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March 29, 2024, 10:15:41 am

Author Topic: Autime's Jumbled Journal  (Read 22379 times)

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Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #15 on: May 10, 2021, 08:32:30 pm »
+5
10/5/2021 - T2 Week 4
Maths & Study Planner

Finally caught up with maths, so that's a weight off of my shoulders, although I can hardly feel it with all the other work ahead of me. I was in a rut for a bit a few weeks earlier, but now I'm back on track since last week.

I've been thinking about the possibility of doing extension maths next year, however I'm not sure how to enrol when applications open, I'll have to ask a teacher about it later this year.

I finally decided to make one of those massive study planners for the entire year, I've always put it off since it seemed too daunting to give myself that much accountability to stick to something long-term. The planner has a week-by-week outline of the tasks that I want to have done by that week, the same as my weekly goals on here but for the whole year in advance. More than half of it is revision of whatever I may be struggling with at the time, past exams and practice essays.

T2 Week 4 Goals:
- Specialist Assigned Work
- Methods 9M-10 review
- Write 5 Text Response Essays (untimed)
« Last Edit: May 17, 2021, 10:04:24 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2021, 10:02:04 pm »
+6
17/5/2021 - T2 Week 5
Balance & Improvement

I can't believe the term is already almost half way through. It's week five already! I have so much work to balance with Methods, English and Specialist, it's so easy to lose track of time and spend way too long on maths before I realise I have no time to do write essays for English. I should compartmentalise my studying into doing only English or maths at school during study periods/lunch-time and the other subject at home.

I received my English argument analysis SAC results and got 92%. That's a good result, but I think my school must go easy on us in terms of marking, since what I write looks nothing like the high-level responses from past exams. To improve I should have edited more of the essays I wrote to make my writing as succinct and as dense as possible, and focused more on strengthening my vocabulary. I was overvaluing how much the quantity of essays written contributes to improving my writing, writing less essays with consistency but a greater focus on editing, understanding the text completely, and improving them would have been better.

Sometimes I wonder if it's even possible for me to be able to get a 50 in English since others are able to improve faster than I do, but that just motivates me more, the thought of being able to beat 'talent' with hard work.



T2 Week 5 Goals:
- Specialist assigned work
- Write 7 Text response essays (<2 hrs)
- Methods Ch. 10 Review
- Methods Revision (Ch. 1-4)
« Last Edit: May 24, 2021, 08:08:38 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2021, 08:38:23 pm »
+6
24/5/2021
Slacking off & Cross Country

Week six is here, and that means I'm due a mid-term crisis where I remember that I have one chance to do my best at my 3/4 subjects with no time to waste. That's a bit of an exaggeration, however I have been slacking off a bit this term. I need to re-evaluate my study habits and stop procrastination/putting things off until the last minute. As well as catch up with methods and spend more time on English each day.

Divisional cross country is tomorrow. I'm excited to go, I doubt I'll even get top twenty considering how little training I've done, but I'm hoping to get a time of around 20 mins. I was running every day at one point, then over the past month or two I stopped. I did some this week in preparation for cross-country. Most of long-distance running is mental, so if I control my mindset and push myself, I'm sure I can do well.

T2 Week 6 Goals:
- Specialist Assigned work
- Catch up with methods

- Run ~20 min time for cross-country
- Write 5 Text response essays on The Golden Age
« Last Edit: June 07, 2021, 08:43:12 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2021, 09:43:57 pm »
+3
31/5/2021 - Week 7
Remote Learning & Spark

For once, I feel like I have a lot to write about. I had cross country on Tuesday, I’m not sure what time I ran, but it felt like it was the best I’ve ever done. I placed 12th place which qualifies me to go to the next stage as an emergency runner (I run if two people in the top ten can’t go). Hopefully the event will still go ahead, but with restrictions who knows? I don’t like running with others for some reason, it’s like I dread knowing that I’m going to push myself that much.

Remote learning is back on for this week until Friday for now, that makes everything 10 times harder for me. Learning online at home is much harder for me personally, I have more distractions, lose the structure and positive social pressure of school, which makes me either overwork myself for hours or do nothing productive for hours. That was last time, however this time will be a redemption round, to test out all the good habits I’ve built up and strengthen my internal motivation.

