HSC Journey- From Prelims to HSC

[owidjaja]

Aye, congrats on surviving another day of year 12! Whew.

In terms of improving your maths marks, there may be a couple of reasons why:

First and foremost: are you confident with the content itself? Is it too difficult to wrap your head around? Usually, they are the first indication of why you may have a mark that is undesirable, but don't worry! You've got the whole year to bring that up. If this is you, then go back to different varieties of question. Challenge yourself, and do the harder questions from the textbook rather than sticking with the questions at the beginning. A good way to do questions from the textbook is to do the last two columns or do every third question. This allows you to be efficient with your study, and you're not constantly attempting questions you definitely can do in the exam. You could always go back and attempt more questions if you don't feel comfortable.

Secondly, do you feel anxious when you walk into the exam? You may have a good foundation, but that all becomes redundant if you freak out during the exam. If this is you, then take a few deep breaths and control your breathing before you begin your exam. Make sure you're feeling relaxed. During the exam, don't slouch your back or lean towards the table. Your body language signifies your anxiety level, and you don't do as well because there's too many things happening at once in your mind. Have a nice posture; don't grip your pens too hard, and just do the questions. Perhaps, take note of how you're breathing as well, and make the conscious decision to slow down and control that breathing. You'll feel a lot better when you do.

Thirdly, make a note of where you're constantly losing marks. Is it a specific topic, or are they just silly mistakes? Do you forget to add the "+C"? Write these mistakes into a journal or notebook, and keep adding to it when you get an assessment or exam back. Look over them before an exam, so you don't make that same mistake. Write in different coloured pens to help you visualise it in the exam. This helps to understand specifically where you're going wrong, and by constantly reminding yourself of these mistakes, you'll slowly and consciously omit them from the actual exams and the HSC exam.

Hopefully, these were helpful to you in some way haha.

Ahaha thanks for these tips! I feel like stress is the biggest factor because a lot of things trigger me in the exam. When I did my 3U exam last term, the guy who I was placed next to has this ridiculous habit of tapping incessantly and that increased my stress levels dramatically. On top of that is just pure paranoia with whether I know my content or not. I'm not sure if that impacts my understanding of the content, but I tend to be really paranoid so I end up doing every single question in the exercise (and my new teacher prefers it if we do every question in the exercise). But I feel like exam questions just throw me off in general. No matter how many past papers I do, I'm always thrown off in exams. I don't know how to approach it in an exam but then afterwards I kinda figure out.

Idk, I think it's a mix of stress and confidence. But thanks again for these tips

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
Remember how I said that I came second in physics? Well I managed to scab one more mark for my physics exam, making me equally first! It's kinda funny because people have made jokes about the guy coming first being my rival (including my physics teacher lol) and when he heard me talking to my teacher about my mark, he kinda got bitter. Don't get me wrong, he is really smart but he also likes to look down on people.

Anyways, I managed to catch a cold -_-. How does one get a cold during hot weather? Well, last year I got a cold around the same time and when I met my doctor last year, she said fluctuating weather can cause colds. It's kinda bad because I have a speech due on Monday and I've already made it clear to my class mates that I want to go first (or I hope I did). Welp :/ looks like I'll be in a coughing fit during my speech. It's not that bad at the moment; it's just that my throat is making it uncomfortable to swallow and my left nostril is always blocked.

And speaking of speeches, boy am I glad my friend was doing a study group for English. Well, I couldn't attend their study group per se, but I did contribute to critiquing one of the people who attended. The thing is, the host of the study group is basically who everyone in the study group looked up to because she's really good in English (and does 3U english) so she was the one giving the comments but she wasn't satisfied with the comments a lot of people gave her. Hence, we both decided to critique each other's speeches since I couldn't come to the study group and I might as well critique a friend's speech while she gives me her comments on my speech. It managed to work out well because she tried her best to give as much feedback as possible while I did the same- it was kinda funny when we were in the library and she was in the middle of commenting my speech, our English teacher wandered past where we were sitting and she got triggered seeing him (I think it's because she got triggered about 4U english and the shame she got from our English teacher lol).  I feel a bit more confident in my speech.

The problem is, how much should I practice? Last year, I spend Sunday practicing all day to the point that I used the exact same words when I spoke, making me sound like I memorised a full script. At this point, I know most of my points and I have to look down at my notes a few times before talking about my points. But I'm also scared that I'll over-practice (is that even a thing xD) and then sound robotic on Monday. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[Lumenoria]

Hey guys!
Remember how I said that I came second in physics? Well I managed to scab one more mark for my physics exam, making me equally first! It's kinda funny because people have made jokes about the guy coming first being my rival (including my physics teacher lol) and when he heard me talking to my teacher about my mark, he kinda got bitter. Don't get me wrong, he is really smart but he also likes to look down on people.

Anyways, I managed to catch a cold -_-. How does one get a cold during hot weather? Well, last year I got a cold around the same time and when I met my doctor last year, she said fluctuating weather can cause colds. It's kinda bad because I have a speech due on Monday and I've already made it clear to my class mates that I want to go first (or I hope I did). Welp :/ looks like I'll be in a coughing fit during my speech. It's not that bad at the moment; it's just that my throat is making it uncomfortable to swallow and my left nostril is always blocked.

And speaking of speeches, boy am I glad my friend was doing a study group for English. Well, I couldn't attend their study group per se, but I did contribute to critiquing one of the people who attended. The thing is, the host of the study group is basically who everyone in the study group looked up to because she's really good in English (and does 3U english) so she was the one giving the comments but she wasn't satisfied with the comments a lot of people gave her. Hence, we both decided to critique each other's speeches since I couldn't come to the study group and I might as well critique a friend's speech while she gives me her comments on my speech. It managed to work out well because she tried her best to give as much feedback as possible while I did the same- it was kinda funny when we were in the library and she was in the middle of commenting my speech, our English teacher wandered past where we were sitting and she got triggered seeing him (I think it's because she got triggered about 4U english and the shame she got from our English teacher lol).  I feel a bit more confident in my speech.

The problem is, how much should I practice? Last year, I spend Sunday practicing all day to the point that I used the exact same words when I spoke, making me sound like I memorised a full script. At this point, I know most of my points and I have to look down at my notes a few times before talking about my points. But I'm also scared that I'll over-practice (is that even a thing xD) and then sound robotic on Monday. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

HAHAHAHHA OMG GIRL, I was basically in the same position as you are now when I was preparing for my major work presentation/speech for Multimedia lol. I had severe glandular fever and reflux laryngitis, so I completely lost my voice and so I asked my teacher if I could go the next day (so it would subside a bit) and he sternly said no. In order to decide the order, he randomly picked people out of a hat so I was praying I would be picked on another day. And of course... I had to go first. I got full marks on the presentation though, so it's tough but possible HAHHAA

[owidjaja]

HAHAHAHHA OMG GIRL, I was basically in the same position as you are now when I was preparing for my major work presentation/speech for Multimedia lol. I had severe glandular fever and reflux laryngitis, so I completely lost my voice and so I asked my teacher if I could go the next day (so it would subside a bit) and he sternly said no. In order to decide the order, he randomly picked people out of a hat so I was praying I would be picked on another day. And of course... I had to go first. I got full marks on the presentation though, so it's tough but possible HAHHAA

Omg lol! How does one present with a lost voice?? At least you got full marks xD

[Lumenoria]

Omg lol! How does one present with a lost voice?? At least you got full marks xD

HAHAHAHAHA I KNOW, I had to keep gasping and pausing because it hurt so much! I literally lost it all, and I just kind of squeaked my words out the best I could - albeit sounding dead as fuck lol. I know!! It didnt help that I improvised the whole thing on the spot, so I was sure the max I could get was 70% xD Probs got it because he felt bad for me tbh HAHAHHAA

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
So week 2 of the year has gone by and I'm exhausted already. I think my main struggle is to maintain a balance with homework and Major Works. My math homework takes up at least four hours of my study time so by the time I finish my homework, I'm too tired to do anything. Or sometimes I don't finish my math homework and I just have to move on because I literally cannot do any more questions. I'm hoping I can do more of my Major Works and hopefully start my creative this weekend- I'm starting to get sick of math lol.

Anyways, I kinda found out that my new math teacher isn't the best at teaching 3U content. We started going through integration by substitution and he didn't really address any questions involving a u^2 or re-arranging what u was and make it equal to x. It was a bit confusing for me when I did the homework because we never went through it in class and I didn't expect it. He didn't know about these kinds of questions until I asked him next lesson. I had to ask my physics teacher as well to explain it to me and he was able to explain it better than my math teacher. Yet again, my new math teacher is better than my previous one so I should be complaining.

