ATAR Notes: Forum

HSC Stuff => New South Wales Education Discussion => The HSC Journey Journal => Topic started by: fun_jirachi on August 08, 2018, 08:46:36 pm

Title: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 08, 2018, 08:46:36 pm
as you can probably tell by the title this is my HSC Journey, also a place where i can vent my feelings about how dumb NESA, my English teacher, the new syllabus and a ton of other stuff is. also to cry inside when school sucks (24/7 365d)  :'( :'( :'( also as evidenced by the title

Info about me:
Subjects you can look in the thing under every post I make
I'm in Year 11 rn but i accelerate two subjects (2U maths and modern history). tbh idk why i'm even accelerating; 2u maths won't even count cos im planning to do 4u and my mod marks are atrocious so they're gonna be covered up by phys/chem and more garbage english
School: Sydney Boys High
Age: 15

Sooooo today was great, had the best day in my cycle imo
tennis in the morning before school with my mate, then because we have to do sport in the arvo we get three periods of class, but lucky me its double maths and physics. got stabbed in the arm for an injection, went home and i have done absolutely no work. ngl atar notes is the best way to waste my time but feel like im still studying ;D ;D ;D

any questions please ask :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fantasticbeasts3 on August 08, 2018, 09:05:28 pm
Hi, fun_jirachi! Glad to see you're starting a journal - your contributions have not been missed here on AN. :-)

Excited to see how your HSC journey pans out!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 11, 2018, 09:32:10 pm
ok so today was a pretty good day  8) 8) 8)
i went to the state library, went through a few trial papers for maths
also on the way to the train station i started playing pokemon go, and seriously please don't judge me for this im just a huge fan of the series, and i just raked it in with a ton of shiny pokemon it really made my day after crapping myself with the trial papers
hope everyone else is having as great a weekend as me! :)


Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 15, 2018, 04:54:48 pm
absolute banger last two days, tuesday was a study day and today i had two frees  ;D ;D ;D
literally means i get through a ton of trial papers, but the nerves are coming thick and fast since both my trials arent till two weeks from now
why do trials exist send help :'(
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Joseph41 on August 15, 2018, 04:57:34 pm
absolute banger last two days, tuesday was a study day and today i had two frees  ;D ;D ;D
literally means i get through a ton of trial papers, but the nerves are coming thick and fast since both my trials arent till two weeks from now
why do trials exist send help :'(


On the plus side, it means that not 100% of your scores come from the HSC, which is, I believe, how high school used to work back in the day! ;D

You can do it. 👊
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 15, 2018, 04:59:23 pm
yeah thanks for all the support!!! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 20, 2018, 06:41:10 pm
seeing all these people saying 'yay i finished trials' makes me sad  :'( both my trials are next week (mod on monday, maths on wednesday)
mod im kinda scared because i've only done one full paper, and i broke it up into 45 min bits with 2 min break in between to rest my hand, so its not legit and the content i have to remember is getting to me
on the other hand im a lot more comfortable with maths, its no fuss
but the thing that worries me most is that for prelim i still have to keep up, and for physics we're really behind, only on module 3, and i have to keep up with all the homework :'(
bad two weeks up ahead :'(
hope you guys are having a better time :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jamonwindeyer on August 20, 2018, 07:07:21 pm
Remember that Prelim content isn't directly assessable! Indirectly it is good to know (for Physics, for example, good to know about electricity and magnetism to give you a solid grounding for the motor effect and induction), but don't let it stress you out if you aren't quite where you should be! No big deal ;D

Good luck with your trials! Do lots of practice papers, even for Maths, no matter how confident you are have to make sure you do at least a little bit of prep :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 24, 2018, 06:42:34 pm
so its the end of another week :'(
i'm now three days out from my mod trial, and i feel really undercooked despite writing a few essay plans, doing a few personailty study questions (which is where im weakest, if not the core section) send help
meanwhile i feel really prepped for maths, usually just dropping 3-4 marks in the last section and 1-2 dumb mistakes here and there
also gonna hit up both uts and usyd open days tomorrow
hope you've all had a great week :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 27, 2018, 06:24:52 pm
hahaha ok so today was my mod trial
ngl i frickin hated mod until today, scared as hell up until 12:10 today, but idk it went so quick, i was on the second paragraph on my indochina essay and i saw the clock and i was like wowzers half an hour till its all over!!! for now anyway  :'( and rn mod is totally fun again, because i get to ogle and study my favourite commies like lenin, lmao zedong, uncle ho  ;D ;D ;D

so anyway heres how it went
section i im pretty ok with, unless i somehow screwed up my source analysis??? which is kinda likely, but im really going to kick myself if i got q3 of the mc wrong, because that was really dodgy, was tossing up between C and D and i picked C because my friend told me once when in doubt pick C using my intuition, obviously, because im smart :'(
section ii ngl i was pretty happy with, they hit me up with a stalinism question and a communist theory/bolshevik consolidation of power question, you can guess which one i picked  ;D ;D ;D, this was the section i felt best about, i wonder why  ??? ??? ???
section iii i felt worst about, because i totally forgot all the tiny details about early life, and they asked me to describe three events about trotsky's early life that shaped his whatever whatever so  :-[, and then the part b was so urrrgrhgrhghfrghg, it was great people are remembered as much for their flaws as their achievements, and i disagreed, but i dunno if i argued correctly, or persuasively enough
section iv literally half my essay just made bs up went on autopilot, i didnt know what to do, i actually hate indochina, even though i love uncle ho
i picked how responsible were anti-war movements in ending the Second indochina war?? somehting like that, the other one i rejected was assess the impact of war on civilians, because that's just super broad, not gonna risk it

well maths on wednesday, time to grind for that 95+. i am pretty scared now actually because one of my mates told me today for the accelerated course a few years ago a 95 was rank 50?!?!
i know it doesnt count since im doing 4u, but i still want my good rank in the year group :)

hope the rest of you are having a great time! i know i am, mod's over for now



Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jamonwindeyer on August 27, 2018, 06:44:22 pm
hope the rest of you are having a great time! i know i am, mod's over for now

Congrats on getting through! ;D best of luck with 2U! Bet you'll smash that 95+ goal :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 29, 2018, 04:53:43 pm
HAHAHAHAHA ITS ALL OVER :D :D until prelim anyway, and the yearly for maths which is in about two weeks (also stupidly hard and long because that's just how SBHS is, gives you exams that are harder than the yearly, shorter with a disproportionate amount of work)
 
soooo today was great, maths was totally great
rn on 97-dumb mistakes out of 100, because i missed the very last part about geometrical proof of some minimum distance thing, which i realised 5mins after the exam i had to use similar triangles, and also because i messed up a multiple choice because i can't read

so this is the mc i failed: you have the focus (-3,0) and directrix x=1, what is the equation of the parabola, and its obviously y^2=-16(x-3), because the the focus is obviously the same thing as the vertex :'( haunted forever, hate parabolas now
other than that, all went smoothly, provided my working doesnt give the markers reason to dock me marks, should be hitting my 95+ goal!

hope you guys are having a great time!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 31, 2018, 06:14:51 pm
soooooo its the end of yet another week, and as my two trials are now behind me i realised i could start celebrating?!?!?!?!
yeah well obviously not. my student portal was updated today, and it kindly reminded me i have two months to the external exam for 2U and Modern History like i mean why you're inducing stress way too early
also i was woken to the sad reality that prelim exists, and so apparently i was meant to have an essay for dystopia due today for english extension? but we stalled the teacher out, and honestly, even though i'll keep trying so english doesnt drag me down, idgaf about english (sorry to all you english lovers, STEM boy for life, never gonna change). this is mainly because everyone knows the english department uses a random number generator for marks is very fair (not that the people that get good marks don't deserve them, just that this whole mark allocation thing is blown out of proportion). i feel like english is getting more and more subjective, and no matter how hard i try or how much feedback i get from my teacher, im not going to improve??!?! like in the reading to write module i think i handed in 3 or so drafts and i got something like 80% (mind you not complaning over a pretty good mark, just not up to the standards i need, but predominantly want) and in the next assessment i put in more work and asked for more feedback and i got 70%? i dunno seriously, and the next dumb thing i gotta do for english is a video essay like wtf why, teacher says that visuals dont matter and you will be judged on your ability to convey whatever whatever, but honestly i think that's such bs, aesthetic ones will get the teacher's attention and make them look more kindly on the task
also another wakeup call to the fact prelim exists was the fact that we go off on exam break/period in two weeks, and that all of module 4 for chem is due as is physics very very soon. we were really behind, so we sorta rushed for both sciences. tbh its very similar content with physics (thermodynamics) and chemistry (enthalpy) but electricity and magnetism is so cool
also we started the X1 course, having the best time with X1

alsoooo who is coming to unsw open day tomorrow?

thanks for reading this (if you have and not actually skimmed it jkjk), i recognise that it was a big trek

