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VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: wingdings2791 on January 03, 2021, 07:35:27 pm

Title: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 03, 2021, 07:35:27 pm
Hey everyone! I'm Wingdings, a class of 2021 student, and this is a chronicle of my imminent year 12 experience. I go to a selective school and am doing Chemistry, English Language, and Methods this year. I'm aiming for 40+ on all three and have an ATAR goal of 99.15 (I plan to do Biomed at Melbourne Uni (minimum ATAR 96.00), but I'm trying to meet the Monash scholars cutoff too for vAnitY/oh yeah that might give an extra option)

My slightly boring VCE history so far
I did Chinese SL in year 10 (2019) and Bio/Music in year 11 (2020), along with 1/2s for my current subjects + Physics. I wouldn't say I have struggled too much so far, although CSL oral was definitely a bit of a pain and I found Chemistry to be quite intense (ahaha don't know anything about routine neglect). Hopefully it all pans out this year though :3
I hope this might be entertaining to you (or my Costco employee self in 15 years) : D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on January 03, 2021, 08:06:47 pm
Hey everyone! I'm Wingdings, a class of 2021 student, and this is a chronicle of my imminent year 12 experience. I go to a selective school and am doing Chemistry, English Language, and Methods this year. I'm aiming for 40+ on all three and have an ATAR goal of 99.15 (I plan to do Biomed at Melbourne Uni (minimum ATAR 96.00), but I'm trying to meet the Monash scholars cutoff too for vAnitY/oh yeah that might give an extra option)

My slightly boring VCE history so far
I did Chinese SL in year 10 (2019) and Bio/Music in year 11 (2020), along with 1/2s for my current subjects + Physics. I wouldn't say I have struggled too much so far, although CSL oral was definitely a bit of a pain and I found Chemistry to be quite intense (ahaha don't know anything about routine neglect). Hopefully it all pans out this year though :3
I hope this might be entertaining to you (or my Costco employee self in 15 years) : D
Hello! Nice to see a new journal!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 04, 2021, 05:30:48 pm
Thanks Cat In The Hat! Might I say your headwear is looking rather snazzy : D

The last few weeks
I guess I'd be lying in saying I haven't gotten very, very comfortable doing absolutely nothing since around the start of December. Still putting off getting Ls, brain habitually emptying out the little Chemistry content I scraped together the morning of the exam, eating myself sick at Brunetti, and lots of Netflix shows (highly recommend You, The Crown, and I'm sure everyone's watched Queen's Gambit by now hehe)

My Eng Lang tuition has started again today, so I guess I've been plunged back into harsh reality- honestly I realise now that I seriously need some work on Chemistry 1/2 and maybe polynomials (trial and error of factors...yikes) in Methods before school starts. Anyway, it was a pretty chill class and I didn't get much homework other than a few short answer questions. I go to a private tutor, which is good for ahem procrastinators such as yours truly because you're forced to actively pay attention all the time.

For this year, I'm probably the most terrified of Eng Lang, mostly because I just struggle with writing well and quickly (2 hours for the whole exam???) and because it'll be in my top 4. Since my CSL and Music scores almost reach 50 after scaling, the prospects are not good on either Chem or Methods making it to the top 4 so they're not as important, but I'll try and give it my best shot anyway. I'm pretty confident low 40s may be possible if I can persist through my nightly transformations-induced tears. On the side, I'll also be attempting the UCAT, the Melbourne Uni music audition, and maybe Melbourne Recital's Bach competition if I have time, although I'm definitely not really counting on a good UCAT result (more just for fun... like a personal challenge?)

I guess for the rest of today I'm going to be finishing off a Methods 1/2 test I started yesterday, relearning some Chemistry basics (metallic/ionic bonding etc.), and maybe running a few errands after dinner : D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 07, 2021, 05:41:19 pm
It's been nearly a week since January started! Anyone else feeling like the last month has gone by so quickly but exams were forever ago? Anyways, I thought I'd post a quick update while I'm waiting for dinner (so hungry lol).

On Tuesday, I did pretty much no studying, but I did start yet another TV series. sighhhhhhhh

In other news, my books for this year have all come already, so that's good. It's reassuring but also really speeding up the onset of my year 12 panic : 0

Chemistry thoughts
Honestly, I really like Chemistry. It has a surprisingly similar vibe to Bio?? I don't even mind reading the textbook much. What stresses me out is that it seems so vast, I never have a clue where to start... and it seems like you really need to know the content inside and out to make sense of the questions, whereas in Physics it's a lot more straightforward and as long as you know the formulae (at least to me hehe)
As the start of term 1 keeps creeping closer, I'm starting to have doubts about how to tackle studying this year. Especially since there were no consequences for ignoring 4/6 of my subjects last year! Hours upon hours of the same two subjects all year just doesn't seem like a good idea. There's also the question of piano, which I really don't want to give up, but my teacher says I can't maintain my standard without multiple hours of daily practice :' )

How do you guys balance school with music/do you guys have any tips for studying or routines? I would love to know... : >
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 17, 2021, 03:09:46 pm
Less than two weeks until school starts again! Decidedly ambivalent about that honestly but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The past week or so has been a little hectic, with so many different things going on. I've been shuttling between things constantly so I haven't really done much studying (wow, what a surprise right?)

I was lucky enough to be able to go to TSFX's Chemistry head start lecture series over the past three days. Having everything explained definitely was a lot easier than trying to read the textbook, which I struggled to understand a lot first time around. Being there was sort of a reality check, both in a good way and a bad way; while the prep required is a bit overwhelming, it doesn't seem to be quite as hard as I had expected.

My impressions of TSFX
Since I haven't really gone to any other lectures or commercial tutors before, I guess I don't really have anything to compare to TSFX, but I do find TSFX to be quite good. The lecturers usually have a good pace and a do a good job of explaining concepts, especially when I went to the revision lectures for Bio last year.
I do think Chem has been harder to follow and a little too fast-moving for me, but it's probably because I was hearing all the content for the first (and a half?) time. I'm going to be going to their weekly masterclasses for Chemistry at least for unit 3, kind of excited to see how it compares to their cram sessions
On Wednesday, I finally had an in-person piano lesson for the first time since May or June. Then went to the beach around sunset. Very nice. Forced my mum to let me get an ice cream from the truck. : P

A dramatic piano teacher backstory
My piano teacher is absolutely the most chaotic teacher I've ever had. She is a sight-reading, line-separating, perfect pedaling GOD, but I would have to say she's a bit... odd (it seems I only talk in rhyme now).
She sometimes stays up until 3 am making 20 kg of pickled salad right before my lessons and has a (strictly decorative) stick for beating kids on the wall, next to the piano. Having been through the USSR has given her some frankly wild stories to tell to me, including hand copying 300 sheets of music in less than a week and being buried alive in snow for nearly 24 hours.
She can be a bit disorganised, sometimes booking someone else in for my lesson time, and even forgetting about results day, but she certainly is a great teacher nevertheless.
Today I'm finally sitting down to try and get through the better part of EL holiday homework. I'm really glad I decided to do EL, it seems manageable enough and surprisingly like Bio when it comes to answering questions (actually pretty repetitive, just make sure to know the metalanguage etc.). My impression of EL is that I'll do all right with short answer and maybe the essays, but not the analytical commentary. Covering everything in one piece of writing? No prompt? Literally 48 minutes to do it? A bit worried but hopefully tuition can save me. D :

Anyway, I'm going to procrastinate try do some EL work now, read up for my learner's test, and maybe go back over unit 3 Chemistry so it doesn't all leave my brain.
Hope everybody has a good rest of the weekend!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on January 18, 2021, 04:53:20 pm
Have enjoyed your entries so far! :)

Re: EngLang, I get the trepidation, but honestly I think confidence will come with practice. If you're concerned specifically about getting everything done in time under time conditions, that's something you can work on throughout the year. You're not expected to be able to write an A+ analytical commentary right now - that's what 2021 is for!

Re: there being no prompt, I guess there's no essay topic or anything like that, but you're provided with the text(s) to analyse, so it's not like you have nothing to go off whatsoever. In fact, I'd argue there's probably more of a prompt than the essay! :)

How are you feeling for this coming week?
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 18, 2021, 09:17:48 pm
Have enjoyed your entries so far! :)

Re: EngLang, I get the trepidation, but honestly I think confidence will come with practice. If you're concerned specifically about getting everything done in time under time conditions, that's something you can work on throughout the year. You're not expected to be able to write an A+ analytical commentary right now - that's what 2021 is for!

Re: there being no prompt, I guess there's no essay topic or anything like that, but you're provided with the text(s) to analyse, so it's not like you have nothing to go off whatsoever. In fact, I'd argue there's probably more of a prompt than the essay! :)

How are you feeling for this coming week?

Haha thank you for the reassurance! The lack of prompts definitely can be an asset or a disadvantage, usually for me the problem is that I have no clue where to start, whereas when there's a clear topic the planning is much easier (instead of quantum phasing between different areas of the text xd). It's so much better when you remember that practice can solve these problems so thanks for that : )

As for right now, I'm feeling pretty all right so far. A few of my friends are definitely getting the pre-year 12 adrenaline already and I fear it's rubbing off on me! Slowly starting to study again and get back into a decent schedule helps I guess.  :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 22, 2021, 02:08:50 pm
Another week almost over and alas, exactly a week until school starts for me! Hope everyone is having a good Friday so far : )

I'm admittedly pretty relieved that I've finally crawled out of the procrastination hole in the last week or so; completely finished EL work and covered most of unit 3 Chem. Phew! Just gonna hope the instant gratification monkey doesn't take the wheel again.
Σ(‘ ◉     ⌓     ◉’)
(https://i.imgur.com/L3sIH1p.jpg)
My first day of school is going to be mostly a foundation assembly for just the year 9s and 12s. No schedules out on Compass yet but hopefully they'll appear soon. I'm going to have a lot of study periods because I have only three subjects this year, which could go either way. Maybe the time will help me smash out a lot of extra studying, but it could definitely go down the 'oh, I have hours and not that much to do' route (and we all know where that ends). Just hoping that school will motivate me to have more discipline and not let me inveigle myself into slacking off.

Here's to our last week of freedom (for most schools anyways I think) :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on February 02, 2021, 11:03:47 pm
My first official day of year 12 is over! Well uh, technically that was yesterday, but close enough! xd

I've gone through at least a period for each of my subjects now. Mostly has consisted of my teachers going through the study design, setting up our resources and everything, and even a rather interesting round of would you rather? (sure it's creepy but there's just too many pranks to pull as a giant bird)

I'm definitely starting to work more on EL now, mostly with improving my speed and proficiency at short answer, as I hope I can properly get the hang of it under timed conditions as early as possible (and before the thick of the work comes along in the form of a lovely SAC in week 7). Other than that, I've only been lightly revising redox (my school does AOS 2 first). I guess I haven't fully entered the tunnel vision mode I had in mind for year 12, especially since my classes so far haven't really delved into the courses yet. Once school properly moves into content, that'll hopefully change : P

I'm pretty excited for this term! Really looking forward to camp, which was really depressingly cancelled last year a day before the 2020 cohort were due to go. Fingers crossed everything works out and the pathogen-that-must-not-be-named will be kind to us this time. I'm extremely pumped for the water activities (we get to go both kayaking and power-boarding, as well as having a day on the beach), although I'm wondering if that will be my fatal flaw as someone who put Swimming Level: Weak on their forms. That would make this a rather short journal ;D

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on February 12, 2021, 01:03:09 pm
Happy Friday everyone (and happy CNY for those who celebrate)! Crazy how it's already almost week 4, isn't it?

I've had a fairly relaxed week; most of my teachers are away on year 10 camp, so I've had even more study periods than classes. Didn't go to school yesterday because I had no classes at all! Aside going to EL tuition, finishing some overdue Methods exercises, and getting told by my piano teacher to stop attacking loud phrases with the force of six siege helicopters, I've also had some time to binge The Office a bit and go on some really nice walks, so not complaining about that : )

Eng Lang
Our diagnostic task for SAC 1 is quickly creeping up: only a few days left! Since the SAC is going to be an AC around a spoken transcript, we're going to be simulating that for this diagnostic next week. I've been a little more focused of Chem and Methods lately; I'm still shocked at how several days or weeks just disappear if I let things escape my notice for a bit. However, I'm not too worried as it doesn't count towards the actual SAC. Besides, even if it doesn't turn out well, that's the whole point of a diagnostic right? Surely it'll just be a good learning experience instead of a grim warning... right?

Methods
Not sure how I feel about this so far. On one hand, I'm finding the classwork fairly easy and straightforward and our class has already powered through functions and most of transformations! Because my teacher isn't here this week, I also got to sit in on the next door class for a few periods. However, the thing is that I much prefer the next door teacher to my own. I think the next door teacher really understands students' intuitive assumptions and puts everything into a perspective that naturally makes conceptual sense. Sometimes, my class seems to get more and more confused as the lesson goes on because we're fighting our gut instincts in class (e.g. function notation for x-coordinates in transformations). That being said, I still think my teacher is fair, just a bit less engaging.

Chemistry
Not bad. Going to TSFX head start in the holidays has proved to be a great help; I'm understanding everything first try now. My school does the second half of AOS 1 first, so I've been trying to get redox/galvanic totally under my belt and feeling pretty content with my progress so far. Having entered the year most worried about Chem, I'm so relieved that it seems to be much smoother than anticipated. I just really hope I'll be able to maintain that sentiment when we venture further into the year, especially with the more technical aspects of the subject : P

Best of luck to everyone for our upcoming first rounds of SACs! Hope you have a great weekend guys :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: swyic on February 15, 2021, 10:05:48 pm
Hey Wingdings,

How's only doing 3 subjects compared to the usual 5 or 6? Does it ever get to the point where it feels like it's not worth travelling all the way to school for one or two classes, or is it pretty nice and chill?

Also, have fun (or hope you had fun- I'm keeping the tense ambiguous here) on your school camp!

