A slow but excruciatingly speedy marathon- with extra life challenges!

Yolk15

Hiii!!!
I just found out that Campion does pick up???
Picked up the majority of the things I needed from the booklist, and it just boosted my motivation to study (shiny new things!!). It was a good choice for me to buy the additional resources, like Atarnotes notes, and text guides, cuz I'm more productive when independently learning, instead of working with a tutor.
Also, do atars come out on December 12th? Excited to see everyone's reaction that I can binge hehe

Yolk15

Congrats on all yall great atars! I hope everyone is able to get into their first preference- if not I'm sure there is always another way. Currently writing at 2pm (way too late), because I just woke up (whoops).

Yolk15

woah- I haven't uploaded in a while!
Guess that's a good thing, just trying to relax (although I have been lurking around the forums anyway...)
Holiday Work completed already:
Literature: I've read all the books, and have annotated/gone through multiple readings for 2 of them. Pretty excited for lit, and hope that this will be my year!
Global Politics: Finished off unit 3 of the textbook + the atarnotes guide (really helpful!) + notes to set up for the year.
Physics: I've read like 2 pages of the textbook (only digital), and did half of the holiday homework + notes; the start of the physics journey is not going well due to procrastination.
Environmental Science (VSV): Been getting more familiar with VSV and the study design; not too much going on rn.

I might be doing Japanese and Englang in the upcoming years, so I really should be doing a bit of preparation for that too

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer holidays everyone!

Yolk15

Every minute is a fluctuation between trying to reach a 96 atar and hoping that I will be able to get pass the 88 barrier. I mean, if I do 4 subjects and do fine enough, I get to graduate with all my friends! If I really wanted to, I could stay another year to boost my atar by a couple of points. I guess my future will be more clear when I get my first study score for politics this year, so I can see where to set my expectations.
sigh I really should be doing work instead of worrying about my atar 🙁

Yolk15

Damn It's so great to see more journals popping up!
I've been on a really good homework streak because I just downloaded Forest- it is a lifesaver yall
School starts on Tuesday, and I would like to finish everything before Monday, so I can have one last day to mentally prepare. I probably only have 3-4 hours of homework left which is nice and seems possible in 3 days. Everything is going by well, and hopefully this is a good sign that this marathon won't be as bad as it will be!
I guess this is a testament to why it's best to choose your favourite subjects

Yolk15

Lets go, another year of school, another year to (hopefully) redeem my crumbling academia. Its been amazing to see my friends again, and resettle back into the clubs I've been in (I'll try join more though).
Week 1-
Literature: Such a good subject, to my surprise! I thought I'd like englang more but I guess it really depends on the teacher and class. Turns out I know very little about my book (Pride and Prejudice).
Work: Highlighting and annotating the novel; making a quotes bank.

Global Politics: We didn't really do much on our first class back, but I did realise I haven't been catching up with the news as much I like. It was my favourite class last year, but it might be equal to everything else, now that I got to choose all my favourite vce subjects.
Work: Completing dot points in study design for AOS 1; completing work set in Onenote.

Physics: I was a bit hesitant choosing this subject, coz I didn't know if I would like it so much. Luckily, I did! It's so much easier learning for science subjects, yet maths subjects are the bane of my existence (????)
Work: Finish reading chapter 8.3 and 8.4; finish review questions 8.3 and 8.4; making notes for these chapters

VSV Environmental Science: A bit nervous for this one- never done VSV before. So far, the website is pretty straightforward, and my teachers seem really nice!
Work: Annotate the study design.

That's all for this week, see you next time for the next update!

Yolk15

Tiny update-
I've joined so many clubs and I'm really scared that I'll miss some bc some are on the same day...
Physics:
I'm ahead but it seems so fast anyway. Really worried for my classmates coz I know that many are up to date with all the content. Also I heard that Physics links to chemistry, methods and spec, but I'm not doing any of those. Hopefully that isn't a disadvantage.
Literature:
Loving lit yall. I'm a bit worried about the exams and tests bc although it is my strong suit, I've been having a hard time writing essays after my recent mental low. However, all the work in class is really easy and all the words are flowing well- glad I chose this instead of mainstream.
Environmental Science:
Had my first week of VSV- it's going great! I knew that the content would be easy, but god damn it feels like year 7 science all over again (not that I'm against it lol)
Global Politics:
This subject used to be my favourite last year, but bc I got to choose all my VCE subjects, and I've basically memorised the study design, I can't be arsed to study ahead.

