u/Candid_Interest6025

The coordinator of the academic program i’m in reccomended me and a few students to sign up for the astrophysics concepts UWA+ Starter course but the entry is $495 and I don’t know anybody irl who has done it. Does anybody have an idea on whether the programs are really worth it? Is it an enjoyable and challenging experience?

i’m not taking the HSC and maybe it will sound a bit strange to willingly want to take a subject like science ext but is there an equivalent of this outside of NSW? I’ve done a bit of research here and there with summer programs and symposiums so a course/unit at school dedicated to research seems pretty rigorous but interesting. I’m probably underestimating how hard the subject is, and i’m not too sure if I plan on doing an equivalent this year but i’m curious as highschool research isn’t that common here🤔

I had a teacher who used to run it at her old school but obviously there isn’t an equivalent anywhere else💔

Everytime I try to ask the careers counsellor, or the Head of learning they always give me some cryptic ass message "It depends on every year you know, I'm actually not sure I can give an overall idea for you but (proceeds to explain the most basic ATAR topics of scaling ever, yes I know what exam moderation is and why things get scaled) but I just want other peoples experiences so I can at least get some general idea.

I go to a newer school that has been opened for less than ten years, with ATAR running for about three years and the median throughout those years was around 60 and for 2 out of three years only one person got above 90 which is absolutley atrocious and below the state avg by miles, the DUX was a 92, 95 and then a 97.55 so it seems to be increasing gradually, and in 2025 three people got above 90 which is kinda booty but still better since our ATAR cohort is very, very small. Also, apparently, the current cohort I'm in now is actually a lot worse and less academically inclined and performs a lot worse compared to the previous years, as my teachers have said so. I'm a little worried and frustrated.

I'm actually surprised by how buns the median is as my school is considered an ATAR and Academic school lol.

this might be a stupid question, but every person that Ik doing ATAR right now is completely going through it and they’ve just become a studying robot and have dropped their job, hobbies and passions (even ones they’ve been doing for 6+ years) and they never hang out with their friends outside of school or their parents I don’t know whether this is an extreme end, or a given sacrifice everyone must make😭. They are doing the hard subjects like chem, methods and specs which yes requires more studying and is more straining to balance but is it that bad really? I want to do those subjects but I also want a life outside of studying, if that’s possible💔💔

listen to your audience, for once. It’s just four things.

(also guys make your own lists and post it so maybe the devs will see)

(this isn’t taking to account production costs or whatever, just what would theoretically save this doomed site. Also mind u most of the things i’m suggesting, character ai’s competitors already have. For FREE.)

1. Stop trying to cater to all ages. Implementing age verification so only 18+ can chat (but younger audiences can still view their chats? lol who is doing that) yet basically anything slightly sensitive gets filtered seems redundant if you want to cater to older audiences who aren’t going to be affected by that stuff. Trying to mediate between kids content and adult content will simply not please both ends of the spectrum. Restricting chat freedoms of adults isn’t going well so far. A toggle to enable sensitive content would be nice. Or, if you do want to cater to kids and adults only let the sensitive content be enabled for verified 18+ accounts (though this has its dangers since people may lie. But seriously people have been asking to allow more sensitive content for years.)
2. Bring back PS1 and Soft launch- or allow model customisation. It’s a common thing with C.AI’s competitors now to allow users to customise chat models (eg, message length, description, behaviour, stability) which allows for more freedom and tailor made experiences that’ll increase user contentment and overall satisfaction with the bots. The people who want long, immersive and highly detailed roleplays can have their cake, and the people who want short, spunky responses like they’re texting a character they like can have their cake and eat it too. Idk why they don’t have this honestly. This will create more diversity in bots and allow for more creativity. Character Ai needs to adapt with its competitors and actually please their users. Or open source the models.
3. Remove Swipes, Voice messages and Go-On limit. Why does this exist? By the way, this isn’t going to push people to buy premium. It will just make them annoyed by how many horrible updates have happened this year. Once again, restricting C.AI’s main feature to its bare bones so only people who pay can make it function freely seems strange.
4. Remove all the useless features barely anybody uses and actually invest time and money into the chats. Of course people use these features- scarcely in comparison to people who use the chats, and even just the chats only. These other features are used in turn with the chats and not separately even then! Character Ai’s audience is primarily using chat feature, but instead of polishing and perfecting this you guys add books and imagined and whatever other things nobody asked for? There’s other websites people go to for book writing, videos, animations and image generation. The niches exist already and excel at it since AI has been around now for a bit. Trying to make Character Ai the ‘Roblox’ of AI is probably going to drive out its main audience of adults, and it’s not going to be an ‘all rounder’ but a shoddy generalist that ‘does the job’.

I love doing writing on my free time but recently I have an assignment which (as the title says) I have to choose out of four prompts and write an allegorical short story, and while I have written allegorical and symbolic stories i’ve never just winged writing without a plan for YEARS😭 I was wondering how I could prepare for this upcoming assignment and ace it, as this is my first time writing without knowing a prompt or idea in mind. Also, how do I try and keep my story concise as i have to do it in under an hour, since i’m used to writing books and fleshing out characters and stories over time idek how i’ll make a decent and appealing story in under about 5 pages.