Marylen's VCE Journey

[Marylen]

Hey everyone. 
As of 11:48 am, I'm making my first ever VCE Journal. I decided it might be a good time to share my thoughts with the world amidst this chaos.
This year, I'm taking two VCE subjects early; Further maths and psychology. My course counselors strongly advised me against doing so because they've seen way too many instances of students underestimating the amount of work required but I decided to grit my teeth and sign the paper.
School is such a whirlwind! Homework is thrown at me left, right and centre on school weekdays!
I've been using my quarantine time to revise over everything I've learnt so far so that nothing will fall out of my brain. I'm a very forgetful person and that's my greatest weakness when doing psychology Studying ahead also helps me greatly so I've just been reading over my textbook for psychology and answering some practice questions. For further maths, I've been crafting my bound reference and doing practice questions for an upcoming SAC which is likely being postponed due to the virus. 

Of course, having a break is extremely healthy after intense study sessions. I like music as a hobby and I've been playing the bass guitar and classical guitar in my spare time. I also try to study music theory so I can jam along to some of my favourite songs. Does anyone know how to use the circle of fifths and what it represents? At night, my brothers and I have been playing games to kill time during the quarantine. We recently bought unstable unicorns but I'm still unsure of the instructions :/
I woke up quite late today so my plan is to get as much work done as I can before 2pm when I'll go out for lunch and have a little break before going back in to study my unit 1/2 subjects. The greatest challenge for me this year is knowing how to ensure that my time is well spent on my 3/4s yet my 1/2s won't be jeopardised. Casablanca has also been on my film watchlist for a while so I'll be watching that after I finish my homework and study!

I've said this somewhere on the forums already but I really regret not using my time wisely during my junior school years. Time was no object when I was in years 7-9 and I remember going home and having homework free nights and thinking how life was so pleasant with little work and daydreaming... That wonderland is now gone! I could've done so many things back then, accomplished so many goals but I'll never be getting that time back. It is going to be a gruelling 18 months of my life but I figured, if I can stay afloat, maintain a consistent work ethic inside and outside of school, my teachers will maintain their trust in me that I'll be able to do well and I can prove the naysayers wrong!

Every positive action has a reward.
-Julian Casablancas

[J_Rho]

~ snip ~

YAY! I can't wait to see how you progress this year!
Do you have a favourite out of your 3/4's?
What other subjects are you doing this year?

[Marylen]

YAY! I can't wait to see how you progress this year!
Do you have a favourite out of your 3/4's?
What other subjects are you doing this year?

Hey J_Rho! I guess I like both subjects equally because math has been a strength of mine but I also like psychology because it's a very interesting science compared to the major sciences but I feel like I have a love hate relationship with it because I find that sometimes, I get mental blanks when writing an answer or I foolishly leave something out and then I score really low for a test I got an 82% on my first SAC and I was really sad but I told myself, being sad won't solve anything and a solution is to just revise my study skills and work on some more areas. I stupidly wrote that the freeze response was activated by the sympathetic nervous system during my first SAC! 

I like further because the workload is easy to keep up with and I can easily figure out if an answer is wrong or right but math gets a bit boring sometimes lol

I've noticed that you're also doing units 3/4 psych as well! Are you enjoying it so far?

[J_Rho]

Hey J_Rho! I guess I like both subjects equally because math has been a strength of mine but I also like psychology because it's a very interesting science compared to the major sciences but I feel like I have a love hate relationship with it because I find that sometimes, I get mental blanks when writing an answer or I foolishly leave something out and then I score really low for a test I got an 82% on my first SAC and I was really sad but I told myself, being sad won't solve anything and a solution is to just revise my study skills and work on some more areas. I stupidly wrote that the freeze response was activated by the sympathetic nervous system during my first SAC! 

I like further because the workload is easy to keep up with and I can easily figure out if an answer is wrong or right but math gets a bit boring sometimes lol

I've noticed that you're also doing units 3/4 psych as well! Are you enjoying it so far?

I am enjoying it! I'm finding the concepts fairly easy to grasp but I really need to work on my expression. For my first SAC I got 84% which I was disappointed with because the marks I lost were because I didn't answer some of the questions properly.
I defs agree with what you're saying about further, the answers are very simple and i find that because some of the concepts are easy to grasp and apply I feel like I'm doing it wrong or missing something. The idea of if it's too easy you're prolly doing it wrong.

What sparked your interest in guitar?

[Chocolatemilkshake]

Nice to meet you Marylen and welcome to AN! I'm excited to read your journal over the next few months and follow your journal.

Do you have any idea what you want to do post-school yet?

All the best for the next term  - CM

[eloisegrace]

Hello Marylen! Nice to meet a new ANer like myself

What 1/2 subjects are you taking? Can't wait to hear more about your VCE journey

[lm21074]

Hey Marylen! Great to have you here

Looking at your profile picture, are you a Gilmore Girls fan? If so, who's your favourite character?

Hope you enjoy the rest of your holidays!

