On Defecating Bricks

The action on Facebook tonight: Various friends bemoan the arrival of tomorrow's ATAR scores - the set of numbers that will determine, at least in the immediate future, our career pathways. One warns customers to be prepared for a cantankerous checkout chick while others look into the ether for help on receiving the most "efficient" mode of getting their scores (a surprising, if not unexpected, comment regarding the Nazis was made on one such status).

The culmination of the various portion of 13 years of industrious work - or lack thereof - will become tangible tomorrow. Some may have put in the effort for the 2 years - the technical duration of the VCE but it is possible to stretch it out to 3 - others just the one year and some may have only known good study habits for 6 months. On a personal level, I felt I could have worked harder for the first half of this year before I clamped down for the November exams. This was especially the case when I had already achieved a study score in the top 3.5% of the state for Literature last year.

Whatever situation a student finds themselves in, there needs to be a check-in not with hysteria but with reality. The whole reason that we are subjected to this method of evaluation is that all parties concerned with our education - employers, tertiary institutions, the VCAA, our peers and, most importantly, our own egos - can determine just where we stand. I've heard that, apparently, fellow tortured students in Britain receive only end-of-year grade markings, and their relative worth to universities is determined by extracurricular activities. It's a noble idea, but I've come to believe that statistical moderation is far superior to this sort of contextual determination. At the end of the day, your volunteering at the local soup kitchen for a couple of hours each week has no bearing on how successful you will be in completing your Juris Doctor with honours.

Of course, some will feel disappointment. It's a natural part of the whole scholastic cycle. I can write this with some ease as I have been provisionally offered to study a Bachelor of Communication (Media) at RMIT. I would say to those people that your response to the setback defines you more as a person than the setback itself ever does. There is a beautiful short story by Isaac Asimov - and I'll be darned if I can remember the name of it - that exposes final exams in the future - which are roughly analogous to the importance of my exams for future success on steroids on methamphetamines. The crux of the story is that he seemingly fails all his exams - only in the last paragraph is his result revealed to be special enough to be deemed an educator and smarter than most other people. The whole point is that while it sounds clichéd, it might just be good advice to follow the wisdom of The Rolling Stones - "You can't always get what you want, but you find sometimes that you might just get what you need".

Anyway, I'm off now to watch "Peep Show", possibly one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. I hope to sleep well, and wake up nice and late so I don't stress too much about receiving the SMS with my ATAR score - a score that will influence quite heavily my immediate future. I hope I do well and I hope that you, dear reader, can be satisfied with such an epochal set of numbers