Re: What UAI are you aiming for?
Well I want to do a B.Civil Engineering @ University of Newcastle, which only requires 70.65. So I figure 75 is a good aiming point. But I do believe I am capable of much higher. We got our trial results last week (our exams were week 9 & 10 of term 2) and I really flonked them:
English(Standard): 61%
Maths (2U): 61% (Top of my class....really says a lot for the school)
IPT: 81% (Top of the year, and ranking 1st)
Software D&D: 61%
Geography: 61%
Physics: 63%
People have been saying that trials are harder than the HSC itself, but I don't believe thats the case. Comparing the exams we did to HSC past papers, they are relatively the same. My opinion is that the teachers marking is harder than at any other point in the year.
Eg. For an imaginative writing task in English, I scored 14/15 in an in-class assessment. When I re-wrote the task word-for-word in the trial (like I had been specifically instructed to do by my teacher) it scored only 8/15.
That has really puzzled me. I want to approach the teacher, but I don't know what to say: "Hey why did it score only 8/15 when you told me to write it exactely the same and when it got 14/15 earlier in the year" won't really go down to well, I don't think.
Maths was my fault...theres simply one answer: Not enough study. Although i'd like to make excuses and say that the trials were harder because they were bunched up into 2 weeks and I was working part time etc, I have to face it. In maths you are either right or wrong. In this case, 39% of my answers were wrong and therefore: I messed up. My bad.
Well IPT: No complaints, i'm happy with it. My teacher said the highest mark he's had in a trial was last year (81%) and that person scored 93 in the HSC exam. I'm ranked first, by a fairly safe margin. So all-in-all the trial mark really doesn't matter.
Software/Geography: One explanation; I had a brain snap. I'd had Geography earlier that day for 3 hours, and I suppose having another 3 hour exam on the same day didn't really suit me. I remember sitting in the Geo exam watching the clock tick simultaneously with the one on the other side of the hall. Watching the supervisors pace around the room. I just didn't want to write...and it showed. For the 3 essays I wrote just 6 1/2 pages...Scoring 30/60 for them in total. Skills was fine cause I dropped only 4-5 marks.
Physics...well it was on the last day of school, and I was planning on not even studing for it. I studied the night before, for an hour, and it turned out to be my 2nd best result. I think Physics will be my saviour in the HSC (f I put in more than an hour of study). I did make a stupid mistake though: I specifically read through my text book on interferometry and in the exam, couldn't remember what it was...I dropped me about 5%
Anyway, theres my rant...probably not topic-related but I had to get it off my chest
Any comments appreciated!
