Tempestuously cruising through the HSC

[Lumenoria]

Got our year 12 jerseys today, and I'm in love with them haha! I got feedback from my teacher for the first 200 words of my discovery creative, and it wasn't as good as I thought it was—but oh well. I wrote up an introduction for the discovery essay and sent it to my teacher, but have yet to receive anything back on it yet—I don't think it answered my proposed question as well as it could have though. We also started Robert Frost's poetry today in Advanced and I actually really liked the meaning behind it.

Anyways, in Extension, we had to do an independent research task and the teacher said mine was "excellent" and really comprehensive in comparison to everyone else's in the class and encouraged everyone else to read over mine, which was pretty heartwarming to hear hahah. I really need to start reading my ORT though hahahaha.

[Lumenoria]

Goddamn, our entire discovery essay draft is due on Monday and we only got it on Wednesday. I've only done a mediocre introduction, which the teacher has yet to give me feedback... great. I really want this draft to be as good as I can possibly make it, but I'm not sure if that's feasible in just one weekend. I'm going to a party tomorrow night, so it basically leaves me with just Sunday to complete it. I'm trying to work on it now while I have the time, but I cannot beat this procrastination for my life lol. Ugh, and I'm kinda annoyed at the school because we were supposed to get our prelim report today, but they fucking delayed it till Monday. It's so frustrating because the school is just so unorganised, this has happened so many times in a row already ugh. I just really want to know if I ranked first in Multimedia hahahahah

[Lumenoria]

Got our reports for prelims today, and I'm pretty okay with how I did in everything. My subjects/marks/ranks were respectively;

Advanced English, 73%, 32nd (horrible, I know)
English Ext, 82%, 5th (kinda disappointed with this, but it's actually not too bad considering I put no effort into the last assessment lol)
Legal Studies, 88%, 3rd
Economics, 84%, 13th
Multimedia, 93%, 1st
Mathematics, 48%, 57th (LOL hence why I dropped to general)

I'm content with my performance in everything, except for Advanced English. I feel like I put the most effort into it out of all subjects and it didn't pay off whatsoever lol. I got dragged down by an oral assessment task SO much, where everyone else excelled in it.. ugh. I know I'm good at English, so I really hope I can rank within the top 5 this year. I also want to invest more energy into English Ext, because I pretty much left it in the dust in Year 11 lol.. not that I did bad in it at all, but I feel like I could've easily done better had I handed in drafts at ALL. I'm also really happy that I topped something, I'll finally be able to go to presentation night... something that I've never done before lol.

Anyways, I have a shit ton to do tonight. I have a body paragraph to complete before sending the entirety of my discovery essay to my English teacher, but I just can't seem to get it done. The ideas presented in the text are all so intertwined with eachother to the point where you literally just cannot distinctly address key concepts regarding discovery. Like, I'll write 2 topic sentences for 2 different bodies and somehow I'll find myself talking about the other smh. I really need to get this done though, because I've been spending so much time on English and not enough time on anything else (mainly because my teacher gives out SO much homework lol). Should probably stop procrastinating here and do some of it smh

[Lumenoria]

I'm kinda confused about the prelim ranks, because I came 13th in economics and my friend told me today that she tied with me in the report.. even though I outperformed her EXPONENTIALLY. I'm so confused, because I beat her in every assessment this year... like in the yearlies, which was weighted like 40%, I got 88% and she got 75%? Oh well haha, it's just a bit annoying because I'm pretty sure I should've been ranked way higher. Anyways, it's Year 12 now so whatever.

Nonetheless, I'm so happy rn, because I've been literally so productive today. I've done all my homework up to Thursday so that I can set my focus predominantly on the development of my major work portfolio and general revision tomorrow. I finally submitted my Discovery essay draft to my teacher, but it's so fucking bad hahahhah. It's also 1530 words, which is way too much, but I couldn't be bothered to condense it because everything seemed pretty significant. I'm not keen for her response, cos she's notorious for being excessive with her feedback HAHAHAH. It's lowkey a blessing in disguise though. But I've been swamped with so much homework lately to the point where I have no left remaining to study beyond class content. Also, I'm working Thursday night so that's also been a major motivating factor to get my work done now.. because I know I'll be far too tired to do anything by the time I return home lol. Also, we got our legal notification today for our first assessment... which is great. It's in 3 weeks time, which is okay.. but I really hope I get over 90%. I'll be frustrated if I can't maintain my prelim rank of 3rd.. or if it drops. Ugh. Praying haha.

