Thoughts of life

[jborn007]

messi is better

[jborn007]

Term 3 Week
English
Whilst continuing on writing essays and practicing for the upcoming comparative analysis assessment, we also had an "assessment" on Language analysis. It  won't go on our reports and it was just to see where we are at and to let teachers know what to focus on more for the end-of-year exam. I can't exactly remember the topic of the article but the article was apparently in a VCAA English 3/4 End-Of-Year Exam.

Maths
We finished circular functions and about to move on to Logs. I'll see how it will turn out...

Science
We focused on ionic bonds and covalent bonds, and how to balance chemical equations, and talked about the pH Scale. We also did a prac on a magnesium oxide creation and testing different products on the pH Scale, which we wrote prac reports for both experiments.

History
Nothing new here. We continued working on our oral presentations and that's pretty much it...

Accounting
Our teacher gave out a worksheet on both the theory and prac on depreciation, accrual and prepaid expenses. The theory questions were alright but my god the prac was difficult. Pretty much the whole class had trouble answering the prac questions. Later on, the teacher said that the difficulty of those prac questions were equivalent to Accounting 3/4 which he thought it will challenge us and extend our knowledge for next year.

Chinese
We did an outcome on listening-comprehension, but everyone in our class was surprised that there was also an essay question (write a speech to your peers on why they should be an exchange student in China next year) in the test. We then realised that we already wrote an essay on a similar topic, so I wasn't too stressed.

Other thoughts
It is already September, and in less than 2 months time we have not only exams but also will be doing a commencement program for next year's subjects. I honestly thought this year has gone by so quick and I'm becoming more nervous (even scared tbh) as Year 11 comes closer and closer

[jborn007]

Nothing special happened in Week 8 so I'll move on to Week 9 & 10

English
After completing the Comparative Essay outcome, our teacher has put huge emphasis on Language Analysis, which is going alright so far. Moreover our teacher not only taught us how to structure an Language Analysis Essay but also how many different ways and areas we can go about when analysing a random article eg. through the pictures, the headings etc.

Maths
Most of us struggled on the application questions of the logarithms and exponentials, particularly bacteria growth, half-life etc. Thank god we moved from this topic and we are currently at circular functions for trig.

Science
We finished all of the chem content, and currently working on our EPI. For my EPI, I'm investigating surface areas through different-sized marble chips & Hydrochloric Acid.

History
All of us presented our oral presentations on a historical event, and our class also finished learning all of the year's content. We are just revising the Rwandan Genocide, and we even watched "Hotel Rwanda".

Accounting
Done with the Cash Flow Statement, and finished learning all of the year's content. We are currently on revision mode for the end-of-year exam.

Chinese
We put huge emphasis on the different styles and formats of writing which could come up in the end-of-year exam and for 3/4. Tbh, I'm starting to feel the workload piling up for chinese which our teacher recommended working on our general conversation for next year's oral exam.

Other thoughts
It is finally the holidays!!!!!!  I definitely needed it to rest and recover for Term 4. After a couple days, I may do some revision for my end-of-year exams, which will start in a month. Btw, happy moon festival!!! 

[jborn007]

Term 3 Holidays Week 1
Already the first week of holidays is gone, and I honestly can't believe it flashed by so quickly. This week has been somewhat productive, which I did questions from the Methods Textbook and gone through some Chinese texts and essays. Overall, I mainly relaxed throughout the week, and I'm determined to become more serious at my work in the final week of holidays (hopefully).
I also received my History Oral Presentation Results, which I surprisingly did really well. I was particularly surprised on how I got full marks for the presentation & research section, which I pretty much read from my cue cards throughout my presentation. It required strong delivery, but I guess my teacher thought I delivered it pretty well after all.
Aside from that, it is nearly mid-spring and the weather is getting warmer and warmer, and tbh I prefer spring and summer a lot more than autumn and winter.
I wish you all the best in studying these holidays and also hope you'll have a good break. Good luck everyone!

