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Author Topic: Geoo's VCE Journey  (Read 80058 times)

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Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #180 on: February 26, 2020, 07:30:40 pm »
+12
Update - 26/02/2020

I really don't like how my journal seems to be all negative and stuff, but it's just whats going on at the moment. Like yeah, there are some positives, but it a bit of an unbalanced ratio. I don't even think this is helpful or inspiring to anyone, its just me ranting about my week.... So sorry to everyone as this probably isn't what you signed up for.
As like the last couple of weeks, I am still just so tired after every week. I really commend everyone doing 5+ subjects because I am struggling to get through 4. At the moment, all I am doing is just doing all the work I need to submit each week. Not any extra work or maybe some chapter questions, nope just submitted the minimum work. This is really bumming me out. I want to do practice questions and SAC/exam preparation but I can't because I am barely keeping up with what I need to submit work.  It's just so frustrating.
I think I am taking a day off today, as I am just so bloody tired and exhausted.
On a positive note, I have finally manged to catch up to be on track of Methods, finally! I got my disabled parking permit approved, which is really surprising as I only have a learners permit but okay.... I got to go out to do some shopping which was long overdue, and I have been reading a bit more.  And my plant is GROWING, omg.

English
I just want it to leave me alone. I haven't started practicing for the upcoming argument analysis SAC (which is a comparative for some reason) which is in a week and a half's time, so that is stressing me out. Looking over what we have to do, I just get so overwhelmed at everything which is stopping me from actually practicing my essay skills. I really just need to rip of the band aid, do it, get some one to review it, then write another one, and repeat.

Methods
Just like English, this subject makes me want to cry. So where do I start. First off, my school kinda switched calculators and stopped giving examples with the casio class pad. I can go call my teacher and she will then find out how to do it and get back to me, but it is just an extra process that I have to do. They are now using the TI inspire, which I am not going to bye, as I don't have 200 dollars lying around. Another thing, whenever I have a quick peak at the exam questions, I have no idea how to do any of them, like none. You see, at my school instead of doing textbook questions, we get this massive book that has a bunch of exercises in it to do instead, and we use that to submit for the week. So I have not used the textbook once :(. I feel like I should start doing the questions aswell, but as I mentioned above, I don't have any time. Oh and on another note, I find my teacher really unapproachable. She is helpfulish, but she can come of as quite cold and disinterested, so it feels hard to talk to her or just ask a question.

Chemistry
I really do enjoy chemistry, and it is honestly treating me well. I do find it to be quite easy, so I don't really have to put alot of work into it. I'd say that it is one of my favourite subjects at the moment, however, I am not doing any textbook questions right now. We are using the textbook, unlike methods, but only as a note taking resource. We are up to about chapter 2.3 in the heinemann textbook, and I am supper excited to be getting away from all the fuel stuff, as it was kinda doing my head in. The first SAC isn't until 4 weeks away, so hopefully after my english SAC I can buckle down and do more practice questions.

Food Studies
At the moment, it is definitely one of my favourite subjects. I didn't expect it to like it this much, but it has some really interesting content. The content is just so light, and there really is nothing complex at all about it. we have just finished up the digestive system (which I really need to jam into my brain) and the Australian Guildelines to Healthy Eating. I would say the only downside to this subject is all the memorisation involved. I have for once been using quizlet, which I have found to be useful for the first time ever. About two weeks ago I made the decision to type my notes, and my goodness is it a time saver. It cut my time down by half which is fantastic.
A bit of drama though. Food studies has never been popular at my school. Last year there where about 45 ish students, now there are 74. My teacher is overrun as she is the only teacher, so it has gotten to the point where some of us need to correct our own work until we get another teacher on board. What I also found interesting from talking to the teacher, is about 60-70% of the cohort generally make food studies to become an underscored VCE subject by the second semester. They end up not realising how academic it is, as most people do think that it revolves just around cooking. Only 7 people turned up for the exam last year...


