Okay, it's kind of really complicated, but I'll explain how this works.
In highschool, you leave Year 12 with an ATAR score. It's a number between 0 and 99.95 which ranks you against other students. The higher the number, the better you scored. For example, if you got an ATAR of 85.00, you are in the top 15% of senior highschool students across the country. If you got a 60.00 ATAR, you are in the top 40%, 55.00 is 45% and so on.
Subjects at universities here all have an ATAR requirement, you have to have a certain ATAR to get into a certain subject. Subjects like Medicine require high ATARs, usually 95.00+, and the less "prestigious/difficult" the subject, the lower ATAR it'll require. Universities which are more renowned for a subject will have higher ATAR admission numbers than Universities that aren't renowned for that subject. For example, a University which is well known for it's great Medicine course might have an ATAR admission score of 97.00. Meanwhile, a University where Medicine isn't really that great a subject to get into, could have an ATAR admission score of 94.00.
Most universities have an admission ATAR score of around 60, just to get in. Now this may sound difficult, but consider this: The percentage ATAR accommodates for is including everybody who is eligible for an ATAR score, not everyone will receive an ATAR score because they might not want to go to university. If that doesn't make sense, look at it like this: Even if you got 0% on every single exam you did that went towards your ATAR (you have to do five "pre-tertiarty" (aka difficult) subjects to get an ATAR), you would still get an ATAR of over 20.00, because most likely 20% of people in the country who are eligible for an ATAR won't get one, because they're probably doing something like an apprenticeship, or some other form of education.
Now, we DO have GPA's. One type of GPA is our GPA which is used into admission into some specific subjects like law and medicine. We also can translate our scores in high school, our ATAR, to your GPA, if we want to, say, go to the USA to study.
Basically, Australia is a ranking system. It's you against everyone, and not you against a test %.
Ah, I see. Is it kind of about analog filters and stuff like that? It's definitely a great way to start Electrical Engineering.
Yes, a lot of transistors, capacitors, resistors, and inductors and whatnot. I've done the basic mathematical and physics theory behind this stuff in intro E&M physics, so I may try to read up on all the math and physics behind this stuff as I do it to help better inform me of what is actually going on when I play the electric guitar.
-benboy
Ooh, very complicated. I actually haven't played too much with transistors or inductors much, but hopefully I'll get into those eventually. That'll be really helpful. You can learn new ways to play the electric guitar to get the sound you're looking for. I'm sure there's a lot of acoustic physics and engineering that you'll find helpful.
Yes and yes, notably when I rewatched High School Musical recently after around 10-12 years, although that one's more like a TV movie. There was even this one bit I noticed in Far From Home where the voicing didn't match the overall tone of scene. However, my critiquing is more on how well-made it is and/or how much I enjoyed it. If I focused on the former, I would hate High School Musical by now and if I focused on the latter, I'd say Bayformers is better than say The Winter Soldier.
That makes sense... I guess I pay more attention to the actual format of the clips and transitions and things like that because I want to learn how to use those techniques properly. What are some of your favorite films to watch that you enjoy critically?
Same here tbh, as it helps in my hobby of video editing, which I wanna do again someday. Hmm, I have two different ways of lauding movies as I can enjoy movies based on them being personal favorites, but since I assume we're talking about including technical achievement and stuff, probably Inception, La La Land, Jojo Rabbit, Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie, Coco, Toy Story 3, and like three R-rated films.
Okay, maybe I complicated things a bit too much. xD Let's just say I can appreciate a movie for the artistic direction it went, or for what it is and how it made me feel and enjoy it, or maybe a bit of both.
Yeah, it's kind of late, but at least it's available. I see. Mostly stay in and sort LEGO, I'm guessing?
Awesome. Ah, I see. I'm sure it would've been a very busy trading shop since you were already high ranking.
Congratulations! One step closer to PhD!
Let's see, my LEGO collection is currently sorted by function/type of piece and attachment points. For example, I have all of my click-hinges in one compartment and my bar and clip related connections in another compartment. I also have compartments for different kinds of small pieces, such as 1x1 plates, 1x1 tiles, etc, since those are harder to find in a big bucket. In a small bin I have all of my SNOT and bracket pieces since those are handy to have in one place. Since most of the MOCs I make are about function, I have all of my functional parts sorted so that it's easier for me to find. Other than that, I have all of my 1xn plates in one place and 2xn plates in another place. Your mileage may vary depending on what you have in your LEGO collection, how much space you have, and your storage options. I'm pretty lucky to have visited IKEA quite a few times and picked up myself some sorting trays to make it easier.
May need a break from sorting lego, hurting my brain on the sorting
Yes, but then MLN just died out so it was kind of irrelevant
HOPEFULLY I get into a PhD, if not I'll be just getting a masters then see where the wind blows me
I originally had everything in trays I made myself, but I got annoyed with the trays, hence the bags. I was trying to then put the bags IN the trays and that kind of works but not everything fits. I have a bunch of larger tubs that I have some bags in now, but organization is poor because there's like zero friction and everything falls everywhere - and hard for me to see stuff too. I guess like I kind of know where everything is for the most part so it shouldn't be too bad to work with, but I want my lego sorting utopia. I actually have a set of like 48 small drawers I bought a while back, so I'm trying to decide what would work better in the drawers rather than in the bags. I also have a rolling cabinet with pretty shallow removable drawers I'm considering putting some bags in for accessibility. My favorite thus far is long, narrow boxes to put bags in, but it's harder to flip through and see what's in there. But I guess it's not too hard to remember what's where I guess I think I'll try sorting out a box of unsorted LEGO I have to see how well I can work with the system I've got right now. Maybe later this week.
-benboy
That's a good idea. Speaking of sorting, I've been thinking about making an automated LEGO sorting machine for a while now. Maybe I'll learn how to get a camera to recognize all kinds of LEGO bricks and a machine to put them into different bins so that I can spend more time building.
That makes sense. Were a lot of people on MLN even before it was announced it was going to close, or did it just get empty overtime?
Good plan. Is PhD and Masters two separate programs where you are? For me, I'm in the Masters program, but if I wanted to I think I can do a PhD just by taking more classes and doing a dissertation for another year or two.
Ah, I totally understand. I suppose you'll have to look at your parts inventory to see what kind of parts you have and see where the best place would be for those parts. I guess another way to sort would be to sort by usability. Perhaps the pieces you don't use often or find harder to implement in MOCs could be in a bin that you don't mind being mixed around with other parts. Good luck, and I hope it goes well.
What are some of your favorite films to watch that you enjoy critically? 
![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/k3cXEdyNkyw6aB9dHN1d.png)
(I think we created mustache) and ![]:)](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/398519603308789771/605106104955043840/156398253460466517.png)
. I think we got ![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
from some place else. ![[vel]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/kDkxclopdpbGKvUMjxNs.png)
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