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Author Topic: galaxy21's VCE Journal  (Read 2102 times)

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galaxy21

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galaxy21's VCE Journal
« on: October 02, 2018, 08:04:28 pm »
+6
Hi!
So I was in the process of looking through the ATARNotes forums the other day while procrastinating actually doing homework and came across the VCE Journals and thought it would be a good idea to do one next year. And now a week later, I'm here again procrastinating study, and I guess this is somewhat more productive than sitting down and watching TV (maybe?).
Anyway, a bit about me. I'm in year 11, studying 2 3/4 subjects (Biology and Further Maths), as well as English, Health, Methods, and Chemistry. After I finish school, I'd love to be a vet, as I have since I was about 7. I mean, whats another few years of studying, right? :o
I realised at about 3pm this afternoon that I have two year 12 exams in exactly 1 month today...so I should probably start doing some more serious study. But yet, my talented procrastination skills got the better of me, and here I am.

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to do this (other than to procrastinate) as a way of recording the rest of my VCE journey, particularly how I manage everything leading up to exams this year, so that I can look back next year and see what I should change, and what can stay the same, and obviously to be able to look back on VCE and remember the ups and downs!
 ;D
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

Bri MT

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2018, 09:09:26 pm »
+1
Being a vet is hard,  but it's definitely a valuable role in our communities.  Is there anything in particular you associate with making that decision (& sticking with it all these years)?

How have you found studying units 3&4  ?

galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2018, 07:46:14 am »
+1
Being a vet is hard,  but it's definitely a valuable role in our communities.  Is there anything in particular you associate with making that decision (& sticking with it all these years)?

How have you found studying units 3&4  ?

I'm not sure. I have always loved animals (I guess probably being around pets all of my life probably helped) and so initially, I think I wanted to be a vet or a zoo keeper. I can't stand seeing an animal hurt or injured if I am unable to help, so I guess that probably lead me towards a vet pathway. As for a zoo keeper, I think I was drawn to this from a younger age in particular because I wanted to work with animals from around the world and learn how they behaved, as well as being involved in conservation programs and things like that. I did work experience at both a vet clinic and a zoo last year, and I found that the vet clinic was probably more enjoyable, as I could see the vet taking animals that were injured or in pain and helping them to get a bit better.
For a while, I really wanted to start/work for some kind of organisation that travels to developing countries with uncontrolled populations of like dogs and cats and help them. Not sure whether that will ever happen, but I think that it would be really rewarding work, but also very confronting.

As for my 3/4's, I find biology REALLY interesting. I love the content, and it's probably my favourite subject. Unfortunately, there is a lot of content, and revising this for exams is a little harder than I expected. The workload is quite a bit more than 1/2, but its probably going to be the subject that I look back on at the end of VCE as my favourite.
For further, I find the content pretty easy (except the odd thing or two), especially having a summary book at SAC's and the exam's, but to get a high score, I find it reasonably difficult, as you can't lose too many marks for the simple mistakes (as I always manage to do :-\). I have found the workload quite managable, and I prefer it a million times over methods   ;).
I'm really sad that I'm finishing both of my 3/4's as they are the subjects that I look forward to most of all this year, so it's going to be weird for them to be gone next year.
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

Joseph41

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2018, 09:43:55 am »
+3
I love this thread. :D Looking forward to following your journey through the rest of Year 11, and then through Year 12.

I remember being about a month out from my first 3/4 exam. It was pretty surreal. But honestly, you'll be fine - 3/4 exams aren't too dissimilar to other exams you would have sat, and it's really valuable experience doing a couple this year before Year 12.

Do you think you'll look forward to your subjects the same way you have with Bio and Further this year?

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galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2018, 10:10:14 am »
+4
I love this thread. :D Looking forward to following your journey through the rest of Year 11, and then through Year 12.

I remember being about a month out from my first 3/4 exam. It was pretty surreal. But honestly, you'll be fine - 3/4 exams aren't too dissimilar to other exams you would have sat, and it's really valuable experience doing a couple this year before Year 12.

Do you think you'll look forward to your subjects the same way you have with Bio and Further this year?

