The quest to getting money from my parents for a pc

crumblycupcakes

POST #1

21.01.2023

Hi people!
Idk what I'm gonna do with this journal, probably post a weekly update on how I (hopefully did not) procrastinate the whole time.

Background info btw: I asked my parents for a certain amount of money as my grad present to build my own PC. I am forever and eternally grateful that they agreed cuz those things are not cheap fellas, they're like a solid 2-3K to build a good gaming PC.

Let's set the scene here ----
We're a happy family having dinner together (around late November) and ofc we were talking about the ATAR I will get around the same time in 2023 cuz I had just finished my methods 3/4 exam. My dad being the one-of-a-kind first gen immigrant brown dad had agreed with me when I said I only need an 87 ATAR to get into Monash uni engineering or compSci (now it's 85 and 82.5). However, (obviously) mother goose could not sit still and proceeded to look at the two of us like we were mad and did something horribly wrong, cuz who in their right Indian minds would want an ATAR below 99.95 amirite. So mother goose being the superior being she is, proposed to give me 40% more than the promised budget for the PC if I got an ATAR of 95 and now her husband looks at her like she has gone mad. Now, this is the kinda money I can use to build a very sexy gaming PC with RGB lights, dual monitors, and probably even buy a very good gaming mouse and keyboard. Anyone in their right mind would seal the deal right then and there... so that is exactly what I did! muahahahaha

See, anyone who actually uses their brain would probably just aim for the 95 and take that damn money, but me? nah nah nah I don't do that. Me being the crumbled cupcake that I am -> aiming for a 97 cuz I think my parents seem to think I can barely get a 95 so I gotta get more than a 95 by a high enough margin so I can convince them that I'm not completely useless.

Now that you know 100% of why I want a 97+ I truly hope that someone will carry me through the year cuz I believe that AtarNotes is actually a very helpful and supportive platform. I really want that 💸 .

[Please give me some wisdom on how to prep for my subjects, I will post a cry for help for Algorithmics and will link the post here when I do so. Feel free to share your stories and experiences with each of the subjects or vce/vcaa in general if you are comfortable enough to do so!!]

Edits:

I feel like I should have ss goals throughout the year to see how miserable I'm doing as it goes by:

Eng 3/4 (prolly like a 30-34)
Phys 3/4 (hopefully 40)
Chem 3/4 (surely 35-37 is not too hard?... right...)
Spesh 3/4 (hmm rlly hope 40)
Algo 3/4 (hoping for a 40)
Methods 3/4 (2022)

Link to cry for help:

[Algorithmics 3/4]

         (https://discussion.atarnotes.com/d/7931-how-to-tackle-vce-algorithmics-34)

jinx_58

crumblycupcakes

Aghhhhhh I understand the Indian parental pressure omg. I felt it so much in year 12, and especially from other Indian parents and it was just so annoying. That’s all I had to say haha.

You’ve got this dude!

-jinx_58

Bibliii

crumblycupcakes oh God indian pressure is the worst which is why I have started using these forums haha the people here are so supportive and better than my racist teachers so that's a plus 😅

crumblycupcakes

hey @jinx_58 ! I just read through your journal and it was awesome! I know I'm like a couple of months too late but you should be so proud of yourself for getting through yr 12 and smashing it with a 91.75 🥳

crumblycupcakes

POST #2

22.01.2023

ight so today went by in a blur which is so not good.

[The next paragraph has nothing related to me studying at all but go ahead and read about my idiocracy if you would like to]

We had a cute little family movie night yesterday so we all woke up late (but obviously I woke up last) at 11:30 am 😀 . Anyway since I'm such an amazing sibling, I agreed to cut my sister's extremely thick and curly hair like 20 mins after I had woken up (idk why she wanted me to cut her hair cuz I kinda botched it last time). Also, the pressure was on because she had to go to tuition right after and made plans with her friends for tomorrow so if I messed it up, I'd be responsible for her looking like a very bad imposter of Bob Ross. She honestly shoulda gone to a hairdresser but her being such a sentimental younger sister said she wanted to spend some time w me so I could not refuse. It took me like an hour to cut her hair, I partitioned her hair into a million sections and kept checking if it was aligned, and right when I was about to say I was done like the proud untrained hairdresser that I was, my client requested that I do something to thin her hair out so she doesn't have to worry about tangled hair as much. So me being the smart ass, I agreed and proposed that I shave a triangle off the bottom of her scalp. that took another 15 mins.