TLDR english sucks, prelims coming up
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 01, 2018, 06:11:52 pm
so today was unsw open day
ngl it was a pretty big bummer in terms of freebies, but i think in terms of similar courses with different unis i know which one im going to
not to hate on any usyd or uts people around here but i just didnt get a good vibe from those unis like i did from unsw, like usyd just felt like it was full of fobs and elitists, even though it probably isnt, and i just felt uncomfortable walking around and as for uts i just didnt like the fact that the buildings where legit all over the shop (also not to hate on the some of the staff but they were kinda condescending, i legit looked like a hobo and they were like showing me courses with 85 atar 'and if that's too high for you, theres x and y alternative', maybe i sound a little bit whiny, but i dunno it felt like they were judging by my depressed look and clothes, and i kinda take offence when randoms call me dumb (whole different story if one of my friends does it, its just banter))
but really unsw was just great, i felt really comfortable around there and i think even though i havent pinpointed what i want to do i sorta get the gist of it now?? also apparently there's a socialist club and pokemon club, consider me impressed

so overall good day, should get better as i can watch liverpool vs leicester for free on sbs tonight
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 07, 2018, 04:42:09 pm
Another week is over which means im a week out from prelim, and the dumbest assessment task i've ever done (video essay like why please explain to me how this helps me achieve anything)
and though i felt really great after the 2u exam, hearing everyone getting their results during first period made me realise that 95+ was super unrealistic despite my feeling right after the exam. everyone in my year that did the exam was accelerating (so its an expectation you hit a band 6) and then a class's average was 64??? the others were 78 and 82, but i was so shocked like omg i might not hit my goal after all the preparation
lo and behold i don't (what a surprise) and last period rolls along and i see my paper and i get a 90. NOW THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE I AM HAPPY WITH MY MARK AND I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT A BAND 6 but seriously i was super cut (maybe i set myself up for disappointment by aiming too high???) like i mean it felt really bad. I did get above class average (approximately 0.5 standard deviations above the mean) but seriously when i looked through my paper i did the dumbest stuff ever, like i probably deserved only to lose 4-5 marks legitimately, the rest were dumb mistakes i made in the heat of the moment under exam pressure. literally full of regrets, disappointed in myself
Take Exhibit A for example. Q11, the first question after multiple choice, and in the very last part. I did everything right until i got down to 1/3(64-1) and somehow i wrote down 64/3 as my answer. like why please send help
My rank might be terrible because its a very competitive environment, but I think I'm looking at a rank about 20-30? where I've always been for quite some time now but yeah kinda happy (good mark, its all over) and kinda disappointed, but honestly ill cop it, theres nothing i can do now. All i can do is improve for the yearly next week and the HSC.

mod marks on monday, rip me

Hope you guys have had a great week!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: clovvy on September 07, 2018, 06:00:26 pm
Another week is over which means im a week out from prelim, and the dumbest assessment task i've ever done (video essay like why please explain to me how this helps me achieve anything)
and though i felt really great after the 2u exam, hearing everyone getting their results during first period made me realise that 95+ was super unrealistic despite my feeling right after the exam. everyone in my year that did the exam was accelerating (so its an expectation you hit a band 6) and then a class's average was 64??? the others were 78 and 82, but i was so shocked like omg i might not hit my goal after all the preparation
lo and behold i don't (what a surprise) and last period rolls along and i see my paper and i get a 90. NOW THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT PLEASE I AM HAPPY WITH MY MARK AND I AM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT A BAND 6 but seriously i was super cut (maybe i set myself up for disappointment by aiming too high???) like i mean it felt really bad. I did get above class average (approximately 0.5 standard deviations above the mean) but seriously when i looked through my paper i did the dumbest stuff ever, like i probably deserved only to lose 4-5 marks legitimately, the rest were dumb mistakes i made in the heat of the moment under exam pressure. literally full of regrets, disappointed in myself
Take Exhibit A for example. Q11, the first question after multiple choice, and in the very last part. I did everything right until i got down to 1/3(64-1) and somehow i wrote down 64/3 as my answer. like why please send help
My rank might be terrible because its a very competitive environment, but I think I'm looking at a rank about 20-30? where I've always been for quite some time now but yeah kinda happy (good mark, its all over) and kinda disappointed, but honestly ill cop it, theres nothing i can do now. All i can do is improve for the yearly next week and the HSC.

mod marks on monday, rip me

Hope you guys have had a great week!
Given that you are in sbhs and that their standards are usually much higher than hsc standards (know this from doing your schools' pastpapers), you'll be fine...  And most will smash the hsc anyway and I know you will (getting 90 on sbhs paper ain't easy)..
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 12, 2018, 04:40:44 pm
been copping L's all week :'(
i don't know why but i literally just realised i hate modern send help please
maths is trippy af, exam pressure gets to me every time and i do dumb stuff like 64-1=64 also send help please
english is dumb, 'nuff said
and chem and phys like kill me please don't cram module four of both into 2-3 weeks WHY
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 14, 2018, 10:40:55 pm
Another week goes by... and i realise its been a hell of a week, but up ahead in 5 days is my first prelim exam.
The difficulty of these exams is hard to predict, like i mean physics was crazy hard for the half yearly, then they played nice for second assessment so its a real conundrum here. Chem is deceptively easy, so i don't know how that'll pan out. english is dumb, 'nuff said.
But this week was really great, thursday was trivia night and that was amazing, junked on pizza and mountain dew, had a great night. today was quite solid as well, played 'ball with the boys after school, then watched first grade debating. good week i'd say, apart from modern history results :'(

Hope you've all had a great week too!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 17, 2018, 06:37:19 pm
not quite a feeling or life update but still a really good story
so in modern we got free food like WOW free food tEacHeRs nEVeR gIvE sTUdEntS fReE fOoD but when we got into the staffroom (yeah its tiny, but our class shrank from 21 to 10 kids) teacher was like OK GUYS HERE WE HAVE SOME CORNED BEEF LIKE THEY MADE IT IN WW1 everyone was like ah crap we actually have to eat that?!?!?? and then it came out of the can and it was all oily and soggy and eurghegjg. like she couldnt even cut up the beef properly because it was so soft. so we got a cracker each and had some beef and ngl it tasted like ass. like really crappy tuna that's actually beef, but saltier and super oily. but the crackers were nice (small consolation), and we went back to class and nothing happened after that.
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jamonwindeyer on September 17, 2018, 06:55:00 pm
^ that was a rollercoaster  :o
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 18, 2018, 10:00:26 pm
I'm really nervous for tomorrow's physics exam :'(, and it's not like trials either, for some reason its worse?!?!?!
I know I know most of the content, but thinking about the exam makes me nervous, and everyone always tells me 'everything's on the reference sheet' or 'year 11 doesn't count' and 'you know more than you think you know' but that doesnt help :'(
and i have one day to study for chem which is on thursday, and then a 6 day break for two 45 min exams. hopefully all goes well
Spoiler
I'd just like to take a moment to insert an apology in here.

So yesterday, or a few days back (but I'm pretty sure it was yesterday) I posted something in the Thoughts About Marriage thing and it got deleted, because I had an opinion that was worded terribly badly, and it could have been interpreted in an offensive manner by some (which it was). I'm sorry if I hurt anyone with my comments, and I take full responsibility for having posted that. In the future I'll do my best to prevent this from happening again. I feel really bad for having even said anything of the kind in retrospect.

TLDR: exams making me so damned nervous
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 26, 2018, 05:03:07 pm
it feels like I havent updated in ages, but maybe that's because i havent updated on a friday in a while  :o :o :o
but today i finished all my prelim exams, and it just felt great to get off my back. i have an extra two days to do nothing before the holidays start, and it feels really really good. however there is that sinking feeling in the back of my head that i probably didnt do as well as i'd like to in prelim and that my marks are taking a skydive from last semester.
there's a lot to look forward to though this week, what with the long weekend and the rest of the holidays where i can just put off the fact that im starting the hsc and lie on my bed doing nothing for about 2 and a bit weeks :), and also i can get back to drawing
hope everyone's having a great week :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Joseph41 on September 26, 2018, 05:28:21 pm
CONGRATS! That's an awesome milestone to get through. :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on October 05, 2018, 07:31:22 pm
Okay so this week was pretty solid :D
it was the first week of holidays, so that is always pretty good, but then again i have to study to not die at the end of the month for maths and modern, but this week i screwed around like hell and did absolutely nothing. I did start rerunning Pokemon Platinum and watching the Good Place which is back up again :) yay, and I watched all of Brooklyn Nine Nine season 5 in two days. but outside of that it was pretty mundane, just messing around and eating toasties for lunch every day.
Most interesting things that happened this week:
Saturday was my birthday
Tuesday went on a boat and stared at the ocean instead of socialising
Thursday went to the city and read the Communist Manifesto and ate Nandos

I probably hope to get some study done next week

Hope everyone is having a great holiday/study break/whatever you're having
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jazcstuart on October 05, 2018, 08:36:23 pm
Thursday went to the city and read the Communist Manifesto and ate Nandos
Just some light holiday reading?  ;D :P

Also happy birthday!!!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on October 06, 2018, 09:13:53 pm
feeling good :D :D :D
literally cannot stop watching the first minute or so of B99 S5E17, cracks me up every time
Also can I just say I'm pretty damn happy today, those lectures were ace (shoutout to Jamon and Emily), looking forward to more tomorrow :) hyped
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on October 12, 2018, 08:42:30 pm
So this week was pretty mundane (apart from getting torn apart here)
I raked in some cash working, and it was fun seeing some work friends I havent really seen in a while because they usually take different shifts during the term, but other than that I just screwed around instead of studying which I really should be doing, since exams are in 2.5 weeks  :-[ :-[
I also havent been sleeping too well, its getting harder to sleep for some reason and i don't know why :o but its back to school on monday and its under the bus straight away with year 12, so this'll be a great year ahead

Hope everyone's had a great week!

Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on October 19, 2018, 04:42:53 pm
OK so it's the end of week 1 of Year 12  :-\ and a lot of bad stuff happened this week
1. Most of my results from prelim came back and I'm not happy. Skydived from the half-yearly, and I'm really disappointed mainly because I didnt try as hard as I probably shouldve or couldve. Hope this doesnt happen any time during the coming year, because my ranks are garbage
2. I got  D R E N C H E D  yesterday now my jumper and my bag smell like rain ewwwww
3. I'm getting constantly reminded I have 10 days until modern or however many it is on the current day and it's pissing me off, im losing motivation
4. I did not do any physical activity over the holidays so when I trained this week I got so sore someone send help  :'(

On a more positive note, got new books for Physics and Chemistry and they look great, amazing, however you want to call it, but it's really good, really excited for both those subjects despite screwing up pretty hard in prelim. The content looks amazing and hopefully they aren't error ridden like the ones we had in prelim.

Hope everyone had a great week! :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on October 26, 2018, 05:19:52 pm
End of yet another week! Time is going really quickly and a lot happened this week and had mood spikes everywhere
So on Monday I injured my quad and on Wednesday I reignited a niggle in my calf. Hopefully they both clear up for tomorrow so I can play tennis.
Tuesday was totally uneventful, but on Thursday I had 2U HSC. Largely that went okay despite the fact that I was being stupid, hopefully bag a Band 6 that won't even count to my ATAR. Still disappointed though
Today was kinda sad as well. Had my last ever Modern lesson. Right now Modern kinda makes me sad and want to die, but I think after the exam it'll be really worthwhile. Had loads of great moments doing the subject, and I have to concede it was sorta fun despite the struggle. Doing the HSC for Modern on Monday, and I have no clue what I'm going to do about that. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that our whole class is getting shouted pizza Thursday Period 2, so uh  ;D ;D ;D
And Chem is really getting into the good stuff. We burnt a ton of stuff today, but the best parts of today was looking at reversible reactions. We burnt some hydrated cobalt chloride, rehydrated it, and burnt again and the colours were so damn cool. Also burnt steel wool with a 9V battery and I would post videos but it likely won't fit.
Also getting reports next week  :-[ :-[, not gonna end well (especially because of my rank 82 in english)

Hope everyone had a great week, good luck to everyone on exams! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on November 02, 2018, 05:38:27 pm
Okay apart from nearly falling asleep at work yesterday and watching literally 80% of people seenzone me when I was doing a volunteering collection today in 35 degree heat, this week was pretty solid

Saturday I played tennis, and the team that showed up were two grades above my team because they got the wrong game time. So obviously we got destroyed but our team two grades up destroyed their team because the team that was supposed to play us showed up to that game. Weirdest weekend of tennis I've ever had.
Monday feels so long ago now. I did the Modern exam but like I feel like I did it last year, its so weird. Anyway I probably screwed up an MC, and I did go on autopilot for a lot of the exam because I got a headache halfway through, but hopefully everything goes okay (I'm still sure I answered the questions). Mostly I'm glad that it's over and that I actually like history again, and just the relief makes me feel like accelerating was worth it.
Tuesday and Wednesday were relatively uneventful except for the fact that I got my Prelim report on Wednesday. I jumped down the overall ranks a bit (as expected) but I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't even make the top 20%. To be fair I didn't put an equal amount of effort this semester in my other subjects mainly because of the HSC for maths and modern and to that end I sort of deserve it, but honestly still disappointed. And then I get my estimated ATAR which is below 99 and I get told 'you wouldve definitely gotten 99+ if modern wasn't there to drag you down'. So hopefully big things next year, and I put in a hell of a lot more effort in than this semester.
Thursday was great and terrible. The first half of the day was great - pizza party for modern and watching Forrest Gump. It was all great until I got to work and then I got super fatigued and nearly fell asleep.
And then today I did a collection. Best part of the day was seeing this guy chuck a 50 dollar note into my friends collection tin, but it was so demoralising saying 'hello' and 'good morning' and 'would you like to donate' and just getting the smiling seenzone, the 'i'm on the phone' trick, or just a regular seenzone. we didnt have anything to give away so it was just donations, and on other collection mornings when we have merch to sell I could get the 5 times the amount of money in the same timeframe. knowing this just sorta pissed me off because a lot of people I feel wouldve donated if we had stuff to sell ie. that you need to get something, anything back when donating money like that's so stupid, you should donate because you want to not because you want a stuffed animal or a brooch  >:(

That's all from this week, hope everyone had a great week! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on November 09, 2018, 10:49:51 pm
Totally mundane week, literally nothing happened :'(

I did tonk this guy playing tennis on Saturday and Physics is getting super interesting (big yes ;D) and I did a ton of fitness on Wednesday because it rained (still sore) but nothing really happened. There aren't going to be any exams for a while and even then I only have two in about two and a half weeks because of NESA's only one exam thing (which is going to be our trial HSC). so now is sort of like that 'grace period' where nothing happens and I just happen to procrastinate a lot, and get around a week ahead on physics while getting two weeks behind on chemistry. Outside of this though I'm really starting to feel the pressure in terms of homework (its a whole different level, especially factoring in procrastination) and i essentially waste the time i should be doing/catching up on homework staring at a wall/walking around feeling sad and wondering what i'm doing. Also having semi-existential crises when i do this (sort of a why, send help sort of thing, but nothing too major yet) but if this is sorta chill i can only imagine what's to come. I really should knuckle down instead of staring at walls :'(

Hope everyone had a great week, HSC's over amirite  ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on December 01, 2018, 06:40:15 pm
I noticed I haven't updated this in just over three weeks and in that timeframe I feel like a lot has happened and nothing happened at the same time.
Sure like nothing new happened (going back and forth to and from school, training, playing tennis, homework, exams, bantering with friends) but especially the last one just aint as fun anymore a lot of the time. Like sure the second last one happened, and it was Task 1 (it wasn't even that bad [maths was kinda easy], though I may have spoken too soon [hey english? ;)]) and also sure the third last one also happened (physics is way more fun than chem now, so at one point i was two weeks ahead on phys homework and four weeks behind on chem, two weeks ahead on procrastination  ;D) but the 'a lot has happened' screws with my brain.

So uh to explain we have story time  :) (excuse the language, it's a legit story and my emotional spectrum literally exploded) (also sorry if it's really long, skip to the end if you don't want to read a depressing drag, i'm legit fine now [not a fake im fine])

Okay so about a few weeks back I was stewed. Like i was really freakin pissed. I didn't want to do anything, and nothing that previously had significance had significance any more. I remember it was a friday as well because I got to school late that day, and class starts at 9:25 instead of the usual 9:00 (but that's not the point, i just wanted to say it was friday that day). like i said before in this post that bantering wasn't as fun, but like i was a stonefaced POS at breaktimes, and like I was hiding inside myself. I pretended to laugh, and theres no other way to say it, I was legit dead inside. i felt like a shell. i looked like a depressed POS walking through the corridors as well, like my Year Adviser asked me if I was okay, friends did that too, but I brushed it off with a 'Yeah I'm fine dude (to my friends)/ Miss/Sir (to my teachers)'. it's something i always do always have done and i hate myself every time i do that, but i don't stop doing that. and honestly that day I wasn't fine.

Well that's the context, but uh there's more to the story. So in the afternoon i was still dead inside in a stupid ass depressive reverie. I was pissed at myself the most really. i didn't want to be around people, and let's just say this really sucked. so on a regular day we get a school bus to central station right (usually roughly 800-900 kids go to central, maybe 700-800 actually take the bus, the rest just walk, it's not terrible, its just a 20min slow person walk). Usually i feel lazy, or i want to go with friends, so i take the bus. if i walk it's usually because i a) am not lazy b) want to play Pokemon GO without getting 'You're going too fast!!!!!' or c) the buses are screwed. That day i was just so mad and so dead at the same time i literally stormed off as soon as the 3:15 bell rang and then i walked like a person who's half learning how to walk, and half drunk, (super slow and hunched over, absolutely shitfaced). And to get to central we cross South Dowling St, and parts of it are basically free speedways where it's a 60 zone but people go 70 or 80 if it's super open and 8o-one cares. Basically I was really angry and selfish, and I didn't really feel anything. I must not have seen or heard anything either, because I crossed South Dowling St when I wasn't watching, trailing a bunch of cackling juniors and this car which was almost definitely speeding, but that doesn't matter if it was speeding. I was walking really slow, and the red flashing light must've stopped, because my ass nearly got nailed by that car. Around a second too long on the road, I was gone.

