Hilary's - 13 weeks til exams - Journey

[hiyo]

MY VCE JOURNEY SO FAR

I just discovered these and found them very interesting and I know that it’s quite late to start recording journals now since there’s precisely only 13 weeks leading to exams. 

SUBJECTS I’M DOING THIS YEAR

English: Okay, I’m very weak in English, but I’m doing well this year because my teacher believes in me and I’m very blessed to have her as my English teacher this year.
Physics - I jumped into ¾ without doing ½ because I wanted to get into the Bachelor of Engineering at Monash (not sure which one) which requires either Chem or Phys. I cry every time I get my SAC back.
Computing - Informatics: I’m doing very well in this, but for a subject that scales down so much, I don’t believe I’m doing quite as well? Idk, my teacher believes I’m one of those students that will get over 40 SS for this particular subject but idk.
Math Methods - I like this subject, but because I’m doing specialist maths, I got cocky and think methods is easier than specialist. Therefore, I didn’t do any work for it and I paid the price. I’m a changed person now.
Specialist Maths - OKAY, I did okay on the first SAC but I’m still very worried about the exams because YEAH YOU KNOW, IT’S SPECIALIST MATHS.

(Didn’t do a ¾ last year, but I wished and I wished and I wished and I wished I did one)

An overview of my VCE year so far:

TERM 1
 Okay, this term was terrible. I entered year 12 with as a very weak English student - averages C - B (like on the edge of a B) - so I was really determined to improve my English for this year, putting hours and hours into English just to write ONE practice paper a fortnight since I struggle to write effectively which has consequently cost me hours and hours that I should’ve spent on either Methods and Specialist instead. I didn’t have any sacs for spesh and methods in term 1 so I had that attitude of ‘I’ll just take my time and chill’ which was veryyyyyyy wrong. Lots of regrets went into this. Term 1 I didn’t have that much sacs except for English, so I was pretty much a chill student. I went to Methods ATAR notes lecture and since I barely did any homework for Methods, had very little idea of what the presenter was talking about. (cries)

TERM 1 HOLIDAYS
I don’t remember much, but I started working around this time or maybe just right after holidays finished. Anyways, it was a pretty mess. I work in the city (about 45 minutes of travelling time) and my body had to adapt to the my routine changes which affected my studies quite a bit because then I had to stay up quite late just to finish my homework and I gave up doing that after a while. Sigh*

TERM 2
Term 2 was incredibly hard. SACs almost every week and a week cramped with SACs after SACs. I was on the verge of crying and giving up because I strongly believed that I would just get 60% for every SACs get a 70 ATAR in the end. I’m aiming for at least a 90 ATAR and my teachers predicted that I would get at least an 80 and getting below what you expect is very disappointing. I did survive the week as expected, my results were disappointing but not as much - which I can work with. I ended term 2 with much more motivation and work ethic as in motivation for doing more work and improve my SAC scores. I still cry every time I get my physics score lol. Oh yeah, after crying for 2 weeks straight, I found myself a methods and physics tutor who also became my specialist tutor later. Idk if my physics/spesh tutor would read this at all but I just want to say you’re a great guy and I’m so sorry for my results in physics.

TERM 2 HOLIDAYS
I was much more productive in the second term holidays. Finished one chapter of methods, did as much of specialist maths as I could’ve, read my English novel, did some physics homework and some general informatics questions. Couldn’t make it to ATAR notes lectures because I had work, but otherwise that was my 2 weeks of holidays summarised including going to tutor as well. Some people asked me why I work in year 12 and I told them I had to work to pay for my tutoring tuition and they thought I was crazy...

AVERAGE PERCENTAGES FOR SUBJECTS SO FAR:
English: 82% [Text RES: 83%, Creative WRIT: 80%, Lang ANALYSIS: 73%, ORAL: 92%]
Physics: 73.25% (I got 54% on the second sac and I cried days and night) [SAC1: 70%, SAC2: 54%, SAC3: 90%, SAC4: 75%]
Informatics: 92% or 92.25% to be exact ATM [SAC 1: 92%, SAT P1: 92.5]
Methods: 81% (ONLY DID ONE SAC I WILL GET BETTER ON THE NEXT SAC)
Specialist Maths: 85% (also only did one sac but I’m quite happy with this)

*Looking at my results now I lost the confidence to achieve a 90 ATAR and I really regret not studying as much as I could’ve to achieve a higher score in all my subjects. I really regret that, but I am improving and I know that it is quite late to ‘change’ but some change is better than no change at all.*

[hiyo]

TERM 3 WEEK 1

 > Had a physics SAC
I walked out of it feeling AT LEAST 80% cause it was quite easy and I told myself 'yeah I'm picking myself up this semester, over 35 SS let's go'. Haha lol I was so wrong.

> Handed part of my Informatics SAT in
I needed to come up with 3 designs and annotate it. Yeah that's it. One of the reason why I left it to the very end to do it despite the time we were given to complete it.

> Doing Methods and Specialist homework full time
My tutor gave me 5 chapters of specialist maths homework to do and for methods, I'm so ahead with my tutor that there's so much more homework waiting for me. That also means that I'm very ahead and I can start practice exams very soon.

[hiyo]

TERM 3 WEEK 2

> Came to my Informatics class in the afternoon late as usual and looked at my teacher in the eyes, looks like I didn't get a very good mark for I.T.
> Got my physics back and I cried, I got 75% for a SAC which I should at least gotten an 80% for. I was genuinely sad. I felt like I'm wasting my time with physics and at the same time, money on tutoring.
> This week, I'm working 2 consecutive shifts and I'll be going to the State Library on Sunday to print out practice exams so I can start. Some of my teacher is leaving for 2 weeks so I have to get those practice exams in as quick as possible.

*I'll post in more details next update. This is just a summary I guess? Pretty sure no one will read this but myself anyways :c*

[PhoenixxFire]

Welcome!

It’s never too late to start a journal - I would argue that this is the most important part of year 12 anyway

looked at my teacher in the eyes, looks like I didn't get a very good mark for I.T.

Hahaha I know that feeling. That’s how I knew I screwed up my second bio SAC, my teacher just looked at me a bit worriedly

[Bri MT]

That 54 percent looks very similar to one of my SAC scores. 

The exam is worth the bulk of your study score so you really are right that improving now does make a difference. 

If you're interested in how the final study score calculation works there are some great resources and explanations in the Victorian Technical Score Discussion section of the forums.

I think feeling guilty and like you need to apologise to the people who helped you learn, when you didn't get the score you wanted, is pretty normal. That being said,  you are under no obligation to feel guilty for your results and I hope that overtime you are less burdened by this weight.

If I could give you one piece of advice based on your journal so far, it would be to be aware of your mental and emotional health.  For example,  because you are feeling stressed,  guilty,  and a bit incapable you probably have an increased tendency to catastrophise (eg. Nothing you've written makes me think you are going to get a 70 ATAR.) I would highly recommend that you prioritise getting enough sleep and that exercise is part of your routine,  as this is very likely to decrease stress and improve your learning, memory, concentration, self discipline.... etc.


What draws you to engineering at Monash?
Have you always been interested in STEM?
Are you going to open day? 

[Yertle the Turtle]

Hey, it's really great to see a good start to a journal, and as PheonixxFire says, it's never too late to start a journal. You are doing similar subjects to me, and I'm looking at going into Monash Engineering as well! Good luck with that, I can understand that you might find it interesting! Have fun this year is probably my biggest tip, as it helps relieve the stress if you just make sure that you leave time for fun.

Good luck, and I look forward to reading this journal.

