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VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: charmingcloud on October 13, 2021, 04:00:31 pm

Title: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 13, 2021, 04:00:31 pm
Hello atarnotes!

I have randomly decided to start a vce journey journal. Updates may happen whenever I feel like it / remember to.

I accept no responsibility for any brain damage the trash quality of this may cause please do not sue me

I am in year eleven at some random (kind of overrated) selective school. I am probably bottom 10% of cohort lol
My subjects are:
English (gross)
Chinese (3/4)
methods (3/4)
spesh
physics
theatre
I am planning on swapping theatre for further next year, and I literally only did theatre this year because the school doesn't like people doing three maths in the same year.

also exams are soon aiya scary
18/10 Chinese oral (THERE'S LESS THAN A WEEK AND I HAVE HARDLY DONE ANYTHING HELPPPP)
3/11 methods 1
4/11 methods 2
16/11 Chinese written

I am kind of unprepared and have spent 90% of lockdown procrastinating, cannot wait to receive study scores in the single digits yay!!!
eh I guess there is always centerlink tafe

Also is anyone doing uni extension? Should I apply for it (even though I will have like 7 subjects with 4 maths)?
I don't know if the school will even let me do it

thank you for reading and good luck for the exams!
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: mabajas76 on October 13, 2021, 07:20:19 pm
Yo!!! Dont even stress bout marks u have no idea how many people feel that pain. I got a 64% in RELIGION which was such an F! So don't stress, bad marks happen but ya know we can always improve. If u r even allowed to do chinese and methods 3/4 u can't be that bad, I got rejected from methods 3/4 lol...
I do hope u well in studying for ur exams, orals r scary -_-
Also with ur math subjects, be carful doing methods, futher and spec cause vcaa doesn't allow 3 maths in ur top 4, even if u get 50 in all of the, they will boot one down to a bottom 5th or 6th. I am doing a uni math subkect (gonna apply anyway lol) next year so i'm kinda nervous as well, talking to some kids doing it I think it may be alright. Like apparently it isn't incredibly hard and has some good overlap with methids, spec and it. turns it from 3 subjects to more like 2.5 or something.
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 14, 2021, 07:21:25 pm
hi mabajas76
There is not that much point in stressing over marks, in fact the extra pressure might make marks even worse. But like that doesn't stop me from being sad about it oops. (also 64% is not a bad score, especially if the task was extra hard)
haha I didn't even meet the school's minimum requirements to do two 3/4s this year, but I think they just let everyone do it because last year was so bad (because covid).

also today I had my last ever methods class (so sad iknowright)
We got methods sac 3 back - it definitely could have been better, but also could have been worse
I am literally so angry at myself for not being able to read properly. There was this question I read as less than 4 when it said exactly four, then I spent so much effort doing that question and ran out of time of the last question (which was literally just basic addition)
And like I was so certain I was going that question right I did not even bother making my working out easy to understand, so I didn't even get a method mark for my (wrong) hard work. >:(
apparently sacs don't matter though (I REALLY hope this is true) so everything will be fine if I just do well in the exam

It's great how I just love making my life more difficult for myself. I did/am doing two subjects this year so I could chill next year with 4 subjects, but now I want to do uni extension too even though that would mean that one of my subjects (a math) would not count at all. As a lazy person, this sounds like a massive scam, but uni extension sounds cool and I can always just drop out if I am dying. Ahahhaha what am I saying the school hasn't even approved it yet idk if I'll even get to do uni extension.

