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Author Topic: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10  (Read 6346 times)

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Bri MT

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Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« on: October 30, 2018, 11:19:43 am »
+6
For those of you who did a unit 1&2 subject,  how did you find it?

If you're not sure what to talk about,  here are some things you could describe:
prompts
subject:

Workload:

Was it interesting?:

What did you expect:

What were you surprised by:

What was the social environment like:

What would you do differently/keep the same?

Submissions also welcome from people no longer in year 10 :)

Joseph41

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2018, 10:24:16 am »
+5
Subject: Business Management Units 1&2

Workload: I didn't find it particularly burdensome. Not that much bigger than regular Year 10 subjects tbh. In fact, a lot of my class wasn't really that academic, so it might have even been cruisier than the Year 10 subjects I was finding tough at the time.

Was it interesting?: Kinda. Like, at the time I found it sort of interesting, but on reflection I think I sort of forced that enthusiasm because I perceived it to be the most important subject I'd done up until that point.

What did you expect?: I was actually really nervous - the whole "starting VCE" thing was significant for me, as was having a class with those a year older than me. I didn't really know what to expect academically.

What were you surprised by?: Probably the fact that older students aren't necessarily more confident.

What was the social environment like?: Pretty similar to most classes haha. You always get a mix.

What would you do differently/keep the same?: No regrets tbh. I studied hard, and that provided a good foundation for the following year. I guess if we're speaking more broadly, I probably would have chosen Health and Human Development 3&4 instead! Haha.

Good thread. :)

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2018, 03:11:21 pm »
+5
subject: biology units 1 and 2

Workload: i didn't really find there to be much of a difference to what i was doing with my year 10 subjects. i did however study more for tests and analysis tasks. the only thing that was different was the regularity of prac reports which aren't really done in year 10 and below science.

Was it interesting?: i found bio extremely interesting. it was fun to learn all the topics, even if there were some monotonous phases. i feel as though you have to enjoy learning science for bio to be interesting and fun. if you dont, it's just boring.

What did you expect: i expected to be doing more work and learning more complex concepts than in year 10.

What were you surprised by: i was really surprised by (at least at my school) how much our year 10 science course lines up with parts of biology 1/2. there were times when i was learning the same thing at the exact same time in both subjects, just in greater detail for bio.

What was the social environment like: for me, there really was no social difference. our 1/2 class is just like any elective at our school and it is all people in year 10. i had friends in my class and it was fun. i expect things to be different next year though as the accelerated kids go into year 12 classes to do their 3/4 even though they are in year 11. luckily i have a lot of friends in the year above me doing bio so i wont be alone.

What would you do differently/keep the same? i would probably try a little harder on my year 10 subjects. at times when i had test on in bio, i tended to neglect my other subjects but it wasn't so detrimental. i would, however, keep the amount of work i did the same. i did reasonably well in this subject with averaging 80s and im happy with that.
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Sine

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2018, 03:22:54 pm »
+4
subject: Biology - Units 1 and 2

Workload: 5 x 48 minute periods a week. A test for each topic along with maybe 1-2 assignments per semester. Overall it was quite an easy load and quite manageable.

Was it interesting?:
Not very, Units 3 and 4 biology is much better but I found that the topics included in units 1 and 2 were not at all interesting. Unit 1 was the better unit as it had a direct correlation to what we would be studying for units 3/4 but for unit 2 the topics were quite boring - some of the topics included whee; biodiversity & plants.

What did you expect:
More focus on human biology rather than the environment and plants.

What were you surprised by:
Not surprised by much - I think the main difference would be how the class was run in terms of teaching compared to the classes in years 7-9.

What was the social environment like:
A bit rigid - we had some year 11 and 10's mixed and all the year 10's (myself included) sat on our own table so we didn't interact too much with the year 11's - especially because the content was delivered in a lecture manner. The teacher would just write on the boards and us copying down notes. Occasionally we would get to do a few experiments or see a demonstration.

What would you do differently/keep the same?
No real regrets - but I guess success in units 3/4 can negate the need for me to reflect on what I could've been better at in units 1 and 2.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2018, 03:28:32 pm by Sine »

PhoenixxFire

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2018, 04:23:13 pm »
+4
I did two 1/2's early so I'm going to write about both.


