Hey guys, how does one go about trying to memorise organic reaction pathways and the chemicals that cause each step?
SnekiSnek
- Joined Jul 26, 2022
It's been a little while so here's an update just before exams kick off. I have my first exam on the 31st, psychology, and I really don't know how I am feeling about it. I have a grasp on most of the content but I went to a lecture by a past examiner and I did not realise how harshly they marked the exams and that omitting one word can cause an entire answer to be incorrect. I wasn't stressing about my lit exam until yesterday when everyone was overjoyed to be finished with English because it made me realise how much of a big deal it is. I really need to write my physics cheat sheet as it is the one subject that I think I have a decent chance of getting a high mark in. I need to reread my Lit and Classical books in order to get some quotes to integrate into my responses but I don't know when I am going to get the time.
Feeling a little (a lot) stressed right now
Is it better to handwrite or type the cheat sheet for the exam?
Update in the last week of the holidays, just spent a lot of money on my muckup day costume but I think it will be worth it. I completely forgot about getting documentation for my SEAs and VTAC and have booked in to see my doctor next Wednesday, so hopefully not too late. I have done one practice exam for each subject which is not as many as I had hoped to do but work screwed me over by rostering me on every day of the holidays and I really don't have the energy to do them after shifts or before shifts. It finally feels like all the puzzle pieces are coming together of everything that I have done in the past 5 years of high school. I am struggling with some questions and when I look at the solutions, I know exactly what to do but when looking at the papers without them, it feels like I don't understand. Guess it is all down to practice, practice, practice.
I hope everyone is taking care of themselves so that you guys don't burn out before exams. It's happening to a few of my friends who have done nothing but study over the past few weeks and now they can't remember content or struggle to answer questions
The best thing I can recommend for trying to choose subjects is to look at prereqs for unis for them. For example, I'm pretty sure that for biomed, chemistry is a required prereq so if you're looking at anything like that it is maybe better to choose chemistry. Other science degrees usually require any of the three but it depends on uni.
So guess who got the flu the last week of school and missed 5 SACs. Yes that would be me. Bit of an unfortunate turn of events and I've been at school these past few days catching up on them so that I can pass Unit 4. I did my psychology SAC yesterday and got it marked straight away (27/30) which I think is a strong score to finish the subject on. I'm writing this just after finishing two of my Literature SACs and for someone who really hates poetry, the poetry close analysis was far easier than the short story one. Tomorrow is physics which is just a scientific poster so nothing too hard and I have basically finished my Chemistry SAC poster as well but just waiting for the teacher to email me back.
In a perfect world, I would have already started doing some practice exams but it just feels like too much at the moment with all the SACs I have to do so I might start them next week. I also really need to do my SEAs application but trying to write about how things have affected my studies is really hard for some reason. Like I know that they have, but don't know how to put it into words
37 is still an amazing score for someone who is "giving up"! You're so close to the end, if you can just give it a little more time
I learnt Mandarin Chinese from year 5-10 and my brother continued it through year 12 and uni but personally I have been on and off learning Latin since year 7. Could I have picked a nondead language? Probably. Does it help for understanding other languages that used it as a basis? Most definitely
I personally find it really interesting but I'm looking at pursuing astrophysics after I finish year 12 so of course I probably find it interesting lol. I didn't do units 1/2 but based on what everyone else has to say, it helps lay a lot of the groundwork for topics like motion (which is the one I struggled with the most at the beginning) as well as the science and maths skills that carry over into 3/4. I wouldn't say the maths is too hard as you don't need methods in conjunction to understand and most of it is rearranging equations for specific variables. If you understand why something should work then you just need calculations to back it up. All in all, I think it's interesting and personally enough the difficulty isn't super extreme
Thought I would start this thread early, post what you think your study score is going to be and then compare when we get results back! Update it during the time before exams based on how you're finding practice exams and confidence level
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It's been a hot minute since I updated this as I have been so busy with back-to-back-to-backs SACs. Our school is trying their best so that we finish all our SACs before the holidays so that we can just do exam revision but I question the decision that most of us have had to sit up to 5 SACs a week. I think the only class that I will have a SAC for next term is Classical Studies and I have to finish a Chemistry one during the holidays.
I don't know how I feel about exams being so close around the corner, I'm kind of anxious but also not really feeling any motivation to do hardcore studying even though I should. I really want to do well but I don't know if I will based on my scores from last year but I also didn't study last year either at all.
Minor achievement: I have cemented myself as top ranked for physics (not bad for someone who didn't do unit 1/2 last year
)For some nonVCE related news:
- Coming to the end of my cert 3 in retail with only a few months left to complete
- Was left alone in a bookstore and spent $80 on books that I don't have time at the moment to read
- I'm 18 in a month and a half!
1+1+1
- In Help
- In Help
Personally I think it is more anapaestic as "in" has more emphasis compared to "a for" and then the "est" is again emphasised more heavily if you slow down your reading. However I can also see how it maybe be dactylic depending on individual reading style
OMG thank you so much for the detailed reply! That actually helps so much in terms of what uni and what other electives I can take that match my study interests. How much would your friend say that the workload is for the degree and the difficulty of the subjects that relate to astrophysics?
I did Legal Studies early and am currently doing psychology so I can give my two cents on this to a degree. I found that doing Legal Studies early was an advantage compared to the year 12s doing it as I had more time to devote to study and doing practice questions without worrying about my other subjects. Both psych and legal are pretty content heavy and mostly rote learning/memorisation so being able to focus mainly on one without other year 12 subjects makes it easier to remember the concepts and information you need. I'd lean towards saying that they are both about equal in terms of difficulty in my personal opinion, legal requires a lot of indepth knowledge but the concepts are pretty related to each other throughout unit 3/4 whereas psych has a lot of different concepts but not as much in depth knowledge needed. Message me if you have any questions!
I know majors are generally longer than electives but would it be more beneficial to go straight into the major of astrophysics or do a more generalist degree and choose it as an elective if I am unsure of the difficulty of the subject?
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This is how our specific one ran, I'm sure it varies on organisers and other variables. We were only told about it a week in advance which I think was a little short notice but it went well so can't complain. Groups were given a country and directed to research that country's foreign policies, national ideals etc etc in relation to the concept of pathways to peace and how to achieve global peace according to the SDG criteria. We had to prepare a speech to give to the other countries that outlined what clauses we agreed with or disagreed with based on how our country felt on the draft resolution that was handed out to us.
After this we had a moderated/unmoderated caucus session where we presented amendments or new clauses that we wished to be added to the draft resolution and had to collect allies in order to vote for us to pass through our changes. It was interesting that a lot of people did not represent their country's ideals but rather an Australianised viewpoint on that country and the 'honourable secretary general' who oversaw the convention did comment on that several times through out the session.
The final part of the day was voting on the amendments that had enough seconders to be put forward to the full assembly where there was a chance for debate in support or opposition of the amendment and countries had to give reasonings for why they put the change forward or backed said change. Luckily, as Ukraine, we were able to successfully have our new clause added to the draft resolution which was "Urges all countries to not endorse state members who either support or partake in unprovoked aggression against another state" which I hope was fitting to Ukraine's ideas