my knowledge on many of the metalanguage and concepts. But so far, it is enjoyable.

If it were up to me entirely, I would definitely still want Melbourne Uni and Monash Uni, but I would also consider other unis [in which my parents would not like haha] like Deakin Uni, RMIT and La Trobe Uni.

No worries!

I think EngLang is something that basically every needs to polish haha, so you won't be alone there. A solid understanding of the metalanguage will put you in a great position, though. I think it's a fantastic subject - I'm glad you broadly enjoy it!

Re unis: cool! When the time comes, I really encourage you not to totally ignore the courses those other unis have to offer. Ultimately, you're the one who'll be studying the course, so it's a good idea to make sure that you're the one making the decision, :)

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2018, 04:12:26 pm »
+1
No worries!

I think EngLang is something that basically every needs to polish haha, so you won't be alone there. A solid understanding of the metalanguage will put you in a great position, though. I think it's a fantastic subject - I'm glad you broadly enjoy it!

Re unis: cool! When the time comes, I really encourage you not to totally ignore the courses those other unis have to offer. Ultimately, you're the one who'll be studying the course, so it's a good idea to make sure that you're the one making the decision, :)
I will definitely look into the courses the other unis have to offer. Thank you so much for the advice!

04/06/2018
Did my English Language SAC 2b today [a formal AC]. I'm not sure about it, the text was ok and so was the AC I wrote, I think I can get a good 60%. I'll give an update when I get my SAC back.
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2018, 06:53:27 pm »
+6
If you worked hard, then everything will be fine.
For all you VCE takers out there, including me, this motivational quote is for you. With the exams coming up in less than half a year, and sacs coming at you at full speed, there may be a few of you that may be struggling to keep up. But whilst sacs and school and exams are important, what is important is that you have tried your best.

Let's say that you are in a sac and you suddenly have a mind blank, or have a panic attack, or have a really bad headache, in those particular moment, you can't do anything to change it. However, while you may not be able to get the full potential of the marks you could have gotten for that sac, if you have worked through that circumstance to at least answer a few questions, or attempt all, I would say that is working hard. Because despite your circumstances that hindered you from working at your fullest potential, you have worked hard at trying your best to finish the test. I have had personal experiences of mind blanks happening during a sac, which is part of the reason why I'm writing this - to comfort myself, and while I came out of the sac upset at not being able to answer questions to my fullest potential, I also came out knowing that I tried my best and I can't do anything to change my marks.

Whilst it is not preferred, it is totally fine to do badly on a sac, learning something from it is what is the most important and it is a learning process. What I have learnt from my mind blanks is that I have to stop panicking if I come across a question I do not know, I have also found out that to fight against these mind blanks, I have to get myself used to the pressure of the tests under timed conditions, which I do so by timing myself doing practice sacs. This has benefited me greatly.

Another thing, if at the end of the year, you come out of the exams beating yourself up because you know you screwed it up or something along those lines, and find out your atar and study score have been affected by it. Don't worry. You may not have gotten the ideal atar or the ideal study score you wanted, but you have to admit that you went into that exam hall and tried your best despite screwing up some questions here and there. Just this one atar would not affect your whole life. There are other pathways that can get you to where you want to be, and if you want to go to a certain university, there are also colleges. One thing I know for sure, once you have chosen your path, whether it be university, tafe, college, gap years, or work, your atar isn't really going to be needed anymore. In job interviews, employers typically look at job experience, the qualities the candidate has, they also focus on community work and volunteer work. You'll still be able to get jobs, graduate from universities or other tertiary education institutions.

You will be fine as long as you know you tried your best in those circumstances. Because life always moves on and I know at the end of the day, I am going to try my hardest at VCE and even if it may not produce the results I hope for, I'll still live.

Motivational paragraphs to encourage me, and hopefully encourage people too. I was just feeling down because half a year has gone by so quickly and it has not gone the way I wanted it to. Writing about my feelings has always been a way to motivate me and help me with my stress so I did this.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2018, 06:56:13 pm by cdiamond »
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2018, 12:09:50 pm »
+2
Updates:

For Eng Lang, our formal text short answer SAC came back, at least I passed with a 72%. Eng Lang seems to be emerging as my best subject considering my other subjects are all in the 60s.