Subject: Psychology 1/2 (year 9)

Workload: Not much different to the other subjects I was doing that year. There was definitely more compulsory work than in my other subjects, but it still wasn't much.

Was it interesting?: Yep! Some things were more interesting than others, and I found 3/4 more interesting than 1/2 but I still enjoyed it.

What did you expect: I expected it to be a lot more different to my other classes. I thought VCE would feel very different or be more strict or something. Little year 8 me always looked up to the people doing VCE like they were so different and more mature or something, but it really was't like that at all.

What were you surprised by: How relaxed everyone was. I thought people would be very stressed and that people would try harder, but it was actually really relaxed.

What was the social environment like: Fairly non-existent. We barely did any group work, and everyone pretty much just did their own thing.

What would you do differently/keep the same?: Would definitely have tried harder. Not that I didn't do well - but there were lots of things I think I would enjoyed learning more about just for curiosities sake.

Subject: Biology 1/2 (year 10)

Workload: More than 1/2 psych. I definitely think I had more homework in this than I did in my other classes in year 10. Still wasn't that much work though.

Was it interesting?: At times. There was definitely some topics that were more interesting than others.

What did you expect: I expected there to be more content and for it to be harder.

What were you surprised by: How much more scenario-based it was. In 1/2 psych we did a lot of rote-learning and I was expecting it to be like that but it wasn't. We did a lot more experiments and investigations and that sort of stuff.

What was the social environment like: Pretty good. Definitely had a few good laughs in that class.

What would you do differently/keep the same?: I would have learnt more bio that was outside the scope of the course when I was given the opportunity. My teacher offered to loan me some books she had on topics that I was really enjoying learning about but I didn't take her up on it and I wish I had.
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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2018, 04:39:21 pm »
+4
subject: VET Business 1/2

Workload: VERY low... easily the lowest workload subject I had this year - I never had any homework and my mark is an easy A+!

Was it interesting?: Not really... it is very practical stuff so quite easy to understand and therefore also fairly boring! That said, I do/did enjoy the subject because our teacher was funny and pretty chilled out so we just got the work done and relaxed the rest of the time!

What did you expect: I expected it would be hard (being typically a year 11 subject) and very much like Phoenixx said... a lot less stressful and scary than people make out!

What were you surprised by: I was surprised how relaxed the subject (and our teacher) were... it was the easiest of all the subjects I did this year!

What was the social environment like: Awesome... there were just 5 of us yr 10s and our teacher... it was quite a fun class actually!

What would you do differently/keep the same? I wouldn't change much tbh! (Except maybe the class when we got up to some antics n I got detention for climbing out a tiny window near the roof! ;D Even then... that was so much fun it was almost worth the detention!)
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jborn007

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2018, 04:58:05 pm »
+5
subject: Accounting 1/2

Workload: Moderate. My teacher handed a lot of theory questions and responses to them, but the fact that accounting has a practical side of preparing financial reports, and calculating financial indicators, made the workload slightly down

Was it interesting?: Definitely. I really enjoyed doing practical problems, and the theory itself is somewhat similar to bus man. For those reasons, I'm planning to undertake Accounting as a 3/4 next year.

What did you expect: For the theory aspect of Accounting., I kind of expected to be a combination of Bus Man and Legal Studies. At that time, I didn't really know what to expect for the pracs.

What were you surprised by: How the outcomes in accounting, have really low marks available, and how it's so easy to fall behind, if you didn't grasp the previous topics and chapters right. I was also surprised by how we skipped some of the chapters, that I expected to cover through the year, mainly due to the fact that there will be a new study design implemented from 2019.

What was the social environment like: My class was very cool, and we would often say a joke or two and laugh about them. However, since my teacher wanted all of us to excel in accounting, he took the theory side seriously and we would meticulously copy them down, and have plenty of time to revise before an outcome, and especially before the end-of-year exam.

What would you do differently/keep the same? I definitely would have taken the theory aspect of accounting more seriously, but I will still keep the habit of consistently reviewing and revising weekly the content that I learnt.

