An international student's VCE journal

[skyofsecret]

Hi everyone (if anyone is actually reading this),
I am an international student from Hong Kong. You can call me Sky, not my real name of course. I kind of regret making my user name skyofsecret. It is a name I used in games when I was still a kid that barely knew how to write English. I thought I could change the name displayed in the forum but nah, I don't know how.

I am now a year 11 student. It's my 2nd year in Melbourne. I started studying here in Jan 2020 and I have been staying here since then because of the pandemic. I miss my family and friends in HK

MY SUBJECTS
I am a typical science person. I can't do any humanities - I would just forget anything my humanities teacher (especially history, both English and Chinese) taught a second later, but I love, and I am good at maths and sciences.

This year I am doing two Unit 3&4 subject, maths method and algorithmics. Till now, I am enjoying both subjects although algorithmics has sat folio tasks that really stress me out

Next year I am planning to do EAL, specialist maths, physics, chemistry(not sure about this) and UMEP physics. I am really interested in the UMEP physics, but I know it is going to be difficult, so I am thinking about dropping my chemistry next year for UMEP physics.

Currently, I love all the subjects I am taking, except I am struggling with chemistry at the moment because the study design of chemistry here is so different from the chemistry in Hong Kong. Hopefully, I will get used to that soon.


MY CURRENT STUDY PLAN
Methods: I would read through my Cambridge textbook, understanding what I have to know for the course and write them down in my notebook. Then, I would do questions on each topic to make sure I know how to apply the skills. As most topics are covered in unit 1&2, I don't spend much time on those familiar topics. Maybe just a day or two. If there is any concept that I don't know, I would go to Khan Academy to search for tutorials. Those are really useful. I am planning to do past papers after making sure I know everything necessary and finish those questions in my textbook.

Specialist: I have a really really bad teacher for specialist, so I don't pay attention in class and do my own things. And again, I would read through the textbook and write down all the important summary in my notebook. However, I don't spend as much time for specialist at the moment because my main foci are Methods and Algorithmics this year.

Algorithmics: I am doing that through VSV, so I have access to must resources in the virtual classroom. I tend to self learn those topics before the weekly lesson, so I can ask the teacher questions about that topic.

EAL: I... I didn't really revise EAL before. I would revise that in the future but I don't know when and how¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Physics: I would read the textbook after every lesson to see if there are anything in the textbook that I may want to know. I am also starting to read some physics books to learn more about things that my teacher is not mentioning.

Chemistry: Not much. Read the book, focus in class, write notes... typical things, not worth mentioning I guess


THINGS I AM WORKING ON
I am a really careless student that can copy a wrong number from the question, work out everything right except the answer is missing a decimal point... I don't want to make these silly mistakes anymore.

I have to practice more probability related questions. Probability is one of my weakest topic in Method.


CURRENT GOALS & FUTURE PLANS

• get study score as high as possible
• study Physics/ Engineering(electronic/ computer)

Oh my god it is my first time writing so many words on any social platform. Sorry if my English is really bad... Feel free to correct my English, I have to practice writing things afterall. Hopefully, writing this journal would help to motivate my study and improve my English (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

[kauac]

Hi Sky,

I (and many others, I'm sure) are keen to follow your journey and gain some insight into what it's like to do VCE as an international student! 

Do you have hobbies that you like to do in your spare time?