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March 29, 2024, 12:25:06 pm

Author Topic: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?  (Read 4286 times)  Share 

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Arthurmorgan

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Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« on: January 15, 2019, 10:43:51 pm »
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So long story short, I didn't pick a 6th subject to do in Year 11 and have been regretting it every day since.

I am aiming for an ATAR in the mid - high 80's and am wondering if this is actually something that is achievable?

During the start of the holidays I was putting in about 3 hours of study per day however, that number has probably decreased to around an hour per day. I wasn't really that concerned until a couple months ago when a classmate was saying that if you don't do a 6th subject, you essentially have no chance of getting an ATAR over 80 unless you are a 'literal genius' . He also stated that 80% of people who get a 40 in a subject only get it when it's the only subject they are doing during the whole year.

My subjects are English, Further, Methods, Physics and Software Development.

Does anyone know how true his statements are and if anyone has been able to achieve a 'good' ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Last Edit: January 15, 2019, 10:48:17 pm by Arthurmorgan »

Aaron

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2019, 10:50:07 pm »
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Rubbish. The 6th subject will only contribute 10% to the aggregate which unless you're at the very top end, is a minor difference. One key disadvantage is that you don't have much of a buffer as the top 4's scaled scores contribute in full to your aggregate.

Further and Softdev unfortunately scale down and afaik English slightly does too but Methods and Physics are good choices. With that in mind, I think it's absolutely possible to get 80+ provided your cohort doesn't screw you over and you perform well in both internal and external assessment.

You'll want to do well in Softdev unless it ends up being the 5th subject as that's the one that will scale down quite a bit (if we follow trends over the past years).

Quote
He also stated that 80% of people who get a 40 in a subject only get it when it's the only subject they are doing during the whole year.
Yeah. Don't believe it.

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Good luck!
« Last Edit: January 15, 2019, 10:59:05 pm by Aaron »
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Arthurmorgan

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2019, 10:57:40 pm »
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Rubbish. The 6th subject will only contribute 10% to the aggregate which unless you're at the very top end, is a minor difference. One key disadvantage is that you don't have much of a buffer as the top 4's scaled scores contribute in full to your aggregate.

Further and Softdev unfortunately scale down and afaik English slightly does too but Methods and Physics are good choices. With that in mind, I think it's absolutely possible to get 80+ provided your cohort doesn't screw you over and you perform well in both internal and external assessment.

You'll want to do well in Softdev unless it ends up being the 5th subject as that's the one that will scale down quite a bit (if we follow trends over the past years).

Good luck!

Thanks!

Would you happen to know where I can find resources for Soft Dev?
I know it's a smaller subject but I can't seem to find any apart from VCE  IT.

Aaron

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2019, 11:02:02 pm »
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Thanks!

Would you happen to know where I can find resources for Soft Dev?
I know it's a smaller subject but I can't seem to find any apart from VCE  IT.

I'll answer this one question but in the interest of keeping the thread on topic, please direct your future queries to the right board: VCE Software Development.

In terms of resources - there isn't much tbh as VCE IT is like the holy bible of Computing. Check out that forum and post any q's - i'm sure somebody will assist. I'm sure if you searched individual components of the course (e.g. object oriented programming, problem solving methodology etc), you'd get hits. The programming language choice is usually teacher discretion which makes each school and class different.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2019, 11:03:46 pm by Aaron »
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Arthurmorgan

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2019, 11:48:07 pm »
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With that in mind, I think it's absolutely possible to get 80+ provided your cohort doesn't screw you over and you perform well in both internal and external assessment

I saw you mentioned cohort. Does this matter a significant amount or can the effects of it be decreased depending on how well you rank? In Year 11, I think I was around second or third in a cohort of around 18 (I know comparing year 11 marks with year 12 is probably pretty meaningless). Our cohort has a really mixed level of enthusiasm, about 1/4 wants to genuinely do well and about 1/3 don't really come to class that often. It's also one of those subjects where the teacher has no authority over the class, people just do whatever they want to do. How much will this impact my results if I continue to rank around the same?

I was also wondering if anyone thinks it's worth doing six subjects in Year 12? I was thinking about Algorithmics since I do want to a pursue a career in that area but I heard the workload is relatively high.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2019, 11:59:34 pm by Arthurmorgan »

Sine

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2019, 12:13:12 am »
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During the start of the holidays I was putting in about 3 hours of study per day however, that number has probably decreased to around an hour per day. I wasn't really that concerned until a couple months ago when a classmate was saying that if you don't do a 6th subject, you essentially have no chance of getting an ATAR over 80 unless you are a 'literal genius' . He also stated that 80% of people who get a 40 in a subject only get it when it's the only subject they are doing during the whole year.

My subjects are English, Further, Methods, Physics and Software Development.

Does anyone know how true his statements are and if anyone has been able to achieve a 'good' ATAR with 5 subjects?

Most of what your classmate has said is not true.

5 subjects is enough to score well, I've seen people do this and end up with ATARs in the mid 98s and they didn't even need 40+ in all their subjects.

Aaron

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2019, 12:47:09 am »
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Quote from: Arthurmorgan
I was thinking about Algorithmics since I do want to a pursue a career in that area but I heard the workload is relatively high.
Algorithmics is classified as a HESS subject (higher education scored study) which essentially means it's of a higher difficulty than a traditional VCE subject. It's sort of like a uni extension subject as it's developed by Monash and Melb unis, but the structure is the same (SACs, exams, etc) and you get a study score. You need a prerequisite of Methods 1/2 to enrol in it for good reason but there is plenty of time for you to learn this especially if you want to go into this field later on. It's not for the feint hearted, that's for sure. There is a tug-of-war where this subject should be placed since it has a heavy emphasis on Maths, but it technically is a Computing subject given algorithmics belongs to the Comp Sci branch.

The 1/3 has the potential to drag your scores down and you won't really be affected if you're rank 1. Any other rank there is the chance. I wouldn't worry about others and focus on achieving the highest you possibly can. Let the rest play out. You can't really control that.
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brynstar

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2019, 08:21:38 am »
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Just to add to this, my friend got an 85 with 5 subjects, 4 of which scaled down. I realise this is maybe a bit lower than where you're aiming but she did hardly any work all year and only studied leading up to exams. This is not an approach I would recommend at all, I think she got lucky, but just goes to show you don't have to take certain subjects or be a "literal genius".
2016 - Indonesian SL (43)
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2018 - Literature (50 + Premier's Award), French (45), Latin (35), Deakin Accelerate Psychological Science (5.0) ATAR - 99.85

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Joseph41

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2019, 09:03:27 am »
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You certainly don't need to be studying six subjects in order to get an ATAR of 80+. In fact, you don't even need to be studying six subjects in order to get an ATAR of 99+. If you take out my sixth subject entirely (to simulate studying five subjects), my ATAR dropped by 0.3. Results will change from person to person, but you can see how small an impact it would have had on me ultimately - and my other scores may have increased as a result of a lighter workload.

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Unsplash

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2019, 09:19:40 am »
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If you exclude Specialist from my results, we effectively had the same subjects (I’ll allow Business Management to be similar in this case to Further due to similar scaling. My adjusted ATAR would have been low 98s, so definitely possible to achieve your goal.

zuijinde

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Re: Decent ATAR with 5 subjects?
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2019, 07:08:15 pm »
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vwXt-wmM2w (this is not me)

Definitely possible. Good luck :)