Forbidden's VCE Journal

[forbiddensoulxx]

On Wednesday, our Eng Lang teacher told us that the practice essay isn't actually a practice essay and it's going to be assessed. I wouldn't mind it so much, if it weren't for the fact that the psych exam is in LESS THAN 3 WEEKS. On the note of psych, we had our SAC on Wednesday. I think I went pretty well overall, but I blanked out for one of the questions and went full 'blehhhh' mode. So I'm certain I lost around 1 or 2 marks, but I'm really disappointed as I found the SAC quite easy overall.

Our normal economics teacher got back this term, so I learned more from him in 2 lessons than I learned from the teacher who replaced him last term in the entirety of the term. Globalisation seems like a really interesting topic, so I'm looking forward to learn more about it. Accounting is sorta a bludge for me right now, since I mostly do other work in it.

I'm actually dreading the chapter we're doing in Methods right now- probability. It's soo hard to wrap my head around, which I can't afford since I need an A average if I want to get into UMEP. I also have to write a UMEP application to my principal first, since he needs to recommend me to do the extension itself, so I have to write the application for that (really hoping I get into it, because I'd rather do this than accounting).

[forbiddensoulxx]

Alright, mid week update.

We got our last ever Psych SAC back (yay!). While I only dropped 1 mark across the SAC, I was quite disappointed since it was an easy SAC and I knew all the content that was being assessed and way more. Also, since a bunch of people also got 39, it didn't feel like a great score.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For legal, I had a presentation of the laws regarding gender reassignment, which I thankfully finished the research for in the first week of holidays. My teacher said my group was really good and we basically got full marks (yay).

For Eng Lang, the essay I have to write on English as a lingua franca leading to the homogenisation of cultural identities is coming along pretty decent, it's due in a week and I've only got a body paragraph and conclusion to go (If anyone would be mildly interested in reading it, please chuck me a PM).

Methods is going horribly. We had a test on matrices last week and I screwed up the easiest question ever, omfg. I'm a bit stressed about methods as I need an A average for UMEP, and my average right now is B... Oh and we're doing probability right now, which is  undoubtedly one of my most-hated topics.

Economics is going pretty well, we finished the whole course today and are just doing some revision. For accounting, we've almost finished the course and have a test next Tuesday.

[forbiddensoulxx]

Alrighttt, posting a bit late but psych exam is over ayyy. I don't think I did as well as I could have and definitely made some silly errors, such as forgetting to include crucial detail in my short answer and extended response answer. So, I'm a bit disappointed as I knew all my content, but unfortunately didn't write in a manner which I think reflected the best of my ability. Although, to boost my morale up, I cross-checked my multiple choice answers with howey's suggested answers, and am pretty sure I'm sitting on at least a 48 out of 50 for that, which is pretty nice.

I've got exams for my 1/2's, so last week, this week and the start of next week are going to be a bit stressful. I had my economics and eng lang exam on Friday, the day after my psych exam so I literally had to cram in everything I needed for eco the night before. For eng lang, I had a 2 hour break between my exams, so crammed up during that time, even though during the exam I bs'ed so much, lmao.

Pretty happy I've got no school until Thursday, when my accounting exam is, which I've done a bit of revision for. Legal and Exam 1 for methods is on Friday, which I am not looking forward to, and Exam 2 for methods in on Monday. Hopefully I can pull through over my looooooong 'weekend' and get some content into my brain before my exams resume. Other than that, I also handed in my uni extension application last week, so fingers crossed all goes well and I get the principal approval.

[zofromuxo]

Other than that, I also handed in my uni extension application last week, so fingers crossed all goes well and I get the principal approval.

What university extension program are you applying for?

[forbiddensoulxx]

What university extension program are you applying for?

I've applied for the Melb Uni Economics Extension, but I may not get that because my methods grades aren't too good. So I've also applied for the RMIT Economics Extension.

[Joseph41]

Congrats on getting through Psych! That's super exciting.

[forbiddensoulxx]

Oh crap, haven't posted here in a loooong time, AHAHA. Some nice updates, the first being school finally finished today! No more worrying about SAC's or exams until next year. Since we finished early today, I went to see Justice League with a couple of friends, which was a much needed change in scenery from home, school and metro train carriages.

