HSC Journey- From Prelims to HSC

[jamonwindeyer]

Low key so enjoying this Year 11 saga - Way better than half the crap on TV

[owidjaja]

Low key so enjoying this Year 11 saga - Way better than half the crap on TV

Omg you will find juicier drama here at my school than soap opera- at this point if we've had so much drama going on (we're only a Year 11 and 12 school), we have a euphemism for that: all you need to say is 'spill the tea' and tea party here we come!

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
I only had four hours of sleep today -_- I stayed up until 12.30am to finish off my annotated sources since I put a deadline for myself to annotate ten more sources. Do I regret it? Kinda. But at the same time, I'm glad that I have twenty sources at the moment so I can easily meet that maximum of thirty sources. I was already struggling to fall asleep since I finally turned off the lights at 12.30am but then I tossed and turned until I was about to fall asleep at around 2am. But then my cat started meowing out of nowhere- and she meowed for 15 minutes straight. I put the pillow over my head and she decided to sleep on the pillow, before moving to the window sill or something. And then I had to wake up at 6am -_- My eyes are so dry at the moment so I better sleep early. Oh yeah, and this is my cat. She just got out of surgery so we're monitoring her at the moment.

Apart from that, I managed to interview a marriage celebrant today for my SAC PIP! I wasn't sure if she would be entirely useful for my PIP because my main concern is that she would only be able to answer questions relating to interracial marriage and not racial identity but we talked for about 20 minutes on the questions that I prepared and some other questions I came up on the spot. She was very nice despite me being awkward and probably mumbling at some points (we spoke over the phone). So now comes the tedious part of transcribing everything. However, I'm still looking for a multiracial person to interview, preferably someone from Generation X- if anyone knows someone who falls under this category please let me know!

I also need to prepare for an interview with my history teacher. Considering how he is a legit historian, I might as well interview him for my History Extension Major Work. My semi-structured approached worked today so I may be following a similar method tomorrow. I'm hoping I don't yawn too much because we scheduled an interview before school since our timetables don't line up lol.

Back to the Year 11 Saga (I noticed many of you here enjoy the juicy drama at my school xD). They were surprisingly civil in sharing the space... kinda. I mean, we sat in our spot and they sat in their spot, although their massive group sometimes ends up going into our spot. It's annoying because they're the type of people who don't really care about school so we can't pull out the "I'm doing my HSC this year" card. It's even worse how they catch the same bus my friend and I catch and my friend told me how one of the guys was jokingly opening her bag on the bus- even though she called them out they were just laughing at her. Firstly, I don't understand why they find it amusing to open up random people's bags- what is this, kindergarten? And secondly, I don't get why they would just do that. If they really wanna tell us off, they might as well do it face-to-face rather than doing silly pranks. It was even more annoying today because they were late for the bus except our bus was at the intersection so these guys could easily knock on the door of the bus and the bus driver is kinda obligated to open the door for them. We kinda wished that the bus driver just ignored them and drove ahead because it was their fault for not arriving to the bus stop on time.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey guys!
I only had four hours of sleep today -_- I stayed up until 12.30am to finish off my annotated sources since I put a deadline for myself to annotate ten more sources. Do I regret it? Kinda. But at the same time, I'm glad that I have twenty sources at the moment so I can easily meet that maximum of thirty sources. I was already struggling to fall asleep since I finally turned off the lights at 12.30am but then I tossed and turned until I was about to fall asleep at around 2am. But then my cat started meowing out of nowhere- and she meowed for 15 minutes straight. I put the pillow over my head and she decided to sleep on the pillow, before moving to the window sill of something. And then I had to wake up at 6am -_- My eyes are so dry at the moment so I better sleep early. Oh yeah, and this is my cat. She just got out of surgery so we're monitoring her at the moment.

