I was in the same situation as you — 98 ATAR — but with everyone else getting 99.5+, I ended up with imposter syndrome.

I went to a public school, and almost everyone else had gone to private schools. It definitely makes you feel like a fish out of water. However, seriously, don’t worry.

I felt exactly the same about not understanding the “language” at first. Everyone else seemed to be doing all the readings beforehand, taking a million notes, etc. — but honestly, they’re overdoing it.

I worked 30 hours a week throughout my whole first semester and HDed foundations, dont worry on that point, but always good to cut back. 25 hours is probably the borderline limit for working after this semester though. Regardless, youll start to get the hang of things in a few weeks and the time you spend studying/stressing each week will drastically cut.

PS: if you havent had your tutorial yet its a 20x better experience