Anyyyway, on to exams and all, I guess I did decent in my exams, I was happy with most of them except for methods, because I thought I did much better than I actually did. I was so happy with my eco exam because I managed to lose only 4 marks even though I thought I screwed up the exam and basically winged and binged the content the afternoon after my psych exam on Thursday to prep for my eco exam on Friday, loool.
Eng lang was also a nice mark, which was basically what I expected. I was extremely happy with legal because I got one of the highest marks of my cohort, (but I think my teacher was being a bit too generous marking my paper because he likes me as a student, ahaha.)
Accounting was a bit disappointing as I got a letter grade less than I expected and would have liked, and found out my theory was the thing that lost me the most marks, so feelsbad.
Now the dreaded methods, somehow, exam 1 got scaled a lot so that 70% became an A, and exam 2 didn't scale up a lot given it was quite easy, which I'm quite disappointed with since I thought I did everything to a respectable standard. But I guess that just means I have to try even harder next year.

And I received my completed uni extension form with the principal approval today, after almost 3 weeks of chasing it up. God, the administration in my school is seriously terrible, like I've asked about it almost a bajillion times and they only managed to get me back my form on the last day of school, lmao. However, I'm a bit skeptic about it, since UMEP Eco requires an average of A in methods and eco, the eco part I got covered, but for methods my average is B+ (I'm counting B as 79% where B+ ranges from 75-79%, and so on with the other letter grades.) Hopefully, the school I go to makes it a bit more lenient in terms of the average required, because I also sent in a RMIT Extension form to my principal, but he signed the UMEP one and gave only that one back to me.

[zofromuxo]

And I received my completed uni extension form with the principal approval today, after almost 3 weeks of chasing it up. God, the administration in my school is seriously terrible, like I've asked about it almost a bajillion times and they only managed to get me back my form on the last day of school, lmao.

At least you got the form signed..
My experience was not getting a subject selected I wanted and got transferred to 4 different staff members to deal with it....

[forbiddensoulxx]

Okayyy, time for a long overdue update.

I'm quite frustrated and annoyed at my school because of my uni extension issue. I originally gave them both a RMIT and UoM uni extension form, saying only to sign the UoM one if I got an average of A in methods. Not even regarding the huge time delay and chasing up, I got the UoM form even though my average was only B+. I wasn't able to ask for the RMIT one since they due date was the day after and the staff were in a meeting or something. So, no surprise, a few weeks ago, I get an email from UoM saying I didn't get in because I didn't have the required A average.

Apart from that, school's been nice. It was really nice to see all my friends again, and my teachers are thankfully all good. The only thing is that we're gonna get our Year 12 jumpers sooo late, since we haven't even decided on a design yet and the school won't let us wear them until Anzac Day...

-Legal Studies seems to be quite interesting, since we're basically looking at the things that make up the legal system through things such as what justice and all is.
-Methods doesn't seem too bad as I did a little work over the holidays, so I'm not scratching my head thinking what the hell is going on.
-For economics, we haven't had a proper class all week, since for our first class, the teacher wasn't here. Our teacher wasn't here for our double at the end of the day either, so we got to go home early, which was pretty nice.
-Eng Lang is going to take a bit of extra time for me to understand, because I didn't honestly learn too much last year, but I'm optimistic for this year.
-Accounting doesn't seem as bad as I initially thought and I might actually enjoy the stuff we're gonna be learning.

[Lear]

Good to hear you're mostly happy getting back to school. My school still hasn't put out any word on school jumpers but said last year they will only be made available when school determined cohort behaviour was in order

Legal studies is indeed fun! I have my sac in only a few weeks and am looking forward to it. How are you finding the content?

[forbiddensoulxx]

Ahh damn, that must suck ahaha, since a few bad eggs could potentially ruin the final year for a lot of people?

And ooh, good luck! I think we've got about a month till ours, which I'm thankful for aha. Even though we haven't looked at too much content, the content we've gone through looks really fascinating as you could say the entirety of the legal system is based upon it. Through determining principles such as fairness, equality and access, it gives you a great overview into what our legal system truly aims to achieve. How are you finding it?

[Lear]

I find it pretty interesting to find out about the laws that govern this country. Our teacher likes to keep us upto date with recent cases in the media which makes classes all the more funner!

[forbiddensoulxx]

We've yet to look at in-depth case studies or cases, but I'm looking forward to that for sure.