I'm also starting to feel behind in my Major Work. My Society & Culture teacher told me I'm not behind but I still feel a bit behind. On top of that, I'm barely getting any responses for my questionnaire. I have 54 responses at the moment but I was hoping that I was able to push it up to 100 responses once I sent it to the Year 11s since I was able to get around 51 responses when I sent it on HSC Facebook Page, AN Forums, PIP Exchange, Year 12s and the teachers. So now I've resorted to sending it to my family. Except my dad started roasting my questionnaire before he even looked at it, saying that I should be putting more closed ended questions than open ended since I'm surveying a large sample size. At this point, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore- I've gotten numerous people to check my questions and people say they're fine. After getting a number of responses, I'm seeing flaws- does this mean that I can't use my responses anymore?

So yeah, nothing major has happened this week, apart from me still suffering with a cold.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
Welcome back to Olivia's Angsty Journal lol. I've been a bit angsty recently, probably because I was still adjusting over the fact that I'm doing my HSC. Or maybe it's because of the influx of new Year 11 students who don't really give a toss about the Year 12s. My previous AP made it clear that Year 12s get first dibs on seats in the yard (since my school yard barely has any seats or shade). Yet Year 11s keep taking our spot under the tree -_- Yes, I'm petty but yet again, last year's Year 12 students probably hated us when we were in Year 11. Looks like the tradition is still going ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I feel a bit more relieved with my progress in my SAC Major Work. I've finally completed three primary research methods and I'm on the lookout for interviewee candidates: either a sociologist who knows a fair bit on race/ethnic relations and diversity and someone whose parents are interracially involved. I've asked my dad to be on the lookout for experts since he works in the teaching/academic field in social science. Hoping to get that organised in a few weeks time so I can properly plan out my chapters. I have a basic structure of my PIP- I just need to fill it in with my primary and secondary research. But I think in the meantime, I need to increase the number of sources because at the moment I have 11. I have at least ten journal articles on my desktop waiting to be read but I find it difficult to manage my Major Works since math takes up about four hours of my study time- I'm lucky today because it was an easy exercise (we just started logarithms and exponentials) and it was quite short.

As for History Extension, I need to do more readings. I also have a bunch of journal articles and other sources to be viewed but I focus a lot on math. I am happy with my progress since I have consulted two experts and already have secured my third one- I just need to finalise my interview questions. However, my History Extension teacher told us that we will be getting our proposal essays back tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous, even though Susie has approved my essay and I basically bombarded my teacher with questions during the first week back.

Anyways, I'll see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
So barely anything has happened school-wise, apart from my friends and I always ranting about the Year 11 students- seriously, we tell them to walk around our small circle (in comparison to their massive group) and they just keep asking 'why?' as if they don't give a toss. Yeah, I get mad easily- that's why I watch teen drama shows; it gives me a reason to hate on something lol.

Anyways, today I did something really big for my studygram- I finally changed it into a business profile. Did I make the right choice? I don't know. This was something I've been meaning to do but never had the guts to do so. So now I did it. What next? I kinda wish to get my posts sponsored- I love the studyblr community but there are times I wished that I could earn money from my posts and try and make a name for myself so I can put it in resumes and scholarship applications. But at the moment, I just need to post regularly to make sure my followers are constantly updated- I went on a long hiatus last year and that was a bad decision.

Back to my school-related stuff, I finally finished my creative! Even though we don't do the creative until Trials I still want my teacher to go through my creative as soon as possible so I can spend the rest of the year refining my creative piece. I'll post my creative on AN forums after I've received my teacher's feedback for some peer marking so I can compare the comments and see where to go with my creative piece. I feel like it was easier for me to write my creative because I related to my character so much since I focused more on family discovery- moral of the story: write something you can relate to; it makes it easier to write. I found it difficult to include more 'showing not telling' because my teacher commented on my Year 11 creative piece that some of my description was irrelevant to the plot or the theme. I'm trying to find a balance between the two so I'll see what my teacher has to say with my first creative piece.

On another note, I'm starting to get a bit desperate in getting more people to do my PIP survey. I'm at 62 responses at the moment and I really need to push it up to 100. I've asked my dad to promote it on his Facebook page, asked my tutors to promote it, posted the link here and on HSC Facebook discussion page, PIP exchange, sent it to the Year 11's, 12's and my teachers- where else should I post it? I'll attach the link here if people haven't done my survey.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[prickles]

Why not put the link in your signature? I don't know if you will get that many more, but just a suggestion

[owidjaja]

Why not put the link in your signature? I don't know if you will get that many more, but just a suggestion

Ahaha didn't think of that! Thanks for the suggestion

[Lumenoria]

Oo what's your studygram? I'm on the app so I can't see your signature, but I'll give you a follow if you tell me your username haha

[owidjaja]

Oo what's your studygram? I'm on the app so I can't see your signature, but I'll give you a follow if you tell me your username haha

My studygram username is studywithlivia!

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
This week on Olivia Rants Over Year 11's- lmao I rant about them so much because they're literally not respecting us. We told them to move over a bit because it's literally 20 people vs 5 smol Asian girls and none of us are intimidating enough to tell them off- well, my friend has yelling power but she's petite so no one listens to her. We even told them NICELY to move over and how we don't wanna pick a fight with them and they moved 1cm away from us. We even tried discussing obscure topics like girl stuff and the dark side of the web (trying to keep things here PG13 even though most of us are probably 16 and older xD) to get them to move away and THEY DON'T GET IT. My school is only Year 11 and 12 and we're literally having a non-violent protest against them it's frustrating.

With that aside, I'm starting to get restless with my new Modern History teacher. I feel like we're behind and we're spending so much time on minor things. For example, he spent the entire lesson talking about Australian politics and tried to loosely link to the Weimar Germany topic. Personally, I kinda feel that he should've explained proportional representation and the political spectrum and compare between Australia and Germany- talking about the number of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives was a bit too much. I kinda feel bad for my sub teacher as well because he's a legit historian but can't control the class. I really miss my teacher because she had everything under control and we feel productive. I have a topic test tomorrow and I have no clue what to study for- I asked him which syllabus dot point and he just said the stuff we've covered but it feels like we've covered nothing!

Anyways, the responses started to roll in after my last post, which made me feel a bit relieved. I have 70 responses at the moment and one of my friends on Facebook offered to share the link, albeit she's not sure if people can see her post. If you guys haven't done so, please do the survey (in my signature) and share the link because I need 30 more responses. I really wanna start analysing my primary results as quickly as possible.

One that note, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!
GONG XI FA CAI

Translation: Happy Chinese New Year!

Got some red envelopes from my family today is I'm currently rolling in money lol. This day is probably where my main source of income comes from because we literally get hundred dollar notes from relatives, depending how generous they're feeling this year xD. I kinda miss seeing dragon dancing on the streets and fireworks shows- back in Indonesia, the neighbours and I would play with the fireworks and we'd go to the city to see dragon dancing- if you guys haven't seen them, you should look them up on Youtube because whoever's under the dragon has some seriously amazing acrobat skills!

On another note, I'm feeling a bit tired lately- probably because I keep sleeping at around 12.30am. I know that's nothing in comparison to other people who sleep at 2am but I tried to not fall asleep in class today -_- I had 2 topic tests today as well, so that was stressful. Modern was okay because it was just to show how well we're absorbing the information (except one of the questions asked us another name for the German Revolution and I just sat there for a good minute trying to figure out) but math was probably the most stressful because my teacher said we need to get at least 70% or we'll have to resit the test. Not really confident with my math topic test because I got negatives in some of my answers (like the area questions)- like, I know the method but sometimes when my friend and I do a question together, we don't get the answer from the answers.

Apart from that, nothing much happened today, except for the fact that the Year 11's are starting to be a bit more mindful in sharing the space. We're on our side and they're on their side. It's kinda tense because one of my friends kinda approached the girls (since it's a massive co-ed group) to talk to them about sharing the space and they just ignored her and walked away. It's very frustrating dealing with them because they're not really willing to do their part of this mutual respect we're trying to establish.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[Lumenoria]

Omg your experience with the year 11s is legit so fucking relatable, it's hilarious because I thought I was just a cruel person HAHAHA. In my situation though, it's year 10 imports who don't even understand English so they just stare at us for 2 seconds then continuing chatting in their foreign language or whatever, ugh it's so frustrating.