100 UAI, no tuition, did an Arts degree - AMA (1 Viewer)

[Mdyeow]

Hi BoS,

My name’s Mark and I was one of the last HSC students to receive the “perfect” 100.00 UAI.

Not many people (myself included) expected me to get anywhere near that good a score. I had no tuition at all during high school, I entered a serious relationship in Year 12 (great timing), probably spent more time playing Team Fortress 2 than studying (although I did revise Latin conjugations during loading-screens)…you get the idea. I received a state ranking in Extension 2 English, 8 months after I almost dropped the subject.

Armed with the all-powerful 100, I enrolled in…an Arts degree. Well, Media/Communications at Sydney University but determinedly not Law, Medicine, Commerce (though I sometimes would bamboozle people by telling I did “Comms” instead of “Comm”). I had huge support from my family but a lot of questions and sometimes accusations from people I’d meet.

My work today as a Digital Comms Manager involves me doing anything from running social media campaigns to producing animated feature films with zombies. I basically get paid to tell stories, which is pretty fun.

Just like its Reddit antecedents, this AMA is basically for anyone to “ask me anything” – doesn’t have to be HSC- or uni-related. English is my speciality – I just self-published The 5-Minute Essay, a series of tips to consistently writing decent HSC English responses without needing tuition – but I also did Ext 2 Maths, Extension Latin, and French Continuers. I played percussion in high school and now I drum/gong/cymbal for a lion-dance group. My favourite Team Fortress 2 class was Medic. Hit me with whatever.

(verification here)

Cheers,


Mark Yeow (Sydney Grammar ’08, University of Sydney ’12)

 

[QZP]

How many hours did you study each day during the HSC? It seems like you didn't try that much. Would you say you owe your performance to natural aptitude?

 

[strawberrye]

Thanks for sharing your story, Mark, I truly admired your determination to pursue your passions and not getting into the course that has the highest ATAR possible even though you may not necessarily be interested in such courses. I wish you continual enjoyment and passion for your current career and may you succeed in all of your future endeavours

 

[Mdyeow]

How many hours did you study each day during the HSC? It seems like you didn't try that much. Would you say you owe your performance to natural aptitude?

Short answer is I don't know, but quite a bit more in Year 12 than I did for any other year. I didn't track how long I studied because I didn't want to be comparing against anyone else and feeling like I wasn't doing enough. Natural aptitude plays a part, but more important is training yourself for your assessments/exams: that is, simulating what you're likely to encounter under test conditions. I coasted on "talent" for ages until a series of English assessments severely knocked down my average. After that I adjusted my habits to a far more rigorous (but not hugely time-consuming) pattern.

So the mainstay of my study was typically practice papers (particularly for English and Maths), as well as translation/writing/speaking exercises for Latin and French. Basically regular drills, but not spending too much time per day in order to avoid burnout. And making sure I was having fun by reading other things, swimming, gaming, in order for my brain to recuperate.

I stopped "studying" two weeks before the actual HSC exam, only doing very minor (~10-20mins a day) revision during the actual exam period. I don't believe in cramming. If you haven't learnt what you need to by then, you're pretty screwed anyway.

Long answer to a short question, hope that all makes sense.

 

[kaz1]

some ask me anything this is deleting my questions

how hot are the chicks in communications? are the rumours true?

 

[Mdyeow]

some ask me anything this is deleting my questions

how hot are the chicks in communications? are the rumours true?

Usually around 7-8, obviously you get outliers though but it's a pretty small candidature so there are very few actual 9's or 10's. Mainly white/Euro (not many Asians apart from international students usually), sometimes quite militant left-leaning in views (Arts students, what would you expect) so can be hard to...deal with sometimes.

I think that means the rumours are not realllly true, but I can only speak for USYD and (obviously) my own personal preferences. I never had any real interest in anyone from my degree.

Not sure why your qs getting deleted, maybe there's a mod out there who got jilted by a comms student

 

[Cleavage]

what subjects did you do in your hsc

throughout school, what was your favorite subject? did you have a favourite?

 

[Mdyeow]

what subjects did you do in your hsc

throughout school, what was your favorite subject? did you have a favourite?

English up to Ext2
Maths up to Ext2
Latin up to Ext1
French Continuers


My favourite was probably Ext 2 but it was also the subject that I also felt the most frustrated with. Mainly because I had to come to terms with the fact that my writing wasn't as hot-shit as I'd thought it was; but that frustration drove me to really focus on it and hone it to a far higher level.

I also really enjoyed the problem-solving element of Maths but was pretty slow at getting the concepts. May sound surprising but I did not enjoy English Advanced at all - it doesn't give you the chance to really enjoy or immerse yourself in the literature, which is galling when you're delving into something as rich and replete as Hamlet (one example).

 

[Mdyeow]

Thanks for sharing your story, Mark, I truly admired your determination to pursue your passions and not getting into the course that has the highest ATAR possible even though you may not necessarily be interested in such courses. I wish you continual enjoyment and passion for your current career and may you succeed in all of your future endeavours

Thanks, strawberrye. Really respect the detail and diligence of your responses on BoS. All the best to you too

 

[Verify]

Do you have any regrets in picking an arts degree over something that required a higher ATAR?

 

[Mdyeow]

Do you have any regrets in picking an arts degree over something that required a higher ATAR?

Sometimes. In hindsight I feel like engineering or compsci would have imparted skills that are very hard to learn by yourself, whereas the skills and knowledge from a media degree can to a large extent be picked up through self-learning. But on the whole I have no regrets - my arts degree let me study digital and social media in really exciting ways, gave me the "industry Cred" for entry-level jobs in journalism etc (which I could then build on), and most importantly for me, consumed only 2-3 days each week. This allowed me to pursue a lot of professional and side opportunities which other more intensive courses would not have.

Worth noting that my degree is a specialised arts course, not your "vanilla" arts degree though. But my most enjoyable and, I think, educative subjects were arts, not media (mainly those in English and Digital Cultures).

 

[madharris]

Pretty sure I stalked you on facebook like 2/3 years ago...
Although I can't remember why! hahahaha D:

 

[deloving]

What were your other interests during highschool, apart from TF2? That leads me to the second question - what lead you into a Media/Communications degree?

 

[lordfraction]

Do you have any spare TF2 hats I can have?

 

[Mdyeow]

Pretty sure I stalked you on facebook like 2/3 years ago...
Although I can't remember why! hahahaha D:

Not sure whether to be flattered or frightened...if you remember let me know

What were your other interests during highschool, apart from TF2? That leads me to the second question - what lead you into a Media/Communications degree?

I also played other games like Fallout 3.

To be honest, my interests were and always have been around books and movies and all sorts of stories. I was heavily involved in the musical side of things at school but I slowly lowered that during my HSC year because I preferred to read instead. Also re-started swimming in Year 12 which still counts as one of my favourite pursuits/ways to unwind - ironic because I was entirely hapless at school sport. I chose the MeCo degree simply because I liked to write, I was okay at doing so (including professionally, I was doing some freelance work on the side in the last years of high school), and I had no real interest/substantial aptitude in any other degrees. Not for the female:male ratio no matter what anyone else suggests...

Do you have any spare TF2 hats I can have?

I don't game anymore so you're welcome to pick...if I can find my Steam password. And still have it installed. PM me.

 

[lrrrl]

How late would you say is too late to start studying? Also, what would be your most important tip to people doing the HSC this year?

 

[Mdyeow]

How late would you say is too late to start studying? Also, what would be your most important tip to people doing the HSC this year?

Never too late. But the earlier you start, the more practice you can get in. I think that if you get a really consistent drill going by just after half-yearlies (say April or so) you're in a really good position. Just avoid putting off until a week/the night before exams.

Most important tip? Relax. Take time out from study to do other things. Exercise in particular is really important for clearing the brain (this is scientifically proven) - so get out and doing stuff at least 1-2 times a week. Don't cram, for exactly the same reason: cramming is studying when your brain is fatigued, and you absorb way less when you do so. Wasting your time is for chumps. Study, keep your mind active (read, watch movies, learn about new stuff on the Internet), and don't overstretch your body.

My "killer" relaxation tip was sleeping at 9pm and waking up at 6am.

 

[Soulful]

What is the most effective way to study a modern language?

 

[Thief]

How did you relationship turn out?

 

[Mdyeow]

What is the most effective way to study a modern language?

This is a difficult one. I immediately thought "heavy immersion" (which a lot of my friends did for French, rendered them near-fluent and meant virtually no need to study for next 3-4 years of exams). But that's not particularly "effective" if you think in terms of work:reward ratio, time and $$ spent, and so on.

My strategy was more akin to "micro-immersion" for each aspect of the language, since each paper is divided into different components for read/writing, speaking, listening, et c.

So for read/writing: reading news articles, features, short stories in the language. Writing you just do like you would any other subject: WRITE.

Speaking: find someone fluent (e.g. I did biweekly classes with someone at Alliance Francaise to top up my speaking skills as I got closer to the HSC). Or just practise speaking in monologues to the mirror. You'll pick up where you stutter, forget stuff, get awkward phrases, and then you can go back and revise those so you have them in your memory bank. Once again, comes down to developing a way to reveal your weaknesses and crush them.

Listening: news bulletins and podcasts are best I find. I used to watch the French news on SBS a couple times a week, didn't always get a whole lot of the stories but it helped give me an ear for the rhythms and cadences of the language. You can often also find listening tracks online which are tailored for students, for French a fair few radio stations actually have programs tailored to people learning French so they're slower and more enunciated than your typical spoken voice.

And then practice papers, memorise key idioms and turns of phrase (to show nuanced use of the language), and revise your grammar.

How did you relationship turn out?

That year was great. For me it really just helped to have someone who would always be there to listen, to hang out with, to share the entire experience? We barely ever talked about the HSC (I think we studied together only once). One of the hardest things about that year I think is that everyone is so caught up with the web of studies and commitments and pressure that it's often just hard to find time for other people? But because we had each other, there wasn't that constant social anxiety of reaching out to see someone and being rebuffed by "I've got to study" or "I have assessments" - we always had time for each other, if that makes sense? And in a tumultuous life-stage like that, you really need that sort of anchor-point to keep yourself strong?

I've never said this before but I would credit a lot of how I did that year to her presence, support, affection. Which is ironic given how a lot of families (particularly Asian ones) discourage relationships during high school because of their distractive potential. And also because we absolutely fell to pieces the year after.