I don't even know what I am doing like I should be memorizing my Chinese oral now, there's literally only a few days left. Okay maybe I should stop procrastinating and actually go do work. Bye guys! Good luck with your studies!
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 14, 2021, 10:21:12 pm
Update: I hate Chinese oral so much

like who decided this was a good idea this is more like a test of memorising skills rather than actually language stuff

:((((( it's okay I really hope chinese scaling will save me
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 18, 2021, 02:28:23 pm
chinese oral exam happened
it was okay
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: VCEStudent2034 on October 18, 2021, 02:43:50 pm
chinese oral exam happened
it was okay
Great! How do you think you went?
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: mabajas76 on October 18, 2021, 03:04:23 pm
Noice, you get that 69% or higher?
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: Kimchi27013 on October 18, 2021, 10:27:35 pm
In regards to the uni extension subject, I don't know how Monash's one is but I would recommend doing the Melb one if you can. It might be because my teacher was good at explaining but if you ask lots of questions and challenge your understanding once in a while I think it is actually a good bottom 2 to have (it must be in bottom 2). You get more free time (if you drop one of your current studies) and I think that might actually be helpful if COVID affects next year again so you have more time to focus on your top 4. Another pro to this subject, and what my teacher said to lure me in, is that you will have greater access to your teachers than your uni lecturers. As in you will be able to ask more questions and get more help from them unlike in uni where the lecture is filled with a lotta kids and the professor aint got time to help individual students.

TLDR: I would recommend (if UniMelb Maths is offered at a school close to you) but you must put in the effort to understand (and I can't stress this enough)
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 19, 2021, 12:33:36 pm
Great! How do you think you went?
I am actually not sure. My voice was shaking like the entire time and I probably sounded very dead just and it was really obvious that I was just reciting all my answers. At least they only asked gc questions I had memorised. The detail study part was kind of weird because they asked questions about my topic I had, then they just started asking random questions about my picture. They literally asked the same question four times (what different people in my picture where holding), then they were like oh What's that table in the back? Why is there a picture on it? What's it for? so I just said random stuff and probably died

Noice, you get that 69% or higher?
I feel like I did worse yesterday than in the mock oral exams (where I got 30/40), so idk if I'll even get 69% (27.6/40)  *cries*

Also yes I am still waiting to see if the school wants to let me do uni extension next year, but I will probably do it if they let me. Although uni maths sounds hard and if there are more lockdowns next year I'm probably going to be too lazy to do anything oops
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on October 29, 2021, 07:47:33 pm
Hi

I did a chinese mock exam and got 69/80

I am very proud of this achievement.
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: VCEStudent2034 on October 29, 2021, 09:39:14 pm
Hi

I did a chinese mock exam and got 69/80

I am very proud of this achievement.
Well DONE!
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: Stormbreaker-X on October 29, 2021, 09:42:37 pm
Hi

I did a chinese mock exam and got 69/80

I am very proud of this achievement.
:)
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on November 03, 2021, 12:25:27 pm
Haha thank you, I hope I can get 69 in the actual Chinese exam as well.

Also I just did methods exam 1 today... It felt a bit harder than 2020, but not too hard. I managed to do all the questions yay.
Hopefully exam 2 is not too much harder, I just hope I can get 90%. Hmm I should probably start writing things in my bound reference (which I basically haven't touched since sac 1 oops).

Good luck to everyone and their exams!!!!!!!
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on November 04, 2021, 07:21:57 pm
Hello

Methods exams are over (yay) !
I looked at the answers for some questions, and I lost at least 4 marks already in exam 2 (oops).

fingers crossed I really hope I don't lose any more marks because that would be very tragic ~ but not as tragic as my bound reference which was literally just me glueing together some papers the night before ~ hehe

Also the school approved me to do uni extension, but I think I might drop further and do algorithmics instead (totally not just for the 15 frees/week it will give me)
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on December 16, 2021, 07:33:28 am
Hello long time no see atarnotes

I got results for my subjects
methods 48
Chinese (sl) 37

I am very happy yay

Does anyone know what these scale to?
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: lm21074 on December 16, 2021, 10:46:56 am
Wow, well done charmingcloud! :)

Those results will set you up well for next year!
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: caffinatedloz on December 16, 2021, 12:33:44 pm
Congratulations! Those are really fantastic marks! All the best with everything next year.  ;D

Have a productive and restful summer! Have you got much planned?
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on December 17, 2021, 11:34:48 pm
Thank you  ^_^

Have a productive and restful summer! Have you got much planned?

