leotlion

Hey!

I reckon it's perfectly doable.

Have you watched the ATARNotes Major Works Crash Course lecture by Lily during the July lecture series? She did 4 majors including Ext 2 English and History Extension and still did well for her HSC!

Another well-known example I can think of is Gladys Lai from the Class of 2016. She did 4 units of English, 5 units of History (Ancient, Modern, and Extension) alongside Visual Arts (which also requires a major body of work!) and achieved a perfect 99.95 ATAR along with 5 state ranks.

hums_student What method do you use for 3x3? (And if you use CFOP – favourite PLL?)

I use a really simplified CFOP structure with intuitive F2L and 2-Look OLL to minimise the amount of algorithms I need to know haha.

Joseph41 Can you solve square-1?

I don't own one so no I do have a weird windmill cube (is that what it's called?) which I can sort of solve but not properly. Square-1 looks insanely hard though!

Speaking of cubing, since this is the ATAR Notes forum after all, did you know that the legendary Feliks Zemdegs not only won the WCA World Championship in 2013 but he also smashed his VCE in the same year as well? He got a perfect study score of 50 in English as well as a 44 in Spesh, 45 in Physics and a 48 in Economics! These amazing results are reflected in the insane 99.90 ATAR which he received

Joseph41

Joseph41 Best of luck for your test! Hope it all goes well and there's a favourable result.

Thanks Nick! I had my test yesterday and....[drumroll] I passed! Actually so happy right now, I finally have my Ps after all these years! Regarding the actual test, I think I kind of messed up my kerbside stop by parking too far away from the kerb because I was overly anxious that I would hit it. And I made a few minor positioning errors with the car as well. But the rest went pretty smoothly, even the reverse parallel park! I'm just relieved my performance overall was still good enough to pass which is what matters! Now can I be one of those people who can say they passed on their first go

Joseph41 I went for the GAN Mirror Block, which is purple and shiny and magnetic haha

Oh, that one is gorgeous! The magnetism must make for a pretty smooth experience as well! My biggest issue with my gold mirror block is that it can be a bit stiff to turn. Do you solve it the same way you would a normal 3x3? I can only use the beginner's method on the mirror block because I have yet to figure out how intuitive F2L translates when you are dealing with shape/size not colour haha.

Joseph41 Where'd you find the picture cube?

I custom-ordered it from V-Cubes! Here are some photos if you were interested:

Joseph41 @hums_student made a cubing discussion - join us here.

Cool, will definitely check that out!

Joseph41 I'm not too sure! With COVID over the last few years, interstate travel has become a lot more difficult, but we'll see!

Would be so keen for an interstate meet-up in the future with everyone!

Joseph41
Hey Nick! So exciting to see this AMA on the new site

Joseph41 I didn't get my Ps until I was 24.

So glad to hear I'm not the only one with a similar experience! I also didn't get my Ls straight away and it took me a few years of on-and-off driving to accumulate my hours after that.

I actually have my driving test next week, a week shy of my 22nd birthday, so wish me luck! I was going to do it earlier this month but then I caught COVID which really threw a spanner in the works.

Joseph41 I have cubes from 2x2 (smaller than the regular Rubik's cube) up until 7x7 (obviously a fair bit larger), and also puzzles called the pyraminx, megaminx, kilominx, skewb, square-1, mirror block, and possibly some others.

That's a very impressive collection! I only have the 2x2 up to 5x5, the pyraminx and the mirror block. I have to say, the mirror block is so gorgeous — it's a beautiful dynamic sculpture that changes with every scramble! And it's very satisfying seeing how the same algorithms which work on the regular 3x3 by colour can be used on the mirror block but with shape instead. What colour is your mirror block? Gold or silver? I have both but I'm partial to the gold one...

Do you have any picture 3x3s? As a huge Swiftie, I have a custom-ordered 3x3 where the 6 faces are the covers to Taylor's first 6 studio albums! Very fun to solve.

Joseph41 Favourite PLL is definitely H perm, but I use the beginner method still, despite cubing for 10+ years on and off lol. It's been a long-term thing for me where I've been trying to motivate myself to learn CFOP, but I've just never done it, and now my muscle memory is so hard to break

The beginner method is still sort of modelled from CFOP though, right? I follow the CFOP structure too but I use intuitive F2L and 2-Look OLL because I don't think I could memorise all those algorithms haha! Have you ever considered learning an alternate way of solving the cube such as the Roux method?

Lastly, when will Lauren and you come visit Sydney? I've gotten to meet Ollie, David and Alvin over the years but the rest of the Victorian team remains a mystery...