Doing 4 Extension subjects, too much?

[sunbunbri]

Hello, I am just posting to ask for advice from individuals who have gone through their hsc already/are going through it.
My subjects are as follows: advanced English, extension English 1, extension English 2, continuers chinese, chinese extension, modern history, ancient history & society and culture.
Unit total: 13
I am thinking of dropping modern, my weakest subject and taking up extension history, leaving me with 12 units.
That means 3 majors, one for extension 2 English, one for society & culture and one for extension history.
I topped advanced English, extension English, chinese continuers and society and culture last year (last term) with averages of 95%-98%.
I am an independent learner and self-motivated.
Do you feel it is best for me to keep 13 units and 3 extensions or drop down to 12 units with 4 extensions?
(My average in ancient was 97% but I am ranked second btw!)
Please let me know what you think!
Thank you

[Mada438]

Hello, I am just posting to ask for advice from individuals who have gone through their hsc already/are going through it.
My subjects are as follows: advanced English, extension English 1, extension English 2, continuers chinese, chinese extension, modern history, ancient history & society and culture.
Unit total: 13
I am thinking of dropping modern, my weakest subject and taking up extension history, leaving me with 12 units.
That means 3 majors, one for extension 2 English, one for society & culture and one for extension history.
I topped advanced English, extension English, chinese continuers and society and culture last year (last term) with averages of 95%-98%.
I am an independent learner and self-motivated.
Do you feel it is best for me to keep 13 units and 3 extensions or drop down to 12 units with 4 extensions?
(My average in ancient was 97% but I am ranked second btw!)
Please let me know what you think!
Thank you

Hey!
I would definitely not pick up a fourth major. That's wayyy too much.
Coming from someone who did only 1 major this year, they're tough to do. Especially est English and society and culture as they're due right around when trials begin. So you're trying to balance your time between trials study AND finishing your majors which will be a very stressful time. Throw that in with another major and the rest of your units and that's one of the hardest workloads I've ever seen.
You say that you're a self-motivated student with great marks, this is good! But you will probably still come a point where this will all become a little much. If anything, I'd probably recommend dropping a subject or one with a major work just to keep on top of everything because, with this workload, even the slightest lapse will mean you may fall behind. What if you become very sick? Break your hand? or something else?
And what about doing stuff outside of school? (Hanging out with friends? Sport? Extra-curricular activities?) All that work is going to take up A LOT of time, no matter how self-motivated and independent you are and doing other things will provide the best escape from doing lots of work, to keep yourself sane during the year.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to discourage you from trying, I'm just pointing out what could happen and make sure you consider all your options.
Hope this helps and good luck with your hsc!   

[owidjaja]

Hello, I am just posting to ask for advice from individuals who have gone through their hsc already/are going through it.
My subjects are as follows: advanced English, extension English 1, extension English 2, continuers chinese, chinese extension, modern history, ancient history & society and culture.
Unit total: 13
I am thinking of dropping modern, my weakest subject and taking up extension history, leaving me with 12 units.
That means 3 majors, one for extension 2 English, one for society & culture and one for extension history.
I topped advanced English, extension English, chinese continuers and society and culture last year (last term) with averages of 95%-98%.
I am an independent learner and self-motivated.
Do you feel it is best for me to keep 13 units and 3 extensions or drop down to 12 units with 4 extensions?
(My average in ancient was 97% but I am ranked second btw!)
Please let me know what you think!
Thank you

Hey there,
As someone who's experienced with 13 units and 2 major works, 3 majors and 4 extension classes would be too much. I spent half of the year doing 2 extension classes and I found it difficult to keep up so I dropped down to 2U math. If they were more practical based majors (like art, graphics, drama), then maybe because they can be therapeutic. But since the majors you'll be doing are heavily based on writing and researching, it would be really difficult to try and manage all of them.

2 majors was manageable because during the 2 hours of major work sessions I had at school, I could easily divide my time. You need to remember that with SAC and History Extension, you need to do intense research. Like, digging through the State Library, interviewing people, making sure you're submitting your work on time. Even though I completed parts of my Major Works early, I still had this lingering paranoia that I was behind or I didn't do something right. Again, still doable to do 2 majors because I know a lot of people who did 4U English/SAC or 4U English/History Extension or History Extension/SAC.

Now throw in your study time into the mix. When I was doing 13 units, I spent so much time doing math and I didn't have time to submit practice essays for English or Modern. I stayed up until 12 so I could write a practice essay for History Extension because you're supposed to take up the information you're given and come up with your own ideas- something I (or anything in my class) was used to. Not only that, I wanted to maintain my rank and marks so that was even more stressful (if you dig back to my HSC journal from the beginning of the year, I talked about how I've cried myself to asleep on many occasions because of this). I didn't want to go out on the weekends with my family because I was stressed I wasn't able to keep up.

I wasn't in the best place at the beginning of the year until I dropped Extension Math. I found myself having more time to invest in my Major Works. Not only that, I slept before 12! I found myself having more energy to actually do more extra-curricular activities (which have helped me with building up my scholarship applications). Even my math teacher said that dropping to 12 units is a wise decision so I can focus on bringing up my marks in math and physics.

TL;DR: 3 majors (especially essay-based majors) and 4 extensions is too much. 2 essay-based majors is doable.

Hope this helps!

[jazcstuart]

I think you should read https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=176920.0 and maybe have a chat to her, because she did 4 major works. She might have a different perspective to Mada438 and owidjaja (although I think it is still definitely worth listening to their experiences). There is no doubting that it would be an extremely heavy workload, but I don't really have much experience with major works and extension subjects, so I'll leave it up to you!

[katie,rinos]

Hey,
These two articles might be helpful if you are thinking of taking up Extension history:
Is history extension the right course for you? Written by Susie
What is History Extension? A guide for subject selection


I really loved History extension, however I found that having 2 majors was a huge amount of work, as you need to work on them both continuously throughout the year. However, it is up to you and what subjects you think you'll enjoy more.

Hope this helps!! 

[Jasmine Xie]

I started the year with 14 units. And I have 3 major works. (extension 2 English, art and multimedia) I must say. It's a lot of work and I was constantly working on them when I was suppose to be studying for exams and stuff. At the end I dropped 2 unit maths cause It just wasn't working. I say 3 major work is completely possible with 12 units.