WEEKEND Q+A #7: KATIE RINOS

[katie,rinos]

Hi Katie
I was wondering if you had any tips with memorising quotes for English as efficiently as possible? Also how much time were you putting into studying for trials a day? And how did you go about studying for the two option essays for Legal Studies (I'm doing consumers and world order)

To memorise quotes for English, I normally would speak into the voice memos on my phone and record it either the afternoon, or a couple of days before the exam. I'd then listen to it quite a few times that before the exam (night/morning) and would have memorised most of it (I still have these on my phone now). I also wrote the quotes out a couple of times (on both my laptop & paper) and would use different colours for each of the themes. For discovery, I mainly used almost of the same quotes for each practise essay so I knew them pretty well from doing that.

I don't really remember how much time I spent studying for trials each day. I think it depended on the day and I think I studied a lot more in the break before HSC. I did have some 9-3ish study days at school for some of my subjects (English, Ancient and some others during the break before HSC) and also ended up going to 2 days of AN lectures.

I did consumers and family for my options for legal. I made really condensed study sheets, mainly for the contemporary issues area for the syllabus and worked on having legislation, cases, responses and media for each one. I made sure each issue was less then a page so that I knew them really well. These were my one's for consumer law.

I also made sure my folder was really organised with all of my class work, internet resources, past students responses, practise essays and articles. It was really good because I knew where everything was if I wanted to add anything extra onto a practise essay.

Thanks for the questions!! 

[katie,rinos]

And also what's uni like?? What advice do you have to give to us starting in 2019?

Uni's really fun but it is a lot different to high school. I found it a bit difficult just getting used to the travel and the different kinds of assignments (and referencing). I end up spending a lot more money then last year on stuff like food at uni, opal cards, uni events. The marking is a lot different to high school and in one of my subjects I was incredibly happy with a 62. The lectures for education are huge and your there with 300 other people which is really large and different at first-most of my music lectures are a lot less, while the tutes normally have around 20ish people. At school, my teachers were on my back about things, whereas at uni the lecturers don't really care if you hand your assessments in on time, or attend lectures so you need to be a lot more self motivated.

 It's really fun being with people who want to study music/education as well and most people have been really nice and friendly. The music cohorts fairly small so we all knew each other pretty well. Although some of it has been a bit boring, I've really enjoyed most of the content and found it interesting (especially the music history and performance courses). My studio classes have been really practical with one of them being on performance and the other learning how to sing with four-part harmony in my music theory courses. Theres heaps of different societies and volunteering and social events that you can be involved in which has been really fun-last sem I was involved in Arts camp, peer mentoring, wind symphony and a cruise during vivid.

Advice: Be involved in some type of club/society/events. I've found them really fun and an easier way to start to make friends (I have a couple of friends that I met during Arts camp and another Artssoc event). I don't think that uni would be as fun without some of the societies I was involved in last semester. Some of your marks might not be as high as year 12, which is definitely fine as the standard and marking is different at uni. Don't worry if it does take a bit of time to adjust and make friends because it is a big change (I think only around 4 people from my school ended up going to UNSW).

[jamonwindeyer]

Assuming total identical pay and other benefits, would you prefer to travel the world playing in concert halls, or teach at a super prestigious music school?

[katie,rinos]

How did you prepare for the legal crime essay??? seeing as the questions are so unpredictable.

I ended up doing a lot of essay plans and mind maps, where I would write down my judgements, topics, evidence and legislation that I would be able to use in an essay. I did it both on my whiteboard and paper/my laptop. I'd try to do it sometimes without looking through my notes and then would add onto it with my notes. Then also trying to do quite a few practise essays from past papers.

This was one of my mind maps for law reform:

Spoiler

I also tried to make sure that I knew all the content well with flashcards/quizlet and would try to test myself on it fairly often during afternoons. I made this set of flashcards that I used for trials that I think covered most of the crime syllabus. I made sure that my folder was organised and that I had up to date articles and statistics that I could use in my essays.

Hope this helps 

Do you have any suggestions for forcing yourself to get work done? They say 'The hardest part about studying is starting,' but how would you get yourself to start working? 

I procrastinated a lot last year, especially with English essays. The Mac app SelfControl was really good when I was on my laptop because you can choose websites that you normally get distracted on (For me, it was stuff like Facebook, Instagram, even Atar Notes at times), and then you can block the websites for however long you need to get work done. I also had to schedule my study around my extracurriculars so I tried to study in some of the little breaks. I'd try to make studying interesting/fun sometimes and wouldn't try to study the same subject for too long.

Thanks for the question!! 

[katie,rinos]

1. Do you prefer classical piano pieces or jazzy piano pieces? Why?

2. If you had to specialise in an area of music, would it be the blues or classical music? Why?

Classical for both. I'm not really too into jazz music (even though I have a saxophone). I think I've mainly played a lot more classical/Romantic period and pieces on the clarinet so it's what I'm more used to. The jazz pieces that I did play for my exams weren't my favourites.

Katie, what advice would you give current high school students who really aren't sure what they want to do after Year 12?

I knew that I wanted to do education last year but I wasn't too sure if I wanted to do arts/ed or music/ed.

Look at things that you really enjoy and would love to spend another 4/5 years learning about. Look at your passions, hobbies and things that really interest you. Don't just look at options because they have a high atar/prestige but on the other hand don't be deterred from courses that are difficult to get into. Ask people a lot of questions and go to open days/career expos to see your options. Talk to your careers advisors: I know last year we all had to have careers interviews to go over options and courses and things that we could do. You can always change your options after you put them through with UAC so if you want to change your preferences your are able to!

Thanks for the questions!! 

[katie,rinos]

Assuming total identical pay and other benefits, would you prefer to travel the world playing in concert halls, or teach at a super prestigious music school?

A bit of both. I love learning my pieces and practising at home but I still get a bit nervous playing a solo in front of people. I haven't been overseas yet so if it was with an orchestra or band it would be really cool. The last time my community band went overseas was to Canada in 2007 (I think?), so way before I was with them, it would be so fun to do an overseas tour with them.

I would also love to teach at a prestigious music school because everybody would be really interested in music and there would be heaps of resources but I'd love to somehow make it really accessible for everyone. Music education and lessons can be really expensive sometimes (not everybody would be able to buy the clarinet that I'm getting). I'd love to work on improving that a bit so regardless of circumstances anyone who enjoys music can play it at a high level.

Thanks for the question!! 

I'm going to leave the thread open until later tonight if anybody still wants to ask any other questions!! 

[Sine]

Top 5 artists right now (in order)? 

[katie,rinos]

Top 5 artists right now (in order)? 

My top 3 the moment (who I've all seen live in the past year) is:
1. Shawn Mendes (hoping to get tickets to his next concert)
2. Ed Sheeran
3. The Vamps

Not too sure about 2 others. Will get back to this.
Thanks for the question!! 

[katie,rinos]

This Q&A is now closed! Thanks for all of the questions! Feel free to PM me if you want to chat or have any other questions!! 
Keep your eyes here for the next Q&A announcements!