Unit 1/2 in Year 10?

[TylerD9]

Hello,

So I am a year 9 student, and we have subject selection for year 10 coming up the first week back next term. I am looking at taking two year 11 subjects in year 10. Out of all the subjects I want to take in VCE, the only suitable two to do in year 10 are Methods and either Biology or Legal Studies. The subjects which I want to take through to year 12 are literature, chemistry, physics, methods, specialist and either legal or bio.
When I finish school, I want to do some sort of science/engineering, along the lines of maybe aerospace or mechatronics.
So now that I have to pick two unit 1/2 to accelerate next year, I was considering methods and either bio or legal.

Is methods a good idea to complete in year 10? Both my maths teachers from this year believe that I'm capable (test results - Financial Maths: 84%, Pythagoras' and Trigonometry: 100%, Linear Equations: 99%, Algebraic Tequniques: 95%, Mid Semester Exam: 98%), and I have a meeting with the maths coordinator soon to discuss it. I am also completing some extension work in quadratics and geometry problem-solving and my teacher wishes to extend me into year 10 work when I finish the quadratics stuff. How big of a leap is it from what I've covered (and year 9 maths in general) into Methods 1 and 2?

Secondly, I am torn between doing bio and legal for my second one. Obvisouly, these two have little relation with what I desire to study after school, and I plan on continuing with this subject with units 3 and 4, so I don't want to be wasting my time. In my opinion, I would prefer to do legal, as I'm not really drawn towards the rote learning in bio, but I believe that bio would most likely open up more doors for me and would have a stronger relationship with what I want to do than legal. Which one has more of a rote learning style? Which one has a larger workload? Which should I choose to complete?

Is doing two unit 1 and 2 even a good idea? Every forum I've read has said that it's a good idea, but my parents aren't really too keen on it.

Please let me know what you think,

Thank you for your response

[Aaron]

Does your school allow you to accelerate methods 1/2 in Year 10? I haven't heard of this before. I would personally (and this is my opinion) hold off on doing Methods. There is a massive difference between Year 9 Maths and Year 11 Methods. Ideally, Year 10 is the 'preparation year', where the Maths program should be designed to cater to all those taking different pathways (e.g. Methods, General, No Maths etc).

Again, we don't know you or your individual circumstances so i'm just basing my response on what I think generally.

I'd speak to the careers person at your school and one or both of your current Year 9 maths teacher + the methods 1/2 teacher. These people would be more likely to give you accurate advice on what you should do in regards to Methods.

In regards to your question about doing two unit 1/2 subjects in Year 10: most only do one at Year 10 level to get a taste of VCE before they have to do it properly from Year 11... however I don't see the problem with it if you are extremely keen. For Unit 1/2 subjects, the only requirement you really need is a 'S' (satisfactory) for each unit. 1/2 will not contribute to your ATAR.

Good luck with your choices

[TylerD9]

Does your school allow you to accelerate methods 1/2 in Year 10? I haven't heard of this before. I would personally (and this is my opinion) hold off on doing Methods. There is a massive difference between Year 9 Maths and Year 11 Methods. Ideally, Year 10 is the 'preparation year', where the Maths program should be designed to cater to all those taking different pathways (e.g. Methods, General, No Maths etc).

Again, we don't know you or your individual circumstances so i'm just basing my response on what I think generally.

I'd speak to the careers person at your school and one or both of your current Year 9 maths teacher + the methods 1/2 teacher. These people would be more likely to give you accurate advice on what you should do in regards to Methods.

Good luck with your choices

Hi, thank you for the response.

Yes, the school does allow you to accelerate methods, on the condition that your teacher and the maths coordinator (who is also the methods teacher) think you'll be capable of it. My maths teacher believes that I am, and I am planning on speaking to the methods teacher/maths coordinator within the next week.
I spoke to the career coordinator, and she told me the above.

Once again, thank you for the response

[Aaron]

Hi, thank you for the response.

Yes, the school does allow you to accelerate methods, on the condition that your teacher and the maths coordinator (who is also the methods teacher) think you'll be capable of it. My maths teacher believes that I am, and I am planning on speaking to the methods teacher/maths coordinator within the next week.
I spoke to the career coordinator, and she told me the above.

Once again, thank you for the response

Then in that case, I'd follow the advice of the people who know you personally and know your capabilities

I love seeing curious students on here at such young ages trying to better themselves. Good on you!

