✧ J_Rho's VCE Journey ✧

[J_Rho]

I know I'm not sticking to my format but I'm stressing a little here. And yes i know I'm annoyed with how much i post (esp when its mostly not helpful)

I really want to get an awesome ATAR but I haven't yet gotten my English SAC results back but im very sure that they will be really bad like D or E bad. The prompt was on something we had never even spoken about in class AND i'd never come across a prompt similar to it at all and i have a long word doc of prompts from my teachers and across the internet, i think we are supposed to be getting the results tomorrow of Friday but I'm shit scared. I know I can't change anything but I think part of me is still clinging to the hope that maybe somehow I got above a C+.

My English teacher in Year 7 and 8 was amazing and she has a lot of faith in me and I feel like if i don't get a study sore in the mid 40's I'll have let her down...its also a personal goal of mine to get a mid 40 ss in everything ESPECIALLY English because I've always been the underdog. Out of me and 3 other girls I've always been seen as the 'dumb' one even tho I got scores the same or higher. In Year 8 and 9 I was top of my language class and year 7, 9 and 10 i was top of my maths class but I've never ever been top of my English class, except that time where I did an oral presentation on Shakespeare and my usually somewhat stony-faced teacher clapped and congratulated me but that was legit like one presentation out of quite a few

I don't know how to improve, my essays are always bland, they have potential but I can't seem to go deep enough, like there are times where i feel like I've gone really deep but the teacher says go deeper and I have no idea how. And language analysis boy i freeze like how to am i supposed to analyze an article! Whenever i do a practice one I always end up opening my word doc with language techniques and tone words because I can't identify shit, and i end up using the same tone words again and again. al presentation is the only thing I am not afraid of, yes I hate it and stress but nowhere near as much as LA and comparative. I wish I could have some amazing story like "From failing to 48" but I don't know how to improve. And everyone says WRITE MORE ESSAYS! but I struggle with how I implement feedback into my writing. I can take it on but idk how to use the feedback to turn it into beautiful letters into stunning words into gorgeous sentences into lovely paragraphs into one big exquisite essay. and also some ppl say writing too many essays will make you plateau at a standard that isn't good enough for a good score.  I want to say being underestimated is a motivation but at this point, i don't know what i should even be doing. I'm almost certain I bombed the first sac and I'm stressed the house I also don't wanna annoy teachers with asking them to mark essays for me because my teacher doesn't mark practice essays.

But I am okay, I'm just ^really, really, _really, REALLY c o n f u s e d .  Like how does everyone do so well? Give me your secrets please.

But wait! There's more!!

I've completed 4 SAC's and have gotten marks back on 2 of them, Legal and Psychology.
Legal -  I got an 82% which I am so ashamed of
Psychology - I got 84% it makes me feel better that I think I'm rank 1 but still crap
I need to study more, doing more practice questions. THESE I know how to improve. The theory is textbook and the way you answer questions is pretty straightforward and if you know the info if almost formula-like.

And I think I'm more math brained then English so you'd think I'd be alright at LA but nooope, I got a C+ on my LA section of my Yr 11 Exam hahaha oop.

Well, this post has been long enough! If you read all of that, thank you (also sorry) but hey don't we all feel like this sometimes??

[J_Rho]

Goals for the next week (24/04 - 01/05)
I'll update you either on Wednesday on how I'm progressing or on Friday to tell you guys I smashed it. I'm slowly finding my groove again and I know for a fact having goals will help me heaps!

I'm also going to be taking a technology break over the weekend because I feel like I'm getting square eyes with all this online learning!!

