Lemurbruv vs Year 12

[lemurbruv]

Hi! I'm lemurbruv

I've read some VCE journals recently and decided it would be interesting to document my own!

A bit about me:

- Class of 2022
- Subjects: English, methods, spesh, chem, french
- Aiming for a 99+ ATAR (lol we'll see how that goes)
- Have always liked school, although I'm nervous for year 12
- I play piano and am doing my Grade 8 exam this year
- I'm addicted to Tiny Tower and practically every other Nimblebit game ever someone plz help
- Excited for what the year will hold!

I will try to update this once a week when school goes back (maybe less if school is super boring, but I'll try and stick to a schedule)

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy!

[lemurbruv]

Pre-Term 1 (3 weeks to go)

So I guess I’ll start with a bit of a reflection on 2021 (Year 11)

What I did well:

-   I got into a solid study routine, although it definitely wasn’t perfect - I did a LOT of procrastinating throughout the year, especially through online learning - but I picked up my act towards exam time
-   I found a balance (albeit not an ideal one) between my school life and personal life, I realised through all the spare time I had during lockdowns how much going for walks and giving myself mental space puts things into perspective (definitely something to continue)

What I will do differently for year 12:

-   Ask for help from teachers more, especially during class. I’ve always been nervous and shy about putting up my hand. I think this has been to my disadvantage, but I suspect lots of people struggle with it. This year I’m going to make a conscious effort to ask lots of questions and face my fears!
-   Knuckle down on procrastination. I wasted soooo much time last year just biting my nails and pretending that ignoring my work would make it go away. I’m going to prioritise motivating myself to study and limit my distractions as much as I can (lol we’ll see how that goes)
-   Appreciate my friends! They are all great people and I never spent any time with them last year, so this year I’m going to make an effort to strengthen my connections with people!
-   Get ALL my homework done, even the stuff that I don’t think I need to do. Because usually when teachers give you homework it’s for a reason
-   There’s probably more but I think those are the major ones

So far my holidays have been... very chill. Finding motivation pretty hard to come by to be honest, and I’m quietly trying not to freak out because I don’t want to screw up year 12. I need a competitive ATAR for the course I want to do at uni, so I’m aiming for 99+, but I also want to remain realistic. I’ve never been good at that 

Currently MAJORLY procrastinating spesh and english, but at least french is getting there. Methods and chem is done 

Hope everyone is having a good holidays!

- Lemur

[Chocolatemilkshake]

Hi Lemurbruv,
Nice to meet you! I was the same in lockdown, walks were lifesavers! It's super cool that you are continuing to play piano and do an exam in year 12, all the best for it!

Also, love your subjects (I did exactly the same in year 12), do you have a favourite (I'm guessing perhaps methods or chemistry given that you've already finished the homework for these subjects?) And what course did you want to do next year?

[lemurbruv]

It's super cool that you are continuing to play piano and do an exam in year 12, all the best for it!

Hey chocolatemilkshake! Thanks, honestly I'm wondering if it's going to be too stressful to do Grade 8 and Year 12 at the same time, but I'm trying to make things easy for myself and practise 2 hours a day during the holidays so that I can get my program ready for May (doing mid year)

Also, love your subjects (I did exactly the same in year 12), do you have a favourite (I'm guessing perhaps methods or chemistry given that you've already finished the homework for these subjects?) And what course did you want to do next year?

I honestly don't really have a favourite subject, because I like them all. I suppose chemistry is probably my least favourite, mostly because the teacher I had for year 11 (and now for year 12) made things really confusing and is quite disorganised, never answering my questions properly

I want to study journalism at RMIT

[lemurbruv]

Pre-Term 1 (2 weeks to go)

A brief spesh update…
So I may have really freaked myself out by reading everyone’s comments in the post-spesh-2 exam thread of 2021.
 I did really well in year 11 (E1: 100, E2: 81) but just cannot see how I will even pass year 12. I think our school made the exam much easier than VCAA would (with the same content) and I’m so scared. I’ve heard that keeping a logbook for mistakes is a very good idea, for methods and spesh so I will definitely be doing that!

I’m not too worried about methods, but I know now not to get such a big head with it… one of my biggest mistakes last year was getting too cocky about it and that resulted in lost marks in some of my SACs. Instead of saying ‘yeah I know all this’, I’m going to practice saying ‘I think I know it but I’ll pretend like I don’t for now.’ I’m hoping that will help prompt me to put up my hand in class and really make valuable use of class time.

General comments
I think at this point I’m just overwhelming myself by reading up how to do well instead of actually just getting stuck into work. I’m also really letting myself off the hook with work, although I’ve been watching the AN lectures this week and so far they are SO GOOD.
The chem one was so helpful because my teacher’s OneNote is faulty and she still hasn’t bothered to fix it, so we have started the year with no notes AT ALL for chem, tbh it’s really pissing me off because I want to get my Unit 3 notes done. At this point I’m just going to take my learning into my own hands. She was not such a great teacher in year 11 but I still managed a 95+ average, so hopefully this year I can follow a similar pattern.