[Today's actual study log]

So I actually haven't done anything yet which shows my levels of procrastination, and journalling on this thread is actually kinda motivating.

My goals for ~~today~~ right now:

Finish Spesh complex hw from tuition (weekly booklet of 30 pages)

Hopefully, get started on the chem hw given by the school

   
               {I will update my progress in a couple of hours}

[A couple of hours later]
so....

I did not finish the hw but I did 15 pages of next week's booklet
did not get started on chem

I am going to sleep now 😴

crumblycupcakes

Bibliii

IKR!! everyone is so niceee. Honestly just being Indian is kinda stressful with all the aunties and family friends constantly talking about ATARs in Dec but I'm really lucky that my parents don't really force me and try their best to motivate me.

crumblycupcakes

POST #3

11 AM
I've been focused only on non-English subjects after coming back from my 30-day-long vacation because (if you haven't read any of my previous entries yet) I'm so bad at English that I actually think my teacher gave up on me. So obviously, I haven't even started reading the first text. The first book is going to be used for the creative assessment and I'm pretty sure the second is for a text response which we start working on in the 4th week of term 1. It's kinda crazy how VCE eng teachers recommend reading one text 4 times before going into the SAC. I think it was something like:
[1] to get an idea of what's going on, identify themes, and get a jist of the plot
[2] to understand characters, get familiar with the settings, identify symbols and analyse the themes presented in the text
[3] to let the quotes stick
[4] to know the text so well that you can predict what kinds of questions may be asked in the actual SAC.

Calculations:

first book: 332/6 = 55 pages a day
first book + second book: (520+332)/6 = 142 pages a day.

Tasks I will hopefully complete by the end of the day:

Read 142 pages of the first book { 2.5-3 hrs I'm a slow reader and need breaks ok, leave me alone }
Take my dog out for a walk { 1.5 hrs we go on long walks every 2-3 days }
Get started on the holiday chem hw { idk tbh }

[ I will update this post at the end of the day ]

Update:

~~1. Read 75 pages of the first book { I might've taken a break and never went back to reading }~~
~~2. Take my dog out for a walk { 1.5 hrs we go on long walks every 2-3 days }~~

Get started on the holiday chem hw { idk tbh }

~~4. [ EXTRA ] Went through the study design of Algorithmics 3/4 and made a study plan for AOS 1~~

[ Also since this is a journal that I will probably not delete in the future I feel like I should post my experience here so that I won't lose it. It was a friend's birthday yesterday and we were all on the same train on our way to the city, a caucasian man who looked to be around 50-60 yrs gets on the train and sits in front of us, he looked at us like he had something to say, I don't specifically remember how the whole conversation started but he asked us (all of were brown, 4 Indians and a Lankan) where we were from and when we replied with the country and the state, man started speaking in Telugu. Look, not many Telugu kids know how to speak Telugu and honestly idek if people knew that language even existed until a couple of months ago. That guy started talking to me in Telugu and let me tell you he made my day, not only did he speak in Telugu he asked where my friends were from and spoke to them in their languages as well. He was so nice and sweet. When we had to part ways he said 'we should definitely meet some other time' in Telugu and holy mother of god that was so wholesome!! What I regretted right when I got off the train was that I should've thought to take a picture with him or at least asked him for his name. I didn't even ask for his name! ]

Anyway, that's it for today,
Signing out 🫡

crumblycupcakes

POST #4

[26.02.2023]

So... I've been at a friend's place the last 4 days (25th - 28th Jan) cuz I did not get out of the house after coming back from my 30-day India trip 2 weeks ago (also because after the first day of staying, the aunty convinced us that we were abandoning her -> we didn't come over in the past couple of months... so my parents decided to leave my sister and me here and they left. THEY LEFT!). I'm not complaining tho cuz I really love spending time at their place and both the aunty and uncle are so chill, the whole day is either all of us going out or uncle, me, and their kid on the PS.

