Yona

7/05 Tuesday

IM SO HAPPY I THINK? I got my Bio sac score and idk how but I aced it 96%. Unless I was hallucinating because in short, some other Bio classes got to know their scores when the teachers had a mutual agreement that they would release the scores when everyone has done the Bio sac (2 people haven't done it). Sooo... my Bio teacher as the head of science, got mad and released my class' scores for 5 minutes. With these words, "I'm going to release the Bio scores because I'm petty and its unfair to you guys" (shes so nice).
I think i scored top in my Bio cohort, which is unbelievable when i literally remember coming back home from that terrible sac and wondering if life will be okay but IT WAS. I was expecting much lower because now i have this pressure to continue doing well. Regardless I'm thankful so I should still try my best and not get all cocky.

I'm totally not procrastinating my English rn. (don't know why but my English scores never change despite asking for feedback like all the time.)
Does anyone have any tips to writing well for english essays or creative pieces etc?
I also did my psychology sac recently and that went fine. It was pretty fun, I love learning about the brain.
Methods is kind of killing me though. Like currently we're learning about Transformations and graphs but its so weird and a bit confusing. (I haven't had the time to revise it yet) well lets hope ill be alive by the end of it.
GAT coming up too pain because its right after my year 11 exams.
I hope its not bad if its like naplan I'm going to cry. (I hate naplan)

Tasks to do:

• memorise my English opinion piece as much as possible (for tomorrow)
• study biology content so far (because i haven't studied any of it)
• do my pending math hw

25/04 Thursday

Its been quite a while since I've updated this. Not much has happened yet anyway.

Currently its almost the end of the 2nd week back from holidays. Why do teachers set so much homework for the holidays, I mean I understand but still . On the 1st week back I had my unit 3 AOS 2 Biology sac. Which I can say was quite stressful, but I made it and its over for now. It wasn't a very hard sac but it was still easy to make small mistakes, which I did I will get my score back by the end of this week or early next week, I think. I'm praying that all isn't as bad. But its just a sac, the exam is more important! And I did what I could at the moment.

I also had my methods sac which was painful because wow was it quite challenging. Results were okay in what I expected, I'm not going to obsess over what could of been done better.
I've been trying to take more breaks, such as sleeping... because I have a huge sleep debt. But I'm kind of lacking the energy and motivation to do what I usually planned for the day. So I'm going to set a simple goal. Try to sleep early and wake up early. Preferably to sleep around 11pm and wake up at 6am for now (Its definitely not past that time right now). Recently in Psychology I learnt about breakfast and the impact of food on the brain. I felt extremely targeted (as always) as my teacher talked about the negative consequences for not eating breakfast in the morning Now I'm trying to eat yogurt and berries. Which makes a HUGE difference in my energy levels. I also feel more refreshed too. If you haven't tried this, run to the supermarkets now.

Well, this week was pretty peaceful. Next week is going to get a bit busy but hopefully I can come back with good news.

FH
good to know that you realised biology was not for you too late for me to back down but I'm in a toxic relationship with biology. Like I like it, but I dislike it at the same time, probably because its content heavy too.
BURNING OUT SUCKSS, I myself fall into that trap and it does take a while to get out of it. YOU CAN DO ITTTT I BELIEVE
AND YES HELLO FELLOW ENGENE. CHACONNE IS ALSO MY FAV>> not much people like chaconne as their fav, so thats surprising to hear. I like fate too even though its not really a song (i wish they would make a full version already)
TFW is amazing too.

FH
Yeah, I think it seems easy to just take care of yourself but actually doing so in a healthy way is questionable
Thats so true about the phone bit HAHAH and thanks for the tips

FH
Great job for trying to be productive and also resisting the urge to go sleep, instead of doing hw
I srsly need the caffeine because I cannot stay awake and finish off what I need to do. Everyday theres just more and more hw piling up

FH
I can 100% understand that if you don't have a good biology teacher (ig that goes for all subjects) then you're going to be like a confused and lost chicken. I wish you luck for your other subjects, Year 12 seems like a pain
I can relate to being a book reader but unable to read because of school Also you listen to enhypen? whats your favourite enhypen song?

FH
thank you for the support, I'm so glad I'm not the only one feeling this way. Any tips for taking care of yourself (as much as that sounds weird but yeah) I'll also take up your offer in the future and yes I will check out your journal

Hi! I'm Yona and I'm currently a year 11 student, beginning a dreadful journey of VCE. I don't really know why I'm starting this post but I was inspired by others VCE journals that indirectly helped me. I wish that by the end of this journey, I'll be able to succeed too.

(To everyone who has a VCE journal, please keep writing it. I need that motivation and I wish you luck )

As the title shows I'm one of those academic victims not an academic weapon But as funny as it sounds not much people know that even my closest friends.

I think the act of trying to be seen the best, despite in reality struggling to scrape as good grades and getting pessimistic every time I get a bad grade. Has really impacted my mental health.
I was never the 1st ranker in my school's academic award ceremonies (for each year level). I was also never a 2nd or 3rd ranker either.
The highest rank I ever reached was being 4th but that was only one time, aka in year 9
So my point is I crave academic validation. If I didn't get above 90% then I deemed myself unworthy and stupid. (To those feeling that way too, you are not alone, lets get through this.)
I want to write about my journey so that in the future I can look back and realise how much I've grown and improved. I also want to inspire others to break out of their negative mindset of not ever being good enough.

