01 / 02 / 2019 – Friday Week 1 Term 1Hiya guys!!! The first month of 2019 has already passed! I’m so excited to start updating -- school has finally started!! I know I sound hyped right now but that’ll most likely die down after we’ve all settled into year 12. Oh god it sounds so weird to say!
So the 30th of Jan was my
very last first day of school. The new year 12s had an assembly of our principal lecturing us on behaviour, like “It’s your last year so I expect all of you to take it seriously” and “You may have skipped classes in the past, but this year you need to keep up a 97% attendance in order to pass”.
THAT point was worrying, as the 97% attendance rule is newly introduced this year, and it doesn’t just mean a 97% attendance overall – it’s across ALL your classes, including your elective! (Yeah, we have electives, in year 12! WUT?
). That means we can miss no less than FOUR classes per subject throughout the entire year! Does any other school do this or is mine just mental??
I heard that other schools normally have a 90% attendance policy?Oh right, electives! I forgot to mention in my opening post (oh I don’t know, perhaps coz it’s so trivial?) but all students at my school does an elective per semester.
even if you’ve got all your VCE exams coming up!! I’ve got chess and robotics. While I look forward to them, I can’t help but think those double periods could be better spent preparing for something that could potentially impact how my life turns out.
Also, I was really sad that I couldn’t make it to the AN meet up the day before school began. Something came up last-minute (by which I mean, I misinterpreted the holiday homework ‘one chapter of methods’ as ‘one exercise’, so I spent the whole day catching up).
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Moving on, classes are
so far going well! (I mean, we
are only two days into the year!)
Here’s my timetable this year. Luckily, I get a lot of free periods; sadly, I still have to go to school every second Wednesday even though my only class is the double elective!
So THIS is what people use imgur for!Further is
amazing. Have I mentioned that I did general for TWO YEARS? It’s SO refreshing to FINALLY do 3/4. We haven’t done much in terms of content yet, it’s mainly been our teacher checking holiday work and cracking maths puns
.
I’m yet to find out when my first SAC is, but I’ve already gotten hold of some past ones. Apparently in further every mark you lose is -1 study score?? And you HAVE to be rank 1 to get a 50? Why on earth does it scale down when it’s SO competitive?
Methods is WAY better than last year. I’ve got my favourite teacher in the entire school, so while I never liked the subject, I also hate to disappoint her. She’s the same teacher I had for VET music in year 9 and 10, I can’t believe how lucky I am to have her in year 12 too. It’s definitely weird to see her teach maths though.
My biggest complaint about methods is that we’re using the Jacaranda book, but I’ve heard that Cambridge is more recommended?
Up next we have the ~dreaded~ biology. Our teacher is new, a recent uni graduate in his mid 20’s who honestly could pass for a Year 9 if he wore uniform. Imagine my shock when he walked in to class introducing himself as our teacher!
Anyway, I’ve started on content at my own place, mainly following along Edrolo. It sucks that my school doesn’t use Edrolo, so I’m borrowing someone else's account.
Finally, chemistry. Class starts with a good old pop quiz that I scored an AMAZING 2 out of 15 on. I pretty much forced the teacher to go over them with me after class, and to my relief they ended up
mostly making sense! She was kind enough to email me some extra worksheets later on which I intend on doing over the weekend.
Stoichiometry is still confusing. It honestly could be a subject of its own. And is memorising all those different types of fuels REALLY necessary? Surely it's more background knowledge than something that we could ACTUALLY get tested on!
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Final thing, WE GOT YEAR 12 HOODIES TODAY! My school don't allow nicknames, but at least it’s better than not getting one at all. I was in period 6, biology, and our school captain was also in the same class. He got a notification that the hoodies arrived and the entire year 12 sector of our class leaped out of our seats and pretty much bolted for them. Our principal, who was monitoring the whole thing, remarked “There sure are a lot of people with free periods today”, and this
one kid in line, oblivious to the situation, responded “Oh no sir, we came out of biology for this! Mr [biology teacher] said we could!”
The student instantly realised his mistake, but the damage was done. All of us were herded back to our classrooms and a minute later the speakers rang out, “ALL YEAR 12 STUDENTS MUST REMAIN IN CLASS. HOODIES TO BE COLLECTED AFTER SCHOOL.”
I think that’ll do for this update. There’s already a PILE of work I’ll need to get through, so I can’t afford to procrastinate much longer. How has everyone else’s first week of school been?
Colline xx