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March 29, 2024, 05:40:25 pm

Author Topic: whys' VCE journal  (Read 79764 times)

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w0lfqu33n89

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #210 on: April 13, 2020, 06:55:27 pm »
+4
Happy Easter to you to whys!
hope your doing well and don't worry I'm sure procrastination is the other virus going around atm! (im suffering from it too mines a common case of NETFLIX!)

We are opposites when it comes to English I can happily do a text response and comparative, but if language analysis was a person we would be quite big enemies! haha

With biology (im doing year 12 bio as well!) We aren't doing a SAC I dont think, but luckily enough most of the content we cover for term 2 can be easily done and learnt at home. Just gotta remember the inputs and outputs of cellular respiration which I very much need to conquer quickly! haha

Dont do or understand methods and Chem but all the best with everything. Im sure when Wednesday comes around and we get the hang of online school our routines and drive for school will come back!

- Lex :)

whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #211 on: April 17, 2020, 04:46:28 pm »
+7
-
Yes procrastination is definitely the other virus! Good luck with bio, English and your other subjects :)

Okay so 2 days of online school is over and I'm so glad! I already need a break. There are pros and cons to this new learning style, but overall I have to say I much prefer actually going to school. I really miss the social aspect and I find it easier to learn at school than at home, but I've adapted to online learning and I'm finding I have so much more time on my hands. As there's no travel time, I have the leisure to do whatever I want (study or not study-related) without it eating a big chunk of my time.

The horror of VCAA potentially shortening the study designs and making fewer SACs for unit 4 is stressing me out, contrary to what they wanted (less stress). This is because removing SACs means each SAC is worth more and contributes more to your study score, so it's so much more difficult to redeem yourself from a bad SAC. I guess there's nothing I can do except plough forward, do my best, and hope it all pays off in the end. I wish I was younger when this happened haha then I wouldn't have to worry about the impact on my VCE, etc.

My school is still doing SACs, except they aren't called SACs anymore (the school refuses to since they aren't technically SACs, even though they do contribute towards our study score in probably the same way). They are strictly timed through the features of teams and I'm SO glad we are finally doing the bio SAC! I have been waiting for ages to do this SAC, I am so excited because I love bio haha. My friends think I'm crazy for being excited to do a SAC, but honestly bio is my favourite subject (equivalent to psych!!!) and I wouldn't mind doing anything for this subject. Everything is basically progressing like normal, and we are still following our normal SAC calendars. My school is very communicative, even more so with this online stuff, so I keep getting bombarded by VCAA's updates on how they will be running stuff, advice for VCE students, and general advice if you're stressed/need help. All my teachers have been very supportive and have asked us to reach out if we are feeling stressed so they can talk to us to help us out :). I love having video calls with my teachers because we get to see their pets! And their kids haha. All in all, for me the transition has been quite smooth but the stress of SACs is always at the back of my mind.

We still have parent-teacher interviews (online). I've tried establishing some sense of normalcy during these times by video calling my friends during lunch and recess, and I've been in contact with many people using online methods in these times, which I am very grateful for. I'm glad exams have been pushed back till December - the one decision I wholly agree with. With all my subjects, teaching has been going on as normal except biology, where we have a focus on more self-directed learning methods without the teachers constantly talking at us, which I really appreciate. We're all still in call during bio periods, so if we have any questions we can just shout out and the teachers will answer them. It's obviously no substitute for the classroom, but it does still feel like school, which I like. We tried to have our routine ANZAC assembly - didn't work because there was a limit to the number of people that could enter the call (our principal couldn't enter the call because it was full lol). We're running it again next week and the school wisely decided to unlock call features that allow a large number of people in one meeting, which is good because we can still have whole school assemblies.

I was going to do subject updates but the update is already getting a bit long, so I'll stop here.

