Autime's Jumbled Journal

[Autime]

18/02/2021 - Week 4

I have decided to start a VCE journal, I will update this at least once a week.
I chose to do this so I can have a place to clear my thoughts and know what I need to do, get some outside accountability, as well as receive feedback from others. Hopefully I keep this up and I can make good use of this journal over my last two years of VCE.

About me (updated 7/2/22):
- I am in year 12, I am currently studying Specialist 3/4, English 3/4, Physics 3/4, and Business Management 3/4.
- I am aiming to get an ATAR of 90+ and want to pursue a career in engineering or research in the future.
- My hobbies include running and playing the keyboard
- My school does VCE over 3 years, I will do 6 3/4s in total by the end of year 12


I hope you have a good day if you are reading this.

[The Cat In The Hat]

Great to have another VCE journal coming along!

[Autime]

20/02/2021 - Week 4

Think my English SAC went alright, definitely not 100% but I should rank high for it. I saw a post from The Cat In The Hat on here where they mentioned Cold Turkey, a website & app blocker and it is very very useful. It gets rid of the problem I have where I just turn off the website blocker by disabling the extension since it will not let you use chrome if the extension is disabled. Hopefully that makes me a lot more productive. I have a specialist SAC on Monday and methods test for chapters 1&2 the day after.

I've been looking through a lot of the posts about how to do well in English and I've learnt a lot.
I found these posts helpful:
https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=1392.0
https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=164619.0
There were 2 more on how to study for English but idk where they are now.


Week 5 Goals:
- Complete and edit 7 article analysis essays (untimed)
- Specialist Ch. 4 review
- Review unfamiliar concepts from methods Ch. 1 & 2
- Methods Ch. 1 & 2 Review questions
- Methods Ex 3A-3I
- Complete English Argument/Lang analysis questions

[Autime]

28/2/2021 - Week 6

Decided it's probably better to write on the first day of the week rather than the last. Struggled through all the work last week, and now I have a lot of specialist work to catch up on. I've been writing one essay a day, and even that is tough at times. Eventually I want to build up to writing 3 a day, but that will take some time.

Had a specialist SAC last week, thought I did well but only got 72%. I made so many stupid mistakes, but I guess that's to be expected when you put in the bare minimum amount of work needed (since I focus [probably too much] on my 3/4 subjects). I need to get better at not making so many mistakes in Methods as well, I think about 30% of the pages in my workbooks are mistakes. I heard that making a list of what your mistakes are can help, maybe I'll try that out if I can't fix my mistakes when I revise the content later.

Does anybody know how to make writing essays less painful/difficult, or is it just a matter of pushing through the discomfort or getting used to it?

Week 6 Goals:
- Specialist Ex 12D, 2A, 2B, 2D, 2E
- Methods Ex 3J, Ch 3. Review
- Methods 4A-4D
- Write and edit 7 article analysis essays (untimed)

[The Cat In The Hat]

I'm afraid the best way to make essays less painful is to write a lot of them. And do a lot more plans than you write essays.

[Autime]

7/3/2021 - Week 7

The term is going by so fast. Got through all the work last week except specialist, will catch up on that today. Luckily it has a lot of overlap with methods. Speaking of methods, it’s getting easier as I go on. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

English is still painful, I don’t want to think about having to write comparatives and text analysis essays, they seem a lot harder to write than argument and language analysis.

My laptop’s trackpad has decided to die in me, I’ve tried a lot of things to fix t but nothing has worked. Will probably end up resetting the computer. There’s a public holiday tomorrow, so even more time to catch up on specialist if I can’t get it all done today.

Week 7 Goals:
. Assigned Specialist exercises (Haven’t checked what they are)
. Methods 4E-4H
. Write 7 article analysis essays (timed, 2 hours or 90 mins if possible [I know I’m very slow]) & edit

[The Cat In The Hat]

Autime, you're so dedicated! And organised!
I want your organisation!
-A uni student, send help

[Autime]

14/3/2021 - Week 8

Can’t believe it’s week 8 already. It feels like it was just two weeks ago that the school year started. I’ll use it as a reminder to make good use of my time.