-- Sawyer
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on March 03, 2021, 09:50:25 am
swyic
Hi Sawyer, haha you absolutely hit the nail on the head! I know I probably shouldn't complain since my workload is a lot lower than most but it does feel so ANNOYING and underwhelming when I turn up after hours of PTV... to find I've got my only class cancelled. I definitely try to capitalise on it too, because I can afford to spend a lot more time on each subject. My teachers are super relaxed; sometimes I do find it difficult to invent study activities for myself, which is a bit torturous honestly. Is it weird to say that sometimes I'd almost rather receive a lot more homework just so I don't need to figure out what to do? Oh well, I guess everyone's bound to experience it at some point :)

I'm so hyped for camp, it's really unbelievable that it's only two weeks away now when it felt like eons at the start of term. What's your favourite camp activity, if you have one? Everyone is just waiting to get SAC week over and done with so we can escape to the best week of the year. Good luck for any upcoming assessments you've got btw : D and thanks so much for your reply!
I inhaled and it was March. This is illegal.

Anyways, long time no update! It hasn't started to feel like it yet but I am realising that we are now well into the thick of term 1. A chain of week 7 Chemistry and Eng Lang SACs is looming before me already, which is a little intimidating, but I sure am glad I'm not participating in the Philo-Global-Lit-Mainstream sequence.

Last Friday, we had our last swimming carnival; surprisingly very fun. I dressed up enough to garner several shooting looks of disapproval/confusion, cheered for nearly all the relays, and most importantly, showed my support for fundraising by eating several kgs too many brownies. My year 7 self would probably never believe I'd be saying this but I will definitely miss school events like these.

In piano, I've really started to get into Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12. My teacher gave this to me as a preparatory exercise for La Campanella, which honestly makes both pieces sound a lot scarier (not that the sight of double trills isn't enough to make me faint already). She told me some stories about the Romanian gypsies she lived across the road from as a child; how they lived in wagons and sung and danced every night around a fire, how no one seemed to know very much about them. I like to imagine scenes like this in music; there are these sudden octaves with accelerando in the Rhapsody that are like their constant switching between celebration and fearing persecution. Sometimes it's almost like a fantasy to conjure images like this in my head and it really does seem to help with performance. I really recommend trying this if you guys ever struggle with letting a piece come together. :)

Eng Lang
I sat and got back the diagnostic task in preparation for our first SAC! Unfortunately, my teacher didn't give us a mark/25 as we will on the actual assessment. I know it's the feedback that really matters but having some kind of numerical indication would really help, just to see approximately how well I'll do on the SAC. Maybe they left it out just so that we can't make guesses. Other than that, I think Eng Lang is moving along solidly for me. A bit of a problem for me now is not using enough metalanguage, which is odd as in previous years I'd always be called out by teachers for being trying to be overly technical. :/

Methods
Honestly, Methods has definitely been really uneventful. Because of numerous assemblies, swimming carnival, and my teacher being away, I've barely had any classes in the week or so. We've wrapped up transformations and are moving into calculus, which is strange because polynomials comes before for every other class. I probably wouldn't say that calculus is hard to me, but I am becoming quite wary of how fast being mistake-prone can take your marks from 90+ to 70+. I've started seeking out more worksheets and practice papers to try and fix this early on in the year.

Chemistry
Not bad at all. It's going to be my third time going to the TSFX weekly classes on Saturday and for those who are looking I highly recommend them! It's quite intense and the teachers cover information at an extraordinary rate but I find that it's still easy to follow and understand. Plus, they record all the classes so at least I can practice spacing out and then frantically listening to the playback on x2 speed for uni. The only thing is that we're still covering fuels, which is sort of new to me as I haven't done it at school. But getting insight to answering questions will definitely be able to carry over for my SAC (fingers crossed)

My SAC is creeping a little too close for comfort. Yesterday, we did the practical component for the report which we'll be writing, which I'm rather confused about as it only covers galvanic cells and redox. A little worried because I've heard that report writing in Bio is quite different to the standards in Chem; last year, I'd just word vomit as much as possible but apparently Chem penalises you for lengthy explanations or including unnecessary (but correct) information. I just hope that obsessively reading the threads on Chem reports here will save me :(

Anyways, that's all for this already extensive entry xdd, study hard everyone!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on March 26, 2021, 05:20:02 pm
hahhhhh

Been a while since my last update! A lot has been happening, I honestly haven't even noticed that it's already the second last week of term until now.

I went on camp last week and it was actually pretty great, although admittedly I still haven't fully recovered from sleeping about two minutes a night. Mostly, the weather was really nice because it was hot and we had quite a number of water activities. My only qualms with it would probably be the half-water, half-milk 'scrambled eggs' and baked beans served for breakfast, and possibly the very uhh, sensorially captivating smell of the river water. (it really wasn't a surprise that most people steered clear of eggs for the length of our stay)

School-wise, I've finished my Eng Lang and Chemistry SACs for this term! Honestly, neither of them went that well (Eng Lang gave us a rather annoying text type with 2000 interlocutors, 3000 social purposes and a whopping 60 minutes to respond), and I'm still a little mad that I forgot to label my results table in my practical report. (Wow perhaps I should pursue a poetry career instead?) There hasn't been any word on when we'll get our marks but I'm just not going to think about it until then. Otherwise, classes have been really relaxed recently, so not much else going on : )

Happy Friday and let's get through these last four days!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Stormbreaker-X on March 26, 2021, 11:49:06 pm
hahhhhh

Been a while since my last update! A lot has been happening, I honestly haven't even noticed that it's already the second last week of term until now.

I went on camp last week and it was actually pretty great, although admittedly I still haven't fully recovered from sleeping about two minutes a night. Mostly, the weather was really nice because it was hot and we had quite a number of water activities. My only qualms with it would probably be the half-water, half-milk 'scrambled eggs' and baked beans served for breakfast, and possibly the very uhh, sensorially captivating smell of the river water. (it really wasn't a surprise that most people steered clear of eggs for the length of our stay)

School-wise, I've finished my Eng Lang and Chemistry SACs for this term! Honestly, neither of them went that well (Eng Lang gave us a rather annoying text type with 2000 interlocutors, 3000 social purposes and a whopping 60 minutes to respond), and I'm still a little mad that I forgot to label my results table in my practical report. (Wow perhaps I should pursue a poetry career instead?) There hasn't been any word on when we'll get our marks but I'm just not going to think about it until then. Otherwise, classes have been really relaxed recently, so not much else going on : )

Happy Friday and let's get through these last four days!
Good luck for your results, I got a chemistry SAC next week and I am freaking out. So far my scores have been well below the cohort average.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on April 28, 2021, 04:58:48 pm
Stormbreaker
Good luck for your results, I got a chemistry SAC next week and I am freaking out. So far my scores have been well below the cohort average.
Ahaha thanks, and don't worry! You've still got time and besides, Chem is heavily weighted towards the exam. Many people manage 40+ with a few less than optimal SAC scores. Good luck to you too!

I may or may not have forgotten about this journal for a while. uhm The holidays were honestly not as productive as I had hoped they would be; mostly did checkpoints for Chem and did tutor homework but I didn't really buckle down and study as much as I intended to. Especially because I got a fairly bad cold in the last few days and so just moped around (but hopefully Mr. Immune System has learnt a lesson and will not fail me during SAC week ;-;)

Anyways, it's a new term and SACs really are about to come torrenting down. Last term, I managed to do decently on both Chem and Eng Lang SACs, both 22/25. Especially given that I was pretty disappointed just after sitting them, it's kind of a huge relief that nothing went horribly wrong. However, these were meant to be the 'easy' SACs so it seems like the next few may be slightly heartbreaking. Also, I somehow managed to do better on Methods than everything else despite putting in the least effort for it and only got an average report for Eng Lang; not sure how to feel about that but I hope that doesn't mean I was just lucky on SAC days

In other news, I decided over the holidays that I'm going to try for Monash undergraduate Med. (audacity huh?) Although it's really not likely and more just an aspiration, I figured I may as well have a shot. I've registered to do the UCAT in July and from experience with the practice papers, I don't find the time pressure as traumatic as I expected but my brain really does want to waste away during some of those abstract reasoning questions. I'll just cling to the scraps of hope I have that you really can improve at the UCAT before judgement day :' )

Let's hope term 2 isn't too harrowing :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: whys on April 28, 2021, 06:05:08 pm
Hi Wingdings!

Congrats on those amazing SAC scores for chem and eng lang. And don’t feel afraid to try out for med - you’ve got nothing to lose (except your sanity :P... I’m just kidding haha). I know it can be intimidating when it seems like the people around you have years of practice, but it is never too late to start and I know plenty of people who started preparation very late or did very little preparation at all, and are currently studying medicine! It’s great that you’re finding the time pressure doable, I know that certainly wasn’t the case for me (cue traumatic memories of leaving so many questions blank because I didn’t get to them in time). In the time you have, you definitely have opportunity to improve your UCAT skills, so all the best! What made you decide to try out for med? Was it something that’s been on your mind for a while, or something you decided on a whim?
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on May 14, 2021, 04:43:29 pm
whys
Hello whys, thank you so much for your reply!! You have no idea how long I've envied your unbelievable achievements so it certainly is an honour to be in the presence of such godliness T^T and I definitely feel my brain beginning to come apart at the seams just thinking about medicine sometimes xd. How are you finding med so far? Is it similar to how you imagined it?

I've always wanted to do med, just never seriously considered trying to get in because I didn't think I'd get good enough results for it. But I'm now clinging to the bit of hope that ATAR calculators have given me; guess it couldn't hurt to just sit the UCAT right? I'm shocked too that you left questions blank and still beat 97% of prospective med students?? Please allow me to access your brainwaves. That's really reassuring though, that you can afford some room for mistakes and still do well. I really hope everything goes well and that you're enjoying uni very much :)
Yesterday marked my third Thursday of no classes! (my only period being cancelled) Of course, last week I was smart enough not to check Compass in the morning and travel all the way to school, only to leave after a whopping 10 minutes, but nevertheless it's nice to practically have a holiday every week xdd. I can't believe we're already a month into term 2, with the particularly hellish saga of Chem, Methods, and Eng Lang (in three weeks' time) now fast approaching. It's so strange to think that year 12 is practically half over too. Times flies when you're not having fun T^T

Eng Lang
U3 AOS2 short answer SAC happened last Tuesday and it was a... slightly disappointing experience. Although all the questions were very predictable, I certainly didn't write quite enough for the 5 marker and my answers weren't all up to standard I wanted. For now, Eng Lang is spending some time on the back burner; I'm just collecting a lot of contemporary examples and hoping that my results won't threaten my positive face needs ;-;

Methods
Not bad so far. I guess I'm still finding Methods a bit easier than my other subjects so not super worried about it. However, the fact that the imminent SAC is four hours is slightly blood-curdling so I am still a bit anxious for it. So far, I'm dropping around 1-2 marks on my class tests and practice SACs so it's looking up for me but I have really got to be careful not to become overconfident : P

Chemistry
I have by far spent the most time on Chem in the last few weeks but please, somebody grab me by the collar and force me to memorise the fuels content. It's just so much dryer than the calculations, so I keep avoiding it and probably to my own detriment. Luckily, I don't think our next SAC will test it so at least that's a relief. Other than that, I'm starting to enjoy Chem a lot more because a lot of the topics are starting to relate to each other, like galvanic/electrolysis with redox and reaction rates from Bio. Let's hope my grades in this subject remains at equilibrium, or the system (me) will be forced to favour the exothermic pathway ;-;

UCAT
UCAT practice questions are actually pretty fun; DM and AR are so similar to typical IQ tests and puzzle book problems. I've been using the PassMedicine subtest practice papers mostly for the last month or so and I'm starting to get 800+ on VR/DM and 700+ on QR/AR. What confuses me is that everybody I've discussed it with seems to find VR quite fiendish and QR relatively cruisy, whereas for me it's definitely the other way around. The QR questions are just so long and require so much reading, they feel more like VR than VR at times! Fingers crossed it's just because everyone seems to use other UCAT companies and QR is just skewed a little difficult (yikes)

A song recommendation to end this update- Pyongyang by Blur. Study hard everyone!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: whys on May 16, 2021, 09:06:48 pm
whys
Hello whys, thank you so much for your reply!! You have no idea how long I've envied your unbelievable achievements so it certainly is an honour to be in the presence of such godliness T^T and I definitely feel my brain beginning to come apart at the seams just thinking about medicine sometimes xd. How are you finding med so far? Is it similar to how you imagined it?

I've always wanted to do med, just never seriously considered trying to get in because I didn't think I'd get good enough results for it. But I'm now clinging to the bit of hope that ATAR calculators have given me; guess it couldn't hurt to just sit the UCAT right? I'm shocked too that you left questions blank and still beat 97% of prospective med students?? Please allow me to access your brainwaves. That's really reassuring though, that you can afford some room for mistakes and still do well. I really hope everything goes well and that you're enjoying uni very much :)
This is praise that is well over what I deserve, but thank you! (and honestly, I don’t know how I made it in either.) It’s quite an enjoyable course, with a lot of faculty and peer support along the way. I love the content so far, but I miss the face to face aspect of it, as well as no clinical placements this year. :( I’m excited for when we can fully transition back to in-person classes, placements next year and more opportunity to practice the clinical skills we’ve learnt. Also a lot of partying and just having a good time, which is what uni’s for, right? I don’t think I imagined med to be any specific way - my thinking never got that far, and was instead stuck at worrying if I’d get in or not!

P.S. when I said I left questions blank, I meant when I was practising, not in the real exam! I highly recommend you don’t leave any questions blank in the real thing (I certainly didn’t), and if you can’t get to them in time, guessing the answer is much better than leaving them blank.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on June 10, 2021, 02:58:36 pm
whys
So glad to hear that! It does suck a bit not having all the course experiences you normally would; personally placements are a big reason why I wanted to study med too :( but at least now that the vaccine is slowly rolling out, there's an end in sight I'm so excited for you to have an opportunity to apply all your new skills and knowledge. And yeah, I know exactly what you mean (always consoled by the fact that even if I don't get in, at least (probably going to) Melbourne Uni would mean conveniently going to the city all the time xd)
P.S. Haha got that xd. Better approach it like any other multiple choice test then. :D
Well, it's almost mid-June already and only a few weeks remain until the end of term and I think I speak for all when I say fjdbbbjlajkfJFASLFJAJBjkAHHAHAHhahhah
Quite a lot has happened since my last update. In fact, this is probably one of the only times I've not been updating here because it's been too busy rather than too uneventful. Hitting the peak of SAC season with my formal previously scheduled for today not going ahead due to lockdown and another two gruelling Eng Lang assessments left before the end of term, I imagine everybody's schedule has been quite loaded much like my own.

