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March 29, 2024, 03:45:42 am

Author Topic: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11  (Read 5240 times)

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willowandrezia

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Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« on: August 12, 2020, 09:50:14 am »
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Heyy! so i’m in year ten right now and i’m currently doing 1/2 gen math and 1/2 legal studies. I really don’t like legal studies so I wanna drop that next year and pick up food studies 3/4 instead so that i’m still doing 2 3/4 subjects in year 11 and I can still do the university subject and my workload is less in year 12. my school is telling me i’m not allowed to do this and i need a compelling argument to convince them otherwise. shouldn’t I be able to do whatever subjects I want? plus i think 3/4 food studies won’t be that difficult to catch up on, ill even go over 1/2 before i start next year.

yumapple

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Re: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2020, 11:12:00 am »
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Hi willowandrezia,
It's more rare to see people do 2 3/4 subjects at school in Yr 11, however is not impossible. Generally as long as your grades are at the top, then your school should allow you do the subjects that you want (at my school the top 1 student was the only one allowed to do 2 early).
Plus, if you're willing to put the effort in catching up in 1/2, then I see why not?  :)
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keltingmeith

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Re: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2020, 11:30:50 am »
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So, not to step on yumapple's toes here, but your school kinda can stop you from doing a subject if they want to. VCAA has no statement on the power of schools to control your VCE, so they have every ability to tell you that you can or can't do something. Is it unfair? Maybe, and I personally experienced that unfairness back when I was in school (my concern was different - I wanted to do a subject by distance, and the school said that they wouldn't let me drop one of the school's subjects to make room for it, effectively blocking me from doing the distance subject), so I can feel your frustration. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Some schools (particularly higher ranking schools) will make these decisions to protect their own vested interests. If you do food studies and end up doing poorly because you did it a year early, then that would bring their rank down, and look badly on them. It's disconcertingly common for schools to try and gatekeep some subjects so that their ranks are preserved, even if they put students at risk of not meeting uni course pre-reqs. HOWEVER, you should remember that there are a LOT of schools that are out there to protect their students, and I think your school is one of those based on what I'm hearing. If you do food studies early and do badly as a result, it's going to look bad on them - but it could also cost your aggregate points that mean you don't get into the course you want. Based on their wording, that you need a "compelling argument", I think that they're still open to the idea of you doing food studies 3/4 - they just think that you may not have thought things through enough. Maybe you have and you just need to prove to them that you have, or maybe they're seeing something that you can't - something that comes with experience from watching students accelerate before they were ready, or from the actual food studies teacher who has watched ill-prepared students take the subject and fail before. It sucks that they won't let you do something, but try and see things from their perspective - they're likely just trying to protect you.

Things you can do? The obvious one is give up and compromise - maybe they won't let you start a new 3/4 out of nowhere, so maybe you'll have to take legal studies. Maybe you take food studies 1/2 and have the standard 5 subjects in year 12 like everyone else (you CAN do 4 3/4 subjects and a university enhancement subject, that's okay). The other is you cause up a stink - you argue with the person in charge. Then you argue with their boss, and their boss's boss, and maybe even someone else's boss (the VCE coordinator? The 3/4 food studies teacher? The vice principal? The principal?), until you find out that they won't bend, or they finally give you what you want. But it sounds to me that you really need to prove yourself, so I think it would honestly be worth learning some of the 1/2 study design even right now to prove to them that you're capable and will be able to do the acceleration. Maybe mention how good your other grades are, or note your poor marks in legal studies (making assumptions, I know nothing about your scores).

