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March 29, 2024, 05:53:34 am

Author Topic: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)  (Read 19186 times)

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Joseph41

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #30 on: September 16, 2019, 07:09:26 pm »
+2
I ended up going with Digital Innovations and Digital Technology as my two electives, having already handed in the application. Straight after that I had second thoughts as to whether I should have done Spanish because of the mark I got today (yay) and how disappointed the teacher was when I told her I wasn't doing it (one of the nicest teachers I've ever had, but boy can she lay the guilt on).
Oh well.

Subject selection is hard. Naturally, you can't tell how much you'll enjoy a subject until you, well, do the subject! It's the same sort of thing with working out what to do after school IMO.

I'd trust your instinct. :) Those sound like cool subjects.

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2019, 06:46:50 pm »
+1
Hey SlowandSteady,
What's been happening? ;D Have you heard any more about your subjects for next year?

Snow Leopard

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #32 on: December 19, 2019, 06:18:42 pm »
+1
How's life, SlowandSteady

SlowandSteady

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #33 on: December 20, 2019, 06:49:37 pm »
+5
How's life, SlowandSteady

Pretty darn good if I don't say so myself. A lot has happened while I was taking a break from AN (mostly me realising the fact that the site is more a source of motivation/inspiration to me than it is a distraction :P). I'll be in Year 9 next year, which is pretty exciting (electives, yay!). I'll definitely be checking out your work experience guide for later on in the year as well ;D Speaking of electives…

Hey SlowandSteady, What's been happening? ;D Have you heard any more about your subjects for next year?

I haven’t really heard any new info from my school, but I have made some changes to my preferences for subjects down the line. Right now, I’m pretty much locked into doing Digital Innovations and Digital Tech for next year, but I’m hoping to pick up Japanese in Year 10 and not do Philosophy and Reason. Although the conspiracy theory unit of it sounds really fun, I can’t see it as something I would enjoy through senior school. A language, however, is useful skill to have. I could choose Spanish (which I’m already pretty good at) over Japanese, but let’s just say that I enjoy Japanese culture more than South American (*cough* anime, manga, music, food *cough*). I just got my hands on a textbook so I’m merrily working my way through that.

My results for the last semester (Term 3 + Term 4) were also emailed to me. Here’s how I went on my subjects; my grades from Term 3 really carried me this time.

English: B+
&
Humanities: A
I ended up really disappointing my English / Humanities teacher this term. I wrote a piece for the creative exam, but it was confusing, and the protagonist really lacked any clear motivation to do what he did, so I ended up getting a B. Funnily enough, I went better in Humanities, (B+) where I started writing up my report the night (and morning) before it was due. The teacher reached out to me when I stayed back after school to hand it in; she seemed really concerned for me, like I had problems at home or something. She’s a fantastic teacher, but that made me feel horrible. Next year I’m going to kick my arse into gear and actually make sure I get my classwork done, like, in class.
Maths: A
Nothing much to say about good ol’ Mathematics. Our exam was on algebra, time and geometry. I did some studying beforehand and everything turned out fine, barring some really silly mistakes that I just can’t seem to catch until 3 minutes after the exam is over.
Science: B+
Went poorly on both the biology exam and the assignment that came after it, but last term lifted it to a B+, which I’m grateful for. I don’t like biology. Biology doesn’t like me. Let’s just leave it at that until I get to choose which sciences I do :P.
The Arts (Visual Arts + Music): A-
I was VERY surprised about this one. I actually ended up getting a B+ for Visual Arts (how) and an A for music. The music course was super fun. I was disappointed at first because they were going to make me create my song in Soundation (a website where you could only select from sample melodies / bass-lines / drums), but I persuaded the teacher to let me use FL Studio and ended up doing well. I’d upload the song I submitted, but I accidentally deleted it while I was clearing out my Desktop.
Spanish: A+
We had an exam this time around for Spanish and it was HARD. I mean, the reading was fine, but the listening portion was crazy. I had entire page of notes scribbled down with question marks all over the place. My thought process was to pretty much try and connect any word I didn’t know to English in any way and hope for the best. The teacher said something about “numero uno” while describing someone’s relationship with his sister. My thoughts were “numero uno (something something) amigo ==> number one friend ==> best friend”. I was correct and managed to nab an A+ for the exam ;D

Some other things that happened include:
  • Going on school camp. I got horrible sunburn but it was loads of fun :D
  • Being invited to my school's academic awards night
  • Getting into the grand final of the STEM Cup.
  • Not getting selected for a leadership position (I froze up during the interview, but going through the process was a good experience)

And that's the end of Year 8.