I got to the pavement and I turned around, realising what just happened. 'holy shit. holy fucking shit. are you fucking kidding me. i literally nearly fucking died. what the actual fuck!?!?! no way dude, OH my GOSH' (direct quote, tbh when you nearly die you remember everything you say). After that like i reconsidered a lot of stuff. Mentally i deteriorated a lot, though no-one really noticed. I was really happy on the outside by inside i was as dead as i was that day before the car. Sure I was down in the dumps and everything for the most part, and I was super happy for short bursts after that but all i could think about was that for a few weeks.  (This is gonna seem rude, but this is the best way i could think of rn to explain how i felt) Like consider an epileptic seizure, like y'know when dude's head and body goes up and down.. Think about cliffs and valleys, highs and lows emotionally ofc. Let the highs be the ups, the lows the downs. You get the gist. Near death experiences make you think how much life is worth living. The memory doesn't fade away. I finally stopped obssessively thinking about it, but it's always in the back of my mind. That was probably the worst episode I've had, and I've completely mentally broken a few times (absolute crying mess and everything)

(wow! that felt nice getting that off my chest, couldnt think of a better place to get it off, honestly you guys are great)

if you didn't read that chunk of text, im really happy for you, you didnt have to listen to me whine  ;D if you did, great, hope you understand :) but please don't go full counsellor on me rn, i just need to think and that's the last thing i want :)


Hope everyone else feels great, take care of yourselves guys!  ;D


Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on December 15, 2018, 09:36:55 pm
So it has been a whirlwind two weeks (mostly exams) + one breakdown. And for both sciences, Module 5 is now done, and I feel reasonably confident. And HSC results came back, and I'm pretty pleased with how it went (even though I didn't hit a band 6 in modern, wasn't really expecting it anyway).

I only had two exams this exam period (something about how NESA only allows us to have one formal assessment) and they were English and Maths. English is a huge variable and often it's my worst subject, so I was okay with a sixteen given that marking was completely haywire as usual (is it haywire if haywire is the usual? ??? ) I've still got a long way to go though, much to improve :) MX1 on the other hand was a huge bummer. I came out of the exam feeling great, but when I got the paper back I got an abysmal 59/65. I know what you're thinking: this is great! But it isn't for two really good reasons 1. standards 2. what everyone else got. When everything is about ranks ranks ranks, i was placed at 50th (roughly top 30-40%) with that mark. The mean was 60.5, and there was a huge standard deviation apparently as well. This puts me behind a lot, and though it was only worth 10% (so i only need one good test to get back on top of my game) i wasn't pissed so much about the mark and rank, but more about what it did for my self-esteem. eventually I did break (+1 for breakdown count), but that was before i got the results for my accelerated hsc courses.

And I woke up at 5:30 with a text from NESA. I just yelled 'I got a text!' like from Love Island (inside joke with my friends) and I looked at it. I got 98 for 2U and ignoring Modern that was probably the best thing for my self-esteem. like it really put confidence back into me, and even more so when I saw I dropped only one mark in the actual HSC exam. After that, maths just became a lot more enjoyable like it was before, and everything that we did in class just made sense automatically, everything flowed. so everything is cool now, yay

Hope everyone is having a great time! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: kauac on December 15, 2018, 09:46:10 pm
So it has been a whirlwind two weeks (mostly exams) + one breakdown. And for both sciences, Module 5 is now done, and I feel reasonably confident. And HSC results came back, and I'm pretty pleased with how it went (even though I didn't hit a band 6 in modern, wasn't really expecting it anyway).

I only had two exams this exam period (something about how NESA only allows us to have one formal assessment) and they were English and Maths. English is a huge variable and often it's my worst subject, so I was okay with a sixteen given that marking was completely haywire as usual (is it haywire if haywire is the usual? ??? ) I've still got a long way to go though, much to improve :) MX1 on the other hand was a huge bummer. I came out of the exam feeling great, but when I got the paper back I got an abysmal 59/65. I know what you're thinking: this is great! But it isn't for two really good reasons 1. standards 2. what everyone else got. When everything is about ranks ranks ranks, i was placed at 50th (roughly top 30-40%) with that mark. The mean was 60.5, and there was a huge standard deviation apparently as well. This puts me behind a lot, and though it was only worth 10% (so i only need one good test to get back on top of my game) i wasn't pissed so much about the mark and rank, but more about what it did for my self-esteem. eventually I did break (+1 for breakdown count), but that was before i got the results for my accelerated hsc courses.

And I woke up at 5:30 with a text from NESA. I just yelled 'I got a text!' like from Love Island (inside joke with my friends) and I looked at it. I got 98 for 2U and ignoring Modern that was probably the best thing for my self-esteem. like it really put confidence back into me, and even more so when I saw I dropped only one mark in the actual HSC exam. After that, maths just became a lot more enjoyable like it was before, and everything that we did in class just made sense automatically, everything flowed. so everything is cool now, yay

Hope everyone is having a great time! :D

Congrats on your awesome results fun_jirachi! I bet it must feel really good to have two full subjects off your shoulders now for the HSC.

As for your other marks, remember that one dodgy mark definitely won't have a massive impact on your results in the long run. Keep in there!  :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on January 09, 2019, 09:15:30 pm
I haven't posted here in a while (given that it's been Christmas and New Year, do I get an excuse? :D). I was on holiday (inactive for nine days), and since I came back I've been in a motivational hole where I know I definitely want to get ahead for the coming year, but at the same time my brain is like noooooooooooooooooo. Mostly I've revised what's been learned at school and nothing more, done a few hard questions my friends have posted up in group chats. The holiday as of today is halfway through (3 weeks left! crazy) and at the start I knew I wanted to accomplish something visible e.g. I learned all of this by myself, schools gonna be a bit easier for me now! but it hasnt materialised because of my own laziness. It's becoming a huge problem, but I have started playing less video games :), so I guess that's a step up, but not really when you consider I've devoted all that time to TV shows instead (all 3 seasons of Rick and Morty in the last three days). I have no clue what I'm doing.

Hope everyone is having a productive holiday! :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jazcstuart on January 09, 2019, 10:05:54 pm
Glad you are enjoying your holidays.
I just wanted to say don't be too hard on yourself about being unproductive these holidays, you deserve the break. Plus it's kind of the last proper holidays you will get until the HSC is over, so it's definitely a good idea to relax and chill out.

Personally I gave myself the first 2-3 weeks as a total break from anything school related just to get myself out of that headspace, then used the rest of the time to complete holiday homework and do some summaries. It sounds like you are still doing some school work at least, so you are already ahead of a lot of people.

Also as you said, you are halfway through the holidays, but that means you still have half of it to go! You still have time to complete any goals you had!

You don't have to feel guilty about giving yourself a well earned rest, but you still have time to put in the effort if that is what you want to do  :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Erutepa on January 09, 2019, 10:16:11 pm
I haven't posted here in a while (given that it's been Christmas and New Year, do I get an excuse? :D). I was on holiday (inactive for nine days), and since I came back I've been in a motivational hole where I know I definitely want to get ahead for the coming year, but at the same time my brain is like noooooooooooooooooo. Mostly I've revised what's been learned at school and nothing more, done a few hard questions my friends have posted up in group chats. The holiday as of today is halfway through (3 weeks left! crazy) and at the start I knew I wanted to accomplish something visible e.g. I learned all of this by myself, schools gonna be a bit easier for me now! but it hasnt materialised because of my own laziness. It's becoming a huge problem, but I have started playing less video games :), so I guess that's a step up, but not really when you consider I've devoted all that time to TV shows instead (all 3 seasons of Rick and Morty in the last three days). I have no clue what I'm doing.

Hope everyone is having a productive holiday! :)
I am feeling the exact same!
Still in holiday mode and can't get myself to do the schoolwork that I know I will appreciate doing.
I think you (and I) just need to sit ourselves down at a desk and get some work done.

If it helps, you could motivate yourself to work by forcing yourself to post a list of the work you completed after each day either here or in the accountability and motivation board. That may work, who knows. :)

Anyways, good luck with the study and HSC this year!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Jimmmy on January 09, 2019, 11:28:25 pm
Hi!

I'll echo Jaz's sentiments, it's our last holidays before we go through the most intense year of our lives! A bit of relaxation is necessary, and I'm only really getting stuck into my holiday homework as of today (yay!). You've done really well in your HSC thus far from the sound of it (I have no idea how the NSW system works  ;D), so keep up the good work.

