So Atar results are out and we have come to the end of the vce journal. It has been an interesting year.
I'm going to be honest with you all. I was disappointed. Extremely. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to do this bad. My goals at the start of the year weren't even a 90. They were realistic. Possible to achieve but I would need to work for them. When I dropped methods. A lot of doors closed for me but some remained. But now it's just more doors closing.
It might be stupid to say but I think I deserve better. That all my studying should amount to something. That all my late nights,my tons essays, my practice exams,my money spent on tutoring,countless sacrifices of events should have amount to something better. That all my hard work and effort should have gotten me to some place. I've always had this irrational fear of what if my best isn't good enough. Time and time again, I've faced this. Yet the pain still hurts. Every time I've fallen, I've managed to get back up again and I know that I will do this time too.
The atar will not define me. Sure some doors have closen .My journey is long and it will continue. It is not over yet. The truth is I don't know what to do in uni. In another world, I know there might be another version of me who is brave enough to study her dreams,but in this world there are many factors that need to be taken to account. The atar is just a number. It doesn't not reflect my intelligence. It does not show my perseverance.
All hope is not lost. I've still got chances. I just have to wait and see. I'm taking a path, I didn't expect. It may take longer for me to achieve my dreams but I've got time. Life is full of unexpected surprises.
The last 2 years have taught me more about life than ever. I've learned who my real friends are. Hint, they're the ones with you while your crying in your school's bathroom. They're the ones you share your happiness and tears. The ones that can sense your disappointment. The ones that know your seeing someone ,just by the looks on your face.
At this point I've accepted life and that everything happens for a reason. I'll go wherever life takes me.
To all those keeping up with my journal. I thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement. Thank you for being there for the good and bad. Thank you to the mods. Thank you for the amazing friendships I've developed as being part of this great community.
Since joining the community almost 2 years ago, I’ve received an immense amount of support from community. I’ve read countless “how to get a 50”articles and I think It’s time I give back to the community by sharing some of my advice.
EnglishSpoiler
1.Make sure you read your texts. Read them,understand them and try to enjoy them. Sometimes you might get texts that absolutely suck,that are completely boring and impossible to read.That’s when you got to be creative with your resources. Look online.
2. If you have a problem with something, work on it straight away. For a long time, I’ve had a huge problem with spelling,grammar and punctuation. It was my weakness. For some reason, I never decided to work on it continuously. So fix the issue before it becomes big.
3.Read, now I’ve mentioned reading before but read other texts. Read newspapers, novels. Read everything you can get your hands on. You don’t know how you will be able to incorporate it. When I was younger, I read the Percy jackson series and that pretty much taught me everything about Greek and roman mythology.This year, when we were asked to do some research on Medea. I was able to use my knowledge on Greek mythology to help me.
4.Practice. Practice writing essays, language analysis, text response. Practice writing succinctly. Use the weekly language analysis thread here on atar notes to practice.
BiologySpoiler
1.
You need to understand the concepts well. When most people think of biology, they think of memorising. While it’s true there is a lot of memorising involved, you also have to understand the concepts as they often link with each other. Things will make sense the more you learn biology.
2.It is easy to waffle on and get off topic in biology. Always refer back to the questions and use the information presented to you in the question to help with your answers.
ChemistrySpoiler
1. It’s important that you understand the concepts well.
2.Practice calculations. There are a lot of calculations that come with chemistry. Now sure you might think these calculations might be easy particularly if you’ve done a hard math subject like methods but chemistry calculations are a bit different. They require a special type of thinking where you need to understand what the question is saying and applying the correct calculations
3. Don’t forget states, units or significant figures. These are easy marks that can be lost.
MethodsSpoiler
1.Know your stuff. It is important in methods that you have a solid base. A good foundation in math can help you do really well. Know your basic stuff like Trig,Algebra etc.
2.Practice. Math is a subject where you need to practice a lot. The more questions you do. The more you improve.
3.Do not give up. There are times where it will be rough. You will hate methods. It will cause you countless breakdowns and endless tears
but you can’t give up. This is a subject that requires perseverance. Just keep going on.
HHDSpoiler
1.Learn to bullshit. Out of all the subjects, this is the most important one that you will use it. Learn to make quick connections and links.
2.Having good writing skills will help you. Practice writing extend response
3 Know your terms. Know your definitions.
Study tips Spoiler
1.Try studying in different ways until you find out what works for you. Cue cards, posters notes. What worked for me was making cue cards for memorizing,posters for linking concepts, writing and rewriting notes for everything else.
2.Utilize your resources. There are so many free resource online and here that can help you for all your subjects.
3.Checkpoints. I liked doing checkpoints as it was a good way to make sure you understood the knowledge and a great prepaeration for the sac/exam
4.Try to study in a clean environment and try change it up every now and then. When my desk was cleaner I found that I was more productive. When I couldn’t study at home, I studied at the library.
Overall tipsSpoiler
1.Don’t neglect your health. Put your mental health first. It should be your number one priority. Use resource. I loved this website which helped managed stress.
https://www.thedesk.org.au Your mental health is more important than your Atar
2.Pace yourself. Don’t study all day every day. You need to pace yourself so you don’t burn out. It is critical that you take break and do something for yourself.
3.Learn to recover from failure. You will fail. You will fall. It will be tough. It will suck. There are times when you don’t want to continue but you must persist. It is important that you keep going and pushing no matter what.
4.Enjoy the year. It’s year 12. There are plenty of opportunities for socialising and meeting new people. Participate in all the activities you can. Have fun. Life goes on. There is more to your life than your atar.
Skills you will learn in year 12Spoiler
1.Perseverance. You will fall and fall. You will cry. But most importantly you will learn to get back up again. Time and time again, you will fall but get back up. It's okay to fall. It's okay to be sad but know that you are stronger than this and you will do better.
2.You will be to find the people who are good for you. You might cut some people of but you may gain new ones. This is life
3.You will learn more about yourself and see how much you have changed as a person. You will not be the same person you were at the start of the year.
That's all for the year. Hope everyone has had a good year and wish you all the best. Maya out