My holidays are going to be a mix of holiday homework, classes, playing with legos, juggling and rollerblading. Life is so good right now.

I have to get into a proper sleep schedule soon, hmm maybe I will wake up at 6 tomorrow morning so I can actually fall asleep at night lol
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: somebody8442 on February 06, 2022, 02:32:54 pm
Hello long time no see atarnotes

I got results for my subjects
methods 48
Chinese (sl) 37

I am very happy yay

Does anyone know what these scale to?

Expect a 49 and a 47?
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on February 21, 2022, 01:33:46 pm
Hello! ! ! ! !
How is everyone going? It's only been three weeks of school yet and I am already getting ready to drop out and become a stripper (although I do not think I have the skills required).

The current state of my subjects:
English is not very good at all. I have not done any preparation at all and the creative sac is next week (oh no). This week I think I will try to write some plans for the past sac topics, and also read some good examples (and steal their ideas).

Spesh is okay currently. I am doing the bare minimum for every topic (textbook exercises + past tests) and it seems to be enough so far. It is basically a continuation of methods and I quite like it.

Physics is slightly below average. I am not doing well at all and I think it will be this way for a while. I still hate pracs.

Further is going terribly. I only did this subject because everyone said it was easy, but it's so much effort. I was planning on just chilling, but the teacher actually checks our homework so I have to do it. It is such a scam of a subject -11/10 would not recommend.

I have tutors for English, spesh and physics. I didn't want to get a physics tutor but my dad seemed to think it would help. For physics and spesh it is a group class where they go through the topics (very quickly) and I really do not think it is helping currently, especially since dayschool and tutor have different schedules for content. At this point, I feel like I am only doing tutoring because my parents want me to, and not because I think it will greatly benefit my studies.

The year twelve life is not great. I fantasise about dropping out almost every day, but I don't want to waste all the work I already did for vce.

Study score goals (as of Feb 2022)
English 25
spesh 30
physics 30
futher 30

Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: beep boop on February 28, 2022, 11:20:02 pm
The year twelve life is not great. I fantasise about dropping out almost every day, but I don't want to waste all the work I already did for vce.

Lmao same fam. You and me both. Yr 12 is so hard ugh. 😪🤣🤭

#immadropkick jk lol no. My parents would never.

Hopefully everything turns out better for you,

beep boop
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on March 24, 2022, 11:07:59 am
HELLO EVERYNYAN!!! HOW ARE YOU?!?!?!??

I have been too lazy to consistently write things here, but maybe I will try to update weekly/fortnightly (or monthly at least lol)
I quit physics and spesh tutoring because I couldn't be bothered (rip my atar), and now I just lie in bed all day or waste my time on the internet. I send my most sincere apologies to my parents.

Recently, my two moods are 'I want to drop out an become a stripper!' or 'I want to get a 99 atar just to flex on everyone (including my parents who think I am going to get <90 after quitting tutoring)!'

The current state of my subjects:
English is going slightly below average. The creative sac wasn't that bad, I am hoping for a B at least (please please please i really need it). We are doing Wordsworth now, and it is very chill and nice, which is the problem because I am not doing any work for English (oops...). I'm going to try to write a practice essay this week.

Spesh is going well. We haven't done anything in class for a week because the teachers are waiting for the intense sac period to end before doing anything. The complex numbers test is next Monday (and I am half a chapter behind), but I like complex numbers so  it cancels out the sadness.

Physics is amazing and great I love physics so much, and it might just be because of Luna Park. Sac 1A (motion but no relativity) is later today, and I hope it will be okay. I did some checkpoints questions and tried to absorb the vce physics vibe, hopefully it will carry me through the sac. Also, I still hate pracs.

