Bianca3016's VCE Journal

[cookiedream]

In lieu of med, after having taken eco last year (bc of my maths tutor's suggestion and my desperation for any other subject), I'm leaning towards business in uni. I'd love to work in a medical tech/research company (I'm talking Intuitive Surgical kinda thing), so whether I take the science or business route, I'm not sure. I also love languages to the moon and back, so if I could do a double degree in science and arts (arts major being a language) I'd be thrilled.

Quite a number of my friends are considering postgraduate medicine, where they're doing an undergraduate degree in an area they also had an interest in (e.g. commerce, arts, science, biomed) and a couple are doing double degrees too! This gives them time to consider if they really want to go down the med path, which means many continuous years of commitment, or if their passion really lies in another career path which they hadn't considered much previously. So what you're considering (BSci/BArts double degree) is a great way to explore your interests!

[bianca3016]

I'm so glad you're feeling the EngLang feels.

hahaha so am I - I have to thank your linguistics-loving-inspo for a lot of it

Quite a number of my friends are considering postgraduate medicine, where they're doing an undergraduate degree in an area they also had an interest in (e.g. commerce, arts, science, biomed) and a couple are doing double degrees too! This gives them time to consider if they really want to go down the med path, which means many continuous years of commitment, or if their passion really lies in another career path which they hadn't considered much previously. So what you're considering (BSci/BArts double degree) is a great way to explore your interests!

yeah - I think its a really good idea. For the past decade, I've had my heart set on surgery and so medicine was the only option I'd ever considered, so it took me by surprise when I really enjoyed economics. I was also inspired by Joseph41's 'linguistics degree gap year' idea, and thought it'd great to study a degree/double degree in another area of interest before committing myself to medicine for 14 or so years.
I just need to find out how to go from said degree to medicine and which prereqs I'll need... guess its time for more uni open days haha

[bianca3016]

Tryna stick to a weekly-basis kinda thing but at the moment, not much is going on.
Accounting - still going well, not sure if I mentioned this but I'm working in an accounting firm at the moment which is helping with some concepts we're studying at school, also got 95% on a test which I'm fairly pleased about
Economics - so hard, but classes are going back to a normal kind of pace so I know where I'm at, roughly, which is nice
English Language - not sure if it is the subject or my school's teaching style, but englang is super hard to organise? I mean, with other subjects they often have set chapters/topics that we focus on but englang seems to be all over the place, and in no order whatsoever. My learning style is very methodical so it's hard to keep at it, but as I've mentioned I love the subject so that's keeping me up to speed
Chemistry - I try to pretend this doesn't exist but we're doing fuels right now, which are relatively easy (touch wood)
Maths - same, boring, maths... sometimes a part of me wishes I stuck to methods but then I see my friends and how much they hate it and know I made the right choice

Still doing quite a few extra-curriculas. I've chosen to cut down rowing from 3 days to just one day, tennis to Saturday only, and volleyball to Wednesday only. One thing I'm looking forward to next year is being able to focus on my sports more w/o my parents' input. I got onto the school's volley and tennis teams but chose to do tennis because it's my no.1 and they were on the same day, yesterday, so because of its late finish I couldn't run to a physio which meant a lot of pain today, I also missed a lot of classes... was 400% worth it though

I've also noticed that the yr12 hesitation I had before this term has gone away. I don't mind knowing that it's my final year of school anymore, and am more excited for uni than ever. For any yr11s or below reading this; don't stress about the end of the year as much as I did, it's not so bad when you get here (future me, feel free to laugh at this comment as you take your very last class)

[Joseph41]

EngLang - I definitely know what you mean. I remember thinking in Year 12 that basically every class was the same, and there was no real order of content or anything haha. Have you been working off the study design? If you get the time outside of class, I recommend just gradually making your notes throughout the year based on each dot point. If you don't cover the content in class, ask on the EngLang boards - we have some pretty experienced EngLang people there, including our Head EngLang Tutor at TuteSmart, EulerFan102.

With that in mind, I don't think it's just the way that your school is doing it. I think EngLang is just difficult to organise in general, such is the nature of language.

P.S. Metalanguage is always a good place to start for notes!

[bianca3016]

EngLang - I definitely know what you mean. I remember thinking in Year 12 that basically every class was the same, and there was no real order of content or anything haha. Have you been working off the study design? If you get the time outside of class, I recommend just gradually making your notes throughout the year based on each dot point. If you don't cover the content in class, ask on the EngLang boards - we have some pretty experienced EngLang people there, including our Head EngLang Tutor at TuteSmart, EulerFan102.