Recently, that spark of motivation has come back to me. It went away, probably from the routine of school and laziness. I’m doing everything I can to make sure it doesn’t go away again. I’m going to work harder than I ever have before (for school at least) for these few weeks coming up with SACs for English and Methods coming up and unit 1 tests.

T2 Week 7 Goals:
- Specialist assigned work
- Methods catch up (still)
- Run every day
- Write 6 Text response essays on The Golden Age
« Last Edit: June 07, 2021, 08:44:03 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #19 on: June 07, 2021, 08:41:30 pm »
+5
7/6/2021 - T2 Week 8
Habits & Becoming A Workaholic

VCE is slowly killing me, I’ll be a husk of a being by the end of year 12. Joking aside, I have A LOT of work to do over the next few weeks with unit 1&2 exams and 3&4 SACs.

I’ve been doing well so far with keeping up with the workload, but it was hard-going for a few weeks back. What changed was a shift in my mindset from focusing on working independently of my environment, to changing my environment to make it easier to work. I’ve deleted all games from my school pc, moved all devices out of my room when studying, and blocked some other websites with Cold Turkey Blocker. I was underestimating how important it is to do everything in the right place and time. For example, only using your bed for sleeping/reading or never watching YouTube or browsing ATARNotes when you should be studying. I was trying to build habits without focusing on my environment first and foremost, worrying about efficiency when I wasn’t using an effective method. At least now I’ve learnt what I was doing wrong, I was correlating my lack or results with laziness and not enough effort instead of focusing on what causes that laziness, bad habits. By removing the cues for those habits I’ve been able to study for longer and be more productive.

With that said, from my past lack of work, I now have almost no time for anything but work. I’ll need to start waking up earlier or staying up later and studying during lunch-time, I don’t want to be left thinking that I could have done more after my exams/SACs. I always feel like I haven’t done enough in the day, that I need to put more hours in to make up for my previous laziness. For now it’s justified with exams and SACs coming up, but I don’t want to make a habit of thinking that I need to do more all the time.

I’m back at school from remote learning, but there are no unit 1&2 subjects running because of exams. I’d say that online learning was overall a success since I finally realised how to get work done at home, by controlling my studying-environment. Only students doing 3&4 subjects are going to the physical school for now, the school feels empty because of it.

I have to finish an essay now, thank you for reading this if you did.

T2 Week 8 Goals:
- Revise trigonometry for methods
- Revise Physics material, make cheat sheet
- Write edit 6 text response essays on The Golden Age
- Methods Ch 11 A,B,C,D
& Ch 10 review
- Review all completed Specialist content
« Last Edit: June 15, 2021, 04:18:50 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

The Cat In The Hat

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #20 on: June 08, 2021, 09:22:04 am »
0
7/6/2021 - T2 Week 8
Habits & Becoming A Workaholic

VCE is slowly killing me, I’ll be a husk of a being by the end of year 12. Joking aside, I have A LOT of work to do over the next few weeks with unit 1&2 exams and 3&4 SACs.

I’ve been doing well so far with keeping up with the workload, but it was hard-going for a few weeks back. What changed was a shift in my mindset from focusing on working independently of my environment, to changing my environment to make it easier to work. I’ve deleted all games from my school pc, moved all devices out of my room when studying, and blocked some other websites with Cold Turkey Blocker. I was underestimating how important it is to do everything in the right place and time. For example, only using your bed for sleeping/reading or never watching YouTube or browsing ATARNotes when you should be studying. I was trying to build habits without focusing on my environment first and foremost, worrying about efficiency when I wasn’t using an effective method. At least now I’ve learnt what I was doing wrong, I was correlating my lack or results with laziness and not enough effort instead of focusing on what causes that laziness, bad habits. By removing the cues for those habits I’ve been able to study for longer and be more productive.

With that said, from my past lack of work, I now have almost no time for anything but work. I’ll need to start waking up earlier or staying up later and studying during lunch-time, I don’t want to be left thinking that I could have done more after my exams/SACs. I always feel like I haven’t done enough in the day, that I need to put more hours in to make up for my previous laziness. For now it’s justified with exams and SACs coming up, but I don’t want to make a habit of thinking that I need to do more all the time.