Further is still disgusting and gross, but it's going a little less badly now. I started skipping 90% of the textbook questions so I'm finally not ten chapters behind anymore yay. There is a test on time series data next Monday, and I do not intend on studying for it at all.

As a way of motivating myself, I am going to set some unrealistic vce goals
english 35
spesh 40
physics 40
further 40
ok I know spesh is really hard but I really want a scaled 50 in spesh just to flex on others



Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on April 01, 2022, 12:56:07 pm
hiiiiii another update
I can't be bothered writing properly so here are just a bunch of words

I finished physics sac 1 yayyyyy, I'm glad that it's over but I don't think I went that well. My hopes of a single digit sac ranking are quickly diminishing. I probably should have studied the twins paradox but aiyaaaaa  : ((((((( I have to study harder for the next sac to make up for this. Our current topic is fields and stuff that I don't really get what is going on, but at least the textbook questions are repetitive and easy as always.
For spesh, I was apparently the only person who got full marks on the complex numbers test, so that seems cool. It's probably because complex numbers is my favourite topic and I find it easier compared to other topics.
Further sac 1a (the take home part) has come out and it looks disgusting. I am planning to do the bare minimum required for the 3 free marks.
I am very behind in English now. It's near the end of term, so I will try to catch up and consolidate the Wordsworth vibes in my brain during the holidays. I really should stop treating English like a bottom two subject if I want to see an atar above 90 lol




Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: mabajas76 on April 01, 2022, 01:13:07 pm

I really should stop treating English like a bottom two subject if I want to see an atar above 90 lol

Bro what happened to the 69 atar? Only reason I read /j
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on June 04, 2022, 07:46:29 pm
hi I haven't posted in months but I feel like it today so why not

Bro what happened to the 69 atar? Only reason I read /j
oh no I've been exposed! When I started this I thought I was going to get a 70 atar, so I thought that I might as well aim for 69 lol. My atar goals have just been oscillating between 69 and 98 this entire year, depending on the vibe of the week.

These days I have no idea what I am doing, like I want to go in to unimelb science(engineering) next year so all I need is raw 25 in every subject, but all my friends are tryhards so I feel like I should be doing lots of work to keep up. I don't know if there is any point in trying that hard this year though because I'm not going for a competitive uni course or a scholarship, but I also don't want to open my atar on 12/12 and be like oh no I got a 68.95 atar why didn't I try harderrrr;;;;;;

Anyway here is an update on each subject:
 - english - we have language analysis sac in 1.5 weeks and I haven't written any essays. I was going to write a practice essay today, but i decided to do meth exams instead.
 - spesh - we had a sac recently and it was really disgusting and gross, quite the unpleasant experience. it was the first time in years that I had to skip a whole page of questions. anyway I still love spesh haha. I've done 12 sets of exams so far and the esay exams are decent, but I've straight up been failing the harder ones.
- physics - I got an A+ on sac 1 which is cool, but our sacs are really easy so it probably doesn't mean much. We did the fields sac/s and it was somewhat ok. Sac 2a was so fun and it literally vibed like a worksheet, whilst sac 2b (a prac) was very very bad. I'm just hoping it all ends up ok.
- further - I did my assignment (sac 1a) in comic sans yay. We have a sac in two weeks but I am not going to prepare for it much because I need further to be in my bottom two. thank you

also i kind of have no life these days its not even funny anymore i literally just did a methods exam 2 for fun and i don't even do methods. help
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on June 09, 2022, 07:59:39 pm
hiiii cool people of atarnotes

I am going to set myself some goals for the rest of the term (there's only like two weeks left wtf how did this happen) and return here in the holidays to reflect on what progress I might make.

