ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: bianca3016 on August 29, 2017, 10:23:49 pm

Title: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 29, 2017, 10:23:49 pm
***This is really just another way for me to procrastinate... enjoy


I'm only in year 11 but I thought it'd be great to finish year twelve and look back on all of the tiny things that meant absolutely nothing in the big picture.
I'm currently taking Biology as a 3/4, and Eng Lang, General, Econ, HHD and chem as 1/2s.

29/8/17
-bio is just a pain rn, although I just got a semi decent score on a sac I didn't study for so i'm not *too* stressed (yet)
-eng lang is one of my favourite subjects but it's quite self explanatory so it feels like a bit of a bludge
-general is so easy we're legit calculating perimeter... I'm tutoring an 11yr old on the same content
-econ is the best subject choice I've ever made
-hhd is the worst (I dropped methods, bc it was so goddamn boring, and this was my only other option ~ swapping to pe for the 3/4 next year)
-chem is beautiful but challenging... should probably be doing something about that pronto

I'd be happy with an ATAR of 98.30+, content with 96.5-98.25, less content with 95-96.5, unhappy with 90-95, and I would dig my grave with anything below 90.
Not sure what else to say? As I said, I'm only yr11 so I don't have a whole lot to say but we're only a couple of months away from 2018 and I know I'll be interested to see this after grad.

Anyone else doing similar subjects?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: sweetiepi on August 29, 2017, 10:29:03 pm
Welcome to AN! ;D
Congrats on the bio score! Chemistry is indeed challenging but beautiful (I'm slightly biased though aha! :) )

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more updates in the future! ;D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 30, 2017, 08:46:09 am
Welcome to ATAR Notes, Bianca; great to have you here! :))

I'm only in year 11 but I thought it'd be great to finish year twelve and look back on all of the tiny things that meant absolutely nothing in the big picture.
I'm currently taking Biology as a 3/4, and Eng Lang, General, Econ, HHD and chem as 1/2s.

Ya, 100%! Nice subjects, too - any ideas for post-Year 12 at the moment?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 30, 2017, 05:30:48 pm
Welcome to AN! ;D
Congrats on the bio score! Chemistry is indeed challenging but beautiful (I'm slightly biased though aha! :) )

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more updates in the future! ;D
Thank you :D What's chemistry like in 3/4? I've heard that there is a huge organic component which I'm pumped for?!?

Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 30, 2017, 05:33:22 pm
Welcome to ATAR Notes, Bianca; great to have you here! :))

Ya, 100%! Nice subjects, too - any ideas for post-Year 12 at the moment?

haha thanks! I've wanted to do medicine for almost a decade now, so that's where I'm headed :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 30, 2017, 05:37:35 pm
haha thanks! I've wanted to do medicine for almost a decade now, so that's where I'm headed :)

Oh, no shit! Should have read your signature haha. ;)

Are you interested in any particular area of med?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 30, 2017, 05:55:52 pm
Oh, no shit! Should have read your signature haha. ;)

Are you interested in any particular area of med?
haha No worries!
I'd like to go into surgery, maybe specialise in cardiothoracic or paediatrics? Maybe both? Who knows...
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 04:22:07 pm
31/8/2017
-I reviewed my bio SAC yesterday and was disappointed to find out that I lost a few marks to silly errors >.<
-Submitted an EngLang essay that I'd be more confident with if my teacher let people ask her for help/opinions on their drafts? Apparently she didn't have time for this????  :-\
-Assessed prac. in chem tomorrow which I'd be looking forward to, but I'm going to be absent :(

Non-academia; the parents want me to quit volleyball because I "might break a finger and ruin my chances of becoming a good surgeon" ughh *does something to take my mind off of school for 2 secs and parents bring me right back yay* *writing this bc I wonder if yr12 me will read it with a broken finger and shattered dreams*
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 31, 2017, 04:33:57 pm
31/8/2017
-I reviewed my bio SAC yesterday and was disappointed to find out that I lost a few marks to silly errors >.<
-Submitted an EngLang essay that I'd be more confident with if my teacher let people ask her for help/opinions on their drafts? Apparently she didn't have time for this????  :-\
-Assessed prac. in chem tomorrow which I'd be looking forward to, but I'm going to be absent :(

Non-academia; the parents want me to quit volleyball because I "might break a finger and ruin my chances of becoming a good surgeon" ughh *does something to take my mind off of school for 2 secs and parents bring me right back yay* *writing this bc I wonder if yr12 me will read it with a broken finger and shattered dreams*

What was the EngLang essay on, Bianca? :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 05:08:21 pm
What was the EngLang essay on, Bianca? :)

The history of/changes in the English language :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 31, 2017, 05:10:41 pm
The history of/changes in the English language :)

Ooh, nice! I miss English Language hahaha. Did you enjoy writing it?

P.S. Check out the English Language board! There's a section there for marking, if you're interested. :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: sweetiepi on August 31, 2017, 05:15:44 pm
Thank you :D What's chemistry like in 3/4? I've heard that there is a huge organic component which I'm pumped for?!?
3/4 chem for me was really quite enjoyable, but there was a lot of hard work involved! There was a heap of organic chem in it, and I believe there still is haha! ;D (That being said, organic chemistry to me now is just a whole heap of naming compounds and making stuff haha :) )

EDIT: Typo :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 05:25:47 pm
Ooh, nice! I miss English Language hahaha. Did you enjoy writing it?

P.S. Check out the English Language board! There's a section there for marking, if you're interested. :)
Indeed, I did :D How long ago did you do it? hahaha

And that's so cool, I'll definitely be checking it out! Thank you so much :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 05:30:48 pm
3/4 chem for me was really quite enjoyable, but there was a lot of hard work involved! There was a heap of organic chem in it, and I believe there still is haha! ;D (That being said, organic chemistry to me now is just a whole of naming compounds and making stuff haha :) )

Oh, thank goodness I'm finishing one 3/4 this year!! And haha I can't wait for the organic chemistry component. In all honesty, I only enjoy it more than the other topics because it's so structured ((and I love colour coding the compounds hahahha))
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 31, 2017, 05:35:46 pm
Indeed, I did :D How long ago did you do it? hahaha

And that's so cool, I'll definitely be checking it out! Thank you so much :)

So, I graduated in 2012. But I enjoyed English Language so much that I ended up studying Linguistics at uni for four years. ;)

10/10 would recommend. #nobias #somebias
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: emonerd on August 31, 2017, 05:41:09 pm
hey !! so did you do biology 1/2 in year 10? I'm currently in year 9 and I'm thinking of doing vce bio next year, did you find it extremely difficult? was the workload harsh or was it tolerable? thank you so so much and I wish you all the luck for vce !
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 06:01:40 pm
So, I graduated in 2012. But I enjoyed English Language so much that I ended up studying Linguistics at uni for four years. ;)

10/10 would recommend. #nobias #somebias

Oh, wow! It must have been amazing then!! hahaha
I love learning languages, so English Language is kind of a compromise for me (I thought the workload of LOTE would be insane in VCE but EL is basically learning the English language in more depth, I guess).
Four years of it though... wow haha what was that like?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 31, 2017, 06:22:07 pm
hey !! so did you do biology 1/2 in year 10? I'm currently in year 9 and I'm thinking of doing vce bio next year, did you find it extremely difficult? was the workload harsh or was it tolerable? thank you so so much and I wish you all the luck for vce !

Hey :)
So my school only offered bio in year 10 as a unit 1 subject, because unit 2 has little/no correlation to the 3/4 course, but I imagine unit 2 would be of similar demand to unit 1.
If you're considering it as a 3/4 option for year11, definitely go for it! My school is select-entry so they push us really hard, but regardless, it was a really enjoyable subject (if you're a science-y person, of course).
And if you're tossing up between bio and another subject for yr11 3/4;
I personally didn't find it extremely difficult, and the workload was tolerable to say at the least, but I think this depends on your own style of learning. I'm sure you've heard this, but bio is a very content-heavy subject (much alike psych and legal) so if that suits you, go for it, if not, maybe consider other subjects, or take a look at a 1/2 textbook/past students' work/idk and you might actually be fascinated by it (and I think that the most important factor to consider when choosing subjects, apart from prereqs).

I think that year 10 VCE subjects are all about finding a decent study routine, getting used to the VCE style classes, and learning what you enjoy at school. If you take bio1/2 and decide it's not your thing, you can just swap it in year 11, but at least you know what it's like :D
Hope it helped a little bit, good luck for next year (and tell me how it goes :) )
Thank you so much!! :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 31, 2017, 06:23:19 pm
Oh, wow! It must have been amazing then!! hahaha
I love learning languages, so English Language is kind of a compromise for me (I thought the workload of LOTE would be insane in VCE but EL is basically learning the English language in more depth, I guess).
Four years of it though... wow haha what was that like?

It was actually really great! Slightly tangential - don't want to sidetrack your thread too much haha. But the units I studied were:

Spoiler
The language game: why do we talk the way we do?
Describing and analysing language and communication
Language across time
Sociolingustics
Structure of English
Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition
The analysis of discourse: texts, narrative and society
History and sociolinguistics of English

And then I wrote my thesis for Honours, which was on the linguistic portrayal of Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in the media. More than happy to answer any questions about Linguistics if you're considering it, or uni in general! :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: emonerd on August 31, 2017, 07:13:32 pm
Hey :)
So my school only offered bio in year 10 as a unit 1 subject, because unit 2 has little/no correlation to the 3/4 course, but I imagine unit 2 would be of similar demand to unit 1.
If you're considering it as a 3/4 option for year11, definitely go for it! My school is select-entry so they push us really hard, but regardless, it was a really enjoyable subject (if you're a science-y person, of course).
And if you're tossing up between bio and another subject for yr11 3/4;
I personally didn't find it extremely difficult, and the workload was tolerable to say at the least, but I think this depends on your own style of learning. I'm sure you've heard this, but bio is a very content-heavy subject (much alike psych and legal) so if that suits you, go for it, if not, maybe consider other subjects, or take a look at a 1/2 textbook/past students' work/idk and you might actually be fascinated by it (and I think that the most important factor to consider when choosing subjects, apart from prereqs).

I think that year 10 VCE subjects are all about finding a decent study routine, getting used to the VCE style classes, and learning what you enjoy at school. If you take bio1/2 and decide it's not your thing, you can just swap it in year 11, but at least you know what it's like :D
Hope it helped a little bit, good luck for next year (and tell me how it goes :) )
Thank you so much!! :)
thank you so much !! this is really helpful, thanks again !!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: K888 on August 31, 2017, 09:15:16 pm
Really looking forward to reading all of your updates, Bianca! Welcome to the forum :D

Non-academia; the parents want me to quit volleyball because I "might break a finger and ruin my chances of becoming a good surgeon" ughh *does something to take my mind off of school for 2 secs and parents bring me right back yay* *writing this bc I wonder if yr12 me will read it with a broken finger and shattered dreams*
Just wanted to address this - doing physical activity is super important and awesome for your health and wellbeing, and I'd encourage you to keep on playing volleyball if you enjoy it!

Even if you get injuries, it doesn't necessarily have to stop you from pursuing your career of choice :)
I've broken a few fingers, had a shoulder reconstruction, and have had hip surgery, and it hasn't stopped me from doing physiotherapy! I realise that there are different demands on your body and different requirements, but even if you were to break a finger - it wouldn't spell the end to your potential career. :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 01, 2017, 08:42:54 am
It was actually really great! Slightly tangential - don't want to sidetrack your thread too much haha. But the units I studied were:

Spoiler
The language game: why do we talk the way we do?
Describing and analysing language and communication
Language across time
Sociolingustics
Structure of English
Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition
The analysis of discourse: texts, narrative and society
History and sociolinguistics of English

And then I wrote my thesis for Honours, which was on the linguistic portrayal of Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in the media. More than happy to answer any questions about Linguistics if you're considering it, or uni in general! :D

Ah! No worries about sidetracking this thread - it's going to be a mess by the end of 2018 anyway, may as well start now ;)
Linguistics sounds so cool (and a lot like the current EngLang curriculum, even better!).
What a thesis!! That would have been so fascinating to write & read!! There are so many subjects I wish I could take with my med degree (econ for one) but I've only heard of breadth subjects at Melb Uni (out of the med schools I've toured so far) :(
Hmph... maybe I could just stay at uni my entire life hahaha

(And also, thanks for all of your help and replies :D I really appreciate it)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 01, 2017, 08:48:53 am
Really looking forward to reading all of your updates, Bianca! Welcome to the forum :D
Just wanted to address this - doing physical activity is super important and awesome for your health and wellbeing, and I'd encourage you to keep on playing volleyball if you enjoy it!

