Well, I've officially begun what is the final stretch of my schooling career. From here until December 2009, it's the most important stuff ever, ever. All work for the 12th grade.

SO COME ON! YOU CAN DO IT!!! GO FOR THE GOLD OMGGGGGGMGMG!!!!!!!!!!!

Good. Enough motivation. This journal will be here until the end of next year. If you are so kind as to drop caps-lock-enticed words of wisdom, then please do so; every bit counts.

Results, Grade 11:

English - 88
Hebrew - 85
Maths - 92
IT - 90
Afrikaans - 71
Art - 84
Life Orientation - 86

Grade 11 Average: 85

On to Matric!

Call this egotistical... I don't care

Matric:

Well, okay. The lessons are long and the days are painstakingly boring, but I have more ambition than ever. Let's get it ONNNNNNNNN!!!!!

First Prelims: 19 March - 3 April 2009

Results:

Afrikaans: 80 (it got bumped up! MY FIRST A IN AFRIKAANS!)
Hebrew: 88
English: 84
Information Technology: 74 (ouch I did well in the exam. it was that stupid research project that I failed)
Art: 81
Life Orientation: 80
Mathematics: 100 (read 'em and weep. MUAHAHAHA!!)

Average: 85

Got my Honours' Blazer.
Applied for Wits: Bachelor of Economic Science, majoring in Actuarial Science and Mathematical Statistics
It's quite unbelievable how far I turned from my former passion of art and graphic design.
School art does that to you... it kills the passion and leaves sadness instead.
Second term holidays are almost at a close. I can't believe it. It's basically only 3 weeks of proper school left. Yeeouch.
Used these holidays to finish up my projects and portfolio pieces so all that's left is studying for the big prelims and then finals. This is it, as stated about a year ago when I named this journal entry.
13 July 2009

Legend - wait for it...

Second Prelims have begun!
Now it gets tough. It's all downhill from here; only 24 more to go! (Trying to mimic the pokerap... )
I don't know if it's actually 24, but it's close to that. Might even be less.
Anyways now maths is divided into 3 papers, and english and afrikaans and hebrew all into 2 each. Remember, maths is the most important one to excel in:

Final Prelims Results:

English: 90%
Afrikaans: 74%
Mathematics: 98%
Hebrew: 90%
IT: 93%
Art: 81%
Life Orientation (FINAL MARK): 85% (Already a single distinction!)
Mathematics Paper III - 99.5% (kick in the face)

Average shenanigan:

88 PERCENT! WHOA! Top of the grade in maths. YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, 4 A+ marks. Pretty good. myeesh.
Aaaaaanyways... It's the hardest I tried for any exams and my average grew by a considerable amount. I managed to maintain my 5 distinction track record and it's so irritating but I would have gotten 6 distinctions in my first prelims because that feasibility study project for IT was remarked and it went from 8/15 to 14/15, ensuring my A. Grr I want a reprint! lol.


...wait for it...

MORE UPDATES
Speech Night / Prizegiving Evening

Academic Honours Medal
Top of Grade in Maths Trophy
Top of Grade in English Trophy (shared prize)

...wait for it...

FINALS HAVE BEGUN!!!

THIS IS IT! Sadly, results can only be received on the 31st of December and no, no teachers from my school will know of any of the marks, for we are no longer part of the school. We are property of the Independent Examinations' Board. That's right. The IEB. So instead of writing my results, I'll write a short general musing about the subjects I have written and bid farewell to them in an honourable manner:

HEBREW PAPER I (26 October 2009)
MY GOD that paper was difficult. We had to learn 3 stories and 2 poems. Once, in a Hebrew lesson, we asked our teacher if we would be asked to compare two stories / poems and she said that it would never happen because the level of hebrew would be astronomical for us... but guess what happen????!?!? Anyways, yeah it was difficult, but a challenge met is a victory earned. So I'll await paper II and see what happen!
UPDATE After the exam we asked our head of hebrew what she thought and she said it was too long and even she was confused by some of the questions. So apparently all the marks might be raised. As I finished the paper, and because I felt I did quite well at it (I understood the comprehensions while many didn't), I believe I'm ensured of this distinction

HEBREW PAPER II (27 October 2009)
First of all, getting to school at 1 in the afternoon is awesome. You're not tired and it's warm, and also relaxing. Second of all, the paper was considerably easier than the first. I didn't find any particular problem with it. It's a culmination of all my Hebrew experience throughout these last three years, so that's that. With the end of this paper comes the end of one of six subjects. Hebrew was one of my best subjects actually (the order goes Maths, Hebrew, English, IT, Afrikaans, Art) so ending it forever was quite bittersweet. But, you know, the songs are still there and they kick ass. And perchance in the future I'll revisit Israel and reconnect with the culture).

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRACTICAL (28 October 2009)
So the IEB messed up badly, lol. There are only 8 of us who do IT, but they only send three exams. So they have to photocopy them for us. Then the exams are the wrong ones and they finally find the right ones but there are again only 3 copies. So they have to photocopy them again. Roar. So we started pretty late but the exam itself couldn't have been easier. I did an example the night before and the final had pretty much the same format. The "high-level" questions did not stump me and overall I probably got somewhere in the high nineties. OUR teacher actually marks them first so hopefully I'll be able to ask her soon for the marks for this one!

