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March 29, 2024, 03:06:12 am

Author Topic: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?  (Read 2096 times)

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Yemily

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Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« on: July 05, 2019, 09:57:24 pm »
+1
Hey everyone,

My year 12 subject selections are due soon and I have a bit of a dilemma... I don't feel confident in my 3/4 Chem performance this year and my parents are suggesting that I repeat it if I don't get a raw score of 35 or above. However, I have never heard of anyone doing this, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to put in all the extra effort again.

Another thing I'm unsure of is whether to pick up 3/4 Bio. I was part of the accelerated program, so our class finished year 10 science in year 9; many of my classmates went on to do 1/2 Bio in year 10, but I did not. I wanted to do it this year, but the school thought I had too much on my plate already, so I didn't get it. I would like to pick it up next year, however, some people think that is a horrible idea (given my 2 year gap of no Bio lessons), whilst others have said that it would be manageable.

If I don't both repeat Chem and pick up Bio, I would love to do an uni extension subject. But I'm not sure if my study scores would be high enough to get into the courses I want...  :( So would I be able to do an uni extension subject concurrently with the same 3/4 subject? I.e. Uni Chem at the same time as 3/4 Chem?

If someone can provide any suggestions/advice with regards to any of the above, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)

pugs

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2019, 10:41:42 pm »
+5
hey Yemily!

i'm afraid i can't really help with the 3/4 chem situation  :-[ as i'm doing it this year (and struggling lol) but i can give you some (hopefully useful) tips for deciding whether or not to do bio 3/4

i did bio 1/2 last year and i struggled heaps (mainly because of my teacher), and i really didn't understand a lot of the content. however, when i got to 3/4 bio, i found out that pretty much all of the content (so far at least) is new (or just polished versions of 1/2 content)

to give you a bit of an insight into the 3/4 bio topics
unit 3
- review of cells (you get an opportunity to relearn or catch up on the basics of bio at the beginning of the year!)
- genes and gene regulation (i'll admit, this topic is kind of tricky, but it is manageable!)
- cellular respiration and photosynthesis
- cell signalling
- immunity (okay this topic is pretty content heavy ngl, but as it can relate to our everyday lives i find it pretty interesting!)

unit 4
- dna technology i think (?? sry we are just starting it!)
- evolution (should be stuff related to year 10 science!! <for our school anyway>)

with all that being said, bio 3/4 is quite manageable if you can find the time to do that extra work! also: how are your teachers? as it also helps to have a fab teacher!!

but i think if you're aiming for a high score and you don't want to suffer too much, maybe opt for the uni extension subject if that's what you're after! BUT i don't know much about uni subjects, so i'm not sure about doing 3/4 chem w/ uni chem

i hope that at least a teeeeensy bit of this was useful (or if none of it, sorry!!  :-[) and good luck with your decisions! <3


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Sine

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2019, 10:55:28 pm »
+2
Hey everyone,

My year 12 subject selections are due soon and I have a bit of a dilemma... I don't feel confident in my 3/4 Chem performance this year and my parents are suggesting that I repeat it if I don't get a raw score of 35 or above. However, I have never heard of anyone doing this, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to put in all the extra effort again.

Another thing I'm unsure of is whether to pick up 3/4 Bio. I was part of the accelerated program, so our class finished year 10 science in year 9; many of my classmates went on to do 1/2 Bio in year 10, but I did not. I wanted to do it this year, but the school thought I had too much on my plate already, so I didn't get it. I would like to pick it up next year, however, some people think that is a horrible idea (given my 2 year gap of no Bio lessons), whilst others have said that it would be manageable.

If I don't both repeat Chem and pick up Bio, I would love to do an uni extension subject. But I'm not sure if my study scores would be high enough to get into the courses I want...  :( So would I be able to do an uni extension subject concurrently with the same 3/4 subject? I.e. Uni Chem at the same time as 3/4 Chem?

