Working a part time job while doing suicide 6

lil N

Hey Patty,

I will be straightforward and say that I did not work a single hour at a single job until Grade 12 external exams were over. That being said, it really depends on if you enjoy it or if you need the money or if the job is useful. Alongside my academics, I did a lot of extra-curriculars which required a large time commitment, including 2 bands, 2 choirs, sports, chess, competitions (one which I had to lead a team), volunteer tutoring etc. These all required me to be very organised throughout Grade 12.

I think the one advantage I had was because I didn't work, that gave me time for extra curriculars which gave me a really big advantage in uni offers, scholarships, resume, interviews (and in general conversation ). You've got a while but if you are thinking of applying for medicine, scholarships or other competitive degrees, then this would be something you want to consider. In applying for internships, placements, whatever it is, the idea is that: "the more you do, the more you get. The more you get, the more you do and its a endless cycle from there." To answer your question, if I had a part-time job on top of this, I would no way get the same ATAR; if I replaced all my extra-curriculars with a part-time job, I would probably get the same, if not better ATAR but I don't think I would get all the opportunities, awards and scholarships that I've received.

If you ask for my opinion, you have to understand that I will be honest with you so here goes: if you are planning on continuing with the part-time job, its vital for you to be very very organised. My advice is make a detailed timetable every term (you can experiment in Grade 10), finish your assignments early, stay on top of your content, revise consistently (to do well in exams) and cancel your shifts close to exams. If you plan on buffing your CV by doing extra-curriculars then I would recommend stepping down from part-time to casual (if you can) or just quitting work. A lot of my friends who got very high ATARs didn't work at all in Grade 12 (but did work before Grade 12). I was just an outlier that I didn't work at all but not to brag but I will admit that I topped all of them with the number of extra-curriculars and ATAR .

What I would do is that, if I loved the job a lot, I would continue the job until the end of Grade 11 and then quit. However, that is my opinion and I don't know you best; only you know you best. Grade 10 and 11 are the times you trial and error and see what's best for you. If you're aiming for the very very top ATAR, you will find a way and you'll tell a different story to someone who asks this question from you.

TLDR: I think you can certainly get good grades with a part-time job but read above because there's more to it than that.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask more .

• PP

lil N

Yeah good choice; do what works for you best!

Timetables are never followed if you put every detail in them and you make it very tight. I just made an Excel sheet maybe for a week (from 5AM-10PM) and only scheduled the most important things like "finish QCE 2020 physics paper and review". Don't write the small and repetitive things like lunch, dinner, breakfast, afternoon tea, sleep, read a book; just leave a small gap for those and know that the gap is for whatever you have to do in between because generalising it forces you do everything within that little time like lunch as well as social media checkup, replying to emails, doing a hobby etc. However, you have to write things like school or soccer game or work.
I plan it for the week or the day but before my grade 12 externals, I planned it for the whole month before. Adapt it to whatever situation you're in. You can also try bullet journal; its a method made by Ryder Carroll to organise everything in your life if you are planning on extra-curriculars, jobs, assessment tasks etc. I tried it and it was really good for the time I used it in Grade 12 but now that I'm in uni, I just use my laptop calendar app (except when I get close to exams). You can research, experiment with it and see how it goes (let me know how it is!).

Patty, I think its awesome that you are asking these questions (please do ask more if it will help you) because experiences from others is where you start but I want you to understand that it all comes down to choosing your method or adapting someone else's one to how you work. The Excel method was just the one I found easiest to make and easiest to follow. I really kept to the timetable and finished everything that I scheduled.

Hope this helps again and as always, feel free to ask more!

• PP