I also emailed my current English teachers and my lovely Year 7/8 teacher (who told me a few weeks ago she is more than happy to help me with my essays, and how I go about writing them (i think she described it as the thought processes of planning an essay)) that I'm struggling with English and I asked for some feedback on my essays as well as how I can implement feedback into my writing because of the issue isn't that i don't know what my weaknesses are, it's more like IDK how to improve them...so hopefully i get a response from one of them

Oh and a side note, my Monash Mentor is SO nice, and despite being nervous about meeting her (online ofc), I'm actually looking forward to working on stuff with her next session

English
Improve LA essay writing from a C to a B+
 - Plan a LA essay; Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- Write (and get them marked) a LA essay: Sunday, Monday, Thursday

Biology
Get ahead and start doing practice exams regularly
 - Get ahead with notes this weekend
 - Complete and submit a diagnostic topic test for marking on Sunday
 - Complete and submit a practice exam for marking on Tuesday

Further Maths
Start learning recursion and financial modelling
 - Read over Chapters 8 and 9 by the end of Saturday
 - Complete a few questions from each chapter to consolidate understanding by the end of Sunday

Psychology
Revise content for SAC, and get ahead with notes and chapter questions
 - Revise Chapter 5 and logbook entries tonight and on Monday and Thursday
 - Make a poster on Chapter 5 & put on my wall tonight
 - Finish Chapter 6 by Wednesday
 - Finish Chapter 7 by Thursday

Legal Studies
Revise content for Criminal Justice System SAC and finish Civil Law AOS
 - Ensure I have notes on each dot point for criminal law by the end of Saturday
 - Finish making notes on Civil Law by the end of Sunday
 - Do Edrolo Progress Checks and Topic Test for Criminal and Civil Law by Tuesday
 - Complete Criminal Law Checkpoints by Wednesday
 - Revise Criminal Law Notes on Wednesday and Thursday.

[J_Rho]

Update - SAC Result: Text Analysis

The results were released an hour ago, and I am upset.
Admittedly I did better than I said I was expecting, but truthfully I set really low expectations because I don't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed.
I did very poorly and I wasn't expecting a good score but by some miracle, I was hoping for a B and to get a C+ was good cause its not a fail but it is literally like 5% away from a B. I was so close to a score I would have been relatively happy with.

My old English teacher told me that I'm no good at English because I never did any practice Essays in Year 7 - 10.
That was a harsh, but true, fact.

Honestly, makes me want to get the 2020 English award for the highest study score

She also said that if i want to do well I need to write one of each type of essays a fortnight, which I know need to do.

I need to make it a habit, so, just like my fitness journal I'm going to write an essay every day leading up to my LA SAC on the 5th and write a text analysis essay, language analysis essay and a comparative essay every fortnight.

I'm going to, I complain about not being good enough and being the underdog but im not doing anything major to truly push my essays to a B,B+ or even an A level. I'm going to smash English and I'm not letting one horrible sac mark get me down and it will be the last horrible sac mark I ever receive. I'm not going to dejectedly talk about how i wish i had of tried really hard in junior school and how amazing a student I could be if i had because its bullshit, whats the point of talking about it? Its in the past and I have to move forward. 

I want to do well and I just need to knuckle down and form this habit.

[whys]

Hey J_Rho! It's great that you're so determined to improve. I understand what it feels like to not reach your goals, or just wish for that little bit higher. Regarding what your old English teacher said - that does not mean you can't change the quality of your essays! I certainly did not write any practice essays at that time, and I know many others who didn't either, but put in the effort now and are currently doing well. It's good you understand what your next steps are - but don't let what your teacher say define you. You have the time and ability to improve and nothing can change that!

I'm going to write an essay every day leading up to my LA SAC on the 5th and write a text analysis essay, language analysis essay and a comparative essay every fortnight.

It's great you want to write more essays! Writing an essay every day might be (quite) a difficult feat, and unless you are constantly receiving feedback, it won't be much help. Remember to take a break and relax too!

Good luck with your goals!

[J_Rho]

Hey J_Rho! It's great that you're so determined to improve. I understand what it feels like to not reach your goals, or just wish for that little bit higher. Regarding what your old English teacher said - that does not mean you can't change the quality of your essays! I certainly did not right any practice essays at that time, and I know many others who didn't either, but put in the effort now and are currently doing well. It's good you understand what your next steps are - but don't let what your teacher say define you. You have the time and ability to improve and nothing can change that!
It's great you want to write more essays! Writing an essay every day might be (quite) a difficult feat, and unless you are constantly receiving feedback, it won't be much help. Remember to take a break and relax too!