I got my English Creative response results back a few days ago, and I got 100%. I was expecting to get around 70-80%, so that was a surprise. Writing an essay every day has gotten a bit easier, breaking it down into steps instead of going into it thinking that I have to write a whole essay has helped.

Finished all the specialist work, it was really easy since I had already learnt the topics in methods. Methods is still fairly easy but I still have a long way to go if I even want a chance at getting a 50 or close to it.

I fixed the trackpad, I just had to press one of the function keys to re-activate it.

Autime, you're so dedicated! And organised!
I want your organisation!
-A uni student, send help

Thank you. 

Week 8 goals:
. Assigned specialist work
. Methods Ch. 4 Review - 5H
. 7 English article analysis essays timed, (~100 mins)

[Autime]

21/3/2021 - Week 9

I don't know what to write about, so this will probably be a short entry. This week went by so quickly, I think that I thought it was Friday for 3 days in a row when it wasn't. 

Was really lazy with methods this week, only did one chapter. Will catch up this week. I'm improving very slowly even though I still make a lot of stupid mistakes. I started doing English work at school instead of home since it's easier to study there.

Started reading a book called 'Fast Focus' by Damon Zahariades, it's been useful so far in helping me to develop the skill of focus. I find it very easy to be distracted while at home so hopefully applying what I learn in the book will assist me in not being so distracted.

Just realized I never mentioned that my school doesn't offer Specialist Maths, so I do it by distance education.

Week 9 Goals:
. Assigned Specialist work
. Methods 5A - Ch. 5 Review
. Write and edit 7 article analysis essays (~100 mins)
. Finish reading Fast Focus

[Autime]

28/3/2021 - Week 10

The last week of the term 1 is here, there are only four days left of the term.

I managed to catch up with Methods, but English is becoming a bigger problem for me now. I'm not doing badly in it, my teacher said that I'm tracking for a 40, however I'm aiming for a 50. I'll have to start pushing myself harder to write faster and more concisely, being more thorough when I edit my essays, recognising how I can make my writing more eloquent/concise, and not repeating the same mistakes.

I finished reading Fast Focus, it's a very fast read (178 pages). It lists things you can start doing or change to build focus, I found most of the things listed to be practical and easy to implement. I started writing in a physical journal to note my daily goals with the what time they should be done and how long they would take to complete to increase my productivity. I also write down any random thoughts and things I need to do/are coming up in it so that I don't get distracted by my thoughts.

Daylight savings are ending on April 4th, so I'm looking forwards to not running in complete darkness at 6 AM and being able to see light earlier. 

Week 10 Goals:
. Assigned Specialist work
. Methods 5H - 6D
. Write & Edit 7 Article Analysis Essays (~95 mins)

[Autime]

5/4/2021 - T1 Holidays Week 1

School holidays have so far been very unproductive. I have to complete some methods work still from the previous week, however I’ve been unmotivated to do any kind of work lately. Maybe my mind has gone onto holiday-mode, or I’m afraid of the future. Either way, I need to pick myself up right now.

I’m going to write 2 essays each day over the holidays, and I’ll make sure to learn from my mistakes after editing. I’ll also try to get to the end of chapter 7 in methods. I know these goals will be hard to achieve, however I don’t want to regret not doing my best later on. I only get one opportunity at VCE success and I want to seize it.

I need to learn to appreciate that every second is a new chance, a new moment to learn, to change, and to improve. How often I have taken my time for granted.

