Dramatic: struggling in year 11 (1 Viewer)

[vanessatran]

Yep, I know, before I hear people telling me "welcome to senior years/hsc" whatever, I am aware that year 11 is definitely supposed to be harder than year 10.
The thing is, I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing... once again, I'm well aware that a lot of people deal with the same thing, so please, just hear me out.
I'm currently doing: 3u maths, advanced English, chemistry, biology, visual arts and modern history. I guess I can say my subject range is quite diverse considering I'm doing sciences and visual arts...
The thing is, I should be working hardest for maths and English but I find that they are the ones that I don't care about most... not so much English but maths in particular. I'm struggling so much I don't even know how to fix it, I'm seriously trying my best. I've fallen behind in class because I'm constantly trying to catch up. I'm learning from the Cambridge textbook which I find to have difficult questions and concepts that aren't explained well in the theory... which means I can't do my homework quite often since I don't know how to do it.. hence why I ask my teacher in the next lesson while people are moving ahead. So, what was the point of this thread? I don't know either, I just wanted to say what was on my mind and perhaps someone experienced can offer me some advice, maybe.
I'm currently attended tutoring also, for chemistry, biology and 3u maths. I attend these classes 4 days a week for two hours per lesson which takes up quite a lot of my time. I hardly get any sleep because I'm constantly doing my homework up to 2AM... my exams are coming up, maths in particular and I haven't completed all my homework which means I'm going to have a hard time writing notes since I don't understand all the concepts. I don't even know if I can deal with maths when it gets harder... which is why I'm considering dropping it altogether in year 12, but a part of me doesn't want to considering how it is quite important.
I'm second guessing my future career path too, I wanted to become a dentist for a long time but now, I think that would be extremely difficult. Actually, if I drop maths and kill every other subject, what do you think are my chances of getting into dentistry in the long run?
Please try to be nice in your responses... thank you for reading.

 

[klee98]

You obviously have a lot of things going on with your tuition and all, but why don't you slow things down a little bit. In our school, we call year 11 the trial period, so have a bit of 'fun' while you're at it. Experiment with things, see what works for you. Use this opportunity to explore. If you're weak at maths, try and change your routine, instead of forcing it down your throat. Start with books, then teachers, and then your personal schedule.

Covering a lot of range isn't a problem, but try and narrow it down as you go through year 11. (Pick those that you're comfortably confident in) Most importantly get some sleep while your at it. Trust me on this, you'll crash and burn if you keep this up.

In terms of career paths, why worry about it. You'll figure it out when the time comes.

 

[teaaxe]

You really shouldn't stress out so much in Year 11. It's more of a trial period to see what subjects suit you the most in Year 12. But if anything, being behind in maths is quite a serious matter. Year 12 work really builds from Year 11. That should be your focus at the moment. You should try to arrange some help from your teacher or try to get a friend who's good at it to guide you a bit out of school times Once you get the flow of it and gain your confidence back up you'll be fine.

From my understanding of your post, visual arts is an interest? I'm sort of in the same situation as I take a really diverse range of subjects. If you're really stressed out about your subjects and you don't require art I think you should drop it. From my experience, the art subjects take up the most time. If maths is not a requirement into dentistry, I think it should be fine to drop it. I still wouldn't recommend it though cause it's pretty much a core. I would say chemistry and history are ones with pretty heavy work loads as well so you might consider those depending on how well you're doing in them.

Good luck with everything and don't get so down! It's still not year 12 yet

 

[pomsky]

I'm currently doing: 3u maths, advanced English, chemistry, biology, visual arts and modern history. I guess I can say my subject range is quite diverse considering I'm doing sciences and visual arts...

You'll be fine. Just remember you're doing 13 units right now and the HSC only requires 10. So really, you have the option to drop stuff, if you want or move around things since it's only the first term of Year 11. As everyone else has said, Year 11 is meant to be a trial so calm down In my experience, teachers and peers tend to hype things up a lot at the beginning with the studying etc but sooner or later the excitement will die down and you'll realise it wasn't that big of a hurdle in the first place. People just made it out to be a big deal.

As for maths and Eng, personally, I've found that if you can't understand the concept (and it's pretty wtf in Cambridge), just accept their logic/ line of reasoning and move on. I found that when I did that, I did a lot better at maths and when I understood the theory from doing questions, rather than reading the theory itself, I went back and re-read what Cambridge/ other resources said and everything just makes more sense lol. I reckon math is one of those snowball- subjects. The better you do, the more motivated you'll be in studying for it since it's pretty much just practice and more practice.

As for the homework, skip the repetitive ones. They take heaps of time and you really don't get much out of it. Always tackle the harder ones when you're familiar with the easier ones and if you don't get something, I'm sore BOS is always willing to help (THANKS INTEGRAND <3)

In regards to English, chill, read your texts, read exemplars until you get a hang of what the markers are looking for (it's really not at subjective as everyone says it is) and try to get to that point.

Try and experiment with different study routines. You have 4 days from tutoring of 2 hours each. Maybe do your tutoring homework/ related subject homework afterwards to consolidate your knowledge. Whatever you do, don't stay up to 2am doing HW, you'll burn out really quickly. If you haven't finished the homework, just scan over it and figure out the basic concepts/ skills it wants you to develop (there's usually only one or two) and I guess just do a few questions of each.

Lastly, don't despair lol. If you feel you're doing shit, try exercising. Apparently that helps.

 

[BLIT2014]

Maths:
Wootube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq0EGvLTyy-LLT1oUSO_0FQ
patrickJMT:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFe6jenM1Bc54qtBsIJGRZQ


Or even KahnAcademy/Mathisfun can provide better explanation them Cambridge/mathematics textbook. I recommend you check them out if you are struggling with mathematics.