Over the last two days, I sat my first Methods SAC (U3, tech free and tech able, two hours each). Having largely neglected to do enough practice but done some checkpoints and practice papers, I sat down to the tech able paper on Tuesday feeling slightly unprepared, shaking slightly (whether from stress-eating chocolate or pure adrenaline, we'll never know). But it actually wasn't the absolute worst. Being quite a long paper and having a rather brutal few application questions (three variables in an intersection problem between a derivative and composite graph... hahahaha...), I did sweat profusely when my CAS started buffering and taking a break at the one-hour mark, but I did manage to understand everything, get to what seemed like a reasonable answer for each question, and check about half the paper before time was up. I don't want to hang onto any score projections but I'd be surprised if I did supremely horrible on this one.

Tech free was similarly okay and leagues easier than tech able. I felt all right after finishing about 40 minutes ahead of time, but already I've realised a few mistakes I didn't manage to catch (not filling in endpoints, a graph with an interesting shape that I drew very awkwardly and could cost marks). Overall, it definitely could've gone a lot worse, but I'm still a little hesitant to say it went particularly well.

In other news, I got quite the eye-opener when Eng Lang short answer results were released this week. 13/20.

My playlist quite agrees
(https://i.imgur.com/S92CWwg.jpg)
Now I know this isn't the most disastrous score ever given that the average was quite similar, but it does still come as a bit of a shock to me. I felt I performed so much better on this SAC than my first one, and the fact that I try harder for Eng Lang than anything else... I definitely took the wrong approach to the questions. Especially with one that concerned front focus, I've never been too sure of it as a concept (what qualifies as front focus? Can pretty much all fronting be called an attempt to draw reader attention?) Really hoping I can redeem myself on Tuesday or I might be looking at seriously compromising my ranking soon :(

On the other hand, I'm rather relieved at having had a relatively easy time with Chem this term. TSFX is resuming for revision lectures this week, and I truly think I've grappled all the U3 content properly this time. Let's just hope it stays this way in the second semester : P
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on June 18, 2021, 08:44:34 pm
Week 9: finished.

(https://opfs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/studying-.gif)

Can I just say for a second how relieved I am now? Hellish as it may be, I’ve got only one SAC left to go this term! It definitely feels like a huge weight has lifted now that the bulk of assessment are done for this half of the year, especially with holidays and formal just around the corner. Even though I shouldn’t complain already having so much more freedom with only three subjects, I truly can’t wait to have a proper break from VCE, just for a day. :)

I got both Chem and Methods back this week. I’m very content with Chem; lost around 3/50 marks, which makes it my best SAC score yet this year. Methods was… well ehh. I really, really wanted a 90+ only to miss out by a few percent, but I suppose I’m still relatively okay with how I did. I keep justifying those stupid, stupid mistakes by saying oh but it was a difficult SAC! Oh it won’t be so hard in November! but I still hope there’s enough time for me to improve and just maybe have a 95+ moment in the exams.

Eng Lang
Yikes. My U4 AOS1 SAC (short answer) is next Thursday and to say the least I'm feeling a little unprepared. Because I'm used to more general, exam-style short answer questions, it's hard to know exactly how to approach this assessment (especially seeing as my previous approach didn't seem to work... even more yikes.). After barely spending any time on identity content in class, the teachers have left us with a very dodgy understanding of their expectations. For now I'll just take full advantage of my knight in shining armour tutor's topic-specific practice papers and cross my fingers. :P

Methods
I did my first VCAA exam today (wow milestone right?): 2008 exam 1, which wasn't too difficult. I lost 1 mark on a domain question, which was a pretty silly mistake, but I tend to always mess up on these because there's always a bracket or exclusion that I forget. We're fairly deep into calculus content at this point; just finished definite integrals today; circular is all done as well. I feel like I've got hope to do well on the exams at this point but definitely need a lot more tech able practice as I'm not exactly a CAS wizard (yet)

Chemistry
All done with U3! I'm not super secure in the idea of being yanked out of my beloved thermochem/redox/equilibrium comfort zone and plonked right into organic :( U4 nomenclature definitely doesn't mix with silly mistakes, and anybody who knows me would already know anything precise and anti-silly-mistake is my VCE arch nemesis. I'm planning to really step up my studying game for this half of the year since I still think my prospects for 43-45 are still there.

UCAT
Finally gathered up enough scraps of mental effort, concentration, and brain cell to sit my first full-length, timed UCAT mock yesterday (from Passmedicine). VR wasn't so bad but I constantly tossed between Can't Tell and No for so many questions T^T. It’s always so annoying when the text is like Cannot Confirm Nor Deny (Pearson, what do you want?!) I definitely found DM much harder than usual after a little fatigue from VR; my mind just started going in circles. You know that feeling when you’re reading when tired and you understand each individual word but they make no sense together? Yeah that.

QR and AR are also slowly but surely coming along. I don’t know if it’s the company I use or if QR is particularly hard on Passmedicine, but it definitely was a drag to get through after incinerating my brain cell in the earlier sections. My fingers always get so clumsy and feel like giant salamis hopelessly prodding at the calculator keys (ahem the culmination of my 12-year piano career) once time starts ticking. My AR scores are slowly getting to a consistent 700+ so that’s good. Now just to keep it that way aaHHHH TT^TT

(https://i.gifer.com/FTLc.gif)

Yes, we need more afterthoughts after such a disappointingly brief update, I know, that's what you're thinking. xd in all seriousness, that's probably quite enough blabbering from me for one day. Time to get back to work. Until next time : D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: dedformed on July 02, 2021, 02:14:52 pm
Woah hello there fellow vce student!

I've been hovering over atarnotes in the past week because my nationality is of the procrasti, and this has been a pleasure to read over the bathroom break (sorry for tmi).

Can totally relate to the fingers-feel-like-salamis bit after incinerating brain cells UCAT stuff, by the end of my mocks my eyes are so dry from the glare they feel like yarnballs in my eye-sockets. I've resorted to wearing sunglasses because of how jarring the colour scheme is (and now I've discovered I could have requested to have it changed because of my migraine, fun!)

Your work ethic regarding ucat is quite the inspiration for me as I procrastinate reading journals on my throne. When are you sitting yours? Regardless of the upcoming doomsday your mock results look quite promising so I do wish you the best!

Cheers
Nelope:) (dont need to add the Pe when im on my throne, sorry i had to do that)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on July 16, 2021, 11:23:05 pm
I swear I meant to update sooner... heck, I even wrote half an entry last week but my laptop said no.

dedformed
HELLO 'Nelope! I certainly had a good laugh at your reading situation, thank you for that :D you definitely flatter me way too much, I just really like ranting about the UCAT but honestly although it can be fun... it certainly is a lot of work. You seem to be going really well in your preparation too, so good luck! I'm sitting mine on the 25th, so really quite soon. Fingers crossed I haven't wasted 50 hours on nothing hehe.

Man it must be tough having to deal with totally unrelated problems like the less-than-optimum aesthetic of the UCAT platform. At least you've found a solution though :) if it's any consolation, I get the same thing with my contact lenses from staring at it too long and they fall out of my eyes. Sometimes I get nightmares about that woman who lost 28 pairs in her eye when I can't find the lost contact too. Maybe you can get into med, become a doctor, and please give me an examination so I can stop sweating every time my contacts disappear off the face of the earth. XD

Holidays went pretty well by my standards honestly. I didn't go out much in the first week and got through all the circular functions and integration questions from the textbook in a few days, which was kind of an extreme sport for my poor 15 cm ruler. Also finally managed to plow through most of the U3 Chem revision which I'd been dancing around for a term, so I'm quite relieved that that's out of the way for now.

In the second week, I had my first and last formal. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be to be completely honest; although I anticipated terrible food and a lot of shuffling around awkwardly and probably getting caught in 1849012e5 unflattering photos, it was actually only one of those things (guess which one) XDD seriously though, they served lamb shank that slapped, my feet only died in the last hour, and no double chin photos. Afterwards, I pulled my first all-nighter ever at an airbnb.

click for details
11.30 pm: I hobble into the apartment, really concentrating on not letting my ankle roll. We're all pretty tired but what's certain is nobody is sleeping anytime soon. First check of Ubereats to see how far we'll need to lower our standards
1.30 am: a full-course Chinabar takeaway order, the movie Lights Out, and a few bottles later, almost everyone is utterly and completely, wasted. Someone is on the balcony talking in an American accent, another's legs have given out, and somebody else has dropped to the floor to do the worm.
2.00 am: no energy left. My only other sober friend is quickly becoming very aware that this is going to be a long night.
4.30 am: I totally give up on sleep. Doing the dishes it is
6.30 am: A glorious breakfast consisting of the oat cappuccino thingy provided by the airbnb host. Boy I should've known from the colour not to drink that.
10.00 am: Probably getting dirty looks from parents for looking like a bunch of vagrants at playground. At this point, I don't think they'd be surprised if I begged them for loose change. The flying fox was really long and was so fun though, wish I'd known about that one earlier
11.00 am: Deciding to get numbingly spicy wontons to maybe shock me out of my sleep deprivation symptoms; to no avail. Instead, I choked and my friends literally washed them wontons in plain broth and ate the rest.
12.00 pm: Going home to spend 3 hours looking through formal photos
7.00 pm: as close as I'll get to sticking it out until 9, falling asleep xd
I expected myself to make a more grandiose return to this thread but honestly, school is uneventful as always; I barely show up having almost no classes, and at this point most of my studying is just geared towards preparing for whichever SAC is closest. I feel like I need to be raising my scores if I want all 40s, and sometimes I just sabotage myself by not keeping up with subjects that aren't going through SACs. For this term I guess I thought oh, I'll try to hone in on specific assessments less, but as getting 90+ SAC results already takes all my energy and sometimes still doesn't work, kind of afraid that I'll just jeopardise myself again by lowering my SAC average, which jeopardises my exam prep WHICH turns into a vicious cycle where I end up doing well on nothing.  :(

UCAT is creeping uncomfortably close (next Sunday) and it's more than a little daunting. Having just done the official mock A and gotten an obscene VR score, I'm not sure what I should be expecting next week as I always thought VR was one of my strongest subtests after DM. QR certainly was not nice either; I got absolutely destroyed by the just the sheer amount of reading I needed to do to find the interest rate for an Oriental Carpet, then getting an answer and realising I didn't convert from dollars to pounds. Either way, med isn't necessarily my one and only, so it's all right if I don't get the score I want. It hasn't happened yet, and at least I'll have more attention to fully focus on VCE.

Anyways, I hope everyone's term 3 experience is smooth and relatively unstressful. Until next time : )
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on July 26, 2021, 11:42:16 am
The UCAT: How it went

Actually, I don't think I ever properly mentioned here that my UCAT test date was the 25th of July. That means that yesterday, I FINALLY completed probably the most difficult test I've ever had to prepare for (AMEB theory probably feels boycotted by that statement xd). Overall, I'm extremely EXTREMELY happy with my score: I never thought I'd ever come even close to what I got on the real thing. After months and months and admittedly, a straight week doing nothing but 9 hours of UCAT a day, I can't express the relief of finishing this first step to med. I'm writing now because whys' extremely comprehensive description of the UCAT experience was a huge source of comfort for me so I've been inspired to make this gigantic update that hopefully will at least be a bit of ~themed entertainment~ for anybody who's scheduled to do it in the next two weeks hehe.

Now for the REVEAL (prob the only thing anyone will read):

AHH RESULTS
Verbal Reasoning: 700
Decision Making: 740
Quantitative Reasoning: 830
Abstract Reasoning: 800
Total: 3070
Situational Judgement: 623
I'm still shocked beyond words... from when I decided to just take the UCAT because 'wHy nOt' to realising that I really wanted to try and give it all, I don't think I ever, ever expected this. It's so surreal, that now instead of having dreams about AR shapes looming over my head, I might actually have a chance at an interview (?!??$#$?E34) which is already more than I ever would've thought possible. T^T

VR
On the whole, VR was definitely a bit difficult. The first text I had to read was about the Tet Offensive and man, it was NOT a very forgiving start to the exam. All the questions on it demanded a pretty detailed understanding of the information and I think two asked for implied motivations, which ngl escalated my heart rate quite a lot. 14 minutes remaining, and I'm still on Q17. At that point, I became frantic, trying to get through the multi-paragraph Incan artefacts text wall, which eventually I just abandoned because god knows I'm not going to remotely understand let alone remember an Incan code's ciphering timeline with 12 minutes on the clock. After that text, I still think I did get a reasonably (reasonable for UCAT LOL) gratuitous paper in that a lot of the true/false was very straightforward; however I definitely struggled with the time and had to guess around 4-5 questions. I'm not sure if it was also because of exam stress, but for comparison I certainly found the real thing slightly harder than official mock A.

DM
OH no. Given that this was always my best subtest, I didn't go nearly as well on DM as I had imagined, although I'm still quite satisfied with how I did. Something that definitely threw me off was the syllogisms; as Passmedicine (which doesn't include multi-answer syllogisms in DM) was my only source of practice questions other than the official banks, I definitely wasn't accustomed enough and it came as a bit of extra time pressure as well. With VR as well, I've always found it hard to distinguish between yes/no/can't tell, because??? if something isn't stated but implied??? HELP Thankfully, I got through the paper with relative ease otherwise; the numerical-based questions were really easy and I remember everything looking really familiar, which was so reassuring. Looking back, I really wish I'd started using the official questions much earlier on; maybe it would've made a little difference to my score. But oh well, still happy with it :)

QR
I definitely went into this nervous as HECK. I even conducted a mechanical keyboard heist (sorry to my brother) at like 11 pm the night before just to test the numpad again: I was scared beyond imagination that I would freeze up and forget how to type properly under all the exam stress. To be completely honest, I might've considered wearing ski gloves to the exam venue (which I actually bought and wore to a piano exam when I was 12- I've never been skiing xd) to be extra safe but decided that was maybe a little bit too ridiculous, even for me. There were no tax questions, no weirdly complicated data plots; it was so easy to understand and I actually kind of cruised through this subtest. I finished with a whole 3:14 (pi) minutes left and I definitely felt it was going to be a lot better than my mocks. Turns out it was! I still find it... just shocking that what was once my worst section that I scored 4 4 0 on one time (no no you heard nothing) was actually my best one on the real thing.