Even if you get injuries, it doesn't necessarily have to stop you from pursuing your career of choice :)
I've broken a few fingers, had a shoulder reconstruction, and have had hip surgery, and it hasn't stopped me from doing physiotherapy! I realise that there are different demands on your body and different requirements, but even if you were to break a finger - it wouldn't spell the end to your potential career. :)

Hey :)
Thanks for the welcome :D
Re the sport thing- I am also doing tennis and rowing so I guess what my parents are worried about is me trading a little bit of fun for an injury that ~~coulddd~~ have long term effects (dw I'm definitely not letting go of volleyball hahaha I'm way too stubborn for that)
Your injuries are crazy!! Haha what kind of sport were you playing? :O
And we'll done for physiotherapy - that sounds like an awesome degree too!!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on September 01, 2017, 09:01:10 am
Ah! No worries about sidetracking this thread - it's going to be a mess by the end of 2018 anyway, may as well start now ;)
Linguistics sounds so cool (and a lot like the current EngLang curriculum, even better!).
What a thesis!! That would have been so fascinating to write & read!! There are so many subjects I wish I could take with my med degree (econ for one) but I've only heard of breadth subjects at Melb Uni (out of the med schools I've toured so far) :(
Hmph... maybe I could just stay at uni my entire life hahaha

(And also, thanks for all of your help and replies :D I really appreciate it)

No worries at all! :)

I have a friend doing med at Monash. They took a "year off" to do a Diploma of Liberal Arts, in which they studied Linguistics for a year. Sounded pretty sweet! There are always options. :))
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 01, 2017, 07:19:39 pm
No worries at all! :)

I have a friend doing med at Monash. They took a "year off" to do a Diploma of Liberal Arts, in which they studied Linguistics for a year. Sounded pretty sweet! There are always options. :))

Ooh that's a cool idea! Like a bit of a gap year haha
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 03, 2017, 09:15:08 pm
Finally reaching the end of a very unproductive three days.
Friday (1/9/17) I attended a conference at another school, unrelated to anything remotely academic and a tad boring... yay
And my weekend was 80% me complaining about having been struck down by a cold, 10% trying to finish chem questions and failing, and 10% celebrating father's day. Why doesn't life have a rewind button >.< hahaha

This coming week is relatively busy, but mostly with extracurriculars. Lots of early mornings (5:20am leave on Wednesday ooph) and late nights. Crows are playing on Thursday so I'm hoping teachers are lenient with hw on Friday (yes, my priorities are intact). Oh, and a bio SAC on Tuesday which I just wish would come and go already...

I'm considering doing a uni extension subject next year, anyone have any experience with them they wish to share? :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on September 04, 2017, 09:58:22 am
Finally reaching the end of a very unproductive three days.
Friday (1/9/17) I attended a conference at another school, unrelated to anything remotely academic and a tad boring... yay
And my weekend was 80% me complaining about having been struck down by a cold, 10% trying to finish chem questions and failing, and 10% celebrating father's day. Why doesn't life have a rewind button >.< hahaha

This coming week is relatively busy, but mostly with extracurriculars. Lots of early mornings (5:20am leave on Wednesday ooph) and late nights. Crows are playing on Thursday so I'm hoping teachers are lenient with hw on Friday (yes, my priorities are intact). Oh, and a bio SAC on Tuesday which I just wish would come and go already...

I'm considering doing a uni extension subject next year, anyone have any experience with them they wish to share? :)

How bad are colds, Bianca? Hope you feel better soon!

What sort of uni extension program are you looking at? I'm sure there'll be heaps of people here who could contribute; I didn't do one myself, unfortunately.

P.S. I hope Adelaide wins the premiership now that Melbourne are done. :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 04, 2017, 02:01:23 pm
How bad are colds, Bianca? Hope you feel better soon!

What sort of uni extension program are you looking at? I'm sure there'll be heaps of people here who could contribute; I didn't do one myself, unfortunately.

P.S. I hope Adelaide wins the premiership now that Melbourne are done. :)

ughhh awful :( haha But it could always be worse, I guess...
I'm looking at Chemistry at Monash Uni but I'm not sure how I'll go because I'm also required to take 5 subjects in yr12.

(I was sad to see Melbourne get kicked out of top 8 -thanks to our performance against WC oh my goodness- but hey, thanks for the support haha it's nice to finally have a chance at the flag, has been way too long)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 05, 2017, 10:59:19 pm
🎉I finished my last bio SAC ever yayayay

5/9/2017
Last bio sac finished, it was reallllly weird (11 marks in total, 6 for an 'essay' describing the social, biological, and ethical implications of a chosen topic we were to research two weeks in advance, and 5 marks for writing two multiple choice questions for a hypothetical exam). I completed this during a free period, before the rest of the school, which was sooo nice because I could get it over and done with without the cohort's collective stress-vibes.
I'm kind of scared about said SAC, however, because losing a single mark means losing almost 10%... eek! Has the potential to bring my average and possibly ranking down, but I'm not sure on either of those because I've been avoiding looking back on my rather average grades all year.
Today I only had two other classes; HHD and EngLang. We're beginning AOS2 in EngLang and I loooove it (definitely my favourite topic, to date, as it involves more languages than just English). HHD was boring... as per usual. I find out on Friday whether or not PE will be running in 2018 (quite often isn't - my school struggles to find the numbers for a single class, fingers are crossed though).
Got home late today because of rowing, was freezing the entire day, and now I have to go to bed so I can wake up at 5am for volley tomorrow haha 😴
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on September 06, 2017, 08:38:49 am
🎉I finished my last bio SAC ever yayayay

5/9/2017
Last bio sac finished, it was reallllly weird (11 marks in total, 6 for an 'essay' describing the social, biological, and ethical implications of a chosen topic we were to research two weeks in advance, and 5 marks for writing two multiple choice questions for a hypothetical exam). I completed this during a free period, before the rest of the school, which was sooo nice because I could get it over and done with without the cohort's collective stress-vibes.
I'm kind of scared about said SAC, however, because losing a single mark means losing almost 10%... eek! Has the potential to bring my average and possibly ranking down, but I'm not sure on either of those because I've been avoiding looking back on my rather average grades all year.
Today I only had two other classes; HHD and EngLang. We're beginning AOS2 in EngLang and I loooove it (definitely my favourite topic, to date, as it involves more languages than just English). HHD was boring... as per usual. I find out on Friday whether or not PE will be running in 2018 (quite often isn't - my school struggles to find the numbers for a single class, fingers are crossed though).
Got home late today because of rowing, was freezing the entire day, and now I have to go to bed so I can wake up at 5am for volley tomorrow haha 😴

Congrats for getting through Bio - that's great! :D Re: ranking, it seems unlikely to me to have too big an impact considering there were only 11 marks.

Really stoked you're enjoying EngLang. Hope you continue with it! #nobias #somebias
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 06, 2017, 07:48:14 pm
Congrats for getting through Bio - that's great! :D Re: ranking, it seems unlikely to me to have too big an impact considering there were only 11 marks.

Really stoked you're enjoying EngLang. Hope you continue with it! #nobias #somebias

Thanks Joseph :)
I actually have no idea how ranking works... They don't talk about it so much in our school because they really just want us to perform at our best and then ace the exam ugh

Definitely continuing EngLang, mainstream seems incredibly monotonous and lit isn't my thing :D (EngLang is absolutely the best English subject #nobiasatall)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 08, 2017, 08:10:59 pm
Pretty sure it's been a few days since I posted, but it's finally the end of the week eyy
I've been quite busy every afternoon, but having events on every day forces me to get home and be productive straight away, rather than wasting time on unnecessary things.
Today, I had tests in both maths and chem - maths was fine as per usual (except my cas went flat during the test whoops haha), but chemistry wasn't so great. I had been super confident about stoich (did chem olympiads two years in a row, basically 110% stoich) but when I sat the test, I went blank. Like, completely blank.
I'm not sure if I'm able to resit it or hand up alternative work to improve the grade, but I did very badly and I've been rather upset about it all afternoon.

Also;
-Eco has been fantastic this week, I have an amazing class and even better teacher and it's all very motivating
-EngLang was amazing (of course)
-Bio was Bio; it's prac exam time and content revision/repetition has me bored out of my brain, but surprisingly happy?!?
-I'll probably begin to get results back from comps/tests I sat earlier this year, which is my fave thing ever (I dub this time of the year "parents-are-finally-kind-of-proud-of-me month")
-Anxious to know whether PE will be running next year, because if it isn't I have no idea what I'm going to do
-Re:Uni Extension, I don't think I'll be doing it because my school is often hesitant to allow students to take time off of their school subjects (all about those 99.95s here) and so the selection criteria in my school alone will be hard to pass
-Leadership applications are in their midst and I've been told I should apply but I just don't know? This year's group has been so amazing and I don't know if I can live up to that/// Worth a shot, at least

Sorry for the longer post today, I'm in a rambly (?) mood hahaha
Have a lovely weekend, everybody :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zofromuxo on September 08, 2017, 10:43:15 pm
That sucks about the chem test, but then again it is Year 11, so use it as a learning experience for Year 12. it isn't worth beating yourself up about it :D.

Also apply for leadership positions if you can, one of the many things I wish I has done. As for living up to the high expectations set, don't worry about it, just do what you can do. There will be something you can do, they couldn't .
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 10, 2017, 04:19:40 pm
That sucks about the chem test, but then again it is Year 11, so use it as a learning experience for Year 12. it isn't worth beating yourself up about it :D.

Also apply for leadership positions if you can, one of the many things I wish I has done. As for living up to the high expectations set, don't worry about it, just do what you can do. There will be something you can do, they couldn't .

Hm I guess so, but I was super confident about this test so it was a huge let down when I finished and knew I had failed. Oh well, better to make mistakes now rather than on the 3/4 exam, I guess.

I've decided to apply for house captain, because I think it suits me best, but there are a lot of strong contenders in my team so it'll be interesting to see how far I get.
Thanks for the motivation haha :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zofromuxo on September 10, 2017, 06:32:37 pm
Hm I guess so, but I was super confident about this test so it was a huge let down when I finished and knew I had failed. Oh well, better to make mistakes now rather than on the 3/4 exam, I guess.

I've decided to apply for house captain, because I think it suits me best, but there are a lot of strong contenders in my team so it'll be interesting to see how far I get.
Thanks for the motivation haha :)
What a coincidence, the position I considered going for was house captain as well due to the face no one in my house was applying for the male role. But I didn't do it in the end because I wasn't know for taking parts in sport and I assumed people would think why is "zofromuxo, house captain they don't do sport". (Which was really a bullshit excuse to be honest).

But nevertheless, I wish you all the best and even if you don't get in at least you know, as opposed to not all. It's a Win-Win for you :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 11, 2017, 01:36:00 pm
What a coincidence, the position I considered going for was house captain as well due to the face no one in my house was applying for the male role. But I didn't do it in the end because I wasn't know for taking parts in sport and I assumed people would think why is "zofromuxo, house captain they don't do sport". (Which was really a bullshit excuse to be honest).

But nevertheless, I wish you all the best and even if you don't get in at least you know, as opposed to not all. It's a Win-Win for you :D

Oh no! You should've gone for it :(
Thank you so much :) I can't wait to see how it goes haha
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 11, 2017, 09:25:57 pm
mmmmkay
Today I resat (is that even a word? who knows) my stoich test and I thought I got everything right until I left the room and realised that I'd written a formula as c/V rather than cV ahahahhaha oh god help me...
At least I passed it??? hahhaha

Then I got an email from the vice principal...
Spoiler
Hi Bianca,
Insufficient numbers of students have elected to study this subject next year and so we will, unfortunately, not be running it.
Would you like to replace it with 12PHY or another subject?
Can you please let me know by tomorrow as we need to plan our staffing for next year. You may like to come and talk to me about this.
Are. You. Kidding.
We have at least 9 students wanting PE 3/4, even more wanting 1/2, and 500 sports teachers who aren't busy because my school only has years 9-12, meaning very little sports classes... Surely we can spare one teacher???/ :(((((((((
So yeah... I have not got a clue what I'm going to do in lieu of PE... hmph

This week looks busy, but fun... I have lots of sports to keep me happy and a few frees here and there. Not many tests/assessments, and only 9 school days until holidays.
It's a bit of a shame Crows won because I won't get to see them play for a while :( Would've been the cherry on top of this week
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zofromuxo on September 12, 2017, 07:16:37 am
mmmmkay
Today I resat (is that even a word? who knows) my stoich test and I thought I got everything right until I left the room and realised that I'd written a formula as c/V rather than cV ahahahhaha oh god help me...
At least I passed it??? hahhaha

Then I got an email from the vice principal...
Spoiler
Hi Bianca,
Insufficient numbers of students have elected to study this subject next year and so we will, unfortunately, not be running it.
Would you like to replace it with 12PHY or another subject?
Can you please let me know by tomorrow as we need to plan our staffing for next year. You may like to come and talk to me about this.
Are. You. Kidding.
We have at least 9 students wanting PE 3/4, even more wanting 1/2, and 500 sports teachers who aren't busy because my school only has years 9-12, meaning very little sports classes... Surely we can spare one teacher???/ :(((((((((
So yeah... I have not got a clue what I'm going to do in lieu of PE... hmph

This week looks busy, but fun... I have lots of sports to keep me happy and a few frees here and there. Not many tests/assessments, and only 9 school days until holidays.
It's a bit of a shame Crows won because I won't get to see them play for a while :( Would've been the cherry on top of this week
I feel for you about not being able to do PE as your vice principal eluded to it isn't a staffing issues, but a class size issue. As much as you think 1/2 student numbers affect a 3/4 class for a subject, it doesn't which really sucks.
As for a replacement subject, I guess pick something that you remotely like at all at this point.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Coffee on September 12, 2017, 07:31:19 am
Bianca, if you're really set on studying P.E. in Year 12, I'd recommend having a look into Distance Education. I studied with them in Year 11, so if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. :)

Applications for 2018 open on the 16th of October, so you have some time to think about it. You can find more information here: http://www.distance.vic.edu.au/
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 12, 2017, 09:15:09 am
I feel for you about not being able to do PE as your vice principal eluded to it isn't a staffing issues, but a class size issue. As much as you think 1/2 student numbers affect a 3/4 class for a subject, it doesn't which really sucks.
As for a replacement subject, I guess pick something that you remotely like at all at this point.