Your cat is adorable - I hope they recover well!! And I hope you have a better sleep tonight! I'm perpetually being bitten by the "I don't need 8 hours sleep," temptation, it's cost me many a stupid mark in many an exam - Don't make a habit of it (especially with the drama, you need the energy )

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
OK TIME FOR SOME JUICY DRAMA BECAUSE I AM SO ANGRY AT THE YEAR 11'S. So my friends and I were sitting in our usual spot under the tree- at the moment, the Year 11s were staying on their side and we were staying on our side. We were having a conversation on circumcision (as you do with five girls and one guy)- I told you we talk about the strangest crap. But then suddenly, two Year 11's just came over and sat with us and we just stopped talking and looked at them. They were all like "Oh what you girls talking about" and we just told them we were talking about circumcision (now that I think of it, it's NOT STRANGE- THE BIBLE MENTIONED CIRCUMCISION). And we had a strange conversation about it and they were full on explaining to us what it was even though we obviously know about it since we were talking about it. And then one of my friends bluntly asked them why they're here and thought we agreed on mutual respect and how they stay on their side and we stay on our side. But then they were all like "Well the principal was on about expanding your social circle and socialise more so that's why we're here" and all that with a massive smirk. They were full on laughing and be like "What? You want respect? Let's all hold hands then" and had his palms out- kinda like before the 'peace be with you' part (sometimes we hold hands in that part or we just stand there and shake hands- I'm not Christian so I don't know the full details) but then my other friend moved away from them because she's clearly uncomfortable over the fact that his hands kinda brushed her leg (and we were wearing shorts because it's sports day). And then they go back to laughing and all before going away saying "Look we made new friends and I'll see you guys next time." I swear to god their presence made us so annoyed because WE AGREED TO STAY ON OUR RESPECTIVE SIDES. We even bluntly told them that they're annoying but they were all like "But the principal" blah blah blah.

To any possible Year 11 students reading this- DON'T CROSS STREAMS WITH THE YEAR 12'S. Look here, we want to help you guys and be all senpai with you but if you're gonna piss us off like that and act all smug- just forget about it. I was so ready to help the Year 11's and be all senpai, hoping that they would've matured but at this point, they piss me off so much I want to exterminate them all. Out of the hundreds of Year 11's, only two of them are actually bearable (funny because they used to go out but they visit us individually and my friend basically gives them couple therapy at least once a week lol). So yeah, you deal with your stuff and we deal with our stuff and then we may help you.

Angry thing #2: New principals/AP. I feel like everyone in my school is really annoyed at them, including the teachers. One of the things that annoys the hell out of me is study privileges. So, with our previous principal, we had this thing how if you have a study period during first or last period, you can arrive late/leave early. On Tuesdays, you can leave early after lunch because you do study during sport. Of course, this is dependent on how clean your record is- for those who don't follow the rules don't get those study privileges, hence the word STUDY PRIVILEGES. Apparently the principal doesn't understand this because they might not give study privileges to us- they said they might give it to us depending the state of our uniforms but the whole point of these study privileges is to reward those who follow the rules by letting them go home early and punish those who don't by making them stay at school. On top of this, they were saying how we will be getting our Year 12 jackets on the state of our uniforms as well. But the thing is, WE ALREADY PAID FOR THEM. If they're gonna end up not giving it to us, THEY'RE BASICALLY SCAMMING US. They said they'll give the money back but we already went through the process of getting these jackets fitted and organising the lettering on our jackets and to disregard all this effort because of uniforms?!

(Insert Jackie Chan meme here- too lazy to insert. Y'all know which one I'm talking about.)

Oh yeah, the principal also enforced a printing policy how the teachers aren't allowed to give us too many handouts. As someone who does Humanities subjects, ALL OF OUR WORK IS HARDCOPY. I want to annotate my sources and write notes on worksheets, especially in Modern History. As for History Extension, I get 20 page journal articles for homework. I can read 2-3 pages online but more than that dries my eyes- this is why I hate reading journal articles- the pages are so damn long I'll waste paper if I print it. And it's ironic because teachers are always like "Take your noses out of your electronic devices" and all but how can we do that if our work will be online?!?!?

(Again, insert Jackie Chan meme)

Today is such an angry post lol. I really need to vent this out because my school is going downhill like a negative exponential graph -_-

On the bright side, I found a multiracial person from Generation X! My math teacher told me she prefers to be kept anonymous so I decided to do a structured interview with her. Hopefully, my questions don't scare her away even though I put a disclaimer just to be safe. And I also interviewed my history teacher/historian for my History Extension Major Work. All I need to do is to transcribe everything, and transcribing is a pain -_-

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
WARNING: THIS IS ANOTHER ANGRY POST.