[Vaike]

MY VCE JOURNEY SO FAR
*snip*
*Looking at my results now I lost the confidence to achieve a 90 ATAR and I really regret not studying as much as I could’ve to achieve a higher score in all my subjects. I really regret that, but I am improving and I know that it is quite late to ‘change’ but some change is better than no change at all.*

Hey! Welcome as the others have said Just wanted to add that an ATAR of 90 or above is definitely not out of the question! You've still got that 13 weeks left until exams, which is plenty of time to really buckle down, work hard and make some progress Term 3 is definitely the most important term in Year 12 in my opinion, so don't feel discouraged that you've left a little bit on the table over the last two terms.

Also I think it's worth noting that your exam results will have a much larger affect on your ATAR in comparison to individual SACs. I know I personally had some struggles with SACs in year 12, but if you can get through them alright and really prepare yourself well for the end of year exams, an ATAR of above 90 is definitely within reach! Good luck!

[hiyo]

Welcome!

It’s never too late to start a journal - I would argue that this is the most important part of year 12 anyway
Hahaha I know that feeling. That’s how I knew I screwed up my second bio SAC, my teacher just looked at me a bit worriedly

Thank you! I'm glad it's not too late to start one haha. Writing diary entries is one of my favourite hobby - I often write them in my school diary at the end of every week just so I could look back later on and have a little laugh with it. I didn't want my friends to read it though because I get embarrassed easily and everyone wants to hide how they really feel right :p So this VCE Journal trend is just perfect for me >_<

[hiyo]

That 54 percent looks very similar to one of my SAC scores. 

The exam is worth the bulk of your study score so you really are right that improving now does make a difference. 

If you're interested in how the final study score calculation works there are some great resources and explanations in the Victorian Technical Score Discussion section of the forums.

I think feeling guilty and like you need to apologise to the people who helped you learn, when you didn't get the score you wanted, is pretty normal. That being said,  you are under no obligation to feel guilty for your results and I hope that overtime you are less burdened by this weight.

If I could give you one piece of advice based on your journal so far, it would be to be aware of your mental and emotional health.  For example,  because you are feeling stressed,  guilty,  and a bit incapable you probably have an increased tendency to catastrophise (eg. Nothing you've written makes me think you are going to get a 70 ATAR.) I would highly recommend that you prioritise getting enough sleep and that exercise is part of your routine,  as this is very likely to decrease stress and improve your learning, memory, concentration, self discipline.... etc.


What draws you to engineering at Monash?
Have you always been interested in STEM?
Are you going to open day?

Thank you so much. I actually saw your comment early in the morning and it has changed me for the better (well slowly). I usually skip out family invitations and party invitations just so I could go home and 'study' while in call with a bunch of my friends but today was one of those days where I didn't decline their invitation and decided to go along to the family dinner. I didn't regret going at all.

Physics is the only subject that makes me realise my vulnerability. However, unlike the previous SACs where I got extreme low marks, I didn't dwell as much on this one because for once, I understood my mistakes and I know that I can improve by reading the question better. It's another thing to inform my tutor about my sac mark, I guess he'd be disappointed but that's fine because I would be too.

And yes! I'm going to open day! Aug 5th, here I come. Initially, I wanted to study Engineering at RMIT because their graduation is cool and I loved that blue sash that engineering students get to wear once they graduate. I don't know if they are the same colour every year, but the one year I went to an RMIT graduation, it was blue. A few years later, I opened my eyes to Monash, a university that also provides lots of opportunities to their students and like RMIT, they are also known for their Engineering courses. Their campus is big and apparently, it's in the middle of nowhere - which means if I do get in, I have to move out. Moving out means independence and I love it. I'm probably just being naive though, yikes. Anyways, Monash is also considered as 'prestige' so if I make it, my family can boast about it to my relatives. I didn't want them to look down at my family anymore. I did consider Melbourne, but based on the things that people have said, Melbourne is probably the worse Uni for Engineering out of RMIT, Monash and Melb. I didn't even know what STEM was until you mentioned it T_T.

