Tempestuously cruising through the HSC

[owidjaja]

HEHE I KNOWW!!

Thankyou girl, I really was questioning my morals when he came home and just moped around the house in misery. He just seemed socially withdrawn and didn't eat for 4 days. I thought it was normal but searched it up and apparently this could be deadly to cats and then I looked at various forums which said their cats ate straight away!! like omg I was shook hhahaa. Yesterday I had a major mental break down because I thought I made him live when he wanted to die and that was the reason he wasn't eating. Got so consumed by emotion that no productive work was completed. So today I went to the chemist and bought a massive syringe and some baby food with the intention of syringe feeding him when I got home (because I mean, I'm not going to let him starve to death you know). Anyways, I open a can of tuna just to see his reaction and he immediately starts licking and eating it. Omg I was a happy mess hahahaha... the relief was the best.

Holy crap though, taking out 12 teeth is a lot!! Were they decaying or something? I'm glad Meg appears to be doing well now though xx

It's great to see your cat is doing better!

The vet initially thought that Meg was having a mild case of gingivitis last year so we gave her some tooth gel, sprayed her food with some chemical (supposedly it's to stop bad breath) and changed her food to larger sized dry food. Turns out she had resorptive lesions. I don't know too much about the disease but it is an incurable disease. You can prevent it, but you can't stop it, and a lot of cats tend to get resorptive lesions- according to my vet, more than half of the cat population over the age of 3 get resorptive lesions. The problem is, cats have a high pain tolerance so we can't tell if she's in pain because cats will eat with pain (tbh though, I relate lmao). But it got to the point where Meg started losing so much weight because it was too painful for her to chew through the dry food so we moved to wet food and mixed some ground up dried food for a bit. Although it is common for cats to get this, my cat is still quite young to have 12 teeth taken out- she's around 4 years old.

So yeah, look out for resorptive lesions!

[Lumenoria]

About to do the millionth practice of paper 1. Trials start tomorrow and I am legit so scared ahhh. Good luck everyone! xx

[emilyygeorgexx]

About to do the millionth practice of paper 1. Trials start tomorrow and I am legit so scared ahhh. Good luck everyone! xx

Omg good luck, literally know you are 100% going to smash it already!!!!!!

Then there's me who actually wants to cry at the thought of the unseen texts and paper 2 on Tuesday ahhhh

Big love XX

[jamonwindeyer]

Good luck Lumenoria!! You’ll smash it

[Lumenoria]

Omg good luck, literally know you are 100% going to smash it already!!!!!!

Then there's me who actually wants to cry at the thought of the unseen texts and paper 2 on Tuesday ahhhh

Big love XX

AW THANKS BABE, IM QUESTIONING MY ENTIRE WILL TO LIVE ATM LOL
Good luck dude, I have maths on Tuesday and I'm so fucked and it's 40% HAHAHAH
I know you think you aren't ready but you're probably 200% more prepared than most hahaha sending you all my love xx

[Lumenoria]

Good luck Lumenoria!! You’ll smash it

Thanks Jamon, I sure hope so hahaha

[Lumenoria]

Just did my english trial exam and it wasn't too bad. The unseen texts (we had 4) were a bit obscure upon first impression, but when I really fleshed out my arguments, they weren't actually too bad at all. One of them specified imagery but the text wasn't  too evocative in that regard so I lowkey circumvented the question a tad. Also, the visual text was absolutely horrible. Like it was just so random and I found that this made it a bit difficult to analyse - atleast it was only worth 2 marks. Else, it was an alright section and I finished in 27 minutes (I was watching the clock very closely). However, I was very disciplined with the amount that I wrote and am not sure if this compromised my ability to garner the full marks allocated for each question (overwriting is a major issue for me). The creative stimulus was fine, and while I had to adapt some integral parts of my work to suit the question, I thought it was pretty broad. The essay question was less than ideal though - I had a plan prepared for it but actually executing it was harder than I thought. I managed to write 13 pages for it (I think I overquoted the text from panic), but I feel like a lot of it was really bad. I literally felt like I was taking so much longer to write out my response than it had taken me at home, which made me constantly worry about not finishing on time. I had 5 minutes left over at the end, which I allocated to refining some of my answers for section 1. My least confident section was by and large the essay, but I'm mainly just relieved it's over. Hope everyone else found it alright!