Good luck with your goals!

Thank you for your reply, it means a lot!

I know It'll be difficult to write one every day (If i can't I'm aiming to do 4 this week) but hopefully, I will be able to mark my own, and get others feedback (plus I think I can do it cause there are 8 days till the SAC, I defs wouldn't want to try and write one every day for any longer than that!). The feedback I received from my teacher was not that I didn't understand what I was writing about but rather I just haven't practised the skill of writing an essay enough. I'm not overly stressed about the SAC as it is over 2 days, and I know that I'm going to be thinking about things overnight and hopefully I can produce something of reasonable quality.

Thank you for you words of wisdom, whys (you are truly wise, whys)

[J_Rho]

Update: Upcoming SACs

Tomorrow (Thursday)
Psychology SAC

How I'm Feeling

Nervous as because it's about some experiments on classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning and the teacher is being very vague. We did an Edrolo topic test and he's locked the second one and he's known for using Edrolo topic tests for sacs no I'm super nervous because the test we did today was confusing. I'm not even sure how to revise, other than going over my notes. I got 84% on the last sac so I'm aiming for a 100% (expecting 85-90% max tbh)so I can brink my average up to 92% which is only 5% shy of my 97% goal.

What I'm Doing

I'm going to complete Checkpoints on conditioning, and the atar notes topic tests and keep revising my notes on conditioning and research methods

After SAC Thoughts

It was really easy. I know my teacher is a harsh marker, but I'm really confident I scored well. I was certain about my answers for all the questions except the last one which was worded badly but was only worth 2 marks. I think I'll defs lose marks for the way I've written??? Optimistic score estimate 98%; pessimistic score estimate 85%

Friday
Legal SAC

How I'm Feeling

Nervous fast, like I really really want to do super well and the teacher gave us practice questions and one of them was about the OPP and I was like W H A T like since when were we told to know anything about the OPP? So that's stressing me out, I've got notes on everything which im revising. I got a 82% on the first half so I'm aiming for a 100% (expecting 90% max) so that i can bring my average up to 91%, as my goal is 97 - 100%

What I'm Doing

Revise Notes
Finish off AOS1 Checkpoints

After SAC Thoughts

It wasn't a bad SAC tbh, it was all very 'identify one thing and discuss how it affects one of the POJ' i think worst case scenario 62% best case 90% I think I went well but I mentally mark myself and I mark harshly (ie. no mark if im at all unsure) so that's where the 62% is coming from haha

Biology SAC

How I'm Feeling

Not stressed at all, I have an idea of what I have to do in the SAC (its an essay) and its a modified version of the one I did last year i think.

What I'm Doing

Revising Notes

After SAC Thoughts

I think I went quite well really, but I'm still really nervous about my result because like I've done Bio b4 so like I have the expectation that I get 100% on everything

5th May
English Language Analysis SAC

How I Feel

I know what I need to do to improve my writing, but not to make it 'good'. I think I'm looking at a C at the best but I'm aiming for a B+, I'm really hating English at the moment but for sure in like a week I'll have changed my tune haha
I was writing a practice essay I'm class and

What I'm Doing

Writing an essay a day (trying to, realistically its one every two days)
Getting feedback from teachers and friends on my writing
Marking other peoples essays

After SAC Thoughts

I fucked it. I thoroughly fucked it. My LA was horrible it was rubbish and I could have done so much better look in the spoiler of a picture of it. I had a mind blank for a solid 10 min and ended up turning my would be 3rd paragraph into a shitty conclusion. It has got to be the most pathetic piece of writing I've ever done. sick of writing about Uluru tho like every piece my teachers have given us to practice with have been on Uluru bar one!

Spoiler

EDIT: After SAC Thoughts

[J_Rho]

term two, week three: i had a creative name for the title but the bfg stole it while i was sleeping

03 May 2020

Ya girrrl. is tiiiirrreeeeDUH.
I hope everyone is good, and isolation isn't treating you too bad. Remember my inbox is open to anyone that needs to chat or vent, we're all in this together 💖
Also, I got paid by my work which is so good and I'm actually surprised I'm getting paid but its good because I've lost roughly 4 grand worth of income since the 16th of March (or whatever date was 2 weeks b4 schol holds) due to COVD-19 so I do feel that in some way I am deserving of it but I think the gov is changing the eligibility criteria and as I am living with my parents I no longer will be eligible.

Psychology:
So I had a SAC for this on Thursday and I don't know how I went, it wasn't insanely difficult so I'm worried that my responses won't be good enough to score well, but i havent cried over it yet so i think it ok. Next week we are moving on to the Atkinson Shiffrin model which I'm lowkey bored about as I've moved onto Unit 4 in my study and with this whole online learning stuff we are just doing worksheets which is annoying but I'm just working through textbook questions from Edrolo and Jacaranda and doing Checkpoints and Topic Tests because worksheets are annoying and IMO not that useful in comparison to exam style questions, prolly my least fav subject atm just because the way its being taught but like its online it honestly the best i think its gonna get in this situation
By the end of the week I want to have gotten halfway through U4 AOS1, but idk if edrolo is gonna take out videos with the study design amendments or tell us what we can disregard....so imma just keep learning it in my mind its almost better to like just learn everything and do praccy questions and just know that when preparing for the exam i dont have to study everything you know?

Biology:
The SAC was ok, I hope I went ok. It was a very weird SAC just because its an essay and the marking is weird so it is super hard to be certain I got all the marks....I think I went pretty well but I'm super nervous cause I want to get 100% like I feel like i have to cause this is my second year doing 3/4 Bio soooo...
We are starting on the immune system on Tuesday so that's good. Its super frustrating because my class is FULL of people who don't do the work at all its took us two weeks to get through chapter 8 because people were just NOT doing the work. All we are expected to do is watch Edrolo and complete the questions, which shouldn't take 2 weeks to watch 4 videos (that were 3 minutes, 27 minutes, 12 minutes and 15 minutes) and answer a handful of multiple-choice questions for each video. There are like 2 or 3 of us in the class that actually do the work, So I literally spent a week and a half going ahead because somehow it is so difficult to watch 1 hour worth of videos and do some questions over 10 hours of class time.
I want to finish Unit 3 this week so that's just Ch 9 and 10 so that's chill as, and do a few U3 practice exams

Further Maths:
I screwed up the sac that was like 2 weeks ago. Like i thoroughly screwed it up and i am so fucking pissed off at myself stupid mistakes like forgetting to answer the interpret part of a "plot a time series plot and interpret". ugh.
This is my favourite class at the moment, my teacher is so good and she is teaching our class the same way she would at school and its just working really well. She talks at the start of the class, presents her screen were she introduces the exercise we are going to work on explains formulas and processes and then tell us where she wants up to be up to by the end of the lesson. My teacher was super excited about a module being cut from the study design because it effectively gives us a whole another term, they haven't decided which module to do out of Matrices and Trig and tbh idk which I'd prefer...i like trig cause I've been doing it since year 7 but i know it'll be way harder and matrices is new as it didn't appear anywhere until gen maths and it sucked i just couldn't wrap my head around parts of it so i dont think i have an opinion either way. We started financial maths and are up to 8D in the Cambridge textbook and 5C in Edrolo and it is LITERALLY the same as Year 11 so I'm pretty pumped and i don't think its going to get much harder so im keen despite hating it last year (Year 11 Algebra come back please can i have another 100% mark again?). Aiming to finish Ch8 this week and maybe start on Ch9 which will put me a week ahead of everyone else because the teachers have basically allowed time for students to not do their work and I dont think doing 5 exercises in a week is that crazy esp when there's only like 3 or 4 questions set for each exercise.

