Ahhh tysm. This information helps me a lot. I just have a few more questions if you don’t mind me asking.
Sorry, when I meant fluent, I meant like would an average person who completed Jap SL be able to have a full conversation with Japanese people? (I’m assuming only to a certain level)
How difficult would you say it is to achieve a 40SS in Jap SL?
What are useful study methods/techniques did you use to study Japanese specifically?
One again tysm for the help.
Hey, so I’m only in year 10 but will be doing Jap SL in vce. I was just curious of some questions if ur willing to help answer?
Now that you’ve completed Jap SL with a very high score, how fluently can u speak Japanese?
If you used anki to study, are there any specific decks that would help me?
What level would you say is VCE Jap equivalent to in terms of the JLPT? (for instance N5, N4, N3 etc)
In the Japanese study design, they show about 200 kanji that are ‘expected to know’. Is this actually true or do I need to learn a lot more?
Anyways Ty for the help in advance
Randomhuman24 tbh throughout the year we only really looked at like 10 poems MAX out of the hundreds. But if you want to improve ur annotation skills, then use a method called VISSSS. Voice imagery sound structure style symbol. Voice being who the perspective is and in what perspective (first person, second person etc). Imagery is the descriptions of things and meta language (simile , metaphor) . Sound is the rhythm and alliteration. Structure is who long the poem is, how many stanzas etc. style is the tone of poem and what themes are. Symbol is any symbolism in the poem. We used this method in nossal so it can be good for practice in the future. Hope this helps
Randomhuman24 ohh nice ur in pegasus too (welcome haha). Just curious, what tute are you in (don’t have to answer if you don’t wanna). Uhhh in terms of tests, they are surprisingly really standard and at a pretty decent level. For example, in math you can choose to do a standard or advanced side for the test. English works differently where you get to kinda ‘choose ur assignments’ (you’ll learn more about it later). Then the other subjects are your stock standard test like any other school. We just did our exams and ngl they weren’t that hard compared to what I thought it would be. But ig that’s subjective huh. Anyways good luck 
Oh haha yeah Dr Schroor… good luck with her … but anyways I’m glad to hear it was a good day for you all. I think Frankenstein was the most popular in my class and apparently had a pretty simple plot. I would recommend Frankenstein as it’s a very ‘quotable book’ (as in, you’ll need to memorise a lot of quotes for certain assessments and Frankenstein has these rlly good short and versatile quotes). I didn’t choose or read Jane Eyre so I have no idea haha. Btw what houses are u guys in?
Hey guys, a fellow year 10 from nossal. I was just wondering how orientation day went for y’all ?
(Did they give everyone these little sandwiches with like the tiniest slice of ham lmao)
Yeah yeah haha all good. So basically ill just go through a brief rundown for each elective (but only to a certain extent as I have not done all of them)
Food tech - this is the most popular one for sure. I would High recommend it as it’s easy on the theory work and fun pracs. Plus you get a free excursion for ppl who do it.
Music - can’t rlly say much but from what I’ve heard it’s literally what you would expect from a subject called music
Dance - not rlly sure either but I would assume it’s the same idea as music. You also get a free excursion if you do it.
Electronics - I did this personally and regret it deeply. If ur into stuff like coding and programming micro controllers this is for you. (But personally not for me.
Tinkercad - it’s very similar to electronics but you do a lot more online programming (using online software)
Creative Design - Apparently from what I’ve heard you think of an idea and you get to create it physically. Ofc there is more to this but that’s what I’ve heard vaguely from that.
VCD - apparently it’s just drawing stuff. That’s all I’ve heard from this lmao.
Photography - I feel like this is pretty underrated subject. Apparently it’s very free as you just go around the school taking photos (ofc there is more to this but yeah)
Theatre studies - there was only 10 or smth people who did it this year but I didn’t hear much from it (performing and acting is my guess) but you also get a free excursion.
Ngl electives aren’t the best in personal opinion (but if I had to put my 5 cents for recommendations it would be food tech and photography) but good luck.
Yup so if ur talking about electives there are a few options (they are kinda mid tbh lmao):
So there is, tinkercad, electronics, dance, photography, food tech, VCD, creative design, theatre studies and music. If you want a brief description of it from what I’ve done and what I’ve heard just ask 
Oh I forgot to add, you can only choose 2 (one for each semester)
oh yeye dwdw they let you know beforehand for sure. It depends on which subject let’s you know when but we have never been spontaneous/randomly given a test. Unless it was a small quiz or diagnostic. But not a real proper test has been randomly given out.
Yup no problem. So first things first, when you do a math test here, it is sorted into two sections. Advanced and standard. Now you can choose to do advanced or standard (or a mix of both which is possible). So in order to be accepted for methods, you need to have at least an average percent of 83 on the advanced part (weirdly specific Ik lmao). They choose if you can accelerate methods at the end of term 2 (also to choose ur yr10 subjects). So you just need to worry about term 1 and 2 math tests. Honestly, advanced isn’t tooo difficult but for some reason the first test (measurement) was rlly difficult and the average was like 65 or smth. But other than that the tests aren’t even too bad tbh. Sorry if I blabber a lot haha just wanted to give some extra info.
Randomhuman24 yup Idm at all haha. (You can always DM me if you have specific concerns) but yeah you can def accelerate a 1&2 subject. I’ll just run through it briefly
Science subjects: Biology and Environmental Science (rip if you wanted to do physics or chem)
Math: methods (technically but you have to achieve a certain grade to be eligible. Lmk if you want to get into the specifics of that)
Humanities: Economics, Accounting, Philosophy, Legal Studies, Business Management (I think not 100% sure), Global Politics, History
Arts: VCD, Dance
This is just off the top of my head but ya.
There is also a way to do 2 vce subjects in year 10 but you need to have a certain grade in ur term 2 reports.
Randomhuman24 they expect you to know all hiragana and katakana (they do revise on it tho) and you don’t rlly need to know kanji. They expect you to know like basic vocabulary but not to a crazy extent. The class itself is not too bad if you just complete the work and pay attention. (If you want specifics just PM !)
qwqqwq I’m honestly not sure about carpool groups (tbh havent rlly heard about that so far) but I would suggest either finding a friend to carpool with or just taking public transport (other than that I’m not too sure)
Yeah so in one house it’s split up into two language classes (each containing 26 students as each house had 52 students) so language class is the only class where it won’t be with ur own house (other than electives). But exactly 52 students will be able to do intermediate French (as there will be two classes and probs in griffin or phoenix) but there’s a high chance you’ll get ur first pick as idk anyone who didn’t get their first preference.
Yeah Idm answering any questions. But I’m not too sure about ur school but we just have to pay for the laptop (which was approx 1k I think). We don’t have to pay for any other external things.
Hey yeah all good I’ll answer ur questions.
So with the nossal laptop. A large majority of students have the nossal laptop but I think you’ll be limited to the same internet access as long as ur on the nossal wifi (I shouldn’t tell you this but if you have ur own data and connect to ur laptop, you can basically play all the games and stuff you want). But I would recommend buying it just bc you won’t have to go through the extra step of downloading all the stuff (and you use ur stylus a decent amount in yr9) but it’s entirely up to you (Ik many friends who brought their own and are doing just fine)
So I’ll quickly go through the day. You start school at 8:48 (yeah random time ik) and go through a thing called ‘tutorial’ (everyone calls it tute) from 8:48 - 9am. Its like a ‘homeroom’ where you just kinda chill and get ready for the next lesson. But it’s also a way for the school to categorise the students (and all year levels will be in this class) and it’s not rlly a ‘class’ tbh. (I can go more into this if you want) .
So basically for the whole of year 9 you’ll be with ur ‘house’ (being Pegasus (best house), Phoenix, Garuda and Griffin) but with the exception of elective subjects (where Pegasus students go with Garuda students and Phoenix go with griffin).
Basically there are 208 students in the year level (give or take) and there are 52 students per house. And each house is taught in this one giant classroom basically. So basically rooms are split up into 1.1, 1.2,1,3etc then 2.1,2.2 etc. so rooms with 1.1 etc is the ‘griffin area’. Rooms with 2.1etc is the ‘Garuda area’. 3 is Pegasus and 4 is Phoenix. But you won’t JUST be taught in those areas, you ofc move around the area to different rooms
Well depending on if you do beginner French or intermediate french. If ur doing beginner French you will be in either Garuda or Pegasus and if ur doing intermediate French then it’s either Phoenix or griffin
Hopefully I explained some of that clearly but feel free to ask more questions
Hey! I’m a current year 9 nossal students and I’m willing to answer any questions (whether it’s academically, socially or anything) I remember being really curious and unsure but had no one to answer my questions. So hopefully this will help.
But here are some common questions I see a lot:
How do I get to school? Most people would drive directly to the school (either the carpark or drop off zone) or take private transport (bus or train) just a side-note if you are taking train, it takes around 10-15 mins to walk from the station to school
How are the buildings/facilities? The school is actually quite small (there are literally 2 buildings, 3 if you count the gym) but it also looks really modern and refined. The equipment, toilets and lockers are all pretty clean compared to some other schools I’ve seen
Is it true the tests are really hard at Nossal? No not really. Most of the tests are our at a year level standard with some being slightly more difficult. For example, in year 9 maths tests are divided into two options (standard or advance) and you can choose to do either one. But overall they aren’t as intimidating as they seem.
How do the classes operate ? Well in year 9 they use a system called ‘team learning’ where one class consist of 52 students with 2 teachers. There are also 4 houses in the school (hint: the language you choose basically chooses the house ur in)
Hey I’m a current Nossal students and cant confirm that this is actually the true case. I did check and apparently our school does have this security app installed but not at that extreme level. The main social platform that nossal uses is ‘Microsoft teams’ where you can communicate with other students. And I have seen much worse things than ‘that was annoying’ for sure with no real consequences. Although they did say that inappropriate messages will be flagged ( but only on teams ). There was a small discord scandal but I think that was from other students flagging it to teachers. In term of using ur laptop at home, they are quite lenient. Most of my friends have games such as Valorant minecraft etc on it. (Ik some friends who literally play val during class) don’t stress too much about this (it’s really not that bad) but if you have any questions be sure to ask
Hey so I’m a current year 9 student at Nossal and It’s been awesome. Don’t worry I’m pretty sure everyone is thinking and feeling the same way as you. Although it is quite a competitive enrichment, there are definitely still students who slack and either don’t get the work done or even just aren’t as smart as you would think. This might just be for Nossal (I doubt mhs would have it as bad tho). In all honesty, the work isn’t too difficult and there isn’t A LOT of hw. I feel like a lot of students over exaggerate the academic side bc at the end of the day it’s still just a government school but just like academically inclined students. But the culture is really nice, ‘most’ of the teachers are easy going and the students are ‘MOSTLY’ all well-behaved (to a certain extent) Just a last note, a vast majority of students are Indian and a minority of students are East Asian etc. Anyway those are just my thoughts, I hoped that helped a bit
hey I was thinking of doing 1&2 Jap as well. I was hoping if you could give me an insight to how it is. So firstly, would you say it’s a content heavy subject? (I’m guessing it is cos I mean, its a whole new language)
How difficult would you say it is?
And last tips?