the year in the life of a Year 12 student

[tatijanad]

Hi everyone !
For starters I will introduce myself
My name is Tatijana and I am 17 years old currently (18 in September), I have been a member of ATAR Notes since about 2018 (I think?) and ever since I was in Year 9 I have been interested in the VCE system as a whole, as well as having a relatively deep interest in academics and achieving the best grades possible.

I would consider myself to be a humanities orientated student, I have always scored highly in humanities subjects and it where my general interests lean towards. I am in Year 12 this year and the subjects I am doing is English 3/4, Global Politics 3/4, Legal Studies 3/4, Economics 3/4, Business Management 3/4. Additionally, I attend Saturday school for LOTE: Serbian 3/4. As you could suggest from my last subject, I am of Slavic origin with my family being from Serbia. Though I am doing 6 subjects in Year 12, I don't have any regrets about this decision, as my school requires us to do 5 subjects in Year 12. Learning my mother tongue is important to me as I believe that being able to speak your mother tongue is an invaluable skill to have and as well having the cultural identity associated. For a few years I did not have a group of friends who are the same background as me, though it is important to have friends of multicultural backgrounds (which I still have), I find it also beneficial to have a social group who understands the same cultural norms as yourself, linguistic bonds and so forth. Balance is good.

I was born in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, lived there for 8 or so years and due to family reasons, I moved to the Western suburbs and have lived there ever since. I live in the Keilor region and attend a predominately low socioeconomic school that is eligible for many university underrepresented programs. At the end of the day, I do believe that no matter what socioeconomic status you are from, if there is a will there is a way.

I have an ATAR goal of about 80s (realistically) and perhaps even 90s at most. In terms of study scores, I am aiming for 30s across the board, and I will try my best to score at least one study score over 40. I am hoping to do well this year and I will be putting in my upmost best by trying in my SACs and end of year examinations and so forth. I rather try my best and know that I put in the effort despite what the score will be, instead of wondering what if at the end of the year.

I am not entirely sure how many people will read this, I believe that it is a good idea to have a VCE journey, it is a good way to share your journey in what is quite a stressful year. I will plan on updating you all every Monday for the start of the week's exceptions, goals and feelings and on Friday to reflect on the week.

I am relatively new to contributing to forums, so bear with me in regards to format issues or typos, I will be trying my best to produce quality content and provide relatively insightful information to you all.

[Joseph41]

Awesome to have you here, Tatijana - welcome. I like the sound of the Monday/Friday update sort of structure!

How have you found 2020 so far?

[tatijanad]

Hi!
In reference to your question about 2020. I have found 2020 so far to be an exciting year, there is the stresses of Year 12 and the assessments that come along with it but I am feeling fairly okay with how I'm tracking along. I try to keep things in perspective and remind myself that everything will be worth it at the end of year. Such as the last day of school, graduation, the last minute of my last exam at the end of year and so forth. There are going to be good things in store mainly during the latter part of the year.

[tatijanad]

Update: 12/03/2020

A Thursday update will be a once off being that I started doing this midway through the week. However, this week has been irregular as Monday was the labour day public holiday. But this Saturday I have my Serbian School SAC. I am certain that the LOTE: Serbian cohort is very small (I think there is only 2 year twelve classes in the state). So granted thats why there isn't many resources and representation on ATAR notes and so forth. With that being said, I enjoy doing the subject. Being that it is my family's native language and that the overall class environment is fun and enjoyable.

It has been 7 weeks into Year 12 and sometimes I forgot that I am in Year 12. I just think its because when you are in the moment, in the classes, doing the work and so forth. You forget that you are doing Year 12, you sometimes forget about the grand scheme of things.

[tatijanad]

Friday 20/03/2020

At this point I have done all the first SACs for all of my subjects. Even received the results of the vast majority of these SACs. I am adjusting my study approaches and techniques because to be quite honest I could have done better in these assessments. I don't think its a reflection about me as a person or my intelligence. I am thinking about it as a reflection of how I approached the assessments and study methods. I know I can do better, these scores do not reflect my potential as a student. Amid all of the chaos with COVID19 situation, there is some uncertainty with dates of upcoming SACs. I am trying to adapt to these situations by taking on more of a self-discipline independent studying approach.

I have always been a self-displined learner, and I have been fairly good at self-motivation. I believe the reason of this derives from the fact I attended low socioeconomic schools where many members of my cohort do not show interest in their studies and so forth. For years I have had to motivate myself to achieve high results as no matter how good my teachers are, these teachers have to resolve issues associated with the types of students who are not interested in their studies and disrupt class and so forth.

I also believe it is good to adapt to an independent form of learning as I have heard that university is fairly driven by independent work style, for the most part at least. We are also fortunate to live in a world equipped with technology, with makes it easier than our parent's generation in terms of studying online.

I am planning on informing you all on the reasoning behind the choices of my subjects and my predictions of the year.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and hopefully the situation in the world becomes more positive in the coming weeks and months, we can only hope!