I hope everyone is transitioning well and that you're staying safe :)
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #212 on: April 22, 2020, 05:03:54 pm »
+8
Biology SAC
My first online SAC! First of all, I would like to say that I am so, so glad that we finally got this done and out of the way. This SAC was for AOS 1 and was scheduled to be in term 1 (but then due to coronavirus, they gave us early holidays) but then was cancelled. Don't get me wrong - biology is great and I love the subject, but I'm not kidding when I say that my dreams for the last few weeks have sometimes been of megacities ruled by giant chloroplasts and mitochondria, or me being stuck in a channel protein in the plasma membrane. I am so glad I can stop thinking about this area of study and completely move on.

With regards to the online thing, the start was delayed a little because it took ~10 minutes for the SAC to upload. We did the SAC on teams. It was given to us an assignment with a certain time limit (if you submitted it after the time limit, it would be labelled as late and you'd get 0 because you went overtime). It was just the normal test format - short answer questions that needed to be answered within a certain time limit. There was no video call, no need for parents to 'supervise' us - and I am very grateful that our teachers trust us with this. There is a meme in my school that's like 'you're in an adult learning environment' - something all the teachers + the principal say since year 9. I think I've just made my school very identifiable to anyone who goes to my school or knows about it well, so I hope I can still remain anonymous. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that they always put the onus on us and they trust us a lot - thank you teachers!

But what about cheating? Well, of the small portion of students that would have cheated, I barely think it matters. They can cheat all they want but at the end of the day, I doubt they still would have done well since the SAC was mostly based on application of skills and there were no questions where you could just directly quote a definition or explanation. You needed to have actually studied to have done well! ;D. And anyway, who'll be in the better position come exam time - the people who made mistakes and learnt from their SACs, or the people who cheated their way through? When we go back to school and their SAC scores plummet down during in-school SACs, the teachers will know something is up and follow up the authenticity of their work on the online SAC(s). Also, we have to sign an authentication form, as do our parents, that we completed the SAC honestly and all work was our own with no external assistance - I would feel extremely horrible about myself if I lied on that haha. Just the very aspect of cheating makes me feel horrible.

OKAY onto the actual SAC! I didn't expect the questions on there - they were very different from the ones I had seen previously from practice questions, but that just means I get to learn from this experience! Altogether, I think I went alright, although I think I lost a couple of marks for making silly mistakes (which I am SO mad about omg). Making silly mistakes is the worst feeling in the world because you know you could have avoided them. For example, I forgot to write that oxygen is a by-product of the light-dependent stage even though this is a very obvious thing and a basic fact that anyone doing bio would know. I'll try not to dwell on these negative aspects, but yeah. I know I could have done better, but it's not like I did bad, if that makes sense. I also had a nap right after the SAC, and I woke up to a dream where I opened the results for my study scores and it said I got a 0 study score for bio... I totally freaked out haha. Is it just me, or do you guys think your dreams are real for the first 10 minutes after waking up? I feel like it's just me - it takes me a while to realise that the dream was not a part of reality (no matter how crazy and fantastical they are). But yeah, quite a disheartening dream to have after a SAC :(

I did not want to make this update only about my biology SAC, but I just realised that I have nothing else to say. I hope everyone is adjusting to online school/uni/life. Have a nice evening! 8)
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Stormbreaker-X

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #213 on: April 22, 2020, 05:23:31 pm »
+1
Hey guys how are you?

Chocolatemilkshake

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #214 on: April 22, 2020, 05:31:18 pm »
+3
Biology SAC
My first online SAC! First of all, I would like to say that I am so, so glad that we finally got this done and out of the way. This SAC was for AOS 1 and was scheduled to be in term 1 (but then due to coronavirus, they gave us early holidays) but then was cancelled. Don't get me wrong - biology is great and I love the subject, but I'm not kidding when I say that my dreams for the last few weeks have sometimes been of megacities ruled by giant chloroplasts and mitochondria, or me being stuck in a channel protein in the plasma membrane. I am so glad I can stop thinking about this area of study and completely move on.

Haha this made me laugh!

