Hello everyone!!!
My name is Alice and I cannot believe that I'm graduating this year!!! Albeit it does seem far away with the current situation. I've recently been spending more time on the ATAR Notes forum; I guess it makes me feel more comforted with a sense of community during this isolation period. I've decided to start this HSC journal in order to somewhat keep me accountable??? I've also created a study gram (let's see how that goes...). Even though half of year 12 has already passed, there's still a lot of growing and learning to go!!
A little bit about me:
- I honestly think I peaked in primary school, ngl. I won dux in year 6 and that was it lol. I was the kid who took piano, swimming and art lessons. Now I am an unmotivated, chronically stressed and anxious HSC student.
- I'm trying to get back into piano. I've neglected it for a few years (oops), but I really want to pick it up after HSC is over.
- I really don't know what to do after HSC. I want to do so many things but I'm possibly the most indecisive person you will ever meet. I'm also probably the most stereotypical Aquarius ever - most if not all of my career goals are humanitarian oriented. I stress and overthink about the future (of humanity) way too much. (Queen of existential crises)
- I loooooveeeee food. Period. (I was running a noodles account but I haven't posted in a while - maybe I should get back into it.
Anywho, onto actual SCHOOL related things. My subjects are:
English Advanced. My prescribed texts: Rosemary Dobson's poetry (Common Mod), King Richard III (Module A), Great Expectations (Module B), Spotty Handed Villainesses and Eulogy for Gough Whitlam (Module C).
Modern History. Topics: USA, Indochina and Apartheid in South Africa.
History Extension: JFK as my case study.
Legal Studies: my options are Family and Indigenous peoples law!
Japanese BeginnersSociety and Culture: my electives are Social Inclusion & Exclusion and Belief Systems.
I took Maths Advanced in year 11, but I dropped it at the start of year 12 - possibly the best decision I have ever made (even though it took me a good month or so to decide). I have never been a maths person, probably never will. For some reason, my grade has the most people who have dropped math compared to previous years! (Around 10ish people, compared to 1 last year)
Since I take Society and Culture, 40% of my external HSC mark comes from my Personal Interest Project (more on this in a separate post). For History Extension, I have the History Project which is internally assessed.
I go to a semi-selective school in the south-west of Sydney (SWS represent) - I was in the selective stream, but in year 11 and 12 it doesn't really matter anyway since classes are all mixed. My cohort is generally quite competitive, but nowhere near as competitive as the top 10 selective schools (you know,
those schools). My school ranking has been dropping over the past few years - here's to hoping that my cohort will bring it up! Since I'm not too sure what uni course I want to get into, I don't really have a set ATAR goal. Obviously as high as possible. Maybe 95?? I know I'm definitely not doing Med or anything that requires a crazy 99.95 ATAR lol.
Currently, my school has removed an assessment task for all but one of my subjects - so only two assessments + trials! This means I have a bit more time this term to focus on preparing for trial exams - I'm super nervous since I don't think I have very good exam skills (I tend to do way better for hand in type assessments).
I think I'm doing relatively well for my subjects. My estimated ranks are:
English: top 10 at least (but lots of people are tied atm) out of maybe 100 I wanna say??
Legal: 1 out of ~60
Modern: top 3-4?? out of ~60
Society and Culture: 1/15
Jap: top ~4 out of 15
History Extension: there hasn't been an assessment yet - it's only my History Project due in Week 9 of this term, and then Trials!
Well, this has been a lengthy introduction. I'll probably make separate posts for subject specific rants. I'm looking forward to updating this as regularly as I can. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all of this!