With that in mind, I don't think it's just the way that your school is doing it. I think EngLang is just difficult to organise in general, such is the nature of language.

P.S. Metalanguage is always a good place to start for notes!

hmm seems to be this way - classes are starting to become a little structured but yeah...

I've been quite busy with no time to update this journal thingy.
Accounting: my best subject at the moment - I'm loving the subject and doing well so yay!
Chemistry: honestly isn't too bad yet but I'm definitely going to need to focus on this subject a lot
Economics: so. damn. confusing. I mean, I really do love the subject but the teaching style is very... idk... I find we're taught at a context-based approach rather than giving us the spine of the subject and allowing us to expand in our own time... maybe it'll prove to be useful come exam time?
English Language: same as always, got my essay back and did quite well but we also got our first hurdles back and everyone did badly (they were designed for us to fail or something, who knows with this school honestly) which demotivated me a little bit but yeah... plenty of time to revise those mistakes
Maths: I've been avoiding it a little because it is so repetitive but it's still going reasonably well. First test was okay, second test is next Wednesday. Ours school chose matrices as one of the modules and I'm soooo not looking forward to that.

Overall, reflecting on my subjects puts everything into perspective so I'm going to try and do this on a more regular basis. I've still got rowing, tennis, volleyball, my accounting job, and my tutoring job, and now I'm swimming one morning a week with a friend. My parents are not thrilled because they are kind of expecting a 99 ATAR and I'm not. I'm going to keep these up for as long as possible because they provide me with a way to destress which I really need this year.
hmmm I think that is about it.

[bianca3016]

Today I had my first accounting SAC (also 1st SAC this year). I did all past SACs from 2012-2017, 2 company SACs, and 3 practise tests, plus all of the questions in my class booklets and none of that was as insane as the real thing. 9 questions, 49 marks, 5 mins reading time and 58 mins writing - It doesn't sound hard but oh my goodness I didn't even have time to look up at the clock.
Unfortunately, this meant that my goal of >95% has kind of... drifted away... I didn't get time to proofread (I finished with 13 seconds to go) and this meant I couldn't get a clue of how many questions I got wrong.
There was a question on corrections that confused me for a solid 2 minutes. It was close to the end of the SAC, by which point my brain was slowing after the adrenalin rush, so that didn't really help my confidence. The teacher likes putting little tricks in his assessments, from what I observed, and I often make silly errors when it comes to calculating profit (honestly it's not even hard, I just have a habit of mistyping numbers into my calculator) and explaining effects on the accounting equation + theory.
I obviously won't find out my results for a while, but where I'm standing now, I'm quite happy with this SAC. (touch wood) - I know I would've made silly errors and whatnot, but I'm content with the amount of preparation I did leading up to it, and how well I understood the topics. I also feel like I'm not at a huge disadvantage to those that did 1/2 anymore, just because of how much effort I have put into catching up. If nothing else, I do really enjoy the subject and studying for it has been a blast and if that's the only positive, I'm happy with that.

On Thursday, I have a chem SAC on galvanic cells and redox. I'm not super confident because chem has been on the back-burner for about 18 years, I've yet to get another tutor, I'm super scared about it which often has a negative impact on my results, and my school has 9 incredibly competitive classes of chem students who are very, very hard to compete with soooooo... here's to a raw 2 ss at this point in time.
Next Tuesday I have an eco SAC on the first ~3 chapters. I do enjoy the subject but I'm a tad iffy about my teacher. That being said, I'm confident that if I do at least 4 practise SACs leading up to it and revise the main concepts I can do well (touch wood again - my grades may be exempt from the rules of superstition but, hell, I'm not about to test that theory out now). So far I haven't had an issue getting around the concepts taught, but I need to keep on top of my eco studying game and keep up with more current events. Also, I suck at answering questions concisely.
My last SAC this term (fingers crossed) is English Language in 13 days. It's an essay on the use of informal language, but I don't believe we are privy to our prompts until said date. It should be 10 mins reading + 70 mins writing, but I'm still worried about it. Eng Lang is one of my favourite subjects content-wise, whilst also being one of my least favourite. I lost my knack for writing eloquent essays in year 10 when they became all about the ticks, A+s, and smiling parents, and less about the content, enjoyment, satisfaction, and appreciation of the beauty in the English language. I'd like to aim to write at least one essay, varying lengths, as a way of revising content we cover in class, and also improving my lacking skills. I would be really disappointed if I did badly in a subject I was so passionate about.
Finally, my maths SAC is next term. I definitely need to stay atop my game in this subject because I often find myself prioritising literally everything and anything above maths... Hopefully next time I update this thread of my academic whereabouts this has improved.

