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Author Topic: Lucimatics' Journey  (Read 2817 times)

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lucimatics

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Lucimatics' Journey
« on: June 21, 2018, 03:14:10 pm »
+3
Hi everyone,

I'm Lucimatics, and I'm mid-way through Year 7. I have started this journal to motivate myself and reflect on my progress through-out my long journey to VCE.

In terms of my subjects, I am taking the standard courses for my year level, except I am in a Year 10 class for my mathematical ability.
Despite this, none of my school undertakings are any where near my self-educational acheivements, including, but not limited to:

Core Subjects

Mathematics:

Currently working through a book on Linear Algebra, and consolidating some topics in Multivariate Calculus.
Undertaking a Year 10 class aimed at higher acheiving students in that year level
Not taking a VCE subject yet.

Science:

Working through the well-known Physics textbook by Resnick and Halliday. I have planned to finish it by 2019.
Comprehensive fluency in Chemistry - currently working through a university-level textbook
Some knowledge in Biology, principally on a molecular level.

English:

Consistently given full marks on most essays and narrative pieces
Extensive vocabulary
Write often for reasons unrelated to schoolwork
Writing speed at around 1000 words/per hour on difficult topics, and much higher on topics approached more enthusiastically.

History:

Scores well in tests and essays.
Considering building a firmer general knowledge through Herodotus' works

Languages:

French:

Extensive ability, currently top of Advanced French class aimed at billingual students, despite my studies starting in late 2017
Currently consolidating concepts through VCE syllabus
Improving listening ability through TED talks in French

Latin:

Well ahead of class, currently comfortably partway through CLC Book 1.
Aiming to complete a stage a week, an easily manageable goal.

Arabic:

Just commenced, systematically building a strong vocabulary base through Memrise

Russian:

Some knowledge at an elementary level, aiming at learning 20 words a day.

Chinese:

Able to comprehend native speakers, but not currently actively developing my fluency

Music

Cello:

Currently aiming at acquiring LMusA certificate by end of year
Working through well-known and difficult concertos
Strained relationship with school music department
Learning for about 5 years

Piano:

Learning for about a year and a half
Working on some AMusA pieces
Able to play many of Chopin's nocturnes
Currently learning a few Beethoven Sonatas

Visual Arts:

Highly admired by arts department for my impressive artwork (when given a pencil!)
Not currently considering pursuing this ability to VCE
Practising consistently

So, those are my subjects! I will be tracking my progress through these subjects, sharing the ridiculous statements of my teachers (such as the now infamous relationship between Alexander the Great and Cleopatra), essay marks, and a few random thoughts sprinkled in between. You can expect me to post biweekly, on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Feel free to ask any questions! :)



K888

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2018, 05:00:08 pm »
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Welcome! Excited to follow your journey :)

You seem really busy with school work and learning! Do you play any sports (or do anything like that) outside of school to give you some time to chill out?

Do you have any plans for the upcoming school holidays?

stolenclay

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2018, 10:01:24 pm »
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Do you have any goals for what happens after high school? I mean, although you are in Year 7, you are obviously a very high achieving student, so it would be interesting to know if you've thought that far yet. There's a good chance that post-high school may occur for you before 2024 even!
Thoughts on my journey through university
2014–2016 BCom (Actl), DipMathSc @ UoM
2017–2018 Master of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) @ UoM

AngelWings

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2018, 10:02:57 pm »
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I'm Lucimatics, and I'm mid-way through Year 7. I have started this journal to motivate myself and reflect on my progress through-out my long journey to VCE.
I see we have a keen bean over here. (It's not a criticism. I find it rather endearing, actually.)
What do you do to take a break from all of this?
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
VTAC Info Thread

lucimatics

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2018, 05:42:42 pm »
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Thank you all for your helpful and encouraging responses! I will try to answer them :)

Welcome! Excited to follow your journey :)

You seem really busy with school work and learning! Do you play any sports (or do anything like that) outside of school to give you some time to chill out?

Do you have any plans for the upcoming school holidays?

Thanks! I guess I would be considered rather busy by many, but really, I enjoy it! In terms of 'chilling out', so to speak, I generally let my mind ramble across bizarre tangents during my music practice, but another interest I cultivate is that of meditation, and perhaps more exhilarating, lucid dreaming. I generally aim to meditate 20 minutes a day, quietly observing thoughts and daydreams. That way, I find that I can enjoy my work to the fullest, with the neurons of rumination 'worked out'.

