So this is gonna be interesting...

[elysepopplewell]

Thanks for reading! As soon as you put the update on ATARNotes snap I was booking in for all my subjects straight away. Don't you worry, I'll be there!   

Please come and say hello!!!

[BrittyG]

Please come and say hello!!!

I definitely will!

[BrittyG]

Alright. It has been absolutely yonks since I have given my update on the forum and I completely apologize because this is one of the things I really wanted to do to be able to look back on my HSC journey and be like wow you cried a lot but look at you-you got there! Fortunately, I have been keeping a handwritten book of updates for those who like to read what I'm up to (Jamon and Elyse).

January:
I had agreed with myself to begin holiday work on the 7th of January and do a little bit at least every second day to get back into the routine of school work and get my notes in order. This semi-worked out for me because I did do a small amount of work but not as much as I intended to because I lacked motivation (it's holidays c'mon) but I did attend the ATAR Notes Headstart lectures for all my subjects except PDHPE and General Maths (I'm sorry Jamon I slept through my alarm  ) I also managed to achieve one of my goals for the year which was to get my red P's (also a factor as to why I didn't get as much work done as I intended to).  Something I did do through the January holidays was plan my academic goals for my HSC year and they are;
1. Get in the top 5 in 3 subjects
2. Get in the top 10 in all subjects
3. Achieve at least 80% average in all subjects
4. Get a band 6 in General Mathematics
Overall, I'm aiming for an ATAR of 80
Breakdown count for Jan: 2

February:
1/2 was my second day back at school, I found that this was the time that it really hit me that I'm a year 12 student and I'm doing my HSC in about 9 months time. In the first two weeks, I found very quickly that my sporting commitments were having a negative effect on my studies, at this stage, I was training 5 or 6 days a week for at least 2 hours a night. This didn't allow for adequate study time and I was quickly placed behind on all my work, I was staying up until 2/3am completing homework due the next day and waking up at 7 to get myself to school on time and continuing through to 3 am the next day and the cycle continues. This proved to be very tiring and unhealthy, to say the least.

I got very sick mid-February I should've been staying home but I took myself to school because I was too afraid to skip any content as I was already taking two days off the next week to play one of my competitions in Port Macquarie. When I got back from that competition I  aimed to work hard and get a lot of content and catch up done before I went to my next competition two weeks later, which I did end up doing until...

I dislocated my left elbow! great just what I needed. I basically had my arm stuck at 90º for 2 weeks and then in an uncomfortable brace thing (which I still have to wear now and will have to wear through my half yearly exams) This set me a couple of weeks behind and caused me a lot of breakdowns because I'm a whinger and couldn't do anything for myself. Honestly speaking, the injury was a blessing and a curse, first off it put me behind on work because I couldn't type or handwrite properly which caused me to get extremely frustrated. But, in saying that, I haven't been able to play any sport for the last 5 weeks which allowed me to focus more on my studies rather than train.
Big month for Feb. Breakdown count for Feb: 5

March:
Begining of March I had a conversation with myself which went a little like; "what's the plan bro?"
"Idek man there's so much coming up, we've got to get crackalakin' if we're gonna have a decent attempt at these half-yearly exams"
"Alright tomorrow we're going to create a study plan and write a list and start getting stuff done, not long now 'Work hard and be rewarded'"
'Work hard and be rewarded' is now my motto for the HSC, I'm writing it everywhere. It is basically a little saying to remind me that to get through the HSC year I have to stay in the grind by being focused and motivated. Which I have been doing quite well so far. At the current moment, I have completed my notes on the content in the half-yearly exams for PDHPE, Business Studies, and General Math but I am still yet to start making notes on anything covered from this year or last year in Biology or SORI and currently Standard English is a lost cause our exam layout is AOS Discovery short answer, AOS Discovery Creative Writing, and Module A: Distinctively Visual Essay I'm having the most trouble with my essay at the moment but I have a week to figure that out I guess.

My exams start on the 3rd of April and my last one is on the 12th of April, this gives me just one week until I sit my first exam. Yikes!
Breakdown count March: 1

And we're up to date! If you're still reading, thank you for your time. This is a massive update and I will aim to update way more frequently!

