Autime's Jumbled Journal (pt 2)

Autime

Old Journal Here: https://archive.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=194101.0

29/09/22

There are 27 days left until the first exam for most people (English), and I still need to catch up with specialist work. Mainly probability and statistics, which includes some exercises from ch. 15 and 16 from the Cambridge textbook.

Does anybody else prefer the old website format? This one feels more optimised for mobile devices. Apart from minor things, it's definitely an improvement aesthetically.

I plan on updating this daily on my progress until the end of all my exams and then do one final post on the day of ATAR results being released. When I first made this journal, I thought that the purpose of it was for accountability. Whilst that may be a small part of it, I believe that the greater benefits of this journal come in the form of mental clarity and a sense of shared struggle with all the others who post about their experiences on this platform.

Exam Preparation Plan:

In preparation for the upcoming exams (after I have caught up with specialist work, which should take the remainder of the school holidays [3 days]), I will be spending only 30 minutes per day on physics, because it is most likely going to be in my bottom 2 subjects, and 1 hour on specialist as I am unlikely to do very well in it at this point in the year (and scaling might save me). In business and data analytics, I will do one practice exam per day and look over my answers to see how I can improve them, and for English, I will complete 3 detailed essay plans and one section of the exam per day. One problem I will have with data analytics is running out of practice material, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. So far, I've been able to score approximately in the 8 range for my English essays, almost 9 for section A (at least, according to my teacher's marking). If I can improve my section A writing to a 9 and maintain or improve 8s for the other sections, then I should be able to achieve at least a low 40 for my English study score. In data analytics and business management, I should be able to do very well if I can secure a good exam score because I am rank 1 in both of these classes for my SAC scores. However, that is all speculation and what matters now is doing what I should to ensure those results.

Autime

30/09/22

Yesterday, I had an epiphany. I bought a small ornamental ceramic bird a while ago when at an event, and I was tossing it between my hands. After realising that its probably not a good idea to do that with something that could easily break, I put it back in its place. This made me realise that the reasons behind actions are not always for the sake of progress. We must act to prevent further damage, because our lives, much like the ornament, are fragile. If we don't put things in place and make an effort to maintain our actions, we shouldn't even think about improving them; that is a secondary goal. You have to put an effort in to sustain actions, let-alone improve your situation. Before this realisation, I was primarily outcome focused, always thinking about what I stand to gain from any course of action. This neglects the fact that even if you gain nothing, that in itself is satisfactory, for how delicate of a balance that life is, being able to even stay as you are is a feat in itself. Learning this has put some things in perspective for me.

Today has been a very productive day. I had a revision lecture for specialist maths from 10am to 1pm at school (but on zoom), it was kind of scuffed and probably no too helpful, but it was okay as a refresher of the overall course content. Afterwards, I finished reading the third habit in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and starter re-reading from the first habit to focus on applying the lessons within the book. Then I got a haircut and went for an 8km run before a cold shower. I'm making an effort to not distract myself with technology or any forms of instant gratification, you might call it a dopamine detox. My focus is to get more mental clarity and be able to make better decisions.

I still have a lot of specialist maths work to do, but I'm confident that I'll be able to complete it all within the time I have left. Being able to recall and use the other coursework will be a greater challenge going forwards, as well as being consistent in my revision and exam practice for other subjects.

Autime

01/10/22

Today was far from the levels of productivity that I experienced yesterday, but it wasn't all that bad either. I only completed one exercise today for specialist (mainly due getting distracted) and will have to compensate by doing extra tomorrow and by spreading the workload into next week as well. Daylight savings start tomorrow, so I'll need to put some clocks forwards and struggle even more to get out of bed than usual.

I'll be going back to class on Monday, although I don't know what we'll be going over in the two weeks left since the content for all subjects has already been covered. I'll assume its probably going to be a lot of free time to revise or forced revision over the whole course depending on the teacher. In English, I'll probably just be writing up essay plans or scanning my texts for sources I could use for analysis that is more ~~delusional~~ creative than the last. In business and data, I should be just doing a lot of practice exams, and in physics probably much the same except I need to make my cheat-sheet first.

Rant about the current VCE English course:

I understand why you can't be assessed in an exam on how well your writing fits in with the actual intentions of an author, because experiences are subjective, but that fact makes (exam-tested parts of) the subject of English feel like a confused and watered down philosophy which you communicate your understanding of through the medium of a text. There is too much focus placed on the analytical component of writing (imo), you aren't assessed in your exam on anything persuasive or creative, which are arguably more practical.

