So on the study camp, we got a little brochure about study techniques and everything.
What I took away most was the fact that the little study camp book had a cool little man on the front – saying “Exam is here!”.
For those of you that don’t know, mid year exams != fun, and the same applies here.
Year 12 end of year exams do not equal fun. Exams in general don’t equal fun, but year 12 end of year’s are far more scary.
Unfortunately, this is the time of year when you can make or break your whole career. Sure, if you stuff up your exams really badly, you can always repeat and do year 13, but who in their right mind wants to do that?!
I suppose if I was looking to get a good job I’d need to get a good score – say about 90 or so to get into the degree that I want to do at Uni.
90 isn’t totally unreachable – I know people who are aiming for 100 or above, and someone else who managed to get 113, but it’s still going to prove enough of a challenge as it is.
Let’s see:
- 21.7 points from Year 11 Information Systems for an EA,
- 15.3 points from Year 11 Physical Science for a HA,
- some 20 points from Year 12 Maths Applied for an EA,
- some 20 points from Year 12 Computer Science for an EA,
- and some 13 points from Year 12 Physics for a CA.
Now, according to the Scaling Summary from 2007 (PDF link), (assuming that those values hold true for this year), I’ll need at least an average CA from Physics, which is completely achievable, and therefore inside the realms of possibility.
Indulge me – we’ll just assume for the moment that I’m insane and manage to get a CA in Chemistry – no mean feat, I assure you. In terms of points, that would garner me a respectable 11.9 – not enough.
However, if I were to get a HA in Physics, I would gain 17.4 points – which would be awesome.
Of course, I can’t predict the future, and I’ll just have to hope that everyone else that studies Applied is on the same level as the year 11’s in my Applied class – that being the case, maybe we’ll see something like last years scaling where Media Production was worth an incredible 28.5 points at EA level – just, WTF, especially considering that Maths Specialised, arguably the hardest subject in the whole TCE course list, was only worth 25.2 points at EA level.
The chance of this happening is low, however, as there are some others who are either repeating Applied, or people that have done methods previously and are now doing Applied for the points alone (like I am). If that’s the case, then Applied will be scaled down – and I’ll get less points as a result.
For now, it’s all a numbers game. If the right numbers come up, I’m in the green. If bad numbers come up – I’m in the red, and the likelihood of me repeating is high.
I’m praying for people to lose their minds just before the exams – I need those points.
It’s scary to think that my future depends on how well other people do in exams. I know roughly how my classmates will go, but I’m in the dark as to how other people will go. Of course, for myself to go well points wise I need other people to do badly, which is kind of weird. I don’t usually wish that people sucked at what they did, but really – if you do well at your exams, you’re hindering me!
In all honesty, I think that the scores will balance themselves out – and I’ll get into whatever course I want to at whichever Uni I want to. While my UMAT results weren’t crash hot, (in actual fact, they were below average, oops), I’m sure that people will see through the fact that there’s more to life than standardised testing, like the SAT’s or whatever those yanks have.
Comments below.
One Ping to “Exam is here!”
2 Responses to “Exam is here!”
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1. joe ♫ Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 7:43 pmnice blog
I need around 60 to get into bach music + teaching combined 4yearsthe course i did at the con this year counts as a tce subject which is good and will pump my points up heaps !
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2. Rob Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 11:52 amDepending on what you want to study at uni – you might not have any problem. Things like Computing don’t have enough students to fill the classes (at least in Launceston) so they’re happy to accept just about anyone.
If the course is more competitive (like vetenary) then you need the scores.
Coming from an alternative education system – I had to do a SAT test to get into Uni. Got slightly better then average in Maths (somehow!) and quite high in English. I don’t think Uni cared at all though. Considering some of the other students they let in…
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
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