ENGLISH PAPER I (29 October 2009)
AND thus ends a long long week of four back-to-back exams. This exam was lame. We had to study 25 poems for the most obvious ONE to appear in the exam. I could have cut my studying time by 12 hours!!!! (Although there's probably some subliminal value that comes from studying your ass off for poems that aren't in the exam). ANYWAYS I found it quite easy. The key is to write a lot, use high level language and don't use words you're not really sure of, because the examiner will just need one instance of weakness and he/she will devour you whole (or at least that's my perception of the soulless, heartless IEB). IF YOU GET SWINE FLU AND CAN'T WRITE, IT'S "TOO BAD"!!!!! Anyways I took the poetry list, tore it up and flushed it down the toilet. The poems themselves are stored somewhere in a galaxy far far away. I'm relaxing the rest of the day and diving into Afrikaans tomorrow morning. Need. A. Rest!!!!!

!!!!!! MATHEMATICS PAPER I !!!!!! (04 November 2009)
Two words... NAILED IT!!!! LEGENDARY OH MY GOD I LOVE MATHS!!! They had maybe about two questions that were really challenging. I believe I made not a single mistake, so my mark is probably somewhere between 98 and 100. I then worked it out that, along with the portfolio mark of 94% (egh, could have done better), I already have 60% of my final mark. All that's left is Maths Paper II and I figured out that even an 80% for maths paper II equals a 90% for the total mark. And I'm not getting a low 80. I'm getting a high 90. Perhaps 99. A rough estimate is 97% for final mark. Let me see if I get that!! TIL THE THIRTIETH OF DECEMBER!!! URGH and there's Afrikaans tomorrow. I gotta go through the poetry book for THE LAST TIME EVER!!! I can cross off each poem I do once I do it. 10 to go!!!

AFRIKAANS PAPER I (05 November 2009)
Two words... JA NEE!!! I don't know... is the standard of IEB very low? Basically every question was out of 1 mark and there were but a few questions that really challenged the mind (like there was an advert we had to look at and the question asked us how do we know that the person's diary isn't 2008's diary, even though the advert had a (c) 2008 icon on it? My answer was the on the diary it said that in 2008 the day was sunday and the person wrote about going to work, so it couldn't have been sunday. Really there to trick us. MAN!). Overall it wasn't bad. I liked it. But I can't say anything, because in Afrikaans, whenever you think you did well you usually don't... but I don't know... this time....
ANYWAYS... piss-ass studying is over. It's the real shiz-niz from now on. Each study day until next week thursday, my time will be divided among art, afrikaans paper 2, english paper 2 and IT theory. The big exam list has been reduced to one page, to six exams left. You know what that means? It means that I only need to go to school in school uniform for SIX MORE DAYS. In effect, I have SIX DAYS LEFT of school. In effect, that's AWESOME!!!!!! So thus enters the big break - 12 days before my next "learning" subject, art.

MATHEMATICS PAPER TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (13 November 2009)
LEGENDARY!! While I proclaim that this was more difficult than paper one, it was still easy. Challenging in an easy way, really. Most of the questions actually did involve a lot of high-order thinking that forced you to use things that were out of ordinary context to solve them. Also I used stuff that was actually beyond the syllabus itself so I dunno maybe the IEB will note that and send me a cake or something! Anyways, from this and maths paper one, my university seat should be all warmed up by now. Pity, not many people seem to be taking my degree. Like, for BCom it takes a whole day to register each person and for by BEconSci it takes 2 hours for everyone. Well I don't care; the less the better. Next week is ART AAHHH!!! And English which is okay. Sadly maths is gone. It's really sad. Oh when I retire young I want to teach maths!!!

ART (or VISUAL CULTURE STUDIES)
Not bad. Just a lot of writing. Formulating essays, lots and lots of essays. It's amazing to think that after tomorrow I'll never have to do another long boring essay in English again for high school. Tomorrow is hectic and the study guidelines I set for myself for tomorrow after the exam are physically impossible to perform after the amount of stress after these two exams. In this respect, I've allowed myself ONE (1) amendment to the study timetable. I mean I told myself that after the exam tomorrow I would learn half the afrikaans syllabus and 1 quarter of the IT syllabus. And now I look at it and am like "no..."
AND ART IS FINALLY OVER!!! THANK GOD I hate art, sorry DA lol . I hate "School" art, the art that puts you down in whatever you do, except theory I guess. I really need to get 100% in this exam to contend for an A... considering whatever my final art practical project got me... hope it did good....

ENGLISH PAPER II

Well we have no choice of question to do for Othello, but it was fine because the question was really easy (Iago, pff... too much to say about him). As usual, "Things Fall Apart" question was quite tricky, but I believe I nailed it. And then there was a transactional writing question that was basically art. You were a guy who was describing his paintings to this other guy. But as I said. English is art and art is English, so...
ANYWAYS... three more to go and then I've completed my high school career. I told myself I wouldn't talk about maths until the end of these two exams and I really didn't... it was sad... I missed maths... but the next exam on Tuesday is Maths Paper III so that's nice. Then the last two, all in a row, all gonna be dominated, gonna be raped by me. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

MATHEMATICS PAPER III

Well umm oh shit okay I lost a mark or two or three. probably still got 90-something but when I know that I've lost a mark somewhere it sucks more sucks more sucks sucks anyways that sucks but I still got a distinction unless they lose my paper. Why is that such a fear? Fucking IEB!!!!
Anyways that's Maths for school done. Tomorrow is afrikaans paper II oh boy...



...wait for it...

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South Africa - My Home



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Honourary artists: