Quote:
Originally posted by TayLord
Amazing  |
Honestly, it's not worth it. I thought my ATAR was the be-all and end-all. I was so stressed, all the time. I remember having a panic attack the night before my first HSC exam, which was either the English Area of Study (Belonging) or maybe Business Studies. And my mum ran me a bath and was like "just study in the bath, and breathe deep and slowly" because I was pretty much hyperventilating I was crying so much hahaha, it was ridiculous.
Everyone makes it out to be the biggest deal. And I remember my grade was so competitive, which (since schools get scaled) helped bump everyone up. But the whole year, everyone in my grade was asking each other what ATAR everyone needed to get into their course, what you were aiming for, what you got in each of your assignments (so you could monitor where you were ranked in each subject). For every lesson that we were on computers, everyone would download UAI calculators (we were the first year to be on the ATAR system) and we'd calculate what marks in each subject would get us what ATAR. It was all my grade cared about.
And then after high school? Nothing. In almost 5 years I have never been asked my ATAR. In my first year of Uni, I managed to slip it into a few conversations, because I felt I'd worked my arse off, and for that much stress and pressure, I deserved to boast about it a little at least. But everyone was sort of like "well...yeah, we all had to get at least 93 to get into this course."
My best friend on the other hand was one of the few who didn't do very well in high school. To this day, I don't know her ATAR. But I've been told by our other friends she got like early 60s. Anyway, we both finished high school in 2009. She did a bridging course to get into Macquarie Uni. So basically she did her first semester off-campus somewhere, and if she got a credit average, then she could be accepted into her course at Macquarie, and start attending classes on the official campus. It worked, and she finished at the end of 2012, with a Bachelor of Communications - Media and Production. And all she had to do was her first semester off-campus, and that was only like 3 and a half months at the beginning of 2010.
Meanwhile, I f***ed up. Got into a bad relationship, experimented with drugs and just went through the general frustrations of being in the closet (constantly lying about where I was, etc) and my parents were always asking me where I was and were treating me like a child. I think I've told everyone in this thread my story before anyway, that I failed some subjects, moved out of home for a year/deferred for a year and a half and then went back.
I finish in a semester at the end of this year, but my point is, your ATAR really doesn't mean **** in the end. You can do a bridging course. My best friend got in the early 60s (from what I've heard) and I got 96.50 and she graduated with her dream degree (which she needed like 84 to get into normally) 2 years before I finished mine. Don't freak out about your ATAR/scores too much. They don't matter at all, unless you want to study medicine.
Just enjoy your last year of high school. There will come a point, maybe it's your final mass or final year assembly, when you'll look around and realise, you will never, ever be in the same room with all of those people ever again. Some of them, you'll never see again period. Some of them, you'll never even know what happens to them or what they became (usually those who don't have Facebook haha). Enjoy your last few months with those people. Even the ones you don't really like. They're way more important than a number you get, which a week after you get it, will just feel like any other random assignment mark that doesn't even matter.
When I get C's in Maths and Physics I die a little inside, even though it's a pass and others hope for C's. I just hate it.
Jessica Mauboy 
I can't believe ReginaPhalange got banned 
I hope it wasn't perm!