Meanwhile, I taught myself the art of 'lucid dreaming', a few years ago, exploring the depths of the dreamscape, and trying out new experiments. Indeed, now that interest has become an intrinsic part of my life, providing fascinating ideas, innovations, and insights into my waking mind. For instance, I came across a major breakthrough in one of my innovations just this morning. I could ramble about lucid dreaming for pages (I recently abused the lack of a word limit on an 'informative text', and clocked in over 2500 words to present to my bemused English teacher...), but I would say that it has allowed me to pursue my waking life interests to the fullest. Meanwhile, I do some fencing with my school, and sometimes with unaffiliated groups.

In terms of school holidays, I don't think the aim of your question is to ask what academic achievements I will have completed, but no, I don't think my mother has anything planned. However, I might visit one or two concerts during that time period. ;)

EYYYYY ma boi Herodotus!
EYYYYY ma bois Chopin and BAEthoven!!

Apologies for my over-enthusiasm but I got so excited while reading through your post! (massive music and history geek over here lol)

I'm honestly so amazed by the amount of academic and extracurricular activities you have and how much you have achieved / planning to achieve. Especially with music - playing AMusA pieces after 1.5 years of learning is extraordinary (it took me nearly 4 years before I even thought of pursuing AMus), especially considering the amount of other work you're juggling at the same time. How do you balance your time?

What sort of subjects are you thinking of studying for VCE?

Not VCE related, but what sort of pieces are you playing for LMusA?

Looking forward to your future updates! ;D

Thank you! I'm glad to have met someone with similar interests. I have a fairly rigorous schedule, but I often switch subjects around depending on how I feel. I work in 90 minute sessions, divided into periods of 25 minutes, each with a brief break in between. After that, I take a longer break for 20 minutes.
I find this system works extremely effectively, but I often forget to take 5 minute breaks in between, and end up studying for 100+ minutes at a time.

VCE Subjects? I think I need to receive at least some sort of guide from my school regarding their options, as I have been traditionally measuring myself against AP Courses in the USA. However, I think I would be looking at Specialist Mathematics, Mathematical Methods (compulsory?), Physics, Chemistry, Latin and French, but I am not comprehensively aware of how many one would do.

For my LMusA, I have the Haydn D Concerto, Dvorak Concerto, and Arpeggione Sonata to an exam standard, and have almost prepared Shostakovich I.
I also have a few List A pieces prepared at that level, including all the Bach Suites. However,  I am seeking to further diversify my repertoire, and with a wide expanse of choices, then apply for my LMusA. So, I haven't really firmly 'decided' yet.

Do you have any goals for what happens after high school? I mean, although you are in Year 7, you are obviously a very high achieving student, so it would be interesting to know if you've thought that far yet. There's a good chance that post-high school may occur for you before 2024 even!

Yes, I have many aspirations, but they mostly revolve around owning a business, indeed, one of my predominant goals is to found a space exploration company, or at least be at a senior level in that organisation, an ambition I have been fascinated with since I was a small child. Meanwhile, you seem to be interested about what age I will graduate at; I am not fully sure yet, but I would love to do a VCE subject, next year, in Year 8. In terms of university, I am aiming to study at Harvard, Oxford, or Cambridge, with one of my most tantalising incentives being the vision of wandering through the leafy streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and advancing through the large, wrought iron gateway to Harvard University...

Thank you for all the comments, I'll be posting an update of this weeks progress tomorrow!  ;D

lucimatics

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2018, 09:30:15 pm »
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Saturday 23rd

Hi,

I rose at around 8 A.M., well refreshed after a long week of battling illness, and soon, started my day with my music practice.
My piano playing is going well, and I am at a point of merely polishing the first movement of the Beethoven Sonata, and my warm-ups with Hanon exercises seem to be working, far from strenuous, but I often feel uncomfortable placing cold and seemingly frozen hands on the piano to commence a masterpiece, so this is a technique-aiding solution. Meanwhile, in my cellistic studies, I am also systematically working through the Popper's High School of Cello Playing, as of this week, and today, I warmed up with No. 4. On Sunday and Monday I have planned to review 1, 2, 3 and 4, but none have proved too difficult to perfect in a time-frame of 15 minutes or so. The Shostakovich is going well, and I am gaining more comfort with the previously blood-curdling progressions blotting the last page. However, I also enjoyed a successful cello lesson, and my teacher suggests doing some chromatic scales to perfect the intonation on the somewhat chromatic and atonal sections of the piece, so I will certainly investigate that.

I have not been particularly well, so I had to take a rest for around 20 minutes, just watching a few French videos, but soon I felt well enough to pursue some Latin. I found this really helpful resource, a few charts depicting the declensions and conjugations of the Latin nouns and verbs respectively, with the endings brightly coloured. Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, I have found it somewhat easier to navigate than confusing Wiktionary pages! Now, I am able to recognise, and emulate, the conjugations of all four groups, in the Present (Active Indicative), Imperfect, and Perfect. However, I am finding some measurable amount of difficulty in understanding how to generate the perfect root, flawlessly. Is it sometimes unique to various verbs, and more regular for others?
Meanwhile, I am more than confident I can move onto Stage 8 next week.

