penelope's (attempt at a) VCE journal

[dedformed]

Hello peeps

I started this journal as a way to document my VCE. I've always loved to write and this was my place of catharsis. When I started this journal I was a Year 11 student, aspiring to study medicine. I didn't really think I would make it (and if you read this, you'll discover, I didn't, no fairy tail surprises there), but I also thought that not getting in would be the most terrifying thing to happen to me (which is not true at all).

This journal is my little niche of the internet where I came to when I felt really overwhelmed. It's got a lot of ups and downs. You'd think I'm a really serious and sad person, which I wouldn't call an accurate impression, but I think that's okay. It's raw, because I mostly wrote to lift my mood or get something off my chest. I like it this way, reading back on it reminds me of who I was as a person when I started and how I have changed. Because it was so raw and a little bit of the really raw side of me I even considered deleting it, but I figured, if you're in this very narrow alley of ATARNotes titled "VCE journey journal" and you've scrolled as far to click on mine, you're probably someone taking the same nerdy road I was two years ago. Maybe you're like me, who was trying to get braincells to squeeze a tad of serotonin in lockdown inflicted holidays, and you discovered a new need to express your thoughts and reflections, and you're looking for inspiration on where to get started. Maybe you're feeling alone and that VCE is this helpless abyss (which not gonna like, is a pretty good description of how it felt at times) and you want something relatable. Maybe it'll help you feel less alone, or better. I don't know, maybe you'll like my weird little gigs here and there. It's a lot of feeling hopeful, accomplished, and then feeling really, really low. I ended up doing pretty okay, even though at times I felt like I needed to drop out because of how much pressure I had put on myself.

 I'm now in uni (and of course, have a journal) studying radiography and medical imaging. I don't know where my uni journey will take me, but by the time you read this I may have dived deep into my little pond in the sea that education is.

If you're reading this, take care of yourself. It's a long road, but it's got an end. And it's just the end of the road, not the world. It's like taking a train to Flinder's street. If you miss one, there's always transits, and a few other routes. Maybe you'll be a little late to your destination, but you will get there. The most important thing is, look after yourself. If there's places to sit on the train, don't call yourself emo and just stand in the name of coolness. I started VCE waking up at 3am and saying sleep was a waste of time. I started by doing 28 practice exams for Bio in Year 11, but still got basically the same score for Chem in Year 12 with 8. It's not quantity. Don't compete with others, set standards for yourself. Everyone takes different train lines. Take rest. Stare out the window, and explore the world outside.  Sanity is important. VCE is already going to be harsh on you, so be good to yourself. Feel free to share reflections with me, I love talking lmao. I used to think this was cringe, self care was cringe, but, it's really, really important. Take breaks, you're not a machine. And take care.

Good luck to you!

my Year 12 front page

After receiving my Year 11 results, I decided to edit this entry because it no longer reflects my goals or progress for VCE.

You can call me Penelope. I'm now in Year 12 (class o'2021)

I love:
- art,
- chocolate,
- people
-learning.

I'm also getting into Arabic calligraphy but that's still in progress. After high school I want to pursue medicine because it's cool (hope I have more to say on my application!) I also know how to clap my feet, yes, I'm flexing.

In terms of my subjects, I completed Biology and Extended Investigation for 2020. In 2021 I'll be doing English Language, Maths (Specialist), Maths (Methods) and Chemistry.

My ATAR  and study score goals are... I don't have any. I just want to get the best I can possibly get and work the hardest I can. For 2020 I set study score goals and I was quite off. If I was sitting the Chemistry exam and set for 90%, it doesn't mean I would stop at the 90th percent because I've achieved my goal, right?  I don't find it helpful to set study score goals. I just need to make sure I'm getting the highest I possibly can so I don't regret it later. Perhaps once things start rolling and I get SACs back I can put in 'expectations' but that's a while away.

My goals for 2021 are:

- Be a better version of me that's more organised, cheerful, and get more sporty.
- Not sacrifice my art life and maintain some extracurrics.
- Spend quality time with family and on my spiritual and mental health.
- Find out what the hell I do in the undergrad if I don't get medicine (I'll definitely do the post grad pathway but I want to have a backup plan in case things don't turn out well).
- Stay clean (like not in my pjs all the time) and keep my desk uncluttered (this is by far the hardest thing on here).
- get a sense of humour


I hope this is somewhat inspiring or useful to other people going through VCE and useful for me to refer to in the future so I can hold myself accountable.

