Hey colline,
How's Yr 12 been going?
Hey Snow Leopard! Oh my goodness, thanks for bumping this for me, I’ve been seriously neglecting this! Everything has been quite busy recently, with exams looming close and all, and I simply haven’t had the time to update.
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07 / 10 / 2019 - Monday Term 4 Week 1I am now in my final term of high school!
(*screams*) With less than one month to go, I thought I’d do a rather long update today as I don’t think I’ll be around much for the next month or so.
Trial Exams (and rankings...?)We sat our official trial exams at the end of last term. For the most part, they went exactly as I imagined. Best was further, worst was chem. No surprises there. I didn’t even manage to get 50%, which was frustrating.
My trial exam scores were as follows:
Further: 95% (exam 1), 98.3% (exam 2)
Methods: 95% (exam 1), 87.5% (exam 2)
Biology: 73.3%
Chemistry: 44.2%
O chemistry thou heartless villain!I don't exactly know my rankings for each subject. (How do some people know their exact rankings? Do some schools give them out?) If I had to take a wild guess, I'm ASSUMING top 3 for further (more details below), top 15 for methods, and average for both bio and chem.
HolidaysSuch a misleading name, there was really nothing relaxing about my last ever school holidays. They were definitely productive though. I managed to:
• Attend optional trial exams my school held for further and chem
• Go to AN’s chem and bio revision lectures
• Knock out 10 trial exams in my own time - 6 chem, 2 methods, one each for further and bio.
Aside from that I also tried to give myself a break with a friend’s 18th
and a Troye Sivan concert. But otherwise, most of the holidays were spent in the most boring fashion at my desk.
Speech NightMy last ever speech night is coming up, held at Docklands. I have three performances on the night, two with the school band, one with the band my friends and I put together. We’re doing a mashup of Adele!
Apart from that though, there’s not much I’m looking forward to. This morning, I was dismayed to find out that despite all my efforts this year, I won’t be getting the subject prize for further. It really came as a shock, as I was certain I had the highest SAC average among the cohort. I really don’t understand why I wasn’t given the subject prize — the student who got it has lower SAC marks than me, and AFAIK I did better than her on the trial exam as well.
I know the subject prize shouldn’t be a big deal, but I really thought I had it in the bag and I am so, so disappointed to find out that all my efforts this year went unrecognised. I mean, it’s not my ultimate goal, but some acknowledgement would've been nice. I know this is such a trivial thing to upset over, but I had been working towards it all year. It was just so crushing to me, and I know I am overreacting but gosh I really thought I had it, and I’m just so disappointed to find out I wasn’t successful.
(Please excuse my pettiness)I didn’t get the award for methods either, though that was expected since I did badly on the U3 AOS1 SAC. And I never had a chance in bio and chem anyway.
I know the main thing is the exam. If I do well I can certainly still dux further, prove my teachers wrong, but I’m just feeling so unmotivated to study for it right now.
Sorry for such a depressing and overly dramatic rant. We shall now take a slightly more cheery turn for the rest of this post.
What’s coming
Graduation is coming, and I am having mixed feelings. On one hand, I am so glad I can finally be one step closer to freedom; on the other hand, I know I will still absolutely bawl my eyes out. Next, there is SWOTVAC, then finally, the long-awaited exams shall greet us with open arms.
My main plan is to work on maths, as I’m confident further and methods will both be in my top 4 along with music and literature. Bio and chem are guaranteed bottom 2, but still I don’t want to do too badly on them either. So here’s my exam prep checklist:
- Do the 2019 NHT papers under exam conditions
- Do CAS exercises every day
- Redo all the questions I got wrong in past papers and trial exams
- Write my own exam for further and methods
My methods teacher has challenged me to write my own exam 1 paper as revision. She said that there is no better way to improve than to see if I understand the concepts enough to come up with my own questions. I found that it really helped, so now I’m working on a methods exam 2 paper as well! (Though I’m only doing short answer questions as I think MCQ is a bit redundant).
I might post my exams in the coming weeks, after I get my methods teacher to check it over.
ReflectionYeah that’s right, cheesy reflection questions a-coming! I stole the questions from a previous VCE journal (specifically
this post).
Spoiler
What was your greatest accomplishment in high school?I would say surviving. Nothing can possibly top that.
Aside from that, proving my lit teacher and the school wrong. I wasn't among the strongest English students from year 7 to year 10 so the school refused to let me do literature as my early 3/4, and after tons of emails, meetings with English teachers, and eventually even the principal, I was allowed in last-minute. It was a nice feeling when I finally smashed their low expectations of me
What was your most memorable event in high school?Year 12 musical! We did Wicked and I loved every single second of it.
Our 2019 inter house chorals competition was also memorable for all the wrong reasons. My house had won chorals 4 years in a row and this year we had our strongest ever music cohort (including a student who was once a finalist on the Voice), so everybody expected us to win. Then we stuffed up majorly on stage and came second last, ruining our streak and our reputation. And yes I am petty enough to forever remember that day.
What was your favourite / least favourite extracurricular activity?Favourite(s): Orchestra! I’ve been in the school orchestra since year 7 and I’ve grown emotionally attached to everything about it.
Least favourite: Can’t really think of one. After all, I only did extracurricular that I liked. If I had to answer I’d say the school frisbee team, which I was unofficially a part of in year 9
What was one class you’ve always looked forward to / dreaded going to?Looked forward to: Music! This year it’s probably methods
because I refuse to say further (yes I am still cut)Dreaded: Certain parts of chem and bio. Though I wouldn’t say dreaded. I just liked them less.
What was your most embarrassing moment?Our biology teacher this year is a recent uni graduate with a baby face. At the start of the year, I mistook him for a student on exchange and asked him what year he was in.
To this day, I cannot look at him in the eye.
Do you have any regrets about high school?Yes. So many. I wish I was more involved with sport and other extracurriculars, as well as leadership. And there are so many people who I’ve hardly talked to throughout the 6 years of high school (especially int’l students) who I wish I got to know more.
I also wish I did physics instead of biology. And doing 7 subjects was really unnecessary lmao.
If you could give one advice to the younger year levels, what would it be?Do not be afraid to take risks and do things which seems difficult. If you want to study a subject, but don't think you'd be able to handle the workload, just do it anyway. If you want to try out for a leadership position but think your resume isn't as impressive as the other students trying out, don't back out. If your school isn't running a subject you dream of doing, challenge it. You never know how things could work out.
I might update again just before exams just to vent out my feelings and whatnot, or I might see you after November 12th. Either way, we’re approaching the end of the tunnel. To the class of 2019, you’ve all worked so, so hard this year. So hold on - just a bit more - the end is near!
Colline xx