English:
I think this teacher doesnt like me cause I asked her to look over an essay I wrote and she sounded annoyed that I was asking her to and I also asked her if she could tell us when we might get our practice SACs back and she sounded annoyed answering that too idk if its just me but hahaha don't think i care at this point because I'm kinda sick of her not giving feedback like I'm going to ask for feedback like 'I know my class doesnt expect much from you because very few care but I do so I'm sorry you have live up to what you said at the start of the year of if we put in the work to write practice essays and feedback you will put in the work to mark and give feedback.' Like I do get she teachers year 8's too but its not like im saying she needs to mark them NOW or today im just asking her to, at some point before the sac mark them pls and thanks like hell I'd be happy with very general feedback from looking at my essay briefly but i wanna improve. Sorry about that lil rant, i love my teacher but im getting a little bit frustrated but with all this online learning its defs so much harder for teachers but i think because we are isolated from a classroom setting its harder to seek feedback so IMO feedback now is more important than ever. I really do love this class like I love English and yeah i suck at but I'm trying and I am hoping maybe my hard work can pay off because I would LOVE English to be one of my top-scoring subjects like that is my ultimate utopian dream. SAC is on Wednesday and Thursday and I'm writing 2 essays today, one on Monday and maybe one on Tuesday. I'm really lucky to have 90 minutes so 1 class and a half to do it so that I can think about the article and everything overnight and we all know how good our skills are at finding flaws just as we are falling asleep, to that's a huge advantage to help me get that B+

Legal Studies:
SAC was wack, no idea how i went. There were no define questions. there wasn't a 8 or 10 marker. sooo haha I'm just a liiiiitttllllleee stressed but this teacher probably mark sacs faster than any other teacher (1 week, absolute max 2 weeks) so i should know by Friday or start of next week because this teacher is really good at prioritising year 12 work. We are doing civil law now and the sac is on the 29th so I'm making my content posters to put up in my room this week so im drilling content into my brain when im going my hair/makeup, or exercising or whatever and so basically hoping to finish U3 this week and do a like a 1/3 of civil law checkpoints and just relax and revise and not stress too much about the 2-hour civil law sac that is in like 3.5 weeks because I'm going to be hella prepared.

Extra curricular
I'm in the process of writing 4 articles for VicSRC about tips for online learning, how schools SRCs can support the wellbeing of staff and students, how can SRCs improve student engagement and voice and ways to 'stay sane' during this period of physical isolation which is super fun but a tad stressful but its fine cause I enjoy it! I'm also writing an article for ATARNotes which is grooooovy as too and im really excited to spent the next 2 sac free weeks working on these articles and some other projects.

[J_Rho]

Update: Bio SAC Results

OMFG IM MAD IM SO MAD.

I lost one mark on my biology sac

 im so furious all because I didn't say osmosis was across a semi-permeable membrane cause I compared the similarities and differences of osmosis and diffusion and i was like oh nah saying semi-permeable twice is weird cause im explaining the differences i said semi permeable in the first half of the sentence AND SO I DELETED IT AND

IT
COST
ME
7%.

I am KICKING myself.
Like I should have done better, and if i hadn't have deleted those three goddamn words i would have been fine i would have been great I would have been equal rank 1. but no im just furious at myself and i want to cry because it was such a small stupid stupid mistake and i should have been more careful and read over it again

just

ugh


Like 15/16 is a good mark but I'm just so annoyed at myself for the silly mistake and I just have really really  high expectations of myself especially for this subject

[Geoo]

That is a wicked awesome score! Congratulations that's fantastic!
It's a bummer that about the one mark, but it was just that, one mark.
I'm sure you'll get 100% next time!!!

Be proud of yourself!

[Chocolatemilkshake]

Yeah, 15/16 is fantastic!! Don't worry, everyone makes stupid mistakes sometimes and in the end it will mostly come out in the wash. (Also is it like a part of a sac, like part 1? Because to have a science sac out of 16 marks sounds a little ridiculous. If so, you can totally make it up in the upcoming sacs)

[saraoc]

15/16 is AWESOME! Its annoying that, that one mark dropped you percentage so much but I'm sure you will be able to get 100% on the next SAC!

