New Year, New UpdateI thought I'd go for a new heading colour to mark year 12, so purple it is. Well, I still kinda can't believe I am in year 12, and I can now really say it, since it is now 2020. I was thinking back the other day, and I had this memory of me sitting in the playground in primary school in grade 2 (2010) and I was thinking that I would never get out of school, and that highschool was SOOO far away, and now it is finally here. All 13 years of my schooling will be coming to an end this year, and to be honest I am feeling pretty excited for it. I won't go into to much detail, but my experience in education has definitely been weird adventurous journey, with many curve balls thrown at it. I have moved schools 5 times across my 13 years in school, and have ended up in a place I never thought I would be. So for it to finally conclude, I am most certainly excited!
My overall thoughts are that I am definitely excited to work hard for my final year and accomplish getting my VCE, but I am also scared of how I will go this year, and whether or not I can live up to my own expectations. Last year was definitely hard, with alot happening in my personal life and with my own health which had quite an impact on my academic performance, but I feel as this year will be even harder. There's that pressure of knowing that these grades do count towards something, you can't just go, "well i'm not in year 12, so this won't matter." And whilst I know that this year isn't the be all and end all of life, it is my key to unlock the door that is university.
So, enough of the sentimental stuff, what am I doing this year, and what are my goals?
EnglishI think one of the things I am most excited about this year, is knowing that it is my final year of english. Over time I have come to an acceptance that it's not that bad, but it's not that great either... I have not once enjoyed english. For a subject rooted in creativity and linguistics, I find it extremely formulaic and standardised. Even as a massive book worm, I cannot, for the life of me, find any interest in this subject. The subjects that we discuss and explore are bland, having to analyse the language and it's use of it is kinda bland, and they don't even keep the creative writing aspects in it anymore, with there only being ONE SAC! I know that this is a bit negative but AHHH, it drives me insane. So, here are my amazingly boring books I have to read this year (there were WAY better books on the list that my school could have chosen from..)
Like A House On Fire, Cate Kennedy. Nine Days, Toni Jordan. Tracks, Robyn Davidson. My teacher, and tutor also hate the books, so... it's not just me.
I am aiming for
38+, but would be overjoyed at a
40+. Last year I aimed for a 30, but my skills have improved quite a bit, so I am going to try aim a bit higher.
ChemistryBy far my favourite VCE subject ever. Everyone thinks I am insane, but I love chem and all it has to offer. I am a bit scared of the transition to 3/4 chem, as I have heard it is quite a jump from 1/2, but will see how I go. Also, the teacher kind of worries me. I have had her for year 11 bio, and whilst she is fantastic with her knowledge, I find it very hard to understand her. Over the phone, the volume is very low combined with her quite spoken tone, and in combination to that, she has a very strong accent that makes it hard to work out what she is saying. So I think alot of email communication will be in order. Now, I do hope for a
40+ score in the subject, but I really have no clue as to how I will go.
45+, would be amazing..Food StudiesI am really looking forward to studying this! It is a nice change from all the sciency stuff and english mumbojumbo, and I had a great time in unit 2, so I can't wait to continue on with it. I changed over to food studies after dropping out of physics in year 11, due to reasons explained in other posts, and I haven't regretted it. I love to cook (more so bake), and being able to have a subject that supports that is great. 80% of the theory looks relatively interesting, and to be honest a lot of it is just common sense... Which is why VCAA has decided to give the lovely present of a fuck you and scale it down by 7. Really, 7 whole points. Even a 40 won't save you, and that scales down to a 35.
So, that's why my goal is a
45+. It will still scale to a 42, but I think that is what I am capable of. I am secretly aiming for a
50 though, that would be an absolute dream!
Maths MethodsI can't be bothered. Due to my poor managements of my health last year, I scraped a pass for both units 1 and 2 ,and by doing so I have absolutely no clue about anything in the subject. And that's terrifying. I am extremely worried for this subject and I hope and I can get through it. I am looking for a tutor, as this is way to hard for me to relearn everything all on my own, especially at VSV, so I am currently on the hunt for one. (tute smart is too far away, so I couldn't go there). This may be way to high of an expectation, but I am aiming for a
30. A
35+, would be great, but highly unattainable for me..
I have already completed bio last year, so in total I will be doing five subjects. I really want to do 5 subjects this year, as it would not only help me get a better score, but also not put as much pressure on me doing well in methods... However, last year I did five subjects and I couldn't handle it at all. The workload was to high with my medical condition, and it caused me to almost fail a subject. So I will only be doing four this year
. I am trying to keep the logic of if I do only four subjects, then I will have alot more time to study them then doing five.
My ATAR goal, is just a
90+. That's all I really want. It will allow me to get into most of the courses I am interested in, and is the number that I have wanted when I first learned about what the ATAR was, in my heart though, I think I will end up with an atar in the high 80's. A 95 would be awesome, but I know that I am just not capable enough to get that high. I will say, that if I get a 89.95, I will be a bit pissed off...
In terms of the future, I am still set at doing either biomedicine, pharmaceutical science, or a bachelor of science along side a diploma of langauge. I haven't chosen a uni yet, as I haven't seen any of the campuses. I will say that I am the most interested in monash and melbourne. The closest campus near me, is actually monash's peninsula campus, but that is only for nursing and paramedicine, the clayton campus being about 1.25 hours away, and Melbourne being 2 hours away. So I will say that distance is definitely an issue, and will most likely make my decision for me...
Personal Goals) Keep up consistency with daily exercise, and slowly adding on intensity.
) Limit the milos..... (not have them every day)
) Reading goal is 35 books
) Fit in more of my hobbies
) Get my P's by doing 10 hours a month (I already have 73 hours)
On the holidays I have not done any prep work for this year. I have no holiday homework which is great, but I really need to start working ahead a little bit. Whats been stopping me is just my lack of motivation due to still being burnt out, and my disappointment over my study score from bio. I think I'll illiterate more another time, but in short, the reason why is that during the exam, my health condition ruined my chances, which has led to me seriously rethinking if I am capable of getting a good score, if all my efforts are screwed up by exams. I am going to take the time this year to apply for a lot of special considerations for the exam period to hopefully better my odds.
Oh, I am also getting my wisdom teeth out next Tuesday, so that should be fun.... I am going to become a professional chipmunk for a week. So that shall be it for a while, but I thought I would give a decent update to start off 2020. Sorry for the long post, I hope everyone had an awesome chirstmas (or any holiday), and a great new year. Just quickly, 2020 is the best year to graduate in! So yay, class 2020.