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March 29, 2024, 06:24:43 am

Author Topic: whys' VCE journal  (Read 79712 times)

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Einstein_Reborn_97

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #240 on: July 06, 2020, 07:26:57 pm »
+7
Massive congratulations, whys! Reading your journal is honestly one of the highlights of using AN for me. I'm glad to see you've done really well. I've got mine coming up on the 14th and your own success gives me lots of motivation in my final stages of prep! Well done!!! ;D
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Ionic Doc

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #241 on: July 06, 2020, 09:39:57 pm »
+5
Congrats Whys, you're an absolute trooper, always challenging yourself and succeeding.  I wish you the very best for the remainder of this year and I'm super happy for you! Monash Med is waiting for u  :D
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Snow Leopard

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #242 on: July 06, 2020, 11:33:32 pm »
+4
Hey whys,

Congrats on the amazing UCAT score! I was just wondering if you think that you could've gotten the same score without buying Medify. Also, how much did Medify help you? Did it just give you more practice to do or did it include like strategies for each subsection as well?


whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #243 on: July 07, 2020, 11:44:16 am »
+10
Firstly, I was NOT expecting this many replies! Which is why I left replying to these a day later haha, my brain was lowkey fried after doing the UCAT.

Omg, that sounds so good! I am very proud of you and it is clear that your hard work has paid off!  :) :)

Quick question - do you get your results straight away? i wouldn't expect that hahaha but it seems like you do

Good job on your INCREDIBLE ucat score and good luck for term 3  ;)
Thank you eloise! ;D We get our results emailed to us at a random time, usually a few hours after doing the test. Since it is entirely computer-based, the computer can calculate results almost instantaneously. I actually got my results around 30 mins after doing my test, but I only checked my inbox a few hours after doing it.

Good luck for term 3!

Hey whys! ;D

I SCREAMED MORE IN THIS JOURNAL UPDATE THAN I HAVE EVER BEFORE
This is literally the only thing my non-intelligent UCAT brain understands and let me say I don't think I've ever been so happy for some random anonymous person on the internet.❤️

I'm so glad to hear about your amazing scores!!😉 Even better, I'm so happy to hear everything went really well and you have done such an awesome job every step of the way. This is definitely one of the biggest achievements I've seen you accomplish and please celebrate more!! (I think it's time you invested in a large chocolate fountain for yourself). All that organisation and preparation has paid off and make sure you take a long relaxing break (and please get your sleep schedule under control no 2am AN browsing)

I absolutely love reading every detail of this journal update (like woah the dedication to write about the test centre is out of this world) and let me tell you, that dream of Monash Med for you just got 1000000% closer!

Thank you so much whys for writing this up and have a great week!
Hey Ash! HAHA maybe I should have used less UCAT jargon. (You bet I'm getting a massive chocolate fountain in my backyard ;)). Alright fine, no 2am AN browsing :'(, but you need to get your sleep schedule in check too! And thank you for all your support and kind words in the lead up to the UCAT, it made this kind of anonymous girl (me) feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. Yep, and this time I wrote every section on a word doc so I wouldn't accidentally delete it or close the tab like I did last time, then pasted it onto here. ;D

Whew, I hope it got closer!

hey whys!

wow that score is actually incredible! well done :)

when did you start preparing? and did you notice anything in particular that you did that helped you improve?

also, WOW that abstract score! did you always find abstract easy or did you work on it a lot?

and you are so on the way to monash med!  ;D
Hi MoonChild1234!!! To be completely honest, I actually started preparing November last year. However, the reason I say this is because I bought my first UCAT resource last year, and did about 20 questions last year and never touched anything UCAT-related until about the end of Jan this year. So yeah, technically started this year. When I first started though, it was extremely random prep and I don't really think I got anything out of it (it was more like studying for the sake of studying), especially because of the spontaneity of it - one day I'd do 40 questions, and then I wouldn't do anything for a week. My prep became a bit more consistent 3 months before my test, where I would try to do at least 100 questions a day, but missed some days due to SACs and the like. I started doing mock exams about 2 months before my test (I did about 1 every fortnight, until I started getting closer to my test date and frantically tried to fit everything in by doing a mock exam every day, and I still ended up with 7 incomplete exams :'(). Since the UCAT is an aptitude test, I think it is important to develop the skills they test in the UCAT. After practising, note down the things you repeatedly get wrong and work on them, not only by doing UCAT questions, but also in isolation to the UCAT. If you suck at speedreading, practise that. If you suck at speed/time/distance questions, google some questions on those concepts and practise that. This is something I seriously regret - I mindlessly spammed questions and never actually targetted what I was weak in. But yeah, overall, practising is the way to go - there's no better way to improve. ;)

