Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone has had a restful and rejuvenating holiday so far. I don't celebrate Easter, but we do hold an annual Easter egg hunt. We didn't have eggs and my parents didn't want to go out to get them, so we made do with hiding normal chocolates instead. As always, I won, but we always split the chocolates in the end anyway haha (otherwise my sister would be mad because she always finds less than me). Anyways, onto subject updates:
EnglishOkay, so I really, really enjoy argument analysis! I still have so much to improve on, but I can see the improvement with every essay I write. It's definitely so much more fun than the dreadful text response, which I can confidently say is my least favourite, along with comparative (which is bad because they make up 2/3 of our exam score). I haven't done too much for English, and I've only written 4 essays over the holidays and done nothing else. I want to finish off my text response notes and argument analysis notes before term starts. Luckily, English doesn't have pages and pages of content to write about, so my notes are very selective and include things I want to use in my essays. Our principal released a notice that confirmed there will be fewer SACs this year though, which is very worrying to me because I did horribly in the first SAC and was relying on the other SACs to save my study score... I can't help overthinking this and it really sucks that the coronavirus just
had to come now.
ChemistryOkay, I'm
really, very, super behind for chem (NOT an exaggeration). I have so much to do, which I idealistically hope I'll finish within the following week. The concepts aren't necessarily difficult, but I haven't practised any of them at all, apart from the time we used in class to practise. I'm looking at the optimistic side of online school - I'll have no travel time at all, so I'll have so much more time to study than usual. I want to use this time to spam practice questions and do as much as I can, not just for chem, but all my subjects. With our exams also being pushed back, we have even more time. Hopefully, I can bring up my productivity level to at least 50% haha, while I battle with procrastination on the side.
BiologyI think biology is the only subject going
remotely well. I'm so ready to do the SAC but I don't even know if the SAC will happen or we're just going to have SAC after SAC when we get back to normal school. I'm kind of bored over constantly revising AOS 1, but I'm afraid I'll forget it all before the SAC so I force myself to do it anyways. I need to get a start on writing notes and doing questions for AOS 2, which we have already partially covered at school last term. Biology is really fun and a good break from my other subjects, and it reminds me of psych (a little bit). I want to try my best and
get that raw 50 get at least 45.
MethodsThere really isn't anything to say about methods. I'm not wanting an amazing study score in this subject - I'd be alright with 39-42-ish. The content is pretty straightforward, but sometimes I struggle to get my head around some of the harder application questions, but with more practice I'm sure this will improve. I just need to get around to practising... I've finished all my methods holiday homework - I just need to mark my tech-free and tech-able practice SACs and get ahead of the class. I want to finish the textbook questions as soon as possible so I can just focus on checkpoints/practice SACs/exams earlier in the year, since it sort of sucks doing textbook questions when I know I could be doing interesting exam questions.
Oh yeah, the
UCAT is a thing. I don't think it will be affected by the coronavirus because you can easily implement social distancing measures (I think), since there's probably only ~15 students at a testing centre at a particular time. Remember when I said abstract reasoning was going to my worst score on the UCAT, and I hated it so much? Well, that has changed. It's now my favourite section and I usually finish with a few minutes to spare so I can go through any patterns I couldn't figure out in the ~40 seconds I allocate to each pattern. I haven't practised VR in a loooong time, but I consistently score in the 30s for that like always and I have no idea how to get into the 40s. I would cry with joy if I ever got 40-44/44 on that subsection in the actual exam. I used to be really good at decision making and I'd usually get like 23-25/29 questions right with some partially correct, but because I haven't practised DM in a long time too, my scores have dropped (rip whys). I think with some more consistent practice I'd probably regain my footing, but I don't know. SJT is always the same, it's not a hard section and it barely counts when they select you for interviews anyway so I'm not fussed about it. Let's go to QR, though. I've never been bad at maths, in fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm pretty good at maths. But this subsection destroys me every time. I can't get the calculations done in time, and the annoying simplicity of the calculator makes me want to bang my head into the wall. It takes me way too long to do the questions, and I don't even get all of them correct anyway, which puts me smack-bang at a scaled score of 650. I don't even know what to do anymore haha. Do I just keep practising and hope I get better..? I don't know, but if I somehow magically do really well in the other subsections then QR won't matter as much if I get an average score in the real thing.
It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.