Hey guys! I'm just about in the middle of my HSC year and I'm doing 12 units, and I really need more time so I want to drop one of my two unit courses. My subjects are:
Advanced English
Standard Maths
Biology
Ancient History
PDHPE
Food Tech
I'm tossing up between Ancient History (because there's a lot of content and I'm getting a raw mark of 80) and PDHPE (bad scaling but I'm getting a 95 average), though I do enjoy Ancient more. Any help would be great!
Hey, salma.hijazi1!
Welcome to the forums! I think it comes down to how you weigh up each subject with one other to decide which would be better for your study long term. Firstly, PDHPE doesn't actually have bad scaling so I thought I'd clarify that myth. Scaling involves a number of factors, including your ranks, HSC results, your school cohort's performance and where you sit in the state cohort's overall performance. It's way more nuanced than that so if you're sitting a 95 for PDHPE, that's a fantastic thing
On that note, I will also add that your internal marks are not what get processed to NESA but your rank so if you're ranking better in one subject over the other (and think this will remain the case), that's equally something to consider. Another thing is your career paths for the future. Will Ancient or PDHPE prove useful in some way for them? If neither of them do, which one do you think will provide at least the skills that can be transferrable to your potential direction in life? You don't have to settle on a pathway; just think about which one might be helpful in your prospects.
Beyond these logistics, Darcy's beaten me to it already but I'll reinforce that keeping the subject you enjoy more will be better since it will motivate you more long term to work harder for it. The HSC is definitely all about sustaining your efforts and having a passion for the subject will push you through major challenges that you might encounter during it. Look ahead to see what topics you'll be covering in both and see which one you think will be more rewarding
Hope that helps and let me know if you have any further questions!
Angelina