Cheers and beans!
Penelope

my Year 11 front page

So I was attempting to study and I opened my laptop for something school related and completely went off tangent and read, like, twenty journals from people that graduated. I vicariously lived through the joys of being accepted into courses, the disappointments that came along the way. I made it into Medicine and Arts, then flunked the UMAT but got accepted. Such glory, such pain. The tender muscles of my heart thumped through twenty experiences, then jolted when I realised: I have a bio exam coming up and I have been literally procrastinated for an hour.

EpIC.

But it's too tempting to start my own journal. Might as well procrastinate a little more - I guess for accountability, but also to see if it's going to do any good. If I become overly obsessed with this place, then I might stop. I feel like being a part of communities like this is good, but then again, I'm experimenting. I hate social media, I am afraid of wanting attention. I'm going to be super honest with myself here, and try to make it a real journey.
So yeah thanks for coming to my ted talk. This took me an hour to write. I am doing so well studying. LOL.

A bit about me

I'm a Year 11 student - you can call me Penelope. idk how I became Penelope online but somehow it went from a random joke about my friend to a universal internet username, so there's that. I'm gonna be class of '21, nice. I like having existential crises, dreaming about getting a chancellor's scholarship, spending time with fam, and secretly watching kdramas since I'd be the last person my friends would think is a rom-com stan. Like I used to not be into it but idk how I got here.

My current subjects/ VCE plan

SOO basically right now I'm doing 2 3/4s: Biology 3/4 and Extended Investigation. Can't believe I'm doing the latter, despite only having one assessment left. Like I wanted to do it since Year 9 lol, even moved schools for its sake; it's such a cool experience y'all - just hope that scaling saves me since it's a small cohort.
Next year's plan is: Eng language, Methods, Specialist, Chem. I also might do HHD if my study scores decide to destroy me

A rant about my goals, and a rant in general

Unlike other people, my goals are different. If you saw my subjects, you probably noticed my amazingly unique choices. Unlike pretty much half the kids in Victoria,  I'm the kid who wants to get into Medicine. Surprising, right? I know, I get that a lot. I tend to have original life plans.

Yeah nah, I don't really know if it's a realistic goal to have. I want to do Medicine. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a kid - but everyone says that. I want to help people. I've been fascinated by the body. I wanted to give back to my community. I've known sick people that I wish I could help. Original, eh? I'm really your average kid. I don't have any special reasons to stick out as 'unique'. I'm book smart, I guess, average As, but I failed the selective entry high schools test. Attemped a UCAT with medentry this morning, got 35th percentile LMAO. 9/36 on QR. I can make the excuse that I panic really hard in assessment conditions (get shaky and all, have not been diagnosed with anything, just to be clear), particularly if it's a computerised test with computerised notes and my first Uni Degree is at stake on the 120 mins (who even designed the UCAT?)  It's so sad. I think I can manage a high 90s ATAR (most of my subjects are just regurgitating information), but do I even deserve medicine? LMAO. I don't even know what I'm talking about how did this turn into a depressing storyline.

2020 study score expectations

ANYWAY  VCE goals I'd like to get a 99.95 atar. Everyone does. That's the 'like'. I'm expecting around 97+ ish. But idk. I have goals below but to be fair, I want a 50 in everything. These are what I'm realistically "expecting".
2020:
Biology: My initial goal was to get a 50, but I messed up a few assessments (yes, I'm looking at you, Google Forms). At this rate, I'm going for 45+. I asked my bio teacher and he said he expects 45 (we've done all the sacs, so idk how it'll work since I sat half of them at home so scaling might be weirdd)

Extended Investigation: I'm aiming for 45. But to be honest, it's a bit scary since the cohort is so small. I have the oral presentation next month (wish me luck, I have a writer's block rn). I think I've been averaging really well (94) but idk how good that is compared to my cohort. A lot of things are based on the external assessment, and although I've finished the critical thinking exam and the final report, and I think I did well but then I read other people's report and it's like WOAH people are just so amazing they deserve more than me lol.

2021 goals

2021 Obviously I don't know how good I'm gonna do so I bunged my expected average grades from the past few years into study score calculator and this is what it returned:

English language (40) - I've been doing really well in Eng lang even though it's my easy going (like I do the bare minimum) but I think that's because I
Methods (38) I might also get a 10 study score my maths grades are less predictable than Melbourne weather.
Specialist (32) ^
Chemisty (41)
Health (45) - I would like to assume bio is harder than health and I found it fun, so I think I can manage a good score here. A 50 would be good, but realistic! gotta do that.