Yeah definitely surreal - it doesn't seem like it can be right that a couple of hours of questions in less than a month are going to contribute to the ATAR that I have been essentially working towards for the last 12 (i think? ???) years...
Not sure whether I'll be looking forward to my subjects next year as much as this year. I am not so sure about methods and chemistry, for sure. Chemistry this year has been fun because of our class, but I am not a fan of a lot of the content. Hopefully it will become a lot more appealing next year. Unit 4, especially Area of Study 2, looks quite interesting (I guess this relates a little to biology with enzymes and stuff...), but hopefully I am able to spend a little more time learning the content to a greater depth next year, so I'm not dreading it quite so much. As for methods, a few people have said the jump from year 10 to 11 is bigger than that of year 11 to 12, so hopefully thats true! I feel like chem and methods are the two subjects that I'll struggle with most, but hopefully I can find them interesting. As for health, I was seriously considering dropping that next year and picking up biology as a UMEP subject, but after talking with the careers advisor at school, it seems like sticking with health might be a better idea (as much as I'd love to continue biology). Some of the content seems quite interesting, however I'm not so good at memorising definitions...I prefer understanding why something happens than just repeating what it is, word for word. I guess I do enjoy health, but I think the class structure for health (at least at my school) is a lot different to, say, methods and chemistry. It has a lot more discussion (which I am not such a fan of) and variation (not the right word but its not coming to my head ;)), rather than straight and definite answers, which can be a good and a bad thing. English is alright (except essays...eww!), so hopefully I can get through that alright and get a reasonable score.
Hopefully this year I get 35+ for my 3/4 subjects so a) obviously that is a decent score and will help my ATAR and b) that means I can drop a subject next year and do 4 instead of 5. If not, biology, here I come again!
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2018, 01:15:07 pm »
+5
Felt like writing a little update before I go back to school on Monday :-\...
The holidays have been good, but very busy. I have worked 9 days, but ended up doing 8-9 hour shifts for most of them, which was a lot longer than I expected. I've spent a bit of time with friends, which has been a fun change, as I often don't get much of a chance during the normal school term because life gets too busy. It was good and really relaxing to do (but some issues came up with one friend in particular that are kinda annoying but anyway...). Nothing too much, really, just hanging out most of the time. I'd have loved to have done more, but who has time  :-\.
As for homework, we didn't have a lot these holidays. I'm still working through it as I have seemed to have been putting it off most of the holidays (as I always seem to accidentally do), but I've been trying to study for further and bio a bit as well. I really regret not starting revision earlier, but tbh I really didn't have a chance at the end of the last term to do everything - the last half of term I had a couple of SAC's every week, which was kinda annoying (but at least they weren't all the same couple of days).
As for exam revision that I have done so far, for bio, I'm just working through checkpoints, which I was a little wary about doing as a lot of people say that it can ruin the past VCAA exams, but I guess it is a good idea to get my head around the content. I'm just doing the multiple choice sections so far, as I haven't exactly gone through the whole year's content by reading through notes or anything yet - I figure I might as well see how I go, and sus out what I remember first of all. So far I have completely destroyed quite a few pages and used a whole heap of sticky notes (which while it's a little draining, is kinda fun!)
For further, I've just done a few practice exams. I'm scoring about 80% on most of them, which is okay, but I'd really like it to be higher. I guess that's what practice is for!

I was really stressed, particularly a few days ago, about exams, because they all of a sudden seemed so close and I had barely started. But I'm starting to feel like I am getting on top of everything, even though I have a long way to go.

We have mock exams the first week back of school, so technically I have 3 days off because we don't need to go to any classes on the days that we have exams...I feel like I should go to a few, though, so that I don't fall too behind.
Anyway, that's it for now. Guess I should go back to that beautiful place I call my desk ::)...
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2018, 05:17:30 pm »
+3
So schools been back for nearly a week now and I am already wishing we could be on holidays again. Holidays always seem like they go too quickly.
I finished my last mock exam today. I was again reminded of how much I need to sit down and ACTUALLY study for my 3/4's, but I have 3 SAC's next week (Chem on Monday, English on Thursday, and Methods on Friday :'() so that's probably more important right now.
As for how each subject is going...
English - I only had 2 classes this week because of mock exams (well, I could have had none because we could have the whole day of the exam off, but for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go to classes  ???). We got a practice SAC back from last term (that I may have completely forgotten about) and I did really well, which was a huge surprise since it was a comparative language analysis thing, and we basically hadn't learnt how to write them. I may have changed how I was planning to do it with about 20 minutes left, when I still had to write another 2 paragraphs plus a conclusion, but anyway...
Health - Again I only had 2 classes (one of these is tomorrow), which is good. We have started the last area of study on australia's healthcare system (I think), so we have been looking at medicare and PBS or something. Not exactly my favourite content but oh well.
Bio - We have no classes this week because of the mock exams, but of course revision. I feel like there is so much content to get through in so little time...I guess I'll just have to keep making my way through those tedious, 2h45minute practice exams. I mean, how else would anyone want to spend their weekends? I got a mark back for my first SAC this morning, and even though I know it is a decent result, I still am a little upset, as I feel like I could have done better. We only had 2 days to cover the content that was about 1/2 the marks, so it was really stressful, and I went in feeling really unprepared. But hey, I learnt from it, right?
Chem - Ah! chem (+ methods) is definitely going in my bottom 2 next year... the content never seems to really click in my head (probably because its the work that I put off the most), but I keep telling myself that I'll do better next year...we'll have to see about that. I have a SAC on Monday, but I haven't even had a chance to go over anything, things have been just too hectic. Fingers crossed everything goes okay.
Further - Mock Exams, so no classes this week. We had 2 exams (yesterday and today), which seem to have gone okay. I got a really good mark on exam 1 (Multiple choice) (at least in comparison to the other exam scores that I got in practice exams) so I have a bit of hope, at least.
Methods - *runs away, never to be seen again*... we're doing trig at the moment, and I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. We didn't have time to do it at the end of last year, so I am going from what I remember from year 9 maths (which is basically nothing). We figured out that in the next 6ish weeks, we need to get through the rest of this topic (which we have the SAC for next week), plus another 3, so not sure how thats going to turn out. Now, all I have to do it catch up on what we have done so far, finish my summary book, actually learn what to do, and do the SAC, then start again! Sounds easy *gulp*