[patriciarose]

Secondly, I am torn between doing bio and legal for my second one. Obvisouly, these two have little relation with what I desire to study after school, and I plan on continuing with this subject with units 3 and 4, so I don't want to be wasting my time. In my opinion, I would prefer to do legal, as I'm not really drawn towards the rote learning in bio, but I believe that bio would most likely open up more doors for me and would have a stronger relationship with what I want to do than legal. Which one has more of a rote learning style? Which one has a larger workload? Which should I choose to complete?

not to confuse your decision, but there is definitely rote learning in legal too, and quite a lot of application in bio. but honestly, if you want to do legal, i feel as though you should do it. if you're planning on taking chem in year 12, you won't need bio as a prerequisite for uni and sometimes it's nice to have subjects that require a different type of thinking. also, legal is the kind of subject i wish i'd taken early tbh, because i feel like if you have the time to put a lot of work into it you do really see that effort reflected in your marks. helps you boost your vocab a bit too, and you learn to write very quickly which you're going to need for at least year twelve lit! a lot of other people did bio early too though and they did amazingly so that might just be my bias creeping through haha. but there is definitely something to be said for doing a subject you enjoy early, it helps heaps with motivation and you get into good habits for later on (:

[GalacticProcess]

Hey TylerD9,
I was in your situation exactly a year ago and in my opinion choosing biology and methods would be a great idea. I can't really comment on legal as I have not chosen/done it before and I don't plan on doing it. I chose methods 1/2 and biology 1/2 for year 10 (this year) and in my opinion, it isn't really to hard to cope with.

I am not sure about how you'll handle methods but I had been doing accelerated maths since the beginning of year 8 so the jump wasn't too large. You really need to try and dedicate time for methods and really pay attention in class but if you study at home, you should be just fine. The unit 1 topics were more linear relationships, quadratic graphs, polynomials, circular functions and matrices. So far for unit 2, we finishing off exponential functions and logarithms. The work is quite fast paced, or at least in my school, and you need to do a lot of work at home to keep up. Shouldn't be a problem if you study well and I'm assuming that you are quite dedicated already as you're on this site.

Biology isn't too difficult either but again, it's important to dedicate enough time for you to learn everything properly and thoroughly. Doing biology early in my opinion really sets you up for year 11 and 12 VCE as it gets you into the habit of writing effective notes and summaries. Unit 1 is a bit more hectic than unit 2 but it isn't too difficult to manage. For unit 1, we have covered microscopes and the introduction to cells, the plasma membrane, energy transformations, functioning systems, experimental designs, survival through adaptations and regulation, relationships in an ecosystem and classifying biodiversity and in unit 2 we are covering cell replication. In biology, it's really important to listen attentively and write concise but thorough summaries and notes (not sure if that made sense). As biology is content heavy, it will be useful to do biology 3/4 in year 11 while doing other 1/2s. This is so you can put extra effort into biology and ultimately do well.

At the end of the day, it really is your decision and like Aaron said, discuss this with the teachers at your school as they know you better than we do. Sorry that I couldn't help out for legal but I have no knowledge of the subject so I'd probably mislead you haha. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask them and I'll try my best to answer them. If you want some teacher notes for methods or biology so that you can get a feel for the subjects, feel free to PM me and I'll send them to you. I hope I helped! 

[Joseph41]

Don't have too much to add - just want to add my voice behind the "doing two 1/2s is a good idea" theory. Can't comment specifically on any of the subjects (did Methods 1/2, but didn't do Bio or Legal - and dropped Methods in Year 12), but from what I've read, you're going down an excellent path.

Good luck!

[heids]

Does your school allow you to accelerate methods 1/2 in Year 10? I haven't heard of this before. I would personally (and this is my opinion) hold off on doing Methods. There is a massive difference between Year 9 Maths and Year 11 Methods. Ideally, Year 10 is the 'preparation year', where the Maths program should be designed to cater to all those taking different pathways (e.g. Methods, General, No Maths etc).

Meh, I went straight from year 9 maths to year 11 methods, taught myself some year 10 maths  (namely quadratics) over the holidays, and had no major issues, and I'm no maths genius. I didn't find the difference huge. Definitely not everyone's experience, but just my 2c.

[K3NUpdate]

Hi TylerD9,

Just thought I'd put my two cents into this discussion!

When I was completing the VCE, I was in a relatively similar position as you where I had the opportunity to do Methods 1/2 in Year 10, and I also had parents who were also against doing VCE subjects a year earlier. Admittedly, I was in accelerated maths in Year 9 at the time of subject selection, but my grades were rather 'volatile' and to begin with, I never saw myself as being particularly strong at maths either. However, I took the plunge and gave VCE 1/2 Methods a go, and I put lots of effort and time into the subject in order to understand the fundamentals of the subject. As it was my first VCE subject, I made sure I gave it my all - and indeed, it paid off with a rather decent study score (which was my best score in VCE too!).  Once you understand the content for Methods 1/2 inside out, Methods 3/4 is essentially refining and expanding your different techniques at solving different problems that throw at you in assessments and exams.

