ATAR Notes: Forum

QCE Stuff => Queensland Education Discussion => Topic started by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 10:52:27 am

Title: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 10:52:27 am
Bri's Ask Me Anything!

Heyo, I'm Bri. At our free QCE lecture series in September I was your science lecturer & I'm an avid user of the atar notes forums. I've been fortunate enough to be very supported by this community along the way and have received the Bengali_Lok Annual Award and was awarded Vic MVP last year. This year, I've been focusing on taking my experience with the ATAR system in Vic and using it to help Qld students - especially in science.

Looking back into my year 12: I have a tendency to over burden myself with extra curricular activities; In year 12 I was Youth Mayor of the local Youth Representative Council, part of the senior school band (played saxophone), vice school captain, & (in the start of the year) chairman of the local venturer scout unit. I'm also from a single parent family & since mum worked full time I rarely had a parent around to give me a lift to these things. Additionally, I'm vego, and since the rest of my family isn't I was cooking almost every night. Suffice to say, I learnt a bit about time management. 



Here's some of the reasons you may want to hear from me:

🔥 Was the dux of all of my subjects (biology, psychology, chemistry, physics, methods & my English)
🔥 Achieved a 98.30 ATAR - and did this at a school that hadn't seen a 90+ ATAR in years
🔥 Currently studying Bachelor of Science Advanced - Global Challenges (Honours) which is all about using science to make a difference in the world
🔥 President of the Monash Advanced Science and Science Scholar Society
🔥 Plethora of leadership & extra curricular experience before, during, and after highschool
🔥 Truly passionate about how amazing science is & having all students be able to learn about it



We've been asked this before on other AMAs so YES you can ask ANY question - so long as it abides by our community rules (which basically come down to being respectful and keeping the community a nice place for everyone)

This might include things like:
- How do sea turtles navigate? (seriously I read scientific articles on this for fun)
- What's the best thing you did in year 12?
- How does high school science differ from uni science?
- Why did you become so invested in atarnotes?


IMPORTANT: In order to ask a question, you will have to click here and make an ATAR Notes account.

Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Ionic Doc on November 20, 2019, 11:03:22 am
Hello Bri!
Were you always vegetarian and if not, what prompted you to become a vegetarian?

also another question

At the end of year 12 did you think you would get the ATAR you got or did it come as a surprise when you saw your results? Asking this as you mentioned your school hadn't seen a 90+ in years.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: PhoenixxFire on November 20, 2019, 11:12:04 am
How can I get to be as awesome as you when I grow up?

Also what's your favourite species other than turtles? (because I know you'll say turtles otherwise)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 11:24:29 am
Hello Bri!
Were you always vegetarian and if not, what prompted you to become a vegetarian?

also another question

At the end of year 12 did you think you would get the ATAR you got or did it come as a surprise when you saw your results? Asking this as you mentioned your school hadn't seen a 90+ in years.

Hey Ionic Doc!

Haven't always been vegetarian. The first prompt towards it was when studying philosophy through DECV in year 7. We had an excursion were we were talking about the rights of animals & I said that given we can't communicate with animals and we know they feel suffering, emotions etc. we should treat them as we would want to be treated. Teacher asked if I was vegan, I said no, and they thought I should adjust my belief to be consistent with my actions. I, on the other hand, thought I should adjust my actions to be consistent with my belief. Went home, asked mum if I could be vegetarian she said no it's unhealthy and that was the end of it for a bit.   Few years later we watched a doco in outdoor ed about the impacts of animal agriculture on the environment (neither of the teachers were vegetarian or vegan) and in that I learnt that being vegetarian or vegan can be healthy. Since my career plan was marine biology I thought that if I'm going to be asking people/organisations/companies to adjust their actions to benefit marine life then I better be willing to do the same and voila I haven't eaten meat since. A year later I became vegan but that was more related to animal cruelty concerns whereas my vegetarianism was primarily from an environment perspective.

I know this can be a contentious topic for some; I'm happy to debate anyone who disagrees with my views in the rants/debates section :)

also another question

At the end of year 12 did you think you would get the ATAR you got or did it come as a surprise when you saw your results? Asking this as you mentioned your school hadn't seen a 90+ in years.

I had a pretty strong idea I'd be 90+ and I really wanted 98+ but I certainly wasn't confident I'd get that. Throughout year 12 people had been punching projections of my study scores into atar calc and telling me the outcome so I certainly knew it was a possibility but there was plenty of doubting and stressing along the way.