I’m back at school from remote learning, but there are no unit 1&2 subjects running because of exams. I’d say that online learning was overall a success since I finally realised how to get work done at home, by controlling my studying-environment. Only students doing 3&4 subjects are going to the physical school for now, the school feels empty because of it.

I have to finish an essay now, thank you for reading this if you did.

T2 Week 8 Goals:
- Revise trigonometry for methods
- Revise Physics material, do all review questions
- Write edit 6 text response essays on The Golden Age
- Methods Ch 11 A,B,C,D & Ch 10 review
- Review all completed Specialist content
Sounds like you're going well. :) Don't push yourself too hard, though.
VCE 20
HHD MM Revs (F/R) Eng T&T
ATAR 85
Uni 21-24: BNursing/BMidwifery @ Deakin
Y1T2:
HNM102
HNN122 (double)
HNN114
I hope I don't fail....
Listens to Amira Willighagen and Alma Deutscher and a little Marjolein Acke
~English - PM for P&P/creatives help~
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Nur/Mid uni journal

For Narnia and for Aslan!

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Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #21 on: June 15, 2021, 04:15:58 pm »
+3
15/6/2021 - T2 Week 9
Exam Results & SACs

I had two unit 1 exams on Thursday last week for specialist and physics. I spent over four hours making a cheat sheet and reviewing physics content, and less than four minutes on specialist. My results were 72% for physics and 78% for specialist. I think this proves how consistently studying is better than cramming right before the test. I paid no attention at the online classes for physics, so I didn’t know any of the last area of study before the test. That’s not to say I consistently put in effort for specialist either, I have fallen behind multiple times and only do the bare minimum. The specialist test was probably easier than the physics one, so there’s not much point in comparing these marks.

Next week I have a five-hour methods SAC on chapters 1 to 10 of the Cambridge textbook over three days, as well as a text response SAC on The Golden Age for English. I don’t feel fully prepared for either test, but I can only do what I can to prepare, so I shouldn’t need to worry about them so long as I prepare well. English is much more daunting for me than methods, despite the SAC counting for less of the overall SAC mark compared to methods. I need to do timed practice essays within the time limit to be ready. For methods, I’ll prioritise reviewing chapter 2, 6, 9, and 10 as well as anything else I’m weak on.

The school days feel shorter now, maybe being more committed to studying for longer periods of time makes the time outside of school feel longer. I was productive for most of last week, except for yesterday, I just have to be conscious to not fall back into bad habits. I can hardly believe that it’s nearly the end of the term. Time, as it always seems to, is moving very fast overall. I need to make the most of it and never underestimate it’s value.

T2 Week 9 Goals:
- Revise methods Ch. 2, 6, 9, 10
- Complete 10 timed practice essays on The Golden Age
- Complete Specialist 14A-E
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

caffinatedloz

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #22 on: June 15, 2021, 05:51:28 pm »
+3
Congratulations on all the hard work you put into preparing for your Year 11 exams. It's so hard to stay motivated online! What are you doing in spec at the moment?

I think it's only natural to feel like you're falling a bit behind from time to time- if you're anything like me, it probably feels a lot worse than it is. I'm sure that by the time your next two sacs come around you'll feel heaps better! Are you able to get feedback on your practice essays?

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #23 on: June 16, 2021, 11:53:43 pm »
+3
Thank you for the response. I’m starting further trigonometry for specialist, the course has gone over transformations of the plane, sequences, vectors and less complicated trig as well as some other things.

I can get some feedback from the teacher for English, I usually get around two essays handed in to the teacher per essay type. It’s not a lot of feedback and I think that the marking standards are quite low at my school, but I always take notes on what I need to improve next time after writing an essay so it’s not a big deal.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2021, 11:57:01 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #24 on: June 21, 2021, 08:26:43 pm »
+3
21/6/2021 T2 Week 10
Hope

Last week of this term, that went by fast. I should be feeling all the pressure for the 3/4 SACs I have for tomorrow and the day after, but instead I’m feeling motivated to do well now and make next term even better; to improve. My results for these SACs coming up will be what they’ll be, and it’s not the end of the world if I don’t do well on them, there should be opportunities to redeem myself later. I’ve been doing a lot of preparation for methods, but I didn’t do enough of chapter 10 to prepare It turns out that most of the SAC is based around it (Applications of differentiation).