Oh and I'll take your advice and go to sleep early tonight. Thanks.

[hiyo]

Hey, it's really great to see a good start to a journal, and as PheonixxFire says, it's never too late to start a journal. You are doing similar subjects to me, and I'm looking at going into Monash Engineering as well! Good luck with that, I can understand that you might find it interesting! Have fun this year is probably my biggest tip, as it helps relieve the stress if you just make sure that you leave time for fun.

Good luck, and I look forward to reading this journal.

Imagine if we get into the same course at Monash next year haha. That'd be so cool and I'll try to have fun even though I think doing methods homework is really fun.

Good luck to you too!! Let us make it to Monash.

[hiyo]

Hey! Welcome as the others have said Just wanted to add that an ATAR of 90 or above is definitely not out of the question! You've still got that 13 weeks left until exams, which is plenty of time to really buckle down, work hard and make some progress Term 3 is definitely the most important term in Year 12 in my opinion, so don't feel discouraged that you've left a little bit on the table over the last two terms.

Thanks a lot! It's funny how people online or people that don't know me quite as well are more encouraging and positive compare to the people that actually know me. I'll be sure to make my last few months of highschool worth it.

[PhoenixxFire]

By the way you can put multiple quotes into the same post by clicking reply (rather than typing in the box at the bottom) and then scrolling down and clicking insert quote next to the posts you want to include.  Posting multiple times in a row is generally frowned upon, although it’s a bit different when it’s in your journal

[hiyo]

TERM 3 WEEK 3 - [ TUESDAY ] - 91 DAYS LEFT TIL EXAMS

THE WEEKENDS

It’s a shame that I couldn’t do homework on the weekend. I worked after school on Friday and straight away, the morning after. By the time I was finished with both of my shifts, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I needed a rest so I slept for 10 hours straight that night. I hate working on Saturdays, it’s always so busy, my brain could never rest. I still wonder if working is worth it, if my studies would’ve been better. Plus, they generally give me a 5 hour shift on a Saturday, so I can’t get a break, (if you work up to 5 hours, you don’t get a break, but if you work more, you get 1 break or 2 if you work 8 hours) which is why I dislike them, hmph.

On Sunday, though, I woke up feeling energetic, like I was rebooted and have forgotten about the last two days. It was a reward, but at the same time, it wasn’t. I was blessed with a deep, beauty sleep, but at the same time I had to be back to school the next day and to top it off, a mountain of homework waiting for me. So basically, I had no weekends. I was able to finish English homework, which wrecked my brain because I didn’t want to do it and I also finished Physics, which, because of my procrastination, took me longer than I thought.

MONDAY

Today was the first time I expressed my interest in the science/medicine field to my friends. A part of me wanted to be a part of that field, but not a doctor. I wasn’t taken seriously though, they thought I was joking because I suck at physics, but I’m considering it. Am I being naive? Maybe? But on the other hand, I’m only 17, the time to explore is now.

Struggled with my English homework because I didn't want to do it. Went into class and found out I was the only one that did it... I wasn't sure I was proud of it or not, I just knew that there are other people who must've despised English more than me. 

I didn’t do my maths homework for tutor and I felt bad. I’m pretty sure I’m one of the very few students that does tutor homework so whenever I tell him that I didn’t do them, he looks quite disappointed. So the point is, I try to do my tutor homework as much as I could, just so he could be happy and to give myself extra practice. I enjoy doing them, although sometimes there are some questions that gives me pain. Remember how I said I couldn’t do homework on the weekends? Yeah, I am now behind on classwork in methods, fun. At the end of the day, I managed to do one paper out of 3 for my tutor and he seemed pleased enough. We went through the questions that I was stuck with and throughout the entire session, I came to the conclusion that this guy is going to be my best best best best friend before the exam period.

Downside of tutoring is that I get home pretty late, I missed my bus stop and had to wait extra 15 minutes for the bus to make it to the last stop and go back. By the time I got home, I was exhausted, only did some questions for spesh tutor homework and made it to bed by 11 or 12. I had taken the advice of sleeping early, it’s better like this anyways.

TUESDAY

Very rarely do I actually get up on time, feeling that packet of confidence in my body and ACTUALLY make it to the bus. Today was one of those day where I didn’t have to run with a piece of bread, candy, nectarine or mandarin in my mouth to the bus. I walked at a leisure pace, made it to the bus a tad early, found a seat and sat down on the bus. Mmmmmm. Then I had to sit on that damn bus for nearly 40 minutes because the traffic was crazy. I ended up arriving late to school despite my effort to wake up early to catch the ‘perfect-timed’ bus, what the hell.

Again with I.T today, teacher said he had gotten all the marks so he advised that everyone come see him individually to get their marks and hopefully, feedback for future improvements. He didn’t look too happy whenever he glanced at me, in fact, I have come to a realisation that he only display his cheery expression when he talks to the high-achievers or the people who had made an improvement in their work. I didn’t want to be sad so I never went to see him to get my marks, it’ll come to me eventually anyways, what’s the rush with finding out that I didn’t get a perfect mark. I feel pressured to do good by my peers and teacher, they’re expecting so much from me when I repeatedly told them I haven’t put enough effort in this subject for the past 6 months. Already exhausted whenever someone mentions I.T.

Did I ever talked about spesh homework? My brain was wrecked by spesh today. I am ahead in spesh, but because I am ahead, I found that no one was available to help me. Why is my class moving so slow? I desperately needed help. I tried to finish my final specialist questions and I couldn’t do it. I couldn't unpack the question, my working out didn’t make sense. I don’t get it, 2 chapters of pretty much the same thing and I couldn’t answer this one question. Am I really set up to be successful in spesh? My tutor expected them to be done and I wanted to fulfill his expectations. He’s like a parent figure, eh, maybe a brother that I never had that checks on my homework, my wellbeing and how I’m going in VCE once a week. He basically took on the role of my family. I felt that without his guidance, I wouldn’t be so intrigued and obsessed over school work, but instead be spending time crying over physics. In my family, I was like a bird without its cage, I could go anywhere, do anything as long as I was working during the weekends. Never have they asked me ‘How are your studies?’, ‘Have you done your homework?’, ‘Are you okay?’ since VCE started. I always assume they trust me to do the right thing though, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Anyways, I got really stressed because I couldn’t do a spesh question and couldn’t finish my tutor homework. I had spesh/physics tutor later that day and explained to him my situation and that I ‘technically’ finished the assigned homework, I was just stuck with no clues. To my surprise, he looked delighted because FOR ONCE, I actually completed the homework he gave me. We went over the question/s I was stuck with and for some reason my method didn’t work, his did so I just had to use a different approach. All I could think of though was that if this was on the exam, I would’ve left the exam room thinking I aced it. Haha. At the end of the day, it was a great tutoring lesson. I did my homework, he helped me with questions, both parties were happy. On the other hand, he gave me homework. Like. Lots.
Jk, it’s an alright amount of homework, I complain a lot whenever my tutors give me homework, but I’ll actually never tell them that I like getting homework, that I ‘enjoy’ doing them.

*Omg it's so long, I'm so sorry D: I tried to make it as short as possible but it still came out long. I'm also very sleepy, so excuse my grammar and spelling mistakes. Also, I didn't do my English homework so rip rip me.*

[Bri MT]

No problem at all! Can you believe that open day is already this Sunday? I was giving a tour to some year 11 students from Mildura yesterday, and it was strange to think that in a few days almost everyone interested in Monash will be doing just that.
Definitely recommend taking the opportunity to visit the different types of accomodation available on campus and seeing the rooms, especially since independence is both daunting and alluring.

You should be proud of yourself for being able to change your mindset and take a learning/growth approach - it'll probably take you a bit of practice to be able to sustain this, but it's certainly worth it!

I'm glad that you gave yourself some extra rest & that the family reunion was a positive experience for you

No need to apologise for long posts at all!

It's hard when you share something connected to your identity or interests and your friends aren't supportive, but I promise not only that there are people in science that aren't the best at physics, but also that it's 100% possible for physics to go from a weakness to a strength.



Hope to see an update on how you found Open Day, what you didn't expect etc. soon!

[hiyo]

TERM 3 WEEK 3 - [ FRIDAY ] - 88 DAYS LEFT TIL EXAMS

*wrote this on a friday night but posted on sat*

WED + THURS

I don't specifically remember anything happening on these days except that I had double English once and I wanted to kms for the rest of the day. It was so uninteresting and so.... boring. Part of me wanted to sleep during those double periods but I myself know too much about sleeping in English and the consequences of it so I stayed awake the entire lesson, pretty sure I yawned every 5 minutes. I also had a Methods SAC. I did a lot of work prior to this SAC, hoping that I would get 100% so my average can finally be up to par with the top 5 in the cohort. Well, I definitely did not get 100%. Eavesdropping into everyone's conversation after the SAC made me realise I may have lost a great amount of marks which may bring me down to 80%. I forgot my greatest weakness was skimming over questions instead of reading into it. Perhaps I got too excited for the SAC and that's how I messed up the question. Overall, I won't be disappointed if I get 90%. I just want to get at least over 90%... If not, I'll be sad. Maybe disappointed. Nope nope, just sad.

FRIDAY

I.T teacher released the markings for part one of our unit 4 SAT today. Prior to this, he mentioned that he marked our sacs 'harsher' this year because last year his class was marked down by VCAA and he didn't want it to happen again. I don't get it, informatics always get scale down and if he was going to mark it more harsh, then there's no way he'll let me get away with my little work in his class. WELL, THE UNEXPECTED ALWAYS COME WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECTED IT. I received a perfect score. I'm not sure whether this would change in any way since he did mention some of the scores might change once he goes over them for the 5th time. So what does that mean? It means I got 10% of my final mark for Unit 4 Outcome 1 locked in ( IT COULD CHANGE) and a reason to try in the second part of this SAT to achieve a perfect score.

Also, working the same shifts this week  and Open Day this Sunday!! I just realised it'd take me 2 and a half hours to get to Monash which means I'll really have to make Open Day worth it. It'll decide whether I want to go to Monash for Engineering or Melbourne for Science (Melb Open Day soon). I also got my shifts for next weekends. Sat and Sun, 6 hours each. That is horrendous. How dare they take my weekends away from me.

I have to start my methods practice exams next week and perhaps physics. Ahhh so much work  .

Is it too early to start predicting my ATAR now? Can I just do it? haha, here goes nothing ~

English - 33
Methods - 40
Specialist - 32
Informatics - 43
Physics - 32

ATAR: 91.35 - I HOPE I GET HIGHER

Definitely recommend taking the opportunity to visit the different types of accomodation available on campus and seeing the rooms, especially since independence is both daunting and alluring.

I've looked at Monash 'living on campus' site several times and the first thought that came to my mind was that it's really expensive and the cheapest room there looks kinda 'eh' :<. Plus, the thought of sharing a bathroom with more or less 100 people doesn't really appeal to me. I'm hoping Open Day can change my mind.

It's hard when you share something connected to your identity or interests and your friends aren't supportive, but I promise not only that there are people in science that aren't the best at physics, but also that it's 100% possible for physics to go from a weakness to a strength.

I don't really hate physics, but people seem to think I do because of my exaggerated cries after every SAC. In fact, ever since I met my tutor, I never once thought that I'd give up on this subject. However, I don't think physics would become a strength for me at all  , I'll try though. I'll update on my Open Day experience at soon as I can . Literally so excited because this is my first time going to Monash Clayton campus, I even asked for this Sunday off work so I can enjoy my Open Day.