Biology SAC
With regards to the online thing, the start was delayed a little because it took ~10 minutes for the SAC to upload. We did the SAC on teams. It was given to us an assignment with a certain time limit (if you submitted it after the time limit, it would be labelled as late and you'd get 0 because you went overtime). It was just the normal test format - short answer questions that needed to be answered within a certain time limit. There was no video call, no need for parents to 'supervise' us - and I am very grateful that our teachers trust us with this. There is a meme in my school that's like 'you're in an adult learning environment' - something all the teachers + the principal say since year 9. I think I've just made my school very identifiable to anyone who goes to my school or knows about it well, so I hope I can still remain anonymous. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that they always put the onus on us and they trust us a lot - thank you teachers!

But what about cheating? Well, of the small portion of students that would have cheated, I barely think it matters. They can cheat all they want but at the end of the day, I doubt they still would have done well since the SAC was mostly based on application of skills and there were no questions where you could just directly quote a definition or explanation. You needed to have actually studied to have done well! ;D. And anyway, who'll be in the better position come exam time - the people who made mistakes and learnt from their SACs, or the people who cheated their way through? When we go back to school and their SAC scores plummet down during in-school SACs, the teachers will know something is up and follow up the authenticity of their work on the online SAC(s). Also, we have to sign an authentication form, as do our parents, that we completed the SAC honestly and all work was our own with no external assistance - I would feel extremely horrible about myself if I lied on that haha. Just the very aspect of cheating makes me feel horrible.

It's really good that you have a cohort that you trust whys and I love your attitude towards this :)

OKAY onto the actual SAC! I didn't expect the questions on there - they were very different from the ones I had seen previously from practice questions, but that just means I get to learn from this experience! Altogether, I think I went alright, although I think I lost a couple of marks for making silly mistakes (which I am SO mad about omg). Making silly mistakes is the worst feeling in the world because you know you could have avoided them. For example, I forgot to write that oxygen is a by-product of the light-dependent stage even though this is a very obvious thing and a basic fact that anyone doing bio would know. I'll try not to dwell on these negative aspects, but yeah. I know I could have done better, but it's not like I did bad, if that makes sense. I also had a nap right after the SAC, and I woke up to a dream where I opened the results for my study scores and it said I got a 0 study score for bio... I totally freaked out haha. Is it just me, or do you guys think your dreams are real for the first 10 minutes after waking up? I feel like it's just me - it takes me a while to realise that the dream was not a part of reality (no matter how crazy and fantastical they are). But yeah, quite a disheartening dream to have after a SAC :(

I did not want to make this update only about my biology SAC, but I just realised that I have nothing else to say. I hope everyone is adjusting to online school/uni/life. Have a nice evening! 8)

I feel you about silly mistakes in test conditions, but don't worry, they will have little impact on your final result.

Also yes, dreams feel so real once you wake up, like you can feel the emotions weighing you down even though you know it's not real! But believe me, you are going to ace bio and you certainly won't get a 0 (I'm not sure if this is even possible haha).

Anyway CONGRATS on finishing your first online sac (you definitely deserved that nap)! We're all proud of you!

EDIT: Congrats on reaching 400 respect too! You're a valuable member of this community and I love reading your entries  8)
« Last Edit: April 22, 2020, 05:32:59 pm by Chocolatemilkshake »
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ThunderDragon

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #215 on: April 22, 2020, 05:42:57 pm »
+2
Biology SAC
My first online SAC! First of all, I would like to say that I am so, so glad that we finally got this done and out of the way. This SAC was for AOS 1 and was scheduled to be in term 1 (but then due to coronavirus, they gave us early holidays) but then was cancelled. Don't get me wrong - biology is great and I love the subject, but I'm not kidding when I say that my dreams for the last few weeks have sometimes been of megacities ruled by giant chloroplasts and mitochondria, or me being stuck in a channel protein in the plasma membrane. I am so glad I can stop thinking about this area of study and completely move on.

With regards to the online thing, the start was delayed a little because it took ~10 minutes for the SAC to upload. We did the SAC on teams. It was given to us an assignment with a certain time limit (if you submitted it after the time limit, it would be labelled as late and you'd get 0 because you went overtime). It was just the normal test format - short answer questions that needed to be answered within a certain time limit. There was no video call, no need for parents to 'supervise' us - and I am very grateful that our teachers trust us with this. There is a meme in my school that's like 'you're in an adult learning environment' - something all the teachers + the principal say since year 9. I think I've just made my school very identifiable to anyone who goes to my school or knows about it well, so I hope I can still remain anonymous. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that they always put the onus on us and they trust us a lot - thank you teachers!