- English - I need to actually accept the fact that English will be in my top 4 no matter what (unless I drop out of course), and that it will be there at the end of the year screwing over my atar unless I start working harder. I'm going to aim for one essay a week. (I have to actually put effort into it and not just write it for the sake of writing an essay) I should ask my tutor for feedback to improve upon for future essays too. There is the language analysis sac next week and I'm going to aim for 4 essays before then (I've written 1.6 so far).

- spesh - I love spesh and I want to do well in it so I guess I just gotta be a tryhard. I've finished the content already and I only have 2 textbook exercise chapters left (vector functions + dynamics). This term I want to finish the textbook exercises and do some of the spicy revision chapter extended response questions. Next term, I plan on working through the textbook extended response revision questions and doing practice exams.

- physics - I want to read through the rest of the textbook a few times to get a feel for the content before the end of term. In the holidays I plan on starting the textbook exercises then finishing the book around the start of term 3. After that it would be revision and practice exam spam time. (lowkey want chinese in my bottom two lol i wonder how hard it is to get a raw 45 physics...)

- further - I don't care about further lol. I'm really hoping for a scaled >50 in spesh, so even if I get raw 50 further it would probably be in my bottom two. I'm going to continue doing the bare minimum in further (paying attention in class, doing homework, updating my bound reference, doing a practice sac before sacs) and nothing else. If I see further anywhere near my top four I am going to seriously consider experiencing some apparent weightlessness.
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on June 12, 2022, 10:42:04 am
very small english update:
I have written the four argument analysis essays I was aiming for (been getting up at 5 for the English grind). Now I have to look through the teacher and my tutor's feedback and edit my past essays. Trying to read my own writing is so painful, but there is no point in writing essays and never looking at them again because I won't improve.

also spesh update because I feel like it:
I finished my 7th set of spesh exam yesterday and started a tally of the types of mistakes I make. Currently, most of it is just running out of time and skipping questions or dumb mistakes like reading/copying things wrong.
Spesh exams are so depressing though because every single company has a different difficulty so my scores are just dancing like circular functions and I can't see any improvement. (there's actually a downwards trend thanks to me doing the easy exams before the harder ones)


~ sincerely me
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on June 20, 2022, 09:21:54 pm
hellooooo
 
I've finished the spesh textbook exercises (only doing the ticksheet questions), and I just did a further sac when went averagely. For the rest of this week, I want to focus on writing my English speech and doing the waves chapter for physics. I can't be bothered reading the Heinemann textbook (that our school uses) for prereading so I'm going to try doing the edrolo textbook (that I stole borrowed from my friend) exercises for unit 4 content before we learn it in class, and then I can do Heinemann when I am vibing along with the class.

Spoiler
These days I feel very wobbly, and I don't know how long it will be before I fall over. I can still do my work because I have to do it, but even though I try to study for my sacs and do things my scores are very bad. I'm getting three sacs back this week, and I felt like I did poorly in all of them. Every time I start to think about my studies I kind of get a bit worried, but I have to instantly push that feeling down because I'm afraid that if I actually think about it then I'll lose hope and give up on school. I am actually failing school, despite my best efforts not to. I wonder how long this will go on for. I don't know why I'm doing so badly this year, I literally put in the same amount of effort last year but still managed to do decently;;;;;;;;; why what is this
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: jinx_58 on June 21, 2022, 09:07:36 am
Helloooo.

Don't beat yourself up for failing school; it was never easy in the first place. Putting effort in itself, is an achievement.  ;D

The reason you may be getting marks that are not as good as last year may be how you study. If you want me to go into detail about this, let me know, cos I don't wanna start randomly ranting haha

 - jinx_58
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on June 26, 2022, 06:35:04 pm
helloooooo jinx_58

feel free to give any study tips, thank you kind person

another update on how the year 12 life is going so far:
I feel like I don't have enough focus on my subjects, and I was probably able to get away with it last year because it was just year 11. I'm getting forced to go to holiday tutoring classes again which is very nice to know that my parents don't think I can study properly on my own.

in reply to the goals I set a few weeks ago:
- English - I've written a few essays. This week I didn't write an actual essay because I was writing my speech for the persuasive oral sac.