Yeah I guess so, but I've seen other classes run with 1/2 and 3/4 students in one class, and plenty of classes running with less than 15 (the minimum) so it was just disappointing to see it not run for another year.
In the end, it's just a subject - and whilst it's one that I was really interested in doing, I may even enjoy another class more.

Bianca, if you're really set on studying P.E. in Year 12, I'd recommend having a look into Distance Education. I studied with them in Year 11, so if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. :)

Applications for 2018 open on the 16th of October, so you have some time to think about it. You can find more information here: http://www.distance.vic.edu.au/

Ah that's a good idea! I'm not sure if my school will allow me to (especially as I've only done 1 3/4 this year, which means I have 5 next year + PE if I do it through Distance Ed), but I guess it's worth a shot.
Thank you for the idea :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 14, 2017, 06:27:49 pm
Hmm.. Not a lot has really happened this week - I'm only checking in because I'm waiting for my tennis sesh and I have to do something to avoid freezing to death ahaha

Bio: all content is finished so we're working through the VCAA 2017 practise exam, which seems ~~fairly easy~~ so far
Chem: we're starting titrations and I'm wondering why we need an entire unit for it? Seems pretty basic? Will this change??
Eco: looooooove it so much, honestly one of the subjects I'm really going to miss when I graduate - teacher's amazing too
EngLang: love it but we spent the last two lessons watching a documentary about the effects of language on cognitive development/the brain in general, it was simultaneously fascinating and boring so idk I was falling asleep in the second lesson... ooops
Further: 'Twas all fun and games until the teacher introduced us to great circles haha I don't think it's hard, it's just taking me a while to get my head around it - anyway, I finished that test last Friday and I think we're getting the results tomorrow
HHD: we have a test thing next week and I don't really care about my grade at this point, I just want to pass and leave the subject (my brain doesn't function properly when it's cold so I accidentally wrote "leave the country" ahaha thank goodness vce exams are in the warmth of late spring)

PE3/4: There is a group of girls that wanted to do PE that are trying everything to make it run. I was all on board, but I'm not sure if I can be bothered anymore? My friend suggested that I do accounting next year and we're pretty alike so I changed my preference to that (from Physics) and honestly, I'm happy to just settle for it at this point...


Usually the end of term 3 is the hardest on me, mentally, intellectually, and physically, but I'm in a really good state right now. I'm really loving school right now, like, really loving it. I think this is mainly attributed to the sports I'm involved in - even though I have to wake up and stay up at ridiculous times of the morning/night, they're the driving force getting me out of bed everyday. If I had one tip for anyone reading this, struggling to stay motivated, find an extracurricular activity/ies to get involved in. Whether it be sports, leadership, or clubs, they'll be the additional push to go to school when you're tired. I travel 2.5hrs morning and night just to get to school and sometimes it's really hard to convince myself it is worth it, particularly in the morning, so these activities do the persuasion for me. Find your passions and use them to do well in other areas of life.
I also applied for house captain and I'm really excited about it (although I'm up against amazing people, so my chances of making it far are slim). I'm fine if I don't get it, or anywhere close to it, I applied and I'm so happy with myself for doing at least that.

It's time for tennis now ehhhh so cold, but have a fabulous Friday everyone!!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 15, 2017, 09:27:46 pm
15/09/2017
Today was a busy but wonderful day. I was late to school, missing biology, but I still had maths, economics, and chemistry.
Maths - ordinary, except we got our tests back (did well - really need to stop treating it as a bludge haha)
Economics - looked at the relationship between efficiency and equity and I'm quite confident in it, which is good. I was talking to my father the other day about how eco is taught and how we're not tested very often (2 tests all year) which works surprisingly well because we remember more content for longer periods of time
Chemistry - started actual titrations... fun to do, but as I asked yesterday, is it really worth spending so long on them?

PE3/4: There is a group of girls that wanted to do PE that are trying everything to make it run. I was all on board, but I'm not sure if I can be bothered anymore? My friend suggested that I do accounting next year and we're pretty alike so I changed my preference to that (from Physics) and honestly, I'm happy to just settle for it at this point...
Following up; I think the biggest issue with how this situation was handled was the way in which we were all informed. Fortunately, the principal set up a meeting with us to explain that it wouldn't be running because of a number of reasons (and actually went through them, rather than making up crap to get out of it). We were all given extra time to choose subjects, options to study through distance ed (but heavily discouraged because a student had done this in previous years and not performed as well as had hoped), and offered the opportunity to meet with the head of whichever department we wanted to go into (in lieu of PE) every week to catch up on the content missed in the 1/2 counterpart. I thought they handled this really well and I'm so glad that it was cleared up - accounting doesn't seem so daunting anymore.

Ended up staying at school until 5, got home fairly late because the city was packed with footy-goers, and now I'm finally relaxing after an exciting week. This weekend is filled with birthdays, studying, and sleeping. Lots and lots of sleeping.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 21, 2017, 06:27:39 pm
21.9.2017
Finally nearing the end of term. I sent in my application for house captain but apparently there were heaps of girls applying so my app (written at 5am on a bus, mind you) wasn't what they were looking for. I don't mind, because I'm still a huge participant in house events, I just thought it'd be really cool to lead the house.
Today marked the last day I'd ever wear my winter uniform to school, and it kind of scared me. I mean, time has just flown so fast... I feel like I was in prep 2 seconds ago. Wow.
I'm sad that this term is ending tomorrow, though. Term four is scheduled to be fast paced and stressful, and I was finally waking up excited to be going to school. I owe my enthusiasm to the sports and extra curricular activities I'm involved in, my friends, and economics + chemistry. I've decided against applying for UMEP Chem subject because my number one focus for 12 years of education has been to do well in school, and I'm prepared to give up everything to get the best score I can achieve.

Biology - finished the course, we're spending classtime revising with the teacher and my holidays are filled with revision lectures
Chemistry - titrations still, I'm looking at chem tutors over the summer holidays to make sure that I'm 110% confident with the 1/2 content because I completely slacked off for the first semester
Economics - efficiency vs equity, started an assessment task today which looks interesting
English Language - so as it turns out, I submitted the wrong document for my essay, it was the copy before my final... Insanely average mark that I'm super disappointed about but I'm going to ask my teacher to mark my real copy just to see where I'm really at (legit will never submit something without checking it ever again)
Further - we. are. learning. how. to. find. the. area. of. triangles. how. is. this. even. year. 11. standard. why. did. i. drop. methods ahahah
HHD - ughhhhh we had a test beginning of this week which was so boring but eh I only have a term of this left... I'm dropping this for accounting in 2018

In other news, Crows are playing Geelong tomorrow night which has me very, very scared... Our home ground, at least? But they keep putting our games on weekdays so I can't fly to Adelaide :(
I currently have a job as a tutor and they've asked me to come back next term, but I've got other commitments in the time slot we had term3. The thing is, I don't want to quit because the girl I'm tutoring has improved so, so much and I love it when she comes back to me and says "I was happy in class today because I knew what I was doing". Her school knows that she's behind the standard but isn't doing anything to help her and it makes me so mad, because I was in her position but on the other end of the spectrum. How unfair is it that this girl has so much potential to do exceptionally well, but the school won't spend all of two seconds assisting her with that? Education means a lot to me because it has literally moulded my entire life, so it's hard for me to watch her dislike school some days just because she's behind her friends. idk...
Also, I WAS UP CRYING ABOUT GREYS ANATOMY S11 FINAL EPISODES UNTIL MIDNIGHT AND COULDnT SEE BECAUSE OF IT THIS MORNING OH MY GOD HELP
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on October 05, 2017, 08:45:57 pm
Ah boy, it's been ages since I last wrote something on here.
The holidays have been fantastic, in terms of catching up on sleep at least. Unfortunately, I haven't done as much homework and it's starting to bite me in the ass. I don't have all that much left to do, I guess, but I am beginning to get stressed out by the fast-approaching biology exam (which will be the first 3/4 exam for me). My SAC marks have been decent, but our school won't let us know our cohort-rankings so I'm not relying on them for backup.

The past two weeks have been quite fun, nevertheless. My existential crises (what an odd word) have been riveting, Grey's Anatomy catch-ups emotional, and birthday very confusing (am I happy that I have made it to the age of 17, still too lazy to get my Ls, or am I sad to see Crows play so goddamn badly? Who knows? Not me.)
Oh yeah, my boys finished their 2017 season with a bang. Played so well for the entire year and then blew it against the Tigers, of all teams. Now we've lost Lever and Charlie. Ughhh

Ranting/complaining needs to be a VCE subject.


Some VCE-related points to conclude, because it seems I always forget that this journal is a VCE journal;
-I'm really looking forward to starting accounting in 2018 - it's nice to have such a large spread of VCE subjects
-EngLang is the greatest thing on this planet but oh boy I got a terrible mark on my last essay because I submitted the wrong document (the draft was missing a paragraph... shit) (tbh I think she should have let me re-submit seeming as she "lost" my first essay whilst flying because the "airline lost her baggage" -- funny how they only misplaced our essays that she took 2 months to mark... I'm salty about this situation, but she's still a good teacher so I'm happy for that, better than a bad teacher who marks your essays on time)
-I seem to have developed amnesia with this oversleeping, because apparently I have to write up some water-purification experiment for chemistry and I completely forgot about it
-Maths ahhaha what a joke
-Sometimes I miss the challenges of methods, but then I remember that all I did in that class was graph and boy was that depressing
-Bio... I'm starting to get the love for it that I had in term one back (which is really good -- anyone who is reading this and about to go into 3/4 bio please never lose the passion for it, you can do really well as long as the passion is there), but there's a practise exam tomorrow and I can't go because babysitting duties
-I think I've spoken about why I enjoy Economics in another post (tldr; teacher doesn't set many tests and spends the entirety of every period teaching us, meaning we are learning heaps and studying because we want to know more, not because we want a good grade - this kind of thing is hard to come by in a school that manufactures 99.95s by the dozen).


As much as I do complain in this journal thingy, I have to reiterate how important VCE and school is to me. My entire life has been about being at the top of my cohort, and still reaching further, so that I can comfortably sit in a position where whatever I want, academically, I can get easily. I've worked my ass off since a young age to get into the school I'm in now, and I've made a lot of sacrifices in all aspects of life so that I can pursue my decade-old dream of practicing paediatric cardiothoracic surgery. I always make jokes about how I don't care about my study scores, or some subjects, but I really do. They mean the entire world to me. There are a lot of stereotypes about race and its correlation to academic performance at my school, a lot that are not in my favour, and I play along with my peers' jokes but I think sometimes they forget that I've worked just as hard as them to get myself in this position, so its disheartening to see them and other people treat me less seriously.
Anyyywayy... writing on here isn't going to get me into med school so ciao ciao :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zofromuxo on October 05, 2017, 09:05:47 pm
Ahhh, passion for subjects. +1 on that idea, if you can keep up it alive no matter what you'll do well. I recall going to Economics 3/4 and losing it till a month before the exam, it really lifts you up when you have and bring you down when you don't. But then again, most of us in VCE had stuff we didn't like and look forward to doing stuff we cared about or what someone else cares about :P.

Also I doubt your peers forget you defying the stereotypes at all, they could just be use it to blow off steam and may even be threatened by you defying it. But indulging them doesn't help your case either. I also think that many people in Year 12 maintain this image/facade they project to others, but deep down are going through the same struggles as you in worrying about study scores, subjects, what to do after VCE, what are my passions, the future, etc. So do keep that in mind, that someone somewhere can be fighting something inside that doesn't mainfest on the outside.

