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March 29, 2024, 08:10:43 am

Author Topic: Bri's Ask Me Anything  (Read 8963 times)

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Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2019, 02:02:42 pm »
+8
What is your favourite season, and why is it your favourite? :)

My favourite months are from October to February, but since that doesn't fall neatly into any system of season I know I'll go with spring. I love warm-hot days with cool nights and spring is a good time to go hiking before the heat & dehydration of summer has set in. In general, there's lush green growth and it's the weather is more often nice for being outside.

Academically, in spring things are drawing to a close which means that I tend to feel a stronger sense of community in uni & more activity on AN which is nice :)

caffinatedloz

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2019, 05:07:58 pm »
+3
Fellow vego here, who also has to cook for themselves (but thankfully not every night): what is your go-to meal when you feel like you have no time? What is your favourite vegetarian recipe?

Would you ever go vegan? Why/why not? ;D

Also, I'd love your best time management tips. And, do you think that taking on lots in Year 12 was a good thing? Looking back, if you could have chosen to take some of the burden off of yourself, would you have?

Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #17 on: November 20, 2019, 05:34:22 pm »
+7
Fellow vego here, who also has to cook for themselves (but thankfully not every night): what is your go-to meal when you feel like you have no time? What is your favourite vegetarian recipe?

Hmm.. when I have no time I sometimes will make 2 minute noodles but add frozen veggies & if I have any on hand some tofu to make it more nutritious.

This might be cheating but my favourite recipe is probably this chocolate cake. I don't make the glaze and instead do my own icing. If you want more savoury options I've replied to K8 earlier with some of those :)

Would you ever go vegan? Why/why not? ;D

I've been vegan for 3 years now so definitely would ;)
Veganism for me was more motivated by animal cruelty whereas being vegetarian was more motivated by the environment. I watched earthlings (dominion is a more recent and Aus version of this but it wasn't out at that time) and ooft that was hard to watch while still consuming eggs & dairy. I have friends who are farmers so I'm definitely not under the impression that all farmers would choose to mistreat their animals but yeah...

Vegetarian for me was more instant whereas being vegan was a process. I started off by picking a vegan option when one was available (otherwise I'd still happily get the vegetarian one), making easy substitutes and gradually incorporating more new vego foods (nutritional yeast flakes <3 ) until winding up as I am now.

Also, I'd love your best time management tips. And, do you think that taking on lots in Year 12 was a good thing? Looking back, if you could have chosen to take some of the burden off of yourself, would you have?

My best time management tip is that burn out costs a lot more time than taking care of yourself properly does. Schedule in days off & if some event falls on that day either move the day off forwards or stick to it unless there's an extremely good reason for ignoring that day off. I found that keeping track of assignments and classwork in an app specifically for that and keeping track of my other commitments in my bullet journal was the way to go but you have time to experiment with this so test out a few different ways :)

One things I found useful was to take any nothing time (e.g. waiting for someone, on a train) and find a way to make it productive. This meant flashcards on my phone, revision apps, or trying some mindfulness. Sometimes cycling between those was the way to go. (It's also ok if sometimes you want to just be without trying to do anything but it's good to have the option there.

I also tracked my internet usage - spending half an hour discontentedly scrolling through social media isn't a great use of time and it's nice to have reminders to snap you out of that.


I absolutely think that taking on lots of extra curriculars was the right thing for me. It gave me something I could do without feeling remotely guilty that wasn't schoolwork and I needed the break. It gave me social groups that weren't just my classmates and it meant that even if I screwed up my academics I could still go 'hey, there's a think of value I did' when I wanted to have a go at myself for everything and be super-defeatist. If it feels like a burden consider its place in your life, otherwise, don't listen to anyone who says you should give up everything in year 12 to focus purely on your studies :)

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #18 on: November 20, 2019, 06:47:51 pm »
+3
- How do you find your passion in life?
- Is 'finding your passion' overrated when it comes to career and hobbies?
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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #19 on: November 20, 2019, 07:16:07 pm »
+6
Quote
part of the senior school band (played saxophone)
1. How long did you play the saxophone for?/ Do you still play the saxophone?

2. What are your best tips at keeping your mental health in check, especially given that you did/ do so many extracurricular activities?

