Hi guys (: Blueycan is back!
<-- Just wanna update that I've put my pronouns in my profile text just to the left <3We're approaching week 5 (??) of Year 12, and also approaching a new month. A lot of new things have happened since the start of the year, but I'll start off with general updates about my subjects.
This is quite a long read– bring your popcorn 🍿🧃
Further MathsI've finished my first chapter's worth of data analysis!! Last Tuesday (in lockdown) we completed a chapter test on univariate data, and I did pretty well! I'm confident with Further so far, univariate data passed like a breeze and now we've started bivariate data. My favourite area to study so far is probably normal distribution, and my least favourite thing is significant figures (it's taking a while to wrap my head around it). My data analysis SAC is at the end of term and it sure is a big one– 4 chapters worth of content in a 5-period-long assessment. Luckily, I have a few friends who studied 3/4 Further last year who have been able to help me out here and there, which has been a big help in knowing what to expect.
I really want to keep up the habit of updating my summary book regularly– one of my friends procrastinated making their final good-copy summary book up until SWOTVAC time and I'm really not trying to do that 😅
I've taken on the advice to start doing Checkpoints questions here and there from the beginning of the year, and I've found that it really helps knowing what is expected of you walking into an assessment. If you're reading this and doing General Maths or are also doing Further, I highly recommend seeing if you can find some past exam questions to practice with!
EnglishIt already feels weird to know my first English SAC is 50% over! I know that a lot of schools do their SACs in different order– my first SAC is the Creative Response, and the text we're studying is Extinction. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but I read Extinction last year, so that's helped me really bolster my understanding of the text. We also had the opportunity to watch a recording of the live play a couple of weeks ago, which was really cool. I'm the type of person to visualise a text while I'm reading it, so I find plays to be up there in my favourite forms of text.
I had the first portion of my SAC last Thursday where we wrote out our final scenes under test conditions. My Creative Response was a script/scene that centred around the characters Piper and Harry's personalities clashing, having a heated argument and exposing it all! ... I focused on the themes human/non-human and idealism/pragmatism. Part two, my statement of intention, is going to be on Monday, so I need to prepare for that... I like my scene, and I think I didn't do that bad (hopefully my teachers agree heh) but I'm not too confident yet about my written explanation. I'm planning to work on it tomorrow.
I have a LOTTTT of preparation to do for my next topic (Rear Window text response) so pls wish me luck with all that coursework (,:
PsychologyFinished the Nervous System... finishing Stress... and getting closer to our first SAC!!!! Psychology was one of my favourite subjects last year, and while it's still on the leaderboard, this topic has been kind of draining. I feel like a lot of it is going into my brain but I'm not resonating with the content. It's interesting, don't get me wrong– but I'm more looking forward to learning about sleep and mental wellbeing (which is months away lol). I definitely need to start studying for my first SAC, so I've made it a priority to complete all coursework and keep updating my summary notes. We might also have an incursion planned for a later topic, probably Sleep, which is exciting and should be really good!
I don't really have much more to say about Psych 😚
Legal StudiesThe tiktoks were right. 3/4 Legal is slowly but surely kicking my butt. We're still in the honeymoon phase, learning about the criminal justice system, but the coursework my teacher gives me is INSANE (,: I'm getting through it though. I joke around a bit with my friends saying stuff like I regret picking it but honestly, I do really like Legal Studies. I get really adrenaline-y in class and I always want to talk about the topics we're discussing. My teacher is pretty cool, and definitely different from who I had last year, but still good. I especially like how she'll switch from teaching the content to asking us questions and then making her own comments about the content, which engages the class and makes being there fun.
Since we're doing criminal law right now (and even though it barely has any correlation lol) a lot of my classmates are ALWAYS talking about Netflix docu's about crime/murder/serial killers/you name it. I'm a
big chicken so the scariest thing I'll watch is Buzzfeed Unsolved but it's so interesting to hear others talk about it. I remember listening to season one of the Serial podcast a few years ago and being HOOKED so maybe it's a sign I should get watching 😈
Need to study first though...My first SAC is in about two weeks so it's time to get cracking. I noticed that I freeze and end up word-vomiting on longer response questions, so I definitely need to work on that before the test!