I can say that because I did that for up till Year 12, pretending everything was fine on the outside, joking about my marks, saying ATARs was meaningless to me. But when I was alone. I would worry excessively over my ATAR, study score, do I do a gap year or university, what are my pathways, what do I want in life, etc. 

But if anything, use their jokes to motivate you to prove them wrong and reach your goals. I wish you the best on achieving your dream and good luck for the Biology exams.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on October 06, 2017, 12:10:21 am
Ahhh, passion for subjects. +1 on that idea, if you can keep up it alive no matter what you'll do well. I recall going to Economics 3/4 and losing it till a month before the exam, it really lifts you up when you have and bring you down when you don't. But then again, most of us in VCE had stuff we didn't like and look forward to doing stuff we cared about or what someone else cares about :P.

Also I doubt your peers forget you defying the stereotypes at all, they could just be use it to blow off steam and may even be threatened by you defying it. But indulging them doesn't help your case either. I also think that many people in Year 12 maintain this image/facade they project to others, but deep down are going through the same struggles as you in worrying about study scores, subjects, what to do after VCE, what are my passions, the future, etc. So do keep that in mind, that someone somewhere can be fighting something inside that doesn't mainfest on the outside.

I can say that because I did that for up till Year 12, pretending everything was fine on the outside, joking about my marks, saying ATARs was meaningless to me. But when I was alone. I would worry excessively over my ATAR, study score, do I do a gap year or university, what are my pathways, what do I want in life, etc. 

But if anything, use their jokes to motivate you to prove them wrong and reach your goals. I wish you the best on achieving your dream and good luck for the Biology exams.

Ah! Economics, that would be difficult to get back on track with :0 -- I've spoken to past students and it seems like everyone gets motivated ~1 month before the exam for subjects they've been bored with the entire year haha I remember in past years all the older students were like "choose subjects you really enjoy" and it's finally setting in haha

And yeah I 100% agree with you.
Thanks for the good luck! :D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on October 13, 2017, 11:20:09 pm
First week of term four has come and gone faster than the speed of light.
It was a lot less stressful than I'd imagined, but the approaching bio exam is beginning to haunt my every thought. I wrote this on another board, but I seem to be more stressed out by the thought of practise exams than I am by the actual exam. I'm scared of knowing what I don't know, I'd prefer to be kept in the dark. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
Over the holidays, I was given a huge economics task that was meant to be due today so my partner and I worked really hard to finish it, and the teacher turned around and gave everyone a two week extension... ahhh!!! You see, some people would be delighted by this but I have a track record of only doing well on things I finish last minute (failing tests I study for far in advance, acing SACs I don't prepare for, scoring average marks on SACs I do prepare for, and placing in the top 5 students in the country for a history project I started at 1am the morning it was due... you see?) Now my eco assignment is jinxed!

Maths - I was pumped for the latest test (on Thurs). I even did the chapter review (something I can never be bothered doing) and wrote proper notes in lieu of relying on my usual handwritten scraps... But of course, because of my preparation, I ended up doing rather badly (I'd like to believe it had more to do with my printer failing to actually print the formulas on my notes, rather than my anti-procrastination-curse).
Chem - My group for the water purification task and I did a distillation today and it was really fun, I even stayed behind after school to finish it because I enjoyed it so much (with the exception of the huge cleanup because our science lab taps are not designed for science labs haha).
Eng Lang - We're writing another essay (3rd of the year, I'm worried about how well prepped we are for next year?) soon, which I'm kind of looking forward to. Dead languages make for lively conversations.  :P
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on October 14, 2017, 07:58:33 am
Dead languages make for lively conversations.

Amazing. Love that.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 03, 2017, 11:00:20 pm
Sooo bio's over.
I'm so scared. I've never failed an exam, but I'm pretty sure I just did.
My test, assignment, and exam grades have been rolling downhill as of late and I'm so scared because I just don't know what to do - I've never been in such a position.
Oh God.

Otherwise, I'm so happy it's over because I truly hated that subject in the end. Evolution is a waste of time, honestly.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: K888 on November 03, 2017, 11:50:38 pm
Sooo bio's over.
I'm so scared. I've never failed an exam, but I'm pretty sure I just did.
My test, assignment, and exam grades have been rolling downhill as of late and I'm so scared because I just don't know what to do - I've never been in such a position.
Oh God.

Otherwise, I'm so happy it's over because I truly hated that subject in the end. Evolution is a waste of time, honestly.
Don't stress! It's out of your hands now :) If you gave it a red hot crack, there's nothing more that you could have done, so now you just have to put it in the back of your mind.
And I think we all tend to be really critical of ourselves after exams and can only focus on the things we may not have done well. I know I'm guilty of this lol, and things usually end up turning out just fine.

If you're concerned about how you're going, maybe have a chat to your year level coordinator! Best to get ahead of it :) And if it's specifically related to Bio - maybe it'll be cathartic to have a debrief with your Bio teacher?

But yeah, in the end - just celebrate Bio being done! I'm sure you'll be fine. :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zofromuxo on November 04, 2017, 08:49:05 am
Sooo bio's over.
I'm so scared. I've never failed an exam, but I'm pretty sure I just did.
My test, assignment, and exam grades have been rolling downhill as of late and I'm so scared because I just don't know what to do - I've never been in such a position.
Oh God.

Otherwise, I'm so happy it's over because I truly hated that subject in the end. Evolution is a waste of time, honestly.
I wouldn't stress about failing Biology. 
Why?
Because even if you did you still have next year to make up for it.
I would instead take doing Biology as a learning experience on doing a 3/4.
What did I do well? What didn't I do well? What can I improve for next year?

As you have alluded to below you didn't like the subject anyway so that might be one point of feedback you can use doing your 3/4 next year ;D.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: zhen on November 04, 2017, 09:47:44 am
Sooo bio's over.
I'm so scared. I've never failed an exam, but I'm pretty sure I just did.
My test, assignment, and exam grades have been rolling downhill as of late and I'm so scared because I just don't know what to do - I've never been in such a position.
Oh God.

Otherwise, I'm so happy it's over because I truly hated that subject in the end. Evolution is a waste of time, honestly.
This sounds similar to my experience with Chinese last year. Throughout the year, I just began to hate Chinese and I stopped enjoying it. I ended up with a pretty trashy study score and basically failed it. I went through the weeks of depression, but I eventually got better. I felt like failing Chinese was a learning experience and has allowed me to review the things I did badly last year and improve upon it. We can’t do anything about the past because it’s over. But, we can change the future. You may not have failed as badly as you think you have, but if you do end up with a score you’re unsatisfied with, try your very best to improve and learn from this experience. Failing a subject isn’t the end of the world. It’s only when a person allows this failure to negatively influence them that it becomes a bad thing. I guess that you should have a break, relax and then after you’ve regained motivation, you should try to think about what to do next and how you would do better next year. Personally, I’m hoping that I wreck my own upcoming exams so I can give you a failure to success story and prove to myself that I can in fact do well.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 09, 2017, 09:02:54 pm
Don't stress! It's out of your hands now :) If you gave it a red hot crack, there's nothing more that you could have done, so now you just have to put it in the back of your mind.
And I think we all tend to be really critical of ourselves after exams and can only focus on the things we may not have done well. I know I'm guilty of this lol, and things usually end up turning out just fine.

If you're concerned about how you're going, maybe have a chat to your year level coordinator! Best to get ahead of it :) And if it's specifically related to Bio - maybe it'll be cathartic to have a debrief with your Bio teacher?

But yeah, in the end - just celebrate Bio being done! I'm sure you'll be fine. :)

I think that it being out of my hands is the scariest part. I've come to terms with me not being able to do anything to improve the outcome, but I'm still really upset at myself over it. What has helped, however, is focusing on my other subjects and making sure I'm ready to work really hard over summer and next year so that my other 5 subjects can make up for a bad bio score.
I think one of the worst things to do after an exam is talk to people about answers and read the suggested answers on forums and fb/etc. - that's what stressed me out the most.
And thanks for the advice, I'll definitely go and have a chat to the coordinators and teachers (and bio teacher... maybe haha)

I wouldn't stress about failing Biology. 
Why?
Because even if you did you still have next year to make up for it.
I would instead take doing Biology as a learning experience on doing a 3/4.
What did I do well? What didn't I do well? What can I improve for next year?

As you have alluded to below you didn't like the subject anyway so that might be one point of feedback you can use doing your 3/4 next year ;D.


I've been thinking about this since my last post and you're 100% right in that way of thinking, thank you! It's calmed me down a lot thinking about next year and knowing what I know about the 3/4 content now will be great for the 3/4s I'm doing in yr12.
And yup - at least I'm looking forward to next year's subjects a little more at least haha

This sounds similar to my experience with Chinese last year. Throughout the year, I just began to hate Chinese and I stopped enjoying it. I ended up with a pretty trashy study score and basically failed it. I went through the weeks of depression, but I eventually got better. I felt like failing Chinese was a learning experience and has allowed me to review the things I did badly last year and improve upon it. We can’t do anything about the past because it’s over. But, we can change the future. You may not have failed as badly as you think you have, but if you do end up with a score you’re unsatisfied with, try your very best to improve and learn from this experience. Failing a subject isn’t the end of the world. It’s only when a person allows this failure to negatively influence them that it becomes a bad thing. I guess that you should have a break, relax and then after you’ve regained motivation, you should try to think about what to do next and how you would do better next year. Personally, I’m hoping that I wreck my own upcoming exams so I can give you a failure to success story and prove to myself that I can in fact do well.


(except failing a subject is the end of my parents world, so they'll try to end mine too haha)
Thanks for the reply! I'm looking forward to hearing the failure to success story, so good luck in the rest of your exams!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 13, 2017, 07:42:51 pm
I'm finally entering the last stretch of term four, which is super chill (not many exams, woo!) - this has sparked some emotion because I've realised it's the last summer holidays I'll have as a high school student. Damn, time flies.
I've got 3 chem exams, an eco speech, and an eco test then I'm done - and the best part? I'm looking forward to all 5 assessments. Also did an englang essay today which was okay - I wrote very 'averagely' so that I'd get marks for structure but I definitely prefer my more creative essays, so it was a shame to have to sacrifice that. One of my goals for next year will be to incorporate both creativity and proper format into one essay.
This week is back to the usual craziness, at last. Working this afternoon, rowing tomorrow, volleyball and work on Wednesday, tennis Thursday, and Grey's Anatomy Friday, and comp tennis Saturday - The hectic routine keeps me in line, which is exactly what I need right now.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 02, 2017, 10:00:48 am
Last day of year 11 yesterday...
I'm excited for 2018, albeit being a little nervous because it's the last year. I started chem tutoring for yr12 content which is good - I'd like a >40 at least.
There has been an issue with my subjects, and I was put into physics in lieu of accounting but it (fingers crossed) will hopefully be sorted out soon. It's not optimal, though, seeming as I was guaranteed accounting since they cancelled PE a few months ago.
Anywayyy
Merry Christmas & happy studying
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on December 02, 2017, 10:11:07 am
^That's annoying. Do they not have enough for Accounting?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 03, 2017, 03:13:41 pm
^That's annoying. Do they not have enough for Accounting?

Nope, they've got two accounting classes. One of the deputies (who was looking after my subjects when PE was cancelled) and headmaster didn't put accounting down in the timetable program so now that the deputy has retired, it has become my problem to fix. And apparently the only class I can go into is full.
The year level coordinator is working with me to solve it at least, but it's just such a pain >.<
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 15, 2017, 12:22:52 pm
Holidays are great, but not when they're the summer holidays before year 12.
Today I got my bio study score. I was honestly expecting the absolute worst, seeming as I hated the subject with a passion by ~term 3, and I thought that I had failed the exam (no practise exams because I hated bio so much).
GA1 - B+
GA2 - A
GA3 - B
So yeah I did fluke the exam, but it makes me think what I could've acheived if I actually did the practise exams. Also, how much I'm looking forward to next year because if I can get those average scores on a subject I hated, imagine the subjects I love.

I've been going through the chem 3/4 course and it actually looks okay - my tutor teaches it really well too, which helps - and I'm going back to school in a week's time for a small accounting introduction because I didn't do units 1 and 2.
Speaking of accounting, I finally made it into the class (took long enough, ey?).
My other 3 subjects (eco, eng lang, and maths have assigned holiday homework and I think that will be an adequate headstart into the 3/4 course - I think it is a waste of time studying the entire course for every subject).

The fact that, this time next year, I'm going to be finished school scares me a lot. I'm going to uni, obviously, but I'm not ready to grow up.
I've been thinking about my medicine dream (the decade-old one) and I'm considering doing undergrad med and then postgrad business so that I can go into the business side of med. My father is very business-y and my mother's all about medicine and science (lots of degrees to live up to) and they both own businesses, so the influence of both studies has finally made me think about career options that aren't surgery, surgery, and surgery. Kind of sucks that I'm having such revelations this late in the game, though.