Once again, sorry for the negative Nancy kinda outlook, i'm just not really feeling study or work at the moment, and am just constantly frustrated to no end on my progress at doing extra work. Well, I hope everyone is coping better then I am, have a great week!
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:30:18 am by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

brothanathan

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #181 on: February 26, 2020, 08:36:44 pm »
+5
Update - 26/02/2020

Food Studies

A bit of drama though. Food studies at VSV has NEVER been this popular. Last year there where about 45 ish students, now there are 74. My teacher is overrun as she is the only teacher, so it has gotten to the point where some of us need to correct our own work until we get another teacher on board. What I also found interesting from talking to the teacher, is about 60-70% of the cohort generally make food studies to become an underscored VCE subject by the second semester. They end up not realising how academic it is, as most people do think that it revolves just around cooking. Only 7 people turned up for the exam last year...

Does VSV set assessments or SACs that require you to cook in a kitchen or just straight theory work like some schools? Would've considered doing food studies if it was offered at my school.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2020, 08:38:27 pm by brothanathan »

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #182 on: February 26, 2020, 11:46:30 pm »
+7
Does VSV set assessments or SACs that require you to cook in a kitchen or just straight theory work like some schools? Would've considered doing food studies if it was offered at my school.
A little bit of both. Most of food studies is theory, but there are practical elements to it. For use, a SAC is split into two parts over two weeks. The first part is theory, so just like a regular test on paper, and part two is the practical element were you can cook. Sometimes it isn't cooking through. You may be asked to do a sensory analysis of products. For instance, we had to compare gluten free biscuits to regular biscuits and go into their appearance, aroma, taste and texture. Most of the cooking elements of food tech were moved to VET Hospitality, so there isn't as much cooking as people think there is. So far, I have only done one sensory analysis, and a shit tonne of theory.
I highly recommend the subject, and I would choose it any day over HHD, but that is just my opinion. If you do like science, there is alot of cross over, but not to a sophisticated level, but the knowledge of bio and chem come in handy. I also really do think VSV do a great job at the course, the teacher is great and the course is done very well.
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Evolio

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #183 on: February 28, 2020, 07:04:05 pm »
+7
Hey Geoo!  ;D

Quote
I really don't like how my journal seems to be all negative and stuff, but it's just whats going on at the moment. Like yeah, there are some positives, but it a bit of an unbalanced ratio. I don't even think this is helpful or inspiring to anyone, its just me ranting about my week.... So sorry to everyone as this probably isn't what you signed up for.
No, not at all! Please don't feel that way! You can write whatever you want and whatever you are feeling. It's for you! I also talk about some really dark stuff but hey that's what this journal's for, for you to vent.

Quote
I really commend everyone doing 5+ subjects because I am struggling to get through 4.
Glad I'm not the only one! I am dying, despite only doing 4 subjects this year. I thought it would be a breeze, because I only have to worry about 4, rather than 6 but nope.

Quote
And my plant is GROWING, omg.
What type of plant is it? I have a croton plant and I always get excited whenever a new leaf is growing!  ;D We have so many indoor plants in our house lol.  8)

Quote
I really do enjoy chemistry, and it is honestly treating me well. I do find it to be quite easy, so I don't really have to put alot of work into it.
Same! Chemistry is probably my favourite subject right now! That's great that you're finding it easy because you can spend more time with your other subjects unlike me who's always doing chemistry because it's so fun even though the sac's a long way away.

Food studies seems really interesting! It's making me rethink my subject choices.  :P

Well, I hope you had a nice week!  ;D

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #184 on: March 05, 2020, 05:35:31 pm »
+6
Hey Geoo!  ;D
No, not at all! Please don't feel that way! You can write whatever you want and whatever you are feeling. It's for you! I also talk about some really dark stuff but hey that's what this journal's for, for you to vent.
Glad I'm not the only one! I am dying, despite only doing 4 subjects this year. I thought it would be a breeze, because I only have to worry about 4, rather than 6 but nope.
What type of plant is it? I have a croton plant and I always get excited whenever a new leaf is growing!  ;D We have so many indoor plants in our house lol.  8)
Same! Chemistry is probably my favourite subject right now! That's great that you're finding it easy because you can spend more time with your other subjects unlike me who's always doing chemistry because it's so fun even though the sac's a long way away.

