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Author Topic: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi  (Read 38566 times)

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HughMungus

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2016, 07:51:14 pm »
+1
if Hightide was a wart, which part of the body would he spread to first?
« Last Edit: September 21, 2016, 07:54:49 pm by HughMungus »
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ayesha2011t

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2016, 07:57:41 pm »
+1



Life should be like this: "What a wonderful kind of day; If we can learn to work and play; And get along with each other".

Omg don't know if the Arthur quote was intentional but I got way too excited reading those words out loud.

So my question is,
What's your favourite type of pie?

Calebark

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2016, 07:59:02 pm »
+1
How many digits of pi can you recite?

What's your favourite dog breed, and why is it a German Shepherd?

What specialty is interesting you most right now?

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n.a

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2016, 08:11:16 pm »
+1
Hey, I'm going to be a total buzzkill and ask a serious question.

Monash Med vs UniMelb Postgrad Med? Non subjectively please. 😜
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Glasses

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2016, 08:27:25 pm »
+1
Why did you want to study medicine?

Is there an area of medicine that you hate? And if so, why?

If you had to choose, would you rather:
a) Attend MHS, and have to complete VCE Physics again. Or
b) Attend any other school but MHS, and not have to complete VCE Physics.

« Last Edit: September 21, 2016, 08:34:59 pm by Glasses »
2015 - 2016 (VCE): Psychology, Religion & Society, Legal Studies, Business Management, Literature and English
2017 - Present: Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Arts (Criminology & Psychology) @ Monash University

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spectroscopy

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #20 on: September 21, 2016, 08:30:03 pm »
+1
what are your thoughts on the non mhs/macrob select entry schools?

do you reckon you'll stick around on AN once you start working or will you pull a ninwa on us and officially retire?

pi

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #21 on: September 21, 2016, 08:39:52 pm »
+6
Bit more normal than the previous questions, but when you were studying particularly in Year 12 was there anything out of the ordinary that you did, and you think that worked?

Hey thanks for the non-HighTide related question :) Finally we have a user showing some maturity around here!

Firstly, I think it's important to realise that there really is no "normal", each student will have their own unique experience in year 12. I was fortunate to be in a position where I was in relatively good health and everything at home was pretty good, so I could dedicate as much time as I needed to my studying. I can't even begin to imagine how people get through the year and still do so well with other factors coming into play, those guys are the real unsung heroes!

As for what I did, it was probably less than you think, but I'll run through my subjects:

English:
I was a really big fan of reading. Reading my books multiple times, reading high-standard essays (even if not on my books), reading study guides, etc. I really thing a lot can be achieved by just reading. I should put a note here that I was never an amazing English student, I was always around the B/B+ level (since year 7 lol). During the year 11/12 summer holidays, I did a lot of thinking into why I wasn't hitting this higher tier, and I found that the way I was constructing my essays was poor and inefficient. I often included too many irrelevant details and often didn't flesh out my arguments enough to make them powerful. I had two options: write more to improve, or read more to see how the pros went about it, or.. well I could do both, but I'm also lazy, so I chose option #2. And I think it really helped! During the year, I read 100+ essays, and I wrote ~10. For the whole year, including trial exams, I only wrote ~10 essays. Sounds outrageous, but that's what I did and I think it worked quite well. I'm a very big fan of reflecting on what went wrong, taking steps to make it right, and then back yourself to do it. Spending a lot of time reading and just thinking about what quotes I could use to support what topic, were two things I found to be really valuable, and probably do go against the norm of just writing lots of essays. If I had my time again, would I write more? I probably would, but reading and thinking is just as important, if not more important in many regards. I got 44 raw.

Specialist Maths:
This was the other subject I put a lot of effort into. I really enjoyed this subject. As is widely known, there's no secret to becoming proficient at VCE maths, you just need to understand what's going on and then do lots of questions. I followed that age-old strategy, opting not to re-invent the wheel. So I did the standard "do all questions from the textbook", learn from mistakes, seek questions from elsewhere if I was struggling with a topic, etc. Those things were all good and everyone should do that. What I also found useful was making use of the bound reference form the get-go. I started to construct mine as I went through the year, adding theory and challenging questions as I went. I found that useful, because I could "revise" maths just by... you guessed it, reading! I could read my bound ref, look at the theory, look at the questions, reaffirm my knowledge. I found that useful, and I think it's underappreciated. I got 40 raw.