AR
By the time I reached AR, I really didn't even feel nervous anymore. Maybe it's the fact that AR has the shortest time allocation, but by then I was starting to think I had AR under control. Besides, I did okay on the mocks, which were reputedly harder than the real thing, so it couldn't be that bad right? And thank god the odds were definitely in my favour yesterday. I wasn't sure of my performance just after; I'd been predicting maybe a 700, because there was this one pattern that I couldn't fully get despite coming back to it to spend 4 minutes on it ALONE so I started to seriously doubt the credibility of my other choices. Certainly it wasn't a bad experience because most of the patterns were super typical; shape, colour, number of sides, all things you'd find in those AR most common acronyms on Medify. On the whole, I didn't find time pressure too bad because I got lucky with all those easy 'two black, three white' type patterns that let me just fly through a lot of the test, so that was a huge relief xd.

SJT
[clown voice] I will admit, after I found out that SJT isn't really important and doesn't contribute to your cognitive score, I totally just sidelined it. On the real thing too, I read and filled in everything but just finished the exam before time was up (I think many, many people had the same idea tbh xd). Before I really approached the pointy end of my preparation, SJT was kind of fun and I'd always use to take a break from VCE stuff or the harder subtests... because it's still technically revision right?? RIGHT? (say right) Anyways, despite clowning this section, I'm not really fussed about it and not surprised either (who needs social skills what are those anyway) HAHAH.

What a monster of an entry; sorry in retrospect to anybody who actually trudged through that mess. To everyone who's still awaiting judgement day (xd jks), I wish you the absolute BEST OF LUCK!! You're gonna roll into that computer lab and think to yourself, why did I worry about doing the same two questions I've seen all year? Piece of cake. Stay calm and smash that UCAT, it's got nothing on you. :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: dedformed on July 28, 2021, 09:35:11 am
Heyyyaa!

Whenever I read a UCAT update I get so nervous my hands start shaking (no joke) and I typed my password wrong four times to log in and reply. I can only imagine myself oscillating like a sine graph during my QR calculations in the real thing.

CONGRATULATIONS! That is such an amazing score, and it really shows how much work you've put in to get to this stage! I did read your whole update btw, only after you bullseyed me with the "this is the only part people will read".
Lucky your centre was open, too. Haha i had to move mine (it was supposed to be yesterday and the only next feasible date was late August so I went from "time to die UCAT tomorrow" to allowing some cooling down because hell does such intense prep burn you out. 9 hours a day?! I can imagine you getting off your seat with all the bones cracking. If you're into it we could look into starting an asmr channel of UCAT prep bone noises.

Anyway those are amazing scores and it must be such a relief to be able to breathe non UCAT air after months of stress! Time to nail ATAR!

Wish me luck for mine beep boop

Nelope, considering your ski glove promotion
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on August 08, 2021, 11:46:31 am
dedformed
Thank you so much for your kind words Penelope. I definitely understand your predicament (my blood pressure immediately doubles whenever I catch so much as a whisper of results: rip my poor heart December 13) so it's a huge relief not to have something huge to keep anticipating for the time being. But now that we've both been granted freedom, I think we'll have to improvise a little though and go for VCE prep bone noises instead (don't worry my arthritis isn't improving, plenty of business opportunities).
(https://c.tenor.com/dgUh_SFKdEgAAAAd/tom-tired.gif)

How and why is it already almost term 3, week 5?! I don't seem to recall waking up, going to school, studying, going to sleep 20 times since July. The clock just seems to keep accelerating these days- when I'm doing things it always hits me: how is it dinner again when dinner was three seconds ago? or it's already time to practice piano again? Maybe it's a side effect of aging. If that's the case, I'm not quite keen on years lasting microseconds when I'm properly a senior citizen. :3

Since finishing the UCAT, I've had kind of a busy time: my Methods SAC that was scheduled before lockdown 5.0 got squashed in with both Eng Lang and Chemistry, so you could say I would've been happy if there was more time in between. Still, hell week is officially over for me now, hence the fantastically entertaining, long-anticipated entry you're reading now~

Eng Lang
I had my SAC on Tuesday this week after school. Definitely wish I had time to do more than two practice essays, but I went in thinking it'd probably be fine since I'm quite familiar with writing essays for U3.

The topic we got was something like: 'The evolution of Australian English shows the evolution of Australian values and attitudes. It appears we are increasingly accepting of the differences.' Now it took me a solid second to even unpack this in my head; I feel like my contention could've been a lot clearer but the multi-focus of this prompt threw me off. Should've brought my senior citizen bifocals so I could've really examined both sides of the topic. But oh well, it's just one SAC, and it's a split one too (worth 6%). Hopefully everything works out fine.

Methods
Methods is actually going pretty well, I'm very happy to say! My last SAC happened on Wednesday afternoon and I feel pretty great about it. Everything seemed really straightforward, and this time having properly learnt all the important CAS functions, I wasted no time on doing long-winded calculations by hand and had ~40 mins to check my answers. No results yet but I'm pretty sure it's a 90+. I'm really really hoping I can do well on the exam and get a good ss with enough work before that fateful November day, so I must not slack in these last 87 days!!!

Chemistry
Saturday morning: the sun was shining, the birds were tweeting, and the U4 AOS1 SAC was quite literally threatening to disembowel my ss. I've had the experience of being underprepared for assessments, but the fear had always at least driven all the content into my head a few days before.

I walk into the SAC feeling... actually kind of confident. I'd meticulously memorised all the IUPAC naming conventions, studied every physical property and reaction pathway, done a decent amount of practice questions and performed ok. Then I open the SAC paper to see a 9-mark HPLC questions staring me in the face.

No this isn't happening, I thought. Why did I really think analytic techniques wouldn't be that important?? I sighed and just got to work on the rest of the SAC. Coming out of it, I think I actually did all right. I answered everything pretty confidently (although I did guess maybe two MC?) and managed to get an answer for the last question, which most people left blank. I answered that HPLC extended response with what I did remember from lectures and the textbook; hopefully at least some of it would score some marks.
If not, I'll just stick my head in a chromatography column and watch my single brain cell melt and drag itself down the tube (serves it right)

Now I hate to make everyone always sit by the window and wait longingly for these riveting details of my VCE, but that's all for now. Must. Get. Back. To. Studying. Have a good week 5 everyone. XD
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: beep boop on August 09, 2021, 06:40:11 pm
dedformed
Thank you so much for your kind words Penelope. I definitely understand your predicament (my blood pressure immediately doubles whenever I catch so much as a whisper of results: rip my poor heart December 13) so it's a huge relief not to have something huge to keep anticipating for the time being. But now that we've both been granted freedom, I think we'll have to improvise a little though and go for VCE prep bone noises instead (don't worry my arthritis isn't improving, plenty of business opportunities).
(https://c.tenor.com/dgUh_SFKdEgAAAAd/tom-tired.gif)

How and why is it already almost term 3, week 5?! I don't seem to recall waking up, going to school, studying, going to sleep 20 times since July. The clock just seems to keep accelerating these days- when I'm doing things it always hits me: how is it dinner again when dinner was three seconds ago? or it's already time to practice piano again? Maybe it's a side effect of aging. If that's the case, I'm not quite keen on years lasting microseconds when I'm properly a senior citizen. :3

Since finishing the UCAT, I've had kind of a busy time: my Methods SAC that was scheduled before lockdown 5.0 got squashed in with both Eng Lang and Chemistry, so you could say I would've been happy if there was more time in between. Still, hell week is officially over for me now, hence the fantastically entertaining, long-anticipated entry you're reading now~

Eng Lang
I had my SAC on Tuesday this week after school. Definitely wish I had time to do more than two practice essays, but I went in thinking it'd probably be fine since I'm quite familiar with writing essays for U3.

The topic we got was something like: 'The evolution of Australian English shows the evolution of Australian values and attitudes. It appears we are increasingly accepting of the differences.' Now it took me a solid second to even unpack this in my head; I feel like my contention could've been a lot clearer but the multi-focus of this prompt threw me off. Should've brought my senior citizen bifocals so I could've really examined both sides of the topic. But oh well, it's just one SAC, and it's a split one too (worth 6%). Hopefully everything works out fine.

Methods
Methods is actually going pretty well, I'm very happy to say! My last SAC happened on Wednesday afternoon and I feel pretty great about it. Everything seemed really straightforward, and this time having properly learnt all the important CAS functions, I wasted no time on doing long-winded calculations by hand and had ~40 mins to check my answers. No results yet but I'm pretty sure it's a 90+. I'm really really hoping I can do well on the exam and get a good ss with enough work before that fateful November day, so I must not slack in these last 87 days!!!

Chemistry
Saturday morning: the sun was shining, the birds were tweeting, and the U4 AOS1 SAC was quite literally threatening to disembowel my ss. I've had the experience of being underprepared for assessments, but the fear had always at least driven all the content into my head a few days before.

I walk into the SAC feeling... actually kind of confident. I'd meticulously memorised all the IUPAC naming conventions, studied every physical property and reaction pathway, done a decent amount of practice questions and performed ok. Then I open the SAC paper to see a 9-mark HPLC questions staring me in the face.

No this isn't happening, I thought. Why did I really think analytic techniques wouldn't be that important?? I sighed and just got to work on the rest of the SAC. Coming out of it, I think I actually did all right. I answered everything pretty confidently (although I did guess maybe two MC?) and managed to get an answer for the last question, which most people left blank. I answered that HPLC extended response with what I did remember from lectures and the textbook; hopefully at least some of it would score some marks.
If not, I'll just stick my head in a chromatography column and watch my single brain cell melt and drag itself down the tube (serves it right)

Now I hate to make everyone always sit by the window and wait longingly for these riveting details of my VCE, but that's all for now. Must. Get. Back. To. Studying. Have a good week 5 everyone. XD

Hi Wingdings!

I'm sure you sure fine on your chem sac. Everyone has slip ups every now and then. Tbh, the feeling when you haven't studied for a certain topic and the first thing you see is the topic you haven't studied. It's the worst.

You seem like a very hardworking person, with your previous 40+ ss. (Don't have to flex so much on us, yk? JK JK JK.) Keep up the good work ethic and you'll do just fine. Congrats on such as good UCAT score, you smashed it fellow VCE comrade!

Over and out,
Beep Boop
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on August 13, 2021, 03:13:04 pm
beep boop
Hi beep boop, thanks so much for your reply! Ahaha I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one still suffering the effects of bad time management, it truly is a 0/10 experience to shame all others. Best of luck to you too for all your studies (or would that be 01100111 01101100 in beep boop? xd), you'll smash everything I know! :D
Yet another harrowing five days of school have passed (and the procrastination monkey has awoken a bit early ahahahh.........)

... I need to work harder

Yesterday I received my Methods SAC back: exactly 90%, pretty much the exact raw 40 cutoff score on exam 2. Now, I don't want to be that person who complains... but I did think I'd get a slightly higher mark seeing as I found it so easy. Maybe I'm just way too confident for my own good? What if the actual exam is difficult? What do I do when I can only scrape together the bare minimum mark during a relatively simple, single-topic test? Sigh. It's still meant to be a good score, so I'll just be happy with it. I hope I've still got enough time to improve, else I'll have to really focus on Chem to save my med hopes and dreams.

In other completely unrelated news, I finished The Serpent, The Alienist, and Mindhunter recently, having been on a small crime drama roll (that didn't affect my ability to study properly I swear). In each, there's a combination between the suspects being established early and found only at the last second (ahem last minute last episode), makes for a lot of suspense. It's not really surprising when you think about it, but those series focused on how so many serial killers kept close to the media, craved fame so badly, did anything to stay relevant. Sometimes I wonder how socio and psychopaths, who show such a profound absence of empathy, can care so much about how they're perceived by people they'd kill without blinking. Anyways, if you like crime series, definitely try one of these; I think they're worth it. :)

Now it hasn't been that long since I spilled the excessive amount of beans on every painful detail of my VCE, so yes, I only came here to gripe for attention. Everyone please don't waste time like me and study hard! Only a few months left.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on August 13, 2021, 03:23:32 pm
beep boop
Hi beep boop, thanks so much for your reply! Ahaha I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one still suffering the effects of bad time management, it truly is a 0/10 experience to shame all others. Best of luck to you too for all your studies (or would that be 01100111 01101100 in beep boop? xd), you'll smash everything I know! :D
Yet another harrowing five days of school have passed (and the procrastination monkey has awoken a bit early ahahahh.........)

... I need to work harder

Yesterday I received my Methods SAC back: exactly 90%, pretty much the exact raw 40 cutoff score on exam 2. Now, I don't want to be that person who complains... but I did think I'd get a slightly higher mark seeing as I found it so easy. Maybe I'm just way too confident for my own good? What if the actual exam is difficult? What do I do when I can only scrape together the bare minimum mark during a relatively simple, single-topic test? Sigh. It's still meant to be a good score, so I'll just be happy with it. I hope I've still got enough time to improve, else I'll have to really focus on Chem to save my med hopes and dreams.

In other completely unrelated news, I finished The Serpent, The Alienist, and Mindhunter recently, having been on a small crime drama roll (that didn't affect my ability to study properly I swear). In each, there's a combination between the suspects being established early and found only at the last second (ahem last minute last episode), makes for a lot of suspense. It's not really surprising when you think about it, but those series focused on how so many serial killers kept close to the media, craved fame so badly, did anything to stay relevant. Sometimes I wonder how socio and psychopaths, who show such a profound absence of empathy, can care so much about how they're perceived by people they'd kill without blinking. Anyways, if you like crime series, definitely try one of these; I think they're worth it. :)

Now it hasn't been that long since I spilled the excessive amount of beans on every painful detail of my VCE, so yes, I only came here to gripe for attention. Everyone please don't waste time like me and study hard! Only a few months left.
Stick to it and grab the wheel back from the procrastination monkey! :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: eloisegrace on August 13, 2021, 08:28:17 pm
Yesterday I received my Methods SAC back: exactly 90%, pretty much the exact raw 40 cutoff score on exam 2. Now, I don't want to be that person who complains... but I did think I'd get a slightly higher mark seeing as I found it so easy. Maybe I'm just way too confident for my own good? What if the actual exam is difficult? What do I do when I can only scrape together the bare minimum mark during a relatively simple, single-topic test? Sigh. It's still meant to be a good score, so I'll just be happy with it. I hope I've still got enough time to improve, else I'll have to really focus on Chem to save my med hopes and dreams.
May I just say that 90% is way above what you need for a raw 40 in methods - I got ~82% on exam 2 (with 87% on exam 1) and I got a raw 42. I also never got 90% on methods SACs, so you are in great stead!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on August 19, 2021, 04:56:57 pm
Replies
Stick to it and grab the wheel back from the procrastination monkey! :)
HAHA, I'll be sure to slam the brakes on that pesky thing! xd

May I just say that 90% is way above what you need for a raw 40 in methods - I got ~82% on exam 2 (with 87% on exam 1) and I got a raw 42. I also never got 90% on methods SACs, so you are in great stead!
Thank you so much for that insight Eloise, that's so reassuring to hear! Hopefully I can just nail the exam then, fingers crossed. I drip with the burning flames of jealousy when I see those amazing maths results- you did absolutely phenomenal! Hopefully I can live up to those standards too~ good luck with what we've got left of year 12 and keep pushing on!
Another day, another three compulsive UCAT website visits in hopes of seeing preliminary test stats. I can't believe the testing period is literally over already- every prospective med student, their key to entry is already somewhere out there. (or maybe I should think about why I'm describing percentile scores like soulmates?)