Food studies seems really interesting! It's making me rethink my subject choices.  :P

Well, I hope you had a nice week!  ;D
Aww thank you for your kind words. I'm not quite sure what plant it is, all I know is that it is from woolworths and it has been growing happily ever since. I wish I had some more time to do chem questions, but yeah they can be quite fun to do! Yes, I am secretly trying to convert people to switching to food studies muhahaha.
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #185 on: March 06, 2020, 04:40:54 pm »
+8
Update - 06/03/2020

There are 3 weeks to the school holidays, I have already started the countdown and now I just hope it comes faster. I know that this is so cliche but how are we in week 6 of the term next week. How did this happen so quickly, and March just came through so fast.. Just wow. So getting back to whats been going on, well ah, alot but not really. Like all of my year 12 posts, I am still tired so yay for that, and I still feel overwhelmed at everything I have to do. You know when you complete an assignment and there is that great feeling of completion, well it doesn't last long in year 12 because BAM, a day later there is something else that is equally big to do. On the positive side, I am not stressed which is fantastic, but as I said before just overwhelmed and feeling like i am sinking in a pile of work (I'm looking at you maths...).

Some random things that have happened this week are: I once again went to the Doc's this week, and normally this Dr is great and we get along but I left feeling a bit insulted after some comments that were made about my school situation, so thanks for that. Saw a friend this week that I see about once a month, and I also left feeling a tad insulted to a degree about me being boring as a person, so that didn't leave me feeling on top of the world as some might say. To make things worse, the school portal, which is were I get all my work from was down for an entire day.... So I basically couldn't do anything at all as all of my work and information is on there. Then, TPG decided to do some maintenance, so my internet was out for half a day....  So, there is my weekly rant  ;) On a quick positive note, I have been getting back into walking after a two week break so hoary for that.

Chemistry Rant 2.0 Incoming
So I may have to take back the statement I made last week..... I still love chem but WTF was week 4. It was all on energy specifically Q=mc delta T. Now I have done this in unit 1 physics so it wasn't that big of a deal, but the amount of content and context left out was bonkers. There were so many other formulas that our teacher wanted us to know but DIDN"T MENTION THEM! So I was so frustrated... They also forgot to mention that when you are converting water from mL to gram, you need to multiply the volume by the density. So thank you teachers for not mentioning this and costing me so many questions.... Oh yeah and the SAC is announced for week 8 and I am so pissed. So the SAC is all on galvantic fuel cells and redox reaction which is all good an fine, however, we are just starting chapter 3, and we do chapter 5 THE SAME WEEK as the SAC which is on a Thursday. That is no time at all to prepare. NONE. So I am going to have to try get a week ahead so that I have enough time to do all the reading and submission work so I can then revise and do practice question to prepare. AHHHHHH! Also I swear the chem is turning into just converting units all the time. Like really. And to all the countries that decided to use a different unit to measure pressure, just why.

Food Studies
Love it and is a walk in the park at the same time. My teacher is amazing and we get along so well. I ended up calling her for one question on yeast and we ended up talking for half an hour, so yeah. The funniest part about the next three weeks is that it should be condensed into 2, but it is all about the science behind cooking, and my teacher knows that we don't need to go into that much detail as it is only one tiny dot on the study design, but she stretches it out as she knows that's why most people do food studies. So this has been a very enjoyable week of work, and next week looks awesome too!

English
Super nervous for next week, as it is our first SAC of the year! Language analysis that they are making a comparison...  I don't know either but we are going to roll with it. I have submitted my first practice SAC and only got the feedback today and I did extremely average... I am hoping to rewrite the essay and do a different one to get a bit more practice in before the SAC. I can't wait to get it over with. I don't think this will happen, but I really want over 85% and I hope to achieve that.  In good news, I have finally started to read Nine Days! I am up to chapter two, and I have been really enjoying it for an prescribed english book. After each chapter I write up a summary of the characters, events and themes of each chapter, so it is slow but steady. I hope to finish it by next week.

Methods
Guess who's a week behind again.... Me. Honestly I should really just facepalm my self for getting a week behind again, but here I am. I was suppose to do week 5 this week, but I am still in the middle of week 4. I hate doing this but I needed to prioritise english as the SAC was coming up. I'm okay with being a week behind, but I just can't fall back further than that.