Chemistry:
Chem was a bit of a let-down to me, I came into it thinking it would be amazing, but it just wasn't as interesting as I'd have hoped. If I could do the course again, I'd make some changes to my tact. But what I did was to basically rock up to class, pay attention, read the textbook if I had any troubles, and then moved onto practice exams. That methodology was perhaps too arrogant. I should have written some notes, to say the least. I felt a lot of my understanding was quite superficial, and although I didn't have trouble with any topic, I probably would have done better had I taken the theory side of it a little more seriously. Practice exams though, are again a gold-mine for chem, great way to brush up on your areas on weakness. A common flaw I found in my VCE was that I didn't do enough prac papers, I probably did <15 for each chem exam I had (we had a mid-year one in 2011). This was probably mostly due to my own laziness, but I think you should be more until you're consistently getting scores you're happy with. I got ok scores, but not great scores, and not sure I was too happy with them. I got low 40s raw (can't remember now lol).

Maths Methods CAS:
This subject I treated with little respect. Being a "spesh student", I honestly considered myself a bit "above" for studying for this. This was obviously not the case, but I don't have too many regrets either. I did the hard yards for this subject in units 1/2, I nailed those concepts really well. Given 3/4 is basically 1/2 with different probability (or so it was when I did it), I had little issues with the subject. I learnt probability on the CAS on the go as I did prac papers, consulting the textbook when necessary. This, in retrospect, was a mistake as I only had a superficial understanding of some topics that came back to haunt me in my Exam 2 (eg. conditional prob). Furthermore, again, I didn't do enough prac papers. I probably didn't do any full Exam 2s, mainly due to laziness. Sit down for two hours straight doing maths? No thanks. If I had my time again, I'd slap that child and actually do them. I did however, do plenty of Exam 1s. The reason for that was "if I could do it by hand, obviously I could do it by CAS". And to a great extent, I feel that's true. But it's not completely true, and safe to say I ended up dropping marks on Exam 2. I got raw 46.

Bio:
I did this subject in Year 11. This was my first exposure to VCE, and unlike many Year 11s, I barely had any idea of what the ATAR was, what a study score comprised of, how well I needed to do to get a 40+, etc. Safe to say, I didn't put heaps of effort into my first semester and my Exam 1 result was disappointing. I didn't make notes, I hardly did prac papers, it was a disaster. During that term break, I had a lot to reflect on, I needed to save my study score. So I turned my year around, I made notes, I read heaps of study guides, did regular questions, went to revision lectures, made an account on AN (it was 'VN' back then), and I had quite a deep understanding of Unit 4. I think I only dropped a handful of marks in that exam. My advice would be to take this subject seriously, there's a lot of content and you need to be revise regularly. My course, med, is very similar, you can't remember it all the first time, you need to constantly read and re-read and re-re-read. The best thing to read is something you've written yourself, and thus I'd recommend making notes too. I got 42 raw.

Physics:
If you know of me on the forum, I really don't like this subject, reasons outlined here. My advice here is a testament to 'studying smart' and NOT 'studying hard'. I literally did no work at all for this subject until the night before the SACs or the exams. How? The cheat-sheet you get in VCE physics makes it possible to do relatively well without understanding anything (providing you have some basic understanding about maths - which I felt I had). If you have a good cheat-sheer that covers most bases, that works when you test it on a handful of past VCAA exams, then I think you're set. Minimal work, maximal gains. This is probably unique to physics. I got 41 raw.

Other studying things:
When I studied, I had study goals in mind. I didn't have a timetable, timetables are restrictive and boring. I had the thought of "I won't sleep unless x, y, and z" are done. And even if that meant I got 4 hours sleep because I procrastinated too much, so be it. Important to get things done, and get them done regularly. Something else I found useful was taking Friday nights off. No study at all on Fridays. I continue this throughout uni too. Taking time off is a /good/ thing, we all need time to recharge our batteries, I chose Fridays. Good chance to chill with the fam, watch some footy, have classic Friday night pizza, etc. You should never feel guilty for taking a break, you should feel guilty for procrastinating :P The last thing I found useful, was to not at all dwell on class rankings. I cannot change how someone else is doing, so why bother caring? Just do your own thing. VCE is grueling enough and has enough worries, don't add to those worries by wondering how everyone else's VCEs are going too.