Also good to hear there's another tennis player around the forums! What grade are you playing?
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: mango8 on January 13, 2019, 09:55:05 pm
Hey there,

Definitely understand how you guys feel, these are the final holidays for us, after that all our 'holidays' will be jam-packed with studying and revising and getting ahead, studying for SACs and a multitude of practice exams, so I think we should make the most of it, in the sense that we should take the time out for ourselves each day, but also devote some time to doing any homework/getting ahead (I believe you will have a great advantage, and reap the benefits by putting in the extra effort and time).

In the holidays, I find it best to know when you work best and block out a few hours to just knuckle down and get some of your tasks done, then you can spend the rest of your time doing whatever you please! Congratulations on your great results so far!

Hope you had a fun holiday and let's make the most out of what's left of these holidays! Looking forward to reading more about your final year's journey.
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: melberry on January 14, 2019, 07:50:03 am
Hope your holidays are going well!

This is a bit late, but congrats on your current HSC achievements ^^ As basically everyone above said, this is our last "relaxing" holiday, but I think something that really helps motivate you (even while you're still in holiday mode) is writing out your ATAR goals and keeping some past papers on the side of your tables for light reading/occasional attempts. I myself don't tend to answer the entire HSC paper given we haven't covered all topics in school, but since we have only two weeks until school starts again, it's nice to revise previously covered content and attempt new content. That way, you can go into school prepared to ask your teachers questions (or any super smart friends you may want to go to).

Cool to see an SBHS on here, all the best!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on January 30, 2019, 06:40:38 pm
Before I talk about first day back, I just want to thank you guys for being around :) Even though 5 people said basically the exact same thing, that 'exact same thing' is so nice and supportive that I really have to thank you guys for saying those nice things and keeping what should've been a stress-free period stress free. I had a reasonably good holiday, and I probably would've spent it stressing if it wasn't for you guys and other people in my life telling me to calm down. (also feel pretty bad for upvoting all of those and not replying until now, but its done :) ) And adding on to the previous post, I actually got some work done :) so its something I can look back on and be proud of that I had both a good break and study, even if I'm not 100% happy with the ratio.

Also good to hear there's another tennis player around the forums! What grade are you playing?

6th grade :( (not the best at it, and i get a lot of niggles and injuries and whatnot)

First day wasn't completely terrible, but the influx of year sevens had me a little peeved early in the morning with their excitement completely overriding their common sense. Getting to school was fine, and then everything was like a normal first day (except it was the last first day in twelve years of school :( ). the constant reminders 'this is your last year make it count' kept circulating, and we were told that we have ambitious targets this year because we have a particularly strong cohort. no pressure :) otherwise, i got a new physics class (old one was disbanded), and basically a lot of admin stuff concerning how this year will go. It was nice to see friends again (one got their P's, another failed the P's test) and it was cool to see how much people grew. Today was pretty chill, I'm not ready for things to escalate :(

Hope everyone else had a fantastic day! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Caitlynk_22 on January 30, 2019, 08:52:42 pm
First day wasn't completely terrible, but the influx of year sevens had me a little peeved early in the morning with their excitement completely overriding their common sense.
I think that's the worst part about the first day- hell even the first week- where you feel like saying to them that the next six years will actually be hard and so different to primary school. Also, they think they're the top of the school... when they're not. We just made fun of them for still having so many years to go while we finished that year.

Anyway, good luck with the coming terms! You can do it! We believe in you!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on February 22, 2019, 09:02:59 pm
Haven't updated things in a while, so here goes :)

First few weeks have been pretty chill but pretty tiring. I've found that if anything I'm procrastinating more (excuse being that I want to escape actually doing productive things) and as a consequence I've been staying up later, tiring myself out. I have three early mornings and two late afternoons so this constricts me a lot. Makes Fridays even better though :)

This weekend is the first weekend where I have a serious workload I have to actually make progress on, and knowing that it'll get even worse doesn't make me too happy. Got something for each subject too: maths homework (which is every day), analysis on my text for English, and a bit of depth study work and catch up revision on physics and chemistry respectively. Probably the only thing I have going for me is that everything makes sense apart from English, which seems to never make sense. Lunchtime classes are also the bomb: building confidence and reinforcing work done in class is pretty damn good.

Nothing positive has happened outside of school though (picked up a few injuries, procrastination, tiredness), so that's probably it. :) Hope everyone had a great month :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Joseph41 on March 05, 2019, 04:59:37 pm
Haven't updated things in a while, so here goes :)

First few weeks have been pretty chill but pretty tiring. I've found that if anything I'm procrastinating more (excuse being that I want to escape actually doing productive things) and as a consequence I've been staying up later, tiring myself out. I have three early mornings and two late afternoons so this constricts me a lot. Makes Fridays even better though :)

This weekend is the first weekend where I have a serious workload I have to actually make progress on, and knowing that it'll get even worse doesn't make me too happy. Got something for each subject too: maths homework (which is every day), analysis on my text for English, and a bit of depth study work and catch up revision on physics and chemistry respectively. Probably the only thing I have going for me is that everything makes sense apart from English, which seems to never make sense. Lunchtime classes are also the bomb: building confidence and reinforcing work done in class is pretty damn good.

Nothing positive has happened outside of school though (picked up a few injuries, procrastination, tiredness), so that's probably it. :) Hope everyone had a great month :)

How did your weekend pan out in the end?

Sucks about the injuries - hope they're not too severe!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on March 05, 2019, 08:33:41 pm
How did your weekend pan out in the end?

Sucks about the injuries - hope they're not too severe!

Weekend turned out alright; got everything done! Quite on top of things (apart from English) and for once I feel like I understand most things I'm learning which is great. As for the injuries, I think one niggle is still around somewhere, but I haven't stressed it too much (found a new serving action that doesn't affect it too much), and the other one was just a cramp as it turns out. Nothing too serious right now, thanks for asking!

Coming to the end of the last summer season of sport is kind of sad; in two weeks I'm never going to play high school tennis again. After six seasons it's a bit weird and sad :( Though after this is the last season of football, so maybe I can score some goals and make it a good one :) But more importantly probably push back up in half-yearlies after rank crushing results in the first assessment (and don't choke :) hopefully). It's looking alright right now, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on March 17, 2019, 09:54:55 pm
Yesterday was the last tennis weekend of the season, and consequently the last of my high school career. Really put in everything those two games; I played with one of my first doubles partners and came out with a W, but even though I lost my singles I put in more hustle than I've ever done before. I couldn't shake off my tiredness for a while, and I heard my opponent exhale 'no way' as I got to a ball he thought I'd never get to. Running for every ball and fighting for every point no matter what made me feel like regardless of the result, the six years of training rain, hail or shine were worth it.

But at the end of all this, this is one of the first journeys coming to a close this year. It made me realise that high school is more than just study and the HSC, and I came away and will come away with lots of new friends and experiences. Six seasons of tennis and six seasons of the pain of wet weather fitness ended yesterday, and it was pretty sad. I want to finish the year, and at the same time I don't. It's moments like these that make me actually like school and wish my journey would never end. Now, I go into the last football season of high school; my fifth. After looking back on tennis, I really want to put more effort into this; I looked back on those six seasons and felt I could've done more.

Studywise, everything is going okay! Exams in two weeks, but I'm not stressing out too much, everything is under control. Probably need to take more care of myself sleepwise and mentalitywise because at this rate I will definitiely burn out around May-June.

Hope everyone else is feeling great! :D



Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on April 02, 2019, 10:04:34 pm
It's been two weeks, and exams are looming. English is tomorrow morning, and MX1 is on next Monday, Chemistry on next Tuesday, Physics Depth Study Exam on Wednesday. But most worryingly, MX2 and Physics back to back on Friday. And my physics teacher (who is writing the exam) has indicated he's going to make it harder than any other physics exam we've had to date, and to be fair, that would be pretty brutal.

I'm nervous most for English, but afterwards, it's not terrible; I'm 1000x more confident with STEM than I ever will be with English. After assessment 1, I am afraid of choking given I've done it before, and doing so again will screw me up for the rest of the year, but up until now, I've followed my plans for studying (mostly ;) ) and done all the work, so I guess all I can do is just go in and do it, and do my best. Hopefully all goes well and I actually read the question and don't do anything stupid.

Still need to take better care of myself though (not doing the best at the moment), hopefully I can get through all this and get to a happier time where it's easier to do that :)

Hope everyone else is having a great start to the month! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jamonwindeyer on April 02, 2019, 10:12:05 pm
Best of luck for the tasks mate! Look after yourself
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: meerae on April 03, 2019, 09:09:49 am
Good Luck for your upcoming assessments!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on April 10, 2019, 09:58:38 pm
Good Luck for your upcoming assessments!
Best of luck for the tasks mate! Look after yourself

Luck must've really come through because these exams didn't really feel like exams (they went oddly fast, and difficulty was a bit meh), so thanks a lot guys!

On a subject by subject basis:
English: We had to study three questions given a week prior to the task, one of which would be given in the exam. I prepped for all three, because I was paranoid if I missed one I'd fail entirely (that's a show of my confidence in English). They happened to pick the one that objectively would discriminate between students the least, so I'm not too sure how that's going to go for me. It's all RNG from here, seems like a pretty crappy dice roll :(
4U: I got all but one question out + one or two silly mistakes (still kicking myself, easy marks) , and judging by everyone's reaction after the exam, I've done not spectacularly but enough to keep myself afloat rankings wise. Considering I have a pretty solid cohort, this bodes well :)
Physics: I feel like Physics is the one subject where you can do a question instantly, but always second-guess your answer (does that look right? a bit big? a bit small?). This exam came basically an hour after 4U finished so I was pretty tired, but I was also doing that self-questioning the whole exam. Did not help, but I did all the questions, and it was a relatively hard exam, hope I did them right :)
3U: I think this was the exam I was happiest with. With only one silly mistake (which I am also kicking myself for, it's literally because I can't read), I could potentially get really close to 95%. Given also that I flunked ranks wise in the first assessment (even with a 59/65), this was a big confidence booster, this could go well :)
Chemistry: A ton of weird curveballs, and I started to randomly BS a few of the curveball questions. And for what is perhaps the more mathsy half of the syllabus, I wasn't expecting so many wordy questions, and so little calculations. Definitely got thrown off a bit, but should still do relatively okay :|
Physics Depth Study: The first few questions were an absolute breeze (unless I did something stupid), but the last question was super conflicting. Basically everyone got different answers, it's all so weird :)

But overall, it's probably one of the better exam periods I've had; felt reasonably comfortable doing the exams, and studying wasn't exactly the long hard slog I thought it would be (except prepping each English question in depth). This is going to step up a bit though, but for now I can study and chill for the next twenty days until next term :)

Today I did get a nice cooldown after exams, went to a friends place and just unwound, then went into the city to eat and watch Captain Marvel. It was a pretty damn good movie, and overall a damned good day. A good way to end the term, stress has been released :)

Hope everyone else has had a great week so far :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on April 30, 2019, 10:12:51 pm
First post-holiday post :) (i also realise i used post twice in the space of four words :( )

Holidays were a good time to kick back mostly, since I likely won't be doing the same thing guilt free for another 6 months. Still studied a bit though :) Nice enjoyable holiday, couldn't really ask for anything more, zero regrets :) Also watched endgame, stunning movie (but no spoilers because i'm nice :) )

Looking back at my exam predictions, I've done more than keep myself afloat for 4U, and predicted perfectly for 3U with that one stupid mistake where instead of finding the area, I took the whole integral :(

4U: I got all but one question out + one or two silly mistakes (still kicking myself, easy marks) , and judging by everyone's reaction after the exam, I've done not spectacularly but enough to keep myself afloat rankings wise. Considering I have a pretty solid cohort, this bodes well :)
3U: I think this was the exam I was happiest with. With only one silly mistake (which I am also kicking myself for, it's literally because I can't read), I could potentially get really close to 95%. Given also that I flunked ranks wise in the first assessment (even with a 59/65), this was a big confidence booster, this could go well :)

would've gotten full marks I got that, but I didn't. I count myself lucky I got half a pity mark though :). Potentially those are marks enough to land me in the top 10 for 4U, and top 20 for 3U given my rank 50 in the first exam
4U: 56.5/61 -> 92.6%
3U: 53.5/55 -> 97.3%

Haven't gotten anything else back, but I don't really want to; from what the teachers have said, the marks are all comparatively low, so that's me terrified. More to follow as I get more stuff back :)

Hope everyone's had a fruitful April :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on May 04, 2019, 01:25:46 pm
Update:

Turns out I flunked physics pretty hard. Stupid mistakes in the Depth Study exam (V E C T O R S  A R E  N O T  S C A L A R  Q U A N T I T I E S) (basically i got vectored because I forgot direction on a ton of stuff) and I had all the working but made a calculator error :(

Spoiler
(https://i.imgur.com/j7ILVWG.jpg) Except I got vectored in direction only :(

And I must've lost a lot of common sense and brainpower after 4U, because judging from physics I was way more fatigued than I thought. Rank is so damn screwed. Chemistry, I would've liked to have done better, but I'm still afloat unlike for physics, which I'm so far barely above average in. Chem is good enough and something to build on as the year progresses but physics brings back deja vu from the first assessment in modern history where I lost a whole heap of motivation. I'm really starting to worry now and the post-maths high is seriously fading. Really have to start knuckling down and stop procrastinating :(  With English to come on Monday I'm genuinely worried for a load of my ranks in a highly competitive school so um yeah. I'm very sad.

On another note, the HSC timetable came out on Wednesday. It's not kind (I have a bit too much time, and I have my last exam on Nov 11 (frustratingly, physics is uncharacteristically last)) but it could be worse. Just to give a reference point of how much time I have, from the 18th of October to the 4th of November, which is English Paper 2 and Maths Ext 1, is 17 days. In between is only one exam, Maths Extension 2. But my friends have birthdays and three exams in two days and some have some combination of both in their HSC period so I can't complain.

More to come soon! :) Hope everyone's had a great week
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: jamonwindeyer on May 04, 2019, 04:35:05 pm
Remember that ranks aren't as important if your cohort is strong fun_jirachi! 'Competitive' schools are a good thing, it means you push each other, and a non-ideal rank doesn't matter if the class is performing really well! ;D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on May 09, 2019, 08:23:11 pm
Another update:
Predicted my English mark perfectly; a 16/20. It's not great but it's not terrible either, and I've been hanging around there for a while. I'm looking forward more to the next task which is a creative but it gives you a hell of a lot more creative freedom than previous years in terms of text types; so for once I might actually enjoy English :)

Also turns out I didn't flunk Physics as hard as I thought. I messed up the MC and the Depth Study, but in the longer responses I made a few mistakes, but comparatively nailed it compared to the majority of the year. Ended up marginally outside the Band 6 range based on the previous year's results, but since our cohort is better than last year, I'm still hopeful for a pretty good mark. And there's still trials to resuscitate my rank.

Best of all was probably my single digit ranks for 3U (not expecting) and 4U. The challenge here is to not make this one result a purple patch and instead keep it up for the rest of the year. If I do, there's a stunningly good E4 waiting for me. If not, I'll be dreadfully disappointed given how well I've done at this point in the year for maths. Against what is probably one of the best cohorts in the state in maths, there's loads of work to be done though, but it's doable. Just have to not choke too hard and make my exams count.

And today was a really damn good day. Pure elation throughout the whole day :D If anyone supports football bloody hell the last 48 hours have seen some absolutely stunning totally unscripted football, and about 13 hours ago I was screaming like an idiot when Spurs beat Ajax with a last minute winner. Really happy as a Spurs fan and I totally forgot the hellish first half of the week. Was watching and rewatching the highlights reel and it gets better and better every time, still completely euphoric :D

Hope everyone's enjoying their week :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: mango8 on May 12, 2019, 04:59:54 pm
Another update:
Predicted my English mark perfectly; a 16/20. It's not great but it's not terrible either, and I've been hanging around there for a while. I'm looking forward more to the next task which is a creative but it gives you a hell of a lot more creative freedom than previous years in terms of text types; so for once I might actually enjoy English :)

Popped back onto your journal after a bit and it's still really interesting! Great job on your English mark! Yes I love creative a million times more than anything else! You can basically write whatever you want and it can't ever be 'wrong', just have fun with it! And Physics too! Congrats on all your amazing achievements! Lol I don't know much about hsc but all the best for whatever's coming up next, make sure to rest and chill out too, and take good care of yourself. Excited to hear about how the week goes.
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on May 21, 2019, 09:26:03 pm
Popped back onto your journal after a bit and it's still really interesting! Great job on your English mark! Yes I love creative a million times more than anything else! You can basically write whatever you want and it can't ever be 'wrong', just have fun with it! And Physics too! Congrats on all your amazing achievements! Lol I don't know much about hsc but all the best for whatever's coming up next, make sure to rest and chill out too, and take good care of yourself. Excited to hear about how the week goes.

Thanks for this! Just a few replies to this:
- I actually don't know whether to be happy or sad or whatever about English; I've been average for years :)
- With Physics, was definitely expecting a bottom half result, but did better than expected. It's not great, but I can still revive it :)
- Might have slightly failed to chill out, because I'm pretty close to exploding :(

Got my report last Tuesday, just wasn't really bothered to update the journal :( It's pretty good, and I think it's my second best result overall, the best since Year 10 Yearlies. Just have to keep pushing with this and I'll get the results I want :) Not going to share the estimated ATAR just in case it's horribly off, but it's always going to be in the back somewhere as a benchmark to beat.

Ranks :)
English - 54/210
3U - 4/168
4U - 6/123
Chemistry - 31/117
Physics - 44/126

Physics and English and to a lesser extent Chem aren't quite there yet, but it's definitely something to work on :) So far it hasn't been a good week, but we'll see if that changes over the rest of the week :) Nothing really happening until Week 8, where I have a few more exams, so posts might dry up a bit.