willowandrezia

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Re: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2020, 11:34:20 am »
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Hi willowandrezia,
It's more rare to see people do 2 3/4 subjects at school in Yr 11, however is not impossible. Generally as long as your grades are at the top, then your school should allow you do the subjects that you want (at my school the top 1 student was the only one allowed to do 2 early).
Plus, if you're willing to put the effort in catching up in 1/2, then I see why not?  :)

the thing is i’m in seal which is like this accelerated thing in my school and we’re required to do two 1/2 subjects in year ten and most people continue them as 3/4s into year 12, all i’m trying to do is replace on of them but idk how to convince them, they keep saying if i wanna drop legal for the 3/4 then i should pick a 1/2 instead and if i really wanna do a 3/4 instead i need to think of a good reason. tbh they don’t have a good reason why i shouldn’t either

So, not to step on yumapple's toes here, but your school kinda can stop you from doing a subject if they want to. VCAA has no statement on the power of schools to control your VCE, so they have every ability to tell you that you can or can't do something. Is it unfair? Maybe, and I personally experienced that unfairness back when I was in school (my concern was different - I wanted to do a subject by distance, and the school said that they wouldn't let me drop one of the school's subjects to make room for it, effectively blocking me from doing the distance subject), so I can feel your frustration. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Some schools (particularly higher ranking schools) will make these decisions to protect their own vested interests. If you do food studies and end up doing poorly because you did it a year early, then that would bring their rank down, and look badly on them. It's disconcertingly common for schools to try and gatekeep some subjects so that their ranks are preserved, even if they put students at risk of not meeting uni course pre-reqs. HOWEVER, you should remember that there are a LOT of schools that are out there to protect their students, and I think your school is one of those based on what I'm hearing. If you do food studies early and do badly as a result, it's going to look bad on them - but it could also cost your aggregate points that mean you don't get into the course you want. Based on their wording, that you need a "compelling argument", I think that they're still open to the idea of you doing food studies 3/4 - they just think that you may not have thought things through enough. Maybe you have and you just need to prove to them that you have, or maybe they're seeing something that you can't - something that comes with experience from watching students accelerate before they were ready, or from the actual food studies teacher who has watched ill-prepared students take the subject and fail before. It sucks that they won't let you do something, but try and see things from their perspective - they're likely just trying to protect you.

Things you can do? The obvious one is give up and compromise - maybe they won't let you start a new 3/4 out of nowhere, so maybe you'll have to take legal studies. Maybe you take food studies 1/2 and have the standard 5 subjects in year 12 like everyone else (you CAN do 4 3/4 subjects and a university enhancement subject, that's okay). The other is you cause up a stink - you argue with the person in charge. Then you argue with their boss, and their boss's boss, and maybe even someone else's boss (the VCE coordinator? The 3/4 food studies teacher? The vice principal? The principal?), until you find out that they won't bend, or they finally give you what you want. But it sounds to me that you really need to prove yourself, so I think it would honestly be worth learning some of the 1/2 study design even right now to prove to them that you're capable and will be able to do the acceleration. Maybe mention how good your other grades are, or note your poor marks in legal studies (making assumptions, I know nothing about your scores).

that actually makes sense and i totally agree with you but my school isn’t exactly high ranking, only like 3 people got an atar above 90 last year, i’ll try and convince them but if it doesn’t work out i may just continue legal studies :)

Mod edit: post merge
« Last Edit: August 12, 2020, 08:39:51 pm by insanipi »

keltingmeith

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Re: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2020, 11:48:19 am »
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that actually makes sense and i totally agree with you but my school isn’t exactly high ranking, only like 3 people got an atar above 90 last year, i’ll try and convince them but if it doesn’t work out i may just continue legal studies :)

Yeah, no - I was just using the high ranking schools as an example for why some schools block students to protect their own interests - based on everything you've said, I honestly believe this is a situation of the school looking out for you.

DANTAD

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Re: Picking up 2 3/4 subjects in year 11
« Reply #5 on: October 08, 2020, 10:14:26 am »
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Yeah it depends school to school. My school is strict with it but allows 2 3/4s for year 11 which is what i'm doing but they were very hesitant
Year 11 2021- Methods 3/4, Global politics 3/4

Year 12 2022- Literature, Japanese, Physics, Spesh 3/4.