Arabic has not been too difficult; I seem to be maintaining a reasonable rate on Memrise, on a frequency list. I am desperate for some guidance on Grammar, but if all goes to plan, I should have learnt ~1000 words by the time the Duolingo Arabic course has launched, ample to navigate the course with ease. So far, I know a mere 60, mostly consisting of prepositions and conjunctions, likely key to be able to identify the significant words in the sentence as separate. I have been browsing a few short Arabic stories on a few blogs, and from their word composition, I hope that I shall be able to make a decent crack at them by at least late July.

Russian, has not been easy, with my perhaps ambitious goal of 20 words daily becoming slightly strenuous. However, I have devised a system where words I get wrong upon reviewing are recorded, and then, after perhaps some light revision, I test myself on again. Repeatedly difficult one's are then compiled into a list, where a memorable object designed to represent the word and its meaning, are placed in my memory palace. It seems to be working rather well, with the anchor only being necessary for at most a few days until it is integrated purely in my long-term memory. I wish my teachers would understand my memory palace; I have a room in it devoted to assignments, even brief lesson summaries on occasion, but I am limited to the physical diary, with its 'daily signage' becoming more consequential than the supposed art of teaching!

I have almost finished my history essay, one relating to Ancient Greece, due early next term, but I may need to truncate my word count to fit within the limit, as this teacher is seemingly renowned for never offering a mark above 85%, but I am aiming for 90, a perhaps ambitious goal. Apart from the fact that the teacher has a poor knowledge of history in general, they also have some bizarre fixation on a small text box offering some guidelines on a particular subject, but she has completely blown this out of proportion, and seemingly recites as a mantra every class period. Moreover, they aren't even accurate; I can think of many, many exceptions, despite her 'must' statements... I daresay she is better than many however. On topic, I only need to write a conclusion and pull together a bibliography.

I briefly touched the abominably written book assigned for English class, but it is an inaccurate, defective, even repulsive, load of drivel.

Bye for now.







lucimatics

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2018, 09:26:39 am »
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Monday 25th

Hi,

I worked on some of my Physics work in Resnick & Halliday, which has so far been successful. I am currently looking at the chapter on Motion in a Plane, whilst I have previously learned projectile motion by utilizing kinematic equations, trigonometry and so on, I think it is important to gain a differing perspective and learn some new techniques. Primarily, with the numerous examples listed, I take the key steps, for instance,
1. Establish y component. 2. Use a kinematic equation to derive time until y = 0, etc.
I seem to be doing well on the problems, and the answers align with the suggested solutions at the end of the book.

Meanwhile, I worked on some problems in a Calculus and Linear Algebra book, where I am currently studying the natural numbers, and the proofs of the pertaining theorems. For instance, the formal definition of 'less than' is as follows:
"Let a and b be in . a < b is defined as there existing a p, such that a + p = b."
Obviously, b > a is defined the same way. Following from that, I proved at least half a dozen theorems utilizing the Law of Cancellation, Distributive properties, that definition, and so on. I am certainly enjoying this style of mathematics.

My piano practice, consisting of reviewing a few Hanon studies and the Beethoven Sonata was relatively successful, but I really need my teacher's input on a few passages. However, what really frustrates me is if I do not have a piano piece 90% mastered by my lesson, I get anxious that my teacher will deem the piece too hard for me, a pattern I am all too used to...  Cello practice was successful, again just reviewing a few Popper studies and the Shostakovich Cello Concerto. I had a glance at the Dvorak Cello Concerto for a few minutes, just preparing it to play in my lesson in a few weeks, as undoubtedly I will need a new piece by then.

My language studies were successful, with me now knowing the most used 80 words in Arabic, and 160 in Russian, approaching the milestone of 250 words. In Latin, I loaded the Stage 8 Vocabulary onto Memrise, and learnt the associated grammar, in this case, the accusative plural. Apart from the reality that my Latin class has just begun simplistic translation, my Latin teacher has somewhat unorthodox pronunciation technique, disregarding both Ecclesiastical and Classical methods, and instead using 'the English way'. For instance, salvē is said like 'salv', contrary to me being under the belief that the Romans did not use silent vowels, and would have said it as 'salvay', approximately. Of course, if one was inclined to a rigorous method, one could say 'salway' instead. Could someone help me in this matter?

Bye,

Lucimatics.