I hope everyone got the study scores and/or atars they were hoping for <3
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on February 04, 2018, 09:50:21 pm
4th of Feb, 2018
wowow time flies hey
Here are the official subjects I'm doing this year + brief thoughts:
Accounting: love it, kind of difficult to catch up on, being one of only three non-U1/2-ers, but my teacher is absolutely amazing and the subject is so fun that I love studying it
Chemistry: I wasn't a fan of this last year because of my teacher but I have one of my favourite teachers this year which means I'm more motivated to do well + I have a lot of support from her. A lot of people complain about her teaching methods but they suit me well, so I'm thrilled.
Economics: My teacher is very passionate about eco + loves teaching it (and is v. good at teaching it too) so I'm in good hands, but oh boy is this looking like my hardest subject this year - the content is c r a z y
English Language: So you know how I loved it last year? ITS EVEN BETTER THIS YEAR!! My school has some sort of issue with getting and keeping English/Lit/Lang teachers, so we have yet another new teacher and he is honestly the most amazing englang teacher I could've asked for -- he knows what he is talking about, is enthusiastic about the subject w/o being over-the-top or boring, and is more than happy to give me extra work/tests/info/etc. I'm so excited for this year in englang
Mathematics: Exactly the same as 2017 (same teacher, classroom, textbook, schemes of work, legit everything) but I really enjoyed this subject last year so I'm glad - maths has been taught the same since year 5 too, so having a subject to keep me grounded is fabulous

In lieu of med, after having taken eco last year (bc of my maths tutor's suggestion and my desperation for any other subject), I'm leaning towards business in uni. I'd love to work in a medical tech/research company (I'm talking Intuitive Surgical kinda thing), so whether I take the science or business route, I'm not sure. I also love languages to the moon and back, so if I could do a double degree in science and arts (arts major being a language) I'd be thrilled.
This year I'm keeping up rowing, tennis, and volleyball (legend is if you listen close enough you can hear my parent's disappointment in me from where you are), and tutoring maths + working in an accounting firm. My plan of attack for year 12 is to keep myself so busy that when I get home I have no choice but to study, but also to keep my love for all of my subjects up so that they never become arduous to study for.

Bring it on, 2018.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on February 05, 2018, 08:40:37 am
I'm so glad you're feeling the EngLang feels. ;D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: cookiedream on February 05, 2018, 09:23:34 am
In lieu of med, after having taken eco last year (bc of my maths tutor's suggestion and my desperation for any other subject), I'm leaning towards business in uni. I'd love to work in a medical tech/research company (I'm talking Intuitive Surgical kinda thing), so whether I take the science or business route, I'm not sure. I also love languages to the moon and back, so if I could do a double degree in science and arts (arts major being a language) I'd be thrilled.

Quite a number of my friends are considering postgraduate medicine, where they're doing an undergraduate degree in an area they also had an interest in (e.g. commerce, arts, science, biomed) and a couple are doing double degrees too! This gives them time to consider if they really want to go down the med path, which means many continuous years of commitment, or if their passion really lies in another career path which they hadn't considered much previously. So what you're considering (BSci/BArts double degree) is a great way to explore your interests! ;D
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on February 05, 2018, 10:05:00 pm
I'm so glad you're feeling the EngLang feels. ;D
hahaha so am I - I have to thank your linguistics-loving-inspo for a lot of it

Quite a number of my friends are considering postgraduate medicine, where they're doing an undergraduate degree in an area they also had an interest in (e.g. commerce, arts, science, biomed) and a couple are doing double degrees too! This gives them time to consider if they really want to go down the med path, which means many continuous years of commitment, or if their passion really lies in another career path which they hadn't considered much previously. So what you're considering (BSci/BArts double degree) is a great way to explore your interests! ;D

yeah - I think its a really good idea. For the past decade, I've had my heart set on surgery and so medicine was the only option I'd ever considered, so it took me by surprise when I really enjoyed economics. I was also inspired by Joseph41's 'linguistics degree gap year' idea, and thought it'd great to study a degree/double degree in another area of interest before committing myself to medicine for 14 or so years.
I just need to find out how to go from said degree to medicine and which prereqs I'll need... guess its time for more uni open days haha
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on February 14, 2018, 10:01:32 pm
Tryna stick to a weekly-basis kinda thing but at the moment, not much is going on.
Accounting - still going well, not sure if I mentioned this but I'm working in an accounting firm at the moment which is helping with some concepts we're studying at school, also got 95% on a test which I'm fairly pleased about
Economics - so hard, but classes are going back to a normal kind of pace so I know where I'm at, roughly, which is nice
English Language - not sure if it is the subject or my school's teaching style, but englang is super hard to organise? I mean, with other subjects they often have set chapters/topics that we focus on but englang seems to be all over the place, and in no order whatsoever. My learning style is very methodical so it's hard to keep at it, but as I've mentioned I love the subject so that's keeping me up to speed
Chemistry - I try to pretend this doesn't exist but we're doing fuels right now, which are relatively easy (touch wood)
Maths - same, boring, maths... sometimes a part of me wishes I stuck to methods but then I see my friends and how much they hate it and know I made the right choice

Still doing quite a few extra-curriculas. I've chosen to cut down rowing from 3 days to just one day, tennis to Saturday only, and volleyball to Wednesday only. One thing I'm looking forward to next year is being able to focus on my sports more w/o my parents' input. I got onto the school's volley and tennis teams but chose to do tennis because it's my no.1 and they were on the same day, yesterday, so because of its late finish I couldn't run to a physio which meant a lot of pain today, I also missed a lot of classes... was 400% worth it though

I've also noticed that the yr12 hesitation I had before this term has gone away. I don't mind knowing that it's my final year of school anymore, and am more excited for uni than ever. For any yr11s or below reading this; don't stress about the end of the year as much as I did, it's not so bad when you get here (future me, feel free to laugh at this comment as you take your very last class)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on February 15, 2018, 09:32:08 am
EngLang - I definitely know what you mean. I remember thinking in Year 12 that basically every class was the same, and there was no real order of content or anything haha. Have you been working off the study design? If you get the time outside of class, I recommend just gradually making your notes throughout the year based on each dot point. If you don't cover the content in class, ask on the EngLang boards - we have some pretty experienced EngLang people there, including our Head EngLang Tutor at TuteSmart, EulerFan102. ;D

With that in mind, I don't think it's just the way that your school is doing it. I think EngLang is just difficult to organise in general, such is the nature of language.

P.S. Metalanguage is always a good place to start for notes!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on February 28, 2018, 07:38:53 pm
EngLang - I definitely know what you mean. I remember thinking in Year 12 that basically every class was the same, and there was no real order of content or anything haha. Have you been working off the study design? If you get the time outside of class, I recommend just gradually making your notes throughout the year based on each dot point. If you don't cover the content in class, ask on the EngLang boards - we have some pretty experienced EngLang people there, including our Head EngLang Tutor at TuteSmart, EulerFan102. ;D

With that in mind, I don't think it's just the way that your school is doing it. I think EngLang is just difficult to organise in general, such is the nature of language.

P.S. Metalanguage is always a good place to start for notes!

hmm seems to be this way - classes are starting to become a little structured but yeah...

I've been quite busy with no time to update this journal thingy.
Accounting: my best subject at the moment - I'm loving the subject and doing well so yay!
Chemistry: honestly isn't too bad yet but I'm definitely going to need to focus on this subject a lot
Economics: so. damn. confusing. I mean, I really do love the subject but the teaching style is very... idk... I find we're taught at a context-based approach rather than giving us the spine of the subject and allowing us to expand in our own time... maybe it'll prove to be useful come exam time?
English Language: same as always, got my essay back and did quite well but we also got our first hurdles back and everyone did badly (they were designed for us to fail or something, who knows with this school honestly) which demotivated me a little bit but yeah... plenty of time to revise those mistakes
Maths: I've been avoiding it a little because it is so repetitive but it's still going reasonably well. First test was okay, second test is next Wednesday. Ours school chose matrices as one of the modules and I'm soooo not looking forward to that.

Overall, reflecting on my subjects puts everything into perspective so I'm going to try and do this on a more regular basis. I've still got rowing, tennis, volleyball, my accounting job, and my tutoring job, and now I'm swimming one morning a week with a friend. My parents are not thrilled because they are kind of expecting a 99 ATAR and I'm not. I'm going to keep these up for as long as possible because they provide me with a way to destress which I really need this year.
hmmm I think that is about it.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on March 13, 2018, 09:45:58 pm
Today I had my first accounting SAC (also 1st SAC this year). I did all past SACs from 2012-2017, 2 company SACs, and 3 practise tests, plus all of the questions in my class booklets and none of that was as insane as the real thing. 9 questions, 49 marks, 5 mins reading time and 58 mins writing - It doesn't sound hard but oh my goodness I didn't even have time to look up at the clock.
Unfortunately, this meant that my goal of >95% has kind of... drifted away... I didn't get time to proofread (I finished with 13 seconds to go) and this meant I couldn't get a clue of how many questions I got wrong.
There was a question on corrections that confused me for a solid 2 minutes. It was close to the end of the SAC, by which point my brain was slowing after the adrenalin rush, so that didn't really help my confidence. The teacher likes putting little tricks in his assessments, from what I observed, and I often make silly errors when it comes to calculating profit (honestly it's not even hard, I just have a habit of mistyping numbers into my calculator) and explaining effects on the accounting equation + theory.
I obviously won't find out my results for a while, but where I'm standing now, I'm quite happy with this SAC. (touch wood) - I know I would've made silly errors and whatnot, but I'm content with the amount of preparation I did leading up to it, and how well I understood the topics. I also feel like I'm not at a huge disadvantage to those that did 1/2 anymore, just because of how much effort I have put into catching up. If nothing else, I do really enjoy the subject and studying for it has been a blast and if that's the only positive, I'm happy with that.

On Thursday, I have a chem SAC on galvanic cells and redox. I'm not super confident because chem has been on the back-burner for about 18 years, I've yet to get another tutor, I'm super scared about it which often has a negative impact on my results, and my school has 9 incredibly competitive classes of chem students who are very, very hard to compete with soooooo... here's to a raw 2 ss at this point in time.
Next Tuesday I have an eco SAC on the first ~3 chapters. I do enjoy the subject but I'm a tad iffy about my teacher. That being said, I'm confident that if I do at least 4 practise SACs leading up to it and revise the main concepts I can do well (touch wood again - my grades may be exempt from the rules of superstition but, hell, I'm not about to test that theory out now). So far I haven't had an issue getting around the concepts taught, but I need to keep on top of my eco studying game and keep up with more current events. Also, I suck at answering questions concisely.
My last SAC this term (fingers crossed) is English Language in 13 days. It's an essay on the use of informal language, but I don't believe we are privy to our prompts until said date. It should be 10 mins reading + 70 mins writing, but I'm still worried about it. Eng Lang is one of my favourite subjects content-wise, whilst also being one of my least favourite. I lost my knack for writing eloquent essays in year 10 when they became all about the ticks, A+s, and smiling parents, and less about the content, enjoyment, satisfaction, and appreciation of the beauty in the English language. I'd like to aim to write at least one essay, varying lengths, as a way of revising content we cover in class, and also improving my lacking skills. I would be really disappointed if I did badly in a subject I was so passionate about.
Finally, my maths SAC is next term. I definitely need to stay atop my game in this subject because I often find myself prioritising literally everything and anything above maths... Hopefully next time I update this thread of my academic whereabouts this has improved.

Extracurriculars are swell. Rowing is finished for the term, I left my tennis club because of ongoing issues, volleyball is soooo fun, and swimming has taken a break but I think I'll be back within the next couple of weeks. I also joined orchestra and have been playing flute which is refreshing as I hadn't picked it up in a long, long time. I'm considering stopping work as a tutor and focusing more on school, sport, and my work at the accounting firm. It'll also give me a more peaceful Monday (early finish, too) which I am craving at the moment.
Ciaoooo
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: emmykatexo on March 28, 2018, 08:51:19 pm
Hey Bianca, hope you are well! I was wondering if you could explain how you got a job at an accounting firm at such a young age for a part time job and what it entails? Thanks x
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on March 30, 2018, 04:08:58 pm
Hey Bianca, hope you are well! I was wondering if you could explain how you got a job at an accounting firm at such a young age for a part time job and what it entails? Thanks x

Hey! :) Hope you're doing well too, and enjoying your Easter break.
I knew the people who run the firm because they work in the same building as one of my parents' clinics, and their previous person left for Sydney, so they asked my parents if I wanted a job.
As for what it entails, I work a few nights a week filing files, answering phone calls, looking after invoices, updating client files, sending documents on to financial advisers, and then any other small jobs that need doing. Nothing major of course, but its nice getting a feel of the accounting environment and seeing principles in action.
If you're looking for a similar job, I recommend just handing in your resume to small and large firms and expressing interest in a casual admin job.
Best of luck x
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on March 30, 2018, 04:46:40 pm
I'm not sure exactly when I last posted but since then I've had 3 sacs (economics, chemistry, and english language).
I got my accounting sac back, which was... okay... The teacher was pleased with my result but I definitely could have done better. The questions I got wrong were the ones I was worried about in the last post, and I also made some silly errors with balancing ledgers (legit wrote the wrong date twice).
My economics sac was lost by the teacher. I'm kind of sad because I had a really good grasp on the topic and now I'll probably have to get a derived score, which means more pressure on the remaining sacs. My fingers are crossed that he'll find my sac in the next couple of days.
Chemistry was awful. I'm dropping it next term.
English language was okay. I finished with plenty of time to proofread but it definitely was not my finest work.

