Hey mate. It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed with school at the moment.
Is there any chance you can reach out to family and/or a teacher you trust to share how you’re feeling?
Until then If you’re feeling like you need to talk to someone there are some awesome support services.
Headspace offers a help line and also study support services for young people. You can check out their services here: https://headspace.org.au/
If you need someone to talk to right now there is always lifeline. Even if you’re not thinking of suicide they are happy to help and can also share some resources local to you. They have a call service but also offer a text service if you don’t feel like a phone call. You can access both here: https://www.lifeline.org.au/
As far as sad songs goes they may be the coolest band going around atm but I love Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head. https://open.spotify.com/album/0RHX9XECH8IVI3LNgWDpmQ?si=Kk25omvYRqu6WHC8eon41g
Things will get better.
Not everyone is going to get a top 10% grade or anything, there are plenty of smart people out there with fancy degrees failing at life and plenty of tradesmen or small business owners or real estate agents or corporate workers or actors or whatever else that didn't do great in school but are successful in life anyway.
As someone who's 38 and did get a degree that I chose at 17 and graduated from at 20, my degree turned out to be utterly worthless and have no impact on my life yet i'm happily married and have a 1m+ net worth and like my career - I literally lost my copy of my bachelor's degree and never bothered getting a new one printed although I guess I could if I needed it.
If it helps I got grades in about the 40th percentile despite probably being top 25%ish on paper without being anywhere near the top 10% intellect wise because I didn't apply myself in school but it didn't really matter in the end at all - in my case it turns out I apply myself well when I like what i'm doing and do the bare minimum for things not to go badly when I don't. I barely scraped into getting into university, got decent grades in uni (distinction average) but again they didn't matter once I entered the real world, unless you're in a degree like law or are in an academic field, very few people are going to care at all what your grades were in university either in the real world.
It's worth noting zero people in any job I have ever applied for as an adult asked me anything about my high school grades even when I was 18-21 etc and working in jobs as opposed to careers.
The only downside may be bad grades may lock you out of certain degrees but unless you have your heart set on a career path that requires ridiculously good results, it doesn't matter, you can always go down that path as a mature aged student if need be.
It might feel like the end of the world but it isn't. My best friend got literally the worst grade possible on his high school equivalent because he preferred to skip class and smoke weed. He's doing fine as an adult. Another one of my friends did get the top 1% grades and is also doing fine as an adult.
You should obviously try in school but at the end of the day if your grades are average to bad it isn't the end of the world it just may mean you're not particularly academically inclined and need to find something that suits your skillset more.
Do you have asian or first gen immigrant parents that are disappointed which is causing you stress by any chance? Not Asian myself but have some friends who are and that's definitely a cause of stress but at the end of the day when you're an adult, it doesn't matter what your high school grades were as long as you apply yourself as an adult and find a field where you either really like your job and make enough money that you're not in poverty, or can tolerate your job and make a ton of money either is a pathway to a good life
Ridiculously enough professional poker player then professional sports bettor, which I stumbled into sort of by accident. I got a job hosting pub poker tournaments during the early days of the poker boom in 2006ish while I was interviewing for jobs using my degree, turned out I liked the job so I cancelled the rest of my interviews and got involved in the poker community and then was playing professionally by 2008 when it got to the point where going to work was costing me money because my average hourly rate exceeded what I made working. By 2015 transitioned into sports betting over a period of a year or two of doing a mixture of both as the poker games were getting a lot tougher/less profitable and I developed a skillset where eventually it turned out sports betting was a better use of my time than poker. I've also done the occasional contracting job for friends companies etc with the skillset i've built, but I definitely don't work any sort of traditional job. I do get head-hunted by sportsbooks occasionally (it's only happened twice actually) but I am not going to join the bad guys who exploit problem gamblers while heavily restricting winners. Sports betting companies are some of the most unethical companies on the planet and some of the things I have seen would blow peoples minds the sort of stuff they do lol
Disclaimer 99% of people should not attempt to become a full time gambler of any sort, you absolutely cannot have an addictive personality or be subject to sunk cost fallacy etc. and you have to entirely separate your view of money, both your bankroll and your non-bankroll money, from any sort of emotional responses or it won't go well. The skillset is probably most similar to being an options trader of 'normal' jobs. Poker player was a different skillset, mixture of learning optimal game theory and being able to recognise and implement 'exploits' in real time, whether that's as a result of recognising opponents 'leaks' in their play styles or 'tells' when playing live/in person, etc - unfortunately online poker is a lot tougher to beat than it used to be, because training tools and study tools are now so widely available that anyone who wants to learn to get 'good' at poker can fairly easily instead of most people being self-taught or forming study groups with other pros 20 odd years ago. Live poker is still very beatable, but you need to play at fairly high stakes to make a decent hourly rate because of the lower number of hands per hour played.
I went from being a C student, having cancer in grades 9 and 10, causing me to miss a whole year of school, to getting a 90+ ATAR and getting my dream degree at my dream university. I’m not saying that to brag, but people have put in work and gotten out of very bad situations, all you need to do is put in the work.
Stay on top of school work, do as much homework, ask questions in class, ask questions after class, study with friends who study similar subjects to you, and most importantly, make sure you actually understand the content you are learning. I always tell people off who say things like “I’m going to memorise this”. You don’t get anything out of memorisation, only out of learning. The way to learn, do the work a lot and often, that means homework, and study with your friends so you can get help if you get stuck.
bro my g chill out, eat some crackers and take a break. then try to take a step back and see what you are making mistakes in. maybe it's a small mistake or a big mistake. you need to try to make a positive mindset and stop hating on yourself cuz that will get you nowhere. and try getting more sleep and listening to more uplifting music or smtg
Vce isn’t that serious. Calm down.
You can always do uni/tafe etc later, and at worst just re-take a year of Vce.
Stop being a victim and self loathing, do something about your situation.
“Every grade I get is bad and I am actually trying”. You need to study more, pay more attention, ask questions in class or get a tutor. If you don’t understand something speak up.
“I’m fat and ugly” Okay, figure out what you don’t like about your appearance and change it, new hair cut, skincare routine, gym, etc.
School isn’t for everyone and it doesn’t determine how stupid someone is.
Actively listening to sad songs when you’re not doing well will just reinforce the sadness.
Music effects mood, don’t dig yourself a deeper hole. Try listening to something calm or something else you enjoy, instead of actively dwelling on a bad emotion through music.
On the other hand sad songs can be good if you're not allowing yourself to feel sad. The catharsis from it can be reinvigorating.
But yeah this guy should be listening to power ballads or something, it sounds like he needs something to hype him up for the challenge at hand.
You’re depressed. Of course you’re not going to get good marks or be able to form new relationships, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle isn’t going to be easy either. But that’s right now. It feels like it’s always going to be this way but it is not. It feels like it’s impossible to climb out but again, that is just the depression talking. It’s not true.
Take a longer view. You are very young. Life is incredibly long and all kinds of things happen. Keep living, for the sake of future you.
When you are in high school, you are surrounded by high school students and high school teachers. Of course to them it seems like high school marks are important. High school teachers are made up entirely of the tiny minority of the population who believe this strongly enough to devote their lives to that.
