So, here we are - Potentially the last post
Before I upgrade to a university journey journal that is
I'm pretty late to do this but oh well *shrugs* - It's story time!
HSC results My HSC results woke me up at 5:45 on the 14th. I was just gonna pick up my phone to confirm that it was indeed NESA on that Thursday morning and go back to sleep. But there it was.
"NSW HSC 2017
Bio 96 6"
96! I was not expecting that! I opened up the rest of my results, hoping the news would only get better. It did and it didn't.
I'll be honest, I was a tad dissapointed and confused. My geography results and Drama results were lower than I was hoping for, and considering they were my favourite subjects and I put a lot of work into them I was kinda dissapointed. To counteract this though, my bio and English results were higher than expected! For English I reached my goal of 85, even though I was honestly expecting a 70 at that point, and bio exceeded my goal of 95. My whole perception of my strengths and weaknesses was turned on its head. After letting them sink in and analysing the exam and assesment mark breakdown I eventually settled at being happy with my results, because they are actually overall good. Here's what I got
Spoiler
Bio 96 - band 6
Drama 86 - band 5
Geo 92 - band 6
English Advanced 85 - band 5
General Maths 92 - band 6
ATAR releaseI kept telling myself and others that I didn't care about my ATAR. I'd already been accepted into Western Sydney to do a Bachelor of Planning, and I was clearly gonna exceed the cut off for my 1st preference based on my HSC results. Afterall, the ATAR is just a rank, the HSC results are a much more accurate reflection of your acedemic achievment and efforts throughout the year, in my opinion. Sure, the HSC system still has flaws, but ultimately I was more worried about getting those band 6's than my ATAR.
My mum came in that morning and woke me up by trying to get into my iPad. Jokes on her, it was a 9am release today, not 6. Also, she couldn't have known my student number and pin.
Everyone in the house then left for school and work whilst I played "stick of truth" on the PlayStation. My game was soon interrupted, however, by a message that ATARs were released early. I logged on. There it was, BAM, staring me in the face:
93.90How anticlimactic. I had my hopes at over 95, but was fine with anything over 90. 93.9 fell right between them so I just turned back to my game and let it sink in for a bit. Your ATAR really does mean nothing, and I realised that pretty damn quickly. The only thing I need it for now is some tutoring jobs I've applied for, and of course, to get into uni.
Uni OffersI have 4 Uni courses on my UAC list. I now have 3 offers.
First came my SRS offer for Western Sydney Planning (2nd Preference), which I accepted at the time. Then MQU offered me a place to do Arts (4th preference) through their acedemic achievment program. I ignored this one though because I really don't want to go to MQU anymore.
Finally I got offered my 1st preference - Arts and Advanced studies at USYD. I accepted this one too, but it doesn't feel real. I'm now enrolled in 2 uni's and I have to withdraw from one before the census date.
The thing is though - I'm not sure what to pick. Ok, I've decided to persue arts after much internal debate, but once that decision was made came the lectures. My father came and lectured me to tears 3 times is one night because he doesn't agree with an arts degree. My mother was next. Then my grandparents, aunts, uncles, my best friend.... Every one of them telling me that I was wasting my time and money on a useless degree. "You got a high ATAR and you're going to do Arts?!" One uncle said on Christmas Day. He may have meant it as a joke, but honestly I'm sick of it.
So there's still a bit of doubt in my mind so who knows, maybe I'll completley change my plans and throw a plot twist into my life. But at the moment, I'm doing arts at USyd. I've picked my 1st year units and no one can do anything about it. I'll do what I want to do regardless of what everyone says.
See ya later alligators!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas, have a Happy New year, and enjoy the holidays!
Taylor