These holidays are going to be filled with a lot of studying. We've got a huge take-home sac, plus 4-days of sacs first week back for maths. Our English Language teacher has also given us a lot of homework. Accounting is all about practise, so I'm going to revise the content we've covered over and over again, until it comes naturally. Economics will also be revision.

Extra curricular wise, life is good. Work is fun and sports are making me get up early (which is boosting my mood tenfold). My family has gone to visit my extended family in Adelaide for ~a week and I've stayed home to look after the pets and study, which was a really good decision because I can breathe, finally. My parents don't seem to want to make this year particularly easy.

Term 2 is supposedly the hardest of the four. It's the longest, and most jam-packed full of sacs and other assessments. I'm relying on a strict routine to keep me going for the entirety of the 11 weeks of hell. Gl @ me.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on April 17, 2018, 10:06:20 pm
Two rather odd days back at school.
Accounting; I let myself get behind by speculating over my last sac's score for far too long. It's become too much of a score-heavy subject to think about so silly me has avoided it. I'm not sure why, since I really love the subject.
Economics; sac1 is definitely lost. There was a meeting between some coordinators, teachers, and principal today to discuss what the next step is for me but I'll find out tomorrow. Again, kind of sucks because it sounds like I'll be getting a mark from a re-do of the test or another task and then it'll be scaled by scores from sacs throughout the year, and adjusted in my favour to account for the more basic outcome and the fact that I did not lost it... It means that my sac mark isn't set in stone and all of my other sacs have to be really good so I don't stuff this one up. Also means I'll push myself to study a lot more, which is a good thing.
English Language; got the essay sac back today. Did better than expected, but I'm not proud of my writing. Will definitely be a focus point of this term, I'm hoping to write at least one essay per week/fortnight.
Maths; got the third test back, was okay/ better than expected, now in the middle of sac1 (runs over 5 days) and so far, so good. Would like to do reasonably well in this subject but we'll see.

I probably mentioned this earlier, but I've dropped chemistry. For a range of reasons, but one main one was my performance on our first sac. Didn't pay attention in class, didn't have a clue what was going on, studied the subject maybe a grand total of once, didn't finish the sac, legit had no idea what was on the sac, spent weeks knowing I'd get a 20%, emailing coordinators about dropping it. (also I know a lot of students joke about not studying and failing, I am being 100% serious when I say I didn't do anything. at all)
Dropped it.
Got my mark back today... Got a B. A frickin B. Which is raw, and I saw plenty of other students getting far below that.
Like, honestly, I think they have mixed up my sac I legit do not even think I answered enough questions to get it.
So now I'm like oh goodness if I can do that without studying like what can I achieve if I actually studied?
Lordy lordy...

That's about it.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: ASX_Billy on April 17, 2018, 10:46:32 pm
Tryna stick to a weekly-basis kinda thing but at the moment, not much is going on.
Accounting - still going well, not sure if I mentioned this but I'm working in an accounting firm at the moment which is helping with some concepts we're studying at school, also got 95% on a test which I'm fairly pleased about
Economics - so hard, but classes are going back to a normal kind of pace so I know where I'm at, roughly, which is nice
English Language - not sure if it is the subject or my school's teaching style, but englang is super hard to organise? I mean, with other subjects they often have set chapters/topics that we focus on but englang seems to be all over the place, and in no order whatsoever. My learning style is very methodical so it's hard to keep at it, but as I've mentioned I love the subject so that's keeping me up to speed
Chemistry - I try to pretend this doesn't exist but we're doing fuels right now, which are relatively easy (touch wood)
Maths - same, boring, maths... sometimes a part of me wishes I stuck to methods but then I see my friends and how much they hate it and know I made the right choice

Still doing quite a few extra-curriculas. I've chosen to cut down rowing from 3 days to just one day, tennis to Saturday only, and volleyball to Wednesday only. One thing I'm looking forward to next year is being able to focus on my sports more w/o my parents' input. I got onto the school's volley and tennis teams but chose to do tennis because it's my no.1 and they were on the same day, yesterday, so because of its late finish I couldn't run to a physio which meant a lot of pain today, I also missed a lot of classes... was 400% worth it though

I've also noticed that the yr12 hesitation I had before this term has gone away. I don't mind knowing that it's my final year of school anymore, and am more excited for uni than ever. For any yr11s or below reading this; don't stress about the end of the year as much as I did, it's not so bad when you get here (future me, feel free to laugh at this comment as you take your very last class)

Accounting - Aced first SAC, failed second (Under 95%), the subject is by no means conceptually challenging or content-heavy, but it seriously stresses refined care (i suppose this is memory in considering EVERYTHING to do with a question and can be linked to content heaviness) in regards to the questions, especially interpreting source documents, additional information, and then using them.
English - Hated it a few days ago, mindset changed, slowly enjoying
Methods - Not sure why people find it boring and hate it, it's like accounting, there are essentially only one way of doing things
Business - Wish my school had Economics this subject is so dry, i'm certain i learnt way more about this subject in my spare time watching Khan Academy and Coursera than the entire year of Units 1 & 2 with my teacher (i hope that useless unhelpful teacher doesn't read this) - and my first SAC score was straight up crap, despite studying really "hard" (my methods of studying have since been revised but they were, before that first SAC, ridiculous - I mean, why did I rewrite all the first few chapters of the textbook in my own words then do all the questions without seeking feedback or self-marking them or more importantly, why did i choose to prioritise annotating notes over doing practice SACS?)
Media - New study design, did okay (over 80%) on first SAC, but since it's a folio subject the SAT is tremendously more important

Year 12 motivation: Depending on how much i juggle, it goes from me being a complete nihilist to "let's do everything 100% and think of stress as an exercise."

Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on May 03, 2018, 10:32:24 am
It's crazy thinking that I only have months left of school. I'm excited for uni, yes, but I think I'm really going to miss this place.
Also, year 12 is hella fun. It feels like my subjects actually matter, so I love studying for them a whole lot more than I loved studying for previous years.
Accounting - 2nd sac wasn't the best. I feel like I made some pretty big errors. My main goal was to score higher than my first sac, which pushed me a whole lot more than aiming for a number. I think I'm getting the score back today.
Economics - SAC2 is coming up. Kind of wish I had my feedback from SAC1 so I knew what I needed to improve on, but oh well. SAC1 is a week and a half after SAC2, so I'm going to start my revision for that in about 12 days.
English Language - Our second SAC is an analytical commentary, which I'm more confident with because it seems to have more definite rules, as compared to an essay. I need to write a practice one and sit down with my teacher to see how I can improve it - that seems to be the best way to 'study' for this subject.
Mathematics - I'm getting my first SAC score back today at parent-teachers, so that'll be interesting. I had a decent grasp of the concepts, but I'm pretty sure I made some bad mistakes. Oh boy.

Extra-curricula wise, I let go of everything except volleyball and the odd swim. I'm focusing more on my overall fitness rather than sport, because it usually incurs less injuries.
Work is going well, I'm grateful for the couple of hours a week I get to relax and not compete academically or physically. Idk how many people actually read this, but if you're going into VCE, I'd recommend getting a job for an hour or two a week, or something of the likes.

As of now, my goal in school is to keep improving. I've been keeping graphs of my test + sac scores, and as long as the trend is upwards, I'll be happy with my progress.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on May 22, 2018, 07:39:23 pm
Winter has got the best of me... oh no
I'm not studying as much, purely because the cold has me unmotivated, and so my main goal for the last 5 weeks of term 2 is to ensure I'm studying consistently every day. I need to get back into the habit of using my frees to study, too.
Accounting; very disappointed with my SAC, but I'm looking forward to SAC3 as I'm keeping up with the work and working with the teacher outside of class, which is helping a whole lot more than I thought it would
Economics; SAC2 (my first) is on Thursday. Scared because it's my first and it has a higher weighting than for the rest of the cohort, since my teacher misplaced my SAC1. I really, really want to do well. SAC1 is in about 2 weeks.
English Language; Today I wrote an essay in 1 hour because I was FINALLY IN THE MOOD FOR IT I'M SO THRILLED BECAUSE I HAVEN'T ENJOYED ENGLANG THIS MUCH SINCE LAST YEAR!!!
Maths; SAC1 was not good. Teacher very, very unimpressed. 31/40. Should not have lost so many marks, I really don't know why this happened, but I'm hoping that it'll push me to want to do well.

I've been looking at gap years because I've been quite hesitant to head straight to uni, but since talking to a few people outside of my own school, I'm looking forward to it again. Going back to the business/arts at Monash idea, which is exciting me.
My mother has been stressing me out about my atar and the other day she told me it was because she doesn't want to tell her friends if I get a low one? Honestly... I don't think I'm going to tell my parents when I get it. I don't really care what the number is anymore (oh my god if 2017 me saw this she'd die), as long as it gets me into whatever I feel like doing at uni.
See you in another 500 months, I guess.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on July 05, 2018, 01:10:43 pm
It's been so long since I've posted that the website is giving me a warning of inactivity... oops
I'm grateful for these holidays to catch up to speed in all of my subjects.

Accounting - SACs are particularly average but my teacher still tells me I'm performing well. I need to revert back to my term 1 habits of doing everything ahead of time. This'll probably be my lunchtime subject in term 3
Economics - we're getting a SAC back early next term that was incredibly hard. My main issue in this subject is not being 110% clear on the marking scheme of the questions, so in term 3 I intend to do at least 2 short answer and 10 MCs a night.
English Language - I think I need to develop a solid understanding of the subsystems (I know, definitely something that should have happened last year haha) and then I'll be alright. I understand the structure of the questions, essays, and ACs at least. I'd like to improve my vocab and eloquence, but I think being able to use metalanguage very fluently is the main issue I'd like to improve upon. Our next SAC is all about ethnolects and we're meant to interview someone we know that speaks a variety of non-standard English, but I am finding it hard to think of anyone that I could comfortably ask. ugh
Further - my financial maths SAC was actually okay. The majority, if not all, of the mistakes I made were to do with not reading the question properly and are very easy to fix. I'm happy with this subject. Term 3 is all about keeping up to date, which is easy as long as I finish chapters in class/school time (which I can usually do).

I think that's it. Overall, my performance is pretty average but as long as I keep improving I'll be content. Also, I can't fathom how we *basically* only have one term left? um
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 03, 2018, 07:15:25 pm
It's already August!?!? wow
Next week we have to do our uni preferences which is a little insane. I know I say this every single week, and when I read over this journal at the end of my exams I'll be laughing @ how silly some things I say are but oh wellll
Accounting - we're finishing the last chapter of actual bookkeeping so I've started practise exams + previous practise SACs to strengthen this. I've started doing more practical/bookkeeping stuff at work which really helps with solidifying the theory in my head.
Economics - boy this subject is insane. We're studying the budget at the moment which is fun and I have a good grip of it but I struggle in areas where I have to apply knowledge from topics I'm not so good at. I do wish our teacher gave us regular topic tests or the like to ensure we're not falling behind. My next SAC is on Tuesday, I have a feeling that it's an essay or multiple 6-8 mark questions as that's what he has been prepping us for. If anyone is good at eco essays or long questions, please message me :)
English Language - I have a SAC on Monday. Guided AC and short answer questions. We had to interview a non-standard English speaker and write a transcript which will be used in the SAC. I like my ACs because there's structure to them so they're relatively black and white.
Further - going well. Aiming for a 40 atm but I'm doing badly in everything in life rn so I can see myself getting a 4 too. No idea how much my school will scale our exam scores up by, usually quite a bit, but I can't rely on it sooo it's going to be a lot of hard work for the next 100 days.

Hope you're all doing well in school + life x
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 06, 2018, 09:02:07 pm

English Language - I have a SAC on Monday. Guided AC and short answer questions. We had to interview a non-standard English speaker and write a transcript which will be used in the SAC. I like my ACs because there's structure to them so they're relatively black and white.