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2018, 03:28:06 pm »
+1
Subject: Psychology 1/2

Workload: About Average, I believe a year 10 student can handle it.

Was it interesting?: No, I hated the subject with a passion because I was forced into it.

What did you expect: It would be interesting.

What were you surprised by: How much I hated it

What was the social environment like: A lot of year 10's, there were more yr 10's in my class than yr 11's

What would you do differently/keep the same?: I would have done General Maths in yr 10 inorder to do Further in yr 11 and get a good SS.
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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2018, 05:52:40 pm »
+4
Subject: Australian and Global Politics 1&2 [2018]

Was it interesting?: Yep! I didn’t really have any expectations going into the subject, and wasn’t sure what it’d entail, but the content we studied really touched base with my interests, most of which being global issues. It was interesting to see the incentives of global actors in the global political arena and their actions towards combatting and/or resolving humanitarian crises.

What did you expect?: As I mentioned above, no previous expectations besides covering a little bit on the authoritarian regime of Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship in North Korea.

What were you surprised by?: Personally, how much I’d enjoy the subject. I basically chose this 1&2 last minute, with my other choice being to undertake Music Performance. However, the content was extremely insightful and the learning was made interesting by the teacher who taught it. I was also surprised as to how well one can do in the subject when making sure to check off all the criteria necessary for good marks.

What was the social environment like?: There were only three Year 10 students in my class, including myself which made it a little difficult to mix around with the others at first. However, as our teacher constantly moved people around to get us to work wth different individuals each lesson, it was easier to make friends with most of the class. The arrangement of tables in the classroom (in groups of 4-6) naturally made it easier to bond with your table group.

What would you do differently/keep the same?: I don’t think that there’s much that I’d change. I think the only thing would be that I discover the right techniques for me to excel in the subject earlier in the year, and my development of having a solid understanding of topics. Regardless of that, I wouldn’t change anything as I appreciate what has been given as a learning experience and I wouldn’t trade anything for it!
[VIC] Year 10: Australian and Global Politics 1&2

Year 11: English, Global Politics [Units 3&4], Mathematical Methods [CAS], Chemistry, Japanese, Music Performance

Year 12: English, Mathematical Methods [CAS], Chemistry, Japanese, Music Performance

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2018, 06:10:16 pm »
+3
VCE VET Business 1/2 [2016]

Workload: Not that high. Due to my lax study methods, assignments caused a lot of headaches, but besides that it was pretty chilled.

Was it interesting?: I prioritized the assignments for this subject over other subjects, but the general in-class learning was not that stimulating.
I cannot consciously remember a single thing from these units (but I'm probably mixing some things from here with Units 3&4).

What did you expect: I expected a lot more practical business things; I guess theory just aint my cup of tea.

What were you surprised by: Probably the concern the school had over the results. (Dammit. Still mixing with 3/4)...
Probably the time I actually put into the subject. I did put more effort into the 1/2 than the 3/4

What was the social environment like:
At my school, this subject was compulsory, so the whole cohort did it.
A lot of classes became general chat sessions, and the basic camaraderie of Yr 12 was formed here.
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jborn007

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2018, 06:09:17 pm »
+2
subject: 20th Century History 1&2

Workload:Low

Was it interesting?: Definitely. It was great to have a deep insight in the notable and famous events that occurred around the world in the 20th Century. Apart from knowing what happened in a particular event itself, we also "analysed" an event eg. the social and economical consequences, the reactions from the public and from the famous figures themselves, the influences it had in future events etc.

What did you expect: I expected to be interesting, and that there will be a lot of work in this subject.

What were you surprised by: It turns out that there were barely any classwork/homework assigned to us. To be honest, we only had to complete 1 to 2 assignments per school term. Moreover, it even turned out to be more interested than i previously thought/expected.

What was the social environment like: It's a very chill/relaxing class. Pretty much every class, we would make a joke or two, but a lot more often when we covered the content on the rise and fall of the USSR. I'm also very fortunate to have a great teacher which he not only made the content really interesting, but also fun overall.

