i completely forgot about atar notes (again) so it was definitely awkward to see that everyone's old journals had been archived 😅

first of all - congrats to everyone who has finished/is finishing up their sacs and of course term 3! the idea of tackling 20+ sacs this year did seem mildly impossible at first but we've gotten through (mostly) in one piece. my trial exams start in just over a week, so my goals are:

  • to finish methods and spesh bound reference
  • to finish chem and bio dotpoint summaries
  • complete at least one practise exam for each subject
    AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
  • maintain a half decent sleep schedule (8 hours???)
  • go for walks/see friends/actually get out of the house

this term has gone so quickly but in reality, so much time and effort has gone into getting through it! the prospect of finishing 6 years of high school is obviously a scary thing, but i am getting more and more excited to start a new chapter with all the other 2022 graduates!

hopefully i remember to update this journal, but we'll see...
in the meantime, good luck to every on the home stretch. we can do it!!!

    bw304 yes! This term has flown by, and I also feel super excited yet genuinely frightened at the thought of finishing 13 years of schooling. I hope all of your last SACs went well and good luck for your trial exams. Do you do those once you return after the term 3 break or during the school holidays (my school doesn't do trials, but I have a random practice chem exam this Monday).

    bw304 maintain a half decent sleep schedule (8 hours???)
    go for walks/see friends/actually get out of the house

    Yes! Me too, except that I'm struggling to get anymore than 7 - 7.5 hours of sleep because my body is so set in its ways of last term (I'd love more sleep, if only my body would stop waking up an hour before my alarm haha).

          _sophiestudies_
          my trials are unfortunately during the holidays... guess i shouldn't really call it holidays then 😰
          and yes it's so hard to get into a decent sleep routine! i went to bed at 1am last night so we're not off to a great start. the fact that teenagers are basically hard-wired to stay up late and wake up late doesn't really help /:

              bw304 ikr! My brain wants to stay up, but the rest of my body is begging for sleep hahaha. Hmmm, yeah, its not much of a holiday for any of us year 12s, but at least it'll be over soon. We're all so close! Anyway, good luck for your trial exams!

                  25 days later

                  end of classes!!
                  i don't think i've fully comprehended that after 6 years of following the same schedule every other day, it's all coming to a close tomorrow. i am excited to finish, because there's no denying the monotony in attending the same classes every day, but i'm also nervous to loose this sense of structure that school provides.
                  if i'm being completely honest, i'm not as nervous for exams as i thought i would be (yet, anyways). however, i am definitely feeling a tad tired at the moment... i think the past 14 weeks since term 3 started are catching up on me.
                  i really think that this Friday at least i should give myself a decent break - and try to push through the study guilt - otherwise i may risk burnout.
                  i think the main thing that is frustrating me at the moment is the fact that i have felt pretty motivated throughout term 3, the trial exams, and so forth, but when i'm at school i feel like i'm surrounded by negative energy from other people. i understand everyone is feeling varying levels of pressure at the moment and expresses this in different ways, but i just can't wait to be home alone and actually able to study in peace. even some of my teachers (basically just english), are making me feel as though i'm doing insufficient work, even though I've been submitting work almost everyday these past two weeks. i understand they may be trying to push me further, but it honestly has the opposite effect - i find a teacher acknowledging my efforts to be more rewarding and motivating.

                  i don't know... i'm just ranting right now - i'm frustrated becayse i want to do work but i'm too tired. ugh.

                  i hope everyone's last few days and study are going smoothly!