How can I get to be as awesome as you when I grow up?


You're such a gem already....

I'm torn between a few different responses here:
1. Reminding you how amazing you are
2. Describing a bit about how I came to be who I am
3. Giving advice for anyone interested in self improvement

I'm going to try going with a hybrid of these:
Your innate value isn't going to change as a result of what happens to or with you. It's always there, and I've communicated my recognition of you and who you are at your core before and I'll do it again: you're an incredible person who has been dedicating yourself to make the world better socially & environmentally. You've helped an absolutely gigantic amount of students and you keep working on yourself and pushing forward. Your forward sometimes has, and sometimes will, take you somewhere different than my forward but please don't mistake that as your journeys or destinations being less valuable than mine.

My journey has been significantly influenced by me doing a lot of introspection on how I can be a "good person" and trying to improve that a lot but I can tell you that the times when I was at my worst and struggling the most that introspection was a lot more maladaptive & harmful. I focus myself on my two core values: empathy (to tell me what direction to go in) and determination (to make sure I keep going) and a large part of my personal development has been learning to include self-empathy in determination & protecting my ability to invest in future when I consider how hard to push my determination (hence my quote "invest in your wellbeing so it can invest in you"). Overall, my advice to anyone wanting to focus on their personal development is to focus on progress rather than perfection.
Also what's your favourite species other than turtles? (because I know you'll say turtles otherwise)

Turtles are multiple species so since you don't already have the exact answer for what species is my favourite:
- My favourite turtle species are Dermochelys coriacea the leatherback sea turtle, Chelonia mydas the green sea turtle, and Chelodina longicollis the eastern long neck turtle
- I'd have to go with tortoises for my favourite non-turtle species (you can tell they aren't my favourite because I haven't got the scientific names of any tortoises memorised).
- Assuming you wanted a non-testudine answer.... I'm not sure. I have a soft spot for snow leopards since they're mum's favourite but there are so many amazing organisms and I'd have to think before answering. it might be a plant species - probably a tree of some sort.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: K888 on November 20, 2019, 11:41:38 am
For someone trying to consume less meat, what are some of your favourite vego recipes?

Do you have any ideas about what you want to pursue after you finish your degree?

Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: r1ckworthy on November 20, 2019, 11:45:40 am
What’s it like to be president of the Monash Advanced Science and Science Scholar Society? And what was your path to this position?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Geoo on November 20, 2019, 12:11:02 pm
What made you go into science at VCE and uni?

Was there something that triggered off your passion for it? Or were you always interested in the topics?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 12:36:12 pm
For someone trying to consume less meat, what are some of your favourite vego recipes?

Do you have any ideas about what you want to pursue after you finish your degree?



I usually cook very impromptu and there are so many product on the market now that I haven't tried them all but here are some things:

When I'm cooking for myself I tend to make stuff like:
- chickpea curries w/ w/e vaguely suitable veggies I have on hand
- stir fries. I don't eat much tofu but if you want to try tofu and aren't experienced with it here's my advice: pick a preflavoured packet (e.g. malaysian satay is v nice). If you get more into the world of tofu keep in mind different firmnesses for different purposes & you can get different textures based on both cooking and prep (e.g. pressing to remove water, freezing etc.)
- There's usually some brand of veggie burgers on special at a given time and I like to cook up a veggie burger, cut it into strips and put it onto a salad

When I was cooking vegan for my brother who "wants to be vego but likes taste/convenience too much":
- lasagna with mock mince
- fry's protein strips in souvlakis
- veggie burgers but actually in burgers
- some entertainer pack things of spring rolls etc. are vego and there are some very convincing vego sausage rolls (& some less so)

Note on mock products:
- quorn is generally very convincing as fake meat.
- Only heard great things about the taste of Gardein but I spend less than $30/week on food shopping so it's outside my budget
- Herb and Sons "Chicken Kiev" (or however they spell it to indicate it's mock) is generally on a good special since it's only vegetarian not vegan and thus not many are buying it - heard good things about that
- Apparently rebel/impossible/beyond burgers are very difficult to distinguish from beef burgers

Do you have any ideas about what you want to pursue after you finish your degree?

I want to do postgrad marine bio (not in Vic, probably in Tas or Qld) at some stage but my plan is to work after my undergrad and not go straight into more years of uni straight away
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 12:51:32 pm
What’s it like to be president of the Monash Advanced Science and Science Scholar Society? And what was your path to this position?