What would you do differently/keep the same? Nothing really, I would still be enjoying, and having fun whilst learning the content and in class.

ssillyssnakes

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2018, 07:30:07 pm »
+4
Subject: Biology and Health and Human Development

Workload: More intense than my year 10 subjects for sure, but not overwhelmingly so. I enjoyed what I learned (especially for Bio, although I didn't really stay just learning the topics covered, I learnt a lot outside of school and related what I learnt in my free time to what was covered in class, which definitely made it much more interesting) and so studying for SACs and exams wasn't too stressful, and as is true for any subject ever, as long as you revise long term, you won't need to cram for tests

Was it interesting?: Yup :) There were definitely more boring aspects of both subjects (nutrition for HHD and biodiversity or speciation whatever its called for bio) but overall I enjoyed it and found ways of relating what I didn't like to aspects that I did

What did you expect: A higher workload, being the bottom of the class with people 2+ years older than me, constant stress yet more personal responsibility (the only part that excited me)... Overall I was pretty anxious. It definitely wasn't like that and I really enjoy school atm

What were you surprised by: How little my peers cared and how my basic levels of studying put me at the top ranking. That shocked me, I was expecting to be very behind. Although I do go to a rank 500 school so my cohort isn't exactly competitive haha

What was the social environment like: Overall relaxed. Both my bio and HHD teachers where very chill, I liked them a lot, especially my bio teacher who I have for 3/4 next year also (yay!). She is really encouraging and helps me and my classmates all, instilling a good work ethic without the intense pressure and rigidity that turns many year 11s and 12s from studying. Bio was mainly year 10s, while HHD was mainly year 11s. I was a loner for both classes though haha

What would you do differently/keep the same? I would keep the same. Maybe focus more on not rambling on SACs and exams and work on answering the question with as little words as possible, because I have a tendency to overexplain and it causes unnecessary stress during and after the exam.
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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2018, 08:05:51 pm »
+4
Subject: VCE Biology 1/2

Workload: Pretty much the same as my other Year 10 subjects, however the fact that it was my first VCE subject meant that I focused more on it, and did a higher amount of study for it

Was it interesting?: Compared to 3/4, I did find 1/2 more interesting - in particular Unit 2, as it was more focused on the cell cycle, and pedigrees/inheritance (which I actually enjoyed, unlike many others in my class - resulting in me being (kinda) upset when I realised pedigrees weren't in the 3/4 study design!)

What did you expect: I expected it to be similar to my Year 9 science class, and also to be mainly about humans, however it ended up being focused on plants and animals, rather than humans specifically.

What were you surprised by: For AOS 3, I had no idea that we had to create our own experiment from scratch! Needless to say, I was (very) confused with what I had to do as I hadn't had much experience with experiments before. In the long run, it was quite good practice for 3/4 and I did find the overall process fun :)

What was the social environment like: In my class, the Year 10s and Year 11s were quite separated and didn't interact much. Us Year 10s sat together as we found the Year 11s quite intimidating, but as the year progress, we warmed up to them more after realising they weren't that different to us (although the seating arrangements stayed the same LOL)

What would you do differently/keep the same?: I would have used 1/2 as a time to figure out an effective way of learning Biology content and writing notes, as this was something I struggled with especially during the start of 3/4. If I had done this, I think my first SAC score would have been much higher considering it was a fairly easy SAC, but my result did not reflect the level of difficulty.
2019: VCE
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Jimmmy

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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2019, 11:17:39 pm »
+4
Subject: Business Management 1&2

Workload: Really, really chill. I over stressed myself because it was my 'only 1&2' when it really wasn't necessary, and probably didn't make a difference to my final Year 11 marks.

Was it interesting?: It was! I do hear a lot that BusMan is 'common knowledge' but I also hear from those same people that 'common sense isn't all that common anymore' so I guess practicing some 'common knowledge' didn't hurt  ;) I do have other gripes with the BusMan 1&2 study design, however, which I'll touch on further down in this post.

