💖 A Post Year 10 Post: Dec 7th 2020 💖Hey guys! After a few weeks of floating around AN and slightly modifying my journal, I'm back. And hello to anyone seeing me around for the first time.
I am now officially done with year 10 and hence, have washed my hands of 2020. I'm currently on holidays (after what felt like an eternity). Since, I last wrote a lot happened. So firstly:
Going back onsite: Oh. my. goodness. I had never been so happy to be back at school. Even happier than after the first lockdown. Seeing my friends, my teachers, wearing an annoying uniform, the traffic, carrying around a heavy bag... I took so much of it for granted and honestly, my mental health improved so much after getting back into the routine. Unfortunately, since we came back for term 4 it kind of just consisted of a bit of teaching, lots of assessments and preparation for "exams".
"Exams": Well as a year 10 I really wasn't too stressed about this. I know remote learning put me quite backwards for a lot of subjects and meant I didn't really engage at all in some *cough*
bio*cough*. Everyone alway
stresses about exams to a point where health and wellbeing is not a thing so I just decided to keep things in perspective and just do what I can given how this year went. So for HHD I did much much better than I expected (I owe it to my teacher). 92%. It was in 2 parts and I didn't really "prepare" as such. Just kinda went over things I already knew throughout the year and thanked myself for doing set work throughout the year. Biology. hmmmm. I passed which is amazing itself. An hour before exams I still didn't know a lot. I tried where I could. Anyway, I got a 59 and vowed that 3/4 is not a repeat of 1/2. Okay Maths. I may or may not have felt confident going in and then may or may not have cried when coming out. It was ... yeh. I came out being happy if I got a 40. 40% that is. In the end, I actually passed. With a 61. So yay. Again, I need me to actually do all the set work next year and ask allll of my questions to do better next year. Ok now I'll stop droning on about year 10 and move onto the much more exciting part...
Commencement🎉: This was actually so exciting (I know I'll look back and think how naive I was as I cry over a SAC/exam/both). I mean the prospect of a fresh start for a school year brings the same amount of joy that new year's resolutions do. But for most of us those resolutions end in the same way... Regardless, I'm very happy with my teachers and have got people I know, with me in almost every class. The sad part is the holiday homework. So much of it. Why.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much work I should do over the holidays because I want to relax and also not be behind. Would love to hear anyone's advice on what they did over the holidays for the following subjects
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3/4 Biology: We basically went through some VCAA scientific design questions and the teacher casually mentions the few chapterS (plural) that we need to do over the holidays. so that sounds like great fun. I'm totally not nervous for this subject at all after a shocking 1/2. (praying that the people who told me 1/2 was mostly irrelevant for 3/4 got it right.)
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3/4 HHD: Again, kind of just went through the course material and previous exams and didn't learn much. We got a whole booklet to do and set questions but I'm really really reallllllyyyy looking forward for this one. It's such a formulaic subject with interesting, relevant content and you're not just memorising definitions.
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English Language: Well. I am superrrr excited for this subject because the content is so interesting. We went through loads of cool examples of language and how we use it and it really opened my mind. If I don't end up being in the health sciences field I reckon this very niche linguistics field sounds cool. I'm not sure what jobs there are in it, but it's so interesting. Loads of holiday homework too but.... maybe it'll be fun? (I say hesitantly)
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Maths Methods: I think the teachers slightly scared everyone off with this with many wanting to drop it immediately. Jk. But seriously need to up my game if I would like to do above average. Worded problems. Silly mistakes. Tackle these by practice, practice and more practice. I think I'll be ok then? I'm aware of how falling behind in this subject is "the worst thing you can do" so I will NOT fall behind. Pls.
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Chemistry: This was a subject I was genuinely so excited for... and then I realised that they expect us to remember everything from year 9 science (spoiler alert: i dont). Plus in year 10 there was no chemistry elective or anything or compulsory science so loads of kids did tutoring just to prepare for year 11. I was not one of those people and struggled my way through basic chemistry worksheets asking a trillion questions (unashamedly) because they did not bother going through any content whilst everyone was already up to the end. So I already felt like I was at a disadvantage even before the subject had started.
I will maybe brush on those skills and see what happens.
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Literature: Not sure if I'm
not looking forward to this because I'm forcing myself to like it OR if I'm just intimidated by the high standards associated with these subjects. I'm not sure if I can make the same sort of analysis that kids in my class already can. I know that's what I'm going to learn and I don't need to know everything now but as a non book nerd doing this subject I already feel out of place here too. I love analysing texts but I don't actually read a load of books...
Anyways thank you so much for reading through this long mush of words and letters (or even just skim reading it).
Look after yourself 🌻