[Marylen]

Hey Everyone! Thanks for the warm welcomes!
This year, I'm taking English, Methods, Accounting and Chemistry for my 1/2s!
I actually made this account back in 2018 to check out the threads for selective school entrance and for the John Monash high school entrance exam but I didn't start posting until this year because I was still a bit shy lol  A bit of a backstory... I tried out for the selective school entrance exam when I was in yr 8 and was utterly devastated when I didn't get in. I just felt so stupid and agitated because my older brother got into Melbourne High and I didn't. Regardless, I'm still super happy with my group of supportive friends at my current school. I had people in my junior classes who would fool around, make fun of people for studying and trying hard in academia and were exactly like Jonah Takalua which was why I desperately wanted to get out.

When I was younger, my parents enrolled me to take classical guitar lessons to keep me occupied and ever since, I've loved classical guitar and music. Since year 7, I've been playing the bass guitar in the school ensemble and I love it as well since you can play super cool bass licks and riffs and jam!

I love Gilmore Girls! I really like Rory Gilmore because she's such a diligent and hardworking person and I feel like I share a lot in common with her. I also like Sookie because she's such a boisterous and funny chef ahhaha 

How do you add the cute hyperlinks at your signatures? I just pasted my journal link and it looks so messy. 

[JerryMouse2019]

Hey Marylen,

It's great that you're challenging yourself with taking further maths and maths methods. I could probably only do that in my dreams. I've taken the equivalent of further maths up here in Queensland (we call it general maths). We're only allowed to do one maths subject (unless if you want to do specialist alongside methods) throughout units 1-4. So we can't do a subject only for units 1-2. In my opinion, that makes the QCE system far more easier to understand than the VCE system. You mentioned in another post that maths is one of your strengths, so what do you believe helps you understand concepts in maths easily?

I quit learning the piano after 5 years last year so I want to know, how much awesome is it to be able to play the acoustic guitar?

I'm planning on learning the acoustic guitar soon and I wanted to know, what should I learn first (when it comes to the acoustic guitar)?

Good luck with your VCE journey,

Kind Regards
JerryMouse2019

[lm21074]

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P.S. I think Rory and Sookie are great characters too

mild spoiler alert if you haven't seen Gilmore Girls: A Day In The Life

Rory changes soo much though, but like mother, like daughter

[Marylen]

Hey Marylen,

It's great that you're challenging yourself with taking further maths and maths methods. I could probably only do that in my dreams. I've taken the equivalent of further maths up here in Queensland (we call it general maths). We're only allowed to do one maths subject (unless if you want to do specialist alongside methods) throughout units 1-4. So we can't do a subject only for units 1-2. In my opinion, that makes the QCE system far more easier to understand than the VCE system. You mentioned in another post that maths is one of your strengths, so what do you believe helps you understand concepts in maths easily?

I quit learning the piano after 5 years last year so I want to know, how much awesome is it to be able to play the acoustic guitar?

I'm planning on learning the acoustic guitar soon and I wanted to know, what should I learn first (when it comes to the acoustic guitar)?

Good luck with your VCE journey,

Kind Regards
JerryMouse2019

Hey Jerry!
Thank you! I guess ever since I was young I always enjoyed numbers and thought there was something magical about maths. One time in primary school, the teacher brought those chocolate mudcakes from Woolworths and taught us how fractions worked and what happens if you added a piece and subtracted a piece. I left class a different person that day. It was such a simple concept but I always found it fascinating since maths is extremely applicable to real life, even in the most basic circumstances; there is just math everywhere. This was one of the reasons why I chose further - statistics is extremely applicable in real life and it's interesting getting to understand what the data means. Methods is much more imaginative and tricky but I also like it nonetheless because the concepts and questions are like little puzzles for me. I also liked how with maths, if you know the formula and how to apply it, you're good to go whereas in English, there's no 'black and white' answer so it's harder for me in that sense. I would've loved to choose specialist maths as well but since VCE is such a short ride, I don't think I would have enough time for it if I have other subjects to revise for.

I love playing the guitar! I mostly read sheet music from my classical guitar book or I find sheet music online. I find music very therapeutic especially when I'm playing classical songs because it sounds romantic in a way I guess. I think that the best starting point is just simply start off by doing chromatic scale exercises to improve your finger dexterity on the fretboard. Feel free to shoot more questions and I'll try my best to help!

What other subjects have you been doing alongside general maths? Did you enjoy it? I agree - when I was picking my subjects, it got really convoluted so my course counselling session took such a long time.

[Marylen]

To hyperlink, you can type:

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You can change the colour by clicking on the change color dropdown box below and putting the text between the two sets of brackets, like in the code above. The list is not exhaustive - the colour of this text is not on it! You can see the giant list of colours available here.

Have fun hyperlinking!

P.S. I think Rory and Sookie are great characters too

mild spoiler alert if you haven't seen Gilmore Girls: A Day In The Life

Rory changes soo much though, but like mother, like daughter

Thank you!! I need to get on to the sequel soon!

