C

Charlie

Ooh jolly gosh! How long has it been since I've posted?! Like forever...?!

I'll try to summarise what did happen over like half a year, but lol I can only remember...we had crazy prep for sem 1 exams (at the end of term 2) and my results from that...

So for French I got an A, for hums I got a B+, english argument analysis - A, maths didn't do that well, but some kids did worse...

Either way that's the end of sem 1.

Now Sem 2 my subjects only change from hums to finally psych! Woohoo!

Summary of what ive been up to:

Maths: well just financial maths really, and the plan is that there will be test next week.

English: we are reading a novel called "Foreign Soil", and um my teacher announced today that we are having an oral assessment exactly next week however it isn't that bad for me as i'm the person that zooms into words and just tries to find literary devices the teacher assigned the roles btw so

French: we've looked into a new tense: "L'imparfait" - another past tense, different to passé composé
and our assessment task for the unit is just an oral assessment, talking about how life was back in time of grandparents that kind of thing.

Psych (woohhoo finally!)
well looked into first impressions, types of powers: (reward, coercive expert etc) different biases,
and yeah, we have an assessment on Thursday, and we are analysing scenes from Mean Girls.

I think that's about it... oh wait no! TIme for subject selections for next year!

The Plan:
Psych 3/4
English OR English Language 1/2
French 1/2
Media 1/2

I really want to do eng Lang, but my school doesn't offer it, so um, I'd have to do it through VSV, but that's if the principal approves it... So I'll have to see.

Otherwise, I think thats all from me! i will try to update this again (whenever i find time) haahha

• Arielle

Lol I'm not the best at time management so here I am 1 week after sem 2 began lol.

So, I was kinda confused on what major to pick and what I did was I picked 3 "computer and software" subjects and 1 civil subject. I sat in my first civil subject class and it hit me like a truck that I don't ever wanna do civil, because I just can't see me doing that in 5 years (no hate on civil). Hence, I've decided to go with the full software set and so far, its chill (because its week 1 lol).

Here are the subjects/units I'm doing this sem and what I need to do to prepare for the classes I have:
Units
MZB127 - Engineering mathematics and statistics
Description: Title is self-explanatory, just some more calculus and statistics

• Need to watch weekly pre-recorded videos and fill the given worksheet
• Attempt the tutorial questions
• Write down any questions I may have and contact someone regarding it asap

CAB201 - Programming Principles
Description: Learning Object-Oriented Programming in C#

• Watch pre-recorded videos before going to lecture and follow along on Visual Studio Code 2022
• Attempt tutorial questions/exercises (if I have time)
• Write down any questions I may have and contact someone regarding it asap

EGB120 - Foundations of Electrical Engineering
Description: Title is again self-explanatory, DC circuitry and expanding on that cool stuff

• Fortnightly online quizzes
• Pre-recorded videos each week
• Fortnightly practical, so need to prepare for each one
• Look over tutorial PowerPoints

IFB240 - Cyber Security
Description: Learning how cyber security is vital for everyone and the lack thereof can really screw up life for individuals and groups

• Weekly recorded lecture videos
• No physical lecture
• Tutorial

If anyone is interested in doing software engineering, or engineering at qut, just shoot me a message if you have any questions

Holiday goals:

On the sem holiday, I jotted down a buncha things I wanted to get done. I can now say, I did catch up with a few mates, learnt how to CAD, and picked up C# via codecademy. I didn't improve on Python however, C# is not too difficult (yet). I have one more lesson till I complete the full codecademy course but other than that, its pretty chill. I think I learnt how to manage my time better using a notion/google calendar system lol.

Oh yeah, one more thing, GPA wise, I'm sitting on a 6.75 so I'm pre happy with that.

Just a life snippet, google photos loves to remind you what you were doing this time last year so I found photos I forgotten I'd taken last year and I'm lowkey proud of myself for making it through. So to all you year 12s, good luck, even when the going gets tough. You'll be right, you'll make it through, and you'll look back on it as a memory.

Also, I need advice, does anyone know where I should start looking for internships? Specifically like first-year software engineer ones, because I asked around and companies look for experience, not really at your grades. So if I could get some experience under my belt, that'd be pretty awesome so I can understand how what I learn relates to what I actually do in the field.

If you made it this far, thanks dude!

