VCE Year 12 Class of 2015

[strawberries]

Probably been asked before in ITT but because we have so many regulars in the thread now and people change their minds: what courses are you guys looking at doing after VCE? If you're not going to uni, what will you be doing instead (e.g. deferring/gap year) or work straight away.

edit: rofl got quoted thrice on a 'their/there' typo I am the king of this thread

deferring aka gap year/working/repeating y12/tafe
probably unlikely to go straight to uni (if I even get in LOL)

Speaking of courses and stuff; when does VTAC open? I'm pretty sure it's in August sometime, right? And how long does it stay open for? How many preferences do you get in total? My school hasn't told us anything about it so far this year -_- Also are any of you guys planning on attending any open days for any Universities? At the moment I'm planning to go to the Melbourne and Monash ones.

Went to Monash last year but cbf going anywhere this year (need to study )
I cbf going to Melbourne open day too because the time it takes to travel will pretty much equal a whole day

I think you get 12 preferences but you don't have to fill them out.
AFAIK, it closes in Sep/Oct (someone clarify) but it reopens again after you get your ATARs so you can change them around based on what scores you get/pre-reqs you meet etc

[AngelWings]

Speaking of courses and stuff; when does VTAC open? I'm pretty sure it's in August sometime, right? And how long does it stay open for? How many preferences do you get in total? My school hasn't told us anything about it so far this year -_- Also are any of you guys planning on attending any open days for any Universities? At the moment I'm planning to go to the Melbourne and Monash ones.

Back again. I should probably set up a tent here or something. (Just kidding.)

All you need to know on VTAC accounts (and some stuff in advance):

• Yeah, VTAC accounts open in mid-August. Your school will somehow notify you of it.
  My Experience

  Mine was kinder and told us at least thrice that it was open, by the Careers teacher invading on our assemblies AND had a session specifically to create accounts. Probably also helped that my home group teacher was the Careers teacher.
• It's open until the week before Christmas usually or thereabouts, but shuts during exams ('cause it's a 'distraction'). I'm pretty sure VCAA has this on their website and/ or on the exam timetable booklet thing they issue out. (I forgot its name. I think that shows.) Also, should be on VTAC's website soon, if not already.
• You get a maximum of 12, yeah, twelve preferences. Minimum is 4 (I think, or at least, that was how many my friend had.), most have 6 - 8, from what I recall. Each can be switched into your desired order and will be listed as "Science (Monash University, Clayton)" or something similar, using my current degree (and first preference) as an example.
• Don't worry. You'll get sufficient warning. Again, don't worry too much about it.

And a couple more...

For the beginner:

• There's a ~$29 fee. (It may have changed.) Fee may increase if you don't pay it within a certain time frame (about 2-3 months, if I remember correctly. Plenty of time, though.). Pay it on time, guys. Save your teachers the hassle. (Also, it's using card or cheque.)
• Preferences go through the account, as do your courses and your ATAR. *cue scary music* This'll actually be a secondary source for getting it; they'll be another link on the VTAC website. You also put scholarship, Special Consideration, medical, personal and other details through the account, including those of whether your 40+ SS should get published.
• Watch the inbox of that account from time to time. Give them the correct details as well and double check.
• Majority of it is pretty self explanatory, so you'll figure it out easily. If not, stake out your Careers Advisor/ teachers/ whatever point of call you usually go to, but not your pets. They're not really going to help.

Oh and if you're still worried about preferences, wait 'til Open Day and/ or until COP (Change of Preference) Week is here. The latter is the same week you get your ATARs, so keep that week free to wreck havoc on the city, whilst crying about your ATAR (Just kidding. It won't be that bad.) join the crowd of students who decided to flock to various tertiary institutions with hope that you'll be a student there some day.[/list]

[IndefatigableLover]

@IndefatigableLover: Bachelor of Biomedicine (or Science if that doesn't work out) majoring in Neuroscience at UoM, so definitely come and join me in that path if you keep it as one of your options! As I explained in another thread, I'd be interested in going to Monash, but I'll be commuting to get to Melbourne and I don't want to turn a 1.5hr trip into a 3 hour trip

If all else fails, Certificate II in Tupperware Containership at TAFE will be satisfactory.

Ooh that's awesome as! I'm kind of the same as you in that travel time will be an issue only for UoM (>1 hour) except what's keeping me open to UoM is the lower ATAR cut-offs for Biomedicine compared to Monash Biomed/Commerce LOL >.<
Though if you ever visit Monash on a weekday during school time then give me a shout and I'll give you a tour of Monash/JMSS (applies to anybody else who feels like it LOL)

Back again.

All you need to know (and some stuff in advance):

• Yeah, VTAC accounts open in mid-August. Your school will somehow notify you of it.
  My Experience

  Mine was kinder and told us at least thrice that it was open, by the Careers teacher invading on our assemblies AND had a session specifically to create accounts. Probably also helped that my home group teacher was the Careers teacher.
• It's open until the week before Christmas usually or thereabouts, but shuts during exams ('cause it's a 'distraction'). I'm pretty sure VCAA has this on their website and/ or on the exam timetable booklet thing they issue out. (I forgot its name. I think that shows.) Also, should be on VTAC's website soon, if not already.
• You get a maximum of 12, yeah, twelve preferences. Minimum is 4 (I think, or at least, that was how many my friend had.), most have 6 - 8, from what I recall. Each can be switched into your desired order and will be listed as "Science (Monash University, Clayton)" or something similar, using my current degree (and first preference) as an example.
• Don't worry. You'll get sufficient warning. Again, don't worry too much about it.

And a couple more...

For the beginner:

• There's a ~$29 fee. (It may have changed.) Fee may increase if you don't pay it within a certain time frame (about 2-3 months, if I remember correctly. Plenty of time, though.). Pay it on time, guys. Save your teachers the hassle. (Also, it's using card or cheque.)
• Preferences go through the account, as do your courses and your ATAR. *cue scary music* This'll actually be a secondary source for getting it; they'll be another link on the VTAC website. You also put scholarship, Special Consideration, medical, personal and other details through the account, including those of whether your 40+ SSs should get published.
• Watch the inbox of that account from time to time. Give them the correct details as well and double check.
• Majority of it is pretty self explanatory, so you'll figure it out easily. If not, stake out your Careers Advisor/ teachers/ whatever point of call you usually go to, but not your pets. They're not really going to help.

Oh and if you're still worried about preferences, wait 'til Open Day and/ or until COP (Change of Preference) Week is here. The latter is the same week you get your ATARs, so keep that week free to wreck havoc on the city, whilst crying about your ATAR (Just kidding. It won't be that bad.) join the crowd of students who decided to flock to various tertiary institutions with hope that you'll be a student there some day.[/list]

Nice! Just to add on, important dates are here: http://www.vtac.edu.au/dates.html

[AngelWings]

Nice! Just to add on, important dates are here: http://www.vtac.edu.au/dates.html

Eh, I just wrote that post and didn't check the websites. Sort of didn't check it again after I got my preference.
But, on behalf of others, thanks.

[Alter]

And now I think I'll be the last of everyone here doing the Methods Applications SAC tomorrow... for real though, I swear we're the only school to have half the SAC be non-calc. Does/did anyone else have this test only partially notes/tech allowed?

[cosine]

That moment when you literally study so HARD, and I mean hard.. and yet you leave 4 questions out on your spesh sac because the teacher had the most vaguely worded question

Honestly, people say you shouldn't complain about underrepresented schools because if you really value education, you will study. Well I do study, and im sure you all know I study immensley,i bloody value education.. The reason why our education system is failing is because of these overpaid teachers who worry too much about their minimum wages than actually caring about their students..

Now poorly worded questions on a SAC, who's fault is it? Is it the student's fault?

Sorry about the rant, but it really pissed me off today, I guess hard work doesn't always pay off..

[StupidProdigy]

That moment when you literally study so HARD, and I mean hard.. and yet you leave 4 questions out on your spesh sac because the teacher had the most vaguely worded question

Honestly, people say you shouldn't complain about underrepresented schools because if you really value education, you will study. Well I do study, and im sure you all know I study immensley,i bloody value education.. The reason why our education system is failing is because of these overpaid teachers who worry too much about their minimum wages than actually caring about their students..

Now poorly worded questions on a SAC, who's fault is it? Is it the student's fault?

Sorry about the rant, but it really pissed me off today, I guess hard work doesn't always pay off..

I second this about underrep schools. The calc sac we did (the one which makes up for 40% of sacs) had one single question which would be considered almost challenging for the general methods student. Shit you not there was more marks for subbing given values into a given equation then there was on calculas...so everyone got ridiculously high scores even though they may not have studied hard, and of course I dropped a mark or two which meant a huge difference in ranks because of the overall value of this sac hahaha. rant over.
Keen for holidays, anyone else!?

[faso]

And now I think I'll be the last of everyone here doing the Methods Applications SAC tomorrow... for real though, I swear we're the only school to have half the SAC be non-calc. Does/did anyone else have this test only partially notes/tech allowed?

Yep ours was like the exam. First part was non calc and out of 40 marks. Second part had multiple choice and extended response. Let's just say I've got a lot to work on.  on a side note does anyone else to sacs after school? It's really starting to piss me off. Teacher says it's so people don't cheat but starting to believe its so we get more class time.

[Alter]

...adding to list of reasons as to why I'm of the belief your study score should be 100% VCAA-assigned assessment (not implying an 100% value on exam, but at least something to fix such a mess).

too great an ability to change one's academic outcomes is given to the schools themselves. if you're going to be basing the entire premise of the ATAR/vce system on being ranked against every other student who completes it, it just seems backward to me for some subjects to count (theoretically) 30-50% on how well your school thinks you're tracking. to see your scores damaged by poor SAC-creation abilities brings frustration to me on your behalf; i can totally empathise with anger about SACs/assessment that don't truly test your abilities in a subject.

-edit-

Yep ours was like the exam. First part was non calc and out of 40 marks. Second part had multiple choice and extended response. Let's just say I've got a lot to work on.  on a side note does anyone else to sacs after school? It's really starting to piss me off. Teacher says it's so people don't cheat but starting to believe its so we get more class time.

1. ah, interesting to see my school isn't alone in that front, then. We don't have a multiple choice section on the tech active component, however.
2. we have SACs after school for English. (had 2 so far after school)

[cosine]

Man they say you shouldn't complain and just work harder.. But honestly, I do not think I could have worked harder than I actually did. It's not about the hours, it's about the effectiveness of studying. It is so frustrating, so depressing, most of you probably ace all your subjects, but just imagine the subject you spend the most dedication to, the subject you consider your best, and end up not completing 30% of the SAC because the questions made no sense at all, and were hardly related to math... But if the teacher had actually tested our mathematical abilities, you know deep inside you would've killed the SAC

/endrant

[Floatzel98]

That moment when you literally study so HARD, and I mean hard.. and yet you leave 4 questions out on your spesh sac because the teacher had the most vaguely worded question

Honestly, people say you shouldn't complain about underrepresented schools because if you really value education, you will study. Well I do study, and im sure you all know I study immensley,i bloody value education.. The reason why our education system is failing is because of these overpaid teachers who worry too much about their minimum wages than actually caring about their students..

Now poorly worded questions on a SAC, who's fault is it? Is it the student's fault?

Sorry about the rant, but it really pissed me off today, I guess hard work doesn't always pay off..

Damn, man that really sucks. My spesh class also seems to get a lot of 'dodgy' questions. Earlier this year on a SAC there was a difficult question that the teacher wasn't even able to do. An even worse instance was from last year on my GMA exam where our teacher had no idea and still has no idea how to do one of the questions on it and to this day we still haven't even been given a mark for the test. I'm barely an average student in my class and somehow I'm supposed to be able to do questions even my teacher can't.

My Physics class on the other hand is the complete opposite. My teacher almost makes our SACs purely from past VCAA exams. It might not seem that bad, but some kids in my class know that questions will be from past exams and can just commit answers to memory from 1 night of 'study' while I am actually putting in the hours to study and understand everything.

I feel that I'm already in shut down mode coming up to the holidays. This week so far i haven't done any studying, only some coursework for English that was due in. I have my holidays planned out with all the work, study and revision that needs to be done but i can already see myself just procrastinating the whole time

[cosine]

Damn, man that really sucks. My spesh class also seems to get a lot of 'dodgy' questions. Earlier this year on a SAC there was a difficult question that the teacher wasn't even able to do. An even worse instance was from last year on my GMA exam where our teacher had no idea and still has no idea how to do one of the questions on it and to this day we still haven't even been given a mark for the test. I'm barely an average student in my class and somehow I'm supposed to be able to do questions even my teacher can't.

My Physics class on the other hand is the complete opposite. My teacher almost makes our SACs purely from past VCAA exams. It might not seem that bad, but some kids in my class know that questions will be from past exams and can just commit answers to memory from 1 night of 'study' while I am actually putting in the hours to study and understand everything.

I feel that I'm already in shut down mode coming up to the holidays. This week so far i haven't done any studying, only some coursework for English that was due in. I have my holidays planned out with all the work, study and revision that needs to be done but i can already see myself just procrastinating the whole time

Well yeah, I mean go ahead put some hard questions on there, I love it when there's something hard because it differentiates the top students with the average ones.. But at least TYPE THE QUESTION IN ENGLISH RIGHT?...

[anat0my]

Hey guys, what happened to the message function? :S

[odeaa]

Man, I just wanna relax these holidays, but I have to study for the umat
Its always there at the back of my mind, it's like a disease that bloody test

[Orb]

...adding to list of reasons as to why I'm of the belief your study score should be 100% VCAA-assigned assessment (not implying an 100% value on exam, but at least something to fix such a mess).

too great an ability to change one's academic outcomes is given to the schools themselves. if you're going to be basing the entire premise of the ATAR/vce system on being ranked against every other student who completes it, it just seems backward to me for some subjects to count (theoretically) 30-50% on how well your school thinks you're tracking. to see your scores damaged by poor SAC-creation abilities brings frustration to me on your behalf; i can totally empathise with anger about SACs/assessment that don't truly test your abilities in a subject.

-edit-1. ah, interesting to see my school isn't alone in that front, then. We don't have a multiple choice section on the tech active component, however.
2. we have SACs after school for English. (had 2 so far after school)

It's really unfortunate, but I feel that VCAA-organised assessments are far too costly. Imagine the scheduling horror of organising a date where every student in the state doing that subject had to sit it on multiple occasions?

SACs are also necessary. What if someone's house burned down or something catastrophic happened. They can't use your GAT to derive everything, can they? (man so many people would be absolutely devastated)

But yeah, I can relate. Some SACs are organised in a dodgy way, but I don't feel as if there's a significantly better solution to the problem