VCE subject selection advice

[timeandrelattivedimensionsinspace]

Hello,

(I am new to ATAR notes so I don't know exactly how this works, but I hope this is how you request for help!!)

SO I am in year ten and doing philosophy 1/2 and having a crisis about what subjects to pick next year.  here are my dilemmas:
 I am not a predominantly science/maths or Eng/Hums Person, I LOVE ALL FOUR . I want to do so many subjects, I am not sure how i will condense my list:

Methods
Chem
Bio
Psych
Philosophy
Literature
also considering: English mainstream, Legal studies, global politics (maybe even history!)

This is what I was thinking but i want to incorporate some more hums subjects, namely either legal or global politics (only 3/4)
But my issue is, I don't have enough subjects do to Legal, so maybe I should do politics
But is loading myself with another subject in year 12 worth it, wasn't the point of doing philo a year early to reduce stress in year 12
will I be able to survive in global politics without much prior knowledge (though I'm incredibly interested!)

Also, I love the idea of literature but it is always recommended to do another English with it, but then again I don't have enough subjects for this!!!!
And I struggle with language analysis pieces but a text response that is not too strict on structure and pattern, I'm pretty good at- so will i struggle in Mainstream ??

Basically, I am dying inside because I need to pick and I have NO clue what to do. In terms of career- I want to do Law/Science or Arts/Science and then hopefully do research or like practical investigation in scientific concepts.

Someone help me out, I hope I am doing the conventions of the forum right and thanks so much!!!!!

[Joseph41]

Hey hey! Welcome to ATAR Notes - it's great to have you here.

SO I am in year ten and doing philosophy 1/2 and having a crisis about what subjects to pick next year.  here are my dilemmas:
 I am not a predominantly science/maths or Eng/Hums Person, I LOVE ALL FOUR . I want to do so many subjects

Hectic! I reckon that's awesome, though - and definitely better than not wanting to do any.

I am not sure how i will condense my list:

Methods
Chem
Bio
Psych
Philosophy
Literature
also considering: English mainstream, Legal studies, global politics (maybe even history!)

This is what I was thinking but i want to incorporate some more hums subjects, namely either legal or global politics (only 3/4)
But my issue is, I don't have enough subjects do to Legal, so maybe I should do politics

All other things equal, that looks like a decent mix to me. You have English covered with Lit, humanities with Philosophy (and I guess Psych to a degree), science with Chem/Bio (and Psych again), and maths with Methods. Six subjects is probably the convention, but seven (or more) is also possible.

But is loading myself with another subject in year 12 worth it, wasn't the point of doing philo a year early to reduce stress in year 12
will I be able to survive in global politics without much prior knowledge (though I'm incredibly interested!)

Great questions. If you're planning to do Philosophy 3/4 in Year 11, I personally don't think it's worth doing six more subjects in Year 12. But I'd be more inclined to do two next year. Of the subjects you mentioned, I only did Psych - but that can certainly be done without the 3/4. So theoretically, you could do something like:

Year 11: Philosophy, Psychology
Year 12: Literature, Methods, Chemistry, Biology, Legal Studies

(Of course, that's up to your school a little bit, too.) Would it be worth it? If you genuinely want to do more than the six subjects, then yeah, possibly! Just be aware that only six can count toward you ATAR (see here: How VCE Works).

You may also be interested in the following threads:
VCE Subject Selection Guide (uncertain year 9/10s, please read!)
Glasses' Guide to VCE Subject Selection
Year 12 subjects in Year 11: A guide to starting VCE early

Keep asking questions, because I'm sure I didn't answer them all - and I'm sure others will have different opinions.

Again, welcome to ATAR Notes!

P.S. No need to worry; you nailed the forum conventions.

[patriciarose]

Hello,

(I am new to ATAR notes so I don't know exactly how this works, but I hope this is how you request for help!!)

SO I am in year ten and doing philosophy 1/2 and having a crisis about what subjects to pick next year.  here are my dilemmas:
 I am not a predominantly science/maths or Eng/Hums Person, I LOVE ALL FOUR . I want to do so many subjects, I am not sure how i will condense my list:

Methods
Chem
Bio
Psych
Philosophy
Literature
also considering: English mainstream, Legal studies, global politics (maybe even history!)

This is what I was thinking but i want to incorporate some more hums subjects, namely either legal or global politics (only 3/4)
But my issue is, I don't have enough subjects do to Legal, so maybe I should do politics
But is loading myself with another subject in year 12 worth it, wasn't the point of doing philo a year early to reduce stress in year 12
will I be able to survive in global politics without much prior knowledge (though I'm incredibly interested!)