Lixin

Autime. With final exams coming up, I'm sure that literally everyone is cramming as hard as possible, like you! Although I'm not sure that cramming is the right word since it kind of has a negative connotation. Anyways, I'm in grade 11, so I can't wait for when final exams are over and people start mass posting their study scores and ATAR on ATAR notes and r/VCE on reddit. When that comes, these forums are either going to be a place of celebration or where people come to sulk about how they didn't get the ATAR they wanted. Don't worry, I believe that you can do good. Even if you don't get what you wanted but you tried your best, who even cares? There's nothing to complain about as long as you tried 😄.

Autime

02/10/22

I didn't get as much specialist work done today as I would have liked to, but time marches on. Today, I really wasted a lot of time mindlessly watching YouTube videos and reading random sites on the internet. I will focus more on reducing my technology usage as I did on Friday for the long-term. After writing this, I'll be making a schedule for the week coming up in line with my exam preparation strategy because it's better to have a plan and as my time will be reduced from needing to go to school and attend classes. The I'll do some reading, I'm focusing on forming the first habit within the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" (be proactive). I find that it is increasingly important to prioritise activities. It's easy to fall into a trap of doing things which seem important but not urgent in place of important and urgent activities, like planning, cleaning, or doing research on things. In other words, productive procrastination; doing activities that are important, but in place of things you really should be doing.

I've attached my archived journal link to the top post here.

Autime

03/10/22

Today has gone well overall so far. I made some progress on my cheat sheet for physics, wrote 3 essay plans for English, did a topic test for data analytics, completed a business management practice exam and did some specialist work. I attempted a data analytics exam, but couldn't be bothered going through it because it was for a previous study design. I'll try it again after I've done the two I have available for the current study design so I have a better idea of what content is relevant or not, because some of the terminology has changed from the previous study design. I'll go over my answers to the practice exams in class if and when I have time. This week, and probably the next, are very busy, there is so much to prepare for and so little time. I guess there's not long left to go, about 35 days left until my final exam for the year. I don't have the brainpower left to write any more, so that's all for now.

Autime

04/10/22

I'm trying to think of another way to start these journal entries without saying "today", but I can't think of anything else... so, today was alright, but definitely not to the standard that I was hoping to reach. I didn't do much study outside of school today due to personal commitments and needing to go to a doctor's appointment (as well as laziness), but in school I was able to complete most of one section A essay, some questions from a revision booklet for physics, and part of a topic test for data analytics. In physics, our teacher is letting us access a set of revision sheets by Colin Hopkins, possibly the saviour of my physics study score, I'll definitely be going through all of them. I got the results for my data analytics practice exam back today, I received a mark of 91/100. That's at the upper end of the A+ range if it were the actual exam, but I can definitely improve a lot. Tomorrow my class is doing a practice exam for business management so I'll need to make sure I'm half awake for that. I have a clash in my exam timetable for specialist exam 2 and the data analytics exam, I've been told that I just have to wait for VCAA to inform the school about any rescheduling.

I should have done some specialist work today instead of wasting my time. I did some research for my university preferences, so I guess wasn't a complete waste. My current course choices are psychology, commerce/computer science, science, and data science from various universities. I'm most interested in psychology, but I am not sure if I'm mentally prepared to do at least 6 years of study to become a researcher. I know that there are methods to shorten the duration of a course such as taking classes in a summer or winter semester and taking more classes in one semester, but I'll need to improve my studying technique if I want to take enough to shorten it by any worthwhile duration, assuming I'm even allowed to do so.

Autime

05/10/22

I am feeling very tired right now, so I'm not going to be doing any more study for today. I wrote one section A essay for English, marked most of a business management practice exam, and did a topic test for data analytics today, as well as two essay plans. I don't know why I feel so tired since I have done barely anything since coming home from school, maybe just from staying up too late or something like that. I really need to put more time into spesh for the remainder of this week, as well as with physics for the revision booklets.

That's all for now, I'll do some reading then go to sleep earlier than usual today, maybe I can make up for lost time if I happen to wake up earlier than normal, but I'm not intending to do so because sleep is important.

God

Fellow Spesh student here! Omg the exams are sooo hard….

I’ve been getting high A/A+ marks all year for the SACs, and have just started doing them. We did two in class this week (2022 Heffernan I think) and they were sooo difficult. I got 43% for exam 2, and 58% for exam 1….

So basically; ur not alone…. Spec is a nightmare. Lol

Autime

06/10/22

There are almost 19 days left until my first exam (English), things are getting real. I'll be continuing my revision as best I can. Thinking that my years of schooling will be over in almost less than a month is equally scary and exciting. Probably leaning on the edge of scary. I'm currently leaving my choices about my courses and such to after exams are over, right now my focus should be on preparation. In English, I need to develop my consistency to a higher level, sometimes I can write at a level close to a nine, whilst at others I'm more around a seven out of ten. I'm going to keep this short, so that's all for today.