The start of exam prep
It's mid-August and we all know what that means! AHAhaha! I finally did my first Chem practice exam over the last two days and oh dear god was it NOT a smooth experience. Maybe it's because it was a 2013 paper (Lisachem), but I struggled so much throughout and kept making stupid mistakes when I thought I'd fully figured out what was going on. I got 11 multiple choice questions out of 30 wrong?!?!? The titrations content especially, since I haven't so much as thought about it since 1/2. It's so demoralising but what are the alternatives right (sigh). Methods is still going all right and I'm hoping to get a start on Eng Lang soon. At least one full exam before the holidays would be good so hopefully I'll actually do it TT

Uni plans
I don't think I've ever talked much about plans for next year (other than desperately chasing med), and that's because I'm... admittedly not sure what else I look into. Here's my rather barren VTAC preference list so far:

Is this even a list
1. Medicine - School Leaver Entry (F/T) (Monash University, Clayton)
2. Biomedicine (F/T, P/T) (University Of Melbourne (The), Parkville)
I guess I've been so focused on these two degrees, I haven't given much thought to what happens if neither works out. Blame the stupid ATAR calculators for giving me false hope probably. It's probably kind of conceited, but I sometimes find myself thinking of Melbourne Biomed as my 'fall back' course, as if I'm guaranteed to get in. It's a minimum of 96.00, not really a piece of cake. What am I thinking?

For a while I wanted to study music (possibly even abroad). It seemed like such a dream to do one of my hobbies for a living, but over time I started to realise that it wasn't just as simple as that. Music is definitely a really intense pursuit; my teacher constantly describes how lots of her fellow students didn't eat unless they were on the brink of fainting because they thought it was a waste of valuable practice time!? Yeah, fair enough that was Russia, but I'm just not cut out for that. Except for those lucky few maestros and concert performers, music degrees almost inevitably lead to teaching, which I'm not sure I want to do. Anyways, I'm thinking of putting down Radiology at Melbourne, or even Optometry etc. I'm fairly certain the medical field is what I want to do, and I wouldn't mind studying either at all! I hope I can be sure of my preferences soon though; fingers crossed I'll at least have finalised my course list a few weeks before deadline : //

I'd better leave it here before I use up all the time I'm meant to be studying on mindless rambling. Stay safe, push on through this week, and keep working hard (instead of hardly working like someone... aha) :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on August 28, 2021, 05:16:32 pm
(https://snapshotserengeti.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/zombie.gif)
Days until start of exams: 61

My last real year-12-style hell week starts in a few days. I really can't believe how fast this year has gone (wonder how time also slows down the second I open Living Lingo... hmm); although it's already my third time going through a full VCE year, it never seems true that the end could be so close. What a relief though, I can't wait to just empty my brain and bank account when exams are over. It's such a cliche but it really is kinda exhilarating to be so close to the end of high school- something we've given a pretty massive chunk of our lives to for 4 years. Better not get excited too early though, or my ATAR won't be any cause for celebration XD

In honour of the remaining 24 full days of year 12, here's a good ol' fashioned subject update:

Eng Lang

(https://www.process.st/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/how-to-read-more-reading-gif.gif)

Ah, one of my dearly beloved top 4. Oh how sorely I miss the sweet embrace of discourse analysis every moment I'm away~ (I don't)
Tuesday holds my last ever (U4 AOS2) SAC: a comparative (?!?@?@!$#%!@%) AC focusing on individual and group identity. This is definitely a weird one; having asked my tutor (who is an assessor), comparatives apparently aren't examinable anywhere in the course. What is my school thinking? smh. Anyway, I still wrote a few practice pieces for this SAC just to get an idea of what my teacher wants because I don't want to drag GA2 through the mud, but I'd rather not spend too much more time on it.

I've properly started exam prep now too, so cheers to the procrastination monkey for, at long last, leaving me alone! VCAA 2012 was my first paper (don't ask why I chose VCAA 2012 okay) and it was surprisingly easy! Seems like all the time I spent targeting each section helped a lot as I actually didn't go overtime or anything, which was a huge surprise for a routine 2000-word-writer like me xd. The Eng Lang trial exam is also coming up on the last day of term, so hopefully everything keeps going as (suspiciously) smoothly as it has in the last while.

Methods

(https://media0.giphy.com/media/4QER0v8n6c5uRrp3dO/giphy.gif?cid=790b76116e3579f9692f239fd8efc27b0a3e748180dfd2c1&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

My class has almost finished content for the year, only the last bit of chapter 17 probability to go. I'm so happy to have pretty much the whole course under my belt by now! It feels crazily powerful somehow that I can now do full practice exams without going 0-0 at the sight of X~N(). Methods has been pretty much my favourite all year, so I really hope I can prepare myself well and snag some worthy exam marks.

The probability SAC was due to be in week 9 but has since been moved to the second day of term 4 (because Delta... why). I guess that's not all a bad thing; at least that gives me more time for Chem/Lang and more exam revision before my last assessment. Fingers crossed I'll make good use of my time and after plenty of exam papers, a single-topic SAC will be a piece of cake come next term.

Chemistry

(https://www.fg-a.com/science/chemistry-chemist-at-work-2018.gif)

Food chemistry has been a really pleasant surprise: having remembered almost all the crossover content from Bio and heard of most of the digestive processes, it's been a really cruisy area for me! A lot of questions almost just seem like common sense, especially the ones about GI (asking whether cake or veggies are healthier? xd). Aside from U4 AOS3, I definitely feel most secure with U3: all those organic questions throw me off sometimes and U4 feels much more intricate on the whole.

I haven't made as much progress on exam prep as I'd hoped: that practice I tried last time left my brain cell slightly harrowed so it's my only one so far. Over the last few days I've fully finished up on content though; although it's not much compared to *those* kids who start exam prep by term 2, but it's definitely still a relief. During Bio last year I only managed to cover the entire course by the end of September, so as far as I’m concerned it’s still... an improvement xd

As the school year starts to inch closer to its end, this is probably gonna be one of my last updates before next term or even exams. Freedom is so close I can almost taste it TT but anyway, best of luck to everyone for any remaining SACs and assessments. Hopefully I'll maintain the burst of worth ethic and motivation I've been having (Erik Satie vibes... mans had a daily inspiration session 10:23-11:47 am to stick to). Cheerio for now :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: lm21074 on August 28, 2021, 05:51:10 pm
I love the GIFs (especially the chem one)!

I hope that your 'hell week' goes as well as it possibly can :)

Best of luck for the exam prep wingdings! You've got this.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 01, 2021, 10:14:28 am
I love the GIFs (especially the chem one)!

I hope that your 'hell week' goes as well as it possibly can :)

Best of luck for the exam prep wingdings! You've got this.

gasp LM?! Noticed me?! AHA thank you so much for the support though; best of luck for your last few assessments too! Demolish those papers and walk out of the room pumping the guns in bicep-kissing triumph (backed by battle victory music if possible). Keep going, you'll crush it (you'd better or else risk being imprisoned in a GIF for eternity) XD
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 03, 2021, 02:35:48 pm
Days until start of exams: 55

Hello hello! You may be wondering how I'm actually on time with this update. And to that my answer is: I am officially assessment-free for the term! I know I say this every term but what a relief it is to have the heavy, heavy burden of metabolic facts and individual identity analysis lighten for a minute.

(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/68c6d9d2-aa52-4bc9-963f-01b64b26ed75/d3gekfa-fee71c6c-e4cc-4edb-8443-85f87e2e32d6.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzY4YzZkOWQyLWFhNTItNGJjOS05NjNmLTAxYjY0YjI2ZWQ3NVwvZDNnZWtmYS1mZWU3MWM2Yy1lNGNjLTRlZGItODQ0My04NWY4N2UyZTMyZDYuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.-dk3ydKwJ4PBzgerwLMAuLiqFLifFFcfnFprbqolWE8)

My Tuesday, last ever Eng Lang SAC went quite swimmingly as a surprise! It was extremely annoying having to still hand write, scan, and upload my papers and the two texts we were given to compare analyse (the task was an AC) were a bit of an odd choice: a social media post and a TV interview addressing completely different topics. I actually managed three full pages in an hour, although I got so caught up annotating the text I forgot to do a plan (compulsory) until the last four minutes. Sigh at least the plan doesn't have any marks allocated, so hopefully those four dot points will suffice. xd

The next day, I had the U4 AOS2 Chemistry SAC. This one went all right but it wasn't optimal; not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't an iodine number question, stereoisomers that I thought were a part of AOS1, as well as practically nothing on hydrolysis (?!?!?!). There were quite a few easy marks in the multiple choice and I answered everything reasonably in terms of bonding so I really hope I secured at least 85%. Either way, at least a few very mediocre Bio SAC scores didn't ruin my 40+ chances so fingers crossed it's the same this year...

What is the chemistry of food?
Yesterday was my mum's birthday and I spent two hours assembling a Mont Blanc cake that my dad baked. Yes, the chestnut paste was ridiculously thick, yes my makeshift ziploc piping bag broke from the sheer viscosity, and yes I literally ate some of it by the spoonful (who would refuse a chef's treat?). It turned out looking a little like a pile of soba in the middle but I regret nothing. If only studying the hydrolysis of carbohydrates, triglycerides, and amino acids was as easy as well... doing it.
Here's a picture for your eyes to savour ;D:

Doing Bruce Bogtrotter proud
(https://i.imgur.com/qEVWwHg.jpeg)
UCAT percentiles
In other news, after a month of anticipation, UCAT prelim stats finally appeared a few days ago! When I glimpsed that fateful PDF, our friend the CAS practically lept into my hands. Teachers everywhere must be basking in the ultimate I-told-you-so moment right now as it proves Methods actually does have real-life applications. Several erroneous typings from my fat sausage fingers later, I arrived at an answer.

Percentile estimate
94.6910~95%ile
Even though I got the Z-score wrong twice, I can't believe I might actually get through to MMIs. An opportunity to study medicine is actually within reach?!? It really feels like a dream but I shouldn't lose sight of how important ATAR is now: I must! not! slack off! All we can do is remember that only the last and maybe hardest quarter of the year remains now, so it is crucial to stay on track.

Anyways, I shouldn't really be babbling on ATARNotes instead of studying much more >.<
Happy Friday as always, and hope everybody has a good weekend! :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Marylen on September 05, 2021, 07:41:42 pm
My reaction is akin to Kevin's when I see a journal update from the honourable WingDings:

Who needs a calendar when Windings is in the house?

I am so jelly that you are free of SACS for this term! I still have two sacs left - two for accounting and our poster sac for chem! I'm totally licking my lips whilst gazing hungrily at that Mont Blanc cake. Is it odd for me to think that I don't see the soba resemblance of the paste but instead, see cooked spaghetti bolognaise without the tomato sauce?... And late congrats for your super impressive results! Your UCAT score looks so impressive im confident that youll be getting into med. I'll be throwing a covid safe riot if youre not invited to the mmis. 🩺

PS: I love the sheer motivation in your posts. I can feel it oozing through the screen, slapping my face and giving me a solemn reminder to study instead of going onto atarnotes! (not afraid to admit that im a master porcrastinator)

- Mary ❣
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 08, 2021, 10:53:11 am
Marylen
MARY!! As a pretty seasoned Office watcher, my eyes water with respect for you (much to the chagrin of the rest of the branch)  ;D Thank you so much though, I really do appreciate your reply. I must concede, I could not resist re-enacting this moment as I opened the Lindt container yesterday xd

Sir Mont Blanc says hi. I definitely see the spaghetti now (dedformed don't be upsetti) but as our lord Joey once said:
Our dear sir is like my U4 AOS1 shrine now- glucose, fructose, sucrose, high GI, triglycerides? He's the complete package. He wants you to know that every day from his humble dwelling on the third shelf of the fridge, he is cheering you on. Keep pushing, I know you can get through this! I believe in you <3
Huh, what?! Another update? But it's only been a few days! I know, but I couldn't resist! What else am I meant to do, study? How do you do that?
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/94/f5/4c94f55219a2f805a860432a07bc2ddb.gif)
It definitely feels like we're inching into the most turbulent part of the year now: the last bit of Chem content was finished in class today, so the study periods are filling up my schedule like crazy. (I just realised how contradictory that sounds but... anything to maintain the illusion right...) It's so strange to practically already be on SWOTVAC at the end of term 3! As a result of not having classes, I've started listening to music 24/7 (huh as if I didn't already spend at least four hours a day shouting WHAT?! thinking I heard my name). I know it's supposed to be bad for studying, but Mariah Carey screaming OH WHEN YOU WALK BY EVERY NIGHT~ TALKIN' SWEET AND LOOKIN' FINE~ through my headphones just makes those dry, dry Methods exercises way more fun.

Also, I'm getting my first dose of Pfizer today! I called the hotline a grand total of 123 times on Monday and luckily managed to move my appointment forward by two and a half weeks. I'm really glad to be getting it; definitely provides peace of mind for exams, especially since I avoid visiting even essential stores if I can for fear of them turning into exposure sites. My parents are already fully vaccinated, so after I'm done my brother will be more protected as well (he's too young to get the jab).

