POST 1 - 19/12/2023

hi! my name is dani, and to be honest, i never thought of starting a vce journal. i’ve read countless amounts on atar notes, and i was like ‘eh that could never be me.’ but i really wanted to capture my vce journey, because i know it is going to be an extraordinarily bumpy road that i’m not sure i’m quite ready to ride. i’m in year 12, the class of 2024, and i wanted to just document the ups and downs of the year (maybe more downs that ups but that’s ok).

my subjects
well i’m doing five subjects next year; four at my in-person school and one through virtual school victoria. at my in-person school, i’m studying english (compulsory, although i would have enjoyed doing english language), general maths, business management, and psychology. through virtual school victoria, i’m studying extended investigation (explanation below).

english — i love english. i don’t care what people say about hating english and wanting to die when they go to english class, i absolutely enjoy english (despite my friends correlation between me loving english and being white 😭). when i finish high school, i want to study media + communications and creative writing at unimelb. kind of ironic how english is my lowest performing subject (mid 70’s to low 80’s on a good day), but i don’t like analysing books, and why the author chose medea to be a child-killer (yes our school chose medea for year 11 it was incredibly boring). i enjoy the creative component of english, which is why i am SUPER grateful for the new english study design where we get to craft our own creative responses, because i always do super well on those in my english sac’s. enough about english…

general math — i was planning on dropping general in year 12, because it was too easy, but then i realised “why drop it because it’s easy… it is just an opportunity to get a decent study score.” (for background information, i was going to drop this to continue with geography but not enough people from 1/2 wanted to do it so it got cancelled. then i had to chose between biology and general, and i really really despise biology [a story in itself, i might write about it later] so i chose general). i did well this year, i heard the 3/4 course is almost a copy and paste of units 1/2, so that will be interesting.

business management — HELP i will never understand how people tend to do so bad in this subject. i never dropped below a 90 on my sac’s (except the one time i realised that my teacher marked me an extra mark that when removed, it would’ve been an 87, so i didn’t tell her because what’s loyalty T-T). i feel that business is the kind of subject that where you put the effort in, you get the reward, and i do all the notes and the textbook questions assigned but i never really went out of my way to study, and still managed 90’s-100’s. definitely will change that approach next year because i’ll get lazy if i don’t. but i DO have the same teacher next year as i did this year, which is thrilling because she is great, but changed her teaching style during orientation where peoples tests grades dropped for the worse because it sucked (thank god i’m an independent learner ESPECIALLY for business).

psychology — psych has always been the stand out science for me. i feel like studying why people do what they do and how the mind works entails so many fascinating connections to what i already know, and to branch off that is just something i enjoy. i did great this year in psychology with my decent 75 year old teacher, and then she went on leave and i got an even better teacher who was by far more engaging than her.

extended investigation — as mentioned, i’m doing this through vsv, and took a LOT of convincing for my school to let me do it (gotta love having a kick-ass mum). i’m really excited, because not only isn’t there an exam, i get to look into stuff i really enjoy and it’s mostly self paced meaning i can do it in my own time… AND IT SCALES DECENTLY TOO!! basically EI as it is abbreviated is a subject where you write a thesis on a topic you have researched for the whole year, and then present it as an oral presentation to a panel of VCAA assessors. helps build critical thinking, but i want to improve my writing skills.

why i despise biology
biology this year was such a roller coaster, because i had the worst teacher imaginable. like if he had to teach to survive, he’d be a pile of ashes right now. i did incredibly bad in his class, because i had no idea what i was doing 95% of the time, and he has this mindset where he thought he was always right, despite marking our unit 1 exams wrong and screwing up multiple other marking on sac’s. BUT HE LEFT AFTER SEMESTER 1, and i got a biology teacher who has a PhD in something (finished on an A, which is like 25% more than what i finished on with the bad teacher)

goals
i guess i should also talk about my goals for the year. study score wise, i am hoping to achieve:

  • english — 30-35
  • general — nothing below a 40
  • business management — nothing below a 45
  • psychology — 35-40
  • extended investigation — 35-40

after school, i am DEFINITELY taking a gap year because school is exhausting me, before i study media + communications and creative writing at unimelb (need an 88 atar i think that it’s achievable).

a little bit more about me…
i love to talk, if you couldn’t tell by this massive first post. i don’t know, i’ve always just been so opinionated and love to talk about almost anything.

  • i love music, it is literally what keeps my heart beating healthy. i listen to varying genres, but i listen to conan gray (top 0.001% of listeners this year with him being over 1/3 of my overall streams), taylor swift (who i didn’t get tickets to because of bots and fake fans), enhypen, paramore, sabrina carpenter, gracie abrams, newjeans, mcr, etc etc
  • concerts are something else i really enjoy, despite being to only two. i saw conan gray in 2022 which was MAGNIFICENT and then paramore (opening night) in november 2023. my goal is to definitely go to more concerts after year 12, because live music >>
  • i also love reading, and have literally bought 55 books in 18 months. i was banned from buying books for my birthday (my parents still bought me 2 lol) and for christmas (i’m getting 6 haha). i just love living vicariously through other people in made up worlds… maybe it’s a bad coping habit but oh well.

i’m always up for music and book suggestions, as i am always running low on either, and there is only so many times i can listen to taylor swifts catalogue of music over and over. apologies for the lengthy introduction but i love to talk and that will never change. bye for now!

    wow what are the odds of me coming across another EI student… the cohort is so tiny 😭. i’ve been looking at sleep myths, since there is a huge gap in the literature - especially for adolescents. and for books, i love horror and mystery, but some of my all time favourites are ‘the seven husbands of evelyn hugo’ and ‘daisy jones and the six.’

    also thank you so much for replying, i didn’t know if anyone would see this T-T

    Ayo, fellow EI peeps! ..And yeah the cohorts pretty small (only around 20ish students get 40+) since most schools don't offer it, hence I'm doing it on VSV. I'm thinking of doing research on liminal spaces, so hopefully that'll go well. Good luck to you two!

      year 10 next year, but looking to do EI in year 11, let me know how it goes everyone!! 🙂

      • FH likes this.