(Btw I stumbled upon this quote on the internet and I found it somewhat interesting: "Listen to silence. It has so much to say." Rumi)

[jborn007]

Term 3 Holidays Week 2
This week has definitely been a lot more productive than last week, which I smashed out some accounting and maths revision. I did some revision for chinese, but I put huge emphasis on accounting which I felt I needed a firm grasp and foundation for not only the end-of-year exam but also for 3/4 next year.
I barely touched on any of my other subjects in these holidays. However I'm not too worried about it since I have 2 weeks before my exams starts, and the fact that most of my classes are already on revision mode which I'm sure it will help me.
Apart from catching up with my friends during the holidays, I also visited my former piano teacher which we had a nice chat and talked about what has been happening with our lives. It had been nearly a year since I saw her, and I was really happy to see her again. She encouraged and has been a huge influence in my piano studies, and she also gave me an insight to classical music. To this day, I still enjoy listening to classical music, particularly Moonlight Sonata, Chopin Preludes, La Campanella etc. even though they are really popular and well-known throughout the world.
Tbh, I also had moments of  thinking about how I will perform in Year 11 and Year 12, which I'm contemplating more and more as time goes on. But still, I think that as long as I try my absolute best and have no regrets in my 3/4s, I'll be proud and happy at the end of the day.
Good Luck to everyone in Term 4, and hopefully everyone is refreshed and invigorated for Term 4. Also, good luck to all people that will be undertaking a 3/4 end-of-year exam and hopefully you will perform great! 

[jborn007]

Ah yes. La Campanella. Music to my ears and painful torture to my hands.
Lol jokes jokes, absolutely love that piece.
Can't tell you how excited I was to find another classical music nerd on AN.

Love your approach and attitude to year 11 and 12. Think I need a bit of that 
Good luck for your end of year exams!

Thank you so much! I absolutely love La Campanella too, but I think the 4th and 5th finger trilling passage is particularly challenging. I honestly can't understand how pianists like Yundi Li even manage to successfully play through that passage (lol I tried it myself once and I absolutely failed at it). Nevertheless, good luck with your exams too 

[jborn007]

Term 4 Week 1
One week has already flied by, and my week of exams start in less than 2 weeks, supposedly.
I was pretty shocked that my chinese oral exam is in 5 DAYS!!! 
Not a single person in my chinese class knew about this, and we are not too happy about it. I guess complaining won't change anything, and the fact that the date is non-negotiable means I have to memorise and become fluent with my responses in a short period of time.
In the locker bay, I had a conversation with one of my friends at school about our holidays, and he talked about how he studied really hard for his upcoming Further 3/4 Exam and hopefully try to obtain a 40+ study score. The fact that he is also in Year 10 made me think that more and more people are taking studying really seriously now and the competition is going to be more and more intense.
On top of that, I also had a huge wake-up call for Year 11 and my future 3/4s, I truly realised that being consistent and working hard at all times really plays a huge role in one's success in VCE, and how quick time goes in senior school.
I should not slack off and procrastinate anymore which instead puts more pressure on myself and makes me easily stressed out.
Because of that, I'm setting myself a target to memorise a couple of essays and read as much texts for chinese every week.
Apart from that, I'm also planning to put more emphasis and concentrate more on English which I believe it indeed is one of the most important subjects.
Overall, this whole week was pretty much a week dedicated to exam revision, and hopefully things go smoothly  🙏

[jborn007]

17/10
My Chinese oral exam that took place today wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Most of the questions the examiner asked me were the ones that I’ve prepared, but it’s just the last one, which I kinda stuffed up and did not prepare for it beforehand.
(The funny thing is that the last question was technically the easiest of all of the questions which was basically to describe a plan for travelling in China. Some of my sentences grammatically did not make sense which I was kinda nervous thoughout the exam, but I learnt the lesson to prepare for all kinds of questions beforehand no matter how easy it is.)
Over the course of preparing for my oral exam, I first found it particularly hard to remember and memorise my prepared responses, even the concepts themselves, not including adjectives, adverbs, idioms etc. I tried various methods and most of them didn’t work for me which was disappointing at first.
However, around 10:45 last night yep I was up really late last night desperately trying to find a way to remember the info, I literally went on YouTube and tried to find out more ways to memorise efficiently, and thank god I found it (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FyehamdlV3w).
It pretty much talked about the mind palace technique, as a memorising technique. Along with creating mind maps for each of my prepared responses, I found that it worked well, and efficiently for me, and I thought it was good practice for Year 12 too. Moreover, I also realised to definitely undergo a practice oral exam no matter how confident you feel beforehand which played a significant role of knowing what words and sentences of my prepared responses I’m still not fluent with.
I’m glad this exam is over, and I now have more time to concentrate on other subjects, although I’ll still study Chinese in a daily basis to keep my mind fresh and have a firm foundation.