So all-in-all, I think there are a few things that I did that most people don't do enough of:
- Reflect on everything. No point marking exams if you're going to improve on what you got wrong.
- Reading good quality resources is under-rated.
- Do enough prac exams such that you're meeting your goals. Keep doing them until you are, don't settle for less if you don't have to.
- Take breaks, but they have to really be breaks. Don't feel guilty about taking breaks, we all need them.
- Don't play the numbers game, play the 'do the best I can' game.

Good luck :)

edit: this post turned out to be a lot longer than planned, need to channel this energy into my thesis LOL

pi

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #22 on: September 21, 2016, 08:46:28 pm »
+4
Going to double-post, but I'm a mod and I live on the edge.

if Hightide was a wart, which part of the body would he spread to first?

I would practice good preventative medicine and would never contract HighTide.

How many digits of pi can you recite?

Like, 4 digits? There are two types of people in the world: those who live to recite pi, and those that appreciate pi and move on with life :)

What's your favourite dog breed, and why is it a German Shepherd?



What specialty is interesting you most right now?

Good question! I'm still a little torn between becoming a physician (ie. medical specialist, eg. neurologist) and a radiologist. I like those because there's a great deal of diagnostic thinking in both fields, which is one of the things I really love about medicine: it's a challenging puzzle and everyone is unique. Luckily I have got a rotation in each field next year, so I'll be able to *hopefully* clear things up more next year. But of the two right now, I'd be leaning towards becoming a physician, and in particular, neurology or rheumatology.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2016, 09:22:24 pm by pi »

pi

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #23 on: September 21, 2016, 09:05:57 pm »
+2
I'll triple post now, soz Aaron.

Monash Med vs UniMelb Postgrad Med? Non subjectively please.

Good question. I've gotten to know the UoM course quite well this year as I take some MD students for weekly tutes (I'm based at one of their clinical schools this year).

I think each has their merits. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of each course, here are some points to note:

Monash:
- If you want to do med after yr12, why wait? This is the course for you. 5 short snappy years, good uni, good teaching, very strong cohort. It's often said that the crème de la crème of VCE come to Monash medicine, and that's hard to argue with.
- Requires the UMAT. This test is dodgy. Lots of people who are genuinely intelligent people and would make great medical students, don't do well. Does this mean they're not suited for medicine? Of course not, it just means that perhaps on that particular day, their mind and the UMAT didn't tick in time. And that's ok. There's a fair big of luck involved in getting into Monash med.
- The 2 year pre-clin + 3 year clin strikes a nice balance. But I think a lot of students lose a lot of pre-clin knowledge as it isn't integrated well into the clinical years, especially anatomy and physiology. I believe the new MD model changes that in some regard, but I don't know much about it.
- Pre-clin years are in Clayton. Clayton is a hole. It's isolated, takes 30 mins to get to from the CBD, and has the Menzies. Not ideal.
- The cohort can be competitive, especially towards the end of fourth year. Expect this in any medical degree.

UoM:
- If you're not sure on med, taking the graduate pathway is the way for you. You get to dabble in the theory you go into in med, learn many concepts in more depth. That's a good thing, essentially gives you a couple extra pre-clin years. The UoM MD is essentially the crème de la crème of Biomed students, one could argue perhaps their cohort is inherently weaker than Monash because many didn't get into Monash, but I'd argue: who cares? We don't know why they didn't get in, and it doesn't matter. Both cohorts are strong in their own right.
- Requires the GAMSAT. I'm led to believe there is less luck involved in this test, it rewards effort. That's good for many people who weren't great at the UMAT.
- Course structure of 1 + 3 (or 2.5)... not a fan. You'd assume that MD1s retain a lot of knowledge from their Biomed/Sci degrees, I don't think this is the case in real life. I find that although they learnt a lot about x, y and z, they didn't learn to connect those different topics, and thus, knowledge was forgotten easily. Hence, most people don't find MD1 the walk in the park it should be. It's a tough year. Their clinical years have a similar structure to Monash, it's a good one.
- You're based next to the CBD, brilliant location!
- From most accounts, the Biomed cohort can get a bit savage, especially when it comes to the GAMSAT. Heard too many stories supporting that claim for me to believe it would be possible to avoid that atmosphere throughout the degree. You'll probably encounter it at some point. I don't like that. This is less-so at Monash.

So that's my run-down. Each course has pros and cons, but wouldn't be up to me to say which is /better/. Monash was better for me because I knew what I wanted.