      Cardamon another vsv kid!! that actually sounds super interesting, maybe i’ll see you in class online next year?

        g4rl1cg1rl oh wow, that is intriguing (i hate anything to do with history lmao). i’d definitely love to talk throughout next year with our ideas, and am also glad that we found each other, because EI seems so difficult i’m not sure if i’ll make it out alive 🙁.

        a tip that i’ve gotten from my teachers is just to confine your topic down so it is achievable in eight months, so i hope that helps get the ball rolling and confidence boosted!!

          It's unfortunate that your school school doesn't have enough people for a 3/4 Geography class since that was probably my favorite subject in Year 12.

          • FH replied to this.

            ThunderDragon i agree, i really enjoyed geography - especially going out on field trips. but i’m also enjoying EI so i guess it’s a win-win!

                FH Just completed EI this year. It is a great subject, but the critical thinking test is horrid 😭

                • jam likes this.
                • FH replied to this.

                    FH I did a ethical paradigmatic analysis of xenotransplantation through the perspective of some philosophers and medical codes. EI is the best subject that the VCAA offer, in my opinion. It is extremely rewarding and fun (if you are doing something you like of course) and it will immensely help you through university. Just as a tip, since you will inevitably face this issue towards the end of the year; you will be pulling your hair out about keeping under that small word count (trust me it sounds big, but it is crazy small). You just have to be extremely honest about yourself during the editing process and cut ANYTHING that does not relate to the question. It hurts to do as you've put so much effort into your paper, but you have to do it (I legit cut my paper down from 72 pages to 36).

                    • FH replied to this.

                        stevendort ahh now you have made me worry (it’s ok i work better stressed). when in doubt i’ll just maybe throw everything into a table since they don’t go to the word count LMAO.

                        so glad i’ve met some EI peeps now i can get some extra help 🥲🥲

                            FH No, don't worry. Every student in the state goes through the same cycle. You'll do well if you are really passionate about your project.

                            • FH likes this.

                              POST 2 - 22/12/2023

                              hi, again! i have wayyyy too much time on my hands because i literally updated here 3 days ago, buuutttt i’ve been productive in saying that so here’s update numero due (i almost failed italian both semesters in year 9 but ‘numero due’ sounded more fancy than ‘number two’)

                              i have done a fair amount of my holiday homework this week. almost finished my psychology homework, which is just research methods and skills which is extremely repetitive but it has to get done - i just have one lot of textbook questions to go. i technically didn’t have any homework for general maths, but when i went to buy some spare exercise books for my orientation classes in early november, i bought 10mm grid books for math instead of 5mm, so i’ve been in the process of, and actually completed, transferring all the work over to the 5mm books my friend bought for me because i am too lazy to leave the house! and then there is english. i went to the textbook store to buy my textbooks yesterday and they didn’t have either of the books we are studying (for reference, they are ‘we have always lived in the castle’ by shirley jackson and ‘oedipus the king’ my sophocles). they should be in within 10 working days EXCLUDING christmas and boxing day and new year’s day.

                              and then there is EI. to be honest, EI is just going to get its own paragraph at this point in time because it is so interesting and i do not regret choosing it (yet). i think i mentioned in my previous post that my topic i have found a huge gap in the literature for is sleep myths, so like misconceptions about sleep and how they might influence or impact teenagers. my teachers (there’s two of them) both seem to really enjoy the idea and see good potential, but i do need to define a lot of stuff because, as my teachers have put it to me, what is a “good nights sleep” and how is that scientifically defined. might go into the state library after the new year to do some work because i get distracted too easily at home. i also signed up to go watch top talks, which is (for non EI kids) the top EI oral presentations being presented to people at the state library, which is good for me because i’ve only seen final products in terms of the written report, not the oral presentation. for my topic however, the teachers want me (as it is mentioned in some of the literature i have read) to complete a delphi method style approach to identifying sleep misconceptions. a delphi method is basically getting scientific experts who specialise in the topic on research to identify (with support of scientific evidence of course) whether it is a myth or not. THEY WANT ME TO CONTACT EXPERTS. they said students have done so successfully but i am wayyyy too introverted to ever do something like that. self esteem levels - low!!

                              a mini-life update. i have never watched stranger things before, but i made the choice to start watching it. i was always like “i’m never going to conform to what people have to say about television shows, I WILL BE THE JUDGE OF WHAT IS AND ISN’T GOOD.” confession… it is super good. the moment i’m done writing this, i’m going to finish off season 1 (i have 3 episodes left.) i also applied at a nando’s store for work, because i absolutely love nando’s, but i’m not expecting to land the job to be honest.

                              anywho, christmas is three days out, so wishing everyone a very merry christmas, and due to the lack of excitement in my life, i will definitely be posting another update before the new year. bye for now!

                              g4rl1cg1rl with top talks, it's during a school day I DONT KNOW WHAT EXCUSE IMMA USE WITH MY SCHOOL SO I CAN GO T-T

                                14 days later

                                POST 3 - 05/01/24

                                hi, again! i haven’t put anything here in a week or so, and i’m really bored, so i figured to put up something here just to waste some time.

                                i’ve tried getting ahead in some subjects the last few days when i haven’t been out, which is boring as hell because i’m trying to bide some time until my book store orders my set texts for english (we have always lived in the castle for unit 3 and oedipus the king for unit 4). i started my general bound reference, which can be super tedious because i hate making mistakes and i get distracted super easily, so i’m always making mistakes. also been working on some psychology revision notes for the first half of AOS1 which we covered in orientation.