 I'm the first president of mass^3 (the shortened version of our name) to be from the Global Challenges rather than the Research degree and that's shaping my presidency a fair bit. So far there's been a few stressful bureaucratic hurdles (technically we don't have a treasurer or a secretary) but I've also got a great committee that makes managing those easier. Since elections happen towards the end of semester 2 we haven't organised many activities yet but I'm very excited to see what we can achieve in the future & how we can integrate GC and Research more.

I started off as the first year representative for global challenges, then became events co-ordinator and am now president. It's unusual that I am president without having had an executive role before (president, vice president, treasurer or secretary) and my vice president also hasn't had an exec role before (they're in their first year of uni). Fortunately, my vice helped the previous vice and pres a fair bit and has experience with responsibilities that would usually fall under executive roles (e.g. minute taking).

A big driver for me in taking on these roles is that I almost picked research instead of GC as my first preference and believe that people in the two courses should be more connected to each other. When I first started I was the only GC-er on the committee and no GC students turned up to events. Now the committee is 50/50 GC/research and a lot more GC students are turning up to events :)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: r1ckworthy on November 20, 2019, 12:57:34 pm
i just thought of another question, hope you don’t mind ;D

If lab meat ever gets commercialised, would you make the switch? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to ;D
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 01:08:43 pm
What made you go into science at VCE and uni?

Was there something that triggered off your passion for it? Or were you always interested in the topics?

When I was 6(?) I read one of my ocean books and saw the word marine biologist - from then on, that was my career goal with the exception of a period of doubt from late year 11 to year 12. Due to this, I knew I wanted to study bio and chem in VCE early on. Originally I didn't plan on physics or psych but there were timetable clashes and all else being equal I decided I'd rather pick a science than a non-science.

My plan for VCE I had in year 10:
- Biology (year early)
- Outdoor ed (year early - I fought so hard to be able to do 2 subjects a year early)
- Japanese
- Methods
- Chemistry
- Literature
* I wanted to do spec but my school didn't offer it and didn't allow us to study it by distance ed

From studying science at a VCE level I learnt to appreciate science for being science rather than just 'science tells me cool things' which is definitely something I've carried into uni. When I had my period of doubt about marine bio (years of 'you won't get a job as a marine biologist' and 'you should be a doctor') I ended up deciding that biomedical engineering would be a good alternative whereas my pre-VCE self would've been unlikely to see a branch of engineering as particularly appealing.

I am SO SO SO glad that I've stuck with following science rather than listening to others and being pushed off into med. Med's a great area for some people but I'm much happier learning about ecosystems and systems change than I would be pushing myself into med or a med-related field.

Does this answer your question?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 01:14:10 pm
i just thought of another question, hope you don’t mind ;D

If lab meat ever gets commercialised, would you make the switch? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to ;D

Probably not.

I can't imagine lab meat being more eco-friendly and addressing my environmental concerns more than what I already do (e.g. lab meat does still necessitate tissues being taken from an animal to start off the culture and when I last researched it, was more energy and resource intensive than plant-based agriculture).There's also an aspect of - at this stage - the idea of eating animal products would make me uncomfortable.


However, if lab meat had been widely adopted and commercialised before I went vego I might not have gone vego in the first place.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Calebark on November 20, 2019, 01:24:37 pm
My serious question: what did your name your very first turtle toy?

My silly question: what have been the biggest challenges in your path as you've helped bring ATAR Notes to the QCE? In terms of lectures, the forums, and all the little bits between them.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: sweetiepi on November 20, 2019, 01:30:42 pm
What is your favourite season, and why is it your favourite? :)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 01:46:13 pm
My serious question: what did your name your very first turtle toy?
Leo, as in Leonardo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

My silly question: what have been the biggest challenges in your path as you've helped bring ATAR Notes to the QCE? In terms of lectures, the forums, and all the little bits between them.

For me personally: All of the other things that have taken time and energy from me. I love my course but I'm very much looking forward to only having 3 units next semester and that my units from now on will be more focused on my strengths. I'm also looking forward to having a less stressful life in aspects outside of uni :)

The ambiguity with how QCE has been implemented in schools and students not knowing who we are has also been a challenge. The most poignant moment of this is when I was giving the chem lecture having based my preparation on schools having followed the syllabus for units 1&2 which I learnt from my audience often wasn't the case. It's not only the students who are struggling and stressed with a new system but teachers too and that's not something I had initially considered very much (obviously there's a spectrum in how teachers have responded, it seems like some are responding amazingly too).
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 02:02:42 pm
What is your favourite season, and why is it your favourite? :)

My favourite months are from October to February, but since that doesn't fall neatly into any system of season I know I'll go with spring. I love warm-hot days with cool nights and spring is a good time to go hiking before the heat & dehydration of summer has set in. In general, there's lush green growth and it's the weather is more often nice for being outside.

