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March 19, 2024, 07:03:52 pm

Author Topic: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings  (Read 14376 times)

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beatroot

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Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« on: June 19, 2018, 11:40:25 pm »
+10
This is a space where all current Year 9 students can read reviews by current/past Year 10 students in regards to Year 10 electives. Whether or not they should continue the same electives or move onto new ones.

Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings

Review Index
Creative Arts Reviews: 5
HSIE Reviews: 3
Languages Reviews: 3
PDHPE Reviews: 0
Technologies Reviews: 3

Total: 14 Reviews
Total: 11 Subjects Covered

(2) (3) etc. denote 2nd and 3rd reviews

Creative Arts Subjects (5)
Drama - 2018 (picked up in Year 10)

Graphics - 2016 (continued from Year 9)

Music - 2015 (continued from Year 9)
Music - 2015 (continued from Year 9) (2)

Visual Arts - 2015 (continued from Year 9)
HSIE Subjects (3)
Commerce - 2016 (continued from Year 9)
Commerce - 2015 (continued from Year 9) (2)

Extension Studies - 2016 (continued from Year 9)
Languages Subjects (3)
French - 2015 (continued from Year 9)
French - 2016 (continued from Year 9)

Japanese - 2016 (continued from Year (9)
PDHPE Subjects (0)
Technologies Subjects (3)
Food Technology - 2015 (continued from Year 9)

Industrial Technology: Engineering - 2016 (continued from Year 9)

Information and Software Technologies (IST) - 2016 (continued from Year 9)

This is a thread for subject reviews only.  If you have any questions, then please PM the member who wrote the review. The views expressed are those of the authors. Keep in mind that, despite best efforts, information provided may not be accurate.

We encourage you to review the subject(s) you have completed, even if someone else has already reviewed your subject(s). The more reviews we have, the more helpful this resource will be. Please do not name teachers or denigrate your school.

Please use the following template for subject reviews:

Code: [Select]
[b]Elective Name:[/b]

[b]Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?:[/b]

[b]Workload:[/b]

[b]Assessment:[/b] (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)

[b]Exam Thoughts:[/b] (What's the structure? How hard was it?)

[b]Textbook Recommendation:[/b] (What did you use? How much did you use it?)

[b]Recommended Other Resources:[/b]

[b]Year of Completion:[/b]

[b]Rating:[/b]  out of 5

[b]Your Mark/Grade:[/b] (Optional)

[b]Comments:[/b] Give your overall opinion of the subject, content, assessment etc. and a recommendation, plus anything else which you feel is relevant.

Updated as of reply #015
« Last Edit: January 26, 2019, 05:00:21 pm by beatroot »
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beatroot

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2018, 11:52:57 pm »
+5
Elective Name: French (100 hours)

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: Fairly demanding as it is a languages course.

Assessment: (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)
- Oral test
- In class reading, listening and writing exam
- English and French presentation of a selected area in France
* I cannot remember the weighting for each assignment I'm afraid.

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?)
Structure obviously differs for each school as each French teacher had their own way of teaching and testing the subject. I found the reading and writing parts of the exam quite easy as we had a slight idea on what was going to be involved from the exam notification. However, the listening part was particularly difficult, not only because of the stereo we had to listen from, but it was especially different hearing French from native speakers compared to listening to your teacher and classmates in class.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?)
Quoi De Neuf 2 (textbook and activity book)

Recommended Other Resources:
Language Perfect got me through French both from Year 8 til I completed it in Year 10. It was a great online game that allowed you to memorise certain phrases and forced you to repeat every question til you got them right! You also got to compete with other people in your class, gain points and earn rewards which was also a great motivation to go on the site.

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade:
~83% average, third in class

Comments:
French is truly a beautiful and wonderful language to learn and a part of me wished that I had continued it during my senior studies. The subject definitely allowed me to appreciate a different culture than my own. The activities in class were certainly interactive which I credit my teacher who made them engaging. Though to really get into the nitty gritty of learning a language, you obviously need to practice it daily. I found that this derailed my performance in my other subjects, hence influencing my decision to drop the subject at the end of Year 10. However, it's definitely a skill worth knowing as our world is slowly growing each and every day! :)
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katie,rinos

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2018, 10:52:47 am »
+6
Elective Name: Food Technology

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?:
Continued from yr 9 (I didn’t have the option to pick up subjects in year 10).