                                extended investigation has been a total bloodbath. i have done absolutely nothing. zero. i’m really lacking motivation, which is bad because you need it for this subject. i got an email from my teacher with some other homework (i haven’t really read it properly) but it is like 10 questions + article reading so i guess it isn’t too much considering school starts in 25 days.

                                i finished stranger things a week or so ago, and i’m really surprised i haven’t watched it earlier because it was super good. currently half way through all of us are dead, which i also regret not watching earlier. also got bored and ranked every taylor swift song here.

                                i might go on hiatus until school resumes, so thanks for reading!!

                                • Yona likes this.
                                • Kay replied to this.

                                  FH i'd love to hear your thoughts on "we have always lived in the castle" because i STRUGGLED through that one and cheered when it was over, but then I paused and was like hmmm maybe not that bad?

                                  • FH replied to this.
                                      9 days later

                                      Kay i started reading it a few days ago and just finished chapter 4 and i have no idea what’s going on. if you have any materials to help me i’d really appreciate it!

                                      • Kay replied to this.

                                          one of the chosen texts for my literature class this year is medea and it genuinely looks so boring!!

                                          • FH replied to this.

                                            kimberley our school did medea for year 11 english and i genuinely enjoyed it for a set english text. it's boring at first but once you get into it it is really good!!

                                              OMG i was at opening night of paramore too! can't belive the pyros malfunctioned😱 i don't know that many high schoolers who like paramore cus its usually millenials😭so its good to know you like them too!

                                              • FH replied to this.

                                                ap27 i loved the “somebodyyyy is getting fired” during hard times outro LMAO. but yeah paramore is so cool, and i’m surprised other high schoolers know them because my english teacher from last year went to see them, and she is like 27. but hey paramore is gonna age well.

                                                  FH I finished it quite quickly and it was very confusing and weird, but I've never really read gothic horror so there's that. I watched the movie on amazon prime too which helped a little bit but not much. It's very much based around Merricat's perspective so I guess that would be helpful to analyse but yeah. Websites like this can help: https://www.lindseyenglishtutoring.com/vce-resources/an-ultimate-guide-to-we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle

                                                  • FH replied to this.

                                                      Kay you are literally a life saver. thank you so much!

                                                      • Kay likes this.
                                                        6 days later

                                                        POST 4 - 24/01/24

                                                        hi! i’ve been meaning to write some stuff here but my motivation levels have been 📉📉📉📉 and my procrastination levels 📈📈📈📈. at least i know that’s where i have to fix before school starts next week. to be honest, i have really mixed emotions regarding school starting again. i’m excited because it’s my last year at high school and then i get to take a gap year before i start university. but in saying that, i’m also quite sad because it is going to involve a lot of “last’s.” last camp. last year in that environment. last everything really. i’ve been sitting on the idea of vlogging the last year, just to document the best and worst of year 12. and coming to think of it, it would be a really great idea, because i get to take my mind off school when i’m editing (my skills are really bad we won’t talk about that) and making a really nice video to remember my last year at school. it’s just a shame phones are banned at school, because then i could use my phone and have all my videos and photos there, but i guess a perk of having an ipad is that i can use that to record, even if logging an ipad around all day is a bit weird. at least i’ll get a reputation of ipad kid lmao.

                                                        i still haven’t finished reading ‘we have always lived in the castle’ for english. i’m on chapter 7 (out of 10) and it is really really boring. but i do have my own theories that i love to speculate on, perks of being a swiftie is that these skills are really good. like, charles is such a gold digger it is actually unbearable to see a man act like that, but to be honest, it’s more merricat who i love speculating about. especially after post-reddit surfing, i suspect even more now that merricat is a lesbian who is crushing on her sister. but that would make such a good point for analysis, because lesbian-ism (is that a word) is such a disapproved area of life that, in the 1960’s where this book is set, is highly disregarded amongst everyone. even though we are told that merricat is weird because she poisoned her family, maybe this crush towards her sister lead to her not wanting to kill her (i’m just insane but it /could/ work).

                                                        i finally made a start on my extended investigation (EI) work yesterday. i feel like i’m taking for granted the independence i have for this subject, and am yet to realise how much self-motivation i need in order to get work done. the most boring part of this subject is definitely the reading, but it has to be done, so i have to suck it up, but i can’t wait to start writing that 4000 word report. yes, you read that right… i am excited to write a 4000 word report. i’m not absurd, i just really really like writing and i feel like this will develop my skills and really benefit me. i’m still sticking with the topic of sleep myths, heading towards the research question of “how do sleep myths influence the amount of quality sleep in adolescents?” measuring quality sleep is difficult, because there’s a bunch of criteria which is hard to measure without fancy equipment like smartwatches, which most teenagers don’t have to help measure. and then there’s the sleep myths component that i am unsure how i’m going to incorporate alongside quality sleep, but i have until march 1st to submit a formal research question to vcaa.

                                                        in terms of my other three subjects - general math, business management, and psychology - i’ve been doing work to get ahead in those classes, just because there’s a lot of time in the first two weeks where class is going to be interrupted. and i have study camp on february 5 and 6, and dare i say, i really don’t want to go. it’s at unimelb and from what i heard, the food shouldn’t even be called that. i’m just going to ask mum to cook some rice and i’ll eat in my room at midnight T-T. people from other schools always rave about their study camps, and i just feel like either everyone in my school is extremely whiny or it really is bad. also, why do they call it study camp? when i was in year 7 and the study camp was brought up at assembly, i was like “how cruel is this school, they take kids on camp to make them study!?” but turns out it isn’t like that (thankfully).