Well, it was nice talking to a white screen again, see you next time, blog!

Yolk15

Also I'm thinking of picking up another 3/4 subject or two, here's my latest choices:
.VSV Music composition
.VSV Sociology
.English Mainstream or EngLang
.Psych
.History Revs

If there are any other suggestions, I'm open to them

Emmy

Yolk15
Psychology is my absolute favourite subject, definitely recommend! also if you end up picking sociology I'd be interested to know how it goes because I almost regret not choosing it 🙂

ThunderDragon

Yolk15 Psychology was probably my 2nd favorite subject in VCE. Really enjoyed how applicable it was to real life and honestly found it much more interesting than Biology. I would also recommend having a look at VCE Geography. Don't really need the 1/2 for Geography (or at least I didn't do it and still was my best subject). Found it was a good mix of Enviro ish stuff as well as Human Geography and impacts.

Yolk15

Emmy
Yeah I heard lots of people love psychology- i've looked at the exam and it looks easy (but the textbooks seem a bit dry). Sociology seems also easy, but scales down and is on VSV. I'm already doing 1 VSV subject, so I am only allowed to choose one more next year. I change my mind so many times, so we will see haha

Yolk15

So, week 3, and everything has ramped up. I've tried to keep ahead in everything, but most I'm learning at the same rate at class (which is also a miracle). Due to doing only 4 subjects, instead of 6 like the majority of my cohort, I have more time in school to do the homework.
Rn, I've been allowing myself to have home time as just time to relax because I've already reached the recommended weekly homework time (12.5 hours a week). Except for Sunday tho. I might will have to do more work at home.
I'm probably won't do any tutoring- its never helped bc I only grasp the information by myself after class.

Literature:
It's going good, but I have no idea how to prepare for future tests (so scared for the exams). I've tried to annotate the book, but I've only done tags, and not highlighting. Annotating is soooo boring sometimes, I need to practise doing it.
Global Politics:
It's been up and down honestly with work. I'm hoping for at least a study score of 35 (38-40 would be absolutely amazing). I keep forgetting to read the news everyday, which is a pretty core thing of this subject.
Physics:
Although I am still way ahead, I have so many hours of work to do to consolidate my learning. Even though it is only 1/2, I'm motivated to keep really organised.
VSV Environmental Science:
Work has really ramped up, but it is still manageable. It feels like 75% of a whole subject, due to how little external work I do for it. I think I've gotten the hang of the website.

My hopes for this year to really just stay in the moment, cherishing all the freedom and busyness with all the clubs and friends. Thank god I got my morning/night routine in track- I would be sleeping every second (instead I feel the need to sleep every hour lol)

This is so much stuff, and it's only a summary! Wish I wrote this much as I did for English lmao

3mma-13

Yolk15 I'm considereing switching to VSV Environmental science for semester 2, are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it?

TnGn74

For Global Politics I found last year that subscribing to just a few daily emailed updates was a good way to keep up with the news. I signed up for UN News and Foreign Policy Morning Brief, Editors' Picks and China Brief (since my school did China for Power in the Asia-Pacific). I used to have a look at these in the morning before class, and it kept it digestible.

Yolk15

TnGn74
Ooo I haven't thought of that- thank you for the suggestion!

Yolk15

Hello internet- I need some advice (it isn't urgent so I won't make a separate discussion page):
Rn Im doing 4 subjects and am wondering if I should do 5 or 6 in total. There are so many subjects I want to do, but I'm afraid I'll get overwhelmed/won't have a lot of study times. Not too worried about my atar, just whether if I'll enjoy my last years of high school or not.

Here are my choices as of now (after cutting down the list from a previous update):
.Psychology- fun, interesting, and easy; competitive cohort, tight marking, might have some trouble without 3/4
.Sociology- easy, related to my future career, VSV; too easy..., scales a bunch down
.English- doing lit at the same time so easy pick up, love reading, not as competitive overall cohort; can be repetitive/boring writing essays, terrible exam

I can choose up to two of them but honestly I'll probably change my mind within a week (oh well).

lxna

Yolk15 I assume you’re in year 11?

If you’re able to transfer into a 3&4 in year 11, then definitely go for an extra subject and do 6. However, if you plan to do 6 subjects in year 12, I would personally say it’s not worth it unless you absolutely need a high atar.