So based on these^ apparently I can get a 98.3 ish based on (https://atar-calculator.deakin.edu.au/. Don't know if any med uni will take me with that, but I don't find myself struggling with general school subjects. I just suck (SUCK) at psychometric tests and probably am the only person in the world with a negative IQ not because I'm stupid but because I panic really hard when I'm doing them. Like grades wise I'm your A+/A but idk why I do so poorly (or have this bias that coils my intestines) against tests like UCAT.

UCAT goals

UCAT goals
At this point I want to get 80-85th percentile (Obv 95+ would be amazing but I'm trying to be realistic - I want Monash but any uni taking me would be fine). I feel like that's the impossible task. I brought this book off Amazon with thousands of questions for 50 bucks and like I just spend 20 mins per question (for comparison, the Abstract reasoning section is 13 mins with 55 questions). That's something I really want to figure out.
I'm still trying to figure out how to prepare for it. I feel so bad because my dad paid so much for my tutoring for selective entry high school (he never mentioned it to me, but I saw) despite being unemployed at the time, just because I wanted to try out. And I just flunked it up. What a disappointment. I think I was younger and overestimated my abilities and didn't study outside tutoring at all, but I don't want my parents to have to pay again, although, gratefully, they're back to work. They wouldn't mind paying, but I don't want to let them down again. SO I'm still trying to figure this part out.
[/spolier]

Edit: I changed my username and name details for privacy reasons.

[The Cat In The Hat]

Sounds really interesting! However, enjoy studying for bio

[dedformed]

Sounds really interesting! However, enjoy studying for bio

thanks Cat in the Hat! It's actually fun once I get into the zone

[Coolgalbornin03Lo]

You’ll definitely be able to get 80th-85th percentile in the UCAT!!!! Especially since your already interested. Hmmmm E.I huh? That’s a very rare subject speaks science school to me- don’t worry I won’t put you 

Good luck with bio and E.I I’m sure you’ll smash it!

[dedformed]

You’ll definitely be able to get 80th-85th percentile in the UCAT!!!! Especially since your already interested. Hmmmm E.I huh? That’s a very rare subject speaks science school to me- don’t worry I won’t put you 

Good luck with bio and E.I I’m sure you’ll smash it!

thanks, nice person. The UCAT stuff is super draining me though, like I start doing stuff, realise how bad I am and just give up. Gotta get that resilience in so I can flex to my great-grandchildren

[The Cat In The Hat]

thanks, nice person. The UCAT stuff is super draining me though, like I start doing stuff, realise how bad I am and just give up. Gotta get that resilience in so I can flex to my great-grandchildren

Guess that's what practise is for? (note I didn't/haven't/won't do the UCAT, so I dunno what it's like) Don't give up, because practise is what makes you better at it

[bluebird]

hey penelope, i'm just a random year 10 but i can't wait to follow your journal. u sound like you'll do amazing for bio and everything else. but i relate so much with the medicine thing and getting to AN  . i've been so active on AN bc i'm procrastinating a lot lol. u got this penelope 

[dedformed]

hey penelope, i'm just a random year 10 but i can't wait to follow your journal. u sound like you'll do amazing for bio and everything else. but i relate so much with the medicine thing and getting to AN  . i've been so active on AN bc i'm procrastinating a lot lol. u got this penelope 

thanks, fellow bean 

Guess that's what practise is for? (note I didn't/haven't/won't do the UCAT, so I dunno what it's like) Don't give up, because practise is what makes you better at it

practice! I'm really hoping next year me gets to reread this and know that i followed your advice

[dedformed]

So hello beans, welcome to my first update since I'm in a big journaling mood this week and it's almost cathartic to be on here. Thanks to everyone that encouraged me to journal! Like, in the morning when I don't feel like studying I read people's 99 atar stories and get pumped to study (but just end up reading more stories instead lmao). Only gonna post about 3/4s since 1/2s are pretty mundane rn - except English Language I cannot tell you how much I enjoy the content. I LOVE the study design and I can't wait to do it next year.

I guess I'll try doing weekly/ fortnightly/ monthly updates depending on how much is going on around VCE. Here's the tea.
 

Nucleotidying up that biological understanding

tl; dr: I've revised all the content, am doing practice exams and had a massive epiphany. I need to get better at connecting all the dots. Goals are to finish practice exams.