Do you have any tips for bio? I'm doing 3/4 and I'm averaging 60% 

[J_Rho]

That is a wicked awesome score! Congratulations that's fantastic!
It's a bummer that about the one mark, but it was just that, one mark.
I'm sure you'll get 100% next time!!!

Be proud of yourself!

Thank you Geoo! I'm feeling a better about the mark cause it is a good mark I think to say i was upset about my mark might have not been accurate cause I think I was (little bit still am) annoyed about my ranking. I've done 3/4 before like suuuurely I'd be rank 1 but its making me want to study really hard for my next sac which is on 5th June because imma smash it!
Thank you for your support

Yeah, 15/16 is fantastic!! Don't worry, everyone makes stupid mistakes sometimes and in the end it will mostly come out in the wash. (Also is it like a part of a sac, like part 1? Because to have a science sac out of 16 marks sounds a little ridiculous. If so, you can totally make it up in the upcoming sacs)

Hey CM!!
Hopefully I can smash everything else so that as you said it can mostly come out in the wash
Thank you for you reply it means so much!
I was a bit annoyed about the marking cause its not part 1, its the AOS1 sac. The sac used to be half of a larger one so in previous years you'd have to do 2 essays on 2 different pracs in 1 hour but they shortened it this year to only 1 essay on 1 prac in 1 hour so that prolly explains the marking.

15/16 is AWESOME! Its annoying that, that one mark dropped you percentage so much but I'm sure you will be able to get 100% on the next SAC!

Do you have any tips for bio? I'm doing 3/4 and I'm averaging 60% 

Hey Saraoc!
Thanks for you reply, welcome to AN!
Dont be discouraged by your average and keep persisting and seeking feedback! You've got this!
In my signature just below this is a link called 'Tips for VCE Students' and I've got a section there on Biology, also you could search in google '50 in biology' and those articles usually have heaps of really good tips too! Heres a few;
https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=179843.0
https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=177124.0
and of course https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=189498.0

[J_Rho]

Update: Yay no SACs for 2 weeks

Okay so now that I have no sacs for a little while I'm continuing my plan for my tutoring business. I'm now up to the stage of choosing a name and a domain and honestly, I've left this to the very last minute because I am hopeless at something up with names so I'm putting it out to you guys what name is best?? Or do you have an even better idea?
also, the tagline isn't legit, its shit I know so if you have any suggestions lemme know!

Option 1

Tutoring by Jade
@tutoringbyjade
http://www.tutoringbyjade.com

Option 2

The Tutoring Effect
@thetutoringeffect
http://www.thetutoringeffect.com

My friend said he didn't like this one coz it sounded like a podcast ahhaha

The website and fb/insta pages and youtube channel haven't launched yet as I'm setting up posting schedules and creating content and of course figuring out the name let me know what you think!!

[s110820]

Hi J_Rho,

I love how you're so dedicated to planning your tutoring business! I wish I was as dedicated as you except, for now, I'm only doing like the "basic" tutoring services of editing/proofreading assignments and tutoring sessions. I'm also planning to do a website/a YouTube channel as well! Bu personally, I prefer Option 1 over Option 2 --> the fact that you used your name really "personalises" the tutoring experience which I think would enable customers/students to connect with your business more.

For the tagline, however, I would recommend writing from the heart. Yes, I know it's extremely cheesy but ultimately, your connection with your passion for tutoring would enable your students/customers to connect with you more! So maybe, your tag line could be a quote/mantra that you live by/inspires you to be you?

Hopefully, that helps! Good luck with your business -> I'm sure everyone will appreciate it and love it as much as I do!

Have a great week and kind regards,

Darcy Dillon.

[ArtyDreams]

Hi J_Rho!!

Its actually super inspiring seeing you set this up!
I actually quite like the first one, I think the personal touch is nice