HughMungus

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #24 on: September 21, 2016, 09:09:18 pm »
0
What in the name of all that is holy, made you study physics, the love of your life at MHS???? Was it the bad influence of HT?
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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #25 on: September 21, 2016, 09:16:31 pm »
+1
I'll triple post now, soz Aaron.

Good question. I've gotten to know the UoM course quite well this year as I take some MD students for weekly tutes (I'm based at one of their clinical schools this year).

I think each has their merits. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of each course, here are some points to note:

Monash:
- If you want to do med after yr12, why wait? This is the course for you. 5 short snappy years, good uni, good teaching, very strong cohort. It's often said that the crème de la crème of VCE come to Monash medicine, and that's hard to argue with.
- Requires the UMAT. This test is dodgy. Lots of people who are genuinely intelligent people and would make great medical students, don't do well. Does this mean they're not suited for medicine? Of course not, it just means that perhaps on that particular day, their mind and the UMAT didn't tick in time. And that's ok. There's a fair big of luck involved in getting into Monash med.
- The 2 year pre-clin + 3 year clin strikes a nice balance. But I think a lot of students lose a lot of pre-clin knowledge as it isn't integrated well into the clinical years, especially anatomy and physiology. I believe the new MD model changes that in some regard, but I don't know much about it.
- Pre-clin years are in Clayton. Clayton is a hole. It's isolated, takes 30 mins to get to from the CBD, and has the Menzies. Not ideal.
- The cohort can be competitive, especially towards the end of fourth year. Expect this in any medical degree.

UoM:
- If you're not sure on med, taking the graduate pathway is the way for you. You get to dabble in the theory you go into in med, learn many concepts in more depth. That's a good thing, essentially gives you a couple extra pre-clin years. The UoM MD is essentially the crème de la crème of Biomed students, one could argue perhaps their cohort is inherently weaker than Monash because many didn't get into Monash, but I'd argue: who cares? We don't know why they didn't get in, and it doesn't matter. Both cohorts are strong in their own right.
- Requires the GAMSAT. I'm led to believe there is less luck involved in this test, it rewards effort. That's good for many people who weren't great at the UMAT.
- Course structure of 1 + 3 (or 2.5)... not a fan. You'd assume that MD1s retain a lot of knowledge from their Biomed/Sci degrees, I don't think this is the case in real life. I find that although they learnt a lot about x, y and z, they didn't learn to connect those different topics, and thus, knowledge was forgotten easily. Hence, most people don't find MD1 the walk in the park it should be. It's a tough year. Their clinical years have a similar structure to Monash, it's a good one.
- You're based next to the CBD, brilliant location!
- From most accounts, the Biomed cohort can get a bit savage, especially when it comes to the GAMSAT. Heard too many stories supporting that claim for me to believe it would be possible to avoid that atmosphere throughout the degree. You'll probably encounter it at some point. I don't like that. This is less-so at Monash.

So that's my run-down. Each course has pros and cons, but wouldn't be up to me to say which is /better/. Monash was better for me because I knew what I wanted.

Brilliant, thanks! 😊
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pi

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #26 on: September 21, 2016, 09:17:26 pm »
+2
Omg don't know if the Arthur quote was intentional but I got way too excited reading those words out loud.

Deliberate, Arthur turns 20 years old today, a brilliant show :)

So my question is,
What's your favourite type of pie?

Apple pie without a doubt! :D

Why did you want to study medicine?

Answered this in some depth in another thread, so I'll save some time and paste that haha. Feel free to ask any follow-up questions here or there!
I think many aspects, but it comes down to what I like. Medicine, for me, ticks these three boxes:
1. I love people: understanding what makes them 'them', their stories, their families; meeting new people all the time is a variety that keeps life forever interesting and unique
2. I love learning: call me a nerd (like anyone on AN can talk!) but I like to learn about things, I like having the freedom to learn things in the depth that I want at the pace that I want, especially things that are dynamic and and can impact on my first passion (ie. people); I also love to teach and pass on my own knowledge (for free (which is why I am here and did things like VCESS), none of this tutoring crap!), and the word "doctor" actually stems from "docere" in Latin which means "to teach" - perfect!
3. I love puzzles: I like being challenged and the diagnostic challenge is the ultimate puzzle in my opinion, as it combines my passions for people and learning

Sure, other factors are important:
- Pay: being paid fairly well to do something I love? awesome, added bonus!
- Breadth of opportunities: there are so many options of where my degree can take me, anything from looking down microscopes, to cutting into people's brains, to delivering babies, to giving life changing advice to someone, to guiding public policy, etc.
- Rewarding: there's nothing more rewarding than having the opportunity to help someone understand what is going on with them

The reason those factors aren't as important.. is because I think they are common to many professions? To me, they're not unique.