It went reasonably well. The short answer questions were a little odd, as in one of them couldn't really be answered with my transcript and three had strange marking schemes, but I wrote a lot for all of them and finished that part of the SAC. The second part was a full AC on a different text. It was a tad difficult to talk about the text, and I don't think I allocated enough time either. I finished my introduction (it was a page long, so I'm definitely going to have to work on writing more concisely) and had ~10 minutes left of the SAC so I wrote two brief body paragraphs so that I could get my ideas down at least.
One more SAC in english language... Boy will I be happy when it's over with.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on August 07, 2018, 03:39:35 pm
How do you think your preferences will shape up atm? :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 07, 2018, 10:02:50 pm
How do you think your preferences will shape up atm? :)

Not sure... not how I envisioned them a year ago.
Definitely business, likely a double degree, not sure where, I have no idea what my atar will look like so I have no idea how to go about preferences eek
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: not.yet.a.nerd on August 08, 2018, 05:48:16 pm
Not sure... not how I envisioned them a year ago.
Definitely business, likely a double degree, not sure where, I have no idea what my atar will look like so I have no idea how to go about preferences eek

Does your school give you a predicted atar? That might help for deciding potential uni courses.

It's been interesting reading your journal - you've had such a varied vce journey! I'm pretty boring in comparison - mainly stuck with the same vce subjects for 2 years. Are you still playing in the orchestra?

Also, what's it like working an office job? Do the employees treat you differently as you're a student?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 12, 2018, 04:46:25 pm
Does your school give you a predicted atar? That might help for deciding potential uni courses.

It's been interesting reading your journal - you've had such a varied vce journey! I'm pretty boring in comparison - mainly stuck with the same vce subjects for 2 years. Are you still playing in the orchestra?

Also, what's it like working an office job? Do the employees treat you differently as you're a student?

Hello! haha Thanks for reading my journal - it definitely has been a bit of a strange journey and I've changed so much in the past year or so. Sticking with the same vce subjects doesn't make you boring - just makes you decisive and dedicated, which aren't bad qualities by any stretch of the imagination haha
I'm not playing in the orchestra anymore. I was going to join the flute ensemble again but gave it a miss because I was doing so many other things. Do you play an instrument or sport?

Our school refuses to give us predicted ATARs or study scores - they have them to send to interstate/international universities but they're really weird about not giving the students any information. I've tried using atar + study score calculators to get a rough estimate and just put in the lowest possible scores so that I don't end up with no viable preferences, but yeah.... incredibly annoying situation.

The office job is fantastic. The employees don't really treat me all that differently since I just do basic work and I'm as qualified as anyone else who would have my position. There is one employee who is only qualified as a bookkeeper (not accountant) who was a little weird when they first started, but I guess they realised I'm not competing for their job or whatever (yet ;) ) so yeah... it's a really fun job though.

Hope your assessments are going well! :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: AngelWings on August 12, 2018, 05:06:40 pm
Our school refuses to give us predicted ATARs or study scores - they have them to send to interstate/international universities but they're really weird about not giving the students any information. I've tried using atar + study score calculators to get a rough estimate and just put in the lowest possible scores so that I don't end up with no viable preferences, but yeah.... incredibly annoying situation.

The same happened at my school for the majority of my subjects (the only one I got an estimated SS was for Methods). We also never got told our rankings. Reason for this was so we all wouldn't get hung up on numbers and do the best we could, which I am thankful for. I countered this by just putting in preferences as I wanted them, since you can just switch them after ATAR Release Day (Change of Preference week). I wound up not changing preferences much in that period. 
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 14, 2018, 10:23:44 am

The same happened at my school for the majority of my subjects (the only one I got an estimated SS was for Methods). We also never got told our rankings. Reason for this was so we all wouldn't get hung up on numbers and do the best we could, which I am thankful for. I countered this by just putting in preferences as I wanted them, since you can just switch them after ATAR Release Day (Change of Preference week). I wound up not changing preferences much in that period.

Sorry, this may seem like a silly question, but can you change preferences entirely or just reorder the pre-existing ones?
I guess not knowing your predicted scores has a lot of benefits that I'm happy to reap, but I'd love to have, like, a predicted ATAR that changes with every sac I do haha
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: AngelWings on August 14, 2018, 05:17:53 pm
Sorry, this may seem like a silly question, but can you change preferences entirely or just reorder the pre-existing ones?
I guess not knowing your predicted scores has a lot of benefits that I'm happy to reap, but I'd love to have, like, a predicted ATAR that changes with every sac I do haha
Please take this with a grain of salt, but pretty sure you can change them entirely. There is one giant exception: you won't be able to get into any courses that require additional tasks and such e.g. medicine (assuming you didn't do UMAT) or design (which have interviews), since they would've passed. 
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 14, 2018, 08:47:57 pm
Please take this with a grain of salt, but pretty sure you can change them entirely. There is one giant exception: you won't be able to get into any courses that require additional tasks and such e.g. medicine (assuming you didn't do UMAT) or design (which have interviews), since they would've passed.

Oh sweet!
Thanks so much!!!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Bri MT on August 15, 2018, 08:26:28 am
Please take this with a grain of salt, but pretty sure you can change them entirely. There is one giant exception: you won't be able to get into any courses that require additional tasks and such e.g. medicine (assuming you didn't do UMAT) or design (which have interviews), since they would've passed. 

Yeah,  you can add in new courses and get rid of old ones as well as reorder. Having my course in my preferences list from the start was useful because I was sent email reminders that I needed to compete a supplementary form for it by November. The other thing to be aware of its that some courses have early application dates, so it's best to check this as well.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 03, 2018, 01:39:44 pm
I realised this morning that I only have 4 Mondays left as a high school student... insane, really.
Accounting; I spoke to the teacher last week about my results and what I am likely to be looking at in terms of study scores and he gave me a number well above what I believed I could do. Usually this would make me less willing to try hard, as I know I could always fall back on this score, but it has actually made me work harder + more consistently in this subject than ever. The trickiest part is keeping up with all new concepts (for those of you who are new, I didn't do 1/2 and went into accounting on a bit of a whim) but there are no serious problems that can't be fixed within a few weeks.
Economics; oh my goodness I love monetary policy. It's like everything from units 1-4 came together to create this beautiful topic that finally makes complete sense. I'm not saying much about the SAC (don't want to jinx it), but it's definitely the most confident I've felt coming out of one. Shame that we end the year on supply side policies - feels like it may be a bit of a let down.
English Language; I hate this class more and more every time I step foot in to it. Bad vibes, bad grades, mediocre teaching, mediocre resources, awful presentation of concepts, and poor organisation/attitude from the school. We had to get a different teacher one day a week due to a timetable clash (usually I'd be upset that younger years got preference over year 12s, but) and this teacher is incredible - I feel like the subject isn't nearly as much of a mess as before. I have it as my first period 2 days a week... boy is it hard waking up those days haha Oh well, almost over soon
Mathematics; I've realised I may actually miss maths in uni. We're on to matrices now, and I do find them a whole lot easier than last year. I wish our other module wasn't geometry/trig though, I suck at it...

Kind of a negative sounding post, but I'm /generally/ happy with school at the moment. I hope everyone reading this is doing well too <3
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Bri MT on September 03, 2018, 01:47:54 pm
I realised this morning that I only have 4 Mondays left as a high school student... insane, really.
Accounting; I spoke to the teacher last week about my results and what I am likely to be looking at in terms of study scores and he gave me a number well above what I believed I could do. Usually this would make me less willing to try hard, as I know I could always fall back on this score, but it has actually made me work harder + more consistently in this subject than ever. The trickiest part is keeping up with all new concepts (for those of you who are new, I didn't do 1/2 and went into accounting on a bit of a whim) but there are no serious problems that can't be fixed within a few weeks.
Economics; oh my goodness I love monetary policy. It's like everything from units 1-4 came together to create this beautiful topic that finally makes complete sense. I'm not saying much about the SAC (don't want to jinx it), but it's definitely the most confident I've felt coming out of one. Shame that we end the year on supply side policies - feels like it may be a bit of a let down.
English Language; I hate this class more and more every time I step foot in to it. Bad vibes, bad grades, mediocre teaching, mediocre resources, awful presentation of concepts, and poor organisation/attitude from the school. We had to get a different teacher one day a week due to a timetable clash (usually I'd be upset that younger years got preference over year 12s, but) and this teacher is incredible - I feel like the subject isn't nearly as much of a mess as before. I have it as my first period 2 days a week... boy is it hard waking up those days haha Oh well, almost over soon
Mathematics; I've realised I may actually miss maths in uni. We're on to matrices now, and I do find them a whole lot easier than last year. I wish our other module wasn't geometry/trig though, I suck at it...

Kind of a negative sounding post, but I'm /generally/ happy with school at the moment. I hope everyone reading this is doing well too <3
One of the things I value about this post is that you talk about negative things (because VCE isn't all sunshine and rainbows) but you've also considered the positive aspect for each point you've raised - which is great to see since it can be easy to get sucked into spirals of negativity, especially when you're stressed.


Good luck for your results and continued engagement in your topics!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 03, 2018, 06:52:16 pm
One of the things I value about this post is that you talk about negative things (because VCE isn't all sunshine and rainbows) but you've also considered the positive aspect for each point you've raised - which is great to see since it can be easy to get sucked into spirals of negativity, especially when you're stressed.


Good luck for your results and continued engagement in your topics!

haha I'm trying to see the positive sides of things more - negativity won't get you far especially in vce :)
Thank you so much for your support (I think I forgot to thank you for your help with preferences a little earlier too, so thank you again!!)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 18, 2018, 09:12:32 am
This week is a little heavy on the SACs. I had maths part one and eng lang yesterday, maths part two today, eco on Thursday, and accounting on Friday. After that, I only have one accounting sac (next term) and then I'm officially finished. wowow has time flown.
I'm most scared for eco because I feel as if I have no idea what is going on. Supply side policies seemed fine before I realised how messy the topic is - compared to my favourite, monetary policy, which is very straightforward and organised. Speaking of which, I truly thought that sac was going to be my best... it wasn't. My teacher marked it insanely harshly (same for a lot of people in the cohort) and we're not sure why. I lost only a couple of marks for content mistakes (nothing I didn't know, just mixed up one transmission mechanism oops) but lost a lot of marks for silly, structure-related things. I don't believe it's fair, but I'm waiting to get the feedback sheet to see what he has to say about the marking scheme... bit disappointing considering how well I knew the topic.
Accounting is on budgetary policy, which has little to no bookkeeping, meaning I can probably do well. However, it's an online sac and I always tend to make silly mistakes! I'm actually looking forward to this, and my teacher remains optimistic of my scores, which is good.
Maths is going well. I think I mentioned this previously, but I'm quite liking matrices this year. Part one was okay, I know I'll lose silly marks but as long as I keep my average up I don't care - the exam is all I'm fussed about at this point.
Eng lang was blah. Not good, but not terrible. Again, my average and exam is all I care about in this.

I can't believe high school is coming to an end? Seems like time has flown by faster than I could have ever imagined.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on September 22, 2018, 06:00:07 pm
Hell week is over, and now exam preparation is in full gear (apart from one accounting sac next term).
My sacs last week were pretty bad... flunked accounting, eco was pretty terrible, got maths back and one was amazing but the other was horrendous, and eng lang... no idea.
I also had a meeting with my eng lang teacher about my progress thus far, and I'm keen to get down and do a lot of prep for that subject (nice little change to my old attitude in eng lang).
I emailed my eco teacher to talk about the sac I thought I was going to do well in but didn't, and he never replied. I found this kind of odd, seeming as he usually replies to all emails within the day... If he doesn't reply in a week I'll send another because I'm not sure on the way it's been marked. Otherwise, this is one of my favourite subjects to study for - it's quite satisfying seeing it all come together.
Maths prep is all laid out for us by our teacher, so basically as long as I keep up with the prac exam schedule, I'll be fine. These holidays, apart from exams, I just need to refine my bound notes.
Accounting needs a lot of work. I'm considering hiring a tutor for the next month or so, just so I'm 200% prepared. I have a lot of respect for this teacher and would feel absolutely awful if I didn't get a decent score for him.
Term 3 is officially finished. 2 weeks of term 4, exams, and then I'm completely finished... wow.
Likely won't be updating this during the holidays, but we'll see.
Good luck to everyone preparing for exams!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 03, 2018, 11:02:42 am
2 exams down, 3 to go.
Economics was unusually easy? One topic I focused on a lot when studying was Monetary Policy and it showed up a bit, which was great. My teacher was trying to get us to focus on a range of different topics he thought would be on the exam, and they were so stupid and irrelevant. I'm glad I didn't follow his advice, but feel sorry for those that did. My only issue with the exam being so easy was that any marks lost had a more significant impact than in a harder exam, so that's a little scary.
Further was harder than I was expecting? Nothing like past vcaa exams, more like company exam level difficulty (not as bad as MAV though). In practise exams, I wasn't losing any marks and didn't have trouble with time allocation. In the real exam, I was so stressed, scared for time, and actually struggled with a couple of questions? I marked my answers against what people have posted here and on fb and I didn't even hit 90. I'm so annoyed with myself for this because honestly the errors I made were stupid. Further is not a subject where I can afford to miss that many marks, and considering that some of my friends didn't drop any marks, the exam wasn't too hard to do well in.
This weekend will be entirely dedicated to exam 2. I find exam 2 a lot easier to get into the mood and stress less, it's lowkey therapeutic, but I'm going to start with MAV exam 2s, as they seemed to be the hardest commercial exams.
Accounting is Friday next week, I will focus on that from Monday afternoon onwards. I'm not confident that I can do well, I definitely didn't work hard enough to catch up throughout the year.
Saturday 10th onwards will be eng lang prep. I can do okay in the exam, but I need to just write paper after paper after paper in that week.

