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March 28, 2024, 09:23:09 pm

Author Topic: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future  (Read 32752 times)  Share 

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Mhysa

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2016, 08:36:15 pm »
0
Things I'm glad I am doing in VCE:
- Using ATARNotes.
- Not getting caught up with/obsessing over study score calculations (this year).
- Using to-do lists (rather than study timetables [as was recommended by my school]).
- (Glad I did) two 3/4 subjects last year.
- Using and adding to "feedback compilation" word documents (one per subject) after completing practice essays/practice SACs (and actual SACs).
- Completing subjects I enjoy and find interesting.
- Legal via Distance Ed.

Things I wish I did (last year)/wish I was doing in VCE:
- Didn't obsess over one bad SAC mark and let it throw me off.
- Wish I was managing my stress better.
- Improving on completing SACs/exams within time constraints.

Things I did/am doing, but shouldn't have done/be doing in VCE:
- Not exercising.
- Not getting enough sleep.
- (Last year) underestimated the power of VCAA SAC moderation.
Pls elaborate.
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Elizabeth Blackburn School of Sciences (2015-2016)

heids

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2016, 06:08:51 pm »
+6
Things I'm glad I did during VCE:
- didn't get on AN (just to contradict below lol, think how much time I would've wasted on here ::))
- self-directed learning - forced me to take control of my subjects and learning and figure out right from the start where I was trying to get to, and organise everything from day dot round the study design/final exam requirements
- got enthusiastic about my subjects and learning
- a lot of self-testing, self-teaching, active learning, and making notes in my own words rather than passive reading and swallowing other people's ideas whole without synthesising them

Things I wish I did during VCE:
- got on AN
- 7 subjects, 2 in yr 11, rather than only 5 in year 12
- EL rather than English
- more extracurriculars, leadership, and the social side

Things I did but probably shouldn't have done during VCE:
- let my anxiety and perfectionism about English overtake me to the extent that I couldn't write an essay without breaking down and tended to just do NO work at all (simply stress about it instead)
- procrastinated
- procrastinated more
- and if I didn't say it, procrastinated and was lazy and multi-tasked (that's everyone's eternal curse, or maybe it's just me, tell me the day you find the magic cure)

... and I'm sure we're all keen to see more of other people's answers!
VCE (2014): HHD, Bio, English, T&T, Methods

Uni (2021-24): Bachelor of Nursing @ Monash Clayton

Work: PCA in residential aged care

Glasses

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #17 on: June 10, 2016, 06:16:17 pm »
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Pls elaborate.

Long story short, my 70/100 for GA1 (Unit 3) for Psych, was moderated to (at least) 95/100 (A+) post-exam. - I was rank 2 and my teacher was an insanely hard marker (which in retrospect, was a good thing); but I let this throw me off and stress me out.
2015 - 2016 (VCE): Psychology, Religion & Society, Legal Studies, Business Management, Literature and English
2017 - Present: Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Arts (Criminology & Psychology) @ Monash University

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brenden

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #18 on: June 10, 2016, 06:52:20 pm »
+4
Things I'm glad I did during VCE:
- My best, even when it wasn't good enough.
- Helped as many, many, many people from my school excel as they could
- Joined the ATAR Notes community halfway through and never left <3

Things I wish I did during VCE:
- Maths Methods
- More extracurriculars/things that are fun in life
- Been more social and developed more robust/meaningful relationships

Things I did but probably shouldn't have done during VCE:
- Sacrificed sleep for study
- Studied so unintelligently
- Spent so much time working out how to calculate study scores and everything else that the 'technical' side of VCE involves (more hours than you know).
✌️just do what makes you happy ✌️

Le Cactus

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #19 on: June 10, 2016, 09:17:07 pm »
+5
I am in year 12 this year however I technically did year 12 last year in year 11 as I only had 3/4 subjects (five of them).

Things I'm glad I did:
- Picked biology. I was so indecisive about picking this subject after doing 1/2 in year 10. I tried dropping it twice but I'm so glad that I kept at it because it ended up being my best subject in the end.
- Practise exams. I did so many that I seriously contemplated holding a memorial for all the trees that sacrificed their lives for the 'noble' cause of VCE.
- Mastered the basics of math. Sounds weird but as a math tutor I had to go over topics such as fractions, multiplication of decimals, etc., countless times. This stopped me from making those simple little mistakes that cost marks in exams and SACS.
- Stopped doing things that stressed me out unnecessarily. I quit my school production because the politics of it can get pretty overwhelming and I used the hours and hours that would've been use to teach 50 students with 2 left feet box steps.