How did I end up in this path? A combination of three things: supportive parenting, supportive schooling, and luck. I like lists, so here's another list elaborating:
1. I was fortunate to have parents that realised my interest in academia at a young age, and nudged me in the right direction here and there during my early years. They'd buy me science books (I was actually particularly interested in paleontology at one point haha), I'd be encouraged to watch docos on TV, participate in science competitions, etc. I should note that no one in my family is a doctor, and my parents were both educators. They never pushed me towards medicine, they'd be happy if I was a dentist, engineer, actuary, etc, just as long as I was doing something that I would enjoy, perhaps they knew me better than I knew myself in those early years hahaha.
2. I couldn't hope for a better education, public schooling through and through. I started off in the westside at my local primary school, I didn't learn much academia there, but I learnt a lot about people and how to deal with them (being the only non-Caucasian in my year and never once getting bashed or bullied is a badge I wear proudly!). During my secondary years, my time at both UHS and MHS was perfect. I developed most of my more specific interests (ie. ditching the idea of digging up dinosaurs LOL) during my early years at UHS, they had a fabulous science program there and I was in a group of like-minded individuals in the Accelerated Program. This continued when I ultimately moved to MHS, where I found a perfect cohort where everyone wanted to do well in all sorts of areas of life. I think I thrived in that environment, I enjoyed it thoroughly and it allowed me to really suss out different subjects and career pathways.
3. My luck was three-fold. Firstly, I was lucky to do work experience in a hospital, the Royal Children's. It was an amazing experience, one that probably drew me away from other career paths. What I saw happen there was honestly inspirational, I can't ever remember smiling when I was sick as a kid, and here there were kids who were much sicker than I ever was and the doctors would always leave the room with them smiling. Who wouldn't want to do that every day? (I'm actually not that keen on paediatrics now, but that's a story for another day haha). My second instance of luck came during the UMAT. I don't think I did enough prep but somehow I scraped through and got a half-decent score. That's not to say I guessed my way through it, but perhaps if I put more priority on it and did more study I could have done better (or perhaps not? who knows, it's a funny test!). The last "luck" I had was that I had the worst physics teaching known to human-kind, it completely ruled out, in my mind, the thought of doing anything mathsy with my life (also I'm severely deficient of any talent!) for fear of turning into my physics teachers at age 50. Terrifying prospect. 

Having gone through most of the course now (no more exams left for me!) and spending hours on the wards talking to doctors, I have absolutely no regrets with my path thus far. In fact, I'm excited for every next day, week, month, year. I think this speaks more towards as to how lame I am, but even last night I was thinking "can't wait to read about the MRI findings of cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (fantastic condition, look it up!) and see how it compares to other ischaemic white matter conditions", and I was not disappointed ;) I can't wait for the rigors and study of physician training (if I indeed do choose to travel that path). I can't wait for the next best thing to happen!

My advice to school-leavers who are confused, is to talk to people. You're only 17/18 years old, you're not supposed to make these decisions alone, and you shouldn't make these decisions alone. Talk to your parents, talk to uni students, talk to your teachers (you'd be surprised how awesome teachers can become when they're not talking about the boring VCE), talk to people working where you see yourself possibly working. Send out emails to people in the field to get opinions, the worst that happens is that they don't respond, the best that happens is that they give you life-changing advice (but don't spam people, that's not cool). Try and get work experience, the more the merrier. Attend Open Days, get a feel for what the course will be like, and what the job prospects are like.

Be keen, be enthusiastic, and keep an open mind about what people say to you.

tldr: talk to people, more the merrier!

edit: Damn that became long, I was intending to write a small para, oops... It also seems I like organising things into "threes", perhaps speaking more of my OCD traits than anything else!

Is there an area of medicine that you hate? And if so, why?

Surgery. It's an absolute bore. Once I got over the whole "omg this is so cool" factor, there was nothing that I was passionate about. Standing still for long periods of time has also never been something I've aimed to do either. I have a huge respect for people who go down that pathway, because it's not easy, but it's also not for me. :)

If you had to choose, would you rather:
a) Attend MHS, and have to complete VCE Physics again. Or
b) Attend any other school but MHS, and not have to complete VCE Physics.

