Not nerdy enough! (a pseudo vce journal)

[not.yet.a.nerd]

I have this terrible habit of watching wayyy too much youtube instead of studying. In this "journal," hopefully I can keep track of all my wasted time, and if I'm tempted to watch anything I'll have that niggling voice at the back of my head saying if you waste more time you'll have to tell everyone on atarnotes about it so don't do it!!. Let's see if this is an at all useful way for me to overcome procrastination. If it works, I'll encourage anyone else to add their own experience on here too   

Spoiler

p.s. youtube is still sometimes good for studying so I guess that doesn't count as procrastination? I'll see how I go. p.p.s can you put a spoiler  within a spoiler?

Spoiler

not sure until I post this post

Spoiler

Spoiler

edit: omg you totally can! How did I not discover this sooner? Time to exploit the system

Spoiler

please don't take down my post due to over consumption of spoilers

Spoiler

I think it gets to a point where there are perhaps too many spoilers?

Spoiler

if you're still reading. (I don't expect you to be) then hi! More spoilers incoming!

Spoiler

geez that's a lot of [ / spoiler ] thingos

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

I hope all these spoilers work

Spoiler

oh no I just realised, maybe I wont be watching youtube all the time anymore ... I'll just be adding spoilers to my post!

Spoiler

time to stop I think.

[Lear]

Blocking it completely from my computer worked for me. Now I can only watch it on my phone which I leave downstairs so problem solve️

[technodisney]

Uninstall youtube on your phone is the first thing you should do. Yeah it is hard, but it must be done.


And get this app called Cold Turkey on your PC/Laptop.

In essence you can set a specific amount of time where it will block you from accessing certain distracting sites. You can even add your own custom filters and if you just want the basic features it is free.
It is built with tech savvy procrastinators in mind and is impossible to get around, it even blocks sites in incognito mode. If you can bring yourself to install and use it you will find it keeps your productive.

The past 2 weeks where I have had it installed I have been much more productive thank you @poet for suggesting it and also watching over my shoulder while I installed it haha.


I am excited to see how you go with stopping your youtube consumption.

[not.yet.a.nerd]

Thanks for your suggestions, it's youtube on my laptop that is the problem, I'll usually load 5-10 videos and then just binge-watch them all. Welp... Even after my earlier post, watched 35 minutes worth of videos which then prompted me to download the self-control app- unfortunately it only works for up to 24 hours at a time- so that won't happen again tomorrow lol.

Holidays are halfway over but I feel as though I've run out of time . Maybe its the Sunday night feels. Luckily, I've finished all my sacs and content in class so it will just be more revision when I get back to school. English is scaring me, I've forgotten a lot of the text response content and my notes aren't the most organised, so I'm going to have to dedicate a lot of time to that. Definitely no time for mindless youtube videos!

On the plus side I finally completed all my uni applications and preferences today 👍

also I think some people from school found my account. Ahhhh pls don't judge me peoples

[not.yet.a.nerd]

I am excited to see how you go with stopping your youtube consumption.

Thanks for the encouragement 
By the way, did the word choice "consumption" have anything to do with my excessive spoiler usage?? Or am I doing the thing where once the joke is explained, it loses its humour... 

[not.yet.a.nerd]

I decided to change the name of this journal from "Gotta stop watching youtube!" to the name you see above. I think this better reflects my developing apathy that is in need of redress (oh, and also I think the alliteration sounds pretty cool, yeah?)

Well... Got home late yesterday so I didn't do much work, just read over some English notes because I have fOrGoTtEn EvErYtHinG!!! (from text response at least) :/

I got swooped by a bird yesterday... Guess it's that time of the year again? Welcome spring! (my condolences to those with hay fever  )

Just realised that I have finished every short paragraph thus far with some brackets. Wouldn't hurt to do the same for the last para. (will update if anything else interesting happens!)

[not.yet.a.nerd]

Well, exams are nearly over, just my lote exams to go! What with having graduated and everything, when I'm back at school as a year 12 in my casual clothes for exams, it's such a weird feeling, like I'm intruding in the school or something. I thought maybe I'd go back to study during swotvac, but I kinda don't feel like I belong any more. I guess that means I'm ready for new things... University? Job? Future?

It's not really hit me yet that these people that I've spent years with will all be gone from my life in a couple of weeks, and I'll likely never talk to many of them. Kind of makes me regret not branching out more and trying to meet new people who I always thought were too good for me. Retrospectively I can see that I didn't value myself as much as I should have, out of my whole cohort, every single person is equally valued and important and it's taken me a long time to realise, until the point where I'm about to leave.

Being a new kid at the start of high school I'd always avoided the older year levels, looking back at them now I feel somewhat nostalgic towards those times. Seeing a year 9 student I've never met before smile at me in the corridor is such a small but memorable gesture and something I wish I could have done. But past is past, I guess we can bring what high school has taught us, both textbook knowledge and life experience, into our futures.