It’s perfectly possible to get 95+ with 5 subjects, but a 99.95 would be unlikely.

I say not to do it because as a year 12 right now, my free periods are absolute godsend and I can’t imagine not having that extra time to get work done. I think 6 subjects is a bit too much work and you might have to sacrifice some stuff in order to keep up.

It’s entirely up to you, obviously. If you feel like you can keep up with the workload without sacrificing too much, then go for it. I just personally wouldn’t be able to <3

Leaf201

Yolk15
Hey so, coming from someone who's done both sociology and psychology I thought I'd give you some advice if you're still considering between the two subjects

Psychology: I am not a science orientated person, prefer humanities any day, however psychology is simple enough that it's easy to pick up (I picked it up as a 3/4 last year without doing the 1/2), however I would say it's a lot of scientific content you will have to learn there will be quite a bit of biology however it's interesting and relates to everyday life scenarios (like how your body deals with stress, sleep etc.) It also has a lot of niches and small things to remember but as it is a lot of applying as well as remembering it's not too difficult of a subject. It's also amazing if you like writing because the questions are mainly like dot point sentences explaining how processes occur and the exam has 40 MC which is beautiful! However the exam last year was very difficult but because this year and next year (For you) will be a relatively new study design the exam shouldn't be too hard and you should be able to get a good study score

Sociology: I found this subject so much more interesting than any subject I had done throughout schooling, like it made me want to do a Bachelor of Arts. Like every topic in sociology is so interesting and relevant to today's society, I found it was interacting with all my other subjects in some shape or form and was just a very holistic subject. HOWEVER, though it was a fabulous subject to learn, it was not great in terms of assessment, many people are naive coming into the subject thinking it's easy, it scales down, remember scaling is based on the competitiveness of the cohort you are against not the subject itself! Sociology has lots of content, like lots, there are like 15 case studies, examples and quotes you have to know about almost every dot point it's also very difficult in terms of assessment. You have to write long definitions and explain answers very quickly in limited time, so I would say far more interesting than psych but lots more work don't underestimate it! It does unfortunately scale down by a lot too, so just be wise in choosing.

I think ultimately choose what would suit you best, these are my experiences of the 2 subjects, so don't take my opinions as what your experience will be like but I just thought I should give you a taste of what each subject is like so that your not shocked if you choose one of them.

Yolk15

lxna
Thanks so much for the advice and assurance! Aiming for above a 96, but honestly 70 is all I need as a minimum. I'm in year 11 rn. I can only do a max of 5 subjects in year 12. But yeah, free studies are the best. Thanks again for replying!

Yolk15

3mma-13
Hey 3mma!
I personally love environmental science as a subject, and am a pretty independent learner. That being said, this year hasn't been the most fun- due to the fact I'm not trying too much. I mean, it is only 1/2, but I'm spending much more time on my other subjects. Turns out there is actually a fair amount of work (you can't really finish it all in one day, unless you really went for it). Luckily the subject is considered an "easy" subject, so I'm sure you'll do fine with the content. Although it means that you have to do a lot to not get beaten with the scaling down. Also, 1/2 isn't necessary for 3/4
If you like Environmental Science, don't mind keeping yourself accountable without any teachers to catch you up with work, then sure go ahead!

Yolk15

Hey yall procrastinating rn, hopefully I will start working after this...

Clubs: Oh lord. I've been taking school days off when I know my mental health will plummet if I go to school on that certain day, so I can in the long term do more work. The thing is, if I leave for one day, I miss literally 2-6 club things for one lunch... I'm just telling myself that everyone's understanding, and missing one thing (or 10) is best for the long term.

Politics: My first ever 3/4 sac is on this friday, and I think it will go alright (because we're not doing an essay). I'm just hoping for at least a 35 study score- i think that's achieveable.

Literature: It's going good, we recently got a year calendar so I can organise everything! I have my first comparative on Wednesday- I think it might be worse than my close analysis, but as long as I finish something, its fine.

Physics: Ehhh its getting a bit muddy now (I miss one class yall smh), and we have a test on Thursday. It'll be fine, hopefully. Physics will be my top scoring study score (maybe more than a 40), so I gotta smash this!!

Environmental Science: I have my test on Wednesday as well, I read through the intructions and I think this will be okay. Honestly I haven't been taking notes, just absentmindedly going through my assignments, but I really should get my head in the game.

I can't wait for holidays, I really need a new fresh start, see yall on the other side...