I'm so sorry about the number of angry posts I've been writing in the past week- it's so annoying because I really want the school or just anyone to listen to us but no one wants to. So Angry thing #1: Boys. And when I say this, I don't mean like a bunch of girls giggling over guys because they're attractive or something. I'm talking about the ones who won't listen. The thing is, my friends and I sit in our regular spot under the tree near the small field (we have fake grass and our school is very small). We don't mind if guys play soccer or football on the field- it's a field so it's their right to play. But when the ball gets out of control and ends up landing and injuring us, that's a problem. We don't care if it's an accident but considering how today they were only trying to kick a ball into the goal and they were using half of the soccer field, they had no reason to kick the ball really hard. Half of the soccer field is about 10 metres. I don't know how the rules of sports ball works, but considering how it's a small field and you're using half of the field, you don't need to kick the ball that hard. The ball keeps landing near us (and landed in the middle of our small circle at some point) and it was starting to get annoying. Since the principal was on duty, we told him to tell them to calm down with the ball because they don't need to kick it that hard. So he goes and talks to them nicely and goes off elsewhere. And then the ball lands in our spot. AGAIN. This time, two of the guys come over and we kinda told them to calm down with their kicks because they're gonna end up hitting us but then they get defensive saying: "Do you know how hard it is to kick that goal in the net? Why don't you girls have a go at kicking the ball? It's not like the ball actually hit you guys." BUT THE THING IS THIS PROBLEM HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR A WHOLE YEAR. All of us have been hit by the ball. It's come to the point whenever I hear the loud sound of them kicking the ball, I curl up in a ball (haha) out of instinct. My friend jumps out of paranoia that the ball will hit us. It got to the point where my friend and the guy started yelling each other and he was all like: "I came here to apologise" EVEN THOUGH HE DIDN'T EVEN SAY SORRY so my friend told them to go away.

But then the ball keeps going out of the field over and over again to the point that it almost hit the glass of the library and the chapel. It's almost like they're doing this on purpose because they kept looking in our direction. When the ball went past us again a different guy ran after the ball and we told him twice to stop but he's all like: "It's not my fault that they can't play soccer." THAT'S NOT THE POINT OF THIS ARGUMENT. We're trying to talk to them civilly and tell them to stop kicking the ball but they won't listen. And where is the principal? All he was doing is standing and watching them even though he's already spoken to two of the guys. He finally took their ball when the ball goes into his direction. The fact that he didn't even do anything annoyed the hell out of us. He's the principal so he should use his power to ensure that the students feel safe. I felt so angry at the guys I was close to tears- yes, I get angry tears. I never yell at people because I'm not very open with my opinions (in real life of course xD) but I couldn't help but tell them off. What pisses me off the most is that two of the guys are members of the SRC and most of them were friends with the vice captain. THE FREAKING SRC. You're supposed to be the responsible ones and you're not making sure that we feel safe.

Which brings me to Angry Thing #2: SRC. This will probably make me sound salty because I applied for SRC and didn't get it but at this point, I don't even care anymore. The SRC has no dynamic whatsoever. I keep talking about study privileges and my friends and I keep telling the SRC about this and to bring it up in the next meeting. But the thing is, they don't even bring it up. Even the SRC in our homeroom told us he will bring it up but when we asked our SRC friend about this she said they didn't really talk about study privileges. But the thing that pisses my friends and I even more was what happened last year. In our Task 1 2U Math task, the math teachers didn't print out questions 1-4 in the multiple choice, making our paper to be marked out of 31 instead of 35. Sure, we were annoyed that the math teachers didn't even know about this until seconds before we started the exam. We tried to petition but most of the students were pessimistic about how there won't be any change. And I don't blame them because the SRC has the same opinion. The thing is, my friend asked two of the SRC members to represent us and bring it to our principal (and this was happening in Term 4 last year) because they were the only two people in the SRC that did 2U math so we thought they could sympathise with us (although, the other dropped to General Math). The thing is, they weren't very willing to represent us in their meetings. They only brought it up to the previous vice principal during an informal context (when he was on duty). The thing is, in the formal letter my friend wrote up, we're requesting for a teacher evaluation i.e. allowing students to evaluate the math department because our math department is VERY DISORGANISED. And the problem is, they don't want to listen to our feedback. My dad's a teacher so I know that as a teacher, sure you're supposed to teach your students the information you know but the process of learning doesn't end when you become a teacher- you need to be able to take the criticism of others in order to help you grow and suit your teaching style to the needs of the students. THIS IS WHY WE PAY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR YOU TO GET PAID THOUSANDS EVERY YEAR. The fact that most of the teachers get salty after Parent-Teacher Interviews isn't professional- considering how my parents are using their hard-earned money to get me to get educated and I'm not getting the best teachers out there is very frustrating.