VTAC update
After talking to the careers counselor this week (ahem making her give my small brain a complete rundown of the VTAC system and application process), I think I finally get the whole ordeal a lot more. Submitted SEAS and have filled in the rest of my course list. Here's my new list:

Spoiler
1. Medicine - School Leaver Entry (Monash University, Clayton)
2. Biomedicine (University Of Melbourne (The), Parkville)
3. Radiography and Medical Imaging (Honours) (Monash University, Clayton)
4. Biomedicine/Optometry (University Of Melbourne (The), Parkville)
5. Biomedicine/Dental Surgery (University Of Melbourne (The), Parkville)
6. Biomedical Science (Monash University, Clayton)
7. Science (University Of Melbourne (The), Parkville)
8. Science/Biomedical Science (Monash University, Clayton) (CSP Bachelor Degree)
I know that lots people who want to do med put down at least all three Monash options, but I don't really want to move away from home early on. It's just so expensive and would make it a million times harder to balance everything, so I think I could avoid that by just living at home throughout uni (I'm really lucky to have short commute either way- 15 minute bus ride to Monash, half an hour on the train for Melbourne). Also, spending so much time away from family seems pretty daunting and with the constantly changing COVID situation, even if I miraculously got into med bonded or interstate, I don't think I'd realistically be able to accept. Melbourne Biomed is definitely my most preferred if I don't make med; there's a scheme that guarantees a place in post-grad audiology if you can maintain a 75+ average throughout undergrad. I think it could be a good option as there's also the GAMSAT and other masters degrees if I change my mind, whereas getting into post-grad med in Monash seems much more complicated. I'm pretty happy with these preferences so I don't think I'll make many more changes, maybe aside from shuffling around the bottom ones a bit.

Subject updates
In 50 days, I cannot wait to be finished with Eng Lang once and for all. My tutor expects me to get 45+, which is definitely reassuring but those are some big shoes to fill... and I'm afraid of having rather small feet. Two full practice exams down, I feel like my biggest challenge is still time pressure: it's so hard to finish on time when there aren't time restrictions on each section. Someone tell me how not to think just one more sentence until another half an hour has gone by. I suppose you'll never have enough time to cover everything you want to so it's just a matter of picking and choosing.

Methods is my hope, pride, joy, and only inspiration nowadays. Not sure why but Methods exams are just 10,000,000 times easier than Eng Lang and Chem. So many marks require so little work; Find the derivative of y is no match for Identify the social purpose of the text. Our school purchased around 50 commercial sets and so far I've gotten through 2016-2017 for Insight and Heffernan, as well as a couple early VCAA ones too. I never thought I'd say this, but the more familiar I become with Methods, the more I prefer tech able over tech free. The CAS, although an absolute pain in the !@# sometimes, just saves so much time and gives me peace of mind with dumb mistakes. Chemistry hahaha... is just not my friend. I feel a bit guilty about it, having TSFX and everything, but this subject has been so slack recently. I'm so demotivated for it, and not sure why since I thought it'd be an easy subject because of its similarity to Bio. After a slightly disappointing experience with the most recent SAC, Heinemann 2 has sat all alone untouched on my desk for a week already. sigh I really need to pick myself back up and learn titrations and fuels, or else suffer in 62 days.

Even though I'm meant to be working harder and using the extra time to my advantage, I can't wait for the holidays. Yes, classes have practically finished for me, but I don't know, it's a mental shift that happens when school finishes. I'm really hoping I can just channel pure motivation and dedication in those two weeks because they really can impact your performance; although I'm happy with how I did in Bio last year, I slacked off near the end and was disappointed when the exam tested mostly my unconfident areas. Hopefully this journal will keep me accountable as I really can't afford any more excuses and procrastination.

Whew! Wishing all fellow year 12s a very cruisy time through the rest of our last-ever term 3! Stay safe, work hard, and be sure to rest as well. :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 16, 2021, 11:04:05 pm
Days until start of exams: 42

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 10:44 pm procrastination!
After being hit with a bout of inspiration seeing everyone's journal updates, I'm just popping in to declare that I haven't died yet as I'm too tired to do the rest of the Eng Lang work I said I'd do before bed. Oh well...

The past week has technically been an easy one for me, since I finished up on SACs for the term quite a while ago now: only two left to go, both in week 1 when school goes back. However, with my Eng Lang trial exam tomorrow, I have been frantically trying to improve my exam-taking skills since Sunday. Although the paper (which is the 2021 VATE one) was released to the cohort on Monday, I planned to do it tomorrow since I didn't feel ready yet. I wanted to replicate exam conditions, especially since this is my only chance to have a full paper externally marked, so I did not one, not two, but three entire timed practice exams this week to practice for a practice exam. To be completely honest, I'm shocked that I even could get through it- heck, at the start of the year, writing an AC meant slaving away and spending all day trying to scrape together two coherent body paragraphs. I really can't believe that in six weeks time, I'll never have to think about social purpose or register ever ever again- as cliche as it is, VCE is a marathon, but it's quickly turning into the final sprint...

Anyways, my brain cell is close to losing its grammatical sense and I really should sleep early in preparation for my 'exam' tomorrow morning, so I won't ramble on much more (of course, for now that is... I wouldn't ever deprive y'all of my genius duh). I seriously can't wait to just immediately migrate to the couch and binge watch/eat the minute I submit it T^T

Happy (almost) start of holidays my friends, and I'll update again, more conclusively, soon~
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 21, 2021, 10:25:51 pm
Days until start of exams: 37

(https://c.tenor.com/ETfVFhX1lwAAAAAM/panda-tired-at-work.gif)

Just like that, the holidays are already underway. It doesn't even feel like five days already since I last updated?! At this rate, before I know it I'll be middle aged xd

Last Friday was the 2021 VATE Eng Lang trial exam and actually: it went all right? It felt kind of daunting at first but once I sat down I got right into it. Scanning over the section A and B texts during reading time, I was a little scared since they seemed a little dry (mostly that AC material- what on earth could be more analyse-able than 'kitchens with long walls' right) but think I managed to make the most of it. I went with the Australian English/identity prompt for the essay, which I won't say was a hot mess on the whole, but my intro certainly was. On the whole, it could've been a bit better but I think I'm happy with it. Why do I think about this paper so much after submitting it?? It counts for a fat 0% of my study score yet I treat it with more importance than my SACs. Alas, someone please straighten my priorities ;-;

I'm trying to commit to a quite ambitious amount of work before term 4. In the past, I've never been able to stick to my plans for the whole holidays so HOPEFULLY this will be the year that I finally prove that I do indeed have discipline. Procrastination monkey, if you're listening, you're facing eviction soon! I quake in my boots every time I see the amount of days left (7 weeks until no VCE ever again...?!?!??!) and then I feel like time is slipping away every minute I'm not studying. Then why am I starting American Vandal on Netflix and writing this journal update you ask? Sigh... it's time to get it together, wingdings!!!

A list of everything I want to do during the holidays:
- Get out of bed by 8 every morning (we all know this isn't happening but still)
- Exercise (even less likely but... it's the thought that counts ok?!)
- Eng Lang 2015-2018 VCAA exams
- Methods 2009-2015 VCAA, rest of MAV exams
- Chemistry 2014-2017 VCAA, TSFX/Lisachem exams
- Revise fuels/titrations content for Chem
- Write at least two identity essays under timed conditions
- Cut down Eng Lang exam times to 1h 55m
- Make a practice report for U4 AOS3 Chem SAC

peSANte, or pesant?
On another note, I thought I would share some of my favourite study albums! I prefer classical above all when doing work because it's so calming. Not sure if it's an unpopular opinion but I like cello much, much more than violin; although I still like violin, cello is just so resonant and rich (maybe some of those violin cadenzas sound a little like... mosquitoes... sorry Paganini I said nothing), I love the sound so much. Fun fact: I was supposed to be a cello player but my parents enrolled me in piano first because it's easier for a little kid to pick up at first. Then I just never transferred :D
Anyway, enough rambling. Here they are:
Cello Music from Proust's Salons
Après un rêve (Mischa Maisky)
Johann Sebastian Bach (Víkingur Ólafsson)
Franck, Grieg, and Dvorak: Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Renaud Capuçon)
Suite from Where the Rainbow Ends (Quilter, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra) (definitely didn't steal this from AMEB grade 5 book)
By Request (Renée Fleming)
Also I'm getting my second vaccine dose next week, which I'm not extremely eager for since it's meant to be the killer when it comes to symptoms. Still glad as I'll be fully immunised before going back to school! I'm not even sure how much I'll be going to school to be honest; since classes have effectively wrapped already, is it even worth the effort just to sit in the library for 'independent revision'? :o Ah, I suppose I'll have to drag myself in since the GAT and I do want to see my friends again. Life feels a little dry nowadays; although it's not like I wouldn't still be a homebody if the pandemic never happened, I still want to option to leave the house sometimes :-(

Who's always talking about studying but never really studying? Anyway, I really hope that exam prep won't be too rocky a road from here on out; after all, med is my goal, and I won't get there if I don't work for it. If I can't find motivation, I've just got to suck it up and stop posting on ATARNotes!

Hope everybody has a good holidays filled with both rest and productivity. Now stop reading this and get back to work! (jks xd but no really)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on September 30, 2021, 11:57:40 am
Days until start of exams: 28

Hiya everybody! Your one and only, double-vaxxed without symptoms, absolute favourite procrastinator back here in an attempt to escape from marking practice exams (which is somehow even more dreadful than doing them...)

I hope everyone's had a great holidays so far. The days fly by so quickly, I can't believe there's less than a week until school goes back. It feels kind of surreal actually having to put on the uniform and haul myself there (and by that I mean sit my licence-less butt in the car, get driven, and still manage to complain) after such a long time away. One thing that's been a huge annoyance is that I didn't go to school on the day that lockdown was announced, hence leaving half of my Chem resources, all the ACs and essays I've written in a year, and my scientific calculator in my locker, so I sure am looking forward to sweet reprieve >.<

With less than a month until the beginning of the final boss fight, I think I've made decent progress in the last week or so. As a pre-emptive way to make up for the inevitable second-week slack, I set out to do two practice exams a day for the first half, leaving me now with mostly easy but rather uninspiring tasks such as editing essays, going over content, making flashcards etc. To my own surprise, I've so far successfully resisted the urge to succumb to the grip of Netflix during study sessions (s.o to Marylen for staying so disciplined in spite of Squid Game and motivating me to do the same!); definitely reassuring to know that I'll never again have to exercise that self-control after November 9th xd

Holiday progress:
- Got out of bed by 8:30 every day and 8:30 is basically 8:00 say I'm right say it
- Actually did exercise?! I picked up HIIT workouts (youtube of course xd) and they're actually not too awful
- Eng Lang 2012-2016 VCAA and 2013 VATE
- Chemistry 2013-2015 VCAA (lol really thought I was going to do 10 exams...)
- Titrations content revision (yay)
- Methods 2009-2013 VCAA, 2018-2019 MAV
- Practice report for U4 AOS3 Chem SAC

Haven't finished:
- Two identity essays (sigh)
- Fuels content revision (loud sigh)
- Cut down Eng Lang exam times
- Methods company exams
- Two more Eng Lang and Chemistry exams each

(https://miro.medium.com/max/1000/1*xTV_l3RAEocW6zzp7OWspg.gif)

Eng Lang
I wanted to do about 8 exams this holidays, and it looks like I can get there but I kind of doubt how much my Eng Lang study actually works. Especially since my tutor advised me to pick U4-based essays, I feel like I'm almost getting to the copy/paste point, which is meant to be good, but I can't shake the feeling that I've stagnated in quality. The absolute worst thing ever about wordy subjects is that it's so hard to self mark; aside from short answer questions, giving realistic marks for section B and C is next to impossible, and my tutor only has so much time after all. My consistent exam time of 2h 20m is not looking particularly nice at this point either; although I usually don't include reading time (sniff do I smell lazy), 20 whole minutes over just to finish the whole exam seems... a little shaky. I seriously need to take care of the time issue soon or else suffer in 4 weeks (4 weeks?!) ;-;

Methods
My love Methods. I've focused on Methods revision in the last month so much that I used up my CAS batteries again in a few weeks (compared to three terms last year... ahem...) and I'm starting to feel good about the exam. My times are down to ~40 minutes for exam 1 and ~1h 40m for exam 2, averaging around 110-115/120. Honestly the papers are starting to get repetitive and I keep sitting down to a practice exam thinking 'seriously? This again?', but the thought of the real exam still absolutely petrifies me. Those silly mistakes still bother me so much; I'll sometimes be forced to lose an entire mark because of one incorrect sign, or a 2 that somehow became a 5. I need to figure out a way to stop my brain from processing exactly the same, mistake-ridden way when I check my answers but I would say Methods is definitely my most confident subject at this point.

Chemistry
If only I could reach my flashpoint in order to auto-ignite and spontaneously combust, I'd be free from the wrath of rinsing techniques and IUPAC naming forever. xd believe it or not, I don't hate Chem as much as I dramatically proclaim in every single post; some of the content is actually pretty interesting (I love zwitterions), but the sheer load is just... so hard to keep up with. I feel like even the multiple choice questions require knowledge of so. many. concepts and multi-step calculations, whereas with Bio you could usually rule out half the options with just a glance of the question. I know good study should consist of practice exams, practice exams, and more practice exams (parallelism, listing, repetition, and the adjectival intensifier 'more' to create emphasis) but I'm not even caught up with all the content. I feel like I've let down Chemistry so much this year, especially considering that I have TSFX, so hopefully I'll be able to take a U-turn and not let all of that tutoring go to waste.

(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/FrankCheapDodo-max-1mb.gif)

Ah, thanks for once again tuning into my rambling session. I know I complain a lot, so I hope this doesn't sour everyone's mood! Please stay safe and stay strong; the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer and soon we'll reap the rewards of a hard year's effort. Until next time, take care, rest up, and have a wonderful return to school~
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on October 04, 2021, 03:02:45 pm
(https://i.imgur.com/otsSlih.gif)

Days until start of exams: 24

It's the first day of term 4! It's pouring like crazy right now and I'm just dropping in for a quick update before my last class for the day. The effective SWOTVAC is basically just continuing, and nothing feels much different than holidays honestly. I've had kind of a slow day so far, just doing some multiple choice questions, marking practice papers, lightly reviewing some content. It's nice to step back from studying like my life depends on it, even during exam prep.