So that is my week! Negative Nancy shall chat later.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:32:14 am by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Chocolatemilkshake

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #186 on: March 07, 2020, 08:15:53 am »
+4
Nice to see an update Geoo! And yes, I also can't believe it is only three weeks till holidays.

All the best for chemistry, I totally feel the frustration of having a teacher who doesn't necessarily teaches you all the content in the best way. Also you'll smash english!

All the best have a good long weekend ;)
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Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #187 on: March 07, 2020, 12:23:14 pm »
+3
Nice to see an update Geoo! And yes, I also can't believe it is only three weeks till holidays.

All the best for chemistry, I totally feel the frustration of having a teacher who doesn't necessarily teaches you all the content in the best way. Also you'll smash english!

All the best have a good long weekend ;)
I know, only three weeks! It has gone by so fast....Thanks for the encouragement :) enjoy the long weekend too!
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #188 on: March 07, 2020, 07:45:20 pm »
+5
Mini Update - 07/03/2020

So, as I am currently studying methods, which I seriously need to catch up on, guess what is happening near my house.....
A freaking country music festival that is 5 km away. Like really?

Also, I wrote another practice essay for the upcoming SAC this week, and it was not good....
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #189 on: March 18, 2020, 04:29:29 pm »
+10
Update - 18/03/2020 - COVID -19

So, I am finally back with another update, and quite a bit has happened. I had my first SAC of the year which I will talk about later, covid-19 is screwing up school plans, we had a false alarm in my family as my grandpa had a temperature (he was fine, it was just some of his meds acting up), and I am still feeling really tired.. This is also going to be a very long post, so strap in.

I did something that I haven't done for about 3 weeks; I took a day off. Having a day off is really a mixed bag for me. Some days I wake up and I see the mountain of work that needs to be done, and my brain just decides to unplug itself as it really just can't compute anymore. Other days my health just ins't great, and I'm too tired to do anything, so as I am trying to rest to recover, my brain does this fantastic thing were it constantly reminds me of all the work I need to do, and me lying down doing nothing is unproductive and wasteful. Now I know we all need to rest every now and again, but I feel like if I have a break, more work is just going to pile up and I'll feel overwhelmed later and regret not doing the work I am doing now then....  I really hope that made sense. The other type of day off, is the "I have this really important thing I need to do that I am super stressed about, so I am going to unintentionally procrastinate it out of fear of doing it wrong." So I spend my whole day trying to work up the courage to do this one task, and would you look at that, there goes the day and it's night time, I feel bad for not doing anything so I try to compensate by doing something at the very last minute of the day.. I think I just want to have a sit down with my brain and talk it out, but it seems unavailable.

English
So we just had our first SAC on argument analysis where they also Incorporated a comparison. I am at a loss for words over this SAC. I had done a small amount of prep with writing 4 practice essays, but when it came down to it doing it, I forgot most of what I learned, and used the first names of the authors instead of their last names. Rookie move.... Also whilst I appreciate the two articles and cartoon that we were given were small, only being about 1 page each, they where so hard to understand. They were all over the place, one had like 7 arguments that had no relation to each other what so ever, and the other was just a personal opinion piece. It was on the Leunig's controversial mother ignoring child cartoon, so that was interesting I guess. Do I think I did well, not really... If I had to give you an idea of what I wrote, it would be like comparing a published book to a shitty fanfiction posted on an unknown website.. I am a little upset over it, but I think of late I have lowered my expectations of year 12 quite a bit, so all I care about now is just that it is done. Lets hope I don't forget everything before the exam, and I hope to scrape an 80, but honestly i'm predicting like a 75% :(.
In goodish news, I am up to chapter 4/9 of nine days, and for an english book I have been enjoying it.

Methods
I hate this subject so much. I feel two emotions when doing this subject: bored and frustrated. Bored because the content doesn't interest me and this subject is a means to an end, and frustrated because I suck at it. I'm up to week 5 at the moment, which makes me two weeks behind... I hope to end the term only been one week behind, so I can catch up on the holidays.