Also, I love the idea of literature but it is always recommended to do another English with it, but then again I don't have enough subjects for this!!!!
And I struggle with language analysis pieces but a text response that is not too strict on structure and pattern, I'm pretty good at- so will i struggle in Mainstream ??

i feel like a lot of your problems would be solved if you do two 3/4s next year? if your school only allows one, though, then i see your problem haha. i wouldn't do 6 in year twelve personally, i'm doing 5 and a uni subject right now and it's just about manageable. 6 just sounds like you'd be splitting your attention too many ways for too little reward tbh. (also, i was looking at your list of maybes, and for the record i 100% do not recommend pairing legal with bio and psych and chem haha. tried it in unit one and, just, never again.)

you won't struggle in mainstream english if you're good at text response. honestly, i don't think anyone struggles in mainstream if they're willing to put in a bit of work omg, it's quite straightforward. i'd try lit in year eleven and if you don't like it, move to english in year twelve – they reteach everything anyway so it won't make a difference, and doing both i think english is easier to do without year eleven (i'm doing lit without year eleven lit and not finding it hard, but it does require a fair amount of work). you COULD do both, but since you have so many subjects you're interested in, it'd make sense to pick one or the other (:

[Quantum44]

Definitely do at least one 3/4 subject next year and then five in year 12. Since you are doing philosophy 1/2 this year it makes sense to do 3/4 next year. If you are up for a challenge, you could even do two 3/4 subjects next year and throw bio, psych or glopol.

Since you are very keen to try a range of subjects, you can still do five subjects in year 12 while doing two in year 11. Methods and chem are very useful prerequisites so I'd highly recommend doing them. For your next subjects you just have to see how much you like English and then do mainstream, literature or even both. Then you can fit in legal and one of the subjects you passed on doing in year 11.

So for example you could do:

Year 11:
Philosophy, Global Politics

Year 12:
Psychology, Literature, Chemistry, Methods, Legal Studies


This would give you a very broad range of maths, humanities and science while leaving all your university options open. If you find two 3/4s in year 11 stressful, you can easily choose to do four 3/4s in year 12 and give yourself some breathing room without affecting your ATAR.

[K888]

+1 to what everyone has said! Really useful advice.
I'd definitely recommend having a chat to the careers advisor/teacher at your school if you have one! Otherwise, your year level coordinator. They can provide some pretty awesome and specific advice to you and they have the added benefit of knowing you and how you're faring at school

Just want to tack on that it's great to do year 12 humanities subjects in year 11 because they generally have so much content and are pretty time-heavy subjects, so if they are your only focus (in essence), then it'll boost your chances of scoring highly because you can devote more time to the subject because of less time requirements with your other year 11 subjects Plus, if you neglect subjects in year 11, it's not anywhere near as bad as neglecting stuff in year 12.
I definitely found that doing 3/4 history in year 11 made it more enjoyable for me, and I feel like I got a lot more out of the subject and could think about how it interested me, rather than have to stress about juggling it with other subjects. Plus, you can make some really good friends, because humanities classes are usually smaller - it's a great opportunity to make friends with people in the year level above you

Overall, I think, it's important to have confidence in your ability to manage your workload. If you have good self discipline, you can do anything
Plus, you can always give a subject a try for a few weeks, and if you don't like it, you should be able to drop it and pick up something else.

[timeandrelattivedimensionsinspace]

Hey hey! Welcome to ATAR Notes - it's great to have you here.

Hectic! I reckon that's awesome, though - and definitely better than not wanting to do any.

All other things equal, that looks like a decent mix to me. You have English covered with Lit, humanities with Philosophy (and I guess Psych to a degree), science with Chem/Bio (and Psych again), and maths with Methods. Six subjects is probably the convention, but seven (or more) is also possible.

Great questions. If you're planning to do Philosophy 3/4 in Year 11, I personally don't think it's worth doing six more subjects in Year 12. But I'd be more inclined to do two next year. Of the subjects you mentioned, I only did Psych - but that can certainly be done without the 3/4. So theoretically, you could do something like:

Year 11: Philosophy, Psychology
Year 12: Literature, Methods, Chemistry, Biology, Legal Studies

(Of course, that's up to your school a little bit, too.) Would it be worth it? If you genuinely want to do more than the six subjects, then yeah, possibly! Just be aware that only six can count toward you ATAR (see here: How VCE Works).

You may also be interested in the following threads:
VCE Subject Selection Guide (uncertain year 9/10s, please read!)
Glasses' Guide to VCE Subject Selection
Year 12 subjects in Year 11: A guide to starting VCE early

Keep asking questions, because I'm sure I didn't answer them all - and I'm sure others will have different opinions.

Again, welcome to ATAR Notes!

P.S. No need to worry; you nailed the forum conventions.

Thanks so much! I'll definitely consider these options!