I’ll still do some more to prepare, but English is of a higher priority right now, I’m going to rewrite two essays that on topics that are likely to resemble the SAC essay choices and memorise some quotes. I think I forgot that I’m not always limited to who I am now, that was kind of de-motivating me a bit. I’ll be able to grow and improve my writing using what I learn now from making mistakes to learn how to get it right.

Lately, I’ve been going ahead in physics, and it’s made the slow-paced class a lot more fun. I planned to do the same for specialist, but I ran out of time with SAC preparation to do. I should have more time after my SACs are over. School and life in general seem brighter than before. Instead of thinking about what I might regret, I’ve started to look to the future about who I can become.

T2 Week 10 Goals:
- Revise Methods chapter 10
- Re-write English essays (timed)
- Memorise quotes
- Complete chapter 9 questions for physics
- Complete Specialist 14A-D
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #25 on: June 30, 2021, 10:38:23 pm »
+5
30/6/2021 T2 Holidays Week 1
Momentum

This update is a bit late, but better late than never. I completed an English and methods SAC last week. They didn’t go well, I only completed half of my text response essay and I’ll be lucky to get 50% for the methods test. I didn’t study enough of chapter 10 in methods and had little experience with worded questions. My practice was good for getting the concepts and theory down, but it was not examinable, at least not for SACs. In English, I didn’t perfect my writing on any themes or ideas, meaning what I wrote wasn’t going to be good enough regardless of if I did more timed practices to finish in time. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t get stressed, I knew that what my results were going to be would mainly depend on what I’ve done in the past, it wasn’t a hope that I might be able to do well, but a resignation; an acceptance of my inevitable failure.

I’ve always wanted to do something considered impossible, but coming back from bad results and study habits isn’t such. It’s achievable and in knowing that I can move forwards. I have to do everything I can to make up for my past failures and to make progress. I probably won’t have time in the holidays to go ahead by much, but that shouldn’t be necessary if I can master everything thus far and build momentum. Maybe that’s something I’ve been lacking, momentum, I always stop and start, rarely building from my past mistakes in a practical sense. I’ll do that more often.

I have to read the book ‘Ransom’ for my comparative response essay, but that book is very difficult to read, it’s like it was cryptically written by an Ancient Greek philosopher and was poorly translated into English. I think it’s based on an excerpt from Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, so maybe I should read that first. I also have to complete most of a point of view presentation by the end of the holidays and get through a few worksheets of methods questions.

T2 Holidays Week 1 goals:
- Find out how to read Ransom & start reading it
- Complete Methods worksheets
- Start planning point of view presentation
- Figure out how to go about mastering English writing more effectively

- Complete Specialist Ch. 14
« Last Edit: July 05, 2021, 05:12:48 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

The Cat In The Hat

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #26 on: July 02, 2021, 10:26:43 am »
+1
Ahhh, Ransom.... I hated it. What I did, though, was I simply charged through it, never mind if I understood it or no. Then I did so again, and it became a little more clear. Then we went through it in class, and it became still more clear.
That'd be my advice: read it again and again and use Youtube liberally, probably!
VCE 20
HHD MM Revs (F/R) Eng T&T
ATAR 85
Uni 21-24: BNursing/BMidwifery @ Deakin
Y1T2:
HNM102
HNN122 (double)
HNN114
I hope I don't fail....
Listens to Amira Willighagen and Alma Deutscher and a little Marjolein Acke
~English - PM for P&P/creatives help~
Creative excerpts
Nur/Mid uni journal

For Narnia and for Aslan!

she/her

Basically inactive now. May change. Have a nice day.

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #27 on: July 05, 2021, 05:06:01 pm »
+3
5/7/2021 T2 Holidays Week 2
Books & Progress

I’m back on track, I’ve been setting more realistic goals each day and I’m building up to doing more work with each passing day. I’ve been writing in a journal all the things I have to do and any good ideas I have, apparently it’s meant to make you more productive and less distracted. I collected about 40 books from the free online library, Z-library, on productivity, self-improvement, and skill building. I’ve been working through them. I read a short book on memory, reading speed, and thinking ability, but it was quite basic. I also read one on improving at eSports, I always find performance psychology interesting. I’m currently reading ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’. I’ve been waking up early every day, which is rare. Reading books seems to make me more proactive.

