Just Another HSC Journal

[Justin_L]

It's been forever since I updated this, and I'm not quite sure how to end this journal now. It's been a week since HSC finished, and 2 since my last HSC exam, but those 2 weeks have felt like forever. In all honesty, grad, formal, and schoolies has just felt like an extension of the HSC experience rather than a celebration (in a good way if that makes sense).

Looking back, I feel like a completely different person to who I was at the beginning of HSC and writing this journal feels pretty foreign to me, kinda like I'm an author continuing someone else's work. I considered going over everything and retrospectively editing/deleting my entries, but I decided against it and just to leave it as is for prosperity (even tho it's pretty cringe)

I think what I'm going to do is to keep detailing my thoughts til the end of the year, and finish off with my HSC results to at least leave this journal with some kind of "closure". As always, plans fall apart and I'm trying definitely trying to adapt my mindset to a more "open" nature now that there aren't marks associated with everything and no real way of measuring progress. My business studies teacher always said that "Failing to plan is planning to fail", but it really is so much harder to plan with so many unknowns and in such an open environment filled with disinformation. I'm realising more and more that things have no inherent meaning and that it's really on the individual to assign meaning, and how much worldviews are paradigms in themselves. It's clear to see why people join cults and religions for an simple narrative on the world and easy social connections these days.

Hope everyone has been coping well, and I'll be sure to post some more ramblings in the next few weeks (maybe I haven't changed so much after all) 

[Justin_L]

The Night Before

Hello again, it's the night before HSC results and ATARs are released and I don't really know what to expect. Originally I was going to go to our school's ATAR morning tea, but we got hit with a stay at home order which sucks because I wanted to chat with some of my history teachers in particular.

I'm hoping for a 91 ATAR, but realistically I'm probably going to get a high 80s, which should hopefully get me over guaranteed entry requirements with bonus points. Here's my prediction:

English Advanced: Low 80s
Maths Advanced: Mid 60s
Modern History: High 80s
History Extension: 30ish
Software: 90ish
Entertainment: High 90s

ATAR: somewhere in the 80s

My guess is that scaling and moderation will balance each other for most of my subjects, but who knows honestly. I'm pretty nervous, but more in that I want to know if my efforts paid off than needing any particular mark. I know I have an ANU early offer, but looking into the logistics of it all, I think I'd much rather go to UNSW due to it's closeness and community which is also awesome. I'd still like to study at ANU in the future, probably for a postgraduate in strategic studies, but I don't think ANU is the right choice for now.

Other stuff
In other news, I've been looking for a job. I recently interviewed and got a "job" with Code Camp, but I kind of doubt I'll be given any shifts since I'm not guaranteed work as a casual and they said they were overstaffed as it is in their acceptance email. It's way too late for me to get a Christmas casual job, so I'll probably just try and find some volunteering to do if the chance comes up.

That's all for now, stay tuned for an update hopefully tomorrow!

[Joseph41]

Good luck, Justin. 👍

[Justin_L]

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

(and a choice soundtrack to set the vibe)

ATAR results came out today - I'll let the marks speak for themselves:

Eng Adv: 85 (B5)
Entertainment: 93 (B6)
History Ext: 40 (E3)
Maths Adv: 83 (B5)
Modern: 89 (B5)
Software: 90 (B6)

The mark distribution was much narrower than I imagined - I had predicted almost full marks for entertainment and probably 60-70% max for maths. I was absolutely blown away by my maths result considering I was getting 49% for trials and lower prior, so I'm not quite sure what happened there. I guess all the time I spent brushing up on my weaker subjects (maths and english) paid off, although at the expense of some of my other marks? I do wonder if I could have pushed a few more subjects over the B6/E4 line with a bit more work, but what done is done.

Still a bit salty about modern though, 1 mark higher and I would have gotten a Band 6. I also did a lot better than I expected for History Extension, which was a pleasant surprise - the only full practice paper I did was trials and I legit crammed 90% of the content 2 hours before because I had a double exam that day. Seems doing all of the readings and engaging with the content consistently was the key to success after all.

At least it's all over. My ATAR will give me guaranteed entry into UNSW and with bonus points, I can pretty much do any degree I want without question, which is more than I could have hoped for. I'm planning on going to the UNSW Info Day tomorrow, and I have so many questions - I'm compiling a list of them now.

I still have a fair bit of anxiety about uni, but you'll all have to wait for my university journey journal to read about those. If you've made it this far, thank you so much for reading - I hope my journal has been insightful, or at the very least, entertaining. Special thanks to everyone who I've talked to on AN, y'all are what make this site special.

Until next time,

- Justin

[K.Smithy]

ATAR results came out today - I'll let the marks speak for themselves:

Eng Adv: 85 (B5)
Entertainment: 93 (B6)
History Ext: 40 (E3)
Maths Adv: 83 (B5)
Modern: 89 (B5)
Software: 90 (B6)

Justin! Those results are so incredible! You should be so proud of yourself It has been such a crazy year, but you made it through and you did so well along the way. I wish you the best of luck for uni 

[angewina_naguen]

Congratulations on your results! You should be more than proud of what you've achieved this year  I'm super excited to read your uni journal as well and see where your next adventures take you 

[Viktoriak_]

Wooo! Congratulations on those results! Best of luck for uni next year

[Evolio]

Congrats Justin! All the best for next year and beyond!

[homeworkisapotato]

CONGRATULATIONS Justin!! So proud and looking forward to hearing more about your next journey
Are you planning to have a Uni journal?

[fandomtrash2580]

T2 Week 1 Update

Hello, just wanted to check in with an end of week update this time making full use of colours, sizes, and headings.

So, first week of online learning done! Not gonna lie, that was so much more tiring than normal school. It was only 3 days though, which I'm glad for. Our school has mandated 40 minute periods with 20 minute breaks between each class, which really helps by letting you do a quick walk around, grabbing some food or water, and setting up for your next period. We're getting our new assessment schedule over the weekend, which will be great to get an idea of how the year's going to go. Luckily, I had all most of my half yearlies adjusted into hand ins, and so the only changes I have will be maths.

Maths Adv/Ext 1
Maths is pretty much entirely self directed learning now. I'm a bit behind, but we've been given lesson plans, notes, and worksheets to work through at our own pace, which I plan to catch up on over the weekend. We're currently covering integration and differential equations, which I find fairly hard. (But then again, I find most topics fairly hard)

English
We've been lucky enough to get zoom calls for English, and although the content is a bit slow, me and my friends setup a google doc where we chat and take notes during the call, which is really fun. Having a collaborative document really helps with motivation, attention, and just makes the class so much better because we can all cover for each other and get a full set of notes without having to be fully attentive the whole time.

We're currently on Module C and to be honest, I enjoyed the Common Module and Mod A a lot more. Discursives and imaginatives are fine, but I just can't seem to do persuasives. I don't know why, but I personally find it really difficult to argue something without reservation and with the purpose of persuading instead of informing.

Modern History
Modern has been really great and chill, we've been doing class zoom calls where our teacher just talks to us about apartheid. I'm sure work will ramp up once we return, but I'm glad for the easing in.

History Extension
Alright, so this is the one subject I'm really excited about and wanted to talk about.

Last night, I finalised my case study + question and emailed my teacher to get her opinion, and got a really positive response! I'm so happy right now because I was afraid that my project wasn't historigraphical enough, but my teacher gave me really good advice on how to approach each of my case studies and relate them to different aspects of constructing history. Now that I've gotten these checked and approved, I can start writing up a proposal and annotated sources for my assignment (these components are due week 3).

That's all for now! Hope you've all been safe and well, and thank you for reading!

EDIT: Random question - has anyone else found the past few days strangely cold? I've been wearing full winter uniform with my jersey, but I'm still feeling chilly

Oh wow I've been reading through the beginning few posts of your journal and you seriously seemed so organised! I loved the way you set out your work and it really seems like you were really on top of everything. I'm hoping to take a few tips and incorporate it into my own journal