Autime

07/10/22

I am updating this earlier today - just after school has finished, since I think it's more sustainable than writing this at night. So far, today has gone well. I did a practice data analytics exam and finished it with 15 minutes to spare, I could have easily had 30 mins spare if I had used my reading time better and not messed up one question which I had to rewrite. Hopefully I'll have a better result than the previous exam, but there's still time to improve even if I don't. In English, we did a practice section A essay at class. Only five students even bothered to show up to class today, if that's any indication of their drive, their study scores are looking grim. I wrote a bit more than four pages for the essay, so my timing has definitely improved a lot, maybe making a lot of essay plans has some impact on how quickly you can come up with examples.

Now I need to do specialist work, then I think I'll finish at least one physics worksheet. There's not long left, so let's just keep on going.

Autime

08/10/22

I was not very productive in terms of schoolwork today, so that's a bit disappointing. Really disappointing if I'm completely honest. I'll make sure that I use this as a reminder of the necessity of consistency within my studying routine. Of course, breaks are important, but getting all the preparation I can do before my exams is likely more important to me right not, especially within specialist maths. I'm going to prioritise getting more sleep since I think that it has been impacting my ability to focus for a while now and probably negatively impacting my efficiency. Once again, I'm going to leave this as a short update. I will make sure that I do better tomorrow.

Autime

09/10/22

Once again, I was not particularly productive. This time I'll attribute it to my lack of prior planning, I really should have made a plan the night before about what I was going to be focusing on throughout the week, so I'll be making one after I finish writing this. Last week. Maybe there is some weight to the saying failing to plan is planning to fail. In the way of schoolwork, today I did a bit of specialist work and not much else apart from that. I really should have gone over my answers for some practice exams, made some essay plans, or completed full practice exams, as well as completing my physics worksheets. Simply forgetting to make a plan about completing these tasks seems to have made it much easier to neglect completing these tasks. It is critical that I do not stop at this point in the year, I must continue to revise and improve my practice exam performance or understanding of content, particularly my weak areas, so that I can do well on the final exams. I certainly achieved my goal of doing more than yesterday, but it was not nearly up to my expectations. That's all for today. o/

Autime

10/10/22

Today was okay, I marked a data analytics practice exam and one for business, as well as went through a few questions from a business practice exam and some data analytics questions. I completed most of a physics booklet, but I definitely need to put more time into physics overall. Tomorrow, I'll probably be going through a section A essay which I did in class before and write one for section B in the English exam. I think that I'm probably going to find section B to be the most difficult to write in depth about, but it is also the easiest to write the most about in my experience. It's easier to make connections between two texts rather than one, however doing this too much leads to shallow writing, so it's important to go in depth of how whatever symbols or themes you're discussing relate to the texts individually before connecting them later on, at least that's how I can see myself being able to improve for now. As always, I need to do more specialist work, who would have guessed. Apart from studying, I did go running today and will do some reading after I finish writing this.

Compulsory classes end on Wednesday at my school, they're having a year 12 graduation assembly on Thursday. It's finally starting to sink in that my 6 years of high school are almost over, it's as scary as it is exciting. I coincidentally have an interview with Campion Education for work in the holidays at one of their warehouses, so hopefully that goes well. I'll end this update here; it is getting a bit late.

Autime

11/10/22

I really should have done more than I did today in the way of schoolwork, I only made one essay plan and completed a physics worksheet and one for data analytics. I need to get back to doing practice exams for my subjects, as well as specialist work. My main concerns are English and spec, I know that I have the ability to write at an 8/10 standard, however I’m finding it difficult to be consistently within that range, my main issues come down to running out of time leading to rushed analysis in my third body paragraph and forgetting to put things like linking sentences. The latter is easier to fix, so I’ll be prioritising timing practice leading up to the English exam. Speaking of the English exam, it’s only two weeks away, time flies. For now, I’ll just try to get some sleep and worry about my impending exams when I wake up.

Autime

12/10/22

This is the second time I’m writing this because I accidentally closed the text box or something…
Today was much the same as yesterday. Although, I did complete a practice business management exam and start a section B essay today. I can’t imagine that I’ll write much since it is getting late and I’m running out of ideas, but that’s usually how these updates start. Today was the last day that I am required to attend classes, although I do need to go tomorrow for an assembly, and I will probably keep on going to school just to study. Nevertheless, time keeps marching on. I have a job interview tomorrow for work in the holidays, so that’s a bit nerve-wracking, but I think I can manage.