And let's talk about the SRC's as well. We've mentioned to them to maybe install nets around the field, bring up study privileges and even requested them to bring the math issue to the principal. But the reason why our student body is so pessimistic is because the SRC's have the same opinion. They were like to us when we bring up the math issue: "I don't think anything's gonna change tbh." YOU ARE THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY WHAT'S GOING TO CHANGE. Your purpose is to represent the student body. This is why there are no issues being raised during the meetings. You guys aren't listening. And the problem is, the SRC members all come from the same friends circle- that's not an accurate representation of the student body. Most of them do Humanities subjects- there's nothing wrong with that. But what about the Extension classes? There's only one person in the SRC who does an Extension class and he does Extension English. THERE IS LITERALLY NO ONE WHO'S REPRESENTING EXTENSION MATH. And my 3U class is pissed over that. They were so riled up about the math issue last year our whole 3U class were rioting over this BECAUSE NO ONE SYMPATHISED WITH US. And sure, not every single person is going to be represented because that's unrealistic but at least BE WILLING TO REPRESENT US. We don't even have a voice.

Again, sorry for this angry post. My school is really going downhill at this rate. When I wrote this, I was shaking in anger because that's how infuriating this is- I really needed to get this off my chest. The only good thing that's happening this week is that we have a Study Day this Friday because the Year 11's have something going on.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[Joseph41]

No need to be sorry about being angry! Whatever you feel, that's a valid feeling.

Thanks for sharing. Hope the anger reduces a little soon.

[owidjaja]

No need to be sorry about being angry! Whatever you feel, that's a valid feeling.

Thanks for sharing. Hope the anger reduces a little soon.

Ughh it's so frustrating at the moment I'm on the verge of tears just re-reading my post!

I'm a crybaby don't judge me xD.

[Joseph41]

Ughh it's so frustrating at the moment I'm on the verge of tears just re-reading my post!

I'm a crybaby don't judge me xD.

Nah, no judgement whatsoever. Sending nothing but positive vibes your way.

[K888]

^ RE: the soccer ball troubles - I always found kicking or throwing the ball back into the people who kicked it in the first place to be quite effective. If you have any netballers in your friendship group, get them to do a good solid throw to scare the boys a bit

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
Haven't really updated you on anything after my angry post. That's because on Thursday my year coordinator was on duty so she was able to confiscate the ball from the guys! Thursday was peaceful and Friday was Year 12 Study Day because the Year 11's had an event that day. On Friday, I was updating my Weimar Germany notes- while I was doing that, it made me realise how difficult it is to make study notes out of worksheets. Don't get my wrong, my Modern sub teacher has potential to be a good teacher. However, our class discussions aren't proving effective because there is always a group of people who decide to talk during the discussion, making it difficult to make discussions productive. On top of this, worksheets are filled with information- both useful and irrelevant. As someone who enjoys making study notes, I want resources that clearly show where exactly where it fits in the syllabus. I don't want to fill my notes with irrelevant information because I could just buy a textbook for that. I had to resort in using my Modern History textbook- which is something I try and avoid because my teacher is gonna mark my assessments so I might as well use their resources.

I also got my History Extension Proposal back. Kinda salty I was one mark away from full marks because my teacher suggested some more focus questions that could've made my proposal better but I included those questions in my interview questions -_- I hope this mark doesn't impact too much of my overall mark for my Major Work- I probably sound like an over-achiever but I really wanna do well in History Extension. I really love the philosophical aspects of this subject (and I love philosophy to the point I wish they offered it as a subject!). And the most discouraging thing for me is not doing well in a subject I'm very passionate about- already had to deal with that kind of suffering in Prelim physics.