Last night was epic! I have been enchanted with rummy since I was in year 3 (a 13-card game which Indian parents, uncles, aunties, and grandparents are obsessed with), and since the family friends are Indians who are obsessed with rummy.... I got to play it with the big guns until 2 am. And guess what I ACTUALLY WON $30!!! ♠️ ♣️ ♥️ ♦️

I was actually not too pathetically unproductive yesterday, I vacuumed the whole house and we had to leave to get to our friend's place at 7 pm so I started packing at 5:30 pm cuz as the older sibling, I have been given the responsibility to make sure all doors are locked and secured and no fire by the time we're back home ( to avoid driving back midway cuz father thought he forgot to unplug the steam iron ) 👍️ . Anyway, I woke up at like 10:30 this morning so the day wasn't as productive as it could have been but I got to play Rummy so I'm not complaining.

Yesterday's productive-ness (25.01)

Read 1 short story from the Eng book (approx. 60 pages)
Revised for my back-to-school spesh test on rational and mod functions
{ I basically just did 2 past tests and reviewed them. I got a 75% on the 2020 (cut me some slack pls, I have not revised rational and mod in over a month) and I completely bombed the 2018, it was an actual meme idk if I was just stupid or if they're genuinely hard questions. }

[28.01.2023]

We played Rummy last night as well so I woke up a bit late today at 11 am 😭. Then I did around an hour of spesh test revision. I am still at my family friend's place so prolly won't be able to get much done today either so I'll just give myself some relaxing/stress-free tasks.

Today's productive - ness goals:

Do a leet code algorithmic activity
Research what degree/s I'm interested in

The closer I get to the 30th I feel more nervous and unprepared, idk if I'm supposed to feel like that or if I need to try much harder. I've got pretty ambitious goals for myself and if I feel like this before school starts, brooo what am I going to do? I'll just go dig a hole for myself now. idk how people do it, how do y'all sit down for hours and study? Like I physically cannot do that, I always get distracted like it's not even funny 😤 .

crumblycupcakes

POST #5

[ 30.01.2023 ]

Hey, fellas ( this is a gender-neutral word so don't attack me pls ),
Today was the last first day of high school and it didn't go as badly as I had expected. I wasn't starving due to the different meal times and didn't fall asleep because of the continued multiple hours of grind in class. It was a chill day at school mostly because we had 2 assemblies -> a house assembly and a whole school assembly ( I honestly don't know why we had 2 assemblies, but hey I'm not complaining I got away with skipping 2 periods ).

I said it was a chill day AT SCHOOL; I had to catch a bus straight after to get to my 2-hour-long spesh hell where they grind us and I'm not saying sitting there doing questions, man teaches us a topic, does Qs then repeats 20 million times in 2 hrs. How is it even possible to get through 40 pages of content? He thinks we're geniuses ( my classmates are but he overestimates me fr ) and can actually get through that. In all seriousness tho I love it cuz it exposes us to good content and preps us for the hard stuff from the start.

[ Here's what happened today ]

P1: Eng
The thing is, I suck at English so I am glad that our teacher made us write letters of introduction cuz we got to waste time instead of actually remembering the text I had only half-read over the holidays.

P2: Chem
I thought I was not too bad at chem but I thought WRONG cuz turns out I actually don't remember ANYTHING from orientation last year so I was just nodding along in class and writing random things down. Yay to the first period of chem!

P3: Phys
Physics was actually probably the only half-decent subject today. I understood most of the class and the rest was sort of a recap of basic motion graphs. Gravity is actually fun!

Those were the only 3 periods I had today because we had an assembly before P1 and one after P3. ngl the assemblies were actually kinda good, the first one kinda snapped me to reality that school is back on and the second one was house games and getting to know the new kids.

Overall today was good and it does make me realise I'm in year 12 and everything matters, I should be involved in everything cuz it's my last everything! Ugh it's making kinda sad now.

crumblycupcakes

POST #6

[ 15.02.2023 ]
It's week 3 of school and it does not feel like it at all. I haven't been grinding as much as I would like to but I've been doing the work. So I found out that my first Algo SAC is in 2 weeks and I started freaking out cuz it's worth 50% of unit 3 SACs apparently and why didn't they tell us we had a SAC before I asked them? IDK! WHY DIDN'T THEY!? apart from that, algo is actually a very fun subject, i really like the content and it's very absorbable stuff. easy o get a hang of

Anyway, English is already killing me, I don't want to do it, I want to drop it. The first sac is only worth 7% and I'm alr so screwed how am I going to survive the rest of the year? ahhhhhhhhhh

Moving on to spesh... idek if i need to say anything. i think doing spesh is a bad idea, i want to drop it, i think i suck, i didn't know spesh 3/4 was going to be this bad. the content is fine but they gave us a rational functions quiz and it was cooked. they frickin Gordon-Ramsay-ed the quiz like the smartest kid I know got a 75%, like just IMAGINE the smartest kid who always gets a 100 get a 75, JUST IMAGINE. I am horrified, my teacher hasn't marked it yet and I don't know if it's good or bad, but it is what it is. Let's see how the rest of the year plays out. 🙂

Chem is actually not as bad as I thought and i feel like i should put in more effort in it than spesh, ik spesh is so freaking rewarding but like even if i get a 30 it'll prolly scale to 40 and feel like i won't do that well even if i try hard. if i put in the same amount of effort in chem i think i could manage a relatively good score. also, chem tuition or self-learning the topic before class really helps, doing them beforehand reinforces the content when you redo it in class andddd the teachers will like you more if you participate in class. I learned to NOT NEGLECT relationships with people -> friends AND teachers last yr cuz it will make you happier and feel more awake, at least for me, talking to people makes me feel alive. Like i would literally sleep for 12 hours and still be tired so i need to have words coming out of my mouth to be able to feel remotely like a human being.

Physicsssssss. holy mother of god! I dreaded physics last year like idk what it was but like every time i walked into class it was like entering a battlefield with my brain. i did not understand a single thing! but this yr tho... i love my teacher!!! He's so freaking good! like everything that comes out of his mouth makes sense and I feel like this is a bit unusual for physics teachers -> HIS DRAWINGS LOOK GOOD. you can distinguish what he is drawing, that's all i have to say, like if he draws a car, it looks like a bloody good car with headlights, a windshield and the thing at the front that looks like a mouth. I LOVE PHYSICS!

as if i didn't have year 12 to take care of, i have a leadership position that organises a lot of our school events and since Valentine's day was yesterday, the co-captain and I had been planning it for a good 2 months cuz our school usually goes full-out. it was also extra stressful with just the two of us as we haven't accepted anyone to join the club yet. 💀 yesterday was actually chaotic and stressfull but im glad that's over phew

yes so those are all of my subjects updates so far, ik i word-vomited this whole post but I'm tired and this week was freaking tiresome. tbh last two weeks were worse w swimming carnival, PD day, photo day and assembly (im on the av team lol istg im not a total nerd). since i'm ac ouple of weeks in, i'll do an ss expectation update:

Eng: 30
Phys: 40
Chem: 35
Spesh: 30
Algo: 35
(at this rate i'm not getting my parents' money)

Anyway hope your first couple of weeks went well!
Signing out!

chloejlmc

crumblycupcakes Love this journal u got goingg... I'm doing Algo too lol and have my sac coming up. For SAC 1 do u have to model a real world issue with ADTs then implement into an algorithm? Also, good luck w/ it!

crumblycupcakes

chloejlmc

tysm!! 😭
That's so great!! I think there are more people doing algo this year than the past ones. ik that double the number of people are doing algo at my school compared to last year. I'm honestly kinda looking forward to it cuz if more ppl do it, more ppl will get high study scores. If you're interested, i found the number of ppl who got 40+ in the past 3 yrs.

