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March 29, 2024, 08:00:45 am

Author Topic: ATAR will be the death of me :)  (Read 32542 times)

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K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #15 on: October 29, 2019, 11:25:19 pm »
+2
Awesome!! What is your contention specifically? ;D


I'm not too sure yet, but while researching I've been looking at stuff like the global carbon budget and Australia's slice of that budget. So, I think I'm going to centre my speech around how Australia can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to hopefully stay within our carbon budget. I'm planning to link it to equity and the importance of countries like Australia reducing net emissions down to zero as quickly as possible, so that the remaining carbon budget can be used in third world countries to build up infrastructure. I know it's kind of the basic approach to the climate change issue, but as Greta Thunberg said, it's black and white "there is no grey area when it comes to survival", either we reduce net emissions down to zero or we don't survive.

I'm actually really surprised though, because I thought a lot more people would choose climate change as their issue but most people are writing about abortion or the Hong Kong protests.

That would have been great. Was arts night about visual arts as well or mainly music, drama and dance?

Usually it is all four, but this year they decided that they would give visual arts its own evening. I'm pretty sure it's next Tuesday or something.
There is usually more dance performances than music or drama, but this year music came out on top  8)

QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

caffinatedloz

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #16 on: October 30, 2019, 05:11:20 pm »
+1
//
Your speech sounds fascinating. I agree. Australia is such a wealthy country and there is so much that we could do if we really committed.
I can see why the Hong Kong protests are popular though.

What instrument do you play? (assuming you're a musician) ;D

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #17 on: October 30, 2019, 11:25:42 pm »
+2
What instrument do you play? (assuming you're a musician) ;D

I am a pianist, and I also sing a bit :)
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2019, 12:54:00 pm »
+6
Woop Woop, guess who has some update worthy information?

These past couple of weeks have been eventful! :)

1. Last week I found out that I have received the position of school captain for 2020 (this was announced to the whole school yesterday). I'm super grateful for this opportunity, and it was a very pleasant surprise as I didn't think people would actually vote for me. I'm super keen for next year and hope to help make school as enjoyable for everyone as possible.

2. On Tuesday I went to a public forum about stem cells. It was very interesting. I got to learn all about how stem cells are used in research surrounding blood, skin, the brain (did y'all know there are things called brain organoids which can be used to study diseases such as alzheimers?? How cool is that?!?!), ageing and the heart.

3. On Wednesday my bio class had an excursion. We went to Morton Bay and did some experimental research type work on a boat and on St Helena Island. It was such a fun day - the highlight of the day was when I saw a wild dugong! (it was the cutest thing ever!) Random side note, my teacher guaranteed that we were gonna get wet. He kept going on about how we had to wear daggy clothes because we'll be on a boat and we will 100% get wet. The whole day, not a single drop of water had touched us. That is until I jinxed it... on the way back from St Helena Island to the docks at Morton Bay, my friends sat at the back of the boat because there were no more seats. We got a nice view of the water so we were pretty stoked. And then it happened. A big wave of water came flying at us, straight over the side of the boat... we were saturated...  ;D

Anywho, I digress.

I have an English presentation next week, a biology, physics and psychology data test in two weeks and a religion extended response exam in two weeks (fingers crossed it all goes well). My school also has its annual award ceremony coming up (its in 2 weeks time, after all of the exams). So hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have some more exciting updates :)

To my fellow QCE-ers, there's only a couple more weeks left of school for the year! You can do it! :)
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

Bri MT

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2019, 02:38:31 pm »
+3
Congratulations!! :D

At your school do you have two captains? Did you have to do an interview process as well?

The forum sounds interesting - do you remember what they said about stem cells and aging? Imo aging is super interesting & even though I don't think that finding applications that can be used to reduce aging should be a high priority, it's certainly a fascinating topic. Sounds like that brain organoids topic ties into psych really well too :)

That field trip sounds like reason #523698 why bio is the best ;)

It's bewildering to think that the year above you will be getting their results in less than a month and that you're almost a 5th of the way through your units 3&4 journey :o . Good luck for awards night :)




K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2019, 04:09:50 pm »
+3
Congratulations!! :D

At your school do you have two captains? Did you have to do an interview process as well?

Thank you!! :D
So yeah, we have a male captain and a female captain. The process went as follows: you get an application form, fill out all of the questions (it was 8 pages long and had 19 questions) and get 2 teacher recommendations. If your application was successful, you went to the interview process and two teachers in leadership positions would ask you a couple questions. If the interview was successful, then you went on to a QnA session in front of the whole grade (you had to answer 5 questions - 1 was an unseen question that you were asked on the day). Then there was the voting processes, first the students vote and then the teachers.