I created a Google Classroom for myself using an email account and posted up tasks and deadlines. It's good because then I can get notifications on my phone for every task, which is two birds in one stone because: a) I get reminded to do my work and can see all my prep at once, and more importantly, b) I get notifications on my phone which makes it seem like I have friends. Also, I created powerpoints using each study design key knowledge point from U3 (since U4 is still fresh in my mind). Highlighted what I didn't remember in red (basically the whole study design lmao), forced myself to remember it by attempting to articulate it, failed, then studied the powerpoints again. Fun times. I won't complain though, I picked my VCE course because I thought I'd enjoy Biology, so I'm not bored - it's fun to make the powerpoint look cool and I even made posters when I got sick of it.

While all that must have prepared me for the exam. 100 study score, here I come! But no. It helped build the base, but I realised I'm nowhere near done.
Because I opened my first practice exam. That's not what they assess at all. They don't want me regurgitating the exact steps for transforming bacteria or neurotransmission - I need to know all that, but what they assess is the application. I realised that instead of looking at individual stars, I need to look at their position and importance in the constellation as a whole (that phat wisdom tho).

For instance, this question from the 2003 exam asked why people with allergies can sometimes be treated by injecting them with particular antigens. I couldn't answer this at all, since I was only thinking process. I wasn't thinking application.
Injecting people with more antigens would mean their antibodies would be exhausted and thus fewer  would be available for immediate reactions, thus decreasing the severity of an immune response.
To anyone else doing biology, I'd recommend not wasting too much time on writing down random notes (unless you don't understand something, then clarify those grey areas first) and get right into old VCAA exams. They tell us to leave the most recent ones to last, but the study design hasn't changed a whole lot from the start of the exams (at least for bio) so even if you skip half the questions on the 2000s exams, they're worth attempting as a starting point.

I was gonna get an edunlimited subscription for accessing practice papers but my teacher sent me 50 practice exams. So gotta do those. Also lmao this is super random but I tried getting people to make a padlet for my bio teacher's birthday (since he's a legend and he deserves it) but my class is so dry I had to write multiple anonymous comments on my own to make it look less empty. We stan sadness.
 

let's talk Extended Investigation

Having a massive writer's block for my oral presentation script. I got really good on the oral presentation we did for proposing our study in Unit 3, so I want to reuse some of those elements. Thing is, VCAA, being kindhearted as they are, cut down the time from 10 mins speaking time to 9 mins speaking time (and that might not seem like a lot, until you have to explain a whole year's worth of research to someone who knows nothing about you while being somewhat nervous and evaluating your work with "critical thinking"). Thanks, VCAA. They did the same thing for the report - usual word count is 4000 words, with 10% tolerance. That might seem like a lot, but trust me, you have so much to cover you'll end up with double that amount in the first draft. This year they cut it down to 3500 - so harsh! They could have just expanded the tolerance to 20%

Anyway, I'm trying to dream up ways to present while being engaging. I want to have some quirky stuff in there (I presented my previous SAC as a "saga" where the literature review was a "plot summary" and my report was "fanfic" - teachers loved it, but not sure if that's a good idea for an external assessment) but I don't have enough time! There's so much to say I'll have to rap at this rate. I'm lovin' EI but also I'm just stuck behind this massive boulder on my path that I still haven't figured out.

Yeah so goals are to get that script ready before the end of the holidays.

my marriage with UCAT

Still in a bad position. Gonna try doing a few practice questions later today. Things I need to get better at:
- panic: this is my main enemy. The maths can be piss easy if I had all the time in the world and I was calm. I need to clear out my thoughts and learn to get into the zone. I need to enjoy it. That's my way of engaging with things. I love doing biology papers because I genuinely love biology. I need to make this relationship work. I will love UCAT and keeping that coquetry running.
- time management: links with above. Need to calm down and see what I'm doing. I feel like I reread the question two million times because I'm not paying attention - bit game spoiler when I have only so many minutes
- consistency: I need to get onto questions more often. I know a lot of people start a month or two before the UCAT, but I'm not someone 'naturally' smart who'll get perfect scores if I don't study. I need to be consistent. I'm aiming to finish the book I got by the end of this year so I can get more prep material going next year. Realistically, I probably won't have as much free time next year (hopefully quarantine will be over!) so I need to stop making excuses. I think the questions are good so I need to get it moving.
-motivation: I need to remember and remind myself why I'm doing all this. MeD. Surgery. GOTTA HIT THOSE ORGANS!

le GAT

I want to get better at writing task 2. Lol. Anyone volunteering to write a practice task (or swap tasks), I welcome thee. Please hit my pms and let's hit those writing tasks!

