ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: s.ay on September 02, 2011, 07:10:19 pm
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So I know I'm only in year ten, and many consider this year to not count for anything, but I'm a perfectionist. I get stressed over a test that I know is most probably irrelevant and won't have any bearing on my future, and if I get an A instead of an A+ I beat myself up. Which is ridiculous. I'm guessing I'm not the only person on here that has such perfectionistic tendencies, so I am posing this question; How do you cope? I have been trying to adjust my expectations, but I can't seem to relax. I know focus and determination is a good thing, but it's coming to the point where nothing is ever good enough.
Sorry if this makes no sense and is completely stupid haha.
Thanks guys.
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I figure out where I went wrong and why. Then I try and improve on it.
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Just remember that there's nothing you can do to change your mark; the only thing you can do is move on, and do better next time. There's nothing wrong with expecting the best from yourself, but don't beat yourself up over a less-than-perfect mark, because that's just going to waste time. You'd rather spend that time making sure that you're ready for the next test.
Sorry if this is terrible advice, but I'm definitely guilty of this too, to the extent that my teacher will give me full marks and I'll STILL be all, 'oh god, this is the worst thing I've ever written - she never marks me harshly enough.'
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No no its not terrible advice at all. Its definately time consuming and fair more of a hindrence than a help. haha i completely relate to the teacher comment. my english teacher gave me an A++ for an essay that I was tempted to rip up and recycle.
Thanks for the advice :)
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See I have this problem but with my notes. Sometimes the little things really piss me off. I've actually gotten to the point of making no mistakes until 3 pages are done on average.
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ah yes I get that with cue cards. One mistake and into the bin it goes. which is incredibly expensive, considering the amount of note taking I do for psych :o
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I only got 99% on a methods SAC once so I repeated year 12.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OxWD85Ngz4
This is your answer.
Its Subtleties will bring about a profound realization to the answer of your question.
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Don't think it's a bad thing purely in terms of academics. Moreso of a concern if you inadvertently belittle the results of others by voicing that attitude ;)
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I only got 99% on a methods SAC once so I repeated year 12.
I think you win.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OxWD85Ngz4
This is your answer.
Its Subtleties will bring about a profound realization to the answer of your question.
hahahhaha
thankyou, I didn't think enlightenment came in a 3.26min youtube video.
Don't think it's a bad thing purely in terms of academics. Moreso of a concern if you inadvertently belittle the results of others by voicing that attitude ;)
ah yes very true. I made the mistake today getting annoyed over a score of 86% in a math test in front of my friends. I'm suprised I came away unscathed :-X
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You fell short of A+ on one of your tests?
I would also feel ashamed, honestly I can't comprehend how I'd react to that if it were ever to happen.
... are you serious dude? just tell yourself: "this dosen't mean shit"
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So I know I'm only in year ten, and many consider this year to not count for anything, but I'm a perfectionist. I get stressed over a test that I know is most probably irrelevant and won't have any bearing on my future, and if I get an A instead of an A+ I beat myself up. Which is ridiculous. I'm guessing I'm not the only person on here that has such perfectionistic tendencies, so I am posing this question; How do you cope? I have been trying to adjust my expectations, but I can't seem to relax. I know focus and determination is a good thing, but it's coming to the point where nothing is ever good enough.
Sorry if this makes no sense and is completely stupid haha.
Thanks guys.
This post describes me basically, and I'm in year 12. However, the thing with me is I only get mad if I screw up something I shouldn't have. I don't mind getting an A+ (albeit dropping a few marks) in legal studies if I hardly studied. But when I miss out on a perfect score by one mark on something that I studied for, and it was a stupid error, that's when I get pissed off.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the approach for high school as long as the 100% or nothing mentality isn't affecting other things in life. Sure, you might be mad for a day or two, but after that things should return to normal.
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But when I miss out on a perfect score by one mark on something that I studied for, and it was a stupid error, that's when I get pissed off.
