More boring life stuff...:D
So, it's been a rather busy week for me - which is probably a normal week by anyone else's standards. I only worked twice, but the results of our HSC (end-of-school exams) were released on Wednesday, and on Thursday our ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank - needed to get into most uni courses) were released as well.
Now, I already have preselection, but I still wanted to know my results. So I'm going to list them here, just because I can. (Totally not showing off at all >_>)
Please note: All scores are out of a possible 100 marks. Also, the HSC marks are placed in performance bands.
Band 1 - 0-49. Band 2 - 50-59. Band 3 - 60-69. Band 4 - 70-79. Band 5 - 80-89. Band 6 - 90-100.
Biology: 75
English Advanced: 77
Mathematics: 56
Modern History: 77
Legal Studies: 77
PD/H/PE (theory): 77
These results aren't my exam marks. They are the average of my moderated assessment mark and my exam mark. So, all band 4s, except for Maths, which was a Band 2. I am happy, mostly just because I didn't think i'd manage more than about 30 for maths, let along 56. Also, my maths was hard maths, as in locus, differentiation, integration, logarithms, trigonometric functions, exponential functions, calculus and other such mind-boggling rubbish. It's the maths you need if you want to go do maths-related stuff at uni.
Now, on to the ATAR. Quick lesson on how the ATAR works: Each course is scalled depending on how many highly academic people took the course. The more smart people in the course, the better it is scaled. The less academic-minded people who take the course, the worse it is scaled. The ATAR is an indication of a student's performance comparative to the rest of the state.
My ATAR: 71.30. So, my courses were mostly positively scaled. Also, maths was discounted, because all my courses are worth 12 marks and the ATAr is calculated off the best 10 units. Therefore, my ATAR means I did better than about 71% of the state, which puts me just barely in the top 30% for NSW Yr 12 students for 2009. All 40000 of us, I think.
So, if you survived my explanation, congratulations. The Australian education system is COMPLICATED. And I'm not one of the people who designed it, so my understanding is less than great. On the other hand, i'm pretty sure my ATAR was one of the highest for my school. So yay for that much.
And after all that, I've been busy applying for accomodation, Youth Allowance and scholarships for uni. I've also had one friend's 18th birthday last night (because 18's the legal drinking age here, teehee ^^), and another tonight. Party animal much? :P And since I'm not actually old enough to drink, I get to be 'Dezzo Dave', aka tonight's designated driver for the of-age people's pub crawl. Joy.
So yeah. Blah Blah Blah, I'm going to uni. If I can find $835 for upfront accomodation fees before they'll even process my application. On the other hand, if I find the money and pay it, I'm almost guaranteed accomodation because I live in a rural area (like, 7 hours from where I want to go to uni). Yay for government handouts. I'm not picky; I'll take what I can get.
All in all, it's been a pretty decent week. :D
Now, I already have preselection, but I still wanted to know my results. So I'm going to list them here, just because I can. (Totally not showing off at all >_>)
Please note: All scores are out of a possible 100 marks. Also, the HSC marks are placed in performance bands.
Band 1 - 0-49. Band 2 - 50-59. Band 3 - 60-69. Band 4 - 70-79. Band 5 - 80-89. Band 6 - 90-100.
Biology: 75
English Advanced: 77
Mathematics: 56
Modern History: 77
Legal Studies: 77
PD/H/PE (theory): 77
These results aren't my exam marks. They are the average of my moderated assessment mark and my exam mark. So, all band 4s, except for Maths, which was a Band 2. I am happy, mostly just because I didn't think i'd manage more than about 30 for maths, let along 56. Also, my maths was hard maths, as in locus, differentiation, integration, logarithms, trigonometric functions, exponential functions, calculus and other such mind-boggling rubbish. It's the maths you need if you want to go do maths-related stuff at uni.
Now, on to the ATAR. Quick lesson on how the ATAR works: Each course is scalled depending on how many highly academic people took the course. The more smart people in the course, the better it is scaled. The less academic-minded people who take the course, the worse it is scaled. The ATAR is an indication of a student's performance comparative to the rest of the state.
My ATAR: 71.30. So, my courses were mostly positively scaled. Also, maths was discounted, because all my courses are worth 12 marks and the ATAr is calculated off the best 10 units. Therefore, my ATAR means I did better than about 71% of the state, which puts me just barely in the top 30% for NSW Yr 12 students for 2009. All 40000 of us, I think.
So, if you survived my explanation, congratulations. The Australian education system is COMPLICATED. And I'm not one of the people who designed it, so my understanding is less than great. On the other hand, i'm pretty sure my ATAR was one of the highest for my school. So yay for that much.
And after all that, I've been busy applying for accomodation, Youth Allowance and scholarships for uni. I've also had one friend's 18th birthday last night (because 18's the legal drinking age here, teehee ^^), and another tonight. Party animal much? :P And since I'm not actually old enough to drink, I get to be 'Dezzo Dave', aka tonight's designated driver for the of-age people's pub crawl. Joy.
So yeah. Blah Blah Blah, I'm going to uni. If I can find $835 for upfront accomodation fees before they'll even process my application. On the other hand, if I find the money and pay it, I'm almost guaranteed accomodation because I live in a rural area (like, 7 hours from where I want to go to uni). Yay for government handouts. I'm not picky; I'll take what I can get.
All in all, it's been a pretty decent week. :D