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

8am and 5pm

That's when I have currently been getting to school, and when I find I am now leaving school at.
Recently, the teachers started getting panicky and all about exams, and I don't blame them.
Unfortunately, because of this, I have now been expected to arrive at school by 8am so that I can receive extra lessons, and to leave the school at only 5pm to receive even MORE extra lessons.

I'm starting to wonder if this year will ever end.

I had yet another 8am session for maths today, which I am supposedly expected to turn up for for the next two weeks. Yes, I am quite happy that teachers are doing this, since hey, none of them are getting paid extra for this. So yes, gladly, I'll turn up.
I only wish that this session wasn't occuring so early in the morning.

Okay, so people will think I'm weird, calling 8am 'early', but let me tell you that in Australia, school only starts at 9.15am- a time when reccess normally starts in other countries. I usually don't even get up until 7.30am because of my newfound late start. Which is why 8am is now considered to be early for me.

And while I curse this late finish to school, I am sort of happy that it's there since I need to be forced to study occasionally.


Wow, look at them. I should take a leaf out of their book.

Of late, there have been people who started breaking down because of exam pressure and such. One of the worst cases I know of is where the headmistress has actually threatened to take my friend out of TEE, or to kick her out of school. All because the she believes that this breaking down is a sign that she cannot handle the TEE.
What complete and absolute bull.
The girl in question has been receiving some of the highest marks in her classes for a long time. She studies so hard, and has been doing so since Day One. To force her out now after all the hard work she's put in would not only be unfair to her, but also to the teachers who helped her get there and the school who would benefit from her marks. The only thing wrong with her is that she doesn't have the confidence in herself. Despite these high marks, she continually breaks down before each exam. I would be happy if I had her marks, but she seems to be upset that she's not doing as well as she should, or that she's not memorising things when she should be. I watched her in Human Biology today, when we were doing a unit test, and she looked like she was about to break down again. I didn't even really study for the same test, but I wasn't on the verge of tears.

You know what? Maybe I should do what she does so that I can get good marks too.

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