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[Greater Gattsby]

Yeah I understand that but I hit the jackpot this year with some gun teachers so I don't get that.

Ahh that's awesome, exactly what you want in year 12. I'm confident I'll have some good ones in year 12, surely I've had all of the s**t teachers I could possibly endure over 12 years of education so far.

 

[Dylan8]

Loved Stasiland. Brilliantly written, one of the few books from my school years that I can revisit.

As a product of a public school, I have nothing but praise for my Year 12 teachers. They weren't perfect, but they were always willing to invest their down time into anyone that wanted help, and all were extremely knowledgeable and able to convey that, in front of the class or one on one.

Had some absolutely terrible teachers through the earlier years, though. In Year 8, my English teacher spent almost every class exploring a variety of social media sites - Twitter, Flickr, Delicious come to mind. Unbelievably, she landed a job at a private school the following year.

Yeah man, teachers cop a lot of unwarranted s**t. I did have some out of touch teachers, but my favourite complacent teacher was a fantastic guy from year 8 maths who legitimately was just watching Modern Family on his laptop while we worked (read: did not work). Did not give one *. My year 9 science class probably collectively drove a teacher to a mental breakdown (behind the scenes) which at the time was a laugh but looking back was quite sad. She was an annoying campaigner though.

 

[Dylan8]

Not to mention Anna Funder was a total fox NathanMJ_WB54

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Not to mention Anna Funder was a total fox NathanMJ_WB54

Damn straight. Whenever I was working (read: not working), the book always had the back cover facing up

It is amusing, some teachers just have no shame anymore. One of my classes had a substitute for a few weeks in Year 11, and he'd just watch Community on his laptop. Another called me a degenerate for dropping my pencil, and would spend each period walking around the room insulting students and freaking out, from start to finish.

I like to think that she wound up like 'Abby' from The Simpsons. No Bart.. put it down.. put it down Bart... Bart, put it down..

 

[Bacon Warrior]

You want advice for getting out of high school? Try not to let depression and suicide attempts get the better of you, like they did to me. Completely derailed year 11, had to repeat due to poor attendance, barely had enough WACE points to get through the second time around, then left year 12 early last year to correct myself. Three years down the drain.

Thank * mature-age Uni entry is a thing, or I'd be well rooted now.

 

[lmach]

Probably the most useful thing you can take out of high school is spelling and grammar with the amount of essays you'll be writing in uni. The rest is pretty pointless. If you're not going to be an accountant or something to do with numbers, maths is useless (the higher level stuff). If you can get away with doing the easier maths (they call it Maths A up here), do it.

My course required a rank of 72 - I got a 77 by just cruising through. If you know what rank you need for your course, do the bare minimum to get it because there's really no point stressing about school (unless you wanna become a doctor or something).

 

[Jack Stevens]

The best people I've met at uni, and the hardest workers I've met at uni, all came through TAFE pathways.

I think the best advice for anyone in VCE is don't take it so seriously. If you stress yourself out, you're not going to be concentrating on doing the best you can do. If you stuff up a test, don't let that be a burden on the rest of your year. I knew people who dug themselves into holes because they didn't get the mark they wanted in a test, and kept worrying about that test instead of moving forward.

What did you do out of curiosity?

David Malouf's Ransom and Twelve Angry Men, as a play. Although Twelve Angry Men might have been as a creative context, and it might have been year 11... I dunno, I wrote about Ransom in the exam. And we had The Player as a film, and some other book I didn't read for creative context.

I was going to say that if you have one common text, and one not so common, do the uncommon one. Only some really small percentage of schools did Ransom, so the examiners hadn't already read your essay 10 000 times before yours came up on their pile. Plus it was a more difficult text, so it was easier to bullshit.

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Probably the most useful thing you can take out of high school is spelling and grammar with the amount of essays you'll be writing in uni. The rest is pretty pointless. If you're not going to be an accountant or something to do with numbers, maths is useless (the higher level stuff). If you can get away with doing the easier maths (they call it Maths A up here), do it.

My course required a rank of 72 - I got a 77 by just cruising through. If you know what rank you need for your course, do the bare minimum to get it because there's really no point stressing about school (unless you wanna become a doctor or something).

That's essentially what I did. Cruised through school because I have a reasonably good memory and knew how to write an essay, and just met the requirement for my course (taking all factors into account, I was always going to get in - I needed 75, I got 85). Took the easy Maths, IT was a bludge subject if ever I've taken one, Legal Studies was essentially just remembering and repeating blocks of text, and History was much the same.

The only subject I really needed was the mandatory English, so the year wasn't too stressful at all. Plenty of people took it more seriously than I did and just ended up having breakdowns, which I just didn't understand.

 

[Jones2ByrneJones]

While ATARS and Unis are all well and good, it's not the only option out there if you want to have a future for yourself.

 

[lmach]

While ATARS and Unis are all well and good, it's not the only option out there if you want to have a future for yourself.

So how is the pr0n industry?

 

[Jones2ByrneJones]

So how is the pr0n industry?

It's a pain in the ass

 

[Dylan8]

The best people I've met at uni, and the hardest workers I've met at uni, all came through TAFE pathways.

Conversely most of my mates who switched to TAFE (a few close ones at that) have just gone downhill there. Fiending for herb is the life it seems.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Probably the most useful thing you can take out of high school is spelling and grammar with the amount of essays you'll be writing in uni. The rest is pretty pointless. If you're not going to be an accountant or something to do with numbers, maths is useless (the higher level stuff). If you can get away with doing the easier maths (they call it Maths A up here), do it.

My course required a rank of 72 - I got a 77 by just cruising through. If you know what rank you need for your course, do the bare minimum to get it because there's really no point stressing about school (unless you wanna become a doctor or something).

And even if you want to do medicine, you can always just transfer. Of course, you won't go from basic Arts to neurosurgery, but there's still an easier pathway. School is not the be all and end all. And * teachers.

 

[akkaps]

And even if you want to do medicine, you can always just transfer. Of course, you won't go from basic Arts to neurosurgery, but there's still an easier pathway. School is not the be all and end all. And **** teachers.

Can you tell my family that.

 

[Greater Gattsby]

Can you tell my family that.

I would happily tell them that, but I doubt they'd find a 17 year old kid telling your parents "f*** school", is going to change much.

Personally, I think to try and round out with them a bit about it. You know, bring in the occasional, "well at least I'm not xyz".

 

[Klim]

Should I start a render thread? Making it easier for people to make wallpapers?

 

[El_Scorcho]

I did really well at school by cruising through on being smart. I did the suicide 5 subjects and did well in all of them except for a 13.5 in English Studies (because * English Studies, I only did it for the prestige of doing the suicide 5).

But I crashed at uni, dropped out of 2 separate degrees, racked up a big HECS debt for nothing, and now i'm incredibly happy as a police officer.

If there is one thing to learn from school, it's that choosing what you want to do with your life at 16 is the most ******* ludicrous burden teenagers are placed under. Schools should be actively encouraging people to get out into the real world for a bit before deciding on a career. When I was finishing high school, there was never any other option provided to me given the grades I was getting. I was expected to go to university and that was pretty much that.

It wasn't until about 8 years out of high school that I found something that I really wanted to do and was ready for. If i'd tried to join the police at 18 I wouldn't have been anywhere near ready.

 

[Dylan8]

Suicide 5? I've heard of the 'Asian 5' but this is new to me. Anyway yeah my careers teacher/person/whatever their ******* job title is has just been all 'well just make up your mind!' Are you joking? I'm worried about doing exactly what you did Scorch and just blinding picking something i'll hate and incurring debt for nothing.

 

[El_Scorcho]

Suicide 5? I've heard of the 'Asian 5' but this is new to me. Anyway yeah my careers teacher/person/whatever their ******* job title is has just been all 'well just make up your mind!' Are you joking? I'm worried about doing exactly what you did Scorch and just blinding picking something i'll hate and incurring debt for nothing.

When I was doing it was Maths 1 (studies), Maths 2 (specialist), Physics, Chem and English Studies.

The hardest 5 subjects, basically.

I was reasonable at English but had a s**t teacher and it really pissed me off because it was a massive time sink and I got a crappy score.

Only Maths Specialist took up more of my time, but when you do Maths Specialist you don't have to study at all for Maths Studies, because it's like baby's first maths in comparison and you basically cover all the same stuff.

My advice if you're not sure is to not accept any offer and have a year (or two! (or three!!)) off of study. Just work full time, save some money up while you're still living at home and figure out what you want to do. You're not missing anything by missing the "uni experience" that you can't get by enrolling as a 21 or 22 year old, or just not going going at all.

If I could change anything about my life, it would be not going to uni and joining the police at a much younger age, but the concept of not going to uni would have seemed like total insanity when I was in year 12.

 

[Dylan8]

My advice if you're not sure is to not accept any offer and have a year (or two! (or three!!)) off of study. Just work full time, save some money up while you're still living at home and figure out what you want to do. You're not missing anything by missing the "uni experience" that you can't get by enrolling as a 21 or 22 year old, or just not going going at all.

If I could change anything about my life, it would be not going to uni and joining the police at a much younger age, but the concept of not going to uni would have seemed like total insanity when I was in year 12.

Yeah my brother dropped out of uni after a week or so and has since taken up a job as a waiter/bartender for a few years now, moved out and is having a great time with his life and meeting new people with work so it does look enticing.

I wouldn't want to take too long off and end up like one of those 40 year old out of touch uni students lmach is always going off about.

 

[akkaps]

The Asian 5: is Specialist Maths, Math Methods, Chem, Physics, Bio and English or ESL (depending on if you are an international student or not)

 

[akkaps]

Yeah my brother dropped out of uni after a week or so and has since taken up a job as a waiter/bartender for a few years now, moved out and is having a great time with his life and meeting new people with work so it does look enticing.

I wouldn't want to take too long off and end up like one of those 40 year old out of touch uni students lmach is always going off about.

I've thought about the idea of leaving uni, but the shame that it will bring to the family would be too much to overcome.

 

[Jack Stevens]

El_Scorcho, are you me? (Although I can't see myself being a police officer. And I feel uneasy thinking that there are Port supporting police officers out there )

My school actively told us not to take gap years, which is terrible advice.

The Asian 5: is Specialist Maths, Math Methods, Chem, Physics, Bio and English or ESL (depending on if you are an international student or not)

Clearly not up to the Asian 5 standard, that's 6 subjects.

 

[El_Scorcho]

I've thought about the idea of leaving uni, but the shame that it will bring to the family would be too much to overcome.

This is a really good example of the sort of horrible "you must go to uni" indoctrination that goes on when smart kids are teenagers.

Uni is fantastic, but it's certainly not for everyone, even if you blitzed school.

I'm a huge fan of the gap year.

 

[Dylan8]

TAFE on the other hand gets slated as solely for genuine idiots, and most of the reports from my mates who go there just confirm that lol, however they are intellectually stupid campaigners. There's a lot of good to come from going to TAFE though especially if you aren't just cruising through and have goals in mind.