Time for maths. Not keen at all.

[emilyygeorgexx]

Just did my english trial exam and it wasn't too bad. The unseen texts (we had 4) were a bit obscure upon first impression, but when I really fleshed out my arguments, they weren't actually too bad at all. One of them specified imagery but the text wasn't  too evocative in that regard so I lowkey circumvented the question a tad. Also, the visual text was absolutely horrible. Like it was just so random and I found that this made it a bit difficult to analyse - atleast it was only worth 2 marks. Else, it was an alright section and I finished in 27 minutes (I was watching the clock very closely). However, I was very disciplined with the amount that I wrote and am not sure if this compromised my ability to garner the full marks allocated for each question (overwriting is a major issue for me). The creative stimulus was fine, and while I had to adapt some integral parts of my work to suit the question, I thought it was pretty broad. The essay question was less than ideal though - I had a plan prepared for it but actually executing it was harder than I thought. I managed to write 13 pages for it (I think I overquoted the text from panic), but I feel like a lot of it was really bad. I literally felt like I was taking so much longer to write out my response than it had taken me at home, which made me constantly worry about not finishing on time. I had 5 minutes left over at the end, which I allocated to refining some of my answers for section 1. My least confident section was by and large the essay, but I'm mainly just relieved it's over. Hope everyone else found it alright!

Time for maths. Not keen at all.

Omg did you do the CSSA? The texts were so obscure imo. My essay question was pretty good thought, legit matched my related text to a pin.

Creative was interesting, thank god my school changed the CSSA creative question because it was just too weird!

[henrychapman]

Hey there!!
I'm glad you enjoy my journal - honestly I feel like people think I ramble on too much here hahahahah! I read back on some of my stuff awhile ago actually and was cringing so hard lol. Yup, that's basically my mentality atm, although I still reckon I'd shed a few tears if I got under 85 for anything HAHAHHA. I haven't bombed any assessments in year 12 and I feel like it's coming lol because I've never had such a consistent streak of marks in my life. I was literally failing in year 11 hahahah. Honestly I think I owe my motivation levels to my friends around me who are crazy competitive. I'd probably already have dropped out of school by now were it not for them.

Ooh that's good - they're definitely some of my most interesting subjects! Legal especially, I'm legit head over heels with it because it's just so goddamn flexible. My legal cohort is so competitive though, like I'm on a mark of 97 and  only coming 3rd AHH. It would be so good to bring that up in trials but I doubt it hahaha.

I've been taking a similar approach for legal. I've been doing heaps of practise essay paragraphs on topics that are applicable to lots of different areas of the syllabus. I honestly think I'm good for legal - it's honestly just timing. I keep timing myself with the individual essay sections, but I cannot be fucked to do a whole 3 hour paper but I need to in order to get a sense of how much wriggle room I have. But idk if I'm physically able to do that hahaha. I'm kinda avoiding international crime but now I feel like my luck is so bad that it's going to blow up in my face on the day. Also, out of curiosity, how much do you write for the 15 mark crime essay? Because I usually write a similar length to my option essays (roughly 1-1.2k words) but recently I read something that said the 15 marks is attainable with just 600 words? But idk if I can fit anything of substance in that limit hahahaha because I like doing atleast 3 full length paragraphs, you know?