Probably B, providing I could go to Melb Grammar ;)

what are your thoughts on the non mhs/macrob select entry schools?

I love the concept and I think there should be more of them. For too long in Victoria, those who were passionate about learning and weren't in a selective school or accelerated program, were in the minority. That needs to change. No one should be bullied or feel alone because they want to learn or do well, those people should be supported. The best way I think this could be achieved, failing a major re-haul of teaching staff across the state, would be to provide more selective schools that can cater for their needs.

Furthermore, I think we need selective schools that are also more humanities based. For some reason, when someone thinks of a "smart person", they think of someone who got 99.95 and inevitable did "hard" subjects like Spesh. We need people to be thinking about those who get there doing languages and commerce in the same way. Those students are also brilliant and deserve the same recognition and opportunities to succeed. I thus propose we demolish JMSS and replace it with a humanities school ;)

edit: realised I didn't exactly answer your question. I think many of the non MHS/Mac.Rob schools are quite good! I've particularly heard many good things about Nossal, and the people I know from there are really nice :) As many would know, I'm not a big fan of JMSS, not because of their academic performance, but because their students are annoying af in Monash libraries and the 601 bus. Also I'm a strong believer that a school needs to own their own oval lol. But anyway, I was once confronted by the school captain of JMSS some years ago while I was in the library, and we had a constructive discussion about their students' behaviour, apparently I'm quite infamous there hahahahaha

do you reckon you'll stick around on AN once you start working or will you pull a ninwa on us and officially retire?

Time will tell!

What in the name of all that is holy, made you study physics, the love of your life at MHS???? Was it the bad influence of HT?

I thought it would be about explosions and quantum theory... I found out it was about counting boxes under a linear line and using V=IR a millions times. Big disappointment.

Thankfully for my sanity and cardiac health, I have not known HT for that long,
« Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 06:42:12 am by pi »

Gogo14

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #27 on: September 21, 2016, 09:22:54 pm »
0
Not doing so well this yr,  (in yr 11). I barely, procrastinate and always hand in assignments late. How can I lift my game for next yr?
« Last Edit: September 21, 2016, 09:25:42 pm by Gogo14 »
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Swagadaktal

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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #28 on: September 21, 2016, 09:25:15 pm »
+2
Hey Pi,

was there any point where you were like "I'm getting in (to med)" or were you as anxious as hell leading up to the interview and throughout the year?
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Re: [Ask Me Anything] #5: pi
« Reply #29 on: September 21, 2016, 09:32:28 pm »
+1
Not doing so well this yr (11). I barely, procrastinate and always hand in assignments late. How can I lift my game for next yr?

Sorry to hear that mate! I think the answers lies within you, not with me! This is my advice: you need to sit down with a piece of paper, physically write down everything that is stopping you from reaching your goals. Take some time to do this, good 30mins or so if you need to. Think about the resources you have, think about your study space, etc. Reflect, that's important. Once you're done, under each item, write how you're going to fix that. eg. if you said "I use FB too much", you could propose the solution "don't use social media between 5 and 8pm". Another example might be "I'm handing my assignments in late", the solution could be "I'm not going to accept that any more and I won't sleep until they're done" (you'll get the message after one near-sleepless night, trust me). Stick that list up on your wall, somewhere where you can't miss it. Remind yourself that you know how to improve and that you can be better. Now, not every problem has a clear-cut solution, but many will. And solving each problem helps, each may have a small benefit individually, but they add up together. And that all helps.

Given you're in year 11 now, I'd also have one eye on the holidays. Holidays are a good chance to do lots of work, or do shit all. I think striking a balance between the two is ideal, work hard, but not too hard. Do 1-2 hours a day (especially looking over knowledge that is assumed for Year 12), read your English books twice, but have time to catch up with mates, watch the cricket, etc. You can really set your year up your year with some work in the holidays.

Sorry that was a vague response, but this is really individual! Gl! :)

Hey Pi,

was there any point where you were like "I'm getting in (to med)" or were you as anxious as hell leading up to the interview and throughout the year?

I don't tend to get anxious about really anything, so that played in my favour. But I was never sure until i saw VTAC. Even people who get 99.95 and 100%ile often say they feel unsure, one might scoff about it, but I believe them, you can never be sure. And that's obviously a little stressful, but it should be reassuring to realise everyone feels the same way.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2016, 06:43:17 am by pi »