I got my Eng Lang VATE trial exam back today and am honestly quite shocked, in both ways: I thought I'd just breezed through the short answer but the AC and essay came as a pretty big surprise:

results
Section A: 11/15
Section B: 27/30
Section C: 29/30
It's funny too, because apparently our cohort had performed quite well in short answer but not as much in the latter sections? (non-standard use of question mark as a hedging device, indicating uncertainty through an implied HRT) I'd always thought of section A as my area of confidence, which I could simply sweep through collecting marks, so it looks like I'll have to work a little harder on my short answer technique. I didn't think I'd ever be able to get more than 22-23 on section B and C; I'm so shocked, I don't know whether to be more confident, or more doubtful. I'm very happy with the results overall; although I could've done better with section A, I'd be overjoyed if I could replicate anything like this on the real thing.

GAT tomorrow. SACs for two days after. Methods trial exam on Friday. I'm daunted by them all, even the GAT this time around because I've heard there is a spooky consistent correlation between GAT scores and real study scores (that predicted raw 32 in English from last year isn't looking too juicy...). That being said, I am happy to finally start getting everything over and done with; what I get is what I get. Seeing as the assessments I've got aren't even heavily weighted, I'll try and just let the pre-emptive score calculations and overthinking go.

And that's all from me for now. Good luck if you're doing the GAT tomorrow, and with any final SACs and assessments coming up. Have a break, have a kitkat, and keep at it :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: dedformed on October 11, 2021, 08:54:10 pm
scrolling a bit on AN today and finally binge read this up to date. WEE HAWW WE GOT ALMOST THE SAME SCORE FOR THE VATE EXAM. Twins idk yaaay ( <-- attempt at closing social distance and building in group membership. Use of phonological patterning to lower register, emulate real life speech and build social proximity.

I love your journal and the little gifs on top of the timer. I recently followed someone with the same username as you on Instagram, but turns out it was just a namesake. So that was awkward. But putting this here for future record: thank you for our conversations and good luck!

Not gonna comment on the KitKat sponsorship secret coded into the GAT greeting.

- Cantalope
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on October 12, 2021, 09:10:11 pm
dedformed
scrolling a bit on AN today and finally binge read this up to date. WEE HAWW WE GOT ALMOST THE SAME SCORE FOR THE VATE EXAM. Twins idk yaaay ( <-- attempt at closing social distance and building in group membership. Use of phonological patterning to lower register, emulate real life speech and build social proximity.

I love your journal and the little gifs on top of the timer. I recently followed someone with the same username as you on Instagram, but turns out it was just a namesake. So that was awkward. But putting this here for future record: thank you for our conversations and good luck!

Not gonna comment on the KitKat sponsorship secret coded into the GAT greeting.

- Cantalope

HEEE WAWWW go Penelope!! I really appreciate your use of non-standard orthography to compensate for the lack of prosody in the written mode, successfully reducing social distance between interlocutors, building rapport, and promoting a sociable individual identity.

Alas, as much as chocolate is a cornerstone in my life, I can only dream of being sponsored by kitkat (or dare I say... the kitGAT). On a recent expedition to Coles I secured my pre-exam rations, so hopefully kitkat will finally acknowledge my love and loyalty when they see the tsunami of wrappers erupting out of my pockets. Exam prep sure is like having your fortieth bar, so why not make it forty one (or two... or three) right?

Not gonna comment on that username (are you REALLY sure it wasn't me? ??? jks)
Days until start of exams: 16

A day overdue for my update. Maybe it's because I ate an apple yesterday, keeping the doctor away (yeah... I wish ;-;)

I finished SACs forever last week and they were both all right. All the questions on the Methods SAC were super standard, and the data given for the Chem AOS3 SAC actually wasn't too bad so... fingers crossed they went well. The GAT wasn't too bad either; I spent forever writing the essays which are honestly kind of a gamble (still wondering how that... story about a Martian radio broadcast... in 2019 scored 10 marks higher than what I thought was a soundly presented body of information last year). The maths/science questions were eh. I'm afraid I cannot speak on the camels.

The end of school
Starting on Thursday, I'm staying at home completely as a precaution for exams. I just don't want to risk having to isolate into exam period; after an entire year of effort towards this, I honestly think I'd faint if that really happened.

I cleared out my locker today. Piano sheets I photocopied from when I used to practice at school, old SAC papers, notes from my friends, the lab coat that's resided there for a year. Coming back to that locker after lockdown was so strange; everything still exactly how I'd left it in July, littered with AOS1 papers. It was like digging up some sort of three-month time capsule. It's funny how much happens in a year; sometimes I feel like an old lady reminiscing on her youth when in fact a year is a huge percentage of my whole life.

I can't believe tomorrow is my last day of high school. It's really going to be over, forever. I'm never going to check compass for the billionth time in a day to see whether I have Chem or Methods again. I'll never spend another dreadful hour counting down the minutes to 3:20, or think about strategies of spoken discourse, or scroll through the VCE subreddit with my friends, or probably even play piano in public ever again. It feels strange, but still I'm glad.

Studying
I think I might be slowly beginning to get there. Things are starting to look familiar from paper to paper, which is reassuring, but I've definitely still got some ground left to cover. Time is still presenting just a wee bit of a challenge for Eng Lang, so with only two weeks on the clock I really, really have to stop finishing 20 minutes too late. I'm going for a section A, section C, section B approach so that if I actually run out of time during the exam, at least I didn't leave a question blank or an essay unconcluded.

Remaining exam prep:
   - 7 Chem practice exams
   - 8 sets of Methods practice exams
   - 8 Eng Lang exams
   - At least 3 timed Eng Lang section Bs
   - Revise redox titrations, scientific method, HPLC, protein structure (seriously? after Bio??)
   - Methods bound reference (help)

I especially need to get started on my bound reference, I've certainly put it off for way too long and it sounds stupid but I'm not even sure what to put on it. Do I just write down the really niche terminology that appears in a corner of the textbook? The entire textbook's worth of content? CAS shortcuts? Admittedly, for all my SACs this year I just chose not to make one because I thought 'oh the formula sheet's already there', 'if I need to look at the reference, that just means I didn't study enough', or 'I'd rather be doing practice questions'. I've always heard that for most people, the bound reference really is just a safety blanket. It's there more for reassurance and worst case scenarios than as an important information source. Hopefully I'll scrape something together soon because otherwise I won't even have my blankie when worst comes to worst : [

Anyways, I realise this is getting pretty long (if only I'd write Eng Lang essays instead of this...) xd. Thank you for making it this far, I can't imagine that it's that entertaining. I hope everyone finds a last burst of determination in them and gives it their all for the final stretch.


A song from my favourite U2 to end the update- because we really are Faraway, So Close!
Until next time~
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on October 19, 2021, 08:43:56 pm
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/55/87/32/55873259fbc0ab55571eb2598ee86234.gif)
Days until start of exams: 9

Hello and greetings from your favourite dingbat font~ ;D

As the countdown enters the single-digit territory, so does the number of brain cells that are still in my skull. I vividly remember being obsessed with Andy Griffiths in primary school; in my eyes, Just Crazy! was a piece of literature surpassed by none, and I remember once reading that his favourite word as a kid was 'doom'. It does make sense; from plastering across skeleton cartoons to complaining about vegetables, 'doom' fits the bill for humour. Now I only wish I could laugh at the doom that looms in what is essentially a week.

It's crazy that this is probably the last post I'll make before exams. The next time I'm back here, typing at the dining table which I've written this entire journal from, I'll already have sat down at and gotten up from a plastic desk in the gym more than once. 7 hours and 30 minutes, sampling a small proportion of all the knowledge we've worked for a year to accumulate. It really does feel surreal.

I have no clue where I stand in my readiness for the 28th of October; exam prep is just repetitive by now and I can't help but start to lose steam. At the most crucial moment, the darkest hour of VCE, how could I lose sight of the end goal? Day by day, I still do the work, trudge through the practice exams, begrudgingly mark my own essays, but I sometimes wonder whether it makes a difference. It really is quite funny how I'm always saying that time slips away like sand through my fingers, yet sometimes apathetically act as if there's no more to be done.

My last VCE to-do list:
- Eng Lang VATE 2017-2020
- Chemistry 2020 VCAA, 2021 NHT, 2021 Lisachem
- Methods 2018-2020 VCAA, 2021 NHT

I'm not sure what I'll do when I come home from each exam. Last year, I full on celebrated and went out with my mum as soon as Biology was over (and by 'celebrate' I mean eating 4 times, and walking 17,000 steps, and coming home at 10 pm...), which clearly isn't viable this year. Should I start studying again the same night? It's kind of a dilemma; hammering more Chemistry facts into my post-exam brain seems like a shaky move, but the fear of compromising my marks is unrelenting. To be honest, it's what's kept me mostly on track through all of exam prep. I'll probably just see how dead I am after each treacherous trial, and whether I'll be able to hear anything without it going out the other ear.

As we continue to inch soberingly close to the finish line, I want to wish everyone the best of luck, whether you're doing your first or last 3/4s ever. If you've made it this far, you will undoubtedly be able to cover the distance that remains. Know that you've done all that you could, and give it your best shot. :)

(https://media1.giphy.com/media/xT9IgEYXCNqPZnqMuY/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on November 03, 2021, 04:52:12 pm
Sitting in my stiff plastic chair in the deathly quiet exam hall, I flipped through Methods exam 1 during reading time thinking pfft. Really? and oh thank god. Trying to differentiate expressions in my head. Smiling at the idea of donuts, thinking about Krispy Kremes. Perusing question 9, having a eureka moment.

Then I realised it slipped me.

\(q \neq 0\)

I literally have sworn to myself to never, ever skip out on domain and range. Made a point to underline restrictions in my practice exams. Did that for earlier questions in the exam. Now I've lost the entire separator question. Someone as imprecise as me couldn't just luck out on high accuracy for the rest of the paper either. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Anyway, I know I'm being dramatic but this honestly is so disappointing. The music written exam last year was worth 20%, practically the same weighting as this 22% exam, yet I treated it like a joke while I kick myself over today's performance. My strongest subject all year; now maybe doomed to the bottom. It doesn't even make much of an impact on my ATAR whether I get a 20 or a 50 in Methods but I just cannot believe how hard I let myself down. I know it doesn't help to dwell on what can't be changed but I admit I'm still hung up on what I wrote.

For the rest of the day, I guess all I can do is prepare for tomorrow; after all, it is the more important exam. Hopefully it'll go a little better than today; from smiling to myself as the invigilators took my error-riddled paper to regretting all the confidence I ever had in maths, I just want to set this straight. My bound reference is multi-coloured, 20 pages long, finished. 18 sets of practice exams complete. It's not the sort of incredible achievement that is ubiquitous on AN, but I did try. And now I talk about it as if it's already over when almost half of my study score is still in the air.

~So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space~
~And there's nothin' left here to remind me
Just the memory of positive face


Much more encouragingly, Eng Lang went very well. I'm happy with everything I wrote; finishing the short answer in 15 minutes, a slightly lengthy AC that I felt covered most important points, a fairly solid, fairly long essay that I made sure to link back to the topic every few sentences. During reading time, I was a little panicked, thoughts in some kind of jumbled amalgamation of social purposes and registers, struggling to pick an essay topic, so overall I would say I am satisfied with how I did.

I wasn't going to update until the end of exams but of course, felt that a pity party was absolutely necessary. I'm sorry for dampening the ecstasy of being free from yet another assessment; just want to grumble and gripe sometimes. Wishing everyone the best of luck with exam 2 as well as any other exams that remain. You've got this. :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on December 14, 2021, 10:00:31 am
The aftermath update

Hi again AN. More than a month has passed since exams ended for me with Chemistry on the 9th of November, so here I am, back to write a last update before tens of thousands of tortured students open their emails and apps to the most coveted numbers of the whole year.

Everything is finished. VCE is over. The class of 2021 will never study for a SAC, sit another nail-biting Methods exam, or maybe even undertake a test as significant ever again. There are 17 days left in the year. Less than two weeks until Christmas. 46 hours until results. As blueycan said, it's hard to believe that we won't be returning to school in the same cyclic way that grounds every year. We are actually leaving childhood, which seems too long awaited and too soon at the same time.

My exams went all right. I was very happy with Eng Lang initially, but increasingly less so as time goes on. Methods: eh. Chemistry was a real disappointment; the exam was simply nothing like the ones I've seen before and I just wrote some random things, hoping for the best as my hand just kind of scrawled autonomously. Not totally horrible but I wish things went differently. After sitting the papers each day, I scrutinised the suggested answers, exam discussion pages, and score prediction threads just like I promised myself I wouldn't. Bemoaned every lost mark even though it wasn't about to get me a higher ss. I don't want to dwell on what has already happened too much but it didn't go the way I expected.

HOWEVER, life is not all about VCE and it is time for a jest.

Since exams ended:
1) I found a job... or two... or three. Started in retail last Thursday and am teaching piano to two little girls. I had originally planned to take on a third one in food but it was already becoming a scheduling nightmare before I even started, so I backed out in the end. Working in retail isn't as hard as I had imagined; I never pictured myself saying in an enthusiastic voice hey how are you today and doing a bit of shopping today? without sounding fake, but it's not so bad after a few shifts. My piano students are probably the perfect ideal; responsive and talkative but still focused on learning their pieces. They're sisters and I'm thinking of teaching them a duet for Christmas :)

2) Cooked. So far I think I've made an apple crumble pie, pasta salad, stirfry, mocha loaf, and sushi, which honestly sounds like a lame accomplishment but I PROMISE I spent an entire ice age in the kitchen xdd. Christmas cooking is the best thing ever but I won't get to do much this year because I've been rostered every day until Christmas TT so guess I'm trying to make up for it already :'(

3) Sally Rooney obsession. I finished Normal People a long time ago (I think before year 12) and am reading Conversations With Friends now (and may or may not have impulse bought the latest Beautiful World, Where Are You... oops). To be honest before I ever read her books, I thought they'd be kind of pretentious and a little too immersed in the literature major world (IDK) but they are so. addictive. She doesn't use quotation marks anywhere, which is a really interesting thing because you can't always immediately tell who says what, or whether a particular sentence was said at all.