But what about cheating? Well, of the small portion of students that would have cheated, I barely think it matters. They can cheat all they want but at the end of the day, I doubt they still would have done well since the SAC was mostly based on application of skills and there were no questions where you could just directly quote a definition or explanation. You needed to have actually studied to have done well! ;D. And anyway, who'll be in the better position come exam time - the people who made mistakes and learnt from their SACs, or the people who cheated their way through? When we go back to school and their SAC scores plummet down during in-school SACs, the teachers will know something is up and follow up the authenticity of their work on the online SAC(s). Also, we have to sign an authentication form, as do our parents, that we completed the SAC honestly and all work was our own with no external assistance - I would feel extremely horrible about myself if I lied on that haha. Just the very aspect of cheating makes me feel horrible.

OKAY onto the actual SAC! I didn't expect the questions on there - they were very different from the ones I had seen previously from practice questions, but that just means I get to learn from this experience! Altogether, I think I went alright, although I think I lost a couple of marks for making silly mistakes (which I am SO mad about omg). Making silly mistakes is the worst feeling in the world because you know you could have avoided them. For example, I forgot to write that oxygen is a by-product of the light-dependent stage even though this is a very obvious thing and a basic fact that anyone doing bio would know. I'll try not to dwell on these negative aspects, but yeah. I know I could have done better, but it's not like I did bad, if that makes sense. I also had a nap right after the SAC, and I woke up to a dream where I opened the results for my study scores and it said I got a 0 study score for bio... I totally freaked out haha. Is it just me, or do you guys think your dreams are real for the first 10 minutes after waking up? I feel like it's just me - it takes me a while to realise that the dream was not a part of reality (no matter how crazy and fantastical they are). But yeah, quite a disheartening dream to have after a SAC :(

I did not want to make this update only about my biology SAC, but I just realised that I have nothing else to say. I hope everyone is adjusting to online school/uni/life. Have a nice evening! 8)
You guys are still doing Sacs online? Our school has just decided to postpone Sacs until we come back. Not sure what VCAA is doing lmao
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ashmi

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #216 on: April 22, 2020, 06:13:43 pm »
+4
Hey hey whys!! ;D

Oh YES IT'S ANOTHER UPDATE

I'm so glad to hear that you went pretty well in the Bio SAC! Give yourself a pat on the back and congrats for finishing your very first online SAC :D. It's also super good to see that your school has trust in you guys and letting you complete the sac without the video calling feature.
Altogether, I think I went alright, although I think I lost a couple of marks for making silly mistakes (which I am SO mad about omg). Making silly mistakes is the worst feeling in the world because you know you could have avoided them. For example, I forgot to write that oxygen is a by-product of the light-dependent stage even though this is a very obvious thing and a basic fact that anyone doing bio would know. I'll try not to dwell on these negative aspects, but yeah. I know I could have done better, but it's not like I did bad, if that makes sense. I also had a nap right after the SAC, and I woke up to a dream where I opened the results for my study scores and it said I got a 0 study score for bio... I totally freaked out haha. Is it just me, or do you guys think your dreams are real for the first 10 minutes after waking up? I feel like it's just me - it takes me a while to realise that the dream was not a part of reality (no matter how crazy and fantastical they are).

If there is one thing we both have in common it's the pain you get once you know you made a whole pack of mistakes that could have been avoided in the first place. And second, for that dream, is it even possible to get a study score of 0?🤣I totally have dreams like these where I wake up and actually believe that it happened till someone snaps me back into reality.
Its fantastic you are going great whys and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week! ;D

whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #217 on: April 22, 2020, 08:39:55 pm »
+5
Hey guys how are you?
Hi Stormbreaker-X! I'm going pretty alright, how are you?

