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VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: Joseph41 on March 08, 2017, 09:50:44 am

Title: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 08, 2017, 09:50:44 am
(http://i.imgur.com/76Boi69.png)

I kept a journal throughout Year 11 and Year 12. In hindsight, it's really, really interesting reading it. You can see how my confidence went through peaks and troughs, and career thoughts are also fascinating ("It's completely clear in my mind that I'll be studying design next year").

It just hit me that this thread could act as an awesome place to keep a collaborative journal. There's no obligation to participate, of course, and you don't need to contribute anything super personal, but in years to come you can read back through this thread and see how your VCE journey progressed. So a post could be like:

Wednesday 8 March
Today I had a Methods SAC and I'm pretty sure I stuffed it up.

Monday 13 March
Turns out I actually got 85% LOL.

I don't know if this will take off or not but like, feel free to use this thread as a place to muse. :)

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Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sine on March 08, 2017, 09:56:12 am
I kept a journal throughout Year 11 and Year 12. In hindsight, it's really, really interesting reading it. You can see how my confidence went through peaks and troughs, and career thoughts are also fascinating ("It's completely clear in my mind that I'll be studying design next year").

It just hit me that this thread could act as an awesome place to keep a collaborative journal. There's no obligation to participate, of course, and you don't need to contribute anything super personal, but in years to come you can read back through this thread and see how your VCE journey progressed. So a post could be like:

Wednesday 8 March
Today I had a Methods SAC and I'm pretty sure I stuffed it up.

Monday 13 March
Turns out I actually got 85% LOL.

I don't know if this will take off or not but like, feel free to use this thread as a place to muse. :)
Great Idea  :) I think if people use the journal this year it will be very useful for the class of 2018/19 so on just to read.

Although it's usually more like
Wednesday 8 March
Today I had a Methods SAC and I'm pretty sure I stuffed it up.
RIP I didn't even finish
Monday 13 March
Turns out I actually got 85% 100% LOL.

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 08, 2017, 09:17:19 pm
I actually like this idea. Will try to update as much as i can.
 ;)
Wednesday 8th March, 2017
- got my physics result back - - - i'm not happy with it.
- felt like dropping spesh but then i understood modulus so now i am fine
- watched my brother's cricket match  :-[ i s2g i am better than him, the match was so boring
- got really happy because i have Friday-Monday off school and can't wait to celebrate smthn special with my fam + get some work done (hopefully!)
- my dad was on about philosophy and politics the whole evening lol and he bored me while eating dinner but i still payed attention
-  i'm trying to get some methods done rn.

P.s i would luv it if more & more ppl got involved in this.  :P

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on March 08, 2017, 11:52:25 pm
Awesome idea  :D
Wed 8 March
Eng SAC tomorrow but it's already 12 AM so let's wing it  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 09, 2017, 08:43:13 am
I actually like this idea. Will try to update as much as i can.
 ;)
Wednesday 8th March, 2017
- watched my brother's cricket match  :-[ i s2g i am better than him, the match was so boring

But cricket is never boring! ;D

Awesome idea  :D
Wed 8 March
Eng SAC tomorrow but it's already 12 AM so let's wing it  :P

Best of luck, j.wang! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: brenden on March 09, 2017, 11:12:20 am
Awesome idea  :D
Wed 8 March
Eng SAC tomorrow but it's already 12 AM so let's wing it  :P
desperately waiting for updates
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on March 09, 2017, 05:31:41 pm
This seems like an awesome idea!

Thursday 9th March
Had a surprise test for chemistry today :'( And I also have a chem SAC (the 1st one) next week, which goes for 4 lessons. (What a monster of a SAC?!) :o
Also I have an English creative SAC (whoop whoop yesss creativeeee!!!!) next week which goes for 2 lessons, which I am SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED ABOUT haha
I also have a spesh maths test tomorrow but havent learnt two of the exercises on vectors because i joined after transition. hopefully i do well!
Methods is going good with homework and everything, a bit difficult. :-\
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 09, 2017, 06:32:10 pm
desperately waiting for updates

j.wang, how did it go?!

This seems like an awesome idea!

Thursday 9th March
Had a surprise test for chemistry today :'( And I also have a chem SAC (the 1st one) next week, which goes for 4 lessons. (What a monster of a SAC?!) :o
Also I have an English creative SAC (whoop whoop yesss creativeeee!!!!) next week which goes for 2 lessons, which I am SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED ABOUT haha
I also have a spesh maths test tomorrow but havent learnt two of the exercises on vectors because i joined after transition. hopefully i do well!
Methods is going good with homework and everything, a bit difficult. :-\

Yay! ;D Great contribution. :)

How did you find the Chem test? Good luck for the Spesh test tomorrow - let us know how you go! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 09, 2017, 09:39:30 pm
This past week I've gotten back a heap of bad results.  :'( Luckily they weren't SACs, so I can still redeem myself. Yesterday, I just had my English language analysis SAC, but I think I stuffed it up because I was distracted by a person playing music pretty loudly near the room for most of the SAC. What makes it worse is that my teacher is a harsh marker and apparently even though the SACs get cross marked he will probably get the last say in my SAC result, since he's the English coordinator. Also, I have an upcoming chemistry and physics SAC next week.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 09, 2017, 09:45:08 pm
This past week I've gotten back a heap of bad results.  :'( Luckily they weren't SACs, so I can still redeem myself. Yesterday, I just had my English language analysis SAC, but I think I stuffed it up because I was distracted by a person playing music pretty loudly near the room for most of the SAC. What makes it worse is that my teacher is a harsh marker and apparently even though the SACs get cross marked he will probably get the last say in my SAC result, since he's the English coordinator. Also, I have an upcoming chemistry and physics SAC next week.

Hey! I believe you'll ace your SACs, try not to doubt yourself! :) I'm also pretty sure that you would have smashed your SAC from yesterday and I'm sure you'll be surprised! :)
All the best for physics and chem next week.

Keep us updated! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on March 09, 2017, 09:49:05 pm
Yesterday:
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework

Today:
- wow I might have time to hit the track and start training for athletics again
- o wait it's VCE
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework
- cries at night
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: coolaths on March 09, 2017, 09:54:35 pm
March 9th
Had English,  language analysis sac today...
Literally the worst one ever... However, it has gotten me pumped about the next task, and I will be on track and ace that one..


Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on March 09, 2017, 09:56:41 pm
Yesterday:
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework

Today:
- wow I might have time to hit the track and start training for athletics again
- o wait it's VCE
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework
- cries at night

Oh my god I feel you! And I'm doing the exact same subjects as you too! :D Do you have any SAC's coming up soon? :)

Yay! ;D Great contribution. :)

How did you find the Chem test? Good luck for the Spesh test tomorrow - let us know how you go! :)

Thanks Joseph41! :D The chem test was alright, only 9 marks though so it wasn't really a test although my teacher made us do it in test conditions and split the tables up so we weren't close to other students and everything (test conditions). I got 5/9 which isn't great but seeing as I guessed everything (I mean literally everything, I know nothing about galvanic cells), I was pretty lucky. I'm aiming for 40+ though so I'm studying my butt off for my SAC next week!
Haha our spesh test tomorrow is open book, calculator allowed and any-notes-or-anything-else-we-want-to-bring-in allowed, as well as asking-for-help allowed :P will update how it goes :)

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 09, 2017, 10:04:24 pm
March 9th
Had English,  language analysis sac today...
Literally the worst one ever... However, it has gotten me pumped about the next task, and I will be on track and ace that one..

Hopefully you do ace all your future SACs! :)
I also hope the LangAnalysis comes out fine too! :)
Definitely keep us updated. ;)

|| March 9th ||

I had my first psych SAC today, which went pretty well so i'm glad!
But ive got my much dreaded English Creative SAC on Mabo next week so i'm very stressed out. I've been meaning to write up a practice piece for the teacher to give me feedback on, however i haven't been able to with 2 SAC's and 2 Practice SAC's and today is my last opportunity. Only got home at around 8 and so here i am typing up and 800-1000 word practice piece at 10 pm on a thursday. Woo hoo ! :'(
Excellent news about the psych SAC! ;D
Hopefully you'll ace your creative SAC next week too, I know you can do it! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Shadowxo on March 09, 2017, 10:27:15 pm
*pretends to be doing VCE* :D
Today, I had my first physics prac. I felt a bit lost, as they didn't show us how to do it properly and the results were different to expected while the errors higher (not sure what happened here?). I think I might ask someone what they expect us to address in our pracs.
I haven't been enjoying physics  :-\. I'm thinking of changing to the regular stream instead of advanced (kind of regretting not taking up chemistry, I used to love it). They speed through the content without explaining it and as a result, I feel confused whenever we have a lecture and stressed during pracs (even though there's only been one haha). It's like a 3h SAC every week for a single subject! (on top of the other assessments for it, and the assessments for other subjects)
On a more positive note, I've been enjoying my other subjects - Calc 2 has been interesting, I love solving problems, and engineering is fun, I have a (hopefully good!) team for my workshops and the weekly assignments aren't too bad. It's been interesting learning about finance and how things like value of annuities are calculated.

Looking forward to the weekend! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 09, 2017, 10:36:30 pm
*pretends to be doing VCE* :D
Today, I had my first physics prac. I felt a bit lost, as they didn't show us how to do it properly and the results were different to expected while the errors higher (not sure what happened here?). I think I might ask someone what they expect us to address in our pracs.
I haven't been enjoying physics  :-\. I'm thinking of changing to the regular stream instead of advanced (kind of regretting not taking up chemistry, I used to love it). They speed through the content without explaining it and as a result, I feel confused whenever we have a lecture and stressed during pracs (even though there's only been one haha). It's like a 3h SAC every week for a single subject! (on top of the other assessments for it, and the assessments for other subjects)
On a more positive note, I've been enjoying my other subjects - Calc 2 has been interesting, I love solving problems, and engineering is fun, I have a (hopefully good!) team for my workshops and the weekly assignments aren't too bad. It's been interesting learning about finance and how things like value of annuities are calculated.

Looking forward to the weekend! :)

Totally fine to chip in! ;)

I totally feel you with those 3 hour pracs; they are pretty tough! (My first 3-hour one went overtime and lasted for nearly 4 hours, I probably looked like a walking zombie after that! :P)

However excellent to hear about those units you love and hopefully you'll soon fine physics more enjoyable! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on March 10, 2017, 09:49:35 am
this is a really cool idea tbh! i have a pretty heavy workload this year, although i'm not bright enough to do any science/maths subjects like pretty much everyone else here, oops.

i've just had a health sac that turned out to be heaps easier than i'd expected which is nice! i'm looking forward to getting it back, which is a first in vce lmao. there's another one coming up in two weeks, same day as my first english sac and two days before the revs one :( i have a lit sac today as well, but at least it's creative and we're allowed to take in the text, so no memorising there! on a slightly more negative note, i got back my legal sac today and ended up with an 85% :( i only lost three marks and i'm pretty sure most people did worse though so my ranking might be alright? the teacher's a super harsh (and really unpredictable, ugh) marker but she does set quite easy sacs, which is really annoying lmao. but i guess if it doesn't improve, legal might end up as my seventh subject and not even count towards my atar, idk. i'll try and update this after it all goes down, haha. (:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 10, 2017, 04:56:25 pm
This past week I've gotten back a heap of bad results.  :'( Luckily they weren't SACs, so I can still redeem myself. Yesterday, I just had my English language analysis SAC, but I think I stuffed it up because I was distracted by a person playing music pretty loudly near the room for most of the SAC. What makes it worse is that my teacher is a harsh marker and apparently even though the SACs get cross marked he will probably get the last say in my SAC result, since he's the English coordinator. Also, I have an upcoming chemistry and physics SAC next week.

That sucks about the music. In my 3/4 HHD exam, there was somebody playing basketball right outside, and you can imagine how the basketball thumping would be in an exam haha. I ended up asking the invigilator to ask the person outside to kindly go away.

I know it's probably difficult to appreciate now, but tough marking will be a good thing in the long run - I promise. :) Let us know how you find the Chem and Physics SACs! ;D

Yesterday:
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework

Today:
- wow I might have time to hit the track and start training for athletics again
- o wait it's VCE
- spesh homework
- methods homework
- chem homework
- english homework
- cries at night

What type of athletics do you do? :)

March 9th
Had English,  language analysis sac today...
Literally the worst one ever... However, it has gotten me pumped about the next task, and I will be on track and ace that one..

Right on! I absolutely love this attitude. ;D When's your next one, coolaths?

Thanks Joseph41! :D The chem test was alright, only 9 marks though so it wasn't really a test although my teacher made us do it in test conditions and split the tables up so we weren't close to other students and everything (test conditions). I got 5/9 which isn't great but seeing as I guessed everything (I mean literally everything, I know nothing about galvanic cells), I was pretty lucky. I'm aiming for 40+ though so I'm studying my butt off for my SAC next week!
Haha our spesh test tomorrow is open book, calculator allowed and any-notes-or-anything-else-we-want-to-bring-in allowed, as well as asking-for-help allowed :P will update how it goes :)

Oh, so sort of like a mini test?

Super keen for Spesh updates! ;D

|| March 9th ||

I had my first psych SAC today, which went pretty well so i'm glad!
But ive got my much dreaded English Creative SAC on Mabo next week so i'm very stressed out. I've been meaning to write up a practice piece for the teacher to give me feedback on, however i haven't been able to with 2 SAC's and 2 Practice SAC's and today is my last opportunity. Only got home at around 8 and so here i am typing up and 800-1000 word practice piece at 10 pm on a thursday. Woo hoo ! :'(

I love the formatting. ;)

What was the Psych SAC on? How did the practice SAC go in the end?

*pretends to be doing VCE* :D
Today, I had my first physics prac. I felt a bit lost, as they didn't show us how to do it properly and the results were different to expected while the errors higher (not sure what happened here?). I think I might ask someone what they expect us to address in our pracs.
I haven't been enjoying physics  :-\. I'm thinking of changing to the regular stream instead of advanced (kind of regretting not taking up chemistry, I used to love it). They speed through the content without explaining it and as a result, I feel confused whenever we have a lecture and stressed during pracs (even though there's only been one haha). It's like a 3h SAC every week for a single subject! (on top of the other assessments for it, and the assessments for other subjects)
On a more positive note, I've been enjoying my other subjects - Calc 2 has been interesting, I love solving problems, and engineering is fun, I have a (hopefully good!) team for my workshops and the weekly assignments aren't too bad. It's been interesting learning about finance and how things like value of annuities are calculated.

Looking forward to the weekend! :)

Hahaha very sneaky, Shadowxo. ;) Why did you drop Chem if you initially loved it?

this is a really cool idea tbh! i have a pretty heavy workload this year, although i'm not bright enough to do any science/maths subjects like pretty much everyone else here, oops.

i've just had a health sac that turned out to be heaps easier than i'd expected which is nice! i'm looking forward to getting it back, which is a first in vce lmao. there's another one coming up in two weeks, same day as my first english sac and two days before the revs one :( i have a lit sac today as well, but at least it's creative and we're allowed to take in the text, so no memorising there! on a slightly more negative note, i got back my legal sac today and ended up with an 85% :( i only lost three marks and i'm pretty sure most people did worse though so my ranking might be alright? the teacher's a super harsh (and really unpredictable, ugh) marker but she does set quite easy sacs, which is really annoying lmao. but i guess if it doesn't improve, legal might end up as my seventh subject and not even count towards my atar, idk. i'll try and update this after it all goes down, haha. (:

Hey, patriciarose! I'm glad you like the idea - I'm looking forward to your entries throughout the year! ;D

Pleeeeeaasssee don't think that "being bright" necessitates the mathsy/sciencey subjects; that's totally not the case! How are you finding everything thus far? That's a fair chunk of content you have to deal with.

What was the Health SAC on? Have you covered NHPAs yet? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Shadowxo on March 10, 2017, 05:05:16 pm
That sucks about the music. In my 3/4 HHD exam, there was somebody playing basketball right outside, and you can imagine how the basketball thumping would be in an exam haha. I ended up asking the invigilator to ask the person outside to kindly go away.

I know it's probably difficult to appreciate now, but tough marking will be a good thing in the long run - I promise. :) Let us know how you find the Chem and Physics SACs! ;D

What type of athletics do you do? :)

Right on! I absolutely love this attitude. ;D When's your next one, coolaths?

Oh, so sort of like a mini test?

Super keen for Spesh updates! ;D

I love the formatting. ;)

What was the Psych SAC on? How did the practice SAC go in the end?

Hahaha very sneaky, Shadowxo. ;) Why did you drop Chem if you initially loved it?

Hey, patriciarose! I'm glad you like the idea - I'm looking forward to your entries throughout the year! ;D

Pleeeeeaasssee don't think that "being bright" necessitates the mathsy/sciencey subjects; that's totally not the case! How are you finding everything thus far? That's a fair chunk of content you have to deal with.

What was the Health SAC on? Have you covered NHPAs yet? :)

I did chemistry in year 12* but there was so much I wanted to do in my course that I couldn't fit it all in :(
Doing: Engineering, maths, physics, finance
What I wish I could have done too: chemistry, IT, psychology (never had a chance but I love learning about how people think)

* Disclaimer: I may actually not be doing VCE  :o
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on March 10, 2017, 05:40:56 pm
@Joseph41 I compete in short sprints and LJ  :)


Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 10, 2017, 07:48:59 pm
Thanks for the support everyone  :)  10/3/2017 Today nothing really happened, but right now after my English SAC I'm struggling to stay motivated for English, because for the past few weeks I've just been churning out essays. Also I got a decent result for a chemistry test, but I feel a bit disappointed, because I could have done much better, especially since I lost most of my marks due to careless mistakes.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 10, 2017, 07:56:21 pm
10/03/17
- was at home
- did some chem
- annotated some parts of othello - it's surprisingly interesting and i'm loving my english class  :D
- read a physics chapter
- got a chem SAC back and apparently one of the errors i made were in defining ionisation energy: 'the tendency for an electron to lose an atom' what am i doing. . .  So disappointed . . . .  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Syndicate on March 10, 2017, 08:19:31 pm
Thought might as well start my own journal (I hope to come back to this exactly next year)  :P

10th of March 2017:
- A lot of work! Chemistry/ methods/ specialist.... you name it.
- Got quite a few SACs coming up - physics/ specialist
- I am excited to get my English SAC back on Tuesday (I hope I have done well)
- Attempted to debate on AN  ::) (I am still not a good debater  :P)
- Something really funny happened involving me and my friends
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 10, 2017, 08:34:54 pm
Thanks for the support everyone  :)  10/3/2017 Today nothing really happened, but right now after my English SAC I'm struggling to stay motivated for English, because for the past few weeks I've just been churning out essays. Also I got a decent result for a chemistry test, but I feel a bit disappointed, because I could have done much better, especially since I lost most of my marks due to careless mistakes.
Take a break from English studies for the weekend! You've deserve it after that SAC! :)
Excellent to hear about the chem test, careless mistakes happen all the time, so try not to sweat it. I'm absolutely sure that you'll beast those SACs when the time comes! :)

10/03/17
- was at home
- did some chem
- annotated some parts of othello - it's surprisingly interesting and i'm loving my english class  :D
- read a physics chapter
- got a chem SAC back and apparently one of the errors i made were in defining ionisation energy: 'the tendency for an electron to lose an atom' what am i doing. . .  So disappointed . . . .  :P
Othello sounds really interesting! (It's actually on my must-read before I die list, haha) Let me know how you feel about it after you've completed it. :)
Don't worry about the errors, they're stepping stones that you learn from! (otherwise, how'd we ever learn? :P)
How do you find physics? I'm really interested in your opinion on it so far! :)

Thought might as well start my own journal (I hope to come back to this exactly next year)  :P
10th of March 2017:
- A lot of work! Chemistry/ methods/ specialist.... you name it.
- Got quite a few SACs coming up - physics/ specialist
- I am excited to get my English SAC back on Tuesday (I hope I have done well)
- Attempted to debate on AN  ::) (I am still not a good debater  :P)
- Something really funny happened involving me and my friends
I reckon it'd be something great to reflect back on in a year's time! :)
Hopefully you've aced that English SAC (keep us updated, please! ;D )
With the debating, at least you're better than me! (I mean come on, I can't even put in a good argument about anything, like forever. :P )
What happened with you and your friends? You've got my interest now. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 10, 2017, 08:42:11 pm
Othello sounds really interesting! (It's actually on my must-read before I die list, haha) Let me know how you feel about it after you've completed it. :)
Don't worry about the errors, they're stepping stones that you learn from! (otherwise, how'd we ever learn? :P )
How do you find physics? I'm really interested in your opinion on it so far! :)

Othello is better than Macbeth (in my opinion anyway!). My class is super amazing and yesterday our teacher asked us who the root of Othello's downfall was. My class ended up having a 1.5 hour debate about it and everyone had a turn to speak. My teacher wrote all the notes on the board. She's super cool! I love it.
Physics. . .it's definitely interesting! I didn't do well on my first SAC because i was concentrating on bio so i didn't revise. Its all good though, because it was on the theory knowledge and its not really that important for 3/4. My teacher is super nice for physics too.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 10, 2017, 08:54:23 pm
Othello is better than Macbeth (in my opinion anyway!). My class is super amazing and yesterday our teacher asked us who the root of Othello's downfall was. My class ended up having a 1.5 hour debate about it and everyone had a turn to speak. My teacher wrote all the notes on the board. She's super cool! I love it.
Physics. . .it's definitely interesting! I didn't do well on my first SAC because i was concentrating on bio so i didn't revise. Its all good though, because it was on the theory knowledge and its not really that important for 3/4. My teacher is super nice for physics too.
Oh cool! That debate sounds like it was heaps of fun. :) (the last time I was involved in one, it was only about the date a physics SAC was on, hahah. ::)) I'm really glad that you love it! :)
Interesting in a good way? :) I found some of the theory I had was really, really dry but then there were definitely some really interesting tidbits I learnt along the way. Also it's excellent to hear that you like your physics teacher! :)
You're doing bio as a 3/4 this year right? How are you finding it? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Aaron on March 10, 2017, 11:43:05 pm
Quote from: Shadowxo
What I wish I could have done too: IT
Good :) I reckon you would have liked Algorithmics. It sits on the fence of Maths & Computing - incorporates both very well :)



Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: tjb3099 on March 11, 2017, 02:32:22 pm
March 11th 2017

Doing 5 subjects in year 12, this is how im going

English - A bit nervous for my text response SAC coming up but ill remember some quotes and plan accordingly

Further Maths - Got 100 percent on my Univariate Date SAC, overflowing with confidence

Economics - It's competitive with my mates so i need to do well on the first SAC in a couple of weeks.

PE - Not much happening right now, but i got 93 percent on the first SAC earlier in the year so im pretty confident.

French - Now here's where im worrying. Im almost the worst in my class, i need to do extra if i want to catch up.



Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 11, 2017, 02:47:12 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/76Boi69.png)

I kept a journal throughout Year 11 and Year 12. In hindsight, it's really, really interesting reading it. You can see how my confidence went through peaks and troughs, and career thoughts are also fascinating ("It's completely clear in my mind that I'll be studying design next year").

It just hit me that this thread could act as an awesome place to keep a collaborative journal. There's no obligation to participate, of course, and you don't need to contribute anything super personal, but in years to come you can read back through this thread and see how your VCE journey progressed. So a post could be like:

Wednesday 8 March
Today I had a Methods SAC and I'm pretty sure I stuffed it up.

Monday 13 March
Turns out I actually got 85% LOL.

I don't know if this will take off or not but like, feel free to use this thread as a place to muse. :)

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How on earth do u think u stuffed the methods sac when u got an 85% which is so good



Yesterday i had my English SAC on i for isobel
Confusing prompts but i feel good. Managed to do 3 practise essays prior.
Economics and History sacs this week and i have not put enough hours in them. I have npt done much homework for theese sacs. Feels bad man
Last week got to spar a friend from school in bjj

@Joseph41 I compete in short sprints and LJ  :)
Whats your pb for 100m

Moderator action:-insanipi Merged triple post- you can multi-quote in the one post
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on March 11, 2017, 03:10:04 pm

Love this idea!  :)

11/03/17

Last week I had my first SAC- a German one. I'm really not sure how I went. I've mulled it over in my head and found a few grammatical errors. Also, I'm concerned that I didn't stick to the prompt enough.

In two weeks I have an English SAC, which I'm feeling a bit nervous about. Will write my 4th practice essay this weekend.

After that I have a Literature SAC. I'm very stressed about this one. We haven't done much preparation in class, so I'm working on getting all my ideas together this weekend. After that I will put it all into writing.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 03:35:21 pm
I did chemistry in year 12* but there was so much I wanted to do in my course that I couldn't fit it all in :(
Doing: Engineering, maths, physics, finance
What I wish I could have done too: chemistry, IT, psychology (never had a chance but I love learning about how people think)

* Disclaimer: I may actually not be doing VCE  :o

It's great that you have a lot of interests, though; you should never get bored. ;D

@Joseph41 I compete in short sprints and LJ  :)

Nice! Have you done that since you were young?

Thanks for the support everyone  :)  10/3/2017 Today nothing really happened, but right now after my English SAC I'm struggling to stay motivated for English, because for the past few weeks I've just been churning out essays. Also I got a decent result for a chemistry test, but I feel a bit disappointed, because I could have done much better, especially since I lost most of my marks due to careless mistakes.

Those essays will be worthwhile in the long-run. ;)

10/03/17
- was at home
- did some chem
- annotated some parts of othello - it's surprisingly interesting and i'm loving my english class  :D
- read a physics chapter
- got a chem SAC back and apparently one of the errors i made were in defining ionisation energy: 'the tendency for an electron to lose an atom' what am i doing. . .  So disappointed . . . .  :P

Good stuff! Do you like your English class because of the content or the people? Or both? :)

Thought might as well start my own journal (I hope to come back to this exactly next year)  :P

10th of March 2017:
- A lot of work! Chemistry/ methods/ specialist.... you name it.
- Got quite a few SACs coming up - physics/ specialist
- I am excited to get my English SAC back on Tuesday (I hope I have done well)
- Attempted to debate on AN  ::) (I am still not a good debater  :P)
- Something really funny happened involving me and my friends

Great to have you! ;D Best of luck for Tuesday. :)

March 11th 2017

Doing 5 subjects in year 12, this is how im going

English - A bit nervous for my text response SAC coming up but ill remember some quotes and plan accordingly

Further Maths - Got 100 percent on my Univariate Date SAC, overflowing with confidence

Economics - It's competitive with my mates so i need to do well on the first SAC in a couple of weeks.

PE - Not much happening right now, but i got 93 percent on the first SAC earlier in the year so im pretty confident.

French - Now here's where im worrying. Im almost the worst in my class, i need to do extra if i want to catch up.

Hey, tjb3099! Welcome to ATAR Notes. ;D Let us know if you need a hand with anything. :)

Sounds like you're mostly nailing it at the moment. 8) And I didn't study French (after like Year 8), but I'm sure there are lots of people here that can help. :)

How on earth do u think u stuffed the methods sac when u got an 85% which is so good

This was just an example haha. I didn't even study Methods. ;)

Love this idea!  :)

11/03/17

Last week I had my first SAC- a German one. I'm really not sure how I went. I've mulled it over in my head and found a few grammatical errors. Also, I'm concerned that I didn't stick to the prompt enough.

In two weeks I have an English SAC, which I'm feeling a bit nervous about. Will write my 4th practice essay this weekend.

After that I have a Literature SAC. I'm very stressed about this one. We haven't done much preparation in class, so I'm working on getting all my ideas together this weekend. After that I will put it all into writing.

Glad you like it, clarke54321! :)

German's cool - for how long have you studied it?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on March 11, 2017, 03:58:25 pm
Nice! Have you done that since you were young?
Started when I was 15, pretty late compared to most other kids that I compete with. Still managed to run decent times and jumped well so far, last season was a bit of a shambles though.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: BlinkieBill on March 11, 2017, 03:58:32 pm
Real
Tuesday 28th march
Spec test- guessed a few questions, was pretty sure i failed (~40%)
Friday 10th March
Got the test back
76% third highest score WOOHOO!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 11, 2017, 04:00:28 pm
Real
Tuesday 28th march
Spec test- guessed a few questions, was pretty sure i failed (~40%)
Friday 10th March
Got the test back
76% third highest score WOOHOO!
Woohoo!!! Excellent to hear! ;D

Edit: lol just realised that apparently you went back in time :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 04:05:37 pm
Started when I was 15, pretty late compared to most other kids that I compete with. Still managed to run decent times and jumped well so far, last season was a bit of a shambles though.

That's slick as. What happened last season (and does the calendar year = one season?)?

Real
Tuesday 28th march
Spec test- guessed a few questions, was pretty sure i failed (~40%)
Friday 10th March
Got the test back
76% third highest score WOOHOO!


Did you go back in time? ;) But like, if that's legit, that's amaaaazing! Great, great stuff. ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 11, 2017, 04:21:39 pm
First Month of year 12:
Quit my job after seeing how much 3-4 hours of work was affecting me, sacs for all subjects except History Rev (won't be til next term) have begun, homework piles and piles, when you're done, you get more the next day, never ending cycle..sees boyfriend every 1-3 weeks, tutor every 1-2 weeks, Waking @ 6.45am everyday, getting to school @8:15 to finish homework, classes at 9:10. depending on the cycle, one week I got 4 afternoons off, the week after 2 afternoons off, weekends are for resting.. or seeing boyfriend,

Year 12 is stressful guys, although we're all competing, lets all work together to make this year a good year!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Syndicate on March 11, 2017, 04:23:55 pm
Woohoo!!! Excellent to hear! ;D

Edit: lol just realised that apparently you went back in time :P

I think he/she meant to say 28th of February  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 04:24:18 pm
First Month of year 12:
Quit my job after seeing how much 3-4 hours of work was affecting me, sacs for all subjects except History Rev (won't be til next term) have begun, homework piles and piles, when you're done, you get more the next day, never ending cycle..sees boyfriend every 1-3 weeks, tutor every 1-2 weeks, Waking @ 6.45am everyday, getting to school @8:15 to finish homework, classes at 9:10. depending on the cycle, one week I got 4 afternoons off, the week after 2 afternoons off, weekends are for resting.. or seeing boyfriend,

Year 12 is stressful guys, although we're all competing, lets all work together to make this year a good year!

Hey, shezzaloves! :) How's it going?

Sounds like a pretty hectic life at the moment. Seeing your boyfriend once every 1-3 weeks is rough. What do you tutor? :)

*Totally* agree with that last line, too!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on March 11, 2017, 04:27:33 pm

Glad you like it, clarke54321! :)

German's cool - for how long have you studied it?

I've been studying German since primary school. But those years were largely useless, considering I only remembered colours and numbers once I got to high school  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 04:28:06 pm
I've been studying German since primary school. But those years were largely useless, considering I only remembered colours and numbers once I got to high school  :P

Hahahaha I was absolutely the same with Italian. I really wish I kept with a language, though - definitely one of my biggest regrets. So kudos. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 11, 2017, 04:39:26 pm
Hey, shezzaloves! :) How's it going?

Sounds like a pretty hectic life at the moment. Seeing your boyfriend once every 1-3 weeks is rough. What do you tutor? :)

*Totally* agree with that last line, too!

Oh no! I get tutored lol, not quite smart enough to tutor myself haha, I get tutored for pysch and legal, I know theyre basic subjects but I struggle with science concepts and legal, i did really well last year and my teacher thinks i'll do well again, so i just want extra help, other subjects are HHD (easy but lots of homework haha) and history rev (essays essays essays) and of course the obvious english :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 04:42:27 pm
Oh no! I get tutored lol, not quite smart enough to tutor myself haha, I get tutored for pysch and legal, I know theyre basic subjects but I struggle with science concepts and legal, i did really well last year and my teacher thinks i'll do well again, so i just want extra help, other subjects are HHD (easy but lots of homework haha) and history rev (essays essays essays) and of course the obvious english :P

Hahaha sorry, that was totally my bad. It's been a long week. ;)

I don't think any subject is basic! I actually love your subjects. Of those, I did HHD and Psych (two of my favourites!), but I'm interested in all five. What's your favourite subject at the moment?

P.S. For reference, all of my subjects were scaled down apart from English Language. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 11, 2017, 04:45:50 pm
Hahaha sorry, that was totally my bad. It's been a long week. ;)

I don't think any subject is basic! I actually love your subjects. Of those, I did HHD and Psych (two of my favourites!), but I'm interested in all five. What's your favourite subject at the moment?

P.S. For reference, all of my subjects were scaled down apart from English Language. :)

Legal & Health are my favs! legal may have alot of content but its fun! health is basically the human body, pretty much like psych but health is body based and psych is brain based pretty much haha
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 04:47:18 pm
Legal & Health are my favs! legal may have alot of content but its fun! health is basically the human body, pretty much like psych but health is body based and psych is brain based pretty much haha

Yeah, right on! You definitely have a lot of content to deal with this year, so it's glad you enjoy them haha. :)

Do you want to continue with something Legal or HHD-related after school?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chowe2 on March 11, 2017, 05:04:33 pm
Hey everyone!
So I my first round of SACs last week, and though I was lucky enough to escape the week of hell like some of my friends (5 sacs in the one week) I did an English Creative Response Sac, Health, Chinese oral and a chem and methods test. Not sure how Chinese and English went, but feel like i did pretty ok. The Methods test and Chem test is a different story though... not sure if I should always prioritise sacs over non-sac tests but I reckon it's agood move, particularly because i didn't totally wing the tests anyway.
Feeling good in motivation, not too low or too high though, but with the long weekend to catch up maybe I can try to get really ahead  :)
Hope everyone's still feeling great! Or at least good...  8)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: dani.eric on March 11, 2017, 05:57:09 pm
11.03.17
In the past two weeks I have received SAC results that have all been above 88%, my classmates have had large variations in there results with some getting higher than me and some lower. I was ecstatic when i first got my marks back but now i feel like i should not be celebrating because my understanding is that based on my exam results, the marks could all become far less so I have lost my sense of acheivement.

 I have my further maths SAC next week on six chapters of the textbook and I am utterly unprepared because of the workload of other subjects and time pressures, past year twelves said that term one was fairly easy but i certainly cannot relate! Does anybody here have any tips for getting a really good understanding of the further core content?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: BlinkieBill on March 11, 2017, 07:18:41 pm
Woohoo!!! Excellent to hear! ;D

Edit: lol just realised that apparently you went back in time :P

Hahaha I meant the Wednesday 8th of March
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 11, 2017, 07:29:40 pm
Yeah, right on! You definitely have a lot of content to deal with this year, so it's glad you enjoy them haha. :)

Do you want to continue with something Legal or HHD-related after school?

Not sure atm, maybe do business, journalism or law, i did do bus man 3/4 last year, got 27 as a score, not good but not bad haha
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Shinkaze on March 11, 2017, 08:13:33 pm
11 March 2017 Saturday

-Almost finished the English book for school which I have been struggling to understand and read in ages!!
-Mum's birthday so we went out to have Pho :D
-Mum gave some really meaningful life advice and also decided to change her stance and allow me to apply for my dream university (her support will mean so much to me!!)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 11, 2017, 08:58:46 pm
--11th March 2017--
-  went for a run and that's an achievement for me because me ≠ exercise
-  didn't do much studying today  :-\
-  i won some money today and that's nice bc i don't work so every cent i get is used for saving up 8) ;D :D
-  i went somewhere nice + celebrated
- realised that the world is full of trickery
-  i write stories online & today i updated 2 chapters which is amazing.  :P :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 11, 2017, 09:12:14 pm
This seems like fun. Will try to update often!!