YUP I'm planning to do that - I have heaps of detailed essay plans to go but I'm mainly worried we're going to get a question on the environmental shit. Oh my god. That would be the clunkiest essay ever and I'm actively avoiding it anyway because it's the most mundane topic ever hahaha. It would suck to lose my 1st ranking over trials though because I won't have a chance to redeem myself, so I'm hoping it goes down well. Cramming usually works though so I'm praying hhahaha. Your eco cohort is massive - mine only has 18 people, but that's probably because half of them dropped due to our incompetent ass teacher. Legitimately, he cannot teach for shit and I've basically self taught myself the whole course because his powerpoints are the most basic slides ever - half the class is comprised of dropkicks. He literally had to get his friend - a selective teacher from a top 10 school in NSW - to give my feedback on my CAD essay because he didn't know what else to say. Like WHAT. Anyways, thanks for much for the offer, I'll have it in mind for when I study hahaha.

Thankyou!! My cat finally ate today after not eating for 4 days and omg I cried of happiness because I was worried that I had spent all that money on the amputation only for him to die OMG. They're honestly so precious.

I honestly feel you on so many things you've said.
In response to your question about legal essays though, for crime, because it is 15 marks, I generally try to aim for nothing more than a 1000 because otherwise I'll run out of time to complete the other sections. I'm not a fast writer as is so I basically will have to stick to that so I don't run out of time ! Also because I find the arguments in the crimes essay so much simpler than the essays in the options because there's generally one main argument and you don't need to spend time going through the counter argument like you do in the options because they're a little bit more complex. I certainly wouldn't recommend writing a 600 word essay ahaha but anything between 800-1000 I think is perfect (more like pushing 1000 but you get what I'm saying). Defs don't hit 1200 otherwise you'll run out of time for the other sections ! So I guess thats about 5, maybe 6 (depending on handwriting) pages in an exam? Your cohort sounds super competitive too which makes it awesome because you're consistently pushing each other to do better and better. My mark certainly isn't 97 (its 91 I think) so thats super super impressive. Me and the two other guys in my cohort are pretty competitive too although the marks certainly aren't as high as they are at your school ! I just hope I can get them in the trial.

With all the work you're putting in, I don't think you're destined to fail whatsoever. Just be ultra confident in what you've already achieved this year, and in your preparation and you'll seriously smash every single one of your trials. I'm impressed how you've essentially taught yourself the economics syllabus. With many difficult concepts, this is pretty impressive !! Thats funny how your teacher had to get someone else to mark your CAD essay ahah.
Hope the english papers went well and you're keen for your upcoming exams (which you should be because you'll smash them!)
Best of luck !

[Lumenoria]

Omg did you do the CSSA? The texts were so obscure imo. My essay question was pretty good thought, legit matched my related text to a pin.

Creative was interesting, thank god my school changed the CSSA creative question because it was just too weird!

HAHHA nopee, didn't do CSSA but it was whatever the other externally source paper is called hahahaha. Our creative stimulus was legit just a rubric statement which made me anxious cos I thought my paper was faulty for not having any pictures or quotes on it hahahhaa

[Lumenoria]

Omfg just did legal and it was not as bad as I thought. I was stressing out so much last night, because although I've done a lot of study over the past few weeks, I legitimately felt like I was preparing for it last minute. I ended up staying up till 3am just writing out practice essays for the options. Anyways, the actual trial wasn't that bad - except the crime question was on a fucking specific dotpoint of the syllabus that I lowkey ignored in my study. Like ughhh. I don't think I failed it, but I'm not really expecting above a 13 for it tbh. My response was clunky as shit, like I legit hated the question so much that I wrote out a body paragraph then moved onto the option essays then went back to it haha. I'm also really bad at sticking to my plans, so I wrote out my body paragraphs for crime first and then wrote my introduction haha. It stressed me out a bit, but I knew I wouldn't be able to be consistent with my thesis the whole way through because I kinda pick out my ideas as I go along depending on the direction of my argument. I'm lowkey a bit annoyed at myself because I forgot to mention a case that was integral to my argument UGHHH. It just completely slipped my mind lol. Also I didn't plan anything so my teacher will absolutely crucify me but gotta do what you gotta do haha. Quoted Nicholas Cowdery a few times too many. I was able to do all the multiple choice questions mentally during the reading time, which was honestly a blessing. I'm mainly just relieved that I finished on time tbh, because I hadn't done a practice of the whole paper under timed conditions at home (I'd done separate sections individually). My essay world order was super clunky and I probably should've planned that a bit more because there was a complete lack of cohesion. I didn't have time left over to fix it unfortunately. I think my best section was my family essay, which I reckon is my best shot at getting a 25 in. I'm really hoping for 95+, or at least 90. Hope everyone else found the legal exam okay! x