Running Breakdown Count: 20

HSCya later,
Britt 

[BrittyG]

Welcome back to another instalment of BrittyG's sop story...
I completely blanked out on AN while studying for and sitting my half yearlies so much went on. I studied the whole week leading up to my half yearlies and just completely crammed my way through them. So much to the point where I was forgetting to eat dinner some nights and staying up late nervous I won't get things finished before my exams begun. This behaviour led to me getting quite sick through the whole two weeks of my exams. Yep. I was that person. The one that constantly sniffles then tries to blow their nose through the whole exam on the sly... Sorry for putting you through that torture.

Anywho, I'm going to give a brief summary of how I felt I went in my exams because I actually hand wrote it in a little book I keep to document my HSC and such.

3rd April
Exam 1: English Standard
The exam consisted of AOS Discovery short answer and creative writing piece and an essay on Module A: Run Lola Run
I spent the majority of my study time working on my creative writing piece and memorising it, I felt like it was the piece that I could get the most marks in, I didn't do any study on my short answer responses because I'm fairly confident in that section. I practically ignored the Module A essay section until 1 am the day of the exam... stupid I know. I had no related text for my essay and I had no structure set for the exam. I did a quick google "easy to learn related text for Run Lola Run" – with a little bit of digging I came across the poem Invictus, quickly broke it down and memorised three quotes and went into the exam hoping for the best. I wrote in my little book that I completed the exam in the order of Module A essay, Creative writing, Short answer. I skipped a 2 marker in the short answer so I was able to go back to my Module A essay and complete it which I left a body paragraph and a conclusion out.

Exam 2: Biology
The exam consisted of 9.4 Search for better health and 9.2 Maintaining a balance
I completed this exam pretty confidently, I had my study notes completed midday Sunday which left me the rest of the day to cram for English, not much revising was done but I did go through some past papers and look at exam questions to see what I was coming up against in the exam. I also worked off the AN Biology topic tests in my break between the two exams... absolute lifesaver it is, 100% go and get the AN notes and tests for all subjects so worth it. I completed the exam in a weird way, starting with the back of the exam, the 7 and 8 markers then going back to the beginning and working through normally. Overall I was happy with my Biology Exam

5th April:
Exam 3: Mathematics General
Exam Consisted of FSHe1,2,3- Mathematics and health, DS4- Interpreting sets of data, DS5- The normal distribution, DS6 – Sampling and Population, MM5- Applications of trigonometry.
I sat about 4 exams under exam conditions in preparation for this task and I used the AtarNotes General Mathematics Topic Tests as well. This General Math exam was one of the hardest ones I've completed... well, it wasn't hard, I could do everything fine I just don't usually take as much time as I did, I worked nearly all the way up to the end of the exam. There was one question where my calculation was constantly -0.10 off the required answer and I couldn't figure out why so I can't wait to get the exam back to figure out wtf happened -.- But overall I was pretty confident in this exam.

10th April
Exam 4: Studies of Religion I
The exam consisted of Christianity depth study - Baptism extended response and Religion in Australia Post 1945
Census Data. Census Data. CENSUS DATA. I spent a lot of time memorising my Census Data and it came in handy, a significant amount of the short answer responses required information from census data to complete so thank you Elyse for drilling that into my head lol. I completed this exam in the order of the paper, multiple choice, short answer and extended response. I'm quite confident in my multiple choice, my short answer responses are debatable and I felt as though my extended response lacked structure and clarity. The results will tell I guess. I don't feel very confident in this exam. My lack of effective study is to blame here.

Exam 5: PDHPE
The exam consisted of Option - Sports Medicine and Health Priorities in Australia
I completed my study notes for PDHPE before the exam block started so I only had to revise the content in the lead up to the exam. I feel as though I did fairly well, there was a couple of multiple choice questions I guessed and a few short answers I had a little trouble with but other than that I think I did really well.

11th April:
Exam 6: Business Studies
The exam consisted of Operations and Finance
Business was the exam I felt most underprepared for. I was stressing a lot and I found the night before that I hadn't even written notes for the whole of Operations strategies. It was too late to learn it so I just memorised the headings in the syllabus and hoped it wasnt tested. Which it wasn't for the most part. Phew. I was able to work my way around the questions I wasn't really clear and at least got something relavent down on paper so hopefully I'll get pity marks - if they're a thing. For the business report I ended up writing 6 pages worth, I'm hoping I didn't bore my teacher and that most the stuff in there was relevant. For the amount of pressure I placed on myself for this exam I think I did relativley okay.

