(ENGLISH) Just finished Year 11 Term 1, beyond overwhelmed by what's in store (1 Viewer)

[justbellaforshort]

From Year 7-10, I've always been confident in my studies, getting A's frequently save for when I'd have maths exams, which I'd work really hard to get high C's or low B's in. I thought I was so smart and really remarkable. Then, I start Year 11, and I find that I'm not that remarkable. If anything, I'm just like everyone else, and basically, all of my achievements in the past, mean nothing. Compared to my tasks now (which will only get harder), my achievements could have been reached by anyone. They were easy. And I thought I was so amazing.

I can deal with not being as remarkable as I thought I was, but just...I feel so behind in subjects that I used to be top of my grade in like English. Now, it's so...content-heavy and there are all of these very particular structures and bits of information to include in responses. Advanced and Extension I English - especially the latter - is just so hard for me right now. The first task was a creative writing piece, a paratext of Dracula. That was fine and I thought "hey, maybe Extension isn't so bad".

Now we're getting back into conceptual essays and looking at exemplar HSC papers, and just, man, it's so overwhelming. When I used to answer questions In class, I was usually right. But now I feel like some off-track idiot half the time. It doesn't help that my Dad nags from time to time about how school is "easier" nowadays. He never went to Year 11 or 12, and he was in high school in the 80s. We know more now, there is more to learn, and we have to learn it all faster. He can't tell me it's easy now...he never did it. It just grinds at me, makes me feel so stupid. So when I do get something wrong, which is more often lately, I feel like a complete waste of space. What am I doing here? Why am I even bothering if I just don't get it? Why give a shit?

I know already how much I will have to work to get to the high ass standards I was shown for Extension English, and I just don't know if I can do it, or if I want to do it. I've heard how many times B6 and E4 students have cried over and over again about how hard they had to consistently apply themselves to reach that high a band.

I've been so anxious about English all day, and just pissed about it...I'll never need to understand or apply English how we do in school once I finish the HSC next year...it's just so stressful, and for what? Nothing...it's just so much. Just unnecessarily hard, at least that's how I see it.

Anyway, just wanted to rant - is anyone else feeling this? Any fellow Extension English students?

 

[idkkdi]

From Year 7-10, I've always been confident in my studies, getting A's frequently save for when I'd have maths exams, which I'd work really hard to get high C's or low B's in. I thought I was so smart and really remarkable. Then, I start Year 11, and I find that I'm not that remarkable. If anything, I'm just like everyone else, and basically, all of my achievements in the past, mean nothing. Compared to my tasks now (which will only get harder), my achievements could have been reached by anyone. They were easy. And I thought I was so amazing.

I can deal with not being as remarkable as I thought I was, but just...I feel so behind in subjects that I used to be top of my grade in like English. Now, it's so...content-heavy and there are all of these very particular structures and bits of information to include in responses. Advanced and Extension I English - especially the latter - is just so hard for me right now. The first task was a creative writing piece, a paratext of Dracula. That was fine and I thought "hey, maybe Extension isn't so bad".

Now we're getting back into conceptual essays and looking at exemplar HSC papers, and just, man, it's so overwhelming. When I used to answer questions In class, I was usually right. But now I feel like some off-track idiot half the time. It doesn't help that my Dad nags from time to time about how school is "easier" nowadays. He never went to Year 11 or 12, and he was in high school in the 80s. We know more now, there is more to learn, and we have to learn it all faster. He can't tell me it's easy now...he never did it. It just grinds at me, makes me feel so stupid. So when I do get something wrong, which is more often lately, I feel like a complete waste of space. What am I doing here? Why am I even bothering if I just don't get it? Why give a shit?

I know already how much I will have to work to get to the high ass standards I was shown for Extension English, and I just don't know if I can do it, or if I want to do it. I've heard how many times B6 and E4 students have cried over and over again about how hard they had to consistently apply themselves to reach that high a band.

I've been so anxious about English all day, and just pissed about it...I'll never need to understand or apply English how we do in school once I finish the HSC next year...it's just so stressful, and for what? Nothing...it's just so much. Just unnecessarily hard, at least that's how I see it.

Anyway, just wanted to rant - is anyone else feeling this? Any fellow Extension English students?

Re: how hard English is and how unremarkable you have become with "all of my achievements in the past, mean nothing".
From what I have experienced, it only gets worse. I bombed out in the first term of yr 12 cuz i was somewhat winging like y11 where I had quite a bit of success. Had to clutch in the second term and was pretty salty the entire term.

Basically, there's nothing you can do. You just accept it and do your best. The stress and anxiety naturally disappears when you try your best and just go in knowing you've done what you could and do not expect any results. Search for growth mindset.

The hate of any subject (from experience) can most easily be rectified by getting success and maintaining it. No one likes something they're bad at. When you're doing bad, you question the purpose of the subject and hate on it, while if you're doing good, you instead think of its usefulness and the fun.

As for the Dad thing.
HSC may indeed have been harder in the 80s from what I have seen.

 

[quickoats]

As for the Dad thing.
HSC may indeed have been harder in the 80s from what I have seen.

Cutoffs were much lower back then - that’s why my mum thought I was an idiot for not doing med lmao (fat chance with my ATAR lol)

 

[idkkdi]

Cutoffs were much lower back then - that’s why my mum thought I was an idiot for not doing med lmao (fat chance with my ATAR lol)

but tests were harder right? what happened to ur ucat lol

 

[quickoats]

but tests were harder right? what happened to ur ucat lol

didn't even do it lmao
I didn't get the "hey maybe you should do medicine" talk until I got my ATAR (for the first change of preferences)

 

[Eagle Mum]

From what I can see, whilst the syllabi have changed over time, the overall level of difficulty then and now appear fairly similar. Back then, however, there was no internet, so if there were errors in textbooks or one didn’t understand the explanation(s) in the available textbook(s) & the assigned teacher wasn’t very good, one could get stuck on concepts, which hindered overall understanding, whereas with the Internet, you can keep searching until you reach a satisfactory level of understanding (& there are helpful forums like BoS and the stack exchanges).

@idkkdi, your advice to search for growth mindset is very wise. IME, it has generally been a very useful approach.

OP, for many professions, the ability to write well will be a great asset. For an informal post, you write very well, so I’d say that your previous efforts have not been wasted.

 

[idkkdi]

From what I can see, whilst the syllabi have changed over time, the overall level of difficulty then and now appear fairly similar. Back then, however, there was no internet, so if there were errors in textbooks or one didn’t understand the explanation(s) in the available textbook(s) & the assigned teacher wasn’t very good, one could get stuck on concepts, which hindered overall understanding, whereas with the Internet, you can keep searching until you reach a satisfactory level of understanding (& there are helpful forums like BoS and the stack exchanges).

@idkkdi, your advice to search for growth mindset is very wise. IME, it has generally been a very useful approach.

OP, for many professions, the ability to write well will be a great asset. For an informal post, you write very well, so I’d say that your previous efforts have not been wasted.

i mostly/only know 4u maths was harder lol.

 

[Eagle Mum]

i mostly/only know 4u maths was harder lol.

I did 4U maths in the latter part of the 80’s (at a selective school which had an established 4U program to teach the content) & helped my eldest with Extn 2 in 2015 (it was only the second year our local school had offered the subject so they weren’t as well prepared to teach the content as they are now) and the difficulty didn’t seem to have changed that much to me. I hadn’t done much maths in the intervening years, but the Internet is such an amazing resource for dusting off the metaphorical cobwebs and enabling growth mindset at any time of one’s life.

You would be learning the new 4U syllabus which changed last year, so it could well be more difficult than the 2015 content. I haven’t looked at the current content as DS doesn’t need any help, so I haven’t had any incentive to look.

PS: Physics in 2015 seemed easier than in my time, but I understand that they have changed it again and made it more challenging.

 

[idkkdi]

I did 4U maths in the latter part of the 80’s (at a selective school which had an established 4U program to teach the content) & helped my eldest with Extn 2 in 2015 (it was only the second year our local school had offered the subject so they weren’t as well prepared to teach the content as they are now) and the difficulty didn’t seem to have changed that much to me. I hadn’t done much maths in the intervening years, but the Internet is such an amazing resource for dusting off the metaphorical cobwebs and enabling growth mindset at any time of one’s life.

You would be learning the new 4U syllabus which changed last year, so it could well be more difficult than the 2015 content. I haven’t looked at the current content as DS doesn’t need any help, so I haven’t had any incentive to look.

PS: Physics in 2015 seemed easier than in my time, but I understand that they have changed it again and made it more challenging.

not the content, more so the papers.
1980s papers are harder than the external papers in like the past decade. 1989 was a particularly hard one.

 

[Where's the Funny?]

How do you find time to do 20th century papers?

 

[idkkdi]

How do you find time to do 20th century papers?

U don’t do the 21st century papers .

 

[justbellaforshort]

Basically, there's nothing you can do. You just accept it and do your best. The stress and anxiety naturally disappears when you try your best and just go in knowing you've done what you could and do not expect any results. Search for growth mindset.

That is a fair point. I hear a lot at school the idea of a fixed vs growth mindset. Am a natural pessimist and it is so hard to be optimistic - it normally comes in odd spurts here and there where I really feel okay with how I'm doing, because I know others are struggling too. I do appreciate the direct approach in what you're saying, I just wish there was some way around all of this. I hate that I just hate to grin and bear it, I hate it so much. But, that's the problem. I do need to adopt a different mindset, I do hear that people who did well had to really change their mindset about schooling. Just feel like I have to do everything so fast...I will get there, hopefully.

 

[justbellaforshort]

The hate of any subject (from experience) can most easily be rectified by getting success and maintaining it. No one likes something they're bad at. When you're doing bad, you question the purpose of the subject and hate on it, while if you're doing good, you instead think of its usefulness and the fun.

I get what you're saying but I've hated English since year 9 because it just got really analytical and unenjoyable from that point forward - I'd still get A's in my English tasks and awards at school ceremonies for it. I was doing well, but I hated it and just kept saying "when will I ever need this? No seriously, when will I ever need to analyse the themes of isolation in a book about future dystopias in a work setting? I'm not going to be an English teacher, this is all pointless, and so hard."

 

[justbellaforshort]

...whilst the syllabi have changed over time, the overall level of difficulty then and now appear fairly similar. Back then, however, there was no internet, so if there were errors in textbooks or one didn’t understand the explanation(s) in the available textbook(s) & the assigned teacher wasn’t very good, one could get stuck on concepts, which hindered overall understanding, whereas with the Internet, you can keep searching until you reach a satisfactory level of understanding...
...
OP, for many professions, the ability to write well will be a great asset. For an informal post, you write very well, so I’d say that your previous efforts have not been wasted.

I do understand what you're saying. I acknowledge with my Dad that some parts of schooling is definitely easier now, like our access to calculators, the Internet, being able to email teachers when stuck, and so on. I just find it so so frustrating that he refuses to acknowledge that school might be harder now in some aspects than it used to be, and he never even went to school after Year 10, and hasn't worked since 2005. It just feels hypocritical to tell me that things are easy now, when my mum is the sole breadwinner of our family and completed her HSC despite interruptions.

"Who does he think he is?" I feel sometimes.

The change from Year 10 to 11 is the most drastic I've ever experienced, and he's speaking from no experience of Year 11/12 but thinks he can say it's so much "easier" nowadays. I put in so much hard, consistent effort to maintain the grades I have thus far and for him to say it's all easy just really takes my hard work and dismisses it entirely. I do understand school is easier in some aspects, but he's saying certain subjects and high school years he never even experienced, are easier now than they were. It's just so ignorant, is all.

I appreciate the time you took to respond - and thank you for the compliment. I just mean analytical stuff that we do now, I feel like I won't ever need. Grammar, punctuation and basic structure, I can do that and just feel like I don't really need to be learning all of this extra stuff to, what, write articles or work emails in future? I don't know...I'm young, so I don't really have hindsight yet.

 

[jimmysmith560]

But, that's the problem. I do need to adopt a different mindset, I do hear that people who did well had to really change their mindset about schooling. Just feel like I have to do everything so fast...I will get there, hopefully

That's step 1 done - acknowledging the need for a more optimistic mindset, one that deals with the bigger picture rather than a shallow, short-term perspective.

The only way to get there is to believe in your abilities and to work hard throughout a period of time which will eventually come to an end. Once it does, you will not be disappointed with the outcome.

 

[justbellaforshort]

That's step 1 done - acknowledging the need for a more optimistic mindset, one that deals with the bigger picture rather than a shallow, short-term perspective.

The only way to get there is to believe in your abilities and to work hard throughout a period of time which will eventually come to an end. Once it does, you will not be disappointed with the outcome.

Yeah...yeah, you're right. I really do want to get to that point. I feel like things will be so much easier if I just try and work through things positively. I really appreciate your input - am already calmed down more since people have said the same thing and empathise with what I'm going through. I know it's not just me, and it does help a lot. Thank you for your advice.

 

[jimmysmith560]

Yeah...yeah, you're right. I really do want to get to that point. I feel like things will be so much easier if I just try and work through things positively. I really appreciate your input - am already calmed down more since people have said the same thing and empathise with what I'm going through. I know it's not just me, and it does help a lot. Thank you for your advice.

That's great to hear! You seem like a very determined and diligent person and I'm sure you'll do great.

 

[Where's the Funny?]

U don’t do the 21st century papers .

Bachelor of Modern History (Mathematics)

 

[justbellaforshort]

That's great to hear! You seem like a very determined and diligent person and I'm sure you'll do great.

Thanks man, I really appreciate that. All the best.