Visual Communication Design I am a vcd baby so some of my words may not make sense– sorry in advance lolVCD has been going surprisingly smoothly? I'm doing alright and I'm not falling behind, despite my worries at the start of the year. Some background context– I haven't done any subject that is Art based since Year 9, so diving straight into VCD in YEAR TWELVE was a huge risk for me but ultimately happy I ended up doing it.
We've finished our first mini communication design project (!!!) where we had to design a logo for Melbourne Zoo that was simple, suitable for both colour and B/W print, and had to incorporate asian elephants and their habitat.
I learnt that last year, the VCD class did their assessments in a somewhat unstructured way, which now that I think about, would have stressed me out so much. Our projects are completed in a booklet, structured in the order of the design process, with distinct deadlines for each section– let me tell you, this has been a godsend. While it's been somewhat of a challenge having to relearn how to use Adobe Illustrator (and how to use a fineliner pff), this structure has really been what has help me adjust back to the ways of VCD.
My logo isn't the BEST, but I'm happy with it and it follows the rubric so I'm content. I'm also focusing a lot on the analysis portion of the projects since that is quite important as well. Since VCD is quite a bit of a new environment for me I'm taking it easy and making sure I complete tasks to the best of my ability with the advice of my teacher, who has been really nice in helping me out here and there.
Our next project is an industrial design task, where we have to design an elephant pull-along children's toy to accompany an asian elephant exhibition. I've already finished my research pages and I have half-finished a stimulus-analysis page which I shall continue tomorrow. I'm really nervous about the orthogonal and isometric (I think it's isometric, forgive me if I got it wrong) drawing parts, since I've never drawn like that, but it should be fine 😭
I have a tiny, silent class of 7 people, so VCD is my little quiet escape from my other subjects. I'll make sure to update AN about my VCD stuff more often.
And there we have it. Here's where I am one month (kind of) since Year 12 started! It's been surprisingly easy to adjust. Sometimes I feel like I'm still in Year 11, but then I get 4 chapters worth of Legal questions and snap back to reality 😎
You know what really made me feel like a Year 12? I finally got my
‧⁺˚*Class of '21 varsity jacket*˚⁺‧ with my name on it! It's so THICK and FAT and I can already imagine the beautiful crisp Melbourne mornings where I slip my jacket on and feel like I'm in my warm bed again (jokes that feeling is never replicated) Honestly, the first time I tried mine on I felt like it wasn't even mine and that I'm not even in Year 12 😧
Year 12 jacket meaningless storytime
Thursday morning word got around that 20 huge boxes arrived in the study centre, full of our beautiful '21 jackets. Thursday lunchtime, approximately 12:43pm, more word got around that we were able to go pick ours up if we'd payed for them in full, cue the swarm of bees students to the study centre. Poor little me didn't eat in order to wait and 20 mins later when it got to my turn, it turns out my jacket was MISSING and I waited for no reason. My lovely friend brought me some food that I had to quite literally shove into my throat 2 minutes before English and there I was, sadly eating my potatoes while everyone showed off their outerwear. Come Friday approximately 1:39pm my jacket had arrived and I went to pick it up in the middle of VCD and tried it on in the middle of the 34º degree weather 🤡
TLDR my jacket delivery got delayed a day and I wanted to be dramatic about it
Also– I'm currently in the process of school captain interviews! I passed the first interview and have gone onto the next round, which is an interview with my school's leadership team including the Principal. I'm pretty scared, but I'm going to prepare really well and whatever else happens is okay. I'll make sure to keep you guys updated on that too.
I know that I've been really bad at replying on here so I'm sorry 🙏 Please know if you have a VCE journal that I am being a little ghost and I am reading yours! I'll make sure to be better at replying in the future. Also– I'm very envious but keen to read everyone's new uni journals !!
Thanks again for reading this longggg update
9804 words that took me over an hour to write lol and have a good morning/day/night <3