Advice for Year 10

[sw3glord]

Hi all, next year I'll be going into year 10 and I just had a few questions regarding VCE prep and stuff.

1. Should I even be worrying about preparing for VCE at this point? I've already started some research on which subjects I should pick, but beyond that I've basically just been trying to focus on school work and developing good study habits.

2. Is it better to do 3/4 Psychology or 3/4 Biology in year 11?  I'm thinking of doing both of these subjects in VCE (they seem interesting), but I don't know which will be better to accelerate and which is better to do in year 12.

3. What can I do right now to better prep for Year 10/11/12?

[caffinatedloz]

Hello hello! It's great to see you around the forums, and you're asking some very great questions too! Congratulations on finishing Year 9, and I commend you for thinking about VCE so early.

1. Should I even be worrying about preparing for VCE at this point? I've already started some research on which subjects I should pick, but beyond that I've basically just been trying to focus on school work and developing good study habits.

I think that, as you mentioned, using Year 10 to create good habits is something that will be beneficial to you and is certainly going to be applicable to life during VCE. Even creating good habits outside of your study around sleep, eating, drinking enough water and exercising are good ideas because when you're life gets busier, you'll have something to fall back on. In terms of preparing for VCE, figuring out what you enjoy in Year 10 and researching subjects for next year sounds wise. Outside of that, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to prepare for VCE. If you're doing a 1/2 subject, focusing on learning that content really well and being really successful at that is another way you can help prepare yourself.

2. Is it better to do 3/4 Psychology or 3/4 Biology in year 11?  I'm thinking of doing both of these subjects in VCE (they seem interesting), but I don't know which will be better to accelerate and which is better to do in year 12.

I'm currently accelerating biology and very much enjoying it. I think that it's a matter of preference. Biology has been a good subject to accelerate because it doesn't rely on you having heaps of knowledge and skills from other subjects (like physics would) and a lot of the learning is content based (but they are slowly moving away from this). I think that both psych and bio are good options and it comes down to a matter of personal preference. Perhaps someone who has completed both could give you some more advice.

3. What can I do right now to better prep for Year 10/11/12?

The main thing I did in the summer holidays between year nine and ten was focus on preparing for my 1/2 subject and preteaching myself a lot of content. I found that absolutely invaluable and it is what I plan to do for all of my subjects this year. Also, relax. And enjoy yourself.

[J_Rho]

Hi all, next year I'll be going into year 10 and I just had a few questions regarding VCE prep and stuff.

1. Should I even be worrying about preparing for VCE at this point? I've already started some research on which subjects I should pick, but beyond that I've basically just been trying to focus on school work and developing good study habits.

2. Is it better to do 3/4 Psychology or 3/4 Biology in year 11?  I'm thinking of doing both of these subjects in VCE (they seem interesting), but I don't know which will be better to accelerate and which is better to do in year 12.

3. What can I do right now to better prep for Year 10/11/12?

Hey!
It's awesome you're already thinking about this!

Psych or Bio?
As someone who has accelerated Biology and had friends who have done Psychology - I strongly recommend Biology as it is 'harder' then Psychology as there is not only a lot of content but you have to learn to apply it to any situation...doing it a year early gives you so much time to work on this subject and do really well. While Psych is is very content heavy and relies on in-depth knowledge to apply it to any situation, many people I've spoken to say that the concepts in Psych are so so much easier to wrap your head around ultimately do whichever you think you will enjoy the most.

What you can do to get ahead (and what I wish i did)
What I wish I had have done was read my Year 12 English texts in Year 11 so that by the time year 12 comes around I'll have read it so much I'll know them inside out! However, that is so so not necessary.
Just work on finding how you study best and get into a really really good routine! and if you really wanna get your head int he game you can preteach yourself so that you go into class with a foundation understanding and in class you can ask questions and consolidate your understanding

Thinking Long term and picking subjects
I'd advise you to research what courses you might wanna do after school and choose subjects that will allow you to do any of the courses you want to do. VTAC has a good function where you can enter in your subjects and it'll tell you what courses you can do with those subjects!

I wanted to do Methods and Further in Year 12 BUT my accelerated subject was in the same block I didnt think much of this untill it comes time to pick Year 12 subjects and I'm told that the school wont let me do Methods 3/4 if I didnt do 1/2 which SUCKED so make sure your thinking long term about what subjects will benefit you most and help you get where you wanna be.