Update #21 - 17/12/2018Good evening ladies and gents, and welcome to the final episode of the hums student’s VCE Journey Journal, the show where a particular AN user mindlessly rants about his various first world problems once a fortnight. In tonight’s disappointing finale, you will see first hand the four digit number that allegedly "does not define you", as well as various other two digit numbers which he will continuously rant about for the next couple of paragraphs.
So pull up a chair, pour yourself a mug of hot chocolate, and let’s dive right in.
Hello AN, greetings from Fulda, Germany! Apologies for the late update, I’m aware that results are becoming kind of irrelevant now. Also I’m typing this from my phone and this is hard lmao, but who brings a laptop overseas?
Iraq
I thought I’d briefly talk about my trip. Iraq is simply amazing. It’s a beautiful country and it’s such a shame that the political instability in the region is eroding away its stunning history. We visited the Great Ziggurat of Ur, which we studied in Unit 1, and seeing it in person was phenomenal. The structure is absolutely majestic and none of the photos we saw in our history textbooks did it justice.
Anyway, I should cut out the chatter and get to the *juicy stuff*.
So, results. The four digit number that I’ve spent the past eleven years of my life working towards shall henceforth define me for the rest of my life.
I actually found out my history study score the day before results were officially released. I was, and still am, beyond disappointed. I initially thought was that my teacher must have been playing some cruel prank on me. It was much, much lower than my prediction. My teacher was disappointed too, he kept saying all those sugarcoating crap like "It’s hard to score high in history", but sugarcoating words never work. I was devastated by my result and his words only succeeded in confirming the fact that I did badly. I was so ashamed of my score. I had made it so, so clear - both on AN and in real life, that history is my passion and it that it was bound to be my best subject, yet I flunked it.
The wait for ATAR release was, to put it simply, pure agony. My group pulled an all nighter, and passed the time by playing ‘the floor is lava’ in our hotel room and having a planking contest.
Who would’ve thought that a planking contest just made time go by even slower? Just before 3am hit (7am AEST), the hotel internet decided to throw a tantrum and we had to wait for another hour and a half before the app finally loaded, and I was greeted with that dreaded 4-digit number before I could even mentally prepare myself for it.
My ATAR ended up being much higher than anything I could’ve ever hoped for. In fact, I thought I was seeing someone else’s result at first. The first thought to race through my head was ‘Did I log into the right account?’
Before I could even recover from my shock, I had seen my scaled lit study score right below my ATAR, and I did have an audible reaction, as it was beyond my wildest dreams. I quickly scrolled through the rest of my scaled scores but none of the other numbers seemed to make sense to me. It took me about two minutes to finally register my ATAR, and to open study scores.
Despite already knowing my scaled lit score, I still did a double take when I saw the raw score, as it confirmed the fact that I was definitely not dreaming. Global and methods made me laugh out loud - despite being the subjects I gave up on, they were not bad at all (at least, not by my standards). However, chem was like a slap in the face. It was so, so close to my goal, but I just fell short, and it significantly ruined the joy I felt from seeing my ATAR.
Overall, the two subjects I had the highest hopes for - history and chem - ended up being the most disappointing. Instead, it was literature that saved my ATAR. Unexpected, definitely. I am over the moon with my ATAR, however slightly disappointed with study scores. I mean, lit and my 2 bludge ended up doing well... but history and chem! My best subjects! The subjects I cared about the most! How in the world did I flunk them so badly?
Anyway, my results:
Literature: 40+
History: 40+
Chemistry: 39
Global: 39
Methods: 34
(Won't be giving specific scores for literature and history for privacy)
ATAR: about 10 points higher than expected
My history teacher had expected nothing less than a 47 from me. As for chem, the teacher have said that as long as I perform NORMALLY on the exam I am guaranteed a 40 at the very least. Instead, I screwed up both big time. I feel that I had not just let myself down but my teachers and peers too. Especially history. If I hadn’t choked on the exam, maybe my entire cohort’s SACs would’ve went up more.
(At least that’s how I think it works.)
also...
My teacher said that if I get above 40 for chem I get to be on first name basis with him for the rest of my life.
Well, guess I have to go back to calling him ‘sir’.
I am also kind of pissed that two of my subjects got 39... so, so close to that glorified raw 40 everybody dream of (especially chem!! Argh! I had a chance and I screwed it!) It doesn’t even matter
that much considering I didn’t give permission to be on the 40+ honour roll anyway, but still.
Ultimately, I’ve got the ATAR needed for my course - which is what matters.
Looking ahead, our celebration evening (awards night) is on the night I land back at Melbourne. I’m excited to go, having went to the one for the 2017 cohort. It was at Melbourne Town Hall and was absolutely grand. I’m looking forward to seeing all my classmates again.
It is now time to start preparing for 2019. I’ll be moving out, hopefully to somewhere just outside the Melbourne CBD so that getting to uni won’t take too long. My sister won’t be living with me - she did much better on the SATs and is moving to the US for ""college"", which starts in the latter half of 2019. My parents will be leaving Australia in exactly two months from today, so for the very first time in my life, I’ll be all by myself. (There’s friends, but it’ll be weird not having any family around.)
I also need to get a job, I actually applied for a job at a tutoring place near me, but with my 39 chem score that just went down the drain. I still need to sort out Youth Allowance and all that crap. (Urgh adult life is hitting me and I’m not even legal yet). I also need to learn how to parallel park - there’s still a while to go before I can get Ps, but I should learn how before the parentals leave in which case I’ll have to spend money on a driving instructor.
I’m just ranting now, aren’t I?
There’s more to come from me on AN too! I’ve nearly finished the history guide, that will hopefully be posted before the new year. I can promise that it will be useful as I had my history teacher look over the whole thing and he also gave his own tips and comments. I also consulted a friend at another school who got a raw 46 (5th in VIC!), so I reckon it’ll be pretty good!
Lit guide is in progress! It’s actually written by both me and another AN user (hint hint, they got a 50 in literature... in year 11!) and it should be posted in January. It will be from their account (@Colline) so please be on the lookout for it!
I think I might also start a university journey journal.
All in all, I’ve got that 95+ ATAR needed to guarantee me into my first preference, and I guess in the end that’s what counts. I do have some
slight regrets, but at the end of the day I’m just glad that I have guaranteed entry into my course, and that I can finally call myself a Bachelor of Arts student!
University of Melbourne, here I come!!
This marks the final chapter of my VCE journey. Certainly a roller coaster of a ride, there were definitely more bumps than I had expected when I first entered Year 12 (teacher changes, fire drills during SACs, getting audited for global, ranking scandals, loads more I never wrote about... you name it). But hey - I survived. And I think AN played a big part in that. In January I had made an account to download lecture slides, and ended up getting so much more. Thank you all for accompanying me through this hectic year of my life, and offering me so much support, help, and advice along the way. AN is truly a remarkable community, and now that I’ve finally graduated, I can’t wait to help the next cohort of VCE students!
Thanks guys, so much.
Signing off,
The hums student.