Wow guys it’s been a while since I have updated my journal, I don’t know if anyone is still interested in what is happening in my life but without further ado let me post a giant update to encapsulate the last three months.
Subject Updates:
Literature: Honestly Lit is going so much better than I expected it to go, two SACs down and the third is next week. My A Taste Of Honey essay was horrible, I didn’t know where I was going with it and I would rank it as probably the worst essay I have ever submitted but somehow managed to scrape a B+ on it. We moved onto Dracula for our creative and I loved that so much, it is one of my all-time favourite novels so being able to do that for weeks was amazing. I scored an A on that SAC and I was really happy with the piece I was able to write for it. Right now, we are doing A Ladies Paradise and I just finished the book today after putting it off for way too long and the novel was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I feel like I am going to find it easy to apply a Marxist and feminist lens to the novel as it is very in your face about how the themes are portrayed.
Classical Studies: For the two SACs that I have done so far, I have received the results back for one and I got 42/50 for the passage analysis. I’m not sure how to gauge how well I am doing as, honestly, this just feels like Literature but reskinned with Ancient Greek texts and more of a focus on sociohistorical context. The other SAC, a comparative essay, I feel somewhat confident with but I don’t know for sure until I get my results back. We’re moving on to looking at statues and vases so I’m not sure what the next SAC will entail. Overall, I really like Class Studies and the content that I am learning even though I don’t think it will relate to what I want to do in the future at all.
Psychology: For both SACs I have gotten high 90s and the content is pretty straightforward and easy to understand. I really bludge through this class as my teacher just talks through powerpoints and that is the extent of the work that we use to learn (besides Edrolo) so I don’t know how well I am going to feel prepared for the end of year exam. Most of my revision is reading the relevant textbook chapters either the night before or morning of a SAC day and doing a few practice questions for anything that involves models. Our teacher is away at least once a week and the other psych teacher has been unwell with covid and the flu so our classes are very behind where we should be so there is going to be a lot of SACs within a short period of time.
Chemistry: I have been scraping through Chemistry doing the bare minimum because Unit 3 was ridiculously boring in my opinion. I got 70s on the two SACs and am around ranked 2-3rd in the class but I haven’t been paying attention in class or doing any of the work besides a few questions sporadically. For Unit 4, I am already finding it more interesting and am going to try harder to do better on the remaining SACs and the exam in order to compensate for my lack of effort in the first half of the year. I have the first organic chemistry SAC on Friday and I am feeling confident on this one as I have done the assigned questions and 100% on the practice SAC we did today.
Physics: Only three of us are passing physics and I’m lucky enough that I am one of those three because my prior methods knowledge came in clutch for a few of the SAC questions on both SACs. I understand the content really well when we are learning it and it is the only subject that I am consistently completing the homework for but as soon as I get into a SAC, I panic and use the wrong formulas and can’t remember how to apply my knowledge. My teacher is super knowledgeable and passionate about the subject (he did it at uni and only recently graduated) so I guess that’s why I like the subject. Have the research SAC this week and I’m hoping I can write a decent explanation about how Tesla coils work in order to get a good grade.
As a side note: I’ve decided that I want to pursue physics at university and do a bachelor of science with a diploma of mathematical sciences or a bachelor of mathematical physics. Hope I can get in even though I didn’t do specialist 😊