+infinity. Happened to me today again for my 3/4.
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You fell short of A+ on one of your tests?
I would also feel ashamed, honestly I can't comprehend how I'd react to that if it were ever to happen.
... are you serious dude? just tell yourself: "this dosen't mean shit"
This.
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I can definitely relate to this- I was pedantic about schoolwork (especially English essays) and would constantly beat myself up over less than perfect scores, right up until the end of Units 1 and 2. It would get to the point where I'd have this sense of inertia about starting anything (a prac. report, an essay, a project, you name it), because I knew it would entail a massive amount of stress to get it just right, and exactly how I visualized it. But once Unit 3 and 4 hit, I realized that I just didn't have the energy to over-analyze and fixate over every little thing- I'm doing six subjects, so I'm really stretched for time. I've managed to somehow put things in perspective- mistakes and imperfections are fine as long as you learn from them. For my Biol midyears, I started doing prac exams about six weeks before, and I started off only getting about 60% on them, which really really bothered me. But then as I kept doing them, I kept making incremental improvements until I got to the point where I realized I'd achieved my target. It was then that I really started embracing the process of making mistakes and learning from them. You're in year 10, so you can still afford to make mistakes, just remember it's all a learning curve :)
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Thanks for the advice Rhea.bh. :) I'm definitely bad at accepting mistakes but when I do, I find it easier to learn and grow as a result. I guess I just have to work on that. Best of luck for the rest of the year, not that you need it by the sounds of it.
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I have a friend who is exactly like you. What he does is that if he doesn't think he did well (ie high A+) in SAC, he doesn't look at it and lets no-one look at it. Works for him :)
A 99.95-er from a couple years back at mhs did the same thing to his english SACs, clearly worked for him too
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ha good idea. I'll keep that in mind :) thanks!
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Do you still remember your Year 8 results for every test/exam? What about your year 9 ones? If the answer is no (which it is for most people anyway), then you need to realize you probably will forget about your year 10 results as well and just focus on what matters; your 3/4's. Be pedantic as shit about them, but in the end most courses at good uni's don't need 99's anyway, so as nice as it is to get one just put everything into perspective and you won't stress so much.
In terms of year 10 subjects, and looking at what 3/4's your planning to do, try for Maths and go ahead of your course a bit; same with science and English. Everything else you really don't need to worry about at all - if you can get good grades, get them, but if you end up doing badly it really has NO EFFECT on anything in your life. Also, I don't get why you're doing Psych/P.E./Health 1/2 and not doing the 3/4 for them? A bit off topic but that seems like a waste of time?
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very true. In retrospect I couldn't care a less what I got in year eight and nine, as a matter of fact I wasn't at school half the time due to illness haha. Um well PE and health is compulsory, and I had every intention of doing psych 3/4 next year but i soon discovered a love for other subjects. So I can't change out of it for the rest of the year, but I don't mind :)
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very true. In retrospect I couldn't care a less what I got in year eight and nine, as a matter of fact I wasn't at school half the time due to illness haha. Um well PE and health is compulsory, and I had every intention of doing psych 3/4 next year but i soon discovered a love for other subjects. So I can't change out of it for the rest of the year, but I don't mind :)
Fair enough then, I'm surprised they force you guys to do P.E. and Health 1/2, first school I've heard of to do that!
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haha I am assuming it is just a ploy for us to get off our asses every once in a while. And by making it a VCE subject rather than regular PE, the school is probably hoping we will feel the need to participate ::)
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I think that in junior years of high school its easy to be a perfectionist cause they give out 100s and stuff but then when u hit vce and get really shit marks its like: BAM! I just want to pass :o
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^ That's true. But any sense of perfectionism I had was well and truly wiped out by university!
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^ That's true. But any sense of perfectionism I had was well and truly wiped out by university!
I'm not in Uni yet but as I've heard off many, it really is necessary to lose the '100% or nothing' mentality.