                                                        anywho, i have my learners (for like 13 months) but i finally passed 50 hours of driving, which is super relieving because it’s a milestone, and if i drive to and from school, and a bit on the weekend, i’ll be able to build up my 120 hours. and i just googled, if i was in western australia, i would have enough to get my P-plate’s right now, because the amount is only 50 hours. south australia is 80 hours. and there is no amount in the northern territory, just confidence which is so unfair because i could be driving to school every day, instead having to walk an agonising 20 minutes (it isn’t that bad).

                                                        hopefully i stick to updating this thing as school starts, and thanks for reading if you made it this far. bye!!

                                                        10 days later

                                                        POST 5 - 03/02/24

                                                        hI! i figured that since i woke up early for no good reason, and that i haven’t updated here for a while, that this is the perfect opportunity to do just that. i’m more of a morning person, but i don’t feel like doing work this morning.

                                                        not gonna lie, year 12 surprised me a tiny bit. the workload is a bit intense, and the homework is absurd, but i feel like that is the whole challenge of this year. it has also serves as a bit of a wake up call. i got an english response graded from my orientation last year and i got 44% - which i found quite shocking because i’ve gone from A’s to E’s. the teacher i had for orientation marks twice as hard as the vcaa examiners, so i’m not really stressed because the teacher i have this year is so sweet and is giving me extra help because she could tell i was devastated.

                                                        general maths and business management are just a breeze at this point, so i’m not stressing too hard. but my general teacher has already starting giving out practice exams for the first AOS and im actually quite confident if i get on top of my stupid mistakes, i have the possibility to get a 40+ for general. i refuse to get any lower than a 40+ for business management, because it’s incredibly easy.

                                                        psychology is also going well. i thought i did really bad on the nervous system functioning test i did during orientation, but i got a 72%, which i can deal with. i have a new teacher, and she is really really good. she’s the kind of teacher who tells us to watch edrolo videos before class, which i find really motivating because i can add to notes in class but i’m not fretting to jot every single word down.

                                                        and then there is extended investigation…
                                                        EI is just a living hell right now. my topic has hit a dead end and my teachers are trying their best to not discourage me because i was literally freaking out during our meeting on thursday. i just need to read a bunch more literature (not so fun) to see gaps. i still want to work with insomnia, but test something that isn’t known about the issue because at the end of the day, that’s what EI is about.

                                                        i feel that’s my biggest problem with every subject. i worry over the littlest of things and it turns out fine, but i don’t want to get so ahead of the curve that the curve becomes a sphere. because at the end of the day, i don’t want to be overly cocky and optimistic about year 12, because it is year 12 T-T.

                                                        anywho, next week we are going on study camp, which seems super lame, but i shouldn’t really judge because it has yet to happen. we are doing sport (ew), dancing (i lack skills), respectful relationships (i’m gonna be single forever tf) and we are going to watch a movie at hoyts, which lets be honest, i’m thrilled about. i looked at the times and i literally have my money on us watching mean girls, which would be hilarious.

                                                        i’ve also been obsessed with ted (that foul-mouthed teddy bear). there was a new series that came out and not gonna lie it was really good, and i thought it was going to flop. one thing i think you probably are getting from this post is that i am extremely judgemental, and i am, about everything other than humans. because i wouldn’t want anyone judging me, but i doubt a weed-smoking teddy bear from a tv show would care.

                                                        that’s all i guess, i gotta get myself motivated because i don’t have time during the week to do work because of camp. if anyone has ideas about stuff to research for EI, please please pleaseeeee help me out.

                                                        i’ll try keeping these updates weekly if i have time throughout the year.

                                                        until next time!!

                                                        6 days later

                                                        POST 6 - 09/02/24

                                                        hi! i am procrastinating (again) and thought to give a little update, now that i am TWO weeks in the midst of year 12. year 12 should come with a bright neon sign that flashes “HECTIC” over and over, because that is exactly what year 12 is right now.

                                                        i went on study camp monday and tuesday this week. it was fine. nothing amazing. the food was absolutely trash, which i expected, so i basically didn’t eat for two days!! the first day was reaaalllyyyy long. we did a bunch of lectures about study skills, and things relating to the new english study design, as well as a presentation from headspace where they (tried to) redefine VCE success, which lets be honest here, is to get the best ATAR you want. then we walked to melbourne central (we stayed at university college, so it’s a 30 minute walk but i could easily have done it in 20 lets be real). we watched argyle, which i would suggest 113%. i don’t rave over movies, and i am extremely critical, but this movie despite bordering cliches provided enough cliffhangers for me to be hooked for just over two hours. we got back to our cabins at midnight. the second day was also a bit boring. we had a respectful relationship and consent workshop, which is lucky for me because i am bound to spend my 20’s alone too. then we did a scavenger hunt at the university of melbourne, which i will admit, was super fun, and then did some letters which we wrote to ourselves and made our way home (i had my VSV class after that, free me).

                                                        the camp was $200, and we had varying qualities in cabins. mine was no different to a jail cell… a bed, cupboard, and SHARED toilets and showers which the doors didn’t lock. wasn’t for me. i stayed in my friends room that night, because she had a shower and bathroom all too herself. i was supposed to sleep on the floor, but i didn’t sleep at all that night (part phone addiction, part homesick). i was just roaming the campus at 5am because i couldn’t sleep. i didn’t get caught so that was good, because i really am not one to be breaking rules.

                                                        class has also been incredibly busy. starting with english, we have been working on the novel ‘we have always lived in the castle.’ this novel should be compared to watching grass grow… it is abysmally boring and surprised i finished it, but i’ve been using a lot of class time to do practice writing and improve from that undeserved 44% that still has my ego bruised. my english teacher is the best though. she cares for our individual learning needs, which i like considering i’m more of an advanced writer than other students (if you’re like “oh you write in all lowercase” it is because i despise capital letters but i write properly for my school work). i should be getting my practice SAC in two weeks which is scary, but hey it’s year 12, so why not throw in heaps of nerves.

                                                        general math has also been hectic. we did half a chapter (so 5 exercises roughly) in a 100 minute class, and have a progress test on tuesday. i’m not even sure if i’m going to have my bound reference finished, but it is what it is, because it doesn’t even go to my ATAR so i won’t be bothered by a crappy mark (i will be). my teacher is alright, a bit scrappy with the teaching, but gave us like 8 practice exams for us to do extra revision with if we want them.

                                                        business management is also going hectic. my teacher doesn’t let us take all the notes in class, so i find myself falling behind with my notes very quickly. she’s a really great teacher - i had her last year for business as well and finished on an A+, so i know she will definitely help me again this year. she is always talking me up, which i find a bit intimidating to be perceived at the best student in the class, but i’m getting acknowledged for my hard work which rarely happens at school.

                                                        and then there is psychology. psychology has been such a mess this week. i missed my double on monday because camp, and my double today because of a whole school assembly, so i only had a single period (50 minutes) on wednesday which we rushed a lot of content so we don’t fall behind. my teacher has been giving a lot of homework so we don’t fall behind, so it is a lot of textbook questions, edrolo videos, and self-paced note making that i do at home. really fun!!! (sarcasm for my people who have zero sarcasm detecting skills).

                                                        and then there is extended investigation. i changed my topic. and i’m really glad about starting something new. i read a fascinating article the other day about something called the ‘taylor swift effect’ (yes i am a swiftie and PROUD)(if you have tickets let me know). so basically ever since taylor has been dating travis kelce of the kansas city chiefs (NFL team), the NFL has seen a 17% increase in views for the sport. swifties would do anything to see taylor or be in the same space as her. and it got me thinking… how does pop culture influence involvement in sport? and i kept thinking (i know i am extremely annoying with my thoughts) that a lot of swifties are females, and have been getting engaged in sport. so i am working towards how pop culture influences the female involvement in sport. better than my previous topic. get to talk about taylor swift. it is literally a win win. my classes have been running overtime for EI which is crap because i left early because i was so tired because study camp, and i don’t want my teachers to think i am demotivated.

                                                        i haven’t had much ‘me’ time this week. school has been super dooper chaotic, so writing an update here is definitely a poor choice. i’m going to study after i hit post on this, so lucky me… i get to spend some quality time with my psychology books. doubt i’m going out this weekend, i need to catch up with work.

                                                        also, i’m not sure if you guys are aware, but sza is coming to melbourne, and i am so mad because it is on a school night, and not only that, but tickets are hella ridiculously priced, and i don’t want to spend $550 on two tickets because I DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY SAVED and it isn’t fair if i ask my parents for $550 to enjoy 2 hours of live music for an artist i like, but don’t obsess over.

                                                        anywho, stay safe everyone, and thanks to everyone who reads my stuff every week. i wonder what y’all are getting up to, so if you want to talk just reply!!

                                                        PS: i barely re-read this i don't care if there are spelling mistakes.

                                                        Hi, I just read through your journal so far (I spend way too long procrastinating by scrolling ATAR notes lol) and noticed we have a few subject similiarities with English (we're doing we have always lived in the castle too, and we did Medea last year), Business Management and Psychology.
                                                        I definitely agree with business having been a really easy subject. Can I ask what you're up to in psych and what textbook/resources you're using out of curiosity? We have edrolo and the jacaranda textbooks at my school.
                                                        Your EI topic sounds really interesting and definitely very relvant, it's always awesome to be able to integrate interests into school projects, especially motivation wise lol.
                                                        We also did a bit of respectful relationship stuff on our camp with more apparently to come due to changing consent laws in Victoria, yet ours was mainly reading vague statements and then discussing whether we thought it was okay or not, with most of us agreeing the lack of context for all the statements meant we couldn't really give a definite answer, did your school do it differently?
                                                        Goodluck with your catchup and I hope you manage to squeeze in some time for yourself too

                                                        • FH replied to this.

                                                          Rey_of_sunshine wow, kudos to you for reading all of that… i love to talk if you haven’t figured that out already. i would love to hear your thoughts on we have always lived in the castle, because i am not a big fan but it is extremely easy to analyse.

                                                          our school primarily uses the jacaranda textbook, but my teacher has the edrolo textbook she incorporates into the presentation slides which is similar to the edrolo videos. i downloaded the edrolo textbook a few weeks ago, and although it isn’t apart of the schools booklist, i still prefer to use it for some definitions and dumbing down concepts.

                                                          in terms to the consent stuff from study camp, ours was so different. we had our school nurse basically telling us what is and isn’t legal, but it was 9am on a tuesday after a night of no sleep so lets be honest, i didn’t pay attention. yours seemed way more engaging though, but my school tends to lack that quite frequently!!

                                                          hope your year goes smooth too, and i give your advice but am not taking it on myself… make time for yourself T-T. hope to see you around the forum!

                                                              FH I think we have always lived in the castle is a well written book yet not a genre I'd ever read for fun. I'm honestly not a big fan on any of the characters but it is pretty simple for analysis which is nice, plus having a shorter book is nice because not as many quotes to pick from to memorise come exam season. I know we keep looking at the idea of female empowerment in the novel, but I feel like half the time when we have 'empowered' female characters in novels they're just unlikable characters, or at least very hard to like (e.g Medea, Merricat), which is probably reflective on society but it still sucks how the novels with femenist themes tend to just have the women killing people because of their emotions. Plus I know Charles is like designed to be hated and stuff because he's manipulative but I feel Merricat manipulated Constance just as much, just with different motivations than Charles, as Charles was obviously after money and social standing whereas Merricat wanted control and to be the centre of Constance's world. It's just Merricat literally started fires and killed people for what she wanted wheras Charles kind of just spent his time whinging about money. Honestly I know the sisters were happy at the end but I feel like Constance could have been happy if she went with Helen Clarke at the end and made friends with people who weren't Merricat to help her re-enter society and overcome her manipulation/control a bit. Tbh the best characters in my opinion were Uncle Julian, Jim Clarke and Mrs Wright. Sorry if that's a bit long lol.
                                                              We use edrolo too, just the videos though, but I mainly watch them after finishing a topic from our textbook because I prefer the more in depth look at topics (plus i learn better from reading/notes than videos) but the little topic tests/question breakdowns on edrolo can be helpful sometimes.
                                                              I think we're getting the breakdown on consent laws later in the year, and yeah ours was engaging, kinda awkward but interesting.
                                                              You probably will see me around the forum because it's my go-to form of procrastination (currently meant to be doing English..) and I hope you do manage to take on the advice at some stage lol.