Indeed, there is quite a leap from Year 9 maths to Year 11 maths, but if you focus on building on the essential skills required for the subject, backed by lots of practice and exposing yourself to some of the 'conventional' problems found in the subject, you'll be fine. Also, I can't really comment on doing two 1/2 VCE subjects in Year 10, but experience from doing Methods tells me that it does take quite a lot of time and commitment to do just one subject, and looking back I personally wouldn't have done two 1/2 or 3/4 subjects.

All in all, whether you choose to do one/two 1/2 VCE subjects in Year 10, it really helps lift the burden off your shoulders when Year 12 comes around, and the experience you get from doing a subject early is invaluable and prepares you for what's to come, regardless as to whether your end result was what you expected/didn't expect. Take your time to think about it, there's lots of excellent resources and people here on ATARNotes for you to use and talk to in order for you to make your final decision (as seen from the posters above!)

I guess that's all I have to say, good luck with your studies and hopefully what I've written was helpful!

[Sine]

Hello,

So I am a year 9 student, and we have subject selection for year 10 coming up the first week back next term. I am looking at taking two year 11 subjects in year 10. Out of all the subjects I want to take in VCE, the only suitable two to do in year 10 are Methods and either Biology or Legal Studies. The subjects which I want to take through to year 12 are literature, chemistry, physics, methods, specialist and either legal or bio.
When I finish school, I want to do some sort of science/engineering, along the lines of maybe aerospace or mechatronics.
So now that I have to pick two unit 1/2 to accelerate next year, I was considering methods and either bio or legal.

Is methods a good idea to complete in year 10? Both my maths teachers from this year believe that I'm capable (test results - Financial Maths: 84%, Pythagoras' and Trigonometry: 100%, Linear Equations: 99%, Algebraic Tequniques: 95%, Mid Semester Exam: 98%), and I have a meeting with the maths coordinator soon to discuss it. I am also completing some extension work in quadratics and geometry problem-solving and my teacher wishes to extend me into year 10 work when I finish the quadratics stuff. How big of a leap is it from what I've covered (and year 9 maths in general) into Methods 1 and 2?

Secondly, I am torn between doing bio and legal for my second one. Obvisouly, these two have little relation with what I desire to study after school, and I plan on continuing with this subject with units 3 and 4, so I don't want to be wasting my time. In my opinion, I would prefer to do legal, as I'm not really drawn towards the rote learning in bio, but I believe that bio would most likely open up more doors for me and would have a stronger relationship with what I want to do than legal. Which one has more of a rote learning style? Which one has a larger workload? Which should I choose to complete?

Is doing two unit 1 and 2 even a good idea? Every forum I've read has said that it's a good idea, but my parents aren't really too keen on it.

Please let me know what you think,

Thank you for your response

I'd recommend to do methods/bio in year 11 - bio since it's the "harder" subject or more time consuming.

For methods the worst thing that can happen is you don't do as well as you would have liked in year 11 and just repeat in year 12 however requiring  you to drop a subject - that is if you want to do a maximum of 5 vce subjects in year 12.

Also for methods a lot of year 11 is repeated in year 12 so if you don't fully get a topic initally you always have another shot next year to fully understand it.

Does your school allow you to accelerate methods 1/2 in Year 10? I haven't heard of this before. I would personally (and this is my opinion) hold off on doing Methods. There is a massive difference between Year 9 Maths and Year 11 Methods. Ideally, Year 10 is the 'preparation year', where the Maths program should be designed to cater to all those taking different pathways (e.g. Methods, General, No Maths etc).

hmm It's actually very popular subject to "accelerate" -well that and biology I guess. Although sadly my school didn't LOL. 

[TylerD9]

Thank you everyone for your responses, it is greatly appreciated

[Bri MT]

I self-taught myself year 10 maths due to timetable clashes and was fine, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch to just do holiday prep and jump into year 11. I honestly believe that if you are a math-type person (which you seem to be) you'll be able to handle it. Unit 1 and 2 classes honestly just felt like any other class in year 10, I'd go for it and if you decide to only continue one as a 3/4 that year so be it (I had to because of timetable, hopefully the same doesn't happen to you).

I am biased, but I would go with biology as it will teach you scientific methodology which will be useful for your other sciences, and in particular help you with chemistry unit 4. I didn't actually find biology to be much rote memorisation at all (previous study design so I don't know how valid that still is) and if you instead base your learning on understanding it as a whole you tend to be more able to answer questions. From what I hear from the legal students, legal is A LOT of memorisation, rote learning cases etc.    BUT definitely don't let me stop you if legal is what you want to do. Better to do a subject you enjoy than one you dislike.

I cannot recommend strongly enough that you do at least one 1/2 subject next year, it is so good for peace of mind, having more understanding of the system, study skills etc.

Remember, all we can do is provide info and our experiences: you are the one who has to live with your choices