One step closer towards the QCE 8)

(Bullet-points don't seem to work very well here, do they? :P)
« Last Edit: December 20, 2019, 06:51:14 pm by SlowandSteady »
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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #34 on: December 20, 2019, 07:19:26 pm »
+4
Woohoo! How does it feel to have another year done and dusted? (great to see you back on AN ;) )

Well done getting through it all with great marks and, it seems, some fantastic improvements to make for next year.

Don't beat yourself up too hard, particularly for subjects like English - it can take a lot of practice, time and effort, and as long as you continue setting goals and achieving them, you will do great further down the line. Your discipline, from what I've seen, has been admirable :)

(and yep, the forum does seem to struggle with bullet points sometimes  ;D)

Keen to hear about your plans for year 9 and anything you're doing over the well-earned break!
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Snow Leopard

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #35 on: December 21, 2019, 12:10:24 am »
+1

Pretty darn good if I don't say so myself. A lot has happened while I was taking a break from AN (mostly me realising the fact that the site is more a source of motivation/inspiration to me than it is a distraction :P). I'll be in Year 9 next year, which is pretty exciting (electives, yay!). I'll definitely be checking out your work experience guide for later on in the year as well ;D Speaking of electives…
It's nice to hear back from you!!!

SlowandSteady

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #36 on: January 30, 2020, 10:43:21 pm »
+7
Oh Yeah. Year 9 Time.

Holidays are over and it’s back to school for me. I had some fun over the holidays in Melbourne spending time with extended family over Christmas and salivating over my new piano (this thing is awesome). I could only last about 4 weeks before wanting to go back to school, though. I mean, the break is ever appreciated (and will be even more throughout senior), but man can the holidays be boring. Didn’t really know my way around the suburbs, friends were back in QLD and the weather was… not bad, but unpredictable. It still escapes me how you can be in the most miserable dry heat one day and have your garage flooded in a couple more.

Visited some other rellies and found this view that I needed as my desktop background. Had to borrow a camera because my iPhone 4 would not do this thing justice.
Spoiler

Anyway, that's my holidays done. Year 9 has begun! One of my electives didn't end up running, so right now I'm doing Digital Innovations and Eco & Business. Wasn't too pleased with having to study a subject I have relatively little interest in, but the content seems interesting enough and managing finances could prove to be a valuable skill if I end up getting a part-time job. All of my teachers have been great as far as I can tell. I also have NAPLAN this year, which, sure, doesn't affect my grades, but you need to do fairly well in it in order to keep your spot in the advanced classes. Not worried about things like reading and spelling & grammar, but writing and maths may prove to be difficult :-\

What I know about my subjects
English: Creative writing assessment (excuse me as I curl up in horror), but it's an assignment rather than an exam! So grateful that I'll have time to refine and improve my ideas rather than drooling on a page for an hour and a half. We'll also be doing something with To Kill a Mockingbird, which I actually happened to read a while back. I found it to be a really enjoyable novel and I'm looking forward to taking a closer look at it.

Humanities: History Unit. I'll be learning about the World Wars and that's pretty much all I know. Received some homework on the first lesson. Whippie.

Science: Studying ecosystems. It seems better than my last Biology unit, but nothing about it has piqued my interest just yet. I mean, I've only had one lesson so far, so it'd be a little early to reserve judgement haha.

Mafs: Honestly don't know what we're going to be doing in the future. Sort of revising concepts from late last year for now.

Economics and Business: Making an app on personal finance and participating in the $20 Boss Program (seems pretty fun from what I've read).

Digital Innovations: Making games. Hells yeah ;D This subject is already my favourite so far. I'm surprised at and appreciative of the amount of independence we're given for our projects but most importantly, the air-conditioning. Did I mention I'm making games?