Also, I'm so close in getting 100 responses for my SAC questionnaire. At the moment, I have 94 responses. I'm getting extremely restless because I really wanna start analysing my results. If anyone here hasn't filled out my questionnaire, please do so! I got self-conscious because I had a teacher email me talking about how flawed my questions are- I emailed my SAC teacher out of stress because I've already done so much for my PIP I don't want to start again. She reassured me that these projects will be subjective to a certain extent so I shouldn't stress over it. I'm also kinda struggling in how to structure the first chapter of my PIP. I know what I want to address in the first chapter, I'm just unsure in how to do so. Should I list a bunch of ideas I want to discuss or is it like an essay plan? If anyone has any ideas please let me know! I also keep procrastinating in starting to write an introduction for my PIP. The problem is, I know what to include- it's just starting it off where I'm struggling. I think procrastination is starting to hit me again- I'm getting too self-conscious over everything I just end up not starting -_-

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
You'll never guess what I just did. I just printed all 170 pages of the History Extension Source Book of Readings. Do I regret this? Yeah, kinda. But when I saw my printer churn out those pages I had to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for the sake of education. I'm really annoyed by my school's change in the printing policy. At this point, I don't remember what I've ranted here because I'm just annoyed at my school. I think this printing policy has impacted the Humanities subjects the most- I hate reading long passages online; my eyes already burn from the lack of sleep and half of my work is on my laptop. Putting documents online isn't gonna help that.

Apart from that, I finally got 100 respondents for my questionnaire! My teacher also approved my PIP structure so I can start chapter writing. The only problem is that I have no clue how to start xD I looked at the exemplar chapters and there's no specific structure to it- it's not really an essay, but it's not really a report either. My teacher has scheduled me to sit down with her during our Major Work sessions on Tuesday so we can sit down and break down the chapter- my teacher hasn't gone through chapter-writing because no one is up to that yet; not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

As for my History Extension Major Work, the experts I've contacted has been very gracious with me, especially how long they're responses are to my questions. I've interviewed four experts so far- not sure if I should go tracking down for more or just keep coming up with more questions. My most recent historiographer that I've contacted actually recorded his responses xD Looks like I have 2 things to transcribe -_- I still need to write up a transcript for my interview with my Modern teacher/ historian. On top of this, the same historiographer has requested to read my paper when I'm finished because he's curious to read my findings. I panicked reading the email because now there's pressure on my Major Work (on top of general stress) because AN ACADEMIC WANTS TO READ MY ESSAY ksjfhkfhjkqw.

I should be sleeping early tonight because I'm volunteering tomorrow for Clean Up Australia Day with my friends (although I'm a bit concerned it's literally located in the middle of nowhere).

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[prickles]

On top of this, the same historiographer has requested to read my paper when I'm finished because he's curious to read my findings. I panicked reading the email because now there's pressure on my Major Work (on top of general stress) because AN ACADEMIC WANTS TO READ MY ESSAY ksjfhkfhjkqw.

Why don't you see if he could read it before your final submission? He may be able to improve your final work in some small way.

I don't mind if you ignore my suggestion, because submitting something like this to an academic would be downright TERRIFYING!!

[owidjaja]

Why don't you see if he could read it before your final submission? He may be able to improve your final work in some small way.

I don't mind if you ignore my suggestion, because submitting something like this to an academic would be downright TERRIFYING!!

That's what I thought too but just interacting with academics is already scary lol- getting them to judge my work is scarier!

But he's been really nice to me because he's also a high school teacher so he's very understanding in my lack of interaction with academics xD

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
THE OSCARS HAVE ARRIVED! I was actually so excited to see who would win Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director. I was actually hoping The Shape of Water would win something AND THEY ACTUALLY DID! So happy for Guillermo del Toro for Best Director and Best Picture. Low key, I was kinda rooting for Greta Gerwig for Best Director because WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN FILM AND DIRECTING! At the same time, I loved The Shape of Water. If you guys haven't seen it, I would highly recommend seeing it. The cinematography is really beautiful and I loved the homages to classic films such as Samson and Delilah- plus, it would be perfect as a Discovery related text . I was also rooting for Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour- some of you guys might have seen my review of that film at the beginning of the year and his performance was amazing.

Along with Awards seasons come dissent. A lot of people rooted for Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk. Although I haven't seen the film, I've read a lot of reviews on how severely disjointed the film was- I had a discussion with my English teacher on the Oscars today (because we're film nerds lol) and he was telling me how artistic the film was, but the non-linearity didn't allow the audience to really experience the emotions of the characters. On top of this, a lot of people wanted Timothee Chalamet to win Best Actor- I do see him as a possible contender but I feel like Gary Oldman won Best Actor because of how well-received biographical films are with the Oscars Guild. At least Call Me By My Name won Best Adapted Screenplay! Cue salty Logan fans lol.

Anyways, that was just me fangirling over the Oscars. Oh yeah, today's my birthday as well lol (one more year = more responsibilities piled on ;-;)

See you soon!

- Olivia