=11th of March 2017=
- recovered from soreness of camp (still was a hella fun camp tho)
- attempting to catch up on textbook questions for pre much bio, chem and phys 😱
- havent thought about what topic i would talk about for english oral sac. should do that soon.
- went to church and worked on cameras. t'was a nice break from just life.
-also have bio sac coming soon (this wednesday) in which i will begin studying tmrw since we have the long weekend.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coffee on March 11, 2017, 10:04:13 pm
11.03.17
In the past two weeks I have received SAC results that have all been above 88%, my classmates have had large variations in there results with some getting higher than me and some lower. I was ecstatic when i first got my marks back but now i feel like i should not be celebrating because my understanding is that based on my exam results, the marks could all become far less so I have lost my sense of acheivement.
While I can't comment on how your SACs will correlate with your exam marks, I just wanted to pop and say that you shouldn't undermine your achievements. 88% is a very good mark, absolutely worth celebrating, and you should be proud of the effort you've put in. The system has its flaws and you shouldn't base your self-worth on it. :)

- I've been thinking about writing two entries for a while: one on how I got a raw 44 on methods and another on how I got a raw 48 in Psych and what I could've done etc etc. I've replied to a couple of people already giving them advice on those subjects, but I feel that I should have all of my advice collated in one place and update it as I remember more things from last year. But idk is it worth it?? :-\
Absolutely! You're always welcome to contribute to AN, especially if you think others might find it helpful. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on March 11, 2017, 11:17:25 pm
Update: I survived the English SAC lol

but in all seriousness, thanks for all your guys' support, saw them all after the SAC hahah :P

And I'd lovee to read your methods' advice cookiedream :D congrats btw!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2017, 09:10:01 am
Hey everyone!
So I my first round of SACs last week, and though I was lucky enough to escape the week of hell like some of my friends (5 sacs in the one week) I did an English Creative Response Sac, Health, Chinese oral and a chem and methods test. Not sure how Chinese and English went, but feel like i did pretty ok. The Methods test and Chem test is a different story though... not sure if I should always prioritise sacs over non-sac tests but I reckon it's agood move, particularly because i didn't totally wing the tests anyway.
Feeling good in motivation, not too low or too high though, but with the long weekend to catch up maybe I can try to get really ahead  :)
Hope everyone's still feeling great! Or at least good...  8)

Hey, chowe2! Welcome to ATAR Notes! ;D Please let us know if you need any help navigating the forums or whatever else - it's great to have you here. :)

Five SACs in a single week would be absolutely brutal. I think the most I ever had was four, and that was definitely bad enough haha. I'm glad you could avoid it (for now, at least). ;)

I agree with you in prioritising SACs over tests. I mean, ideally (of course), it'd be nice to do well in both, but I certainly know which one I'd prefer if I could only do well in one. Solid strategy in my eyes!

What's your favourite subject at the moment? :)

11.03.17
In the past two weeks I have received SAC results that have all been above 88%, my classmates have had large variations in there results with some getting higher than me and some lower. I was ecstatic when i first got my marks back but now i feel like i should not be celebrating because my understanding is that based on my exam results, the marks could all become far less so I have lost my sense of acheivement.

 I have my further maths SAC next week on six chapters of the textbook and I am utterly unprepared because of the workload of other subjects and time pressures, past year twelves said that term one was fairly easy but i certainly cannot relate! Does anybody here have any tips for getting a really good understanding of the further core content?

Above 88% is amazing - well done!

It's true that the exam can scale SAC results (either up or down), but there's not much point worrying about that at the moment. You can only sit the SACs you're given, and those results are truly fantastic. I totally know what you mean, but it's a shame to lose that sense of achievement - because it definitely is an achievement!

Six chapters is pretty harsh for Further. I think getting that good understand you're after has two parts:

1. Really understanding the nitty gritty of the theory. You can usually do this just be reading the preamble to each chapter; from my experience, at least, they give a little introduction to that particular area of study, and why it's important. Having this understanding is useful when you need to decide how best to represent data and things like that.

2. Simply a heap of practice questions. The more you do (and mark), the more you'll understand.

I believe in you! Let us know how the Further SAC goes. :)

Hahaha I meant the Wednesday 8th of March

Very sneaky. ;) Amazing result, though!

Not sure atm, maybe do business, journalism or law, i did do bus man 3/4 last year, got 27 as a score, not good but not bad haha

Ooh nice, so still a lot of options! :)

I also did BusMan in Year 11! Did you enjoy it? :D

I absolutely love this idea, Joseph41!!
Sometimes (at least when I remember...) I write diary entries and they're really fun to look back at when I feel tired and stressed.

|| 11/03/2017 ||

- Last week was terrible for me, I had the OZCLO competition on Wednesday (which is really fun, regret doing it in previous years, but really tiring), then on Thursday I had my chem sac after school then Friday I had my Eng Lang Analytical Commentary sac.

- When I came back from school on Friday, I celebrated by watching anime the whole day ;D

- I had Bio and Chem tutoring today. Sometimes I regret having tutoring for all of my subjects, but it's great as an extra help!
 
- Gonna watch a movie after writing this entry

- I've been thinking about writing two entries for a while: one on how I got a raw 44 on methods and another on how I got a raw 48 in Psych and what I could've done etc etc. I've replied to a couple of people already giving them advice on those subjects, but I feel that I should have all of my advice collated in one place and update it as I remember more things from last year. But idk is it worth it?? :-\

Yay - I'm glad you like it! :)

I've never heard of this, but does OZCLO refer to the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad? If so, that sounds absolutely amazing (I studied Linguistics at uni haha). Could you please tell me more about it? Like, what does it involve? ;D

Those posts (Methods and Psych) would be so helpful - please, please do it if you have time! Like, I genuinely became super excited just then thinking about it hahaha. Seriously, you have no idea - please do it. ;D

And which movie did you watch? ;)

11 March 2017 Saturday

-Almost finished the English book for school which I have been struggling to understand and read in ages!!
-Mum's birthday so we went out to have Pho :D
-Mum gave some really meaningful life advice and also decided to change her stance and allow me to apply for my dream university (her support will mean so much to me!!)

Nice job re: English book! What's the text?

And that's so good about uni! Super stoked for you, Shinkaze. :)

--11th March 2017--
-  went for a run and that's an achievement for me because me ≠ exercise
-  didn't do much studying today  :-\
-  i won some money today and that's nice bc i don't work so every cent i get is used for saving up 8) ;D :D
-  i went somewhere nice + celebrated
- realised that the world is full of trickery
-  i write stories online & today i updated 2 chapters which is amazing.  :P :P

Are you saving up for anything in particular, or just... life stuff? Haha.

What type of stories do you write? Sounds slick af. :)

This seems like fun. Will try to update often!!

=11th of March 2017=
- recovered from soreness of camp (still was a hella fun camp tho)
- attempting to catch up on textbook questions for pre much bio, chem and phys 😱
- havent thought about what topic i would talk about for english oral sac. should do that soon.
- went to church and worked on cameras. t'was a nice break from just life.
-also have bio sac coming soon (this wednesday) in which i will begin studying tmrw since we have the long weekend.


I can't wait to read your updates, chooby. ;D

What type of camp was this? It sounds strenuous haha.

All the best for the Bio SAC on Wednesday - let us know how it goes! :)

Update: I survived the English SAC lol

but in all seriousness, thanks for all your guys' support, saw them all after the SAC hahah :P

And I'd lovee to read your methods' advice cookiedream :D congrats btw!

Yesssss amazing! You go, j.wang. 8)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 12, 2017, 09:17:52 am
11 March 2017 Saturday

-Almost finished the English book for school which I have been struggling to understand and read in ages!!
-Mum's birthday so we went out to have Pho :D
-Mum gave some really meaningful life advice and also decided to change her stance and allow me to apply for my dream university (her support will mean so much to me!!)
Life advice is always so, so, so helpful. It is really good that you took the time out to celebrate your mum's birthday! (I'm doing that today with my dad, haha)
It is also excellent to hear that you nearly finished your English book! :)

--11th March 2017--
-  went for a run and that's an achievement for me because me ≠ exercise
-  didn't do much studying today  :-\
-  i won some money today and that's nice bc i don't work so every cent i get is used for saving up 8) ;D :D
-  i went somewhere nice + celebrated
- realised that the world is full of trickery
-  i write stories online & today i updated 2 chapters which is amazing. 
Running is a super fun way to get exercise! Glad you tried it out! :) That's okay about not studying, sometimes you just need a day off studying here and there. Excellent news about winning money. What type of stories do you write? I used to write stories but they weren't very good, haha. :)

This seems like fun. Will try to update often!!

=11th of March 2017=
- recovered from soreness of camp (still was a hella fun camp tho)
- attempting to catch up on textbook questions for pre much bio, chem and phys 😱
- havent thought about what topic i would talk about for english oral sac. should do that soon.
- went to church and worked on cameras. t'was a nice break from just life.
-also have bio sac coming soon (this wednesday) in which i will begin studying tmrw since we have the long weekend.
Please do update often, we'd love to hear about it! :)
That is a nice break from life, what did you do with the cameras? :)
All the best for choosing a topic for the English oral and your biol SAC! :)

Update: I survived the English SAC lol

but in all seriousness, thanks for all your guys' support, saw them all after the SAC hahah
Yay! Great to hear about that! :)

Edit: my 600th post, woo! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 12, 2017, 09:29:17 am
Hey, chowe2! Welcome to ATAR Notes! ;D Please let us know if you need any help navigating the forums or whatever else - it's great to have you here. :)

Five SACs in a single week would be absolutely brutal. I think the most I ever had was four, and that was definitely bad enough haha. I'm glad you could avoid it (for now, at least). ;)

I agree with you in prioritising SACs over tests. I mean, ideally (of course), it'd be nice to do well in both, but I certainly know which one I'd prefer if I could only do well in one. Solid strategy in my eyes!

What's your favourite subject at the moment? :)

Above 88% is amazing - well done!

It's true that the exam can scale SAC results (either up or down), but there's not much point worrying about that at the moment. You can only sit the SACs you're given, and those results are truly fantastic. I totally know what you mean, but it's a shame to lose that sense of achievement - because it definitely is an achievement!

Six chapters is pretty harsh for Further. I think getting that good understand you're after has two parts:

1. Really understanding the nitty gritty of the theory. You can usually do this just be reading the preamble to each chapter; from my experience, at least, they give a little introduction to that particular area of study, and why it's important. Having this understanding is useful when you need to decide how best to represent data and things like that.

2. Simply a heap of practice questions. The more you do (and mark), the more you'll understand.

I believe in you! Let us know how the Further SAC goes. :)

Very sneaky. ;) Amazing result, though!

Ooh nice, so still a lot of options! :)

I also did BusMan in Year 11! Did you enjoy it? :D

Yay - I'm glad you like it! :)

I've never heard of this, but does OZCLO refer to the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad? If so, that sounds absolutely amazing (I studied Linguistics at uni haha). Could you please tell me more about it? Like, what does it involve? ;D

Those posts (Methods and Psych) would be so helpful - please, please do it if you have time! Like, I genuinely became super excited just then thinking about it hahaha. Seriously, you have no idea - please do it. ;D

And which movie did you watch? ;)

Nice job re: English book! What's the text?

And that's so good about uni! Super stoked for you, Shinkaze. :)

Are you saving up for anything in particular, or just... life stuff? Haha.

What type of stories do you write? Sounds slick af. :)

I can't wait to read your updates, chooby. ;D

What type of camp was this? It sounds strenuous haha.

All the best for the Bio SAC on Wednesday - let us know how it goes! :)

Yesssss amazing! You go, j.wang. 8)


It was alright, I really want to do Global Politics but my school wouldn't offer it, I want to do it distance ed but feel like I wouldn't get it all completed because its online 
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2017, 09:44:29 am

It was alright, I really want to do Global Politics but my school wouldn't offer it, I want to do it distance ed but feel like I wouldn't get it all completed because its online

Yeah, I'm not really sure if Distance Ed would work for me or not - it's difficult to tell until you do it, I guess!

Perhaps you could do Global Politics stuff at uni? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 11:43:07 am
Had my first english sac and methods sac 2 days ago. Think I failed the english sac and got around ~50% for the methoda sac. Not going well for me :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 12, 2017, 11:44:55 am
Had my first english sac and methods sac 2 days ago. Think I failed the english sac and got around ~50% for the methoda sac. Not going well for me :'( :'( :'(
I'm sure you did better than you thought you did! :)
Hopefully things do turn out well for you! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 11:47:25 am
I'm sure you did better than you thought you did! :)
Hopefully things do turn out well for you! :)
Thanks mate,
Sure hope to do better in upcoming sacs :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 12, 2017, 11:47:37 am
Ytb
Eco sac on wednesday
Started studying late fml i know but am making alot of ground

Crap meant to have read the second for english
Havent started. Saw a post on facebook of a hsc exam marker who said u didnt need to read the book to do a good essay. My friend dodnt read the last book and managed to write 4 pages of it. Theres way to get around it apparently.

Mod action: merged double post :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 12, 2017, 11:58:37 am
Thanks mate,
Sure hope to do better in upcoming sacs :)
Dw its year 11
So long as u pass. Your scores dont mean much.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 12:02:30 pm
Dw its year 11
So long as u pass. Your scores dont mean much.
You're right, won't impact the atar as such, still good to aim high though :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 12, 2017, 12:07:44 pm
Yeah, I'm not really sure if Distance Ed would work for me or not - it's difficult to tell until you do it, I guess!

Perhaps you could do Global Politics stuff at uni? :)

History Rev was good enough, you still learn about politics, mix of humanities and subjects on the body, not too bad haha
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 12, 2017, 12:08:45 pm
You're right, won't impact the atar as such, still good to aim high though :D
Yeah. But knowing that you pretty much wont get anything for your scores takes the pressure of. Year 11 is just about building good habbits, its a practise year for next year.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2017, 01:14:49 pm
Had my first english sac and methods sac 2 days ago. Think I failed the english sac and got around ~50% for the methoda sac. Not going well for me :'( :'( :'(

That's the good thing about Year 11, though; there's still heaps of time to improve. :)

I quite legitimately know somebody who failed Year 11 English SACs (averaging just over 50%), and then went on to achieve a study score of 48 in Year 12. Amazing, but can definitely be done. :) Let us know how you go when you get your results (if you're comfortable doing so)!

Ytb
Eco sac on wednesday
Started studying late fml i know but am making alot of ground

Crap meant to have read the second for english
Havent started. Saw a post on facebook of a hsc exam marker who said u didnt need to read the book to do a good essay. My friend dodnt read the last book and managed to write 4 pages of it. Theres way to get around it apparently.

Mod action: merged double post :)

Better late than never. ;) Best of luck with it, TheCommando! Sending good vibes! ;D

History Rev was good enough, you still learn about politics, mix of humanities and subjects on the body, not too bad haha

Revs is definitely one of those subjects I sort of wish I did haha. I tried to make up for it at uni, but I don't think it was quite the same. Great subject selection! :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 02:37:33 pm
That's the good thing about Year 11, though; there's still heaps of time to improve. :)

I quite legitimately know somebody who failed Year 11 English SACs (averaging just over 50%), and then went on to achieve a study score of 48 in Year 12. Amazing, but can definitely be done. :) Let us know how you go when you get your results (if you're comfortable doing so)!

Better late than never. ;) Best of luck with it, TheCommando! Sending good vibes! ;D

Revs is definitely one of those subjects I sort of wish I did haha. I tried to make up for it at uni, but I don't think it was quite the same. Great subject selection! :D
Thanks for giving me hope! :D

---

Also had a busman sac about 2 weeks ago, which i did horrible on, had an accounting sac about 2 weeks ago, have an economics have in about 2 weeks, so much homework >:(

Mod (J41): Merged double post. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Shinkaze on March 12, 2017, 04:17:48 pm
Quote
Nice job re: English book! What's the text?

And that's so good about uni! Super stoked for you, Shinkaze. :)

Burial Rites haha! Lots of people enjoyed it but I didn't like it :/ Maybe it's just the way it was written haha! Thanks!

12 March 2017 Sunday
- Went out for grocery shopping which I haven't in a while :)
- Haven't done any homework but I should soon ...
- Probably going to bake today or tomorrow!! ( Also haven't baked in a while)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 04:31:04 pm
Anyone else doing the old man and the sea for english. How did you find the book. Peronsonally I found it pretty ordinary


88% is awesome!



Hi Joseph41
Do you know if i can get more boxes on my profile as i only have 2 at the moment, and do you know how I can get + respect
Thanks :)

mod edit (insanipi)- merged posts, PM if you require assistance in multi-quoting posts. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 12, 2017, 07:22:02 pm
That's the good thing about Year 11, though; there's still heaps of time to improve. :)

I quite legitimately know somebody who failed Year 11 English SACs (averaging just over 50%), and then went on to achieve a study score of 48 in Year 12. Amazing, but can definitely be done. :) Let us know how you go when you get your results (if you're comfortable doing so)!

Better late than never. ;) Best of luck with it, TheCommando! Sending good vibes! ;D

Revs is definitely one of those subjects I sort of wish I did haha. I tried to make up for it at uni, but I don't think it was quite the same. Great subject selection! :D

Lots of content, Pysch AOS now is 7 chapters long, going to be real fun hahaha
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2017, 08:42:13 pm
Thanks for giving me hope! :D

---

Also had a busman sac about 2 weeks ago, which i did horrible on, had an accounting sac about 2 weeks ago, have an economics have in about 2 weeks, so much homework >:(

Mod (J41): Merged double post. :)

No problem at all, NAT! I was pretty amazed when I heard it, but it just goes to show that it can definitely turn around. :)

What homework do you have at the moment?

Burial Rites haha! Lots of people enjoyed it but I didn't like it :/ Maybe it's just the way it was written haha! Thanks!

12 March 2017 Sunday
- Went out for grocery shopping which I haven't in a while :)
- Haven't done any homework but I should soon ...
- Probably going to bake today or tomorrow!! ( Also haven't baked in a while)

Yeah, I've definitely heard that a lot of people seem to like Burial Rites. I didn't study English (I did EngLang) and I haven't read the book, so I can't really comment, but it's interesting you found it a struggle. How was it written?

Also this thread would definitely benefit from baking pictures hahaha. ;)

Hi Joseph41
Do you know if i can get more boxes on my profile as i only have 2 at the moment, and do you know how I can get + respect
Thanks :)

Hey NAT!

In general, the more posts, the more boxes. But that's not really what you should worry about, because it doesn't reflect post quality, and that's really the important thing. :) And that's where the respect comes in. Here's an explanation of how the respect system works:

Quote
Most sections of the forums have an awesome thing that appears to the top right of the post – A respect meter and the option to ‘upvote’ or ‘downvote’ a post. We encourage everyone to upvote any post they find even remotely helpful – these slowly add up to increase the respect count on the profile of the person doing good stuff, and gives them a small form of recognition for their great work.

The formula is:
+1 = 0 Respect
+2 = 0 Respect
+3 = 0.4 Respect
+4 = 0.8 Respect
+5 = 1.2 Respect etc…

Lots of small posts with ‘+1’ won’t increase the respect count on your profile, but one great one with ‘+17’ will increase your respect count by 3.
Don’t downvote posts for no reason. Targeting a specific user’s posts or just downvoting everything in sight is definitely not allowed under any circumstances.

Does that answer your question, NAT? :)

Lots of content, Pysch AOS now is 7 chapters long, going to be real fun hahaha

Oooohh golly, that's going to be a laugh! How are you studying for Psych? Lots of practice questions? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 12, 2017, 09:02:18 pm
12/03/17
- exercised again  8)
- did bio and ended up making so many puns/lame jokes while making summaries and laughed by myself ;D
- facetimed a friend for 4 hours lol ::)
- cooked some nice food
Had a nice day! :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 12, 2017, 09:05:30 pm
12/03/17
- exercised again  8)

You're on a roll! It's a streak!

8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 12, 2017, 09:07:33 pm
You're on a roll! It's a streak!

8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
gotta do what you gotta do lol. . . not gonna sacrifice my health bc of vce   :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 12, 2017, 09:53:11 pm
No problem at all, NAT! I was pretty amazed when I heard it, but it just goes to show that it can definitely turn around. :)

What homework do you have at the moment?

Yeah, I've definitely heard that a lot of people seem to like Burial Rites. I didn't study English (I did EngLang) and I haven't read the book, so I can't really comment, but it's interesting you found it a struggle. How was it written?

Also this thread would definitely benefit from baking pictures hahaha. ;)

Hey NAT!

In general, the more posts, the more boxes. But that's not really what you should worry about, because it doesn't reflect post quality, and that's really the important thing. :) And that's where the respect comes in. Here's an explanation of how the respect system works:

Does that answer your question, NAT? :)
Yes, it does :)

Oooohh golly, that's going to be a laugh! How are you studying for Psych? Lots of practice questions? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 13, 2017, 12:34:21 am
=12th of March 2017=

-finished off necessdary chemistry questions woo!
-gotten through a good chunk of bio revision; plasma membranes, membrane transport and protein synthesis
-planning to make a quizlet full of bio definitions so will share once its up and running
-actually did some exercise to keep everything moving and now my legs feel like they will give way everytime they bend thanks to lunges
-still not sure what I would like to do for english oral. thinking of something along the lines of VCE creating more stress than it does good because that'll be super meta.

I can't wait to read your updates, chooby. ;D

What type of camp was this? It sounds strenuous haha.

All the best for the Bio SAC on Wednesday - let us know how it goes! :)

Thanks Joseph41! it was a leadership camp for those in the student parliament. You wouldn't think it'd be physical but there was a lot more activities that managed to have a deeper meaning as to how to be a leader. Will update on the Bio SAC once it's done!!

Please do update often, we'd love to hear about it! :)
That is a nice break from life, what did you do with the cameras? :)
All the best for choosing a topic for the English oral and your biol SAC! :)
Hey Insanipi! The church I do volunteer work at is relatively large so to accomadate, we have cameras that film the sermons so that they appear live on the screens as well as having them uploaded to Youtube for those who can't come! Being able to focus on something non-school related is nice every now and again c:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 13, 2017, 08:40:17 am
=12th of March 2017=

-finished off necessdary chemistry questions woo!
-gotten through a good chunk of bio revision; plasma membranes, membrane transport and protein synthesis
-planning to make a quizlet full of bio definitions so will share once its up and running
-actually did some exercise to keep everything moving and now my legs feel like they will give way everytime they bend thanks to lunges
-still not sure what I would like to do for english oral. thinking of something along the lines of VCE creating more stress than it does good because that'll be super meta.

Hey Insanipi! The church I do volunteer work at is relatively large so to accomadate, we have cameras that film the sermons so that they appear live on the screens as well as having them uploaded to Youtube for those who can't come! Being able to focus on something non-school related is nice every now and again c:
That's excellent to hear about the chemistry questions! :) Quizlet was quite literally my best friend when trying to remember important stuff, so sharing them will be really swell! ^_^ (I put all my old ones into pdfs and into the notes section, because I did a massive cleanout last year, haha).
Exercise is really good way at keeping fit and healthy during VCE, I'll be cheering you on to encourage you to go on! :)
Hopefully you do find yourself with a really interesting topic for your oral, let us know what you end up doing.

Ah, right! I totally get you there. It's good to have some like that to focus on, which isn't school-related. I love listening/watching podcasts/videos that come from my own church. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 13, 2017, 08:46:42 am
gotta do what you gotta do lol. . . not gonna sacrifice my health bc of vce   :D

Absolutely! Health should definitely be prioritised. 8)

Yes, it does :)

Fantastic! :D

Thanks for the support guys!! About halfway through writing a draft for my Methods and Psych posts :)

Ah-mah-zing. I actually cannot wait to read these threads. ;D ;D ;D

Quote
Yeah!! It was an amazing experience! We had to make a group of 4 and then we attended training sessions during lunchtimes where people went over different techniques on how to tackle different kinds of questions. All the questions involves some kind of a foreign language, and they gave you English translations for sample sentences using that language. With this and background information they provide you, you basically need to decode the language. You need to consider things like affixation, gender pronouns, possession, direct and indirect objects, sentence structure, etc etc. It was really helpful that everyone in my group was doing 3/4 Eng Lang :D

During the actual exam, which was two hours long, all the groups were in a room in separate tables and with a computer each. We had to submit all our answers online via BlackBoard. Those two hours felt like the most intense hours in my life.

Even though we got 58% in the end, I loved the overall competition and experience of problem solving with my fellow peers!

This really got my juices flowing. Sounds fantastic. Is it a new thing, or has it been around for a while? I've never heard of it before!

Are you interested in studying Linguistics at uni (#plug)? Because what you've done is essentially historical linguistics in a nutshell haha. :D

-still not sure what I would like to do for english oral. thinking of something along the lines of VCE creating more stress than it does good because that'll be super meta.

LOL I love this reasoning - meta af. :D How long's the oral? (I always feel so ignorant when it comes to English 3/4 haha.)

Quote
Thanks Joseph41! it was a leadership camp for those in the student parliament. You wouldn't think it'd be physical but there was a lot more activities that managed to have a deeper meaning as to how to be a leader.

Nice! That sounds pretty slick. What's your role in student parliament? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 09:56:39 am
Economics sac on 22nd march, last sac for the term :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 13, 2017, 04:21:33 pm
I have my first English Language SAC on Analytical Commentary

Rip me
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 13, 2017, 04:24:02 pm
Economics sac on 22nd march, last sac for the term :)
It feels good to be nearly done for the term, right?! :) Good luck! :)
I have my first English Language SAC on Analytical Commentary

Rip me
Hey! I'm super sure you'll ace it! ;D Best of luck! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 13, 2017, 04:26:57 pm
Hey! I'm super sure you'll ace it! ;D Best of luck! :)

Thank you for the support insanipi
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 13, 2017, 04:42:42 pm
Thank you for the support insanipi

You're most welcome!
Keep us updated here ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 04:55:08 pm
It feels good to be nearly done for the term, right?! :) Good luck! :)Hey! I'm super sure you'll ace it! ;D Best of luck! :)
Thanks, such a relief for only one more sac for the rest of the term ;) ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 05:00:31 pm
It feels good to be nearly done for the term, right?! :) Good luck! :)Hey! I'm super sure you'll ace it! ;D Best of luck! :)
Good luck for your english sac. You'll do awesome ;)

I have my first English Language SAC on Analytical Commentary

Rip me
Good luck for your english language sac. You'll do awesome ;)
Moderator action - insanipi: Merged double post. :)

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 13, 2017, 08:30:40 pm
13/3/2017 Had a relaxing public holiday. Watched quite a bit of anime, which is a nice break from the load of studying I've been doing for the past few weeks.  :) I also finished my prep for my physics SAC on Thursday and practiced for my chem SAC on Wednesday.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 09:07:11 pm
13/3/2017 Had a relaxing public holiday. Watched quite a bit of anime, which is a nice break from the load of studying I've been doing for the past few weeks.  :) I also finished my prep for my physics SAC on Thursday and practiced for my chem SAC on Wednesday.
How do you find melbourne high Zhen? :)


Did some accounting and further homework today, and pretty much wasted time online lol

Mod edit (insani): merged double post.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 13, 2017, 09:13:51 pm
How do you find melbourne high Zhen? :)
It's not really what I expected it to be like when I was in year 8. I thought it would be a school full of nerds, but the people there are pretty normal for a select entry school. I think that the school is good because it's competitive. Also there are quite a few good teachers at MHS, but there are a still couple of VCE teachers that just can't teach. Overall, I think it's a decent school.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 09:18:12 pm
It's not really what I expected it to be like when I was in year 8. I thought it would be a school full of nerds, but the people there are pretty normal for a select entry school. I think that the school is good because it's competitive. Also there are quite a few good teachers at MHS, but there are a still couple of VCE teachers that just can't teach. Overall, I think it's a decent school.
That's interesting about melbourne high, and is it also true that year 11's can't do methods 3/4, and year 10's can't do any unit 1/2 subjects
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 13, 2017, 09:35:58 pm
That's interesting about melbourne high, and is it also true that year 11's can't do methods 3/4, and year 10's can't do any unit 1/2 subjects
Yea, year 11s can't do 3/4 methods. Year 10s can do a units 1/2 language (outside of school), but other than they don't allow year 10s to do any 1/2 subjects.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 13, 2017, 09:39:35 pm
Yea, year 11s can't do 3/4 methods. Year 10s can do a units 1/2 language (outside of school), but other than they don't allow year 10s to do any 1/2 subjects.
Wow, that really sucks considering that macrob accelerates methods and nearly all elite private schools.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 13, 2017, 09:54:47 pm
=13th of March 2017=

-really didn't do much
-more bio revision: finished up transcription and translation; just have a bit more to do for photosynthesis then im done
-did a bit on updating quizlet bio terms
-finally found some articles about vce stressing kids so i think thet topic should be okay
-should probably go to sleep earlier because school.
-should also complete physics questions... yeah I'll do that now  :P

That's excellent to hear about the chemistry questions! :) Quizlet was quite literally my best friend when trying to remember important stuff, so sharing them will be really swell! ^_^ (I put all my old ones into pdfs and into the notes section, because I did a massive cleanout last year, haha).
Exercise is really good way at keeping fit and healthy during VCE, I'll be cheering you on to encourage you to go on! :)
Hopefully you do find yourself with a really interesting topic for your oral, let us know what you end up doing.
Ah, right! I totally get you there. It's good to have some like that to focus on, which isn't school-related. I love listening/watching podcasts/videos that come from my own church. :)

Yeah, this is my first time actually using Quizlet and already seems like a great substitute for real cue cards! Going to try and keep it up as a routine to update it. Exercise is something I've been trying to get myself to do more often especially that P.E is no longer compulsory when you enter VCE so just trying to keep everything in balance. Oral topic is very.. open in the sense that we have endless options to choose from but I think I'll go with 'VCE stressing students to a lethal degree.' or somthing along those lines. Yeah, church and youth is always a nice break. What church do you go to Insanipi?

LOL I love this reasoning - meta af. :D How long's the oral? (I always feel so ignorant when it comes to English 3/4 haha.)

Nice! That sounds pretty slick. What's your role in student parliament? :)

Hey Joseph41, oral is minimum 4 miniutes maximum 6-7 minutes but it's only 1/2 so I don't think I have too much to stress about and in student parliament, I'm just one of the vice house captains. Once in a lifetime opportunity so I might as well have taken it. c:

UPDATE: changed oral topic from the correlation between stress and VCE to the need of increased awareness for mental illnesses.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: arlynl99 on March 14, 2017, 10:37:18 am
well well well
- got eco SAC tomoz......got to start notes for it....... :-\
- waiting for my English Sac result....hopefully 80%ish
- Got History SAC later today....dont know enough dates but shud be right.....also late with weekly homework....due today but just got last weeks one in.... ???
- need to complete 3 chapters of further maths summary  >:(
yeah.... also need to go for a run so yeah...........
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 14, 2017, 04:15:16 pm
well well well
- got eco SAC tomoz......got to start notes for it....... :-\
- waiting for my English Sac result....hopefully 80%ish
- Got History SAC later today....dont know enough dates but shud be right.....also late with weekly homework....due today but just got last weeks one in.... ???
- need to complete 3 chapters of further maths summary  >:(
yeah.... also need to go for a run so yeah...........
Started new topic in maths methods
Starting new chapter in accounting next week i think
Starting creative writing in english
So much work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on March 14, 2017, 05:37:26 pm
March 14th

Got my Chemistry Quiz on galvanic cells back today...got 53% (9/17) and so upset...cried most of the morning.
The thing is I know how to do the questions and I can do them all at home, it's just that when I'm doing it in test conditions at school I freeze up, get nervous and have mental blanks. It's such an easy topic too... :'( And it was meant to be in preparation for our SAC which started today. I am SO worried. I'm aiming for 40+ and have no idea how I'm going to do that.. :'(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 14, 2017, 05:48:34 pm
Yeah, this is my first time actually using Quizlet and already seems like a great substitute for real cue cards! Going to try and keep it up as a routine to update it. Exercise is something I've been trying to get myself to do more often especially that P.E is no longer compulsory when you enter VCE so just trying to keep everything in balance. Oral topic is very.. open in the sense that we have endless options to choose from but I think I'll go with 'VCE stressing students to a lethal degree.' or somthing along those lines. Yeah, church and youth is always a nice break. What church do you go to Insanipi?

UPDATE: changed oral topic from the correlation between stress and VCE to the need of increased awareness for mental illnesses.
I'm glad you like Quizlet! Not only do you have the option for digital flashcards, you also have mini "games" that are made out of your flashcards, which is a fun way to study too! ;) Exercise is always important, especially as it is mostly forgotten about during VCE, so I'm cheering you on, keep going! ;D I go to a church in the Western suburbs (because that's where I live, obviously :P ), but sometimes life does get in the way, so sometimes I just watch the video broadcasts instead. :)
That is indeed an interesting topic! Let us know how it goes.

well well well
- got eco SAC tomoz......got to start notes for it....... :-\
- waiting for my English Sac result....hopefully 80%ish
- Got History SAC later today....dont know enough dates but shud be right.....also late with weekly homework....due today but just got last weeks one in.... ???
- need to complete 3 chapters of further maths summary  >:(
yeah.... also need to go for a run so yeah...........
I hope your eco SAC went well. What are you studying for history?
Going for a run is good fun! Definitely always go for a run, when you have the time! :)
How's further going?

Started new topic in maths methods
Starting new chapter in accounting next week i think
Starting creative writing in english
So much work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's the topic in methods? How's methods going for you, anyways?
I hope you're coping with the workload, Nat! :)

March 14th

Got my Chemistry Quiz on galvanic cells back today...got 53% (9/17) and so upset...cried most of the morning.
The thing is I know how to do the questions and I can do them all at home, it's just that when I'm doing it in test conditions at school I freeze up, get nervous and have mental blanks. It's such an easy topic too... :'( And it was meant to be in preparation for our SAC which started today. I am SO worried. I'm aiming for 40+ and have no idea how I'm going to do that.. :'(
You'll be okay! I'm sure you can break through that freeze and smash the SAC, I really do believe in you. :)
I'm also confident you can get that sweet 40+, try not to doubt yourself! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: somayya.b on March 14, 2017, 06:10:09 pm
-I got my Methods test mark. Usually I do better in the tech-free but for this chapter I got 50% for tech-free and 78% for CAS allowed '-_- Overall I'm very disappointed in myself
-I also did the practical part for my Bio SAC. It was so confusing because it was my first time doing a practical SAC. I'd rather have an assessment based on theory which has questions rather than a practical (I am so no an independent learner)
-On Thursday I have the written part of the Bio SAC and right after it (with a half an hour break) I have an English text response SAC for This Boy's Life. I hope I do well in both
-The next two weeks I have an Informatics SAC going for five periods, which I for some reason am looking forward to
But...I'm going to try my best and be optimistic because there is no point in making myself lose motivation, and I don't want to spread any negative vibes here. Just stay strong everyone and try your best! I'll write again next time, though I'm not sure when that will be...
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 14, 2017, 07:45:40 pm
14/3/2017
Chem SAC tomorrow and physics SAC on Thursday, so today I did heaps of chem and quite a bit of physics. Right now I'm just praying that I do well on these SACs.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 14, 2017, 07:49:23 pm
I'm glad you like Quizlet! Not only do you have the option for digital flashcards, you also have mini "games" that are made out of your flashcards, which is a fun way to study too! ;) Exercise is always important, especially as it is mostly forgotten about during VCE, so I'm cheering you on, keep going! ;D I go to a church in the Western suburbs (because that's where I live, obviously :P ), but sometimes life does get in the way, so sometimes I just watch the video broadcasts instead. :)
That is indeed an interesting topic! Let us know how it goes.
I hope your eco SAC went well. What are you studying for history?
Going for a run is good fun! Definitely always go for a run, when you have the time! :)
How's further going?
What's the topic in methods? How's methods going for you, anyways?
I hope you're coping with the workload, Nat! :)
You'll be okay! I'm sure you can break through that freeze and smash the SAC, I really do believe in you. :)
I'm also confident you can get that sweet 40+, try not to doubt yourself! :)
Hi insanpi,
I'm starting cubic polynomials this week, looks so much harder than quadratics, which was anyway pretty hard. Need to work harder in methods ;)

14/3/2017
Chem SAC tomorrow and physics SAC on Thursday, so today I did heaps of chem and quite a bit of physics. Right now I'm just praying that I do well on these SACs.
Do you reckon chem is harder than physics at 3/4 level

Do you reckon chem is harder than physics at 3/4 level
Good luck for chem and physics, you'll ace them ;)
Moderator action - insanipi: merged posts.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 14, 2017, 08:20:14 pm
Do you reckon chem is harder than physics at 3/4 level
Good luck for chem and physics, you'll ace them ;)
For me physics is way harder than chem. Idk why, but chem comes more naturally for me, whereas physics is a real struggle.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 14, 2017, 08:22:58 pm
14/03/17
- Had an Othello workshop at school today -  didn't like it that much.
- Did some bio. We have a prac on friday about photosynthesis and I'm actually looking forward to it. M
- I have a spesh quiz tomorrow and I'm scared. My teacher is going too fast and I'm not able to spend enough time on spesh because of my 3/4s.  :(
-  My teacher forced me to do a debate on Thursday which means I'll have to skip tuition
- A friend's bday is next week and I don't know what to get him :/
- I have my first bio SAC pretty soon.  ::)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 14, 2017, 08:26:22 pm
For me physics is way harder than chem. Idk why, but chem comes more naturally for me, whereas physics is a real struggle.
How about methods, do you reckon it is easier or harder than physics at 3/4 level

Got 68% on my accounting sac. Don't know if i should be happy with this score or not

Moderator action - insanipi: merged posts again. Please pay attention to my earlier mod comments.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 14, 2017, 08:27:57 pm
14/03/17
- Had an Othello workshop at school today -  didn't like it that much.
- Did some bio. We have a prac on friday about photosynthesis and I'm actually looking forward to it. M
- I have a spesh quiz tomorrow and I'm scared. My teacher is going too fast and I'm not able to spend enough time on spesh because of my 3/4s.  :(
-  My teacher forced me to do a debate on Thursday which means I'll have to skip tuition
- A friend's bday is next week and I don't know what to get him :/
- I have my first bio SAC pretty soon.  ::)


Don't worry too much about 1/2s, as long as you understand the content you'll be fine. Good luck for your bio SAC! (Such an awesome subject)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on March 14, 2017, 08:32:23 pm
Had a rugby league comp today, every other school's teams were just full of islanders except ours lmao. Was fun anyway.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 14, 2017, 08:34:29 pm
How about methods, do you reckon it is easier or harder than physics at 3/4 level
All this differs for different people. Some people say physics is easier than chem, whereas I find it a lot harder than chem. Personally I find methods way easier than physics, but it might be different to you.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 14, 2017, 08:58:10 pm
Does anyone know the benefits of having a VCAA examiner as a teacher? My health & psych teachers aren't but they get around 32-33 median whereas my legal and history rev teachers are both VCAA examiners (they started last year) My legal teacher marked PLC, one of the top schools in the state, not sure about my history teacher but he is a VCAA examiner haha
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on March 14, 2017, 09:05:41 pm
Does anyone know the benefits of having a VCAA examiner as a teacher? My health & psych teachers aren't but they get around 32-33 median whereas my legal and history rev teachers are both VCAA examiners (they started last year) My legal teacher marked PLC, one of the top schools in the state, not sure about my history teacher but he is a VCAA examiner haha

one of my health teachers is an examiner! she doesn't teach me personally, but will end up crossmarking my sacs (aah). i feel like it's automatically beneficial to have an examiner as a teacher though because they'll be marking the exam you do (obviously not yours, but same questions) at the end of the year, and if they've been doing one study design a while they'll know exactly what needs to be included in an answer for it to get full marks. of course, all your teachers are going to be pretty sure of that, but it can't hurt to have someone who's literally going to be marking exams teaching you!

also at this point i'd literally give three of my limbs (would be four but i need my right arm to write with) for that legal teacher, lmao. kind of dying with mine right now.

 
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sine on March 14, 2017, 09:08:05 pm
Does anyone know the benefits of having a VCAA examiner as a teacher? My health & psych teachers aren't but they get around 32-33 median whereas my legal and history rev teachers are both VCAA examiners (they started last year) My legal teacher marked PLC, one of the top schools in the state, not sure about my history teacher but he is a VCAA examiner haha
not much ahaha - it's really down to the students work. I guess it helps because they usually go to conferences to talk about accepted answers/notation etc The assesors get a marking scheme so marking VCAA exams doesn't automatically make them a god  :P
I think 3 of my 5 teachers marked vce exams in my year but in the end there were students who did well and others who didn't.

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 14, 2017, 09:09:38 pm
Does anyone know the benefits of having a VCAA examiner as a teacher? My health & psych teachers aren't but they get around 32-33 median whereas my legal and history rev teachers are both VCAA examiners (they started last year) My legal teacher marked PLC, one of the top schools in the state, not sure about my history teacher but he is a VCAA examiner haha
Benefits:
- most of them give you tips on how to answer questions pretty well  :D
- they know what mistakes are likely to be made
- they can be super strict when marking SACs
- they know their subject inside out - will most likely be a very good teacher
My bio teacher was a vcaa examiner last year and this is what i've experienced.  ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 14, 2017, 09:11:19 pm
not much ahaha - it's really down to the students work. I guess it helps because they usually go to conferences to talk about accepted answers/notation etc The assesors get a marking scheme so marking VCAA exams doesn't automatically make them a god 
I think 3 of my 5 teachers marked vce exams in my year but in the end there were students who did well and others who didn't.
I second this, my methods/spec teacher last year was an methods exam 2 marker (or was it both, I don't remember, haha) and it was mostly about the effort/work we put in, not about the teacher being a marker. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 14, 2017, 09:22:08 pm
Does anyone know the benefits of having a VCAA examiner as a teacher? My health & psych teachers aren't but they get around 32-33 median whereas my legal and history rev teachers are both VCAA examiners (they started last year) My legal teacher marked PLC, one of the top schools in the state, not sure about my history teacher but he is a VCAA examiner haha

Having a VCAA assessor as your teacher is very useful as they know the course inside out and they will know all the tips and tricks for doing well as well as the common errors people make. I had an assessor as my teacher for bio last year and it was really helpful as she could mark all my practice exams like they were the real thing, giving me excellent feedback. I simply wouldn't have been able to mark my own exams to the same level and wouldn't have had any constructive criticism to work with. Overall I think they are most useful for subjects where it is difficult to mark your own practice exams.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 14, 2017, 09:56:06 pm
=14th of March 2017=
-few study periods today so revised for bio whole day basically
-starting electricity and circuitry in physics; just glad to be away from thermo
-got chem test back got 93%. super happy with it.
-got first english sac results back. was a text analysis on Frankenstein; didn't do too well. definitely pass but I'll need to do better :\
-doing choir was a nice break. love me some music.
-did some permutations stuff for methods
-time to devote rest of tonight for bio  :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thammie on March 15, 2017, 09:27:51 am
Benefits:
- most of them give you tips on how to answer questions pretty well  :D
- they know what mistakes are likely to be made
- they can be super strict when marking SACs
- they know their subject inside out - will most likely be a very good teacher
My bio teacher was a vcaa examiner last year and this is what i've experienced.  ;)

I totally agree.... my legal teacher was an examiner and she gave our class a lot of tips and advice throughout the year on how to answer questions and make them relevant so that we could save time on the exam and give the examiners the points they're looking for. She also marked my practice questions really quickly (but harshly!) and gave me a lot of feedback on how I could improve..... So yeah... based on my experience, having a vcaa examiner as your teacher is really, really helpful.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 15, 2017, 12:27:17 pm
Ooh, this is such a good idea. Guess this is my first entry.

15th of March, 2017

I received my first English SAC results yesterday. 26/30, for a creative SAC on I for Isobel. I'm a bit conflicted -- I know that rankings are what's most important, and I scored the highest in my class (and possibly the cohort), so I should be happy about this (hard to say it without sounding like a humblebrag though, haha), but I'm still disappointed nonetheless, as that's a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, we're starting 'No Sugar', and I am much more happy with how my practice SAC for that went.

I'm not at school today, as I have four hours of my university extension subject ('Anatomy & Physiology') today, and that coincides with my only VCE class for this day. I'm pretty excited so far. It's all really interesting, so it's much easier to study for, and I'm happy with my results on the quizzes and whatnot thus far. I'm doing my first lab today, so that's pretty neat.

I have three assessment tasks tomorrow though, so wish me luck, haha. Pretty confident so far though. The most difficult one is for Chemistry, which is a practical report, and my fantastic group managed to fly through the prac.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: shezzaloves on March 15, 2017, 12:30:44 pm
I totally agree.... my legal teacher was an examiner and she gave our class a lot of tips and advice throughout the year on how to answer questions and make them relevant so that we could save time on the exam and give the examiners the points they're looking for. She also marked my practice questions really quickly (but harshly!) and gave me a lot of feedback on how I could improve..... So yeah... based on my experience, having a vcaa examiner as your teacher is really, really helpful.

My legal teacher gave us SOOO much holiday homework, summarise 1st 3 chapters, questions etc, we get a weekly workbook and she is tough, she will let us go to her house and she will help us.. some of my classmates hate her, but if she wants us to do well, she has to be tough :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 01:11:15 pm
=14th of March 2017=
-few study periods today so revised for bio whole day basically
-starting electricity and circuitry in physics; just glad to be away from thermo
-got chem test back got 93%. super happy with it.
-got first english sac results back. was a text analysis on Frankenstein; didn't do too well. definitely pass but I'll need to do better :\
-doing choir was a nice break. love me some music.
-did some permutations stuff for methods
-time to devote rest of tonight for bio  :D
Well done with chem! ^_^
Thermodynamics sounds horrible, I can't remember much (if at all) of it! :)
Don't worry about your English SAC, I'm sure you'll ace the semester!
How'd studying for bio go last night? :)


Ooh, this is such a good idea. Guess this is my first entry.

15th of March, 2017

I received my first English SAC results yesterday. 26/30, for a creative SAC on I for Isobel. I'm a bit conflicted -- I know that rankings are what's most important, and I scored the highest in my class (and possibly the cohort), so I should be happy about this (hard to say it without sounding like a humblebrag though, haha), but I'm still disappointed nonetheless, as that's a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, we're starting 'No Sugar', and I am much more happy with how my practice SAC for that went.

I'm not at school today, as I have four hours of my university extension subject ('Anatomy & Physiology') today, and that coincides with my only VCE class for this day. I'm pretty excited so far. It's all really interesting, so it's much easier to study for, and I'm happy with my results on the quizzes and whatnot thus far. I'm doing my first lab today, so that's pretty neat.

I have three assessment tasks tomorrow though, so wish me luck, haha. Pretty confident so far though. The most difficult one is for Chemistry, which is a practical report, and my fantastic group managed to fly through the prac.
Glad you love this idea! ;D
Mistakes happen a lot, I get that. However I reckon that your score is really, really good, I believe it should go up from there! (Okay, that sounds cheesy, don't mind me ::) )

How's anatomy and physiology going? I do a physiology unit and I'm practically going insane (but then I didn't do bio- I should apologise to M one day for absolutely disliking it at school, haha)

Good luck for Chem and the other SACs! You have the T for chem right? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 15, 2017, 01:27:09 pm
Mistakes happen a lot, I get that. However I reckon that your score is really, really good, I believe it should go up from there! (Okay, that sounds cheesy, don't mind me ::) )

How's anatomy and physiology going? I do a physiology unit and I'm practically going insane (but then I didn't do bio- I should apologise to M one day for absolutely disliking it at school, haha)

Good luck for Chem and the other SACs! You have the T for chem right? :)
[/quote]

Haha no, I like cheesy, I appreciate your confidence :D

It's going great -- it's a very hectic unit. Absolutely loads of content already. We're not expected to know it all in vast detail, but I can't help trying to learn anyway. We haven't heaps yet -- mainly body organisation, homeostasis, cell structure and corresponding function, and microbes and methods of controlling them. It's starting to pickup now, so I'll update in a week, haha. Do you like the content so far though? I'll be sure to pass on your apologies to M :P

Haha yes, I have the T for Chemistry. I've lost my seat though, I had that for years!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sine on March 15, 2017, 01:40:14 pm
don't worry about 26/30 in an English sac. Especially if it was the highest in the cohort. Usually teachers in English are very reluctant to give full marks or close to full marks because they think the student will feel that they have no room for improvement.

In my cohort we would only receive a range for our score e.g 27-30/30

EDIT: 800th post
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 01:45:38 pm
Haha no, I like cheesy, I appreciate your confidence :D

It's going great -- it's a very hectic unit. Absolutely loads of content already. We're not expected to know it all in vast detail, but I can't help trying to learn anyway. We haven't heaps yet -- mainly body organisation, homeostasis, cell structure and corresponding function, and microbes and methods of controlling them. It's starting to pickup now, so I'll update in a week, haha. Do you like the content so far though? I'll be sure to pass on your apologies to M

Haha yes, I have the T for Chemistry. I've lost my seat though, I had that for years!
Hahaha confidence? That happens when you're half tired and you don't think as well

Ah, hectic units are always fun! I've covered so far cells, tissues, organs, systems (and functions thereof), genes to proteins (so transcription and translation) and we're now doing a really indepth look into membranes. (I'll be glad to start the systems in more depth though!) Please do, I've been saying it since year 9 hahaha.

No! You lost your seat! Sad reacts only :'(

Edit: missing bracket- I have a habit of that :o
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 02:11:48 pm
Hahaha confidence? That happens when you're half tired and you don't think as well

Ah, hectic units are always fun! I've covered so far cells, tissues, organs, systems (and functions thereof), genes to proteins (so transcription and translation) and we're now doing a really indepth look into membranes. (I'll be glad to start the systems in more depth though!) Please do, I've been saying it since year 9 hahaha.

No! You lost your seat! Sad reacts only :'(

Edit: missing bracket- I have a habit of that :o
What degree are you studying :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 02:49:02 pm
Having a VCAA assessor as your teacher is very useful as they know the course inside out and they will know all the tips and tricks for doing well as well as the common errors people make. I had an assessor as my teacher for bio last year and it was really helpful as she could mark all my practice exams like they were the real thing, giving me excellent feedback. I simply wouldn't have been able to mark my own exams to the same level and wouldn't have had any constructive criticism to work with. Overall I think they are most useful for subjects where it is difficult to mark your own practice exams.
Does having an accesor as a teacher mean that sacs are marked harder in general?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sine on March 15, 2017, 03:00:49 pm
Does having an accesor as a teacher mean that sacs are marked harder in general?
ehh really depends on cohort strength. With a weaker cohort sacs are generally meant to be marked quite leniently to keep the students engaged (makes sure most people pass and not lose hope with really low scores). In more stronger cohorts the sacs are generally marked harsher to separate the top students and also to ensure that not everyone ends up full marking.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 03:03:51 pm
ehh really depends on cohort strength. With a weaker cohort sacs are generally meant to be marked quite leniently to keep the students engaged (makes sure most people pass and not lose hope with really low scores). In more stronger cohorts the sacs are generally marked harsher to separate the top students and also to ensure that not everyone ends up full marking.
So because i'm in a relatively strong cohort, it will be really hard to get 100%
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 04:02:02 pm
What degree are you studying :)
I'm sure if you read my sig it tells you ;)
(Not to be confused with pharmacy )
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 15, 2017, 04:06:42 pm
15/3/2017 Had my chem SAC today. I went in feeling pretty confident, since I did heaps of prep, but I went out feeling pretty bad.  :'( The SAC was only 50 minutes long, so I was stressed for time and rushed through the last 3 pages. I feel like I could have done much better if I organised my time better. I have my physics SAC tomorrow. I just hope I do well for physics, so I have something positive to think about.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 05:15:46 pm
I'm sure if you read my sig it tells you ;)
(Not to be confused with pharmacy )
Oops, didn't realise your sig, my bad :P

Got a bit of methods homework, further homework, starting creative writing in english today

J41: Merged double post. NAT, please contact me if you're having difficulty modifying your posts. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 15, 2017, 05:25:16 pm
-I got my Methods test mark. Usually I do better in the tech-free but for this chapter I got 50% for tech-free and 78% for CAS allowed '-_- Overall I'm very disappointed in myself
-I also did the practical part for my Bio SAC. It was so confusing because it was my first time doing a practical SAC. I'd rather have an assessment based on theory which has questions rather than a practical (I am so no an independent learner)
-On Thursday I have the written part of the Bio SAC and right after it (with a half an hour break) I have an English text response SAC for This Boy's Life. I hope I do well in both
-The next two weeks I have an Informatics SAC going for five periods, which I for some reason am looking forward to
But...I'm going to try my best and be optimistic because there is no point in making myself lose motivation, and I don't want to spread any negative vibes here. Just stay strong everyone and try your best! I'll write again next time, though I'm not sure when that will be...

Welcome to ATAR Notes, somayya.b! ;D

All the best for the Bio and English SACs tomorrow - let us know how you go. :) I'm sending good vibes!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 15, 2017, 05:32:12 pm
Welcome to ATAR Notes, somayya.b! ;D

All the best for the Bio and English SACs tomorrow - let us know how you go. :) I'm sending good vibes!

I admire your profile picture. Something about it is just really relaxing.
I could stare at it alllllll day
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 05:53:36 pm
I admire your profile picture. Something about it is just really relaxing.
I could stare at it alllllll day
You're profile picture is pretty cool too ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 15, 2017, 06:14:19 pm
I admire your profile picture. Something about it is just really relaxing.
I could stare at it alllllll day

Hahaha amazing - thanks! The schwa is my favourite thing ever. :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 15, 2017, 06:19:56 pm
=15th of March 2017=
~THE BIO SAC~
-didn't sleep too well so was honestly super nervous about it. a good majority of my friendship group is doing bio 3/4 as well so we were all just stressing out a lot. went in nervous but honestly, it was a lot easier than I'd thought it be. I think I was just so in my head before the exam that my first thought was to just finish and ended up at the last page with over 20 minutes to spare! i definitely know now that I've missed a few markes here and there but overall, it's like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.  ;D
-time to study for methods sac next week :(
-got methods sac back only to find i got 100%! great boost of morale for bio sac after seeing my grades for english :\
-planning to stay afterschool more often just so i can get straight into studying because I know I'm falling behind so why not just take the time while in the school mood to study ya know?
-went to acapella again. practiced pieces for generations in jazz at mt gambier. anyone else going this year???
-gonna do methods, chem and physics homework after finishing this post so woop.


Well done with chem! ^_^
Thermodynamics sounds horrible, I can't remember much (if at all) of it! :)
Don't worry about your English SAC, I'm sure you'll ace the semester!
How'd studying for bio go last night? :)
Honestly had no idea what was happening with thermodyamics.  :P Going to Edrolo and textbook the shit out for revision for that. English SAC is going okay. Planned out mini-deadlines on when I should get certain aspects done like research, writing and recording so hopefully I will stick to it and not be super stressed on the due date. Yeah, definitely stayed up later than I should have for bio :\ but its over now so I can catch up on some sleep.

15/3/2017 Had my chem SAC today. I went in feeling pretty confident, since I did heaps of prep, but I went out feeling pretty bad.  :'( The SAC was only 50 minutes long, so I was stressed for time and rushed through the last 3 pages. I feel like I could have done much better if I organised my time better. I have my physics SAC tomorrow. I just hope I do well for physics, so I have something positive to think about.
Honestly, my advice right now is to keep your head up high and keep marching onwards. If the morale is low especially for the physics SAC tomorrow, you'd be too clouded in your emotions and won't be able to focus. It's great that you acknowledged what you could've done better in this SAC but the next step to that is working on techniques and other habits that can help you manage our time. Something my friend does is that she does practice tests under timed conditions with her sister who had already graduated from highschool. Not only is there that time pressure but there is also that pressure of others doing the test around you so if you could focus on the test rather than the other people that would be amazing. And if you don't have someone to do that with, you could always do set homework questions under a timed condition. (thats what i'm doing c;) so not only do you get your homework done faster but you are able to time yourself on simpler textbook questions to ensure you understand the concepts and ideas in each question. Hopefully this will help and all the best to your physics SAC tomorrow!!!

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 15, 2017, 06:51:16 pm
You're profile picture is pretty cool too ;)

I'd say its pretty 'super' ahahaha if you know what I mean  ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 15, 2017, 06:53:09 pm
15/03/17
- My methods teacher has been away for 3wks and apparently he's sick so I'm really worried. He's not only the best teacher but he's also the coolest person I've ever met in my whole life. I hope he gets better. <3
- My spesh SAC is on monday - defs not looking forward to it.
- My spesh quiz got moved to Friday cuz no one was ready :) :-*
- I just wrote my whole debate.. it's at 3 tomoz and we're against some really high ranked private school so I don't know what I'm supposed to feel like -_- I'm the only one on my team who has finished their speech hahah. My other team members actually 'start' making their debate half an hour b4 the actual debate cuz they can make everything up on the spot. (well, they think they do :P)
- I have one more chapter to write and then i'm done with writing my story online. Never gonna write online again LOL. The readers get super angry when i post chapters late and it pisses me off :o
- I have heaps of homework to do today
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sine on March 15, 2017, 07:19:56 pm
So because i'm in a relatively strong cohort, it will be really hard to get 100%
not necessarily but that is the most likely case.

e.g MHS and JMSS SACs are usually stupidly hard but I think scotch sac's are quite doable.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 07:43:56 pm
=15th of March 2017=
~THE BIO SAC~
-didn't sleep too well so was honestly super nervous about it. a good majority of my friendship group is doing bio 3/4 as well so we were all just stressing out a lot. went in nervous but honestly, it was a lot easier than I'd thought it be. I think I was just so in my head before the exam that my first thought was to just finish and ended up at the last page with over 20 minutes to spare! i definitely know now that I've missed a few markes here and there but overall, it's like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.  ;D
-time to study for methods sac next week :(
-got methods sac back only to find i got 100%! great boost of morale for bio sac after seeing my grades for english :\
-planning to stay afterschool more often just so i can get straight into studying because I know I'm falling behind so why not just take the time while in the school mood to study ya know?
-went to acapella again. practiced pieces for generations in jazz at mt gambier. anyone else going this year???
-gonna do methods, chem and physics homework after finishing this post so woop.

Honestly had no idea what was happening with thermodyamics.  :P Going to Edrolo and textbook the shit out for revision for that. English SAC is going okay. Planned out mini-deadlines on when I should get certain aspects done like research, writing and recording so hopefully I will stick to it and not be super stressed on the due date. Yeah, definitely stayed up later than I should have for bio :\ but its over now so I can catch up on some sleep.
Glad to hear the biol SAC was easier than you thought! Congrats on the score for that methods SAC and all the best for the other methods SAC.;D
I can highly recommend the staying back after-school thing, I did that most Wednesdays last year and I found it really beneficial (plus it encouraged my sister to stay back and do homework instead of going straight home to play Sims 4, hahah).
That's super awesome with the mini-deadlines thing! I did a similar thing, with my calendar to remind of events/assessments coming up and I still use that little habit to this day. :)
That's okay, try not to wreck your sleep schedule too much, too often though! (Trust me, I did that going into uni and by like 8 I felt dead and still had stuff to do. I'm slowly bringing myself back to normal :P )

15/03/17
- My methods teacher has been away for 3wks and apparently he's sick so I'm really worried. He's not only the best teacher but he's also the coolest person I've ever met in my whole life. I hope he gets better. <3
- My spesh SAC is on monday - defs not looking forward to it.
- My spesh quiz got moved to Friday cuz no one was ready :) :-*
- I just wrote my whole debate.. it's at 3 tomoz and we're against some really high ranked private school so I don't know what I'm supposed to feel like -_- I'm the only one on my team who has finished their speech hahah. My other team members actually 'start' making their debate half an hour b4 the actual debate cuz they can make everything up on the spot. (well, they think they do :P)
- I have one more chapter to write and then i'm done with writing my story online. Never gonna write online again LOL. The readers get super angry when i post chapters late and it pisses me off :o
- I have heaps of homework to do today
Awh! That's no good about your methods teacher, sending happy and healthy vibes! :)
I hope you do well in your spesh SAC, how are you find spesh overall?
Woo! Go you ;D Best of luck for your debate, I'll be cheering on for you here. :)
Don't worry about people complaining with your online stories, you do you, not what other people want you to do! :)
Have fun with the homework! ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 08:51:13 pm
English creative writing sac week 2 term 2. Lots of time, but should start preparing from today onwards to do well in it
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 15, 2017, 08:59:32 pm
English creative writing sac week 2 term 2. Lots of time, but should start preparing from today onwards to do well in it

Man you're so switched on. In year 11 I slept through most classes hahaha
nah but srsly good on you mate, you'll do great next year. :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: appleandbee on March 15, 2017, 09:14:19 pm

- I just wrote my whole debate.. it's at 3 tomoz and we're against some really high ranked private school so I don't know what I'm supposed to feel like -_- I'm the only one on my team who has finished their speech hahah. My other team members actually 'start' making their debate half an hour b4 the actual debate cuz they can make everything up on the spot. (well, they think they do :P)

Which region are you in? I'm adjudicating tomorrow haha. Don't worry about the prestigious private school stuff, I once gave a debate to a considerably low SES public school over a selective school ( I went to a selective school myself). Unless you have an adj that automatically awards close debates to the elite private school just to appease them... The B grade topic has the potential to be fairly interesting (as long as you interpret it correctly)  :). Also most people write up their speech shortly before the debate ( as long as you roughly know what model, stance and arguments you are going to run, it will be fine. In uni we only get 15 minute to prep.).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 15, 2017, 09:17:20 pm
Fml. So few weeks ago i did my fitner sac which was much harder than the content and it was harder than checkpoints whicg are past vcaa exam papers is also what evreyone was saying. I got 67.5% for it. That's shit comsidering i do methods and even though it was much harder. But its all g. I can still get 40+ if i do well on my exam as it will scale up the sac results since if will show that the sacs my school did were much harder than other schools (assuming my cohort does this to) all g further is not a pre resequite for any university course.
I'm so behind in methods it takes so long ive got a history sac on friday this week. Lets hope i did well for my Emg sac i did. Did the eco sac todsy, easier than i though. I knew alot more than i thought. But if 60%+ is comsidered a solid effort i wouldnt be suprised with maybe a 60% or 50%.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 09:32:32 pm
Man you're so switched on. In year 11 I slept through most classes hahaha
nah but srsly good on you mate, you'll do great next year. :P
Thanks :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 15, 2017, 09:43:27 pm
Thanks :)
Yeah in year 11, i hardly did methods h/w yet somehow managed to pass, didnt read my English book kinda tried, i cared bu tcpildnt be bothered with jw but passed  didnt do  any of my eco hw yet i passed, the only subject i tried in was my 3/4. I only regret not trying for methods tbh. That really fked my up this year
Also since ur not doing 3&4 really prioritise method sicne thats the same thing u learn in yr12 (only much faster and harder) and really prioritise english. U may want to prioritise it over maths as it will be you primary four in year 12
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 09:44:36 pm
Yeah in year 11, i hardly did methods h/w yet somehow managed to pass, didnt read my English book kinda tried, i cared bu tcpildnt be bothered with jw but passed  didnt do  any of my eco hw yet i passed, the only subject i tried in was my 3/4. I only regret not trying for methods tbh. That really fked my up this year
is 3/4 methods anything like 1/2 methods
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 15, 2017, 09:46:06 pm
is 3/4 methods anything like 1/2 methods
Pretty much. Thats why i regret hpw i acted in 1/2
Same concepts but except much quicker and a bit harder
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 09:49:24 pm
Pretty much. Thats why i regret hpw i acted in 1/2
Same concepts but except much quicker and a bit harder
1/2 methods is an excercise a lesson pretty much, like 1 lesson 3.1, then next lesson 3.2, and so on.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 15, 2017, 09:57:12 pm
Which region are you in? I'm adjudicating tomorrow haha. Don't worry about the prestigious private school stuff, I once gave a debate to a considerably low SES public school over a selective school ( I went to a selective school myself). Unless you have an adj that automatically awards close debates to the elite private school just to appease them... The B grade topic has the potential to be fairly interesting (as long as you interpret it correctly)  :). Also most people write up their speech shortly before the debate ( as long as you roughly know what model, stance and arguments you are going to run, it will be fine. In uni we only get 15 minute to prep.).
This is so exciting now! My region is Ivanhoe. . are you the adjudicator? Omg can you make us win. . . only joking. I think I'm ready to smash it and i reckon my team is pretty okay so we will be fine. It's just that no one has that 'I want to win' spirit that most selective/private school students have and I actually do want to win.  :(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 09:57:14 pm
is 3/4 methods anything like 1/2 methods

Pretty much. Thats why i regret hpw i acted in 1/2
Same concepts but except much quicker and a bit harder

1/2 methods is an excercise a lesson pretty much, like 1 lesson 3.1, then next lesson 3.2, and so on.
Guys, I love the discussion about the intricacies of Mathematical Methods (CAS), however the purpose of this thread is to document the journey through VCE, not compare units 1/2 and 3/4 maths. Please seek the appropriate boards and/or threads for this. :)
(I may/may not be overly sick of maths atm)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 15, 2017, 10:44:32 pm
Guys, I love the discussion about the intricacies of Mathematical Methods (CAS), however the purpose of this thread is to document the journey through VCE, not compare units 1/2 and 3/4 maths. Please seek the appropriate boards and/or threads for this. :)
(I may/may not be overly sick of maths atm)
Are we still allowed to document what homework we get each day
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 15, 2017, 10:50:39 pm
Are we still allowed to document what homework we get each day
Absolutely! :)
Just the discussion I quoted was getting off-topic. Happy to discuss via PM. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 15, 2017, 11:31:51 pm
1/2 methods is an excercise a lesson pretty much, like 1 lesson 3.1, then next lesson 3.2, and so on.
3 and 4
Is 2 excersies a lesson and we are suppose to finish a whole chapter in 2 weeks max
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: appleandbee on March 15, 2017, 11:32:18 pm
This is so exciting now! My region is Ivanhoe. . are you the adjudicator? Omg can you make us win. . . only joking. I think I'm ready to smash it and i reckon my team is pretty okay so we will be fine. It's just that no one has that 'I want to win' spirit that most selective/private school students have and I actually do want to win.  :(

Unfortunately not, Ivanhoe clashed with another region which is marginally closer to where I live. I have been to Ivanhoe a few times though, by elite private schools in that region I'm thinking IGS (the Ivanhoe campus tends to be fairly good but the Plenty campus is average) and IGGS. To be honest, a few teams from those schools may be quite good but the majority are fairly similar to the other schools ( most of the debates I've adj in that region are pretty close, the public schools that I've seen have been quite good). Apart from Melbourne High, St Kevins, Melbourne Grammar and Scotch (Mac.rob used to be really good but nowadays only have the occasional good team), the standard of the private/selective schools in debating aren't much different from the other schools. Just be mindful of a few things:
-The topic is supposed to discuss the power struggle between the doctors and parents, instead of the children and parents (as suggested by a few teams). This is the interpretation proposed by the DAV ( you should always aim to provide models/definitions that the adjudicator than expect). If this topic was intended to be about a power struggle between the parents and the kids, it wouldn't be a great topic to begin because 1. It will be full of assertions about the decision making capacities about parents and kids, 2. Realistically most kids are unable to fully rationalize the harms and benefits of medical treatments.
-If a team sell themselves short, by providing a 'soft' model and refuses to deal with a range of cases/scenarios (eg. A negative team gave a model that they'll allow parents to deny minor medical treatments like immunizations but have to negotiate other kinds), use it to your advantage. A team often provides a soft model because they don't really believe or agree with their team's side. As a result, there's a strong tendency for them to contradict themselves (the neg team I was referring to earlier, main arguments were about the financial burdens of major surgery, which was weird considering they only seemed interested in discussing minor treatments for the most part). It's also rather difficult to provide a principally consistent case when you have a whishy- washy stance.
- Try to get to the nuance of why parents deny medical treatments for their kids. Assume that parents care about their kids. Some parents have a preference for unproven, alternative medicine. Some parents have religious reasons for doing so (which is valid in some cases, because religion at times guides parenting and in many cases the state allows parents to raise their kid in such a way). There are also some cases where the kid is terminally ill, and deciding to go ahead with a medical treatment is difficult for a parent because they are so emotionally connected to the child ( they worry about the pain that they'll go through during surgery, their chances of surviving and the quality of life after the surgery). Parents often make the trade - off between extending life and quality of life unlike doctors. In other cases perhaps,  the parents are in a state of emotional trauma as the kid's sickness such that it is difficult for them to rationalize the potential risks of medical treatment. If you are aff, deal with these nuances.
-Structure: If you have a major argument,  consider internal sign-posting like 'there are 2 harms to this....1.........2..........', ' this argument is particularly important because. .......' or when you make a claim ' this is true for 2 reasons......1......2. Just make sure you clearly state why the claims you make within an argument are true ( if it's a practical rather than principled) and why it is important (principled and practical). For principled arg, explain how your principles apply to the topic.
-Rebuttal: Focus on broad argumentation rather than glib statements. Like how the other team explained their arguments (were the assumptions/premise they made valid, did they explain why their claims were true and important, did they clearly state harms and benefits and why they would accrue). If a premise isn't true, the benefits are irrelevant.  Like if a parents no longer wants to send the kid to a doctor the benefits on receiving medical treatment do not accrue. So with a false premise,  explain why the premise is false then say that the benefits won't accrue as a result, and then explain potential harms. If a team didn't explain why certain claims or benefits were true, say that they didn't provide an explanation of why they were true then provide an explanation of why they aren't.

Hope that this somewhat helps  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 16, 2017, 07:56:26 am
This was super helpful! Hopefully our model is clear and concise. Thank you so much for taking the time to actually write that for me. Really appreciate it. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 16, 2017, 05:35:34 pm
further homework
methods homework
need to study for economics sac next wednesday
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 16, 2017, 07:06:37 pm
16th of March, 2017

This is just a short entry about my University Extension subject, but it's still a part of my VCE, and the most enjoyable one at that (just don't tell my teachers) ;)

Yesterday, I had my first lab for Anatomy & Physiology. We went to the anatomy museum on campus, where we got to view and handle a variety of different human organs and body parts, which was really interesting to see. Everyone was really respectful, which was good to see. A few people had to leave the room though -- not for lack of respect, but just because of (understandable) queasiness.

I stayed behind to discuss some of the things I saw (spoiler alert: so many indications that smoking is bad for you), how they're preserved, stuff like that.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 16, 2017, 07:16:00 pm
further homework
methods homework
need to study for economics sac next wednesday
Have fun with the homework and studying for the SAC!
What's eco like?

16th of March, 2017

This is just a short entry about my University Extension subject, but it's still a part of my VCE, and the most enjoyable one at that (just don't tell my teachers) ;)

Yesterday, I had my first lab for Anatomy & Physiology. We went to the anatomy museum on campus, where we got to view and handle a variety of different human organs and body parts, which was really interesting to see. Everyone was really respectful, which was good to see. A few people had to leave the room though -- not for lack of respect, but just because of (understandable) queasiness.

I stayed behind to discuss some of the things I saw (spoiler alert: so many indications that smoking is bad for you), how they're preserved, stuff like that.
I'll keep zipped ;)

That must've been really cool to see! I 100% get the queasiness problem, I got queasy myself today (for future reference: don't watch macular degeneration treatment videos), however I'm that you didn't leave! :)
What things did you see, other than lungs? :)

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 16, 2017, 07:26:09 pm
Have fun with the homework and studying for the SAC!
What's eco like?
Yes, i'm having some fun because I don't have any sacs this week.
For economics, it's a really contect heavy subject, sort of like busman, and economics has a lot of tricky concepts
I'll keep zipped ;)

That must've been really cool to see! I 100% get the queasiness problem, I got queasy myself today (for future reference: don't watch macular degeneration treatment videos), however I'm that you didn't leave! :)
What things did you see, other than lungs? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 16, 2017, 07:26:41 pm
further homework
methods homework
need to study for economics sac next wednesday

Wait is there further 1/2 now? Or do you mean general maths?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: NAT0003 on March 16, 2017, 07:39:25 pm
Wait is there further 1/2 now? Or do you mean general maths?
General maths 1/2 > becomes further 3/4 in year 12
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 16, 2017, 08:10:00 pm
That must've been really cool to see! I 100% get the queasiness problem, I got queasy myself today (for future reference: don't watch macular degeneration treatment videos), however I'm that you didn't leave! :)
What things did you see, other than lungs? :)

Oh no! Well, I know what I'm looking up on YouTube after I reply here...