I know how to improve my English writing skills now, by perfecting every essay I write through editing over and over until there’s nothing you can see to improve, then practicing in timed conditions, as well as comparing your responses with high level examples. That method is basically what I wanted to do at the start of the year, however I ended up sacrificing the quality of my essays for producing a higher quantity, but writing average responses over and over will only make you more efficient at writing average essays. You need to refine what you’ve already written to understand how to implement improvements in what you’re going to write.

Now I’m not sure what I should be focusing on. I kind of suck at everything, so I guess I’ll prioritise what’s going to be coming up on SACs first before brushing up my skills on other essay types. I’ve made good progress on the oral presentation, I’m discussing if Australia’s education system is failing (I think it is). I also read more of ransom, it still makes no sense for the most part.

Overall, I know that it won’t be easy going forwards since there are people who have more skills, more experience, and more talent than I do, but I am capable of working harder, focusing more, and improving through consistent effort and reviewing my progress, so I should be ok.

T2 Holidays Week 2 Goals:
- Finish reading ransom, and find resources to help decipher it
- Start reading ransom again

- Complete methods worksheets (still)
- Master methods Ch. 6 (circular functions) (or at least become comfortable with)
- Finish oral presentation script
- Finish Specialist ch. 14
- Review English vocabulary on Anki daily
« Last Edit: July 11, 2021, 09:24:03 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

Autime

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #28 on: July 11, 2021, 10:00:12 pm »
+5
11/7/2021 - T3 Week 1
Consistency

Tomorrow it’s officially the start of term 3. Time flies by so fast. This week I was very productive, I completed almost everything that I set out to and for the most part made good use of my time. I was able to wake up early, go running and study for long hours every day. It’s like the systems of how I do things and how I make sure I don’t get distracted or procrastinate finally reached the level necessary to take consistent action to achieve my goals. I think the biggest factor in this change was consistently writing in my physical journal any thoughts I had that I believed were worth taking note of, or that I need to remember. By writing these things down, it made me much more proactive; I was looking for where I can make improvements or changes consistently and taking the actions needed to implement them since there were less distracting thoughts in my head.

I joined a discord group called StudyBeasts where you can join a call on discord or 8x8 to study with other people for extra accountability. It adds a bit of positive social pressure when you’re studying, it’s always in the back of your mind that there are others struggling with you in a way.

I haven’t had much time to read anything except Ransom lately. I finished ransom and only have a hazy understanding of the main plot and know a few main characters, it felt like not a lot happened in the book, but somehow it says a lot simultaneously. I still need to complete 3 of the 6 methods worksheets, there were a lot of concepts on there that I have forgotten.

Last Week’s Goals:
- Finish reading ransom, and find resources to help decipher it
- Start reading ransom again

- Complete methods worksheets (still)
- Master methods Ch. 6 (circular functions) (or at least become comfortable with)
- Finish oral presentation script
- Finish Specialist ch. 14
- Review English vocabulary on Anki daily


T3 Week 1 Goals:
- Assigned specialist work (if anything new gets added)
- Re-learn methods topics
- Complete last 3 Methods worksheets
- Complete statement of intention for oral
- Record oral presentation speech
- Read ransom again & other resources on it
- Revise Anki decks daily
« Last Edit: July 19, 2021, 08:21:17 pm by Autime »
2021: English [27], Methods [25]
2022: Spec, Physics, Business, English, Data Analytics

The Cat In The Hat

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Re: Weekly Journal
« Reply #29 on: July 14, 2021, 08:16:51 am »
+1
You sound so productive! Great job!
VCE 20
HHD MM Revs (F/R) Eng T&T
ATAR 85
Uni 21-24: BNursing/BMidwifery @ Deakin
Y1T2:
HNM102
HNN122 (double)
HNN114
I hope I don't fail....
Listens to Amira Willighagen and Alma Deutscher and a little Marjolein Acke
~English - PM for P&P/creatives help~
Creative excerpts
Nur/Mid uni journal

For Narnia and for Aslan!

she/her

Basically inactive now. May change. Have a nice day.