For Methods, I really need to brush up on my knowledge and understanding. We're doing antidifferentation now and although I do questions correctly, I still don't understand. Time to hit the books!

For Chinese, ongoing detailed study script writing and general conversation but since speaking is my worst, I'm trying to practice speaking as much as I can.

For Economics, my SAC is next Thursday on External Stability and I really need to start doing well since my previous SACs were below average at 50-60%.

For Chemistry, the SAC is this afternoon. I'm not confident at all but I'm going to try my best. Le Chatelier's Principal is killing me the most because I don't understand it as I should.

That's today's summary. Hope everybody has a good long weekend!
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2018, 12:12:51 pm »
0
Great updates! Hope you have a good long weekend, too. ;D Any plans?

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2018, 04:22:25 pm »
+2
Great updates! Hope you have a good long weekend, too. ;D Any plans?
Yep! I'm going out with my family and some friends to hike somewhere (idk where tho haha). Also, I'm going to study for my Economics SAC.

How about you?
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2018, 04:34:32 pm »
+1
Yep! I'm going out with my family and some friends to hike somewhere (idk where tho haha). Also, I'm going to study for my Economics SAC.

How about you?

Awesome, sounds good! I think I'll be spending time with my family and girlfriend - also have a friend's birthday thing on the Saturday night. And then the footy on Monday! ;D

Can't wait for your next update!

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2018, 02:37:10 pm »
+1
Awesome, sounds good! I think I'll be spending time with my family and girlfriend - also have a friend's birthday thing on the Saturday night. And then the footy on Monday! ;D

Can't wait for your next update!
Sounds relaxing! Hope you enjoyed it all!

My next update should be next week since this week has nothing much going on :)
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

cdiamond

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2018, 05:10:49 pm »
+5
A new week has started! And it's the second last week before holidays too! Here's the update so far:
I got my Chinese Second Language SAC 3 score back [a roleplay oral SAC] and the results were surprising. I got a 76% which is 15 VCAA marks out of 20. I do think the teacher marked a little less harshly this time because there were many people who got 80% and above and I feel I am near the bottom of the ranking. However, my Chinese class is pretty strong so I think that we'll all do well at the end of year exam anyway.

GAT was pretty good I guess. The second writing topic was really fun to write, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole writing process. As for the first writing topic, it was ok but I preferred the 2017 GAT because I personally felt that has more statistics than this year's one as there were quite a few pictures. The multiple choice questions were good too.

Exam Timetable [because I realised I haven't posted it yet]
Chinese Second Language Oral
8th - 30th October 2018 [one of these days, yet to be confirmed]
This consists of detailed study on one topic and general conversation.

Economics
1st November 2018 [2.00pm - 4.15pm]

Methods Exam 1
7th November 2018 [9.00am - 10.15am]
This exam does not allow calculator or summary book.

Methods Exam 2
8th November 2018 [3.00pm - 5.15pm]
This exam allows calculator and summary book.

Chemistry
13th November 2018 [9.00am - 11.45am]
This exam allows calculator and provides a data book.

English Language
16th November 2018 [11.45am - 2.00pm]

Chinese Second Language
21st November 2018 [3.00pm - 5.15pm]


So this is this week's updates. Till the next one!
2017: Further Mathematics
2018: Chinese Second Language | Economics | English Language | Chemistry | Methods
2019: Bachelor of Arts at UniMelb
My VCE Journal [click me!]

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2018, 02:06:41 pm »
+1
Do you know when your oral exam date gets confirmed? That looks like a pretty good exam timetable to me - are you happy with it? Looks like you have a day or two at least between all exams except for Methods & Methods, and that might even be a plus (staying in the Methods zone)!

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

Jim_Bob

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2018, 02:15:50 pm »
0
Well for me next year..
I have English, the next day Eco.... then the next day Bio!!!!
Great schedule. At least ill be finishing early ahaha
Your schedule is actually perfect

Joseph41

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Re: cdiamond's VCE Journal
« Reply #14 on: June 20, 2018, 02:29:10 pm »
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Well for me next year..
I have English, the next day Eco.... then the next day Bio!!!!
Great schedule. At least ill be finishing early ahaha
Your schedule is actually perfect

Brutal! 🤐

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.