Hi, nice to meet you 😉
*incoming long boi*
I just graduated from Year 12 this year, so thanks for giving me a chance to reflect about and share my experiences in Y11 and Y12!
- I was also excited about growing up. Driving is fun!! And it gives you a sense of independence too (at least that's what I've heard, I failed the driver knowledge test twice 🙂, make sure to have a look at the questions before doing it). What's equally as fun is getting driven around by friends hehe
- It's nice that you're approaching Year 11 with a degree of caution. This is lowkey embarrassing for me but going into Year 11, I was a bit blindly optimistic. Things had been working out well for me and, though I heard Y11 was a challenge, I walked in with an attitude of "challenge? what nonsense. watch me breeze through this-". It's safe to say I got knocked down a few pegs within the first term... and maybe the rest of Y11 didn't go so great either. But it's ok because my wonderful tutors helped me work through what to improve, and I knew what I had to do for Y12 *** (see below).
- Thinking back now, I can't even remember all the mess-ups I had in year 11, and the ones I do remember make a good funny story! The most important part of Y11 and 12 for me was the beautiful memories and strange/ wonderful stuff I did with friends. I actually met two of my besties halfway through Y11, though it feels like we've known each other forever now. We did a whole host of things like stick weird things on each other's lockers, raid a specific spot in lunchtimes, annoy our favourite teachers, study together, start a rubber duck cult... So yep definitely keep an eye out, you never know where you'll meet someone who you just click with, and who'll make your senior years as fun as they may be stressful
- I chose advanced english, extension maths, chemistry, italian, music 🙂
Just a few pieces of advice I feel was really true for me:
1. *** It's good to screw up in Year 11. Screw-ups in Y11 will cost you pretty much nothing but will give you incredibly valuable insight and feedback. You could almost see it like Y11 exams are there for you to mess up, so that you can see what study methods work for you, what your strengths are and the skills/ content gotta focus on and, basically, what you need to know so that you do well in Y12. As you may have already heard, none of your marks in Y11 will actually matter for anything except early entries. Obviously, for the feedback to be useful, you'll need to take your exams seriously and try your best ~ and that's all you have to worry about ❤️
and 2. your health comes first. I feel like there's this grindset/ no sleep/ caffeine culture developing. I watched those around me get too into it, especially the no-sleep part, and it had a hugely negative impact on both their long-term academic performance and their mental health.
Taking breaks to rest and sleep is part of studying. Research shows that your memory of the stuff you learn/ experience during the day gets revisited and transferred from your short-term to your long-term memory when you sleep (if anyone knows, please fact check me on this).
Getting enough sleep will also regulate your emotions and motivation, and especially in the lead-up to exams, getting even a few hours less sleep than I needed made me unable to focus for the whole day, and I actually noticed myself getting stressed and disorganised more easily. And most importantly - most of us love sleeping! ~ zonking out into dreamland ~
Let's keep chatting here if you feel like! Any subjects are you particularly excited for? Do you do any co-curriculars/ activities out of school?