• jinx_58

TLDR: I'm doing software engineering at qut

Entry #16 - 27/07/2023

Well? It's been a while since my last entry, and I'm finally in part 3 of the final season (totally not a reference to AOT). I've been coming to terms with the fact that this is really my final term and that I have to get serious with studying. But, I've got to say, things are going pretty fine. I got an 84% for my unit 3 spesh SAC (making me rank 1!!). In English, we are working on TLM and TSOG, In Chemistry, we are doing organic analysis and in Physics we started light and waves. It's a good thing that I am now used to studying for more hours consistently which is a habit I have been working on since LAST YEAR, and attempting to fix my sleep schedule, which I should've fixed during the holidays. The following weeks are going to be tough, next week I have a Differential Equations test on Tuesday and on Thursday... Back to back SACs, A Chemistry SAC in the morning and a Methods SAC on periods 3 & 4, week 5 I will have my Specialist Maths SAC and Physics SAC. Ok, gotta get to studying.

Tasks

• Revise for Chemistry SAC

• Revise for Methods SAC

• Do some preparations for DiffEqs Test

Have a good day

Yoyoyoyo!
FinFin's back with some exciting news, today I got my results for my first semester! I feel like I had a great first half to the year, learning loads of things about uni and teaching. Thank goodness I didn't have exams, I'm pretty sure they were behind my scores plummeting in high school. I find exams are hard to truly focus and concentrate, mainly because high school teachers act as if failing an exam means you could never have a job or a successful career, but my friends taking exams at uni say the teachers are pretty chill about them.
Anyway, I got 2 B marks and 2 C marks, which I'm actually pleased with. Keep in mind, in Year 12, my study score for English and History were 18, which is the bottom 3% of the entire state, so I think that's a pretty good improvement, with one of those Bs being a literacy class.
Here's hoping for more success for the many years to come!
(and hoping for no exams in these classes either, lol)

Entry #15 - 24/06/2023

Well, I guess I'm finally entering the final stretch. Seriously, some retrospection and I can see that I was clearly lax with my attitude towards year 12. These holidays will not be wasted this time. This update will be pretty short, but I guess I'll summarise what occured this week, and what I'm going to be doing from now on. I had my Chemistry excursion on Monday, it was great, the Masson Theatre is nice, but damn the Chemistry Building is a labyrinth. In these holidays, I will attempt at self-studying the Unit 4 content, and start practice exams. It's nerve racking that the exams are coming close now, and there's only one way to alleviate this anxiety.

Have a good day, and a splendid holiday

Hello, AN!

I am officially done with exams! (Party time)

What a weird feeling to be doing exams in REB and my lord the fact they put the Quantum Physics exam (my last exam) at the exact same time as the first-year physics exam at 8:30 in the morning was a whole mood. If only they also put the second-year physics exam at the same time then I maybe could have put a PSS club event called "Panic with us on the morning of your physics exam at REB" and got the most well-attended event award. Oh well, that's an idea for next year. Overall it was very funny to see all the physics students panicking together before walking into the silent REB (Yes I did join them in the panic disco).

In regards to what's happening in the future, I got into the Laby Research Scholars Program held by the school of physics and starting another research opportunity! I'll be looking at dark sector searches with the Belle II experiment in Japan which is exciting. This does take up the majority of my winter holidays, which is a bit rough as I haven't had a proper holiday since my first year due to stacking too much on. Thankfully my last semester I barely have any subjects so I can chill a bit.

Just a brief recap on what has happened this semester, I've been trying to organise a possible physics camp under the Physics Students Society (PSS) and some other events. We had a lot of events this semester, at least 2 a week which I am happy with and the turnout has been great. Lots of free food has been provided and I can safely say I've made back my SSAF fees just by the amount of food I've consumed from my own club. Note to younger years, always join an executive committee of a club. As this is my last year, I've gone around teaching the other club members how to do things so that when I leave next year, things are in good hands. I'm really happy with the club committee this year and it sounds like there are some exciting events to come! Being president of PSS has also brought some weird and wonderful opportunities this semester, from being invited to physics breakfasts, giving talks to the wider community, student outreach and more. It has also brought a couple more Unimelb love letters to my name (with a tally of 9 so far, hopefully, I can hit 10 before I graduate). Looking back on everything since I'm nearing the end of this degree, I'm glad I've taken every opportunity that I have seen and can safely say I've made the best of the uni experience (so far). There are so many things I look back on which I smile at (and also cringe), like waking up and volunteering at 7am in the morning on a 1-degree day in Winterfest with 3 random people I didn't know to screaming my lungs out at PSS trivia nights with a physics community to remember. It's been a good time, and I didn't expect to meet so many people yet become friends with so many in different disciplines than my own. I've lost count of how many people I've met along the way, but I'm honestly so grateful that I can walk past the physics building and someone always comes up to say hi (or shouts my name before proceeding to sprint towards me), not just the students but also the academics. I would have never thought anything like this would ever happen back at the start of first year, but I'm glad the effort I've put in has paid off. I've been my happiest and probably my best throughout this degree.

I'm going to attach a paragraph from old Ash at the beginning of this journal (the old AN):

"My last long term goal is that by the time I finish uni, I want to be able to look back and say that I am significantly better than when I first started. When I talk about being better, I mean knowing more quality people (networking), taking things one step at a time rather than focusing too far into the future, developing some self-confidence, improving my communication skills, step out of my comfort zone, engage in the community, if possible having a great academic record and lastly, to be happier than I am right now."

There is one thing left to do before I graduate though, and that is to complete this degree with a "great academic record". I'm currently on a H1 WAM and the goal is by the time I graduate, to still have that H1 WAM. With that being said, it's time for me to plan future PSS events and make sure that this undergrad journey ends with a bang.

That's it for now, see you another time!

OKAY IM BACK 4 MONTHS LATER!!
wassup yall?!?!
i did not forget about this discussion at all but i did get bombarded with soooo much since i last posted. i even ended up overseas for a couple of weeks, it has been ages since i last saw my family so it was great to see them again and was also like a little reset button which helped calm me down immensely.
here's a list of all the tests/sacs that have happened since i last posted and some quick little comments
english: language analysis sac
I'm neither happy nor sad with the way english is playing out currently, its just been pretty average so i cant really complain. I'm getting around the same scores as i did in year 11 which is oddly comforting, but i did expect to do a little bit better on language analysis because i knew i was very capable of doing so, but the articles we received really threw me off hard and i panicked and ended up missing out on a whole paragraph. it did make me a little sad as my teacher believed i would be able to get a pretty high score but I'm not too bummed out. ON TO THE NEXT SAC
chemistry: 4 tests and 2 sacs (unit 3 is finished)
for chemistry, in terms of tests I'm doing pretty average compared to my class mainly bc i thought my tests wouldn't rlly affect my study score so i don't study for them, but in terms of the sacs i am killing it. however, my teacher did say that she has been making the sacs either and may have to end up using the tests to rank us. which is honestly some bs since i would've studied harder for tests if i had known they would be affecting me in my ranking. the difference between my tests and sac is 30% so i clearly know what I'm doing and just don't try in tests which is pissing me off a little but we also have a pretty strong cohort so ig we'll see how this plays out.
general: 3 tests and 1 sac
this is slowly starting to become a filler subject for me, i don't pay much attention to it and i don't feel like i have to pay that much attention either. I've been doing pretty okay on my tests all year round, they have been good but i know I'm capable of doing much better. same goes for the sac where i did well but not nearly as high as i would have hoped. i did end up scoring in the first quintile tho which is the top 20% of my cohort and I'm pleased about that but i know that i could have gone a higher score had i have taken my time to read the questions properly and had the proper information that i needed in my reference notes, otherwise I'm pretty happy with how this subject has been going.
methods: 3 tests
since the last time i posted i said i wanted to do more study before my tests occurred, and although i didn't start immediately i have noticed my work ethic for methods is slowly improving which I'm pretty happy with. apart from that my scores for methods have been pretty consistent and i would like to keep steadily doing more work as i am now.
specialist: 1 test and in the middle of my sac right now
we had a test on complex numbers and circular trigonometry which was honestly a 50/50 test but we never got the test back so i have absolutely no clue how that went. to be completely honest i have no idea how I'm performing in this class but it is what it is. today we finished the first of a three part sac and i can genuinely say i am fairly happy with the way it panned out. truly expected to come out of there crying but THANK THE LORD. don't wanna say too much because i still have to do the other two parts but i feel relieved with the way today went.
whats left in this term:
-other two parts of the spec sac (this week)(week 6)
-general test (week 6)
-methods test (week 6)
-english text response on high ground (week 7)
-general financial math sac (week 8)
-methods sac (week 9)
-english oral (week 9)
lets try to finish the term off strong!!
i have my 18th birthday this Saturday so I'm pretty excited about that. a little crazy to think that I'm actually becoming an adult and its probably time to mature up a little. also scary to think that school is gonna end in around 14 weeks. the last 14 weeks of my highschool life, I'm relieved its over but I'm gonna miss these times and the people I've met.
anyways that's another post down
reminder to prioritise urself over school and expectations, mental health comes before anything else
stay strong yr 12s
i believe in yall
-me too

Welcome back to the term 2! Are you ready for a subject selection rant? No? Oh well, you're gonna have to sit through one, so here we go!
The current subjects year 11/2023: 1/2 English Mainstream, 1/2 lit, 1/2 physics, 3/4 global politics.
Year 12/2023 plan (all 3/4): Mainstream, lit, physics, and psychology (there is room for another subject, but I'm not sure).