3. What is your biggest regret from high school/ uni so far and what have you learnt from it?

4. You have encountered a genie in a lamp. You’re given three wishes. What would they be? (Three serious, three funny.)
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Geoo

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #20 on: November 20, 2019, 07:27:05 pm »
+3
Quote
I am SO SO SO glad that I've stuck with following science rather than listening to others and being pushed off into med. Med's a great area for some people but I'm much happier learning about ecosystems and systems change than I would be pushing myself into med or a med-related field.

Does this answer your question?

I am facing the same decision as you did. I really do want to follow a science career, however a few people say why not go into med or engineering. So it is nice to see another who was in the same position. But yes this does answer my question! For me, it was seeing a Brian Cox documentary when I was 5 about how the universe was formed that really got me interested in science.
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Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #21 on: November 20, 2019, 07:30:43 pm »
+8
- How do you find your passion in life?
- Is 'finding your passion' overrated when it comes to career and hobbies?

I don't believe that there's one passion or one goal that should dominate a person's entire life. People have a range of wants and needs and imo it's useful to have various things which can contribute to that. Finding passions can really vary between people, but if you throw yourself into more situations there's more chance you'll find one that clicks.

I'm lucky because I've had strong passions from a young age (obsession with oceans, turtles etc.) but I've also had some sneak up on me. For example, I didn't realise how much I care about education until I reflected on my behaviours and emotions in different situations (I probably should've realised that earlier from atarnotes + trying to run a STEM camp for highschool students in first year uni + access monash mentoring + tutoring + spending more time teaching my peers than learning in some classes (had a teacher tell me off because all I had done in the IT lesson was turn the computer on but I spent all my time walking around checking others knew the content) + ...)

I don't think you need to find some perfect passion to make you joyfully wake up greeting the sunrise and exclaiming how much you love your life every day, but it's useful to have a sense of purpose or direction, and to feel that you are achieving meaningful things. At this point in our lives we are young and - especially in highschool - only exposed to a small fraction of the world. You don't need to have found a passion in that small fraction but if you can set goals for yourself and invest in exploring options + upskilling yourself for a broad range of futures I think that's a great use of time.

I do think that passions are overemphasised. Passions can be great things but they can also lock you into particular pathways that might not be the best one for you. Similarly to how chasing happiness rather than fulfilment makes it harder to be happy long term, stressing about finding a life-goal passion can make it harder to find one. Don't stress if you don't have a known passion - you don't need one & you can do things to increase your chance of finding one if you'd like to.

Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #22 on: November 20, 2019, 08:10:20 pm »
+7
1. How long did you play the saxophone for?/ Do you still play the saxophone?

2. What are your best tips at keeping your mental health in check, especially given that you did/ do so many extracurricular activities?

3. What is your biggest regret from high school/ uni so far and what have you learnt from it?

4. You have encountered a genie in a lamp. You’re given three wishes. What would they be? (Three serious, three funny.)

1. I played saxophone from years 7-12, my alto sax was a school hire and I couldn't afford to buy my own afterwards so I haven't played since. Still kept all my sheet music just in case.

2. I saw a counsellor in year 12 and actually opened up to them about my issues which was a HUGE and terrifying step forwards for me. It didn't instantly fix all of my issues and restore me to perfect wellbeing but it really significantly helped me over time. I've got a lot of practice at reframing & positive self-talk which is pretty important to me. For example, if an absolute like "must" or "need" appears in my internal dialogue I'll critically analyse it. Sometimes this looks like "I must get x done. Wait, no, I would like to get x done; it would be ideal if I get x done." or "I need a break. Wait, no, I want a break." I find that there's something much more empowering about the narrative of wanting to take a break and choosing to take one compared to the narrative of needing a break and succumbing to one.

A huge thing for my mental health is talking to my friends about what's going on. I'm incredibly lucky that I have multiple friends I can go to who will listen, support, and do their best to understand me & who I can trust with my innermost thoughts. My year 12 counsellor told me early on that telling my story helps me gain power of it & I find that that has been incredibly important to me.

3. Regret that a situation was the way it was or regret about something I did? Or either?

4.


