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Author Topic: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection  (Read 1277 times)  Share 

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successismygoal

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Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« on: July 06, 2020, 06:17:35 pm »
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Hello guys!
I know this forum has not been posted on in more than a year, but if someone gets this message can you please help me out with my subject selection? I am in year 9 and have decided to take biology or psychology units 1/2 next year as acceleration. Sadly I can not do both which is what I intended to do initially, and I think it is beneficial for me to do 2 3/4s in y11 so that I get more study time in y12. The subjects that I want to do overall are certainly (methods, chem, bio, englang, japanese). I have to choose 1 of (spesh, further, psych) . In terms of performance my maths and science are strong, and I have received permission to do 1/2 bio OR psych by my teacher as an acceleration subject. Is it beneficial to do 2 acceleration subjects? Also what subject out of the ones I have to choose o you recommend for someone who is passionate in maths and science?


Mod edit: split from old topic and renamed. If you have a question to ask and the topic is more than 30 days old just start a new topic with your question :)
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 06:27:15 pm by K888 »
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Jimmmy

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Re: Re: VCE subject selection
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2020, 06:42:02 pm »
+4
Hello guys!
I know this forum has not been posted on in more than a year, but if someone gets this message can you please help me out with my subject selection? I am in year 9 and have decided to take biology or psychology units 1/2 next year as acceleration. Sadly I can not do both which is what I intended to do initially, and I think it is beneficial for me to do 2 3/4s in y11 so that I get more study time in y12. The subjects that I want to do overall are certainly (methods, chem, bio, englang, japanese). I have to choose 1 of (spesh, further, psych) . In terms of performance my maths and science are strong, and I have received permission to do 1/2 bio OR psych by my teacher as an acceleration subject. Is it beneficial to do 2 acceleration subjects? Also what subject out of the ones I have to choose o you recommend for someone who is passionate in maths and science?
Hi!

Yes, I'd recommend doing two 3/4s early if you can, but I know my school didn't allow it.

If I had to choose one, it'd be Biology. I know there's a lot more required knowledge from 1/2 in 3/4 for Bio than Psych, which you can pick up straight away in 3/4 pretty easily.

Hope that helps!
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AngelWings

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Re: Re: VCE subject selection
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2020, 05:56:49 pm »
+7
Hello guys!
I know this forum has not been posted on in more than a year, but if someone gets this message can you please help me out with my subject selection? I am in year 9 and have decided to take biology or psychology units 1/2 next year as acceleration. Sadly I can not do both which is what I intended to do initially, and I think it is beneficial for me to do 2 3/4s in y11 so that I get more study time in y12. The subjects that I want to do overall are certainly (methods, chem, bio, englang, japanese). I have to choose 1 of (spesh, further, psych) . In terms of performance my maths and science are strong, and I have received permission to do 1/2 bio OR psych by my teacher as an acceleration subject. Is it beneficial to do 2 acceleration subjects? Also what subject out of the ones I have to choose o you recommend for someone who is passionate in maths and science?
Hey there!

I actually did most of the subjects you have there that you want to do for certain, except Bio, so I kind of remember what it feels like to have a similar workload.

Contrary to common belief, I believe it’s actually case-dependent whether someone will benefit from doing 2 U3/4s in Year 11 vs. 1 U3/4. For me, personally, I benefited more from doing 1, despite having 3 U1/2s in Year 10 and don’t think I would’ve scored as well had I done more in Year 11. (Extra spare periods and doing less U3/4s in Year 11 can be both a blessing and a curse to students.) However, I understand everyone is different so I would recommend doing what you are most comfortable with, given that choice.

In terms of selecting your U3/4 for Year 11, I’d recommend either, though I do agree that Bio is the slightly more content-heavy one, so it might be better to have more time to dedicate to it earlier. Both are still great choices nonetheless.

As for which subject to pick between Spesh, Further or Psych, it depends on what you’re after. I’d suggest looking at each of these subject’s study designs to see what best suits you. In the perspective of prerequisite subjects (compulsory subjects you must do for direct entry into a certain course after VCE, pending other factors e.g. ATAR), Further and Spesh fulfil the prerequisites for different courses, while Psych less so.

If you’re hoping to study engineering in uni/ higher education, Spesh would probably be the better call.

Further fulfils the “any mathematics” prerequisites for many STEMM (the last M being medicine) courses, including biomed, nursing and teaching (from memory, I might be wrong though), however, if you’re already doing Methods, that covers it too and Further would be a different perspective on maths, but typically considered to have a “lower workload”, so would help to balance out some of the “heavier” subjects you have. The caveat here is that it’s harder to score at the very top end, so if it’s a high study score you want, you’d have to be cautious of your competition.

Psych is particularly good if you learn well conceptually, want something different from maths, if you wish to study it further and/or want to understand some of the thoughts and processes involved with the mind (personally, I found it was sometimes helpful in daily life).

All three are great choices, but in different ways for different people.
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successismygoal

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2020, 12:00:59 pm »
+2
Thank you guys so much I really appreciate your help a lot!! Personally I am not aiming for engineering, so your advice on that is a huge relief as I had heard how painful spesh can be. However I will still ask my teacher at the end of y10 to see if I should try it out for 1/2, just incase. I will choose biology 1/2 next year as it seems it is most beneficial for many people! Also yes I have heard doing 1 3/4 is helpful for many people too! Thank you guys once again!!
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Duck Tails

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2020, 02:50:51 pm »
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Hey,

Just chucking my two cents in and adding that as a year 10 student, doing bio now is probably the best decision I could've made. It's definitely quite content-heavy, but as long as you keep up you'll be golden. Regarding doing spesh, I considered it but I decided it's not for me - I'm not sure how other schools do year 10 maths, but my "pre-methods" work has a few questions at the end of each topic which are specifically aimed for if you want to do spesh to kind of give you a taster.

At the end of the day, it's all up to you - do what you think will be the most beneficial. If you want to push yourself and try out spesh, definitely go for it! Don't be afraid to try it out and push yourself - if you feel like you want to drop it, that's completely fine. As cheesy as it sounds, this is your VCE experience, not anyone else's.

I wish you the best of luck :)
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Sine

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2020, 03:18:30 pm »
+3
Hello guys!
I know this forum has not been posted on in more than a year, but if someone gets this message can you please help me out with my subject selection? I am in year 9 and have decided to take biology or psychology units 1/2 next year as acceleration. Sadly I can not do both which is what I intended to do initially, and I think it is beneficial for me to do 2 3/4s in y11 so that I get more study time in y12. The subjects that I want to do overall are certainly (methods, chem, bio, englang, japanese). I have to choose 1 of (spesh, further, psych) . In terms of performance my maths and science are strong, and I have received permission to do 1/2 bio OR psych by my teacher as an acceleration subject. Is it beneficial to do 2 acceleration subjects? Also what subject out of the ones I have to choose o you recommend for someone who is passionate in maths and science?


Mod edit: split from old topic and renamed. If you have a question to ask and the topic is more than 30 days old just start a new topic with your question :)
If they don't let you do two 1/2 subjects in year 10 try to push doing 2 3/4 subject in year 11. In year 10 you have actual year 10 subject which may make it difficult to fit in 2 year 10 subjects which makes it somewhat understandable on the schools part but in year 11 there shouldn't "technically" be a problem since you are just replacing a 1/2 sequence with 3/4 unless your school has 0 flexibility.

successismygoal

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2020, 04:24:59 pm »
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If they don't let you do two 1/2 subjects in year 10 try to push doing 2 3/4 subject in year 11. In year 10 you have actual year 10 subject which may make it difficult to fit in 2 year 10 subjects which makes it somewhat understandable on the schools part but in year 11 there shouldn't "technically" be a problem since you are just replacing a 1/2 sequence with 3/4 unless your school has 0 flexibility.

Hey, thanks a lot with that, its motivating!! The rule in my school is that they only allow one science subject to be done in acceleration, which is 2 units (1/2), and they allow for another science based elective...like energy or astronomy etc. However I think I found a way to do both bio and psych, but I would like to seek you guys' advice. I am allowed to do 1/2 bio and unit 2 psych, because thats a total of 3 units is science which is allowed. Is skipping unit 1 a disadvantage??
Hey,

Just chucking my two cents in and adding that as a year 10 student, doing bio now is probably the best decision I could've made. It's definitely quite content-heavy, but as long as you keep up you'll be golden. Regarding doing spesh, I considered it but I decided it's not for me - I'm not sure how other schools do year 10 maths, but my "pre-methods" work has a few questions at the end of each topic which are specifically aimed for if you want to do spesh to kind of give you a taster.

At the end of the day, it's all up to you - do what you think will be the most beneficial. If you want to push yourself and try out spesh, definitely go for it! Don't be afraid to try it out and push yourself - if you feel like you want to drop it, that's completely fine. As cheesy as it sounds, this is your VCE experience, not anyone else's.

