My HSC Journal

[Hannahco]

Hey everyone

My name is Hannah and I am currently undertaking potentially my most stressful and exciting year yet, the HSC *queue scary music*. So a bit about me, I am the school vice captain, prefect, part of the chapel leadership team and captain of my sport house and am involved in pretty much everything performing arts related and I play in every sports team we have. I'm kind of excited but really nervous as my school is insanely competitive and I'm scared I'm just going to fall behind or apart before the HSC even happens. I think I'm doing pretty well so far but I can definitley improve. I'm not sure where I'm ranked either - I'm also so confused and scared about the whole ranking system cause I feel as though I could never be number 1. These are the subjects I'm currently taking and the marks I recieved for my first assessment:
- Advanced English (90%)
- SOR2 (100%)
- Music 1 (90%)
- PDHPE (98.3%)
- Geography (doing our first task on Tuesday)
- General Maths (85%)
Doing 12 units is pretty intense and I don't think I could keep it up for the rest of the year and still keeps my marks up so I want to drop down to 10 units but I'm not sure what to drop - its out of Geography or General Maths. I was wondering if someone could help me decide what I should drop because I know Geography scales better then General Maths however I know for a face I could never be rank 1 in Geography, I am near the lower end of the class. In Maths I probably sit at the middle to high end of the spectrum but yeah I'm just not sure.

So that's my first entry! Thanks for reading and yeah see you when I see you!

Hannah 

[Joseph41]

Hey Hannah!

Awesome to have you here. Sounds like you'll be pretty busy this year with all of those extracurricular involvements haha.

Those are really great marks! Re: Geo or General, I honestly wouldn't worry too much about scaling and stuff like that. Which subject do you enjoy most? Do you need either as a pre-requisite for what you want to do after Year 12?

Looking forward to your updates!

[beatroot]

Hey Hannah! Welcome to the forums and welcome to the HSC journey journal board

Congrats on getting vice captain, prefect, chapel leadership team and captain for your sports house! Out of the four leadership positions, which one do you like the most and why? Absolutely extraordinary honestly :O Also congrats on your amazing marks!! Internal ranks are important but your performance in your external exams are what will really contribute the most to your HSC marks and ATAR. I think the best person to contact regarding geography and general maths is @potatohater. They did both subjects during their HSC and would definitely give you insights into both subjects

Good luck for the rest of the year!

[Opengangs]

Hey, Hannahco.

Welcome to the wonderful community of ATARNotes; make yourself at home! We're all here to support you as you endeavour through the HSC, whether it is just for support or requiring someone to look over your work every once in a while, and to make your HSC life a whole lot easier. Good luck with the rest of your year, and I'm sure you'll smash it! 

Those are some great achievements and academic performance; there's no doubt you'll rank first in SOR2 (have faithhh) if you finished with 100%. Keep this work ethic up through the busiest year in high school, and you'll come out on top.

In regards to you dropping a subject, don't worry about the scaling factor. It changes every year based on how strong your cohort is, and while there are some trends, these are not 100% accurate. I suggest keeping both for now and seeing how you go in terms of you liking the subject and whether or not it's directly affecting your other subjects. Whatever subject you drop, be satisfied that it's the right choice!

Once again, good luck with everything that is to come!

[fantasticbeasts3]

hi, hannah!

to start off, welcome to AN! i hope this community will be a great place for you throughout your HSC year (and beyond!). also, congrats on your amazing marks in your first set of assessments! that's really awesome to hear; keep up the great work :-) year 12 is a great year - don't be too stressed about everything, just do your best and it'll be all good. :-)

as for dropping subjects, the advice above is great. at the end of the day, you're more likely to do better in something you like, compared to something you don't like.

best of luck for the rest of the year!

[Potatohater]

Heyo!! I'm the aforementioned Potatohater and hearing that you do geography and general maths makes me super excited!!! UNTIL I heard you might be dropping one 
The above advice is spot on, don't worry about ranks and scaling just yet, it's early days, so drop what you dislike the most. You're 100% garunteed to do subjects you enjoy cause you can put passion into your work.

Personally I LOVE geography and would highly reccomend keeping it! It is harder than general maths in my opinion but it's also highly interesting and more engaging. Plus there's heaps of fun ways to study for it, where as maths is mostly practice questions. I'll be moderating the Geo board so I can help you as much as I can and help you climb the ranking ladder. Plus, you havnt done your 1st assesment task yet so who's to say you won't smash it? I was stressing about not being 1st in geo after my 1st assesment and thought it was all over for me, but that totally changed through out the year and I ended up getting first so anything is possible!!

That's not to say that genral is bad, I also really enjoyed general. It's easy and mostly straight forward and the answers are a little more objective than geography. So ultimately it comes down to which one you find the most passion in. (Or you could keep both and drop something else  )

Ultimately, don't rush the descision, take your time and make sure there's no regrets. I also had lots of extra cirriculars and was doing 12 units up until June, because I didn't want to make the wrong descision, and even with only a term of free periods I greatly improved in everything. Not saying leave it until June too, just letting you know it's ok to take your time with these big descisions.

I wish you the best of luck and look forward to future updates 

[katie,rinos]

Hey Hannah,

Welcome to AN!! Congrats on those amazing marks and all of your leadership opportunities! Sounds like a really busy year! What instrument do you play for music (or do you sing)? Are you doing performances, vivas or compositions?