In its entirety I think I learnt what does and doesnt work in my exam routine and what I need to do in the lead up to exams in the future. I think that I need to work a lot harder on my notes during the term rather than in the week leading up to the exam and I'll be a lot less stressed. Oh! and throughout all of this I didn't even cry! *highfives self* I'm proud of me

Anywho, School starts up again... *Checks time* *12.33am* Today. So I better get resting before I fall asleep in class tomorrow

Breakdown Count: Still 20

HSCya Later,
Britt 

[BrittyG]

Today was the first day back for term2 and I got some really harsh marks from my half yearly exams which I am not too happy with.

Firstly PDHPE; overall I got 40/60 so roughly 65%. I made some silly mistakes in my multiple choice which dropped me a few easy marks but I feel that in my Option section of sports medicine deserved more marks. For the 8 marker on aged athletes and their sports participation options, I got 3/8. I clearly referenced the points of bone densisty/fractures and heart conditions and their sport participation options (I couldn't remember flexibility/joint mobility on the day) so considering I gave two syllabus dot points and examples I feel like there should have been more marks awarded. In section 2 I was required to explain how physical preperation prevented injuries. Included Skill and Technique, pre-screening and physical fitness in my answer (forgetting warm up, cool down and stretching on the day) and ended up getting 5/12. My teacher also put a large bracket over my physical fitness section with the words "THIS IS NOT RELEVANT TO SPORTS MEDICINE" on the margin. Last time I checked it was in the rubric. When we start going through it I'm going to bring it up to the teacher and see if I can get it marked again because it was really harsh for what I produced.

Later on I got my English exam marks back, quick overview; Short answer 8/15 - timing issues and lack of understanding of text, Creative writing 10/15 - I honestly think that what I produced in the exam was worth more than 10 marks, all of the feedback the marking teacher gave in the debrief I did in my piece and she didn't write much in the comments section of my results so I'm unsure what more she wanted. Module A: DV/RLR 9/15 - I'm happy with this mark, I was unprepared for the section and for a two-hour job to get 9/15 is pretty good.

I think I'm going to post my creative writing piece for marking on AtarNotes with the markers feedback and see what others think. Pointers on what I can improve on would be very helpful at this stage as my teachers are pretty hopeless at feedback.

Although I wasn't happy with my results... I didn't cry! HSC builds resilience! That's one thing I can come away with I guess.

Breakdown count: 20

HSCya Later,
Britt 

[BrittyG]

Today I received my General Math exam back and I'm extremely happy with my result. I ranked = 1^st in the task with 88.75%. The mistakes I made were reading errors and not completing the questions (doing half and moving on). These are an easy fix though.
I also received my biology marks (66%), My results I'm mostly happy with, I would have liked to have done better but It is what it is. I plan to redo each question of the exam looking at the marking criteria to see if I could write a full mark response for each question then hand in the exam to my teacher again with my revised answers for re-marking. I think that'll help with getting to know the content and also exam structuring technique.
I appealed my marks on the PDHPE sports medicine section and the teacher who marked that section is reviewing it, I'm not sure if she'll award me the marks or if she'll just dismiss me because I'm annoying for scabbing marks... she scares me.
I'm now awaiting on Business and SORI

[BrittyG]

Big day for students across NSW today. HSC timetables have been released and everything is starting to become very real. This is what my timetable looks like;
Week 1: English Paper 1 & 2
Week 2: Biology, General Math
Week 3: PDHPE, Business Studies
Week 4: SOR I

I'm happy with my timetable as my exams are fairly evenly spread across the four weeks and its close to the same spacing that I have/will come across in my prelim, half yearly and trial (CSSA) exam blocks. I feel that now I have got my timetable I am a lot less stressed than I was before, I think this is because I now have dates that I'm aiming for and can work towards and plan around.
Putting it in perspective I have approx. 5 and a bit months until the HSC, I have around 4.5 months until I graduate and in that time I have two weeks holidays so 4 months. For most subjects I will have 1 more assessment and trials to improve my rankings, post trials there is 2 months to work on the gaps in my knowledge. I'm waiting until pre-trials to do past HSC exam papers so I don't use all the questions beforehand, I'll do a few here and there but nothing major.
Wowza's it's all becoming so real now... It's a little daunting but I'm up for the challenge