Academically, in spring things are drawing to a close which means that I tend to feel a stronger sense of community in uni & more activity on AN which is nice :)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: caffinatedloz on November 20, 2019, 05:07:58 pm
Fellow vego here, who also has to cook for themselves (but thankfully not every night): what is your go-to meal when you feel like you have no time? What is your favourite vegetarian recipe?

Would you ever go vegan? Why/why not? ;D

Also, I'd love your best time management tips. And, do you think that taking on lots in Year 12 was a good thing? Looking back, if you could have chosen to take some of the burden off of yourself, would you have?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 05:34:22 pm
Fellow vego here, who also has to cook for themselves (but thankfully not every night): what is your go-to meal when you feel like you have no time? What is your favourite vegetarian recipe?

Hmm.. when I have no time I sometimes will make 2 minute noodles but add frozen veggies & if I have any on hand some tofu to make it more nutritious.

This might be cheating but my favourite recipe is probably this chocolate cake. I don't make the glaze and instead do my own icing. If you want more savoury options I've replied to K8 earlier with some of those :)

Would you ever go vegan? Why/why not? ;D

I've been vegan for 3 years now so definitely would ;)
Veganism for me was more motivated by animal cruelty whereas being vegetarian was more motivated by the environment. I watched earthlings (dominion is a more recent and Aus version of this but it wasn't out at that time) and ooft that was hard to watch while still consuming eggs & dairy. I have friends who are farmers so I'm definitely not under the impression that all farmers would choose to mistreat their animals but yeah...

Vegetarian for me was more instant whereas being vegan was a process. I started off by picking a vegan option when one was available (otherwise I'd still happily get the vegetarian one), making easy substitutes and gradually incorporating more new vego foods (nutritional yeast flakes <3 ) until winding up as I am now.

Also, I'd love your best time management tips. And, do you think that taking on lots in Year 12 was a good thing? Looking back, if you could have chosen to take some of the burden off of yourself, would you have?

My best time management tip is that burn out costs a lot more time than taking care of yourself properly does. Schedule in days off & if some event falls on that day either move the day off forwards or stick to it unless there's an extremely good reason for ignoring that day off. I found that keeping track of assignments and classwork in an app specifically for that and keeping track of my other commitments in my bullet journal was the way to go but you have time to experiment with this so test out a few different ways :)

One things I found useful was to take any nothing time (e.g. waiting for someone, on a train) and find a way to make it productive. This meant flashcards on my phone, revision apps, or trying some mindfulness. Sometimes cycling between those was the way to go. (It's also ok if sometimes you want to just be without trying to do anything but it's good to have the option there.

I also tracked my internet usage - spending half an hour discontentedly scrolling through social media isn't a great use of time and it's nice to have reminders to snap you out of that.


I absolutely think that taking on lots of extra curriculars was the right thing for me. It gave me something I could do without feeling remotely guilty that wasn't schoolwork and I needed the break. It gave me social groups that weren't just my classmates and it meant that even if I screwed up my academics I could still go 'hey, there's a think of value I did' when I wanted to have a go at myself for everything and be super-defeatist. If it feels like a burden consider its place in your life, otherwise, don't listen to anyone who says you should give up everything in year 12 to focus purely on your studies :)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: JR_StudyEd on November 20, 2019, 06:47:51 pm
- How do you find your passion in life?
- Is 'finding your passion' overrated when it comes to career and hobbies?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: AngelWings on November 20, 2019, 07:16:07 pm
Quote
part of the senior school band (played saxophone)
1. How long did you play the saxophone for?/ Do you still play the saxophone?

2. What are your best tips at keeping your mental health in check, especially given that you did/ do so many extracurricular activities?

3. What is your biggest regret from high school/ uni so far and what have you learnt from it?

4. You have encountered a genie in a lamp. You’re given three wishes. What would they be? (Three serious, three funny.)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Geoo on November 20, 2019, 07:27:05 pm
Quote
I am SO SO SO glad that I've stuck with following science rather than listening to others and being pushed off into med. Med's a great area for some people but I'm much happier learning about ecosystems and systems change than I would be pushing myself into med or a med-related field.

