How's life, SlowandSteady
Pretty darn good if I don't say so myself. A lot has happened while I was taking a break from AN (mostly me realising the fact that the site is more a source of motivation/inspiration to me than it is a distraction
). I'll be in Year 9 next year, which is pretty exciting (electives, yay!). I'll definitely be checking out your work experience guide for later on in the year as well
Speaking of electives…
Hey SlowandSteady, What's been happening? Have you heard any more about your subjects for next year?
I haven’t really heard any new info from my school, but I have made some changes to my preferences for subjects down the line. Right now, I’m pretty much locked into doing Digital Innovations and Digital Tech for next year, but I’m hoping to pick up Japanese in Year 10 and not do Philosophy and Reason. Although the conspiracy theory unit of it sounds really fun, I can’t see it as something I would enjoy through senior school. A language, however, is useful skill to have. I could choose Spanish (which I’m already pretty good at) over Japanese, but let’s just say that I enjoy Japanese
culture more than South American (*cough* anime, manga, music, food *cough*). I just got my hands on a textbook so I’m merrily working my way through that.
My results for the last semester (Term 3 + Term 4) were also emailed to me. Here’s how I went on my subjects; my grades from Term 3 really carried me this time.
English: B+&
Humanities: AI ended up really disappointing my English / Humanities teacher this term. I wrote a piece for the creative exam, but it was confusing, and the protagonist really lacked any clear motivation to do what he did, so I ended up getting a B. Funnily enough, I went better in Humanities, (B+) where I started writing up my report the night (and morning) before it was due. The teacher reached out to me when I stayed back after school to hand it in; she seemed really concerned for me, like I had problems at home or something. She’s a fantastic teacher, but that made me feel horrible. Next year I’m going to kick my arse into gear and actually make sure I get my classwork done, like,
in class.Maths: ANothing much to say about good ol’ Mathematics. Our exam was on algebra, time and geometry. I did some studying beforehand and everything turned out fine, barring some really silly mistakes that I just can’t seem to catch until 3 minutes after the exam is over.
Science: B+Went poorly on both the biology exam and the assignment that came after it, but last term lifted it to a B+, which I’m grateful for. I don’t like biology. Biology doesn’t like me. Let’s just leave it at that until I get to choose which sciences I do
.
The Arts (Visual Arts + Music): A-I was VERY surprised about this one. I actually ended up getting a B+ for Visual Arts (how) and an A for music. The music course was super fun. I was disappointed at first because they were going to make me create my song in Soundation (a website where you could only select from sample melodies / bass-lines / drums), but I persuaded the teacher to let me use FL Studio and ended up doing well. I’d upload the song I submitted, but I accidentally deleted it while I was clearing out my Desktop.
Spanish: A+We had an exam this time around for Spanish and it was HARD. I mean, the reading was fine, but the listening portion was crazy. I had entire page of notes scribbled down with question marks all over the place. My thought process was to pretty much try and connect any word I didn’t know to English in any way and hope for the best. The teacher said something about “numero uno” while describing someone’s relationship with his sister. My thoughts were “numero uno (something something) amigo ==> number one friend ==> best friend”. I was correct and managed to nab an A+ for the exam
Some other things that happened include:- Going on school camp. I got horrible sunburn but it was loads of fun
- Being invited to my school's academic awards night
- Getting into the grand final of the STEM Cup.
- Not getting selected for a leadership position (I froze up during the interview, but going through the process was a good experience)
And that's the end of Year 8.
One step closer towards the QCE
(Bullet-points don't seem to work very well here, do they?
)