Hope everyone's having a good start to the week :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on June 15, 2019, 05:47:55 pm
Just realised I haven't posted in about a month, so here's a quick one to make myself feel like I haven't missed anything with posting :)

It's exam season yet again (a Year 11 friend of mine kindly put it as 'every time I turn around again you guys are doing exams again'). 4U is Monday, 3U on Thursday, sandwiching Chemistry. It's a pretty short exam period, and it's definitely not as stressful as half-yearlies, as the content hasn't actually started to get as difficult as I thought yet.

On another note, trials seem terrifying. We have a three-week exam period, but I'm doing all mine in the first two weeks. The upside is I get a whole week to screw around afterwards before graduation (also with the HSC timetable, I have ages to prepare and in between exams so I don't mind kicking back for that week and indulging myself), but the downside is that I have 6 exams in 2 weeks, and 3 in three days. It's not terrible but it's not what I'd like either.

Will update sometime next week with how everything goes :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on July 05, 2019, 07:43:40 pm
Will update sometime next week with how everything goes :)
Well shit. My bad :)

It's now the holidays and it's really starting to hit home; there's less than a term left of high school, ever. About three months from now it's all over. Honestly, it's been a blur and now I realise how valuable high school is and all the opportunities I've watched fly away and missed. But aaaanyway sentimentality is totally unnecessary right now because ahead of me is a holiday I won't even enjoy properly, UCAT and Trial HSC. Really going to have to start grinding hard (even though that's also what I told myself last holidays, the holidays before that and the holidays before THAT (don't need to mention I failed at those though))

Exam results: not quite as good as last time, but to be fair the 3U exam was total BS because out of 54, half my class got 53 or higher, with a median of 52.75. So basically getting nearly full marks like I did last time suddenly doesn't make you good, it makes you totally mediocre. I also got 20/20 on the last section of the 4U exam, only to find out I screwed up simple arithmetic in the first section, so I lost marks I should definitely not be losing so um yeah my rank is going to drop a bit :(. And as for English, they changed their definition of a discursive five times in the space of two weeks, and the marker apparently had a different view completely (judging from the feedback sheet) and doled out 15/20's like you sprinkle grains of salt in your cooking. around 60% of the grade got 15s, and basically 90% of people who did better wrote a creative imaginative piece, so everyone's wondering if by choosing a newer text type we got screwed entirely. Seems biased

Content: finally starting to get juicy and confusing, which is totally cool and I love it. Forces me to actually work to understand things and ask questions which I have never done before.

Hope everyone at school has had a good term :) Finish strong :D

Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on July 31, 2019, 11:31:12 pm
To be honest, in recent times I've kinda forgotten about this journal doing all the other stuff (usually just study :P and procrastination) so uh my bad.

So just a few updates this time:
- Recently finished up a holiday where sure, I studied a bit but mostly wasted it again, despite me swearing I wouldn't do that at the very start of the holiday
- Trials are in a few weeks and I'm slightly but not really screwed; I'm still reasonably relaxed about everything
- Did UCAT today and got 740/890/880/800/562 so that was pretty damn cool

Might add some more to this unless I forget. Just kidding... unless?

Hope everyone has had a great July!! :D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 12, 2019, 09:31:42 pm
But at the end of all this, this is one of the first journeys coming to a close this year.

Well, after Saturday, yet another journey comes to a close. I won't be playing high school football anymore.

I really put everything in. We lost 4-2, but jockeying every guy, trash-talking on set pieces, cheering for your mates when a skill move or a dribble came off, and trying to deck at least three people made me feel like the game would never end until inevitably it did. The banter was hilarious that game, but as we went up in cheers for the other team, shook hands, said good game, it was pretty sad. People say life flashes before your eyes when you die, and I felt that but not really when I walked off the pitch. The goals we scored, the goals we saved, all the last-ditch tackles and bookings, the banter and on-field arguments with the ref. Nuts.

But perhaps more dauntingly I won't be playing high school sport anymore. It's just a long black tunnel of study until November 11th when the HSC is over. Trials start on Wednesday, in two days. I finish the following Friday. It's nice to think that this time in 11 days it'll all be over for the most part considering my HSC timetable is pretty tame, but the truth is a month after I finish Trials I graduate. Then it's the end of another journey. Then what next?

Good luck for Trials y'all (what's left of it for some of you and what's to come for everyone else), you'll smash em :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on August 26, 2019, 08:47:15 pm
Finished Trials and it was not pretty.

English Paper 1 and Paper 2: Genuinely surprised by both the amount of time given, which was ridiculously long, as well as my writing speed. Definitely underestimated the last one a lot. As for how it went, I just kept writing and writing and writing. Literally no clue how it went, and I've forgotten everything already (including all the content). So we'll wait and see.
Physics: Considering that this was the subject I needed to improve my rank in the most, seriously bloody underwhelming. I choked real hard, mind blanked and everything. It wasn't even that hard of an exam, so I'm really quite disappointed. Nothing further to add, really.
Extension 2: After bombing Physics I wasn't in the headspace to actually do well in the rest of my exams; 4U was probably the subject hit hardest by that because it was the next exam after Physics; I missed an easy three marks in Q12 (easiest Show that of my life) and failed to complete Q16 on a question I had already seen while studying. Considering after the half-yearly I was in the top ten, my rank will likely take a huge hit :(
Extension 1: Did well but not well enough to keep my rank, literally because my cohort is ridiculously good. Enough said, rank plummet :(
Chemistry: I'd like to say it went well, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. It was relatively straightforward, but the 8-marker threw a lot of people off so there's that.

Overall, I don't think my ranks will fare too well post-trials. It's really going to hurt both my estimated and my assessment marks, unless my cohort outperforms its already ridiculously good projections. The former is probably going to hit my self-esteem more than anything, but the latter is probably going to actually crush my ATAR. I suppose the best thing to do now is just heed my maths teacher and 'make my next exam my best one yet'.

Lessons learned:
- Studying is totally useless if you're not in the right frame of mind: a) it's ineffective b) it just sucks c) you remember way more in the exam than you think you do d) it'd be way more productive if you just rested up and studied later
- Rest up

Hope everyone gets nice results :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Coolmate on August 26, 2019, 10:19:33 pm
Hey fun_jirachi! :)

I have just been reading through your journal (it is very well written! :) ), well done for completing trials!. I have heard from different people that the trials are meant to be harder than the real HSC Exams, but I don't know if that is true :-\.

My only suggestion to help you in your situation would be to work on your exam technique to allow you to answer and think critically about each question under time pressured environments. I don't know how much trials are weighted at your school, but the HSC Exams are worth 50% of your final mark, so try not to stress about it.

If you are ranked fairly high range or mid-high range in your rankings then this may not affect it largely; For Example, if you were ranked highly in each subject you may not become ranked last because of trials and vice versa. Also, your HSC Exam marks may outweigh the trials marks too? (I think)

Overall, good job with your trials and seek as much help as you can to further improve! ;D

Kind Regards,

Coolmate 8)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 23, 2019, 09:32:35 pm
A story of two parts today, one just an update on my last post, and the next is a bit of sentimentality :)

1/2

I actually got my report last week + trial ranks + trial raw marks + overall ranks sent to NESA, but was seriously not bothered updating this journal. At that point I sort of lost the motivation to actually work hard and whatever, as well as post here. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but it should be good enough given the strength of my cohort.

English: Raw Mark: 80/100 | Trial Rank: 50/212 | Assessment Rank: 63/212
Realistically just looking to improve to an 85/86, which is very doable since I got 19 on the common module essay + a bunch 15's elsewhere. Just really got to work hard between now and the HSC, especially on expression + actually prepping legitimate ideas instead of blabbing whatever comes to mind.
The post trials comment was a fair assessment looking back :)

Mathematics Extension 1: Raw Mark: 68/70 | Trial Rank: 4/165 | Assessment Rank: 5/167
Extension 1: Did well but not well enough to keep my rank, literally because my cohort is ridiculously good. Enough said, rank plummet :(
Comments that have not aged well. Literally. Turns out I absolutely crushed this exam, and just need to replicate this in the actual HSC.

Mathematics Extension 2: Raw Mark: 93/100 | Trial Rank: 14/122 | Assessment Rank: 7/123
Similarly, I didn't actually do as bad as I thought, but I didn't do as well I could've and should've. Definitely can do better in the actual HSC if I'm in the right mood and whatever.

Chemistry: Raw Mark: 82/100 | Trial Rank: 23/114 | Assessment Rank: 30/114
The raw mark doesn't really tell the whole story because the questions were left field, and with harsh marking, a lot of us got really hard done by in the first half of the exam. The second half was a lot more straight forward and that's where most of us took the easy marks that we should be earning, so I  suppose there's something to be taken from that. I think I need to work on my long responses because I'm literally illiterate and I struggle there, and that's where I lost the majority of my marks. Cohort is also very strong :)

Physics: Raw Mark: 77/100 | Trial Rank: 45/125 | Assessment Rank: 44/125
Similar to Chemistry the raw mark doesn't really tell the whole story, but because it was a tough exam as opposed to harsh marking. The choke actually happened unlike in Maths where I thought I choked but didn't. Looking back I lost marks on easy calculations, which I shouldn't and wouldn't normally lose marks on, but that should be a relatively simple fix. Can definitely improve on this mark and with my strong cohort should be able to do well enough to get a decent mark.