12/4/2021 -  T1 Holidays Week 2

Decided it wasn't worth making a new post for this week since I'll be doing the exact same things. I'm currently doing circular functions in methods, reading the Golden Age for English, and writing Article Analysis essays every day. Methods is fairly difficult at the moment since I don't remember doing circular functions from units 1&2, but using google when I don't know how to answer a question has so far been able to fix any problems I have.   English = Pain

T1 Hols Week 1/2 Goals:
. Write & Edit 2 Article Analysis Essays daily  (~95 mins)
. Methods 6A-7A
. Finish reading The Golden Age

[Autime]

19/4/2021 - T2 Week 1
Fatigue, Mastery & Escapism

School is back for term 2. The holidays remained mainly unproductive, I need to catch up on work and found out that I was behind in specialist since I forgot to check if there was any new work. So that's I'll start catching up on four Specialist exercises and a test today. There is also some Methods work that I should catch up on and I should finish reading The Golden Age today or tomorrow, I've found it to be boring so far, probably since it's hard to relate to the characters and the setting of the story always seems hazy in my mind.

School feels more mentally draining than it was last term, or maybe I just forgot that it was the same last term. Either way, I don't have much energy to do schoolwork when I get home from school. It's probably just half because I'm still used to being on 'holiday mode'. Whether I have energy or not doesn't matter at this point, I need to get as much practice in as possible before my English Argument & Language Analysis SAC in about 10 days.

I want to focus more on mastering what I learn instead of just doing enough to do well on a test. To develop a passion to learn for the sake of improvement instead of a will to excel in fear of retrospective regret. This could make it easier to go through the content in classes since the goal of learning isn't short-term, but rather something that can change how I see the world or at least develop my skills that is more long-term and would require a deeper understanding of what I learn. Hopefully I phrased that correctly.

I've been thinking about how I play games for recreation outside of school, are they just for fun or is it a form of escapism from stress? Either way, I'm going to take a break from them for a while since they've been distracting me. I have used the excuse that playing them is developing another skill and even if this is true, how useful would that skill be. I think it'd be better to just play them for fun instead of this since I'd get more enjoyment out of them which should be the point of playing games, unless you want to be a professional or have a passion to improve in the game, I don't see a point in taking them seriously to the point that you are trying to optimize your improvement in them like playing an instrument or sport.

T2 Week 1 Goals:
. Specialist 19D-19G
. Methods 6F-8A
. Write & Edit 2 Article Analysis Essays daily (~80 mins each)
. Finish reading the golden age

[Autime]

26/4/2021
Essays & Consistency

I have my English article analysis SAC this week, so I’ve been doing a lot of timed practice essays from past exams. I can now write an essay in under 60 minutes consistently, so I only have to focus on improving the quality of my responses. From over-focusing on English I have made very little progress towards methods. Unfortunately, I was sick over the weekend and didn’t get much practice in for English or anything else. All I have to do is keep on practicing and keep on improving.

It’s started to sink in how important it is that I consistently make an effort to improve at English and to fix my mistakes in maths when they arise and not wait to fix them later, assuming I’ll have time to revise. Earlier I was trying to go through the textbook in methods as fast as I could, thinking that I can go back at the things I had trouble with later since I’ll have more time to revise from going through the textbook so quickly. However, I now think that it would be far more effective to fix those mistakes and problems right away and revise later if needed, since maths usually builds on itself.

T2 Week 2 Goals:
. Specialist assigned work
. Write English 7 Article Analysis Essays daily (<60 mins) & edit
. Finish reading the golden age
. Methods 6F-7A

[Autime]

4/5/2021 - T2 Week 3
Catch-up & Time

Forgot to post for this week yesterday, but better late than never. Last week I had my English SAC, I think it went well. I’d expect to get around 70-80%, but my last prediction was way off, so who knows. Now I only have to catch up with methods, hopefully by the next entry I will have completed it. Specialist is still fairly easygoing because of the overlap with methods and the relatively small workload.

Time has been moving so quickly lately, which is good in that it’s not that difficult to do time-consuming tasks, however it also makes the good times seem shorter. The speed time appears to move for me keeps reminding me to make good use of it, this seems to be something I repeatedly mention in these posts. Maybe taking the time to reflect on what has happened in the week requires me to stop, which reminds me of this motivation.

T2 Week 3 Goals:
. Specialist assigned work
. Methods 7A-9A
. Don’t write article analysis essays for once 
. Watch Edrolo videos on The Golden Age

[The Cat In The Hat]

Looks like you're going well there, Autime.