Stay tuned for more irrelevant thoughts

[not.yet.a.nerd]

If anyone who did a language is reading this... can you give me some last minute advice for studying for my language exam?

I'm going through and doing reading and listening from past papers, not sure how much of the new vocab I should try to learn in the next few days. Other than that, any tips for writing and eliminating grammatical errors? Sometimes I just can't bring myself to proofread over writing...  And also if I'm averaging around 85% in a strong cohort, do you think I still have a chance for 40+ if I get over 80% on the exam (the A+ cutoff)

Good luck to everyone else who's still going with exams, we're nearly there 

[AngelWings]

If anyone who did a language is reading this... can you give me some last minute advice for studying for my language exam?

I'm going through and doing reading and listening from past papers, not sure how much of the new vocab I should try to learn in the next few days. Other than that, any tips for writing and eliminating grammatical errors? Sometimes I just can't bring myself to proofread over writing...  And also if I'm averaging around 85% in a strong cohort, do you think I still have a chance for 40+ if I get over 80% on the exam (the A+ cutoff)

Good luck to everyone else who's still going with exams, we're nearly there 

Depends on the language, as the details will differ for each language. In Japanese SL (the one I did, although I did do Chinese SL U1/2 as well), some of the super specific language wasn't even necessary to know. Instead, you had to focus on the numbers and instructions for listening tasks or using the grammar correctly in writing. Unfortunately, the best way to eliminate grammatical errors in pretty much all languages is to practise, proofread and correct it. A more targeted approach would also include reviewing some grammar you're now a bit hazy on and using those in sentences. As for marks, that's also dependent on the language you're doing. If you're desperate, you can check up the graded distributions for it, but if I were you, I'd be focusing on improving on my weaker aspects now.

[not.yet.a.nerd]

Well. VCE. That was a thing that happened.

I feel like I wasted so much time this year. Even though I can see that I've done a lot of work, it just never seemed to be reflected in my scores and exams, which makes me wish I had of tried harder in ask my subjects, not just my 'top 4'. Even with my parents telling me that I needed time off to refresh and not burn out, I just look back at where my time went and see so much more opportunities to become more familiar and comfortable with the content. Wasted time... Academic regret... Can you understand where I'm coming from?

Last year for my 3/4 exams, I went into them (bio especially) knowing I had done as much as I could. I felt ready and confident to tackle whatever curveballs vcaa decided to throw at us that year. And I came out of those exams feeling despondent and resigned myself to study harder in the next year, to make up for it in my year 12 subjects.

Even though I did well last year yet still felt disheartened following the exams, even though my teachers have all said that if I found the exams tricky, so would the rest of the state, even though my family teased me for studying too much and I earned the reputation amongst my friends for living in the library during lunchtimes and spares... I still feel disappointed in my efforts this year.

When I was young, I had this imaged scenario where my year 12 self would come back to talk to me. They were studious, they were accomplished, they were organised and everything I wished to become. On top of all that, they were basically an adult. It turns out that my year 12 self is a lot different. I spent half the year not having confidence in who I was as a person or whether I was good enough for anyone, really. If only I could go back in time to speak with myself before this year...

I guess I am proud of myself overall, and however much I study there's always more to do. If I get into my uni course, I'll take the opportunity then to make up for my lost potential during high school. VCE is done, whatever atar and study score I get has been decided.

[Bri MT]

I think that there will be many people who feel similarly - I certainly struggled with study guilt.

The idea of living up to your potential is always a tough one. As much as it can be hard to wish you were a better version of yourself, I think it's important to remember that there is no *best* version and having both highlights and low points allows increased perspective. Making mistakes helps you have a better understanding of everyone else who shares them, so maybe, once you develop those skills more, you'll be better placed to understand help others than if you had never struggled with that. As much as it sucks when you feel far away from your ideal self, if you were closer to your idea of perfect would you be learning and growing as much?

Your year 12 self is learning, developing, reflecting and determined to keep trying. That's more admirable than being organised imo.

Best of luck

[not.yet.a.nerd]

I think that there will be many people who feel similarly - I certainly struggled with study guilt.

The idea of living up to your potential is always a tough one. As much as it can be hard to wish you were a better version of yourself, I think it's important to remember that there is no *best* version and having both highlights and low points allows increased perspective. Making mistakes helps you have a better understanding of everyone else who shares them, so maybe, once you develop those skills more, you'll be better placed to understand help others than if you had never struggled with that. As much as it sucks when you feel far away from your ideal self, if you were closer to your idea of perfect would you be learning and growing as much?

Your year 12 self is learning, developing, reflecting and determined to keep trying. That's more admirable than being organised imo.

Best of luck

Thanks miniturtle
Yeah, I definitely agree with you in that making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn. And I still have such a long time to keep making mistakes and growing from the learning that follows. Guess I'll wait and see what results I get and then reassess how my year went!