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Author Topic: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey  (Read 13138 times)

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Remy33

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Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« on: April 20, 2019, 11:52:53 am »
+20
Nihao, fellow nerds!
(don’t pretend you aren’t a nerd. Why else are you reading about some random dude’s VCE journey on a study forum?)

We’re nearly halfway through the year and I thought I’d arrive fashionably late onto the VCE Journey Journal threads. As the famous saying goes, the early worm gets eaten by the bird, so I do like to put things off. But I figured it’s about time I made this. Hope you appreciate the bad pun in the title - it’s supposed to say ‘delightful’

I guess we should start with a self intro? Hi, my real name is not Remy so of course that made sense for a username. I’m in the final year of my 12-year prison sentence. My school is ranked about 10th in the state if you go from the bottom of the list, and until 5 minutes ago, I was a long-time accountless lurker of ATAR Notes.

Onto VCE now — last year I did a 3/4 early, which was Portuguese. I thought doing a subject early was very smart of me but after coming onto ATARNotes turns out this is apparently the norm.

This year I’m doing another 5:
• Russian
• Chinese SL
• Mainstream english
• Maths methods
• Global politics

I think you might have picked up a theme with my subjects.

I like languages. Luckily for me the scaling for them are also really nice, so of course I made sure to do way too many of them for VCE. Sadly VCAA has a restriction that says you can do at most 3 LOTEs, otherwise I would’ve done another.

I originally planned on doing EAL or Eng Lang, but my school runs neither, and I decided against doing distance as I already have 2 external subjects. Global Politics because, well - I like politics. As for methods, I was initially planning to do French, but due to VCAA’a restrictions I had to withdraw. Didn’t know what else to do, so I chose maths to keep options open.

I got a raw 42 in Portuguese last year, which far exceeded my expectations. My school hasn’t had more than two 40+ study score in YEARS, unfortunately for them I did it through VSL so they got no credit. This year, I’m also doing Russian and Chinese through VSL.

My aims for this year are:

Russian: 35
Chinese: 35
English: 35
Methods: 30
GloPol: 40
ATAR: 90+

My second aim is to become the dux at my school. Our average ATAR is usually 50-something and historically our dux gets around the low to mid-80s. I would love to change that, and maybe inspire the younger year levels to work harder at school too.

As for future aspirations and uni courses, the dream course is Bachelor of Global Studies at Monash, with media communications as the backup plan. The ATAR for global studies is just above 90 and I get a shit ton of SEAS (SEAS calc says I need an 81), but I want to get in without any adjustment factors as it’s kind of cheating, and unfair for other students who don’t get SEAS but have also worked hard.

That’s quite the information dump so I’ll end it here. I’ll try to update weekly, but knowing me monthly would be a more likely estimate.

Thanks for reading :)
« Last Edit: April 20, 2019, 11:55:25 am by Remy33 »
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics 

Evolio

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2019, 01:03:33 pm »
+3
Hi Remy33!
Nice to meet you!
Great that you have specific goals to achieve!
What's your favourite subject and why?
What do you have in mind career wise?
 :)

rani_b

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2019, 02:42:34 pm »
+3
Nihao, fellow nerds!
(don’t pretend you aren’t a nerd. Why else are you reading about some random dude’s VCE journey on a study forum?)

LOL  :P I guess we are all nerds.

I got a raw 42 in Portuguese last year, which far exceeded my expectations. My school hasn’t had more than two 40+ study score in YEARS, unfortunately for them I did it through VSL so they got no credit. This year, I’m also doing Russian and Chinese through VSL.

That's amazing! I dropped French and Chinese as fast as I could, but this is kind of making me wish I kept them.