Oh, I saw quite a lot -- there were about 12 tables, all with various systems. There was everything from intestines to hearts to stomachs to brains to arms to legs to eyes (much more than this, but I won't list everythinh haha). It's weird, but I was quite surprised at how heavy a lot of it was.  There were incisions on them so we could see their layers, and see inside them and other things. We'll be going back there as we study each individual system, which is really interesting!

I was also given the password to the specimen lab, so I feel really special, even though it's not much of a privilege :D

What's your favourite thing about your new-found study of biology? :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 16, 2017, 08:18:44 pm
Oh no! Well, I know what I'm looking up on YouTube after I reply here...

Oh, I saw quite a lot -- there were about 12 tables, all with various systems. There was everything from intestines to hearts to stomachs to brains to arms to legs to eyes (much more than this, but I won't list everythinh haha). It's weird, but I was quite surprised at how heavy a lot of it was.  There were incisions on them so we could see their layers, and see inside them and other things. We'll be going back there as we study each individual system, which is really interesting!

I was also given the password to the specimen lab, so I feel really special, even though it's not much of a privilege :D

What's your favourite thing about your new-found study of biology? :D

Please don't. You'll regret it, hahah. However 12 tables worth of stuff is a lot! Hopefully going into the systems in a lot more detail is really interesting for you! ^_^ (we start looking in more detail about the systems starting next week with the nervous system- something I already know a bit about from year 11 psych- actually excited! )

Ah, it must feel super special to have access free reign to the specimen lab! ;D

I don't want to ramble on much about myself, but my favourite thing has to be the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 16, 2017, 09:04:32 pm
16/3/2017 Had my physics SAC today but everyone including me absolutely hated it. Well, I guess I need to prep hard for my specialist and English SAC in 2 weeks.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 16, 2017, 10:42:18 pm
I'm up to 4d for methods class has finished 5d
So fucking screwed. History sac tomorow have hardly done homework for it but i feel ill be ok. Vce is going shit.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 17, 2017, 06:05:46 pm
17/03/17
- Got my chem SAC back. I'm happy with it but I made careless errors.  :'(
- Spesh  quiz was alright. I have to revise soon because the SAC is now on Wednesday.
- Did the bio photosynthesis prac today. Was interesting but now I'm scared for my first bio sac on Friday 24th. A single period determines 8% of study score ??? :o
- Parent teacher interviews very very soon. I hate those.
-  I'm not gonna do much work today. Might just read a book  ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 17, 2017, 07:05:11 pm
17/03/17
- Got my chem SAC back. I'm happy with it but I made careless errors.  :'(
- Spesh  quiz was alright. I have to revise soon because the SAC is now on Wednesday.
- Did the bio photosynthesis prac today. Was interesting but now I'm scared for my first bio sac on Friday 24th. A single period determines 8% of study score ??? :o
- Parent teacher interviews very very soon. I hate those.
-  I'm not gonna do much work today. Might just read a book  ;)

What was your photosynthesis prac about?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 17, 2017, 07:13:32 pm
What was your photosynthesis prac about?
It was about looking at how different light intensities affected the rate of photosynthesis. We used algal balls and compared it to the standards to measure the initial and final pH.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 17, 2017, 07:22:34 pm
17/03/17
- Got my chem SAC back. I'm happy with it but I made careless errors.  :'(
- Spesh  quiz was alright. I have to revise soon because the SAC is now on Wednesday.
- Did the bio photosynthesis prac today. Was interesting but now I'm scared for my first bio sac on Friday 24th. A single period determines 8% of study score ??? :o
- Parent teacher interviews very very soon. I hate those.
-  I'm not gonna do much work today. Might just read a book  ;)

One sac wont determine 8%

so many people underestimate how heavily the exams alter the sac scores
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 17, 2017, 07:27:47 pm
One sac wont determine 8%

so many people underestimate how heavily the exams alter the sac scores
We have 2 SACs for  unit 3 and they are both weighed equally. The total unit 3 contributes 16%. At least, that's how its going to work in my school. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 17, 2017, 07:34:25 pm
We have 2 SACs for  unit 3 and they are both weighed equally. The total unit 3 contributes 16%. At least, that's how its going to work in my school. :)

Your sac marks are moderated by vcaa to match your exam performance.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Syndicate on March 17, 2017, 07:56:47 pm
Your sac marks are moderated by vcaa to match your exam performance.


Sorry for derailing the thread.

That is wrong (afaik). Sac marks are moderated according to your rank, and the exam marks achieved by your cohort. If you are rank 3 in your cohort in the end, then your sac marks will be moderated according to the third highest exam mark received in your cohort.  Your exam performance may not determine your SAC marks (after moderation) if you don't get the marks relative to your rank in your cohort.

I should also add that you do keep your exam marks. It just that for the purposes of SAC moderation, your rank is used to determine your final SAC marks.

To vcestressed: just try your best at every sac (be it a year 11 or year 12 test/ Sac), and make sure you do relatively* well.

* relative to your cohort in year 12
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 17, 2017, 08:04:58 pm
It was about looking at how different light intensities affected the rate of photosynthesis. We used algal balls and compared it to the standards to measure the initial and final pH.

Haha we did that same respiration vs photosynthesis prac, it's pretty cool.

Just make sure you understand:
 more light > more photosynthesis than cellular respiration > less CO2 > increase in pH > colour change in indicator

And obviously the opposite for less/no light.

Always link your responses back to the observable change and of course, understand the theory behind photosynthesis and respiration (basically process and inputs/outputs).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 17, 2017, 08:10:37 pm
Haha we did that same respiration vs photosynthesis prac, it's pretty cool.

Just make sure you understand:
 more light > more photosynthesis than cellular respiration > less CO2 > increase in pH > colour change in indicator

And obviously the opposite for less/no light.

Always link your responses back to the observable change and of course, understand the theory behind photosynthesis and respiration (basically process and inputs/outputs).

Was it the one where you glued the vials on the ruler and then had it 10 cm apart in a black painted cardboard light box? I agree, its pretty cool. Thanks  :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 17, 2017, 08:29:37 pm
=16th of March 2017=
-pre read chem prac
-do some more methods hw
-basically forgot there was a shit ton of physics work that was due the next day so I did that instead of posting this c:

=17th of March 2017=
-chem prac went really well, suprised that the class before us took so long to finish.
-english was.. something. didn't pass that first text analysis SAC so I'm going to re-do it monday afterschool so I'm going to need to prep for that. got some nice feedback on how I could improve so I know what I'm doing.
-so hyped for english oral; pretty much have it all planned out so I have about 1.5 weeks to write a script and record it
-methods sac on permutations and combinations coming up wednesday so gotta start a bound reference to update as well as practice tests.
-gotta make sure I'm up to date with textbook questions for each bio, chem and phys so thatll be a huge priority
-went for a massage and im feeling soo relaxed  ;D feels good c:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 17, 2017, 08:37:47 pm
Was it the one where you glued the vials on the ruler and then had it 10 cm apart in a black painted cardboard light box? I agree, its pretty cool. Thanks  :)

We did it a bit differently. Just had four test tubes and wrapped two up in foil so no light was let in and then kept two in light. One of the tubes in each of the conditions had the plant and one didn't so we ended up having two controls.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 17, 2017, 11:25:01 pm
I feel so good after the English Language SAC today on formal spoken
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 18, 2017, 11:30:55 am
I feel so good after the English Language SAC today on formal spoken

YES!

(https://media.giphy.com/media/ZgDGEMihlZXCo/giphy.gif)

Tell me more - what did you have to do for it? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 18, 2017, 05:57:46 pm
YES!

(https://media.giphy.com/media/ZgDGEMihlZXCo/giphy.gif)

Tell me more - what did you have to do for it? :)


It was just short answer questions on analytical commentary for formal spoken
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on March 18, 2017, 08:45:15 pm
When your internet has been down for a day, the struggle's real  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 18, 2017, 08:51:16 pm
When your internet has been down for a day, the struggle's real  :P
I understand that struggle, happens to me all the time! :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 18, 2017, 09:24:40 pm
I understand that struggle, happens to me all the time! :P

I have more broken promises from telstra than from my ex
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 18, 2017, 10:07:45 pm
When your internet has been down for a day, the struggle's real  :P

I've only had internet for a few years of my life total -- trust me, the library is your friend :P

(...just not the Werribee library past 3, avoid it like I avoid my homework)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on March 19, 2017, 12:34:48 am
I have more broken promises from telstra than from my ex

Why does this resonate so deeply

I've only had internet for a few years of my life total -- trust me, the library is your friend :P

(...just not the Werribee library past 3, avoid it like I avoid my homework)

Lol productivity is always at an all time high at the library

I understand that struggle, happens to me all the time! :P

the pain is relatable :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 19, 2017, 10:13:53 am
I have a Physics SAC on Gravitational, Electric and Magnetic Fields about Pracs and demos in class.

Hope I do well
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 19, 2017, 10:23:42 am
I have a Physics SAC on Gravitational, Electric and Magnetic Fields about Pracs and demos in class.
Hope I do well
Sounds fun! Hopefully you do well! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 19, 2017, 10:26:21 am
Sounds fun! Hopefully you do well! :)

Hopefully (fingers crossed)

I studied pretty hard
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: illuminatisky on March 19, 2017, 07:23:35 pm
19/3
Did further homework

Hopefully (fingers crossed)

I studied pretty hard
Good luck!

Moderator action - insanipi: merged posts.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 19, 2017, 08:33:37 pm
Finally feel good about economics, developing good habbits not behind as much and i feel like i understand things so well
Methods is less shit. (Still kinda shit hahah) Not as far behind yet and its changing
Had evrey sac for all my subjects except for methods
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: illuminatisky on March 20, 2017, 10:56:34 am
got 35/40 on first further sac. Made some really dumb mistakes >:(
One of the mistakes was rounding, cost me 1 mark
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 20, 2017, 03:23:53 pm
got 35/40 on first further sac. Made some really dumb mistakes >:(
One of the mistakes was rounding, cost me 1 mark
My further sac was harder then checkpoint questions which were exam papers.... like wtf
But its all good if my cohort does much better in the exam compared to the sac as it will scale up alot
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 20, 2017, 05:53:11 pm
Today I literally had 2 periods of actual classes, since my specialist teacher was away. :)  But sadly I got told that I have to write an English essay tomorrow in a period. :'(  Luckily my teacher gave the prompt so I can prep for it.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: illuminatisky on March 20, 2017, 06:23:01 pm
My further sac was harder then checkpoint questions which were exam papers.... like wtf
But its all good if my cohort does much better in the exam compared to the sac as it will scale up alot
Do you go to a private or selective school if the sac questions were harder than checkpoints
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on March 20, 2017, 06:30:52 pm
20/3/17

Received German SAC back today and was really pleased with my result. Good way to start the year off.

Tomorrow is my English SAC, which I'm feeling ready for! I'm hoping that my desired prompt comes up. Fingers crossed.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on March 20, 2017, 07:18:43 pm
| 20/03/2017 |

- Finished all my SACs for this term!!! Had bio poster sac due 3.30 today
- Gonna go on camp from this Wednesday to Friday!! So excited :D

- FINALLY finished writing and posting my Psych advice!! You guys can see it here ^^
- Currently finalising my Methods advice. Might post it up next week...
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TooLazy on March 20, 2017, 07:30:04 pm
Finally feel good about economics, developing good habbits not behind as much and i feel like i understand things so well
Methods is less shit. (Still kinda shit hahah) Not as far behind yet and its changing
Had evrey sac for all my subjects except for methods

My first methods sac is next term.
Feels good to have some space
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 20, 2017, 07:39:13 pm
| 20/03/2017 |

- Finished all my SACs for this term!!! Had bio poster sac due 3.30 today
- Gonna go on camp from this Wednesday to Friday!! So excited :D

- FINALLY finished writing and posting my Psych advice!! You guys can see it here ^^
- Currently finalising my Methods advice. Might post it up next week...

Hope you enjoy your camp!

Wow, you're psych advice looks great and really comprehensive from the perspective of a non-psych student. Looking forward to reading your methods advice, 44 is a great score. You've also inspired me to write my own guide for bio now haha, so that'll be fun.

What was your bio poster sac on?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on March 20, 2017, 07:54:56 pm
Hope you enjoy your camp!

Wow, you're psych advice looks great and really comprehensive from the perspective of a non-psych student. Looking forward to reading your methods advice, 44 is a great score. You've also inspired me to write my own guide for bio now haha, so that'll be fun.

What was your bio poster sac on?

Thank you!! Hahaha spent so many hours doing that, especially for the topic-specific advice.
I'd love to read your Bio post!

Well, we had to design our own experiment based on the DV of "average change in mass". So I did mine on how molecular weight affects the rate of diffusion in potato cubes, and I measured the change in mass of potato cubes before and after I submerged them in solutions containing different compounds with different molecular weights. Was a little unclear, and I feel like I should've stuck with the more conventional IVs, like temperature and pH.
Not feeling confident with it at all :(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 20, 2017, 08:04:50 pm
Thank you!! Hahaha spent so many hours doing that, especially for the topic-specific advice.
I'd love to read your Bio post!

Well, we had to design our own experiment based on the DV of "average change in mass". So I did mine on how molecular weight affects the rate of diffusion in potato cubes, and I measured the change in mass of potato cubes before and after I submerged them in solutions containing different compounds with different molecular weights. Was a little unclear, and I feel like I should've stuck with the more conventional IVs, like temperature and pH.
Not feeling confident with it at all :(

Sounds very interesting. It's always good to try something different and unconventional as it deepens your understanding of the theory, even if more effort is required.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: illuminatisky on March 20, 2017, 09:43:51 pm
| 20/03/2017 |

- Finished all my SACs for this term!!! Had bio poster sac due 3.30 today
- Gonna go on camp from this Wednesday to Friday!! So excited :D

- FINALLY finished writing and posting my Psych advice!! You guys can see it here ^^
- Currently finalising my Methods advice. Might post it up next week...
Where are you going camping to
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on March 20, 2017, 10:00:21 pm
=18th - 19th of March 2016=
-old family friend came to australia for the first time so we gave him a place to stay for a bit
-didn't do too much because i really couldn't be bothered
-stressed over english sac re-do

=20th of March 2016=
-went to the english redemption sac for frankenstein because i didn't pass. main feedback was to have more depth in the text which mainly was interpretation of the text and constantly asking 'why?' to certain aspects. felt like today's write-up was better than last time. hopefully I pass this time.
UPDATE: YES I PASSEDJ+ FIHKRSF
-started methods bound reference
-did some practice tests for permutations and combinations sac
-checked up on crystallisation and nucleation prac for chem. got some nice crystals c:
-english oral is going well. starting to write up a script.
-need to read over physics pracs before i go to bed

Today I literally had 2 periods of actual classes, since my specialist teacher was away. :)  But sadly I got told that I have to write an English essay tomorrow in a period. :'(  Luckily my teacher gave the prompt so I can prep for it.

Good luck for the english essay zhen! Prep hard and prep well.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 20, 2017, 10:27:28 pm
Good luck for the english essay zhen! Prep hard and prep well.
Thanks, I've done a plan and a draft introduction. But, overall I haven't done much since it isn't a SAC and I have a specialist SAC next Wednesday which takes priority.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thammie on March 20, 2017, 10:44:54 pm
Lord Somers Camp on the Morning Peninsula :)

can't waiiitttt!!!!!! :D

Spoiler
In Eng Lang mode now and I can't really seem to stop analyzing random things... Can anyone relate to this??:-\ .....The text above is an example of ellipsis. The contraction "can't" and the non-standard elongation of the word "wait" mimics the spoken mode. The emoji also replicates paralinguistic features.These features demonstrate and contribute to the informality of the text and show how the gap between the written and spoken mode is closing, especially in the informal register..... It's been almost two weeks since my eng lang sac and I still haven't gotten over it.... I'm also really worried about how I did because I really don't know what to expect... :( :(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on March 20, 2017, 11:22:33 pm
can't waiiitttt!!!!!! :D

Spoiler
In Eng Lang mode right now and I can't seem to stop analyzing random things... HELP!! :-\ .....The text above is an example of ellipsis. The contraction "can't" and the non-standard elongation of the word "wait" mimics the spoken mode. The emoji also replicates paralinguistic features.These features demonstrate and contribute to the informality of the text and show how the gap between the written and spoken mode is closing, especially in the informal register..... It's been almost two weeks since my eng lang sac and I still haven't gotten over it.... I'm also so worried about how I did because I really don't know what to expect... :( :(
(https://cdn.meme.am/instances/43863709.jpg)


Aww don't worry thammie, I'm sure you did better than you expected!! Nice analysis btw ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: illuminatisky on March 21, 2017, 05:49:24 pm
Lord Somers Camp on the Morning Peninsula :)
Have a good time camping :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 21, 2017, 10:13:49 pm
Did some eco feel like im doing well in it, efficent studuyig wher eim summuaring important things to prove that ive actually learnt it

Methods is weird. Its kinda good to learn the concepts but its just shit when u actually do the chapters. Gaining progress in it
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 23, 2017, 05:07:27 pm
can't waiiitttt!!!!!! :D

Spoiler
In Eng Lang mode now and I can't really seem to stop analyzing random things... Can anyone relate to this??:-\ .....The text above is an example of ellipsis. The contraction "can't" and the non-standard elongation of the word "wait" mimics the spoken mode. The emoji also replicates paralinguistic features.These features demonstrate and contribute to the informality of the text and show how the gap between the written and spoken mode is closing, especially in the informal register..... It's been almost two weeks since my eng lang sac and I still haven't gotten over it.... I'm also really worried about how I did because I really don't know what to expect... :( :(

Hahahahaha incredible. How good is EngLang, though? ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on March 23, 2017, 08:14:46 pm
Hi guys,

So my school is going on retreat next term and my share of the cohort is going to 'Casa Pallotti - Retreat Centre' - Millgrove, Victoria.
I was wondering if anyone has been there or know of what the place is like, since there wasn't much that I could gather from their website.

Many thanks in advance
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thammie on March 24, 2017, 11:50:06 pm
Hahahahaha incredible. How good is EngLang, though? ;D

Sooo good!!! It's a bit difficult at times but it's really interesting!!:D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 25, 2017, 12:25:06 pm
Finished all my sacs for the terms since 2 weeks ago
Now i pretty much have 2 more terms left of school. Crazy how quick that was. I've been going to school all my life pretty much
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on March 25, 2017, 01:13:46 pm
25/3/17

Had my English SAC this week. I was dealt two pretty dud topics, which made the SAC more challenging. To be honest, I have no clue how I went. It's one of those essays where it could be a triumph or a disaster. Hoping for the former, given that English is my favourite subject.

This week I have my Literature SAC- the last of the term. I'm feeling quite confident. Over the term I've developed some insightful interpretations.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on March 25, 2017, 01:38:01 pm
25/03/17

Woo done all my SACs! Got my Chemistry SAC result and my English Lang. Analysis SAC Result, still waiting on my creative result which I'll get around next term ( :()

I can't believe there's only two terms of school left forever!!! And that I'll be in uni soon!! :o :o
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 25, 2017, 01:42:04 pm
25/03/17

Woo done all my SACs! Got my Chemistry SAC result and my English Lang. Analysis SAC Result, still waiting on my creative result which I'll get around next term ( :()

I can't believe there's only two terms of school left forever!!! And that I'll be in uni soon!! :o :o

Nice, I've still got two SACs to go this term :/

I'm also pretty shocked as this term has gone so quickly and there is basically two terms left.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on March 25, 2017, 03:52:51 pm
Finished all my sacs for the terms since 2 weeks ago
Now i pretty much have 2 more terms left of school. Crazy how quick that was. I've been going to school all my life pretty much

Woo! Time flies by really quickly, doesn't it? It does feel really weird, it never really hit me until ny last actual school day, haha.

25/3/17

Had my English SAC this week. I was dealt two pretty dud topics, which made the SAC more challenging. To be honest, I have no clue how I went. It's one of those essays where it could be a triumph or a disaster. Hoping for the former, given that English is my favourite subject.

This week I have my Literature SAC- the last of the term. I'm feeling quite confident. Over the term I've developed some insightful interpretations.
Hopefully you did do extremely well for the English SAC! Keep us updated! ;D

Best of luck for Lit, hopefully you'll feel relieved after it is done! :D


25/03/17

Woo done all my SACs! Got my Chemistry SAC result and my English Lang. Analysis SAC Result, still waiting on my creative result which I'll get around next term ( :()

I can't believe there's only two terms of school left forever!!! And that I'll be in uni soon!! :o :o
Wooo! How did Chem and English go?! I know the feeling with waiting for SAC results- I always had to wait a month+ for them, haha.
As I said earlier, it is a scary thing! Try to make as many memories as you can- there isn't much "school-time" left! ;D

Nice, I've still got two SACs to go this term :/

I'm also pretty shocked as this term has gone so quickly and there is basically two terms left.
All the best for the SACs, you can do it! ;D

It is quite shocking, isn't it?

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 25, 2017, 06:46:53 pm
I have my specialist SAC on Wednesday and have to do my statement of intention for English creative by Friday. I'm getting my English and chemistry SACs back this week. I'm a but nervous since I know I did badly on chemistry, whilst everyone else that has been getting their SACs back have done well. However, I know I that being nervous won't change my mark and that I just need to do my best.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on March 25, 2017, 06:57:06 pm
Lol meanwhile I've only had my English SAC this term and have no more. Can't wait for them to all come at once in term 2 tho /s
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: waterangel82 on March 26, 2017, 12:19:54 pm
Done with four of my SACs!  :) :) :)

Have Bio next Wednesday  :(, but was quite happy with my result for my accounting SAC (97% :D). Still have english, chem and further maths to receive back, but the teachers said that I did quite decent in them  :).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 26, 2017, 01:51:08 pm
Yeah i remmember at the start of year 10 when i moved upto the senior campus thinking life was going quickly loool
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on March 26, 2017, 03:45:26 pm
Done with four of my SACs!  :) :) :)

Have Bio next Wednesday  :(, but was quite happy with my result for my accounting SAC (97% :D). Still have english, chem and further maths to receive back, but the teachers said that I did quite decent in them  :).

Damn, well done for accounting!! :o :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 26, 2017, 04:16:13 pm
So, I just got my Physics SAC grade via email and it is an A to A+. I don't know if it is bad or good?

But I'm done with all my SACs this term. so that's good

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 26, 2017, 09:10:41 pm
So, I just got my Physics SAC grade via email and it is an A to A+. I don't know if it is bad or good?

But I'm done with all my SACs this term. so that's good

Congratulations! That sounds like an outstanding result to me. :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: waterangel82 on March 27, 2017, 06:10:00 pm
Damn, well done for accounting!! :o :D

Thanks  :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alexicology on March 27, 2017, 06:20:59 pm

Congratulations! That sounds like an outstanding result to me. :D

Thanks Joseph41
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on March 27, 2017, 07:33:05 pm
Hey Guys,
Soo i know this isn't directly the right thread to talk about this but i don't know where else to post this because its about my life and in a way it is my journal? Anyway, so last Friday, I had this biology SAC. It was kinda hard and i honestly blanked out for a few mins. Came out of my class shaking. In my school, we have quite a few classes for bio and we had it at different times of the week and this week as well. I used my weekend to forget about everything and focus on this week's tests etc. Today, another class was going to have their SAC and a few of the year 11 boys who are doing bio are in my chem class. The thing that shocked me is the fact that they were talking about the exact same questions that were going to be in the SAC  and writing it all in their logbook. It would be accurate to say that they knew all the questions. I know that VCE is partly luck but i feel like this is unreasonable. So my question is, is it wise to just neglect what happened today and carry on with life? Or is it better to tell a teacher? Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on March 27, 2017, 08:00:13 pm
Hey Guys,
Soo i know this isn't directly the right thread to talk about this but i don't know where else to post this because its about my life and in a way it is my journal? Anyway, so last Friday, I had this biology SAC. It was kinda hard and i honestly blanked out for a few mins. Came out of my class shaking. In my school, we have quite a few classes for bio and we had it at different times of the week and this week as well. I used my weekend to forget about everything and focus on this week's tests etc. Today, another class was going to have their SAC and a few of the year 11 boys who are doing bio are in my chem class. The thing that shocked me is the fact that they were talking about the exact same questions that were going to be in the SAC  and writing it all in their logbook. It would be accurate to say that they knew all the questions. I know that VCE is partly luck but i feel like this is unreasonable. So my question is, is it wise to just neglect what happened today and carry on with life? Or is it better to tell a teacher? Thanks in advance.

Well SACs do contribute to your study score and the fact that these students knew the questions beforehand is a bloody travesty and completely unethical, not to mention how completely stupid someone was to tell them. Fortunately for me, we did our bio SACs in common time and we didn't have this issue, so I'd suggest you ask a teacher if it is possible to have SACs in common time to avoid this unscrupulous behaviour. Aside from that it's a difficult situation to resolve. It's quite ironic that they care so much about doing well in the SAC but don't realise this is putting them at a disadvantage in the exam as they won't know how to prepare for something where they don't know the questions in advance and won't know their weaknesses. To resolve the situation you could consult your parents as to what you should do as they have a lot of life experience and want the best for you. I wish you nothing but luck in destroying those bloody cheaters in bio!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 27, 2017, 08:06:09 pm
Hey Guys,
Soo i know this isn't directly the right thread to talk about this but i don't know where else to post this because its about my life and in a way it is my journal? Anyway, so last Friday, I had this biology SAC. It was kinda hard and i honestly blanked out for a few mins. Came out of my class shaking. In my school, we have quite a few classes for bio and we had it at different times of the week and this week as well. I used my weekend to forget about everything and focus on this week's tests etc. Today, another class was going to have their SAC and a few of the year 11 boys who are doing bio are in my chem class. The thing that shocked me is the fact that they were talking about the exact same questions that were going to be in the SAC  and writing it all in their logbook. It would be accurate to say that they knew all the questions. I know that VCE is partly luck but i feel like this is unreasonable. So my question is, is it wise to just neglect what happened today and carry on with life? Or is it better to tell a teacher? Thanks in advance.

If I were in your position, I'd be bringing it up with a teacher I trusted.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: waterangel82 on March 28, 2017, 11:23:58 am
Hey Guys,
Soo i know this isn't directly the right thread to talk about this but i don't know where else to post this because its about my life and in a way it is my journal? Anyway, so last Friday, I had this biology SAC. It was kinda hard and i honestly blanked out for a few mins. Came out of my class shaking. In my school, we have quite a few classes for bio and we had it at different times of the week and this week as well. I used my weekend to forget about everything and focus on this week's tests etc. Today, another class was going to have their SAC and a few of the year 11 boys who are doing bio are in my chem class. The thing that shocked me is the fact that they were talking about the exact same questions that were going to be in the SAC  and writing it all in their logbook. It would be accurate to say that they knew all the questions. I know that VCE is partly luck but i feel like this is unreasonable. So my question is, is it wise to just neglect what happened today and carry on with life? Or is it better to tell a teacher? Thanks in advance.

Well, the people who cheat might get a good SAC score, but this will get dragged down by their exam score as they probably won't do very well in their exams. Don't worry though, at my school, this happens a lot, particularly when we have assessments that are not in common time. Another thing that I realised is that a person might do really well in their SACs (rank 1) but are generally not rank 1 in their study scores, or may not even get a study score of 40+.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 28, 2017, 11:55:13 am
Hey Guys,
Soo i know this isn't directly the right thread to talk about this but i don't know where else to post this because its about my life and in a way it is my journal? Anyway, so last Friday, I had this biology SAC. It was kinda hard and i honestly blanked out for a few mins. Came out of my class shaking. In my school, we have quite a few classes for bio and we had it at different times of the week and this week as well. I used my weekend to forget about everything and focus on this week's tests etc. Today, another class was going to have their SAC and a few of the year 11 boys who are doing bio are in my chem class. The thing that shocked me is the fact that they were talking about the exact same questions that were going to be in the SAC  and writing it all in their logbook. It would be accurate to say that they knew all the questions. I know that VCE is partly luck but i feel like this is unreasonable. So my question is, is it wise to just neglect what happened today and carry on with life? Or is it better to tell a teacher? Thanks in advance.

That will affect your Biology cohort, and that's unfair. I'd bring it up with a teacher, and talk about the possibility of all the Biology classes doing their SACs at the same time after school in the future.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 28, 2017, 05:35:26 pm
Got my chemistry and English SACs back today. I'm really happy with chemistry.   ;D I got an A+ for a SAC that I thought I stuffed up (I thought my answers were different to everyone else, but turns out it just looked different because I wrote it in scientific notation. I also felt like I rushed through it, but turns out I still got a lot of them right). But I wasn't really happy with my English score.  :'( I got an A, but I really want a 45+ for English, so I know it isn't good enough. Also, I really hate that for my school, although the SACs get cross marked, my teacher who is a really harsh marker gets the last say on my SACs. Quite a few people got C+ for their SACs in my class, whilst other classes had no or a couple of people get C+. What makes it worse is that my teacher is the English coordinator, so I can't complain about it to anyone. But, I'm going to try harder for my next SAC and hope that I get that A+ next time.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 28, 2017, 05:46:55 pm
Got my chemistry and English SACs back today. I'm really happy with chemistry.   ;D I got an A+ for a SAC that I thought I stuffed up (I thought my answers were different to everyone else, but turns out it just looked different because I wrote it in scientific notation. I also felt like I rushed through it, but turns out I still got a lot of them right). But I wasn't really happy with my English score.  :'( I got an A, but I really want a 45+ for English, so I know it isn't good enough. Also, I really hate that for my school, although the SACs get cross marked, my teacher who is a really harsh marker gets the last say on my SACs. Quite a few people got C+ for their SACs in my class, whilst other classes had no or a couple of people get C+. What makes it worse is that my teacher is the English coordinator, so I can't complain about it to anyone. But, I'm going to try harder for my next SAC and hope that I get that A+ next time.

Amazing work for Chem - how good is that feeling? ;D It sucks you're a bit down about English, but hey - at least you'll be in a great position come exam time. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on March 28, 2017, 06:05:13 pm
Amazing work for Chem - how good is that feeling? ;D It sucks you're a bit down about English, but hey - at least you'll be in a great position come exam time. :)
Thanks. Chem felt amazing.  :) I was literally sitting there wondering if it was really my mark, since I walked out of the SAC thinking that I completely stuffed it up. For English, I guess having a harsh SAC marker will prep me better for exams.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 28, 2017, 10:01:30 pm
Ok so today i thought i had the mornings of turns out i didnt and the teacher gave the sacs back, so i had to see him at lunch, i got it back and got 80%. Thats incredible for me since i got 40,50 and 60s%'in year 11. He said my score was well above average. I remember asking my year 11 teacher if it was possible for me to get 80%+ in year 12, and i think she impled that thought it was not impossible it was very unlikely. I was t to comfident about the sac i felt eh, and the prompt was hard as it was ambiguous
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on March 29, 2017, 11:50:22 am
29th of March, 2017

Pretty bummed out about today -- had to make an important choce. I think I made the responsible decision.

My uni extension subject is by far my most interesting subject. However, the time commitment is a lot for the 5 extra points I'm aiming for. Additionally, there's so much online work, I have to spend a lot of extra time at libraries just to get it all done, as if I don't I let not only myself down but my group. It also takes over an hour to get here by PTV.

Anyway, I have a bunch of people to take care of (including myself), so between cooking, cleaning, making ca$h dollar bills (for important things like rent), VCE, and sometimes time for myself, I simply can't fit in this subject. Even though I thoroughly enjoy it, I decided that I should probably drop it, lest I burn out or risk other responsibilities.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 29, 2017, 09:31:55 pm
The form continues boys!!
78% in eco. I got 52% in my eco exam last year. I was so behind and crammed for that sac. I didnt even finish learning all the content. 60% was considered solid. My teacher did a thing where he called lut names such as person who got most highest and person who improved the most he called mine put for most improved and said he was really impressed with my sac
Crazy thing is, the marks i lost where for the things i was behind in. Next sac ill get over 85% even though ive been told its really tough, i know i can do it and thats what matters
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on March 30, 2017, 12:07:35 am
History even though its enjoyable is my most neglected subject. Although my teacher is pretty funny, his a crazy looking guy that looks like a scinetist that went over the top as a scientist. And like with most history teachers i assume he would go on rants. His most common rants were of Donald Trump of course
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thammie on April 02, 2017, 03:14:14 pm
Got my sacs back and it wasn't as bad as I expected... but still not amazing... but whatever haha....
Currently sitting in the Eng lang lecture by Joseph41  ;D ;D

EDIT: This was posted during the break..... ;)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on April 02, 2017, 04:11:24 pm
History even though its enjoyable is my most neglected subject. Although my teacher is pretty funny, his a crazy looking guy that looks like a scinetist that went over the top as a scientist. And like with most history teachers i assume he would go on rants. His most common rants were of Donald Trump of course
And somehow i got an 80% when i didnt bugger all......
the godd form continues
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 02, 2017, 06:52:30 pm
Got my sacs back and it wasn't as bad as I expected... but still not amazing... but whatever haha....
Currently sitting in the Eng lang lecture by Joseph41  ;D ;D

EDIT: This was posted during the break..... ;)

Yoooo wouldn't even be mad if it were during a content block hahaha. Hope you found it useful! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thammie on April 03, 2017, 01:00:16 pm
Yoooo wouldn't even be mad if it were during a content block hahaha. Hope you found it useful! :)

Yesss, it was awesome and really helpful!!! I have a better idea on what I need to work on now like IPA and metalanguage.... I'll probably be posting a  lot more in the forums now haha!!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 03, 2017, 01:07:58 pm
Yesss, it was awesome and really helpful!!! I have a better idea on what I need to work on now like IPA and metalanguage.... I'll probably be posting a  lot more in the forums now haha!!

Hey, that's great! I'm very much looking forward to your posts. ;)

Pls PM me with feedback if you actually despised the lecture hahaha.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 09, 2017, 12:15:29 pm
How are you all finding the holidays? ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on April 09, 2017, 01:35:49 pm
How are you all finding the holidays? ;D
I actually like it we have more free time which is something that i appreciate more so now i have more time for sports
Evreything is chilled and relax so long as im studuying evreyday for like 2 hours out of my usually 10 hours of free time
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 09, 2017, 05:05:21 pm
How are you all finding the holidays? ;D
I love that I can procrastinate and relax for more than 6 hours a day and still get heaps of work done. I feel like I'm being so much more productive than during school time, since at school I listen to the teacher and nothing goes in, which is because most of my teachers over complicate things or teach too fast.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on April 12, 2017, 08:31:34 pm
| 12/04/2017 |

- Ugh finally finished with my Methods guide. Was more exhausting than Psych....
- School starting in less than a week now....at least we only have Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday because of parent-teacher interviews  ;D
- Last week my grandparents came! It was really nice to have both of them over after so long (the last time I've seen my grandpa was when I was 9)
- Still have holiday homework to complete lol
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on April 12, 2017, 08:34:50 pm
| 12/04/2017 |

- Ugh finally finished with my Methods guide. Was more exhausting than Psych....
- School starting in less than a week now....at least we only have Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday because of parent-teacher interviews  ;D
- Last week my grandparents came! It was really nice to have both of them over after so long (the last time I've seen my grandpa was when I was 9)
- Still have holiday homework to complete lol

That guide is amazing! Thanks so much for doing it! <3
The holidays fly by so quickly, but I'm super glad you have a shortened week next week! ;D
Hope the holiday homework gets finished before Tues! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on April 14, 2017, 01:21:44 pm
That guide is amazing! Thanks so much for doing it! <3
The holidays fly by so quickly, but I'm super glad you have a shortened week next week! ;D
Hope the holiday homework gets finished before Tues! :)

I agree with insanipi, cookiedream's method guide was fantastic! Very much appreciated!
And yes, hoping the bit of holiday homework gets done before Tuesday :)

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on April 14, 2017, 01:26:51 pm
14/4/17

The holidays have gone extremely quickly. I have been happy with the amount of work that I have completed. Feeling ready to tackle term 2.

At this stage of the year, it's difficult to say how I'm going, given that I only have the result of one SAC. However, I'm not feeling too overwhelmed or stressed, which is absurd for me.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on April 14, 2017, 02:32:38 pm
Time to start holiday hw woops :) cramming is my forte
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 16, 2017, 01:04:48 pm
It's been a while since I posted anything for my journal. Holidays went by so fast and school is going to start soon. On Tuesday I'm going to have my English creative oral SAC, which I'm not very confident about (I'm not very good at orals), so I have to start cramming for that. I'm also probably going to get my specialist SAC back on Tuesday, which I thought I did average on, so I'm not sure what to expect. Overall holidays have been a good mix of relaxation and studying, so it's been pretty enjoyable.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 16, 2017, 01:08:58 pm
It's been a while since I posted anything for my journal. Holidays went by so fast and school is going to start soon. On Tuesday I'm going to have my English creative oral SAC, which I'm not very confident about (I'm not very good at orals), so I have to start cramming for that. I'm also probably going to get my specialist SAC back on Tuesday, which I thought I did average on, so I'm not sure what to expect. Overall holidays have been a good mix of relaxation and studying, so it's been pretty enjoyable.

Is Tuesday your first day back? Pretty harsh having a SAC straight up!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 16, 2017, 01:35:49 pm
Is Tuesday your first day back? Pretty harsh having a SAC straight up!
Yea, Tuesday is my first day back. I think we're having SACs the first day back, since we miss 2 days because of athletics and 1 or 2 days because of parent teacher interviews and we miss a couple more days because of other stuff. So, we really need to start hammering through SACs and coursework now or we will fall behind.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: dani.eric on April 18, 2017, 01:20:58 pm


After recieving 90%'s all throughout term 1 i was devastated with my performance on the maths SAC because I just did not have enough time to get a thorough understanding of SO much content (six chapters of a 13 chapter text book had to be learned in six weeks!). I got 53%, the lowest mark i have ever recieved on anything. What can i do to recover? Can I still save my maths mark?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 18, 2017, 04:56:52 pm

After recieving 90%'s all throughout term 1 i was devastated with my performance on the maths SAC because I just did not have enough time to get a thorough understanding of SO much content (six chapters of a 13 chapter text book had to be learned in six weeks!). I got 53%, the lowest mark i have ever recieved on anything. What can i do to recover? Can I still save my maths mark?


Hey, dani.eric!

Sorry to hear you were disappointed with your result.

I think receiving 90%s all throughout Term 1 indicates that you truly do have the capabilities to do well - and you should take this result with a grain of salt. Like, I know that it's super disappointing, and probably nothing I say right now will change the fact that it's disappointing, but that's okay. From my understanding (happy to be corrected here - only did Further), all maths subjects are weighted toward the exams. And even within the SAC component, you can't really read too much into it, because SAC results will be moderated by VCAA etc.

Can you "save" your maths mark? Yeah, absolutely. There's really nothing stopping you aside from your future performances, and they're primarily in your own hands. :) So that should be comforting.

What I would advise from this point on, though, is to work out why you lost those marks in the first place. You said you didn't really have time to prepare, which is fair enough - six chapters in six weeks is brutal. But do you think you could have done anything differently? Did you lose marks on silly mistakes?

Don't lose hope, because this story has been told so many times before. Disappointed with a SAC mark early in the year? Cool - students in your shoes in years gone by have gone on to achieve a 50. This is for English, but this article may be of interest.

All the best! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 21, 2017, 09:47:16 pm
Right now it feels too calm and relaxed. It's probably because I have only have two days of actual school this week and the same for next week. But I know that in probably 3 to 4 weeks SACs will start rolling in and also around June my school has a SAC week where basically instead of mid year exams, we just get SACs for every subject, which is basically the entire week. Also, I'm waiting to get my specialist result back, which I expect to get back soon.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on April 21, 2017, 10:02:33 pm
I actually dont feel stressed etc.
I feel my school is really relaxed and doesnt make me streesed. Apart frommaube  only one teacher who really pushes us but thats good
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 21, 2017, 10:05:39 pm
I actually dont feel stressed etc.
I feel my school is really relaxed and doesnt make me streesed. Apart frommaube  only one teacher who really pushes us but thats good

How are you finding the workload compared to previous years?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on April 21, 2017, 10:13:03 pm
How are you finding the workload compared to previous years?
Its obviously much heavier. And you have to be really self disciplined and motivated so trying to study evreyday consistently  for most parts is quite tough
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on April 22, 2017, 01:07:19 am
Transition from year 11 to 12 is 10000x easier than 10 to 11.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Max Kawasakii on April 22, 2017, 08:30:16 am
As I've matured, I have realized the difference in public and private school education on a VCE level. Once upon a time I was under the impression that I could get the same education from a government school in comparison to a private school. However in my final years the truth has been made clear;

Public school sector will give you the information and utensils you need in order to succeed but it is very much so a self driven journey. I have found that my teachers have a great understanding of the course but will only deliver the bare minimum. I'm also under the impression that Public school classes are marginally bigger than private school classes. Extra information, but the HS I am currently residing at is actually classed as a rural disadvantageous public school.

So in all honesty this has me super stressed going through VCE, I really want to do well but often find my self feeling like there isn't enough hours in the day for me to do say. This brings on a range of implications;

1. I find myself being late to school often, take this scenario as an explanation. I get home from school around 7:30pm (Commute), eat dinner and do my thing then study for the rest of the evening until I have everything done. I might finish at 11:30, from there I will set an alarm for 8 hours later (I believe getting the right amount of sleep is a key to success), now sometime this alarm goes off at 7:30 and I can get to school on time, other times it might be going off at 8:50. In that case I will be getting to school halfway through period 1. Luckily for me the teachers don't really bat an eye lid at my lateness, partially because I'm always up to date or ahead, I believe it's because I share good relationships with them though.

2. I find my self waking up on 7:30 on weekend and seriously doing 6 hours of pen to paper studying at least, sometime more.. I find that I'm often cancelling social events, don't go to any parties etc etc. At least the weekend offers me this feeling of actually having enough hours in my day to do what I want.

Most of this is self induced stress, but I have high aspirations in regards to my study scores, simply things like wanting to finish the Methods and spesh course before the end of the term.

TLDR: VCE has me stressed to say the very least, it has me disappointed with the quality of teacher at government funded schools, and in the essence mildly isolated from the rest of my friends.

So what were your immediate thoughts to my comment?

*Disclaimer, I know some Public schools have great teaches, and good for you I'm totally happy, but it's not the case on my end.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Max Kawasakii on April 22, 2017, 08:31:16 am
Transition from year 11 to 12 is 10000x easier than 10 to 11.

I would totally agree, Year 10 was a super fun year in my case, but then in year 11 I got hit with Chemistry and Further 3/4, needless to say it was quite a jump.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on April 22, 2017, 09:50:51 am
22/4/17

First week back was good (although I have a terrible cold this weekend and can't really function  :'( ). I received results to my Literature SAC and was very relieved. Results for English should be coming back soon.

I have a German SAC coming up this week. I've prepared quite a bit for it, but am still feeling apprehensive.

Methods SAC is coming up in about 6-7 weeks. Hoping to finish last few exercises in the next week, so that I have lots of time to prepare and do exam questions. Methods is my weakest subject, so need to put in maximal effort.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 22, 2017, 06:00:54 pm
As I've matured, I have realized the difference in public and private school education on a VCE level. Once upon a time I was under the impression that I could get the same education from a government school in comparison to a private school. However in my final years the truth has been made clear;

Public school sector will give you the information and utensils you need in order to succeed but it is very much so a self driven journey. I have found that my teachers have a great understanding of the course but will only deliver the bare minimum. I'm also under the impression that Public school classes are marginally bigger than private school classes. Extra information, but the HS I am currently residing at is actually classed as a rural disadvantageous public school.

I feel like these problems are also evident in most schools, even private schools. For me at Melbourne High, where people expect to have good teachers, there are some good teachers, but there are also numerous teachers that can't teach to save their lives and some completely neglect their students. For example one of my teachers sometimes just randomly leaves the room for 30 minutes, leaving us with no teacher for majority of the period. Some teachers at my school try to teach, but they just end up confusing students, because they know too much (some have their doctorates), they can't be bothered teaching correctly or they try teaching way too fast (2 chapters in 2 periods). I know multiple teachers at my school that just let their students do whatever they want and don't teach at all. So, I feel like for every school you have your fare share of good and bad teachers. Maybe my experience with bad teachers is because my school is also technically public school, but I think that in most schools, VCE is a self driven journey, or at least that's what my experience of it feels like. Also, I'm pretty sure that if your school is a rural disadvantaged high school, then universities lower the cutoff significantly for their courses, which is the plus side to being in a worse school (this is what I've heard, but it might be wrong. Someone should correct me if I'm wrong).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on April 22, 2017, 06:22:41 pm
I feel like these problems are also evident in most schools, even private schools. For me at Melbourne High, where people expect to have good teachers, there are some good teachers, but there are also numerous teachers that can't teach to save their lives and some completely neglect their students. For example one of my teachers sometimes just randomly leaves the room for 30 minutes, leaving us with no teacher for majority of the period. Some teachers at my school try to teach, but they just end up confusing students, because they know too much (some have their doctorates), they can't be bothered teaching correctly or they try teaching way too fast (2 chapters in 2 periods). I know multiple teachers at my school that just let their students do whatever they want and don't teach at all. So, I feel like for every school you have your fare share of good and bad teachers. Maybe my experience with bad teachers is because my school is also technically public school, but I think that in most schools, VCE is a self driven journey, or at least that's what my experience of it feels like. Also, I'm pretty sure that if your school is a rural disadvantaged high school, then universities lower the cutoff significantly for their courses, which is the plus side to being in a worse school (this is what I've heard, but it might be wrong. Someone should correct me if I'm wrong).

Yes, in my opinion the only innate advantages to private/select entry schools is the environment and competition. There is prominent culture of work and even below average students will put some effort into doing well at school, and in each year level there will always be a few people who will get high 99s so you know how much effort and the kind of marks you need to get a high ATAR. I don't think there is a large difference in teaching quality, and the ridiculous amount of money spent by private schools on constantly updating the facilities has zero effect on your academic success. In the end, VCE is very much self driven and there is nothing stopping anyone who goes to a public school from getting a 99.95. In fact, I think private schools aren't going to survive much longer since more and more people are preferring to spend money on getting tutors (who you know are good) than a private education (where teaching quality is a mixed bag).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Aaron on April 22, 2017, 06:29:32 pm
Quote from: zhen
So, I feel like for every school you have your fare share of good and bad teachers.

This. I've done a fair few placements now in both the public and private systems (for context: I am about a month out from completing a Master of Teaching). The biggest difference that you will find is the allocation of funding/resourcing between both systems. Why do you think it is the case that there are smaller class sizes in private schools as opposed to public schools? Why do you think it is the case that teachers aren't "confident" in their subject areas? Lack of funding to a) make the small classes happen, and b) unqualified teachers having to fill gaps due to lack of skilled teachers in subject areas such as maths and science.You may think trying to teach even 20 students is easy, but I can say from personal experience.. it is not easy. I can't imagine how teachers who teach 25+ handle it... then add on the fact that teachers may be teaching outside of their specialisation too (it happens, just doesn't get disclosed).

Given that government public school funding is based on student enrolments (as a base), a small public school for example would find it extremely difficult to employ high quality teachers AND try to keep class sizes down AND offer high quality programs.

Quote from: Quantum44
In the end, VCE is very much self driven and there is nothing stopping anyone who goes to a public school from getting a 99.95.
Agree.


tl;dr = both systems have good and bad teachers, resourcing makes the difference.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on April 22, 2017, 11:08:54 pm
As I've matured, I have realized the difference in public and private school education on a VCE level. Once upon a time I was under the impression that I could get the same education from a government school in comparison to a private school. However in my final years the truth has been made clear;

Public school sector will give you the information and utensils you need in order to succeed but it is very much so a self driven journey. I have found that my teachers have a great understanding of the course but will only deliver the bare minimum. I'm also under the impression that Public school classes are marginally bigger than private school classes. Extra information, but the HS I am currently residing at is actually classed as a rural disadvantageous public school.

So in all honesty this has me super stressed going through VCE, I really want to do well but often find my self feeling like there isn't enough hours in the day for me to do say. This brings on a range of implications;

1. I find myself being late to school often, take this scenario as an explanation. I get home from school around 7:30pm (Commute), eat dinner and do my thing then study for the rest of the evening until I have everything done. I might finish at 11:30, from there I will set an alarm for 8 hours later (I believe getting the right amount of sleep is a key to success), now sometime this alarm goes off at 7:30 and I can get to school on time, other times it might be going off at 8:50. In that case I will be getting to school halfway through period 1. Luckily for me the teachers don't really bat an eye lid at my lateness, partially because I'm always up to date or ahead, I believe it's because I share good relationships with them though.

2. I find my self waking up on 7:30 on weekend and seriously doing 6 hours of pen to paper studying at least, sometime more.. I find that I'm often cancelling social events, don't go to any parties etc etc. At least the weekend offers me this feeling of actually having enough hours in my day to do what I want.

Most of this is self induced stress, but I have high aspirations in regards to my study scores, simply things like wanting to finish the Methods and spesh course before the end of the term.

TLDR: VCE has me stressed to say the very least, it has me disappointed with the quality of teacher at government funded schools, and in the essence mildly isolated from the rest of my friends.

So what were your immediate thoughts to my comment?

*Disclaimer, I know some Public schools have great teaches, and good for you I'm totally happy, but it's not the case on my end.
Hey max, i understand where your coming from and understand how you feel. If it helps there are many people who are as stressed as you. Because u arrive home at 7:30 via public transport you should take advantage of this. My friend lives hours away from school and would just read for the whole trip. Thats something you can do. Or if you do theory based subjects like physics, eco, history you could read about thoose subjects. It's very important you understand balance. You cant study to much, you must have breaks say for 5 min or so evrey 30min etc. if you stufy to much constantly without breaks and for hours on end your brain will really feel streesed and its ability to retain information really struggles. Try going to bed at 9 and doing hw while on transport. I find reading about history topics on the train really useful. You can better manage your time with a timetable. There are plenty of good guides on this in the forum
Would u switch schools btw?
For me i go to a public school and feel lucky i go to the school i go to. The teacher's are great, caring and are willing to spemd their lunch times and spare time just to help you. However the only high school located in this rich area so i understand your point. Rather than feel sad about being 'disadvantaged' use it to help you. Use the feelings of anger or whatever it is to you think u have to work hard just so u can compete with the other schools who students have it easier. Many successful people made it based on the motivation of not having it easy
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Max Kawasakii on April 22, 2017, 11:42:22 pm
Hey max, i understand where your coming from and understand how you feel. If it helps there are many people who are as stressed as you. Because u arrive home at 7:30 via public transport you should take advantage of this. My friend lives hours away from school and would just read for the whole trip. Thats something you can do. Or if you do theory based subjects like physics, eco, history you could read about thoose subjects. It's very important you understand balance. You cant study to much, you must have breaks say for 5 min or so evrey 30min etc. if you stufy to much constantly without breaks and for hours on end your brain will really feel streesed and its ability to retain information really struggles. Try going to bed at 9 and doing hw while on transport. I find reading about history topics on the train really useful. You can better manage your time with a timetable. There are plenty of good guides on this in the forum
Would u switch schools btw?
For me i go to a public school and feel lucky i go to the school i go to. The teacher's are great, caring and are willing to spemd their lunch times and spare time just to help you. However the only high school located in this rich area so i understand your point. Rather than feel sad about being 'disadvantaged' use it to help you. Use the feelings of anger or whatever it is to you think u have to work hard just so u can compete with the other schools who students have it easier. Many successful people made it based on the motivation of not having it easy

That's why I love these forums, one person's insight becomes another man's wisdom. Other can just widen your perspective on so varies subjects/topics it amazes me.

 I study Methods/Spesh/Eng/JapSL so you are right, I guess I could be doing Japanese reading and analyzing on the bus, that's a great idea! (Normally I just sleep, or read unrelated school books.)

Luckily for me I have read through innumerable forums to gather insight as to what is a 'good study reigeme', and currently the one I attempt to stick to works really well. So although time consuming, my study timetable is very generous for breaks etc.

A famous name on ATAR notes, pi, once said (jokingly might I add), study today for an easier tomorrow, that for some reason stuck, so I always make sure I'm up to date by tomorrow. But I do need to learn to balance things better you are correct.

I wouldn't consider swapping school, I have to pay for my own tuition, and wouldn't be able to afford the private sector. This however has like you said, motivated to do more and study harder.

Apprrcaite your reply, insightful and I will be taking a couple things away from it, thank you.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on April 27, 2017, 07:25:16 pm
27/4/2017
Ok, today I got back an absolutely horrendous chemistry test score.  :'( After doing pretty well in my first chemistry SAC I felt horrible seeing my score. I think I deserved it since I prioritised my specialist SAC a couple of days before it and studied intensely for specialist, but neglected my chemistry test since it wasn't a SAC. I felt that I shouldn't have slacked off in the last couple of days of last term (the test was on the last day of last term) and I should have studied a lot more for it. I guess over the weekend I'm going to have to do heaps of study for all of my subjects to redeem myself for this score.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on April 27, 2017, 08:26:29 pm
27/4/2017
Ok, today I got back an absolutely horrendous chemistry test score.  :'( After doing pretty well in my first chemistry SAC I felt horrible seeing my score. I think I deserved it since I prioritised my specialist SAC a couple of days before it and studied intensely for specialist, but neglected my chemistry test since it wasn't a SAC. I felt that I shouldn't have slacked off in the last couple of days of last term (the test was on the last day of last term) and I should have studied a lot more for it. I guess over the weekend I'm going to have to do heaps of study for all of my subjects to redeem myself for this score.

Well I think it's fair enough prioritising a SAC over a test, particularly since spesh is more difficult than chemistry, and clearly you are still going fine in chemistry as you did well in your first SAC which is the one that counts :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on April 28, 2017, 05:49:39 pm
| 28.04.2017 |

- Spesh SAC is O V E R. It was four hours in total (i know, 4 hours of Spesh how am I still alive) where our school divided it up to two hours Wednesday afterschool, one hour Thursday and one hour today. Wednesday's part was mainly vectors and a bit of complex numbers, and personally I found it really hard. So when I heard that quite a lot of people found it easy I thought h o w ? Thursday's part was mainly complex numbers but with a little trig at the end. I thought it was quite easy. When I came home and I thought about my answers, I realised that for one of the questions I multiplied something by zero and I didn't put it as 0. I thought the zero was a one. [insert facepalm emoji]. But oh god, today's part was all trig and it was the WORST

- Not gonna study today to celebrate that my first Spesh SAC is over and I'm still alive. But at the same time I have my Eng Lang sac next Wednesday after school. Now I'm going through this mental conflict. Should I study or watch youtube? Study or youtube? Study or youtube? Study or youtube? ....

- Sometimes I just casually look at the pile of textbooks and study notes on my shelf and I think
"Hmm yes there is much to do, and I know that whenever I study hard I do well, but I dunno...another youtube video then I'll definitely study"
and the next hour I'm like "After dinner I'll study"
then "I'll study before bedtime so that my brain can absorb and process it while I sleep"
then "Nah I'll study in the early morning".
And then I wake up in the morning from my alarm and I think "Nah, I shouldn't stress myself out from studying in the early morning."
And the cycle repeats

- Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who left me really nice comments on my guides and sent me kind messages over PM. You guys are all so awesome! Really, I'm so glad that I get to be a part of such a friendly and supportive community ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on April 28, 2017, 06:08:19 pm
- Sometimes I just casually look at the pile of textbooks and study notes on my shelf and I think
"Hmm yes there is much to do, and I know that whenever I study hard I do well, but I dunna another youtube video then I'll definitely study"
and the next hour I'm like "After dinner I'll study"
then "I'll study before bedtime so that my brain can absorb and process it while I sleep"
then "Nah I'll study in the early morning".
And then I wake up in the morning from my alarm and I think "Nah, I shouldn't stress myself out from studying in the early morning."
And the cycle repeats
Can I jus say i feel ya. . . .  in those sentences, i actually thought you were describing me hahahaha. Good luck for your SAC results and your upcoming SACs. I rlly hope you smash them :)
ok so its been a while since i last posted on this thread so here i go:
28/04/17
- my parents have been sick for the last week so I'm feeling super stressed about everything.
- helping them with making food, medicine & everything
- my home doesn't feel like home. . . i miss the laughter and all of us jus having amazing convos on the dinner table
- my test marks have been going pretty ok so far but I know I have to improve
- i have 3 SACs next week so i rlly have to prepare but i honestly can't be bothered, idek why
- i've never written an essay with a surprise topic so i'm going to make sure i finish at least 2 drafts under timed conditions before next wed
- hmm i'm actually liking maths nowadays which is pretty surprising considering i can't do math at all.
- it's my friend's bday on the 9th so i need to find a good present (what do boys even like. . . . .???)
- going to prepare a nice cheat sheet for one of my SACs today. . . . if i feel like doing work :/
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: j.wang on April 28, 2017, 08:43:35 pm
| 28.04.2017 |

- Sometimes I just casually look at the pile of textbooks and study notes on my shelf and I think
"Hmm yes there is much to do, and I know that whenever I study hard I do well, but I dunna another youtube video then I'll definitely study"
and the next hour I'm like "After dinner I'll study"
then "I'll study before bedtime so that my brain can absorb and process it while I sleep"
then "Nah I'll study in the early morning".
And then I wake up in the morning from my alarm and I think "Nah, I shouldn't stress myself out from studying in the early morning."
And the cycle repeats


how does a stranger know me so well  :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 09, 2017, 04:31:50 pm
Today I received my first specialist SAC and I was not happy with my result.  :'( My score was above average for my cohort, but I know I could have done better and that I will need to do better to get 40+ in specialist. Before my next SAC, I plan to do heaps of practice questions under timed conditions to prep me better, since I feel like the main problem that I faced was that I made numerous stupid mistakes because I was rushed.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on May 09, 2017, 07:01:39 pm
9/5/17

At the moment, I am in the middle of a week long Lit SAC. It's going quite well. To my surprise, I've really enjoyed the creative unit. Tomorrow I have an English SAC based on Argument Analysis. I'm feeling a bit stressed about it. Hoping it will be okay and I'll be able to draw out some insightful analysis  :P

Received a German SAC back that I wasn't entirely thrilled with. I kind of knew that the result of this SAC would be less than pleasant at the start of the year, though (given it is on an area that is my weakest). Hopefully it won't affect my overall score too much.

Also been prepping for the upcoming Method SACs in June. Should be a fun time......... ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: geminii on May 09, 2017, 10:44:11 pm
9/5/2017

I've had two out of four lessons of my first specialist 3/4 SAC - it's pretty difficult and I have to do some study before the third lesson on Friday!

I've also had three out of four lessons of my first methods 3/4 SAC. Is it weird to say I've had a lot of fun doing it?? I guess it's good though! My last lesson on it is tomorrow morning, period 1!! ;D

Next week is my second chemistry 3/4 SAC which goes for two weeks. I'm hoping to get better than I did on my last SAC since I'm aiming for 40+.

Now I'm going to go back to studying for methods tomorrow haha :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on May 16, 2017, 08:55:08 am
How are you all going? ;D

Any SACs coming up?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on May 16, 2017, 10:48:46 am
16/5/17

This week is pretty chilled. I don't have any SACs for 2 and a 1/2 weeks, which I'm verrry happy about!  :D

Finished an English SAC last week, which I wasn't pleased about. I need to work on my time management skills to ensure that my writing is of quality worth. But I've spoken to my teacher about it, so all is good.

Lit SAC also finished last week, which went really well! We're now moving onto Literary Perspectives, which should be quite interesting (especially since it's new to the SD). I need to be doing bits of CPA more frequently, though. I haven't been doing much of this.

Methods SACs are coming up! I've been doing lots of checkpoint questions and making sure that I understand ALL of my mistakes (this can be very tiring). Just keep reminding myself that I'll never have to do Maths again after this year........

With German, I'm ensuring that I read a lot more and am doing new activities to expand my vocab. If I can work on my vocab extensively until October, all should be okay!!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alter on May 16, 2017, 12:17:48 pm
Methods SACs are coming up! I've been doing lots of checkpoint questions and making sure that I understand ALL of my mistakes (this can be very tiring). Just keep reminding myself that I'll never have to do Maths again after this year........
This was perhaps the only thing that drove me through year 12 methods... until I realised I still needed more maths at uni anyway.

Quote
With German, I'm ensuring that I read a lot more and am doing new activities to expand my vocab. If I can work on my vocab extensively until October, all should be okay!!
Keep up the good work for German! It'll be so worth it in the long run. During this time of year you really want to be constantly writing essays for your teacher to mark, even if they're just 200 words long. I'd try to incorporate at least 5 new words every time a wrote a weekly piece for my teacher.

Also, hot tip: watch German news stories once a week as well - 15 minutes of listening is all it takes and it's super easy. Listening is definitely the hardest skill to cram, and it's one of the German skills that's hardest to develop without actually living in a German-speaking country.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on May 16, 2017, 01:33:59 pm
During this time of year you really want to be constantly writing essays for your teacher to mark, even if they're just 200 words long. I'd try to incorporate at least 5 new words every time a wrote a weekly piece for my teacher.

Also, hot tip: watch German news stories once a week as well - 15 minutes of listening is all it takes and it's super easy. Listening is definitely the hardest skill to cram, and it's one of the German skills that's hardest to develop without actually living in a German-speaking country.

Thanks for the advice, Alter! Should I be timing myself when writing these essays? Also, when did you begin your detailed study? My teacher hasn't started yet and I'm a bit worried about leaving it too late.

100%. Listening. Is. So. Hard. 
Yes, I will try and incorporate more podcasts and news stories into my week. Vocabulary is definitely the killer with this one!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Alter on May 16, 2017, 10:34:05 pm
Thanks for the advice, Alter! Should I be timing myself when writing these essays? Also, when did you begin your detailed study? My teacher hasn't started yet and I'm a bit worried about leaving it too late.
Timing probably isn't that important imo (unless you're horribly slow at writing). It's better to work on fluency and minimising mistakes, and then worry about timing later.

I think I started choosing my topic/resources at the end of June, and then I assume I did writing for it in late July and onwards. If you wanna go ahead and do stuff (which is pretty hard... I'm sure you're super busy), I'd just talk to your teacher because your school might do a particular topic. If you're doing das Leben in der ehemaligen DDR, let me know!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 07:42:43 am
How are you all going? ;D

Any SACs coming up?

My methods apps task SAC is finally finishing today although I'm a bit nervous since this part is worth 10% of the SS. Also midway through the spesh apps task SAC but thankfully after that there won't be anymore SACs after this one until SAC week, so it should be a good time to catch up on work.

Also finished unit 3 for chem on Monday and pumped to start organic chem.

English and Latin are pretty chill at the moment although I've got the creative and language analysis SACs in a few weeks so things are gonna heat up then.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on May 17, 2017, 08:27:01 am
SAC week

SAC week?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: heids on May 17, 2017, 09:39:59 am
SAC week?
SAC week???
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 04:42:27 pm
SAC week?
SAC week???

My school has a week inbetween semester 1 and semester 2 where we have something like an exam period but for SACs so there are no classes and you don't have to come to school unless you have a SAC (and most subjects have a SAC that week). Although for me it seems kind of useless since I only have two SACs in the week (both for English) but it's nice to get a mini-break to seperate the longest term of the year.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 17, 2017, 04:48:08 pm
My school has a SAC week too.  :'(  It's the week the GAT takes place. Apparently SAC week takes place for me because the year 9, 10 and 11 students are having exams and they can't just have classes continue during exam period (that's what someone said, but I'm not too sure of it). Anyway, today I had a methods SAC and I think it's probably the worst SAC I've had.  :'( The SAC in my opinion was more difficult than the specialist SAC I did last term. Right now I'm just praying that I do well in the rest of my methods SACs (even though I'm not religious).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 06:04:57 pm
My school has a SAC week too.  :'(  It's the week the GAT takes place. Apparently SAC week takes place for me because the year 9, 10 and 11 students are having exams and they can't just have classes continue during exam period (that's what someone said, but I'm not too sure of it). Anyway, today I had a methods SAC and I think it's probably the worst SAC I've had.  :'( The SAC in my opinion was more difficult than the specialist SAC I did last term. Right now I'm just praying that I do well in the rest of my methods SACs (even though I'm not religious).

What topics was your methods SAC on? Must've been brutal to be harder than spesh  :o
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 17, 2017, 06:27:30 pm
What topics was your methods SAC on? Must've been brutal to be harder than spesh  :o
It was on related rates, since this is the application SAC. The specialist SAC I was referring wasn't particularly hard, since it was just about managing time, getting our heads around a few difficult questions and not making stupid mistakes. But, the methods SAC was only 4 questions and if I remember correctly only one of the questions had multiple parts. So, basically all four questions were difficult (especially the last question), since there was very little time pressure and it was all about doing difficult questions.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on May 17, 2017, 06:29:13 pm
My school has a week inbetween semester 1 and semester 2 where we have something like an exam period but for SACs so there are no classes and you don't have to come to school unless you have a SAC (and most subjects have a SAC that week). Although for me it seems kind of useless since I only have two SACs in the week (both for English) but it's nice to get a mini-break to seperate the longest term of the year.

Interesting! Is it designed to prepare you for the actual exam period? :-\
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 06:35:57 pm
It was on related rates, since this is the application SAC. The specialist SAC I was referring wasn't particularly hard, since it was just about managing time, getting our heads around a few difficult questions and not making stupid mistakes. But, the methods SAC was only 4 questions and if I remember correctly only one of the questions had multiple parts. So, basically all four questions were difficult (especially the last question), since there was very little time pressure and it was all about doing difficult questions.

But wouldn't having it on related rates give spesh students an unfair advantage since it is part of the spesh course?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 17, 2017, 06:54:10 pm
But wouldn't having it on related rates give spesh students an unfair advantage since it is part of the spesh course?
Yea, the specialist students definitely had an unfair advantage, but even they struggled with that SAC (out of the people I asked). But, I'm guessing the methods students had an even worse time. I honestly think that my school should have just done a SAC with hard application questions for stuff inside the course.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: deStudent on May 17, 2017, 07:20:40 pm
I have the first part of my spesh SAC tomorrow - shitting bricks.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 07:30:42 pm
I have the first part of my spesh SAC tomorrow - shitting bricks.

I have the second part of my spesh SAC tomorrow and I'm feeling much the same way

Yea, the specialist students definitely had an unfair advantage, but even they struggled with that SAC (out of the people I asked). But, I'm guessing the methods students had an even worse time. I honestly think that my school should have just done a SAC with hard application questions for stuff inside the course.

Yeah but I guess VCAA made it that you can't have an application that's on the course since we did mean value theorem for methods and logistic equation for spesh (conveniently both are on khan academy). It sounds like you shouldn't worry too much as VCAA ain't gonna care if the best mark was 40%

Interesting! Is it designed to prepare you for the actual exam period? :-\

I think it's more of a relic from the old days when some subjects had individual exams for Unit 3 and Unit 4 so they had to have a mid-year exam period.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 17, 2017, 07:43:44 pm
Yeah but I guess VCAA made it that you can't have an application that's on the course since we did mean value theorem for methods and logistic equation for spesh (conveniently both are on khan academy). It sounds like you shouldn't worry too much as VCAA ain't gonna care if the best mark was 40%
I know that it's all about ranking, but going out of a SAC and thinking I completely flunked it isn't a good feeling. I don't think the SAC was so difficult that the best mark was 40%, since there's always some genius at my school who gets 95%+ no matter how difficult the SAC is. But saying this, I wouldn't be suprised if the average was around 50% or lower.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 17, 2017, 08:18:53 pm
I know that it's all about ranking, but going out of a SAC and thinking I completely flunked it isn't a good feeling. I don't think the SAC was so difficult that the best mark was 40%, since there's always some genius at my school who gets 95%+ no matter how difficult the SAC is. But saying this, I wouldn't be suprised if the average was around 50% or lower.

Well the way I see it, it's better to have harder SACs and then go into the exam and find it piss easy. And since MHS is the best school at maths in the state, its safe to say your SACs will be bumped up substantially. It's not nice to feel like you did badly but I think you'll find you did better than you expected :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on May 18, 2017, 09:36:01 pm
I feel comfident in evrey subject except methods
Its so shit and i feel awful when im in class cause i suck at it
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 18, 2017, 09:42:46 pm
I feel comfident in evrey subject except methods
Its so shit and i feel awful when im in class cause i suck at it

Well it's easy to change that. Maths is a fairly predictable subject where the amount of work you do can greatly improve your performance. If you are willing to work hard, do plenty of textbook questions, and do lots of practice exams at the end of the year, you will be pleasantly surprised by your result.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: cookiedream on May 19, 2017, 04:55:59 pm
Well it's easy to change that. Maths is a fairly predictable subject where the amount of work you do can greatly improve your performance. If you are willing to work hard, do plenty of textbook questions, and do lots of practice exams at the end of the year, you will be pleasantly surprised by your result.
Exactly right. Building a strong foundation is essential for methods, as well as developing your application skills, and pretty much the only way you can do this is by doing at least more questions than what's for homework. Definitely try to do all the chapter review questions and completing all the exercises under the review chapters (especially the one with only extended response questions) because you never know what will come up on the exam (especially after last year's exam hahaha....ha...) and you'll be more prepared than most of the state.

Don't exactly agree with doing lots of practice exams though. I know quite a few people who did a lot more practice exams than me (they did around 30-60 in total), including timed, but got a study score less than what they were capable of (were still decent though). What matters the most is that out of the exams you do manage to complete in full, do as many in timed conditions. I can't stress that enough.

A decent amount of practice exams would be at least 20, but it is more essential that you learnt from all the mistakes you made in these practice exams.

Also, just because you think you suck at it doesn't mean that you can't improve. I got 74% on my first methods 1/2 test and around 73% in one of the parts of my first methods SAC (which was worth my entire unit 3 sac mark :'(). What's important is that you reflect on where you went wrong and, building on this, you aim and strive to do better in your next sacs and ultimately the final exam ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: exit on May 19, 2017, 05:03:07 pm
I feel comfident in evrey subject except methods
Its so shit and i feel awful when im in class cause i suck at it

I was there.  Make sure you are doing as much questions as you can provided you can learn from them.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on May 19, 2017, 09:25:50 pm
19/05/17
2 physics SACs, one chem test, methods SAC and a bio SAC next week. All of them are on Thursday or Friday. Let's do this. Life is so fun :o
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on May 19, 2017, 09:51:11 pm
19/05/17
2 physics SACs, one chem test, methods SAC and a bio SAC next week. All of them are on Thursday or Friday. Let's do this. Life is so fun :o

oh my god, how are you alive??? that's brutal tbh, good luck! (:

| 19 / 05 / 17 |

i got my lit and english sacs back yesterday and literally cried over them lmao, though i might as well enjoy it while it lasts because i'll definitely do worse on the next ones oops. and i sat the next lit sac today and came out super disappointed with it tbh, the standard expected is so high and that plus the pressure of ranking vaguely highly is something i honestly have no idea how to deal with. we've just started argument analysis in english which is a pain but legal is about to go into courts etc which is super interesting (though that's after the sac next week, which, rip tbh). health and revs are both next week as well which is probably going to hurt? doing six subjects is a mess and i'm not sure if it'll pay off tbh. but at least we're getting to the halfway mark of the term! (:


Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 19, 2017, 10:08:07 pm
19/05/17
2 physics SACs, one chem test, methods SAC and a bio SAC next week. All of them are on Thursday or Friday. Let's do this. Life is so fun :o

Wow, much savagery. Good luck for bio!!! (and everything else)

oh my god, how are you alive??? that's brutal tbh, good luck! (:

| 19 / 05 / 17 |

i got my lit and english sacs back yesterday and literally cried over them lmao, though i might as well enjoy it while it lasts because i'll definitely do worse on the next ones oops. and i sat the next lit sac today and came out super disappointed with it tbh, the standard expected is so high and that plus the pressure of ranking vaguely highly is something i honestly have no idea how to deal with. we've just started argument analysis in english which is a pain but legal is about to go into courts etc which is super interesting (though that's after the sac next week, which, rip tbh). health and revs are both next week as well which is probably going to hurt? doing six subjects is a mess and i'm not sure if it'll pay off tbh. but at least we're getting to the halfway mark of the term! (:




How do you cope with 5 + uni history haha? I'm barely managing with my 5 and I've heard revs, legal and HHD are super content heavy.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on May 19, 2017, 10:15:13 pm
Wow, much savagery. Good luck for bio!!! (and everything else)

How do you cope with 5 + uni history haha? I'm barely managing with my 5 and I've heard revs, legal and HHD are super content heavy.
Thanks!
So Idk if this is a real problem but does this happen to anyone else? For the past few weeks, I've been revising a lot of content so i feel like when i sleep, my brain is revising for it too? Last night, i was thinking about some weird physics stuff at 2 am while i thought i was sleeping? Is this a real problem? My parents say its the most hilarious thing they've ever heard but would this be considered lucid dreaming?
p.s pls don't laugh.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 19, 2017, 10:21:33 pm
I just counted and I have about 7 SACs between now and the end of the term. The next few weeks until the end of the term are going to be hellish.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coffee on May 19, 2017, 10:22:00 pm
Thanks!
So Idk if this is a real problem but does this happen to anyone else? For the past few weeks, I've been revising a lot of content so i feel like when i sleep, my brain is revising for it too? Last night, i was thinking about some weird physics stuff at 2 am while i thought i was sleeping? Is this a real problem? My parents say its the most hilarious thing they've ever heard but would this be considered lucid dreaming?
p.s pls don't laugh.
I wouldn't consider it lucid dreaming but, I've had the exact same thing!