Chemistry
After the nightmare of what is going on with the SAC next week, I have been finding the subject difficult in some areas. In the past couple of weeks it has all been on chapters 2,3 and 4, which contains alot of maths... Since I haven't had a lot of practice, I don't feel comfortable in these areas at all. I shall hopefully be remedying that in the upcoming days as I do many practice questions from the textbook for the SAC next week. Other than that we are up to chapter 5, redox reactions. They aren't too difficult but the amount of times I mix up Oxidant and Reductant as whats been oxidised or reduced is just nuts...

Food Studies
LOVE this subject, it is probably second best to bio at the moment. We are finishing up our last week of food science were we are going into the functional properties of carbohydrates. We covered fats and proteins last week, were we made 3 different meringue's, one with just egg white, one with just sugar and one with just lemon. It was really cool! Also, I struggle when it comes to spelling meringue, so now in my head I pronounce it me- ring - gu, to try to help my spell it correctly. Pathetic I know, but it works!
Lucky last is food studies. Honestly it is just a mess. We not only have practicals this week, but we have the first part of our SAC next week which require alot of the sold out ingredients. We are suppose to make a risotto, but this requires, rice, chicken, chicken stock, oil and many other ingredients, alot of which is sold out... So, thanks to all of this, our SAC has been turned upside down. We are still going ahead with the test part of the SAC, but the cooking and evidence producing parts may have to be left for another time if we can't find the ingredients. I am also allowed an extension until week one term two. So, screw you panic buyers!

Okay, well that is it for me for now, I could honestly keep rambling but I think this is enough for now. Till next time.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:34:54 am by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #190 on: March 21, 2020, 01:45:14 pm »
+5
Mini Update

So I just had some things to get of my mind, and I also want to post some of the things I need to do to prepare for my SACs next week, and I feel like this will make me more accountable.

I have been doing a bit of book buying. I got the the methods and chemistry topic tests from ATAR notes as I have heard so many good things about them and it is free shipping at the moment so I thought why not. I always need more questions to do. To support my local indie book shop, I went down an purchased two new books. One of them is "This is going to hurt," I have heard it is really funny and since it is all about med school I was quite intrigued. I also bought the Kingdom of Copper as I need a new fantasy read.

Okay in terms of annoying stuff the has happened, my learners permit got suspended. Before you jump to conclusions, I haven't broken any laws or got speedy, I have to be re approved by my the doctors to drive so vic roads will know I'm not a hazard. They gave me no warning which really annoyed me, but I have booked an appointment to see my doc on Monday. I had 94 hours too!

So here is what I want to do before the SACs next week:
-Chemistry
  • Textbook Chapter questions (review and all) 3,4,5 and 6. Its alot but....
  • Maybe some checkpoints
-Food Studies
  • Quizlet weeks 1,5,6,7.
  • Checkpoints on food posing/safety, and food science on functional proteins, carbs and fats.
I also want to finish Nine Days by the school holidays, as I will definitely be doing two weeks of English and methods on the holidays.

I think there is another music festival going on near my house, I don't know how that is with COVID19, but it is very annoying....
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #191 on: March 26, 2020, 03:03:39 pm »
+5
Update - 26/03/2020

Okay, i'm not sure how to start off this entry so i'm just going to get into it and it may be all over the place. Just briefly too, I feel like I talk about too much personal/irrelevant stuff, so I should try cut down on that or at least categorise it off.

Personal Stuff
So the scariest thing that happened this week was that I had to go to the doctors.... Just the GP but wow that was an experience. First, I had to wait outside in the car until the doctor called me in, when I went inside I got yelled at by the receptionists saying I wasn't allowed inside due to COVID19. I explained to them that I had to go to room 6, and after some explaining they let me pass. There was no one in the waiting room, and no one outside aside from a few doctors and receptionists at the office, so that was just wild. I got my medical report done, and I have sent it to VicRoads, so I hope I can get my permit back soon.

