Billzene's catalytic isomerisation to benzene (aka Bill's Uni Journal Take 2)

Billzene

This is it. My dropout life is coming to an end as I've just sent in my VTAC application for a double degree in science and education at Monash. Since I had the prereq ATAR and study scores from 2018 as well as adequate uni grades from biomed, I think I'm most likely getting my first preference. Since I've already minored in chem in biomed, I'm definitely applying for credit for those 4 units. I'm a bit hesitant on applying for credit for my biomed core units. Part of me wants to take the easy way out by equating my biomed units for physiology credit. But I hated VCE bio and I kind of dread the prospect of teaching that cursed pedantic subject despite it being the obvious choice for biomed dropouts. It's essentially Animal Farm for science students, all answers are equal but some are more equal than others, case in point, skin = 0 marks, intact skin = 1 mark. That's why I think I'll minor in maths for my 2nd specialisation. Future me in a few years (months?) time might hate myself now, but I figured out that I may as well use my time in uni to extend myself beyond my comfort zone and to rebuild my self confidence in maths that VCAA completely annihilated with methods exam 1 2018 (took a huge L on that one with a B, dragged my study score down to 37 raw which has been making me think I'm trash at maths ever since). Plus minoring in maths will allow me to teach 3 maths subjects, whereas bio only qualifies me for 1, so I'll be more in demand with maths as a teacher. As my new journal title implies, chem will be my main specialisation, I don't wish to end up like Walter White though

Will

Billzene

I completely agree about bio!!
The intact skin is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
And a 37 is still the top 16% of all students who take methods.
Considering more than half the students in Victoria don't take methods(presumably because maths isn't their strong suit) that would still put you easily in the top 10% of all maths students.

In a room of 20 people, you'd be the second smartest. That's pretty darn good.

ForbiddenDonut

That's quite a surprising read. Based on your previous journals it appeared you were two-thirds of the way through a BioMed degree and performed well on the GAMSAT. When did you drop out of your degree and why'd you decide to switch?

Billzene

ForbiddenDonut I left since I found over the past few years that my true passion lies in teaching. I was going to convince myself to become a doctor and then teach med school but I realised it will take too long before I can gather up enough experience to be able to teach it. Teaching was the first dream job I ever considered and now I'm going to trust my gut, it has never failed me before

Billzene

Will Cheers mate but I now have come to terms with the fact that VCAA study scores aren't valid indicators for intelligence/ability since the ranking system exists to gaslight you and effectively force you to "keep up with the Joneses", which develops into what I call academic FOMO. It's probably better known as impostor syndrome, and I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a sussy baka

lm21074

Hey Bill!
Awesome to see you following your gut. I am having the same inkling at the moment, but not sure if I'm going to transfer to science and education or do the master of teaching course. On that note, was there an option to somehow credit those biomed units towards a Bachelor of Science and then do the masters afterwards?

Billzene

lm21074 I technically can shave an entire year off a single BSc with my biomed units occupying the elective spaces, but the issue is that I still have to do 2 years of BSc (since some units only run in certain semesters and some maths units have prereqs I haven't done yet). Plus I don't know how many credit points they're going to accept until I get the offer letter. I feel it will be safer to do the Ed + Sci double degree (with lots of underloading) since there's no guarantee that I'll get into postgrad teaching once I finish a BSc

Billzene

After spending a few days researching the education degrees available (aka productive procrastination for the CASPER), there has been a small change in plans. I realised that I could actually do 2 years of BSci and then do a 1.5-year MTeach, which qualifies me as a teacher in 3.5 years as opposed to 4 years with the double degree. So pretty much I’m sitting this CASPER as a practice run for a few year’s time.

I spent some time deliberating over which units I’m going to do. I need good reasons to do each one since I’m going to have to spend $1000 on each one. This is an incomplete list

CHM3930 (med chem, absolutely essential if I want to become a “street pharmacist” if I become unemployed)
CHM3911 (physical chem cuz I don’t want to suck at teaching VCE unit 3 chem)
CHM3922 (organic, pretty self explanatory. Same reasons for med chem, I might not qualify as a Walter if my yields are still 20-30% like in 1022/2911 though)
CHM3941 (who can say no to pretty colours of inorganic complexes but I hope to never see organometallics again)
BCH2011 (probably a bludge)
MTH1020 (uni spesh, need this to teach maths)
MTH1030 (equivalent of uni extension, need this to teach maths)
MTH2010 (calculus unit, again required for the minor)
MTH2222 (probability unit that I think may help teaching it, also need this for maths minor)
SCI1000 (scientific communication unit that’s compulsory and no one wants to do)

lm21074

Awesome plan! I've heard the accelerated MTeach is quite intense though, because you go from learning the theory to running your own lessons in a short amount of time. Imo, that's the exciting part!

According to the lecturer that runs SCI1000, 77% of people failed last the subject last semester and 33% passed. It doesn't add up. But good thing it's a pass / fail subject.

Billzene

lm21074 77% of people failed? Shouldn't the unit get into trouble for this then? Also I feel sorry for those who failed, they have to cough up another $1000 to retake the unit, but since it's stonks for the uni this way they might not change it or remove it. A part of me wish that this requirement is gone by the time I take it similar to the SCI2010 situation

lm21074

Billzene

Billzene so it turns out they failed the assessment tasks, not the actual unit. The additional assessment is really just polishing up your work to meet the competencies to pass. Hopefully you don't have to do the subject!

Billzene

Received early Nov round offer a few days ago and also put in credit application, will wait and see how many credit points I can get before I finalise subject selections

Billzene

Allocate is open and I think my timetable next year will be a disaster. First of all, there’s a clash with my CHM3930 midsem with a MTH1020 lecture that can’t be moved around, I’ll probably have to submit a clash request to resolve that. The worst thing is that I will have 2 chem midsems on the same day (CHM3911 and CHM3941), which low key reminds me of doing bio and FM exam 1 on the same day in year 11.

In terms of goals, I might be a bit too ambitious but I’m looking to achieve 80+ in both maths units I’m taking this year (MTH1020 + 1030). This is cuz HDs enable me to take the advanced versions of MTH2010 and MTH2021 in the year after.

For the 6 chem units I’m taking (CHM3930, 3941, 3911, 3180, 3922, 3952), I’m aiming to top the cohort in all of them, which will probably require mid 90s grades since there’s a lot of cracked people in chem. Realistically though, I probably won’t get it for 3911 or 3952 since they’re involve more maths than the others. Maybe not 3941 either since it’s known to have super difficult final exams. But in my experience, chem units’ final grades are scaled up by a lot, so you’re always pleasantly surprised by your marks on results day

Billzene

Offered 90 units of credit, including all units for a physiology minor (BIO1011, BIO1022, PHY2011, PHY2042). Essentially I can choose to graduate in 1 year but be stuck with bio as a teaching method, or I can graduate in 2 while I pick up a maths minor for a maths teaching method. Leaning towards the latter. Now my course plan is as follows:

Year 1 sem 1:
CHM3911 (3rd year physical chem)
CHM3930 (medicinal chem ~~Street pharmacist I~~)
CHM3941 (3rd year inorganic chem)
MTH1020 (Monash spesh)

Year 1 sem 2:
CHM3922 (3rd year organic chem ~~Street pharmacist II~~)
CHM3952 (3rd year analytical chem)
CHM2942 (biological chem)
MTH1030 (core 1st year maths unit, apparently 50% calculus and 50% linalg)

Year 2 sem 1:
MTH2010 (2nd year calculus)
MTH2021 (linalg, ~~Further maths matrices module on crack~~)
SCI1000 (compulsory scientific communication unit)

Year 2 sem 2:
CHM3180 (materials chem)
CHM2962 (food chem)

Billzene

Alternative plan if I want to speedrun my undergrad (whilst not doing any maths units)

Sem 1: CHM3911, CHM3930, CHM3941, MTH1020
Sem 2: CHM3922, SCI1000, PHY3072, CHM2962

Summer sem A: NUT1011

Despite the fact that I can save an additional year of study with this plan, I’m not a fan of teaching bio aka obsessing over polypeptide vs polypeptide chain. Then again, VCE maths is trash, might actually consider moving north to NSW to teach HSC maths. The alternative would be teaching IB chem + maths, their exams are uni level from what I can see (IB chem legit looks harder than CHM1011 + 1022 at Monash)

lm21074

What option are you leaning towards? 🙂

Billzene

lm21074
I’m almost certainly choosing the 2 year option. It gives me more time to get my Ps before I have to do placements (still on 60 hours/120), it would be very awkward to have my mum drop me off at my placement. Additionally, I can teach maths with the 2 year plan.

The 1 year option is attractive too, mainly because I get to save $2000 on tuition as well as gain a whole year’s worth of salary. Although I’m not sure if I can actually apply for a MTeach at the end of 2023 if I’m doing a summer unit to fill up the credit points, I wouldn’t have the results finalised by the time postgrad starts

Billzene

butterfly13579 this question belongs to the VTAC question thread not my journal but yes you can be offered a place in both Dec and Jan rounds. Just put everything you want to be offered in the Jan round higher than the preference you’ve received an offer for

Billzene

With all the December offer round drama going on, I have some updates of my own. Finally sorted out credit transfers, now I have 2 years worth of credit points under my belt. This means I can graduate at the end of next year if all goes well just in time for 2024 MTeach admissions. The tradeoff is that all numerical marks have been wiped so I have to farm WAM and GPA from scratch, and I won't be able to fit in a maths minor + chem extended major. Right now my area of study nominations are chem major + physiology minor (already credited from biomed core units). My course map looks like this now:

2023 S1: CHM3911, CHM3930, CHM3941, MTH1020

2023 S2: CHM3922, CHM2942 (biological chem), CHM2962 (food chem), SCI1000

In terms of goals, I still want unit prizes in all my chem units, although I probably won't get it for 3911 (physical) due to my mathematical skill issue and probably not 3941 either (cuz the final exam has a killer reputation). I now want 90+ for MTH1020 cuz apparently the exam allows you to bring in a cheat sheet. And obviously a pass for the science communication unit, it doesn't do numerical grades, it's just pass/fail

Billzene

O week is about to begin, I've got the perfect timetable with all classes in the afternoon (shoutout to Andrea (the med chem unit coordinator), she spent so much time communicating to the Allocate+ team on my behalf to remove a clash with the midsem).

I did receive a Feb round offer on the 14th for B. Education/BSc, but I decided not to enrol in it since it would take too long and cost too much compared to finishing my last year of a BSc single and doing the Master's in accelerated mode in another 1.5 years. But the very fact that I passed CASPER means I kept my plans on becoming the leading "street pharmacist" in my neighbourhood while being a high school teacher well hidden

Potentially problematic units: SCI1000 (I heard this unit has really strict marking schemes, although that was probably since it was in the first sem it was ever run), CHM3911 (physical chem = when maths methods/spesh meets chem, totally not pumped for the calculus/linalg we have to do)

In the middle: MTH1020 (I have severe mathematical skill issues, but the cheat sheet allowed on the exam will probably save me just like my cheat sheet single-handedly saved me in biophysics), CHM3941 (inorganic chem is easy enough but it looks like organometallics will return which is the CHM2911 topic I hate the most), CHM3922 (love organic chem ~~and Breaking Bad~~ but I heard about 3922's difficulty)

Units that will probably be highlights: CHM3930 (med chem, similar to my biomed core units + Andrea is coordinating it which is great according to past students + my own experience when she helped me with timetabling), CHM2942 (biological chem, again a biomed core unit/biochem unit repackaged), CHM2962 (another organic unit repackaged, just with an emphasis on food)