How much time are you leaving between falling asleep and revising? When I was writing two or three essays at a time I was staying up quite late to hit my target goals for the day and then straight after I'd fall asleep. I was having incredibly restless nights and I'd wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning thinking about my essay, literally writing it in my head.

It's not really a problem, only that waking up throughout the night on a regular basis isn't good for you. You need to feel rested! I think if you're working right up until you're sleeping, having a cutoff point would be a good idea. Try and give yourself 30-60 minutes to focus on something else, whether that be reading a book, chatting with friends, or just messing about on the internet. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 19, 2017, 10:27:09 pm
Thanks!
So Idk if this is a real problem but does this happen to anyone else? For the past few weeks, I've been revising a lot of content so i feel like when i sleep, my brain is revising for it too? Last night, i was thinking about some weird physics stuff at 2 am while i thought i was sleeping? Is this a real problem? My parents say its the most hilarious thing they've ever heard but would this be considered lucid dreaming?
p.s pls don't laugh.
I think I had something like this. The day before a physics SAC, I was dreaming of it and the morning of the SAC I realised I made a mistake on the preparation SAC stuff, which we had to submit, so I spent my morning desperately fixing my mistake, since it was due at 8 in the morning. In this case my brain was working on my physics SAC during my sleep, which is weird. Also, when I have a question in math I can't solve and I've spent hours trying to do it, sometimes I just wake up the next morning and immediately see the answer.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: vcestressed on May 19, 2017, 10:33:37 pm
I wouldn't consider it lucid dreaming but, I've had the exact same thing!

How much time are you leaving between falling asleep and revising? When I was writing two or three essays at a time I was staying up quite late to hit my target goals for the day and then straight after I'd fall asleep. I was having incredibly restless nights and I'd wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning thinking about my essay, literally writing it in my head.

It's not really a problem, only that waking up throughout the night on a regular basis isn't good for you. You need to feel rested! I think if you're working right up until you're sleeping, having a cutoff point would be a good idea. Try and give yourself 30-60 minutes to focus on something else, whether that be reading a book, chatting with friends, or just messing about on the internet. :)
But the thing is, I do get proper sleep. I usually finish studying at 10ish, sleep at 11 and wake up at 6. Most of the time, its a good thing because it helps me remember everything in the morning but then there's nothing I can do to stop having these thoughts and that can make me feel like I didn't sleep at all.
@ zhen, SAME! I woke up today and I immediately understood how monoclonnal antibodies worked whereas I couldn't understand anything yesterday. Its so weird.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on May 19, 2017, 10:46:31 pm
Thanks!
So Idk if this is a real problem but does this happen to anyone else? For the past few weeks, I've been revising a lot of content so i feel like when i sleep, my brain is revising for it too? Last night, i was thinking about some weird physics stuff at 2 am while i thought i was sleeping? Is this a real problem? My parents say its the most hilarious thing they've ever heard but would this be considered lucid dreaming?
p.s pls don't laugh.

yeah, this is a real thing. if you like it, no problem, but if not then distracting yourself before you sleep would probably alleviate it. it's like how if you're messing around with screens right before you try to sleep, your brain will be very awake for a while even if you feel exhausted. try reading maybe? or whatever else you do to unwind. (if nothing else, your english books would probably appreciate the attention haha). no idea if it's lucid dreaming though because that tends to be when you have control of a dream (?) and you realise you're dreaming, whereas your brain is just randomly in physics mode in the middle of the night and (i assume) you can't stop it.

I just counted and I have about 7 SACs between now and the end of the term. The next few weeks until the edn of the term are going to be hellish.

oh god good luck with that! are most of them in your sac week?

Wow, much savagery. Good luck for bio!!! (and everything else)

How do you cope with 5 + uni history haha? I'm barely managing with my 5 and I've heard revs, legal and HHD are super content heavy.

i'd ask you the same question honestly, english, two maths, chem and latin sound like so much work? i would probably die doing that. mine's not so bad! uni history has been pretty, idk, i don't want to easy because it does require a lot of thinking when i do work on it, but i've been doing about four hours a week for it (two for lectures, one for tute, one hour collating notes) and that's really all i need right now. cramming for the exam will be a bitch though oops. revs i find pretty easy just because i kind of love it haha, so putting work in doesn't feel like a chore, legal i should do more work for but it'll probably end up as my 7th so right now cramming the night before for 80s is enough, and health is so. much. content, oh my god, but a lot of the latter two is just common sense and that helps heaps. they're all humanities too so a lot of the skills transfer (: i'm sure yours are more work!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 20, 2017, 08:00:58 am
Thanks!
So Idk if this is a real problem but does this happen to anyone else? For the past few weeks, I've been revising a lot of content so i feel like when i sleep, my brain is revising for it too? Last night, i was thinking about some weird physics stuff at 2 am while i thought i was sleeping? Is this a real problem? My parents say its the most hilarious thing they've ever heard but would this be considered lucid dreaming?
p.s pls don't laugh.
But the thing is, I do get proper sleep. I usually finish studying at 10ish, sleep at 11 and wake up at 6. Most of the time, its a good thing because it helps me remember everything in the morning but then there's nothing I can do to stop having these thoughts and that can make me feel like I didn't sleep at all.
@ zhen, SAME! I woke up today and I immediately understood how monoclonnal antibodies worked whereas I couldn't understand anything yesterday. Its so weird.

Yes, this has happens to me as well. One day I just couldn't figure out how to do this spesh question and then when I woke up the next morning I got out of bed and just went straight to the textbook and did the question, and I was questioning whether my brain was doing work while I was asleep.

I just counted and I have about 7 SACs between now and the end of the term. The next few weeks until the end of the term are going to be hellish.

End of term 2 is always the worst haha. You're just exhausted since it's such a long term and there are so many assessments. I think it's gonna be a taste of what's to come at the start of term 4. I've for 3 English SACs in the space of 2 weeks since for some reason they only scheduled 1 in term 1 and term 3.

yeah, this is a real thing. if you like it, no problem, but if not then distracting yourself before you sleep would probably alleviate it. it's like how if you're messing around with screens right before you try to sleep, your brain will be very awake for a while even if you feel exhausted. try reading maybe? or whatever else you do to unwind. (if nothing else, your english books would probably appreciate the attention haha). no idea if it's lucid dreaming though because that tends to be when you have control of a dream (?) and you realise you're dreaming, whereas your brain is just randomly in physics mode in the middle of the night and (i assume) you can't stop it.

oh god good luck with that! are most of them in your sac week?

i'd ask you the same question honestly, english, two maths, chem and latin sound like so much work? i would probably die doing that. mine's not so bad! uni history has been pretty, idk, i don't want to easy because it does require a lot of thinking when i do work on it, but i've been doing about four hours a week for it (two for lectures, one for tute, one hour collating notes) and that's really all i need right now. cramming for the exam will be a bitch though oops. revs i find pretty easy just because i kind of love it haha, so putting work in doesn't feel like a chore, legal i should do more work for but it'll probably end up as my 7th so right now cramming the night before for 80s is enough, and health is so. much. content, oh my god, but a lot of the latter two is just common sense and that helps heaps. they're all humanities too so a lot of the skills transfer (: i'm sure yours are more work!

Yeah my subjects do require quite a lot of work, although there isn't a huge amount of content. Maths and English are skill based for the most part and chem is half maths. As for Latin there is a fair bit of memorisation of the text but it just requires consistent work over the holidays. Although I can't imagine doing a uni subject on top of 5. I assume you have to go to the actual university for the tute? But I guess it would go well with revs and obviously lit helps a lot with English. It's nice to see some humanities people around as sometimes I feel 90% of the users on AN do spesh haha.

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on May 25, 2017, 09:27:57 am
End of term 2 is always the worst haha. You're just exhausted since it's such a long term and there are so many assessments. I think it's gonna be a taste of what's to come at the start of term 4. I've for 3 English SACs in the space of 2 weeks since for some reason they only scheduled 1 in term 1 and term 3.

Yeah my subjects do require quite a lot of work, although there isn't a huge amount of content. Maths and English are skill based for the most part and chem is half maths. As for Latin there is a fair bit of memorisation of the text but it just requires consistent work over the holidays. Although I can't imagine doing a uni subject on top of 5. I assume you have to go to the actual university for the tute? But I guess it would go well with revs and obviously lit helps a lot with English. It's nice to see some humanities people around as sometimes I feel 90% of the users on AN do spesh haha.

wow, how can you have three sacs in two weeks for english? what even are they?

oh, okay, that makes sense. they seem a lot more application-based (: latin sounds like it'd be kind of fun (and kind of hell also), are you enjoying it? i do have to go in for the tute once a week which takes most of my afternoon/evening up, ugh. but honestly, it's the second easiest (health ftw) subject i take, so i shouldn't complain! lit and english actually feel super different in regards to depth of knowledge/intepretation and even vocabulary etc, but they're much more similar than, say, methods and lit, so outside of my super concentrated subject type i suppose they are (:

i honestly think they do hahaha. super smart maths people are equally terrifying and inspiring tbh. most of my school friends are performing arts kind of people (which is honestly worse), so i figured i'd come here to experience the total opposite of it (:

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on May 25, 2017, 04:02:29 pm
25/5/17

Again this week was pretty chilled for me, with no SACs. I've just been preparing for my German SAC, which is next week. Recently I've been writing an essay per week for German, just to get into the the rhythm of writing (I think this is helping my speaking abilities?!). Given that I have multiple method SACs coming up, I've also been doing lots of past VCAA questions. My gosh how I despise Tasmania Jones  :P

Tomorrow is my school formal, so I'm really looking forward to this. A night off study is always a good night!  :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: skylark_dr on May 28, 2017, 05:28:12 pm
These past weeks have been unpleasant & depressing for me since I received an extremely terrible SAC score for economics which I believe to make my ranking plummet & two further scores that are just alright  :(  I wasn't contented with my language analysis SAC either... This week I'll have 4 methods 1 accounting 1 economics SACs, hopefully everything goes well
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on May 29, 2017, 04:29:33 pm
Had my first methods sac
It was so bad. Why am i even doing methods it so crap.
Really am lost
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on May 29, 2017, 04:34:08 pm
^Sorry to hear about the SACs (multiple posters above).

These past weeks have been unpleasant & depressing for me since I received an extremely terrible SAC score for economics which I believe to make my ranking plummet & two further scores that are just alright  :(  I wasn't contented with my language analysis SAC either... This week I'll have 4 methods 1 accounting 1 economics SACs, hopefully everything goes well

Brutal on the SAC schedule. How is it that you can have four Methods SACs in a single week? Hope it's all going okay. :)

Had my first methods sac
It was so bad. Why am i even doing methods it so crap.
Really am lost

That sucks. :-\ Always here to support you! What was so shitty about it?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 29, 2017, 05:23:33 pm
I have a speicialist SAC on Wednesday and SAC week looming closer and closer. I hope to redeem my previous bad scores in the upcoming SACs.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 29, 2017, 06:27:13 pm
I have a speicialist SAC on Wednesday and SAC week looming closer and closer. I hope to redeem my previous bad scores in the upcoming SACs.

What's your spesh SAC on?

I have SAC week approaching as well, thankfully I only have 2 SACs (both for English) in the next 3 weeks so I can regain my strength for final stretch of term 2. I'll definitely be collapsing into the term 2 holidays after all this brutality, I don't even want to think about term 3.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 29, 2017, 06:44:54 pm
What's your spesh SAC on?

I have SAC week approaching as well, thankfully I only have 2 SACs (both for English) in the next 3 weeks so I can regain my strength for final stretch of term 2. I'll definitely be collapsing into the term 2 holidays after all this brutality, I don't even want to think about term 3.
It's a mixture of the integration on the the study design (substitution/finding volumes) and integration by parts.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on May 29, 2017, 07:21:28 pm
It's a mixture of the integration on the the study design (substitution/finding volumes) and integration by parts.

But integration by parts isn't on the study design... I guess MHS likes to have weird and insanely hard SACs (related rates for methods). You'll be an expert on integration by the end of it though :).
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on May 30, 2017, 07:04:06 pm
^Sorry to hear about the SACs (multiple posters above).

Brutal on the SAC schedule. How is it that you can have four Methods SACs in a single week? Hope it's all going okay. :)

That sucks. :-\ Always here to support you! What was so shitty about it?
Didnt know what i was doing. I may have failed that sac unfortunately
2 more to go for that one sac
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on May 31, 2017, 05:02:44 pm
Had a spesh sac today and I'm feeling really bad after it, especially because it wasn't a difficult SAC, but it heaps of long algebra, so it was easy to make mistakes. I think the 40+ dream just sailed.  :'(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on May 31, 2017, 05:28:55 pm
31/05/17

Today I received my Lit SAC back and was really happy with my result. English also came back the other day and was much better than expected. My teachers have pointed out some important lines of feedback, which I will focus on for the final exam.

I have a German SAC coming up this week, so am also practicing for that. Fingers crossed this is better than the last SAC. Next week, I also have two method SACs and am doing lots of questions to prepare. But my school has warned that it will be very challenging.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Waterboy on June 07, 2017, 05:14:04 pm
Felt like I just lost a grip of VCE during this week, fuck me sigh.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on June 07, 2017, 05:16:34 pm
Felt like I just lost a grip of VCE during this week, fuck me sigh.
Hey!
I'm sure it's going to be okay! :)
I believe in you! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 07, 2017, 10:16:14 pm
i got my lit and english sacs back today and i'm still kind of speechless. had the same scores on the first sacs for those subjects and i thought that would be the extent of it but then this happened, so. still kind of feel like i'm dreaming omg. (i'm probably way too invested in vce oops.) but also it's terrifying because now the only way to go is down, so that's wonderful pressure to have lmao.

we're moving into orals for english now, and i've never actually finished one before (tend to just pass on prayers + really nice teachers) so i'm not sure if there's any way to improve public speaking skills (or even just GET some honestly) in three weeks but if there is i'd love to hear about it omg. but whatever happens, term two is almost done so that's wonderful! (:

Felt like I just lost a grip of VCE during this week, fuck me sigh.

ah, i feel you. you can definitely get it back though! there's heaps longer to go, good luck (:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: brenden on June 07, 2017, 11:47:41 pm
Big love to y'all struggling and feeling the pressure ❤️ it's a tough gig, your AN fam is here 4 you
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 08, 2017, 07:19:48 am
i got my lit and english sacs back today and i'm still kind of speechless. had the same scores on the first sacs for those subjects and i thought that would be the extent of it but then this happened, so. still kind of feel like i'm dreaming omg. (i'm probably way too invested in vce oops.) but also it's terrifying because now the only way to go is down, so that's wonderful pressure to have lmao.

we're moving into orals for english now, and i've never actually finished one before (tend to just pass on prayers + really nice teachers) so i'm not sure if there's any way to improve public speaking skills (or even just GET some honestly) in three weeks but if there is i'd love to hear about it omg. but whatever happens, term two is almost done so that's wonderful! (:

That's awesome! What SACs have you done for English so far? Just had a language analysis SAC yesterday on Donald Trump, so that was interesting. Also have a creative SAC on Medea tomorrow which I have a bad feeling about. And then finally the oral in a couple of weeks, which I've spent the past 3 months trying to write and is still pretty bad. But thank god term 2 is almost over, comparative should be fun next term! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 08, 2017, 09:58:17 am
That's awesome! What SACs have you done for English so far? Just had a language analysis SAC yesterday on Donald Trump, so that was interesting. Also have a creative SAC on Medea tomorrow which I have a bad feeling about. And then finally the oral in a couple of weeks, which I've spent the past 3 months trying to write and is still pretty bad. But thank god term 2 is almost over, comparative should be fun next term! :)

we've done text response and creative and literally just did language analysis. donald trump is an, um, interesting subject! we had changing the date of australia day which is almost as controversial, haha.  good luck with the creative! medea's a tough stimulus though, i'm surprised they gave you that – we had a collection of short stories, heaps nicer. (but if all else fails it's only 20 marks for the actual creative, just smash the explanation and you'll be fine.) i honestly can't wait for comparative, we'll have ages to work on it. english has gone so quickly, wow.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 11, 2017, 11:11:57 am
That's awesome! What SACs have you done for English so far? Just had a language analysis SAC yesterday on Donald Trump, so that was interesting. Also have a creative SAC on Medea tomorrow which I have a bad feeling about. And then finally the oral in a couple of weeks, which I've spent the past 3 months trying to write and is still pretty bad. But thank god term 2 is almost over, comparative should be fun next term! :)

How did the SAC go? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 11, 2017, 11:20:48 am
How did the SAC go? :)

I think it went ok, but you never know with English
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 15, 2017, 10:18:07 am
I think it went ok, but you never know with English

Didn't do English, but definitely feel those feels. Fingers crossed for you! ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on June 26, 2017, 04:26:58 pm
How is everyone planning to spend their holidays? For me, I am hoping to have a good rest and catch up on some sleep but also do a fair few practice exams as we have just had mid-year exams and most of the content from my subjects is still fresh in my mind. I would also like to get some practice exams done before the crazy period at the end of term 3! I have already done most of the VCAA Drama exams!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: K888 on June 26, 2017, 04:46:59 pm
How is everyone planning to spend their holidays? For me, I am hoping to have a good rest and catch up on some sleep but also do a fair few practice exams as we have just had mid-year exams and most of the content from my subjects is still fresh in my mind. I would also like to get some practice exams done before the crazy period at the end of term 3! I have already done most of the VCAA Drama exams!
Sounds like a great idea! Make sure you get lots of sleep and take some time to refresh yourself - year 12 can be really draining, and it's in your best interests to switch off for a bit over the holidays and enjoy a break :)
Doing practice exams sounds like a great plan - but don't do them all! Make sure you leave some for when it gets closer to exam period :P I would recommend making sure your notes are all in order and consolidated, and perhaps also going back over stuff from the first two terms that you perhaps didn't understand or are finding is having trouble sticking in your mind.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on June 26, 2017, 05:15:24 pm
Sounds like a great idea! Make sure you get lots of sleep and take some time to refresh yourself - year 12 can be really draining, and it's in your best interests to switch off for a bit over the holidays and enjoy a break :)
Doing practice exams sounds like a great plan - but don't do them all! Make sure you leave some for when it gets closer to exam period :P I would recommend making sure your notes are all in order and consolidated, and perhaps also going back over stuff from the first two terms that you perhaps didn't understand or are finding is having trouble sticking in your mind.

Sounds like a good plan! Thanks so much :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 26, 2017, 06:45:45 pm
Sounds like a good plan! Thanks so much :)

How's drama treating you? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on June 26, 2017, 07:46:36 pm
How is everyone planning to spend their holidays? For me, I am hoping to have a good rest and catch up on some sleep but also do a fair few practice exams as we have just had mid-year exams and most of the content from my subjects is still fresh in my mind. I would also like to get some practice exams done before the crazy period at the end of term 3! I have already done most of the VCAA Drama exams!

Definitely cram in some practice exams! Maybe an ATAR Notes lecture or two :P

I'll definitely be getting some fun in though -- holidays ARE for rest, after all.  Plans so far are going dirtbike riding, playing some hockey with some old mates, entering a local pool bar's social league competition, going swimming, and #cracking open a cold one with the boys.

Then it's back to study.

Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on June 26, 2017, 07:48:11 pm
Definitely cram in some practice exams! Maybe an ATAR Notes lecture or two :P

I'll definitely be getting some fun in though -- holidays ARE for rest, after all.  Plans so far are going dirtbike riding, playing some hockey with some old mates, entering a local pool bar's social league competition, going swimming, and #cracking open a cold one with the boys.

Then it's back to study.
Sounds like an awesome holiday! ;D
Assuming you *are* going to the lectures, which days are you going? ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 26, 2017, 07:59:55 pm
How is everyone planning to spend their holidays? For me, I am hoping to have a good rest and catch up on some sleep but also do a fair few practice exams as we have just had mid-year exams and most of the content from my subjects is still fresh in my mind. I would also like to get some practice exams done before the crazy period at the end of term 3! I have already done most of the VCAA Drama exams!

I'm going to countryside to relax by finishing the methods and spesh courses, rereading both my comparative texts and all the resources, forgetting about chemistry, and trying to revise my Latin grammar. Now I think about it this holiday probably isn't going to be all too relaxing but it's nice to have a break from school. Hopefully I'll be ready to start practice exams in term 3.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on June 26, 2017, 08:05:04 pm
I'm going to countryside to relax by finishing the methods and spesh courses, rereading both my comparative texts and all the resources, forgetting about chemistry, and trying to revise my Latin grammar. Now I think about it this holiday probably isn't going to be all too relaxing but it's nice to have a break from school. Hopefully I'll be ready to start practice exams in term 3.
Sometimes, a change of scenery is always good! ;D
Hopefully you do get some time away from study to rest! Also, try to keep some practice exams for later in the term as well! :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 26, 2017, 08:08:00 pm
Definitely cram in some practice exams! Maybe an ATAR Notes lecture or two :P

I'll definitely be getting some fun in though -- holidays ARE for rest, after all.  Plans so far are going dirtbike riding, playing some hockey with some old mates, entering a local pool bar's social league competition, going swimming, and #cracking open a cold one with the boys.

Then it's back to study.


ahaha love the hashtag. that sounds like fun! (not so much the study ... but hey it has to happen haha.)

are most people heading to the lectures? (: i'll be there saturday and wednesday mornings and friday afternoon but i'm still trying convince my friends to get out of bed for them . :/

I'm going to countryside to relax by finishing the methods and spesh courses, rereading both my comparative texts and all the resources, forgetting about chemistry, and trying to revise my Latin grammar. Now I think about it this holiday probably isn't going to be all too relaxing but it's nice to have a break from school. Hopefully I'll be ready to start practice exams in term 3.

this is ... very productive relaxation! though sometimes it actually does feel great to be able to work at your own pace outside of the constraints of school, so i kind of get your point tbh (:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 26, 2017, 08:10:58 pm
^Make sure you say hi when you're there! :D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 26, 2017, 08:19:43 pm

this is ... very productive relaxation! though sometimes it actually does feel great to be able to work at your own pace outside of the constraints of school, so i kind of get your point tbh (:


Productive relaxation is the only kind of relaxation in year 12. I find if I relax unproductively for too long the guilt gnaws away at me and I give into doing more study.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on June 26, 2017, 08:25:49 pm
Sounds like an awesome holiday! ;D
Assuming you *are* going to the lectures, which days are you going? ;D

I'll be there for the afternoon English lecture on the 1st :) I'll be sure to introduce myself to everybody. Are you going? I'm sure you'll magically see me on the train again
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on June 26, 2017, 08:27:51 pm
I'll be there for the afternoon English lecture on the 1st :) I'll be sure to introduce myself to everybody. Are you going? I'm sure you'll magically see me on the train again
Awesome! :)
I doubt I can replicate that again anytime soon, but I might drop by... :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 26, 2017, 08:35:34 pm
^Make sure you say hi when you're there! :D

haha i have no clue what any of you look like but i'll try to! maybe i'll just wave to all the people with or without the really blue shirts and hope that i've interacted with at least one of them ... they're big lectures so probability's on my side, right? ;D

Productive relaxation is the only kind of relaxation in year 12. I find if I relax unproductively for too long the guilt gnaws away at me and I give into doing more study.

mm yes i feel like because we're so close to finished, spending too much time on things i could feasibly do after year twelve feels like such a waste. but then again, the mountain of homework i'm sure is coming probably won't leave very much time for leisure  ???
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 26, 2017, 08:38:58 pm
haha i have no clue what any of you look like but i'll try to! maybe i'll just wave to all the people with or without the really blue shirts and hope that i've interacted with at least one of them ... they're big lectures so probability's on my side, right? ;D

Blue shirt, bad beard. Can't go wrong. ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on June 26, 2017, 08:41:00 pm
Blue shirt, bad beard. Can't go wrong. ;D
^ This guy above me may or may not also half-look like Andrew Garfield. ;)
No, I didn't start this, don't kill me, J41 <3
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on June 26, 2017, 10:16:34 pm
How's drama treating you? :)

I haven't dropped any marks on the SACS so far which is good. My class is starting to prepare for the solo performance examination at the moment and I am quite happy that I have completed most of my research in advance and can use the holidays to plan scenes etc.

Definitely cram in some practice exams! Maybe an ATAR Notes lecture or two :P


I am going to the English and Literature lectures on Saturday! Hopefully they will get me into a productive mindset for the holidays :)

Moderator edit: - insanipi: merged posts :)

I'm going to countryside to relax by finishing the methods and spesh courses, rereading both my comparative texts and all the resources, forgetting about chemistry, and trying to revise my Latin grammar. Now I think about it this holiday probably isn't going to be all too relaxing but it's nice to have a break from school. Hopefully I'll be ready to start practice exams in term 3.

Which English comparative texts are you doing? My school is doing 'Ransom' and 'Invictus' which I am trying my best to enjoy because they are definitely not texts I would usually engage with...
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 26, 2017, 11:28:31 pm
oh my god, i studied ransom last year, malouf's writing is actually so gorgeous. (but basically everyone else hated it, so ... you're not alone if that's how you feel haha.) once you get used to the context, it might be fun? or at least not akin to pulling teeth lmao idk.

what are you studying for lit? (:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 27, 2017, 07:28:55 am

Which English comparative texts are you doing? My school is doing 'Ransom' and 'Invictus' which I am trying my best to enjoy because they are definitely not texts I would usually engage with...

My school is doing 'year of wonders' and 'the crucible', which are both interesting texts as they are historical fiction and deal with some interesting themes. 'Ransom' and 'invictus' sound interesting, I think 'ransom' is based off the Iliad, which is a great classical text.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on June 27, 2017, 05:09:51 pm
It's been a while since I last posted here. I finished all my SACs for the term  :). Now I'm going to relax for the rest of the day and enjoy a bit of time without worrying about SACs before I start cramming for UMAT and start prepping for unit 4 and exams.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on June 27, 2017, 05:11:26 pm
It's been a while since I last posted here. I finished all my SACs for the term  :). Now I'm going to relax for the rest of the day and enjoy a bit of time without worrying about SACs before I start cramming for UMAT and start prepping for unit 4 and exams.

Congrats! :D What are you going to do to unwind? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on June 27, 2017, 05:15:47 pm
Congrats! :D What are you going to do to unwind? :)
Watching anime (most people will find it weird), but it's one of the main things I do to unwind. Actually, I just remembered that there should be a new episode of have you been paying attention, which is a show I really like, so I'll probably watch that too.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 27, 2017, 06:05:14 pm
It's been a while since I last posted here. I finished all my SACs for the term  :). Now I'm going to relax for the rest of the day and enjoy a bit of time without worrying about SACs before I start cramming for UMAT and start prepping for unit 4 and exams.

Thats nice, its good to wind down after a stressful term (hopefully term 2 is as bad as it gets). Unfortunately I still have a SAC this week (chemistry poster) so I am cursing the sadist who made week 11 a thing. I feel like everyone is going to cram umat these holidays haha.

Watching anime (most people will find it weird), but it's one of the main things I do to unwind. Actually, I just remembered that there should be a new episode of have you been paying attention, which is a show I really like, so I'll probably watch that too.

Thats cool. I dont personally watch anime but I do binge netflix which is the same thing I guess :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on June 27, 2017, 07:13:14 pm
oh my god, i studied ransom last year, malouf's writing is actually so gorgeous. (but basically everyone else hated it, so ... you're not alone if that's how you feel haha.) once you get used to the context, it might be fun? or at least not akin to pulling teeth lmao idk.

what are you studying for lit? (:

I think I will enjoy it when I understand it a bit more! For Lit I am doing A Doll's House, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Cat's Table, Dark Roots and Seamus Heaney poetry :)

My school is doing 'year of wonders' and 'the crucible', which are both interesting texts as they are historical fiction and deal with some interesting themes. 'Ransom' and 'invictus' sound interesting, I think 'ransom' is based off the Iliad, which is a great classical text.

Ahhhh I did The Crucible and Year of Wonders last year - I absolutely loved them! Especially 'The Crucible'. They are heaps of points of comparison :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on June 27, 2017, 07:20:58 pm
I'm so relieved that we are in the last week of term 2. Although I have a considerably large amount of study to get through, it will be good to escape the school environment for a while. At this stage of the year, exams are beginning to take up a lot more thought in my mind. I've found that strong organisation has helped me feel more confident and assured, regarding exam prep. I don't if anyone else feels this way, but I honestly have no idea of where I'm sitting in subjects in a study score sense. Obviously SACS provide some indication, but on the whole I feel quite blinded.

I think I will enjoy it when I understand it a bit more! For Lit I am doing A Doll's House, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Cat's Table, Dark Roots and Seamus Heaney poetry :)

Ooh... those texts sound really interesting. Which text will you choose for passage analysis? At my school, we're studying North and South for the Perspectives and A Doll's House and Chris Wallace Crabbe poetry for CPA. How are you finding Lit in general? Especially the new Lit Perspectives essay? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on June 27, 2017, 09:47:41 pm

Ooh... those texts sound really interesting. Which text will you choose for passage analysis? At my school, we're studying North and South for the Perspectives and A Doll's House and Chris Wallace Crabbe poetry for CPA. How are you finding Lit in general? Especially the new Lit Perspectives essay? :)


We have the choice of either A Doll's House or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for Lit perspectives and either the Heaney poetry or The Cat's Table for passage analysis. I am leaning towards the poetry as I feel like taking on another novel will be quite a heavy workload when it comes to exam revision as I am doing English as well. As for the Lit perspectives essay, I got 16/20 on the mid-year practice exam for A Doll's House and my teacher is an assessor and quite a harsh marker - so I think it is challenging but manageable if you know the text really well. I have been trying to find some lectures or more resources where they explain the task in more detail but as it is the first year of the study design they are quite difficult to find. Everyone is in the same boat though I guess.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on June 27, 2017, 10:15:33 pm
I don't if anyone else feels this way, but I honestly have no idea of where I'm sitting in subjects in a study score sense. Obviously SACS provide some indication, but on the whole I feel quite blinded.


no i definitely feel this! i know how i'm doing in terms of my cohort, but it's so hard to work out whether other schools mark to the same standard? especially for english subjects because they're so subjective :/ so really i could come out the other end with a 40 or a 20 tbh. at least for lit everybody's struggling through the lit perspectives criteria together though omg (:
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on June 27, 2017, 11:33:22 pm
My school is doing 'year of wonders' and 'the crucible', which are both interesting texts as they are historical fiction and deal with some interesting themes. 'Ransom' and 'invictus' sound interesting, I think 'ransom' is based off the Iliad, which is a great classical text.

My school is also doing these texts as well. What do you think of the texts so far?

I think I will enjoy it when I understand it a bit more! For Lit I am doing A Doll's House, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Cat's Table, Dark Roots and Seamus Heaney poetry :)

Ahhhh I did The Crucible and Year of Wonders last year - I absolutely loved them! Especially 'The Crucible'. They are heaps of points of comparison :)

:)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: S200 on June 28, 2017, 12:55:28 am
0054 hours, 28/06/17
Just handed in a Physics Project, dismally late... :( :-\
RIP me...  :'( :'(

#StopProcrastinating
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Calebark on June 29, 2017, 11:16:19 pm
29th of June, '17

Finally on holidays! I'm going to celebrate by doing absolutely nothing!

...until Saturday when the study resumes.

(well, I didn't attend this week due to ill health, and didn't attend the week before as we didn't the week after exams. But now it's official)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: K888 on June 30, 2017, 12:43:09 am
29th of June, '17

Finally on holidays! I'm going to celebrate by doing absolutely nothing!
The best way to celebrate!

I hope that everyone takes some time away from study these holidays to relax and recharge the batteries :D You have a hard slog coming up with the rest of the year, and you guys have already done so well. Halfway there (or perhaps, actually a bit over halfway)!! Keep up the good effort everyone, and remember that you have everyone on the forum cheering for you and supporting you  ;D

I don't if anyone else feels this way, but I honestly have no idea of where I'm sitting in subjects in a study score sense. Obviously SACS provide some indication, but on the whole I feel quite blinded.
I felt this way last year! Right up until ATARs were released, I didn't really have a single clue about the study scores, or even the ATAR, that I would get, and in a way, I'm glad. Just try your absolute best in your SACs and schoolwork, and then try to ace your exams, and then relax - let the number crunching be done by VCAA/VTAC :) Makes the waiting period between end of exams and ATAR release a lot less stressful (in my opinion), and I found that by knowing I tried my best, I couldn't really be disappointed (or if I could, it would be on a much lower level), because I wasn't comparing what I actually got to what I thought I would get. (Granted, this is just my two cents and what worked for me, it might not work for others :))
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on June 30, 2017, 05:39:30 pm
My school is also doing these texts as well. What do you think of the texts so far?


I'm thoroughly enjoying both texts and there are a lot of areas for comparison. Based on my preliminary reading of the texts, I think it's interesting to see how the differences in social structure affect each town's response to adversity. In Eyam, Puritanism is being phased out and a more open interpretation of religion allows the people to cope with the plague and sacrifice themselves to save the other towns. In Salem, strict Puritanism is the dominant religion and is the reason the witch trials. As I said before, I have only scratched the surface with these texts and already comparative interpretations seem to be abundant so I'm very excited to continue studying. I'm interested to hear what you think you as well.

29th of June, '17

Finally on holidays! I'm going to celebrate by doing absolutely nothing!

...until Saturday when the study resumes.


Ahahaha this is how everyone feels after the brutality of term 2... and then you realise term 3 exists
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on July 18, 2017, 02:53:25 pm
How has everybody found the transition back into school? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on July 18, 2017, 04:20:29 pm
How has everybody found the transition back into school? :)

Not too bad. It feels good knowing that this will be my last full term of school.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on July 18, 2017, 04:25:57 pm
Not too bad. It feels good knowing that this will be my last full term of school.