[Lumenoria]

Holycrap, today has truly been a tempestuous drudge to persevere through. There's this intense anxiety whirling around in my stomach pouncing to break free, yet it still remains. I truly haven't felt this way in a month or so, and I'm scared of what I might do to myself because I feel like I won't be able to get through this.

I got the feedback on my Advanced essay and it was horrendous—utterly horrendous. I knew I hadn't invested anywhere as much time on it as a normal essay, but I didn't think it was crazy bad. I was wrong—it was actually demoralising to be exposed to that AMOUNT of critique. Admittedly, I can confidently say that it ruined my day by all means. In English Ext, I kept questioning myself whether I should even be in the class... or if I should be dropping the unit to focus on Advanced entirely. I won't, but I don't know if that's the right decision for me academically.

On top of that, my English Ext teacher doesn't think that my proposed ORT (which I've already started reading) is ideal for the After the Bomb module because it isn't explicitly set in the 1940-1960s period (it's presumed to be set at the time of publication of 1984 but there is never any explicit indication of the time period it is set). However, the novel addresses the concerns of existentialism (perfect for comparing to Waiting for Gadot) and the sense of distrust and anxiety that characterised the post World War II period nonetheless, so I don't really understand why it's such an issue. It even hones into the domination of capitalism and rampant consumerism and the way in which this distracted individuals from mortality; a key aspect of the After the Bomb period. She even confirmed her thoughts with the head teacher, who said that the latest the English Ext faculty usually allow is 1980s so she would avoid it to play it safe. I don't agree however, because I've read plenty of exemplar essays that integrate the same ORT flawlessly and achieve great marks. In addition, I constantly see it on ATB reading lists. Now I'm at a loss as to whether I should continue it (I was truly drawn to the existentialist nature of the novel) or force myself to start anew with a different text that will probably be exponentially less interesting. UGH.

My employer also texted me today saying my TFN is wrong apparently, which I know it isn't—the fear of being possibly taxed 50% stressed me out so much. I cleared it up with her however and my payslip looked normal, so I THINK/hope it's all good now.

Also, the draft of the second part of my Multimedia portfolio is due on Friday, but I have work tomorrow night so I highly doubt I'll get it done. I want to resubmit my English essay by the end of the week because I really prioritise Advanced English over anything else, so I'll work on it tonight. I keep neglecting Multimedia ugh, but it just isn't as important to me as anything is.

[Lumenoria]

I actually started my major project today, and I'd edited a solid 1 second. I've barely done any of the theory,  but I'm pretty proud of myself for actually starting it... because now I know I'll always have that urge to work on it, rather than dread it hahah. Starting is always the hardest tbh

[Lumenoria]

Holy crap, I am actually so annoyed rn. I got approval for my second suggestion for my Ext 1 related text; however, today my teacher says I can't use it because it's also in the Advanced Module (1984). That ruined my day. I had a good conversation with the head after school for an hour or so because the bus was late and I was highkey throwing shade at that teacher lol. Also, ran into another teacher at the shops who I explained my situation to and she said she would look into it for me. UGH

[jamonwindeyer]

Holy crap, I am actually so annoyed rn. I got approval for my second suggestion for my Ext 1 related text; however, today my teacher says I can't use it because it's also in the Advanced Module (1984). That ruined my day. I had a good conversation with the head after school for an hour or so because the bus was late and I was highkey throwing shade at that teacher lol. Also, ran into another teacher at the shops who I explained my situation to and she said she would look into it for me. UGH

School policy aside, NESA allows this, so your teacher has no reason not to unless they just want to be restrictive for the sake of being restrictive

[Potatohater]

Holy crap, I am actually so annoyed rn. I got approval for my second suggestion for my Ext 1 related text; however, today my teacher says I can't use it because it's also in the Advanced Module (1984). That ruined my day. I had a good conversation with the head after school for an hour or so because the bus was late and I was highkey throwing shade at that teacher lol. Also, ran into another teacher at the shops who I explained my situation to and she said she would look into it for me. UGH

My school did this too, so I just used other texts not in the list for their satisfaction internally but for HSC I had one of my HSC drama texts (Stolen by Jane Harrison) prepared as a related for mod C. I didn't end up using it, I used the internally prepared one but it was there none the less because as Jamon said, NESA doesn't care.