Things I wished I did:
- Asked more questions. Don't be like me and worry about annoying teachers by asking too many questions.
- Stressed less. Self explanatory.

Things I did but probably shouldn't have:
- Compared myself to others.
- Obsessed over scores, numbers and percentages. Still working on this.
- Let people psych me out. (As a pretty sensitive person, I struggle with people who try to get into my head to mess with me. Please don't be the person who's tactic for achieving success is to put others down.)

NerdyPi

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #20 on: June 10, 2016, 09:57:39 pm »
0
Long story short, my 70/100 for GA1 (Unit 3) for Psych, was moderated to (at least) 95/100 (A+) post-exam. - I was rank 2 and my teacher was an insanely hard marker (which in retrospect, was a good thing); but I let this throw me off and stress me out.

Thanks so much for posting this, it actually just made me feel so much better about being 1-2 marks below the 2015 A+ cut off for chem and physics  :D

zsteve

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #21 on: June 11, 2016, 08:07:46 pm »
+9
Here's mine :D

Things I'm glad I did:
- Did subjects I loved. Period.
- Did a uni extension subject - this was awesome for a great number of reasons. Loved it all year through, it probably helped me not go insane from the repetitiveness of other VCE subjects.
- Worked hard on Englang, even when hope seemed gone.
- Went to ATARNotes revision lectures (!!!)
- Logged my performance and progress (SAC marks, practice exam performance, etc.) This is important so you can monitor your own progress throughout the year.
- Get really good with the CAS. Despite my disapproval of the CAS being introduced to VCE, it's important to take as much advantage of the computing power of the CAS for methods/spesh. There are a huge number of tricks to increase speed as well as to be able to verify answers quickly.
- Used ATAR Notes (both to ask/answer questions, but also chill/procrastinate when I saw fit haha)
- Helped whoever I could, whenever I could.

Things I wished I did
- Done two uni extension subjects instead of one.
- Not done all my subjects in one year (although this was beyond my control)
- Spent less time with my head in the books, more time with family and friends.

Things I did but probably shouldn't have done
- Stressed/studied so hard for the UMAT. For me at least, the more I studied for the UMAT, the worse I became...
- Allowed things like losing a few marks on a SAC perturb me in a disproportionate manner (i.e. stressed so much about SAC marks)
- Not exercised
- Looked at AN exam discussion boards after each VCE exam (now at uni, I'm learning to simply move on)
- Played the numbers game
~~ rarely checking these forums these days ~~

2015: Specialist [47] | Methods [48] | Chemistry [50] | Physics [48] | English Language [46] | UMEP Mathematics [5.0] | ATAR - 99.95
Premier's Award Recipient 2016: Top All-Round VCE High Achiever
2016-2019: University of Melbourne : Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology), Diploma in Mathematics (Applied)
2019-: University of British Columbia

Swagadaktal

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #22 on: June 11, 2016, 08:30:21 pm »
0
- Looked at AN exam discussion boards after each VCE exam (now at uni, I'm learning to simply move on)

If you don't mind me asking, considering that you did so well in your exams wasn't it reassuring to see that you did well on the exams? Or did you want to get perfect score in all exams?
Fuck you english your eyebrows aren't even good
Why walk when you can stand on the shoulders of giants?

HopefulLawStudent

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #23 on: June 12, 2016, 12:51:14 pm »
+6
I'm still in Year 12 but thought I'd chuck in my 2c anyway.