If someone can provide any suggestions/advice with regards to any of the above, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)
Students repeating subjects does happen although as you would understand it is quite rare. I think if there was nothing external that was stopping you from performing your best in 3/4 (or you don't just completely bomb the exam) this year I don't think much will change in the year - unless ofcourse you completely change your study habits/techniques etc.

Ultimately, you want to be thinking about what you think your max score in that subject could be e.g. If you get a 34 in chem this year but know that you were capable of getting a 50 it would make sense to repeat but if you feel you can only increase a couple more marks I don't think it is worth it.

As for biology experience - previous science doesn't really count for much, it really does start from the basics.

For uni extension subjects - they really aren't too strict with your study scores, normally uni's will ask for 40+ study scores in the relevant subject but I know a few students who scored mid-high 30's and were still able to get into the extension courses at Melb/Monash.

Yemily

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2019, 11:16:05 pm »
+2
hey Yemily!

i'm afraid i can't really help with the 3/4 chem situation  :-[ as i'm doing it this year (and struggling lol) but i can give you some (hopefully useful) tips for deciding whether or not to do bio 3/4

i did bio 1/2 last year and i struggled heaps (mainly because of my teacher), and i really didn't understand a lot of the content. however, when i got to 3/4 bio, i found out that pretty much all of the content (so far at least) is new (or just polished versions of 1/2 content)

to give you a bit of an insight into the 3/4 bio topics
unit 3
- review of cells (you get an opportunity to relearn or catch up on the basics of bio at the beginning of the year!)
- genes and gene regulation (i'll admit, this topic is kind of tricky, but it is manageable!)
- cellular respiration and photosynthesis
- cell signalling
- immunity (okay this topic is pretty content heavy ngl, but as it can relate to our everyday lives i find it pretty interesting!)

unit 4
- dna technology i think (?? sry we are just starting it!)
- evolution (should be stuff related to year 10 science!! <for our school anyway>)

with all that being said, bio 3/4 is quite manageable if you can find the time to do that extra work! also: how are your teachers? as it also helps to have a fab teacher!!

but i think if you're aiming for a high score and you don't want to suffer too much, maybe opt for the uni extension subject if that's what you're after! BUT i don't know much about uni subjects, so i'm not sure about doing 3/4 chem w/ uni chem

i hope that at least a teeeeensy bit of this was useful (or if none of it, sorry!!  :-[) and good luck with your decisions! <3

Thank you for the overview! :D A few of my friends who are taking 3/4 Bio at the moment say we have alright teachers... Like they explain the content well, but often tend to dismiss questions that aren't explicitly related to the content they are teaching, but they may assist students understanding the content they ARE teaching. (Not sure if that made any sense at all, sorry) I did a little more research, and I think you can take uni extension subjects concurrently with the same VCE subject for certain subjects; but anyway, I think I will definitely need to do more research in this area.

AngelWings

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2019, 11:17:02 pm »
+2
My year 12 subject selections are due soon and I have a bit of a dilemma... I don't feel confident in my 3/4 Chem performance this year and my parents are suggesting that I repeat it if I don't get a raw score of 35 or above. However, I have never heard of anyone doing this, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to put in all the extra effort again.
It's a matter of opinion and whether you think it's worth it. I agree with Sine in that if its going to be only a few SSs, then it's probably not a good idea, but if you know that there'll be significant change, repeating might be the better option. As Sine mentioned, repeating is typically the path less taken.

ANer Sarangiya repeated a subject before and has written an article before about repeating a subject, which you can read here

Another thing I'm unsure of is whether to pick up 3/4 Bio. I was part of the accelerated program, so our class finished year 10 science in year 9; many of my classmates went on to do 1/2 Bio in year 10, but I did not. I wanted to do it this year, but the school thought I had too much on my plate already, so I didn't get it. I would like to pick it up next year, however, some people think that is a horrible idea (given my 2 year gap of no Bio lessons), whilst others have said that it would be manageable.
I didn't do VCE Bio so I'll be of little help here, but Pugs and Sine seem to have done that part already, so I'll leave it to them and others.