4) I watched soooo much TV and movies. The first thing I did was binge Squid Game, which was... oddly slow; kind of expected its appeal to come from a lot of action and super fast pace. The ending was a bit strange tbh and I didn't love it or hate it overall. The Power Of The Dog came out on Netflix a few days ago and it was really good. It's funny how little the characters actually talk in the movie but it's clear what transpires. I think two people who are feuding don't ever exchange a single word for the whole film. Still really want to go to the cinemas, which I still haven't done since before lockdown; I wanted to see The French Dispatch but not sure if it's still screening :-\

I can't think of much more to say at this point other than a big thank you to all my readers this year. The AN community is an amazing one that never fails to bring its members together and brighten the high school experience, no matter what. Thank you so much for following my VCE journey. All the support I've received, incredibly kind messages, and amazing friends I've made truly made my year 12 the best it could've been. I really hope that AN all get the results they deserve and reap the rewards of their hard work. I'll update again in two days.

Until then,
Wingdings ;)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: caffinatedloz on December 14, 2021, 06:29:59 pm

I can't think of much more to say at this point other than a big thank you to all my readers this year. The AN community is an amazing one that never fails to bring its members together and brighten the high school experience, no matter what. Thank you so much for following my VCE journey. All the support I've received, incredibly kind messages, and amazing friends I've made truly made my year 12 the best it could've been. I really hope that AN all get the results they deserve and reap the rewards of their hard work. I'll update again in two days.

Thank you for sharing your journey with us; it has been such a pleasure to get to read your journal. Wishing you luck with the waiting over the next two days!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: vehura on December 14, 2021, 11:27:51 pm
Hey! It's been really fun reading your journal through the year. I never managed to upkeep mine but yours was an amazing read, so thanks for that.  ;D

The aftermath update
I wanted to see The French Dispatch but not sure if it's still screening :-\

I actually saw this film on Saturday night and really enjoyed it! If you fancy a trip to Cinema Nova in Lygon St, it's one of their regular films and they have around 10 sessions of it a day I think. They've even changed the decor in the bar to match the film, it's really cute. If you get the chance to see it I really recommend it!

I look forward to reading the rest of what's to come for you :D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on December 16, 2021, 12:09:53 pm
*deep breath*

Today was the day. Sleeping a grand total of three hours, shakily pacing my room, making my drinking debut (I felt nothing… why)

So without further ado:

My results
English Language: 48 (?!?!!)
Mathematical Methods: 42 (?!1@82!;?&$&!?!?)
Chemistry: 39

ATAR: 99.75

I DID IT. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. I cannot and will not stop bouncing off the walls in pure shock (and perhaps sudden uptake of caffeine). If there is something that can be called ecstasy then this is it. A real chance to study medicine, what myself and many others dreamed about all through high school. I can’t possibly express how thankful I am (yes even with that small Chemistry flop… sigh all that tuition xd)

Once again, the support here on AN is just on a different level and I love all of you guys. I’ll update again in future when interview invites and uni offers come out!

A huge congrats to everybody who received their results today. You’ve all worked so hard and truly deserve all the success and happiness in the world.

Wishing everyone an amazing post-ATAR celebration,

~Wingdings
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on December 16, 2021, 12:15:07 pm
Congrats Wingdings. ;D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: lm21074 on December 16, 2021, 12:16:17 pm
What incredible results, Wingdings! Congratulations! :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: caffinatedloz on December 16, 2021, 12:27:42 pm
Congrats! What a fantastic result! How are you celebrating? ;D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Geoo on December 16, 2021, 01:02:21 pm
That's an incredible result! You should be so proud of yourself!!! I'm so happy for you, congratulations!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: dedformed on December 16, 2021, 06:52:19 pm
Amazed, but not surprised. Bless them with your presence you bean can!

Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: eloisegrace on December 17, 2021, 08:39:21 pm
What an incredible result! Congratulations, you worked so hard on this :)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: SmartWorker on December 17, 2021, 09:15:55 pm
*deep breath*

Today was the day. Sleeping a grand total of three hours, shakily pacing my room, making my drinking debut (I felt nothing… why)

So without further ado:

My results
English Language: 48 (?!?!!)
Mathematical Methods: 42 (?!1@82!;?&$&!?!?)
Chemistry: 39

ATAR: 99.75

I DID IT. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. I cannot and will not stop bouncing off the walls in pure shock (and perhaps sudden uptake of caffeine). If there is something that can be called ecstasy then this is it. A real chance to study medicine, what myself and many others dreamed about all through high school. I can’t possibly express how thankful I am (yes even with that small Chemistry flop… sigh all that tuition xd)

Once again, the support here on AN is just on a different level and I love all of you guys. I’ll update again in future when interview invites and uni offers come out!

A huge congrats to everybody who received their results today. You’ve all worked so hard and truly deserve all the success and happiness in the world.

Wishing everyone an amazing post-ATAR celebration,

~Wingdings

Wow thats an insane result, congrats!!! Well deserved 🥳🥳🥳🥳
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: bluebird on December 17, 2021, 10:21:48 pm
Amazinggggg Wingdings!!! You should be so incredibly proud of yourself!! Reading your journal has been amazing and good on you for keeping up with it! You're an inspiration and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you :D
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: ThunderDragon on December 17, 2021, 10:26:27 pm
Congrats Wingdings!!! So proud of you for completing Year 12 in such a difficult year.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Chocolatemilkshake on December 18, 2021, 07:14:20 am
Congrats Wingdings! Amazing work this year all the best for the med interview  8)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: Evolio on December 18, 2021, 09:25:53 am
Congrats wingdings!!! With your amazing UCAT and ATAR, you've put yourself in a very good position for monash med!! All the best for your interview!!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: KenW on December 18, 2021, 09:39:11 am
Wow thats an insane result, congrats!!! Well deserved 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Hey SmartWorker, I think I saw your atar reaction on Youtube. Congrats!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: SmartWorker on December 19, 2021, 12:48:58 pm
Hey SmartWorker, I think I saw your atar reaction on Youtube. Congrats!

Haha yea youtube things 😅 Thanks and congrats on your results as well!!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: beep boop on December 24, 2021, 04:49:29 pm
Hey wingdings, a belated congrats on your results. I know this is a VCE journal but I really want to see you record your post vce aspirations and uni journey. Just because VCE has ended doesn't mean that this journal has to end too. :)
congrats again!
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on December 25, 2021, 10:35:33 am
(https://media3.giphy.com/media/l2JhGa1nx4ir3zj20/giphy.gif)

REPLIES :'(
Hey! It's been really fun reading your journal through the year. I never managed to upkeep mine but yours was an amazing read, so thanks for that.  ;D

I actually saw this film on Saturday night and really enjoyed it! If you fancy a trip to Cinema Nova in Lygon St, it's one of their regular films and they have around 10 sessions of it a day I think. They've even changed the decor in the bar to match the film, it's really cute. If you get the chance to see it I really recommend it!

I look forward to reading the rest of what's to come for you :D
Hey vehura! First off, thank you so much for your reply; your read really means a lot to me :-[ Wow, Lygon St?! I haven't been there since year 9 city week but would absolutely love to visit again. That's a lot of screenings as well, it must be super popular so looks like most people agree with you ;D I'll definitely go and check it out as I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice interior and I LOVE the look of the film poster already (kinda Grand Budapest vibes?!)

Thank you once again for your lovely presence on my journal. I might be starting a uni journal next year, so look out for that! XD all the best to you too, I am certain that you crushed the beast that is VCE and hope you get into your dream course. Sending lots of love!! <3

Congrats Wingdings. ;D
Joesph41, thank you! Your congratulations really mean a lot to me. The sight of your iconic schwa has motivated me through EL all year 8) ;D

What incredible results, Wingdings! Congratulations! :)
LM, thank you!! Congrats on finishing VCE too, I'm certain you did totally phenomenal! Happy celebrating before uni comes to claim our last brain cells :')

Congrats! What a fantastic result! How are you celebrating? ;D
Hey Laura, thanks so much for your reply!! Mostly just lots of food, lots of movies, and a few months of faceplanting on my bed basically. Such a relief to be done ;D

That's an incredible result! You should be so proud of yourself!!! I'm so happy for you, congratulations!
Geoo?!??! I FEEL SO RECOGNISED HAHA thank you so much!! It really means a lot :-[

Amazed, but not surprised. Bless them with your presence you bean can!
Heinz quakes at this statement. Thank you so much Penelope, your sense of humour and amazingly uplifting replies are what has kept me going this whole year. Congrats again on smashing VCE to bits, so excited to see where uni takes you! [not crying]

What an incredible result! Congratulations, you worked so hard on this :)
Ty so much Eloise!! You did so phenomenal as well, congrats again to you too <33 excited that we're both starting uni soon, maybe I'll see you around!!

Wow thats an insane result, congrats!!! Well deserved 🥳🥳🥳🥳
SAYS YOU! Thank you so much, here's to hoping we both get into med! ;D

Amazinggggg Wingdings!!! You should be so incredibly proud of yourself!! Reading your journal has been amazing and good on you for keeping up with it! You're an inspiration and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you :D
Hey bluebird, your kind words really mean a lot. Thank you so much for the well wishes, I can't wait to see where year 12 takes you! All the best for next year, you will absolutely crush it!! <3

Congrats Wingdings!!! So proud of you for completing Year 12 in such a difficult year.
TD, thank you thank you! I'm so so honoured by your reply, sincerely hope you'll have an amazing year at uni next year as well!

Congrats Wingdings! Amazing work this year all the best for the med interview  8)
OMG CHOCOOO thank you sooo much! Yes hopefully I can be just like you in a few month's time 8)

Congrats wingdings!!! With your amazing UCAT and ATAR, you've put yourself in a very good position for monash med!! All the best for your interview!!
Thank you so much Evolio!!

Hey wingdings, a belated congrats on your results. I know this is a VCE journal but I really want to see you record your post vce aspirations and uni journey. Just because VCE has ended doesn't mean that this journal has to end too. :)
congrats again!
Beep boop, thank you so much! Uni journal is definitely something I want to try, I'm so honoured that you'd want to see more of my study struggles xddd anyways, thanks again for your support. Congrats to you too on your undoubtedly amazing work this year; wishing you a very smooth and successful year 12 (which I will happily follow along with if you decide to document it) ;)
Hey everyone and thanks for tuning in! It's been a hectic week since I quite literally spent a day bouncing off the ceiling, so here is calm and rational Wingdings, returned to take back the reins from what I will pass off as an embarrassing alter ego.

To all my lovely readers, thank you so much for the incredibly kind replies. I've repeated this inane sentence (fragment??) too many times to count but still, thank you everyone. I'll never be able to properly describe the feeling of so many people going through my VCE journey with me and it truly feels surreal to be part of such an amazing community.

Originally I clicked Reply to thread intending to update y'all about my MMI situation... but today is no day for that! Instead, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. I hope every single ANer has a healthy dose of Michael Buble, gets presents they adore, stuffs their face until they are 50% turkey and 50% pure sugar, and above all spends this day with their family and the ones they love.

~Happy holidays from your local Wingdings :)

(https://media2.giphy.com/media/J5it6b1eJ7sEKPt3iO/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: wingdings2791 on January 22, 2022, 10:21:49 am
Hello AN friends!

Wingdings here again. I thought I'd come back to wrap up and update you all one last time before adulthood takes me away *sniff sniff*

I'm going to be studying Radiography and Medical Imaging at Monash this year; and yes, as my readers you probably know that it's not what I wanted the most during year 12. On results day, I thought all day about what on earth went wrong with my application, and entirely forgot that radio was its own pursuit, rather than just another degree with a fat red label that read 'not medicine' on it. The idea of diverging from the med kids is kind of weird; seeing everyone about to begin different walks of life is a scary reality that I think many of us incoming first-years are realising.

But while I was disappointed initially, I've come around to it and I'm really happy to have a chance to study this course. And heck I'll never be sad with an opportunity to scan bones, especially when accompanied by the noble dedformed 8)

I'm not sure whether I'll continue trying to pursue med post-grad; I know the GAMSAT is always there and available but maybe being a doctor isn't necessarily meant for me. Through radiography I guess I'll find out whether I really want to study medicine for real in the future, so I think this will be kind of an open end for the time being. Despite everything, I can't wait to study radiography and am so excited for this coming year.

To everyone who received offers this year, well done and congrats. Be proud of yourself and everything you've achieved. And to those waiting for the second round, I wish you the best of luck and hope you get to pursue what you truly want.

With this, my VCE journal concludes here. I'll be appearing around the forums a bit in the next year and perhaps even making a uni journal, since you can never have enough places to complain xd.

I've said it a million times so I promise this will be the last: thank you so much, to all my readers and the wonderful friends I've made. Good luck to the class of 2022 and beyond; despite all the challenges you'll face, trust that you will come out the other end in one piece!

Sincerely,
Wingdings


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Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: beep boop on January 22, 2022, 07:26:38 pm
Hi Wingdings!

I'm kinda sad that this journal is over but happy that you're happy w/ your choice. *wipes a few tears* I guess school has always been a safety net for a lot of us and growing up doesn't come to mind until we're almost there.

I don't know where you'll end up but I'll always know it will be a good place.

I wish you all the best and from one AN person to another, you got this!

beep boop
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: dedformed on January 31, 2022, 08:29:40 pm
hello bean

i just want to formally congratulate you for finishing this massive heck of a journey that vce was, and for  your radiography offer. getting to know you has been one of the best highlights of my vce - and i wanna say thank you - whether that was reading your journals or the smol encouraging messages you sent, encouraging and accepting my use of the vocative "bean".

I love your perspective on figuring out radiography before you proceed with other plans. I'm gonna be honoured to meet you in person during the course - finally someone that knows me by my fondness of extremely bad puns.

good luck and maxi thanks

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bro r u ok what is this. my bean just finished her vce and you're just employing bad marketing. step on some legoes plz.
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: beep boop on January 31, 2022, 10:15:21 pm

also

bro r u ok what is this. my bean just finished her vce and you're just employing bad marketing. step on some legoes plz.

i was wondering the same thing lmao, so random and weird
Title: Re: Wingdings' VCE Journal
Post by: AngelWings on February 01, 2022, 08:06:12 am
bro r u ok what is this. my bean just finished her vce and you're just employing bad marketing. step on some legoes plz.
This is a bot. One of the jobs of mods is to squish bots that create spam like this. We’re usually pretty good at kicking them out but occasionally we take time. If you see one that’s been sitting for more than a day, feel free to report it.

I'm going to be studying Radiography and Medical Imaging at Monash this year;
Congrats Wingdings, and enjoy your radiography course!