Things I'm glad I am doing in VCE:
- Using ATARNotes.
- Became a Kwonger (network of high-achieving friends who’ll one day rule the world, probably + freebies = HELL YEAH)
- Literature
- Refused to be one of those uber-competitive kids that won’t even let you come within 2km of their study notes just in case you learn some hidden VCE secret that’ll guarantee you a 99.95 ATAR
- Deleted Facebook
- Chose not to take up a school leadership position (decided my resume didn’t need the added boost and I didn’t need the stress)
- Surrounding myself around supportive people and ditching the haters/frenemies/passive-aggressive “why are you upset and so ungrateful, I would kill for those marks!” people.
- Considering interstate universities
- Chose not to do medicine despite the parental pressure + pressure from extended family.
- Not working

Things I wish I did (last year)/wish I was doing in VCE:
- Wish I did 3 Unit ¾ subjects last year/wished my school had offered it to us in my year
- More extracurriculars

Things I did/am doing, but shouldn't have done/be doing in VCE (but will probably continue to do anyway):
- Not socialising enough
- Stressing too much about stuff I can’t change
- Not sleeping enough
- Writing a million and one essays for English

AngelWings

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #24 on: June 12, 2016, 03:49:25 pm »
+6
Things I'm glad I did during VCE:
- Kept a notepad and pen around me a lot (I have a lot of rogue ideas and forget things very easily.)
- Have/had a great community and social network, including AN.  :-*
- Persisted through VCE (i.e. survived it) What? It's an achievement within itself!
- Keeping tabs on things and reassessing my life every so often
- Did subjects according to what I knew I could do well in and what I wanted to do.
- Chose to do Further in Year 12 rather than in Year 11.

Things I wish I did during VCE:
- Maintained a better health and exercise regime
- Did VCE Biology
- Relaxed a bit more
- Do more extracurricular activities
- Maintained a better sleep pattern
- Be more certain about things

Things I did but probably shouldn't have done during VCE:
- Overthinking/ stressing over everything
- Sacrificing everything for VCE and was too VCE-minded
- Giving up halfway through exams and ended up procrastinating instead
- Not practising exams to time enough
- Caring about what everyone else thought about me and adhering to others' methods, instead of doing things my way.
- Continuing Unit 2 Economics. (It turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise.)
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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Swagadaktal

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #25 on: June 12, 2016, 04:21:33 pm »
+4
Quote
- Keeping tabs on things and reassessing my life every so often
Yoo this is actually the best thing ever. Reassessing life - it's always extremely beneficial to just take a step back and think critically about life (vce and otherwise is there an otherwise?

The process of reflection is where you gain the most out of something.

It's like doing a practice exam vs correcting it - doing it is only half as beneficial as marking it and learning from it afterwards.

You miss out on  a lot by not taking a step back and reflecting.
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chickennugget

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #26 on: June 12, 2016, 07:24:45 pm »
+1
- Chose to do Further in Year 12 rather than in Year 11.
Do you mind elaborating on that please?

tashhhaaa

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #27 on: June 13, 2016, 12:57:13 am »
+7
Things I'm glad I did during VCE:
- Formed really good relationships with my favourite teachers
- Had a leadership position
- Joined AN
- Wasn't affected by people around me who didn't take things seriously
- Spent more time on the subjects I really enjoyed, even though I bombed the English exam
- Did really well in most of my SACs because they saved me in the end
- Cared about my ranking and made sure it was the best as I could make it in all my subjects -- this was incredibly important being from a low-performing school
- Made informed decisions with my VTAC preferences because my personal research was more reliable/correct than the career's counsellor's 

Things I wish I did during VCE:
- Maths Methods
- Study for the UMAT
- Exercise
- HHD in Year 11 (however no one from my cohort did a 3/4 in Year 11/we didn't have the option, and in hindsight that was probably for the best as the cohort before us performed badly...)
- Spread my time more evenly across my subjects
- More essays for English (did about 2 - 3 for the exam lol)
- Memorise my context piece (regretted not doing this as soon as I saw the ID&B prompt) but this is generally regarded as a bad thing... just be more prepared than I was for the exam
- Develop good study habits
- Practise exams, especially with simulated exam conditions
- Studied consistently/revised to prevent forgetting everything by exams like I did
- Receive tutoring

Things I did but probably shouldn't have done during VCE:
- Maths Methods
- UMAT
- Procrastinate (a lot)
- Let things get in the way of my study/didn't give it 110%, and therefore didn't achieve my "full potential"/what was expected of me from myself and others
- Spent a lot of time on ATAR Calc and researching uni courses

AngelWings

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #28 on: June 13, 2016, 05:53:47 pm »
+1
Things I'm glad I did during VCE:
- Chose to do Further in Year 12 rather than in Year 11.
Do you mind elaborating on that please?