[emilyygeorgexx]

Omfg just did legal and it was not as bad as I thought. I was stressing out so much last night, because although I've done a lot of study over the past few weeks, I legitimately felt like I was preparing for it last minute. I ended up staying up till 3am just writing out practice essays for the options. Anyways, the actual trial wasn't that bad - except the crime question was on a fucking specific dotpoint of the syllabus that I lowkey ignored in my study. Like ughhh. I don't think I failed it, but I'm not really expecting above a 13 for it tbh. My response was clunky as shit, like I legit hated the question so much that I wrote out a body paragraph then moved onto the option essays then went back to it haha. I'm also really bad at sticking to my plans, so I wrote out my body paragraphs for crime first and then wrote my introduction haha. It stressed me out a bit, but I knew I wouldn't be able to be consistent with my thesis the whole way through because I kinda pick out my ideas as I go along depending on the direction of my argument. I'm lowkey a bit annoyed at myself because I forgot to mention a case that was integral to my argument UGHHH. It just completely slipped my mind lol. Also I didn't plan anything so my teacher will absolutely crucify me but gotta do what you gotta do haha. Quoted Nicholas Cowdery a few times too many. I was able to do all the multiple choice questions mentally during the reading time, which was honestly a blessing. I'm mainly just relieved that I finished on time tbh, because I hadn't done a practice of the whole paper under timed conditions at home (I'd done separate sections individually). My essay world order was super clunky and I probably should've planned that a bit more because there was a complete lack of cohesion. I didn't have time left over to fix it unfortunately. I think my best section was my family essay, which I reckon is my best shot at getting a 25 in. I'm really hoping for 95+, or at least 90. Hope everyone else found the legal exam okay! x

Omg same I did mine today as well! Literally did all the MC in my head during the reading time so it only took me 5 minutes to do ahhh

Crime question was actually good, except my essay was definitely not cohesive I feel so honestly hoping for above 10 at this point

Option essay questions were absolutely amazing! Both of the questions for each option just happened to be all the ones I had done in previous assessment tasks so it was like a blessing in disguise!!

I hope we both did well

[Lumenoria]

Omg same I did mine today as well! Literally did all the MC in my head during the reading time so it only took me 5 minutes to do ahhh

Crime question was actually good, except my essay was definitely not cohesive I feel so honestly hoping for above 10 at this point

Option essay questions were absolutely amazing! Both of the questions for each option just happened to be all the ones I had done in previous assessment tasks so it was like a blessing in disguise!!

I hope we both did well

Omg I'm glad you found it pleasant too!! Praying for us both hahahaha

[Lumenoria]

I have paper 2 tomorrow and I'm super worried tbh, I know that the Mod B question will be really specific and that will throw me off my game I reckon. I feel okay preparation wise, I haven't done the whole paper under timed conditions yet but I know my shit pretty well. I did a Mod A practice essay to the 2016 HSC question and it only took me 32 minutes, so hopefully that's the case for the rest of them. My writing is absolutely illegible tho lol

[Fergus6748]

I have paper 2 tomorrow and I'm super worried tbh, I know that the Mod B question will be really specific and that will throw me off my game I reckon. I feel okay preparation wise, I haven't done the whole paper under timed conditions yet but I know my shit pretty well. I did a Mod A practice essay to the 2016 HSC question and it only took me 32 minutes, so hopefully that's the case for the rest of them. My writing is absolutely illegible tho lol

Good luck for Paper 2!! I've still got a few days to go till paper 1. Do as Jamon would do, walk in like you own the place!!!! Then you'll smash it for sure!!