[Lumenoria]

School policy aside, NESA allows this, so your teacher has no reason not to unless they just want to be restrictive for the sake of being restrictive

OMG I know right!! She initially allowed it when I went to the staffroom to ask because another teacher told her that you're allowed to do novels from the Adv course, so I think it's the latter. It's really bugging me, because she wouldn't let me do White Noise—my original ORT suggestion—which is notorious for being a good After the Bomb ORT and has been used successfully by students in the past. She thinks it's too late in the era, even though there is never any explicit indication of when it was set—she just assumed it was in the 1980s because that's when it was published. But, theoretically 1984 is set in 1984 and yet it was published in 1940-ish (forgot the exact year), so wouldn't a novel that was influenced by a composer that had actually experienced the After the Bomb period be preferable over a novel written from a futuristic perspective? Like it just logically seems like White Noise would be a more accurate depiction; yet she wouldve let me done 1984 (if it wasnt in Advanced course) even though they're both set in the same year. Idk if I'm making sense rn hahaha but I hope you get what I'm trying to say. I brought this up to another English teacher that I ran into randomly that afternoon, who used to teach the Ext English course and she initiated a discussion on the subject, so I explained this predicament to her and she reckons my arguments are legit. So, she said she'd look into it for me and discuss it with that teacher which I'm dreading because she'll probably think I deliberately went out of my way to talk shit about her to other teachers lmao and I think I would drop the class if I knew she hated me the whole time

[Lumenoria]

My school did this too, so I just used other texts not in the list for their satisfaction internally but for HSC I had one of my HSC drama texts (Stolen by Jane Harrison) prepared as a related for mod C. I didn't end up using it, I used the internally prepared one but it was there none the less because as Jamon said, NESA doesn't care.

That's what I thought, but I dont want to be marked down internally because I went against my teacher's advice? I know she knows that NESA is good with it because another teacher told her that in the staffroom when I asked about this issue, but I think she thinks the marker themselves will have a vendetta or something against it to the point where they will mark me down. Know what I mean? hahaha

[Lumenoria]

Stressing out because my legal is Tuesday week and I'm working 17 hours next week and I'm afraid it'll impede my ability to maintain my prelim rank because of a lack of time. I'm in the middle of writing a prepared essay on an estimated question, but I feel like it sounds super rushed. UGHH talked to my teacher today and she says I have nothing to worry about because I'm one of the strongest students she's ever had, but honestly I feel like I will let her down so much in this assessment. Thankgod it's only weighted 15%

[Lumenoria]

Oh my god, I handed in my first assessment task yesterday for Multimedia - which I don't think was my absolute best, but atleast it's done. It's been notoriously difficult to balance everything because I've been working 15 hour weeks - which I now realise is a huge mistake. I have Legal early next week, and it's a 45 minute inclass crime essay with an unseen question, so I'm really nervous about it. I've done a rough draft based on a practice question and gotten feedback for it from my teacher, but I highly doubt it'll be the EXACT one that'll be given on the day - which is what is mainly freaking out. In the prelim finals, I memorised an essay for Legal but the question was completely different to my guess so it completely freaked me out and ended up taking me 1 hour and 20 minutes to adapt the entire thing, as opposed to the 45 mins at home. We had 2 hours for that (including short answers, multiple choice, longer response as well though) so I was pretty safe in that regard (thankgod, I still ended up getting 25/25), but I literally do NOT have the luxury of that this time. UGHHH, my main concern is that the question will be so different to the point where it's give me anxiety and impede my ability to articulate my thoughts into cohesive arguments and then ultimately result in an unfinished essay. I will actually be so depressed if I get less than 90% lol... I guess I'll have to adapt it to all the possible questions I can think of then. I've also been cutting down my word count (went from 1360 to 1180 excluding conclusion) so that I have some room for adapting, but I think I've reached my limit. Fucking hell honestly.

[jamonwindeyer]

Fucking hell honestly.

Same
Don't worry too much about the essay! Do what you can to prepare for adapting it - Try dot pointing how you would respond to a variety of questions to rehearse swinging your evidence in a new direction

[Lumenoria]

Same
Don't worry too much about the essay! Do what you can to prepare for adapting it - Try dot pointing how you would respond to a variety of questions to rehearse swinging your evidence in a new direction

Aw thanks Jamon, I did the exam today and I am honestly so so happy, I should not have no worried so much at all. I wrote out a few plans for a variety of potential questions yesterday and omg the question perfectly fit. I was initially stressing over whether I could write up the entirety of my response in the time limit, and turns out I did! My handwriting was so messy though, especially toward the end because 5 minutes came by so fucking fast hahaha. I accidentally missed out a crucial part though, which is bugging me slightly but overall I think it was okay! So relieved to have it over with hahaha