Outline of the events that have lead to now
Term 1Start of term 1 was really slow and I had lots of time to just get into the rhythm of year 12. In term 1 I was pretty motivated like we all are in VCE and decided to go to the library basically every second or so day. In term 1 I started to get to know my teachers and I was in for a massive surprise towards the middle of term 1. At this time of the year, I was aiming to get high enough scores to get into medicine, because if I could get into medicine, I could get into basically any course.
Term 2Term 2 was really stressful because I had SAC week in the last couple of weeks and it was always looming in the background. What made term 2 really special to me was that I started really bonding with lots of different people. Throughout VCE I strengthened my bonds with most of my existing friends and made a ton of new friends. I became a bit less shy and socially awkward. I began talking with heaps of people and greeting people in the corridoor and just began to become a more social person. This also was the time period when I began to have an obsession with comedy shows.
SACSI'm guessing everyone is wondering how I felt about my SACs especially after my initial post. Overall, SACs have not been going well. I'll just use these emoticons to show how I felt about my SAC results
Chemistry
SAC 1
(this was a massive surprise as I thought I completely bombed out, since I rushed through the last 3 pages)
SAC 2
(I wasn't able to finish it properly because of time pressure. I was pretty sad afterwards, because I tried really hard for it)
Mathematical Methods
SAC 1
(I thought completely bombed this SAC, but turns out I did well above average and I'm pretty happy with it)
SAC 2
(I did really well on this one too. I felt like my teacher really helped me out for this)
English
SAC 1
(I tried really hard for this SAC and didn't get as high as I would have hoped)
SAC 2
(This was a creative oral presentation and I was really happy with my mark cause I'm not good at those)
SAC 3
(I'm really not happy about this mark because I put in the effort but my hard work wasn't rewarded)
SAC 4
(Again I'm not happy with this mark because I tried hard and my effort wasn't rewarded. This was an oral presentation and I'm bad at those, so that might explain why)
Specialist Mathematics
SAC 1
(I got an ok mark, but I wasn't happy with it)
SAC 2
(This was really my fault, because I didn't try hard enough for this SAC and I slacked off and paid the price)
SAC 3
(After SAC 2, I tried hard for this SAC but really made heaps of errors)
Physics
SAC 1
(It wasn't a really high mark but I was content because I'm not good at physics)
SAC 2
(I paid the price of slacking off a bit for physics)
As you can see, I'm not really happy with my current marks.
Challenges in VCEThis is the part where I rant about all the misfortunes I've had in VCE, so you can ignore this. I think the biggest challenge for me is overcoming the challenge posed by my teachers. This might be a bit controversial, since there are some teachers and educators in the forums so just a warning. I'll start with my biggest challenge, which is my English teacher. (enter rant mode) My English teacher constantly leaves class unannounced, without supervision, and has been spotted smoking cigarettes during class time (he typically leaves class about every couple of lessons for about 20 minutes but maybe longer). He outright refuses to answer questions and instead just says to read deeper into the book or for me to find it myself. He spends less than half of class time teaching and instead spends most of the time sitting in the front of the class staring at his laptop. He's also ridiculed and in my opinion bullied numerous students. He labels some students as babies mockingly and ridicules students that he deems as unintelligent or if someone says something that opposes his point of view. He's not open to criticism and views anything that opposes his views as incorrect. On top of this, he's an extremely harsh marker. My class generally averages a C or C+, whilst other classes average B or B+. I'll admit he's extremely knowledgable and intelligent, but he refuses to impart his knowledge upon his students. My teachers for specialist and physics are nice and knowlegdable people, but they overcomplicate things, mark really harshly and waste a lot of time going well beyond the course without first consolidating the fundamentals. My chemistry teacher is also a nice person but teaches way too fast and personally I don't like it when teachers teach off power points. He's been away for more than 4 weeks over the course of the year so far, which might be why he teaches fast, since he likes to be well ahead of the other classes whilst being away a lot. However, while I've been ranting on about my bad teachers, I have to acknowledge that my mathematical methods teacher is absolutely amazing. He teaches really well and makes the hardest things seem simple. He explains the reasoning behind everything without overcomplicating it. He's also really knowledgable and overall an amazing person. I feel like he's really helped me heaps for methods.
I nearly forgot, even though I complain about these challenges, I feel like I've learnt many things from this, like overcoming adversity and persevering through difficult circumstances.
Edit: I'll probably make shorter posts next time, since I really covered heaps of stuff in this post. Also forgot to mention what happened today.
24/9/2017
Had a SAC today which went really badly, but since everyone did badly, not all hope is lost. I also had a chemistry test today (not a SAC) which was pretty tiring because of the SAC yesterday. I also learnt how to swim over the past term (people who can't swim have to take swimming lessons) and I can finally swim a little bit without a kickboard or a lifejacket.