[Marylen]

Wassup everybody it's ya girl Marylen back at it again with another journal update. WHEW, online learning is such a massive transition for me. I never thought I would say this but I miss school, I miss the head of senior school telling me off for being late, I miss every aspect of schooling. I just feel so demotivated and sad. Its hard to explain but I haven't seen my friends or teachers for basically nearly a month now.

I've seen people do this so I thought I might do it as well. I think it's absolutely imperative to put my goals down in a public area so I don't become lazy and lose the plot.
GOALS AS OF 12:30pm 18/04/2020 ACCOUNTING:
I need to get on top of my accounting homework otherwise my teacher will yell at me on my WebEx call. I am so behind I have so many balance sheets to do, income statements. This subject takes up SO MUCH TIME.

CHEMISTRY:
Chemistry isn't bad at the moment. I have a SAC on intermolecular bonds and intramolecular bonds so I don't feel too bad at the moment.

EVERYTHING ELSE:
I only have chapter 5 homework and chapter 6 homework to do before my methods test. Number notation is a bit confusing but I'm sort of getting the hang of it.

Further Maths:
I'm moving on to financial maths. It seems a bit confusing since I jumped straight into 3/4 without doing general but I think I'll get the hang of it after doing more practice questions.

Psych:
Psych isn't bad, I find that the subject requires a lot of rote learning but it's very interesting so I find myself coming back to it often. This week we're getting reading to move onto chapter 7, the reliability of memory so I've been reading the textbook inside and out and doing as many practice questions I can on the previous chapters so nothing slips out of my head. I also like to get a headstart on the topics I'll be doing so I won't crap myself later when the barrage of SACS come my way lol.

This week has arguably been the most unproductive week of my life YET. My teachers have been giving me work to do on Compass and catching up via email. WebEx calls won't start until next week. The only reason why I like to learn at home is because I don't have to get up early. Throughout the week, I've been making my psychology notes refined, practicing more psych exam style questions. I've been telling myself that if I don't work hard now, I'll have to bear the burden later of getting a crappy study score. I'm trying my hardest but I'm just so used to the classroom setting and going 'hey Miss I need help' and I can't really do that now 

Accounting absolutely does my head in. It is EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING when the balance sheet does not balance.

I'm just working on my English analysing argument work at the moment so I can quickly get it out of the way to do my 3/4s.
I want to go back to school

[Marylen]

Hey everyone
Well, last week, I did a chemistry test on bonding.... I got a 63%. I feel so depressed right now because I've never gotten such a low score for any of my subjects before. I feel like if I get a 63%, it's just going to be a domino effect and next time I'll just get even lower.. Last night I couldn't sleep because of the score.

I have a methods test tomorrow, I feel pretty prepared since I've been studying for it bit by bit. I'll add an update later. Apologies for the negativity guys.

[Marylen]

Hey Everyone 
Apologies for the hiatus, I'll try my best to update my journal every once in a while to reflect on my journey. 
First things first...
I have a Chem sac on Thursday. 1/2 chem SUCKS man. I'm not surprised if I'll get a 50% I nearly failed my last chem sac. Screw polymers I forking hate it My chem teacher is a lioness and last time she got extremely furious that someone 'accidentally' overslept and joined the videocall at 10am :/
Ok so that's off my chest, I have a psychology SAC within the next week. I get extremely angry when I forget things for this subject so I have been recording my voice on my phone and playing it before I got to sleep it's not even funny anymore. I also teach my soft toys. Not sure if my teddy bear was too keen learning about Alzheimer's but whatever... (Thank you Whys for the tip!!!)
I also did some mathematics, just some light reading and a few exercises on the unit circle and some transformations to get a bit of a jump start... It's never too early amirite?...
On the topic of maths, I want to jump off a cliff when I get a question wrong in further. Honestly, I had a test and I lost 1 petty little utterly stupid mark on accidentally calculating the seasonal index for spring instead of summer. -_-
I find that my kryptonite is when the dreaded SAC comes along and for some reason they're all paired in the same week. It just sucks but I'm trying to cope with it but maintaining a consistent work ethic so I don't cram and then enter the exhaustion stage of GAS and potentially contract a virus or something.
English is pretty cruzy right now. I had to record my orals and send it to my teacher the other week but I didn't know how to crop it because my phone kept on freezing so I pretty much sent her some 'behind the scenes' footage of me talking to myself, adjusting my phone several times because it kept on falling and some yoga stretches before I started.

Outside of studying, I managed to do a bit of gardening and some skipping rope exercises. Anyways, I was eating a bread roll outside and I threw some chilli slices from the bread on the ground in front of me and a pigeon came over and ate it... not sure if birds can tolerate spicy food but I hope so...
I thought jumping onto the Netflix crime bandwagon would be a good idea so I decided to watch Don't F With Cats the other day.  Despite managing to binge watch a whole 3 hours I was completely shaken by the heinous crimes so I reverted back to watching The Good Place for some light hearted humour. Regrets life decisions

I guess it's time for me to sleep now. Nite everybody.