ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: jborn007 on July 08, 2018, 09:04:34 pm
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Howdy there!
I write journals physically at first and then publish then here after for people willing to read my thoughts and views in regards to the cyclical events and situations the we as human beings experience in our everyday lives.
As of 14/06/20, I'm currently in Year 12 and as I'm currently completing my VCE I've decided to place my journal on this forum. For the people who are interested, I'm studying English, Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics, and Economics but that won't matter too much.
Apart from watching a plethora of movies and TV Shows, I also adore listening to music and observing and engaging with the natural landscape which our current society is shamefully neglecting.
William Wordsworth once quoted: "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart". Thus this is a journal of my thoughts to the materialisation of events that me personally and our society are currently consciously and unconsciously experiencing.
I’ll try to update my journal as often as I can, and let’s see how it goes, cheerio :P
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I'm really interested in the commerce and science pathways,
Both are pathways I considered!
I look forward to reading more of this journal. :)
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Heyo, great to have you on board! :D What are your favourite subjects atm? That might also be interesting to look back on in a year or two!
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Both are pathways I considered!
I look forward to reading more of this journal. :)
Thank you so much! ;D
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Heyo, great to have you on board! :D What are your favourite subjects atm? That might also be interesting to look back on in a year or two!
Thank you. Tbh, I like all of my subjects that I'm doing at the moment so it's kinda tough to decide, but I slightly like Accounting and Chinese more atm :)
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Term 3 Week 1
English
We've just started reading 1984 as a class and analysising the play (which we finished watching the original film of 1984 last term). At the same time, we also started comparative analysis on 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale.
Maths
We started learning the content of and completing exercises on Counting Methods from the Methods Textbook. Tbh, it was kinda confusing at the start but I'm starting to understanding it more and more as I'm completing the textbook exercises.
Science
After finishing the content on climate change last term, we've started Physics and doing exercises on Velocity-Time Graphs, Displacement-Time Graphs, Acceleration etc. which I find it pretty interesting.
History
We're currently learning about the Cold War which we just finished how the Cold War started. We'll be learning the conflicts related to the Cold War next week, which I'm looking forward to it.
Accounting
We've done half the content on Credit Transactions, which we learned how to prepare Purchases Journal, Creditors Record, record Payments to creditors in Cash Payments Journal, Calculating Creditors Balance etc. We'll be finishing up the chapter and maybe start on the "Reporting and Managing Credit Transactions" Chapter next week.
Chinese
Not a lot has happened here. We started to learn the vocabulary and the texts of a chapter from our textbook, and that's pretty much it....
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Nice update! Really hope you enjoy Nineteen Eighty-Four - how are you finding it so far? It's one of my favourite books ever, but then, I didn't have to analyse it at school haha.
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Nice update! Really hope you enjoy Nineteen Eighty-Four - how are you finding it so far? It's one of my favourite books ever, but then, I didn't have to analyse it at school haha.
Thanks! After finishing reading 1984, I can say it is also one of my favourite books. Considering it is a dystopian novel, it kind of reminds me of Animal Farm which I thought both novels are based on totalitarian regimes, from Big Brother to Napoleon. I thought Michael Radford's film adaptation of 1984 was very accurate and truly reflects the events that happened in the novel, particularly the emotions Winston experiences in Room 101.
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Week 2 to 4
English
We've finished reading the play version of 1984 including analysing it and watching Radford's film adaptation of the classic novel. We are also halfway-through reading Handmaid's Tale as a class.
Maths
We've finished Permutations and Combinations Chapter, which I overall did not like it as much as the other chapters we've covered from the Methods Textbook. Afterwards, we covered the Recursion and Financial Modelling chapter from the Further 3/4 Textbook which tbh I enjoyed it more.
Science
We have finally finished and covered the content in Physics. We will be revising and doing more question to consolidate our knowledge.
History
We've covered the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and e are just about to finsih the Vietam War.
Accounting
We've covered Chapters 13 and 14 from the textbook, which the primary focus was on credit transactions, and reporting and managing credit transactions. We will shortly learn about Balance Day Adjustments which I'm looking forward to it.
Chinese
We had a speaking outcome on how can the internet help students learn. I thought I did alright, which the teacher thought my speech is pretty good.
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Term 3 Week 5
English
We are nearly done reading the Handmaid's Tale as a class, which we have been increasingly comparing it with 1984. I plan to watch some episodes of the Handmaid's Tale television series for fun ;D
Maths
We have moved on to circular functions, which my teacher talked about the unit circle. Tbh, my trig knowledge is kinda rusty considering the fact that it has been a while since I've touched on trig.
Science
Apart from a prac report that it's yet to be completed, we've finished physics and will be starting chem next week.
History
We finished learning about the Vietnam War and I currently not exactly sure what we will be learning next... :o
Accounting
Our class already completed half of the exercises in the Balance Day Adjustment Chapter, and I'm enjoying going through the chapter so far.
Chinese
We are preparing for a listening comprehension outcome that will be undertaken in a couple weeks, which I'm not finding it too difficult.
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Term 3 Week 5
Maths
We have moved on to circular functions, which my teacher talked about the unit circle. Tbh, my trig knowledge is kinda rusty considering the fact that it has been a while since I've touched on trig.
Science
Apart from a prac report that it's yet to be completed, we've finished physics and will be starting chem next week.
Make sure you pay attention for trig as there are lots of people who still struggle with it in year 12 - if you can build a solid foundation now that will be really useful.
What's the prac report on? What topics are you covering?
It's good to hear that you are finding things pretty manageable at the moment - I just hope that doesn't mean boring :)
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Make sure you pay attention for trig as there are lots of people who still struggle with it in year 12 - if you can build a solid foundation now that will be really useful.
What's the prac report on? What topics are you covering?
It's good to hear that you are finding things pretty manageable at the moment - I just hope that doesn't mean boring :)
Thanks for the advice! My prac report is on the Law of Conservation of Energy through a cart and ramp experiment which we also need to explain and analyse the findings through Velocity-Time and Displacement-Time graphs. In trig, topics that we will probably be covering include the exact values of sin, cos, tan and the unit circle eg. complementary relationships and perhaps even graphs of the circular functions.
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Term 3 Week 6
English
Our teacher gave us practice topics for our upcoming outcome on comparative analysis, which the topic I focused on was " 'Dystopian worlds are bleak and without hope.' Compare how the truth of this statement is reflected in the two texts. " In my draft, I talked about how the two texts (1984 and the Handmaid's Tale) had the element of totalitarian Power and Control, Compliance with the state etc.
Maths
We made significant process in learning the trigonometry content, which we are up to graphing trig functions and so far I'm understanding the content that's been taught.
Science
We've begun chem and I'm honestly kinda struggling with it mainly because I forgot most of the content I learned last year...... Hopefully I'm able to catch up :-\
History
We've been assigned to do a 5 to 8 minute oral presentation which is on a significant event that happened after World War II. I choose the Peace movement (1960s) and I'm currently researching on the topic.
Accounting
Finished learning and working through all of the exercises (both practical and theory) in the Balance Day Adjustments Chapter. We are doing practice tests for the upcoming outcome.
Chinese
We mainly did practice listening-comprehension tests, and translating texts which I think I have them under control.
Other events
At school, we did a bake off competition between the houses, which the money earned and raised were all donated to the Melbourne City Mission. It was a huge success, which we overall raised over $1000. But, we are yet to find out which house raised the most money which I'm looking forward to the announcement that will take place next week.
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How can you do VCE subjects at such an early year?
omg I remember the accounting days lol. i hated that subject so much but it was quite easy (managed a 40+ study score!)
For chemistry, it's important you understand the concept back to front, otherwise VCE chem is going to smack you hard. I literally spent everyday revising for chem and it still managed to be my lowest scoring subject (34 SS raw)
keep up the good work with maths! you're definitely going places.
Thanks! Well I was in an accelerating program, which we did Legal Unit 1 in Semester 1 and Bus Man Unit 1 in Semester 2 instead of History last year. Infact, I was meant to be a full-time Year 11 student this year and even undertake 3/4 Bus Man or Legal this year but I moved schools, which our electives for this year are a range of VCE Subjects we can choose from (eg. Accounting 1/2, Psych 1/2, Eco 1/2, even Extended Investigation as a 3/4). Btw congrats on your study scores ;D
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messi is better
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messi is better
(https://i.rocdn.com/v2/16327691?w=1024&h=1024)
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Term 3 Week
English
Whilst continuing on writing essays and practicing for the upcoming comparative analysis assessment, we also had an "assessment" on Language analysis. It won't go on our reports and it was just to see where we are at and to let teachers know what to focus on more for the end-of-year exam. I can't exactly remember the topic of the article but the article was apparently in a VCAA English 3/4 End-Of-Year Exam.
Maths
We finished circular functions and about to move on to Logs. I'll see how it will turn out...
Science
We focused on ionic bonds and covalent bonds, and how to balance chemical equations, and talked about the pH Scale. We also did a prac on a magnesium oxide creation and testing different products on the pH Scale, which we wrote prac reports for both experiments.
History
Nothing new here. We continued working on our oral presentations and that's pretty much it...
Accounting
Our teacher gave out a worksheet on both the theory and prac on depreciation, accrual and prepaid expenses. The theory questions were alright but my god the prac was difficult. Pretty much the whole class had trouble answering the prac questions. Later on, the teacher said that the difficulty of those prac questions were equivalent to Accounting 3/4 which he thought it will challenge us and extend our knowledge for next year.
Chinese
We did an outcome on listening-comprehension, but everyone in our class was surprised that there was also an essay question (write a speech to your peers on why they should be an exchange student in China next year) in the test. We then realised that we already wrote an essay on a similar topic, so I wasn't too stressed.
Other thoughts
It is already September, and in less than 2 months time we have not only exams but also will be doing a commencement program for next year's subjects. I honestly thought this year has gone by so quick and I'm becoming more nervous (even scared tbh) as Year 11 comes closer and closer :-\
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Nothing special happened in Week 8 so I'll move on to Week 9 & 10
English
After completing the Comparative Essay outcome, our teacher has put huge emphasis on Language Analysis, which is going alright so far. Moreover our teacher not only taught us how to structure an Language Analysis Essay but also how many different ways and areas we can go about when analysing a random article eg. through the pictures, the headings etc.
Maths
Most of us struggled on the application questions of the logarithms and exponentials, particularly bacteria growth, half-life etc. Thank god we moved from this topic and we are currently at circular functions for trig.
Science
We finished all of the chem content, and currently working on our EPI. For my EPI, I'm investigating surface areas through different-sized marble chips & Hydrochloric Acid.
History
All of us presented our oral presentations on a historical event, and our class also finished learning all of the year's content. We are just revising the Rwandan Genocide, and we even watched "Hotel Rwanda".
Accounting
Done with the Cash Flow Statement, and finished learning all of the year's content. We are currently on revision mode for the end-of-year exam.
Chinese
We put huge emphasis on the different styles and formats of writing which could come up in the end-of-year exam and for 3/4. Tbh, I'm starting to feel the workload piling up for chinese which our teacher recommended working on our general conversation for next year's oral exam.
Other thoughts
It is finally the holidays!!!!!! ;D I definitely needed it to rest and recover for Term 4. After a couple days, I may do some revision for my end-of-year exams, which will start in a month. Btw, happy moon festival!!! :)
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Term 3 Holidays Week 1
Already the first week of holidays is gone, and I honestly can't believe it flashed by so quickly. This week has been somewhat productive, which I did questions from the Methods Textbook and gone through some Chinese texts and essays. Overall, I mainly relaxed throughout the week, and I'm determined to become more serious at my work in the final week of holidays (hopefully).
I also received my History Oral Presentation Results, which I surprisingly did really well. I was particularly surprised on how I got full marks for the presentation & research section, which I pretty much read from my cue cards throughout my presentation. It required strong delivery, but I guess my teacher thought I delivered it pretty well after all.
Aside from that, it is nearly mid-spring and the weather is getting warmer and warmer, and tbh I prefer spring and summer a lot more than autumn and winter.
I wish you all the best in studying these holidays and also hope you'll have a good break. Good luck everyone!
(Btw I stumbled upon this quote on the internet and I found it somewhat interesting: "Listen to silence. It has so much to say." Rumi)
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Term 3 Holidays Week 2
This week has definitely been a lot more productive than last week, which I smashed out some accounting and maths revision. I did some revision for chinese, but I put huge emphasis on accounting which I felt I needed a firm grasp and foundation for not only the end-of-year exam but also for 3/4 next year.
I barely touched on any of my other subjects in these holidays. However I'm not too worried about it since I have 2 weeks before my exams starts, and the fact that most of my classes are already on revision mode which I'm sure it will help me.
Apart from catching up with my friends during the holidays, I also visited my former piano teacher which we had a nice chat and talked about what has been happening with our lives. It had been nearly a year since I saw her, and I was really happy to see her again. She encouraged and has been a huge influence in my piano studies, and she also gave me an insight to classical music. To this day, I still enjoy listening to classical music, particularly Moonlight Sonata, Chopin Preludes, La Campanella etc. even though they are really popular and well-known throughout the world.
Tbh, I also had moments of thinking about how I will perform in Year 11 and Year 12, which I'm contemplating more and more as time goes on. But still, I think that as long as I try my absolute best and have no regrets in my 3/4s, I'll be proud and happy at the end of the day.
Good Luck to everyone in Term 4, and hopefully everyone is refreshed and invigorated for Term 4. Also, good luck to all people that will be undertaking a 3/4 end-of-year exam and hopefully you will perform great! ;D
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Ah yes. La Campanella. Music to my ears and painful torture to my hands.
Lol jokes jokes, absolutely love that piece.
Can't tell you how excited I was to find another classical music nerd on AN. ;D
Love your approach and attitude to year 11 and 12. Think I need a bit of that ;D
Good luck for your end of year exams!
Thank you so much! I absolutely love La Campanella too, but I think the 4th and 5th finger trilling passage is particularly challenging. I honestly can't understand how pianists like Yundi Li even manage to successfully play through that passage (lol I tried it myself once and I absolutely failed at it). Nevertheless, good luck with your exams too ;D
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Term 4 Week 1
One week has already flied by, and my week of exams start in less than 2 weeks, supposedly.
I was pretty shocked that my chinese oral exam is in 5 DAYS!!!
Not a single person in my chinese class knew about this, and we are not too happy about it. I guess complaining won't change anything, and the fact that the date is non-negotiable means I have to memorise and become fluent with my responses in a short period of time.
In the locker bay, I had a conversation with one of my friends at school about our holidays, and he talked about how he studied really hard for his upcoming Further 3/4 Exam and hopefully try to obtain a 40+ study score. The fact that he is also in Year 10 made me think that more and more people are taking studying really seriously now and the competition is going to be more and more intense.
On top of that, I also had a huge wake-up call for Year 11 and my future 3/4s, I truly realised that being consistent and working hard at all times really plays a huge role in one's success in VCE, and how quick time goes in senior school.
I should not slack off and procrastinate anymore which instead puts more pressure on myself and makes me easily stressed out.
Because of that, I'm setting myself a target to memorise a couple of essays and read as much texts for chinese every week.
Apart from that, I'm also planning to put more emphasis and concentrate more on English which I believe it indeed is one of the most important subjects.
Overall, this whole week was pretty much a week dedicated to exam revision, and hopefully things go smoothly :-\ 🙏
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17/10
My Chinese oral exam that took place today wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Most of the questions the examiner asked me were the ones that I’ve prepared, but it’s just the last one, which I kinda stuffed up and did not prepare for it beforehand.
(The funny thing is that the last question was technically the easiest of all of the questions which was basically to describe a plan for travelling in China. Some of my sentences grammatically did not make sense which I was kinda nervous thoughout the exam, but I learnt the lesson to prepare for all kinds of questions beforehand no matter how easy it is.)
Over the course of preparing for my oral exam, I first found it particularly hard to remember and memorise my prepared responses, even the concepts themselves, not including adjectives, adverbs, idioms etc. I tried various methods and most of them didn’t work for me which was disappointing at first.
However, around 10:45 last night yep I was up really late last night desperately trying to find a way to remember the info, I literally went on YouTube and tried to find out more ways to memorise efficiently, and thank god I found it (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FyehamdlV3w).
It pretty much talked about the mind palace technique, as a memorising technique. Along with creating mind maps for each of my prepared responses, I found that it worked well, and efficiently for me, and I thought it was good practice for Year 12 too. Moreover, I also realised to definitely undergo a practice oral exam no matter how confident you feel beforehand which played a significant role of knowing what words and sentences of my prepared responses I’m still not fluent with.
I’m glad this exam is over, and I now have more time to concentrate on other subjects, although I’ll still study Chinese in a daily basis to keep my mind fresh and have a firm foundation.
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Term 4 Week 3
5 of my exams are completed, and I'm glad I got them out of the way.
However, over the course of sitting my exams, I found that there were areas for improvement.
1. Stamina, stamina , stamina. I think this, for me, was a huge problem when it comes to sitting exams. I often feel burned out during the last 10 to 15 minutes of the exam. In terms of English, I thought knowing how to write a full language analysis essay and comparative essay is simply not enough and it is crucial to have sat a full-length practice exam at home. I also found out that my 1/2 English (and for 3/4) exam more than 3 HOURS LONG :o I don't think I've ever sat on a chair for that long before. Additionally, I rushed through some of my exams, and finished them at the very last seconds, and did not check at all, Even though I had a plan on how to specifically manage my time for each of the sections, I found that I went too slow for some of the sections due to the inadequate practice exams I did :'(
2. Revision. I feel kind of ashamed by saying this, but I should have revised and studied more for my exams. I feel like I could have improved my marks by 5 to 10% if I had revised and studied more. In terms of accounting, even though I did finish and checked my answers for my exam, I should have focused more on the exact definitions of the key terms. Moreover, I kind of made up, and simply used everyday common-sense for 2 to 3 of my responses which if I have revised and studied more, I could have known the exact answers for those questions :(
Overall, I'm glad that I identified and found out my weaknesses, and areas of improvement which I think the Year 10 and 1/2 exams are great practice for Year 12.
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31/10
Today I finished my Tech-active math exam, which is my last exam for Year 10.
My bound reference was filled with past test papers, and practice exams, which I thought it was helpful especially for checking over my answers and for clarification purposes.
I guess the time I spent putting together my bound reference was worth it after all (it saved my ass for matrices and transformations), and I thought it also was a great way to revise.
In the future, I plan to work on my bound references daily, but not too long, rather than doing it all at the last minute which that way I think it will be more efficient.
Despite this, there was a point where I misunderstood a circular function question which I thought the cos function was a sine function. I not only had to re-do 6 questions again in my extended-response, but I wasted 5 to 6 minutes in the exam and it was a time-waster.
I found that I'm shit in drawing and plotting graphs (there goes my art skills), and I think I spent too much time sketching graphs.
On a positive note, I confidently answered the "Modelling growth and decay using recursion" section in the math exam which a good portion of marks came from that topic.
On Monday, I also had my history exam. I'm actually surprised to say this, but I finished my exam 30 minutes earlier, earlier than anyone else in the exam room. I adequately filled and used up the exam booklet, and checked my responses afterwards, but there was still 20 minutes left in the clock. Lol I literally slept in the remaining 20 minutes since we're not allowed to leave the exam room until writing time has fully finished. I'm honestly not sure if this is a good thing or not, and I still the "not-written-enough" thought at the back of my head.
On the other hand, I have a one-week "break" from school, and I plan to use these holidays to relax but I'll still do some "revision" for the content I learnt this year, particularly for the subjects I'll continue to undertake in the future and in 3/4 level.
Once again, good luck to everyone for their upcoming exams, and I hope you will all perform well ;D
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For drawing graphs I've found that it's useful to get a bendy ruler, and that you improve a lot through practice.
Good luck with your exam results & remember that they aren't too important, really :)
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For drawing graphs I've found that it's useful to get a bendy ruler, and that you improve a lot through practice.
Good luck with your exam results & remember that they aren't too important, really :)
Thanks! I'll definitely implement and use your advice in the future :)
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17/11/18
To be brutally honest, I feel shit, really shit, particularly towards languages.
Our class did a practice exam, to get a feeling of what it's like to sit a 3/4 languages exam, and I felt I did incredibly shit, mainly due to running out of time. I felt like I spent too long for the reading comprehension section.
I couldn't even understand what the person was saying, in the listening part, which mainly composed of idioms I've never heard before, and I couldn't even find them in my dictionary. To make things worse, not only the translation section was long, and also composed of a variety of idioms, but I only had 15 minutes left to write my essay, which I basically bullshitted my way through.
Some of my ideas didn't even make any sense at all, and of course I didn't finish the exam.
The "mock" exam was for both SL and SLA students which can explain why the exam has lots of idioms and "sophisticated" vocabulary. I honestly don't understand why my school's SL textbooks and outcomes are extremely similar to the SLA ones (there were only two words different in a comprehension and translation outcome, between SL and SLA), and I really hope things get better next year.
At home, I found it challenging to remember and memorise essays as they pile up each and each of the days, and I always found myself in a situation where I would remember the essay that I studied most recently, but forgotten about the ones that I studied earlier.
I'm pissed off about this, and the fact that these two things happened today, really makes me feel like giving up on chinese once and for all, and make me feel really anxious and worried about it.
Besides this, I received my other exam results, and I performed really really bad for my math exam, in fact some of the lowest results I achieved during the whole year, and the lowest in my class. Even though I performed better in the Tech-free exam than the Tech-active exam, and I take full responsibility for my poor math exam results, and I should taking studying for math and for my other subjects a lot more seriously, which is definitely a valuable lesson to learn from, especially for VCE.
In a positive note, I did a lot better than I thought I would in my accounting exam. I thought I'll score in the range of the 80s at the most, but I ended up scoring in the 90s, which definitely gave me a surprise. What made it more surprising is that I only lost 3 marks in my theory responses, and i mostly lost them in the practical section.
On the side note, I'll be in Year 11 in 2 days due to my school having a 4 week commencement program, and I hope I'll make a smooth transition and start from Year 10 to Year 11 :)
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12/12/18
Wow it's been a while since I've updated.
I've got my subjects that I'm doing for the 2019 Academic Year which are the following:
-English 1/2
-Methods 1/2
-Spesh 1/2
-Chem 1/2
-Physics 1/2
-Accounting 3/4
-Chinese 3/4
The past 3 and a half weeks of Year 11 Commencement, has been a lot more demanding than I expected especially spesh and chem.
I was not expecting spesh to be covering a lot of content of geometry, particularly proving circle theorms. In all honesty, I feel like spesh is 10x harder than methods, and more content-heavy in general.
For chem, we went through the first 4 chapters already in 3 and a half-weeks, and it was pretty demanding which there was a lot more memorising than I expected.
On the other hand, I'm really happy that I'm able to get the teacher that I wanted for Accounting. She's not only the head of accounting for my school but she is really nice and a VCAA Assessor which I think it will be beneficial for the new study design that will be implemented from 2019. She told us what were the changes between the old and new study design, particularly the implementation of ethical consideration.
I find that teachers are more "serious" in 3/4 than 1/2, which there isn't much room for joking around and having a laugh. My accounting teacher got us a Unit 3 Checklist and a display folder, to keep us organised throughout the year, and consistently gives us notes and theory responses to the sheet. I also find that teachers prioritise their 3/4 kids, and constantly checked our work and made sure we understood all of the material.
That's pretty much what has happened throughout the 3 and the half weeks, and hopefully my subjects, particularly my current 3/4s, go well in the future.
Also, good luck to everyone that is receiving their ATARs, and their 3/4 results, hopefully you achieve your desired scores ;D
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12/12/18
Wow it's been a while since I've updated.
I've got my subjects that I'm doing for the 2019 Academic Year which are the following:
-English 1/2
-Methods 1/2
-Spesh 1/2
-Chem 1/2
-Physics 1/2
-Accounting 3/4
-Chinese 3/4
The past 3 and a half weeks of Year 11 Commencement, has been a lot more demanding than I expected especially spesh and chem.
I was not expecting spesh to be covering a lot of content of geometry, particularly proving circle theorms. In all honesty, I feel like spesh is 10x harder than methods, and more content-heavy in general.
For chem, we went through the first 4 chapters already in 3 and a half-weeks, and it was pretty demanding which there was a lot more memorising than I expected.
On the other hand, I'm really happy that I'm able to get the teacher that I wanted for Accounting. She's not only the head of accounting for my school but she is really nice and a VCAA Assessor which I think it will be beneficial for the new study that is implemented from 2019. She told us what were the changes between the old and new study design, particularly the implementation of ethical consideration.
I find that teachers are more "serious" in 3/4 than 1/2, which there isn't much room for joking around and having a laugh. My accounting teacher got us a Unit 3 Checklist and a display folder, to keep us organised throughout the year, and consistently gives us notes and theory responses to the sheet. I also find that teachers prioritise their 3/4 kids, and constantly checked our work and made sure we understood all of the material.
That's pretty much what has happened throughout the 3 and the half weeks, and hopefully my subjects, particularly my current 3/4s, go well in the future.
Also, good luck to everyone that is receiving their ATARs, and their 3/4 results, hopefully you achieve your desired scores ;D
Wow you have so many subjects... My school only lets us take 5 and it was probably the hardest decision of my life trying to narrow them down (maybe a slight exaggeration but whatever)
I know what you mean by the workload and 'seriousness' of the 3/4 subjects though, it goes from teachers having a perhaps mild interest in your marks and areas of weakness and general behavior in class to "THIS IS YEAR 12 LIFE OR DEATH. HERE IS THE STUDY DESIGN, READ IT IN YOUR SLEEP, IT WILL YOUR HOLY DOCUMENT". Kinda jarring.
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Wow you have so many subjects... My school only lets us take 5 and it was probably the hardest decision of my life trying to narrow them down (maybe a slight exaggeration but whatever)
Yeah I know. My original program was English 1&2, Methods 1&2, Spesh 1&2, Chem 1&2, Accounting 3&4, and LOTE 3&4, but I decided to add in Physics since I thought it'll help me with my Spesh, and it also turned out that it taught some of the content in unit 2 Chem as well, especially the Specific Heat Capacity, and Latent Heat.
I know what you mean by the workload and 'seriousness' of the 3/4 subjects though, it goes from teachers having a perhaps mild interest in your marks and areas of weakness and general behavior in class to "THIS IS YEAR 12 LIFE OR DEATH. HERE IS THE STUDY DESIGN, READ IT IN YOUR SLEEP, IT WILL YOUR HOLY DOCUMENT". Kinda jarring.
So so true. There is definitely more work in 3/4 subjects, compared to 1/2s.
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28/12/18
Merry Late Christmas everyone!
The holidays have been pretty good so far, which I not only finished all of my holiday homework, but I also saw "Aquaman" today. It was one of my most anticipated movies that I've been looking forward to so far.
It was absolutely amazing, especially the CGI, and the fight scenes last third of the film is truly some of the best scenes the film has to offer.
Also, I'm going overseas to China tomorrow to see my relatives and to visit some of the tourist attractions there as well.
I hope all of you are enjoying your holidays :)
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2019 Term 1 Week 1
After 3 days of 2019, I felt the pressure increasing as the days go by.
I already had my first outcome of the year today, which was a chem test, and it was based on Metallic Bonding and Ionic Bonding (Chapters 3 & 4). Apart from being stupid enough to confuse Hydrochloric Acid with H2Cl instead of HCl, I was able to answer the rest of the questions in the outcome.
After the Oral Presentations outcome, we started on our creative writing outcome which my teacher went through and analysed some Australian Short Stories (The Three Sisters & The Teardrop Tattoos). He explained it really clearly and meticulously, which his explanations on those short stories gave me a deeper insight and allowed me to think in different perspectives that I've not previously thought of.
In accounting, our teacher gave us exercises to do in order to revise the content we learnt in Chapter 3 (The General Ledger) and we got started on Chapter 4 which we learned how to record GST transactions in the general ledger, and how to deal with questions that involved EFTPOS.
Especially from today's physics class, I had difficulty understanding electrical physics at first which I had no idea what the hell my teacher is talking about and going on. At times, I just stared blankly on those equations and working outs on the white board. Also, my Texas-instrument scientific calculator has been really dodgy when I put in those equations in order to answer the exercise questions which it commonly gives me "SYNTAX ERROR". I really annoyed with this, and I hope I'm able to solve and overcome this problem and challenge in the upcoming days.
Overall, the first few days of Year 11 have been alright so far, and hopefully things will go well as the year passes by :)
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Glad things have been alright so far :)
With physics, I sometimes found it useful to look up youtube videos etc to get different explanations. Sometimes they helped a lot & sometimes it took more than that, but luckily it's fairly easy to find resources for the electrical stuff so you can see different explanations and go through in your own time. If you keep getting those error messages maybe send a picture in case someone here can help you figure out a solution?
Good luck! :)
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Glad things have been alright so far :)
With physics, I sometimes found it useful to look up youtube videos etc to get different explanations. Sometimes they helped a lot & sometimes it took more than that, but luckily it's fairly easy to find resources for the electrical stuff so you can see different explanations and go through in your own time. If you keep getting those error messages maybe send a picture in case someone here can help you figure out a solution?
Good luck! :)
Thanks! I'll definitely search for videos regarding electrical physics on youtube :)
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04/04/2019
Intense, intense, intense. Demanding, demanding, demanding. Term 1 has been really hetic, and my life is really messed up and out of place. I commonly had outcomes or SACs every week, and I was given a lot of work and questions to do from all of my subjects every week. I don't know if anyone has this problem or not, but I always find myself only being able to have the time to study for my 3/4s and barely any time to allocate for my 1/2s. I subsequently fell behind in pretty much all of my 1/2s which i think it's not a good sign at all. Even though I decided to drop out of Physics for those reasons (along with not finding the content itself interesting anymore..), I'm still not finding a lot more time to study for my 1/2s per week. Because of this, my results for my 1/2s are getting lower (especially for chem) which I'm barely passing my outcomes.
Despite the pressures VCE has, the demanding workloads, and amounts of homework from my teachers, I'm still motivated to persist through these hard-times especially seeing the Year 12 students who graduated last year getting ridiciously-high atars and study scores.
Overall, I'm just really glad that I've finished Term 1 and I really REALLY need to adjust and re-organise my life, and hopefully catch up with my 1/2s and continually revise for my 3/4s.
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How's Year 11 been, jborn007?