It's really good that you have a cohort that you trust whys and I love your attitude towards this :)
Thanks CM! I'm glad I can trust my cohort (to an extent!) too.

I feel you about silly mistakes in test conditions, but don't worry, they will have little impact on your final result.

Also yes, dreams feel so real once you wake up, like you can feel the emotions weighing you down even though you know it's not real! But believe me, you are going to ace bio and you certainly won't get a 0 (I'm not sure if this is even possible haha). 

EDIT: Congrats on reaching 400 respect too! You're a valuable member of this community and I love reading your entries  8)
Yeah - silly mistakes annoy the crap out of me though and I can't help but feel a little downhearted, but at least there were no questions that I didn't know the answer to - which would be worse. I certainly hope I don't get a 0, and I doubt anyone could get a 0, but dreams don't exactly correlate with reality, do they :o. Also - thank you for the motivation, it means a lot coming from you! (raw 50 bio is only a dream for now!) I'm glad you enjoy reading my (sometimes trashy) entries, and thank you for being a part of my journey ;D

You guys are still doing Sacs online? Our school has just decided to postpone Sacs until we come back. Not sure what VCAA is doing lmao
Unfortunately, VCAA has released no information and have given schools 100% autonomy on the decisions relating to the conduction of SACs, so it depends on your school whether or not you do SACs. Maybe that fact that I called it a 'biology SAC' is misleading though, because my school now calls them assessment tasks as they are not 'SACs' (since they are done at home). I'm just so used to calling anything that counts towards my study score as a SAC! The negative to completely postponing all SACs in term 2 is that when you go back to school, you will be overloaded with SACs (don't stress though - you have plenty of time to study) and there are pros and cons to going either way.

Hey hey whys!! ;D

Oh YES IT'S ANOTHER UPDATE
Hey hey ashmi! ;D

OH YES ASHMI REPLIED AGAIN

If there is one thing we both have in common it's the pain you get once you know you made a whole pack of mistakes that could have been avoided in the first place. And second, for that dream, is it even possible to get a study score of 0?🤣I totally have dreams like these where I wake up and actually believe that it happened till someone snaps me back into reality.
Its fantastic you are going great whys and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week! ;D
Yepp - that pain is the worst pain. Also - no idea! I think it's impossible to get 0, but my dreams are often very weird lol. Yes - that period after a dream when I'm not quite in reality is honestly not a very good time if I had a bad dream. Have a nice week!
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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #218 on: April 22, 2020, 08:56:41 pm »
+1
Unfortunately, VCAA has released no information and have given schools 100% autonomy on the decisions relating to the conduction of SACs, so it depends on your school whether or not you do SACs. Maybe that fact that I called it a 'biology SAC' is misleading though, because my school now calls them assessment tasks as they are not 'SACs' (since they are done at home). I'm just so used to calling anything that counts towards my study score as a SAC! The negative to completely postponing all SACs in term 2 is that when you go back to school, you will be overloaded with SACs (don't stress though - you have plenty of time to study) and there are pros and cons to going either way.
Ah I see. I hope VCAA releases something official cause diff schools doing things differently could be unfair for ppl.
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #219 on: April 29, 2020, 05:43:53 pm »
+8
Ah I see. I hope VCAA releases something official cause diff schools doing things differently could be unfair for ppl.
Agreed.

Hello friends! It's time for a short update :)

Things I have realised in the past week:
- Online schooling isn't good (my eyes hurt at the end of the day, I miss everyone and I feel like I'm not learning anything)
- Online SACs are not as good as they seem
- Despite having more time, I still seem to be behind
- English is bad and I suck at it (this is more of an acknowledgement of how I feel, not a realisation)
- UCAT is meh
- Bio is good
- Chem is good
- Methods is good