I am still excited for year 12, I really miss the routine of school and the holidays have been a bit chaotic with all that my family has been doing. We just came back from a holiday and I’m so behind on work 

Thanks all for reading, hope everyone is having a great break!

Lemur

[lemurbruv]

Term 1 Week 1

Had the first day of year 12 yesterday! It was good in some ways, stressful in others. At least my english creative has been moved to next week.

The whole covid thing is a bit scary, especially with rumours going around that people tested positive yesterday but still went to school. I'm trying not to let it affect my concentration in class but sometimes it's hard 

When I got home from school yesterday I felt super overwhelmed with all the homework I had to do, and I had to do an hour of piano as well, but I got through it. I didn't do all the homework because I'm doing some this morning, and I'm probably going to try and fit my practice in the mornings. Taking care of myself is my top priority this year, although I keep forgetting that and don't take enough breaks. 

Maths subjects:

Highly recommend a mistakes log book for methods and spesh! I bought a couple of notebooks the other day and I've found that engaging myself in the mistakes I'm making by analysing and documenting where I'm going wrong is so helpful and actually makes me understand the content better, because once I track down where I've gone wrong sometimes the right way to do it magically appears in front of me

Chem:

Pretty nervous for chem this year tbh. My teacher gave us the onenote so that was great, and she has given us plenty of access to other great resources which is really good. My only complaint is that I asked her a question that I was having trouble with and she wouldn't answer it, instead she said 'I'll have a think about that once I get my brain back into gear', so I still don't know the answer. I'll probs post it in the chem qn thread haha. I'm thinking study groups and asking some different chem teachers will help me out with that this year.

How would you guys tackle a teacher who never answers your questions (or emails)?
She did it a lot last year when I had 'complicated questions' that it seemed she couldn't be bothered answering.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited for this year overall! I hope everyone had a good break and for (most?) a good first day back yesterday! Lmk how it went

Thanks for reading!!

~ Lemur

[lemurbruv]

Term 1 Week 1 (Wednesdayyy)

Mini update

covid is going around my school so bad rn, it's pretty scary. I have an english sac on monday, but a girl in my class who I was sitting next to tested positive yesterday night. I'm doing a RAT in the morning, and I'm just praying I don't have it before my sac. Fingers crossed! I asked my teacher what happens if we have to miss the sac because of covid, and she said they weren't 100% sure yet. I'm finding the creative sac pretty hard, I'm trying to get a 30/30 (lol at least I can dream right?) and there's so many different aspects that I have to get perfect, especially controlling my descriptions. I'll keep you guys posted on how I do

Another chem rant 

So my chem teacher got back to me about the question which was good, and she said I was right... it was a dud question.
Which left me wondering, why not tell the rest of the class? Because there'd be people in there thinking 'why can't I do this question?' and someone could get upset

She also tried to tell us that VCAA requires that we write CO2 as a liquid for our states on equations (WRONG). We were all so confused, and at the end of the lesson she realised that she meant H2O (so VCAA Chem you must write H2O as a liquid in equations).

Anyway I feel like I've been pretty negative these last couple of days. I've just been stressed, and piano takes out so much of my study time as well. At least that one is over in May (before my methods sac).

As always cheers for reading fam

- Lemur

[Billuminati]

Term 1 Week 1 (Wednesdayyy)

Mini update

covid is going around my school so bad rn, it's pretty scary. I have an english sac on monday, but a girl in my class who I was sitting next to tested positive yesterday night. I'm doing a RAT in the morning, and I'm just praying I don't have it before my sac. Fingers crossed! I asked my teacher what happens if we have to miss the sac because of covid, and she said they weren't 100% sure yet. I'm finding the creative sac pretty hard, I'm trying to get a 30/30 (lol at least I can dream right?) and there's so many different aspects that I have to get perfect, especially controlling my descriptions. I'll keep you guys posted on how I do

Another chem rant 

So my chem teacher got back to me about the question which was good, and she said I was right... it was a dud question.
Which left me wondering, why not tell the rest of the class? Because there'd be people in there thinking 'why can't I do this question?' and someone could get upset

She also tried to tell us that VCAA requires that we write CO2 as a liquid for our states on equations (WRONG). We were all so confused, and at the end of the lesson she realised that she meant H2O (so VCAA Chem you must write H2O as a liquid in equations).

Anyway I feel like I've been pretty negative these last couple of days. I've just been stressed, and piano takes out so much of my study time as well. At least that one is over in May (before my methods sac).

As always cheers for reading fam

- Lemur

Um I was taught differently, VCAA wants H2O produced in combustion as (g) cuz the heat produced should vapourise it.

Sorry to hear that year 12 isn’t starting well, hope it gets better soon!