The forum sounds interesting - do you remember what they said about stem cells and aging? Imo aging is super interesting & even though I don't think that finding applications that can be used to reduce aging should be a high priority, it's certainly a fascinating topic. Sounds like that brain organoids topic ties into psych really well too :)

The notes that I took down on ageing and stem cells were:
- Stem cells contribute to ageing and ageing related diseases
- As we age, the function of stem cells decreases (e.g. haematopoietic stem cells are less able to regenerate the different types of cells required to maintain healthy blood)

I also remember that they were talking about the regenerative effects of stem cell transplants.
We are also now able to "turn back time" and reprogram mature cells to turn them into pluripotent stem cells.

And yes, I was talking to my psych teacher about the brain organoids and she thought they were pretty cool. It'll definitely come in handy when we start to look at Alzheimers.

It's bewildering to think that the year above you will be getting their results in less than a month and that you're almost a 5th of the way through your units 3&4 journey :o . Good luck for awards night :)

Yeah, its pretty crazy! I feel like this year has gone by so quickly - I'm almost too scared to blink at this point.
And thank you! :)
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

caffinatedloz

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #21 on: November 17, 2019, 06:50:02 am »
+2
1. Last week I found out that I have received the position of school captain for 2020 (this was announced to the whole school yesterday). I'm super grateful for this opportunity, and it was a very pleasant surprise as I didn't think people would actually vote for me. I'm super keen for next year and hope to help make school as enjoyable for everyone as possible.
Massive congratulations!! I read your post about the proccess- it sounds really long. That's so exciting!!

2. On Tuesday I went to a public forum about stem cells. It was very interesting. I got to learn all about how stem cells are used in research surrounding blood, skin, the brain (did y'all know there are things called brain organoids which can be used to study diseases such as alzheimers?? How cool is that?!?!), ageing and the heart.
That would have been really awesome! Did they talk about the different type of stem cells (embryonic v iPCS)?

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #22 on: November 17, 2019, 05:23:45 pm »
+2
Massive congratulations!! I read your post about the proccess- it sounds really long. That's so exciting!!

Thank you!! ;D and yes, it is very exciting!

That would have been really awesome! Did they talk about the different type of stem cells (embryonic v iPCS)?

Yeah, they spoke about adult stem cells and pluripotent stem cells. When talking about the adult stem cells, they spoke about them in relation to a certain field of study and how they could be used to help treat patients with certain conditions. For example, they spoke about transplanting skin stem cells to help burn victims. They think that may be more effective than just using a skin graft. And with pluripotent stem cells, they were talking about awesome they were and how much potential they had in the medical world. They mainly spoke about how they can reprogram cells into pluripotent stem cells, so that they can be useful and a range of circumstances.
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #23 on: November 30, 2019, 09:16:19 am »
+4
So... it has been quite a hectic, stressful, overwhelming, yet exciting, year...
Yesterday was my last day of school, but it hasn't quite hit me yet. I still feel like on Monday morning I'm meant to be getting up early to prepare for another day at school, but I won't be. I feel rather conflicted. While I am glad the 2019 school year is over and I can put all the stress and pressure behind me, I am also rather sad and anxious.

Why am I sad? I had to say goodbye to 5 amazing teachers yesterday who will be leaving my school. I'm sad that 5 amazing teachers won't be with us to celebrate all our milestones next year. 2 of those five teachers have been there for me during really tough times and have shown me an endless amount of love and support - and for that I am so so so grateful. 1 of those 5 teachers was a huge cheerleader for me this year when I participated in my school's musical (we did Mary Poppins) - they offered me so much support when I felt like I was drowning in extracurriculars and school workload. The remaining 2 of those 5 teachers have just been such a bright light at my school. They are always smiling, always laughing and always lift students moods. I will miss the daily conversations I have with them - and the jokes! I will miss just being able to laugh with them. 5 amazing teachers are leaving, leaving me with 1 teacher left at my school that I am really close with

Why am I anxious? We had a little test run last year of the ATAR system, but now it really begins. The assessment we do now matters. Any mistakes we make now matter. We are still in the dark about so much. The big scary external exams are getting closer and closer as each day goes by. Soon, school will be over and we'll be thrown into an entirely new experience - of which we also don't know much about. Also, another reason why I am anxious about next year is because 1 of the teachers that is leaving (mentioned above) is my maths teacher. They have helped me so much this year in maths and really helped me to pick up my grades. My confidence in the subject grew so much. But now they're leaving. I can only expect that my confidence will crumble once again and my grades will dip once again.

Wow, that was a bit depressing. In happier news...
I had an exam block this week (yep, exam block on the last week of school - yikes), during which I completed a bio data test, psych data test, physics data test and an extended response essay under exam conditions (unseen question) for SOR. Overall, I did pretty well.
I don't know how I went for SOR (I will find out my grade in a couple weeks when they send out the start of unit 3 report cards - but I will only know my grade E-->A, I won't know what I got out of 25 until next year), but I did get my results back for the data tests.
Lets compare my results from the data tests at the beginning of the year to the end of the year...
(I should also add that the most current ones are yet to be cross-marked so my grades may change - fingers crossed they stay the same)

                   Biology
(start of year)        (end of year)
     6/10                      10/10  <-- I topped the grade

                Psychology
(start of year)        (end of year)
   7.75/10                   10/10

                   Physics
(start of year)        (end of year)
     5/10                      10/10

I would say that there is improvement there ;D
Big shout out to Bri for writing the articles on data test advice - you're a legend!

Yesterday, we also had our Senior Years End of Year Award Ceremony...
On whole I was quite happy with how it went.
I received the Award for Effort in Thinking and Learning (for achieving an A for effort across all of my subjects)
I received the Platinum Attendance Award (for 100% attendance)
I received the Silver Award for Excellence in Thinking and Learning (for achieving an A for 5/6 of my subjects)
I received an award for Top of Subject for Psychology (I was quite happy with this one as I really do love the subject so much, so topping it made me happy)

The only thing I am a little disappointed with is the excellence award. They usually base this award off of your end of year results (which would mean a combined result for unit 1 and 2). But this time they based it off of our Unit 2 results.
For unit 2 my English grade dropped (my teacher is not the best, so I'm not happy with my results in English), so all of my subjects were at an A level except English.
But for my end of year report (combined unit 1 and 2), which they usually base the awards off of, I had 100% As - which would have gotten me the gold award. But oh well, its done now. Lets hope next year I can get the gold :)

Anywho... I'm excited to enjoy my 2 month break off of school before the 2020 school year begins. I don't have much planned for the holidays, all I know is that I'm going to do some study, next Wednesday I have to go back to school in the morning to try on a blaiser for next year and on the last two weeks of holidays I'm going to NSW. I think next year will be ok. Academically I think I will be alright (we'll see how maths and English go). It won't be as fun without those 5 amazing teachers, but we'll survive. I'm excited to work with my cohort as one of the school captains and help make our school what we all want it to be and what we know it can be.

I hope everyone has a good holiday and an amazing Christmas :) 
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

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Bri MT

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #24 on: November 30, 2019, 09:26:06 am »
+3
I am so proud of you!

Congratulations on the progress you've made & everything you have achieved this year :D

I hope the new teachers who come in are compatible with you and are still a good source of support for you. Best of luck for your holidays and the academic year ahead; I've got full faith in you :)

brothanathan

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #25 on: November 30, 2019, 10:37:20 am »
+4
Wish there was an attendance award at my school  ;D

This is what dedication can bring, congrats.

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #26 on: December 25, 2019, 09:51:17 am »
+9
I just wanted to take a minute to say a very big MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! to everyone! ;D I hope everyone has a wonderful day and you all enjoy spending some time with your loved ones :). I know that for some the Christmas period is not one of joy, laughter and love and may bring about sadness and anxiety. To those that may be feeling down this Christmas, I just wanted to say that:
- You are loved
- You are wanted
- You are enough
- People believe in you and support you
- You are a beautiful human being

Merry Christmas all :)
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2020, 08:59:38 pm »
+13
Ahh... another school year. Today was my last first day of school. It's weird because I know that during the school year time goes so quickly and before I know it I'll be graduating, but the reality of this hasn't quite hit me yet.

To be honest, I'm anxious about this year. Every piece of assessment I do now matters, every mistake I make matters, every thing I learn matters... Last year I was able to stuff up and everything would be fine, but this year its a little different. I don't know why this makes me anxious, as last year went pretty well for me. I achieved 100% As on my unit 1 and 2 report card  (after being told at the start of the year that one of my teachers didn't think I would achieve an A in their class), I also got the top mark in my grade for one subject (wasn't too far behind in others), managed to get the best grades in my year level for the psych student experiment and research investigation, physics research investigation, bio student experiment and research investigation and English persuasive speech, and I also managed to write two research investigations (bio and psych) at a university level. So, realistically, I shouldn't be too stressed.
Sure, for some of my subjects I had some dramas (particularly in regard to teachers not actually teaching) and therefore, my grades weren't as high as they could have been (while I received As overall for all of my subjects, some of them only just made the cut).
Sure, there is room to improve, but I did so well and with all of the stress that I went through having a busy schedule (I participated in my school's musical which meant a lot of hours of rehearsals), I should be proud of myself.
My maths teacher left at the end of late year, which is extremely saddening for my class as we all had such a good relationship with him and he was an amazing teacher. This year I will have two maths teacher (this isn't ideal!!!). One of my teachers is working part time and I will have her for most of my lessons, but my class is dreading the teacher who will be taking us for the other lessons. This teacher is the one we specifically stated that we did not want, due to some drama that occurred in grade 10 extension mathematics....

However, I'm also really excited! This year will offer so many opportunities (volunteering, extracurricular, leadership...) and I'm so excited to see where this year takes me. So far, academically, grade 12 has been off to a great start.
My Unit 3 grades so far are as follows:
Psychology: 10/10
Biology: 10/10
Physics: 10/10
Methods: *haven't been assessed yet*
SOR: 24/25 (I was in the top 4 from my grade)
English: Either a 24 or a 25 out of 25 - I should hopefully find out tomorrow.
I'm pretty happy with these results, and I am looking forward to my next pieces of assessment.

How about this though... It is the first school day of the year and my school computer has decided to not work properly. So, for the next couple of days I have a replacement computer while the battery in my usual computer is serviced. Besides this little debacle, today went pretty good. My school has a new building (it was built last year) and it is called the "Senior Years Hub". It is a building in the centre of the senior years area and within it is a kitchen for students, study rooms, an auditorium, additional classrooms, access to the SY guidance councillor, pathway/career advisors, pastoral leaders, etc... It is in the centre of senior years so that students are forced to walk through it to get to classes (this way they are reminded that they are surrounded by additional support if needed). It is also home to year 12 lockers. We were allocated our lockers today - and boy oh boy are they big. I am really excited as I don't use my lockers for school stuff, so this year I am making a snack locker - its gonna be epic! They also gave everyone in my grade a travel coffee cup and inside it was a chocolate and some hot chocolate packets ;D

That update was kinda pointless, but I'm pretty excited about it ;D

I hope to update this thread as much as possible this year :)
As for now, this is all I've got - until next time ;D
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

K.Smithy

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #28 on: January 31, 2020, 05:12:15 pm »
+8
Today we had our first whole college assembly, I was one of the MCs (along side the other school captain). It went pretty well, I choked up on a few words as I get a little nervous public speaking (even though I enjoy it), but other than that it went swimmingly. At the end of every assembly we play our college song and people get up and sing and do the dance moves that go along with the lyrics - most people join in. Once we get to middle years participation starts to decline, by the time you get to senior years, almost no one is singing or dancing. So, this time, the staff member who organises assemblies pulled the other MC aside and told him to stand in the middle of the stage and get people to participate.... This is where it went a little down hill... He didn't know the words or dances moves, but honestly, good on him for getting up there and trying his best! It was so admirable to see him get out of his comfort zone, in front of ~1400 students and god knows how many staff members...
But it got to the point where I just couldn't see him suffer any longer, so I ran out to the middle of the stage, put on a brave face and tried to do the best I could at being energetic. I didn't know all of the moves, so I just watched the teachers who were teaching the new students (but I pretended I knew what I was doing of course ;D). By the end, we had almost every single student dancing! It was crazy! All of the teachers were laughing at us but that's ok ;D
But administration loved it so now it might be a permanent thing.

Also, I got my English results today.. 25/25!!! FINALLY!!! I DID IT!!! ;D ;D ;D
QCE 2020: Physics (92) || Psychology (96) || Biology (93) || Methods (79) || English (98) || SOR (91)
ATAR: 98.40
2021-2024: Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) @ UQ

Uni Journal ; U3 Bio ; U3 Psych ; U3 Physics

caffinatedloz

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Re: ATAR will be the death of me :)
« Reply #29 on: February 01, 2020, 05:24:44 pm »
+2
Wow Katelyn! Good on you for putting yourself out there. I hope that being school captain brings lots more opportunities for fun and laughter this year. Congratulations on a fantastic English score! Hope you really enjoyed your last first week back! ;D