Does this answer your question?

I am facing the same decision as you did. I really do want to follow a science career, however a few people say why not go into med or engineering. So it is nice to see another who was in the same position. But yes this does answer my question! For me, it was seeing a Brian Cox documentary when I was 5 about how the universe was formed that really got me interested in science.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 07:30:43 pm
- How do you find your passion in life?
- Is 'finding your passion' overrated when it comes to career and hobbies?

I don't believe that there's one passion or one goal that should dominate a person's entire life. People have a range of wants and needs and imo it's useful to have various things which can contribute to that. Finding passions can really vary between people, but if you throw yourself into more situations there's more chance you'll find one that clicks.

I'm lucky because I've had strong passions from a young age (obsession with oceans, turtles etc.) but I've also had some sneak up on me. For example, I didn't realise how much I care about education until I reflected on my behaviours and emotions in different situations (I probably should've realised that earlier from atarnotes + trying to run a STEM camp for highschool students in first year uni + access monash mentoring + tutoring + spending more time teaching my peers than learning in some classes (had a teacher tell me off because all I had done in the IT lesson was turn the computer on but I spent all my time walking around checking others knew the content) + ...)

I don't think you need to find some perfect passion to make you joyfully wake up greeting the sunrise and exclaiming how much you love your life every day, but it's useful to have a sense of purpose or direction, and to feel that you are achieving meaningful things. At this point in our lives we are young and - especially in highschool - only exposed to a small fraction of the world. You don't need to have found a passion in that small fraction but if you can set goals for yourself and invest in exploring options + upskilling yourself for a broad range of futures I think that's a great use of time.

I do think that passions are overemphasised. Passions can be great things but they can also lock you into particular pathways that might not be the best one for you. Similarly to how chasing happiness rather than fulfilment makes it harder to be happy long term, stressing about finding a life-goal passion can make it harder to find one. Don't stress if you don't have a known passion - you don't need one & you can do things to increase your chance of finding one if you'd like to.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 08:10:20 pm
1. How long did you play the saxophone for?/ Do you still play the saxophone?

2. What are your best tips at keeping your mental health in check, especially given that you did/ do so many extracurricular activities?

3. What is your biggest regret from high school/ uni so far and what have you learnt from it?

4. You have encountered a genie in a lamp. You’re given three wishes. What would they be? (Three serious, three funny.)

1. I played saxophone from years 7-12, my alto sax was a school hire and I couldn't afford to buy my own afterwards so I haven't played since. Still kept all my sheet music just in case.

2. I saw a counsellor in year 12 and actually opened up to them about my issues which was a HUGE and terrifying step forwards for me. It didn't instantly fix all of my issues and restore me to perfect wellbeing but it really significantly helped me over time. I've got a lot of practice at reframing & positive self-talk which is pretty important to me. For example, if an absolute like "must" or "need" appears in my internal dialogue I'll critically analyse it. Sometimes this looks like "I must get x done. Wait, no, I would like to get x done; it would be ideal if I get x done." or "I need a break. Wait, no, I want a break." I find that there's something much more empowering about the narrative of wanting to take a break and choosing to take one compared to the narrative of needing a break and succumbing to one.

A huge thing for my mental health is talking to my friends about what's going on. I'm incredibly lucky that I have multiple friends I can go to who will listen, support, and do their best to understand me & who I can trust with my innermost thoughts. My year 12 counsellor told me early on that telling my story helps me gain power of it & I find that that has been incredibly important to me.

3. Regret that a situation was the way it was or regret about something I did? Or either?

4.


1. For everyone to be empowered to have net positive impact on the world & be aware of that fact
2. Restoration of biodiversity to the levels it had before the Holocene extinction event. (Biodiversity is incredibly undervalued and its loss disproportionately impacts already disadvantaged groups)
3. For cruelty to stop, or at least be significantly reduced


1. For turtles to be globally recognised as the supreme taxa
2. The phrase "seven seas" is wiped from existence  (There's more than seven seas and really there's only one ocean...)
3. No light pollution
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: AngelWings on November 20, 2019, 08:37:50 pm
Thanks for answering my questions! :)

3. Regret that a situation was the way it was or regret about something I did? Or either?
Either.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 20, 2019, 08:44:48 pm
Thanks for answering my questions! :)
 Either.

No worries at all!

Hmmm.... tough question.