Other stuff I've been getting up to:
- I had a look at the local volunteering group with some friends that are already apart of it. They're doing some really admirable work and I'm excited to get involved.
- There was a big list of sports / activities to choose from to take part in on scattered days throughout the year and I ended up going with debating. Tried it once in English and had a bit of fun. Pretty scared that I'll have no idea what to do (I don't) and I'll get there and I won't be able to think of anything and I'll get up and my legs will start wobbling and I'll start to feel like I'm choking on air and I won't be able to fill the needed time and I drop my palm cards (do they even have those?)... Still, I'd rather regret having done it than potentially missing out on a fun experience.
- Planning on joining the school band soon for piano. I was able to snag a spot at the mallets for one rehearsal session; it feels amazing when there are so many parts working together and I was able to hear my (very small) contribution to the piece. Maybe I didn't stay for a full rehearsal; I ended up leaving half way through because everyone got up and started moving around. I thought it was time to go, but apparently they were just rearranging for another group to join in (it was for some end of year concert). Super embarrassed afterwards 😂

Can't wait to see what the year ahead brings!

Here I am in my ninth year
Time to kick my lazy arse into gear
Hoping it doesn't end in tears :o
« Last Edit: January 30, 2020, 10:55:10 pm by SlowandSteady »
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Bri MT

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #37 on: January 31, 2020, 09:24:36 am »
+2
Have you been trying out any particular pieces on the piano?

The great thing about Melbourne weather is that if you don't like it you can just wait a few hours or at most a few days - it'll change :D

Wow wherever you took that photo (looks like the bay?)  the water was incredibly still. Love the colours and how clear everything is in the photo.


Last year of NAPLAN! I remember when we finished it in year 9 (my cohort was the first to experience all years of NAPLAN) lots of the persuasives had the contention that NAPLAN should be abolished. Really strange that your school would make decisions on enrolment in advanced classes based on NAPLAN results. Hopefully you don't have to, but if they try to kick you from a class based on it I'd definitely try fighting against it. Just don't make the mistake I did in the calculator allowed component and forget that you can use a calculator.


Ecosystems! My experience with ecology at schools is that it's usually taught poorly but I hope you have a better experience than that. If you ever have any ecology questions please let me know - it's my favourite area of science.


What type/forms of volunteering are your friends doing?

Best of luck with debating and kudos for being willing to take on something a bit intimidating and stretch yourself. I hope you really grow from this :)

You won't have been the only person to have left rehearsal early at some stage; hope that you can crowd out this more uncomfortable memory with lots of positive new ones!


This post is all a bit disjointed but I hope it makes sense; good luck for year 9!

SlowandSteady

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #38 on: February 01, 2020, 10:48:02 pm »
+4
snip snip

The most recent ones I've learned are Le Courant Limpide by Burgmüller and Jazzin' Around by Martha Mier. Can finally play the former at full speed (176bpm) after practising for a while :) I'm also going to do a duet with one of my teacher's other students (can't recall the name of the piece). Other than that I've just been doing some theory and attempting to play songs that I hear from movies and games by ear. I'm struggling a bit with sight reading, but I think it's just something that improves with practise.

About NAPLAN, I forgot to mention that I won't instantly get kicked out, but will have to do extra homework and another LAN exam afterwards. If I mess up that one, I'll move to a regular class. Hopefully I won't have to worry about that down the track.

Planning on volunteering with my local Leo's Club. They're in the process of setting up fundraising events for the bushfires and the sponsoring of a child with cancer. I'll be going back to more meetings to learn more about I'd be doing specifically, but all in all they seem like a nice bunch and I'd just be happy to help out where needed.

I feel like debating is something I'll have to study for in order to not make an arse of myself haha. I'm pretty indifferent about a lot of things, so hopefully researching/arguing about relevant issues will help me form my own opinion on them.

Thanks for the well wishes and have a nice year also ;D
« Last Edit: February 02, 2020, 12:22:37 am by SlowandSteady »
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Bri MT

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #39 on: February 20, 2020, 11:15:07 am »
+1
The most recent ones I've learned are Le Courant Limpide by Burgmüller and Jazzin' Around by Martha Mier. Can finally play the former at full speed (176bpm) after practising for a while :) I'm also going to do a duet with one of my teacher's other students (can't recall the name of the piece). Other than that I've just been doing some theory and attempting to play songs that I hear from movies and games by ear. I'm struggling a bit with sight reading, but I think it's just something that improves with practise.

About NAPLAN, I forgot to mention that I won't instantly get kicked out, but will have to do extra homework and another LAN exam afterwards. If I mess up that one, I'll move to a regular class. Hopefully I won't have to worry about that down the track.

Planning on volunteering with my local Leo's Club. They're in the process of setting up fundraising events for the bushfires and the sponsoring of a child with cancer. I'll be going back to more meetings to learn more about I'd be doing specifically, but all in all they seem like a nice bunch and I'd just be happy to help out where needed.

I feel like debating is something I'll have to study for in order to not make an arse of myself haha. I'm pretty indifferent about a lot of things, so hopefully researching/arguing about relevant issues will help me form my own opinion on them.

Thanks for the well wishes and have a nice year also ;D

No worries!

My experience with music (albeit being less than several people on forums) is that sight reading gets much more fluent with practice. Congrats on getting up to speed :D.

Hmm that's a bit better I guess with NAPLAN not instantly kicking you out but I'm still not a fan of it being used in that way.

Sounds like good causes & if you can do that with  good group of people should be a great experience for you too.

Researching was the part of debating I was worst at (i.e. I procrastinated doing it & leaned on my prior knowledge too much) but it's definitely a useful skill to develop + being informed about current events is nice.

Hope all has been going well for you!

SlowandSteady

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Re: My Journey to the QCE Journey (and beyond)
« Reply #40 on: March 04, 2020, 08:46:54 pm »
+4
I've left this for quite a while, but things have been piling up very fast and I've been all over the place. I actually have an assignment due tomorrow :P Sorry for a pretty messy update, but here's what's been going on:

School Stuff:
I've now started three assignments, Business, Digital and English, and I think I'm managing OK.

I've been finding business pretty unexciting, because a lot of the things they're teaching us about personal finance should just be common sense (eg. not being able to return something if you don't like the colour, change your mind etc.). My assessment task, building an app, is due tomorrow and I have it handled pretty well (no more all-nighters so far :D).

Digital Innovations has been really enjoyable for me. I'm just spending my lessons working on my game, a Galaga-like ripoff, and chilling out in the air-conditioning. Once I've finished the actual coding, I might be able to make some music for it ;D

For English, we have to write a speculative fiction narrative based on a "what if" question. I had a few (bad) ideas, but I think I've decided on one. It seems pretty silly, but I really just need to stick to an idea and make something out of it.

I also emailed the head Japanese teacher; he said that he'd be happy to provide me with the resources I need to get up to speed by year 10 :)

Non-school Stuff
I started volunteering a while ago and the work has been both fun and fulfilling. I've participated in barbecues to raise funds and other things like Clean Up Australia Day. I decided to be the cashier at a Bunnings barbecue and it was hectic. I messed up the change a couple of times and one dude got a bit mad when I didn't understand what he wanted right away, (he must've been having a bad day) but it was a good experience and we ended up raising quite a bit of money for the day (~$1500).

The school band has decided to let me play the marimba and vibraphone. The other mallet player unfortunately left for another instrument, so I'm the only one. The pieces the band play have been easy enough to grasp, but sometimes I just end up fluffing through some parts and hoping nobody notices.

Instead of just doing debating for sport, somehow I'm now in the actual school debate team; the first one is next week! I've been given first speaker to make it easier, (no rebutting, I think) but I'm still pretty nervous about tripping over my own words, my legs shaking too much and other things of that nature. I'll need to speak for about six minutes, which is double that of the English speeches I've had to do previously :o.

I've been having a lot of fun so far this year and I'm so grateful to my friends for presenting me with these opportunities to get up off my arse and extend myself.

That's all from me for now; I hope everyone's been having a fantastic 2020 :)
« Last Edit: March 05, 2020, 06:12:55 pm by SlowandSteady »
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