Whilst I was out, I also looked at my local open shopping strip. Now, I live in kind of a tourist hot spot near the beach, and normally this time of year it is PACKED. There was probably like 30 people out, all the cafes were closed, and the non franchise clothes stores were closed. My local indie book shop now doesn't let anyone inside and have resulted to asking people to just come up to the door and ask for a book. My favourite little cafe/bakery has removed all tables to become a full time bakery, so it's nice that they are still open for business.

In terms of school, our's also shut down on Tuesday with all teachers being sent home. Its weird, I want to be on holiday mode, but I still have week 8 work to do. So this week and the first week of the actual school holidays will be dedicated to getting work done and doing anything extra. If I keep going the way I am with the workload, I will burnout in term two, which I really can't afford. So I plan to take 4-5 days off at the end of the holidays just to chill out, and maybe make some hotcross buns if I find flour.

Chemistry
This subject is 100% crazy. I cried over chapter 4 with redox reactions as I was having so much trouble with them I thought my dreams of chem went down the drain. I then moved on to chapter 5 and it was so easy. Even though chapter 4 stumped me in a few areas, I learnt so much, and have come to find redox reactions and galvanic cells relatively easy, well I hope it remains that way. The moral of the story is, DON'T DO CHEM IF YOUR TIRED. Also, I am still revising for my SAC that was suppose to be today, but will be done next week on the holidays. I have done chapters 4 and 5, a little of chapter 3, and I will finish off with chapter 6 before doing some other resources. I also got the ATARnotes topic tests in the mail and they look great.

Here are some of my lovely mistakes.
Mixing up oxidising agents and reducing agents.
When balancing complex redox reaction with H2O and H+, if the equation has something like H2S, I forgot about the other H's in the equation, so I wouldn't balance them properly.
Oxidation number through me for a loop for a while as they were explained terribly the first time round.
This happened:

And yeah, thats chem.

English
I am behind as I haven't read the book..... So that means week 7 and 8 will be done on the holidays. I still haven't gotten my SAC mark back yet so I am hoping it will come in tomorrow. So for the holidays, I also plan to get like a house on fire done, and to start practicing for my text response essay which is in week 3 of term two. Also, I am kinda worried as my teacher is going on paternity leave for the first month of term 2, so I hope someone will still mark my practice essays.

Methods
I hate it, I still haven't got week 6 done as I can't be bothered. I will hopefully get it done this week though along with week 7. I am kind of pissed off because I can't get my CAS to do what the course want. Its a plotted square root function where we need to find the regression equation in the spreadsheet. I spoke to my friend who did methods last year and she said that that is in further, so I am so confused. I also got a tutor! She became free because of the corrona virus and is doing online lessons so yay.

Food Studies
A little nervous since the SAC is this week. I have been studying for it quite a bit, and now all I need to do is just do it. I have a little more to go though in terms of studying, just brushing up my knowledge of gelatinisation and what not. So yeah, I hope to do the theory part this week and the practical part next week if I can get the ingredients. Also, quizlet is great for this subject!

Overall I am still very tired, and I am becoming quite warn out over everything I'm doing. The annoying part is is that term two is two times the workload of term 1, and I need to fit in extra revision, so I need to reorganise my time management, but still keep pacing in mind. I may put a reflection of term one up soon but who knows.

On a quite side note, I have been really frustrated over the complaints I have been hearing from people going online. The people saying its hard to find motivation, not see friends, not see your teachers in person and that its terrible. I have been doing it for years when people have been telling my that its so easy, or that it would be great to spend all your time at home,  why complain, when it reality it isn't all that great. I am going to reserve my opinions, but its just really getting to me with the double standards.

So, enjoy you 3 weekish holidays everyone, keep safe and wash your hands!
« Last Edit: February 16, 2021, 12:35:31 am by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #192 on: April 03, 2020, 02:38:39 pm »
+7
Update - 03/04/2020 - First Holidays

Me again! So the first week of the school holidays has been interesting. It started off on the Saturday with me being quite productive knocking out week 6 maths and doing some english. Then sunday happened where I fell down the stairs (warning gross stuff) and part of my right thumb nail came off... That hurt so badly and it was my writing hand so Sunday, Monday and a bit of Tuesday was a ride off for work, as I couldn't really do much. It still hurts a bit now but its getting better. Although I was not able to write for a few days, I finished off week 7 englsih so I am now only a week behind, I almost finished nine days, I got part of my food SAC done, and I had a Methods tutor session yay!