I don't know how to feel, but it seems legit. Apparently on my report I got the same scaled aggregate out of 500, the same ATAR estimate and the same rank in my cohort overall as last time, so that's pretty good. Just got to work hard between now and the HSC, and hopefully approach exams better and more calmly :)

Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on September 23, 2019, 10:18:09 pm
2/2

The reason I decided to post again was because I graduated today. Like bloody hell a whole journey is over. All I ever wanted to do as a kid was just to leave school ASAP but now it's all over, I just wish it never ended.

So on Thursday was our last day of classes, and I had three classes, starting with morning class, Period 1 and Period 2 back to back. All we did was eat junk food and hijack the teacher's desktop to do karaoke, but it was pretty sad because we realised at the end of all this we'd never have a class again with our teachers and friends. We went around to everyone else's classes (those who had them after period 3) and just took the time to hang out with everyone, even to some people we never really talked to. It's ridiculous how school ending can change the mood and the camaraderie shown that day is something I'll cherish and remember, but also miss a lot. Then we started singing and eating more food in the last class of the day, and a few people started crying. We got on the bus for the last time, and we sang songs and expressed our thanks to everyone around us, and literally 90% of the bus started crying. We were all hugging each other, shaking each other's hands... it was for the most part, over.

Then today we graduated. This time, it was over. Everyone at the assembly told us mostly the same thing; work hard, work together, good luck, and the like. I really don't know how to describe it. Without thinking, most of us just hung around our friends, took photos; most of us again, in disbelief that everything was done. In the end, I do have regrets; I missed loads of opportunities, but I'm honestly happy that it happened, and the best thing I can do is look forward and try to do as well as I can in the HSC, knowing everyone will be helping everyone else do the best we can.

It's tough to explain, but I really am just sitting at home still wondering why I don't have to go to school tomorrow. It's odd.





Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on November 11, 2019, 03:57:50 pm
Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 30 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

I sorta promised myself I wouldn't get the red text at any point until I got my ATAR, but here we are. My bad.

I finally finished the HSC! It's an odd feeling; suddenly your life isn't about studying anymore, at least for now, and you have more free time than you know what to do with. Just having fun finally talking to a lot of people now that nearly everything is stress free!

A rundown of how exams went:
Paper 1: Honestly forgot. But seriously I don't think it was that bad. I remember everyone complaining about the essays and memeing the short answer stimuli, but I think that's about it, might've done okay; I think I did okay anyway.
Paper 2: Same as above, but I remember mindblanking halfway through and writing total BS for one of the modules. Otherwise went okay.
Maths Ext 2: Did well, but a choke by my standards. I think my internal mark will be much higher than my external. It wasn't a hard exam, but I feel like exam pressure does a lot of different things
Maths Ext 1: In a similar vein to the above, but worse. At the outset I thought I did well, but then I realised I screwed up (by my standards). I think my external will be dragging me down, and it's a bummer because I worked really hard only to fall at the last hurdle; sorta disappointing. Not hard, but I tripped up.
Chem: Probably the exam I was happiest with, but I think that might be a bad thing. It was straightforward; nothing extremely left field and it was a fair exam; but knowing my luck, it probably went worse than I thought
Physics: That was today! I honestly understudied a bit, got a bit complacent after Chem with that last exam mentality (which is obviously terrible). Got a bit thrown by a few long answers, but nothing too awful; I answered every question properly, whether I got them all right is a different story.

I'm looking forward to this break though. Not too sure what to do; like I mentioned I have more time than I know what to do with. Apart from getting myself back on track mentally + feverishly waiting for ATARs/revisiting ATAR calculators, or waiting for Rick and Morty Season 4, rewatching what of South Park I can; I think that's all there is (and maybe getting fit again!).

Good luck for ATARs everyone; you did amazing :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Joseph41 on November 11, 2019, 04:49:38 pm
Congratulations! ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: katie,rinos on November 11, 2019, 06:13:42 pm
Congrats on finishing!!  ;D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: caffinatedloz on November 14, 2019, 06:34:16 pm
!!CONGRATULATIONS!!

I'm looking forward to this break though. Not too sure what to do; like I mentioned I have more time than I know what to do with. Apart from getting myself back on track mentally + feverishly waiting for ATARs/revisiting ATAR calculators, or waiting for Rick and Morty Season 4, rewatching what of South Park I can; I think that's all there is (and maybe getting fit again!).

Enjoy your break and whatever you choose to do with it! Do you start doing Christmassy things in November, or do you think Christmas begins strictly on December 1st? ;D
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: fun_jirachi on December 17, 2019, 08:35:52 pm
!!CONGRATULATIONS!!

Enjoy your break and whatever you choose to do with it! Do you start doing Christmassy things in November, or do you think Christmas begins strictly on December 1st? ;D


Sorry I missed this! I've been heckling my friends about playing Mariah Carey before December, so November is definitely too early.

Today was a rollercoaster of a day. Pulled an all-nighter just waiting for results, so I am totally cooked, and it was pretty exciting when I got my results. It was kind of vindicating albeit a little disappointing that I couldn't do a bit better in English, but it is what it is, and I was pretty stoked up until about 12pm. At this point, I started worrying about ATAR again after seeing my school's success rate jump from about 45% to 51.5%, a 6.5% change from last year, but decrease in school ranking from 7th to 10th. Surprisingly, this meant that there must've been a load of band 6's (super competitive in the opening year of the new syllabus) and then the scaling of everything must've also been pretty scuffed, and as such because of the relative devaluation of band 6's my ATAR would probably take a reasonable nosedive of the 99.2-3 that was predicted by calcs. I was sitting next to a friend of mine and we opened up UAC, and sure enough, we lost a couple of decimal places off the calcs. Seeing other people in my cohort deviating anywhere from -0.7 to -1.2 meant that this was just an extremely tough year - 51.5% success rate would've been top 5 in most other years and then my results would have likely been a 99.2 or 99.3 in other years. Despite the clear justification that it was a tough year this year, I was slightly disappointed, but still satisfied; another weight off my back.

This probably concludes this journal and my evolution from an immature person who answered math questions on the forum to a slightly less immature person who still answers math questions on the forum. To everyone; sincerely, thank you so much! For reading, following, supporting - really don't know what else to say.

Hope everyone is pleased with their results :)
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: caffinatedloz on December 19, 2019, 09:25:49 pm
Congratulations fun_jirachi on great results! ;D It has been so great to follow your journey and get to know you around the forums. Your help has not gone unnoticed. Hope to hear about your plans for next year before you fully conclude this journal! Are you off to Uni? Once again, congratulations!
Title: Re: The Depresso Expresso (fun_jirachi's HSC Journey)
Post by: Fluffysama_ on June 09, 2020, 10:45:22 pm
soooooo its the end of yet another week, and as my two trials are now behind me i realised i could start celebrating?!?!?!?!
yeah well obviously not. my student portal was updated today, and it kindly reminded me i have two months to the external exam for 2U and Modern History like i mean why you're inducing stress way too early
also i was woken to the sad reality that prelim exists, and so apparently i was meant to have an essay for dystopia due today for english extension? but we stalled the teacher out, and honestly, even though i'll keep trying so english doesnt drag me down, idgaf about english (sorry to all you english lovers, STEM boy for life, never gonna change). this is mainly because everyone knows the english department uses a random number generator for marks is very fair (not that the people that get good marks don't deserve them, just that this whole mark allocation thing is blown out of proportion). i feel like english is getting more and more subjective, and no matter how hard i try or how much feedback i get from my teacher, im not going to improve??!?! like in the reading to write module i think i handed in 3 or so drafts and i got something like 80% (mind you not complaning over a pretty good mark, just not up to the standards i need, but predominantly want) and in the next assessment i put in more work and asked for more feedback and i got 70%? i dunno seriously, and the next dumb thing i gotta do for english is a video essay like wtf why, teacher says that visuals dont matter and you will be judged on your ability to convey whatever whatever, but honestly i think that's such bs, aesthetic ones will get the teacher's attention and make them look more kindly on the task
also another wakeup call to the fact prelim exists was the fact that we go off on exam break/period in two weeks, and that all of module 4 for chem is due as is physics very very soon. we were really behind, so we sorta rushed for both sciences. tbh its very similar content with physics (thermodynamics) and chemistry (enthalpy) but electricity and magnetism is so cool
also we started the X1 course, having the best time with X1

alsoooo who is coming to unsw open day tomorrow?

thanks for reading this (if you have and not actually skimmed it jkjk), i recognise that it was a big trek

TLDR english sucks, prelims coming up


i totally laughed way too hard and the humour is way too good here, dunno if you're still on the forum but y'all be fire n hope you are doing well rn :)
Motivated me to start on hw or sum kekek, also wish I was here when you were talking about the open days, would've been so cool to meet people from the forum, das way cool, see you around