1. For everyone to be empowered to have net positive impact on the world & be aware of that fact
2. Restoration of biodiversity to the levels it had before the Holocene extinction event. (Biodiversity is incredibly undervalued and its loss disproportionately impacts already disadvantaged groups)
3. For cruelty to stop, or at least be significantly reduced


1. For turtles to be globally recognised as the supreme taxa
2. The phrase "seven seas" is wiped from existence  (There's more than seven seas and really there's only one ocean...)
3. No light pollution

AngelWings

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #23 on: November 20, 2019, 08:37:50 pm »
+2
Thanks for answering my questions! :)

3. Regret that a situation was the way it was or regret about something I did? Or either?
Either.
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Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #24 on: November 20, 2019, 08:44:48 pm »
+6
Thanks for answering my questions! :)
 Either.

No worries at all!

Hmmm.... tough question.

One of the things I have really struggled with is the feeling that I could have learnt so much more and achieved so much more in highschool than I did but if I hadn't struggled with the lack of academic learning & everything else going on I'd be a different version of myself and I like the version of me I am so I'm not sure if I can truly regret that.

What I do regret is the hurt I've caused to people who care about me as I went through the experiences that have shaped me into me.

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #25 on: November 25, 2019, 10:43:07 pm »
+1
hey bri!
what did you do to prepare for your maths exam? and what did you do the week before an exam? and a couple of days before of an exam. i feel so much pressure

i used to do well in maths - i always did my work consistently throughout the term. but somehow i don’t do as well anymore.
now i don’t know what it feels like to get A’s in maths anymore :'( i don’t remember how i prepared for exams

Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #26 on: November 26, 2019, 08:27:59 am »
+10
hey bri!
what did you do to prepare for your maths exam? and what did you do the week before an exam? and a couple of days before of an exam. i feel so much pressure

i used to do well in maths - i always did my work consistently throughout the term. but somehow i don’t do as well anymore.
now i don’t know what it feels like to get A’s in maths anymore :'( i don’t remember how i prepared for exams

Hey jassam!

Welcome to the forums :)

Most of my preparation was doing exam-style questions. In the week of my maths exams I had my psychology exam which restricted how much maths preparation I could do.  An important part of my external exam (i.e. year 12 exam) routine is that I would take the day before any exam off from studying and focus on my wellbeing. I also made sure I was in the habit of waking up early so I wouldn't feel groggy or tired during the exam & that I had enough time to have a nice breakfast and still get to the exam venue (i.e my school) half an hour early. Part of what this meant was that in the lead up to the exam I would do at least one practice exam at the same time as my actual exam would be and under exam conditions. 

Because I conditioned myself to associate exam days with calmness and being prepared to demonstrate what I had learnt throughout the year,  I was largely able to escape exam panic.

Year 11/12 can be a bit of a jump up and it can be demoralising to see your grades drop - especially if you don't know what to do about it or why it's happening. I think that the most important thing you can do here is to keep asking and try to keep answering questions. It can be hard to speak up when you feel pressure to maintain the A/A+ image but please,  even if it's after class or online on atarnotes,  don't stop getting feedback and asking questions to improve. 

The great news is we are heading into holidays which is a fantastic time to review your understandings starting from where your foundation is completely secure and then building up.  Often in maths new topics will build on old ones and if you don't understand and simply get by on plugging numbers into a formula these cracks in your foundation will destabilise you later on and especially disadvantage you in application questions.

I would recommend looking through your work and honestly marking where you don't (or only sort of) understand what you are doing so you can tackle those concepts. 

Rui has some really good advice on maths in the qce mathematics section of the forums which I would also recommend you look at.

Best of luck and please feel free to reach out if you have any follow up questions :)

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #27 on: November 27, 2019, 03:02:34 pm »
+4
Hi,
I was just wondering whether ATAR notes could create some more annotated syllabuses for all the Qld QCE ATAR subjects similar to the already posted one for English.

Bri MT

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #28 on: November 27, 2019, 03:42:34 pm »
+5
Hi,
I was just wondering whether ATAR notes could create some more annotated syllabuses for all the Qld QCE ATAR subjects similar to the already posted one for English.

Hi,

Welcome to atarnotes! :)

I hadn't been planning on doing this but if it would be helpful I'm happy to do so - are there any particular subjects you would like to see this for?

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Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
« Reply #29 on: November 27, 2019, 04:45:35 pm »
+6
Hey Bri,
How do you motivate yourself enough to avoid cramming and leaving things to the last minute?