As 200,000 Australian students wait with baited breath to receive their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) results, a new ABC documentary series is set to lift the lid on the reality of preparing for the momentous life event.
An event that anyone who has a teenager that’s gone through year 12, or has gone through year 12 themselves, will tell you about the tears, meltdowns, late nights and cramming sessions involved with making it through.
But in My Year 12 Life, the story is no longer a story - they're a tangible deep dive into the bedroom and study areas of the students living the experience in 2016.
"I’m feeling so much pressure, and so much stress and expectations to do the best I can, and I can't, I can't. I’m not superman," Year 12 student Shianna admits during one of her vlogs.
One of 14 students to take part in the series, she continues, "I'm not going to let four letters and a number on a piece of paper at the end of it all tell me what I can and can't be. I refuse to let something tell me what I can and can't be."
It's raw, honest and something we've either never seen or managed to forget.
But according to creator and executive producer Laura Waters, busting the pressure tank open is essential.
"It’s time we talked about the stress we’re putting on teenagers, and the effect of telling them they should be judged by one number, the ATAR," she told ABC.
"We wanted to hear their stories, told their way. Since teenagers are hilarious, dramatic, and brutally honest, so is our series,” she says.
Top Comments
Thank god for my parents who encouraged me but also made sure I knew other options should my ENTER score (as it was called back then) not be what i needed to get direct entry for my uni degree. Stress, sure. But nothing that has left lasting scars.
That's right, let's just keep on lowering those expectations until you only need to draw a sparkly picture of your sparkly imagined reality to get a sparkly ATAR and have a sparkly life... this is life, life is stressful and full of hard work and things that we don't want to do. I went through year 12, yes I felt stress but if you put it into perspective then it pales in comparison to what most people suffer daily around the world. I would say a few things to this girl...
1. Girls your age all around the world are the victims of forced marriage- many would already have multiple children by now.
2. You have been given the gift of education- work to appreciate and deserve it.
3. Right now it literally seems like you're having a tantrum- take a deep breath, calm down and re-read points one and two!!!!