Good luck this year!!!
2019 ATAR: 99.85

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Remy33

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2019, 09:03:01 pm »
+3
Hi Remy33!
Nice to meet you!
Great that you have specific goals to achieve!
What's your favourite subject and why?
What do you have in mind career wise?
 :)
Oops, sorry for the late response. Hey Evolio :) I love reading your VCE journal btw.
Favourite subject at the moment is probably Chinese. Hard to put my finger on it, but I've always loved the language and the culture. I also have a pretty awesome teacher for it, which is always great.
Career wise, I'm hoping to go into international relations, maybe work at the UN?? I don't actually have anything specific AND achievable in mind presently, but politics is something I aspire to go into.

---

LOL  :P I guess we are all nerds.
That's amazing! I dropped French and Chinese as fast as I could, but this is kind of making me wish I kept them.

Good luck this year!!!

Thanks rani_b :) Yeah, French and Chinese are quite hard too learn (especially Chinese lmao) but they're definitely rewarding. I might be biased though. Well done on your 50 in psych by the way, that's amazing!

Good luck to you too. :D
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics 

Bri MT

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2019, 10:21:11 am »
+9
That sounds a lot like how my school was and then in my year we had 3 95+ ATARs - so don't doubt that you can break the trend :)


 I want to get in without any adjustment factors as it’s kind of cheating, and unfair for other students who don’t get SEAS but have also worked hard.

Let me stop you right there. Given what you've said about your school so far I'm going to assume that everyone at your school gets SEAS due to your school & where you live + most people get SEAS for financial difficulties and/or difficult circumstances. In no way is it unfair for these things to be taken into account. None.  Unis don't just take SEAs into consideration to be charitable - a student who is eligible for SEAS and scored a bit lower than another student often does better in uni than the non-SEAS-higher-ATAR student.

I understand wanting to get in without relying on SEAS but please don't think that using SEAS would be unfair or taking the spot from a more worthy applicant.


Best of luck with your journey!  :)

Evolio

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2019, 12:55:08 pm »
+1
Quote
Oops, sorry for the late response. Hey Evolio :) I love reading your VCE journal btw.
Aww, that's so sweet! Thanks!
Can't wait for your next update!

Quote
Favourite subject at the moment is probably Chinese. Hard to put my finger on it, but I've always loved the language and the culture. I also have a pretty awesome teacher for it, which is always great.
Career wise, I'm hoping to go into international relations, maybe work at the UN?? I don't actually have anything specific AND achievable in mind presently, but politics is something I aspire to go into.
Is Chinese hard? Yeah, it's always really good to have an amazing teacher who is always there to answer questions and guide you!





coldairballoon

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2019, 01:37:00 pm »
+1
Hi Remy! It's always nice to see a new journal pop up. I only recently stopped being a lurker too. It's great to see someone do so many languages - I'm pretty jealous, since my only talent when it comes to languages (apart from Latin) is grammar, and occasionally downloading Duolingo for a week (haha, I try).
Looking forward to your updates! Keep up the good humour.
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Remy33

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2019, 08:56:57 pm »
+2
Quote from: Bri MT
That sounds a lot like how my school was and then in my year we had 3 95+ ATARs - so don't doubt that you can break the trend
Hi Bri MT,
That's really amazing. 95+ ATARs are unheard of at my school, let along THREE. Back in 2012 someone got a 91 and they got in the local paper :o

RE: SEAS - I get what you mean, and I know the intention is to balance things out. But IMO it does a lot more harm than good as kids at my school usually end up slacking bc "the SEAS will carry me" and it ends up backfiring when they miss out even with these bonus points.

Just wondering, since you also went to (I'm assuming) an underrepresented school, did you get any external help with your subjects, like tutoring or buying notes/practice exams? If yes, did you find them helpful at all?

---

Quote from: Evolio
Is Chinese hard? Yeah, it's always really good to have an amazing teacher who is always there to answer questions and guide you!
Yeh, chinese is probably my hardest subject right now. Speaking/listening ain't bad but reading/writing is insane especially when it ain't your native language lmao. Still, it's enjoyable once you get into it.

---

Quote from: coldairballoon
Hi Remy! It's always nice to see a new journal pop up. I only recently stopped being a lurker too. It's great to see someone do so many languages - I'm pretty jealous, since my only talent when it comes to languages (apart from Latin) is grammar, and occasionally downloading Duolingo for a week (haha, I try).
Looking forward to your updates! Keep up the good humour.
Well, hey there, fellow ex-lurker ;)
That's the total opposite of me lmao. Grammar is my worst enemy. (Sorry, what's a clause again?) Do you learn latin btw? That's amazing. I tried latin multiple times but kept giving up. I might pick it up again when duolingo adds latin to their languages.
Also, it's a wonder that pesky owl hasn't murdered me in my sleep yet.

Looking forward to your updates too. Good luck with your VCE journey. :)
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics 

Bri MT

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2019, 09:12:59 am »
0
Hi Bri MT,
That's really amazing. 95+ ATARs are unheard of at my school, let along THREE. Back in 2012 someone got a 91 and they got in the local paper :o

RE: SEAS - I get what you mean, and I know the intention is to balance things out. But IMO it does a lot more harm than good as kids at my school usually end up slacking bc "the SEAS will carry me" and it ends up backfiring when they miss out even with these bonus points.

Just wondering, since you also went to (I'm assuming) an underrepresented school, did you get any external help with your subjects, like tutoring or buying notes/practice exams? If yes, did you find them helpful at all?
That's a real shame about people at your school taking that approach.  It would be interesting to run an experiment and see how SEAS impacts attitudes to studying & achievement; I suspect that for some students SEAS gives them motivational hope - I wonder if that's enough to balance out what you've observed.

Yeah the school I went to was underrepresented. I didn't do any tutoring and I got my practice exams from school.  I studied eng lang by distance ed w/o doing units 1&2 so I bought AN notes for that (they were good but what I really needed was feedback on my work) and went to a paid VATE lecture. I also went to the free atarnotes lectures and since TSFX had free-for-charity-donation lectures at the start of the year I tried some of them. I also attended VCESS but that only runs over the summer holidays.

I liked going to lectures as a form of revision and to see a different perspective on the content & found that I had access to enough practice exams through school without buying any.

I hope everything I've written is clear and answers your questions - let me know if you have any more :)

Remy33

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2019, 02:23:52 pm »
0
Quote from: Bri MT
That's a real shame about people at your school taking that approach.  It would be interesting to run an experiment and see how SEAS impacts attitudes to studying & achievement; I suspect that for some students SEAS gives them motivational hope - I wonder if that's enough to balance out what you've observed.

I'd be interested to see a study like that done. SEAS can definitley be beneficial to some and it's not simply a black-and-white issue.

Quote from: Bri MT
Yeah the school I went to was underrepresented. I didn't do any tutoring and I got my practice exams from school.  I studied eng lang by distance ed w/o doing units 1&2 so I bought AN notes for that (they were good but what I really needed was feedback on my work) and went to a paid VATE lecture. I also went to the free atarnotes lectures and since TSFX had free-for-charity-donation lectures at the start of the year I tried some of them. I also attended VCESS but that only runs over the summer holidays.

I liked going to lectures as a form of revision and to see a different perspective on the content & found that I had access to enough practice exams through school without buying any.

I hope everything I've written is clear and answers your questions - let me know if you have any more :)

I wasn't aware of the TSFX lectures, so thanks for the info. I went to the ATAR Notes ones for english, glopol and methods during the holidays and that's partly why I made an account - to download the slides ;D Yeah, I found the lecture formats to be quite helpful too, guess I'll just try to make the most of them.

I guess I gotta go digging for some LOTE resources since you don't get much through VSL and I didn't do 1/2 for either Russian or Chinese (did psych and legal in 1/2)

Thanks for all the help, Bri MT. :)
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics 

Bri MT

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2019, 04:16:11 pm »
+2
I'm personally not a fan of TSFX (really disliked some of their marketing I got in VCE) - so it's kind of ironic that that's what you didn't know about - but I hope that you find the info beneficial anyway.