Extracurriculars are swell. Rowing is finished for the term, I left my tennis club because of ongoing issues, volleyball is soooo fun, and swimming has taken a break but I think I'll be back within the next couple of weeks. I also joined orchestra and have been playing flute which is refreshing as I hadn't picked it up in a long, long time. I'm considering stopping work as a tutor and focusing more on school, sport, and my work at the accounting firm. It'll also give me a more peaceful Monday (early finish, too) which I am craving at the moment.
Ciaoooo

[emmykatexo]

Hey Bianca, hope you are well! I was wondering if you could explain how you got a job at an accounting firm at such a young age for a part time job and what it entails? Thanks x

[bianca3016]

Hey Bianca, hope you are well! I was wondering if you could explain how you got a job at an accounting firm at such a young age for a part time job and what it entails? Thanks x

Hey! Hope you're doing well too, and enjoying your Easter break.
I knew the people who run the firm because they work in the same building as one of my parents' clinics, and their previous person left for Sydney, so they asked my parents if I wanted a job.
As for what it entails, I work a few nights a week filing files, answering phone calls, looking after invoices, updating client files, sending documents on to financial advisers, and then any other small jobs that need doing. Nothing major of course, but its nice getting a feel of the accounting environment and seeing principles in action.
If you're looking for a similar job, I recommend just handing in your resume to small and large firms and expressing interest in a casual admin job.
Best of luck x

[bianca3016]

I'm not sure exactly when I last posted but since then I've had 3 sacs (economics, chemistry, and english language).
I got my accounting sac back, which was... okay... The teacher was pleased with my result but I definitely could have done better. The questions I got wrong were the ones I was worried about in the last post, and I also made some silly errors with balancing ledgers (legit wrote the wrong date twice).
My economics sac was lost by the teacher. I'm kind of sad because I had a really good grasp on the topic and now I'll probably have to get a derived score, which means more pressure on the remaining sacs. My fingers are crossed that he'll find my sac in the next couple of days.
Chemistry was awful. I'm dropping it next term.
English language was okay. I finished with plenty of time to proofread but it definitely was not my finest work.

These holidays are going to be filled with a lot of studying. We've got a huge take-home sac, plus 4-days of sacs first week back for maths. Our English Language teacher has also given us a lot of homework. Accounting is all about practise, so I'm going to revise the content we've covered over and over again, until it comes naturally. Economics will also be revision.

Extra curricular wise, life is good. Work is fun and sports are making me get up early (which is boosting my mood tenfold). My family has gone to visit my extended family in Adelaide for ~a week and I've stayed home to look after the pets and study, which was a really good decision because I can breathe, finally. My parents don't seem to want to make this year particularly easy.

Term 2 is supposedly the hardest of the four. It's the longest, and most jam-packed full of sacs and other assessments. I'm relying on a strict routine to keep me going for the entirety of the 11 weeks of hell. Gl @ me.

[bianca3016]

Two rather odd days back at school.
Accounting; I let myself get behind by speculating over my last sac's score for far too long. It's become too much of a score-heavy subject to think about so silly me has avoided it. I'm not sure why, since I really love the subject.
Economics; sac1 is definitely lost. There was a meeting between some coordinators, teachers, and principal today to discuss what the next step is for me but I'll find out tomorrow. Again, kind of sucks because it sounds like I'll be getting a mark from a re-do of the test or another task and then it'll be scaled by scores from sacs throughout the year, and adjusted in my favour to account for the more basic outcome and the fact that I did not lost it... It means that my sac mark isn't set in stone and all of my other sacs have to be really good so I don't stuff this one up. Also means I'll push myself to study a lot more, which is a good thing.
English Language; got the essay sac back today. Did better than expected, but I'm not proud of my writing. Will definitely be a focus point of this term, I'm hoping to write at least one essay per week/fortnight.
Maths; got the third test back, was okay/ better than expected, now in the middle of sac1 (runs over 5 days) and so far, so good. Would like to do reasonably well in this subject but we'll see.

I probably mentioned this earlier, but I've dropped chemistry. For a range of reasons, but one main one was my performance on our first sac. Didn't pay attention in class, didn't have a clue what was going on, studied the subject maybe a grand total of once, didn't finish the sac, legit had no idea what was on the sac, spent weeks knowing I'd get a 20%, emailing coordinators about dropping it. (also I know a lot of students joke about not studying and failing, I am being 100% serious when I say I didn't do anything. at all)
Dropped it.
Got my mark back today... Got a B. A frickin B. Which is raw, and I saw plenty of other students getting far below that.
Like, honestly, I think they have mixed up my sac I legit do not even think I answered enough questions to get it.
So now I'm like oh goodness if I can do that without studying like what can I achieve if I actually studied?
Lordy lordy...

