Hey @Dr. Jess 
,
Firstly, thank you for sharing this — honestly, it takes courage to be real about how you're feeling, and I promise you that this is the right place to talk about it. Don't worry at all - so many of us are going through or have gone through the same thing so you’re definitely not alone.
And I do agree that year 11 specifically can absolutely feel overwhelming because the jump from Year 10 is real and its really when the pressure starts building, and it feels like ATAR is already here in year 11. But here’s the truth: you don’t need to have everything perfect right now in year 11 - its supposed to be your trial year in a way to figure out what works best for you. What matters is how you grow, how you bounce back, and how you learn from the tough moments like this. So the biggest advice I can give you is this:
- Stress is a good thing! It means you care about your academics and it means you don't like to give up or do badly but lingering on your stress (you don't want to be a chronic stressor) becomes bad so break your stress down!! Instead of seeing “ATAR 99” as this huge goal, break it into subject-by-subject wins. Focus on nailing one Physics paragraph, one maths topic, one Chem prac. Big goals come from lots of little wins. And regarding your physics feedback, its just a draft, not your final so take the opportunity to really implement the feedback!
- I know some teachers are not very receptive of student questions but ask as many questions as you can when doing assignments (but also learning content)! They are marking your assignments at the end of the day so if you get exactly what they want, what more can you do?
- In terms of stress in general, I can not stress enough (see what I did there?) the benefits of meditation and mindfulness. I did this every day in my external exam period and it helped me 10 fold and I only wish I did it earlier in my year. And now that I am a med student, we were shown the scientific evidence behind meditation and we are guided in meditation now and then in class too. There was a systematic review and meta-analysis done on this which you can read here if you like.
- Finally, not sure if you know about this but there is a Discord server called QSH (Queensland Study Hub) which you can just search up on Google and join and they are pretty good with helping you with any questions you have. I'm also in the server too and have been even since I graduated so hopefully that can give you some help!
So anyways, hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions
- PP