Yeah? Are you feeling on top of things? :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zhen on July 18, 2017, 07:00:09 pm
How has everybody found the transition back into school? :)
I feel like I'm the most productive I've been for a while because of the relaxing break I had. I'm pretty pumped to get into this term. :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: gemmaruffin on July 18, 2017, 07:54:33 pm
How has everybody found the transition back into school? :)

Wish it was easier, all my classes were straight back into it, I have 2 SACS and 2 tests this week :(
Just feeling tired atm! It's the mid-year slump, I guess, and hearing all the bad stuff about Term 3 is making me more stressed hahah! God let's hope it's not as bad as some 12's from last year who I saw crying 24/7
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on July 18, 2017, 07:58:13 pm
How has everybody found the transition back into school? :)

It's been quite a smooth transition back. But I'm just feeling SO preoccupied with Lit and English at the moment :(  I'm not sure if this is normal. The biggest struggle is managing my time. How's everyone else going with balance?
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: gemmaruffin on July 18, 2017, 08:17:06 pm
It's been quite a smooth transition back. But I'm just feeling SO preoccupied with Lit and English at the moment :(  I'm not sure if this is normal. The biggest struggle is managing my time. How's everyone else going with balance?

Hahahahahahahah, what's balance??? I spend way more time on some subjects than others (@you, chem), but it's actually worked out now, that the amount of study I do for each subject is good for each one, so like don't worry about doing the same amount of study for each subject, but rather doing what you need for each subject (no point studying 45 minutes for something you already understand and then 45 minutes on something you need more time for)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on July 18, 2017, 09:59:14 pm
Yeah? Are you feeling on top of things? :)

Yeah, my practice exam regime for maths has started well. English is fun at the moment. Organic chem is awesome. Latin is basically studying themes and literary techniques which is also awesome. Plus I don't have any SACs for 5 weeks, so I'm satisfied right now.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Wota on July 18, 2017, 10:31:17 pm
Yeah had to do a sac today and bombed it ://, was averaging in the 90s but this is gonna push me down to the 70s...
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: princessofpersia on July 20, 2017, 11:42:44 pm
Yeah had to do a sac today and bombed it ://, was averaging in the 90s but this is gonna push me down to the 70s...

I feel you fam, but don't lose hope yet because you know you're more capable than the expectant '70' and that should drive you more and more till the raging fire within you has no way to way lose flame but only burn more and more till your hunger is satiated and every paper you wrote it feels your intellectually superior wrath.

I'll be honest, I was not expecting to write all that but today I was just feeling so low and after reading your post I just felt even more depressed because I can definitely relate to you, and I wanted to change that- not just for me, but you too. Because I definately know i am way more capable than my current standards, for god's sake I pulled straight 90's from year 7-middle of year 11 and then year 12 comes (with an extra package of anxiety which my body has never felt) and all the walls of high standard habits and intellect has just clashed and there's no way of returning it back. And the fire in me is just so angry that I needed somewhere to just let out it's thoughts (I'm not weird, I promise), and your post was lucky enough to be my victim :)

🎶 I wish I can turn back time, to the good old dayss 🎶

Keep grinding and keep faith in your self. I believe you can do it because I know you can push your self to a point where every sweat will pay off with justice.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: gemmaruffin on July 21, 2017, 11:49:08 am
so someone hit my car at school the other day, with no note :((((
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: K888 on July 21, 2017, 11:58:56 am
so someone hit my car at school the other day, with no note :((((
Oh no! Can't believe people do stuff like that :( Is there a lot of damage?
Does your school have any security cameras or something around?

At my school, we had a carpark that was basically exclusively used by year 12s, so if your car got hit, you had a general idea of who it was :P
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: gemmaruffin on July 22, 2017, 12:18:08 pm
Oh no! Can't believe people do stuff like that :( Is there a lot of damage?
Does your school have any security cameras or something around?

At my school, we had a carpark that was basically exclusively used by year 12s, so if your car got hit, you had a general idea of who it was :P

Just a dint and some scratching, so annoying because the school doesn't have anything to prove it! Where I park is mostly year 12's though, so hope I find out eventually :(
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on July 25, 2017, 09:53:34 pm
I'm thoroughly enjoying both texts and there are a lot of areas for comparison. Based on my preliminary reading of the texts, I think it's interesting to see how the differences in social structure affect each town's response to adversity. In Eyam, Puritanism is being phased out and a more open interpretation of religion allows the people to cope with the plague and sacrifice themselves to save the other towns. In Salem, strict Puritanism is the dominant religion and is the reason the witch trials. As I said before, I have only scratched the surface with these texts and already comparative interpretations seem to be abundant so I'm very excited to continue studying. I'm interested to hear what you think you as well.

Ahahaha this is how everyone feels after the brutality of term 2... and then you realise term 3 exists

Like yourself, I find that there are many areas to compare between the two texts; some more obvious than others but nonetheless still comparative. Personally I found the text Year of Wonders to be more enjoyable to read than The Crucible however I didn't like the ending of Year of Wonders, to me it felt very bizarre to just have it end like that. I agree with you that in Eyam religion is more open to interpretation than it is in The Crucible where there is a strict conformity to adhere to the church.

I feel you fam, but don't lose hope yet because you know you're more capable than the expectant '70' and that should drive you more and more till the raging fire within you has no way to way lose flame but only burn more and more till your hunger is satiated and every paper you wrote it feels your intellectually superior wrath.

I'll be honest, I was not expecting to write all that but today I was just feeling so low and after reading your post I just felt even more depressed because I can definitely relate to you, and I wanted to change that- not just for me, but you too. Because I definately know i am way more capable than my current standards, for god's sake I pulled straight 90's from year 7-middle of year 11 and then year 12 comes (with an extra package of anxiety which my body has never felt) and all the walls of high standard habits and intellect has just clashed and there's no way of returning it back. And the fire in me is just so angry that I needed somewhere to just let out it's thoughts (I'm not weird, I promise), and your post was lucky enough to be my victim :)

🎶 I wish I can turn back time, to the good old dayss 🎶

Keep grinding and keep faith in your self. I believe you can do it because I know you can push your self to a point where every sweat will pay off with justice.

Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots --> very fitting for year 12 XD
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on July 26, 2017, 06:20:12 am
Like yourself, I find that there are many areas to compare between the two texts; some more obvious than others but nonetheless still comparative. Personally I found the text Year of Wonders to be more enjoyable to read than The Crucible however I didn't like the ending of Year of Wonders, to me it felt very bizarre to just have it end like that. I agree with you that in Eyam religion is more open to interpretation than it is in The Crucible where there is a strict conformity to adhere to the church.


Yeah, year of wonders is a good read but the ending is questionable. I know my teacher and most of the people in my class despise it. But you can't really say anything about the quality of the texts in your essays.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: gemmaruffin on July 26, 2017, 10:01:10 pm
Yeah, year of wonders is a good read but the ending is questionable. I know my teacher and most of the people in my class despise it. But you can't really say anything about the quality of the texts in your essays.

I'm doing these texts too, totally agree that the ending of YOW is very questionable! Don't know how I'd compare it to Crucible either...
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on July 26, 2017, 11:18:22 pm
Yeah, year of wonders is a good read but the ending is questionable. I know my teacher and most of the people in my class despise it. But you can't really say anything about the quality of the texts in your essays.

That's true.

I'm doing these texts too, totally agree that the ending of YOW is very questionable! Don't know how I'd compare it to Crucible either...

There are actually quite a lot of area to compare between the two texts. One which immediately comes to mind would be the interpretation of religion and how it shapes the society. Something which Quantum44 has mention in an earlier post.
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: clarke54321 on August 03, 2017, 10:09:17 pm
3/08/17

Term 3 is going so quickly already  :'(  Today I finished the Methods course and it just confirmed how imminent exams really are. Given that Methods is my weaker subject, I'll be glad to take my time with revision and fill in any knowledge gaps. I feel in control of both English and German at this point but am terrified for Literature. I've still got to learn about 12 more poems before the exam.

My main aim from now until exams is to prioritise skilfully and back myself more  :)

Hopefully everyone else is surviving term 3  ;D
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: brenden on August 04, 2017, 12:28:08 am
3/08/17

Term 3 is going so quickly already  :'(  Today I finished the Methods course and it just confirmed how imminent exams really are. Given that Methods is my weaker subject, I'll be glad to take my time with revision and fill in any knowledge gaps. I feel in control of both English and German at this point but am terrified for Literature. I've still got to learn about 12 more poems before the exam.

My main aim from now until exams is to prioritise skilfully and back myself more  :)

Hopefully everyone else is surviving term 3  ;D
YES. always back yourself!

You have so much time to smash out Methods papers if you've already finished the course!! Seriously. Just a few hours a week from now until exams is like, 50+ papers easy. (Hypothetically!)

And plenty of time to smash Lit too. Kill it!
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on August 09, 2017, 06:08:26 pm
I'm doing these texts too, totally agree that the ending of YOW is very questionable! Don't know how I'd compare it to Crucible either...


I studied both texts last year and agree that the end of YOW is questionable - I prefer the ambiguous ending without the 'afterword' part. At first I thought I couldn't find any links either but don't worry - there is plenty to write about! There are lots of characters that you can compare and well as themes which is good :)
Title: Re: VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on August 10, 2017, 05:51:01 pm
I studied both texts last year and agree that the end of YOW is questionable - I prefer the ambiguous ending without the 'afterword' part. At first I thought I couldn't find any links either but don't worry - there is plenty to write about! There are lots of characters that you can compare and well as themes which is good :)

I think they are surprisingly similar, both detailing catastrophic historical events from the 17th century which transformed the villages. As for the ending of YOW, I think I have grown to appreciate it more, as it does have symbolic importance.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Maya24 on August 22, 2017, 07:21:00 pm
Anyone else have that feeling, when you study so hard for a sac but you don't do so well anyways.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: strawberries on August 22, 2017, 07:42:45 pm
Anyone else have that feeling, when you study so hard for a sac but you don't do so well anyways.
yep, had that several times in vce :( (also uni)

try to learn from where you went wrong so you can improve
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: sweetiepi on August 22, 2017, 08:16:27 pm
Anyone else have that feeling, when you study so hard for a sac but you don't do so well anyways.
I had this happen a few times over the years!

It's perfectly okay, you learn from your mistakes, so that means you have room to improve before an exam! :)
I believe you can do it, I'll be cheering you on, no matter what! :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Butterflygirl on August 22, 2017, 09:31:14 pm
Finished a few practice exams for specialist and methods. Also did the chemistry sample exam which I think I did pretty good in. Still have a lot to work on, but overall: feeling good. Started a kilbaha paper and was like nope on the fourth question, so I might start that again tomorrow lol.

My school hasn't even finished the course yet for chem :( but hopefully they'll finish before term 4.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on August 23, 2017, 07:33:29 am
Finished a few practice exams for specialist and methods. Also did the chemistry sample exam which I think I did pretty good in. Still have a lot to work on, but overall: feeling good. Started a kilbaha paper and was like nope on the fourth question, so I might start that again tomorrow lol.

Haha VCAA exams are quite soothing and then you go and try kilbaha and destroys every shred of confidence. I think I'm going to stick with the 'easy' exam companies for now.

My school hasn't even finished the course yet for chem :( but hopefully they'll finish before term 4.

If you're worried about finishing the course early, you could always work ahead and accelerate through food chem to fit in more practice exams.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Maya24 on August 23, 2017, 05:16:19 pm
I had this happen a few times over the years!

It's perfectly okay, you learn from your mistakes, so that means you have room to improve before an exam! :)
I believe you can do it, I'll be cheering you on, no matter what! :)

Thank you:)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: TheCommando on August 25, 2017, 03:44:15 pm
Had 2 methods sac so far and i got 40%
Really dont know what to so, i wanna drop it cause methods sucks but its a pre req
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: nabeela on September 06, 2017, 12:24:23 am
- UMAT results were released today ( May the odds be in your favour)
- Thinking about making my methods bound reference ( don't know when ill get around to it)
- Billions of essays to write for english. Im exaggerating by a million HAHA
- Chemistry is pree lit- food chem ( I constantly need snacks in class tho)- hardcore foodie
- Major sleep debt
- Exams a pree close- mixed feelings

Most likely won't remember any of this in the next few months after exams. Hopefully.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on September 06, 2017, 08:32:07 am
- UMAT results were released today ( May the odds be in your favour)
- Thinking about making my methods bound reference ( don't know when ill get around to it)
- Billions of essays to write for english. Im exaggerating by a million HAHA
- Chemistry is pree lit- food chem ( I constantly need snacks in class tho)- hardcore foodie
- Major sleep debt
- Exams a pree close- mixed feelings

Most likely won't remember any of this in the next few months after exams. Hopefully.


Great to have you here, nabeela! :)

Are you in Year 12 at the moment?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: managerhwang on September 06, 2017, 06:24:03 pm
starting to get worried about my atar now lol... did not realize there was only like 60 days left. i'm relatively confident in hitting the lower end of my desired atar (95+) but am not really putting in enough effort to achieve like 97, 98+. it's hard to predict though because i'm a bit unsure about how well i'll be able to do for some of my subjects - as of now i only really have like one subject that i'm really confident in (maybe my predictions are too cocky given how little work i've done lol). with studio arts, for example, the scaling is kinda cray so i'm going to have to really practice nailing exam responses :(
should probably talk to my teachers to get a better feel for how i'm going, also need some help to plan out these next two months properly so i don't waste time X_______X
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Maya24 on September 11, 2017, 09:34:39 pm
The end of term is coming up. I'm thinking of repeating a FM next year. I might just focus most of my effort for hhd. I'm loosing motivation to study for fm since i'm going to be repeating it next year.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on September 12, 2017, 10:55:41 am
i haven't been here regularly for about a month, oops – had (having?? rip) a fairly big slump recently and tbh it's kind of hard to get out of? but trial exams are in three weeks so i have to actually focus :/

school's been kind of okay recently though (: i got 100 in a lit sac and literally cried omg, this one feels more validating than the others i've had in english or w/e because of how hard i actually have to work in lit haha. but then i guess my health scores balance that out because no matter how hard i work i can't seem to drag them up out of low 90s, which is kind of worrying bc i really need that 40 badly rip. had to do a group presentation for my uni subject last week as well, and i discovered that the stereotype of arts students never doing any work til the night before is accurate lmao (but at least they did it eventually?? so i can't complain tbh).

also, anybody else have their school repeatedly telling them how many days of school are left? if they're doing it to alleviate pressure it's definitely misguided omfg.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: zofromuxo on September 12, 2017, 01:31:27 pm
The end of term is coming up. I'm thinking of repeating a FM next year. I might just focus most of my effort for hhd. I'm loosing motivation to study for fm since i'm going to be repeating it next year.
Wait, you is it certain your repeating FM our not? Because at the start you say I'm thinking of repeating a FM next year. but then at the end you say I'm loosing motivation to study for fm since i'm going to be repeating it next year.. Which is it?
Either way, I would just do my best anyway assuming your in Year 12 next year. As your more likely to have less time and focus to study on it.

starting to get worried about my atar now lol... did not realize there was only like 60 days left. i'm relatively confident in hitting the lower end of my desired atar (95+) but am not really putting in enough effort to achieve like 97, 98+. it's hard to predict though because i'm a bit unsure about how well i'll be able to do for some of my subjects - as of now i only really have like one subject that i'm really confident in (maybe my predictions are too cocky given how little work i've done lol). with studio arts, for example, the scaling is kinda cray so i'm going to have to really practice nailing exam responses :(
should probably talk to my teachers to get a better feel for how i'm going, also need some help to plan out these next two months properly so i don't waste time X_______X
If you want to make a plan for what to do in the next two months.
1. Figure out what your struggling with and want to focus on
-Is it revising content i don't understand?
-Is it doing practice exam questions?
-Is it needing to relax to avoid burnout?
Think about what you want

2. Ask for feedback on individual courses
-Ask your teachers how your going and what they think you should work on.
They aren't necessarily right in what you should do

3. Read the study design
-Look up what you need to study and cross out the one you have a understanding for and know you will never answer them incorrect 100% of the time.
-Write a list of the points you don't understand or think you'll answer incorrectly on the exam.

4. Set up a timetable for the things you want
-Write an accurate timeline for what you will do on the days before the exam
-Keep in mind, not too push too hard and burn out, but also not study too lightly
-Be aware, that this can change at any moment, so prioritize what you want to study using the responses gathered in the previous bullet points.

I'm sure someone at AN can give you better advice, but use these as general starting points.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: nabeela on September 25, 2017, 02:44:45 pm
Great to have you here, nabeela! :)

Are you in Year 12 at the moment?

Yes, I am!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on September 25, 2017, 03:17:24 pm
Yes, I am!

Nice one! :D How have those English essays come along?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lilyrosee on September 26, 2017, 10:53:56 am
What is everyone's study plan for the holidays?

When I don't have to go into school for holiday classes I am trying to mimic a typical school day so I can balance all of my subjects.  :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: nabeela on September 27, 2017, 08:44:56 am
What is everyone's study plan for the holidays?

When I don't have to go into school for holiday classes I am trying to mimic a typical school day so I can balance all of my subjects.  :)
My action plan is the same as yours but i think allocating my target amount of trials may be difficult... Whats your method of efficient study?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on September 28, 2017, 03:07:35 pm
What is everyone's study plan for the holidays?

When I don't have to go into school for holiday classes I am trying to mimic a typical school day so I can balance all of my subjects.  :)

i tried that and it didn't really work for me but i can see how it'd be nice! i've been doing 1/4 of a practice exam for history, an essay for english, essay for lit and then an hour of general study for my other two subjects each day (: it'll be annoying once school gets back though omg.

also holiday classes sound awful :/ i just finished trial exams today, but at least we didn't have to learn during them :P
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: K888 on September 28, 2017, 03:30:50 pm
i tried that and it didn't really work for me but i can see how it'd be nice! i've been doing 1/4 of a practice exam for history, an essay for english, essay for lit and then an hour of general study for my other two subjects each day (: it'll be annoying once school gets back though omg.

also holiday classes sound awful :/ i just finished trial exams today, but at least we didn't have to learn during them :P
How's the study for Revs going? ;D
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: patriciarose on September 28, 2017, 09:24:27 pm
How's the study for Revs going? ;D

oh god um it's ... going? haha. i had my trial exam for it today and went in a little blind because with sacs up until last friday and then all the exams this week, it's been so hard to find time to revise? oops. russia (like, okay, AOS2?? who is lenin?? did russia even exist past october 1917?? sounds like fake news???) was an absolute travesty but america was surprisingly okay so if nothing else, i think it'll be interesting to get it back and see what i really need to concentrate on!

i would love to know how you revised for it actually if you still remember? (: i'm fine with dates and facts really, so not sure if i should start doing practice questions but with notes, or try and memorise everything and then do questions blind? aaah.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: K888 on September 29, 2017, 01:04:55 am
oh god um it's ... going? haha. i had my trial exam for it today and went in a little blind because with sacs up until last friday and then all the exams this week, it's been so hard to find time to revise? oops. russia (like, okay, AOS2?? who is lenin?? did russia even exist past october 1917?? sounds like fake news???) was an absolute travesty but america was surprisingly okay so if nothing else, i think it'll be interesting to get it back and see what i really need to concentrate on!

i would love to know how you revised for it actually if you still remember? (: i'm fine with dates and facts really, so not sure if i should start doing practice questions but with notes, or try and memorise everything and then do questions blind? aaah.
Haha I feel you on not getting much study in before the practice exam - we had to rush to finish Russia AOS2 (was my 2nd rev), and like thankfully, my teacher had been making us do 3 or 4 pointers and parts of doc studies for China for the first 10-15 mins of class most days, so I had revision under my belt, but I didn't feel like I had everything consolidated, and I just felt so rushed haha - but not to worry! If nothing else, it can give you an indicator of what you really need to focus on, and it can give you that kick to get motivated :)
And yep, definitely feel you on the AOS2 lol. We learnt it so quickly, and it was different to the way we'd learnt the rest of the course, so it felt like it didn't even happen lol. Always felt a bit shifty on my AOS2 knowledge. Definitely performed worse in my Russia SACs and on the practice exam (and I reckon I also did worse on Russia in the actual exam), despite the fact China was seen as the hardest revolution and had the most content haha.

In terms of revision, basically just practice questions lol. My teacher was amazing, and made a pack for us all, full of practice questions to do. Honestly what I credit my study score to haha - I did just about every single question in the booklet, and it helped my timing so much. So yeah, maybe see if your teacher can give you exam style questions. Honestly probably the most important thing in Revs - nailing answering questions.
Apart from that, made sure I knew my historian's viewpoints for the doc study (d. question for me, but I believe it's now the c. question for you?) - and got good at applying them. I had really good grids for these - hard to explain here, so maybe send me a PM at some stage to remind me to give a proper explanation. Might even be able to send a photo or something.
Also had powerpoints for the content - dates, key points, etc. - made sure I knew my mnemonics and all that, but tbh, I had the content down pat by the time we finished AOS2 of Russia. But, these were amazing for revision. Just hit the space bar through the powerpoints so I could recall stuff instantly. :)

In terms of notes - I think I actually didn't take a single note the whole year. Crazy, I know? But like, the only notes I took were from readings we got assigned to do out of class. I genuinely don't even think I had an exercise book for Revs. If I did, I just used it to draw in haha. But yeah, had no need for notes. Learnt the content off the powerpoint (which really functioned more as flashcards. Again, if you're curious - chuck me a PM and I'll explain better :) )

So yeah, tl;dr - PRACTICE QUESTIONS! Don't even need to sit a whole practice exam. I only did 2 full practice exams, one of those being the formal one I had to go into school during the holidays to do, and the other one being one we organised to do under exam conditions in class. Get those practice questions going, incase I haven't said it enough haha.

Hope this was of some help! Always happy to answer anything in the question thread or via PM. :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: lyoko on October 03, 2017, 10:50:02 pm
With less than a month to go, how is everyone feeling?
I'm starting to feel the pressure and stress that everyone else is doing a whole heap more exams than I am...I have finish all of my notes and are pretty content with them :)

Out of interest - when does everyone graduate? I graduate on the 24th of October!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Bri MT on October 04, 2017, 10:07:09 am
With less than a month to go, how is everyone feeling?
I'm starting to feel the pressure and stress that everyone else is doing a whole heap more exams than I am...I have finish all of my notes and are pretty content with them :)

Out of interest - when does everyone graduate? I graduate on the 24th of October!

English Language is stressing me out, but I'm glad to have hit the time of year where I can just focus on exams. (I love the content of EL, but application under timed conditions is scary).

I also still need to finish some VTAC stuff off, hopefully I'll have that done by the end of this week

My school has our graduation at the start of December (which reminds me that I need to return my form)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on October 04, 2017, 01:12:55 pm
English Language is stressing me out, but I'm glad to have hit the time of year where I can just focus on exams. (I love the content of EL, but application under timed conditions is scary).

I also still need to finish some VTAC stuff off, hopefully I'll have that done by the end of this week

My school has our graduation at the start of December (which reminds me that I need to return my form)

Which section(s) of the exam in particular are you most concerned about for EngLang?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Bri MT on October 04, 2017, 01:57:41 pm
Which section(s) of the exam in particular are you most concerned about for EngLang?

Probably the essay. My main concern is that I won't finish it, so I'm thinking that maybe I should do the essay before the analytical commentary because an AC doesn't need to adhere to a rigid structure

edit: That way, if I run out of time I'll probably lose less marks for it being incomplete
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: 2352300 on October 05, 2017, 12:04:59 am
Probably the essay. My main concern is that I won't finish it, so I'm thinking that maybe I should do the essay before the analytical commentary because an AC doesn't need to adhere to a rigid structure

edit: That way, if I run out of time I'll probably lose less marks for it being incomplete

The englang essay also terrifies me. I get close to full marks on the AC/short answer component but do painfully average on the essay :,( good luck with your englang studies!!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Quantum44 on December 15, 2017, 03:36:45 pm
I don't have a personal VCE journal so I may as well post this on the communal journal (maybe I'll make one for uni next year). As I'm sure you are all aware, it's ATAR day today and I hope all from the class of 2017/2018 are satsified with their ATARs/study scores. It really is quite a cathartic moment to see the conclusion of 13 years of schooling. I was happy to see most of my friends were pleased with their results but alas a few were disappointed, something that cannot be avoided when it comes to ranking the entire state with one score. Is VCE a good system? Is it a bad system? I'm not sure anyone can answer that question, but it is a compromise that must be made and one that I believe does truly reward hard work and perseverance.

Since I am exceptionally happy with my result, I would like to express my gratitude to all the wonderful people of AN. The experience of the moderators and members who have already graduated is undeniably one of the most important aspects of this forum. I find school does not really allow for much interaction with older year levels, but reading the advice and support of VCE survivors on AN has really helped me gain an insight into successfully completing VCE. My fellow members of the class of 2017 deserve a special shoutout. We've been through many tough times together and reading about the VCE experience of other people and comparing it with my own has really put things into perspective for me. I'd also like to wish the year 11s on this forum good luck as they move into year 12. It really is the climax of your school life and you should make the most of it while enjoying yourself.

As for the future, I'm really not sure where I'm going. While many of my friends are locked into courses such as commerce @ UoM and can relax, I have decided to pursue medicine and thus Janurary 16th is going to be another nerve-wracking day with the mystery of the medical interview and UMAT thrown into the mix. All I can do now is hope for the best and try to take my mind off teriary offers.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: chooby on December 17, 2017, 04:14:52 pm
Well, I'm back after like what, 7 months or something. It's been a long while since I've posted on this forum or even touch the ATAR notes website but long story short, I experienced burn out fairly early into the year.
I tried to do too much at once both within my studies and in my personal life and I just completely lost it around mid this year. I needed to recover quickly and try to start the Semester 2 fresh so I quit all my music ensembles and took a long break from volunteering at my church. I started to slowly catch up and I was fine for a bit but I was definitely missing that balance between school and personal life still. So I decided to go back to a few of my ensembles and I've been settled in that area for a while now.
Out of all that I got a study score of 38 for Biology which I'm quite proud of. I feel like doing that 3/4 subject now has given me some insight on how to tackle my subjects next year, or more like how NOT to tackle them. Will try and be smarter about it next year. For Year 12, I'm taking English, Methods, Chem, Phys and hopefully Uni Chem at Monash Uni. Going to try and get back into volunteering at church just so I have something to do outside of school that continues on past Year 12 and yeah. That's my story. :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: peter.g15 on March 23, 2018, 10:47:06 pm
Hi all,
Sorry if i'm not meant to bump this thread since it's been 4 ish months since the last post, but oh well :|. I guess I'll start of 2018's journal at the end of term 1.

This term was pretty quiet with just two 'proper' full length sacs and then some small chem AOS3 tasks, so term one has been pretty slow and similar to last year. It's been good so far, but I realised that it just makes term 2 and 3 even busier. I just got my englang sac back today and was honestly disappointed in the result and was expecting and wanting a bit higher. I got 83% which luckily turns out to be 17/20 vcaa marks. I was expecting a 90% or around there coming out of the sac and felt pretty confident about my answers (short answer questions), but then the results got released today and didn't go how i expected.

Honestly have mixed feelings about the result since it was only 20% of my unit 3 mark (which only counts 25% for SS), and because I know that one sac won't ruin your study score (same thing happened with psych and look what happened). I think it's just not the start to the year that i wanted. Hopefully the next sac i get back (bio) is better, fingers crossed.

I'll probably try out doing a journal here and then deciding whether or not to start my own thread, we'll see!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on April 24, 2018, 09:38:42 am
Hi all,
Sorry if i'm not meant to bump this thread since it's been 4 ish months since the last post, but oh well :|. I guess I'll start of 2018's journal at the end of term 1.

This term was pretty quiet with just two 'proper' full length sacs and then some small chem AOS3 tasks, so term one has been pretty slow and similar to last year. It's been good so far, but I realised that it just makes term 2 and 3 even busier. I just got my englang sac back today and was honestly disappointed in the result and was expecting and wanting a bit higher. I got 83% which luckily turns out to be 17/20 vcaa marks. I was expecting a 90% or around there coming out of the sac and felt pretty confident about my answers (short answer questions), but then the results got released today and didn't go how i expected.

Honestly have mixed feelings about the result since it was only 20% of my unit 3 mark (which only counts 25% for SS), and because I know that one sac won't ruin your study score (same thing happened with psych and look what happened). I think it's just not the start to the year that i wanted. Hopefully the next sac i get back (bio) is better, fingers crossed.

I'll probably try out doing a journal here and then deciding whether or not to start my own thread, we'll see!

Nah, all good! I think people just started making their own threads, but this thread is always open to anybody who's looking to contribute but doesn't fancy their own thread. :)

On the EngLang SAC mark, sorry to hear you were disappointed. You might know already, but raw scores aren't that meaningful - so like, the ultimate difference between getting 83% and 90% is probably very slim if impactful at all.

OK so I have never posted on here before but I read the forums like ALL the time. I’m in year 12 at the moment and am LOVING it. The work load (yes this is weird 😑) and the social.

But I’m worried about after year 12... I’m kind of not looking forward to university and am feeling like I won’t know what to do with myself after all this is over. Maybe it’s just a bit of phase and I’ll get my self out of it soon. I don’t know 😬


Great first post - glad to have you here. :) I remember my first post after a while of lurking haha. Look forward to seeing you around!

I think it's pretty natural to feel how you are re: uni and the like. I certainly was feeling similarly at about the same time. What sort of courses are you interested in? :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: AngelWings on April 24, 2018, 12:07:55 pm
But I’m worried about after year 12... I’m kind of not looking forward to university and am feeling like I won’t know what to do with myself after all this is over. Maybe it’s just a bit of phase and I’ll get my self out of it soon. I don’t know 😬
This is kind of how I felt. It took me a while to know where I was headed (and now I'm in Honours, so... that went well.), but you'll get there. :) Have a look at yourself and what you enjoy most. Talk to friends who have known you for years, your parents, sibling(s) if you have any or other people close to you. They'll probably have good recommendations for you (besides a few biases). If not, you have the AN community and we're here to help!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 01, 2020, 05:13:59 pm
Sad this's fallen by the wayside. Let's see, if I post, will it revive.
Got a SAC tomorrow, English comparative, have done a ton of work for it, but since I'm aiming for 90%+, where my highest mark so far has been 87% unless you count creative, I don't think I'll get it; if I get a certain question (we got 7 q's out of which teacher will choose 2) I've got a decent plan for it and would be happy. 1/7 chance.... I'm ranked either 1 or 2, and I want to pull into a clear #1. We'll see how that goes. So. Probably ages before the results come back, though. *sighs*
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 02, 2020, 01:34:54 pm
Sad this's fallen by the wayside. Let's see, if I post, will it revive.
Got a SAC tomorrow, English comparative, have done a ton of work for it, but since I'm aiming for 90%+, where my highest mark so far has been 87% unless you count creative, I don't think I'll get it; if I get a certain question (we got 7 q's out of which teacher will choose 2) I've got a decent plan for it and would be happy. 1/7 chance.... I'm ranked either 1 or 2, and I want to pull into a clear #1. We'll see how that goes. So. Probably ages before the results come back, though. *sighs*

Good luck Cat in the Hat! You will do amazing!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 02, 2020, 02:12:55 pm
The question I wanted didn't come up. However, one I had a half-decent plan for did, so that was ok.
My feelings through the SAC-
Intro: this is ok.
1st Body Paragraph: I think I'll get that 90%+!
2nd Body Paragraph: I... might?... get that 90%+? At least an A, anyhow (49-60/60)
3rd Body Paragraph: this is repetitive. I hope the marker doesn't read this...

so we'll see how it goes - we take ages to get the English SACs back. But it's done. I tried out the more integrated method for almost the first time, and had heids' advice ringing through my head - concepts, big ideas, why did the author use this, etc. - all throughout the SAC. Hopefully it helped. Certainly, parts of the first paragraph I felt were my best work on comparative yet. So... we'll see.

If expectations go anywhere, I should be able to measure up reasonably to the people who I'm mainly aiming to top...
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: homeworkisapotato on September 02, 2020, 06:43:47 pm
Great job! I'm sure it'll meet your expectations!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 02, 2020, 09:16:23 pm
Do any other year 12s feel like they should just give up because they will never be good enough no matter how hard they try? I’m so upset that I probably won’t get a 40 in English. It’s 2 weeks until my comparative SAC and the chances I’ll get another flat 80% are just too high. :-[ I wish I could just drop out because it hurts just doing this to fail. It’s tragic. I just wanted to be good at something. How does one deal with such feelings of deflation and utter uselessness.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: whys on September 02, 2020, 10:05:15 pm
Do any other year 12s feel like they should just give up because they will never be good enough no matter how hard they try? I’m so upset that I probably won’t get a 40 in English. It’s 2 weeks until my comparative SAC and the chances I’ll get another flat 80% are just too high. :-[ I wish I could just drop out because it hurts just doing this to fail. It’s tragic. I just wanted to be good at something. How does one deal with such feelings of deflation and utter uselessness.
Yes, this is common - you're not alone. I've found that the best way to get out of the ongoing cycle of negativity we often find ourselves in is to take a break and reset my mind. Spend a day doing what you enjoy. Close your books, then revisit your goals again and you'll hopefully come back with a much more positive mindset. Definitely not saying this will work for everyone, but it's worth a try! 2 weeks is quite a long time - focus on your weaknesses and get feedback to improve your writing. 80% is far from a bad score, so don't chide yourself for 'failing', however, it's ok to feel unhappy if you don't meet your expectations. I hope you can pick yourself back up again!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 02, 2020, 10:11:48 pm
Yes, this is common - you're not alone. I've found that the best way to get out of the ongoing cycle of negativity we often find ourselves in is to take a break and reset my mind. Spend a day doing what you enjoy. Close your books, then revisit your goals again and you'll hopefully come back with a much more positive mindset. Definitely not saying this will work for everyone, but it's worth a try! 2 weeks is quite a long time - focus on your weaknesses and get feedback to improve your writing. 80% is far from a bad score, so don't chide yourself for 'failing', however, it's ok to feel unhappy if you don't meet your expectations. I hope you can pick yourself back up again!

Thank you for the advice whys I appreciate it! I wish I could take a day to chill but I think I took a few too many of those last week.....and now have 3 SACs next week! So my student free day will be (sadly) spent studying but I’ll be sure pretend it’s a school day and do nothing after 3pm to unwind before the weekend :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: J_Rho on September 04, 2020, 02:06:59 pm
How is everyone travelling?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 06, 2020, 09:56:09 am
How is everyone travelling?

Stressed....I have 4 SACs before the big comparative English SAC which will make or break my study score- tradegy.......has anyone who’s already done it just feel the relief fly off them?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 06, 2020, 02:43:44 pm
Stressed....I have 4 SACs before the big comparative English SAC which will make or break my study score- tradegy.......has anyone who’s already done it just feel the relief fly off them?
Relief will only exist in finding out the result to be what I wanted :P
It won't make or break your SS, though. That's the exams :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 08, 2020, 01:36:56 pm
I just realised, the course I want to get in has an unadjusted ATAR median of 90.55 (at the only campus I'm willing to go to).

Almost feel like throwing in the towel right now, and admitting I'll not get in. I'm confident of coping with the work if I get in, but there's very little chance, in my estimation, of getting in.

Sorry for the very-mini-rant. I only just found that table of figures.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 08, 2020, 05:46:28 pm
I just realised, the course I want to get in has an unadjusted ATAR median of 90.55 (at the only campus I'm willing to go to).

Almost feel like throwing in the towel right now, and admitting I'll not get in. I'm confident of coping with the work if I get in, but there's very little chance, in my estimation, of getting in.

Sorry for the very-mini-rant. I only just found that table of figures.