ALSO does anyone want to practice writing for the GAT with me?

[Coolgalbornin03Lo]

Your approach to bio sounds solid! Makes me wanna actually (properly) learn unit 4! I’m worried my understanding is superficial and the exam will call me out.

Your the exact opposite of me! Unit 3 I have every single dot connected and quite enjoy those exam questions but unit 4🤯🤯 what is evolution? That stuffs completely called from my brain. I couldn’t tell you features of primates if my life depended on it.

[dedformed]

Your approach to bio sounds solid! Makes me wanna actually (properly) learn unit 4! I’m worried my understanding is superficial and the exam will call me out.

Are there specific areas where you're finding it hard - happy to have discussions about u4 since discussions really help me get a more in depth understanding?

[dedformed]

I'm in an update mood again.

random anecdote

This morning when I was still quantum phasing between sleep and wakefulness,  I wanted to tell Siri to snooze my alarm, but I was dreaming about something random. I really can't remember, but it was something to do with numbers, specifically, the number "4". I know I blabbered "Hey Siri" and something after that, but I think I fell back asleep for the two seconds she took to comprehend my sentence.

I don't know what happened but the next thing I heard her say was "calling emergency services."

What a great way to wake up. My brain went into panic mode and I aggressively tapped cancel while saying "cancel it" like I was possessed.  I saw my eye snort shining over my sleep-swollen eyes reflected on my cracked screen as I realised I was successfully awake and I had successfully managed to cancel the emergency SOS.

Great.

Okay so I decided that while I'm here, I'm gonna do some self-improvement things. I'll not set too many goals at a time so I don't get overwhelmed. But here's this week's idea.
 

acquiring high frequency lexemes

So when I was moving to Australia my vocabulary was literally turd. Like I knew everyday domestic vocabulary but not sophisticated phat stuff that would embellish my writing. So I did this thing where I would open up a random page in a dictionary and write down the first word I didn't know. I ended up compiling a mini 300 word dictionary with some nice words. I think it was cool because I tried to employ those words into everyday vocab and diary  entries (yeah, I'm one of those people - I have an email account I sent journal entries to so I can cringe over my past self). I ended up telling my mum to stop 𝒷𝓊𝓇𝑔𝑒𝑜𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝑔𝓇𝒾𝓃 when I was mad at her, so I had quite a phase with that.

So basically I decided to do that again. My vocab is now faeces - better than turd, but still shit - so I need to up the level. So here's the catch: I'll do it again. One word for every journal entry, and I have to use that word somewhere in the entry. It could be a new word or a word I think I should use more often.

the current word is "quintessential" - seen it in so many EI reports and I think it makes me sound 𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓬𝔂. Also please read my entries in a posh accent, the quintessential English dialect when it comes to being 𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓬𝔂

Subject Update

Extended Investigation

I FINALLY confirmed the first draft of my oral presentation script and the slides that go with it! I rehearsed once, and it was finally 9 minutes 45 (will probably cut it to 8:30 once I speak without the constant need to think about what I'm reading and my flow is more natural).
BUT I HAD BEEN DYING and now I still dying but to less levels. Everyone has apoptotic genes but mine just got downregulated. BCL 2 ftw.

I really, really want to make it to top talks. I LOVE public speaking. This year I've barely done any debates since I moved to a different schools and nobody seems to care about debating (though I did manage to have a mixed team for Monash Asian Debating comp because I convinced the organiser to let me have people from another school in my team (highly recommend it if you're into debating such a rewarding experience).

Biology

I've been doing at least one practice exam a day for the past week and for now my exam expectation is okay, but not okay enough. I need to smash the practice exams so I do the best on the biology exams. Sometimes I think I can really smash it and do well on the exam and get my highest possible score (48 according to study score calculator from Deakin), other times I think I'll end up in the 30s*. I'm just scared to disappoint myself. I'm really nervous about the whole thing. I hope I'm working hard enough - same thing for EI. I know I put in a lot of effort, but idk if it was enough effort. That hinders my confidence sometimes, but at least it's better than complacency and not thinking about the potential to improve.
*note: I don't think 30s are a bad score, if someone is aiming for 30s, that's amazing, but the course I wanna do needs a high ATAR and knowing me, I'd want biology to be in my top four so I have higher expectations.