So would I be able to do an uni extension subject concurrently with the same 3/4 subject? I.e. Uni Chem at the same time as 3/4 Chem?
Some allow this, but it depends on subject and which uni. I know that Monash's Uni Extension Program for Chem can be done concurrently with VCE Chem U3/4, as a classmate of mine did just that (back in 2014). Only thing to remember is that a Uni Extension Program will NOT count towards your Top 4 subjects. 

Note: Finished typing as you posted. Going to leave this here anyway, just in case. :)
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Yemily

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2019, 11:26:14 pm »
+1
Students repeating subjects does happen although as you would understand it is quite rare. I think if there was nothing external that was stopping you from performing your best in 3/4 (or you don't just completely bomb the exam) this year I don't think much will change in the year - unless ofcourse you completely change your study habits/techniques etc.

Ultimately, you want to be thinking about what you think your max score in that subject could be e.g. If you get a 34 in chem this year but know that you were capable of getting a 50 it would make sense to repeat but if you feel you can only increase a couple more marks I don't think it is worth it.

As for biology experience - previous science doesn't really count for much, it really does start from the basics.

For uni extension subjects - they really aren't too strict with your study scores, normally uni's will ask for 40+ study scores in the relevant subject but I know a few students who scored mid-high 30's and were still able to get into the extension courses at Melb/Monash.

I get what you mean, but I feel like I've only recently gotten used to the nature of preparing for SACs for Chem, and have been scoring better. So I guess I'm hoping that if I can prepare this way for every SAC, I might be able to get a higher study score. I'm not sure of what score to expect, as no one has done VCE in my family before (my parents both did a similar college entrance assessment overseas). But I think I might put it down as one of my subjects for next year and withdraw if I believe I have achieved (most of) my potential at the end of this year.

That is comforting to hear for Bio. :)

Would you know what an A is in numerical terms? As in, when the unis require an average of A, for example, what would that be as a percentage range?

Thank you so much for all your help! :D

Sine

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2019, 01:12:04 pm »
+1
I get what you mean, but I feel like I've only recently gotten used to the nature of preparing for SACs for Chem, and have been scoring better. So I guess I'm hoping that if I can prepare this way for every SAC, I might be able to get a higher study score. I'm not sure of what score to expect, as no one has done VCE in my family before (my parents both did a similar college entrance assessment overseas). But I think I might put it down as one of my subjects for next year and withdraw if I believe I have achieved (most of) my potential at the end of this year.

That is comforting to hear for Bio. :)

Would you know what an A is in numerical terms? As in, when the unis require an average of A, for example, what would that be as a percentage range?

Thank you so much for all your help! :D
hmm an "A" could be anything depending on the subejcts.

If you go to this link you can have a look at the "grade distribution" of the subjects from last year and it shows you what percentage was needed for each grade e.g. "A", "A+", etc Keep in mind the sac scores are AFTER scaling by VCAA so there is no point in comparing your own sac scores directly to these grades.

Yemily

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2019, 08:34:26 pm »
+1
It's a matter of opinion and whether you think it's worth it. I agree with Sine in that if its going to be only a few SSs, then it's probably not a good idea, but if you know that there'll be significant change, repeating might be the better option. As Sine mentioned, repeating is typically the path less taken.

ANer Sarangiya repeated a subject before and has written an article before about repeating a subject, which you can read here
 I didn't do VCE Bio so I'll be of little help here, but Pugs and Sine seem to have done that part already, so I'll leave it to them and others.
 Some allow this, but it depends on subject and which uni. I know that Monash's Uni Extension Program for Chem can be done concurrently with VCE Chem U3/4, as a classmate of mine did just that (back in 2014). Only thing to remember is that a Uni Extension Program will NOT count towards your Top 4 subjects. 

Note: Finished typing as you posted. Going to leave this here anyway, just in case. :)

Thanks, AngelWings. Sarangiya's article was also quite interesting to read; I am tempted to put Chem down again just to keep my options open.