Have you checked to see if they have subject bonuses i.e extra 2 aggregate points for 35+ in English? I was looking at courses at Monash and Deakin and some had them? Also nursing at Geelong is much lower like 88 and at warambool or where ever it’s even lower. I know warambool is in the middle of nowhere and way too far away but have you looked into Geelong maybe? Just in case.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 08, 2020, 08:40:27 pm
Have you checked to see if they have subject bonuses i.e extra 2 aggregate points for 35+ in English? I was looking at courses at Monash and Deakin and some had them? Also nursing at Geelong is much lower like 88 and at warambool or where ever it’s even lower. I know warambool is in the middle of nowhere and way too far away but have you looked into Geelong maybe? Just in case.
Sadly Burwood Campus (Deakin) is really the only campus I can go to for this course, of any uni, for travel reasons. Yes, I should be able to qualify for subject bonuses for English, Methods and HHD (already got the score, so I know I'll get a bonus for that if they take raw score) but still, it'll place me probably fairly low in the course - a double degree which is quite popular... I mean I expect to get into straight Nursing if I want to, but I really want the double degree, and I'd be quite sad if I didn't get in.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: blueycan on September 09, 2020, 12:14:17 pm
Sadly Burwood Campus (Deakin) is really the only campus I can go to for this course, of any uni, for travel reasons. Yes, I should be able to qualify for subject bonuses for English, Methods and HHD (already got the score, so I know I'll get a bonus for that if they take raw score) but still, it'll place me probably fairly low in the course - a double degree which is quite popular... I mean I expect to get into straight Nursing if I want to, but I really want the double degree, and I'd be quite sad if I didn't get in.

It sounds like the subject bonuses will put you in a great position. I understand you're a bit worried, but the thing you can work towards right now is setting yourself up for the best shot at those bonuses, which from what I've read, you can get with a 30 SS. This, along with the entry atar score, is totally achievable, so don't discourage yourself!
Worst case scenario, have you considered any pathway options in your preferences that'd let you switch into the courses at Deakin? For peace of mind.
(:
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 09, 2020, 01:49:45 pm
I know what to do if I don't get in, that will end me with the same skills etc., but it takes a little longer, potentially doesn't give me as high a qualification in midwifery (graduate diploma as opposed to bachelor) and just doesn't sound as appealing. I mean, I'll keep trying for it, but I don't think I'll get in. Thanks :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: blueycan on September 09, 2020, 06:39:49 pm
I know what to do if I don't get in, that will end me with the same skills etc., but it takes a little longer, potentially doesn't give me as high a qualification in midwifery (graduate diploma as opposed to bachelor) and just doesn't sound as appealing. I mean, I'll keep trying for it, but I don't think I'll get in. Thanks :)

I completely understand, when you have your mind made up the longer route doesn't hold any appeal. Keep us updated on how you're going, and don't let yourself get too down (: All the best!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 10, 2020, 04:20:00 pm
Guess who just failed a bio sac? And no before you assume it’s not because I didn’t study.

It’s because my laptop malfunctioned 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳. And I could not scroll up and see anything YAYYYYYYY. How beautiful. And it was only out of 26 marks WOWZA. I had extra time but my laptop could still not sort it’s self out WOW. I really wanted to cry but I also had to compose myself on zoom. I hate my life. The thing was I was so worried about content this SAC because content I was behind. But I worked my butt of and felt semi confident. And the questions were beautiful! They were hard but I’d done enough practise to be able to see their Tricks! But nope my laptop let me down. I feel horrible. Just came to rant here because it’s far beyond my control :(

How’s your Thursday guys?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 10, 2020, 04:56:29 pm
Guess who just failed a bio sac? And no before you assume it’s not because I didn’t study.

It’s because my laptop malfunctioned 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳. And I could not scroll up and see anything YAYYYYYYY. How beautiful. And it was only out of 26 marks WOWZA. I had extra time but my laptop could still not sort it’s self out WOW. I really wanted to cry but I also had to compose myself on zoom. I hate my life. The thing was I was so worried about content this SAC because content I was behind. But I worked my butt of and felt semi confident. And the questions were beautiful! They were hard but I’d done enough practise to be able to see their Tricks! But nope my laptop let me down. I feel horrible. Just came to rant here because it’s far beyond my control :(

How’s your Thursday guys?
Have you talked to your teacher about it? Or mentioned the problems you had? I don't know there's anything that can be done, but still, maybe try?

Also, think about how much you studied - that's really great! That will help for the exam a lot, right? You've done that practise - it's practise for the exam. Even though it wasn't so great for this SAC, it's still good.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Geoo on September 10, 2020, 05:01:42 pm
Guess who just failed a bio sac? And no before you assume it’s not because I didn’t study.

It’s because my laptop malfunctioned 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳. And I could not scroll up and see anything YAYYYYYYY. How beautiful. And it was only out of 26 marks WOWZA. I had extra time but my laptop could still not sort it’s self out WOW. I really wanted to cry but I also had to compose myself on zoom. I hate my life. The thing was I was so worried about content this SAC because content I was behind. But I worked my butt of and felt semi confident. And the questions were beautiful! They were hard but I’d done enough practise to be able to see their Tricks! But nope my laptop let me down. I feel horrible. Just came to rant here because it’s far beyond my control :(

How’s your Thursday guys?

That's awful, i'm so sorry that happened to you. Is there anyway you can alert you teacher to redo the SAC, or send it in paper format with parent supervision? Something similar happened to me where my keyboard malfunctioned. That is just ridiculously unfair, and if you teacher doesn't agree I think you should be able to take it up with someone higher at the school, otherwise this is just straight up unfair.
Anyway, I hope this get's resolved for you, good luck!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 10, 2020, 05:14:58 pm
Thanks guys :) I was given extra time but I just had to type into the video cam chat what answers I wanted to put for the ones I couldn’t answer :( I had five extra minutes to do this. I didn’t get to go back and fix up my answers or even looked if I missed any questions :( that allopathic speciation question was a bit dodgy as my keyboard typed “change in allele frequency” three times and I couldn’t delete. But anyway it was the very last sac so I guess that’s okay right? I do hope they take this into consideration of my low score.

Anyway 🥳 no more bio SACs! Although I am a bit sad I quite liked bio........although I’m not sure I will after 1000 practise exams!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: homeworkisapotato on September 11, 2020, 09:52:58 pm
Guess who just failed a bio sac? And no before you assume it’s not because I didn’t study.

It’s because my laptop malfunctioned 🤩🤩🥳🥳🥳🥳. And I could not scroll up and see anything YAYYYYYYY. How beautiful. And it was only out of 26 marks WOWZA. I had extra time but my laptop could still not sort it’s self out WOW. I really wanted to cry but I also had to compose myself on zoom. I hate my life. The thing was I was so worried about content this SAC because content I was behind. But I worked my butt of and felt semi confident. And the questions were beautiful! They were hard but I’d done enough practise to be able to see their Tricks! But nope my laptop let me down. I feel horrible. Just came to rant here because it’s far beyond my control :(

How’s your Thursday guys?
I'm so sorry dude this is seriously horrible!

Thanks guys :) I was given extra time but I just had to type into the video cam chat what answers I wanted to put for the ones I couldn’t answer :( I had five extra minutes to do this. I didn’t get to go back and fix up my answers or even looked if I missed any questions :( that allopathic speciation question was a bit dodgy as my keyboard typed “change in allele frequency” three times and I couldn’t delete.
I know it sucks but at least it's over and it's just the exam looming over. All the best!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 16, 2020, 03:36:52 pm
I got back that comparative SAC: 80%, 48/60, four marks (and who knows how many ranks) behind top. I'd aimed for 90+% or at least 50/60. :'(
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 16, 2020, 03:40:47 pm
I got back that comparative SAC: 80%, 48/60, four marks (and who knows how many ranks) behind top. I'd aimed for 90+% or at least 50/60. :'(

Woah your teachers are so quick at marking!!!!! It takes mine 3 months to moderate the SACs etc (although I guess there are like 200+ kids).

Anyway I think that’s an amazing score!! And remember those wise words you told me.....it’s all in the exam!!!😊😊

Anyway I know me saying this doesn’t help and your feelings are completely valid! I got back a truly terrible SAC today and can’t help feeling like I should probably throw myself in front of several moving cars.

Also why is it out of 60?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: keltingmeith on September 16, 2020, 03:57:39 pm
I got back a truly terrible SAC today and can’t help feeling like I should probably throw myself in front of several moving cars.

If this is honestly how you feel, please do seek help. It's not healthy to want to purposefully put yourself in danger like this. Whether it be talking to a friend, or a trusted adult. Maybe your school has councillors that you can see? You can even talk to your GP if you're feeling down, and they can arrange finding a psychologist for you to speak to, and even arrange a mental health care plan so that you can get these visits for free. And if none of these seem like options, don't forget you can call the following numbers for free:

Kids helpline: 1800 55 1800
Headspace: 1800 650 890
SANE Australia: 1800 18 7263

And if you don't want to call someone, you can also use online chat with headspace by clicking on this link.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 16, 2020, 10:30:52 pm
Woah your teachers are so quick at marking!!!!! It takes mine 3 months to moderate the SACs etc (although I guess there are like 200+ kids).

Anyway I think that’s an amazing score!! And remember those wise words you told me.....it’s all in the exam!!!😊😊

Anyway I know me saying this doesn’t help and your feelings are completely valid! I got back a truly terrible SAC today and can’t help feeling like I should probably throw myself in front of several moving cars.

Also why is it out of 60?
The teacher isn't usually quick at marking - we got told it was there and all just stood there in shock. It's out of 60 because I think that's what it's out of in the study design? not sure though.

I do feel better about the SAC than I did earlier though, because I realised that the stuff I was told I did well was the stuff I'd been focusing on beforehand, so it definitely helped. Anyway, it wasn't what I aimed for, but ah well. Helped too that I got back a really good SAC for Texts today also (A; he doesn't give out percentages). However, I'm happy enough with English. Thanks for your kind words :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 18, 2020, 08:28:33 am
Who is excited for the “holidays”? 

doing practise exams yayyy  :-\

Is everyone planning to do HEAPs or leave the bulk of it for after the holidays? I was planning on getting comfortable with content and completing all the early vcaa seperate unit 3 and unit 4 exams from 2010-2012 (for Chem I’m starting back in 08’) so then I have 1 full length (2013 onwards) VCAA exam per week after the holidays+ sprinkling in a few companies.

 At my school apparently there’s still (annoyingly) online classes for 6 sessions a day in the first week (Staring at a screen yay) so it doesn’t look like I’ll get much study done then :P it’s also super funny they plan to give us 10 exams on GAT day haha, SIX weeks before exams.

There’s a trial exam for English in the first week and I’ve never written an essay in an hour this year much less three in three. All out SACs are 1 hour 50 and the text response was four hours online!!! I’m not sure what to do after organising my stuff but maybe I’ll just LITERALLY start writing for my other subjects- I can’t even takes notes anymore. 

Hope you all enjoy our last, last day of term! Didn’t even realise.........
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 18, 2020, 08:53:28 am
Who is excited for the “holidays”? 

doing practise exams yayyy  :-\

Is everyone planning to do HEAPs or leave the bulk of it for after the holidays? I was planning on getting comfortable with content and completing all the early vcaa seperate unit 3 and unit 4 exams from 2010-2012 (for Chem I’m starting back in 08’) so then I have 1 full length (2013 onwards) VCAA exam per week after the holidays+ sprinkling in a few companies.

 At my school apparently there’s still (annoyingly) online classes for 6 sessions a day in the first week (Staring at a screen yay) so it doesn’t look like I’ll get much study done then :P it’s also super funny they plan to give us 10 exams on GAT day haha, SIX weeks before exams.

There’s a trial exam for English in the first week and I’ve never written an essay in an hour this year much less three in three. All out SACs are 1 hour 50 and the text response was four hours online!!! I’m not sure what to do after organising my stuff but maybe I’ll just LITERALLY start writing for my other subjects- I can’t even takes notes anymore. 

Hope you all enjoy our last, last day of term! Didn’t even realise.........
I'm quite looking forward to the holidays - mainly because today is my LAST SAC EVER!!! and then I will start practise exams. For Methods the teacher's given us four practise exams to do over the holidays. For Texts, since it's my last exam and a week after the second last, I'll do very little except maybe a few essays, but no full exams for a while. The problem with doing Texts exams is that the passages for study change every year, so it's not like we can just do any exam! English, I'll probably just work on LA and maybe a bit of TR, timed, comparative the SAC I was finished in probably an hour ten or something, so I'll just... trust... Trials are slightly worrying though, that's for sure! I think ours is in the holidays for English. For History the teacher will probably make sure I do plenty of work :P

But my main study will probably be after the holidays when I settle down to doing real, solid exams, especially for English. Methods I'll probably do in chunks, timed, rather than entire exams at once. But we'll see! Tomorrow I'm hoping to write up a list of things I want to complete before each exam, which should give increased clarity.

The joys of year 12...
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 18, 2020, 01:50:44 pm
I finished my last SAC! No more SACs to do, ever (unless I flunk year 12 :P). History, didn't do so well, but at the moment I don't care. Anyhow, I got a shockingly unexpectedly amazingly high mark for the first of the two unit 4 SACs (averaging around 70-80, got 92%) awhile ago, so that can carry me if this one doesn't. But jubilation! One more step closer to the end.

:D Sorry, I'm just happy and relieved - the strenuous week of last-SACs is over... now I just have to learn in English :P

:D
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on September 18, 2020, 01:57:10 pm
Well done! :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Massimo1 on September 19, 2020, 06:49:13 pm
I’m going to start using forum since term 3 is over meaning the grind until final exams is starting, and I may or may not be stressing a lot leading up to exams.

I can finally say that content-wise, I have finally covered everything in Unit 3&4 Chemistry after the being stuck with organic chemistry for an additional three or so weeks compared to everyone else.  ;D I’m glad that the food chem part was relatively okay for me  since I’m also doing 3/4 bio. I can finally begin practice revision and practice exams now and it feels gooddd (: . Planning to recuperate from this busy school term for the weekend before starting practice exams for chem, English, glopol and methods.

Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Massimo1 on September 28, 2020, 05:50:30 pm
28/09/2020
I don’t know how I feel about the first week of the holidays to be honest. I’ve done two methods tech-free and two tech -active exams but I realised I’m struggling in a few areas like trigonometry and standard normal distribution but overall it’s going well. I’m stressing about chemistry though, I’ve in essence finished the content but revising it all, there’s a whole AOS I need to re-learn and I am STILL struggling with reaction pathways when I have tried multiple methods of learning them.

Some good news though, I have finally submitted my VTAC application after spending weeks of putting it off for no other reason than laziness. (:

 I haven’t been able to do a full English exam yet but I have done a timed essay for section C of the exam and at this point I’m just glad I can still finish an essay within one hour. I’ve been quietly good at Global Politics throughout the year when it comes to individual AOS, but putting the whole thing together has been so overwhelming, especially with doing a practice exam. And what makes it worse is that there’s barely any publicly available resources for glopol so I’m basically just asking others for a lot of help. And I’ve forgotten a lot of case studies so I’m going to have to brush up on those as well :/

Anyways sorry for the freak out session but overall I’ve realised this last week that I still have a lot of gaps in my learning that I need to address before exams.

Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 28, 2020, 09:10:34 pm
A fairly random update on my subjects and what I feel about each of them, mainly to quantify and cut through the fog in my brain.

English
My goal is fairly ambitious, for me at least: to (hopefully) walk into the exam ranked #1 (I'm not yet sure of my ranking). But at least I plan to get ~53/60 in the exam, if I can. This is fairly ambitious considering I got what would amount to 15/20 for the AA SAC, a flukey text response got me 17/20, and the comparative got me 16/20, meaning that if I got just what I got in the SACs that would be 48/60. So I need to pick up my game in all three sections. Realistically I expect higher for the AA in the exam but lower for both the other two sections... so I guess at the moment the main thing is to do a lot of practise exams :) Anyhow, I'm feeling pretty happy with English - and I never would have guessed the scores I'd get in English through year 12, either.

Methods
Hmmm... this subject could use a little more love (read: a lot). I've been neglecting it terribly for Texts, English and History, all three. I've barely done anything outside of class all year, and although I've kept up to some extent with the brain content, I've done very little practise. And for the last couple of topics (integration and probability) I have developed the deplorable habit of completely tuning out in class and then not catching up... so I crammed for the calculus SAC during probability stuff, and now I don't know any probability. So I need to learn that - my strategy is make a bound book and also work through practise exams - I've done most of both 2019 exams and some of the 2018 exam 1. I also need to learn the exact values table for trig ::) (as well as learn everything for probability of course). My main area to struggle in is identifying what of these disparate pieces of knowledge I can put together and learn stuff with, since I've done everything very separately to this time. I think I can do well in Methods, it just requires the work. Scaling will be my friend :) (also, aiming for at least 36 raw, both to beat the score of my brother :P and get the aggregate boost for a 35+ score in any maths, in my chosen course). So, Methods I'm not too happy with, but it's ok; still waiting on the mark for the last SAC, though...

Texts and Traditions
Did the trial exam today for Texts. I'm surprisingly happy with where I'm at in Texts. I suppose getting back the last SAC and getting an A did help with that optimism; my unit 4 grade is an A at the moment, since I got that for both of them. Having done two practise exams (including the trial today) I can say that I know most of the content, it just requires more practise. Also writing at an insane pace. Also remembering scholarly opinion - my least favourite. (Anyone who's thinking of doing Texts and Traditions in year 12, I would probably recommend it. Don't get overawed by the tiny size of the cohort. :))

History: Revolutions
 ::) I need to practise more. As in, my notes are not functional. For either France or Russia. They are all over the place. Not a good thing to do with Revs... which needs more attention, it's had none since the SAC. I think I'll try just jumping straight into practise exams then send 'em to the teacher, who can point out all the bits I missed since my knowledge is... sketchy. Hopefully thus can I build my knowledge. I hope. However, the exam is the day after English, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't get as much love as it should. But since I really need it in my top four and to do well in it...! H'm. I need to practise it a lot more :-\ Doing the first practise exam this week sometime.

As to practise exams - I've done I think three for English, full and timed (why is doing the last essay, whichever you pick, so fiendishly hard) two for Texts (my hand hurts) none full and timed in one go for Methods (help) and none at all for Revs (someone send help :P)

So. There. I have successfully procrastinated my way through the evening (it only took ten, fifteen minutes to write, but still).

TL;DR: English is currently officially my highest-expecting subject, Methods might be saved by scaling, Texts I hate the exam but feel relatively prepared, Revs starts to feel like a lost cause but it can't be. I cannot have it going down below HHD's unscaled 31. Please.

 :D
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 29, 2020, 04:25:33 pm
Anyone else’s motivation just disappear while marking an exam? I’d been doing so great until now with bio and now I just feel empty. I know maybe this was a hard exam but it still hurts. I don’t mind getting things wrong because that’s how to learn but at the same time I don’t know what to do. Start doing exams open book? It’s really disheartening :(
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on September 29, 2020, 06:45:57 pm
Anyone else’s motivation just disappear while marking an exam? I’d been doing so great until now with bio and now I just feel empty. I know maybe this was a hard exam but it still hurts. I don’t mind getting things wrong because that’s how to learn but at the same time I don’t know what to do. Start doing exams open book? It’s really disheartening :(
Maybe try doing them open book for a few, or keep trying on all the questions you got wrong, until you know how to do them inside out. I guess just keep on trying, even the bad marks are ways to learn; today I did my first full closed-book Methods exam 1 and got 13/40 ::); its a learning experience. Also, we're in the holidays here, take a few days off if you need them! :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on September 29, 2020, 09:08:33 pm
Maybe try doing them open book for a few, or keep trying on all the questions you got wrong, until you know how to do them inside out. I guess just keep on trying, even the bad marks are ways to learn; today I did my first full closed-book Methods exam 1 and got 13/40 ::); its a learning experience. Also, we're in the holidays here, take a few days off if you need them! :)

Yeah I took the rest of today off and have pushed all my exams for the next few days back :(

Also haha me too! On my first closed book exam I got 19/40.......
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Massimo1 on October 09, 2020, 07:25:10 pm

Hope everyone is doing well.

I just finished an entire week of five trial exams and the GAT and I am exhausted whew  :-\ . I know that COVID is a thing, but schools condensing all their trial exams into a period of five days was so draining for me, especially since I my end of year exam timetable isn't going to be five consecutive days of exams. I know they don't  count towards your study score but I'm really not looking forward to having them returned since I basically ran most of the week with limited sleep and continuous cramming for what was to come the next day, but oh well.

On another note though, the GAT was Wednesday and I found the MCQs so much easier than last year’s ones, and the first writing task I also thought I did well on. But the second writing task I really was just writing to finish because I was so over writing by that point haha.  Plan for weekend is looking like doing a methods technology free trial exam, reviewing U4AOS2 chemistry and preparing for our final English sac next week.  :P
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on October 09, 2020, 09:09:39 pm
Well, having done a few practise exams for Methods, I can proudly say that I almost passed one today. :P
(I got 19/40, my highest score yet, with the other exam being 35/80; this was the VCAA 2018 exams)
So I'm kind of happy and kind of... need a lot more work, and the trial exams are on Monday and Tuesday  :-\ :o
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: caffinatedloz on October 09, 2020, 11:54:47 pm
Well, having done a few practise exams for Methods, I can proudly say that I almost passed one today. :P
(I got 19/40, my highest score yet, with the other exam being 35/80; this was the VCAA 2018 exams)
So I'm kind of happy and kind of... need a lot more work, and the trial exams are on Monday and Tuesday  :-\ :o

Ah good luck! I've got my trial exam for my 3/4 subject this week as well (Tuesday) and haven't even opened a practice exam yet! Are you able to find patterns in what you're struggling with? Hope you have a productive weekend and absolutely smash them!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on October 10, 2020, 09:30:48 am
Ah good luck! I've got my trial exam for my 3/4 subject this week as well (Tuesday) and haven't even opened a practice exam yet! Are you able to find patterns in what you're struggling with? Hope you have a productive weekend and absolutely smash them!
I can definitely see what I'm struggling with, and find patterns, but there's all too much that I don't know (e.g. I don't know most of the probability content, because... let's just say I didn't pay attention in class ::)) My highest hope for the trial is... don't fail? Please don't fail??
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on October 12, 2020, 08:27:53 am
Oooh I forgot today everyone was going back to school I was wondering why no one was on AN!

I start school at 2pm if it’s any constellation......Chem trial exam  :P

Good luck on your trial exams/returning to school everyone we are so close to the end!!!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on October 12, 2020, 09:10:18 am
I got my English trial exam back... apparently I got 53/60 :) :D
Now I just have to suffer through Methods today and tomorrow, and Revs tomorrow (hopefully I pass all exams).
I start around 1 or so, Methods trial exam 1. Good luck, Coolgalbornin03Lo! :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on October 15, 2020, 01:54:01 pm
I got the Methods exam 1 back just now. 14/40.  :( :-\ :'(
Got Revs back yesterday - did okay, passed (though not much more than that). Fairly okay with it.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Massimo1 on October 22, 2020, 05:50:00 pm
Just had our last day of school today and I'm highkey more sad than I thought I would be, but also really happy at the same time.

Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on October 22, 2020, 06:00:10 pm
Just had our last day of school today and I'm highkey more sad than I thought I would be, but also really happy at the same time.

I get what you mean. I thought I’d be happy to leave that train wreck behind but I’m sad that I had to hate that place so much and I couldn’t enjoy being a kid I always wanted to finish school, but not end childhood :(.
But I’m happy they will NEVER see me again 😄😄😄
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Massimo1 on November 03, 2020, 11:29:58 pm
One week out from the English exam and I'm feeling ... stressed.

I've been doing essays but they've mostly been in one hour blocks rather than the entire three hours so I need to do a full exam when I can, but I'm glad that at least I know I can finish essays within the hour. My hand hurts a lot when doing it so I really need to see how it is in the full three hour exam.

I think I'll be fine for the text response because it's my strongest section out of the three imo and because its a film I can rewatch Rear Window as needed rather than needing to reread an entire book.

 The thing that's really stressing me out is comparative though - I cannot remember any quotes besides the generic ones that everyone uses and it really sucks, and learning two books really just exhausts me. I really want to reread each book but there's really no time anymore as well  :-\
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 04, 2020, 09:26:44 am
Six days.

Six days.

Six days.

Till we never need to do English again. We'll never have to stare at a book and wonder what the author's trying to say. Never need to analyse what the author of that opinion piece over there is trying to tell us.

But, you know, I think that we'll never be the same again. We won't be able to just look at it from our perspective: that box has been opened and maybe can't shut again. We might find ourselves analysing it in our heads, assessing the impact they're trying to make on us, and trying to balance it.

The books we've read, the things we've discovered, in year 12 English, won't go away because the exam's over. That was a year out of our life, and a year we had to grow up that bit more, ready for the next stage in our journeys.

Now, our paths may diverge. Not just we-go-to-different-schools, nor yet we-do-different-subjects, but one might take a gap year, and perhaps never return to university. Another might go to a trade. Another may just go on to university like we always got told we would. We get our own choices, more than in high school. It's the beginning of the adventure, maybe. Or maybe it's just the continuation of the carefully-mapped plan for our lives.

But what we've learnt in English won't leave us.

What book or film did we study? The themes and ideas beyond our ken, that we wouldn't have seen, or understood, before the start of the year, aren't just to be brushed aside. The analysis we learnt - or maybe just heard the teacher tell us - isn't transient.

Year 12 English, especially in such a year as this, has changed us. Year 12 in general has.

Six days until the English exam, and English is over... in name, at least.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on November 04, 2020, 03:05:20 pm
I love the way you write it’s so philosophical!

And your absolutely right; everything that’s happened this year doesn’t just end next tuesday or on the 30th of November or whenever your last exam is- it will be with us for the rest of your life.

Thanks for this ~different~ outlook on VCE it’s really warming for some reason  :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 04, 2020, 09:19:25 pm
I love the way you write it’s so philosophical!

And your absolutely right; everything that’s happened this year doesn’t just end next tuesday or on the 30th of November or whenever your last exam is- it will be with us for the rest of your life.

Thanks for this ~different~ outlook on VCE it’s really warming for some reason  :)
I'm glad it warmed you! :) I don't know quite why I wrote it, it just seemed to want to be written out. A break from fiction, perhaps, but still being able to express things in the same kind of way. :)

Now it's five days....
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: thunderie on November 08, 2020, 09:38:23 pm
2 more days till the English exam aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on November 08, 2020, 10:36:10 pm
2 more days till the English exam aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

*1 day 10 hours
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 09, 2020, 10:17:47 am
Please don't tell me we're having a countdown....
This time tomorrow, we'll be in the thick of it. Hopefully finished the first essay...!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Coolgalbornin03Lo on November 09, 2020, 12:11:55 pm
Please don't tell me we're having a countdown....
This time tomorrow, we'll be in the thick of it. Hopefully finished the first essay...!

This time tommrow we’ll be 4 minutes from freedom 😳

Edit: yeah I’ll stop now, good luck everyone you’ll do great 😊
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 09, 2020, 12:21:54 pm
This time tommrow we’ll be 4 minutes from freedom 😳

Edit: yeah I’ll stop now, good luck everyone you’ll do great 😊
For '4 minutes from freedom' read: frantically trying to finish an essay and panicking. :P
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: blueycan on November 09, 2020, 08:30:05 pm
Popping in to wish everyone on this thread the best of luck for their yr12 exams !!
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 10, 2020, 01:16:47 pm
The English exam was brilliant. I could've answered either of the two questions, for both Section A and B. We'd gone through both the Section B questions in class, actually, and as for Section A, I've never seen an easier question (who thinks of putting a question about first impressions for Pride and Prejudice - when it was originally titled First Impressions because that was the main thing of the novel!).
So I'm happy. :D
EDIT: Doubt has crept in. I am worried. Hoping for a 35 in English. We'll see.
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 14, 2020, 11:22:44 am
A small comment about marks. Sorry I've basically appropriated this 'communal' journal for my own....
Heidi, if you're reading this, don't read this - you're going to disagree with me - I know it...
At the start of the year I hoped for a 90+ ATAR, just like the rest of my family. Now I'm being realistic. But when I put the study scores I think I'll get, into the AN ATAR calculator, it didn't even give me 80.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying high 70s (which was what it showed) is a bad ATAR (if I get it), it's just - well, for one, it completely wrecks my hopes for the course I want, and for another, it's so much lower than the rest of my family.

When I consider my English exam, I'm realising all the things I forgot to put in. The authorial intent. All the stuff that separates a high score from a middling one. So now I'm just trying to convince myself that I'll be happy with an ATAR of 80+. Which is nothing like what I originally expected. 90+ is just what you do in my family. I mean I know that this year, for me, has been harder than a normal year 12, with personal health stuff. I know that the year is just a weird year all round. But still. And I can't shake the idea the teachers are wrong about what I'll get. The Texts teacher basically assures me of a 40+. I can't help thinking that he just hears our surname and 'knows' what I'll get. The scores I've been getting simply don't add up to a 40+, in my opinion. And English? The teacher said we'd probably get a few 40+'s in our class. I know that therefore she was expecting me to (since I was ranked first in the class before the exam) but I feel like I let her down, by forgetting all the advice during the exam - all the advice except write more. Which I did. Forgetting to put in all those things I did in the trial exam, that picked me up from 15-16/20's to 17-18/20's. I barely analysed the visuals in Section C. I mean I knew they were there, I just... didn't talk about them. History, too; the subject I've been avoiding all year, because it's hard. I did a lot of study for it, and got in and looked at the questions and... I knew they were easy. But that didn't mean I could answer them. I got scared about the essay, it looked horrid. I started writing and it was fine. But evidence? I think I used what, five historical quotes throughout the entire paper? That's not a good idea. I was hoping for 70%, but with some of my vague 10-marker answers, I'll be happy with 60%. I got 65% in my trial exam. History is the only subject I'm getting an inkling that I might, might be underpredicting my study score by a point or so. But Methods is the biggest let down. I've throughout the year assumed I'll get at least a 36 raw - to beat my brother (great motivation that). But now I'm looking at the marks I'm getting on practise exams - averaging 40%, if that, for e1 and 50-60% for e2 - and realising I'll be lucky to get a 30 raw. Which doesn't give much room for Methods to boost my ATAR. And the teacher assumes I'll do well. Because of my surname or something. A teacher who separates the class into two groups - the 'pass-ers' and the '99-ers', who automatically assumes I'm classified as a 99-er. She'd never taught me before.

So my current predicted (raw) study scores are: English (exam done) 37, Revs (exam done) 32, Methods (exam coming up) 29, Texts (exam last, over a week and a half away) 36. And an ATAR, I hope, of 80+. Call it 82, because that's just neat and tidy as exactly 10 ATAR points below my aim at the start of the year, 92. We'll see. I have a very kind friend (you know who you are if you see this, my friend) who says she's sure I'll get that 90+. However, although I appreciate her sentiments, I know I'm the one doing the exam. I saw what I did. I know my Methods weaknesses. So I think I know more than her what I'll get. Of course, it would be nice if she were right... but I know she won't be.

Odd how an 85 ATAR suddenly seems such an achievement, for me.

OK, rant over. I'll be sensible again and try and forget about it.

-Disclaimer-
We all have different score expectations - an ATAR of 85 is an achievement, but not the kind of one I'm looking for... if you know what I mean.
And in case you don't want to read my slightly sad rant, here is something positive:
A brother who berates me for working too hard before exams. Tells me I need to do something other than school. That I'll work myself into the ground. Etc.
A brother who, the day of my Revs exam, after the exam - two exams down - comes and hands me a game (Exploding Kittens) which he bought that day, because I'd been working so hard and he was proud of me.
We haven't played it yet. That I've said we'll do after my Methods exams. But the thought - his kindness - really touched me. Everyone be nice to Yertle; he's a great brother. So there, that's the positive-ness coming here. :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: The Cat In The Hat on November 26, 2020, 09:47:10 pm
Well, hello ladies and gents, this is the day we've all been waiting for: the evening of the day of our last exam.

My exams are over, I've never got to do any of these things again. No more year 12, no more worrying about cohorts and rankings and study scores. Not until 30 December. Add to this the fact that I predicted correctly the essay question for Texts (1/3 of the mark) and thus prepared for it, as well as getting decent other questions except for the one about a literary technique I'd never heard of, 'pairing' and I feel my final VCE exam treated me pretty well.

Now - finally - I get to relax. I can pick up my hobbies again. Sweep the dust off the piano keys, off my camera, off my life. I can wear out my fingers writing the stories that clamour in my head, perfecting them, polishing them until every word is a gem. It's the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane. I'm just about to head out into the hurricane, where I'll be tossed every which way during uni, perhaps - but never lose sight of the ground.

My VCE journey is almost over. Just the results, and now, in the post-exams euphoria, I don't care, almost. I've done what I can. I think I did okay. Not what I wanted at the start of the year, but okay. Not what will get me into the course I really want, but I've put in enough effort that I know, whatever I do, it was my best. I've written 37,000 words of a novel during the exam period. I still might win NaNoWriMo again during my sudden free time here.

Finally - I've been waiting all year for this day - I'm free. Free from a weight that's hung around my neck for ever so long. It's the end of a journey and the start of a new one.

And what will I find, then, I wonder?
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Bri MT on November 26, 2020, 10:29:25 pm
Congratulations!!

I hope you have a restful & rewarding break :)
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Joseph41 on November 30, 2020, 04:42:26 pm
Well, hello ladies and gents, this is the day we've all been waiting for: the evening of the day of our last exam.

My exams are over, I've never got to do any of these things again. No more year 12, no more worrying about cohorts and rankings and study scores. Not until 30 December. Add to this the fact that I predicted correctly the essay question for Texts (1/3 of the mark) and thus prepared for it, as well as getting decent other questions except for the one about a literary technique I'd never heard of, 'pairing' and I feel my final VCE exam treated me pretty well.

Now - finally - I get to relax. I can pick up my hobbies again. Sweep the dust off the piano keys, off my camera, off my life. I can wear out my fingers writing the stories that clamour in my head, perfecting them, polishing them until every word is a gem. It's the calm before the storm, the eye of the hurricane. I'm just about to head out into the hurricane, where I'll be tossed every which way during uni, perhaps - but never lose sight of the ground.

My VCE journey is almost over. Just the results, and now, in the post-exams euphoria, I don't care, almost. I've done what I can. I think I did okay. Not what I wanted at the start of the year, but okay. Not what will get me into the course I really want, but I've put in enough effort that I know, whatever I do, it was my best. I've written 37,000 words of a novel during the exam period. I still might win NaNoWriMo again during my sudden free time here.

Finally - I've been waiting all year for this day - I'm free. Free from a weight that's hung around my neck for ever so long. It's the end of a journey and the start of a new one.

And what will I find, then, I wonder?

Well done! Happy for you. 👍
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Commercekid2050 on October 19, 2021, 08:11:57 pm
Well just though of talking in here. Today was the last day of year 12 in my school. Can not believe that in less than a month from now I would be free from school. Hard to believe that tbh.  Difficult to be believe that from March I would be able to start  going to university.

This is my first and last entry in my VCE journal. Thanks for reading.
Soon I would start another journal. in a new year, with a new me and well a new start

Thank you
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Sathu on November 23, 2021, 10:17:41 pm
 hello guys,

This is my vce journal where I will hopefully look back and see how far i have come.

I am writing this for a very particular reason I am feeling anxious, remember to say you are FEELING anxious not I AM anxious because your whole being does not depend on anxiety. I read this somewhere lmao. ANYWAYS, i am feeling anxious because year 11 is coming up. this is my last week of school and next year, we will be going to a separate campus to complete vce. I am nervous but also slightly excited of whats to come. I HATE that i wont have my comfort routine and wont be in control of my life - at least at the start of the year. I am also scared about how school grades acc matter and i dont think I'll be able to handle the pressure. I am writing this as a momentum, where i will hopefully look back and say 'ha wow i was so stressed for nothing'
Title: Re: Communal VCE Journey Journal (feel free to participate!)
Post by: Snow Leopard on November 24, 2021, 10:53:14 am
i dont think I'll be able to handle the pressure.
Hey, having finished Year 12 some advice I would give you would be:

- Have confidence in yourself that you can acheive your goals. Doing this will bring you one step closer to achieving them rather than doubting yourself which will only bring you down.

- Don't complain too much about how difficult the work is/how annoying VCAA are for making exams so difficult etc as in my opinion it's a waste of time and energy. Focus on what you can change which is the effort you put in.

- Don't compare yourself to others too much. Yes ranking matters in Yr 12 but at the end of the day you can't control how others in your cohort will perform, you can only control your performance so focus on yourself. From personal experience, I found that comparing myself to others only worsened my mental health which made it harder to do well academically.

Good luck with your VCE!