What did you expect: I expected a greater workload initially. We had 5x43 minute classes roughly, and I didn't need to do any more than 3-4 hours of homework/studying a week alongside the revision for each topic 'test' (for some reason they call them SACs at our school, even at Year 11), which were around twice a term. I still managed to keep an A+ average for these tests and the mock exams we did mid year and at the end of the year. However, the stress I placed on myself in the days before those tests/exams was unhelpful at best, and really unnecessary considering it's only 1&2!

We only got to do one assignment for the year, which involved creating a marketing campaign to do with a fiction business that we had created. I found that the most fun I had the entire year, as it allowed us to really expand on our ideas and apply our knowledge, fairly different to the memorisation mantra that is driven into many of us.

What were you surprised by: I'll expand on two points here. Firstly, I was really surprised by the careless approach by many of my peers, especially those (most of the class!) who were in the year level above me. The amount of banter throughout the whole year from many of them really shocked me. Heaps of 'off-topic' discussion, to put it lightly, to the point of the teacher getting visibly frustrated wasn't how I envisaged any VCE class. Despite this, the teaching was phenomenal, and I sincerely wish this teacher had ended up teaching 3&4 BusMan classes in 2018 at my school.

However, this leads to my second point. I ended up with a rather rude shock in Year 12, as I realised after the first few weeks that the 1&2 course has very little relation to the 3&4 course! If I'd been aware of this prior to picking subjects for Year 11, there's no way I would've done BusMan early, or I would've instead pushed to do 3&4 BusMan in Year 10, which I probably had the marks in my other subjects to do.

What was the social environment like: As mentioned above, it was super chill, which looking back was a really good thing. Just need to be careful about which subjects you do choose early, as when you're not entirely familiar with the above year level, you never know what personalities you may encounter...

What would you do differently/keep the same? I certainly wouldn't have done BusMan early, it's definitely a subject you can pick straight up as a 3&4 and do extremely well. If I was to change something in my initial 1&2 year, it would've been to place less focus on 1&2 content and read up on the 3&4 study design earlier, and really get familiar with the theory that I ended up doing in Year 12. Once you're in Year 12, it's less about the quantity of work and more about the in depth 'quality' of how you study and practice SAC/Exam questions IMO.
2018 - 2019 (VCE): English Language, Maths Methods, Legal Studies, Global Politics, Business Management (2018), Philosophy
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Re: Reflections on doing units 1&2 in year 10
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2019, 03:51:25 pm »
+4
General Mathematics (Further Mathematics 1/2) [2017, 2018] I repeated it in year 11 lmao

Workload: Not much. As long as you do all the textbook questions then it’s relatively easy to keep up.

Was it interesting? It’s maths, what do you think? But in all honesty, the content wasn’t too dry. General tends to get a bad rep but I didn’t think it was that bad. I did find it to be quite tedious in year 11 (when I repeated the subject), but going ahead with 3/4 work helped me with that.

What did you expect / What were you surprised by I had expected a heavy workload, since it was the first 1/2 (and VCE) subject I ever did. I was quite surprised by the fact that, as long as you do all the assigned work and don't lag behind, the subject isn't hectic at all.
However, if you do lag behind, it can be a lot more difficult to catch up. I noticed that once you enter VCE, you're expected to be responsible for your own learning. Unlike other year 10 subjects where teachers would slow down and make sure everybody is following along, you're expected to not lag behind in 1/2 (and of course this also applies to 3/4)

What was the social environment like: Eh. We had a full class and about 1/3 of the cohort were year 10s - we mostly kept to ourselves apart from a few adventurous ones who mixed with year 11s. There were a couple of adventurous ones who mixed with the older year levels but I wasn't one of them lol.

What would you do differently/keep the same? TBH I probably wouldn't have done general maths early, as further 3/4 is easy enough to learn without the 1/2 content and 1/2 gets a bit dull sometimes. Now as a year 12, I notice that 1/2 really don't have an impact on how well you do in further - most of those ranked towards the top end of the cohort never did 1/2.

So IDK if this is good advice: but for any year 9s thinking of doing further in year 11, don't do general in year 10 cuz IMO it's quite unnecessary. Of course, not everybody feels the same, and I personally know people who did general and found it really helpful.

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