                                                                POST 7 - 14/02/24

                                                                oh hi! i normally do a recap thing here on friday’s, but as taylor swift will be in melbourne, that time will be dedicated to watching grainy youtube livestreams of the event since getting tickets was almost as hard as getting into harvard.

                                                                before i start talking endlessly, i really hope everyone in victoria is okay after the wild weather yesterday. if you’re being affected by the bushfires, please keep safe, and soldier on. and i really hope everything turns out alright in the end.

                                                                this week has been abysmally busy. i’m literally typing this right now with my eyes half closed, trying to stay awake and do work (procrastinating). i have this really huge reliance on caffeine the last two weeks, which i’m not too happy on but it’s at a manageable level. i’m not addicted or anything, but i don’t want to drink coffee every morning to have some level of alertness. i’ve always loved coffee, and drunk it because i loved it, not because i’m lacking sleep and can’t sleep.

                                                                I HAVE MY FIRST SAC NEXT WEEK. i don’t know whether i should be excited or not. it is for business management, so if history repeats itself from year 11, i should be fine if i study the same amount. i’m also doing a lot more practice questions, which is good because my teacher has only assigned a few textbook questions. but we have an exam-style question booklet to study for the sac, but i also bought a $35 practice exam collection that breaks down each area of study into questions. that sac is next friday, last period. which is absolutely cruel. but shit happens, and whining about it isn’t going to make it any better. thank goodness i have a double study period right before the sac, so i have over 3 hours to prepare on the friday.

                                                                i also found out that my first english sac is going to be in around a weeks time. AND IT’S AFTER SCHOOL. i’m devastated. because english sac’s (specifically analysis) have 90 minutes writing time, meaning the sac will finish up at like 5:15pm, and i’ll be missing my extended investigation online class. the week before my english sac i should have TWO sacs after school for general and psychology, so probably going to miss a lot of online class. i am really loving english right now. i’ve always been the english student (my table group in year 11 called me the ‘english major’ which was stupid because i averaged B’s [one of the best in the class which was a testament to the lack of effort my year 11 class put in]). my teacher is so sweet. today she gave us ferrero rocher chocolates for valentine’s day, which was a small but incredibly nice gesture. but she also provides really timely feedback, and feedback that matters. her classes are engaging, and is actually helping me expand my english skills.

                                                                OMG I FORGOT TO MENTION I GOT 100% ON THE TOPIC TEST FOR GENERAL. i know, general is super easy, but i have to satisfy my ego, so this 100% really boosted it. i literally boosted myself from the last test when i got 70%, but i didn’t try as hard on that one as i did on this. my teacher was shocked too because of such a large jump in my grade, but i hate when people underestimate my abilities based on a mediocre grade. the first test was 2 weeks after my final year 11 exams, and i really couldn’t be bothered trying. it was the first time i’ve ever been satisfied with a grade like that for general.

                                                                that’s all with school, because nothing really has happened this week (it’s been super dull and everyone is sad because we all have sacs). if you’re after some tea, there’s a massive hole in one of the showers in my home… the grouting (i think that’s what it’s called), gave way, and the tiles collapsed while someone was showering. thank god there’s two showers. that’s getting fixed at like 9am (tradie time) so i doubt i’m getting a sleep in this weekend because i have to go to an 80th birthday lunch to attend on sunday.

                                                                if anyone is going to taylor swift this weekend, i want to hear all about it. what surprise songs are you hoping for? i need to put in my surprise song bingo guesses for these show (i’m playing with a friend).

                                                                bye for now!!
                                                                PS: i didn’t check for spelling mistakes hope you can work around the mistakes which probably linger this post.

                                                                8 days later

                                                                POST 8 - 22/02/24

                                                                it’s been a long time coming. no, not miss americana and the heartbreak prince, i’m talking about the exhaustion and frustration that comes along with year 12 (queue the sighs). don’t get me wrong… i AM enjoying my final year of high school, but i’m not. i am going to have to admit that no one was lying by saying the work load is crazy, because it is so intense and i feel that i don’t have time to actually process what i’m learning about - i’m going from chapter to chapter with mini-quizzes to consolidate my knowledge but i don’t have the time to actually absorb all that knowledge. i don’t even know if that makes sense, or if it’s just me, but yeah that was that (?)

                                                                school as a whole though is going really well. i’m raking in the 100’s for general math like a kid on halloween, which is super crucial for my ego (the 100’s, not the candy [maybe the candy tbh]). i just know i’m going to crack under exam/ sac pressure and watch me go down a grade and a half. my teacher is encouraging me and my friend to go ahead, which is cool because teachers hated that in previous year levels, so i’m like almost 4 weeks ahead of the planner. i don’t wanna get so ahead of the curve that the curve becomes a sphere, but the goal is to smash out content by the end of june and just thrive on practice exams (only for general).

                                                                english is boring. if you are reading we have always lived in the castle, i am very sorry and i understand your pain… we are in the same boat. i DID get a 72 on my english practice thingy, which beats the 44 from last year. my english teachers mark harsher than the vcaa examiners so that 72 is more of an A, but the school loves being rough!

                                                                i have my first ever business sac (and sac altogether) tomorrow, and the nerves are setting in. i’m working on practice questions tonight and i get my study periods that fall right before it so i am not too worried, considering i did really well last year in business, but i don’t like to get my hopes up. i have done many practice questions, i just need to get on top of management skills and the corporate culture definitions, and i should be fine.

                                                                psychology is a mental struggle, alongside EI. EI isn’t bad, just wayyyy too much reading (and i love reading.) my teachers are nice and all, but there’s so much to do in both subjects that i find it demotivating.

                                                                what i do find motivating however is the eras tour. if your going to be following along with this blog page over the next year, you are going to (if you haven’t already) realised i am 113% obsessed with taylor swift. not her personally, but her music. i’ve been watching all the eras tour livestreams on youtube for her australian shows, including the sydney ones over the next four days, which have been so much fun because it’s the next best thing since i had no hope to get my hands on tickets. i just study with the livestreams in the background, and i get. shit. done. so i just listen to taylor swift when i study because it gets me going. i also love to listen to wave to earth, hattus, and ichiko aoba when studying because they’re so calming to listen to.

                                                                i don’t have school next wednesday, because curriculum day (slay!?). might work on my bound reference that day, might go city, i don’t know yet. (EDIT: NO FREAKING WAY I’M GOING TO THE CITY IT’S 40ºC). i have the top talks next friday which is going to be exciting, becauseeeee i get a day out of school. con… i have to catch up. probably do it on the train ride to and from melbourne central, because it beats staring at my phone unproductively.

                                                                OH THERE’S THIS NEW LIBRARIAN AT SCHOOL AND SHE’S A SWIFTIE. i’ve spent a lot of time talking to her about taylor swift over the last week, but she is so nice so i don’t care to be social for once.

                                                                that’s all from me for now. until next time, stay safe everyone and remember, a 99.95 atar isn’t good enough, aim for the 100 (i am joking just want to clarify). remember i never check for spelling errors, you’re on your own for that one!

                                                                6 days later

                                                                POST 9 - 28/02/24

                                                                hello, mr casually cruel, being the craziness of year 12. officially in the fifth week of this treacherous journey, and i don’t hate it but i am not loving it either. study periods are proving to be super beneficial for me because i’m able to smash out all my homework and solely focus on revising at home, which is great i guess. today is a curriculum day for me, which i am using to make my bound reference for general and do my extended investigation written task (i’ll talk about that later) and sac revision for both psychology and general.

                                                                i did a practice english sac yesterday for the novel ‘we have always lived in the castle.’ i chose the hardest prompt because at first glance i thought it would be easy, but it was a ‘how’ prompt so i didn’t really link my whole essay to that. but hey, they call it practice for a reason! i have my real sac in two weeks after school, so that will be interesting. to be honest, english is the only subject that i am fine with getting a 70% in because the teachers (sac’s get marked by two teachers) mark harsher than the vcaa examiners.

                                                                psychology is also going well. i did a topic test the other day on the second half of area of study 1 and got a 78 (should’ve been 86 if i didn’t make stupid mistakes + worded clearer) but it was also practice AND i didn’t study, so i can live with that. my psychology teacher is so good (i feel like i say this every time) but she explains every time in a detailed yet simple way and the concepts just stick to be. my sac for that is next monday and also after school. i have no idea how long it goes for because they haven’t made anything clear other than it being a case study and being after school.

                                                                i also have my general math sac after school next week (i’m going to talk about this whole after school sac dilemma) which goes for about 90 minutes so i’ll finish it around 5pm T_T. i haven’t even started studying or practicing, but i feel very motivated today so i’m using that to my advantage.

                                                                business management is fine. i did the sac last friday and am quite confident, probably going to lose a mark or two for sure but it isn’t the end of the world. i have no business classes this week because the school likes to throw spanners into the timetabling (and i’m not at school for my friday class meaning i miss that too) so i have to do some stuff at home in my own time which i am not devastated about. i love working at my own pace, it is so much less stressful.

                                                                extended investigation is also going great. i hope my teachers don’t roam this website, because confession: i did absolutely no work for the subject last week and submitted my work two days late AND haven’t read any articles like what was expected. the articles are a huge pain in the ass, so don’t blame me for not wanting to read them. they’re tedious, wordy, and so many have been irrelevant to what i want to read. i have to submit a 500 word response that justifies my research methodology, that (surprise) i haven’t started. that’s due friday oops. i should do that today if i feel like it, or i’ll do it on the train ride to the city on friday for toptalks if i don’t get stuck standing during peak hour. i’m also meeting with a long-time online friend that day, and we are meeting at an aesthetic japanese cafe which is going to be amazing (matcha for life). also matcha does NOT taste like grass i don’t want to hear it T-T.

                                                                i love talking so much, so i’m going to talk about why my school does (most of) the sac’s after school. a lot of it is for authentication, so like if we did our english one’s during class, people will share the prompts, because they got circulated from monday when some classes did it before mine. fair enough. same with general, because people probably will write questions in their bound reference and share it around. one year, which is why we do them after school, some kids did a sac before their friend, and wrote answers in the bound reference to share. for a question that had part a, b, c etc., the kid who did the sac later answered parts b and c, and didn’t answer a, which you needed for the later parts of that question and suspicions were raised. like, if you want to cheat, please put some effort in doing it properly!? so we have to do them after school. psychology i’m not too sure why we do after school. but fun fact, the teachers don’t get paid for supervising our exams, which sucks for them because it is their time, and many of them have families, so doing unpaid overtime is a bit poor on the governments behalf. and then they wonder why teachers are leaving the job in record numbers…

                                                                i’ll stop talking because i want to do my bound reference, but i hope everyone is taking care of themselves throughout this stressful year. take breaks, relax, and don’t overwork yourselves because you need you’re energy for october and november. bye for now!!

                                                                POST 10 - 01/03/24

                                                                hi! i have no taylor swift inspired quote to start this little update, but my school IS doing something taylor swift inspired next week and i definitely want to talk about that later.

                                                                i got my business sac back today. there are two business classes at my school, and the class average for the other class was (drum roll please) 46% which is super shocking. (EDIT: my class average was 44%)i got 79%, which i believe is the top in both classes. i am also very shocked because i dropped from high 90’s and 100’s to getting not even an 80%. i feel like it is the cross marking method, because my teacher is super nice with marking whereas the other is beyond harsh. that 50 study score is out of the picture now!! i got 92% for a practice test for general and 95% on a practice sac, so at least the 50 study score is possible still i guess.

                                                                i also went to the city today to watch the vce top talks, which are 4 of the best EI oral presentations which was super fun. if any EI kids want to look at the notes i took down, i uploaded them here but they aren’t approved so they’re not up. i’m going to put this in the EI atarnotes discussion page because we are all in this together i guess.

                                                                that’s sort of it with school. motivation has been sub zero, hence second post in a week, but my school is doing a friendship bracelet thing next week, and the winner gets the official taylor swift eras tour bag which i want so FREAKING bad. i have people trying to win it for me, and i want to go all strategic on it because i am competitive enough as it is, let alone when there is a taylor swift item of merch on the line.

                                                                anywho hope anyone who reads this is going well, and stick in there… 242 days until the english exam (yay) (not really).

                                                                  FH Well done on topping both business classes for your SAC and at least if your teachers are marking harshly you could still have your score moderated up by the end of the year.
                                                                  Goodluck on getting your eras tour bag!

                                                                  • FH replied to this.

                                                                      Rey_of_sunshine HAHA yeah i am really hoping for moderation, because the SAC was incredibly hard. and thanks for the good luck with the tote bag; i was joking with a friend this morning that if i don’t win it, the person who does might end up with a broken nose (i AM joking i can’t punch if my life depended on it) T-T

                                                                          FH lol, I like the implication that your ability to punch is the only thing holding you back. And yeah honestly if it was incredinly hard you've got good chances at moderation, I thought my SAC's for food studies last year were reasonably easy and they still got moderated up

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                                                                            POST 11 - 06/03/24

                                                                            sigh. i am TIRED. like, i-just-did-two-all-nighters-with-a-lot-of-caffeine tired. i did not do two all nighters, and i’m off caffeine (don’t ask me that tomorrow morning), but i’m just really tired from school. i got home around 5:30pm after completing my general math sac after school, which wasn’t the only after school sac this week; i had psychology on monday. before i talk about school, my personal life is more exciting so you will hear about that first.

                                                                            if you remember from my very first blog post (seems like a lifetime ago), i saw conan gray back in 2022. and he is coming back to australia!! bad thing is, i have some personal stuff going on right now so i can’t exactly ask my dad if it is ok to go, but i am bringing it up tomorrow again because tickets are on sale friday morning, and i am even considering taking the first two periods off to get them. it is so hard to outline why it is important and a need that i go. it is the opening night in the world, which australia never gets, so i would be getting all the live debuts from his new album (out april 5, you will be hearing about it more then for sure). it is also during the school holidays in winter, meaning i won’t miss any school (perk) and IT’S CONAN GRAY. he literally got me from the darkest of places in 2021/22 (the internet isn’t a good place to overshare, but you get his significance to me). so please wish me luck.

                                                                            anyway… school (pulls disgusted faces).
                                                                            it isn’t going bad. the general sac i did today went really well - if i don’t get above a 90 i think the school oval might have some burnt grass, metaphorically of course (not really). my psych sac was also alright, just some questions really stumped me. anything to do with the nervous system i’m just like, nope, i’m out. i think i talked about the spinal reflex for the somatic nervous system, but that isn’t going to severely drag me down i guess. i feel like i just need to get on top of the stress component that occurs before the sac. before all my sacs so far, i have had really crippling stomach pains, which is not good because i had to go hospital for that the night before my unit 1 exams last year. might take up meditation, it’ll definitely help me sleep. i have my english sac after school next tuesday, so thank goodness it is 39 degrees on saturday and sunday i’m just going to study (beats getting sizzled).

                                                                            EI is going alright. i’m slowly putting together my research, slightly altering my topic depending on what i’m finding. still sticking to the sport and motivators in female adolescence topic, because it is a huge gap in the literature and stuff that i can find only dates back to the 1980’s. i am also not demotivated like i was for my previous three topics… i literally completed all the weeks work in 2 days, which is amazing because i normally hand my work in 2 days late all the time. the sac for that is approaching, and i’m a little scared to be honest. i am not a good writer academically - we did this sort of practice thing last week and it took me an hour and a half to write up 700ish words, but there was a lot of contemplation and uncertainty and to be honest, i didn’t even know if it made sense. i just try sounding fancy and hope for the best, lets be honest here.

                                                                            that is sort of it for now… i don’t really have much more to talk about. i’m probably 2 minutes away from crawling into bed and sleeping because i don’t even want to do homework tonight. i have three study periods tomorrow. on monday, i had five study periods, because 3 classes got cancelled due to teacher absences so i had literally one single that day. also, sort of regretting not doing ei through ches… i just feel like it is going to be really hard to perform well with vsv. watch this space i guess. hope everyone is well, and take care!! listen to rock music, be emo, live life T-T

                                                                              FH

                                                                              You're more productive than me lol. I'm still finishing up the Week 4 submission for tomorrow so at this rate I'm probably gonna be forever 1 week behind in EI - I already get so much burnout trying to find good sources, let alone being able to annotate them in detail. Good luck!

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