Overall, I'm so disappointed with this year in school. I know I can do better than this and it's so disappointing seeing my further results.
Oh well, can only work harder for Monday.
Good luck to everyone sitting exams this week :)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Joseph41 on November 03, 2018, 02:13:03 pm
We've had lots of feedback on Insta about the weird nature of the Further exam! Lots of people have said similar to what you've said above. Try not to worry about it too much - you never really know how exam performance will translate to actual scores (due to other factors such as difficulty of exam etc.). :)

Great work - just three more!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Vaike on November 03, 2018, 02:25:35 pm
In practise exams, I wasn't losing any marks and didn't have trouble with time allocation. In the real exam, I was so stressed, scared for time, and actually struggled with a couple of questions?

It's really weird how the pressure of exams can get to us, I had the exact same thing when I did Further. Finishing practice exams in 30 minutes or so, and then sweating hard in the actual exam and only finishing with ~30 seconds to go. As Joseph said, do you're best to put it past you, there's not much productivity to be found in reminiscing on it now.

Keep your head up, even if you feel disappointed right now, you've still got plenty of chances to show how much effort you've put in. Best of luck for your remaining exams!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 04, 2018, 06:38:37 pm
We've had lots of feedback on Insta about the weird nature of the Further exam! Lots of people have said similar to what you've said above. Try not to worry about it too much - you never really know how exam performance will translate to actual scores (due to other factors such as difficulty of exam etc.). :)

Great work - just three more!

Yeah I know there's a universal dislike of the exam difficulty, it's just annoying knowing that the mistakes I made were rather stupid and I could have easily solved them any other time. I'm not stressed about my actual score, I'm thinking more about how many more marks I could have had.
Oh well, nothing I can do now except prepare myself for the worst tomorrow haha
Can't believe there's only 3 exams left then I'm finished? Feels like yesterday I started this journal, yet I've changed SO much haha

It's really weird how the pressure of exams can get to us, I had the exact same thing when I did Further. Finishing practice exams in 30 minutes or so, and then sweating hard in the actual exam and only finishing with ~30 seconds to go. As Joseph said, do you're best to put it past you, there's not much productivity to be found in reminiscing on it now.

Keep your head up, even if you feel disappointed right now, you've still got plenty of chances to show how much effort you've put in. Best of luck for your remaining exams!

Yeah, you're absolutely right. I take great comfort in the fact that everyone could relate to that on Friday. I can't change anything now, just focus on doing my best tomorrow, and at least now I'm mentally prepared for a difficult exam.
Thanks so much!!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on November 05, 2018, 04:45:43 pm
Further exam 2 was fantastic!! Thanks, VCAA.
I can't believe I only have two exams left until I'm finished.
Accounting is my next main focus. I'm super stressed for this but I feel like this may change throughout the week since I'm just going to be doing practise exam after practise exam.
Then englang, then I'm outta here!!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 13, 2018, 07:20:03 pm
There are less than 12 hours until ATARs are released and I'm a little sad that this is the end of VCE, as it's been such a huge part of my life for so long.
I used to believe that the number I will receive tomorrow is a summary of my 13 years of education, but I don't think so anymore. I'm honestly quite calm, and almost looking forward to opening my results.
I know they won't reflect exactly what I want, that there will be a few numbers missing that I will kick myself over for a couple of seconds, but I also know that what I want to do in life isn't greatly affected by it (there's always another path), and I'm determined enough to make my dreams a reality.
I got early offers for a business/law degree and a business degree from two interstate universities, but I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to pick up my life and leave behind the important friends and family members I have here, even if it is only temporary. But I guess we'll see how it goes at 7am tomorrow.

See you soon ;)
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: lacitam on December 13, 2018, 07:24:28 pm
There are less than 12 hours until ATARs are released and I'm a little sad that this is the end of VCE, as it's been such a huge part of my life for so long.
I used to believe that the number I will receive tomorrow is a summary of my 13 years of education, but I don't think so anymore. I'm honestly quite calm, and almost looking forward to opening my results.
I know they won't reflect exactly what I want, that there will be a few numbers missing that I will kick myself over for a couple of seconds, but I also know that what I want to do in life isn't greatly affected by it (there's always another path), and I'm determined enough to make my dreams a reality.
I got early offers for a business/law degree and a business degree from two interstate universities, but I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to pick up my life and leave behind the important friends and family members I have here, even if it is only temporary. But I guess we'll see how it goes at 7am tomorrow.

See you soon ;)

What uni do you want to get into?
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 13, 2018, 07:42:15 pm
What uni do you want to get into?

I'm not sure... Love the look of a couple of RMIT's courses at the moment, and the applied/practical side of their business degrees are great, so maybe there?
Probably not Monash because I'm not a fan of the campuses. MelbUni is an option for transferring, but I'll have to do maths to make up for stupid yr11 me dropping methods haha
And interstate, Adelaide Uni and Bond are my favourites I think.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: lacitam on December 14, 2018, 01:34:10 am
I'm not sure... Love the look of a couple of RMIT's courses at the moment, and the applied/practical side of their business degrees are great, so maybe there?
Probably not Monash because I'm not a fan of the campuses. MelbUni is an option for transferring, but I'll have to do maths to make up for stupid yr11 me dropping methods haha
And interstate, Adelaide Uni and Bond are my favourites I think.
Don't forget about Deakin - this uni sounds promising!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 14, 2018, 10:04:40 pm
Don't forget about Deakin - this uni sounds promising!

I've looked at Deakin a few times, never really been interested though.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 15, 2018, 11:14:54 am
We’ve finally reached the end of this VCE journey journal. It’s been a tough ride, but has never ceased to be an insanely unpredictable, life-changing, wonderful, stressful, sad, happy, and crazy experience.
It’s an odd feeling, knowing that such a huge part of your life has ended. School has made up the bulk of my thoughts and actions for 13 years, and now it will just cease to exist as anything more than a memory. That’s crazy.


I think the most interesting part of reading my journal front to back is seeing how much I’ve changed as a student over this period of time. In year 11, my heart was set on a 98+ ATAR and medicine, now I couldn’t imagine pursuing anything but business, and my goal ATAR was just enough to get in; nothing more, nothing less.
My ATAR and VCE journey came to mean something entirely different to me in recent months. It was no longer something I based my self-worth on, all it meant was I could get into the course I wanted. This was a great mindset, as come the 14th of December, I was not disappointed as long as I met the requirements for my course (which were reasonably easy). My academic worth, in my head, was instead based on how confident I felt with topics, how much I enjoyed subjects, and the little achievements throughout my education thus far. I’ve worked so, so incredibly hard for 13 years. I’ve earned numerous scholarships, I got myself into a selective entry school, I’ve won a number of academic competitions, I’ve studied until insane hours of the morning, I’ve always tried my absolute best, and I refuse to reduce all of this to the numbers I received this morning – they’re just another one of these small successes.

My most difficult hurdle in Year 12 was the 5 hours of travel I did every day. I’ve mentioned it a few times throughout, but it honestly changed everything for me. I woke up at 5am and slept late. I lost over 24 hours a week to dead time, and I never, ever handled it well. I found I worked best when I packed my routine full of sports and extra-curricula activities, which forced me to use my free periods and lunchtimes studying. I wish I could have found a way to get around this, and will definitely need to next year. Hey, at least I'm almost a morning person now!!

I think my favourite part of Year 12 was ‘finding myself’. I know it sounds so cliché, but I’ve changed so much as a person and I’m so happy about that. Socially, I’ve made my closest, most amazing friends (hello & thank you to the one reading this  ;) ) and said goodbye to the toxic people in my life. Physically & mentally, I’ve become stronger and set new, amazing habits that’ll stick with me for life. Academically, I used year 12 to chill out a little before uni, so that I don’t spend first year being burnt out. And just generally as a person, I think I’ve improved haha. The constant stress and looming responsibilities definitely make a huge impact, and I’m so glad I could transform these bad situations into amazing ones.

It’s also interesting watching my school in its flawed entirety show itself when it gets tough. I’ve loved and been proud of it for so, so long and they’ve completely torn that apart over the last few months. There’s little support for anyone who isn’t set to achieve close to 50 (and this is a very, very strong cohort, so it’s not like it would be difficult to, I don’t know, pay attention to the other students?), and so many ridiculous politics in the admin/staff teams that reflect poorly in their teaching and leadership. It’s sad that 4 amazing years turned to ****, but I am glad that it happened near the end.

I hope that my journal has been of some support/entertainment to someone at some point. I’ve changed a lot since August 2017, and I feel that this has been reflected in my writing. I don’t necessarily agree/stand by everything said in the beginning, so read it with a  grain of salt. I’m unsure as to whether this will be archived, deleted, or kept here for many years, but I hope someone who is struggling with the hardships of VCE can seek solace in the fact that it will all work out okay. Your ATAR is a prerequisite to get into a uni course, and that is all it ever has to be. It doesn’t define you, and I hope that truly sinks in.
VCE is such a hard bundle of months. It’ll reduce you to tears, but also reveal a new, hopefully better person in the end. It’s long and arduous nights of studying and getting nowhere, but it’s also lively and exciting evenings of 18ths that you are entitled to enjoy. Don’t get caught up in the belief that Year 12 is all work and no play, join a sport or two, get a job, play an instrument, and get involved at school. I don’t regret one second of the fun, even if it changed my grades on occasion.

Thank you so, so much for being a part of this time. This journal and the many people who have read it, replied to it, and messaged me to offer their priceless advice has been an amazing source of support. Thank you, also, to the moderators and admin that always get involved and stay in contact. And finally to the readers, even if this is the first and only post you’ll ever see of mine, thanks for coming haha (and good luck with your future successes!).
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Maya24 on December 15, 2018, 11:35:47 am
This was such an amazing journal to read. I loved your insights about year 12 and life. I wish you all the best.
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 15, 2018, 11:56:33 am
This was such an amazing journal to read. I loved your insights about year 12 and life. I wish you all the best.

Thank you so much x
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: Bri MT on December 15, 2018, 12:11:43 pm
You've ran a fantastic journal this year; and I've enjoyed reading it :)

Any chance you might set up a uni journal?


Thankyou for sharing your journey with us and best of luck for the next one!
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on December 15, 2018, 12:39:09 pm
You've ran a fantastic journal this year; and I've enjoyed reading it :)

Any chance you might set up a uni journal?


Thankyou for sharing your journey with us and best of luck for the next one!

Thank you so much for all of your support :)
I may set one up... We'll see next year haha
Title: Re: Bianca3016's VCE Journal
Post by: bianca3016 on August 29, 2021, 09:40:26 pm
Hi! It's me!
It's been 3? years since I've last touched this forum and I honestly completely forgot about it. In all honesty, I got my ATAR and forgot all about VCE. Summer '18 was amazing.
Woke up one morning, went to the gym, and suddenly decided I wanted to move interstate. 3 weeks later and I was omw to a new life.

Thought I'd share that all those times old people have carried on about VCE/ATAR not being all that important... They were actually right  :o


ReFlEcTiNg oN My JoUrNaL
I think it became apparent, as the entries went on, that I had changed a lot and become upset and burnt out as the two years travelled on. Unfortunately, there isn't much revival at the end of yr12 and my little high school flame of hope just disappeared.
But, if you're burnt out in yr12, just keep carrying on. Take a day each week to relax, have fun, go for a run, and then get back into it the next day. Look after yourself, don't give up (please!) but also remember that life after ATAR day is worth this. You can do it <3

Anyway, the fun stuff!
Bit of a change in pace from my depressed last entries but...
I'm now a third year in an econ advanced & finance degree, going on to do honours (I also dabbled in 1st yr law & comp sci don't @ me). My GPA sparks joy and I have lots of interviews with lots of hard-to-get places. I'm so happy & content & busy and it's such a change of pace since vce.

If I can do it you can do it <3

High school achievements are great, but they do not reflect how your life is going to go, at all. Just get into a course & find what you love.

Good luck future classes & future journal-ers (p.s. this journal was my rock, highly recommend)!

Bianca3016 (for the last time x)
p.s. Thanks Joseph41 for ur support and award nomination like 4 years ago, absolutely honoured  ;D