Thank you! Honestly, I don't think anyone starts off being good at AR (unless they have exceptional pattern recognition abilities, which not many people will have at the start of UCAT prep. If you do - you're one lucky bean). With AR, it's all about exposing yourself to as many patterns as possible. I completed all the AR questions on Medify and many on MedEntry. I also went through the AR questions from the official resources multiple times. Getting good at AR is an extremely long, demotivating road. You will fail, and fail again. You will keep failing. I honestly felt like quitting when my AR scores would never improve and my test date was getting closer. DO NOT give up. You gotta keep pushing through, and you WILL improve. It just takes time! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Ahhhhhh why’s! You legend! I’ve actually secretly been waiting for this update because I knew you’d do amazing!!!! You totally inspire me!!!! My test is in a few weeks and I could only dream of those scores but you’ve inspired me to keep trying. Your definitely getting into monash med :)))))) can’t wait to read the rest of your VCE journal!!!!!!!!!

P.S how does it feel to have the UCAT officially out of your life? I almost regret scheduling mine on the last day and dragging this into term 3. I can’t imagine just being free of it.
Hey Elle! Glad I could inspire you haha, I'm flattered. Thank you for the kind words too! <3 Oh, it feels great - I no longer have this massive shadow looking down on me and waiting to crush me. And don't worry - you'll do great! You've got more time to practise, so use it wisely! You will honestly DIE from happiness after you finish your test! (Tbh, I think I might slightly miss doing UCAT questions. It was fun while it lasted, I guess)

Massive congratulations, whys! Reading your journal is honestly one of the highlights of using AN for me. I'm glad to see you've done really well. I've got mine coming up on the 14th and your own success gives me lots of motivation in my final stages of prep! Well done!!! ;D
Hey Einstein_Reborn_97!! I'm flattered you enjoy reading these updates :D. Good luck for your test, I'm sure you'll SMASH it! Thank you so much for your reply!

Congrats Whys, you're an absolute trooper, always challenging yourself and succeeding.  I wish you the very best for the remainder of this year and I'm super happy for you! Monash Med is waiting for u  :D
Heya Ionic Doc! Aww, thank you :D, life isn't fun if it isn't a challenge! Hope this year treats you well too, and I know you'll find success at the end of the year. And thank you, hopefully I can make it.

Hey whys,

Congrats on the amazing UCAT score! I was just wondering if you think that you could've gotten the same score without buying Medify. Also, how much did Medify help you? Did it just give you more practice to do or did it include like strategies for each subsection as well?
Hi Snow Leopard. Thank you so much! Tbh I don't think I could've gotten this score without Medify. Medify was the main reason I improved in AR and QR, especially in the time nearing my test. Nothing beats the official resources though - they're really good (apart from the fact that their QR is insanely hard to do in the time limit! If you do badly, then don't worry, the question writers for their resources did a horrible job and I think they should rewrite the QR sections in the mock exams. The official question bank QR questions were much more decent though). The main reason why Medify helped me is just the added practise. It has over 10,000 questions, and I did almost 10,000 questions including mock exams and mini-mocks, yet I still was nowhere near finishing all the questions they provided. I doubt most people actually finish everything haha. Medify also includes a 'learn' section where they go through different question types and how to approach each section, which was helpful at the very beginning when I didn't know what I was doing. UCAT is honestly just practice. Keep practising and you'll no doubt improve.

Once again, I'm overwhelmed by the number of kind responses I've gotten in regard to this journal update! Thanks everyone. :D
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Snow Leopard

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #244 on: July 07, 2020, 05:55:12 pm »
+3
Quote
Hi Snow Leopard. Thank you so much! Tbh I don't think I could've gotten this score without Medify. Medify was the main reason I improved in AR and QR, especially in the time nearing my test. Nothing beats the official resources though - they're really good (apart from the fact that their QR is insanely hard to do in the time limit! If you do badly, then don't worry, the question writers for their resources did a horrible job and I think they should rewrite the QR sections in the mock exams. The official question bank QR questions were much more decent though). The main reason why Medify helped me is just the added practise. It has over 10,000 questions, and I did almost 10,000 questions including mock exams and mini-mocks, yet I still was nowhere near finishing all the questions they provided. I doubt most people actually finish everything haha. Medify also includes a 'learn' section where they go through different question types and how to approach each section, which was helpful at the very beginning when I didn't know what I was doing. UCAT is honestly just practice. Keep practising and you'll no doubt improve.
Thanks for the reply whys :). I was also wondering, was it the same thing with medentry? Was it useful for you in the sense that it provided both more practice and some explanations of strategies for subsections as well? Do you think it would be possible to get 90+ percentile with just the resources from the official UCAT website and YouTube videos? Also when do you reckon would be the best time to start UCAT prep? Also, were the free icanmed or even ATARNOTES (if you went to them) UCAT lectures worthwhile for you? Or did they become repetitive? Are there any free resources/lectures that  you would recommend? sorry for all the questions!


whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #245 on: July 07, 2020, 08:32:43 pm »
+8
Thanks for the reply whys :). I was also wondering, was it the same thing with medentry? Was it useful for you in the sense that it provided both more practice and some explanations of strategies for subsections as well? Do you think it would be possible to get 90+ percentile with just the resources from the official UCAT website and YouTube videos? Also when do you reckon would be the best time to start UCAT prep? Also, were the free icanmed or even ATARNOTES (if you went to them) UCAT lectures worthwhile for you? Or did they become repetitive? Are there any free resources/lectures that  you would recommend? sorry for all the questions!
You definitely don't need prep companies to do well, and many people have gotten awesome scores just going off the official resources/using any other free resources from scrounging the internet. I used MedEntry mainly for the extra mocks - I didn't really 'practise' on it. I only used some of their AR drills (you can never get enough of AR!) but that's about all I used their resources for + mock exams. I really liked their explanations for each subsection, they were pretty nifty and I thought they were quite helpful. It's not necessary though. I said I couldn't have gotten the score I did without Medify because that was my individual experience - I really needed the extra practice to be able to do well, but there are people who might not need that much extra practice.

I recommend you have a go at a few UCAT questions to see exactly where you stand. Since you're still in year 11 (iirc), you definitely don't need to be worrying about UCAT prep as of now - if I were you I'd start next year. Free icanmed lecture - not very useful. Free ATARNotes lecture - I don't really remember it, but I went to it in year 11 when I didn't know anything about the UCAT (and consequently found it informative). Once you've started UCAT prep, 99% of free lectures become useless to you though, because lectures essentially reiterate the same things (practise doing questions in timed conditions! do mocks! this is what this section is!) - all this is well and good when you're just starting out but if I were to repeat my UCAT prep I don't think I would go to any lectures. Of course, they are free, so you aren't going to lose anything by attending them. Ultimately, someone else's strategies are not going to help you at all. You need to figure out the way you approach questions - this will be unique to you. Some people use X method, some use Y method, but both may reach the same outcome or receive vastly different results. You have to remember that UCAT is an aptitude test, and different people develop and put their skills to use in different ways.

As for free resources, I would definitely recommend MedicMind and KharmaMedic videos on youtube. There are probably other great videos on youtube too, but these are the ones I watched. Also, you might have heard of Shanaka (a very controversial figure) who is a UCAT tutor and runs a prep company as well. He also has a youtube channel, and I watched his run-through of a Medify mock after completing the same mock myself to see how he approached it. Might be useful for you too (but, if you end up using Medify next year, then I suggest you do the mock before looking at this video, otherwise it'll ruin the questions for you!).

Don't be sorry haha, you've nothing to be sorry about. I don't mind answering questions at all. ;D
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MoonChild1234

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #246 on: July 08, 2020, 11:41:41 am »
+5
thanks for the reply whys!  ;D

that's good to hear, i feel like i have decent pattern recognition but sometimes i just get super stumped and then i get frustrated (its defs my least fav section!)

it's super motivating to see how hard you worked and honestly so inspiring!

again, congrats on your results and good luck for the next term, i'm sure you will smash it <3


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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #247 on: July 08, 2020, 12:03:32 pm »
+6
HOLY SHIT WHYS! CONGRATS ON YOUR SCORE!!! Idk how i only just saw this now but like omggggg im so happy for you
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #248 on: July 08, 2020, 12:13:03 pm »
+5
thanks for the reply whys!  ;D

that's good to hear, i feel like i have decent pattern recognition but sometimes i just get super stumped and then i get frustrated (its defs my least fav section!)

it's super motivating to see how hard you worked and honestly so inspiring!

again, congrats on your results and good luck for the next term, i'm sure you will smash it <3
Yeah, don't worry too much. AR just keeps getting better the more you practise. Whenever I looked at the answers after, I'd always go 'wow! can't believe I didn't get that!' haha. AR used to be my least fave section, but I really started enjoying when I started being able to recognise the patterns quickly. Good luck for next term to you as well!

HOLY SHIT WHYS! CONGRATS ON YOUR SCORE!!! Idk how i only just saw this now but like omggggg im so happy for you
Thank you so much J_Rho! ;D
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Snow Leopard

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #249 on: July 08, 2020, 05:11:47 pm »
+2
//
Thank you so much whys for all the useful info :)! I wish you all the best for the rest of Yr 12 and I'm sure that you'll do amazingly!

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #250 on: July 11, 2020, 07:04:32 pm »
+8
Huge congrats on the UCAT score whys! Don't get complacent though, excel the rest of your results and prepare some mock interviews to give yourself the best shot at your goal of Monash Med!
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Geoo

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #251 on: July 11, 2020, 09:16:59 pm »
+7
I am so late to this amazing achievement, but a huge congratulations to you and your epic mark! I'm so proud of you, and from reading your journal throughout the year, I know how much work you put into achieving this. So once again, i'm so happy for you, that's a fantastic achievement worth celebrating (which I hope you did because wow!).
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #252 on: July 11, 2020, 10:27:37 pm »
+6
Thank you so much whys for all the useful info :)! I wish you all the best for the rest of Yr 12 and I'm sure that you'll do amazingly!
All the best to you too Snow Leopard!

Huge congrats on the UCAT score whys! Don't get complacent though, excel the rest of your results and prepare some mock interviews to give yourself the best shot at your goal of Monash Med!
Thanks Jimmy! I’ll definitely be taking this advice on board - I cannot afford to become complacent with my ATAR haha, and it seems like something I’ll inevitably end up doing. I’ll try my best! :)

I am so late to this amazing achievement, but a huge congratulations to you and your epic mark! I'm so proud of you, and from reading your journal throughout the year, I know how much work you put into achieving this. So once again, i'm so happy for you, that's a fantastic achievement worth celebrating (which I hope you did because wow!).
Thank you for your reply and your kind words. Yep, I celebrated by doing no school work for 5 whole days (well that’s the half truth, I actually just spent my days sitting at my desk doing nothing because I couldn’t bring myself to do any work because I was so burnt out). :D
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #253 on: July 15, 2020, 06:32:13 pm »
+13
It [is] a dark and stormy [wednesday]

Only half a week into term 3 and I already feel burnt out and dead on the inside. I basically have at least one sac every week this term, which is horrible but it's just life, I guess. Oh yeah, and I had my english sac today, but save the worst for last, yknow??

This update is sort of like a check-in thing, because my last update was about the UCAT, not about school.

Bio
Life is good. I got a different answer to most other people on the immunity sac we did last term, and my friend told me that her bio teacher said their answer was correct. Prepared to argue to the grave justifying my answer to my teacher if need be, because I know for a fact that my answer was right + have so much evidence that my answer is right so they have to accept it (I hope). Other than my anxiety about that sac, bio is pretty good. We're just going through the content, ploughing through unit 4 at a slow and steady rate.

Methods
Sac next week! This sac is worth 80% of our unit 3 mark/grade so I'm determined to do well. There are 3 sacs that contribute to our unit 3 mark overall, and I think I mentioned on this journal that I got 37/40 for one of them. Well, I'm extremely mad because I got 44/45 for the other part. Do you know why I lost one mark? Because I copied my answer down wrong. I found the equation the question was asking for and wrote it as y= blah blah, and the equation had a square root sign. I had to define it as f*(x) because the question asked to find f*(x), but instead of writing f*(x)=blah blah I stupidly forgot to write the square root sign. I had the answer and all but NoPe, I, of course, had to copy it down incorrectly and forget the square root sign. I'm so mad. So many people got full marks for this too. Ahhhhh. So annoyed.

Chem
Completely clueless in class, as always. We're moving at an alarmingly fast rate, so we'll be done with all the content before term 3 ends. Wowiee. I have no idea why the chem department is trying to move through the content as quick as possible.

English
Okay, so we're up to the eng sac. What can I say.... prepared quite a bit but still walked out disappointed. I don't think I did bad, but I definitely didn't do my best ahhhh. Firstly, the issue the main article was based on was quite complicated, especially because the actual situation the background info was referring to was so out of the blue. Then, the actual article itself was quite difficult to analyse, and there were very minimal things that could directly be compared to the 2 comments that were written in response to the article. I also only spent like 3 sentences analysing the image and I don't think that's enough. There were some really good things to analyse and I consciously made sure I analysed them in depth, but I had to skip over a lot of stuff because I was pressured for time. Now that I look back, I definitely could have gone into more depth for some things and I also missed out on some very juicy analysis but whatever. It's done, it's over, and I don't want to think about what I could have written.

I'm really upset because I was hoping to do well on this sac to offset my poor text response score, but I don't think I'll be doing that. I think I also saw people walking out of the sac crying, and basically everyone I talked to found it hard and/or didn't finish. I doubt anyone will get full marks on it, especially because our teachers think it's funny to mark harsher than VCAA and give us articles that are completely different to the usually straightforward articles on the real exam (I mean, I appreciate that you sit down and pour over each word and sentence we write, but that sac was quite hard and I don't think anyone was happy with their performance). I know I didn't do abysmally (the Waleed Aly and Clementine Ford articles I've analysed previously did set me up for this) but I didn't exactly do well. My last paragraph and conclusion were really rushed (and almost illegible!) because I only had ~15 minutes left and I finished right on the dot (aka didn't get to proofread so there are probably a bunch of typos). At first glance the article didn't look to complex, but as I ploughed on with my essay I found it difficult to relate what I was analysing back to the main argument(s).

Oh yeah, did I mention - I also had my 'oral' sac today, which was run in conjunction with the argument analysis. I think my school just put them together because we don't have time to do the 'oral' separately. Our oral was changed to writing a pretty short letter to the editor, so that wasn't too bad. I can't help thinking back to the essay and all the stuff I could have included and analysed in detail. As wise Rafiki says,

So all I have to do is kill the final exam. That's all, whys, take a deep breath. I really hope that I (miraculously) do really well on the end of year exam so I can at least get a 40.

The good news is I've figured out why I do so poorly on eng sacs. I'm not inherently bad at writing essays (trust me, I know you think I'm a complete idiot when it comes to English but I can somehow string together sentences that somewhat make sense) but I do this thing where I completely space out during a sac. My mental blanks mean that any prep I've done goes down the drain and it feels like I'm writing this type of essay for the first time. This is good, I know why I suck so much. The bad news is I don't know how to fix this.... This never happens with any of my other subjects either. Sure, I often make silly mistakes and lose marks I normally wouldn't in sac conditions for other subjects, but I can still score decently well. But my good friend english over here refuses to cooperate and I feel like I complete newbie in the sac. Then, once the sac is over, everything comes flooding back to me again, makes me feel dumb, and will probably haunt me till the day I die. Life is not fair. I wish I didn't go through these horrible mental blanks during eng sacs. >:(

Anyways, I realised this update very intensely radiates negative energy. So, I'm just going to remind myself that I can do this. Think of the positive things, whys! Bio over here is your best buddy. If you're feeling bored, go read some psych articles about the newest experimentations on Alzheimer's or something. Maths is a soothing remedy - not evil and sinister like english, but fun and light-hearted. Chem is... not very good but it certainly is miles better than english.

I think I'm going to go watch my favourite movie (oh wow, I bet you can't guess what that is!) and do some methods to cheer myself up.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2020, 06:39:13 pm by whys »
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caffinatedloz

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #254 on: July 16, 2020, 09:12:32 am »
+4
I think I'm going to go watch my favourite movie (oh wow, I bet you can't guess what that is!) and do some methods to cheer myself up.
Hmmm... no clue. Real tough one there.  ;)

ps. I reckon that's a great thing to do when you're feeling a bit burnout. Hope you're feeling great this morning! ;D