Autime

13/10/22

For some reason windows has decided to add the weather to my taskbar after an update, I guess that's useful. It probably would have been more useful if it downloaded a few days before the recent rain, but it wasn't that bad in my area so I can't complain. In other news, I no longer have to attend classes at school, but I will still go there to study. I also don't have to wear the school uniform any longer. It should be easier to schedule times to do past exams and other revision now because of more free time. The farewell assembly was alright, they offered a lot of food afterwards. My job interview went well, they said that I'll probably be accepted. Hopefully it will be a good experience in the gap between the end of exams and university. At least I know I won't have nothing to do for months. Tomorrow, I'll dedicate the day to specialist since it's important and I neglect doing work towards it far too often. I definitely could have been more productive today, but you live and you learn. There's not long to go now before my first exam - only 12 days (not including today), so I'll be increasing my consistency and quantity of study from now on.

Autime

14/10/22

For a long time I've had a delusion - or aspiration - to become good at video games. For years I wondered and learned about how to improve at a faster rate, what methods would work to develop my abilities faster. So, I made a schedule for a particular game which would theoretically ensure that you improved to a very high level, it is not a particularly time intensive one because I don't have that kind of time. I realised after thinking about the practicality of myself implementing such a procedure that games are ultimately something you should only pursue for your own enjoyment. Atomising skills and the such may make you improve faster, but simply enjoying what you do and having fun is a much healthier way of going about it - for games at least. Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that I realised that it's not important for me any more to try and be good at something so trivial. If I'm going to waste my time on something, it should be something I truly enjoy. I also realised that I was in a sense holding myself back by diversifying my effort and attention to multiple aspirations at the same time, you can't aim be a master of all trades - at least not simultaneously. I'm really not one to prioritise my emotions at all, so it has definitely taken me much longer than it should have to see such an obvious conclusion. I'm sure that there are other reasons that it has taken me so long to realise this, like excuses and repression, but I'll take solace in that I have the knowledge needed to improve quickly at things. Honestly, I have to think about a lot of stuff such as what kind of person I want to be, course preferences, and other things, but I'll spare that identity crisis for after exams are over.

I think that I got some food poisoning from what I ate yesterday, a bit of it was fish so it might have had salmonella or something. I was able to do some spesh work at school but didn't feel well, so I didn't do anything else in the way of studying today. It feels a bit weird going to school in casual clothes when all the non-year 12 students are in their uniform. Anyway, sorry if this was a bit too much of a rant about my personal problems, that's all for today.

Autime

19/10/22

I didn't update this for the past few days because I couldn't be bothered, and I was basically doing the same things every day. I'll get back on track now with regards to updating this. I've finished the Specialist maths coursework (finally) and will start the practice exam grind shortly. Yesterday I completed a full mock exam at school for English and received my results today. I got 47/60, which would probably be a 40 to 41 study score in 2021. I did surprisingly well in section B although having practiced that the least, getting 9/10 for it and could have improved in section a from 7.5 to 8 or 9 from adding more variety in my choice of devices. If I can improve those results a bit, I'll be very satisfied with how I perform in the final exam. Speaking of the final exam, there is only 1 week left until my first exam (English) - 6 days if you don't include today. That is a little bit scary, but I feel that I will be prepared enough by next Wednesday. I'll do a timed practice exam for business management today and write some essay plans for English. It's as if the closer it gets to the exam dates, the more tired I become, maybe it's just a placebo or stress.

These are my current rough plans for each subject until their exams:

Business: Spam practice exams and review answers, rewrite answers if they're more than 1 or 2 marks off.
Physics: Finish all worksheets, make cheat sheet, then complete all VCAA practice exams for the current study design.
Specialist: Spam practice exams and check answers, write down recurring mistakes at back of bound reference.
English: Write at least 3 essay plans each day and write/review 1 essay section of the exam & analyse exemplar responses.
Data Analytics: Complete revision booklet then do practice exams, do every VCAA one from this study design at least twice and the informatics ones once each (skip unrelated questions)

I will aim to complete most practice exams within the time allocated for the actual exam, maybe not the first ones I do for some subjects if it's unreasonable.

Autime

25/10/22

The English exam is tomorrow, I don't really feel nervous, maybe because of the preparation I've done, or maybe because I know that even if I don't do well, life will go on regardless. I've improved my writing to the point that it is possible that I get all 8/10 or above in the exam, but I somehow doubt that I will. My section C (argument analysis) writing was lacking in the last practice exam I did, but I've been able to improve my emphasis on the impact on the reader since then, so I should do a lot better in the actual exam. I'll probably just do a few more essay plans tonight as some final revision, and just read over my notebook on the actual day of the exam.

In just two weeks I'll be completely done with my exams. I can't say that I'm looking forwards to not being a high school student since there is a lot of uncertainty now for my future. Perhaps I should think of that as exciting, but for now I'll just worry about my upcoming exams. Hopefully the prompts for English and the section C text aren't anything too difficult.