                  -bw

                  13 days later

                  exam period!
                  i haven't made an entry in a little while, so considering i just completed my first exam for this year i thought it would be a good time to post!

                  i don't think i can emphasize how relieved i am after doing that english exam. omg. english has seriously kicked my butt this year, and i'm sure a lot of people can agree. it is taken so much strength to consistently study for the subject, but it has definitely been extremely rewarding too. how did everyone find it?! the prompts i had for sec A and B were pretty good! i wasn't a massive fan of the article for sec C - i felt like i was rambling a bit but had to keep pushing through or i'd run out of time.

                  now that english is done, i feel like i can properly focus on my other subjects which are pure science and maths. subjects that i actually enjoy studying for lollll. my next exam on Friday is bio, and i feel relatively well prepared. it is a little bit hard to tell how i'm tracking due to the new study design - the scores i'm getting on past vcaa exams obviously aren't the most accurate indicators.

                  what day do people finish their exams? my last one is chemistry on the 8th which is think is relatively early? anyways, i hope everyone is getting through exams and study alright - we're almost there!!!

                    bw304 yayayayay! also super happy english is finally over. yeah, section C was a bit weird, and i was definitely rambling a lot. the topics weren't too bad though for sections A and B, thank goodness. i also have bio on friday, which i'm quite nervous for since i feel like i don't know the content as well as a i should (cough cough human evolution). although, i'm super excited to be finished soon (i also finish on the 8th with chemistry woohoo)!

                        _sophiestudies_ omg how did we find bio!
                        was definitely relieved to see very little on human evolution... along with attenuation and recombinant plasmids!
                        some of those questions were worth so many marks though i actually died

                          long weekend
                          yesterday i had bio and i was very happy to get it over and done with! overall, i think it was a well-written exam - i was worried there may have been content i wasn't familiar with because of the new study design making revision a little more complicated than usual. i definitely made a few silly mistakes in my short answer which is always frustrating, but i was pretty happy with my multiple choice so hopefully, it balances out...

                          this long weekend will obviously be purely methods, spesh and chem study. i'm definitely feeling most nervous about these exams because there is a likelihood i'll find them extremely hard ;-; seeing all the further kids freak out isn't super reassuring. i lowkey haven't finished my bound references for either maths so that is on my to do list.

                          anyways, i'm just going to try and keep studying hard for these last 10 or so days (crazy!) and then i can literally do nothing for the next few months.

                            bw304 yes! I'm also so glad bio is over too, since I really need to study for chem now haha. Yeah, I was also expecting it to be really hard with new content and stuff, but it wasn't too awful. I definitely made some silly mistakes as well, but then again, none of us can perfect but we can still always try our best! Hopefully us further people don't freak you all out too much, but truth be told, it was really hard and weird (like my friend who is top in further was crying after which really sucks). Fingers crossed the same isn't the case for the other maths exams and the next further exam. Anyway, good luck studying for the next week and a half! You've got this!

                              6 days until i'm done woohoo
                              today i had methods exam 1 and ultimately it was good, though i did cry about it. i honestly felt really confident doing the paper, and even though a lot of the questions were weird, managed to get some kind of answer. then i checked the suggested solutions people have been posting, and i didn't feel so good anymore. i totally messed up the probability (which was expected, but i remained hopeful). i was unbothered until it dawned on me. i literally did the first question wrong. like actually what the hell. i was so focussed on doing the 'easy' part of the paper quickly so that i would have time for the hard parts, and i ended up misreading questions. L. so yes, i cried about that.

                              however, what's done it done - there's nothing i can change now. it's time to focus on exam 2, which i weirdly feel more confident for? probably not a good thing because i still haven't done my bound reference. I've just been feeling really restless and unmotivated the past few days - the massive gap between my bio and methods exams actually wasn't helpful, i had too much time on my hands.

                              it's crazy to think that some people have basically already finished exams, when i'm not even halfway yet. jealous. anyways, i hope things are going swell for everyone. i kinda feel like most exams so far have just been weird or hard, so we're all in this together i guess!

                              also, does this forum keep crashing for anyone else?? it happens everytime i use it. weird.

