Always nice to see another high school journal up and running. Hope you update this regularly! :)
By the way, stressheads unite! *high fives over internet* Used to be an absolute stresshead. (It's better now, although I still count myself as one.) If you go back and check through my Year 12 exam period posts, you'll see some posts I made where I made analogies between me and headless chickens. (Seriously.) Totally get where you're coming from.
Hi!
I just wanted to say good luck for this year. You will get through it and it'll be over before you know it. Trust me, I'm sitting here thinking about the first day of my job and I didn't know I was going to be doing that this time last year.
I really hope you update regularly, it's really fun reading through other peoples journey's! Good luck!
So today marks the end of week 1... for me it was only a day but it was pretty eventful. I didn't realise how much I missed school and I am super glad to be back.
I spoke to my maths teacher about dropping maths x2, but I still want to keep it despite the fact that it could drag my ATAR down. I'm having a meeting with my HSC coordinator next week, I need to decide what I'm going to do soon because I don't want to stress about something that I am considering to drop.
On the bright side, my eng x2 assessment got postponed to week 3, which gives me more time to work on it and to study for my eco assessment which is next week Tuesday..... I'm kinda stressing out for it because I want to come first and its pretty competitive, but we'll see what happens.
I met my new eco teacher today and he's nice, hopefully he can help me achieve a band 6 for eco, which is something I am aiming for. I have 12 free periods a week, which is amazing, it gives me a lot of time to 'study'. I usually waste time during them and can never find myself actually studying.. any tips on how to actually be focused and use this time wisely?
I can't really think of anything else to update on today, but I am really excited for this year!
meerae :)
So today marks the end of week 1... for me it was only a day but it was pretty eventful. I didn't realise how much I missed school and I am super glad to be back.
I spoke to my maths teacher about dropping maths x2, but I still want to keep it despite the fact that it could drag my ATAR down. I'm having a meeting with my HSC coordinator next week, I need to decide what I'm going to do soon because I don't want to stress about something that I am considering to drop.
On the bright side, my eng x2 assessment got postponed to week 3, which gives me more time to work on it and to study for my eco assessment which is next week Tuesday..... I'm kinda stressing out for it because I want to come first and its pretty competitive, but we'll see what happens.
I met my new eco teacher today and he's nice, hopefully he can help me achieve a band 6 for eco, which is something I am aiming for. I have 12 free periods a week, which is amazing, it gives me a lot of time to 'study'. I usually waste time during them and can never find myself actually studying.. any tips on how to actually be focused and use this time wisely?
I can't really think of anything else to update on today, but I am really excited for this year!
meerae :)
I read about your dilemma about x2, and to be honest, I think you should keep trying until you REALLY feel like dropping out. Because for me, I thought all along I was going to drop accelerated 2U maths, but I kept going. Even though I got an average score (82, just gave up two weeks before the HSC), it turned out to be incredibly rewarding. Then again, we are talking about 4U maths, which is MUCH MUCH harder. Talk to you HSC coordinator, and make sure to update us on your decision!!! :D :D :D
I totally relate to wasting study periods. For Yr11, I just mucked around with friends the whole time. It was great, but I guess if I decided to spend more time studying, I might have gotten better marks. For this first week of school, my first period was a study period!! Sitting down, I first asked myself: what can I do now that my future self will thank me for? Super deep question, but I tackled it down to brushing up on chemistry calculations, and for most of the study period, I ACTUALLY studied!! It was amazing, although I did eventually stop during the last ten minutes. I guess asking yourself this question will give you a sense of direction, and has worked for me so far.
Again, thanks for sharing your journal with us!! I hope you have a great week of school ahead!! ;D ;D ;D
Hey Meerae,
(Coming from someone who didnt have any free periods in year 11/12), have you tried assigning a subject to study for each period?
Writing “to do” lists are also quite helpful for prioritising study & homework. Focusing on getting one small task done at a time can really help with staying focused. They can also provide some hearty satisfaction as you tick items off! If you get through all of your list, revisit your notes or try some past paper questions. If you print off a few full past papers and leave them at your study space, then you could work through as you have time.
Another tip would be to allocate yourself small study blocks (like 15-20 min) with a small break in-between, to build up motivation. Through this method, eventually you may find that you don’t need a break after every block, as you get used to the rhythm.
Hope this gives you a few ideas!
hey just out of pure curiosity, what rank is your school around?
Also, I am allowed to use powerpoints for my viva! But I'm also expected to printout a handout of an extract of my short story (which isn't the best story). My viva is next week Friday and I have to start preparing from today onwards!
I have tried using my study periods to actually study yesterday, and it worked, I also found if I sat away from everyone else, I'd be less distracted and would get tons of work done!
Glad to hear that the PowerPoint presentation is allowed for the Viva ;D It'll make everything so much easier. As for the short story, don't worry if you think it's not your best work! In your Viva, you can reflect on your progress so far and even critique yourself briefly for the story. Explain why you feel it isn't the best representation of your Major Work potential and provide the marker/s with an action plan. Tell them with conviction what you intend to do to improve on it and where it will be heading after the Viva :) I am more than sure that it will go well ;D
Also wanted to put it out there that you could allocate specific subjects to your study periods! I did this during my HSC and it helped me manage my time a lot better. I would assign an equal number of study periods for each subject (except Visual Arts because I did that after school) and complete work during them to avoid having a ridiculous amount of homework for more than one or two subjects :) Usually, I would put the subject that immediately preceded my study period in that block so I can complete any homework, work on my assignment and write up any study notes right there and then when the content was still fresh in my mind :) This was really helpful in the long run and eventually, I began to be more flexible with my study periods because I just knew exactly what my priority was for the coming study period and worked with it. Hope this is something useful you might consider 8)
Looking forward to hearing how Eco went! Do let us know ;D
Hi Meerae
I am really enjoying reading your HSC journal so far!! I'm doing Legal too and isn't just the greatest ^^
Question: how are u going to go about past papers with the new syllabus?
Looking forward to keep on reading :)
-Filly :)
I'm excited for you meerae - Fresh term, fresh start! Fingers crossed for a good result in Legal tomorrow! ;D
It sounds like you're doing really well, try not to be too hard on yourself ;D
Thanks Jamon! Means a lot - I got 29/30 in legal and was the only person in my cohort who got 20/20 for the essay component.
Currently, I have remained first for legal and I only need to keep it up for two more tasks!
I received economics and am third overall but came second for this task with 47/50.
English extension 1 has also come up and I am now second overall as well as for this task, I got 21/25.
Currently am only waiting on mx1, which is probably going to be the worst mark of the term.
I can't wait for the next two weeks and have planned to go to all 5 days of the lectures, hopefully nothing comes up! Right now, I am watching a tv show and relaxing so I can begin Monday with my study schedule.
peace out,
meerae :)
Have you managed to get to any of the lectures so far? :)
I got 29/30 in legal and was the only person in my cohort who got 20/20 for the essay component.
hey meerae!
I'm back to your journal, and it's been a whole lot of fun!! I mentioned in my journal I'm adopting your 'goals of the week', it's bound to be sooo useful I think! How do you go about setting specific goals you actually can achieve in that time? And FANTASTIC JOB on your results, and doing so incredibly well in legal and economics AND ENGLISH EXTENSION! That's super impressive and motivating, truly, you should be really really proud of yourself! How are you so adept at it all?!! What are your fav tv shows? I'm really keen to know you plan out your weekly study schedule as well, and how much study you do on average each day.
You're really inspiring ⭐️
Helloooo everyone,Hey! So glad you popped back to your journal, can't wait for future updates ;D
so sorry for literally neglecting this space. I have about 8 weeks until my first English trial and I am starting to freak out because I have been doing literally nothing and have SOO much to do...
So to bring you all up to speed, I had my last eco task before trials last week and I am super confident about the essay component, I predicted the exact essay that came in so I was over prepared and had way too much fun writing the essay in the exam.
I have legal and math x1 next week, and English adv and x2 in week 9. I have to edit my x2 major work and draft out my reflection while also write my CCP by week 9 and I haven't begun doing any of that...
Also, I made a nice little list of everything I have to do before trials, but I've been procrastinating soo much. I can sit all day and watch HTGAWM or The Office but I can barely clock in an hour of maths.
Today was a public holiday; I managed to do about 3 hours of maths and an hour of legal. I'm planning to watch Hamlet tonight for x1 whilst also work on my adv English essay so I can produce a draft by the end of the week.
Weirdly though, I still haven't received my x2 lit review mark and am still waiting on that, which I'm going to check up on tomorrow to see when we're getting that back.
Overall, I wish I was more productive but I feel like I'm getting towards the final stretch and it's making me way lazy. Any tips to regain my motivation, especially with the 3 week break coming up??
Okay, I'm off to do a past paper for maths! Wish me luck.
peace out,
meerae :)
I don't know about you, but the feeling and thought that trials are like 56 days ahead is kind of scary. I guess what we can kind of do is just to study (obvious I know).
BTW out of interest, what is your maths extension 1 class upto? My maths ext.1 class only has 7 people, of which 6 have already completed the 2U course last year, so my teacher is teaching the 3U course and we are almost finished (upto to binomial probability, and circle geo is left to do). Although RIP for that one guy who hasn't, he has so many gaps in his knowledge in 2U and 3U maths.
Another piece of advice I found so helpful (boosted my productivity up so much) was not touching any social media or youtube for the whole day unless I have completed my goals. So when I don't feel like studying, I can't access any social media, Netflix or youtube, so I just become soo bored until I actually start to work. Right now, I just resist the temptation too watching youtube or any social media, but if the urge is too much, then I'll use a website blocker (cold turkey app) to block it. It's been really effective for me, because if I don't feel like studying, I just sit there with nothing to do, and I'll become so bored that I'll start to do work. Try it out, it might be of use to you ;D ;D ;D
Good luck for your paper! Hopefully these tidbits of advice are really helpful to you!
How have you found sticking to the study plan in general? Difficult, or easy to keep with it?
How exciting! What are you doing with all of your free time? ;D
Congrats on finishing!! :D
So I realised that I totally forgot to update this when atars and results came out - I was honestly so upset with my performance for weeks after they came out and barely spoke to anyone.
I have now sort of come to terms with my marks and although I wish they were higher, they represented the effort I put in and I definitely could've tried harder.
So I got;
English Advanced - 89 (this took the longest to come to terms with to be honest)
English Ext1 - 45
English Ext2 - 34
Math Ext1 - 46
Legal Studies - 96
Economics - 85
Which equated to an ATAR of 95.85.
I found that, as expected, I don't test well, and my internals literally saved me. I knew I'd be horrible in exam situations as I overstress and cant seem to focus. Something I definitely need to work on before uni starts though.
My dream course definitely changed over the course of my HSC year - and I wanted to get into a B Commerce/B Advanced Studies at Usyd, which I did (thankfully).
Although every single ATAR calculator I used predicted something above 96.4 (which I would've been genuinely happy with), I am proud of what I achieved and am really excited to start uni this year.
Now I can finally close the horrid chapter that was the HSC.
peace out,
meerae :)