 

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2018, 09:31:31 am »
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Meanwhile, I worked on some problems in a Calculus and Linear Algebra book, where I am currently studying the natural numbers, and the proofs of the pertaining theorems. For instance, the formal definition of 'less than' is as follows:
"Let a and b be in . a < b is defined as there existing a p, such that a + p = b."
Well, I feel it has to be, because what other definition do you propose that's more trivial to understand?

lucimatics

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2018, 11:42:22 am »
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Well, I feel it has to be, because what other definition do you propose that's more trivial to understand?

Thanks, RuiAce, but I didn't mean to imply it was not the optimal definition, but I think the concept of less than is probably granted intuitive as people tend to be taught the ordering of numbers, first, or develop a slightly hand-wavy definition of 'larger and smaller'. Meanwhile, mathematics can be more strictly viewed through a definition such as the above, which then lends to the creation of 'ordering', so to speak. Alternatively, one could view it as the difference between the two numbers, p ≠ 0, and in the set of natural numbers, but obviously, the two definitions are equivalent.

Wednesday 27th

Hi,

I again made some progress through Physics, in the Motion in a Plane chapter, primarily learning about centripetal acceleration, and learning a couple of derivations of a = v^2/r, as well as the unit vectors of polar coordinates, u_r and u_θ, and completing a large quantity of the associated problems. I am now ready to start Particle Dynamics, a chapter that introduces concepts such as mass, weight and force in general. Although I have already learned much of this material, mostly kinematics, through Khan Academy and other resources, I will be venturing onto completely new topics, primarily with a calculus approach, perhaps mid-August, or a couple of weeks from now.

I worked on some art, for some period of time, and my skills are improving in this time-frame. I tend to warm-up with a few relatively easy tasks, such as drawing a still-life from a real scene, but then attempting to draw dream-scenes, that of which are of particular interest to me. My blog, which I seriously started this month, has enjoyed a 10x jump in traffic today, a brilliant contrast to the modest goals I was setting the night before, possibly as a result of using Stumbleupon/Mix, and one particular post really resonated with my audience, earning at least 30 additions to other people's collections.

Languages are going well; I found a comprehensive course on Memrise , whilst not too difficult, supposedly gets harder, and starts from around B2 level,
my current level. One advantage is that it isn't clouded with phrases that while useful and eloquent on occasions, have very limited usage, unlike a single word, such as hebdomadaire, or weekly. Meanwhile, Russian is taking shape, as I am starting to learn more nouns, such as девушка and мальчик, as I seem to have exhausted the primary prepositions and conjunctions. As I am nearing the end of CLC Book 1 for Latin, I am considering requesting my Latin teacher to receive Book 2, but I am not sure of his reaction, as I have so far made an appearance of fading into the background, as some sort of experiment and exercise in self-control. So far it seems to have worked, but nothing serious has actually happened, with the class barely commencing simplistic translation of three word sentences. I just don't want to be accused of arrogance, and of 'upsetting' other people.

My musical studies have gone well, and I have now learned the first 6 Hanon and Popper studies, and will spend the next couple of days revising 3, 4, 5 and 6. The school is offering a couple of masterclasses with Melbourne Conservatorium, but given there are only 2 places per school, and the reality that I have finally gone no-contact with the Music School, having put up with over 3 years of their hatred and jealousy.  ::)

History is going well, with my essay practically complete and Herodotus being a rich and interesting resource. Meanwhile, I have been putting off study of the set book for English, instead opting to improve my writing ability in my English study period through a mix of creative, persuasive, and informative texts, and doing some analyses of well-known and essential pieces of literature, and I am now about to commence Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronté

Bye for now, and comments are always welcome.  :D












Bri MT

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Re: Lucimatics' Journey
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2018, 02:45:57 pm »
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I am aware that you have already constructed a regimented timetable, and as such may find further integration of material impractical, however I suspect that some of the courses offerred on Coursera could be of keen interest to you. Although I have not completed a course on there,  and therefore am unable to comment on quality, this would provide you with a way to extend your knowledge and have it be validated by a form of certification.  (This being valuable for the fact that, as you have alluded to,  people often react sceptically and/or negatively to the idea that a year 7 could be achieving at the levels of your studies.)


I experienced little academic learning during highschool, so I'm heartened by the prospect that your experiences have been evidently distinct in this regard.

I hope that you're more resilient to the transition from rich learning to a sparsity of learning when this (almost inevitably) occurs than I was.
If I were to give any advice to you it would be to have prepared for that time; having multiple avenues of learning outside of formal school is a good start but not suficient in isolation of other protective factors.

Best of luck with your journey - I hope it is greater than the sum of your endeavours.