V ery C apably

Lakshmi Ganapathy

School: Viewbank College ATAR: 96.75

Subjects: English, Biology, Drama, Media, German, Mathematical Methods (CAS)

Awards: La Trobe University Vice Chancellor’s Excellence scholarship recipient, Academic awards for Media, Drama and English Academic Endeavour in Maths Methods

With your VCE now done and dusted, you’ve probably had a chance to look back at it all with wisdom. What did you learn about yourself in the VCE year?

Karina Vasudevan: This year, I was surprised to find out that subjects which I’d always regarded as my worst ended up being my best, and vice versa, both throughout the year and in my final results. This taught me to never take my own abilities for granted, since nothing is set in stone, and also that I am capable of surprising even myself. Funnily enough, I also discovered that I study most effectively in the night time, especially late. In a more holistic sense, I learnt that I am capable of making it through the toughest of times, such as weeks where I’d have almost every period of every day filled with SACs (assessments), and I think that times like these ultimately propelled me into finding an invaluable ability to persevere.

Lakshmi Ganapathy: I learnt that I’m a bit of perfectionist, sometimes even to my detriment. This was especially true when it came to devising my drama solo - the scale of the task and the need not to stuff up (the solo contributes to about 37 percent of the study score) played on my mind the whole time. I ended up in a sort of creative pigeonhole where I was too anxious to write any material because I felt it was “not good enough.” I realised then that I had to write something before I could write something well.

Tanish Rao: I learnt that if you put in the effort, you will be rewarded. Hard work and determination are the most important characteristics both in VCE and in life.

Sheil Bhatia: The concept on which almost all of economics is predicated is that of incentive, self-interest and autonomy.

Buyers and sellers act in the way they do and interact in the way they do because they have the sovereignty to do so and because it is in their best interest. In the same way, it is so crucial to recognise

Sheil Bhatia

School: Melbourne High School ATAR: 99.85

Subjects: Economics, English, Legal Studies, Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics

Awards: MHS Award for Academic Excellence that every decision you make will affect you, positively or negatively. It is critical to realise that there comes a time when, as a student, you must act in your benefit. If that means not going to a party or it means getting off Facebook, then so be it. Those around you can only do so much to drive you, motivate you and reap results. So work for yourself and act in your own self-interest for what is arguably one of the biggest years of your life.

Shlok Thakur: I learnt that it’s not about how much you study, in reality it’s about how smart you study.

What were your expectations going into the VCE year? How did reality compare?

Karina Vasudevan: I definitely imagined that Year 12 would be long, tedious, lots of work, and not much fun at all. In reality, yes, there was a ton of work, and at times it seemed endless, but now, I feel as though the year actually flew past! In retrospect, I can say it was my favourite year of high school. The effort of studying all the time seems somewhat negated by the amount of fun I had with my classmates, by how many people I became closer to, and by how much I actually enjoyed coming to school (most days). The general feeling of being in Year 12 is amazing. I ended the year with unexpected new friendships and fun memories which will stay with me for a long time, well beyond the memory of how much homework I did or how long I had to study every night (although those are aspects which won’t be easily forgotten!).

Lakshmi Ganapathy: Based on the experience of a few people I knew who had completed VCE, I was told it was going to be this gruelling, Herculean endeavour where you would be snowed under by work and which felt like “you put your brain in a blender and then back into your head again.” Obviously, I knew that this was a complete exaggeration manufactured to scare people, but there