All bout competitiveness and results [questions!!!] (1 Viewer)

[Mossad]

O.k. here's the deal. I'm a pretty good student [year 12] but my problem is i'm extremely competitive, when it comes to school and marks i'm extremely motivated and i can't stand not coming first. I'm in direct competition with my friends (especially in Business Studies), which sometimes leads to very bitter arguments and just overall silliness (because my friends are competitive as well).
My question is how do i remain sain and how to i balance between the need to be the best at everything with my school and my need not to piss everyone off and get along with people.

My second question is more particular. As i mentioned above i'm doing business studies for my HSC. I'm an o.k. student, i've had 2 assessments by now which add up to 30% of my assessment mark (and i'm standing on 28 out of those 30 marks). I'm pretty happy with those figures(especially due to the fact that i've only been in Aus for a year), the problem is that in the 2 tests i've had so far the same 2 guys beat me, which really pisses me off, i work very hard, i study well and get decent marks but i just can't come first in my year in business studies, and because business studies actually scales you down and because i'm not gonna get a 100% in my final mark i have to come first (and i have my half yearly exams happening after the upcoming end-of-term holidays so this is very relevant.

What can i do that i'm not already doing that can give me a competitive edge?
I need advice especially from people who already completed their HSC, but any suggestions will be very appreciated.

Thanks

 

[MiuMiu]

Well firstly good on you for working hard and striving for a goal, thats more than a lot of us can claim to at the moment.

However, you need to accept the fact that no matter how good you are, there is always going to be someone better than you, if you are working at your best you can do no more.

Sure, it feels bad, but just feel good that you are doing the best you can and are going to end up with marks that reflect your ability, not marks you are going to look at and wish that you had tried harder.

 

[Mossad]

First of all thanks a lot for the kind words.
I do very much agree with the last point you dmade, i do sometimes seem to be very unhappy with marks i get even though i should be because at most it does reflect my abilities and strengths/weaknesses.

But i don't agree that in this case there will always be someone who's better than me, because the important role that the raking system plays in the HSC and UAI i actually don't have to beat everyone in the state, jusr everyone in my year (along with a good mark), and that i'm capable of, but i need something extra to achieve that in business studies, and that's what i'm looking for!

 

[bobo123]

you should accept that you are not the best in the world, that there will always be someone that will hand your ass back to you in the hsc no matter how hard you study.

being motivated to dux business is good, getting angry because you're arnt is not. you said you were currently third (?), thats a very respectable rank anyway.

you want a competitive edge? stop whinging on the net and go back to your textbooks


i do business studies too, im crap as hell but that doenst affect my work ethics or motivation for band 6, nor my relationship with the people in my class.

 

[Mossad]

Yeah bob that's because people always react very differently between when you kick their asses in exams and where you don't...that's human nature

 

[bobo123]

i think you put too much pressure on yourself

and having rank 1 in business studies in your school might not translate into very much. It is also dependent on your school's performance as a unit.

 

[Mossad]

Yeah i know i put pressure on myself but i've been doing it all my life in everything i've ever done what i think about it...i think i'm getting used to it (or i'm just getting crazy)

And rank is an extremely important element in your UAI. it makes a huge difference, being ranked first, second or third effects your UAI heaps and may determine if you'll be eligible for the course of your choice in uni or not, even if that difference is half a mark

 

[bobo123]

rank is an important factor, but not the only factor.

if you are ranked 1 in your school for business, what justification do you have that you will be better than someone ranked 30th from a good school, like sydney boys high or james ruse?

Sure being dux is good for the ego (i wouldnt have the privilege of knowing though ), but you are sounding like you would throw away friendship and stuff for it........i dunno......we must have different priorities.

 

[Almighty Jafar]

ok. look, i didn't come first in business studies in year 12.I actually came second by about 2%.However, im so proud of my self cause i did my best and competed against myself.I came 5th in year 11, so i improved and i got a band six.Compete against yourself if you want the true rewards- people are taller and stronger- face it.But if you're at your peak strength, you have topped the class.

 

[Mossad]

Thanks people for your helpi really appreciate it.
The thing is Bobo that i don't think you understand how important rank is, having a lot of people doing what you do (and heaps people do business studies) means that your rank becomes more and more importnat, because if you come first in your year with 80, and someone from Sydney Boys comes third with 85-90 i'm gonna benefit in business studies more than he will.
With rank having so much importance it is o.k. to get an o.k. mark (such as 90) as long as you get a mad rank because that rank scales up you.
And i know i can beat those guys because they beat me by less than 5 percent (in the last exam the top was 96%, second was 95% and third = me was 94%), it's doable but i need something more that will lift my mark...

 

[bobo123]

maybe i dont understand ranks, probably because my ranks are always so crummy

but you sound like you've tried your best, theres no point wondering what went wrong or how to get even higher. At the end of the day, you can go to sleep knowing that you've done the best you could and thats that. Placing yourself under more pressure is just gona erode whatever foundation you've built.

 

[Almighty Jafar]

Originally posted by Mossad
Thanks people for your helpi really appreciate it.
The thing is Bobo that i don't think you understand how important rank is, having a lot of people doing what you do (and heaps people do business studies) means that your rank becomes more and more importnat, because if you come first in your year with 80, and someone from Sydney Boys comes third with 85-90 i'm gonna benefit in business studies more than he will.
With rank having so much importance it is o.k. to get an o.k. mark (such as 90) as long as you get a mad rank because that rank scales up you.
And i know i can beat those guys because they beat me by less than 5 percent (in the last exam the top was 96%, second was 95% and third = me was 94%), it's doable but i need something more that will lift my mark...

ok. get this, in sor 2, i was coming second all the way by heaps.Then the next thing i know, i came 1st in the half yearly and 1st in an assessment worth 45%! i was 11% above 2nd place in that task.Now, i was first and although the competitor got 83% and i got 69% in the trial exams, i still came first by 0.5 %!

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by Bon


You can't compare marks or ranks across schools, it's futile. Hence, the marks are moderated according to how well your school does on the exam, preserving the relative differences between students. The person who comes first gets the highest exam mark as their assessment mark, then their own exam mark to give the average of their HSC mark. The person who comes second will get an assessment mark depending on the highest exam mark and the relative difference between them and the person who came first. So, essentially you want a high exam mark from someone in your class and a small relative difference between students if you're placed anything other than first. If you're first, you're trying to get the highest exam mark in your group to get it straight out as your HSC mark.

The person placed third at Sydney Boys could get a better HSC mark than you, or you could get a better HSC mark than him. Depending on the relative difference between him and the people in front of him, he could very well get an exam mark which is better than yours despite being ranked third, because he's in group that has performed really well as a whole opposed to your school in which only one person has performed well, which may or may not be better than the top 3 at Sydney Boys.

You're stressing over nothing, the relative difference between assessment marks will take care of everything.

yes, listen to Bon

btw, wat kind of UAI are u wanting Mossad? by the sounds of it, u will be unhappy with anything less than 99.95