Subject selection for an all-rounder?

[Gracierose]

Hi, I'm a year 10 who has to decide their subjects by next week. I'm a general all-rounder, equally sufficient in both English and Maths, giving me a broad view of 90-100% in all my subjects. This makes subject selection very difficult, as it all feels the same to me. I don't really have any strengths, and therefore no real direction. Did anyone else feel this way? How did you overcome it? I know it should be based on interest + ability, but it's honestly all monotone for me. Should I choose based on scaling now? Please help me.
An anxious year 10

[Calebark]

Hi, I'm a year 10 who has to decide their subjects by next week. I'm a general all-rounder, equally sufficient in both English and Maths, giving me a broad view of 90-100% in all my subjects. This makes subject selection very difficult, as it all feels the same to me. I don't really have any strengths, and therefore no real direction. Did anyone else feel this way? How did you overcome it? I know it should be based on interest + ability, but it's honestly all monotone for me. Should I choose based on scaling now? Please help me.
An anxious year 10

Hey!

I would not recommend choosing subjects based on scaling unless you're aiming for that mythical 99.95.

If you want to open up more course opportunities, go for Methods.

Beyond this, I feel like we can't really help. It's just so open- ended.Do you have any idea on what you want to do after high school? Perhaps speak to your careers advisor at school

Edit: I don't know if you've seen yet, but two of our users posted helpful responses to a similar thread you started located here

[literally lauren]

Hi, I'm a year 10 who has to decide their subjects by next week. I'm a general all-rounder, equally sufficient in both English and Maths, giving me a broad view of 90-100% in all my subjects. This makes subject selection very difficult, as it all feels the same to me. I don't really have any strengths, and therefore no real direction. Did anyone else feel this way? How did you overcome it? I know it should be based on interest + ability, but it's honestly all monotone for me. Should I choose based on scaling now? Please help me.
An anxious year 10

Hi there Gracierose!

I was a bit of an odd all-rounder too back in the day - ended up doing English, Literature, Methods, Art, and Indonesian - and though I totally get why it can feel frustratingly directionless at first, you've actually got a HUGE advantage over people who consider themselves exclusively maths/science-y or humanities-y.

Something I'd recommend would be to tally up a list of all the possible subjects your school offers, and then work through them in bundles so that you're picking a bit of everything. For example:

Englishes: English, Literature, English Language
Your school may not offer each of these, but you have to do at least one, so pick whichever is most interesting to you.

Maths: Further, Methods, Specialist
I would personally recommend doing Methods for the sake of keeping prerequisites open (e.g. if you want to study Commerce or Science, you're often required to have passed Methods in Year 12). You could also opt for Specialist if you're especially keen on Maths, or maybe a Methods + Further combo if that subject is more appealing to you.

Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
These are all fairly distinct courses with very different subject matter, but hopefully you've experienced a bit of each of these over your high school life, so consider whether any of these piqued your interest. You don't have to choose a science (or any of the following categories) so this is entirely up to personal preference.

Health Sciences: Psychology, Health, P.E.
As above. Psychology is a pretty interesting subject that you may not have studied much in previous years, so that tends to be a popular choice among VCE students. Remember that you can always take Units 1&2 of a subject in Year 11 and then discontinue it for Year 12 (I actually did this with Psychology myself since I had a pretty rotten teacher ) so it might be worth trying one of these out for next year, and the deciding whether or not you want to carry it through to Year 12.

Humanities: History, Geography, Politics
These tend to be much smaller subjects (which might suit your learning style?) and not all of them are offered at each school, so check to see which ones are available to you!

Commerce: Business Management, Legal Studies, Economics, Accounting
One or more of these might be good if you're looking for some real-life skills, though you may not find these very challenging as they tend to involve a lot of rote learning content. Again, if you've experienced any of these in previous years, consider whether any of these seemed remotely engaging to you.

Visual Art: Studio Art, VisCom, Media
If you need a subject that breaks up the monotony of daily classes where you sit in a room and stare at a whiteboard while a teacher reads a textbook at you, visual art and design subjects can be a great place to start! These typically afford you a lot of freedom in the projects you work on and the final pieces you create (which can be good or bad) and whilst they're not the most high-scoring of subjects, if you're able to score well in the theory sections of SACs and exams, you can pretty easily nab a 40+ with decent writing abilities

Languages: Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
Obviously picking up a language in Year 11 is extremely tough, and most schools don't allow it, but if there's a language you've been studying up to now, consider taking it to a VCE level - it can be kinda fun to immerse yourself in language learning throughout the year, and fluency in a second language can also open up career doors later in life. These are admittedly demanding subjects as you require near fluency to achieve 35+ study scores, though scaling counter-balances this.


In your situation, I'd highly recommend locking in at least one English subject (probably mainstream English, unless you want to give one of the others a try) and Methods (to keep options open post-Year 12). I'd also recommend doing 6 subjects in Year 11 and then dropping down to 5 in Year 12, as this will let you experience a wider variety first before then narrowing down your strongest subjects.

Alternatively, if your school allows it, you can opt to do a Unit 3&4 subject in Year 11 to get a head start - you can typically only do this for subjects like Health or Further Maths where the Unit 1&2 equivalent isn't a prerequisite. That way, you end up getting 6 subjects that count towards your ATAR, so your study plan would look something like this:

Year 11:
- Health 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- English 1&2
- Methods 1&2
- Chemistry 1&2
- Economics 1&2
- German 1&2

Year 12:
- English 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Methods 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Chemistry 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Economics 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- German 3&4 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)

This can be a great way of familiarising yourself with the system and understanding how things like SACs and Outcomes work in Year 11. And the extra increment it provides to your ATAR is a neat little bonus

Hope this gives you some idea of where to take things - if you're still unsure, let us know which subjects you're currently tossing up between, or whether you have any thoughts about what you'd like to study at uni!