I have so many SACs coming up and I want a break already :(. I know English is going to be the bane of my existence this year but I need to keep at it. I got my very ugly SAC mark back from my first English SAC and let's just say that if I don't magically improve in the next few SACs, my ATAR is basically doomed. I need to do so much for this subject. Our teachers aren't marking any of our argument analysis essays until mid-May (if you ask me, this is horrible because I WANT my essays to be marked - how else am I going to know how to improve?!). I feel so alone in this struggle and I've definitely hit a block with English; I could rant about this subject all day. Also, I feel like I haven't learnt ANYTHING. I feel so confined at home despite going outside to exercise, and no matter how long I study for I still feel like I've done nowhere near enough. I don't know about you guys, but my eyes actually hurt haha. What makes this worse is the UCAT since it's a computer-based test, so all my practice for it is online too. I hate staring at the screen for such a long time (i.e. doing a 2 hour mock exam) and I can't help looking away and closing my eyes for a few seconds every now and then. I really hope we can go back to school soon.

Because I don't want this update to be entirely depressing, I'm going to try talk about some of the positives. Bio, chem and methods are going okay and I'm enjoying the content in all of them. I'm really excited for unit 4 chem when we get up to it, and I really love learning about immunity. Maths is always a very welcomed break from my other subjects and I enjoy its monotonous nature. I can't wait to get to the harder exam questions (which will hopefully be soon in preparation for my SAC!).

I hope everyone has a good week and stays safe!
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brothanathan

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #220 on: April 29, 2020, 05:59:15 pm »
+2
Agreed.

Hello friends! It's time for a short update :)

Things I have realised in the past week:
- Online schooling isn't good (my eyes hurt at the end of the day, I miss everyone and I feel like I'm not learning anything)
- Online SACs are not as good as they seem

I hope everyone has a good week and stays safe!

Soon enough we'll be doing mini exams set by VCAA to actually test our ability. There's news that Online SACs may just be like Year 11 S or N assessments. Which I will regurgitate as something you can take with a grain of salt or mentally prepare for.

You've got this whys, I believe in you, we all do.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2020, 06:05:19 pm by brothanathan »

Coolgalbornin03Lo

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #221 on: April 29, 2020, 06:02:16 pm »
+5
Your totally not rubbish at English!!!! The advise you gave me the other day totally saved me! Maybe your at a high level but you just need to refine a few things? If so you have plenty of time (at least 6 full months till exams). You defiantly know what is required to do well. STORY TIME. So you talked about nominalisation and I asked my teacher if she recommends it ( just cause she’s such a picky marker) and she said that’s exactly why I set that task! (It was a basic task but at page 10 there was a whole thing I didn’t see smh). I owe you credit for whatever grade I get today lol. I’m also super excited for unit 4  Chem! Fuels and stuff felt kinda dry but I love organic Chem so much!!! And I’ve looked at it a bit and it looks a lot like AOS1 U3 Bio (proteins)!!!!

P.S idk how to quote exactly wha you said in small chunks do you know how? And I’m the person whose essay you read on Sunday :)

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ashmi

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #222 on: April 29, 2020, 06:34:53 pm »
+3
Hey hey whys! ;D

Totally understand the pain of looking at the computer all day. By the end of this remote learning, my eyes are going to be non-existent🤣.

I have so many SACs coming up and I want a break already :(.
Me too whys, me too. :'(

I know English is going to be the bane of my existence this year but I need to keep at it. I got my very ugly SAC mark back from my first English SAC and let's just say that if I don't magically improve in the next few SACs, my ATAR is basically doomed. I need to do so much for this subject. Our teachers aren't marking any of our argument analysis essays until mid-May (if you ask me, this is horrible because I WANT my essays to be marked - how else am I going to know how to improve?!). I feel so alone in this struggle and I've definitely hit a block with English; I could rant about this subject all day. Also, I feel like I haven't learnt ANYTHING.
Don't worry whys, I'm 100% sure you will get the ATAR you need! ;D
Your English is my equivalent of Physics, and I definitely understand the pain of the subject (I literally have an Argument Analysis tomorrow hahaha) and it's so hard to get feedback when no one wants to read your essays. I'm hitting English block to bro so we are in it together😂. You are never alone and I can say I'm stuck in that English boat with you (why must you be a primary 4 subject).