Edit: VCAA chem 2019 Q4 extended response gives you a thermochemical equation with H2O in gas state

[lemurbruv]

Um I was taught differently, VCAA wants H2O produced in combustion as (g) cuz the heat produced should vapourise it.
Edit: VCAA chem 2019 Q4 extended response gives you a thermochemical equation with H2O in gas state

Hmmm. My teacher told me that VCAA wants as liquid because some can form condensation. Is there any way I can verify this ? (I'm not sure I'll be taking my questions to her anymore)

She said sometimes (g) could come up in exam qns but that in answers you should write (l)

Everyone disregard my previous statement below until I get to the bottom of this:

so VCAA Chem you must write H2O as a liquid in equations

Will probs ask chem thread

Thanks so much Billuminati for bringing that to my attention!!

[Billuminati]

Hmmm. My teacher told me that VCAA wants as liquid because some can form condensation. Is there any way I can verify this ? (I'm not sure I'll be taking my questions to her anymore)

She said sometimes (g) could come up in exam qns but that in answers you should write (l)

Everyone disregard my previous statement below until I get to the bottom of this:
Will probs ask chem thread

Thanks so much Billuminati for bringing that to my attention!!

You don't see the flame from a BBQ gas tank (mostly propane) leaking liquid water when burning, so the condensation must happen after cooling in the air, which means the immediate state for H2O should be (g). However, I was taught by my teacher that if the question actually explicitly states "standard conditions" or "SLC" in the text, VCAA thinks it should be liquid, and she's a VCAA assessor

[lemurbruv]

resolving chem qn :)

You don't see the flame from a BBQ gas tank (mostly propane) leaking liquid water when burning, so the condensation must happen after cooling in the air, which means the immediate state for H2O should be (g). However, I was taught by my teacher that if the question actually explicitly states "standard conditions" or "SLC" in the text, VCAA thinks it should be liquid, and she's a VCAA assessor

Thanks so much for helping me out, I read your response on the chem thread as well
link to chem thread

[lemurbruv]

Term 1 Week 2 (yayyyy we made it through week 1!)

Update
Hi again fam, ngl last week was rough! I was mostly stressing about the english creative which I got done today (woohooooo), and struggling to keep on top of all my spesh work. I had a talk to my teacher and she just helped me consolidate all the homework I needed to do, wrote it down on a sticky note for me and I'm proud to say I got through it all! I guess I should reach out for help earlier instead of letting it boil over before I talk to my teacher. My methods teacher was also really encouraging, and she makes me feel so inspired omg she's great.

I started french oral tutoring today too which went so much better than I expected! I was able to talk in french (save a few questions in english lol) for like a whole 20 minutes which was great and she was really nice too. I had a meeting about my ATAR goals with one of the atar people at our school and that was really cool too, the guy really knows his stuff.

Had my first ensemble rehearsal today and... yeah... I mean it was the first day of rehearsals again so like, it's fine 
I also had my booster on saturday and I was so sick on sunday but I still got my creative memorised which I was really proud of because it felt like I had a brick in my head lol. I'm fine now, and it wasn't really that bad.

Chem also wasn't that bad today, although we started thermochemical equations and I'm a bit confused ngl. Gonna defs be watching those edrolos!

SPEAKING OF EDROLO OMG HAS ANYONE SEEN THE GUY WHO DOES THE METHODS AND SPESH EDROLOS??
if you have spesh edrolo, plz go to the first vid of "Regions of the complex plane". You won't be disappointed.

That's it for now, guys! Thanks always for reading 

[lemurbruv]

Mini update (T1WK2)

Hi again!

This week my emotions and motivation have been:


I honestly feel like I just need to stop complaining about chem and get on with it. So that's what I'm going to do. At this point I think working ahead would be the most beneficial as I get very little out of class time. I'm finding the edrolos super helpful, and my teacher always assigns us tonnes of it and I can never watch it all so working ahead and watching tonnes on the weekend and then working at my own pace would be good. I think.

I also have to compose something last minute for assembly on monday for Viola and Piano. So we'll see how that goes. I wrote something yesterday and we tried to play it today but it was crap so I'm going to do a rewrite. I'm also meeting with the my Year Level Coordinator tomorrow morning to sort out all this chem stuff (she teaches chem too)

Anyway thanks fam 

[bw304]

good job getting your english done! definitely feel you with the booster shot too - i had mine yesterday and wanted to sleep in all my classes.

and yes omg the maths guy for edrolo uses some interesting analogies... the methods video for composite functions was definitely something haha.

hopefully chem works out for you!

[lemurbruv]

good job getting your english done! definitely feel you with the booster shot too - i had mine yesterday and wanted to sleep in all my classes.

and yes omg the maths guy for edrolo uses some interesting analogies... the methods video for composite functions was definitely something haha.

hopefully chem works out for you!

OMG YES THE COMPOSITE FUNCTIONS ANALOGIES!! our teacher was like 'um.....'

I talked to my YL coordinator today about chem and she was really helpful, advised me to work ahead if I was understanding the content so it was good to get that advice from her.

I also finished that stupid composition last night and it actually isn't that bad...

We'll have to just see how it goes at assembly on Monday