I will warn you that this is probably a very messy journey because wow do I not know what I'm doing. Let alone how to get out of this academic validation I strive off of.

The current subjects I'm undertaking are:
Unit 3 & 4 Biology
Unit 1 & 2: English, Math methods, Psychology, Art making and exhibition (is what my school calls it, I'm assuming its studio arts...? Idk), and Japanese second language

How I feel about each subject.
Bio = (Love-hate relationship)
Eng = (Probably one of my weakest subjects)
Math methods = (Please send help... Also a subject I'm not that confident in)
Psychology = (Its great I love the content, but its also content heavy, like another English subject)
Art = (Its a nice relaxing subject so far...but idk if I'm that good in it to do well, considering it scales down by a lot)
Japanese SL = ️ (I love it but at the same time Idk what I'm doing)

Heres to the beginning of my growth, one that I hope I can achieve. Pray and wish me luck that it goes well!

charl
Thank you for your suggestion.
I was thinking that, however I believe I could still go into medical through bach of science (with prerequisites of any science and math methods?), although it'll be harder and longer? Many of some other bachelors I researched don't really need chemistry unless its those direct high ATAR access ones specifically for med. And to be honest I'm not too quite sure about going into med school as I'm still thinking. So I'm trying to be as open minded as I can with my options. Do you think its realistically possible if I don't take much high scaling subjects or take subjects that scale down a lot (like art), whilst still being able to get a high enough ATAR. I know scaling doesn't really matter but I'm still quite worried about that idea.
I think now some universities are changing their prerequisites, where some don't need chemistry or math methods as much as they used to.

What exactly do you mean about how the new study design doesn't give much depth as it did previously? Did that impact you a lot with psychology?

Billzene
Thank you for your reply. If I do chemistry will it be difficult to catch up? Considering I didn't do the basics in year 10
(as per suggested by my school), will unit 1 and 2 involve a lot of pre-knowledge or will most of the basics be repeated and more advanced?
Since from my experience of doing unit 1 and 2 for Biology, much of the stuff I've learnt before wasn't as necessary as the new content I learnt during those units. Do you know if It'll be similar to that or is that just me?
I've been researching more and since psychology isn't a prerequisite for bach of psy, do you think doing it in high school helps?

I am currently in year 10 (Victoria) and I have subject selections very soon for VCE.
The subjects I'm thinking of choose are, English, Biology (all already doing unit 1 and 2 as an early VCE), Japanese (SL), art making and exhibiting (previously known as studio arts?), Maths methods, and either Psychology or Chemistry.

My averages from all the scores recorded for each subject are 93% for biology, 90% for maths (accelerated - preparation for methods), 85% for English and 98% for Japanese. I didn't take art this year but I've taken it in year 7-9 and enjoyed it quite a lot I believe I can do well, my year 9 teacher definitely recommended me to take art for VCE (as I got really good scores then, but previous years they were around 80s-90s).
However I don't want to overestimate myself because its only year 10. I keep thinking my scores in VCE will further go down because it definitely gets harder.

I want to be a neuropsychologist or a neurologist (doctor), I am aware of the long years and the further studies it takes (such as honours and masters), but I've heard getting a bachelor of psychology or a bachelor of science is considered "useless" and causes low employment rates. I am leaning towards becoming a neuropsychologist as my first choice but I'm worried because I obviously want to be able to get a job to get the hours I need for internship (I have also heard that you need to pay just to do internships??? because most require a psychologist supervision but there is a low shortage here, and I don't know if I can financially take it).

A bachelor of psychology requires only English I believe (in VIC), and a bachelor of science requires math methods with any science?

So my last choice, I am debating on psychology or chemistry. The reason why between the two is that Chemistry offers more open pathways into medical? I know in Monash you need chemistry (according to what I've been told), and then go do the UCAT + an interview to get into medical school. Going by bachelor of science is longer but I'm not exactly sure how that works. Chemistry also scales up by around 5. I'm a bit hesitant to pick chemistry because I didn't do the basics of it in year 10 (only in year 9), thinking I didn't need it (also feeling discouraged by my brother who did chemistry in previous years), but I don't exactly hate it and it seems interesting, I could learn to like it.
Is chemistry really math orientated though? Is it hard maths and problem solving?

For psychology it scales down around maximum 2? but I have somewhat a passion for psychology and I believe I like it better than chemistry (I've looked through the study designs and I can tell I already love the unit topics). It looks fun and enjoyable and I can see myself engaging well in it. Its also said to be "easier" but content heavy, how is it different in relation to chemistry?

Although psychology is not a prerequisite for anything I'm just stuck between taking my interest or a requirement that opens my options.
I've been stressing about this non stop especially when subject selections are soon (I've talked to these careers specialised people that help with this stuff, at school but it generally left me still quite confused).

I know there's always other alternatives but I'm just worried in the end it'll be a waste of time and I'll be filled with regret.