Maths is always a very welcomed break from my other subjects and I enjoy its monotonous nature. I can't wait to get to the harder exam questions (which will hopefully be soon in preparation for my SAC!).
Methods is currently the saviour subject when you compare it too wordy subjects like English and Chem. The hard exam questions are definitely a lot of fun (and when you get to use your CAS oh boy that's an amazing feeling)

Thank you for the update whys and have a beautiful week! :D

whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #223 on: April 29, 2020, 08:57:36 pm »
+3
Soon enough we'll be doing mini exams set by VCAA to actually test our ability. There's news that Online SACs may just be like Year 11 S or N assessments. Which I will regurgitate as something you can take with a grain of salt or mentally prepare for.

You've got this whys, I believe in you, we all do.
I wonder when VCAA will release some more info and what they will release...
Thank you brothanathan :)

Your totally not rubbish at English!!!! The advise you gave me the other day totally saved me! Maybe your at a high level but you just need to refine a few things? If so you have plenty of time (at least 6 full months till exams). You defiantly know what is required to do well. STORY TIME. So you talked about nominalisation and I asked my teacher if she recommends it ( just cause she’s such a picky marker) and she said that’s exactly why I set that task! (It was a basic task but at page 10 there was a whole thing I didn’t see smh). I owe you credit for whatever grade I get today lol. I’m also super excited for unit 4  Chem! Fuels and stuff felt kinda dry but I love organic Chem so much!!! And I’ve looked at it a bit and it looks a lot like AOS1 U3 Bio (proteins)!!!!

P.S idk how to quote exactly wha you said in small chunks do you know how? And I’m the person whose essay you read on Sunday :)
Hey! I'm glad that what I said helped you! I'm determined not to give up regarding English, and I'm going to continue persisting and hope that it will somehow pay off in the end. Also, I definitely agree - fuels was quite dry and organic chem is honestly awesome!

If you want to quote in small chunks, then you need to manually remove all the parts of the message you don't want to include in the quote (according to my knowledge of the website). Then just use the [ quote ] function around it. (Also I definitely remember you haha!)

Totally understand the pain of looking at the computer all day. By the end of this remote learning, my eyes are going to be non-existent🤣.
Me too whys, me too. :'(
Don't worry whys, I'm 100% sure you will get the ATAR you need! ;D
Your English is my equivalent of Physics, and I definitely understand the pain of the subject (I literally have an Argument Analysis tomorrow hahaha) and it's so hard to get feedback when no one wants to read your essays. I'm hitting English block to bro so we are in it together😂. You are never alone and I can say I'm stuck in that English boat with you (why must you be a primary 4 subject).
Methods is currently the saviour subject when you compare it too wordy subjects like English and Chem. The hard exam questions are definitely a lot of fun (and when you get to use your CAS oh boy that's an amazing feeling)

Thank you for the update whys and have a beautiful week! :D
Yeah, I won't be surprised when my eyes fall off at the end of all this. Good luck for your argument analysis SAC tomorrow! I'm sure you'll ace it ;). I definitely wish English wasn't a primary 4 subject :(. Then we'd be in the clear... and I have to agree that maths is amazing amidst the verbosity of all other subjects.

I hope that you too have a beautiful week :)
« Last Edit: April 29, 2020, 09:20:32 pm by whys »
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whys

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Re: whys' VCE journal
« Reply #224 on: May 08, 2020, 04:26:41 pm »
+9
I think we are due in for another update! ;)

English
Nothing to say here. Our SAC is in a week, though. It's a creative, so nothing to worry about. I'm way more concerned about the upcoming CAA SAC that will probably be soon after our creative. I really can't wait until this year is done and I never have to write another text response essay ever again. Wow, that sounds like heaven!