Story time!
Alright, just so this makes sense, I'll put down what my VCE course looked like:
AngelWings' VCE subjects
Year 10 1/2s: Psych, General Maths, CSL
Year 11 1/2s; Eng Lang, Chem, Methods, JSL, Economics
Year 11 3/4: only Psych
Year 12: Eng Lang, Chem, Methods, JSL, Further.
So you can see that I gave up two 'advanced' subjects after Year 10 (italicised). Why?
Reasons
1. I sucked at CSL and was starting to hate it. I had only done it out of parental pressure and a few smaller reasons.
2. I had considered a career in commerce in Year 10. In fact, I was fine being your 9-5 office worker and was striving for it. I thought I was very average and boring. That's why I said this later on:
- Caring about what everyone else thought about me and adhering to others' methods, instead of doing things my way.
as one of my biggest regrets.
I decided to do Economics*, because Bus Man wasn't as appealing. I wasn't willing to drop any of my other subjects, so that left no room for Further. I figured I could pick up Further again later on.
3. I didn't really see how I would care about Further. I thought it would end up being a bludge subject. 
4. I just wanted to focus on Psych. Psych had cost me a lot of time in Year 10 and I figured it would project into even more time in Year 11 (as Units 3/4), since it had a lot of content and I'm not the best at those. I was much more interested in Psych and really just wanted to keep it.
5. Further just was a filler. It wasn't important for later studies (I needed Methods and Eng Lang, potentially Chem - I didn't want to limit many options).

In retrospect, I see that I made the right choice. (I ended up caring and enjoying it.) It was:
- the right subject to comfort me whilst my other subjects made me feel overwhelmed.
- a good break from said subjects.
- something that my friends and I did in common. (My friends were/ are humanities-based or very artsy people.)
I had interest in my other subjects, but I had little talent and these were supposedly still my best subjects besides Further, so that was saying something!

I definitely think that if I had chosen to do Further in Year 11, that I would've been very unhappy, not done as well as I could have and I would have no choices in Year 12 that I would've been happy with (only Bio, but I had mixed feelings there **).

* I dropped Economics for Further in Year 12 for several reasons. Nevertheless, I learnt a lot of study techniques and content there, so I don't have any hate.
** I regret not doing VCE Bio because it contained some of the content which they rushed in first-year (e.g. immunology). However, I still think I wouldn't have chosen Bio if I were to do VCE again, since I wouldn't have coped with something too content-heavy alongside my other subjects.


If you still have any questions, feel free to PM me about my experiences.

Reassessing life - it's always extremely beneficial to just take a step back and think critically about life (vce and otherwise is there an otherwise?

The process of reflection is where you gain the most out of something.
It's like doing a practice exam vs correcting it - doing it is only half as beneficial as marking it and learning from it afterwards.
You miss out on a lot by not taking a step back and reflecting.

Well said. Reflection is often forgotten in this cut-throat world we live in. It's the step that people don't take to see where their mistakes lie and what they need to do to initiate change. It's sometimes hard to because we get so caught up in our own little bubbles that we forget our place in the grand scheme of life. That's when we really need to reflect and pick ourselves up again.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2016, 09:00:13 pm by AngelWings »
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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clarke54321

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Re: 'Doing VCE' - the good, the bad, and the future
« Reply #29 on: June 13, 2016, 09:23:55 pm »
+7
I'm still in year 11 but thought I'd join in  :)

Things I'm glad about doing during VCE:
-Completing lots of practice essays and questions to give to teachers
-Asking questions on AN
-Using goals to keep me motivated
-Helping others out when I can
-Doing 2 3/4 subjects
-Getting tutors to maximise my potential
-Learning not to listen to toxic teachers (ie. those ones who are obsessed with marks  :-\)

Things I wish I was doing during VCE:
-Being CALM
-Not letting sac scores affect me too much
-Asking more questions in class
-Not thinking too much about my final study scores

Things I'm doing but probably shouldn't be doing during VCE:
-Spending a lot of time on AN
-Putting study before a lot of social events
-Day-dreaming too much about my dream career (lawyer  :D)
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