UMEP philosophy without VCE philosophy?

[thechicken103]

Hi all,
I really want to do philosophy next year (I'm currently in year 11), however, my school doesn't offer it as a subject so I was thinking that I could do it via Distance Ed, however, I was told by our school's careers adviser that philosophy is a subject that requires a lot of discussion so it would be very difficult to do via distance ed, so she suggested that I could potentially do it as a UMEP subject. However, I haven't done philosophy as a school subject before (I do really love philosophy, I've just never had the chance to do it), so I'm not sure whether this is a good idea. I guess what I'm asking is, is it a good idea to do UMEP philosophy without having done philosophy as a vce subject?
Thanks

[achre]

I haven't done UMEP philosophy myself, but I've heard it's very manageable without VCE philosophy. And I've also found that uni philosophy tends to be a lot easier than VCE philosophy, and much more interesting.

Additionally, I had a bad time with distance ed. It's very far from an ideal situation when it comes to this particular subject - you absolutely need that environment of discussion and immediate consultation with a teacher (as opposed to phone calls or emails or taking the day off of school to travel halfway across the city to chat to a physical person). So I can definitely recommend against DECV. They're good people, but the institutional arrangement is just impossible.

[louisbecker1997]

I'm doing both UMEP philo and VCE philo, and can assure you that UMEP philo is considerably easier, and is taught as an introductory course.