Workload: I didn’t find it too bad, however there was a lot of theory and content. The assessment tasks had many different parts to them (cooking and theory/speeches) so they did take some time.

Assessment:
Food Equity prac/theory task, Cultural celebration prac/theory/speech, Food product development group work (prac/written & speech), Yearly Exam. Each worth 25%.

Exam Thoughts: It was 15 marks multiple choice and 60 marks short answer, spilt evenly between all three topics. We had 50 minutes to do it. I don’t think it was too hard but there was a lot of content to remember for some of the topics.

Textbook Recommendation: I think we had one but I can’t remember what it was called.

Recommended Other Resources: -

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 87%, 1st in the class.

Comments:
I really enjoyed Food Tech, both the theory and the cooking. I was told by friends when going into year 9 that the theory was really boring but I found it pretty interesting. In year 10, we studied the topics: food equity, food for celebrations and food product development. In year 9, I think we studied nutritution/food for special needs (e.g celiac),Australian food (bush food,etc) and food catering. We cooked food, normally in pairs, every 1-2 weeks in our double period, depending on the topic we were doing.

In year 9 during our catering topic, we both cooked and served the food for the year 12 morning tea after their graduation which we all found really fun.   
Class of 2017 (Year 12): Advanced English, General Maths, Legal Studies, Music 1, Ancient History, History Extension, Hospitality
2018-2022: B Music/B Education (Secondary) [UNSW]

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2018, 11:18:51 am »
+4
Elective Name: Music

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?:
Continued from Year 9.

Workload: Wasn't too heavy.

Assessment: Group composition (30%), Performance (20%), Listening task (40%), Performance (10%)

Exam Thoughts: Had no formal half/yearly exam.

Textbook Recommendation: Don't think we used a textbook.

Recommended Other Resources: Nil

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 81%

Comments:

Throughout the year, we studied the topics Australian art music/music of the 20 and 21st Century, Rock music, and Music for small ensembles.  I preferred some of the topics over others and Rock music didn’t really suit the clarinet.

We had a lot of time during the year to practise and play our instruments and had quite a few weeks to prepare for our performances assessments. At the end of year 10, my class prepared and played a mashup of songs during our year 10 formal.

For our theory, we did some work on the beginner levels (grades 1-2) of the AMEB Musicianship books around once a week. It wasn’t too intense and it was mainly to get us to know the basics of music theory.
Class of 2017 (Year 12): Advanced English, General Maths, Legal Studies, Music 1, Ancient History, History Extension, Hospitality
2018-2022: B Music/B Education (Secondary) [UNSW]

owidjaja

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2018, 05:28:40 pm »
+8
Elective Name: Commerce

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: Moderate

Assessment: (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)
I don't remember the specific percentage weighting but I remember the type of assessments we had

Year 9:
Oral presentation
Half yearly exam (multiple choice and short answer questions)
Business project (where we had to run our own business and submit a report)
Yearly exam (multiple choice and short answer questions)

Year 10:
In-class essay
Half yearly exam (multiple choice and short answer questions)
Towards Independence task (spreadsheet on managing our money within the set budget, importance of community work, weekly shopping list including rent, internet, electricity bills, etc - all in a form of a blog)
Yearly exam (multiple choice and short answer questions)

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?)
Usually multiple choice and short answer questions. In Year 10, they added a 15 mark essay in top of the multiple choice and short answer questions. However, these questions are generally 'describe,' 'explain' and 'outline' questions.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?)
New Concepts in Commerce (used this textbook a lot)

Recommended Other Resources:
Nil

Year of Completion:
2016

Rating: 4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: (Optional)
95%, 1st in the class

Comments:
Even though commerce was predominantly textbook learning and memorising key terms, I really enjoyed the more 'practical' projects, like the Business assignment where we had to run a business, set up our store at recess and lunch and earn money (my partner and I managed to earn over $100 profit and the rest of the money went to charity). I also liked the Towards Independence topic because it taught me a lot of life skills and gave me a taste on what it's like to live independently (the theoretical aspect of it, of course).
« Last Edit: October 29, 2018, 10:41:16 pm by owidjaja »
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ATAR: 93.60

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2018, 05:44:52 pm »
+7
Elective Name: Extension Studies

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9 (invitation-only)

Workload: Moderate

Assessment: (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)
Don't remember the percentage weighting

Year 9:
Comparative essay with Jane Austen's Emma and movie Clueless (question was something along the lines of: why did Amy Heckerling decide to appropriate Jane Austen's Emma)
Macbeth Soliloquy (presented in front of the class)
Philosophy applied in the Hunger Games (presented through iMovie)
Personal Interest Project (the limitation was that it had to be on a woman of eminence, e.g. I chose Marie Curie and presented through a series of diary entries)

Year 10:
Hand-in essay (question was something along the lines of: how has media helped propagate cultural imperialism, in reference to the provided stimulus- Elle India magazine cover, China McDonalds commercial)
Infographic on an issue relating to the media (I did mine on censorship in East Asia)
Hand-in essay and oral presentation on reality TV show in relation to a theory
In-class essay (was worth 5% so I couldn't remember what it was on, but we had a stimulus to refer to)
Personal Interest Project (no limitations; I made a Classmate comparing Nazism and Stalinism)

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?)
The exam that was worth 5% was difficult because we couldn't prepare for it. But it was worth 5% so not a lot of people were too worried about the essay.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?)
Nil

Recommended Other Resources:
Nil

Year of Completion: 2016

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: (Optional)
97%, 1st in the class

Comments:
Extension Studies was probably the weirdest subject that was offered and I'm pretty sure my school was the only school to accomodate for this (we were the last group to do this course). Year 9 was kinda like Extension English at a junior level, and Year 10 was media studies. It gives you a taste on what Extension English would be like (and I remember bringing my assessments to tutoring and a Year 11 girl told me they were doing similar assessments to us). As for Year 10, it was a taste for those who want to pursue media in university. But the best part in our media studies was going on an excursion to see the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 05:47:11 pm by owidjaja »
2018 HSC: English Advanced | Mathematics | Physics | Modern History | History Extension | Society and Culture | Studies of Religion I

ATAR: 93.60

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beatroot

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2018, 10:49:29 pm »
+5
Elective Name: Visual Arts

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: Moderate

Assessment: *not in order
- Yearly exam
- 1000 word essay
- Sculpture
(I definitely know there were more but this was ages ago so I really can't remember)

Exam Thoughts:
Same way it's structured in the HSC but just a more concise version. Three short answers and one essay. I found the Year 9/10 Visual Arts exams much more stressful than the HSC as we were only given 50 minutes instead of the allocated 1.5 hours in the HSC! VA exams are fairly easy if you know your theory from top to bottom ;)

Textbook Recommendation:
Caves to Canvas; excellent textbook that provided heaps of information on all artists and their works.

Recommended Other Resources:
Besides my own teachers (both HSC markers), definitely the Art Gallery of New South Wales is a fabulous resource for all things art- especially Australian art. One of these works could appear in your exam- you'll never know! Fun fact: One of the works included in the HSC 2017 Paper is currently exhibiting at the AGNSW.

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating: 5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: Not sure what my average mark was but I was ranked second overall.

Comments:
It's definitely a MUST to pick up Visual Arts in Year 9 and 10 (or at least in Year 10) if you want to do it in Years 11 and 12. The elective builds the foundation for your VA senior studies and will help you develop your skills at 14/15/16. You're able to experiment early on in your high school career and you can figure out your art style! Visual Arts is a subject that allows you to express yourself creatively and learn more about the world- and to really appreciate most of it.
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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2018, 11:46:09 am »
+5
Elective Name: Information and Software Technologies (IST)

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Started in Year 9

Workload: Light

Assessment:I don't know how much it all counted for, and we ddin't have structured exams.
Each unit we did, was just marked on a project.
For example, we ddi a unit learning about GUI programming on scratch and our assessment was to make a basic scratch game.

Exam Thoughts: No exams

Textbook Recommendation: Nil

Recommended Other Resources: Nil

Year of Completion: 2016

Rating:  4 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: A-

Comments: If you like doing stuff on computers, then this is definitely for you. None of it was too hard to understand. I think the hardest thing i did was learning and programming in both basic javascript and basic html5.