I wish you the best of luck :)


Thanks for your help mate spesh is gonna be interesting and I think I might give it a shot if I am recommended to do so by my school. Methods is something I am definitely gonna do, because I love maths!
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Sine

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2020, 04:52:15 pm »
+1
Hey, thanks a lot with that, its motivating!! The rule in my school is that they only allow one science subject to be done in acceleration, which is 2 units (1/2), and they allow for another science based elective...like energy or astronomy etc. However I think I found a way to do both bio and psych, but I would like to seek you guys' advice. I am allowed to do 1/2 bio and unit 2 psych, because thats a total of 3 units is science which is allowed. Is skipping unit 1 a disadvantage??
nah for most subjects skipping units 1/2 is not disadvantageous imo except for maybe maths/english where you are always building upon what you have learnt in the past.

For Biology it definitely doesn't matter if you miss out on 1/2 since you learn completely different thing in unit 3/4 the only thing being constant is general bio concepts. I am not too familiar with psych so someone else can clarify they importance of unit 1/2 for that.

AngelWings

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2020, 05:56:45 pm »
+3
I am not too familiar with psych so someone else can clarify they importance of unit 1/2 for that.
I did Psych U1/2 way back in 2012, so I might have outdated information, but you can skip Unit 1 without much issue. The only thing you'd really need to ask your Unit 2 Psych teacher about and catch up on is the topic of research methods; this is the one topic that is transferable across all 4 units and is brushed through super quickly in U3/4 or assumed knowledge sometimes (I can't quite recall which is right, but I think it's the former).
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successismygoal

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2020, 03:13:41 pm »
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Update:
Ok so I found that I cant do both bio and psych next year :(. The school still doesnt allow even though I requested if I could do only unit 2 of psych. However I had another idea and would like your input in it guys. If I was to do further 3/4 in y11 as well as 3/4 bio which they allow, is that a good choice? I love maths, and if I do this, then I will have to drop psych and pick up spesh because I dont want to risk doing 2 subjects that scale down (further and psych), and I am okay with this. Then the rest of my subjects are methods, chem, englang, and jap.
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AngelWings

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2020, 06:02:00 pm »
+3
Update:
Ok so I found that I cant do both bio and psych next year :(. The school still doesnt allow even though I requested if I could do only unit 2 of psych. However I had another idea and would like your input in it guys. If I was to do further 3/4 in y11 as well as 3/4 bio which they allow, is that a good choice?
Up to you. I've seen a number of people do them as accelerated subjects (U3/4 in Year 11).

I love maths, and if I do this, then I will have to drop psych and pick up spesh because I dont want to risk doing 2 subjects that scale down (further and psych), and I am okay with this. Then the rest of my subjects are methods, chem, englang, and jap.
I wouldn't pick subjects based on scaling, but if you like maths, then the interest in maths should be your reasoning for picking Spesh over Psych, not the fact that Further and Psych scale down. I might have outdated information, but I believe that you would have to beware that only 2 out of the 3 maths subjects you do can count for your Top 4 subjects, the third automatically is a 10% subject (i.e. 5th/6th subject).

Another thing to think about is the combined workload - will you be able to manage Methods, Chem, Eng Lang, Japanese and Spesh? Spesh requires a fair amount of time, as do all these other subjects. However, it is dependent on you and what you think is best for you. If you believe this to be a manageable workload, then go for it.
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successismygoal

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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2020, 06:30:04 pm »
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Hmm, thank you for this it really helps. Guess I will have to put more thought into this than I have before. But yes the workload seems a lot to me as well, which is why I am doing 7 subjects in the first place so that I can drop one during 1/2 if I find it too much. I know that the 1/2 workload is not as much as the 3/4 workload if I'm not wrong because SAC's and examinations... but yeah thanks a lot
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Re: Help with unit 1/2 subject selection
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2020, 11:43:47 am »
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But yes the workload seems a lot to me as well, which is why I am doing 7 subjects in the first place so that I can drop one during 1/2 if I find it too much. I know that the 1/2 workload is not as much as the 3/4 workload if I'm not wrong because SAC's and examinations... but yeah thanks a lot

If it feels challenging it's a good thing, remember that. If you aren't challenged, there's literally no point imo. If it's taking a toll on your mental health, I'd consider reaching out for support and learning new time management skills.

« Last Edit: July 19, 2020, 12:08:20 pm by brothanathan »