Year 12, a big, rewarding year...

Imogen Chesterfield, Ethan Jolley and Esther Craig have graduated from St Brigid’s College in Horsham after completing VCE. The trio have shared some of their experiences of year 12, along with some advice, with The Weekly Advertiser readers: hard not to feel like my entire future rested on what I wrote in the space of those few hours. However, if you complete the SACS and study hard throughout the year, the exams are not completely impossible to face. They are difficult, but once they are over it is the best feeling in the world.

Now that I am finished year 12, I plan to find full-time work until I am completely sure about what I want to study at university.

My only advice to future year 12 students is to enjoy the year, as it really does pass so quickly, and to remember that your ATAR does not define the success of your entire schooling.

Just one ranking does not encapsulate 13 years of memories and learning.

– Imogen Chesterfield but because this year has been filled with so much excitement, even among the never-ending assessment, homework tasks and revision sessions.

As year 12s, the year’s journey involves you becoming more united and cohesive as a year level.

Surprisingly you get to know everyone that little bit better, even though you have worked alongside them for five years already, and in the process you start to reflect on all the good times you have had with this group you now class as family, and become a little saddened in the realisation that it all must come to an end.

Sitting exams is every year 12’s nightmare. Just thinking about the idea of sitting down for two to three hours writing non-stop, and having to think off the top of your head about content you learnt at the start of the year, is frightening. But after going through that experience, I think to myself that it really wasn’t that bad.

Yes, there are people who say that your final exams are so important, that these are the exams that end 13 years of schooling. But if you prepare for them, and at the end of the day do your best, then that’s all that really matters. And if you don’t get the score you need for your university course then there are other ways to pursue your dream career.

My plans for joining the Air Force and studying at the Australian Defence Force Academy were crushed a couple weeks before my exams.

I received a letter in the mail from the medical section of Defence Force Recruiting stating that I was medically unsuitable for military service because of my health scare in 2016.

Despite this destroying my dreams of joining the Defence Force, I’ve remained positive.

Next year for me is about working and getting experience in as many different fields as I can, that way I can see what I enjoy and what I’m good at.

I will also now be looking into different university courses, as this wasn’t on my mind at all this year. I’m really looking forward to where the next few years take me.

– Ethan Jolley Going into year 12 at St Brigid’s College seemed like a daunting task 10 months ago, and I was sure the year was never going to come to an end.

I began my VCE journey in 2015, as an unknowing and innocent year 10 doing units one-two general maths. The stakes were raised again in Year 11, when I sat my first unit three-four VCE exams, completing both further maths and legal studies. Although year 11 was an extremely busy time, juggling year 12 subjects along with my normal subjects, the efforts paid off as I finished with two decent study scores under my belt entering into my final year.

2017 has been a whirlwind of social activities, schooling milestones, working, calisthenics, and most importantly, studying.

My final year as a high school student was unlike any other year.

I thoroughly enjoyed the perks and privileges that came with donning the senior student jumper. As the seniors of St Brigid’s, my class mates and I had the opportunity to take on leadership roles.

I was lucky enough to receive the role of house captain of Kildare and got to undertake some exciting jobs, such as writing our house song and organising our competitors in the annual swimming sports. However, the most memorable aspect of year 12 for me was the bond that formed between myself and the 50 other kids who were experiencing the same struggles and triumphs every day, attempting to make it to the ‘all-important’ exams at the end of the year.

In all honesty, sitting my VCE exams has been the most stressful experience in my life so far, however, it was also an exciting challenge that signifies the culmination of years of hard work. To all future year 12s, remember that you get out what you put in, and hard work is rewarded.