2020 ( 8 ) : https://www.quppa.net/studyscores/browse/2020/Grouped%20by%20Subject/Algorithmics%20(HESS).html
2021 ( 13 ) : https://www.quppa.net/studyscores/browse/2021/Grouped%20by%20Subject%20and%20School/Score%20Counts%20Sorted%20by%20Highest%20Scores/Algorithmics%20(HESS).html
2022 ( 11 ) : https://www.quppa.net/studyscores/browse/2022/Grouped%20by%20Subject%20and%20School/Score%20Counts%20Sorted%20by%20Highest%20Scores/Algorithmics%20(HESS).html

They haven't introduced the project yet (we call it a SAT i think) they told us we have a test first (in 2 weeks) that's worth 50% of whole sac and I think that sac -> test + project. idk that's what I remember. I will def let you know when i find out (prolly tmrw cuz i have it then)

edit: I just remembered that they said the project is due on the 5th of April

chloejlmc

crumblycupcakes I second your thoughts on a bigger cohort (hopefully makes a 40+ score seem more achievable lol)
I think your school is doing a similar testing format to ours - for unit 3 we r having 2 sacs first and then 1 SAT.
Anyway, I'll let u know too when I get more info - Go us!!!

crumblycupcakes

POST #7

[19.07.2023]
ight so it's been a very loooong while since my last post, and VCE ain't looking good. It's actually crazy how time went by so fast. It feels like a couple of weeks ago when I made my first post and was prepping for my first SAC.

Turns out I wasn't as organised, disciplined, or dedicated to my subjects as I had planned and will probably barely scrape what I want. I would like to be as transparent as I can on this platform as this may help someone not make the same mistakes as me. I would like to begin by admitting that this is completely my fault, and I would like to apologise to myself for not working hard. I would come home from school and, scroll through Instagram, TikTok, and watch Netflix. I was ignorant and not committed. Planning and actually following through with them are two completely different things. I did not realise how different yr 12 is from yr 11; in year 11, I did even less work than yr 12 and wouldn't study at all at home. A lot of people realise that year 12 is actually very important and start grinding, so year 12 is definitely way more intense than year 11.

I went to tuition this year for spesh and phys, then later decided to start chem in term 2. My productivity was solely dependent on my tuitions as I would not study before or after them; that was the first red flag. I realised a bit late how SAC scores are actually sort of relevant for a study score, so I put in a bit more effort from term 2. Physics was the one subject I grinded tho, I started SAC prep 3-4 weeks prior. However completely neglected all of my other subjects (eng, spesh, chem, and algorithmics), so the scores for those stayed low.

Eng (roughly 55%):

my school doesn't actually give us the number scores (idk why), we have a rubric system.
SAC 1 (creative): Satisfactory (50-60%)
SAC 2 (TRE): good (60-70%)
SAC 3 (LA): satisfactory (50-60%)
SAC 4 (oral): I did it on Monday, but I'm pretty sure I bombed it

Goals: 33-36
SAC 5 (comparative): Excellent (very ambitious)
Exam: not too sure

Phys: (78%)

SAC 1 (U3 AOS 3): 69%
SAC 2 (U3 AOS 1): 79%
SAC 3 (U3 AOS 2): 88%

Goals: 40-44
SAC 4 (U4 AOS 1): 90%
SAC 5 (U4 AOS 2): 90%
Exam: 90%

Chem: (75%)

SAC 1: 69%
SAC 2 (poster): 82%
SAC 3: did it week 1, term 3, so we're still waiting for the results

Goals: 40-43
SAC 4: 90%
SAC 5: 90%
Exam: 80-85%

Spesh: (52%)

SAC 1: 52%
I actually bombed it. I HAVE to clutch the next two sacs

Goals: 35-37
SAC 2: 70%
SAC 3: 70%
Exam I: 80%
Exam II:75%

Algorithmics: (57%)

SAC 1: 64%
SAC 2: 53%
SAT 1 part I: 55%

Goals: 30-35
SAC 3 part I (Tomorrow): 70%
SAC 3 part II (Monday): 70%
Exam: 70%

Methods: 39ss

I know that most of my goals are very high compared to my current scores, but they're goals, and I will get as close to them as I can. If anyone has ANY study tips for my remaining SACs or exams, PLEASE let me know. If anyone is willing to share any All The Light We Cannot See, Ransom, and The Queen resources pls, let me know I will share my disc or email 🙏 .

geezus I just realised how many numbers there r