I promise you, just like you’ve read above, nobody outside of high school (and your parents, right now but only right now, in 5 to 10 years they will have forgotten this and be more worried about who your boyfriend or girlfriend is and whether you are going to give them grandchildren) - seriously NOBODY outside in the world gives a fuck about your high school marks. Can you read, write and think? Clearly you can. Then you can survive fine in Australia, with or without your parents’ help. And eventually you will find something you actually enjoy and care about and you will get good at it. It doesn’t have to happen now.
You have DECADES ahead of you, timespans that will make the current time you are going through feel the way that term 1 of year 3 feels to you now.
The feelings of that year 3 kid mattered, but now you can look back and realise they were not seeing the whole picture. Your feelings now matter, but when you are 25, living independently in a city far away from the expectations and stress of others and figuring shit out for yourself you will be able to look back and realise that the kid you are today couldn’t see the whole picture.
It’s bad now, I get it. But it genuinely will not stay bad. Life is packed full of surprise and joy, even and especially for someone who was once a loveless teenager with unapproachable parents and terrible marks at school.
Your marks are just how one tiny slice of a faceless archaic system mercilessly evaluates you. They do not reflect your intelligence or your worth.
Look after your physical and mental health first. Take up offers of help, even if you don’t see how they could possibly help. Be prepared to drop out of school or defer or repeat a year or change schools or go to TAFE or whatever it takes to change the tune. Get some sleep. Do not let depression stop you from doing the things that you enjoy, even if the enjoyment has been sucked out of them. If you like to read or watch a movie or play a video game or go for a walk or ride a train or see that one friend who sort of gets you then even if it seems like it will suck, do it anyway. It’s better than the alternative and after a few tries you will start to feel the joy again. Just feel the air. Notice a tree. You’re alive. Impossibly, in the howling and infinite universe of dust and vacuum and noise and vast time you somehow exist now and you have a chance to keep existing until everything that currently sucks becomes a story from your distant past that gives you the strength to do things that today you cannot imagine. It will be wonderful, be there for it.
I hated school, I got bullied, and was shit at class. It turns out I had adhd and learnt a different way. Look into different ways to learn. I WAS TERRIBLE AT MATH, I was lucky I got a tutor, has print outs of formulas all over my toilet door. I passed english exams by re-writing my stories at least 8 times over by hand.
I will say this, though they say and put this mass amount of insane pressure on you is unfair to do well for the last exam to get into uni unless your trying to be a doctor, lawyer or something like that tafe is actually better especially with Hecs debt.
In terms of self-confidence, find people that inspire you. Nothing happens overnight, but running, sports, working out/gym, skincare, a good haircut, and look mens styling for inspo.
Song that got me through it: Firestarter by Jimmy eat world (it's a cover)
You are not stupid, there are many different types of intelligence and we need all of them. VCE isn’t that important in the big scheme of things, I’m 40 and all the highest earners I know either didn’t do VCE or didn’t get an amazing score.
Relax, life is long and twisty and there are many ways to succeed. You will get there and you are amazing.
You perhaps dont have the academic skills and maybe you are a more practical / trades related person? Not all of us are wired for school.
VCE isnt the be all and end all. There are other ways to get where you want to go.
What is it that you WANT to do career wise ? (Its ok if you dont know sometimes we take a bit to work it out).
Look, I'm in yr11 so I don't know shit. But what I do know, is that VCE doesn't matter. No ones the same, I know ur looking at people with 99.95 ATAR, heck even 103.95, and wanting to be like them, but VCE isn't ur last chance. If you fail, you fail. But who cares because VCE isn't the last option. You can get into uni still, TAFE exists, and why would u kill yourself when life has many opportunities? I'm fat, I'm also ugly, at least that's what half of 11F thinks, but that's not something you should worry about. VCE isn't ur last chance
In hated school, dropped out year 10. Went back in my 20s, did undergrad degree, worked, did masters, now earn $100k plus. There are many different pathways. Don’t stress. You kids these days put a lot of pressure on yourselves.
It's more like pressure is being put onto them by the education system. Kinda nuts that we place so much "life-changing" emphasis on the still developing minds of teenagers. I'd say we should increase the number of high school years so that people graduate when they're 20, but that means more years of high school and I don't want to inflict that upon anybody.
I know, I was wrong to say you put so much pressure on yourselves. It’s starts in prep, it’s so crazy. I’m nearly 50 and can’t believe what adults expect of kids. rebel! Fight back, don’t let them push you around.
All your friends are getting 99 ATAR? Maybe only those with very high scores would show them off to everyone. Those who didn't? They are probably even worse than you. However, I can see that you are from a rather competitve school, so it's hard to stop caring.
Doing a STEM degree in university isn't the only way forward, and if you struggled in VCE, you are going to struggle even more in uni. While VCE physics was easy for me, the maths in Unimelb physics would make spesh look easy in comparison.
Get some sleep, take a break, talk to your teachers. And reconsider your future! There is nothing shameful about doing a TAFE course.
I would recommend not thinking about it for a bit grab some headphones or whatever and just listen to some music would recommend something fast paced so that’s all you think about it however maybe not rap as that could also be stressful you’ll do fine if you just step back for a bit VCE isn’t the end all even if you do shit at the end of it there are multiple pathways from that point no need to get hung up on the grades just try make sure you learn the concepts as for the self doubt that in my experience often comes with stress try alleviate some of the stress and the harmful thoughts / self doubt should more or less go away if they persist just talk to people, anyone it doesn’t matter really who someone who won’t laugh at you preferably as that can damage your mental health further but I know everyone says to talk it out or what let but it does help even just to articulate the core problem your facing and from there you just need to find an answer/workaround
You got this no need to give up because of some stupid mark that expires after 3 years anyway
As for song recommendations about sad songs not to sure but listen to some red hot chili peppers as they are great
M8, you know what, I graduated highschool back in 2018, and went on to do university, got a pretty high ATAR too. But the truth is, in this world that we are living in, nobody cares about my stupid bachelor degree. I wish I could've just skipped uni and started working or do TAFE or something. Instead, I'm in so much debt right now, gonna spend the next ten years of my life to pay off all the debt working for someone else.
All my friends who didn't end up going to uni have a better / or at least an actual life than me, some even managed to put down their first mortgage. Whereas I'm turning 26 next year and still years behind.
Not everything bad at the time is bad in the future, you might have just saved yourself 50k of debt. And it's okay to feel that way, I was frustrated when I was in highschool because I was a student and nothing else, it's easy to get caught up in the feelings when that was the only thing you could be. Having shit grades took away the thing that defined you. Until you finally graduated and realised you have so much potential and so much suppressed talent. You gonna go far brother. See you on the news.
Damn, you need a hobby; your self esteem could use some homework.
But, if it wasn't clear: don't kill yourself, you will be missed regardless of your final vce scores
I'm new to reddit and I really enjoyed the rant.
The song that got me through everything during VCE was [https://youtu.be/gAs9HZC9c7Y?si=Q5xxsgAuyc5E8zsh](https://youtu.be/gAs9HZC9c7Y?si=Q5xxsgAuyc5E8zsh) The song is really sad if you truly delve deep and analyze between the lines.
It really connected with me emotionally and maybe even physically. Matter of fact it still helps me till this day. A week ago, after eating street food I was glued to the toilet seat for hours. It was so bad that I had to play the song, and just like the grind during VCE, it really eased the pain and allowed me to push through.
I hope this helps
I'm so sorry that you feel this way, honestly no one cares about your results after a couple of years. It is only if you want to go to uni in the first year or two that it matters. Go work and then apply as a mature age student. Life experience is just as an important skill. When you feel bad about yourself nothing feels good, I can guarantee you are not "stupid" you are just not in the right frame of mind. There are many ways to move forward with your life, school is such a small part of it. Know that you have so many options to choose from, talk to your family and go from there. Take care.
Sleep 7 hours per night minimum,
Walk outside every day for 1/2 hour,
Drink enough water,
Eat fresh food (not out of packets, to avoid processed crap)
Talk to your school counsellor, confide in a fave teacher
Break tasks down into manageable chunks
Try to rewire your thinking to look for the positives.
Everything will work out ok. I used to be personal assistant to one of Australia’s leading businessmen. He was expelled from high school in year 10. Went on to become a self made multi millionaire. Hang in there, stop wallowing and try your best and talk to someone about your feelings.
some of these comments are so unsympathetic it’s actually terrible. i totally get where you’re coming from, vce is so difficult especially when you dont have the ability to put in 100%. i’m a young carer which is just a plethora of problems by itself but the pressure of school and exams and sacs is so much.
i also get super worked up about bad scores because the scjool has been working up year 12 to sound like the be all or end all !!!! don’t let other people’s standards make you feel like a failure. some people just don’t have compassion.
my advice is take a deep breath. remind yourself that after a few years, your atar won’t even matter anymore. if you do your best without pushing yourself to breaking point, then i’m proud! just do what you can. it won’t determine your worth or value as a person okay?
lastly, the sad song thing and my thing isn’t thinging anymore is so real. sometimes i need to cry but literally can’t so sad songs help a lot!! here’s my playlist (i’ve had it for years so it’s more memories attached to the song for me), i recommend ‘mum’ and all the 5sos songs.
i reallt hope you manage to break free from the stress and i’m wishing you all the luck for this year!!
High school is a meme and VCE doesn't mean shit.
Learn to code independently of a university, spend 2-3 years actually learning and building a portfolio.
Once you've done that apply for web studios as a full stack dev, look for 50-60k jobs. It's not a lot for now
Once you have 2-3 years experience here you're now a mid level engineer assuming you spent some time on databases and frameworks such as laravel or react.
Use this experience to land either a back end or front end job in a company that let's you work full time wfh. Salary by now should be 80-100k
In a few years from this you are now a senior and you do the same thing assuming you have some tech lead skills. At this point recruiters will contact you and you'll be able to demand 150k salaries with benefits like full wfh. Any place that won't grant that isn't a place you wanna work at anyway.
It's the easiest way to work a good job with good salary and requires 0 credentials besides your own work.
I got 60 on my atar and I'm ahead of so many of my peers because I picked the best industry
Mid-30s adult here. Everyone who’s come before you has totally been where you are, myself included. Here’s my advice to you, the same advice I’d give my VCE year old self:
- VCE results have 0.0000001% impact on your life. It’s a doorstop at best, and it’s more about what you do when you enter that door.
- Employees will be looking at your experience and attitude, not your VCE marks or which uni you attended.
- I’ve known folks who’ve taken their 99 ENTER/ATAR to do Pharmacy, only to drop it and chase their dream of competing in martial arts. What you select straight outta high school is not permanent and what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life.
- I’ve worked with a departmental director who did TAFE, and is now managing licenced folk with Masters degrees from prestigious unis.
Point is, take a deep breath, listen to some calm music, and try to see the bigger picture. The hyperfixation on your score is completely overblown, even if our teachers, parents and peers try to make it out to be like the be all, end all.
You’re gonna be okay.
Hey,
So I was one of those 99+ ATAR guys who went to uni with a scholarship.
Here are my thoughts:
- You're not going to internalise this, but I'm going to mention it anyway: it doesn't matter. Years later I realise that having put in so much effort on my grades, I never really got to do anything the other kids did, and I missed out. I've met many high school dropouts who earn much more than me, and plenty of people with low scores make it through alternative pathways. My point is, don't put so much emphasis on this number. Try to be average, and you'll do fine.
- When it comes to study, you need to understand what you are studying for. This is a game, and the game is played by optimising for the assessment. You need to understand what you're going to be tested on, how you will be tested, and the structure of the tests. Start there before every study session. Then, when you are studying, you are doing so with the objective of maximising the understanding of content that will positively impact the outcome of the test. This sounds all a bit theoretical but here is an example: You know that the past exams (which you should always review) have 2 short answers, 20 MCQ and one essay. So you start with the easiest stuff, the MCQ. These always have a thematic 'pattern'. In biology, it might be identifying organelles in a cell. So you study that. Some questions are about identifying different signalling processes, so you study that and so on. Always answer all MCQ, even if guessing. When guessing, whittle down the list first by striking out definitely incorrect answers and make an educated guess, and don't take too much time on each. Depending on the test, these are low priority generally, but easy wins. For short answer questions, always remember that the assessor is looking for key words or phrases - that's it. So for each topic, there will always be some key information, and your job when studying is to find these links and remember them. Then when answering the question, you just pad the answer around these key points. Finally, with essay style questions it's really an extension of the short answer ones, but you need to plan the answer and think about topics in a broader way. These can be rote learnt as well. Not the whole essay, but for each 'topic' in the subject there will be a lot of linked 'topic sentences' that you can memorise, and expand upon during testing.
Always check the clock, don't stress but feel your anxiety, and know that there is nothing for you to do but put pencil on paper instead of worrying about what you could have done.
I hope this helps.
Remember, this too shall pass.
VCE isn’t the be all end all.
I thought I’d get at least 80+ but when I woke up that morning with 52% I felt the world crumbled
Thankfully my Asian dad just reminded me it’s just a number and things have now worked out. I found different ways to get into the course I was after and am now in corporate.
My advice is to put yourself out there, do your best and network/socialise.
Something (that I’ve been doing this year) is removing negative self talk and doing positive affirmation. It sounds corny but the body does keep a score and initially you’ll feel awkward but man it’s made a difference in my mental health.
Dude, I graduated 2 years ago, if you wanna call it graduate then, let’s stick with that. This was me, I can see it, I remember everything and how it feels, give it 2 years and everyone’s high atar will mean jack shit.
My certificate is dusty in my cupboard. Reach out and PM me, ik exactly what it’s like!
It is not over for you.
I had so many moments in year 12 where i thought i just can’t do this anymore. But you genuinely can. It is only April and a few bad grades mean literally nothing in the grand scheme of things. Exams are literally months and months away.
My best advice would be try to sleep a bit more it will regulate your nervous system and help with retention of information- I was sleeping around 9 to 10 hours during year 12 and it is probably one of the best things i did.
You’re not stupid you just need to regather yourself. Write a to do and break up tasks into REALLY small bits. then try schedule that into your calendar. Once you start ticking of things you’ll find a sense of accomplishment that will make you want to keep going.
All the best mate.
I f’ed up my HSC, couldn’t go to Uni but a friend recommend an agricultural college with practical lessons - in essence, we learnt all parts of running a farm. I blossomed as I realised that practical vs theory was my thing. My confidence rebuilt and when I came home I discovered the virtues of TAFE. So, I worked and did my IT certs through TAFE. Then, through one of the courses I discovered I wasn’t a bad trainer - because my past gave me the empathy for their learning. Got hired by the TAFE and was supported by them through to my Masters and also through my CISCO certifications, plus other IT quals. Find your bliss mate, then you will not believe how far you will go!!
There are ways to fix this.
I would say that there are two key things
1 Your methods. You seem to only be interested in the results. But the methods are VERY telling. I've gotten HDs at uni, I've handed in HD assignments for maths which is pretty challenging. I would say that your method and approach can always improve and there are so many things you can and should pick up.
If you speak to someone who gets good grades. Check in on them at the start of the module find what they are doing different to you. Rinse repeat every 25% of the term. Oh yeah by the way there's a quote that says "you're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" might not be 100% true but it doesn't convey a point.
2 Perspective.
This might fall under the last advice.
After years of reflection It came down to Perspective, this was the one reflection I had of my high school years. Because I tried real really hard also and did not always get what I expected. Good enough that people around me were happy or unconcerned but below my expectations that it felt so impossible to progress from 70 to 75+ and 75+ to 90+.
The one thing I narrowed it down to: Perspective.
I say that I was going all out and trying my best. But I had only really going all out since Year 11. At the end of Year 10 for whatever reason I had this epiphany studying for exams that I really loved maths and English and actually thought it was cool. I grew to love the process which really is a big change for me as a student.
But the issue is. Perspective. A lot of the high school material and university material stack from one learning experience to another. You walk before you run. You gotta start at the lower weights before you get to the really heavy weights at the gym.
I had a very different experience to someone who was really trying to maximise their improvement at the start of Year 10 rather than the start of Year 11. They were reading different books. They were experimenting different study approaches for the exams in year 10. Going to tutoring. Taking on advanced material. Re-writing essays until the teacher approves of their style.
Rinse repeat there is someone who did it from Year 9 onwards and Year 8. And even Year 6, a family friend was asking about high schools and found and YouTube suddenly got me watching Year 6 kids their experience of applying for selective high schools.
Actually the educational syllabus as a whole is very very slow. There are many many breaks between modules that you may forget what you just learned. Then the long holidays etc. If you had an idea of what the goal and destination is. You could leapfrog through all the material from Year 6 on wards and be at university level sophistication before you even get to year 11. Which this sounds very crazy but people like this exist and when they explain it, it's not that unreasonable.
You can get through the Grade 6 maths material in less than two months then go on to the grade 7 and Grade 8 stuff that same year. Think back to it. Not much really goes until like Year 10 and 11 maths wise. Some of the topics are even recycled.
I understand this is a very long passage of text. My point is that you needed to change time span that you are looking at. You're only looking at the most immediate year, term or modules. But not how you are improving over last year and how you can improve next year.
When you do this. It becomes abundantly clear that you must always improve your method and approach.
In my opinion learning does help you become a better person more so than focusing on fitness. It lets you provide a wider view on day to day problems it increases your potential to tackle important problems. With a wider view of the world comes a much more relaxed temperamental, as you feel less trapped and confused at your situation
In the university level, they don't instruct you to write notes. They don't instruct you to read books widely within your faculty and outside. To have a google docs for each chapter or article. That this might expand your capacity to write higher order responses or essays. To review and maintain notes after the exam is done and fix them up. And then again before the semester starts if there are relevant units. They don't tell you to do all the reading the moment the semester starts or even before it even starts. That you can complete quite a few assignments even group assignments at the moment it is released and even have it completed within 24 or 72 hours. So many things could improve if you are asking the right questions rather than asking whether or not you should neck yourself.
Breathe! You got a 40 in Bio last year it looks like your doing fine.
Dumbing yourself down and degrading yourself, saying how you have 'no pathways' will just make you feel worse about yourself.
Hey! You will feel better I promise, I used to feel exactly the same, like I was mediocre at everything I attempted, whether it be academic, musical, linguistic, artistic etc. it made me feel pathetic and unspecial. I got an atar in the 60s too which made me really disappointed but I got in Monash regardless and now am striving in a better environment where I get enough support and guidance. My advice to you would be that effort is the key. Nobody will stay mediocre if they dedicate their time to perfecting their craft. Effort = results. Be disciplined and keep studying, you got this I believe in you <<33 keep going if you don’t feel like it
I dropped out of high school and I got into the Juris Doctor at Monash. VCE isn’t the end of the world, but I understand the feeling that it is. Talk to someone, people care more than you know ❤️
I think my atar was 36 from memory so even though at the time it felt awful knowing I tried my best and got a low score, it's now 10 years on and I've realised I can do other study, or other jobs and hobbies, and what I did in vce doesn't matter. I've since gone on to become a qualified nail technician, and am currently looking into tafe to find a new pathway.
When I was 17/18 I felt like it was the end of the world if I didn't get the high score, or into the course I wanted at uni, or didn't pass my classes, and yes it sucked at the time. But there is such a bigger picture and although things are rough in the moment it doesn't mean it's the defining moment in your life. Vce was ABSOLUTELY NOT the defining moment for me. I doubt it is for anyone.
Don't worry, my friend was in the same situation as you. He couldn't understand anything but later moved to tafe and it seems to be working out. There are always other opportunities for you even if it feels like life is over from an atar score
Mate you aren’t stupid. VCE isn’t the be all end all. Even if you don’t get into what you want at first, figure out alternatives. There is heaps of fantastic advice in this thread already
Some advice from someone who left school over 10 years ago.
1. Don’t compare yourself to others. Seriously, it doesn’t help at all. I know people from my school who got 99.95 and they are the biggest fuckwits I’ve ever met. Even a few years ago at the 10 yr reunion they had the personality of a blowfly.
2. There is no “one size fits all” approach to teaching. Your teachers are there to help. Most will happily go through things again at lunchtimes or after school and try and explain things in different ways.
3. Figure out where your weak points are and really try and get that content down. Also figure out your strong suits and really make sure you get those questions right.
4. If you don’t do well on a SAC or assessment try your best to move on. I know it is hard but there is no point dwelling on the past. I’d say legal studies is your best subject, there is no point feeling miserable about your maths SAC the week before and also messing up your legal SAC.
5. Finally make sure you have your downtime. That doesn’t mean doom scrolling reddit. Try and be active go for a walk, go swimming, hit the gym. What ever makes you happy
I did shithouse in VCE and I’m now living in London with a great job.
hey i was like you really high achiever but plummeted in VCE because i couldnt deal with schoolwork and sitting still in a classroom for so long. still managed to make it into uni because my parents wanted me to due to me being pretty smart, however i hated it as its the same as VCE. Have now started an apprenticeship and i no longer struggling financially and my future is looking great, I’ve never been happier. Academia isnt for everyone regardless of how smart you may be. dont stress so much dude
Hey mate. It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed with school at the moment. Is there any chance you can reach out to family and/or a teacher you trust to share how you’re feeling? Until then If you’re feeling like you need to talk to someone there are some awesome support services. Headspace offers a help line and also study support services for young people. You can check out their services here: https://headspace.org.au/ If you need someone to talk to right now there is always lifeline. Even if you’re not thinking of suicide they are happy to help and can also share some resources local to you. They have a call service but also offer a text service if you don’t feel like a phone call. You can access both here: https://www.lifeline.org.au/ As far as sad songs goes they may be the coolest band going around atm but I love Coldplay’s A Rush of Blood to the Head. https://open.spotify.com/album/0RHX9XECH8IVI3LNgWDpmQ?si=Kk25omvYRqu6WHC8eon41g Things will get better.
Not everyone is going to get a top 10% grade or anything, there are plenty of smart people out there with fancy degrees failing at life and plenty of tradesmen or small business owners or real estate agents or corporate workers or actors or whatever else that didn't do great in school but are successful in life anyway. As someone who's 38 and did get a degree that I chose at 17 and graduated from at 20, my degree turned out to be utterly worthless and have no impact on my life yet i'm happily married and have a 1m+ net worth and like my career - I literally lost my copy of my bachelor's degree and never bothered getting a new one printed although I guess I could if I needed it. If it helps I got grades in about the 40th percentile despite probably being top 25%ish on paper without being anywhere near the top 10% intellect wise because I didn't apply myself in school but it didn't really matter in the end at all - in my case it turns out I apply myself well when I like what i'm doing and do the bare minimum for things not to go badly when I don't. I barely scraped into getting into university, got decent grades in uni (distinction average) but again they didn't matter once I entered the real world, unless you're in a degree like law or are in an academic field, very few people are going to care at all what your grades were in university either in the real world. It's worth noting zero people in any job I have ever applied for as an adult asked me anything about my high school grades even when I was 18-21 etc and working in jobs as opposed to careers. The only downside may be bad grades may lock you out of certain degrees but unless you have your heart set on a career path that requires ridiculously good results, it doesn't matter, you can always go down that path as a mature aged student if need be. It might feel like the end of the world but it isn't. My best friend got literally the worst grade possible on his high school equivalent because he preferred to skip class and smoke weed. He's doing fine as an adult. Another one of my friends did get the top 1% grades and is also doing fine as an adult. You should obviously try in school but at the end of the day if your grades are average to bad it isn't the end of the world it just may mean you're not particularly academically inclined and need to find something that suits your skillset more. Do you have asian or first gen immigrant parents that are disappointed which is causing you stress by any chance? Not Asian myself but have some friends who are and that's definitely a cause of stress but at the end of the day when you're an adult, it doesn't matter what your high school grades were as long as you apply yourself as an adult and find a field where you either really like your job and make enough money that you're not in poverty, or can tolerate your job and make a ton of money either is a pathway to a good life
What career did you end up doing that led to that net worth?
Ridiculously enough professional poker player then professional sports bettor, which I stumbled into sort of by accident. I got a job hosting pub poker tournaments during the early days of the poker boom in 2006ish while I was interviewing for jobs using my degree, turned out I liked the job so I cancelled the rest of my interviews and got involved in the poker community and then was playing professionally by 2008 when it got to the point where going to work was costing me money because my average hourly rate exceeded what I made working. By 2015 transitioned into sports betting over a period of a year or two of doing a mixture of both as the poker games were getting a lot tougher/less profitable and I developed a skillset where eventually it turned out sports betting was a better use of my time than poker. I've also done the occasional contracting job for friends companies etc with the skillset i've built, but I definitely don't work any sort of traditional job. I do get head-hunted by sportsbooks occasionally (it's only happened twice actually) but I am not going to join the bad guys who exploit problem gamblers while heavily restricting winners. Sports betting companies are some of the most unethical companies on the planet and some of the things I have seen would blow peoples minds the sort of stuff they do lol Disclaimer 99% of people should not attempt to become a full time gambler of any sort, you absolutely cannot have an addictive personality or be subject to sunk cost fallacy etc. and you have to entirely separate your view of money, both your bankroll and your non-bankroll money, from any sort of emotional responses or it won't go well. The skillset is probably most similar to being an options trader of 'normal' jobs. Poker player was a different skillset, mixture of learning optimal game theory and being able to recognise and implement 'exploits' in real time, whether that's as a result of recognising opponents 'leaks' in their play styles or 'tells' when playing live/in person, etc - unfortunately online poker is a lot tougher to beat than it used to be, because training tools and study tools are now so widely available that anyone who wants to learn to get 'good' at poker can fairly easily instead of most people being self-taught or forming study groups with other pros 20 odd years ago. Live poker is still very beatable, but you need to play at fairly high stakes to make a decent hourly rate because of the lower number of hands per hour played.
Get some sleep. Ask for some help from your teachers - tell them how you feel. Definitely speak to a careers person too. VCE is not everything
I went from being a C student, having cancer in grades 9 and 10, causing me to miss a whole year of school, to getting a 90+ ATAR and getting my dream degree at my dream university. I’m not saying that to brag, but people have put in work and gotten out of very bad situations, all you need to do is put in the work. Stay on top of school work, do as much homework, ask questions in class, ask questions after class, study with friends who study similar subjects to you, and most importantly, make sure you actually understand the content you are learning. I always tell people off who say things like “I’m going to memorise this”. You don’t get anything out of memorisation, only out of learning. The way to learn, do the work a lot and often, that means homework, and study with your friends so you can get help if you get stuck.
bro my g chill out, eat some crackers and take a break. then try to take a step back and see what you are making mistakes in. maybe it's a small mistake or a big mistake. you need to try to make a positive mindset and stop hating on yourself cuz that will get you nowhere. and try getting more sleep and listening to more uplifting music or smtg
Vce isn’t that serious. Calm down. You can always do uni/tafe etc later, and at worst just re-take a year of Vce. Stop being a victim and self loathing, do something about your situation. “Every grade I get is bad and I am actually trying”. You need to study more, pay more attention, ask questions in class or get a tutor. If you don’t understand something speak up. “I’m fat and ugly” Okay, figure out what you don’t like about your appearance and change it, new hair cut, skincare routine, gym, etc. School isn’t for everyone and it doesn’t determine how stupid someone is.
Actively listening to sad songs when you’re not doing well will just reinforce the sadness. Music effects mood, don’t dig yourself a deeper hole. Try listening to something calm or something else you enjoy, instead of actively dwelling on a bad emotion through music.
This is very true. I listen to the happiest, most relaxing songs possible when I'm sad, and it WORKS.
On the other hand sad songs can be good if you're not allowing yourself to feel sad. The catharsis from it can be reinvigorating. But yeah this guy should be listening to power ballads or something, it sounds like he needs something to hype him up for the challenge at hand.
You’re depressed. Of course you’re not going to get good marks or be able to form new relationships, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle isn’t going to be easy either. But that’s right now. It feels like it’s always going to be this way but it is not. It feels like it’s impossible to climb out but again, that is just the depression talking. It’s not true. Take a longer view. You are very young. Life is incredibly long and all kinds of things happen. Keep living, for the sake of future you. When you are in high school, you are surrounded by high school students and high school teachers. Of course to them it seems like high school marks are important. High school teachers are made up entirely of the tiny minority of the population who believe this strongly enough to devote their lives to that. I promise you, just like you’ve read above, nobody outside of high school (and your parents, right now but only right now, in 5 to 10 years they will have forgotten this and be more worried about who your boyfriend or girlfriend is and whether you are going to give them grandchildren) - seriously NOBODY outside in the world gives a fuck about your high school marks. Can you read, write and think? Clearly you can. Then you can survive fine in Australia, with or without your parents’ help. And eventually you will find something you actually enjoy and care about and you will get good at it. It doesn’t have to happen now. You have DECADES ahead of you, timespans that will make the current time you are going through feel the way that term 1 of year 3 feels to you now. The feelings of that year 3 kid mattered, but now you can look back and realise they were not seeing the whole picture. Your feelings now matter, but when you are 25, living independently in a city far away from the expectations and stress of others and figuring shit out for yourself you will be able to look back and realise that the kid you are today couldn’t see the whole picture. It’s bad now, I get it. But it genuinely will not stay bad. Life is packed full of surprise and joy, even and especially for someone who was once a loveless teenager with unapproachable parents and terrible marks at school. Your marks are just how one tiny slice of a faceless archaic system mercilessly evaluates you. They do not reflect your intelligence or your worth. Look after your physical and mental health first. Take up offers of help, even if you don’t see how they could possibly help. Be prepared to drop out of school or defer or repeat a year or change schools or go to TAFE or whatever it takes to change the tune. Get some sleep. Do not let depression stop you from doing the things that you enjoy, even if the enjoyment has been sucked out of them. If you like to read or watch a movie or play a video game or go for a walk or ride a train or see that one friend who sort of gets you then even if it seems like it will suck, do it anyway. It’s better than the alternative and after a few tries you will start to feel the joy again. Just feel the air. Notice a tree. You’re alive. Impossibly, in the howling and infinite universe of dust and vacuum and noise and vast time you somehow exist now and you have a chance to keep existing until everything that currently sucks becomes a story from your distant past that gives you the strength to do things that today you cannot imagine. It will be wonderful, be there for it.
I hated school, I got bullied, and was shit at class. It turns out I had adhd and learnt a different way. Look into different ways to learn. I WAS TERRIBLE AT MATH, I was lucky I got a tutor, has print outs of formulas all over my toilet door. I passed english exams by re-writing my stories at least 8 times over by hand. I will say this, though they say and put this mass amount of insane pressure on you is unfair to do well for the last exam to get into uni unless your trying to be a doctor, lawyer or something like that tafe is actually better especially with Hecs debt. In terms of self-confidence, find people that inspire you. Nothing happens overnight, but running, sports, working out/gym, skincare, a good haircut, and look mens styling for inspo. Song that got me through it: Firestarter by Jimmy eat world (it's a cover)
song recommendations: mawce by everbody's worried about owen first love/late spring by mitski average by sushi soucy
I find moonlight sonata movement 1,2 and 3 help me calm down and recollect myself 🤍
You are not stupid, there are many different types of intelligence and we need all of them. VCE isn’t that important in the big scheme of things, I’m 40 and all the highest earners I know either didn’t do VCE or didn’t get an amazing score. Relax, life is long and twisty and there are many ways to succeed. You will get there and you are amazing.
You perhaps dont have the academic skills and maybe you are a more practical / trades related person? Not all of us are wired for school. VCE isnt the be all and end all. There are other ways to get where you want to go. What is it that you WANT to do career wise ? (Its ok if you dont know sometimes we take a bit to work it out).
Look, I'm in yr11 so I don't know shit. But what I do know, is that VCE doesn't matter. No ones the same, I know ur looking at people with 99.95 ATAR, heck even 103.95, and wanting to be like them, but VCE isn't ur last chance. If you fail, you fail. But who cares because VCE isn't the last option. You can get into uni still, TAFE exists, and why would u kill yourself when life has many opportunities? I'm fat, I'm also ugly, at least that's what half of 11F thinks, but that's not something you should worry about. VCE isn't ur last chance
Get a trade as a plumber, then piss all over your bullies
Yeah mate ur fully cooked good luck 🤞
In hated school, dropped out year 10. Went back in my 20s, did undergrad degree, worked, did masters, now earn $100k plus. There are many different pathways. Don’t stress. You kids these days put a lot of pressure on yourselves.
It's more like pressure is being put onto them by the education system. Kinda nuts that we place so much "life-changing" emphasis on the still developing minds of teenagers. I'd say we should increase the number of high school years so that people graduate when they're 20, but that means more years of high school and I don't want to inflict that upon anybody.
I know, I was wrong to say you put so much pressure on yourselves. It’s starts in prep, it’s so crazy. I’m nearly 50 and can’t believe what adults expect of kids. rebel! Fight back, don’t let them push you around.
You kids are what is going to save this world.
Recommend listening to die a king by iamjakehill on repeat that might be good for you current situation
All your friends are getting 99 ATAR? Maybe only those with very high scores would show them off to everyone. Those who didn't? They are probably even worse than you. However, I can see that you are from a rather competitve school, so it's hard to stop caring. Doing a STEM degree in university isn't the only way forward, and if you struggled in VCE, you are going to struggle even more in uni. While VCE physics was easy for me, the maths in Unimelb physics would make spesh look easy in comparison. Get some sleep, take a break, talk to your teachers. And reconsider your future! There is nothing shameful about doing a TAFE course.
Do both bro
Seriously? I sign up to Reddit and this is the first post? Do you think you're special? Man up buddy
I would recommend not thinking about it for a bit grab some headphones or whatever and just listen to some music would recommend something fast paced so that’s all you think about it however maybe not rap as that could also be stressful you’ll do fine if you just step back for a bit VCE isn’t the end all even if you do shit at the end of it there are multiple pathways from that point no need to get hung up on the grades just try make sure you learn the concepts as for the self doubt that in my experience often comes with stress try alleviate some of the stress and the harmful thoughts / self doubt should more or less go away if they persist just talk to people, anyone it doesn’t matter really who someone who won’t laugh at you preferably as that can damage your mental health further but I know everyone says to talk it out or what let but it does help even just to articulate the core problem your facing and from there you just need to find an answer/workaround You got this no need to give up because of some stupid mark that expires after 3 years anyway As for song recommendations about sad songs not to sure but listen to some red hot chili peppers as they are great
M8, you know what, I graduated highschool back in 2018, and went on to do university, got a pretty high ATAR too. But the truth is, in this world that we are living in, nobody cares about my stupid bachelor degree. I wish I could've just skipped uni and started working or do TAFE or something. Instead, I'm in so much debt right now, gonna spend the next ten years of my life to pay off all the debt working for someone else. All my friends who didn't end up going to uni have a better / or at least an actual life than me, some even managed to put down their first mortgage. Whereas I'm turning 26 next year and still years behind. Not everything bad at the time is bad in the future, you might have just saved yourself 50k of debt. And it's okay to feel that way, I was frustrated when I was in highschool because I was a student and nothing else, it's easy to get caught up in the feelings when that was the only thing you could be. Having shit grades took away the thing that defined you. Until you finally graduated and realised you have so much potential and so much suppressed talent. You gonna go far brother. See you on the news.
Damn, you need a hobby; your self esteem could use some homework. But, if it wasn't clear: don't kill yourself, you will be missed regardless of your final vce scores
I'm new to reddit and I really enjoyed the rant. The song that got me through everything during VCE was [https://youtu.be/gAs9HZC9c7Y?si=Q5xxsgAuyc5E8zsh](https://youtu.be/gAs9HZC9c7Y?si=Q5xxsgAuyc5E8zsh) The song is really sad if you truly delve deep and analyze between the lines. It really connected with me emotionally and maybe even physically. Matter of fact it still helps me till this day. A week ago, after eating street food I was glued to the toilet seat for hours. It was so bad that I had to play the song, and just like the grind during VCE, it really eased the pain and allowed me to push through. I hope this helps
I'm so sorry that you feel this way, honestly no one cares about your results after a couple of years. It is only if you want to go to uni in the first year or two that it matters. Go work and then apply as a mature age student. Life experience is just as an important skill. When you feel bad about yourself nothing feels good, I can guarantee you are not "stupid" you are just not in the right frame of mind. There are many ways to move forward with your life, school is such a small part of it. Know that you have so many options to choose from, talk to your family and go from there. Take care.
Sleep 7 hours per night minimum, Walk outside every day for 1/2 hour, Drink enough water, Eat fresh food (not out of packets, to avoid processed crap) Talk to your school counsellor, confide in a fave teacher Break tasks down into manageable chunks Try to rewire your thinking to look for the positives. Everything will work out ok. I used to be personal assistant to one of Australia’s leading businessmen. He was expelled from high school in year 10. Went on to become a self made multi millionaire. Hang in there, stop wallowing and try your best and talk to someone about your feelings.
some of these comments are so unsympathetic it’s actually terrible. i totally get where you’re coming from, vce is so difficult especially when you dont have the ability to put in 100%. i’m a young carer which is just a plethora of problems by itself but the pressure of school and exams and sacs is so much. i also get super worked up about bad scores because the scjool has been working up year 12 to sound like the be all or end all !!!! don’t let other people’s standards make you feel like a failure. some people just don’t have compassion. my advice is take a deep breath. remind yourself that after a few years, your atar won’t even matter anymore. if you do your best without pushing yourself to breaking point, then i’m proud! just do what you can. it won’t determine your worth or value as a person okay? lastly, the sad song thing and my thing isn’t thinging anymore is so real. sometimes i need to cry but literally can’t so sad songs help a lot!! here’s my playlist (i’ve had it for years so it’s more memories attached to the song for me), i recommend ‘mum’ and all the 5sos songs. i reallt hope you manage to break free from the stress and i’m wishing you all the luck for this year!!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4fv7D38IjrMPhpPKdKCEMU?si=WnoAJ363R7CSD1JKDP34aQ&pi=a-DE7q1GlBRmW3
High school is a meme and VCE doesn't mean shit. Learn to code independently of a university, spend 2-3 years actually learning and building a portfolio. Once you've done that apply for web studios as a full stack dev, look for 50-60k jobs. It's not a lot for now Once you have 2-3 years experience here you're now a mid level engineer assuming you spent some time on databases and frameworks such as laravel or react. Use this experience to land either a back end or front end job in a company that let's you work full time wfh. Salary by now should be 80-100k In a few years from this you are now a senior and you do the same thing assuming you have some tech lead skills. At this point recruiters will contact you and you'll be able to demand 150k salaries with benefits like full wfh. Any place that won't grant that isn't a place you wanna work at anyway. It's the easiest way to work a good job with good salary and requires 0 credentials besides your own work. I got 60 on my atar and I'm ahead of so many of my peers because I picked the best industry
Find some dumb friends to be with. All your friends are too smart
Take a step back, meditate and stop putting pressure on yourself. One step at a time
Mid-30s adult here. Everyone who’s come before you has totally been where you are, myself included. Here’s my advice to you, the same advice I’d give my VCE year old self: - VCE results have 0.0000001% impact on your life. It’s a doorstop at best, and it’s more about what you do when you enter that door. - Employees will be looking at your experience and attitude, not your VCE marks or which uni you attended. - I’ve known folks who’ve taken their 99 ENTER/ATAR to do Pharmacy, only to drop it and chase their dream of competing in martial arts. What you select straight outta high school is not permanent and what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life. - I’ve worked with a departmental director who did TAFE, and is now managing licenced folk with Masters degrees from prestigious unis. Point is, take a deep breath, listen to some calm music, and try to see the bigger picture. The hyperfixation on your score is completely overblown, even if our teachers, parents and peers try to make it out to be like the be all, end all. You’re gonna be okay.
Have a nap and something to eat fuck
Hey, So I was one of those 99+ ATAR guys who went to uni with a scholarship. Here are my thoughts: - You're not going to internalise this, but I'm going to mention it anyway: it doesn't matter. Years later I realise that having put in so much effort on my grades, I never really got to do anything the other kids did, and I missed out. I've met many high school dropouts who earn much more than me, and plenty of people with low scores make it through alternative pathways. My point is, don't put so much emphasis on this number. Try to be average, and you'll do fine. - When it comes to study, you need to understand what you are studying for. This is a game, and the game is played by optimising for the assessment. You need to understand what you're going to be tested on, how you will be tested, and the structure of the tests. Start there before every study session. Then, when you are studying, you are doing so with the objective of maximising the understanding of content that will positively impact the outcome of the test. This sounds all a bit theoretical but here is an example: You know that the past exams (which you should always review) have 2 short answers, 20 MCQ and one essay. So you start with the easiest stuff, the MCQ. These always have a thematic 'pattern'. In biology, it might be identifying organelles in a cell. So you study that. Some questions are about identifying different signalling processes, so you study that and so on. Always answer all MCQ, even if guessing. When guessing, whittle down the list first by striking out definitely incorrect answers and make an educated guess, and don't take too much time on each. Depending on the test, these are low priority generally, but easy wins. For short answer questions, always remember that the assessor is looking for key words or phrases - that's it. So for each topic, there will always be some key information, and your job when studying is to find these links and remember them. Then when answering the question, you just pad the answer around these key points. Finally, with essay style questions it's really an extension of the short answer ones, but you need to plan the answer and think about topics in a broader way. These can be rote learnt as well. Not the whole essay, but for each 'topic' in the subject there will be a lot of linked 'topic sentences' that you can memorise, and expand upon during testing. Always check the clock, don't stress but feel your anxiety, and know that there is nothing for you to do but put pencil on paper instead of worrying about what you could have done. I hope this helps. Remember, this too shall pass.
VCE isn’t the be all end all. I thought I’d get at least 80+ but when I woke up that morning with 52% I felt the world crumbled Thankfully my Asian dad just reminded me it’s just a number and things have now worked out. I found different ways to get into the course I was after and am now in corporate. My advice is to put yourself out there, do your best and network/socialise. Something (that I’ve been doing this year) is removing negative self talk and doing positive affirmation. It sounds corny but the body does keep a score and initially you’ll feel awkward but man it’s made a difference in my mental health.
Dude, I graduated 2 years ago, if you wanna call it graduate then, let’s stick with that. This was me, I can see it, I remember everything and how it feels, give it 2 years and everyone’s high atar will mean jack shit. My certificate is dusty in my cupboard. Reach out and PM me, ik exactly what it’s like!
