Alright how do i start....I'm just gonna tell you's what I did/think about the Half Yearlies. TBH i think this situation is far more worse than what I've seen in the forums right now. This is gonna be long so please take your time if possible,
March 31st 2014 - English Advanced
This has to be the worst exam I've done in my life. Not because it's hard, but because i've made a dumb decision. I walked in the exam room, full confident. Because people say that you should rememeber quotes/topic sentences/concluding sentences/intro to answer the question the properly instead of memorising every single word. I "fully memorised" the creative instead.
Reading time, I was so happy, the questions are quite easy and the creative stimulus sort of matches what I've wrote. After reading time, i went into this order which is like the most dumbest thing I've done yet. Creative first ---> Unseen Text ----> Belonging Essay. I did creative first because i thought i was gonna forget parts of it later on. I wrote,wrote,wrote and all of a sudden I legit blanked out. I swear, i was nearly done, but i couldn't continue, I forgot the next word/sentence. I panicked, and wrote the rest based on what i've remembered. Not word for word. . The next one is the unseen text, idk about this one, so I'm probably not gonna say anything about this one.
I looked at the time, and holy s*** it was 30 mins. Basically, i wrote the intro 1 romulus paragraph and 1 unseen text paragraph and i stopped. I don't know what to write anymore, and how i should answer this question "properly" without screwing up writing the same essay i did back then, and once again...i blanked out. At the end it's just INTRO, 1 ROMULUS, 1 unseen text paragraph. I legit sat until the last minute, 70% of people walked out, 10-20 mins before the exam finished (why would you even walk out in the first place?). And it finished. The deputy came in, and she was proud of us how we stayed until the last minute and how we are "successful students", capable of achieving a high atar and that she has no hopes for people who walked out that door early. I looked up at the ceiling, head tilt up.....I swear i was gonna cry. Successful student....does this look successful to you, deputy!?
Later, we all went out. I went inside my dads car as he picks me up. "How was it?". I said, "Don't worry about it" with a sad face. "It's alright, you did your best" he said. At that point, i was gonna cry. I legit just wanna drop out of school, and end this HSC right their, go to TAFE or join the army. I was gonna tell him but i can't, you know why, because I have another 5 exams to go....
April 1st - Biology
This one was alright. I stayed up until 1 or 2 I can't remember, and studied the practical bits and other stuff. My friend texted me at 2, and he was like "(name) are u studying? I guess we are both stressed.
I woke up in the morning and went to school early to study some more with mates since it starts at 12. We "teached" each other stuff rather then reading, since that is like the best way to memories/learn right?
At the end, I'm pretty happy with this paper, the last part was the enzyme practical, and thank god we were able to memories that today. It all really depends on the marking criteria.
April 2nd - My Birthday.
- TBH i didn't really wanted to celebrate. Math is tomorrow so studying is more important. I told my parents not to buy me cake or anything, since that would be a waste of time, and i wasn't really in the mood to be happy. But they did. Thank you so much. After it all finished, I was gonna study till 2 again, but nah. My sister was like you should sleep...and so i did. 8 hours.
Math - April 3rd
This has to be the EASIEST exam. Any one of you's can get 100% in this. It's possible. And once again, stayed up until the last minute. Everyone said it was easy. But at the end, I screwed up one question. But it's ok.
Chemistry - April 4th
This starts at 9. Haven't really studied this for 1 week, so i stayed up till 11pm, woke up at 3am and studied again. Sat the exam, and at reading time all i here was f***, f***, f*** from the behind me. We all screwed. The paper was so THICK, the multiple choice was legit hard. And we legit wanted to complain about the short/long response questions. EVERY PAGE was worth 6 MARKS. EACH PAGE ALL RELATED. But 6 marks for an ethanol non greenhouse problem and 6 marks for acid rain? wait, we might might be wrong. But at least separate the questions and marks out man...We felt like doing a long response 7-8 mark question for each page. Our teacher is a legit strict marker + the marking criteria = screwed? Hopefully when i get back, it's a 50-60-70%....idk.
April 10 - Physics Practical.
We had a bunch of time to study for this. Before the day of the exam, we had tutor for physics at school. Our tutor asked us questions, most of them didn't really no the answer. So i answered every single question for them, i thought i might come first again, but nah, they have potential, i know they can catch up easily. But i didn't study projectile questions...at all. We went went in and the prac has, one ideas to implentation question (problem solving), one QTQ questions about nuclear equations. Section 3 is MAG about Faradays Law and Section 4 is projectiles. We went in and about half of the exam, I had to do section 4 - projectiles, I had no idea what to do. I looked at the rest to see what they did and copied them, not the paper, but what they are doing (measuring table, time etc). I was like "Ok, i have my stuff, measurements ready, now what do i do, what do i sub in, where should i put this number, in what equation?" I was fcked, so i just made up numbers and subbed them in. Pretty realistic but idk. Section 4, idk about this one, i left out a graphing question since i' ve no idea for to do.
- When i went home, i cried. My parents were like "what's wrong?", but they just don't understand, what am i doing wrong, where did all the effort go in the summer holidays? I had no idea. I thought everything was perfect for all these exams. But nah. The practical is 30% man, i guess someone will take my spot for 1st place now.
April 11 - Physics Exam
Last exam, we all couldn't wait to end this, and it was like the last day of school? Anyways, I answered everything i could but "projectiles" fcked me up again. it was worth 3-4 marks (can't remember), and I left out a two mark question since i had no idea what to do. When we finished, our teacher marked it straight away, we played a bit of basketball at the end to relieve the stress and sh1t. When we were about to head home, we saw him and he was like "I'm not happy guys". Alright then.....
To sum it up, pretty depressing half - yearly. But we have to do this 2 more times. I'm trying to reflect what I was doing wrong BEFORE these exam. But i just can't figure it out. I guess i might think about it again tomorrow. Thank you for reading.