Rn I have 5 subjects I definitely know what I want to, and I could pick up another subject. I dropped my vsv subject, I was not fit to thrive in online school, so my last subject will have to be one from school. Best choice is englang, but that means all three english subjects (so one will go automatically to bottom 5/6), and a LOT of writing.
A few years ago I knew that english and science was my main strengths, but I thought both subjects were really boring. Fast forward to now, where I realise those two are the only subjects I actually can survive through. After a lot of thinking, I've realised that I love researching about a lot of subjects like maths and humanities, but that I suck at them in school. If I could choose my atar subjects based if I had to do personal research, it would be humanities and visual arts. I really like social science, and would like to pursue something relating to it in the future, but I really hate the high school subjects- hopefully uni will be different. I know that even though science is easy for me, I would hate to base my whole career on it. I've dropped and picked up so many subjects, and thought that I definitely knew what career I wanted to go to, but I'm very indecisive. I guess I will leave this all to future me.

Goals for Term 2

So... I guess I've spent my holidays quite efficiently. I was able to build up on my English writing skills, and I got some practice done as well, including analysing my text that we're going to be reading this term. But I guess I didn't also do completely well, since I neglected almost all of my other subjects completely. Anyway, since it's in the past, I can't really do anything about it other than learning from my mistakes, and most importantly, moving forward.

This brings to me to my goals for term 2. To be honest, I've always been that person where I would set really high goals, fail to achieve that, and end up procrastinating. Nonetheless, I have gotten better at setting more realistic goals over the years.. And here we are! These are my goals for term 2:

1. Get out of bed immediately after the alarm goes on. No snoozing!

• This goal is a bit vague compared to the others, but I'm going to have to force myself to actually get myself out of bed. It's actually going to be harder since winter is coming, and I can't help but to nestle in my bed during these times.

2. Squeeze in 30 minutes of studying before I eat breakfast.

• Bit of a personal note, but I'm actually preparing for the JLPT examination at the end of the year. And I've got a vast amount of vocabulary and kanji I have to go over. I want to prepare little bit by bit, but also consistently, and not cramming (like I usually do). Here's the plan I devised.

• What am I going to do? I am going to revise the vocabulary, etc. I've learnt the day before. I am going to do look, say, write, cover, check. I am also going to go over 3 sets of JLPT vocabulary.

3. Use my commuting time wisely.

• I have actually wasted my commuting time during term 1. Considering that I need to get a lot of work done now, I need to utilise this time very wisely. Here's what I'm going to do.

• I get car sick very easily. So, I can't really do stuff like catching up on my maths homework or planning for an essay, because I'm going to end up feeling nauseous. Instead, on the way to school, I'm going to listen to the news (specifically economics related) and also NHK. This way, I'll be able to expand my knowledge and improve my listening skills for Japanese.

• On the way home, I'm actually going to use this time to plan for what I need to get done on that day, and use the remaining time to chill, since I'm usually completely worn out by the end of school.

4. Revise, revise, revise! Make sure I go over what I learnt right afterschool, through implementing active recall.

• I think this one is my most important goal. As I mentioned earlier, I used to be, and I am still sort of the person who always ends up cramming for a test or an assignment. Spacing out my revision blocks is a task for the future in the meanwhile, so I'm actually going to try my best to at least get my daily revision done properly.

• Right after I get home, I'm going to dedicate at least 30 minutes to go over what I've learnt during the day and refine my notes if I have to. Then, I'll brain dump everything that I've learnt on that day (through a mind-map, etc.) and identify my missing gaps.

Anyway, that's my goals for term 2! Good luck to me, and everyone out there!

Signing off,
NicoNico

Hi all!

I know it's nearing the end of the school holidays, but I thought that I want to create a journey journal to record my high school life and to also motivate myself. I'm currently in Year 10, and I hope that I can continue this journal until graduation! I'll try my best to update this journal at least fortnightly. Fingers crossed that I don't forget the existence of this journal!