As for my personal life, I might be going out for dinner on Friday with a few friends (?) and I have a netball game on Saturday, which will be good. Plus work on Sunday, and then another fun week of SAC's!

That's pretty much it. School's pretty stressful, cause everything keeps getting piled on, but I've managed so far. I keep thinking that I'll look back on it some day and be grateful for it all, but for some reason, right now, I feel like I'm kinda just floating through. I don't really get overly stressed, but if I do, it all comes in pretty much one day of overthinking everything, and the next day I'm fine again, which is probably a good thing. Anyway, I'll try and keep updating this over the next little while, but I'll see how I go! :)
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

sweetiepi

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2018, 05:39:03 pm »
+1
So schools been back for nearly a week now and I am already wishing we could be on holidays again. Holidays always seem like they go too quickly.
I finished my last mock exam today. I was again reminded of how much I need to sit down and ACTUALLY study for my 3/4's, but I have 3 SAC's next week *
-snip-
As for my personal life, I might be going out for dinner on Friday with a few friends (?) and I have a netball game on Saturday, which will be good. Plus work on Sunday, and then another fun week of SAC's!
I understand how you feel with holidays flying by so quickly- that's how I feel every time a break comes and goes! :D
Best of luck for the SACs next week! I'm sure you can do them and have some time to study for your 3/4s as well! ^-^

I love how you've got some downtime planned for the weekend! It is important to have some fun activities planned, instead of just studying. Have fun with netball and the potential dinner!!! :))
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galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2018, 08:19:09 pm »
+4
Urghhhh. Exams are such a drag. Remind me why I did VCE again?
I am not looking forward to next year when I will have (fingers crossed) 4 subjects of exams to do.
As for revision so far, I have done a like 8 (and half of one that I am putting off doing now) for bio and 8 1/2 for further. The results are kinda decent but I was hoping to be getting a bit better than I was at this point. Goodbye great study scores! Looks like I'm going to have to keep standing the Further and Bio question threads like usual (btw sorry and thank you to everybody who has to keep answering my constant questions - it means so much, especially when some of you (Phoenixxfire especially) have your own ecams to worry about!!!)
Oh well. At least I've learn stuff for next year (Hint: don't leave it to the last minute).
I love how I am doing 2 3/4  subjects and VCAA schedules the exams on the same 31 degree day, cause who doesn't love sitting 4 1/2 hours of exams in the heat! Thank you!
The thing is, though, I am weirdly not that stressed about the exams. Like I have random flushes of it every now and then, but other than that, I think it just doesn't seem real yet that they are so close. Not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing though...


Year 11 subjects are going okay at the moment. We finished our last english SAC last Thursday, in chem we are finishing off our practical investigation (AOS 3) at the moment, which is better than learning the content, but still not great fun, in methods we have just started differentiation and its way easier than I expected which is a huge relief - also we have no more SAC's for the rest of the content because the teachers realised that had 3 weeks to get through 3 topics or something (we have only just finished the first topic, so they aren't even on track), and health we are still learning content and our SAC (surprise surprise) is scheduled for Friday as well. So now I have to stay back after school on Wednesday to do it rather than going home and studying for the year 11 exams that are on the next week. I love how organised my school is haha.

The only thing that is keeping me going is the week that we have off school between exams and year 12 orientation - that is going to be the best week...no homework or anything, nothing to study for, nothing (except probably working). I cannot wait for that.

Good luck to everyone else who has exams!
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)

galaxy21

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Re: galaxy21's VCE Journal
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2018, 08:35:49 am »
+3
What I planned to do today:
Last little bit of revision, clarifying anything that I wasn't sure about

What I am probably going to end up doing today:
Writing out answers to my questions about some content that I'm not sure about (and spamming the Bio question thread in the process), doing a practice exam that I couldn't be bothered doing last night, and finishing the last bit of my further summary book off by redoing all of my incorrect questions.

So much for a relaxing day to get me really calm before exams...

Note to self: start revising earlier next year. Please!
2018 - Biology, Further
2019 - English, Chemistry, Methods, Health and Human Development
2020 - Bachelor of Science (Melbourne Uni)