The Grand Unit Three Review and The Halfway Mark Of My VCE JourneySince I have technically finished all of unit three
aside from one SAC, I thought I'd do a review of the year so far, and my feelings on how i'm feeling about the future. There hasn't been much going on recently, but I do have a few things to share so i'll leave that for later.
ChemistryLets start positive! I really do love this subject, and learning the content has been super enjoyable except for fuels... that was very boring yet applicable when I went looking for my first car. *Spoilers* So far, I think equilibrium has been the most interesting, but I'm willing to bet when I get around to food chemistry that will overtake it for the top spot. Although, organic chem is also very fascinating, but I do worry about my stick figure chemical structures... This subject has also made me realise that I would like to continue on with learning about chemistry (maybe food chem) in the future as it really is just so broad that it can take me to many places. However, there have been some not so great things with this subject, especially with how it is taught at my school. But since i'm trying to keep this relatively positive, i'll keep it at that.
Whilst my love for the subject has grown, my grades.... not so much. I do think there are a few reasons behind it, but i'm travelling pretty mediocre in this subject. It's quite hard to improve when the material you are given is quite off, but I just have to make do with what I have. I haven't received my second SAC back from unit 3 yet, although i'm not expecting it to be that great, my first SAC was a 42/50 (84%). It's alright I guess, but I certainly hoped to do alot better. Moving forward I just have to be alot more careful in my approach to this subject, and hope I can redeem myself in unit 4 and the exam. Just a side note as well, I knew chem was competitive, but once I saw the grade distribution, wow. In order to get an A+, I needed to only drop 5 marks.... Well i'm already out of that range, so i'm on par for getting a high B+ or a low A. I do hope that my exam performance will boost that up, but then again me and exams aren't best friends.
Foods StudiesI'm so happy I switched from physics to this. Not only has it been quite enjoyable to learn, but it is the lightest subject I do. The content is great, my teacher is one of the best i've had in years, and overall it's been a pretty chill subject when comparing it to the others I do. I am only slightly let down that there isn't alot of practical components in the subject compared to food tech. but I still think its an awesome subject.
Unlike my other subjects, this is the only one that has gone well all year. I have managed to not drop a mark yet, but I still have the last SAC to go, and i'm extremely nervous about it. The first AOS was all about food science which was hands down the best part of the subject! As I moved into AOS 2, I started to get a bit uncomfortable with the work I was doing. I was surprised with the amount of memorisation, lack of resources, and the diverse range of mini subjects in side the subject. There was business, marketing, psych, sociology, chem, bio, agriculture there was so much diversity. Since i'm a science student, I have always been use to having one answer as being correct, but in this subject, there are so many answers it's not funny.
This made the subject quite hard to study for, along side the non existent resources. I'm still learning how to get better are going about studying a subject that is a bit more on the humanities side, but i'm confident i'll get there.
MethodsMy bottom subject hello! So I haven't had the best start with methods over the years, due to some procrastination, heavy maths road blocks, and a good chunk of trying to learn mathematics online, it's not fun. I think the biggest hurdle of this subject for me, is that doing it online is really difficult. I feel like I barely get any support, and the materials supplied are okay at best. If I was in a in person classroom, I think I would have a much better opportunity to do better at maths. Having to teach myself hard concepts and having to dig through misleading information is really hard and very taxing. It doesn't help that there are no online lessons for this subject, which is just extremely disheartening, as all of my subjects have online lessons but maths. That being said I do have alot of building block areas the are missing which also make the subject quite hard. There is just so much I don't know, or constantly forget to a point where I learn something then forget it the next day.
I really have no clue how i'm going at the moment. All I know is that I passed the unit (yay)!, and I think I at least got a pass on the maths SAC. And that's all I really need. I never went into this subject with high expectations, but if I can pull of a 25 or even a 30, I'd be so happy you wouldn't believe it. At the moment, I have switched to the cambridge textbook and my god is that textbook a lifesaver! Super happy I went with my gut and switched from the Jacaranda, but never the less, in short, I still suck at maths.
EnglishIt was seriously hard to pick which is the worst subject, methods, or english. English came out on top by a long shot. Although i'm doing better grade wise in english, and it is also less time consuming, I still really can't stand this subject. The further the year goes on, the more I come to despise this subject with the entirety of my being! What has angered me the most, is how subjective this subject truly is, and how it can change depending on who's reading your work. The discrepancy between what different people want from your essay is just crazy to me, and it has put a big shadow over the subject. The other part the really gets on my nerves is that you can never really get better at english. I think I read heaps of articles on how to get better, got a tutor, did so many practice essays, yet there is really no way to prepare yourself. It can also come down to teachers as well, and how good the feedback is, if you even get any at all in a decent amount of time.
Overall, the only positive thing I can give to this subject, is that in my entire highschool career, the book Nine Days was actually a solid read. Other than that the other two books where honestly just the wrong age group with no relevance what so over that almost made me pull my hair out. But I do have one small tip, if you have like a house on fire for your chosen book for the creative, only read a few of the short stories, study them in depth and call it a day! I seriously didn't read the entire book because I couldn't bring myself to read something so depressing when real life was hard enough.
Like chem, I'm a disappointed in the grades I have received for the work I did. It's all really just felt like a waste of time. Anyway, I ended up getting my creative back, which bare in mind is normally my best piece, and I ended up with a 21/30 (70%). I have never felt so insulted, but I can't change it now, and to be quite honest i'm just a bit numb and extremely exhausted from all the work I put into that piece with no return. However on the good side, I have
Just managed to slip into the A range for unit three with my mark being 74/100. Will it stay that way after exams, who knows. I know that my review of english was a bit negative, and I do apologise for that, but i'm really just so done with this subject. The best part about this year, will be leaving english behind for good!
So here are my goals vs predictions as a few other people have done of late:
Spoiler
Goals:
English 38+
Chem 40+
Food Studies 45+
Methods 30+
Atar: 93
Actual Predictions:
English 36+
Chem 37+
Food Studies 44+
Methods 25+
Atar: 89.9
In terms of my exam timetable, i'm really happy with how spread out my exams ares. I have english first in the first week, I have methods in the second week, and I have chemistry on the Monday of the third week, finishing up with food studies on the Thursday the same week. So happy that food and chem aren't on the same day, and I like how spread out they are. So i'll officially be free on the 26th of November! Woohoo!
To wrap this up I though i'd share so personal news:
Spoiler
For some good news, I may or may not have a car..... I know I haven't got my drivers license yet since Vic Roads is closed, but it was a super good deal that I couldn't miss out on. So I can't wait to drive it in the holidays. And for some bad news, unfortunately, one of my plants passed away, I don't know how it happened but he will be truly missed from my desk.
If you are still with me, thanks for reading my long essay of an update, and I hope everyone is looking forward to the holidays. I still can't believe this is my last year of school, and it feels surreal to think that i'm halfway now. Being the person I am, i'm not quite sure what I want to do, but it will definitely be in the science direction! Finally, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has been with me, and has commented on this journal since I started it last year. I still can't believe that I have nearly reached 30,000 views on this page, I mean why would people care to read about my off abstract life, but once again, thanks for coming along on my weird journey through VCE.