                                bw304 i honestly felt really confident doing the paper
                                ngl i felt this too 💀 nah nah tbh i thought i did ok

                                bw304 then i checked the suggested solutions people have been posting, and i didn't feel so good anymore
                                lmao same, i keep thinking i screwed up the rest of the paper

                                bw304 I've just been feeling really restless and unmotivated the past few days
                                its very mentally draining for exams, regardless of preparation and how u did during the exam
                                after my exams im like a zombie that knows how to use a cas

                                uve got this '22er! almost done, before we don't even have to touch a cas again lmaooooo

                                        4 days to go
                                        i'm really confused because i swear typed up an update yesterday... think i forgot to actually post it. beep_boop definitely a cas zombie lmaoo

                                        so methods 2 was yesterday, and it was good i think?? i'm generally finding the questions for maths this year to be a bit different though. the last question for methods 2 just felt so random with the table of values and everything.

                                        today i had spesh 1, and it was also okay. overall i was relatively confident in my answers, but there's definitely a few things i know i stuffed up. hoping vcaa is kind with giving method marks this year 🤞

                                        the past couple days have gone really quick - i cant believe i've done 5/7 exams and 3/4 maths exams (thank god). i'm so excited to hear 'pens down' at 11.45 on Tuesday for chem. also taking it as a sign that the weather is really nice the day i finish exams

                                        hopefully the next week or two goes by quickly for everyone (unless you're truly enjoying exams, i guess you can savor it then?) my heart goes out to the language/arts kids especially who have to painfully watch everyone finish before them... you got this!

                                          4 days later

                                          exams done!!!!
                                          yesterday i had exam 2 for spesh and it was better than expected i think! i was pretty content with the extended response (besides the probability - some of those questions were just mean). the multi choice was a bit of a struggle; i was really pushed for time and attempted maybe 12? but literally had to blindly guess the rest. oh well!
                                          today i had chemistry and it was also better than expected. i felt pretty confident with both multi choice and short answer, besides that ethanol/wine question. i was so stumped on the calculations and stuff, but experimental design and volumetric analysis are my two worst areas so i was anticipating losing some marks on those sections regardless.

                                          enough of chem talk though - the day has come! i'm finished! now that I've really reflected on everything our cohort been through the past few years... i'm so proud of how much we've achieved! even though it seems like agessss ago, this time last year we were barely out of lockdown! after enduring two years of predominantly virtual learning, we really were kinda thrown into yr 12. nonetheless we persisted and just kept smashing out the SACs and eventually exams!

                                          these holidays, i'm so excited to actually relax. sleep in without guilt, read a book for the enjoyment (not for vce english), enjoy the warm weather,etc. we all deserve to treat ourselves this summer! i know i'm gonna feel a bit restless waiting for results, but there's nothing that can be done now. truly. anyways, best of luck to everyone who still has a couple exams to go! you're almost there!

                                          a month later

                                          results day!!
                                          it seems so surreal that the day finally came... it kinda came surprisingly quickly too? pretty insane that i finished exams more than a month ago now. overall, i am beyond happy with my results! my study scores were:
                                          english: 49 - i'm most surprised about this score... i didn't think i'd crack past a 45. a part of me is like damn, i actually could have gotten a 50, but i'm genuinely so happy with the score bc english kicked my butt this year
                                          bio: 45 - this one is lowkey so random because i feel like bio was the subject i kinda neglected around exam period so i'm very happy
                                          chem: 40 - could actually cry tears of joy i wanted a raw 40 in chem so bad. i think my sacs scaled down a fair bit because my school is not very strong in this subject so i'm glad i managed to pull through
                                          methods: 40 - could also cry because i really wanted a raw 40 in methods too. i feel like i probably could have done a fair bit better but my exam 1 just let me down a bit.
                                          spec: 34 - i'm happy with this i think? like again i probably could have done better but i think i was just unlucky with the multi choice on exam 2.

                                          so overall my atar was a 99.25 which i'm so shocked with. i thought i could potentially get a 98 but seriously doubted a 99... i feel so relieved that it's over and the atar nightmares can finally end 😅 congrats to everyone for all the work you have put in this year!! we did it!!

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