[jborn007]

Term 4 Week 3
5 of my exams are completed, and I'm glad I got them out of the way.
However, over the course of sitting my exams, I found that there were areas for improvement.
1. Stamina, stamina , stamina. I think this, for me, was a huge problem when it comes to sitting exams. I often feel burned out during the last 10 to 15 minutes of the exam. In terms of English, I thought knowing how to write a full language analysis essay and comparative essay is simply not enough and it is crucial to have sat a full-length practice exam at home. I also found out that my 1/2 English (and for 3/4) exam more than 3 HOURS LONG I don't think I've ever sat on a chair for that long before. Additionally, I rushed through some of my exams, and finished them at the very last seconds, and did not check at all, Even though I had a plan on how to specifically manage my time for each of the sections, I found that I went too slow for some of the sections due to the inadequate practice exams I did 
2. Revision. I feel kind of ashamed by saying this, but I should have revised and studied more for my exams. I feel like I could have improved my marks by 5 to 10% if I had revised and studied more. In terms of accounting, even though I did finish and checked my answers for my exam, I should have focused more on the exact definitions of the key terms. Moreover, I kind of made up, and simply used everyday common-sense for 2 to 3 of my responses which if I have revised and studied more, I could have known the exact answers for those questions 
Overall, I'm glad that I identified and found out my weaknesses, and areas of improvement which I think the Year 10 and 1/2 exams are great practice for Year 12.

[jborn007]

31/10
Today I finished my Tech-active math exam, which is my last exam for Year 10.
My bound reference was filled with past test papers, and practice exams, which I thought it was helpful especially for checking over my answers and for clarification purposes.
I guess the time I spent putting together my bound reference was worth it after all (it saved my ass for matrices and transformations), and I thought it also was a great way to revise.
In the future, I plan to work on my bound references daily, but not too long, rather than doing it all at the last minute which that way I think it will be more efficient.
Despite this, there was a point where I misunderstood a circular function question which I thought the cos function was a sine function. I not only had to re-do 6 questions again in my extended-response, but I wasted 5 to 6 minutes in the exam and it was a time-waster.
I found that I'm shit in drawing and plotting graphs (there goes my art skills), and I think I spent too much time sketching graphs.
On a positive note, I confidently answered the "Modelling growth and decay using recursion" section in the math exam which a good portion of marks came from that topic.
On Monday, I also had my history exam. I'm actually surprised to say this, but I finished my exam 30 minutes earlier, earlier than anyone else in the exam room. I adequately filled and used up the exam booklet, and checked my responses afterwards, but there was still 20 minutes left in the clock. Lol I literally slept in the remaining 20 minutes since we're not allowed to leave the exam room until writing time has fully finished. I'm honestly not sure if this is a good thing or not, and I still the "not-written-enough" thought at the back of my head.
On the other hand, I have a one-week "break" from school, and I plan to use these holidays to relax but I'll still do some "revision" for the content I learnt this year, particularly for the subjects I'll continue to undertake in the future and in 3/4 level.
Once again, good luck to everyone for their upcoming exams, and I hope you will all perform well 

[Bri MT]

For drawing graphs I've found that it's useful to get a bendy ruler, and that you improve a lot through practice.

Good luck with your exam results & remember that they aren't too important, really

[jborn007]

For drawing graphs I've found that it's useful to get a bendy ruler, and that you improve a lot through practice.

Good luck with your exam results & remember that they aren't too important, really

Thanks! I'll definitely implement and use your advice in the future

[jborn007]

17/11/18
To be brutally honest, I feel shit, really shit, particularly towards languages.
Our class did a practice exam, to get a feeling of what it's like to sit a 3/4 languages exam, and I felt I did incredibly shit, mainly due to running out of time. I felt like I spent too long for the reading comprehension section.
I couldn't even understand what the person was saying, in the listening part, which mainly composed of idioms I've never heard before, and I couldn't even find them in my dictionary. To make things worse, not only the translation section was long, and also composed of a variety of idioms, but I only had 15 minutes left to write my essay, which I basically bullshitted my way through.
Some of my ideas didn't even make any sense at all, and of course I didn't finish the exam.
The "mock" exam was for both SL and SLA students which can explain why the exam has lots of idioms and "sophisticated" vocabulary. I honestly don't understand why my school's SL textbooks and outcomes are extremely similar to the SLA ones (there were only two words different in a comprehension and translation outcome, between SL and SLA), and I really hope things get better next year.
At home, I found it challenging to remember and memorise essays as they pile up each and each of the days, and I always found myself in a situation where I would remember the essay that I studied most recently, but forgotten about the ones that I studied earlier.
I'm pissed off about this, and the fact that these two things happened today, really makes me feel like giving up on chinese once and for all, and make me feel really anxious and worried about it.
Besides this, I received my other exam results, and I performed really really bad for my math exam, in fact some of the lowest results I achieved during the whole year, and the lowest in my class. Even though I performed better in the Tech-free exam than the Tech-active exam, and I take full responsibility for my poor math exam results, and I should taking studying for math and for my other subjects a lot more seriously, which is definitely a valuable lesson to learn from, especially for VCE.
In a positive note, I did a lot better than I thought I would in my accounting exam. I thought I'll score in the range of the 80s at the most, but I ended up scoring in the 90s, which definitely gave me a surprise. What made it more surprising is that I only lost 3 marks in my theory responses, and i mostly lost them in the practical section.
On the side note, I'll be in Year 11 in 2 days due to my school having a 4 week commencement program, and I hope I'll make a smooth transition and start from Year 10 to Year 11 