Breakdown Count: 20 still

HSCya Later,
Britt

[jamonwindeyer]

Week 1: English Paper 1 & 2
Week 2: Biology, General Math
Week 3: PDHPE, Business Studies
Week 4: SOR I

I'm happy with my timetable as my exams are fairly evenly spread across the four weeks and its close to the same spacing that I have/will come across in my prelim, half yearly and trial (CSSA) exam blocks. I feel that now I have got my timetable I am a lot less stressed than I was before, I think this is because I now have dates that I'm aiming for and can work towards and plan around.

That's probably one of the nicest timetables I've seen, score!! Really glad to hear you are a little less stressed

Keep chilled - 5 months is a long time, just keep working at a healthy pace and you'll be amazed how far you can go in half a year

[BrittyG]

That's probably one of the nicest timetables I've seen, score!!

Keep chilled - 5 months is a long time, just keep working at a healthy pace

I am very lucky with the time table I’ve got I realised. One of my friends starts on October 18th and is done by the 25th!!
I can agree, 5 months is a long time. I’m going to make a schedule over the next couple of weeks including goals of what I want to achieve in each subject before the next task so I can work on improving my knowledge of the content. Hopefully that’ll re organise my brain and stop it from getting overwhelmed.

Thanks for reading and replying Jamon!!

[BrittyG]

I only just realised I forgot to include that I received my general math marks back in my last couple of posts!! I am so excited! I placed =1st with 71/80 for the task!! I couldn’t be anymore happier with myself at the moment.

I now only have SORI and Business Studies to be handed back. I’ll probably get SORI tomorrow and Business Studies early next week. Hopefully my marks surpass what I expect so I can remain this happy

Breakdown count: 20

HSCya Later,
Britt

[BrittyG]

I finally got all of my exams back, for SORI I got 76%, I'm unsure where that places me rank wise as almost my whole year does it but hopefully I'm towards the top. Business studies I got 67% which I don't think was too bad, I know I can improve on it.

Overall, I'm mostly happy with the results I achieved in the half-yearly exams. I know I have time to improve my marks and get my content down pat. Now I just need to keep on top of my homework and notes and work hard on my assignments to improve my rankings.

Breakdown Count: 20

HSCya Later,
Britt

[BrittyG]

Exciting news! I think I found a study method that will work for me!!!! It's called Mum. So basically I come home, write out a to-do list and my Mum constantly comes in and checks on me to make sure I'm on track. I need someone to put pressure on and force me to sit down and focus because I find everything to distract myself with. So, that's the new plan.

Moving on, Assignments have been rolling in, I had my English speaking task on Monday, I flopped it hardcore. I think I'll get a 7/15 because I kept saying um and ah and didn't really have a point. But the way I was marked I got really peeved off about because the task is; you get an unseen question from a bag, have 5 minutes to plan for the question, go into a room and verbally respond to the question while the teacher marks silently. AND MY TEACHER kept asking me questions like a VIVA VOCHE when she's not even allowed to and she completely threw me off. So I produced a crappy response because she kept asking me questions that I obviously didn't prepare for. So if my marks come back terrible I'm going to request to re-sit the exam or something.

Throughout the week I had missed out on all my lunchtimes and recesses because in my SRC roll one of my jobs is to organise special school events, the next event coming up is the biggest of the school year, our founder's day. So I've been focusing a lot on that rather than my studies and I've been stressing out because the teachers I'm working on it with are shutting me down and being difficult. I decided yesterday that I'm going to retract from organising the event so I can focus on my classes because I can't keep losing my classes to do something that won't even last, my HSC is way more important than a founders day.

I got my Semester 1 report, my results are;
English - 66%, =21/66
Biology - 66%, 6/34
Business Studies - 69%, 9/21
PDHPE - 72%, 11/31
General Math - 89%, =8/39
Studies of Religion I - 77%, =30/83

I'm pretty disappointed with most my ranks and all of my exam marks but SORI and PDHPE. You're probably wondering why I'm not happy with general math, that's because I can do better, I can get 100%, I'm just making stupid mistakes in my exams and I want my ranking in math to be 1st or at least 2nd.

I had my parent-teacher interviews on Wednesday as well. The feedback was pretty similar; needs to stop playing sport, needs to learn how to answer exam-style questions, ENG Organise ideas better before composing a response, learning how to respond to a question in general, Improve on analysing questions. So if anyone has any tips for the above that'd be very helpful

Breakdown count: 23

HSCya Later,
Britt 

[BrittyG]

I have a Biology practical exam tomorrow and its worth 30% of my grade!!! I don't know what to expect or how I was meant to study because the teacher told us so little and the notification is really vague ugh

[Lumenoria]

Exciting news! I think I found a study method that will work for me!!!! It's called Mum. So basically I come home, write out a to-do list and my Mum constantly comes in and checks on me to make sure I'm on track. I need someone to put pressure on and force me to sit down and focus because I find everything to distract myself with. So, that's the new plan.

Moving on, Assignments have been rolling in, I had my English speaking task on Monday, I flopped it hardcore. I think I'll get a 7/15 because I kept saying um and ah and didn't really have a point. But the way I was marked I got really peeved off about because the task is; you get an unseen question from a bag, have 5 minutes to plan for the question, go into a room and verbally respond to the question while the teacher marks silently. AND MY TEACHER kept asking me questions like a VIVA VOCHE when she's not even allowed to and she completely threw me off. So I produced a crappy response because she kept asking me questions that I obviously didn't prepare for. So if my marks come back terrible I'm going to request to re-sit the exam or something.

Throughout the week I had missed out on all my lunchtimes and recesses because in my SRC roll one of my jobs is to organise special school events, the next event coming up is the biggest of the school year, our founder's day. So I've been focusing a lot on that rather than my studies and I've been stressing out because the teachers I'm working on it with are shutting me down and being difficult. I decided yesterday that I'm going to retract from organising the event so I can focus on my classes because I can't keep losing my classes to do something that won't even last, my HSC is way more important than a founders day.

I got my Semester 1 report, my results are;
English - 66%, =21/66
Biology - 66%, 6/34
Business Studies - 69%, 9/21
PDHPE - 72%, 11/31
General Math - 89%, =8/39
Studies of Religion I - 77%, =30/83

I'm pretty disappointed with most my ranks and all of my exam marks but SORI and PDHPE. You're probably wondering why I'm not happy with general math, that's because I can do better, I can get 100%, I'm just making stupid mistakes in my exams and I want my ranking in math to be 1st or at least 2nd.

I had my parent-teacher interviews on Wednesday as well. The feedback was pretty similar; needs to stop playing sport, needs to learn how to answer exam-style questions, ENG Organise ideas better before composing a response, learning how to respond to a question in general, Improve on analysing questions. So if anyone has any tips for the above that'd be very helpful

Breakdown count: 23

HSCya Later,
Britt 

Omg that English speaking assessment sounds like an absolute nightmare!! I hope it comes out okay!

[BrittyG]

Yay year 12 life. Last week I went on my year 12 retreat from Wednesday - Friday, which was really good, it was a great time to recoup and like slow down and all that good stuff.
BUTTTTTT
I came back all relaxed and had no motivation to do anything! I had the whole weekend I planned to use on doing my PDHPE assignment and another study. But I procrastinated so hard I ended up finishing this morning at 5.30am. So yes... I am currently in school running on 1.5 hours sleep trying to listen and learn but it's not working so here I am venting.

This brings me to...

THE NEW PLAN: Which I am making up on the spot, sort of, I've been thinking what to do for a while but this is a matter of writing it out and attempting to stick to it.
I need to first of all concentrate and make good use of my class time
Make good use of my study periods
Organise my goals for homework each day
Go to sleep by 11 pm latest
Make good use of weekends, doing at least 6 hours of study each day
Complete a past paper of each subject every fortnight (2 for English)

We'll see how this goes...

Breakdown Count: 24

HSCya later,
Britt