TER Results

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Okay, before I even continue, I must let it be known to the world that I was MISLEAD.

I was told the results were coming out on the 23rd of December, and here I was happily thinking that I'd be free from the world of results till tomorrow.

Not quite so.

It turns out the results came out TODAY.

So yes, I have been completely and totally mislead.

So I called my mum in an absolute panic. And while yes my mum was really good about delving into my pig sty of a room to look for my ID number, her belief that I would not tell her my results was not so cool.

After arguing with her for at least 5 minutes and forcing her to finally tell me my Student ID with the promise that I'd keep her on the phone and reveal my results then and there, I finally managed to log in.

Okay, so at first glance, I was pretty impressed with myself. It was a good score by Australian standards. Then I remembered what the school had predicted for me and I grew even more impressed. Then I remembered what I was actually aiming for and grew steadily depressed again.

Of course, they then gave me a break down of my scores and I grew slightly more depressed at my scores.

Well, I guess I can't have everything.

But yes, before I stretch the suspense any longer, I got a grand score of: 90.25.

So yes, compared to a whole load of other people, it's pretty great. At first glance it definitely is! But compared to other people, and considering what my pride is like, it's not the best in the world.

Individual marks were...kind of dismal. Lit greeted me with 71.4%, whilst everything else ended up with 60 something and 50 something percents.

I so knew I wasn't going to do great in Human Biology and Political and Legal Studies.
History was disappointing on a dismal level. I was hoping for a score a lot higher than what I achieved. And History is pretty much my favourite subject! But Lit and History were my top two, so no complaints there. Chemistry was...on the ball. But I achieved a higher score than my Chemistry mock! Maths was again, dismally disappointing. [Sorry Mr. Mirichlis]
Those were the four subjects that were used in my TER calculation. Just like I predicted they would be.

So after a year of freaking out, almost endless turmoil, and wondering when the hell this torture would end- it's almost over.

I still have to get over the obstacle that is...

UNIVERSITY OFFERS!!!

Mishy <3

Good News...

Okay, so I didn't blog about this in my last post.
But only because I needed to change, confirm and finalise everything with the teachers.

And I finally did it today.

I GRADUATE WITH 2AS, 3BS AND 1C!!

Okay, so the C is not exactly something to be proud of. When I started out the year, I was a [supposedly] bright sparky student with somewhat unrealistic expectations that I was going to achieve straight As, or at the very least 3As and 3Bs.
But in the end...I think I did pretty alright.

I achieved an A in History and English Literature. [boy, I think we can all see which direction I'm headed in already huh?] Which, okay, maybe not so much of a surprise? They're practically my favourite subjects!
I achieved a B in Discrete Maths, Chemistry and Human Biology. [and Mrs. Ratnam told my mom that I was a science student in year 9? HEH.] I actually believed I was going to get an A for Maths, but I suppose, all things considered, and given the way my maths scores manage to swing up, down, left, right and centre...it's not actually that bad that I've finally gotten a B.
I achieved a C in Political and Legal Studies. Funnily enough, everyone thought I was going to ace this subject because I still wanted to be a journalist at the beginning of this year and would need this for the future. Still...I have never really been that good at completely memorising things, and perhaps this is no wonder that I am not really that good at P&L.

But anywho, That's what I've graduated with. =) Now to hopefully improve on those marks in the TEE...

Mishy <3

Murder Me

Seriously. Go ahead. Right now.

I have no idea whether to be happy or not.

I got my mock exam marks back, in case no one can tell. =(

Well, I guess I'll start off with the good news, since, well, it deserves to get out. :P
I got 82% for my history and my maths!! :DD Never been happier for these two. Especially my history. I didn't think I would understand what was happening, and true enough, for a few sources I didn't. But I made it through, and I'm glad. And now I have to make sure I do the same for the finals. =(

For the others, I got in the 60% range. 60% for Human Biology. 61% for Political and Legal Studies. 63% for Chemistry. 68% for Literature.
How much more crap could this get, I was banking on Lit and Human Bio to be at least 70%! I always knew Chemistry would end up somewhere in the 60% range, although I was sort of hoping for above a 65%, seeing as I had somehow managed to convince myself that the paper was relatively easy. [Conto later told us it was actually edging on the hard side]
Still, I think Human Bio was a weird paper, and the top mark was 72%. =/ A scary thought, but at least the whole paper will get moderated up and I'll hopefully reach in with a 70-something% in that paper.
I sent my Lit paper in for remarking because I did a practice essay with the same question I did in the exam, and somehow managed to lose a full 5 marks from between the practice paper and the real thing. =/ Wonderous miracles indeed, but if all works out well, then I will have achieved at least two 80%s, two 70%s and two 60%s. Hmm, 4 A's and 2 C's. In Australia anyway. In South Africa and Malaysia, it would have been 2A's, 2B's, and 2C's.

Much as those marks look really good...it's still not good enough. Or at least not as good as I was hoping for. =/

Dear God, give me the strength to drag those marks up by the ear in the TEE. Amen.

Mishy <3

Mocks

Are overr!!!
But I now have to deal with the real deal in approximately three weeks. -_-"
Kind of upsetting considering the mocks feels like it's the end.
I think the exams went alright. I think.
Lit was pretty good. Well, then again, we had the questions beforehand, so it was more than alright.
P&L was...weird. =/ But I think I passed, and again, I reserve all comment till the results actually come out.
Human Biology has me slightly worried. I think I did okay.
Discrete Maths was pretty good, only I'm now wondering if I actually understood what was happening, or I misinterpreted it all.
History...has definitely got me worried. Then again, history constantly leaves me in doubt. I reiterate, I have an abusive relationship with history.
Chemistry will always freak me out. But for some reason, I wasn't as freaked out as I usually am before a Chemistry exam.
But, well, I have five days left of holidays, so I'll leave it all alone for now, and I'll confirm my feelings on the exams when the results come back. XD

I have a graduation dress! I love it. =) And I have no pictures yet, but there shall be some when I actually go for graduation. Xd LOL. But I can say that it is short, blue and has a strap. Hoorah! :P

Mishy <3

The Omens of Study

The eyelids droop lower, and lower. Like a geometric progression, slowly.
Wonderous of the number of people who must have done the same thing, years past. The 1990s. 1980s. 70s. 60s. 50s. Pre-war.
Did they all feel the heavy feeling on the foramen magnum of their necks? The drooping eyelids, and sudden lethargy that came from nowhere. The fingers crack a bit, releasing the air that's been trapped within the joints. And that was the 5th time for the day.
She needs fresh air. It's been stagnant, wafting around the same room for so long. O2. A nice change from CO2. And H2O. Dehydrated and restless. How many moles of crap, she wonders, are found in 10 grams of chem?
Probably no more than can be found in Parliament House. A debate rages in her head. Yes. No. Sit down. You need a rest. You need to study. It's only for a month, you'll be fine.
Look at the context of the whole period she urges. All that study you did before will surely boost you up now if you continue to do the same. This will ensure you social and economic surety in a racist and patriarchal society.

Yup, the omens were there.

Exams are coming soon.

And my mocks are up on Tuesday.

Mishy <3

A Fruity Odour...

That's what I'm meant to say when describing an esterification.
Two weeks ago, I did an experiment on esterification. We were basically given a bunch of alcohols and carboxylic acids to play with [with proper guidance of course] and then told to identify the scents.

At that time, I was still suffering the beginning of the effects of that horrible bug going around Perth. And here I am, being told to smell six different solutions with my defunctional nose.

This event probably goes right up there next to the time at Saints Trek when I, the Malaysian, was teamed up with my Japanese Britishman partner and told to teach a bunch of Grade 7s the history of South Africa's colonialisation.

You could've asked me to tell you why the sky was blue and I'd have winged it just about as much.


The first one I sniffed smelt like nail polish remover. That was somehow unanimous throughout the class, so I put that down. The second one smelt like bananas. Oh wow, the overpowering smell of bananas. Bananas are easily the worst smelling fruit that God may have decided to plant on this earth. That was also probably what knocked out my sense of smell for the rest of the experiment.
After that, I could barely smell anything, save the overpowering 4th mixture which cleared out my nose in a flash. Although I still couldn't actually smell anything.
So I cleverly went up to Zaheed, Erik and Brendan, and collaborated my results with theirs. Yen told me that the overpowering 4th mixture was vinegar, and Zaheed told me the 3rd mixture which the banana smell managed to conquer was probably a citrus fruit since he thought it smelt like an orange. Then Zaheed decided that the 5th mixture smelt like deepheat.

Deepheat.

I'm not entirely sure how he manages to remember the smell of the deepheat so clearly, but okay, considering I had a blocked nose and I didn't really have a platform on which to argue with him, I listened to him and put that down into my results. The 6th mixture didn't actually have any scent, and when I tried to sniff it, but couldn't smell anything, I really thought that my nose had finally given in and I'd lost my sense of smell.
I also have to say thank you to Erik right now for giving us the equations since I didn't know how to write them down at the time. XD

I just spent the entire evening having to practice my organic chemistry for a test tomorrow. I think I know my stuff...I just hope I realy do know it, and it's not just floating around in my head. =/

Two colourless solutions mix and a fruity odour emerges...


Mishy <3

MIA

Which I have been for a while. Year 12 is no bed of roses, let me tell you.

With 5 weeks to go before mock exams, I can't really even begin to comprehend keeping up with anything. My head of year decided to have a River Rock in two weeks time. Which would have been all fine and well, even if I didn't go, I would have considered going. Except for the fact that it was on a Wednesday. Yes, Wednesday. Who puts things like these on a school day?? It's like having the Valentine's Dance in GIS on a Wednesday. Or having the Barn Dance at Saints on a Wednesday. Simply not done. And completely wrong timing too, especially for us poor souls doing six TEE subjects, who, really, would love nothing more than a break, but simply cannot go due to wrong timing on the organiser's part.

I am currently looking for scholarships to apply to and such. I mean, yes, I may not ever get the top TER in the school, and yes, perhaps my headmistress doesn't actually believe that I will be the person to best achieve my goals in university, but I guess it never hurts to try. =)

I have also finally finally [finally] FINALLY received my TISC application guide for university. I can FINALLY apply without trying to murder myself with worry over getting something wrong. Or at least I believe I can. Who knows, I may actually get something wrong, even WITH the TISC guide. Life is so weird.

With regards to Leaver's Week, I have been pleasantly surprised. My MOM is letting me go. I said it would be in Moore River, and even though she is rather unsure of where it is [don't look at the geography failure please] she is STILL willing to let me go! This is the biggest shock I've had since being told I was moving to Africa 3 years ago. I've moved out already, but the shock still remains. And, well, she's okay with it, with the exception that she is rather worried about me being driven there by P plate drivers. Casey, JB and Teo, much as the RAC believes that you are capable of driving the streets, unharmed, my parents still have their doubts. I forsee problems with this for when I get my Ls and licence next year. Or, well, at least attempt to.

I meet Elaine tomorrow!!! I can't wait, and I am tres excited. What can I say, even in the midst of exams, and whatnot. :P Of course, I sincerily hope that I will not get lost in the city.

I had four things due in today. I had a history essay [which I am almost certain I failed, due to the whole class being completely unsure of what to write about], a chemistry quiz [which I am absolutely certain I failed- I mean, Conto even FORGOT that we had a quiz today...], a P&L debate [which I never got to finish due to running out of time], and a maths test [which was so long, I only just finished in time as opposed to my ten minutes before the ending finish]. It is appaling, the conditions I am forced to work in really.

I am also rather surprised at the amount of people who visit my blog on a daily basis. Of course it may help that I actually add in labels and such so people google it and find it more easily [someone in Morley SHS googled Morley SHS and chanced upon this blog during english lit, which is a class I belong to. How embarrassing]. But quick message: if you read this, AND you know me, OR you think you find something worthwhile commenting on, please please do so? I like to hear other opinions, and views. It make life just that much more interesting. =)

More soon.

Mishy <3

Time Marches On...

It just kind of hit home a few hours ago that I had just about 13.5 weeks left before the exams.
And the teachers have given us all motivational talks on how to prepare.

I missed the worst with my Chem teacher for now, because he's been off somewhere [possibly America]. Although it hasn't been quite so sane with the other teachers.
My human biology teacher has started to shape up. The Asian group now sitting behind me has begun to shut up for 60% of the lesson. I think we may have just witnessed a miracle in Human Biology.
My P&L teacher decided to spend two entire leassons teaching us how to study. =/ Instead of P&L. I have absolute reason to be worried at this stage.
My history teacher may be the only one who doesn't give a damn if the school gets uprooted by floods, or if Western Australia suddenly discovers that a volcano was hidden under the Perth CBD by all the buildings. With him, the show MUST go on!
Mirichlis in Maths was in a pretty good mood today. I'll have to watch out very closely for him tomorrow. I shudder to think what he may have up his sleeve if he's in this good a mood straight after Open Day Reporting. Or, maybe he just likes our parents better than he does us.
Lit went on as normal. Lots of procrastination, endless talking, debates with McInerny...

He's also badgered us to take a look at our scaled average on the TER calculator which is on the TISC website.

If I do no scaling whatsoever, I figure that I will get 91.65. Which is tres brilliant in my case! But with scaling, I figure that I actually only get 88.95 or something similar to that. Which is not so bad, I am still in the safe zone since my TER only needs to be 81. But in case the cut-off grade for Bachelor of Arts [Communication] decides to annoyingly move itself up, I want to be ready and waiting for it. And...I guess an 88.95 may not be so good after all. =/

Other news regarding the school: I am now firmly convinced that I am surrounded by thieves and possible criminals.
During the holiday, someone brought a torch bomb to school, broke the window of the office and stole 45 Leavers Tops. It's fine for me because I already have mine, but I have friends who unfortunately haven't gotten theirs yet. This is the crappiest thing EVER. I canNOT believe that people would actually just sneak in and steal tops like these, especially since they have no value whatsoever. They have names on them, and there is a track record of who has actually bought these tops. Plus my mates who haven't gotten theirs are completely bummed out. And I have great apathy for whoever's taken them at the moment. Apparently they couldn't stop there either. They broke into the history classroom [my tute room] and stole the new overhead projector as well as this crappy computer that actually squeals at pitches so high my history teacher can't hear it. =/ But the point is that the school had a theft. And I am somewhat upset that this could happen. It's a police matter, but hey, who said that the case would ever be solved?

Heh. And I thought South Africa was dangerous?

Mishy <3

Semester 1 Exams

The joy.

And, well, to be more serious- the horror.

Exams started on Tuesday and I am officially more then half way through.
My timetable looks something like this:

Tuesday [3rd]- Political and Legal Studies
Wednesday [4th]- English Lit and then History
Thursday [5th]- Human Biology
Friday [6th]- Maths
Monday [9th]- Chemistry

And you know what, this timetable actually does look okay. I have enough time [or I hope I will] to study and rave and rant for chem, and all the essay subjects are out of the way first, the ones which literally tell me what's on the exam before I head in.
Unfortunately, not quite so.
For P&L, I answered a total of 5 questions, and 2 essays, which wasn't bad. Then for Lit, which was the next day, I wrote 3 essays. Also expected. But then I had History after and had to do a document study AND 2 MORE ESSAYS! So in total, I wrote 5 essays, with a document study being the near equivalent of an essay, in one day. Plus I had the two from the day before. I had officially written 7 actual essays and one substitute essay if you want to count the document study in. =)
My hand fell off after History.
If you've ever tried to keep your hand straight out, without bending your fingers, it's actually quite easy. Observe it now: it's not hard. But after the History exam, I tried to straighten my fingers, and they just bounced back into a nice curve. My hand was shaking, and it would not straighten. Potential arthritis patient perhaps?

I had Human Biology today, which was alright. I didn't quite know what hormone the thyroid gland secreted and stimulated, but that was, admittedly, my fault for not studying it- I guessed it though. I think I did alright for the extended answers though, because I drew lots of pretty diagrams and wrote about a page and a bit per long answer. Of course, it didn't quite help that the pain from the essays came back during the long answer questions.

So tomorrow, I have Maths exams and Chemistry on Monday. Oh the joy. Maths is alright, just need a bit more practice today, and for chem, I will need...a multitude of practice? Rats, doesn't help that I have to go to work on Saturday as well...Ah well, just gotta use the time wisely.

Anywho, back to the grindstone...

Mishy <3

An Eventful Week

The week's gone by so quickly, it's been amazing.
Term 1 is FINALLY over, and I can now relax, catch up and breathe while I do all that.

Although I hope the holidays don't go at this speed too, I want to savour every last moment of sleep and rest before the First Semester Exams come along to haunt me for the rest of Term 2.

The last week alone, I was meant to hand up:
- One History Essay
- One History Summary
- One History Cognitive Test
- Two English Lit Essays
- One Human Biology In-class assessement
- One Chemistry Quiz
- One Political and Legal Studies Test
- One Maths Test

And in the end, funnily enough, I ended up doing my history essay and summary, one english lit essay, and the chemistry, P&L and maths tests out of all that. The rest were postponed for the next term due to all sorts of funny things happening during the term.
Funny, I do think. =)

English Lit is more of a discussion group than anything else. My English Lit teacher, Mr. McInerny, is one of the lenient teachers I have ever found in all my years of travelling. He's an Irish man, who can be compared to 'the Guv' in Spud- a very famous South African novel. He swears in class, tells us all to shut up, and enjoys taking a drink or two during school excursions. I don't know whether Mr. Mc., as we enjoy calling him, is anything like 'the Guv' with respect to school work though.
This is a repititon of the conversation that went on between us yesterday:
[In class]
Cynthia: Sir, I don't feel like doing an essay today.
Mr. McInerney: Okay, we'll do it tomorrow then.
*uproarious cheering from the class*
And the strange thing, is that this happens ALL THE TIME. I have never known him to say no to an 'I don't feel like it' before. Well, then again, we haven't gotten too close to any exams yet, so I suppose this could be the only reason why.
In addition to this, the English Lit room has mountains of paperwork on top of the cupboards, in between the computers, lining the shelves of the filing cabinet and completetely shielding the teacher's desk from view. So this could potentially be the other reason why he's so lenient with us.

In Human Biology, we did an experiment with cigarettes. This was indeed eventful, for, as a Year 12, I am meant to be setting a good example to the younger years. And the smell of cigarette smoke clinging onto my clothes as I parade the corridors with a pile of books is probably not the best way to show the younger years what to do. Especially since the school Captain (or the Head Girl/Boy) was in my Human Bio class doing the same experiment- it would most definitely not do for her to smell of cigarette smoke. =)

The very next day, I played around with concentrated HCl in my Chemistry class, due to the experiment that we had to do regarding Le Chatelier's principle. Obviously, Le Chatelier had nothing better to do than to observe the concentrations of molecules and how they changed colour, and to afterwards describe it in words beyond my skill of language. It was fun, no doubt, but it was rather dreary when I looked at the results after and thought to myself: Wait, this is common sense stuff, why am I learning this??? Especially since I managed to decipher the words in my textbook, only after I had done the experiment and recorded my conclusions.

So ends an incredibly eventful. Here's to hoping that this next week with be nice...and sleepy...

Mishy <3

"It's Chemistry..."

"...aren't you all excited?"
[I remember atempting to restrain a grin at this sentence.]

This came from my Chemistry teacher, Mr. Conto, the first day I got back to school.

Another memorable quote from him will be:
"If you're not getting a hundred percent in these tests, you shouldn't be doing Chemistry."
[Yeah, he scared us with this one, until he recently changed it to 80%.]

He's this Australian guy who went to study in America.
I think.
He's got a rather mild American accent, but it's very noticable nonetheless. Especially in Australia. ("G'day mate!")
And he is easily the BEST chemistry teacher I've had since Ms. Woo in GIS, Year 9. Elaine will probably remember our memorable test scores when we had Ms. Woo for chemistry.
Well, I had a test on Chapter 5 of the textbook on Monday of the 2nd week of school. Now please note, I'd actually missed the first three days of school, and wasn't completely up to scratch. Mind you, 2 months holiday can cause quite a bit of unknown rustiness in the brain region. But he asked me to do all the Chapter 5 questions, and finished teaching the last half of Chapter 5 that I managed to get there for.
And for the test, I got: 87%.
87%
87%
87%
13 out of 15.
And I'm still dreaming about it.
This is my first 'A'...my first victory in chemistry in 2 years. I haven't had an 'A' since Grade 10 at Saints, when it was still relatively easy. And it wasn't even Chem, it was Science. Like 'Double Award Science' as the GIS kids would know it, without the Biology.
And I thought he was brilliant. He really was, knew exactly what he was doing.
And then I found out that he is apparently one of the top three Best Chemistry Teachers in the State.

Hmmm, maybe my life is finally heading in the right direction with Chemistry?
Well, I guess it would be, if this kind of mark continued into the exams. =)

Mishy <3

Reports!! [If I thought that Christmas Shopping was the Nightmare before Christmas, I guess I was wrong]

Reports have arrived!!!!

Well, technically, they arrived about 2 days ago. I have seen my report, and considering that I have been forced to learn a new subject as well as other new parts of subjects that I had previously taken, I am actually quite impressed. These marks are not my exam results, but my overall year (or more specifically, ten week!) results which have been averaged out and everyfink.

My results are as follows:

English 2A2B- 67%, B
Chemistry- 62%, C
Foundations of Maths- 78%, A
History- 66%, B
Human Biology- 66%, B
Political and Legal Studies- 72%, B
And thus are my results!

To all in SA and in Malaysia, I must add that, while these results look wrong (and certainly, I thought they were too, after my history teacher gave me my marks and told me that it was a B!) the mark boundaries in Australia are not quite like those everywhere else in the world.

In Australia, the mark boundaries are as follows:
A- >75%
B- 60%-75%
C- 45%-60%
D- 30%-45%
E- 15%-30%
F- <15%>

So yeah, that would be a normal grade boundary. For exams, however, they take the whole year's marks, and then they decide that the top 15% of marks should be this grade, the next 15% should be this grade, etc etc. They make the things so easy for us sometimes, it's scary! I bet these Australians don't even know how lucky they have it! In Australia, we're not allowed to take certain subjects unless we get a C or over. And I honestly believed that I wouldn't be able to take Chemistry next year, because I'd always gotten CLOSE to a C by Malaysian, British and South African standards, but never actually gotten to that mark. But when I figured out what Australia considered to be a C, I almost hugged my teacher. I could take Chemistry! I wasn't that dumb! XD
Not to mention, most of my class pretty much either failed Chemistry miserably, or barely passed. Unless you count a few of the lucky students who managed to get 70%s and over, that is, and trust me, there weren't that many. I mean, JB had just managed to claim his C on the paper, and Yen, I think, just managed to get her B. So all in all, I'm quite impressed with this year, especially Chemistry.
I just hope I get better marks next year, cuz I highly doubt that I can apply for university next year with a C in my report, no matter what my TER score looks like after taking Chemistry away.
I believe that many will be confused as to what a TER is, and no matter, I will explain as the time comes, as I have an idea of what a TER is, but am unable to explain clearly, exactly WHAT it is at this point in time.

So adieu, dear readers, until the next report of Australian Watch, with me, Michelle Wong, good night.
Or rather, good afternoon since that's the time it is at the present time of typing, but it could also be good morning if you're crazy, awake and bored enough to be reading it then!

Mishy <3