In terms of other stuff not much has happened, I am still preparing for my chem SAC and slowly getting things done. I watched the chem lecture yesterday and Alec was awesome. He did is so well online, that is makes me question me chem teachers who do it kinda poorly. I do kind of hope the continue with having an online aspect of the lectures, even just recording the audio would be a great help as a, I can come back to it, and b, as someone living an hour and 45 minutes away from the city with some health issues, staying at home is great!
For SAC prep, Chem is coming along well, but I have neglected the memorisation side of like environmental issues and pros and cons, so I have to go jam that into my brain. I did part of my food SAC the other day, and it was surprisingly a little of the difficult side, it is only part of the SAC so it is worth 30 out of the 50 marks available. Also this SAC is worth 15% of my study score....

So for the rest of the holidays is just alot of SAC prep, catching up and getting ahead. I have realised how much extra work there is an I really need to step up my game.

What I need to to:
Week 7 methods.
Week 8 methods.
Chem SAC
Chem SAC prep
Foods SAC Cooking part
Food SAC week 9
English week 8
English week 9,
English, start reading like a house on fire.

Those are my proities, but there is SO much I would love to go back on and revise, I have so little time its bonkers. I have also gotten back into Stardew Valley, which really isn't good for my productivity.... i have ten hours game time already in the last week....

And just for my future self, here is my term one reflections:
-Fit in chapter question in the week when you cover them so when SAC prep comes around, all you are doing is topic tests and refining.
-Reprioritse daily. Some things are more pressing than other, and each day you have to move some things around.
-Reset you sleep routine, so that you wake up early in order to have 3 large study blocks.
-Be careful with food studies extra resources, not all of them are correct.
-Try to do one thing you enjoy each week to keep you sanity.

That's it for now, enjoy the rest of the holidays guys!
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Evolio

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #193 on: April 04, 2020, 12:29:56 pm »
+5
It's really great that you were productive!  :D Aw, that sucks, I hope your thumb gets better soon, Geoo!

Yeah, wasn't Alec awesome though? He explained the concepts really well and yes, it would be great if there were online lectures in the future as well because you can watch it again if you needed to.

Quote
-Try to do one thing you enjoy each week to keep you sanity.
Haha, ME. That's a really good idea though.
It's really great that you're reflecting on what went wrong in Term 1 and stopping that from happening again! It's really proactive!

Enjoy the rest of your holidays too!  ;D


Geoo

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Re: Geoo's VCE Journey
« Reply #194 on: April 14, 2020, 12:12:38 pm »
+7
Update - 14/04/2020 - Term Two Back In Swing

Those holidays went fast! I know that we kind of got an extra week, but they just flew by. I unfortunately didn't get alot of time off, I only took about 2 days off, was because I fell down the stairs and I needed to rest up as I did injure my knee and hand. I did have a few half days however to evenly spread out the work I needed to do. I wouldn't call these holidays super productive, but I did get a few things done which makes me almost up to date on the outstanding work I have.

Once again a bit of a warning that this post is a bit negative. I have had a bit of a rough patch with everything going on, and just a build of of pressure that I ended up just kind of venting in this post! I will say i'm okay with the changes been made in regards to the GAT and exams being moved, I think that was the most logical idea. However, I will be so angry if they use GAT and year 11 marks to derive and ATAR, how told the government this was a good idea? I do wish the year would end early like normal, but on the bright side we get more time to prepare for exams....

My feelings for how this term is going to go is also a bit up in the air. Since everyone is at home,  it means my house has become that much louder, making it harder to study. My younger sister is doing remote learning and she is so hard to live with, playing loud music all the time so I can barely study when she is home. So this is going to be quite the nuisance this term. Also it is SACs galore this term. I have one or multiple every week except next week. For the entire term. I'm just screaming on the inside right now.