Signing off,
NicoNico

In year 9 right now, I excel at procrastination and feel that I have become too complacent with school and need to start caring, hopefully I might Fastrack a subject next year. schoolwork as been easy and finally organized a useful Notion Template to keep my life in check and remember what I have to do... I have recently got back into chess (around 1300 elo if you care). this post is to keep my life in check and to be looked after

bye bye

I commend those reading this- but really, please enjoy your holidays (preferably with limited attention to school)!
My current routine rn unfortunately has been wake up early, sleep again, wake up in the afternoon to do hours of school work, then sleep. At least I'm getting work done?
My school's holiday homework guidelines tell me that 2 hours should be allocated for each subject (excluding reading), but honestly the way I'm going I'll take up 5 or more hours. Hopefully I don't burnout too quickly.
Oh well, it is only the start of the holidays (but oh boy does time like to sneak up on me), have a good one guys!

Entry #10 - 5/04/2023

Wow, this term went by really quickly, but I do have to say, I HAVE TONS OF TO WORK TO COMPLETE DURING THE HOLIDAYS. I guess that's fine because I have time, but I just have to hope that it doesn't obstruct my plan to study ahead. Today was the last DnD session of the term, my character (who's name is Sergev) was knocked unconscious, hopefully RNGesus will grant me good rolls for my death saving throws. Also had my Physics SAC, actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would turn out to be. Recently, my motivation to get a high ATAR has increased, and now I'm developing a plan to get one, and it seems that the plan is better started now than later, I'll push forward, full steam ahead!

Tasks (for the holidays)

• Physics

• Finish logbook and poster

• Work on practice VCAA questions booklets

• Chemistry

• Finish logbook and poster

• English

• Rewatch High Ground, make timestamps, and do practice paragraphs.

• Spesh

• Finish set exercises

• Do practice complex numbers and vectors questions

• Methods

• Finish set exercises

Have a good day (and a relaxing holidays)

Ok so the big obstacle's over, and now the hangover...

The only two subjects I really want to focus on rn are glopol and lit, because we're doing work that relates to the exam. The two sciences are more like recaps. Also, because we're now in week 7, everything's slowing down. Next week is camp/volunteering week, and the only sac for the rest of the term is in week 10, for the glopol essay- I want to focus the most on that, since I have more time now. I feel so bad coz all my friends are stressing out about their sacs due this week, while I'm over here taking it slow and steady.

Good luck to everyone with their sacs this week, and don't burnout before the end of the term!!

It's been two weeks..TIME FOR AN UPDATE!!
everything has been so hectic recently- like wow. i feel like everything is moving at a pace that i cant understand and i have no idea whether I'm up to date with my work or falling behind. i feel very confident with some of my subjects and completely lost in others. like with specialists, I'm having trouble with the way my teachers teaching us vectors but i think that the majority of that is my fault as i haven't been keeping up to date with the work. so thats one area where i really have to improve on. I've had three assessments in the past two weeks.
-chem test: i came out of the test feeling like trash. i thought i had definite failed, and apparently there is a decrease of forty percent between 1/2 chem and 3/4 chem. But luckily i managed to pass and i was totally shocked with my score even though it was garbage lol. most of my mistakes were jus silly things that can easily be avoided as long as i remember to stay calm and coherently write my answers as well as carefully read the questions. overall i neither feel good nor bad about my result, aiming for higher on the next one!
-methods test: I'm very disappointed with my preparation for this test, i did not finish the exercises or even touch the revision questions which to be honest really is not acceptable. i would've been okay had i tried at least 2 or 3 questions from each exercise but i really put it off. I was lucky that i was fairly familiar with this topic and had a decent grasp on it that i managed to pull off a pretty decent grade. However i did not do well on outcome 1 (no cas) because of silly mistakes which again can be easily avoided had i paid a little more attention and rushed. really basic things like putting +/- in front of the square root. aiming even higher for the next test and aiming to do more study.
-English sac: there's not much i can currently say about this one as i haven't received any grades yet but I'm pretty okay with how i went. i managed to write my entire story within the given time frame, and i improvised an ending as i hadn't written one in my draft and i think it turned out pretty well. not expecting anything crazy as english is not my strong suit but were just gonna give it our best shot, right!
GOALS FOR THIS WEEK:
-chem test no.2 REVISE HARD
-methods 3A 3B
-specialist (lets jus get a start)
-gen test tmrw REVISION
alrightttttttttttt
one english sac down 4 more to go
i have another goal which i didn't add to my list as it isn't academic but i wanna start taking care of myself better. sometimes i begin to spiral without control about stuff that's not in my control, and in those moments i need to remind myself that everything is gonna be okay. i will be honest tho its been getting harder and harder to believe everything will be okay but we push forward nonetheless.
happy valentines to everyone <3
-me too