A quick warning if you do pick this with the intention of doing computing in year 11/12. IT IS VERY DIFFERENT
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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2018, 05:15:28 pm »
+3
Elective Name: Commerce (100 hours)

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: continued from Year 9

Workload: Light

Assessment: (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)
Oh man this was so long ago!! I think I had 4 assessments, 1 per term weighted 25%. They were all exams with MC questions and short answers, except for one which had a business report.

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?)
Commerce exams were never particularly difficult; there was just a lot to remember. Most exams were a combination of MC and short answers, and maybe one longer response.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?)
Commerce.dot.com. I didn't use it much because we were provided notes on all the content.

Recommended Other Resources: None.

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating: 5 out of 5

Comments:
I loved Commerce! It'll always be one of my favourite high school subjects. Sometimes the content was a little dry but listening in class helps because it doesn't take a lot of effort to do well.
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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2018, 05:18:38 pm »
+2
Elective Name: Music (100 hours)

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: continued from Year 9

Workload: Moderate

Assessment: (Outline the various assessments which make up the subject and how much each counts for)
I can't remember but the assessments were split into 60% practical, 40% theory.

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?)
The final exam was a listening exam weighted ~20% and it was a killer.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?) None

Recommended Other Resources: None

Year of Completion: 2015

Rating: 3 out of 5

Comments:
I went into Year 10 Music having really loved Year 9 Music, but Year 10 Music was a huge let down for me and factored into me not picking music as one of my HSC subjects. The topics weren't that exciting, particularly theory but the practical aspect of Music was better than Year 9.

A thing to note is practical isn't just about performing pieces you've learnt at private Music lessons!!! It's a lot of work and it's easy to tell if you didn't put enough effort into practicing.
HSC 2017: English (Standard) // Mathematics // Modern History // Legal Studies // Business Studies
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Caitlynk_22

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2018, 08:12:50 pm »
+3
Elective Name: Graphics

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: A fair amount. Folios, drawings/sketches, evaluations etc.

Assessment:

Year 9
CREO Drawings (Learning how to use the program)
Kitchen Redesign (Resigning our kitchen at home)
Hand Held Electronic Redesign (Chose a device and redesigned it)
C02 Race car (About aerodynamics, aesthetics etc.)

Year 10
Furniture design
Sustainable living (Designing a house)
Design & development of sporting equipment
CREO Drawings (Pretty much the same as year 9 but at the end of the year)

Exam Thoughts: No exams, thankfully!

Textbook Recommendation: No textbook.

Recommended Other Resources: We relied on helpful google and CREO Parametric. Our school now uses Fusion 360 now.


Year of Completion: 2016

Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 1st in Course, Averaged about 98-100%

Comments: I really enjoyed this subject, I think it was reasonably easy but at first we had to learn how to use the CAD software. After that, it got much easier and all we had to do was put together, design, sketch and draw our designs. It was very interesting and was a relaxing subject. We mostly did our own work for the lessons, only talking to our teacher if we needed help. I loved it!
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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2018, 08:32:13 pm »
+3
Elective Name: Industrial Technology: Engineering

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: A fair amount, lots of practical in the workshop (Woodwork + metal work) and a bit of theory.

Assessment:

Year 10
Control systems - Dragster (Making and running a dragster)
Model of electric motor + exam (Making the motor, with a short folio)
Renewable energy - Wind Turbine + Geothermal power-point presentation (Making the turbine, gathering research for PP + working in groups)
Rocketry - Rocket + Rocket research (Making a rocket and researching about past space exploration)


Exam Thoughts: These exams were quite easy and were mostly in-class assessments. We did little theory work so it was easy to gauge what was going to be in the text.

Textbook Recommendation: None.

Recommended Other Resources: Knowledge on how to work the machinery in the workshop.

Year of Completion: 2016

Rating:  50000 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: 1st in Course, 90-95% average.

Comments: I loved this subject so much! No wonder I'm doing it in year 12... (It's so different in year 11 + 12 tho) I had only originally picked this because I didn't get either of my reserves (Drama or History). But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't know where I'd be without it. If  your school offers it, take it! I would recommend having some knowledge on how to work the machines in the workshop, I had prior knowledge due to junior school. I think our school now calls it iStem or something but it's practically the same with less industrial stuff.
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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2018, 10:28:10 pm »
+4
Elective Name: Japanese

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: Not out of the ordinary for languages, but languages tend to have a more consistently sizeable workload in contrast to content-based subjects which have low workload until the period leading up to exams (at least in my experience)

Assessment: Not too sure about each individual assessment's weighting but I recall these sorts of assessments:
  • Group Speech/Presentation
  • Oral examination (interview style, one-on-one with the teacher)
  • Listening examinations
  • Comprehension and Writing in one exam
  • Periodic tests based on grammar and vocab learned in textbook topics

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?) Again, languages have a consistent workload which means you can't really cram for them and I found this out the hard way. That being said, the exams weren't ridiculously hard and my class found ourselves being ranked based on marks lost more so than marks gained. Different schools have different assessment methods and teaching styles so this may not be everyone's experience

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?) Obento Supreme

Recommended Other Resources: I wasn't exactly the most proactive learner but I hear Language Perfect is good for vocab. Also, Anki and other flashcard programs tend to be really good if you make using flash cards a habit.

Year of Completion: 2016 (yikes)

Rating: 5 out of 5

Your Mark/Grade: If I remember correctly, I was ranked 17/20 in my class at the end of Year 10, but my class happened to be extraordinarily competitive with the gap between rank 1 and rank 20 being only about 25%

Comments: I loved studying Japanese, and going on my school's cultural exchange program was an experience that I'll never forget. That being said, I ended up dropping Japanese because of timetabling issues with my school and it has been one of my biggest regrets throughout high school. But I digress; definitely study Japanese if you have the passion for languages and are willing to put the work in because in studying Japanese, and languages in general, you gain a new insight into other cultures and their ways of thinking. Also, don't try cramming for languages because you'll legit fail; consistent work over time is the key!
HSC 2016
Information Processes and Technology: 90

HSC 2018
Advanced English: 95 | Extension 1 English: 47 | Extension 2 English: 42 | Legal Studies: 95 | Modern History: 94 | French Continuers: 84 | Mathematics Advanced: 89

LAT 2018: 88 (90th Percentile)

ATAR: 98.05

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2018, 10:38:46 pm »
+5
Elective Name: French

Continued from Year 9 or picked up in Year 10?: Continued from Year 9

Workload: Not out of the ordinary for languages, but languages tend to have a more consistently sizeable workload in contrast to content-based subjects which have low workload until the period leading up to exams (at least in my experience)

Assessment: Not too sure about each individual assessment's weighting but I recall having mainly periodic tests including grammar, listening, comprehension and writing. It differs with every school though.

Exam Thoughts: (What's the structure? How hard was it?) Again, languages have a consistent workload which means you can't really cram for them and I found this out the hard way by trying and doing fairly poorly at times. Different schools have different assessment methods and teaching styles so this may not be everyone's experience.

Textbook Recommendation: (What did you use? How much did you use it?) Tapis Volant 2

Recommended Other Resources: Exposure, Exposure, Exposure! If you can expose yourself to the French language as much as you can and in as many forms as you can, it'll really boost your fluency. News In Slow French is a great application for beginners, as is Language Perfect. News In Slow may be a little advanced but if you can pick out words and phrases, as well as get the gist of what the reporter is saying it's super good.

Year of Completion: 2016

Rating: 8 out of 8 m8

Your Mark/Grade: 80% approximately

Comments: French is great, as is studying any other language. In my experience, languages tend to be underrated subjects because of workload, lack of interest or otherwise, which are entirely false expectations. Languages are great because they scale well (unlike IPT), allow you a break from more content-heavy subjects (ahem IPT), and reduce the amount you have to cram because ideally, you'll be putting in consistent work over time as learning a language is a skill to apply in exams, not a content dump.
HSC 2016
Information Processes and Technology: 90

HSC 2018
Advanced English: 95 | Extension 1 English: 47 | Extension 2 English: 42 | Legal Studies: 95 | Modern History: 94 | French Continuers: 84 | Mathematics Advanced: 89

LAT 2018: 88 (90th Percentile)

ATAR: 98.05

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Re: Year 10 (Stage 5) Electives Reviews & Ratings
« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2018, 10:39:08 pm »
+4
Bump!

With the HSC Class of 2019 slowly joining the site one by one, would be cool to see more reviews on this thread :)

*Edit: HSC Class of 2018 are also welcome to contribute to this thread (whenever available of course! your HSC exams are your main priority at the moment)
« Last Edit: October 29, 2018, 10:44:47 pm by beatroot »
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