Autime's Jumbled Journal (pt 2)

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.

Autime

I got my VCE results, it wasn't above 90, but I'm still very satisfied with what I got as it is more than enough for my preferred course (commerce).

I got an ATAR of 88.15

My study scores are:
English: 40
Business management: 37
Applied Computing: Data Analytics: 42
Specialist maths: 22 (31 scaled [how])
Physics: 27
Methods: 25 (from last year)

This is the last time I will be updating this journal; I wish everyone the best of luck with their ATAR results and future endeavors.

chemistry1111

Autime congrats what are your tips with english? when you were in the exam what part did you do first and how long did you spend on each part.

jinx_58

Autime
Dude congratss on the awesome ATAR!!! It may not be 90 but trust me, your ATAR will mean nothing in about 4 months. Your hard work paid off and that’s what matters!

Congrats again,
-jinx_58

lxna

It might not be a 90, but an 88 is so close and such a good score that rlly shows the work you’ve put in!! So proud of you for making it, and good luck in uni!! <3

lm21074

Well done!! Super proud of you 🙂

Autime

chemistry1111
Sorry for the late reply, I think I spent about 1 hr per section, but I didn’t really pay that much attention to the time in the exam. You don’t need to worry about the order you do your exams in, it doesn’t really make a big difference in your results. I think I did section C, then B and A in the exam, but this changes depending on what I find to be the hardest section for the exam I’m doing. With English, what helped me the most was realising that you don’t need to reflect the authors views in your writing, instead you should portray your own through the lens of their text in responding to a topic (in other words be delusional). Most of English is a mental challenge - changing how you see things, not necessarily how you do things, will make you a better writer.

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