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March 29, 2024, 05:06:23 pm

Author Topic: Subject Selection Advice  (Read 4552 times)  Share 

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FergusN

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Subject Selection Advice
« on: June 19, 2020, 11:08:53 am »
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Hello Everyone. (Completely new to AtarNotes so here goes)

Just looking for some subject selection help/advice/recommendation. Our school is starting to do the split HSC thing for year 11/12. I'm currently in Year 9 and want to get everything sorted out before its too late. Im aiming for an ATAR >95. Currently, I'm thinking of doing:

- Advanced Maths (Maybe MX1 - going to wait and see how my year 10 maths marks go)
- Advanced English
- Economics
- Legal Studies
- Graphics

Can i have some opinions please? Any opinions on the workload and opinions of my subject choice, all in view of an ATAR >95

angewina_naguen

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Re: Subject Selection Advice
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2020, 04:15:14 pm »
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Hello Everyone. (Completely new to AtarNotes so here goes)

Just looking for some subject selection help/advice/recommendation. Our school is starting to do the split HSC thing for year 11/12. I'm currently in Year 9 and want to get everything sorted out before its too late. Im aiming for an ATAR >95. Currently, I'm thinking of doing:

- Advanced Maths (Maybe MX1 - going to wait and see how my year 10 maths marks go)
- Advanced English
- Economics
- Legal Studies
- Graphics

Can i have some opinions please? Any opinions on the workload and opinions of my subject choice, all in view of an ATAR >95

Hey, FergusN!

Welcome to the forums! First and foremost, it's great that you're thinking about your subject selection nice and early but you still have plenty of time to figure out what you want to do. I think it's best to see how things play out and find out where your strengths and interests lay before sticking to certain subjects at this stage. This might sound extreme but the worst mistake a student can make is prioritising scaling over personal interests and strengths. Achieving a high ATAR isn't about what subjects you choose, but rather how you perform in them and how willing you are to commit to succeed in them.

I would advise speaking with your school careers advisor and the teachers who usually teach those subjects in your school to get their thoughts. I found having conversations with mine really helpful in coming to my final decisions on my subjects. Again, it's still early so you don't have to settle on anything yet and things might change in the next few months or so. You might have a newfound interest in another subject you didn't think you would be interested in, or you might end up not liking the idea of something after all. It's all about sourcing information from a variety of places to arrive at the best conclusions for yourself. This video series might help you as well with all of this!

Finally, I'll comment on Advanced English since it's the only one I did in my HSC. A lot of students don't know what they're getting themselves into when they pick it because they often go into it because English is compulsory and it scales well. My personal thoughts though are that you should do Advanced if you have a genuine passion for literature and/or you wish to pursue tertiary education in something Arts/Humanities-related. I do a music degree currently and the essay writing skills I honed in on in English have carried me through a number of units which I have Advanced to thank for. English doesn't have to be your favourite subject but it does need to be something you're willing to prioritise and have resilience in if you find yourself struggling (everyone faces a difficult period because that's just how the subject works), especially if you're going to do Advanced. Otherwise, Standard is more designed to be applicable to a greater variety of disciplines and to provide skills for critical thinking beyond an academia setting. I have found myself really enjoying tutoring it the past months or so and I think my students are finding great connections between the work they're doing in class with the real world. I definitely don't want to discourage anyone from doing Advanced or Standard; my aim is more to highlight the realities of doing either course because they're both equally great and you can still achieve a high ATAR with either of them  :)

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions and hopefully others can provide some insight for the other subjects!

Angelina  ;D
« Last Edit: June 20, 2020, 04:19:44 pm by angewina_naguen »
-HSC 2018-

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Bachelor of Music (Music Education) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music

FergusN

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Re: Subject Selection Advice
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2020, 02:57:26 pm »
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Thanks very much Angelina.