Here is my SAC Schedule:
Week 9 (this week): Food Studies Part two. Chem SAC
Week 10: Only week off!!!
Week 11: English Text Response (Also my 18th birthday...)
Week 12: Methods Application SAC.
Week 13: Methods Application SAC, Chem SAC.
Week 14: Chem SAC (poster),
Week 15: Chem SAC (poster), English creative, Food Studies SAC Part 1.
Week 16: Chem SAC (poster), Food Studies SAC Part 2.
The rest of term 2 is unannounced..

English
So, I finished Nine Days and caught up to date with doing weeks 7 and 8 of English which is great. My text response SAC is in 2 weeks and we haven't even started writing practice essays so I need to get onto that soon. I also need to start reading like a house on fire, which I am not looking forward after many people telling my how shitty it is, so yay. So I do have quite alot to do' in the next coming weeks for english and i'm feeling not that confident in how i'm going to mange it all. I still haven't gotten my SAC result back from last term for the AA, which I am becoming more scared to know what it is..... Even though it is a pupil free day, we have a live stream with the author of Nine Days at 2.00 today which will be awesome!

Methods
I have cried so much with this subject. I thought I was going average which is all I really want, and then log and exponential functions came along and screwed me over to the tenth degree. I just cried. I am so over this subject, I don't have the time to do extra chapter questions, I have the big application SAC in 3 weeks which I am totally unprepared for. It is open book which is a relief, but I'm honestly just lost. I hope I can improve enough to get at least 60%, but who knows. We are moving on to circular functions then trig functions. I know so many people did this early in the term, but my teacher has done everything out of order.... yay.

Chem
Well I did everything I set out to do for chem over the holidays but get ahead. I'm completely fine with that, as I really honed in on AOS 1, and got to know it all pretty well. I have my Chem SAC from last term this week, and for some reason I have just lost a bit of my confidence in the subject. I know the content, I have done practice questions, and I have even taught it to others, but I think I just feel this pressure to do well and not "fail" and that feeling is why i'm scared of doing the SAC. It is a weird mentality to be in, like I know i'll definitely do fine, but I have always strived to be "perfect" and this just puts so much pressure onto myself. I also think that my failure in bio last year isn't helping with my confidence either, and it just all getting to me at the moment. So, yeah I hope it goes well, and I feel a sense of ease knowing no one has ever gotten perfect marks (50/50) for this SAC... I just want to get in the A+ range which just means I can only lose 4 marks.

Food Studies
I'm honestly feeling the same way I feel for this subject as I do for chem. I've just lost my confidence. It's once again this pressure to not lose any marks, to get your wording right to score well. I also believe that since this subject scales down so badly, I feel this stress to do almost perfect in my SACs to prevent it getting scaled down so harshly, and that pressure is making my head almost explode. So moving on, I did part one of the food studies SAC yesterday, which is where I made two risotto's to test out how gelatinisation is effected when you do certain things to the recipe. It was alot of effort, and so time consuming but I hope I did well. It's all sent off now so there is nothing I can do but wait. This SAC is out of 50 marks as well, and i'm not feeling super confident i'm going to get all those marks. This week is part two of the SAC which is a report, where I pick a person and I get a recipe and it is my job to say if this will suit my chosen person. This is going to be so time consuming but it is also worth 50 marks so I need to buckle down and get started as this is due on friday. So, both these SACs make up one SAC, and contribute 15% to my study score. Yay for pressure!


So in all, I hope everyone has had some sort of a break these holidays, and good luck to you all for this whole remote learning stuff! Also, I hope the spelling and grammar isn't too bad, I have been doing so much english I am just over correcting things...
It's really great that you were productive!  :D Aw, that sucks, I hope your thumb gets better soon, Geoo!

Yeah, wasn't Alec awesome though? He explained the concepts really well and yes, it would be great if there were online lectures in the future as well because you can watch it again if you needed to.
Haha, ME. That's a really good idea though.
It's really great that you're reflecting on what went wrong in Term 1 and stopping that from happening again! It's really proactive!

Enjoy the rest of your holidays too!  ;D
Aww thanks for kind message! Alec was great and it would be so cool to keep going with the online lectures, it is so nice to rewatch them. I hope you enjoyed your holidays!
« Last Edit: April 14, 2020, 12:39:05 pm by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash