SCREW HIGH SCHOOL.

I just want to rant. And the number one reason that I'm a blazing ball of fury is school. I live in Australia and the high school system supports the HSC (Higher School Certificate) which you complete in year 12 (Senior year, year 13 for the UK/NZ, etc, etc).

And you have no fucking idea how hard it is. I know for a fact that this has more pressure and much more difficult than most school systems in other countries. There is assessment tasks throughout the year with periodic exams such as half yearly exams and the critical and final HSC exams at the end of the year.

I can deal with exams. It's simple. You study, you vomit all you remember in a piece of paper then the pressure is off after 1 to 3 hours. Easy. I wrote countless essays so it's second nature, I have a fairly good memory so remembering stuff isn't hard.

But when it comes down to the stuff, it actually includes critical thinking rather than sucking up shit from the teacher, most particularly in English (it's brutal). Its so competitive since I'm in the Advanced class (like honors or accelerated classes) and the fuckery is that your mark depends on the class, not on your own. If some people do shittily in the class, EVERYBODY'S marks goes down, if more people did well, the mark rises. So, there's the pressure to have consistently good marks. Everyone had to have them. No slacking allowed at all.

And I have to huge major projects going on. I'm a very creative person. I'm artistically gifted so naturally, I chose more creative classes and I got Visual Arts and Design and Technology. Those two got major projects you work throughout the year and it's huge. You get to pick what the hell you want to make (I'm making a short graphic novel for Art and a shoe for Design and Technology) but there is so much work to be invested in it and the Board of Studies (the assholes who thought up of the HSC) demanded consistent check ups throughout the year so if you're not where you should be, you will get in trouble, serious trouble on top of marking down your work. And that actually crush more pressure on us to stuff in work in time for those check ups. I don't do well under that kind of pressure.

Everything, including my major works, the assessment tasks and all of the exams adds up to a final mark. To get in the university course I want to get I need 85.00, which is pretty much 85%. I have so much expectations from everybody. They say I'm smart and that I would do well. But as hard as the HSC is, I'm not even sure if I could ever meet the expectations from everybody - teachers, my parents, family and friends.

And I found out that I won't have a holiday, actually, two different holidays at all because they will be spent working on the major projects and studying for the end of year exams. I couldn't sleep properly on top of the stress. I know my teachers aren't quite the ones who are purposefully putting this kind of pressure (the government are the assholes who are) and they're trying their best to help us but really, extra homework is not the way to go.

So the only things I can say is, fuck school, fuck the government, fuck pressure and fuck education. (Okay, I actually like learning, as long there is no deadlines or extra pressure such as simply reading a non-fiction book). The HSC is teetering to the point of ridiculous.

Fuck this shit.