Yo! Sorry I missed this.
My final exams were both absolute massacres. The global politics exam didn’t really have any surprising questions, I just found it to be long and almost didn’t finish. The essay prompts for unit 4 were unexpected but I didn’t do much preparation for unit 3, so I just bullshitted my way through an entire essay. For Chinese, listening was my worst enemy. My teacher told us to always make notes in pinyin, but under the stress of the exam I conveniently forgot how pinyin worked and took notes in English. 😬
But at least everything’s now over. I haven’t given my study scores or ATAR much thought, but my goals have changed since my OP. I had set the goals of a 90+ ATAR and to become the school dux. My new goals instead just revolve around study scores:
Ø 40+ in English and Global Politics
Ø Do not fall below raw 35 in any subject
And that’s it. The reason I am not making an ATAR goal is because if I can get those study scores, then the ATAR will naturally follow (if I achieve my SS goals, I’d get a 96 ATAR, which is enough to comfortably get me into Global Studies / Commerce at Monash SEAS-free). Finally, I no longer have the goal to dux, because if I did horribly but everyone else did worse, then what’s the point?
Throughout this year, I think the students at my school have become more attentive towards learning and I am so happy. We had more than double the amount of students doing an early 3/4 in year 11 this year, and next year’s early 3/4 enrolment TRIPLED. A year 10 student came up to me a few weeks ago and said that she’s also hoping for Monash University and how much she’s preparing to work to get there. This makes me so happy. Now I just hope that our cohort can do exceptionally well this year to motivate the next year levels even more.
I went back to school yesterday to give presents to all my teachers and to give an assembly speech to the 2020 graduates. I also met up with next year’s school captains to pass on some resources and experience. While kind of unrealistic, I hope that I will be able to visit my school frequently in the future.
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any advice for a fellow language student (one LOTE 3/4 and a LOTE 1/2 next year/in Yr 11)?
Awesome to see another language enthusiast. So are you doing one LOTE in year 11 and another in year 12?
My best tip is that for listening questions, always take notes in the language that you’re being tested on. You’re not marked on your notes (on the exam paper there will be a blank space on the side of the page that lets you take notes) but it makes answering the questions so much easier, because if you are taking notes in English then you will miss key words while translating between the two. It’ll be difficult to start off as taking notes in English seems so much more convenient.
Also when writing and essay or answering questions make sure you’re using the words you fully understand. The risk of using a fancy word but not knowing what it fully means is not worth it and will backfire.
Finally get started on your scripts for general conversation EARLY. Decide on your detailed study topic EARLY. Preferably do them at the start of the year in term 1. The scripts should be refined continuously throughout the year and you should be practicing throughout the year so that you can sound more natural on the exam, especially if it’s not your native language.