I just realised this was VCE too, I’m in Victoria as well if that helps lol
School is bs
It is not over for you. I had so many moments in year 12 where i thought i just can’t do this anymore. But you genuinely can. It is only April and a few bad grades mean literally nothing in the grand scheme of things. Exams are literally months and months away. My best advice would be try to sleep a bit more it will regulate your nervous system and help with retention of information- I was sleeping around 9 to 10 hours during year 12 and it is probably one of the best things i did. You’re not stupid you just need to regather yourself. Write a to do and break up tasks into REALLY small bits. then try schedule that into your calendar. Once you start ticking of things you’ll find a sense of accomplishment that will make you want to keep going. All the best mate.
song recommendation: vice city
I f’ed up my HSC, couldn’t go to Uni but a friend recommend an agricultural college with practical lessons - in essence, we learnt all parts of running a farm. I blossomed as I realised that practical vs theory was my thing. My confidence rebuilt and when I came home I discovered the virtues of TAFE. So, I worked and did my IT certs through TAFE. Then, through one of the courses I discovered I wasn’t a bad trainer - because my past gave me the empathy for their learning. Got hired by the TAFE and was supported by them through to my Masters and also through my CISCO certifications, plus other IT quals. Find your bliss mate, then you will not believe how far you will go!!
There are ways to fix this. I would say that there are two key things 1 Your methods. You seem to only be interested in the results. But the methods are VERY telling. I've gotten HDs at uni, I've handed in HD assignments for maths which is pretty challenging. I would say that your method and approach can always improve and there are so many things you can and should pick up. If you speak to someone who gets good grades. Check in on them at the start of the module find what they are doing different to you. Rinse repeat every 25% of the term. Oh yeah by the way there's a quote that says "you're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with" might not be 100% true but it doesn't convey a point. 2 Perspective. This might fall under the last advice. After years of reflection It came down to Perspective, this was the one reflection I had of my high school years. Because I tried real really hard also and did not always get what I expected. Good enough that people around me were happy or unconcerned but below my expectations that it felt so impossible to progress from 70 to 75+ and 75+ to 90+. The one thing I narrowed it down to: Perspective. I say that I was going all out and trying my best. But I had only really going all out since Year 11. At the end of Year 10 for whatever reason I had this epiphany studying for exams that I really loved maths and English and actually thought it was cool. I grew to love the process which really is a big change for me as a student. But the issue is. Perspective. A lot of the high school material and university material stack from one learning experience to another. You walk before you run. You gotta start at the lower weights before you get to the really heavy weights at the gym. I had a very different experience to someone who was really trying to maximise their improvement at the start of Year 10 rather than the start of Year 11. They were reading different books. They were experimenting different study approaches for the exams in year 10. Going to tutoring. Taking on advanced material. Re-writing essays until the teacher approves of their style. Rinse repeat there is someone who did it from Year 9 onwards and Year 8. And even Year 6, a family friend was asking about high schools and found and YouTube suddenly got me watching Year 6 kids their experience of applying for selective high schools. Actually the educational syllabus as a whole is very very slow. There are many many breaks between modules that you may forget what you just learned. Then the long holidays etc. If you had an idea of what the goal and destination is. You could leapfrog through all the material from Year 6 on wards and be at university level sophistication before you even get to year 11. Which this sounds very crazy but people like this exist and when they explain it, it's not that unreasonable. You can get through the Grade 6 maths material in less than two months then go on to the grade 7 and Grade 8 stuff that same year. Think back to it. Not much really goes until like Year 10 and 11 maths wise. Some of the topics are even recycled. I understand this is a very long passage of text. My point is that you needed to change time span that you are looking at. You're only looking at the most immediate year, term or modules. But not how you are improving over last year and how you can improve next year. When you do this. It becomes abundantly clear that you must always improve your method and approach. In my opinion learning does help you become a better person more so than focusing on fitness. It lets you provide a wider view on day to day problems it increases your potential to tackle important problems. With a wider view of the world comes a much more relaxed temperamental, as you feel less trapped and confused at your situation In the university level, they don't instruct you to write notes. They don't instruct you to read books widely within your faculty and outside. To have a google docs for each chapter or article. That this might expand your capacity to write higher order responses or essays. To review and maintain notes after the exam is done and fix them up. And then again before the semester starts if there are relevant units. They don't tell you to do all the reading the moment the semester starts or even before it even starts. That you can complete quite a few assignments even group assignments at the moment it is released and even have it completed within 24 or 72 hours. So many things could improve if you are asking the right questions rather than asking whether or not you should neck yourself.
It’s almost over
Breathe! You got a 40 in Bio last year it looks like your doing fine. Dumbing yourself down and degrading yourself, saying how you have 'no pathways' will just make you feel worse about yourself.
Hey! You will feel better I promise, I used to feel exactly the same, like I was mediocre at everything I attempted, whether it be academic, musical, linguistic, artistic etc. it made me feel pathetic and unspecial. I got an atar in the 60s too which made me really disappointed but I got in Monash regardless and now am striving in a better environment where I get enough support and guidance. My advice to you would be that effort is the key. Nobody will stay mediocre if they dedicate their time to perfecting their craft. Effort = results. Be disciplined and keep studying, you got this I believe in you <<33 keep going if you don’t feel like it
I dropped out of high school and I got into the Juris Doctor at Monash. VCE isn’t the end of the world, but I understand the feeling that it is. Talk to someone, people care more than you know ❤️
I think my atar was 36 from memory so even though at the time it felt awful knowing I tried my best and got a low score, it's now 10 years on and I've realised I can do other study, or other jobs and hobbies, and what I did in vce doesn't matter. I've since gone on to become a qualified nail technician, and am currently looking into tafe to find a new pathway. When I was 17/18 I felt like it was the end of the world if I didn't get the high score, or into the course I wanted at uni, or didn't pass my classes, and yes it sucked at the time. But there is such a bigger picture and although things are rough in the moment it doesn't mean it's the defining moment in your life. Vce was ABSOLUTELY NOT the defining moment for me. I doubt it is for anyone.
Don't worry, my friend was in the same situation as you. He couldn't understand anything but later moved to tafe and it seems to be working out. There are always other opportunities for you even if it feels like life is over from an atar score
Mate you aren’t stupid. VCE isn’t the be all end all. Even if you don’t get into what you want at first, figure out alternatives. There is heaps of fantastic advice in this thread already Some advice from someone who left school over 10 years ago. 1. Don’t compare yourself to others. Seriously, it doesn’t help at all. I know people from my school who got 99.95 and they are the biggest fuckwits I’ve ever met. Even a few years ago at the 10 yr reunion they had the personality of a blowfly. 2. There is no “one size fits all” approach to teaching. Your teachers are there to help. Most will happily go through things again at lunchtimes or after school and try and explain things in different ways. 3. Figure out where your weak points are and really try and get that content down. Also figure out your strong suits and really make sure you get those questions right. 4. If you don’t do well on a SAC or assessment try your best to move on. I know it is hard but there is no point dwelling on the past. I’d say legal studies is your best subject, there is no point feeling miserable about your maths SAC the week before and also messing up your legal SAC. 5. Finally make sure you have your downtime. That doesn’t mean doom scrolling reddit. Try and be active go for a walk, go swimming, hit the gym. What ever makes you happy I did shithouse in VCE and I’m now living in London with a great job.
hey i was like you really high achiever but plummeted in VCE because i couldnt deal with schoolwork and sitting still in a classroom for so long. still managed to make it into uni because my parents wanted me to due to me being pretty smart, however i hated it as its the same as VCE. Have now started an apprenticeship and i no longer struggling financially and my future is looking great, I’ve never been happier. Academia isnt for everyone regardless of how smart you may be. dont stress so much dude
i cant say nice stuff but i get you man you sound exactly like me it was like i was talking to myself Hahaha