SO MANY UPS AND DOWNS, IT'S A ROLLERCOASTER
Good job to everyone this year

You're all doing wonderfully. HSF marks are insaaaaaane, I heard the physiology exam was soul-destroying.
GERM20005 - German 4
Passed
2014, Semester 2, Parkville, On Campus Credit Points: 12.50
Mark: 75 Grade: Second Class Hons A (H2A)
I'm relieved this mark wasn't lower, really, and it doesn't bother me much (a 75 is still a good mark!, and it's somehow my lowest mark after a 63 in Calc 1), but I could rant for days about this subject, and I feel like I really need to, I'm so mad at myself for putting effort into it. BUT APPARENTLY MY GERMAN 3 AND 4 MARKS DON'T EVEN COUNT TOWARDS MY SGPA AND I'M QUITTING THE DIPLOMA, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAHAHAHHA
WARNING: CATHARTIC SELF-INDULGENT VENT
I studied so much more for this than German 3, which was no easier, and I got a mark 6 points lower despite understanding the entire course far better. I lost 3% by changing two true/false answers on an MCQ test with dubious lost-in-translation passages that were supposed to be extremely easy to understand (they were) at the last minute (the test was 10 MCQ, 6 were true or false and it was worth 15%). I lost 5% on the writing test because there was no time, and the last six answers of over twenty (forty-five minute test) were worth 40/100 marks on the test - I lost 24 marks on questions I was able to answer because the test was so short, and got 14/20. The oral (which I spent far too long preparing for) in which I answered everything confidently and got open praise from the tutors in, I ended up with 1 mark more than last semester, where I broke down crying and was unable to speak for three minutes due to hysteria. The exam, which I studied the whole course for as advised, covered almost nothing I studied except for the basic grammar, and had no opportunity to show understanding, only a blank space to write a sentence (some of the English I had to translate also didn't make grammatical sense in English @_@) or fill in a single word or ending. The assessments for this subject are terrible, and work and understanding do not correlate to your final mark. I definitely understood everything better than last semester, and I managed to answer things consistently correctly in class and while practicing at home. I put so much more effort in, when the concepts were not much harder to grasp, and got a mark 6 points lower. Lots of other students have suffered the same fate (some of them in the reverse direction, which I guess is good for them). The coordinator's changing back to normal again next year (she was on maternity leave this year), so I hope the subject returns to a stable grading structure. I'm really glad I'm quitting the diploma, the ridiculous level of uncertainty (regardless of input, effort or understanding) people have to go through in the subjects Stefan teaches is insane for such a simple course (the content was definitely easier than my science classes, and there was less of it).
BUT!
BOTA20002 - Plant Biodiversity
Passed
2014, Semester 2, Parkville, On Campus Credit Points: 12.50
Mark: 100 Grade: First Class Honours (H1)
This subject did not involve mid-semester tests or multiple choice-based assessment. I wrote an entire script book of tiny writing in the exam (160 marks of the exam were long answers), the two herbaria took days to complete properly and the two prac tests (pretty easy) were really error-prone and I am just in UTTER SHOCK I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS POSSIBLE IN SUCH A QUALITATIVE SUBJECT. I actually can't deal with this mark at all, I would cry BUT I ALREADY DID. I can die happy, I achieved a 100 at university and I didn't think that was possible in a subject run by the botany department :')
In terms of my actual science degree, this semester has gone super-well, especially considering I only had one night to furiously study for my breadth thanks to wasting days and days earlier studying for German (which was unnecessary).
2014 Semester 2 BOTA20002 Plant Biodiversity 1 100 H1 First Class Honours 12.500
2014 Semester 2 ECOL20003 Ecology 1 94 H1 First Class Honours 12.500
2014 Semester 2 LING10001 The Secret Life of Language 1 90 H1 First Class Honours 12.500
2014 Semester 2 ZOOL20006 Comparative Animal Physiology 1 WXT WH Extension 12.500
...the animal phys mark had better be released soon, half the class have had their marks for two days now :')