[strawberries]

yeah do agree with others above re methods, esp if you're quite good at maths, and doing methods opens up a lot of doors as many courses have it as a pre-req

if you're interested in doing a science, i would probably say chemistry because many courses will also require a science pre-req, and some courses lik med make it specific that chemistry has to be that science pre-req.

if you are really unsure of what you want to study say at uni, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a mixture of different subjects like one from each category that lauren has divided.
is there any subject you're doing in year 10 now that you really like? if so, continue that onto years 11/12

yeah also agree that it'd be a good idea to do a 3/4 in year 11 if you can

so yeah, would recommend english, methods + chemistry. as you said you're really good at both english + maths, you could try a second english as a backup in case your english subject doesn't score as well cos english has to be in the top 4, also consider specialist too (not for scaling, but because you're good at maths).

good luck

[Gracierose]

Hi there Gracierose!

I was a bit of an odd all-rounder too back in the day - ended up doing English, Literature, Methods, Art, and Indonesian - and though I totally get why it can feel frustratingly directionless at first, you've actually got a HUGE advantage over people who consider themselves exclusively maths/science-y or humanities-y.

Something I'd recommend would be to tally up a list of all the possible subjects your school offers, and then work through them in bundles so that you're picking a bit of everything. For example:

Englishes: English, Literature, English Language
Your school may not offer each of these, but you have to do at least one, so pick whichever is most interesting to you.

Maths: Further, Methods, Specialist
I would personally recommend doing Methods for the sake of keeping prerequisites open (e.g. if you want to study Commerce or Science, you're often required to have passed Methods in Year 12). You could also opt for Specialist if you're especially keen on Maths, or maybe a Methods + Further combo if that subject is more appealing to you.

Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
These are all fairly distinct courses with very different subject matter, but hopefully you've experienced a bit of each of these over your high school life, so consider whether any of these piqued your interest. You don't have to choose a science (or any of the following categories) so this is entirely up to personal preference.

Health Sciences: Psychology, Health, P.E.
As above. Psychology is a pretty interesting subject that you may not have studied much in previous years, so that tends to be a popular choice among VCE students. Remember that you can always take Units 1&2 of a subject in Year 11 and then discontinue it for Year 12 (I actually did this with Psychology myself since I had a pretty rotten teacher ) so it might be worth trying one of these out for next year, and the deciding whether or not you want to carry it through to Year 12.

Humanities: History, Geography, Politics
These tend to be much smaller subjects (which might suit your learning style?) and not all of them are offered at each school, so check to see which ones are available to you!

Commerce: Business Management, Legal Studies, Economics, Accounting
One or more of these might be good if you're looking for some real-life skills, though you may not find these very challenging as they tend to involve a lot of rote learning content. Again, if you've experienced any of these in previous years, consider whether any of these seemed remotely engaging to you.

Visual Art: Studio Art, VisCom, Media
If you need a subject that breaks up the monotony of daily classes where you sit in a room and stare at a whiteboard while a teacher reads a textbook at you, visual art and design subjects can be a great place to start! These typically afford you a lot of freedom in the projects you work on and the final pieces you create (which can be good or bad) and whilst they're not the most high-scoring of subjects, if you're able to score well in the theory sections of SACs and exams, you can pretty easily nab a 40+ with decent writing abilities

Languages: Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, etc.
Obviously picking up a language in Year 11 is extremely tough, and most schools don't allow it, but if there's a language you've been studying up to now, consider taking it to a VCE level - it can be kinda fun to immerse yourself in language learning throughout the year, and fluency in a second language can also open up career doors later in life. These are admittedly demanding subjects as you require near fluency to achieve 35+ study scores, though scaling counter-balances this.


In your situation, I'd highly recommend locking in at least one English subject (probably mainstream English, unless you want to give one of the others a try) and Methods (to keep options open post-Year 12). I'd also recommend doing 6 subjects in Year 11 and then dropping down to 5 in Year 12, as this will let you experience a wider variety first before then narrowing down your strongest subjects.

Alternatively, if your school allows it, you can opt to do a Unit 3&4 subject in Year 11 to get a head start - you can typically only do this for subjects like Health or Further Maths where the Unit 1&2 equivalent isn't a prerequisite. That way, you end up getting 6 subjects that count towards your ATAR, so your study plan would look something like this:

Year 11:
- Health 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- English 1&2
- Methods 1&2
- Chemistry 1&2
- Economics 1&2
- German 1&2

Year 12:
- English 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Methods 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Chemistry 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- Economics 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)
- German 3&4 3&4 (counts towards ATAR)

This can be a great way of familiarising yourself with the system and understanding how things like SACs and Outcomes work in Year 11. And the extra increment it provides to your ATAR is a neat little bonus

Hope this gives you some idea of where to take things - if you're still unsure, let us know which subjects you're currently tossing up between, or whether you have any thoughts about what you'd like to study at uni!

Honestly, thankyou so much for your input, I've decided to do a bit of a selection, like you suggested. I'm thinking:
Maths Methods
3/4 HHD
Chemistry
Psychology
And an unknown............

[heids]

Honestly, thankyou so much for your input, I've decided to do a bit of a selection, like you suggested. I'm thinking:
Maths Methods
3/4 HHD
Chemistry
Psychology
And an unknown............

Sounds a really good balance to me (but I'm biased towards a combo like that haha).  If you think you'd enjoy that selection, then great choice!  (+English, I'm assuming haha)