brenden's Ask Me Anything

[heids]

What's your core purpose/meaning(s) in life?  I don't mean "what's your passion" stuff, but like, what keeps you going and gets you out of bed?

Who's your favourite Harry Potter character?

Annnnd do you really like Coles brand icecream?!  I actually can't eat it. Woolies vanilla is surprisingly great (of course no match with Cadbury), but Coles leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

Why won't you admit that feet aren't triangles??

What was AN like back in the early days?

He wasn't round in the early days... joined in five years after AN started

[Bri MT]

What's your core purpose/meaning(s) in life?  I don't mean "what's your passion" stuff, but like, what keeps you going and gets you out of bed?

Who's your favourite Harry Potter character?

Annnnd do you really like Coles brand icecream?!  I actually can't eat it. Woolies vanilla is surprisingly great (of course no match with Cadbury), but Coles leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

He wasn't round in the early days... joined in five years after AN started

Early-ish days*    not ultra-early days
It's still early relative to me

[Joseph41]

Waiting for Brenden's responses like:

[heids]

THAT GIF STILL HAS A SPELLING ERROR AND I'M JUST NOT USED TO POSTS OF YOURS HAVING SPELLING ERRORS *melts down*

[brenden]

do u believe those who act in comedy tv shows are comedians? take the cast of Friends for example, are they comedians? They're funny as hell, but are they comedians?

Such a genuinely good question, blew my fkn mind.

I'm really tempted to like, be a smart aleck and google the definitions and give my answer based on that, but I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say: no, those who act in comedy TV shows are not comedians.

Comedians get paid for comedy - live shows, so on so forth. Some of them might go on to perform in TV Shows and movies (I.e., Seinfeld), in which case they are comedians who are acting. Actors are paid for acting - and they may be hired to do a comedy show.

So I'm thinking like, the Friends cast - they are actors. Is Jennifer Anniston a comedian? No. Matthew Perry? No? Matt LeBlanc? Kinda, I guess. These people wouldn't introduce themselves as comedians - they'd introduce themselves as actors.

So while they may be funny - they are funny actors.

Great question. I will think about this for the rest of my time here on Earth.

[brenden]

Might as well get the ball rolling with some of my questions

1. How are the Brooks going?
2. Do I give really good shoe recommendations, or do I give really good shoe recommendations?
3. What sort of general shenanigans get someone kicked out of their 3/4 Psych class in year 11?
4. What was your reasoning behind majoring in Philosophy?
5. If you had your time again, would you change your uni experience?

Thanks so much, Brenden

1. How are the Brooks going?
Brooks are going so fucking good. I’ve broken a few PBs, and I attribute that all to the shoes. Nah legit though I actually feel really good around the knees and ankles, definitely glad I bought them.

2. Do I give really good shoe recommendations, or do I give really good shoe recommendations?
No to t he first question, yes to the second question.

3. What sort of general shenanigans get someone kicked out of their 3/4 Psych class in year 11?
Well… Okay. I was Rank 1 at the time… It was the second SAC of the year and I fucking hated my class. The people in the year level above me were just gross and coming up to this SAC, the teacher said we were allowed a cheat sheet, which really pissed me off because like… I don’t need a cheat sheet? The people who need one should study. What’s stopping them from acing a SAC that they don’t deserve to do well in? As a Year 11, I thought Year 12 was meant to be where it “got hard”, so I was generally just telling anyone who’d listen how bullshit this cheat sheet was in the lead up to the SAC. ALSO – if you failed a SAC, you got to do “redemption”, which I thought was rubbish at the time (but now believe it’s a good  thing).

In general, it wasn’t an overly happy time in my life, hahaha. So on the day of the SAC, I’d got like 2 hours sleep I was just generally in a ridiculously shit mood. I opened the SAC up and it was on the ‘easy’ side, and everyone was there with their cheat sheets. I was frustrated at the childishness, and as a self-righteous little 16 year old I decided to give it a childish response… so I drew comic book strips as answers. When my teacher noticed what I was doing and asked me to stop I said “I’ll just do redemption”.

Turns out that’s not an option when you’re a complete arse hole, so the assistant principal swiftly told me to gtfo – and fair enough, too!

But yeah, anyway. The “how” is, “I was a fuck head”, and the “why” is, “I was super unhappy and also a fuck head”.

4. What was your reasoning behind majoring in Philosophy?
Basically, there was a really cool teacher that worked at my school who did a Bachelor of Science and somehow ended up with a major in Chemistry and Philosophy, and then he ended up doing Honours in Philosophy, which meant he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) for only a year’s worth of extra work hahahaha. He said Philosophy was awesome, because it was basically just the study of logic.

At the time I had no idea what he meant but it sounded pretty cool.

I’d also seen that Philosophy majors performed exceptionally well on the LSAT, after Engineering students – and from what I read at the time, that was because the students who majored in those areas performed better on the logic and reasoning section of the test.

Anyway, those two things were enough to me to take an introductory Philosophy unit. That unit was frickin awesome, so I took more Philosophy in second semester, and  then when I hit second year and I’d satisfied other requirements of my course (i.e., take two subjects from different disciplines), I basically took all Philosophy subjects and never looked back hahaha. So in the end, my reasoning was that I fucking loved Philosophy.

5. If you had your time again, would you change your uni experience?

I’d be more social. I was ridiculously anti-social in uni. Would always wear headphones, have a hood on, and generally wear a scowl on my face to discourage social interaction, so I didn’t really make any ‘uni friends’. I think that’s a real shame – I was a bit too immature at the time. If I went back, I’d definitely make more of an effort to make more friends!

[dani_b19]

Hi Brenden,
I just have a few questions:
- How did you study for Chemistry SAC's?
- How did you study for Maths SAC's?
- How did you manage to buckle down and achieve a 90+ ATAT?
- What did you of in VCE to keep motivated on a day-to-day basis?
- How did you not panic or stress during exam?
Thank you in advance!!

[brenden]

Hey Brenden,
What is your advice for submitting UAC preferences?  I’m thinking about doing history/music teaching at uni, do you have any suggestions on what courses would be good? Why did you drop education-what was the worst part of the course?
What’s the best way for someone who doesn’t like English to study and improve for it? Also, what are your tips for motivation and to stop procrastination?
How did you start working at ATAR Notes?
What’s your best piece of advice for someone leaving school this year?
Thanks heaps!! Realised I’ve asked a lot of questions but any answers would be amazingly helpful!

What is your advice for submitting UAC preferences?  I’m thinking about doing history/music teaching at uni, do you have any suggestions on what courses would be good?

The only advice I have for you is to do as much research as possible into what you’re interested in, and then do that! I can’t suggest what courses might be good, because I don’t know what you like! (Although, I do love Philosophy )

Just find out what you want, and then make a list “what would I most love to get into, in  an ideal world?” – then make your UAC preferences in that exact same order. Order your preferences in order of what you MOST PREFER!

As for what your preferences should be… research!! Google, look at uni websites, ask your careers department, ask people studying the course. History/Music Teaching sounds super cool!


Why did you drop education-what was the worst part of the course?

I shit you not, I only went to one education lecture and one education tutorial. At the end of them both, the lecturer/tutor basically said “this is what education is like, so this is the next four years!” and that was  enough for me to nope the fuck out of there.

I hated the first lecture, super boring to me. Tutorial was equally annoying. So yeah, never went back after the first day tbh hahahaha. Can’t really speak for the worst part of the course other than saying “my first and only day”.


What’s the best way for someone who doesn’t like English to study and improve for it?


Write practice essays and  get good feedback.

No explanation needed – that is just plain and simple the best way to study for English and improve, whether you like the subject or not!

Also, what are your tips for motivation and to stop procrastination?
My tip for motivation is to not worry about it. It’s a myth that you need motivation to do work. You can do work without motivation – you just have to do it, haha!

I mean,  what does motivation even feel like? Does it feel like desire? Does it feel like excitement? If I only did work when I felt excited, nothing would get done. The tip for motivation is to stop believing that it is your savior – stop waiting for it, and become your own savior!

Do you feel motivated to brush your teeth? Do you feel motivated to tie your shoelaces? No. You don't feel motivation for these things. You are motivated to do them, in the sense that if you brush your teeth they will look white, and if you tie your shoes you won't trip. So like, you 'have' motivation, but you don't 'feel' motivated.

Similarly, you don't need to feel motivation to work. Work can be part of your routine - then it just becomes something that happens. I think it's a myth that our capacity for work rests on our capacity to 'feel motivated', and it's a myth that I bought into for ages! I even made the ATAR Notes Motivation Corner (https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=135846.0) when I was in Year 12. Every day I would get home from school and watch motivational videos and read motivational question but like... honestly... they aren't really helpful? They last for like an hour? They don't motivate you for the rest of your life. But if you want to achieve stuff beyond Year 12, you're going to have to figure out a way to do work even when the 'feeling' of motivation is missing...... and I guess that's my advice to you!

I will add one thing though - that I am motivated by positivity and opportunity. I don't get motivated by the idea that my life will turn to shit if I screw things up. Although, I do get motivated by the excitement of GAIN. Gaining learning, skills, gaining as a person, and so on. Get home and the house is empty? That's an opportunity to study - and opportunity is exciting. You ate breakfast today? That's an opportunity to study on a full stomach - and opportunity is exciting.

1. Commit to taking all opportunities in front of you.
2. Commit to seeing opportunity everywhere you go.

As for avoiding procrastination… I kind of just embrace it? I don’t feel bad for procrastinating. I just do what I want and get it out of my system, then when I’ve not-done-something for so long that I genuinely need to get on it or I’m fucked, I usually work uninterrupted hahahaha. If I don't want to procrastinate, I don't procrastinate. If I want to procrastinate, I do it until I don't want to anymore. The problem wth people asking "how do I stop procrastinating" is they are actually asking, "How do I stop procrastinating when I want to procrastinate?" and I guess my solution is just... don't. Instead, work on not wanting to procrastinate.


How did you start working at ATAR Notes?


I went to an ATAR Notes meet up, and there was a Further Maths project going on at that stage, and someone was talking about needing help – so I offered, then completed the project. I met my boss through doing that and then when there was a job available, I just got the call and  the rest is history!


What’s your best piece of advice for someone leaving school this year?


1.   Get a job.
2.   Learn basic budgeting skills and, if you haven’t already, teach yourself the beauty of compound interest.

Both of these things are going to benefit you very much. Getting a job because it will make future careers a lot easier to get, and easier to excel in. As for budgeting skills – probably self-explanatory but… who’s richer between someone who earned 70k a year and spends 65k a year and someone who earns 20k a year and saves 10k of it? Learn about money, make it work for you as early as you possibly can.
 

[Joseph41]

How did you start working at ATAR Notes?


I went to an ATAR Notes meet up, and there was a Further Maths project going on at that stage, and someone was talking about needing help – so I offered, then completed the project. I met my boss through doing that and then when there was a job available, I just got the call and  the rest is history!

And now you're organising the ATAR Notes meet ups!

Great responses thus far.

[brenden]

Hi Brenden,
•   How do you keep motivated on a day-to-day basis?
•   How do you prepare for exams and de-stress when you see a question that you have no idea how to answer?
•   Would you rather fight ten duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck? [It's always entertaining to see the different responses and reasons that people come up with this one ]

Thanks for doing this AMA! 

•   How do you keep motivated on a day-to-day basis?
My tip for motivation is to not worry about it. It’s a myth that you need motivation to do work. You can do work without motivation – you just have to do it, haha!

I mean,  what does motivation even feel like? Does it feel like desire? Does it feel like excitement? If I only did work when I felt excited, nothing would get done. The tip for motivation is to stop believing that it is your savior – stop waiting for it, and become your own savior!

Do you feel motivated to brush your teeth? Do you feel motivated to tie your shoelaces? No. You don't feel motivation for these things. You are motivated to do them, in the sense that if you brush your teeth they will look white, and if you tie your shoes you won't trip. So like, you 'have' motivation, but you don't 'feel' motivated.

Similarly, you don't need to feel motivation to work. Work can be part of your routine - then it just becomes something that happens. I think it's a myth that our capacity for work rests on our capacity to 'feel motivated', and it's a myth that I bought into for ages! I even made the ATAR Notes Motivation Corner (https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=135846.0) when I was in Year 12. Every day I would get home from school and watch motivational videos and read motivational question but like... honestly... they aren't really helpful? They last for like an hour? They don't motivate you for the rest of your life. But if you want to achieve stuff beyond Year 12, you're going to have to figure out a way to do work even when the 'feeling' of motivation is missing...... and I guess that's my advice to you!

I will add one thing though - that I am motivated by positivity and opportunity. I don't get motivated by the idea that my life will turn to shit if I screw things up. Although, I do get motivated by the excitement of GAIN. Gaining learning, skills, gaining as a person, and so on. Get home and the house is empty? That's an opportunity to study - and opportunity is exciting. You ate breakfast today? That's an opportunity to study on a full stomach - and opportunity is exciting.

1. Commit to taking all opportunities in front of you.
2. Commit to seeing opportunity everywhere you go.

•   How do you prepare for exams and de-stress when you see a question that you have no idea how to answer?
How do I prepare for exams...

I think about what I need to do in order to be prepared for the exam, I write it down on a to-do list, and then I work through that to-do list at the best pace I can!

What's on the to-do list depends on the exam I suppose... Whether it's reading stuff, writing practise essays, doing deeper research on the Internet myself, or whatever other thing might be there.

How should YOU prep yourself for exams, though?

Whether you're in VCE or HSC, you should:

1. Look at the syllabus and work on making sure you have all of the knowledge and key skills - this involves content learning and content revision. One you are happy with your grasp of the syllabus, go to step 2.
2. Complete practice papers, mark them harshly, and rigorously analyse the questions you got wrong and why. Ensure that you never get them wrong again (either by content learning/revision, or by writing out the reason you made the mistake despite already knowing the content).

Imo, that's all there is to it. In uni it gets a little bit different, but those two steps above are a pretty tried and true formula to doing well in Year 12.

•   Would you rather fight ten duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck? [It's always entertaining to see the different responses and reasons that people come up with this one ]

I would definitely rather fight ten duck-sized horses, because there are far too few horses to become overwhelmed by. Joseph made a mistake - the question should actually ask whether I would want to fight ONE HUNDRED duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck.

My answer is, I'd  rather fight the horse-sized duck. My rationale is that one hundred small horses could very likely overwhelm you before you could kick them away. I.e., whether they are coming at you from all directions or just one direction, it will be difficult to fight all of them off. You might be able to kick a couple out of the way but eventually you'll be swarmed upon.

With the duck, they have one main weapon and one secondary weapon - basically, the ability to fuck you up with their bill, or the ability to send a gush of wind your way by flailing their wings.

Luckily, ducks don't have teeth, so they probably couldn't actually take away one of my limbs or so forth. They can only clamp down extremely hard, so if I manage not to avoid the duck's strike, at least I am only dealing with a pinned limb instead of a permanently gone one.

With that in mind, I think I could see a viable winning strategy against the duck. I.e., there are opportunities to take the leg. For example, you could make a head-on charge for it, then, when you got close to its reach, you would dive towards its legs and seize it for dear life. One you have the leg, if you can in some way disfigure it at the join or the webbing of its feet, you might disrupt its movement and give yourself a fighting chance. Also, one you're underneath the duck hopefully it has a harder time getting you with its bill, and you could also explore other attacking options.

I suppose I go the duck simply because it feels like you have options, whereas if you go the small horses, it doesn't matter what you do, they will probably overwhelm you.

[Joseph41]

I would definitely rather fight ten duck-sized horses, because there are far too few horses to become overwhelmed by. Joseph made a mistake - the question should actually ask whether I would want to fight ONE HUNDRED duck-sized horses, or one horse-sized duck.

I was just testing you.

[josh.stephens2399]

How do you study for a subject that you do not enjoy?

[brenden]

Hi brenden

-Do you memorise essays for English?
-How do you bullshit an essay when you forget things in the exam?
-Have you made up quotes before?

Hey Hansolo!

To be honest, the only exam I ever cared about were my Year 12 exams, and I didn't really have any 'mind-blank' moments in those exams. For English, I didn't make up quotes, because I'd learned them pretty well from writing practice essays. I almost certainly made up quotes in like Year 9 and 10 and stuff but didn't need to for Year 12.

I didn't memorise essays for English.

There are actually two really good articles on this for HSC - one on memorising essays, and one on not memorising essays.

Links:
https://atarnotes.com/memorising-english-essays/
https://atarnotes.com/memorising-essays/

I'd recommend checking them out!

[brenden]

Hi brenden,
I don't know about throwing these questions at you, but here I am doing just that! I don't mean to sound like a question-throwing journalist!
How are you? How did you find your passions? How do you study for exams?

Thank you! 
Have a good day!

Hahahahahaha, I love this. Bloody hell, you're such a question-throwing journalist!!

I'm really good, thank you. I've been waking up at the same time everyday no matter what - EVEN ON SATURDAY MORNING - and I think it's working well for me. And, y'know, at 10.50am, the day is too early for anything to have fucked it up, given that I haven't left the house yet hahahaha.

How did you find your passions?
Gee wiz, what are my passions?!

I suppose my first passion would be teaching people, helping people, and education in general... and that passion came out when I found ATAR Notes, really! I mean, I definitely helped people a lot before I was on ATAR Notes, but I didn't fully "realise" what I was doing, or that it was even abnormal, until I started doing it on the Internet hahaha. To see so many people value their education on ATAR Notes, I just came to realise I guess that I was passionate about education, too. And I wanted to be a teacher when I was in Year 12 so I was probably thinking about it quite a bit - I guess I found that passion by letting nature run its course, then realising in hindsight hahaha.

My second passion, I suppose you could say is Philosophy - and that, too, I found by accident! I wrote about it actually just a few posts ago, when someone asked me my reasoning behind majoring in Philosophy. Click the spoiler below to see my answer to that question.

My reasons for majoring in Philosophy

Basically, there was a really cool teacher that worked at my school who did a Bachelor of Science and somehow ended up with a major in Chemistry and Philosophy, and then he ended up doing Honours in Philosophy, which meant he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) for only a year’s worth of extra work hahahaha. He said Philosophy was awesome, because it was basically just the study of logic.

At the time I had no idea what he meant but it sounded pretty cool.

I’d also seen that Philosophy majors performed exceptionally well on the LSAT, after Engineering students – and from what I read at the time, that was because the students who majored in those areas performed better on the logic and reasoning section of the test.

Anyway, those two things were enough to me to take an introductory Philosophy unit. That unit was frickin awesome, so I took more Philosophy in second semester, and  then when I hit second year and I’d satisfied other requirements of my course (i.e., take two subjects from different disciplines), I basically took all Philosophy subjects and never looked back hahaha. So in the end, my reasoning was that I fucking loved Philosophy.

So yeah, after I took a few Philosophy units I realised I really, really, loved it - so I suppose that was discovered by semi-accident, too!

My third passion would be physical exercise (particularly mixed martial arts), and again, that was just something I "realised" in hindsight after doing a lot of different sports and moving around a lot. I think there's something beautifully human about the discomfort we get in exercise. Exercise is nothing but suffering, but at the same time, you are also focussed on nothing else - you are at peace. You suffer, and you grow. Sweat humbles you. Cuts, grazes, and bruises humble you. You're taken away from the surreal and mindboggling nature of consumerist society and thrust into just, animalism. If you're working hard physically, you don't think about anxieties, about the future, about money... The only thing present is that "I'm in pain but I have to keep going". I find a lot of purity in that.


How do you study for exams? 
I think about what I need to do in order to be prepared for the exam, I write it down on a to-do list, and then I work through that to-do list at the best pace I can!

What's on the to-do list depends on the exam I suppose... Whether it's reading stuff, writing practise essays, doing deeper research on the Internet myself, or whatever other thing might be there.

How should YOU prep yourself for exams, though?

Whether you're in VCE or HSC, you should:

1. Look at the syllabus and work on making sure you have all of the knowledge and key skills - this involves content learning and content revision. One you are happy with your grasp of the syllabus, go to step 2.
2. Complete practice papers, mark them harshly, and rigorously analyse the questions you got wrong and why. Ensure that you never get them wrong again (either by content learning/revision, or by writing out the reason you made the mistake despite already knowing the content).

Imo, that's all there is to it. In uni it gets a little bit different, but those two steps above are a pretty tried and true formula to doing well in Year 12.

[Alein]

Hi!
I want to know if you know anything about the advantages and disadvantages of being a part-time student? There is a subject I want to do but unfortunately my school doesn't offer it, so I want to do it outside of school via distance ed. But that would leave me with three subjects at school next year, as I am taking 2 three four's this year. Should I become a part time student or just take another course at school?