Post-GAT feels...
Longest 3 hours of my life. At least it’s over and now I can go home and listen to some music while trying to make awkward conversation with a girl half my age, eat some grapes, clean my windows, and wait for a roast duck to fly into my mouth.
(Did anyone do the GATchphrase btw? I made a really subtle hint to it in the second writing task)
Anyway, an update on school overall:
For my 3/4 subjects, I'm currently averaging a B+ for Auslan and B for ancient, which sucks. I was especially pissed at my Auslan mark, since I was so close to an A, but I got a mark taken off cos I was mouthing the words while signing and apparent that's not allowed. I went home and checked previous examination reports and it didn't mention anything about mouthing words. Maybe my teacher was just extra picky.
I can't really whine about my B for ancient though, since I must admit I haven't worked on it too much. I'm average in my class right now, (my teacher has a system of marking so that B is always the average grade no matter how easy or hard the SAC was). We're starting Rome soon though and I'm really excited. Hopefully I'll be able to redeem my grades, since so far they haven't been ideal.
As for my 1/2s, chem is definitely my worst nightmare right now. My teacher had engraved the words 'carbon' into my mind to the point where I get headaches when people mention global warming. Recently we had a sac which I failed - 32%, though I passed the redemption with 88% (which I'm REALLY happy with). I got about 2 hours of sleep the night before though, since I was too busy cramming stuff into my head (if only grades like that came without the expense of my mental health lol). The 88% really boosted my morale, it's probably horrendous to some people out there but to me that's amazing.
English - I still haven't gotten the hang of this subject. It's so subjective, I feel like I can do something on one essay and get an A, then do the exact same thing on another essay and get a D. Got nothing else to say about it. So far averaging somewhere between C+ and B. We’re starting 1984 soon.
Maths - well our SAC finished, got a solid 64% (at least I passed). Even by my standards I think that was horrible, especially when the average was around 75. With the holidays coming up soon I'll be diving into the world of mathematics and I'm planning to get ahead and finish all the textbook questions for the next chapter before our teacher starts teaching it, that way I won't be lagging behind like I always do. Hopefully will update on my progress.
Food - I have a love-hate relationship with this subject at the moment. Love because it's the most practical and hands on subject I do, it's probably the most applicable-to-real-life subject in doing, AND it's fun. Hate because it actually scales down so much it's depressing. Recently I visited the careers counsellor at school who encouraged me to drop food tech and keep chem for year 12 instead of sticking to my original plan of dropping chem instead. (I thought career counsellors were supposed to encourage students to follow their interests instead of scaling 😂).
I know a student last year who did similar subjects to me (except PE and busman instead of Auslan and ancient), she ended up with a 60-something ATAR, but could've gotten an ATAR in the mid-80s if raw scores were taken into account instead of scaled.
Of course you could argue that I should just work super hard and get high 40s for all my subjects so they no longer scale down, but it doesn't seem that realistic.
Till next time! Hope everyone’s getting a well deserved break after the GAT.