[timeandrelattivedimensionsinspace]

i feel like a lot of your problems would be solved if you do two 3/4s next year? if your school only allows one, though, then i see your problem haha. i wouldn't do 6 in year twelve personally, i'm doing 5 and a uni subject right now and it's just about manageable. 6 just sounds like you'd be splitting your attention too many ways for too little reward tbh. (also, i was looking at your list of maybes, and for the record i 100% do not recommend pairing legal with bio and psych and chem haha. tried it in unit one and, just, never again.)

you won't struggle in mainstream english if you're good at text response. honestly, i don't think anyone struggles in mainstream if they're willing to put in a bit of work omg, it's quite straightforward. i'd try lit in year eleven and if you don't like it, move to english in year twelve – they reteach everything anyway so it won't make a difference, and doing both i think english is easier to do without year eleven (i'm doing lit without year eleven lit and not finding it hard, but it does require a fair amount of work). you COULD do both, but since you have so many subjects you're interested in, it'd make sense to pick one or the other (:

Thanks a lot! yeah i'll research a bit more into the englishes and pick one and then work the rest out !!

[timeandrelattivedimensionsinspace]

Definitely do at least one 3/4 subject next year and then five in year 12. Since you are doing philosophy 1/2 this year it makes sense to do 3/4 next year. If you are up for a challenge, you could even do two 3/4 subjects next year and throw bio, psych or glopol.

Since you are very keen to try a range of subjects, you can still do five subjects in year 12 while doing two in year 11. Methods and chem are very useful prerequisites so I'd highly recommend doing them. For your next subjects you just have to see how much you like English and then do mainstream, literature or even both. Then you can fit in legal and one of the subjects you passed on doing in year 11.

So for example you could do:

Year 11:
Philosophy, Global Politics

Year 12:
Psychology, Literature, Chemistry, Methods, Legal Studies


This would give you a very broad range of maths, humanities and science while leaving all your university options open. If you find two 3/4s in year 11 stressful, you can easily choose to do four 3/4s in year 12 and give yourself some breathing room without affecting your ATAR.

Thanks so much ! that combination looks very tempting, though it depends on whether i can handle to 3/4s. but ill definitely consider doing seven that way

[timeandrelattivedimensionsinspace]

+1 to what everyone has said! Really useful advice.
I'd definitely recommend having a chat to the careers advisor/teacher at your school if you have one! Otherwise, your year level coordinator. They can provide some pretty awesome and specific advice to you and they have the added benefit of knowing you and how you're faring at school

Just want to tack on that it's great to do year 12 humanities subjects in year 11 because they generally have so much content and are pretty time-heavy subjects, so if they are your only focus (in essence), then it'll boost your chances of scoring highly because you can devote more time to the subject because of less time requirements with your other year 11 subjects Plus, if you neglect subjects in year 11, it's not anywhere near as bad as neglecting stuff in year 12.
I definitely found that doing 3/4 history in year 11 made it more enjoyable for me, and I feel like I got a lot more out of the subject and could think about how it interested me, rather than have to stress about juggling it with other subjects. Plus, you can make some really good friends, because humanities classes are usually smaller - it's a great opportunity to make friends with people in the year level above you

Overall, I think, it's important to have confidence in your ability to manage your workload. If you have good self discipline, you can do anything
Plus, you can always give a subject a try for a few weeks, and if you don't like it, you should be able to drop it and pick up something else.

Yes! ill definitely speak to my teachers.
My philosophy class is quite small too and I really like it !!
Thanks for your help!!

[Wales]

Yes! ill definitely speak to my teachers.
My philosophy class is quite small too and I really like it !!
Thanks for your help!!

I don't do VCE nor do I do philosophy but I just want to throw my encouragement for this.

I study and research some philosophy in my own time as well as discuss it with my english tutor and some friends and absolutely love it. It really helps you clarify how you see things. You should 100% consider it if you're into it and the teacher is good.

[patriciarose]

Thanks so much ! that combination looks very tempting, though it depends on whether i can handle to 3/4s. but ill definitely consider doing seven that way

slightly unrelated, but honestly, i've met a lot of people who think they can't handle two 3/4s in year eleven, but then they go into year twelve and they're doing minimum four 3/4s. a lot of them were good students too. like, whatever happens you 100% will have to get used to doing multiple 3/4s in a few years' time, so why not acclimatise yourself to it earlier? (: plus, you have so many subjects you want to do, so maybe pick another one (bio or psych? idk then you'd have a hums and a science) and that way you'd get to do seven instead of cramming them all into year twelve haha. (: year eleven 3/4s are much less pressure too, because if you mess them up you'll have another year of subjects to do well in, and from what i've seen that makes a lot of people actually do quite well in them just because there's much less pressure to perform perfectly (: