So... it has been quite a hectic, stressful, overwhelming, yet exciting, year...
Yesterday was my last day of school, but it hasn't quite hit me yet. I still feel like on Monday morning I'm meant to be getting up early to prepare for another day at school, but I won't be. I feel rather conflicted. While I am glad the 2019 school year is over and I can put all the stress and pressure behind me, I am also rather sad and anxious.
Why am I sad? I had to say goodbye to 5 amazing teachers yesterday who will be leaving my school. I'm sad that 5 amazing teachers won't be with us to celebrate all our milestones next year. 2 of those five teachers have been there for me during really tough times and have shown me an endless amount of love and support - and for that I am so so so grateful. 1 of those 5 teachers was a huge cheerleader for me this year when I participated in my school's musical (we did Mary Poppins) - they offered me so much support when I felt like I was drowning in extracurriculars and school workload. The remaining 2 of those 5 teachers have just been such a bright light at my school. They are always smiling, always laughing and always lift students moods. I will miss the daily conversations I have with them - and the jokes! I will miss just being able to laugh with them. 5 amazing teachers are leaving, leaving me with 1 teacher left at my school that I am really close with
Why am I anxious? We had a little test run last year of the ATAR system, but now it really begins. The assessment we do now matters. Any mistakes we make now matter. We are still in the dark about so much. The big scary external exams are getting closer and closer as each day goes by. Soon, school will be over and we'll be thrown into an entirely new experience - of which we also don't know much about. Also, another reason why I am anxious about next year is because 1 of the teachers that is leaving (mentioned above) is my maths teacher. They have helped me so much this year in maths and really helped me to pick up my grades. My confidence in the subject grew so much. But now they're leaving. I can only expect that my confidence will crumble once again and my grades will dip once again.
Wow, that was a bit depressing. In happier news...
I had an exam block this week (yep, exam block on the last week of school - yikes), during which I completed a bio data test, psych data test, physics data test and an extended response essay under exam conditions (unseen question) for SOR. Overall, I did pretty well.
I don't know how I went for SOR (I will find out my grade in a couple weeks when they send out the start of unit 3 report cards - but I will only know my grade E-->A, I won't know what I got out of 25 until next year), but I did get my results back for the data tests.
Lets compare my results from the data tests at the beginning of the year to the end of the year...
(I should also add that the most current ones are yet to be cross-marked so my grades may change - fingers crossed they stay the same)
Biology(start of year) (end of year)
6/10 10/10 <-- I topped the grade
Psychology(start of year) (end of year)
7.75/10 10/10
Physics(start of year) (end of year)
5/10 10/10
I would say that there is improvement there
Big shout out to Bri for writing the articles on data test advice - you're a legend!
Yesterday, we also had our Senior Years End of Year Award Ceremony...
On whole I was quite happy with how it went.
I received the
Award for Effort in Thinking and Learning (for achieving an A for effort across all of my subjects)
I received the
Platinum Attendance Award (for 100% attendance)
I received the
Silver Award for Excellence in Thinking and Learning (for achieving an A for 5/6 of my subjects)
I received an award for
Top of Subject for Psychology (I was quite happy with this one as I really do love the subject so much, so topping it made me happy)
The only thing I am a little disappointed with is the excellence award. They usually base this award off of your end of year results (which would mean a combined result for unit 1 and 2). But this time they based it off of our Unit 2 results.
For unit 2 my English grade dropped (my teacher is not the best, so I'm not happy with my results in English), so all of my subjects were at an A level except English.
But for my end of year report (combined unit 1 and 2), which they usually base the awards off of, I had 100% As - which would have gotten me the gold award. But oh well, its done now. Lets hope next year I can get the gold
Anywho... I'm excited to enjoy my 2 month break off of school before the 2020 school year begins. I don't have much planned for the holidays, all I know is that I'm going to do some study, next Wednesday I have to go back to school in the morning to try on a blaiser for next year and on the last two weeks of holidays I'm going to NSW. I think next year will be ok. Academically I think I will be alright (we'll see how maths and English go). It won't be as fun without those 5 amazing teachers, but we'll survive. I'm excited to work with my cohort as one of the school captains and help make our school what we all want it to be and what we know it can be.
I hope everyone has a good holiday and an amazing Christmas