[forbiddensoulxx]

This week has been both quite fun and chill for me. I've still got to get used to the 6 am wake-ups though, but that's just gonna take a bit of time. Overall, I can already see my workload increasing even only in the second week in. But, this year I'm not leaving most my work until the weekend (like last year ahaha) and do a bit, whether it be notes or homework, each day (except Friday, because that's my work-free day). Once again, I'm really happy with the teachers I have, and feel like I can really push myself this year with their help. To not go totally insane, I'm keeping up playing tennis (training and competition). I've also applied to be in the Year 12 Debating team, as well as the school's Economics Club President. Now for individual subjects:

- Methods: This was one of the 2 subjects I was dreading this year, but I'm giving more time to it because it's not my strong point. I can already see that this approach is working for me as I am able to understand the concepts we're learning. My teacher is also good as she provides us with a lot of resources such as worksheets to enhance and consolidate what we've learnt.
- Eng Lang: This was the other subject I was dreading, but again, like Methods I'm trying to give more time to it to relearn all the metalanguage so I'm fully able to understand it and apply it fairly easily. I've got the head of Eng Lang as my teacher as a bonus, and he explains concepts really easily and in a manner which makes sense. We're currently looking at information flow and its features like cohesion and coherence, and we've got a test on it next week.
- Legal: It's by far one of my 2 favourite subjects, and I'm really glad for the new study design. The way my teacher explained it, the new study design looks at the smaller concepts first, which are currently Unit 3  (but were Unit 4 last year), and the larger concepts which are currently Unit 4 (but were Unit 3 last year). My teacher's also great, even though his teaching's not straight to the point, he fleshes out concepts and relates them to cases and the legislation they were produced from a lot. Combined with his long experience as a lawyer, I know I'll be able to learn a lot from him. We're currently doing the Rights of Victims and still looking at how a large number of factors contribute in determining if justice has been achieved.
- Economics: This is my other favourite subject. I'm relieved the first AOS closely resembles Unit 1 and 2, for a lot of my subjects, since this allows me to get my bearings and get back into the school routine without exploding. We've just finished recapping markets and how relative prices interact with the price mechanism, which I found to be a really interesting topic. My teacher is also great, since he also explains concepts in a really easy manner, then adds more body onto them by explaining them with real world applications and examples.
- Accounting: It's a bit complex to get my head around some of the content, such as double entry accounting which we've started on, but once I got the concept, it doesn't seem too bad. Hopefully I feel like this all throughout the year ahaha. My teacher is good, which helps making the subject not feel like a chore.

[forbiddensoulxx]

Forgot to post last week, oops. Nothing really new happened last week, just going through the grind, but I'm glad I felt last week went by quickly. I had my debating team trials last Wednesday, and got in. I've got my Economics Club President interview tomorrow, so hyped for that.
Accounting: We went over and finished double entry accounting, which I thought would be really hard. But once I wrapped my head around footing and balancing, it was a breeze. I seriously feel this was much easier than much of the Unit 2 chapters last year. Here's hoping everything later on is such as breeze to.
Legal Studies: What we're learning in Unit 3 so far, issues such as justice and the rights of the accused and the victim, as well as pre-trial procedures are an 'extension' to what we learnt last year. This means we haven't started too much content yet, but Legal isn't looking that bad. We finished looking at justice specifically, but we're looking at pre-trial procedures, and how these encompass the elements of justice.
Economics: My teacher is seriously the best. He's really nice, cracks jokes and makes learning fun. We worked through recapping supply and demand, and things such as contraction and expansion of supply and demand, as well as looking at microeconomic factors which increase or decrease demand and supply. I'm really looking forward to looking at the Australian economy specifically in a bit.
English Language: It's kinda hard to follow, because we don't really have a set structure to lessons, as in what we follow and do each week. But we looked at discourse last week, and information flow. This isn't complex, but there's a lot of stuff to remember, and it can get quite confusing for stuff like end-weight and end-focus.
Methods: My teacher was away all week because she was sick for half the week and then had conferences for the other half. She gave us a worksheet the week before to work through. So I worked on that, as well as sticking to the syllabus we were given. So far, so good. The content doesn't seem too complex, except for composite functions, which I mostly got after a lot of explaining from my tutor.