Bio
Nothing to say here, either. Everything is going well and I'm just consistently revising. I've been teaching my family everything that I'm learning in class to solidify my own understanding, which is really fun! Made me realise how much I love teaching others. I also teach my soft toys whenever I get the chance (you guys should too! It seriously helps with revision so much). I love learning about immunity - it's slightly content-heavy but I'll get through it. :)

Chem
We have our SAC coming up soon on equilibrium and rates of reaction, so I'm pretty excited! This topic is probably the chillest topic in the entire study design and I'm grateful for its simplicity. Thank you chemistry. You are a saviour in disguise. Isn't that funny? Chemistry was my worst subject in 1/2 (I got 50 something percent on the exam in year 11 ;D) and I put NO effort into it and despised it with all my heart ('m being serious - I played crossy road in class instead of taking notes), but now it's one of my best (I hope). I can't wait to make a move to organic chemistry. It's basically bio + chem combined and I LOVE the sound of that. Well, it's still 95% chem, but with biology applications.

Methods
We have our SAC coming up sooner than I would like. There's not much to say for methods either (what a BORING update, whys). We are finishing off applications of calculus, then will be moving onto integration, which is exciting. The good thing about this subject is that you don't really need 'help' like science or English - it's pretty self-learnable and perfect in times like this where you're on your own.

UCAT
Okay, I need to talk about this for a sec. I have been putting off doing mock exams for a long time, and it sort of just hit me how close the exam is? The 2-hour exam that has a weighting EQUAL to my ATAR?! Like, it's seriously not hitting me at the moment. I need someone to bash my head into a wall to act as a reality check! Anyways, I woke up at 5:30am today to do a mock exam. All you early birds, stop sneering at me - 5:30 is VERY early for me because I normally wake up much, much later (even for school). Literally, my dad looks at me like I'm a peasant when I complain about waking up early because he used to wake up at 4:30am every morning to go to work. So anyways, what I'm trying to say is that this was VERY early for me. Throughout the exam I could feel my eyelids involuntary closing (see the psych in this? droopy eyelids ---> an effect of sleep deprivation! you psych kids will learn it soon :D) and I took a nap after because I could not function. In the middle of the exam my dad thought it would be a great idea to open the blinds in the most obnoxiously loud way, and slurp his coffee even louder. I got distracted so many times throughout the exam and ended up getting only half the QR questions correct. It was safe to say I was more than a little mad. That's okay - I'm pretty bad at being angry so it only lasted for a little while. I was hoping to get at least 95+ percentile in this mock but fell a bit short. I'm mad because I underperformed in AR. Which is supposed to be my best section! AR! Where are you when I need you!? I think the only way I could ever complete ALL the mock exams I have is by waking up early at least 2-3 mornings a week to do it, since I don't want to leave any incomplete and waste them. pls pls pls give me a 95+ in the real thing UCAT gods

Misc?!?
So, we had Isoletics today! AKA Athletics in isolation! Our actual athletics was supposed to be today, but I guess House Isoletics makes up for it... anyways it was great to see all the teachers + students dressed up in their house colours. We had a lot of different events we could enter in, but I just did a 40 minute walk to contribute some points to my house :D. There were a lot of weird things you could do for points (such as do the blinding lights challenge on Tik Tok, which is just cringey but whatever, I think the teachers had way more fun with this, or do the handstand track pants challenge) but most of them were normal sport things, like walking, running, cycling, dressing up in house colours, house chants, etc. It's definitely not as good as the real thing but something is better than nothing and I'm grateful they still decided to keep athletics.

This is slightly random, but does anyone else feel like no matter how much they study, it's not enough? I feel like I need to put in way more effort to do as well as I used to because online learning basically equals independent learning and self-teaching. It's really difficult to remain up to date, and I'm confused as to how some people are even a little bit ahead of what we're doing. I really hope we can go back to school soon! It feels like everyone's back at school except Victoria. :( I really miss the little things about school, and now I realise how much I took my teachers, and school in general, for granted. It made me realise that humans are social bees and we thrive when we are with others - I am more of an introvert than an extrovert, so that revelation took me by surprise. I thought I would be happier to stay at home all day but in reality I hate it so much. I love that I can sleep in every day though! (Although I have taken it upon myself NOT to sleep in and force myself to wake up at least somewhat early). I also have so much more time to spend with my family, which is great. I guess there are always positives to a situation if you look hard enough ;D

Hope you all have a good week!
psych [50] bio [50]
2021-2025: BMedSci/MD @ Monash