That's about it.

[ASX_Billy]

Tryna stick to a weekly-basis kinda thing but at the moment, not much is going on.
Accounting - still going well, not sure if I mentioned this but I'm working in an accounting firm at the moment which is helping with some concepts we're studying at school, also got 95% on a test which I'm fairly pleased about
Economics - so hard, but classes are going back to a normal kind of pace so I know where I'm at, roughly, which is nice
English Language - not sure if it is the subject or my school's teaching style, but englang is super hard to organise? I mean, with other subjects they often have set chapters/topics that we focus on but englang seems to be all over the place, and in no order whatsoever. My learning style is very methodical so it's hard to keep at it, but as I've mentioned I love the subject so that's keeping me up to speed
Chemistry - I try to pretend this doesn't exist but we're doing fuels right now, which are relatively easy (touch wood)
Maths - same, boring, maths... sometimes a part of me wishes I stuck to methods but then I see my friends and how much they hate it and know I made the right choice

Still doing quite a few extra-curriculas. I've chosen to cut down rowing from 3 days to just one day, tennis to Saturday only, and volleyball to Wednesday only. One thing I'm looking forward to next year is being able to focus on my sports more w/o my parents' input. I got onto the school's volley and tennis teams but chose to do tennis because it's my no.1 and they were on the same day, yesterday, so because of its late finish I couldn't run to a physio which meant a lot of pain today, I also missed a lot of classes... was 400% worth it though

I've also noticed that the yr12 hesitation I had before this term has gone away. I don't mind knowing that it's my final year of school anymore, and am more excited for uni than ever. For any yr11s or below reading this; don't stress about the end of the year as much as I did, it's not so bad when you get here (future me, feel free to laugh at this comment as you take your very last class)

Accounting - Aced first SAC, failed second (Under 95%), the subject is by no means conceptually challenging or content-heavy, but it seriously stresses refined care (i suppose this is memory in considering EVERYTHING to do with a question and can be linked to content heaviness) in regards to the questions, especially interpreting source documents, additional information, and then using them.
English - Hated it a few days ago, mindset changed, slowly enjoying
Methods - Not sure why people find it boring and hate it, it's like accounting, there are essentially only one way of doing things
Business - Wish my school had Economics this subject is so dry, i'm certain i learnt way more about this subject in my spare time watching Khan Academy and Coursera than the entire year of Units 1 & 2 with my teacher (i hope that _{useless unhelpful} teacher doesn't read this) - and my first SAC score was straight up crap, despite studying really "hard" (my methods of studying have since been revised but they were, before that first SAC, ridiculous - I mean, why did I rewrite all the first few chapters of the textbook in my own words then do all the questions without seeking feedback or self-marking them or more importantly, why did i choose to prioritise annotating notes over doing practice SACS?)
Media - New study design, did okay (over 80%) on first SAC, but since it's a folio subject the SAT is tremendously more important

Year 12 motivation: Depending on how much i juggle, it goes from me being a complete nihilist to "let's do everything 100% and think of stress as an exercise."

[bianca3016]

It's crazy thinking that I only have months left of school. I'm excited for uni, yes, but I think I'm really going to miss this place.
Also, year 12 is hella fun. It feels like my subjects actually matter, so I love studying for them a whole lot more than I loved studying for previous years.
Accounting - 2nd sac wasn't the best. I feel like I made some pretty big errors. My main goal was to score higher than my first sac, which pushed me a whole lot more than aiming for a number. I think I'm getting the score back today.
Economics - SAC2 is coming up. Kind of wish I had my feedback from SAC1 so I knew what I needed to improve on, but oh well. SAC1 is a week and a half after SAC2, so I'm going to start my revision for that in about 12 days.
English Language - Our second SAC is an analytical commentary, which I'm more confident with because it seems to have more definite rules, as compared to an essay. I need to write a practice one and sit down with my teacher to see how I can improve it - that seems to be the best way to 'study' for this subject.
Mathematics - I'm getting my first SAC score back today at parent-teachers, so that'll be interesting. I had a decent grasp of the concepts, but I'm pretty sure I made some bad mistakes. Oh boy.

Extra-curricula wise, I let go of everything except volleyball and the odd swim. I'm focusing more on my overall fitness rather than sport, because it usually incurs less injuries.
Work is going well, I'm grateful for the couple of hours a week I get to relax and not compete academically or physically. Idk how many people actually read this, but if you're going into VCE, I'd recommend getting a job for an hour or two a week, or something of the likes.

