Life of a Chronically Stressed HSC Student

[alice343]

Hello world! I handed in my assessment yesterday at 8pm with no stress. Got a lot of peer editing on my essay (I love giving and receiving feedback), so I feel relatively confident about the quality of my essay. After I turned it in, I realise I abbreviated the Great Depression as 'GE' instead of 'GD', since I was studying Great Expectations during the day hahaha. Luckily my teacher said it was alright.

Apart from that, I FINALLY did some work on my PIP - I keep changing parts of my topic, but overall it's the same idea. I'm in the midst of my primary research and secondary research, writing as I go. All the exemplars on the State Library website intimidate the heck out of me with their fancy titles and writing, but that's just going to motivate me even harder. I need to start work on my History Project - I thought I could give in a draft by the start of this term, but that doesn't seem to be the case... I've given myself a deadline for two weeks.

Also, we're receiving our English assessment notification tomorrow - going to find out if it's in class or online submission.

I've been finding it hard to prioritise subjects, what to study, when to study, how long to study for, etc. I've tried making study timetables but I never stick to them because they're quite rigid. And whenever an assessment is over, I feel the need to give myself a 'break' AKA not do any work until the next assessment. I know this practice is super detrimental to my studies, so I need to learn to overcome that. I'll try and post about my studies to keep track.

Toodles!

[Justin_L]

Hey alice343,

Great to hear about your progress, it sounds like you're doing well for all your assignments and majors. Do you have any particular tips for peer editing? I'd love to do it more often with my friends but we don't share many subjects (I do mostly humanities and TAS while they do mostly sciences or english)

About study, I've found that doing a massive To-Do list with colored priority codes has worked really well for me, because I can work on what I feel like rather than forcing myself to slog through something. If I'm feeling tired, I can choose some easy tasks while the color coding makes sure that I know of anything really urgent that needs to be done. It's also massively satisfying at the end of each term when you see the massive amount of things you've accomplished.

Hope this helps somewhat, and good luck with your english!

[alice343]

Hey alice343,

Great to hear about your progress, it sounds like you're doing well for all your assignments and majors. Do you have any particular tips for peer editing? I'd love to do it more often with my friends but we don't share many subjects (I do mostly humanities and TAS while they do mostly sciences or english)

About study, I've found that doing a massive To-Do list with colored priority codes has worked really well for me, because I can work on what I feel like rather than forcing myself to slog through something. If I'm feeling tired, I can choose some easy tasks while the color coding makes sure that I know of anything really urgent that needs to be done. It's also massively satisfying at the end of each term when you see the massive amount of things you've accomplished.

Hope this helps somewhat, and good luck with your english!

Hmm, I think that you could still peer edit despite doing different subjects! Since everyone does English of some form, they would know how an English essay works, and essays in humanities aren't too different. Knowing the contents of the essay aren't necessary, since you can look out for the clarity of the actual essay itself. Things such as structure, the way you word things, sentence structure, choice of language, and also grammar and punctuation etc. I think that if someone didn't know about the topic, they would still be able to follow the essay through if it was clear and concise enough. Also, might I suggest that you start a peer editing system in your classes despite not being friends with them? It might be a bit weird at first, but it would only benefit everyone

That colour coding system sounds quite useful! I tend to make tons of to do lists but rarely end up completing all the tasks within the time limits that I'm given. When I'm tired, I just end up half-assing something or not doing it at all... thanks for the idea!

So my English assessment is an online submission, and it's basically open book. It shouldn't be too difficult, but it means that teachers are going to mark a bit harder too.

Thanks again for the help!

[alice343]

Today we had our first day of physical schooling! It was so strange to see people and interact with them in person lol. I almost forgot how to converse with people. It was so lovely to see how teachers and other students have been! I didn't realise how much I missed having fun in class with teachers.

Speaking of teachers, my Modern History teacher made us cupcakes and brownies!!! She's the sweetest, honestly. We did a Kahoot for class and it was nice to have a friendly competition and us yelling and making jokes.

Next week, we're only attending once - but that might change since everything is up in the air right now. Also, I got to have a proper free period at school today - I had the option to leave early, but I feel like I'm much more productive at home. EEEEEE!!! Yea, that's pretty much how I feel. SUPER happy and I can't stop smiling for some reason.

We got our assessments back for Legal - our teacher already emailed us our results, but IMO the physical copy is much more real. I feel extremely proud for achieving full marks since I pretty much did every MC past paper from 2011 in preparation (so that paid off, I guess). Also got a heavy asf book full of past papers for Legal - I'm so excited to revise now lmao. 

Hope you are all staying well and safe!

[alice343]

Just got my HSC exam timetable!! So the exams have been delayed for five days (I don't know if that makes a huge difference but yay I guess). I have 4 exams in 3 consecutive days - Legal, Jap, Modern and S&C - yikes. My last exam is History Extension which finishes about a week before all the other exams end - exam free!