I'm not sure if there are many LOTE resources on AN but I know that some of our active users studied Chinese so hopefully you're able to find help/advice easily :)

Absolutely no worries :)

Remy33

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2019, 10:42:36 pm »
+3
Quote from: Bri MT
I'm personally not a fan of TSFX (really disliked some of their marketing I got in VCE) - so it's kind of ironic that that's what you didn't know about - but I hope that you find the info beneficial anyway.

I'm not sure if there are many LOTE resources on AN but I know that some of our active users studied Chinese so hopefully you're able to find help/advice easily

I get what you mean about their marketing. Apparently the old VCE DiscussionSpace shut down last year because of them? I never signed up for any of their stuff so I don't have first hand experience. (Thank god, I guess)

Thanks for the advice about Chinese, guess I'll go around bothering a bunch users then ;)

---

So I guess I should start the very first update? School's started but not much has happened, I'm barely at school most of the time since I get more free periods than I get actual classes (perks of distance ed). For methods, we're getting reading for the massive SAC happening in a couple of weeks. It'll span SIX whole periods, split into three parts. The first two parts are collaborative tasks (essentially designed so that everybody could pass them), and the last part is individual. In glopol, we've started looking at AOS 2 China. Glopol is an interesting class as I'm the only person there actually doing 3/4 - the other 3 students are 1/2s. As for english... I don't even know what's happening. Does anyone get the feeling in english class that nothing ever gets covered and that nothing productive happens?

I've started working on my oral scripts for LOTEs. For general conversation, I'm just recycling the script I used last year for Portuguese (perfecting the art of laziness). I haven't fully decided on either detail study topics yet, but for Russian I'm thinking of doing The Five (I wonder if anyone knows what I'm referring to); and for Chinese I might look at the city of Harbin.

No school tomorrow due to ANZAC day - anybody going to the Dawn Service? I'd love to go, but waking up at 4am isn't far from capital punishment in my opinion. Guess I'll just stay home and work on my scripts then.
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics 

homeworkisapotato

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2019, 09:29:45 pm »
+2
Hi! I'm a bit late to the party but nice to meet you!
Your choice in subjects is really cool :) which one is your favourite at the moment?
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Joseph41

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2019, 04:34:25 pm »
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Hey Remy,

Have really enjoyed this journal. Honestly I think you might be the first person I've come across to study three LOTEs, and I absolutely love it. Do you have any interest in studying Linguistics at all? ;D

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Remy33

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Re: Remy’s DeLOTEful VCE Journey
« Reply #14 on: May 01, 2019, 08:56:10 pm »
0
Hi! I'm a bit late to the party but nice to meet you!
Your choice in subjects is really cool :) which one is your favourite at the moment?
Hey there, I’d say Chinese and GloPol are my favourites atm. Russian is awesome too, and English and maths are slightly shitty 😂

Hey Remy,

Have really enjoyed this journal. Honestly I think you might be the first person I've come across to study three LOTEs, and I absolutely love it. Do you have any interest in studying Linguistics at all? ;D
Hi Joseph, I don’t know too much about linguistics, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn more off. My school sadly didn’t run Eng Lang and I thought 4 external subjects was too much so I settled for English. I’d love to maybe learn more at uni. In particular I have an interest in learning about language use in the media, especially around political issues (is that socio linguistics?)

If I fall short of the ATAR needed for global studies or media, I might do arts at Monash with majors in linguistics and either media or int’l relations. I’m just not so sure about job prospects for such a broad degree like arts.
<  VCE  2018 – 2019  >
Portuguese  42  |   Russian  35  |  Chinese  36  |  English  50   |  Global Politics  46  |  Methods  41
99.40 ATAR

<  Monash  2020 – 2023   >
B Global Studies  Int'l Relations  |  B Commerce  Economics