[jborn007]

12/12/18
Wow it's been a while since I've updated.
I've got my subjects that I'm doing for the 2019 Academic Year which are the following:
-English 1/2
-Methods 1/2
-Spesh 1/2
-Chem 1/2
-Physics 1/2
-Accounting 3/4
-Chinese 3/4
The past 3 and a half weeks of Year 11 Commencement, has been a lot more demanding than I expected especially spesh and chem.
I was not expecting spesh to be covering a lot of content of geometry, particularly proving circle theorms. In all honesty, I feel like spesh is 10x harder than methods, and more content-heavy in general.
For chem, we went through the first 4 chapters already in 3 and a half-weeks, and it was pretty demanding which there was a lot more memorising than I expected.
On the other hand, I'm really happy that I'm able to get the teacher that I wanted for Accounting. She's not only the head of accounting for my school but she is really nice and a VCAA Assessor which I think it will be beneficial for the new study design that will be implemented from 2019. She told us what were the changes between the old and new study design, particularly the implementation of ethical consideration.
I find that teachers are more "serious" in 3/4 than 1/2, which there isn't much room for joking around and having a laugh. My accounting teacher got us a Unit 3 Checklist and a display folder, to keep us organised throughout the year, and consistently gives us notes and theory responses to the sheet. I also find that teachers prioritise their 3/4 kids, and constantly checked our work and made sure we understood all of the material.
That's pretty much what has happened throughout the 3 and the half weeks, and hopefully my subjects, particularly my current 3/4s, go well in the future.
Also, good luck to everyone that is receiving their ATARs, and their 3/4 results, hopefully you achieve your desired scores 

[ssillyssnakes]

12/12/18
Wow it's been a while since I've updated.
I've got my subjects that I'm doing for the 2019 Academic Year which are the following:
-English 1/2
-Methods 1/2
-Spesh 1/2
-Chem 1/2
-Physics 1/2
-Accounting 3/4
-Chinese 3/4
The past 3 and a half weeks of Year 11 Commencement, has been a lot more demanding than I expected especially spesh and chem.
I was not expecting spesh to be covering a lot of content of geometry, particularly proving circle theorms. In all honesty, I feel like spesh is 10x harder than methods, and more content-heavy in general.
For chem, we went through the first 4 chapters already in 3 and a half-weeks, and it was pretty demanding which there was a lot more memorising than I expected.
On the other hand, I'm really happy that I'm able to get the teacher that I wanted for Accounting. She's not only the head of accounting for my school but she is really nice and a VCAA Assessor which I think it will be beneficial for the new study that is implemented from 2019. She told us what were the changes between the old and new study design, particularly the implementation of ethical consideration.
I find that teachers are more "serious" in 3/4 than 1/2, which there isn't much room for joking around and having a laugh. My accounting teacher got us a Unit 3 Checklist and a display folder, to keep us organised throughout the year, and consistently gives us notes and theory responses to the sheet. I also find that teachers prioritise their 3/4 kids, and constantly checked our work and made sure we understood all of the material.
That's pretty much what has happened throughout the 3 and the half weeks, and hopefully my subjects, particularly my current 3/4s, go well in the future.
Also, good luck to everyone that is receiving their ATARs, and their 3/4 results, hopefully you achieve your desired scores 

Wow you have so many subjects... My school only lets us take 5 and it was probably the hardest decision of my life trying to narrow them down (maybe a slight exaggeration but whatever)

I know what you mean by the workload and 'seriousness' of the 3/4 subjects though, it goes from teachers having a perhaps mild interest in your marks and areas of weakness and general behavior in class to "THIS IS YEAR 12 LIFE OR DEATH. HERE IS THE STUDY DESIGN, READ IT IN YOUR SLEEP, IT WILL YOUR HOLY DOCUMENT". Kinda jarring.