Yemily

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #8 on: July 06, 2019, 08:39:46 pm »
+1
hmm an "A" could be anything depending on the subejcts.

If you go to this link you can have a look at the "grade distribution" of the subjects from last year and it shows you what percentage was needed for each grade e.g. "A", "A+", etc Keep in mind the sac scores are AFTER scaling by VCAA so there is no point in comparing your own sac scores directly to these grades.

Mmm, I think I understand the general 'gist' of SAC grading and scaling, but I was specifically wondering about the letter-grade averages that are often needed for uni extension programs, e.g. a B+ average across all year 11 subjects is needed, so what would a B+ be numerically?  :)

Sine

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #9 on: July 06, 2019, 08:55:44 pm »
+2
Mmm, I think I understand the general 'gist' of SAC grading and scaling, but I was specifically wondering about the letter-grade averages that are often needed for uni extension programs, e.g. a B+ average across all year 11 subjects is needed, so what would a B+ be numerically?  :)
Will depend on your school as to what a B+  - I think we had a to provide the uni with a grading scale for our school if our reports didn't include actual letter grades.


Also, make sure in the future that you don't double post (two posts in a row) unless an adequate amount of time has passed or it is absolutely necessary. You should be able to quote a respond to multiple users within the same post. Hope this helps :)

Yemily

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #10 on: July 07, 2019, 09:57:52 am »
+1
Will depend on your school as to what a B+  - I think we had a to provide the uni with a grading scale for our school if our reports didn't include actual letter grades.


Also, make sure in the future that you don't double post (two posts in a row) unless an adequate amount of time has passed or it is absolutely necessary. You should be able to quote a respond to multiple users within the same post. Hope this helps :)


Yep, I'll keep both of those things in mind for the future!  :D :-[

redpanda83

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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2019, 11:46:30 pm »
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Look personally i did 3/4 in year 11. got 42 in all three. I was unhappy when i saw my exams(payed to get a look at my scripts), stupid mistakes. Decided to repeat 2 of them (Cause idc about language). So, that still is an option. When you repeat, its just you will have an advantage and will understand your concepts better. More time and will be a bit relaxed about the subject.
Remember, in the end game its all about beating the system and getting maximum possible atar you can achieve (so you can fastrack to your corse, not like it matters after you get into uni).
So, in the end its your choice to make. Repeat if you believe you can do better next time. In your free time you can even borrow a 3/4 book for bio and see if its what you really wanna do. remember in the end it all comes down to what you feel comfortable doing and what will end up giving you good score. ( consider the stress and stuff related things as well)
Good Luck!
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Re: Repeating 3/4 Chem in year 12? Picking up Bio?
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2019, 10:27:12 pm »
0
Hey everyone,

My year 12 subject selections are due soon and I have a bit of a dilemma... I don't feel confident in my 3/4 Chem performance this year and my parents are suggesting that I repeat it if I don't get a raw score of 35 or above. However, I have never heard of anyone doing this, so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to put in all the extra effort again.

Another thing I'm unsure of is whether to pick up 3/4 Bio. I was part of the accelerated program, so our class finished year 10 science in year 9; many of my classmates went on to do 1/2 Bio in year 10, but I did not. I wanted to do it this year, but the school thought I had too much on my plate already, so I didn't get it. I would like to pick it up next year, however, some people think that is a horrible idea (given my 2 year gap of no Bio lessons), whilst others have said that it would be manageable.

If I don't both repeat Chem and pick up Bio, I would love to do an uni extension subject. But I'm not sure if my study scores would be high enough to get into the courses I want...  :( So would I be able to do an uni extension subject concurrently with the same 3/4 subject? I.e. Uni Chem at the same time as 3/4 Chem?

If someone can provide any suggestions/advice with regards to any of the above, that would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! :)


If the reason you want to repeat Chem is to satisfy a perquisite, then I'd highly suggest doing so; especially due to how much of a versatile prereq chem is - medicine, engineering etc