One of the things I have really struggled with is the feeling that I could have learnt so much more and achieved so much more in highschool than I did but if I hadn't struggled with the lack of academic learning & everything else going on I'd be a different version of myself and I like the version of me I am so I'm not sure if I can truly regret that.

What I do regret is the hurt I've caused to people who care about me as I went through the experiences that have shaped me into me.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: jassssm on November 25, 2019, 10:43:07 pm
hey bri!
what did you do to prepare for your maths exam? and what did you do the week before an exam? and a couple of days before of an exam. i feel so much pressure

i used to do well in maths - i always did my work consistently throughout the term. but somehow i don’t do as well anymore.
now i don’t know what it feels like to get A’s in maths anymore :'( i don’t remember how i prepared for exams
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 26, 2019, 08:27:59 am
hey bri!
what did you do to prepare for your maths exam? and what did you do the week before an exam? and a couple of days before of an exam. i feel so much pressure

i used to do well in maths - i always did my work consistently throughout the term. but somehow i don’t do as well anymore.
now i don’t know what it feels like to get A’s in maths anymore :'( i don’t remember how i prepared for exams

Hey jassam!

Welcome to the forums :)

Most of my preparation was doing exam-style questions. In the week of my maths exams I had my psychology exam which restricted how much maths preparation I could do.  An important part of my external exam (i.e. year 12 exam) routine is that I would take the day before any exam off from studying and focus on my wellbeing. I also made sure I was in the habit of waking up early so I wouldn't feel groggy or tired during the exam & that I had enough time to have a nice breakfast and still get to the exam venue (i.e my school) half an hour early. Part of what this meant was that in the lead up to the exam I would do at least one practice exam at the same time as my actual exam would be and under exam conditions. 

Because I conditioned myself to associate exam days with calmness and being prepared to demonstrate what I had learnt throughout the year,  I was largely able to escape exam panic.

Year 11/12 can be a bit of a jump up and it can be demoralising to see your grades drop - especially if you don't know what to do about it or why it's happening. I think that the most important thing you can do here is to keep asking and try to keep answering questions. It can be hard to speak up when you feel pressure to maintain the A/A+ image but please,  even if it's after class or online on atarnotes,  don't stop getting feedback and asking questions to improve. 

The great news is we are heading into holidays which is a fantastic time to review your understandings starting from where your foundation is completely secure and then building up.  Often in maths new topics will build on old ones and if you don't understand and simply get by on plugging numbers into a formula these cracks in your foundation will destabilise you later on and especially disadvantage you in application questions.

I would recommend looking through your work and honestly marking where you don't (or only sort of) understand what you are doing so you can tackle those concepts. 

Rui has some really good advice on maths in the qce mathematics section of the forums which I would also recommend you look at.

Best of luck and please feel free to reach out if you have any follow up questions :)
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: rcour16 on November 27, 2019, 03:02:34 pm
Hi,
I was just wondering whether ATAR notes could create some more annotated syllabuses for all the Qld QCE ATAR subjects similar to the already posted one for English.
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 27, 2019, 03:42:34 pm
Hi,
I was just wondering whether ATAR notes could create some more annotated syllabuses for all the Qld QCE ATAR subjects similar to the already posted one for English.

Hi,

Welcome to atarnotes! :)

I hadn't been planning on doing this but if it would be helpful I'm happy to do so - are there any particular subjects you would like to see this for?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Snow Leopard on November 27, 2019, 04:45:35 pm
Hey Bri,
How do you motivate yourself enough to avoid cramming and leaving things to the last minute?
Title: Re: Bri's Ask Me Anything
Post by: Bri MT on November 27, 2019, 08:43:00 pm
Hey Bri,
How do you motivate yourself enough to avoid cramming and leaving things to the last minute?


Hey Snow Leopard,

I wasn't always motivated but I developed strong study discipline. Some of the key components of this were:
- if I couldn't muster the willpower to do a big task I'd try doing a less overwhelming task (e.g. doing an exam is too intimidating? Try some multiple choice questions or watching a video on the topic). Motivation can work like momentum so it was important to me to have small things and be able to break down tasks if I wasn't ready for larger ones.
- seeing a counsellor, talking to my friends, getting adequate sleep,  and having things that weren't study. Mental health is really important so try to build in things that help you take care of it
- to do lists.  I like the feeling of physically crossing things off & seeing a list of things I've done
- having a place in my room where I studied and didn't do anything else
- I used a chrome add-on so I could monitor and regulate how much time I spent on social media

Hope this helps :)