This entry is half rant half narrative, so apologies if it's a bit of a mess
When I came into term 2, I thought it would be a fairly chill term considering online learning and the absence of half yearlies and trials.
Holy hell I was wrong.
I did a post back in week 1 about my week 3 deadlines, but I really hadn't anticipated the last two weeks, not to mention the absolute kerfuffle that the past two days have been.
So, a bit of background as to what my first 2 days of physical schooling have been. Monday, I had my final software major work due. This has been our project for about 5 months now, and I was quite happy with the end result - about 40 pages of documentation and a demo software product. That went really smoothly, our library was closed but my teacher was kind enough to let me use the TAS printers to print out my project.
However, I had my history extension assignment due Tuesday. I spent most of my time on this, as online learning gave me good opportunity to do lots of research. The assignment was a logbook check, which might sound easy but was actually pretty extensive. It had a long list of requirements, including a proposal, annotated sources, logbook entries, evidence of research and methodologies, self evaluations, teacher checkups, peer reviews, etc etc.
Monday night, I'd finished up pretty much everything, and pretty much just needed a few peer reviews of my work. As typical for high schoolers, a lot of people in our class were in the same situation, and so we did a sort of "peer review circle" over our messenger group chat where we all exchanged material to get reviewed.
Now, this should have been done and dusted, but when I was chatting with one of my classmates about their peer review, I realised that we also needed a draft paragraph. It was around 11 at that point, so I essentially had to choose between pulling an all nighter or doing it on the day, which would be risky since I may not have had time or have access to a printer at school. I chose to get started with a really garbage draft, sleep, then wake up early in the morning to polish since I had a free first. I managed to get the draft printed just before I left for school, which was Modern. I saw a bunch of my classmates working on their proposals and drafts throughout my classes, so make of that what you will.
I have history extension as an afternoon class, so I had a free right beforehand where I met up with my friend to do a final peer review. Because of the way our lines work, a lot of peopled ended up in the library to print that period, and we all had the pleasure of watching one of classmates whip out a draft in
20 minutes - like what the hell? I had a look, and it was actually a pretty quality draft so I guess some people just work better under pressure. Nevertheless, this has been a definite human experience.
Obviously, having finished 2 assessment events, I wouldn't be a very good student if I didn't take time to reflect on my mistakes and process. Obviously, I'm not saying this is a good way to go about your major work - please take this as a lesson on what not to do and
read the assessment notification carefully. I could have avoided a lot of grief if I had known about the draft in advance. I also should have definitely started my work earlier, and known earlier that there was going to be such a major clash between my two subjects. I've given absolute priority to my major works for the last 2 weeks, which has been massively detrimental to my schoolwork but definitely increased the quality of my works. In the end, it's all a balancing act and I'm relying on my ability to be able to make up content.
However, I still think I did pretty well. In fact, I'm quite proud of what I accomplished. 40 pages of software documentation and prototype + a (in my opinion) fairly decent history project is nothing to be regretful over. There's no way I could have done this in year 11, which means my historical and technical skills have definitely improved.
All the chaos aside, that was the most action packed return to school I could have imagined. My next assessment is in Week 6, and my history project is also due Week 10 with a bunch other other assessments sandwiched between, so things are tight. On another note, I'm incredible impressed by the sophistication of a lot of my classmate's works. The drafts I've read are all super interesting, and written really well (eg. I read a draft on an ancient history topic which I had no background in and yet still understood completely because of how succinct and well worded it was!)
In terms of my next steps, I'm going to have a good rest and from tomorrow, start tackling the massive pile up of work I've left myself. I have an English imaginative due this friday, as well as a ton of math work to catch up on. Sorry for the massive blocks of texts, and hopefully this is coherent (because I'm certainly not rn). I just wanted to get it all out while still fresh.
As always, stay safe and if you're a NSW student, enjoy the return to school! I know I've really enjoyed seeing my friends again after the break