As of now, my goal in school is to keep improving. I've been keeping graphs of my test + sac scores, and as long as the trend is upwards, I'll be happy with my progress.

[bianca3016]

Winter has got the best of me... oh no
I'm not studying as much, purely because the cold has me unmotivated, and so my main goal for the last 5 weeks of term 2 is to ensure I'm studying consistently every day. I need to get back into the habit of using my frees to study, too.
Accounting; very disappointed with my SAC, but I'm looking forward to SAC3 as I'm keeping up with the work and working with the teacher outside of class, which is helping a whole lot more than I thought it would
Economics; SAC2 (my first) is on Thursday. Scared because it's my first and it has a higher weighting than for the rest of the cohort, since my teacher misplaced my SAC1. I really, really want to do well. SAC1 is in about 2 weeks.
English Language; Today I wrote an essay in 1 hour because I was FINALLY IN THE MOOD FOR IT I'M SO THRILLED BECAUSE I HAVEN'T ENJOYED ENGLANG THIS MUCH SINCE LAST YEAR!!!
Maths; SAC1 was not good. Teacher very, very unimpressed. 31/40. Should not have lost so many marks, I really don't know why this happened, but I'm hoping that it'll push me to want to do well.

I've been looking at gap years because I've been quite hesitant to head straight to uni, but since talking to a few people outside of my own school, I'm looking forward to it again. Going back to the business/arts at Monash idea, which is exciting me.
My mother has been stressing me out about my atar and the other day she told me it was because she doesn't want to tell her friends if I get a low one? Honestly... I don't think I'm going to tell my parents when I get it. I don't really care what the number is anymore (oh my god if 2017 me saw this she'd die), as long as it gets me into whatever I feel like doing at uni.
See you in another 500 months, I guess.

[bianca3016]

It's been so long since I've posted that the website is giving me a warning of inactivity... oops
I'm grateful for these holidays to catch up to speed in all of my subjects.

Accounting - SACs are particularly average but my teacher still tells me I'm performing well. I need to revert back to my term 1 habits of doing everything ahead of time. This'll probably be my lunchtime subject in term 3
Economics - we're getting a SAC back early next term that was incredibly hard. My main issue in this subject is not being 110% clear on the marking scheme of the questions, so in term 3 I intend to do at least 2 short answer and 10 MCs a night.
English Language - I think I need to develop a solid understanding of the subsystems (I know, definitely something that should have happened last year haha) and then I'll be alright. I understand the structure of the questions, essays, and ACs at least. I'd like to improve my vocab and eloquence, but I think being able to use metalanguage very fluently is the main issue I'd like to improve upon. Our next SAC is all about ethnolects and we're meant to interview someone we know that speaks a variety of non-standard English, but I am finding it hard to think of anyone that I could comfortably ask. ugh
Further - my financial maths SAC was actually okay. The majority, if not all, of the mistakes I made were to do with not reading the question properly and are very easy to fix. I'm happy with this subject. Term 3 is all about keeping up to date, which is easy as long as I finish chapters in class/school time (which I can usually do).

I think that's it. Overall, my performance is pretty average but as long as I keep improving I'll be content. Also, I can't fathom how we *basically* only have one term left? um

[bianca3016]

It's already August!?!? wow
Next week we have to do our uni preferences which is a little insane. I know I say this every single week, and when I read over this journal at the end of my exams I'll be laughing @ how silly some things I say are but oh wellll
Accounting - we're finishing the last chapter of actual bookkeeping so I've started practise exams + previous practise SACs to strengthen this. I've started doing more practical/bookkeeping stuff at work which really helps with solidifying the theory in my head.
Economics - boy this subject is insane. We're studying the budget at the moment which is fun and I have a good grip of it but I struggle in areas where I have to apply knowledge from topics I'm not so good at. I do wish our teacher gave us regular topic tests or the like to ensure we're not falling behind. My next SAC is on Tuesday, I have a feeling that it's an essay or multiple 6-8 mark questions as that's what he has been prepping us for. If anyone is good at eco essays or long questions, please message me
English Language - I have a SAC on Monday. Guided AC and short answer questions. We had to interview a non-standard English speaker and write a transcript which will be used in the SAC. I like my ACs because there's structure to them so they're relatively black and white.
Further - going well. Aiming for a 40 atm but I'm doing badly in everything in life rn so I can see myself getting a 4 too. No idea how much my school will scale our exam scores up by, usually quite a bit, but I can't rely on it sooo it's going to be a lot of hard work for the next 100 days.

Hope you're all doing well in school + life x