With dropping, I wouldn't worry too much about scaling or ranks but more which subject you would prefer to study and put the effort in and find interesting.

Good luck for the rest of year 12! Looking forward to your future updates! 

[Lumenoria]

Holy shit girl, your marks are impeccable! I agree with the advice given above though, trust me I learn it the hard way zx

[Hannahco]

Wow everyone is so nice! Hahaha sorry I haven't replied until now, I'm going to be honest I wasn't 100% sure on how to reply as I am totally new to all of this! 

Also --is there a way to reply to people's replies individually??

Thanks team for the support, it really means a lot xxxx

[fantasticbeasts3]

Wow everyone is so nice! Hahaha sorry I haven't replied until now, I'm going to be honest I wasn't 100% sure on how to reply as I am totally new to all of this! 

Also --is there a way to reply to people's replies individually??

Thanks team for the support, it really means a lot xxxx

all the love from the AN community! <3 the site does take a while to get used to, but you'll be posting like crazy soon enough. :-)

for replying to people individually, you can do it by quoting posts, like what i've done here. if multiple people have replied, you can put multiple quotes and your reply in the same post. :-)

everyone here on AN is here to support you at any time, all the best :-)

[Hannahco]

all the love from the AN community! <3 the site does take a while to get used to, but you'll be posting like crazy soon enough. :-)

for replying to people individually, you can do it by quoting posts, like what i've done here. if multiple people have replied, you can put multiple quotes and your reply in the same post. :-)

everyone here on AN is here to support you at any time, all the best :-)

Thankyou so much!!! You are my first quote reply thing hahahha. Man I feel so silly being so fresh to this

Hey Hannah!

Awesome to have you here. Sounds like you'll be pretty busy this year with all of those extracurricular involvements haha.

Those are really great marks! Re: Geo or General, I honestly wouldn't worry too much about scaling and stuff like that. Which subject do you enjoy most? Do you need either as a pre-requisite for what you want to do after Year 12?

Looking forward to your updates!

Thanks so much! It's weird because I don't feel on top of everything work wise which isn't really reflected in my marks at the moment .. ahhaha.

I like both Geography and Genny Maths for different reasons and I genuinely couldn't pick either. Because sometimes I love them but other times I would rather be doing anything else but going to that class

Mod edit: post merge. when you reply to people via quoting, you can do it in the one post! just click "quote" on the next thing you want to quote, and write your message under it. :-)

[Hannahco]

Hey everyone

So, I've been back at school for a few weeks now and I honestly have lost all motivation which terrifies me. On the bright side, I have selected my Music performance pieces which may change but I'm excited to give them a good crack  I also got my Geography marks back and I got 80% but not sure where I sit in the class.

I just came back from Band Camp (yup it's an actual thing) and some of us went to watch Encore yesterday which was pretty inspiring and terrfiying at the same time!

People at school are getting a bit more competitive and all the girls are just trying to find new reasons to hate you but I mean hey whats new! Music is probably where you can actually see people getting competitive, it's really bad but I try to just rise above it and not worry about it. Gotta love high school

Excited and nervous for the upcoming assessment - it's still crazy to me that I'm in year 12, my final year of high school ever!

If you have any tips and tricks on making my studying memorable or ways to combat silly teenagers I am all ears!!

Thanks guys! You're awesome 

Hannah

[jamonwindeyer]

So, I've been back at school for a few weeks now and I honestly have lost all motivation which terrifies me. On the bright side, I have selected my Music performance pieces which may change but I'm excited to give them a good crack  I also got my Geography marks back and I got 80% but not sure where I sit in the class.
I just came back from Band Camp (yup it's an actual thing) and some of us went to watch Encore yesterday which was pretty inspiring and terrfiying at the same time!

So cool!! What are your pieces? And omg how incredible are the Encore performers!?!? I went twice, so inspiring to see them in action. I remember one performer looked so nervous, it affected their technical fluency a tad, but if anything it hit me even more, like: "Holy crap, these aren't pros, these are students who worked their butt off." I found it really motivating to look at it in that way

If you have any tips and tricks on making my studying memorable or ways to combat silly teenagers I am all ears!!

Thanks guys! You're awesome 

Hannah

This guide could help!

Keen for more updates

[Joseph41]

Excited and nervous for the upcoming assessment - it's still crazy to me that I'm in year 12, my final year of high school ever!

For sure! I think basically everybody goes through this. How weird is it? It's all part of the journey, though, and it can be exciting to think about what's soon to come.

Thanks guys! You're awesome 

Hannah

Not as awesome as you!

[Hannahco]

So cool!! What are your pieces? And omg how incredible are the Encore performers!?!? I went twice, so inspiring to see them in action. I remember one performer looked so nervous, it affected their technical fluency a tad, but if anything it hit me even more, like: "Holy crap, these aren't pros, these are students who worked their butt off." I found it really motivating to look at it in that way

This guide could help!

Keen for more updates

Well at the moment my pieces are Breathe Life (the Vera Blue triple j like a version cover), Hearts Aint Gonna Lie (Arlissa), Mama Knows Best (Jessie J) and Bruises (Lewis Capaldi). But now I'm not too sure ahahah.

Encore is seriously insane! It's so strange to think that they're just HSC kids not actual performers!