ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => The VCE Journey Journal => Topic started by: technodisney on August 20, 2018, 09:54:37 am
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ummm hi.
I'm technodisney,
This is probably a little too late to start since year 12 is approaching the end, but YOLO.
I have decided to start this so that I have an excuse to actually write down what work has to be done and it will hopefully motivate me and also give me something to look back on in a few years.
I am in year 12 studying English Language, Informatics, Business Management, Methods and VET IT.
I didn't take any 3/4 subjects early so I am only doing 5 subjects total.
I am a master at procrastination (hence my title) and I can always find a way to distract myself no matter how urgent work is. And I am lacking motivation for any school work, but I have been like that for as long as I can remember. I can just always seem to convince myself doing other stuff is much more important than my school work, (it probably doesn't help I got 2 huge lego sets and a big jigsaw puzzle for my bday..... I need to have some amazing self control over the next few months. I also have 5 siblings, so it is always easy to find someone to distract me...).
How am I currently going in my subjects you may ask.
welll.
English Language
I am yet to complete the holiday homework and we have a SAC next week and I haven't written an analytical commentary since term 1. And even then what I did write then was crap. And my teacher is expecting that we will do so much better on this one. I probably should be writing a practice Analytical Commentary instead of writing this journal. I also know very little of the required metalanguage, but the AN notes I bought at the lectures seem to be helping me with that a bit.
Also, I am convinced that my English teacher has something against me, so class isn't that enjoyable to begin with so I am unmotivated to learn the content.
Business Management
Well... I have done very little homework for this all year. I have been getting around 60% on the SACs (well below average). Currently I have some homework due next period that I have barely started. I am expecting a detention. I simply just can't be bothered properly learning everything as when it is explained I understand it all perfectly but when it comes to answering questions I can never seem to use the right terms and language and explain the concepts in a way too simple way.
Informatics
I am an IT genius. I am "that guy" that everyone always comes to when they need IT help. I enjoy working with computers as well. IT was meant to be the subject that I really enjoy. I am actually hating it, because we are working on strict guidelines and I just keep feeling like I won't be able to finish it all in time so I am just stressing myself trying to get it done which in turn is making me get all of the work down slower which is making me stress even more.
My website is due in next week, I still have sooooo much to do to finish it off and I am stressing so much about needing to get it done without actually working on it.
It also doesn't help that my school account (with all my website files) has been blocked a few days (going to be unblocked today). So I wasn't actually able to work on it over the weekend, all I could do was just stress about it all instead of actually getting it done.
We also have just started exam prep for Informatics, and that is freaking me out so much, I'm not ready to start getting ready for exams.
Methods
Methods I seem to be doing ok... I don't do any of the textbook homework all year but I have done the practice SACs in the lead up to the SACs and have been scoring quite high in the SACs. We have just started probability and it isn't as hard and tricky as I have been expecting it to be. I guess I am doing ok, my teacher pays me alot of attention and helps me out whenever I'm stuck. This is the only subject I'm not really worrying about, as I am getting good marks with very minimal effort (thank you very logically minded brain).
VET IT
This subject I do four hours a week all in one big chunk. And I do it at another school as part of a VET cluster.
The problem is it is very easy to get distracted in this class and the teacher doesn't actually care if we just sit there watching youtube or whatever and because we are required to do our work on laptops it is very easy to get distracted without immense self control (which I do not posses). I also sit next to a couple of guys who are great at distracting me, we even played Exploding Kittens for and hour last week. Because of those factors I am way behind on all the work and probably can't get it all done by the end of the term. I am planning to actually get some work done this Wednesday, but we will have to see how that goes.
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Damn! I was just reading through this and I thought that it was someone describing me! :D ;D
If my school was more chill I would have done those exact subjects (except I woulda kept my own VET and traded Bus Man, but still...)!
Although I am not actually that much of a "genius" in IT, everyone still prefers to load me up with their issues...
And, naturally, I'm a pretty decent procras myself, so I really can't wait to see your daily updates here when you should be doing other work! :D
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It's definitely never too late to start a journal! ;D
I also understand the distracting siblings thing- I myself having 3 siblings (two who are too little to understand that I need to study...). Have you tried sitting in a quiet study area in a library? I find that sorta helps me not be distracted ;D
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Had a nice and productive week of almost purely procrastination. Yay me. I really need to kick myself into gear. Only a few months until exams.
I also understand the distracting siblings thing- I myself having 3 siblings (two who are too little to understand that I need to study...). Have you tried sitting in a quiet study area in a library? I find that sorta helps me not be distracted ;D
Well the thing with me is I deliberately use them to distract me even though I know my time could be spent better actually doing my work. My room I can go to when I need quiet, but the problem is I am currently working on a jigsaw puzzle on the desk.
I am currently sick and yesterday I was running around in a giant bear mascot costume all day. YAY!!!! :(
I only came to school today because I had an EngLang SAC and my dad couldn't take me to get a doctors note.
So how I am going in my subjects... worse than last week. Yay!
English Language
We just had our SAC today. An analytical commentary and some short answer questions on Australian English. How much did I study for it, well. I did one paragraph of a practice analytical commentary and the short answer questions we did in class time thats about all the study I put into it. I know I probably should have done more, but meh... I am kind of happy with how it ended up turning out but I felt like I just kept on blabbing on about everything and going over everything again and again.
I have no idea when the next SAC is but we have at least one left. :(
Business Management
I have as per usual been paying zero attention in class. I can't even tell you what topic we are doing right now. yay me. I think we have a SAC this Friday. So I should probably work on learning whatever I need to learn.... Edrolo here I come!
Informatics
SAT was due in last week. I still have at least 10 hours of work to do on it. Enough said...
Methods
We are just going through probabilty still. I feel like I am understanding it quite well. But then our teacher gave me some practice exam questions on probabilty, I then lost all hope in my math skills. But in saying that I haven't touched ANY of the probability textbook questions or EdRolo.
VET IT
I yet again did absolutely nothing while at VET.
However a kid managed to get hold of the marking guide for an assesment and was copying off that. The teacher found out and couldn't care less. That makes it so unfair. Is there anything I can do about it?
I feel like I could write more. But I am sick and exhausted and tired and a mess.
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I am kind of happy with how it ended up turning out but I felt like I just kept on blabbing on about everything and going over everything again and again.
This was basically me for the entirety of EngLang lol.
Sounds like you need a bit of a rest. Make sure you take care of yourself. 👊
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I love that bear costume so much; you doing the macarena dressed as a giant bear made my day, you know that, right? And I'm sure it made many other people's days, too. :)
Sounds like you need a bit of a rest. Make sure you take care of yourself. 👊
The problem with our man here is too much rest - he procrastinates waaay too much. :P
The thing is, Techno, I think your stress about procrastinating is weighing you down. You know you're not doing your best, and you feel a bit guilty about it. Probably best if you constantly have someone to keep you accountable. Maybe you should make a motivation thread, about getting into the habit of studying well...? *hint hint*
Also, sucks about the kid in VET IT - if he's one of the ones I know, Imma whoop his(?) ass. But besides that, if he's copying from the guide, you should report it or directly confront the teacher about it. See why he's getting away with it. And then work as the honest person you are. It shows integrity that you're not willing to do the same as he is. So keep going! :)
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Informatics
SAT was due in last week. I still have at least 10 hours of work to do on it. Enough said...
Finally, something that I can strongly relate to..except parts of our SAT was delayed because our teacher came down with a flu. Good luck in Informatics for both of us ;D.
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The problem with our man here is too much rest - he procrastinates waaay too much. :P
The thing is, Techno, I think your stress about procrastinating is weighing you down. You know you're not doing your best, and you feel a bit guilty about it. Probably best if you constantly have someone to keep you accountable. Maybe you should make a motivation thread, about getting into the habit of studying well...? *hint hint*
Poet just about sums it up. I put in very little effort and then complain about the workload. I know I could do amazing at school IF I tried but I simply don't have the motivation, I have no clear goal that I am aiming for.
Maybe I should make a motivation thread, gives me another way to procrastinate ;)
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I am still quite sick yet I am still coming to school everyday. Just when I thought it was getting better my school had it's own relay for life on Friday Night and since I am a part of the student council I had a big part in organising and running the night so I had to be there. That just reinvigorated my cold staying up till midnight in the freezing cold so I am just back to square one now.
EngLang
This was basically me for the entirety of EngLang lol.
Except you probably put in a lot of effort and you have a big interest in linguistics. I am not really putting in any effort to learn the content so I was just blabbing on about stuff I don't really understand.
We are now starting to prepare for our next SAC which is an Essay and short answer questions. I don't understand how we are meant to write an EngLang essay still so I am so lost. I should probably see my teacher for help. He is good at teaching the content as a lot of the class is doing well the problem is I am putting in very little minimal effort.
BusMan
Final SAC is now complete. ;D
That makes me so happy but now it has dawned on me that just means that we are getting close to the final exams. Which is starting to worry me. Once again I have this stress but I am not acting on it in anyway at all.
We are starting exam prep today.
Informatics
Finally, something that I can strongly relate to..except parts of our SAT was delayed because our teacher came down with a flu. Good luck in Informatics for both of us ;D.
I legit just looked through your post history to see if your subjects match up with anyone in my class. Our teacher had the flu and our SAT was delayed. The delayed due date was last week. That is weird...
But we have handed in the website portion of the SAC and we have two weeks to do the final analysis and then the whole thing is done.
Since we are behind so much we don't have any class time to finish the SAC as we need to work on the content on security preparing for that SAC. I amfeeling relieved that the hardest part of informatics is just about over though.
Methods
Nothing interesting has happened in methods. We are just very slowly making our way through the probability content. We are a bit behind and the teacher has said we may have to do the probability SAC in a holiday class.
VET IT
I did get some work done at VET last week.
Me and three other guys cooked bacon and eggs on a toasted sandwich machine during the break. That was fun.
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Another week of not much stuff done.
I really need to get myself kicked into gear, there is 56 days until my first exam and I am still procrastinating way to much and not really getting anything done. I feel I am doing more work than I have been for the rest of the year though, so I guess that is a positive but I am still doing no where near as much work as I should be doing.
I did absolutely no work over the weekend, on Friday I was playing tennis then watched a movie with my family, then on Saturday I went to a community fair and was out all day their with a friend and then Sunday I was helping my mum organise some documentation for her travel agency, and that took all day and I still didn't get it all done. To top it off it must all be finished tonight and I am not getting home until 7pm due to a Senate meeting and my bible study group. So I am probably going to be up until like 2am tonight, which isn't good considering I was up at 5:45am this morning for the gym. I am so tired and exhausted and I have all this work piled on top of me which isn't even school related.
I still have 4 SACs left (2 EngLang, 1 Methods, 1 Informatics) and I don't know how I can even do at least kind of well on them, I am so worried.
EngLang
Because I think my teacher hates me I am too scared to approach him for help and I'm not going to be able to get a 25 in English and therefore not be able to get into any university without doing an extra year.
BusMan
I am actually going well in this, because all of the SACs are done now I'm not actually worrying about this one at all which is actually helping me plod through the revision. I have been using a technique my IT teacher taught me on highlighting questions on SACs on the practice exams for Business and it is so helpful, basically what you do is you have 6-8 different coloured highlighters and each keyword or important part of the question you highlight a different colour, you can then very easily make sure that you have answered the questions and it is much easier to read when the different pieces of info are in different colours.
Informatics
We are just about done with the SAT completely. It is such a relief to know that it is all pretty much done, the final part is due Friday but that is no stress as I have been getting a bunch of extra help from my teacher.
We also have a security SAC on the final period of the final day of the term, that's not a good way to end of the term I feel.
Methods
We are way behind on the content, I think we are doing the SAC next week but I am not 100% sure. We are still finishing of probability and are onto populations and samples (the final part apparently).
VET IT
fml
enough said lol
I have noticed that the stress has slowly been getting to me over the year and I am becoming more and more negative, which I don't like as I like to think of myself as a positive supportive friend which I feel like I am not anymore.
Sorry @Poet, @Alaska_Young14 and @Zeths, I should be a better friend after exams are over
I just don't know how well I am going to cope and whether I am actually going to knuckle down and put a lot of effort into this final stretch, I just don't know.
It probably also doesn't help that my mum is convinced I am hiding something (which I am not) and is therefore getting super annoyed at me.
Wish me luck 🤞
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EngLang
Because I think my teacher hates me I am too scared to approach him for help and I'm not going to be able to get a 25 in English and therefore not be able to get into any university without doing an extra year.
Not approaching your teacher doesn't help but it doesn't guarantee failure either. I was soooo stressed about not getting 30 in eng lang ( which I needed for GC) or not getting 25 and not being able to get into anything but in the end I got what I needed. I can't guarantee you that you'll get over 30 too, but you can't guarantee me that you'll get less than 25.
In all honesty I don't feel like I've been a good friend to my friends recently either, but you've got to keep trying to try - I've learnt that in the end the trying becomes action and the actions create successes.
As poet and you have both alluded to, your stress about procrastination (and other stuff) is hurting you. The good news is that there are things you can try to do to pick yourself back up. Things like keeping on talking to your friends even when you feel that you're a burden, like eating healthier, exercising, getting some sleep, setting small goals (doing a whole eng lang exam would be tough, but maybe you can answer a couple of short answer questions?), practicing responding healthily to your thoughts (especially if you have intrusive thoughts or patterns of rumination), getting outside, meditation (try 5-10 minutes at a time to start off), journalling....
The irony of improving when you're in a negative space is that being in that place makes it harder to do these things, but the flipside is that improvement gives you momentum, and that you learn how to recover faster after each crash.
Thank you for your openness with us, and I wish you luck :)
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One more week done. Only 14 more days of classes left, minus the holiday classes.
I still have very limited motivation and spent the whole weekend procrastinating and hanging out with a friend sooooooo..... I'm not doing good at all and honestly haven't really tried to change due to lack of motivation.
Thanks for all your input @miniturtle I really appreciate it. :)
Not approaching your teacher doesn't help but it doesn't guarantee failure either. I was soooo stressed about not getting 30 in eng lang ( which I needed for GC) or not getting 25 and not being able to get into anything but in the end I got what I needed. I can't guarantee you that you'll get over 30 too, but you can't guarantee me that you'll get less than 25.
Well I have an update with this. At the valedictory dinner @Poet dragged me (!!!!) over to my EngLang teacher and told him I'm scared of approaching him. I then had a bit of a chat to him and he's not tooo scary. I have an EngLang SAC p 5+6 today and I am going to try and see him p4 or Lunch if he doesn't have a class
In all honesty I don't feel like I've been a good friend to my friends recently either, but you've got to keep trying to try - I've learnt that in the end the trying becomes action and the actions create successes.
I guess I am gonna keep just plodding along and trying as hard as I can ten :)
As poet and you have both alluded to, your stress about procrastination (and other stuff) is hurting you. The good news is that there are things you can try to do to pick yourself back up. Things like keeping on talking to your friends even when you feel that you're a burden, like eating healthier, exercising, getting some sleep, setting small goals (doing a whole eng lang exam would be tough, but maybe you can answer a couple of short answer questions?), practicing responding healthily to your thoughts (especially if you have intrusive thoughts or patterns of rumination), getting outside, meditation (try 5-10 minutes at a time to start off), journalling....
The irony of improving when you're in a negative space is that being in that place makes it harder to do these things, but the flipside is that improvement gives you momentum, and that you learn how to recover faster after each crash.
I am already kind of exercising, I play Tennis two days a week and go to the gym one day a week. What I feel like I could improve on though is getting more sleep and eating healthier. I am getting around 7 hours of sleep a night on average night and I feel like I could get more, as I am spending at least an hour eac and every night lying in bed browsing, Reddit, Facebook, Quora or Youtube, and I feel like I can cut down on that. I ave the ios 12 beta on my phone and have set up the new restrictions where you can limit the amount of time on each app, but it is too easy to ignore the warnings that come up and just click the button to extend my time. I also got Rocket League over the weekend, bad idea to get a fun addictive game when I should be preparing for exams.
Does anyone have any tips on restricting screentime?
To be honest I haven't really put much effort into it but I have been trying to restrict myself and it hasn't really been working. I feel like if I ask my parents to make sure they restrict it I will just get soooo pissed at them which would cause more stress and tension around my house than it already is (it gets hectic with 5 siblings).
EngLang
As mentioned above I have a SAC this afternoon that I haven't really prepared for. I am hoping to see my teacher just before for last minute tips though, hopefuly I don't keep procrastinating it, I don't want a great study score in EngLang all I want is a 25.
BusMan
I am yet to actually start the revision, I have so far done the equivalent of half a practice exam worth of questions and I am remembering more than I thought I would remember, so I guess that is a plus, I don't want to start properly revising for this until all my SACs are done which should be this friday (except for Methods during the holidays). I'm going to the BusMan lecture this Sunday and I am hoping that will help me out a bit and I plan to properly study for the exam after that.
It is scary that there are only 49 days until this exam (which is my first exam)
Informatics
All we have is the security SAC on Friday and then I am done with all the informatics content. I am looking forward to preparing for this exam because I actually enjoy learning about most of the stuff found in the informatics textbook. In saying that it is probably go to the bottom of the priority pile for now since it is my last exam. I am worried about having both my EngLang and Informatics exam on the same day, I will probably put all my effort into EngLang because I struggle in it a lot and not be able to do as well as I am capable of in Informatics.
How have other people dealt with having two exams on the same day?
Methods
WE ARE DONE WITH THE CONTENT!!!!
I am now actually scared though, I am not prepared for the probability SAC which I am doing in the holidays.
And looking at the practice exams we have been given it is soooo scary looking at them, I actually feel like I have not learnt a thing this year as I can't answer most of the practice exam questions.
VET IT
I am behind on the online assessment things and the last class is this Wednesday. Anything I don't complete I must finish over the holidays or I do not receive my certificate or get an S. So I am kinda worried but I am sure I will get it all done, I didn't realise how long some of them were until this weekend.
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I am already kind of exercising, I play Tennis two days a week and go to the gym one day a week. What I feel like I could improve on though is getting more sleep and eating healthier. I am getting around 7 hours of sleep a night on average night and I feel like I could get more, as I am spending at least an hour eac and every night lying in bed browsing, Reddit, Facebook, Quora or Youtube, and I feel like I can cut down on that. I ave the ios 12 beta on my phone and have set up the new restrictions where you can limit the amount of time on each app, but it is too easy to ignore the warnings that come up and just click the button to extend my time. I also got Rocket League over the weekend, bad idea to get a fun addictive game when I should be preparing for exams.
Does anyone have any tips on restricting screentime?
To be honest I haven't really put much effort into it but I have been trying to restrict myself and it hasn't really been working. I feel like if I ask my parents to make sure they restrict it I will just get soooo pissed at them which would cause more stress and tension around my house than it already is (it gets hectic with 5 siblings).
No problem at all! :)
Alright, so you've already got a healthy habit and now there are also goals for which ones to expand onto next. So the targets are:
- sleep
- eating healthily
- reducing screentime
(all pretty linked so helping one should help the others too)
"I am spending at least an hour eac and every night lying in bed browsing, Reddit, Facebook, Quora or Youtube, and I feel like I can cut down on that"
- if you don't already, see if you can get a red light filter on your phone
- maybe try: each time you ignore the warning, before you press ignore have a drink of water. This forces you to have a small pause, which might be helpful (and if not, at least you'll get more hydrated?)
- if you like gamification, you could use the website Habitica and set up pressing ignore as a negative habit.
- maybe try: ban yourself from using your phone in bed. If you're going to stay up scrolling, do it sitting somewhere else - that way the subconcious association between "bed" and "browsing" will decrease overtime and be replaced with "sleeping"
- Potentially also delete the fb (and other) app(s) from your phone. You'll still be able to access it via browser, but you won't be going on the same automatic pathway, which might help disrupt the habit.
Hope this helps :)
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See? He’s a nice man! There’s a reason he’s my favourite teacher and it’s not just because he has a nice butt
With the whole procrastination prevention thing, try an extension called ‘Cold Turkey’. It helps you set times and specific sites you can ban.
Do recommend.
Keep working, techno! We believe in you. :)
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With the whole procrastination prevention thing, try an extension called ‘Cold Turkey’. It helps you set times and specific sites you can ban.
Do recommend.
quick update:
I am so excited as I am actually getting work done purely because I installed that Cold Turkey extension. It actually works and it feels so good to actually finish some work and get it done which is making me motivated to do more work. I have never felt like this, it's weird.
And since AN is a bit of as distraction for me (as much as it is useful) I even set up a custom block for the forums so I can stop myself from being distracted on AN.
miniturtle I will reply to your message Monday, I'm not ignoring you
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No problem at all! :)
Alright, so you've already got a healthy habit and now there are also goals for which ones to expand onto next. So the targets are:
- sleep
- eating healthily
- reducing screentime
(all pretty linked so helping one should help the others too)
"I am spending at least an hour eac and every night lying in bed browsing, Reddit, Facebook, Quora or Youtube, and I feel like I can cut down on that"
- if you don't already, see if you can get a red light filter on your phone
- maybe try: each time you ignore the warning, before you press ignore have a drink of water. This forces you to have a small pause, which might be helpful (and if not, at least you'll get more hydrated?)
- if you like gamification, you could use the website Habitica and set up pressing ignore as a negative habit.
- maybe try: ban yourself from using your phone in bed. If you're going to stay up scrolling, do it sitting somewhere else - that way the subconcious association between "bed" and "browsing" will decrease overtime and be replaced with "sleeping"
- Potentially also delete the fb (and other) app(s) from your phone. You'll still be able to access it via browser, but you won't be going on the same automatic pathway, which might help disrupt the habit.
Hope this helps :)
Thanks for that advice.
I am already using a blue light filter (red light filters don’t exist but if they did it will make it harder on the eyes)
I haven’t had a chance to try out that have a break trick yet because I keep forgetting. I’m gonna keep trying though.
I have tried that website in the past but I ended up lying to it which did not help me with my habits.
I require The Facebook app because I help my mum manage her business FB page so I can’t delete that. I will however delete Quora, twitter and reddit. I am also thinking about deleting YouTube and maybe Netflix.
So far in the holidays I am yet to do any work, unless you count the AN business lecture or the practice English exam we had to do today. Tomorrow however I am planning to make sure I get stuck into my work and I am thinking of staying at school longer than I need to for my Informatics class so that I can quietly study tomorrow away from the distractions of home.
Mentally I am coping ok, one friend who lost a loved one came back from a 10 day school trip today and she seems to be coping sooo well with it all which then makes me super duper happy for her and boosts my mood.
I have been instead of messaging friends when I’m feeling crap been making an effort to actually go and hang out with them for a few hours which seems to be helping me quite a bit. I just need to take it all one step at a time at at 5:15pm on the 16th November I am hoping that I will feel a massive burden lifted off of my shoulders. I need to keep telling myself that I only have a few weeks of VCE left and I have made it this far, I am now in the final sprint, the part of the race that counts. This is where I should try harder than I have for the whole rest of VCE.
EngLang
My tutor is back from her two month trip. That is soo good for me. The past week she has been helping me to just get all my crap together literally and is setting strict deadlines for practice essays which is helping me a lot and encouraging me to get them done. I am most worried about doing well in this as I have mentioned in the past. I just hope that my tutor will be enough to scrape me over a 25, I know I have a crap tonne of work ahead of m though, but it is possible.
BusMan
Haven’t really started any of this exam revision yet, besides the AN lecture yesterday for it, it was actually really helpful and I got a lot out of it, my parents are convinced I took some girl out to the movies or joined a cult or something like that, they don’t believe the lectures are actually FREE. I am planning to set aside 30 minutes aside every single day for BusMan from now until the exam, starting tomorrow. Is that a good strategy? To have 30 minutes set aside every day for a subject?
VET IT
I am planning to go to VET the first wednesday of next term purely to say goodbye to my classmates and have a bit of a party for getting through all the coursework. I am most likely never gonna see most of them ever again.
informatics
I’m don’t have anything interesting to mention abOut this. Besides that my teacher gave us all a set of 5 highlighters so that we follow his trick that he gave us for exams.
Methods
I have the final SAC this thursday. Yay!! Holiday sac!!!
I am also yet to really start revising for it, soooooo I am stuffed, I have gotten so confused with all the sampling probability stuff and are so lost. What is th best way to quickly learn th entirety of methods probability? Edrolo? YouTube? The textbook?
I’m probably gonna update this more often from now on. It really helps to simply just write all my thoughts down.
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Thanks for that advice.
I am already using a blue light filter (red light filters don’t exist but if they did it will make it harder on the eyes)
I haven’t had a chance to try out that have a break trick yet because I keep forgetting. I’m gonna keep trying though.
I have tried that website in the past but I ended up lying to it which did not help me with my habits.
I require The Facebook app because I help my mum manage her business FB page so I can’t delete that. I will however delete Quora, twitter and reddit. I am also thinking about deleting YouTube and maybe Netflix.
No problem at all! Glad you knew/know that "blue light filter" was the adaptive thing - I think I was thinking about how the product is a red tinge when I was typing.
Good luck with implementing new things and keeping up with the old.
So far in the holidays I am yet to do any work, unless you count the AN business lecture or the practice English exam we had to do today. Tomorrow however I am planning to make sure I get stuck into my work and I am thinking of staying at school longer than I need to for my Informatics class so that I can quietly study tomorrow away from the distractions of home.
I count that. After all, it is something productive that you did. Staying back at school sounds like a good idea - hope it goes well for you.
Re: studying 30 minutes each
It really depends on the individual and their circumstances whether or not that's a good idea. It sounds a lot better than doing a day per subject, but you may want to experiment with different times (20 min, 40, 60) if 30 isn't working for you.
I'm glad that you're finding keeping this journal useful :)
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I’m probably gonna update this more often from now on. It really helps to simply just write all my thoughts down.
oops. That didn't go well. :-\
Been 2 weeks since my last update. I have literally started writing this entry at least 5 times over the past 2 weeks but each time I have just scrapped it. Hopefully I end up posting this one, lol.
Also, this ones a bit of a rant and not structured like my other ones
I saw something pop up on my Facebook timeline the other day "forecast for the next few weeks: extreme procrastination with a high chance of mental breakdown". That I feel like will some up my life until my final exam is finished, so around 39 days or whatever my timer in my signature says.
I have been doing anywhere from 30 minutes - 2 hours of study each day during the holidays. But all except a couple of days I did do something. Again coldturkey has been an amazing help with that but it always just quickly gets to a point where I aren't doing any work anyways and just start playing around with formatting or in the case of methods which I do off the computer I get distracted by my calc discovering all the little quirks that probably wouldn't really help me.
I have done 2 out of the 20 practice exams we have been given for the holidays for methods. So I am kind of worrying about what my teacher is gonna say when she finds out. And I got 42% on my probability SAC, which isn't the best but at least I barely passed, over half the class actually failed it and has to re sit it Thursday.
I have no good reason for not getting them done and the only reason I haven't is procrastination.
Whenever I have been bored instead of just buckling down and getting work down I have instead invited a friend who lives just down the road over to play rocket league. Half the time it starts by him messaging me being bored, and I mean when a friend wants to come over it is hard to say no... I am getting good at playing virtual soccer with cars, but not so good at finding an integral or writing a Language Analysis.
I have a tutor for EngLang, and she is encouraging me to make sure I am getting a heap of practice Essays done which is helping me, I just don't have the motivation for that myself and she is literally dragging me along. I guess that it is helping me though, we are meeting twice a week for an hour.
A friend has also gone a bit too far and I have stood up to her, this probably isn't the best time to do it but there have been a few massive things bugging me about her for along time that I had to let out. I feel bad that I am being mean to her but someone has got to stand up to her or nothings gonna change.
So yeah the past 2 days I have been occupied with that, and that's not good.
While writing this I am in the IT room and there is a year 7 IT class going on in the background. I wish that we could be as carefree with our work in year 12 as what we could get away with in year 7. Their class is the most chill thing ever right now. At least we only have 9 days left of stressful classes left until we are done.
I am finding every possible way to procrastinate it seems, including researching specifics for my trip to Europe next year even though it is 9 months away and I should be focussing on my study not how to get between places in London.
I don't know what has caused it but all of a sudden all 5 of my siblings and I are ALL getting along really well at the current time, which anyone who has grown up with many siblings will know that it is extremely rare for everyone to just be getting along.
I guess I should get back to work though, lol.
As motivation I am going to update this thread every day with what work I have done that day and if I don't post well assume that I haven't done anything...
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Glad to hear that your siblings are all getting along & that you've found coldturkey somewhat helpful :)
What's your plan for what you'd like to achieve today if all goes well?
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Glad to hear that your siblings are all getting along & that you've found coldturkey somewhat helpful :)
What's your plan for what you'd like to achieve today if all goes well?
I guess ideally I would just like to plan out (and maybe write) an Analytical Commentary for EngLang and then also complete a non-calc methods practice Exam.
I would also like to make sure I don't get distracted during EngLang today and properly take notes of whatever we do in class.
Also, I forgot to mention that I forgot about the Methods lecture *facepalm* but I went to the BusMan and EngLang ones and found them both very helpful and engaging.
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So yesterday I ended up spending an hour on the hour long practice Methods exam yet I struggled so much even with notes.
I didn’t get to an analytical commentary but did go through my practice exam that has been externally marked.
The doctor who season premiere was to tempting. Riverdale is back this week as well 😕
My plan for today is too work on a few stuff for VET which I forgot I had to do and have to be done tomorrow and work through some business questions.
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So yesterday I ended up spending an hour on the hour long practice Methods exam yet I struggled so much even with notes.
I didn’t get to an analytical commentary but did go through my practice exam that has been externally marked.
*chanting* PRO-GRESS PROGRESS
Congrats on the efforts you have made and thank you updating us!
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*chanting* PRO-GRESS PROGRESS
Congrats on the efforts you have made and thank you updating us!
that progress momentum didn't . keep going.
I only ended up getting a little of the VET stuff done and now I need to work on a few non school related stuff that must be done. So there goes my study for tonight.
I got very little done at school today as well, mainly because I was distracting myself procrastinating during my spare, and I kept drifting off in English. In methods I did get a little done (we are working through practice SACs), but I am mostly realising just how much I have to learn before the exams, screw trig and sampling.
VET was kinda productive for half of it, but since the class was mostly empty we were just mucking around and doing the stupidest kahoots we could find for the second half.
Right now I am activating ColdTurkey for both AN and everything else for the rest of the night so I can focus on getting this stuff done.
I simply can't say no when people ask for help. :-\
Wish me luck.
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*Obediently Wishes Lady Luck to descend upon Techno* :D
I also suck at sampling, but may be able to help with some of your trig questions?
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*Obediently Wishes Lady Luck to descend upon Techno* :D
I also suck at sampling, but may be able to help with some of your trig questions?
Thanks for those wishes of luck.
I feel like help over the internet won’t help. I need someone to sit with me and explain it. But thanks for your offer. 😊
Update: I have been working so hard on this ever since my last post and I am only 1/5 done and it doesn’t get easier, just long and tedious.
And I just started feeling dizzy, I’m not sure how much longer I can do this tonight, it needs to be done by tomorrow morning, I will keep going for as long as I can but I’m probably not gonna finish it and therefore be super stressed about it all day tomorrow.
I’m gonna cold turkey AN for another two hours.
😐
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Update: I have been working so hard on this ever since my last post and I am only 1/5 done and it doesn’t get easier, just long and tedious.
And I just started feeling dizzy, I’m not sure how much longer I can do this tonight, it needs to be done by tomorrow morning, I will keep going for as long as I can but I’m probably not gonna finish it and therefore be super stressed about it all day tomorrow.
I’m gonna cold turkey AN for another two hours.
😐
(https://media.makeameme.org/created/i-am-a-pvtcoz.jpg)
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Thanks for those wishes of luck.
I feel like help over the internet won’t help. I need someone to sit with me and explain it. But thanks for your offer. 😊
Update: I have been working so hard on this ever since my last post and I am only 1/5 done and it doesn’t get easier, just long and tedious.
And I just started feeling dizzy, I’m not sure how much longer I can do this tonight, it needs to be done by tomorrow morning, I will keep going for as long as I can but I’m probably not gonna finish it and therefore be super stressed about it all day tomorrow.
I’m gonna cold turkey AN for another two hours.
😐
You can do it, we believe in you!!!
Also make sure you drink water and have something to eat! ^-^
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oooooops, I have forgotten to update this, I for real this time hope to do more regular updates so I can be kept accountable.
well, been a semi stressful week. I have had all of these things piled on me and everyone seems to be relying on me which I don't like.
I am going ok with study but could probably be doing a bit more.
I have devised a study timetable with my tutor and have scheduled my study times into Cold Turkey, so I am hoping that will be a good help in keeping me doing work which I feel like is needed especially at this point just before the exams.
The past week my mind has been preoccupied with worrying about a few people in my life, my grandpa who has had 2 surgeries and a friend who isn't coping too well right now. But I am trying to not think of them and keep focussing on my studies.
Today we had a sort of pre muck up day, like we did the signing/ripping of our clothes and the day was pretty chill even though we were meant to be attending our classes, I may have skipped at least one and homeroom :/
Everyone was nice and respectful and everyone was just bonding together, it was really weird yet cool.
And then the last period I had IT and my teacher let everyone out early, I stayed and then @poet and another friend came in and we started having a bit of a dance party, was great fun, everyone else was staring at us through the window wondering what the heck we were doing though haha. Was a great way to end my final class of high school.
I will try and update.
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umm sooo yeah study, that's a thing I should probably be doing more of. I am averaging around 3 hours a day, so I am getting work done although very very slowly.
My EngLang I am doing pretty well in, my tutor is helping me properly understand so much stuff and now I have the confidence that I am able to get a study score over 25, probably not much over but at least I am going to get that study score, or at least that is how it seems.
Methods is scaring me in some ways but I like how there is a pattern in all the exams so most questions that will be on the 2018 exam I would have seen something very similar to before.
ITs I am still fairly confident with.
Business I don't really give a crap about, it is going to be my 5th subject anyway so I am putting rock bottom effort into that.
My Grandpa had emergency surgery over the weekend (4th operation in 2 weeks) and I came up to visit him for a few days over the weekend to keep my Grandma and Mum company as they were stressing about it all so much and I had to keep them company or they would lose their mind. He has been super healthy until recently so this s terrible timing for all this to happen just before my exams, he looks to be on the mend now though and we are just praying that there would be no more complications.
I have rejected some things that people have asked me to do, because I need to focus on study right now and not have to stress about all these other things.
I am going to PAX Saturday, back when I got the tickets it seemed like a great idea, now that I am in the moment I would chose not to go because it is going to just end up being a bit of a distraction on everything as it takes a full day off of studying.
Muck up day last Friday was fun, a good break where I didn't have to worry about school or study at all for one day. It is the weirdest feeling ever thinking that there are some people whom I have gone to school with the past 6 years and may NEVER see again. I am done with scheduled classes and out of the schools legal care. I have even added a few of my more favourite teachers on Facebook.
I didn't end up getting that job I was confident I was going to get so I dunno what I am going to do in December especially because I need money.
Just a few weeks left and I will be done, then I will be free and have one big thing off of my chest. I can do this, we can all do this.
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Well it's' been a while since my last post. I guess I will update all you guys on what I am up to.
I have changed my preferences at least for now and I have now decided I want to do a diploma of Live Production and Techincal Services at RMIT. It doesn't actually require and ATAR and just an interview so I guess that has taken a bunch of pressure off of me. I am still trying but if I don't get the ATAR I want as long as I do well in the interview (which I am pretty sure I will as I have a keen interest in that stuff and have some experience) I am going to be all good and if I hate Live Production after a year, 1 year through the course I will have a Cert IV and that will render my ATAR redundant (at least that is my understand of how it works) if I then want to get into a bachelor of teaching or computer science.
My first exam is today, it feels weird because most of the cohort has sat 1 or 2 exams but then there is me who is yet to sit 1, so I am in that stage of worrying because I don't know what to expect and what it will feel like being in a VCE exam. I guess I am imagining it being very very similar to the GAT.
I have Methods Wednesday and Thursday then I am done for the week.
My Methods teacher may be coming over to my house tomorrow with the scribe I am having so I can go through and do a practice exam with a scribe. So I am kinda freaking out about that, I don't want a teacher coming over to my house, even though she is one of my favourite teachers it is odd enough seeing a teacher in public let alone at my house. :-\
I have had more massive distractions from study because my Grandpa went into septic shock and I had to rush up to Bendigo with my Mum because at that stage we were unaware if he would survive the next couple of days.
Luckily he did and seems to be right on the mend now but the whole ordeal brought me out of study from Thursday night until around 4pm yesterday. I did being my books up but I hardly got a chance as I had to help my Grandma around the house doing chores so she doesn't stress herself out too much.
I am currently sitting in the common room at school procrastinating and stressing about not doing work yet I have all of my Business books out in front of me right now. I am feeling a little overwhelmed and are unsure what I do and don't know and which bits I should be focussing on, I am looking forward to throwing all of this business crap out tonight lol. So many bits of paper I am never going to have to look at again.
My tutor for EngLang is starting to annoy me as she is making me do so so much work, I know I should be doing it but she is starting to really annoy me, I guess when it's all over I am going to be thankful that she is pushing me so much.
PAX was heaps of fun and ended up being a good break, the highlights were playing Smash Bros Ultimate, seeing Bajo from Good Game (RIP) and playing board games surrounded by nerds. Only when I was in the car on the way home did my mind kick back into school mode and I started stressing. I tried to initiate convo in the car to distract myself but both my friend and his dad were super exhausted so that didn't happen and I started stressing about missing a day of study.
As soon as Methods is over I am going to start pretty much cramming for both of my IT subjects while dedicating more time to EngLang.
Methods I am feeling ok about. I am in the top half of my class and averaging around a 70, our SACs are quite difficult. I'm expecting a study score around 30 as I have been studying but haven't been doing as much as is ideal.
I like just rambling all this out lol. Sorry it is all very incoherent.
Anyways back to hopefully studying now
Lachlan out :)
#namereveal
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Lachlan out :)
#namereveal
:O HOOLEH MOOLEH I DIDN'T KNOW YOUR NAME UNTIL NOW!!!1!
I'm so glad that your EngLang tutor is really pushing you - you need that shove along, and you'll get there. Don't stress about the whole "1st exam omg" thing; you will walk in, sit down at your place, and work it out. And before you know it, it'll all be over. And you'll never have to rest your stress-reddened and crusty eyes on a stupid business book ever again.
BTW I am still so jealous you got to see Bajo.
(but also bro you can do this!)
(https://static1.fjcdn.com/comments/Inspirational+thread+go+_a2dbbbd88508277c701bd1919f6e5b12.jpg)
Gooooo sports team!! <3
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My Methods teacher may be coming over to my house tomorrow with the scribe I am having so I can go through and do a practice exam with a scribe.
Err........... jeez.. professional boundaries??? Is your school aware this is occurring, cos this isn't normal practice for a regular classroom teacher to make a personalised visit to a house.
bachelor of teaching or computer science.
Yessss..... join us.... From your subject choices and reading your first post etc. you sound very similar to me when I was in Year 12... GL 8) I'm here if you need advice re: teaching/comp
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Err........... jeez.. professional boundaries??? Is your school aware this is occurring, cos this isn't normal practice for a regular classroom teacher to make a personalised visit to a house.
Surprisingly enough, this is actually normal practice at our school, at least in senior years. My bio teacher came to my house once, as has my year 11 english teacher and our sports coordinator. This particular maths teacher, same as my bio teacher, is a tutor as well, so she helps students outside of school. We actually officially graduated a couple weeks ago, so our school doesn't actually consider us "it's students" anymore, so any issues are handled differently now. (And we're a Christian private school so practices are a little different to those of a gov. school).
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Err........... jeez.. professional boundaries??? Is your school aware this is occurring, cos this isn't normal practice for a regular classroom teacher to make a personalised visit to a house.
Yessss..... join us.... From your subject choices and reading your first post etc. you sound very similar to me when I was in Year 12... GL 8) I'm here if you need advice re: teaching/comp
Well she is also the head of senior school. Not many people above her to tell.
And it is because she stuffed up because she read info wrong.
Yeah we do seem very very similar. Haha. Very similar interests. Are you a primary or secondary teacher?
I will probably get into teaching if I don’t enjoy the live production stuff. Or at least that is what I am thinking right now. I’ll see how it all goes.
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Are you a primary or secondary teacher?
Secondary. I toyed with the idea of Primary but just couldn't bring myself to do it given the amount of academic experience i've had. I still get my 'primary' dose by teaching lower secondary (Year 7-8) and I absolutely love it (still get to be goofy).. but I like the maturity at VCE too so get the best of both worlds. It's such a bloody rewarding career.. beats a repetitive office 9-5 job anyday.
If you end up doing sec teaching and want somewhere for a placement, shoot me a PM :) ...or if you have any teaching specific Q's that would help put your mind at ease.
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done. I am finished.
Year 12 is over. No more study, I am done, I walked out of my final exam with a massive grin on my face. I can't believe I have finished 13 years of schooling just like that. High school is finished, done forever, I moved to my school half way through grade 5 and even though some people have came and some people have left, the group of people I have been around the past 7.5 years I may never see some of them ever again, even though I'm not that social and don't talk to many people they have been around me for the past seven years.
I remember back in year 7 being scared and also jealous of the year 12s, I remember it like it was yesterday yet I am now in that position of just finishing year 12 and beginning that next chapter of my life moving onto newer bigger goals and motivations away from the restrictive school environment.
Heres a rundown of the past few week since my last post (or at least what I can remember, it's all a massive blur)
BusMan exam
This was my one exam I didn't really put effort into, but I am kind of regretting that as I know I could have done better if I just spent a little bit of time going over the material but I didn't. Oh well I am done now, nothing can be changed. I didn't feel that great headed out of that exam and that seemed to stay up till the next exam.
Methods Exam 1
I prepared for this, I had a friend go over how to use the unit circle to solve trig equations just before the exam (he was an absolute lifesaver, because of that I got a few marks more than I would have otherwise). I found the start of it quite simple but by couldn't really answer the last few questions but that was kinda expected, I'm gonna be around average and I ain't in the top students range. I mean if I tried super hard then I did have the capability to do well, but I slacked off quite a bit so I haven't.
I had a scribe and that was an experience, it did overall help me but it takes longer to tell someone to write something than writing it down yourself, so I was freaking out a bit because of how long it took to get an answer down, but I got extra time at the end and it all worked out fine.
Methods Exam 2
Exam was at 3pm. I work up at 9am that morning to put my bound reference together. I had all the pages printed out I just needed to figure out a way to bind it. So I headed down to my dads work where there are some materials used for binding stuff together so I was there for like 2 hours trying to get my bound reference actually bound. I ended up getting it done, I got to school and then started freaking out because it wasn't bound neatly and was larger than A4 because of my crap skills in binding. Turns out it did comply with the guidelines, so that was a relief.
After all that how much did I use it in the two hour exam you may ask. For 30 seconds to look up one thing. That was so not worth it.
Halfway through this exam I just sat there for 5 minutes telling myself "nup give up now, you can't do this, don't bother" but I pushed past that and kept on working hard from then until 5 minutes before the exam finished where I just pretended to be looking over everything so my scribe wouldn't realise I'm stupid. It was way to overwhelming how massive the second methods exam is.
At this point I gave up on doing exams for myself and started just trying on them to make my family happy and not disappointed on December 14.
VET IT
This was by far my best exam AND I hardly studied for it, I just went over the 2016 and 2017 exams the night before and boom I feel like I didn't lose a mark on the whole paper. I dunno if I am being overconfident or not. The exam seemed to easy, it actually felt like what a year 10 IT Exam would be like. There was nothing that tripped me up, nothing that confused me, I swear VCAA gave me the easy version of the paper. I am very interested to see my results for this. If I do get an amazing mark on the exam I'm not in the top few ranks in the class so that could bring my overall study score down a little. Regardless I am very confident I have got a SS higher than 40 for this (Raw at least, it scales down by a crap tonne).
VET IT was monday The rest of that week I did crap all study, saw my EngLang tutor twice but got nothing out of it, I wasn't really paying attention
EngLang
This was Friday, by this point I really stopped caring. I tried for the short answer, I don't feel like I did well though, tried for the analytical commentary, I feel I did an ok one, but wrote the shittiest essay I have ever written, mainly because I left it for last and essays are my weakest point to begin with. So I am seriously going to be surprised if I get higher than a 20 in EngLang. But idc anyways, I'm planning to do a diploma that requires no stupid ATAR or Study Scores anyway, my parents are just going to be annoyed at me for spending hundreds of dollars on tutoring over the past few months.
Informatics
So as soon as I had finished EngLang I had ONE HOUR before informatics. But it was made even worse because I have a computer in the exams and type them up and it took 20 minutes to get the printer to work and fill out the paperwork that comes with doing an exam on the computer. Oh and then I talked to a teacher about helping with presentation night. So I got like 10 minutes break before I had to head over to have the rules read out yet again for the next exam. My point being I was not in a good state doing this exam and couldn't think, it was meant to be my strong point as well but nope VCAA decided to make the timetable not work well for me. So I dunno how I did on it, I tried, but with a can't be bothered attitude, because my mind was murky I kept questioning my answers, I changed over half the multiple choice from my original answers, I dunno which was right which was wrong.
ALL I know for sure now is that I AM DONE I am freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Never have to think about stupid linguistics, business or calculus EVER AGAIN. (I wanna think about IT lol)
I got home cleaned my room a bit and finished my 4,000 piece lego set. That was satisfying, great way to wind down after I finished exams. But then I went to the Awakening on Saturday and spent the whole day there THEN yesterday I saw Crimes of Grindelwald, but as of today I can relax.
Next week I am volunteering for Red Frogs, I feel like I will enjoy spending my time helping people out and serving people.
Been a great year overall I reckon. Thanks for being here the amazing people of ATARNotes, you gave me a productive and different way to procrastinate away from youtube and social media.
I may update this December 14, I dunno yet, I may start a Uni journal next year, I dunno. I would like to give back to this community in some way and I'll be on the lookout for questions I may know the answer to.Depending on how life goes for me I might slowly fade away from this AN community. Choices choices choices.
Good luck all who still have exams.
Good job to anyone who has finished exams
You are all awesome, keep being awesome, don't change to conform to society.
(https://media.makeameme.org/created/if-you-could-322vtv.jpg)
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Congrats mate!
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The impact font just sells it for me. GJ
Losing friends from school is inevitable - just purely due to life changes.. From my perspective, I graduated in 2012 and of my friendship group I had back then, I still only speak with about 1 or 2 of them 6 years later. If the friendship is strong, it'll remain. Otherwise, count yourself lucky and move on.
I wanna think about IT lol
I want you to think about IT too. that sounds creepy, sorry
Good work mate, you sound like a genuine person and really hope you get the scores you are after. :) Good karma defs exists.
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done. I am finished.
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(https://sayingimages.com/wp-content/uploads/ive-never-been-proud-of-you-meme.jpg)
Well done. :)
See you tomorrow at school lol
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Well done buddy!
Have fun volunteering with Red Frogs! That sounds like such a fun thing to do! :))