A convoluted paragraph

Every second of my life that I'm not studying I feel like I'm wasting my time but I continue to gluttonise internet garbage by constantly visiting random pages and going on discord and reading people's statuses (literally). I'm about to finish my current kdrama (been so interrupted by busy schedule it takes me two days to get through a full episode lol) and now I'm debating if I should continue my watch list just give them up overall. I know that wont work since I didn't watch anything (no youtube, no instagram, no nothing) for all of Term 2 - studied all of unit 2 content and unit 4 content I needed for subjects - and I had a massive burnout where I binged 7 kdramas in a fortnight and only studied minimally (but my bio grades were still somehow higher than term 2 and everything else stayed the same since I'd studied ahead in Term 2 lol)  I somehow use the commute time I save during quarantine (3hrs a day) to justify the time I waste on entertainment.

kdrama update, if you're interested

I'm watching Lawless Lawyer. First drama where the entire theme isn't the guy going "I will protect my woman" (note: it's still there to some extent, just less) and the woman having no roles - the villain is a woman. I'm on epi 14, seems like they've dragged it a bit but the amount of woman input into the plot is driving me to keep watching it.

So yeah, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

[Coolgalbornin03Lo]

Hey I’m sure you’ll get at least 40 in bio and EI you work so hard!!! About being worried about not getting good scores think of year 11 as a “test” run. If this year doesn’t work out you can do a 5th subject next year and cancel out on of the bad ones this year. I’m only doing 5 subjects and (was) aiming for a 97-98 the difference between me getting 25 and 35 in Methods (my 5th subject) is minimal. English + the other 3 is important so good to see you working on vocab! My exams in 6 weeks and I wish I could turn back time and Aquire non basic vocab 

[Coolgalbornin03Lo]

Are there specific areas where you're finding it hard - happy to have discussions about u4 since discussions really help me get a more in depth understanding?

EDIT: I just saw this. I literally struggle with human evolution(like Australopithecus and homo erectus features as in the difference between these humans like controlled use of Fire first ones simple tools etc)  and just all of that stuff *sigh*. I guess I still have a week left to become super confident with it. Maybe also the biotic/abiotic stuff.

Hey I’m sure you’ll get at least 40 in bio and EI you work so hard!!! About being worried about not getting good scores think of year 11 as a “test” run. If this year doesn’t work out you can do a 5th subject next year and cancel out on of the bad ones this year. I’m only doing 5 subjects and (was) aiming for a 97-98 the difference between me getting 25 and 35 in Methods (my 5th subject) is minimal. English + the other 3 is important so good to see you working on vocab! My exams in 6 weeks and I wish I could turn back time and Aquire non basic vocab 

[dedformed]

Hey I’m sure you’ll get at least 40 in bio and EI you work so hard!!! About being worried about not getting good scores think of year 11 as a “test” run. If this year doesn’t work out you can do a 5th subject next year and cancel out on of the bad ones this year.

Definitely considering a 5th subject to buffer any bottoms I get this year, thanks for your kind words

replying to Coolgalbornin03

My exams in 6 weeks and I wish I could turn back time and Aquire non basic vocab 

From experience I will tell you this: vocab doesn't mean good writing. I'm doing Eng Lang now so things are different but most of my Year 9/ 10 English essays lost marks for obfuscation. Vocab isn't the same as analysis, VCAA assessors are more impressed if offer thorough analysis, which you still have time to work on- I'm sure your English essay is gonna be great!
The reason why I'm doing the vocab thing is because I'm a fan of big word for some reason lol and I think it's cool to see how descriptive English can get (since it's not the only language I speak).

EDIT: I literally struggle with human evolution(like Australopithecus and homo erectus features as in the difference between these humans)

I'll try summarising it here - I don't think you need to know in too much detail, maybe check with the other thread but:

Australopithecus features

The genus Australopithecus (gracile and robust)
- small brained
- large toothed
- bipedal
- their gracile structures suggest that they were ancestors to modern humans
Lucy was an Australopethicus

Homo erectus

H. erectus was the first hominin to spread beyond Africa.
- Oldest fossil evidence outside of Africa
- Not ancestral to H. Sapien
- Larger brained and smarter than Australopithecus
- controlled use of fire
- crafting of more elaborate stone tools
- evidence of systematic hunting

Maybe also the biotic/abiotic stuff.

not sure what you mean? biotic = living, abiotic = non-living. could you give context?