- spesh - I finished the textbook exercises and am a quarter of the way through the revision exercises I planned to do. In the holidays I want to finish those revision exercises and do practice exams whenever I feel like it.

- physics - Of the remaining chapters (8-10), I read chapter 8 three times, chapter 9 twice and part of chapter 10 once. So if you average it out, I guess my goal was met. Today I did u4aos1 in the edrolo textbook (notes and chapter review), and I'm hoping to do the same for u4aos2 later these holidays. There has been a change in plans due to holiday tutor, but I still plan on finishing the course content these holidays, it'll just be more tiring. 

- further - I did the bare minimum for this subject, and that is all there is to say about it. The financial maths sac was pretty fun, but I'm expecting to lose 10 marks in dumb mistakes.


Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: jinx_58 on June 27, 2022, 11:45:48 am
Howdy, here I am with study tips:

P.S. This is from my QCE Journal, so if there are any grammar/punctuation/spelling errors, please excuse them :)

- Study tips + helpful YouTubers
With helpful Youtubers regarding study tips/plans I would suggest the following:
UnJaded Jade
FayeFilms
studyquill
Mike and Matty

Remembering information
Regarding retention of information, there is this thing called the forgetting curve. It is an exponential model showing how fast our brain forgets things after first learning a new concept. There are specific intervals in which you should practice active recall in order to remember all these things. Studyquill has created a table which tells you when to revise a specific concept. She has made a YouTube video mentioning them, which is given in the links section below. Using this table is a way of practicing spaced repetition. I'll leave a video in the links section below regarding what spaced repetition is and how it works by Mike and Matty.

Active vs. Passive recall
For those of you have no idea what active recall is, it is recalling in such a way that you will remember. The opposite of this is passive recall. For example, for math, reading over your work is passive recall. You think you have understood the topic fully, but let me tell you now this is a false sense of security. However, doing a few practice questions is a method of active recall. You're actually using your head. I'm not amazing at explaining this, so I'll leave another YouTube video by Mike and Matty about active vs. passive recall and how to actively recall. P.S. Highlighting just makes it look pretty; you're not fully understanding the concept

Learner types
Another aspect that ties into all this is understanding what type of learner you are. I'm (again) not great at explaining this, so I'll link another video, this one by Fayefilms.

Study Music
My biggest study technique is listening to LoFi music while studying instead of listening to music with words. And if you don't like LoFi, classical music is always an option. Or Binaural beats - their scientifically proven to help you study and activate the right parts of the brain (I think? You'll have to fact-check that one haha)

For my Chemistry peeps:
Tyler Dewitt is the best Chemistry YouTuber I can recommend. Especially with redox reactions (Unit 3 for those who don't know), he simplifies it so much and uses visuals to explain what he's talking about. Its fun to watch.

For Physics peeps:
For Physics, I watch Professor Dave explains and Bozeman science. Those were the ones recommended by my Physics teacher and they explain topics well.

Most of all, remember you're an amazing human being. We can all achieve great marks if we put in the effort, and we put in the effort right.

Links
https://youtu.be/ROtvXKxFxhw    - Studyquill overcome curve of forgetting table
https://youtu.be/Kl0RM_9cVzE    - Spaced Repetition, Mike and Matty
https://youtu.be/MSq-KGj_cnY - Active recall, Mike and Matty
https://youtu.be/PMRrYkxDKP8 - Fayefilms: types of learners -

Hope this helps!
 -jinx_58
Title: Re: charmingcloud's quest for a 69 atar
Post by: charmingcloud on July 07, 2022, 12:14:44 pm
hiiiiii jinx_58
Thank you for the study tips, I think I might try getting into lofi music.
When I'm studying at 5am, I really like to open my window and listen to the trains go past. I feel like lofi has a similar vibe and it is very cool.