Whoaaaaaaa okay so honestly I had no idea what these 'journal' things I've been seeing floating around the forum were until a few hours ago, but hey. Call me britnium. And as for pronouns, I go by any!
As of now I am currently putting off doing my specialist PSMT; I'm just overwhelmed by everything and think I just need to take a break for the rest of the day and get back into the flow tomorrow. But yeah, here's a little introduction of me and my QCE journey.
As of now, I'm hoping to get a job in the engineering industry or even astrophysics if I'm lucky, since my grades in physics and maths are pretty solid at the moment; they're both subjects that I genuinely enjoy. But honestly, I don't know why I'm doing this all. Yeah, I know I'm definitely set on getting a job and becoming independent but for what purpose? To work my butt off and then just disappear? I'll let adult me figure that out; right now, all I need to do is get a decent ATAR.
I'm currently studying:
1. Mathematical Methods
2. General English
3. Physics
4. Chemistry
5. Specialist Mathematics
6. Japanese
ABOUT MEI'm currently in grade 11 but I've just started unit 3, so will be graduating in 2021. I have a few interests that aren't school-related: I think the fact that I'm studying Japanese makes it obvious already, but I'm a huge anime fan. Japanese has been something I've been passionate about since starting it in grade 7, and was actually what got me into anime. I've managed to top the subject in my grade four years in a row, and in grade 10 I was offered a scholarship by Queensland Education to participate in a STEM student exchange tour in Tokyo - probably one of the best experiences in my life so far. I was scheduled to go on exchange again this year in December, but because of COVID and whatnot those plans have gone down the drain. My grasp on the language is also pretty strong - I can hold a conversation (but with absolutely broken Japanese) without problem and can understand most anime/shows without subtitles (provided that the plot is pretty straightforward). I'm currently self-studying for JLPT N4/N3! I hope to also pick up some other languages once I graduate, maybe Spanish, German or Vietnamese (which was actually my first language before English but I've literally forgotten it all now HAHA).
I'm also an avid stationery hoarder. I run a study/bujogram on Instagram focusing on note-taking and anime journaling! If you're curious you can find me at @mafumafues. If anyone else here runs a studygram or anything similar, please let me know your handle names! I would love to gain some mutuals doing QCE as well
Lastly, I guess I'm kind of into music? I also used to play piano, but since my piano teacher moved away I haven't been playing as much. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of indie (Dayglow, Grizzly Bear) and Japanese math rock - def a genre of music you should check out if you're into foreign music. I also listen to J-POP from time to time; it's not one of my fav genres but because of anime and 2D idols I listen to the genre quite often haha
UNIT 1 AND 2 SUMMARYHeading into grade 11 I was really scared. For my whole life I have been told that the biggest jump in high school was from grade 10 to 11, and that A+ students were bound to go down to B's. And I can definitely see why - boy, unit 1 and 2 was tough. But somehow, I managed to power through and obtained grades that I'm pretty satisfied with.
METHODS
FA1 - 15/20. This was our first assessment for the year and was a PSMT - my worst assessment piece in all of school. So getting this back, I wasn't surprised with my mark but I definitely was disappointed, for this was my first B in maths since grade 8 I think? But it definitely did push me to achieve higher in methods and even spesh.
FA2 - 15/15. I was pretty pleased with this, but overall the exam was really easy; my class was dominated by 14's and had 2 15's.
FA3 - 14/15. The exam was pretty straightforward until the last complex unfamiliar question - this was where everything went downhill. I managed to score around two marks for it though - thank the gods we get marks for writing down formulae.
SPECIALIST
FA1 - 15/15. I was really happy with this mark! The content imo was really hard (esp. combinations and permutations, proof) so I worked so hard only expecting tops a 13 on this test. But I managed to power through to situate myself at the top of my class!
FA2 - 17/20. Gotta love PSMT's. Honestly I was a little disappointed, but again, PSMT's are my weak point, so gotta give myself some credit there.
FA3 - 13/15. This was officially one of the hardest exams I have ever taken in my life. So although I dropped from unit 1, I'm definitely happy with my mark.
ENGLISH
FA1 - 25/25. I was really surprised with this one - our assessment piece was a persuasive oral. I'm not the type of person good at expressing my emotions, and being someone that experiences social anxiety this I may have vomited multiple times when preparing for my oral. Really happy with how I did!
FA2 - 24/25. This was a short story. During this time I was so focused on specialist because I was really struggling with the content - the course was really crammed. Online school didn't help with my specialist studies either. So because I was so focused on specialist, I did SO bad on my draft; I think I got around more than half of the ticks in 'needs attention' for my draft? After seeing that, I completely changed everything. A little risky, but it got me there in the end.
PHYSICS
FA1 - 9/10. Data test.
FA2 - 20/20. Research Investigation.
FA3 - 20/20. Student Experiment.
FA4 (school's attempt at recreating the unit 3 and 4 external exam) - 49/50.
Physics in grade 11 was literally such a calm subject for me. I knew no one in my class, so I never really had to interact in class (which is a plus for me since I'm one of the biggest introverts out there) and the overlap with chem and spesh really helped.
CHEMISTRY
FA1 - 10/10. Data test.
FA2 - 8/8. It was a research investigation, but bc of COVID we were only assessed on the evaluation and conclusion.
FA3 - 20/20. Student experiment.
FA4 (same as physics - practice external) - 41/41.
OKAY CHEMISTRY WAS OFFICIALLY MY BEST SUBJECT THIS YEAR KUROO ARE YOU PROUD OF ME (if ur a haikyuu stan can we pls be friends SFLDSJFDSLKFJSDSE)
JAPANESE
FA1 - 15/15. This was listening and reading.
FA2 - 29/30. This was writing and speaking in the form of a one-on-one spontaneous interview with the teacher. Gotta love losing marks for going over word limit under test conditions
I'm yet to receive my FA3 marks for English and Japanese! Hopefully I'll receive them some time during this week (week 3 of term 4). But overall, I'm really proud of how I did in grade 11.
So yeah, I'm probably going to end it here and try to get something down for my spec PSMT; I literally have NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING AHHH. I don't think I will be updating often, but I'll try to update when something important has happened in school (typically getting marks back). Thank you for reading this far, and I hope to see you soon!