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13/06
Changing and getting my life back order. Successfully completed initiative steps. Feel great for the first time in a very long time. Contemplation and taking a step back really is a great thing to do. Learning how to learn is pivotal to undertake before anything else. Although institutionalise learning is prevalent within or current society, we re nevertheless inadequately educated in regards to how to learn, as simple as that.
"the ability to learn is a skill ; the willingness to learn is a choice"
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14/06
Feeling invigorated to continue my day. Whilst we are deeply immersed into the technological devices for educational and entertainment purposes, a concerning point that needs to be addressed urgently is the declining literacy rates our nation is currently experiencing. Put simply, we are not adequately engaging in reading and consequentially has detrimental effects on our comprehension levels and general knowledge. what makes reading so fruitful is the opportunity to experience first-hand the encapsulating lessons and knowledge other people gained that can be widely applicable to our everyday lives, but more so the odd satisfaction gained from reading the clarifying and articulated phrases, sentences and jargon all kinds of books have to offer.
"Show me a family of readers, and i will show you the people who move the world"
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How's Year 12* been, jborn007?
Better than before, but not nearly as good as I'm going to be.
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15/06
Felt having substantial amounts of energy throughout the day, and feel like a different and changed person.
Whilst the educational system developed and promoted by the age of industrialisation has a working system of assessing individuals in their respective studies, it is however unintentionally positioning students to dislike or feel annoyed at their respective studies to a degree. Unfortunately, with the proliferation of assigned work pupils are unwillingly given to complete alongside the perennial assessments, a portion of students have no choice but to allocate unhealthy amounts of time to overcome those ever-lasting obstacles and in the process dislike or even feel irritated of their studies, consequentially feel de-motivated and not give a crap anymore. This is a flaw in the current educational system implemented in many parts of the world and ultimately leads to a huge decline in the non-material living standards of the affection pupils but most concerning a hatred towards learning. Over the past decades, school has not continued to be a place primarily focusing on learning anymore, but more so transformed into a factory regimentally teaching formats and structures for success in examinations and even to the extent of pure rote-learning for some studies.
"Well trained is not the same as well educated."
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16/06
As the day goes by, so does the natural landscape evolve by the climatical conditions nature is experiencing. Over the past century there has been a significant leap in technological advancements and we've benefitted from electronic devices more than ever before. However, the integration of those technological devices into our lives have made us disillusioned to the natural world and growing up in the age of technological advancements has made us unconsciously neglecting nature. More and more people have found themselves in love with their devices particularly when having spare time even when travelling, and not to simply observe nature as it evolves brings great shame to us as human beings.
"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher."
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17/06
A demanding yet meaningful day.
Akin to physical health, mental health is also important for a human being and it is pivotal to take out any toxicity that is in harm's way. Thus it is important to have a positive social group. Getting rid of any toxic people and moving on from them is thus a step that we must take to achieve mental solace but more so to empower our minds mentally and spiritually. Otherwise, they'll be holding us back and dictate our lives ultimately leading to a constrained and confined mind. This discourages us to take certain actions and taking away our liberty.
"It’s better to be alone in life than being surrounded by toxic friends who do nothing but bring you down, disrespect you, or make your life difficult."
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18/06
Over the course of our lives, it is almost certain to stumble upon injustices and inequalities. Whilst they do question our egalitarian values, we have to still keep our head down and continue to fight. The more righteous our values, beliefs and fights are, the more opposition we will face. Never do something purely for material acquisition but rather do it for the love, the joy, the curiosity, the passion. Only and only if from then we would find the meaningful reward be more fruitful and bigger than imagined. Never ever ever give up!
"Life is not fair; get used to it."
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20/06
The recent announcement from the Federal Government planning for the implementation of the 'fee hike' has sparked agonising outrage and public discourse. Whilst there are people that see it as a form of inequality and are significantly affected by this plan even to the extent of choosing disadvantageous subjects to adequately prepare for their future careers, we must keep in mind of the power of our own voices and do something about it right now. Even if it's just signing a petition or calling and writing a personalised letter to our local MPs and electorals, it can still make a significant difference and change history. Have the courage to stand up and speak up to what you believe in and have our valuable views taken into consideration.
"I would rather be alone and a loud voice for action than be silent."
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First of all, I love your journal - I can definitely relate to lots of your thoughts.
What is your opinion on the change in fees? I am assuming you are against it.
I think objectively, it's good, because I feel as if we have an over-allocation of intelligent people in fields such as finance, when those smart people would likely provide a greater benefit to society if they were in STEM fields.
Humanity really has got to where it is today because of advancements in science and tech, so it seems logical that the more smart people we have working in that field, the more technological progress we'll make.
I'm interested to hear your perspective though :)
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First of all, I love your journal - I can definitely relate to lots of your thoughts.
What is your opinion on the change in fees? I am assuming you are against it.
I think objectively, it's good, because I feel as if we have an over-allocation of intelligent people in fields such as finance, when those smart people would likely provide a greater benefit to society if they were in STEM fields.
Humanity really has got to where it is today because of advancements in science and tech, so it seems logical that the more smart people we have working in that field, the more technological progress we'll make.
I'm interested to hear your perspective though :)
Thank you very much.
Personally and frankly, I'm against it but I can totally understand that this matter can be viewed as a double-edged sword. I can see an over-allocation of labour resources in other fields such as Arts, Commerce etc. substantiated by the number of enrolments in the respective courses especially in the bachelor of arts. Moreover, I do see the fact that Australia's global status in the STEM fields is low compared to other powerful countries such as the USA, Germany, China etc.
However, I may be wrong, but I see and personally know a lot of very high-achievers and promising, intelligent, passionate high school graduates are pursing a STEM degree and a number of years later would be amply ready to tackle problems in the science field that humanity encounters/ed. Moreover, with the planned implementation of the 'fee hike', some people feel like this ruins their subject selections especially for the class of 2020 and would change it quite considerably if they knew about the increased-debt they'll have to pay earlier, possibly constraining their choices and forcefully take on subjects and careers that they dislike. I'm also guided along the belief that motivation comes from passion and it can be conspired that if the latter is materialised, then from this perspective our productivity levels would drop sharply and on account of that our society wouldn't be able to function properly as we need all the sectors to be thriving for it to harmoniously function.
I definitely can relate to the Minister for Education Dan Tehan's words that "the fee changes will incentivise prospective students" but a dear friend of mine proposed a solution to the lack of students engaging in a STEM degree is to simply and only lower the tuition costs for the STEM degrees ever more, which I second that and imo can be theoretically achieved through greater subsidisation from the state or federal government.
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21/06
It is notified recently the predicted cutoffs for desired university courses are to be soared given the recent extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances the world has faced this year. Whilst it does make our goals and plans more difficult and possibly unreachable, we must now allow our inner voices and discouraging thoughts to barricade our actions. As long as we have faith in ourselves and pride in our convictions then we cannot fail. No-one is alone and all of us are going through uncertain and tough times, and it is up to us to decide what happens next.
"Action triumphs adversity."
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22/06
Amidst the chaos that is happening in the world, it is imperative that we stay vigilant and look after ourselves more than ever. We are far from conquering the plague that is mercilessly consuming humanity and change is never easy as it takes us to admit that our efforts and methods may be flaw. A facilitation for this process is to face uncomfortable truths and becoming aware that immense amounts of effort is required in our everyday repertoires along with consistency and keeping in mind of our goal for improvement.
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
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23/06
At the time when productivity-levels are at an all-time low, we must be cautious about how we manage our time. Time is the most precious and valuable commodity we have in our acquisition and let's be real, once it's gone it's gone forever. The simplest way to get our lives sorted out and back together is to just schedule, or at the bare minimum list, what a perfect day in our lives would be. Make it and stick to it, it's that simple! It is ludicrous and unbelievable how so many people are willing to waste their non-renewable time where it could have been spend on more worthwhile, meaningful and impactful areas.
"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life."
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25/06
Across our lifetime, it is very easy to worry and have a panic attack that demoralises us. Whilst there is a vast majority of us that succumb to these negative forces, it is important to bring to our attentions that we shouldn't worry too much to the extent that it becomes detrimental to us rather than motivational and instilling a sense of alertness into our minds. With such fear of tomorrow, how will we live today and be very present in our moments? Crossing the line makes us perform worse rather than better during those crucial and defining times we face in our lifetimes.
"Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly"
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02/07
As someone who has been fortunate enough to be brought up under both western and eastern cultures, it has come to my stark attention that the lack of self-discipline creates and solidifies a disparity between the two polarising cultures. This is explicitly seen in the actions to combat and beliefs that people hold in regards to the coronavirus, which a concerning number of millennials are disregarding the warnings and advice our government is frantically attempting to inform us about. It's really a shame to hear that an unacceptable number of young millennials are still daring to neglect social distancing and obliviously disregarding the health and safety of older generations who are without doubt vulnerable to the life-threatening virus. How difficult can it be to just stay at home and utilise other ways to socialise such as facetiming or giving them a call, rather idiotically hanging out and ultimately putting the vast majority of our lives at risk? Absolutely appalling.
"There is no magic wand that can resolve our problems. The solution rests with our work and discipline."
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24/07
Whilst it's in our greatest desires to pursue our day-to-day activities and ambitions, it shall be kept in mind of the undermined value of sleep. It's vital for us to not neglect our regimented sleep routine, as it can bolster our days of being present and vigorous in this world, and even accelerate our path towards the materialisation of our deepest desires. Otherwise we would be taking our thriving mind and healthy body for granted, along with subconsciously changing our trajectory from a better life and state of living.
"Sleep is our superpower."
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"Never EVER EVER give up"
2020 is a year that will be indisputably an influential year for all of us to remember. The unprecedented times and circumstances have been particularly challenging and strenuous, further intensified with the demanding assessments that the VCE has to offer. Time can't come back, and it is within our best interests to make the most out of it and get on top of our pertinent tasks. Procrastination is an impediment to anyone's goals and targets, and it is pivotal to confront and discipline our instant gratifications/desires that we seek on a quotidian basis. As I've sat my final VCE examination, it is my intention to make the most of these free months to fully recover from the mental scars and damages institutionalised education has wielded. The past few months have been a great testimony to the stoicism one must manifest to conquer the looming obstacles, but ultimately crises given birth to new leaders.