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March 28, 2024, 09:50:50 pm

Author Topic: Choosing subjects?  (Read 1432 times)

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sroe

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Choosing subjects?
« on: December 17, 2019, 04:25:55 pm »
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Hi Everyone,

I've just started year 12 (graduating 2020) and I'm trying to finalise my subjects for next year. At this stage, I still have 13 units. While I managed in term 4 and was happy with the results, I don't think I will be able to sustain that workload for next year.

Currently, my subjects are:
English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
Chemistry
Physics
Geography
PDHPE

All of my marks were fairly similar, and I enjoy all of the subjects. Some subjects have better teachers and some have better classes, so I'm trying to decide what to drop heading into 2020.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

DrDusk

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Re: Choosing subjects?
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2019, 04:28:55 pm »
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Hi Everyone,

I've just started year 12 (graduating 2020) and I'm trying to finalise my subjects for next year. At this stage, I still have 13 units. While I managed in term 4 and was happy with the results, I don't think I will be able to sustain that workload for next year.

Currently, my subjects are:
English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
Chemistry
Physics
Geography
PDHPE

All of my marks were fairly similar, and I enjoy all of the subjects. Some subjects have better teachers and some have better classes, so I'm trying to decide what to drop heading into 2020.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Well if you can't find any deciding factor and you like each of them equally then I would suggest dropping the lowest scaling subject or the one with the worst teacher. In that case I would recommend dropping geography or pdhpe.

sroe

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Re: Choosing subjects?
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2019, 04:33:28 pm »
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Thanks.
I was thinking similar. The only issue is that the phdpe teacher is better but most of the class are a mess and very disruptive, while the geography teacher just reads out of the textbook, but the class is stronger.

owidjaja

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Re: Choosing subjects?
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2019, 11:25:28 pm »
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Hey there,

I'd recommend staying in all your subjects in 2020 until it becomes noticeable that the workload has increased drastically or you start to lose motivation in studying for one of the subjects (whether it's because you lost interest in them or you just don't like the Year 12 syllabus). I started of Year 12 doing 13 units and after half-yearlies, I realised that it was difficult for me to manage with Major Works and 13 units so I dropped down to 12.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that if you perform really well in "lower scaling subjects", that can boost your ATAR by heaps! One thing I learnt from Jamon's scaling lectures is that scaling depends on the overall cohort and if your mark is higher than the average mark, then scaling will work in your favour. For example, Society & Culture is notorious for being a "low-scaling subject" (in my year, around 13 people got B6). Because my mark was over the median mark (which was 79) that really helped me secure a 90+ ATAR. If you're interested to learn more about scaling, Jamon put together in article on it here or you can take a look at the UAC scaling report (2018, 2019).

Hope this helps!
2018 HSC: English Advanced | Mathematics | Physics | Modern History | History Extension | Society and Culture | Studies of Religion I

ATAR: 93.60

2019: Aerospace Engineering (Hons)  @ UNSW

sunflowah

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Re: Choosing subjects?
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2019, 08:32:03 pm »
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Hello,

Just wanted to clarify as I do a few subjects that people would consider 'low-scaling' and still don't 100% understand this whole scaling process even after reading some articles.

So if I get only a few marks above the average then I still get scaled up? Or would I get scaled down?
Is it the higher my mark is above the average, the more I get scaled up?

kauac

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Re: Choosing subjects?
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2020, 06:06:01 pm »
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Hello,

Just wanted to clarify as I do a few subjects that people would consider 'low-scaling' and still don't 100% understand this whole scaling process even after reading some articles.

So if I get only a few marks above the average then I still get scaled up? Or would I get scaled down?
Is it the higher my mark is above the average, the more I get scaled up?

Hi,

I think the process of scaling is a bit more complex than just how your mark compares to the average. Because the performance of students in different subjects are compared to make sure the process is as fair as possible. If you haven't looked at This article already, it gives a good explanation for scaling.

And just wanted to point out that just because you are doing some "low-scaling" subjects doesn't mean they will negatively effect your final results / atar. From my own experience, I graduated in 2018 with 12 units, and my food tech mark counted to my ATAR whilst my 2U Maths mark didn't, because I did really well in Food Tech.

So at the end of the day, all you can do is give everything your best shot. Because there's just some things about scaling that we will probably never know, or really predict.  :)
2018: HSC

2019: Gap Year

2020-2024: B Science / M Nutrition & Dietetics @ USYD