[kauac]

Wow, 4 exams in 3 days sounds intense! At least you will knock most of your subjects out in one sweep, then.

Is there anything you are planning to do to celebrate being exam-free?

[alice343]

Wow, 4 exams in 3 days sounds intense! At least you will knock most of your subjects out in one sweep, then.

Is there anything you are planning to do to celebrate being exam-free?

Yea, that's true - I won't have to worry about exams for too long. Not all my friends are as lucky as me to finish early though, so we will just have to wait and see. But there will DEFINITELY be celebrations, let that be known.

[alice343]

So I took a rest day from studying yesterday - I was feeling guilty about it, but I realised that it made me sooo much more productive today. I've ticked off a lot from my to do list - and I've started colour coding them by level of difficulty !!! (Thanks Justin_L)

I've also decided to make my History Project a challenge - it's due in Week 9, but I really need a draft by week 5 ~. So I've decided to make a 10 day challenge, where I write 250 words of it each day, and by the end of it I should have a draft of my essay. I'm thinking I should do this for the PIP too! Except that would be double the amount - 500 words per day.

[angewina_naguen]

So I took a rest day from studying yesterday - I was feeling guilty about it, but I realised that it made me sooo much more productive today. I've ticked off a lot from my to do list - and I've started colour coding them by level of difficulty !!! (Thanks Justin_L)

So glad to hear you did this! Rest days make a HUGE difference on your morale long term. You could even designate a whole day off if you feel like it's okay to (maybe Saturdays or Sundays if you are already busy on them anyway) so you can do your own thing and be guilt-free. Making to-do lists and colour coding things will be great combats against the potential allure of wanting to procrastinate forever. Keen to see how this holds up for you and whether it helps in keeping you productive! 

[alice343]

Wrote 500 words of my History Project last night, woohoo!! It's actually wayyy easier than I thought. This whole time, I thought that the readings that I was annotating were completely useless - but I actually referenced a substantial amount of information from them. Also, making source summaries helped a lot, since I didn't need to keep going back to the source - I could just refer to my one Google Doc. I suggest this to anyone who is conducting a significant amount of research (if you aren't doing this already).

17 May 2020
To-do list
- I'm going to work on my PIP: polish up my introduction and continue secondary research (struggling to find a clear cross-cultural component though. I'm hoping I can do a bunch of comprehensive research, and then just integrate the cross-cultural component when I find it)
- Work on writing an essay for Mod A in preparation for my assessment task in Week 5
- Polish up my Mod A 'cheat sheet': sort through the quotes and see which ones are the most versatile in terms of themes
- Work on my Human Rights notes for Legal
- Start notes for History Extension (hella late, I know, but better late than never)

I'm just going to leave it there, for now, don't wanna overshoot and end up not completing my list!

[alice343]

I made some solid progress on my PIP yesterday - perhaps I got a bit too carried away and ended up working on it for the whole day yikes. I feel like the most difficult part is just starting, but when I start writing I can't stop because I get so excited about my topic!!

[alice343]

I finished applying for ANU, but I haven't pressed submit because I'm scared for some reason. I desperately want to study International Relations there but moving there might be a bit tricky... anyone else applying to ANU?

[Viktoriak_]

I finished applying for ANU, but I haven't pressed submit because I'm scared for some reason. I desperately want to study International Relations there but moving there might be a bit tricky... anyone else applying to ANU?

Hey! I'm applying to ADFA, which is also in Canberra, so would have to move there too! I'm super excited but it'll definitely be a huge change...Ngl, I haven't actually submitted my application either 
How do you feel about moving there to study? Or do you have another uni in mind?

[alice343]

Hey! I'm applying to ADFA, which is also in Canberra, so would have to move there too! I'm super excited but it'll definitely be a huge change...Ngl, I haven't actually submitted my application either 
How do you feel about moving there to study? Or do you have another uni in mind?

That's so cool! I haven't heard much about the ADFA, what interests you about it? I love the idea of moving somewhere new/moving out in general, but it's also a bit intimidating and scary since I won't have my family and support system. I'm also looking at USYD and UNSW!

[Viktoriak_]

That's so cool! I haven't heard much about the ADFA, what interests you about it? I love the idea of moving somewhere new/moving out in general, but it's also a bit intimidating and scary since I won't have my family and support system. I'm also looking at USYD and UNSW!

Woah no way! USYD and UNSW are my alternatives too haha.
I agree - moving out will defs be scary + new, but why not throw in some adventure  I guess at uni you'd make a lot of close friends, so (hopefully) after a while you would have a pretty good support system there too!
Regarding ADFA, I'm planning to study civil engineering there. The first thing that interested me was that they pay you to study (you essentially get a free degree), which is pretty cool . But I looked into it further, and it honestly sounds perfectly suited to me. I love that on top of the usual academic life there's also the military side + fitness aspect. I really want to challenge myself personally and physically, and this is a great way to do that! Also their degrees are from UNSW so the engineering course is the same, which is great. What do you find interesting about international relations?