HSC Stuff > The HSC Journey Journal
The Countdown
fantasticbeasts3:
Hey justwannawish!
First, good luck with the UMAT! I'm sure you'll smash it :-) You might not feel prepared now, but in any test situation you always know more than you think. Don't worry about your friends who have gone to MedEntry tutoring because it may feel like they have an advantage, but like the HSC, it's definitely possible to do well without tutoring. :-)
With the university applications, don't focus on trying to be intriguing - just be honest! If anything, I think what you've written in your entry is awesome. Maybe you can start by answering the questions in point form, then elaborate.
Also, take a break once in a while! You do have a lot to do but your mental health is just as important, if not more important.
Best of luck :-)
justwannawish:
--- Quote from: fantasticbeasts3 on July 20, 2018, 11:58:54 pm ---Hey justwannawish!
First, good luck with the UMAT! I'm sure you'll smash it :-) You might not feel prepared now, but in any test situation you always know more than you think. Don't worry about your friends who have gone to MedEntry tutoring because it may feel like they have an advantage, but like the HSC, it's definitely possible to do well without tutoring. :-)
With the university applications, don't focus on trying to be intriguing - just be honest! If anything, I think what you've written in your entry is awesome. Maybe you can start by answering the questions in point form, then elaborate.
Also, take a break once in a while! You do have a lot to do but your mental health is just as important, if not more important.
Best of luck :-)
--- End quote ---
Hey!
Thank you for your advice, it honestly means so much to me to know that someone is reading this and supporting me!
I've begun to rewrite my application in point form as you suggested and now it's just a mess of things I want to include, but it's beginning to mould into something comprehensive! My application is starting to take shape hopefully though I might make another post about the specifics of the application soon.
I think today I'll continue doing UMAT and tomorrow get cracking at physics. I've been taking breaks when my mum is home since I haven't seen her much these holidays with my holiday classes and her work. And it's been so good to spend time with her. I need to manage this and trials and increase my efficiency haha.
justwannawish:
Remember when I said I'd get cracking at physics, lol, that was a lie. I'm sorry. I kinda just had a break from non-UMAT things and spent time with family, which isn't something I get to do often. Can't believe it's the last term already! I'm feeling psyched and ready though trials seem like they will kill me. But here it is, the accumulation of thirteen years of schooling all into a fun/stressful couple of months.
(And uni applications and references and I need to fix up my ext 2 argh before it's due during trials. Hearing the word discover or some permutation of it is making my heart skip a beat. But after UMAT, I'm going to make a better schedule and post it here and actually stick to it, I promise to all my (potential?) readers or maybe it's just a promise to myself, which is fair enough too)
And speak of the devil, UMAT is tomorrow!!!! At this point, I'm just watching some more youtube clips on tackling UMAT rather than actually doing ACER papers or anything. But I'm hoping I'll do well! I feel like I want to succeed more than anything else in my life :)
We'll see how it goes XD
fantasticbeasts3:
Good luck for tomorrow!!
justwannawish:
It's been a very long time since I've last posted and for anyone still interested, I'm alive barely! I've a lot to update since I've done both trials and UMAT in that time frame.
UMAT
Spoiler Honestly, I'll regret this line in two weeks, but I don't think it was as hard as I expected. Like it was hard, don't get me wrong, I looked at half of those pick the middles, laughed hysterically (hopefully only internally, though that could explain why my supervisor looked like I was insane...) and guessed C. But I think I expected something 1000 times harder, I expected to have to guess all those 134 questions and have no clue for anything and resign myself for sitting the GAMSAT haha. And I call myself an optimistic person!
For the first time, I think my Section One was the best :o, which is hilarious because I think I flunked all the practice tests with Section One. Usually my scores go: Section 2, Section 1, Section Three, but I think it will go 1, 2, 3. But I'll learn whether I was right soon :( Though the way I answered was all over the place, I think I started with Q131 and then just flicked the booklet to random questions and did all my Section 2, and then went chronologically and then went to the end again to keep up the adrenaline. My leg started jiggling argh, it's honestly my biggest annoyance and it kept on happening.
I went in the morning to Olympic Park and though I had to wake up a bit earlier, it was actually probably better for me, because it was over! After the exam, my dad bought pizza and I fell asleep on the short ride home haha and couldn't be bothered to head back to class. What was once the focus of my life was done, and a month later I have to admit, I'm proud of myself for getting through it. Hopefully, it went better than I expected to save my failing ATAR from crumbling into the dust.
Trials
So this beast also came by and attacked with the gusto of ...idk tbh, it just ended me. I am not confident with my results at all, but my teachers keep on reminding me it's my rank that matters more than the mark for this. Though I'm not sure whether my rank would be improved at all... but last time, I was sure I did the best on chem and flunked physics, but there wasn't much of a mark difference between them. Fingers and toes and eyes crossed!
Maths Ext 1
Spoiler I walked in confident and smiling since my friends and I were all making stupid jokes before and then I opened the exam. Haha, what a joke. :-X It was somewhat harder than the HSC, but we all thought the teachers did a really good job at mimicking it- the questions were very HSC like rather than textbook questions. And luckily, there weren't any typos- our school always seems to end up with a typo in our Advanced papers. Though I feel like the marks would have to be adjusted, since we had an induction question worth one mark! And our teacher figured it out today and changed the scheme for it, though some kids skipped it bc of the low mark associated with it.So idk what's happening there. I know I lost around 5 marks but even then, I had done some killer trials before, I'm looking at you, Ruse, so I was glad it wasn't on that level of difficulty. Our teachers have finished marking our exams but they can't give out marks or anything until the security period is over (we use independent papers) Ext 2 Maths
SpoilerMy ext 2 teacher is a honest beast and finished marking our papers the day after we did it. Give me some time to recover haha. I'm ranked 5th overall, and I'm happy with that. I'm a bit worried though, our teacher said that was a hard test but I thought the HSC was significantly more difficult? There were more questions I could do in our paper than in the HSC (though our paper didn't include binomial bc we haven't covered it in ext 1) and I'm reminded of the need to continually work hard and keep improving my marks. My rank can't change (it better not, I'll fite someone lol) but my mark can and will with my dedication to the course. Physics
SpoilerI did this the day after Ext 2 and was more dead than not. I feel I answered stupidly for some questions, and I don't remember what I answered for the long response. Tbh, was totally expecting a q on transistors/semiconductor doping/Einstein's contribution/Planck, but did I get any of those? Nope, which was probably a good thing bc I forgot everything rapidly after my exam :) We haven't gotten our marks back, apparently one of the teachers hasn't started marking though we did it in the first week of exams, but he apparently just didn't want to start since he finished marking year 8 science tests... interesting priorities haha, but I can't fault him for not looking forward to our fudging. Chem
Spoiler I'm going to get roasted so hard in chem. Out of a combination of stress and stupidity, I totally forget about lead acid cells and fudged the comparison between them and button cells so badly (worth 7 marks). I also I'm hoping I get pity marks but idk. Not looking forward to my results but hopefully I just edge out a 90, I'll find out soon. crossed fingers and hands and everything, wishing on 11:11, shooting stars and four leaf clovers here English Ext 2
Spoiler I handed it! It was a huge weight off my shoulders and a lot of my blood, sweat and tears have gone into it. I'm actually happy about it and really enjoyed the writing process. I found it to be more rewarding than I initially imagined it to be and a welcome break from all my other subjects. I'm hoping my results will reflect that but either, it's an unit done!
I hope that recap was a solid summary of my last month and a bit. I'm going to be more regular as I get my marks back though :) Until then, see you!
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