year 11 harder than year 12? 2 3/4s, 4 1/2s

[Einstein]

Hey guys,

Im in year 11 at the moment and doing 2 3/4 subjects (further and business management) along with my 1/2s which are (English, Chem, Methods, Physics). Ill drop physics next year and pick specialist. My question is, is my year 11 harder than my year? i have 1 free period a fortnight, and doing 2 this year and 4 next year will give me space for 14 a fortnight!!! 14!!!

Ill have plenty of free periods to study, of which i don't have at the moment. Anyone who did the combination of 2 in year 11 and 4 in year 12, can someone tell me their insights?

I know that 1/2s don't really count as 'hard' per se, having no VCAA examination at the end, but 6 subjects vs 4 overrules this. I know that this isn't really a relevant post but i was just curious

Cheers

[MJRomeo81]

Will your school allow you to only enrol in 4 subjects for 2015?

I'd still say your year 12 is going to be more demanding than year 11 due to your subject selection. I think most people on AN would agree that further and business are "light" subjects. Yes, there's no doubting a lot of work is involved and I don't believe that there's any "easy" 3/4 units in VCE, but the science subjects + methods and spesh + english is a demanding workload.

There's no real pressure to smash 1/2 units. All assessment is internal, you don't have to worry about SAC ranking, it isn't a cut-throat environment, etc. All you need to do is ensure you're learning the concepts and if you don't get 100% on that SAC, well who cares because it means nothing in the end.

Don't let it discourage you though. Your experience this year will pay off for next year. You'll gain invaluable skills such as preparing for exams, completing exams and evaluating your performance.

[Zealous]

MJ is spot on.

Every SAC you do in Year 12 becomes a big deal if you're aiming high. In Year 11, you are able to prioritise your 3/4's over all your other subjects (like I did) but when you hit Year 12, every SAC counts. When you get to the end of the year? every exam counts, all the 6 that you will have to do.

Don't underestimate the methods/spesh combo, it will take up a lot of time and also remember that you'll need to put adequate focus on English as it will always been in your top 4 subjects.

[chasej]

Hey guys,

Im in year 11 at the moment and doing 2 3/4 subjects (further and business management) along with my 1/2s which are (English, Chem, Methods, Physics). Ill drop physics next year and pick specialist. My question is, is my year 11 harder than my year? i have 1 free period a fortnight, and doing 2 this year and 4 next year will give me space for 14 a fortnight!!! 14!!!

Ill have plenty of free periods to study, of which i don't have at the moment. Anyone who did the combination of 2 in year 11 and 4 in year 12, can someone tell me their insights?

I know that 1/2s don't really count as 'hard' per se, having no VCAA examination at the end, but 6 subjects vs 4 overrules this. I know that this isn't really a relevant post but i was just curious

Cheers

I'm definitely finding this year the same difficulty as if not easier than yr 11. Probably due to the fact there's more frees so I can do most work at school and just chill/do some extra revision at home.

Also chosen much better subjects this year (dropped subjects I dislike) so much more interest this year (that's probably the most important factor).

Doing stuff for legal and accounting I really don't feel I'm doing any strenuous work at all while English and RnS are really interesting despite needing, in my opinion, a bit more work to get the whole essay thing down pat.

I don't mean to make yr 12 sound simpler than it is, but really if you keep up to date with work at the minimum, (I tend to stay a chapter or two ahead), it really isn't THAT stressful and it's still possible to enjoy your life at the same time as getting good marks. In fact enjoying life probably increases my marks relative to what they would be if school was my only life and I studied non-stop. 

[Blues Fan]

I did 2 year 11 subjects in year 12. I found it difficult when it came to studying for the end of year exams(especially when the exams were right after each other the next day!)

However, in year 12 it will be a very big relief! Since you'll have more time to do revision and exam practice. In year 12 it is literally week after week for sacs. Hence, I did find that I had an advantage over my friends having done 2 subjects in year 11.

In the free periods, I would catch up on work and more importantly have some time for myself. Like sleeping and relaxing. The most important thing is that since you'll get soooo many hours of free periods, don't let them go to waste! Use the time allocated for work purposes!

[Einstein]

Will your school allow you to only enrol in 4 subjects for 2015?

I'd still say your year 12 is going to be more demanding than year 11 due to your subject selection. I think most people on AN would agree that further and business are "light" subjects. Yes, there's no doubting a lot of work is involved and I don't believe that there's any "easy" 3/4 units in VCE, but the science subjects + methods and spesh + english is a demanding workload.

There's no real pressure to smash 1/2 units. All assessment is internal, you don't have to worry about SAC ranking, it isn't a cut-throat environment, etc. All you need to do is ensure you're learning the concepts and if you don't get 100% on that SAC, well who cares because it means nothing in the end.

Don't let it discourage you though. Your experience this year will pay off for next year. You'll gain invaluable skills such as preparing for exams, completing exams and evaluating your performance.

if i get 40+ in my 3/4s this year, yes i can do 4 next year.

MJ is spot on.

Every SAC you do in Year 12 becomes a big deal if you're aiming high. In Year 11, you are able to prioritise your 3/4's over all your other subjects (like I did) but when you hit Year 12, every SAC counts. When you get to the end of the year? every exam counts, all the 6 that you will have to do.

Don't underestimate the methods/spesh combo, it will take up a lot of time and also remember that you'll need to put adequate focus on English as it will always been in your top 4 subjects.

I did 2 year 11 subjects in year 12. I found it difficult when it came to studying for the end of year exams(especially when the exams were right after each other the next day!)

However, in year 12 it will be a very big relief! Since you'll have more time to do revision and exam practice. In year 12 it is literally week after week for sacs. Hence, I did find that I had an advantage over my friends having done 2 subjects in year 11.

In the free periods, I would catch up on work and more importantly have some time for myself. Like sleeping and relaxing. The most important thing is that since you'll get soooo many hours of free periods, don't let them go to waste! Use the time allocated for work purposes!

i have always been thinking that doing 2 3/4s in year 11 will give me a huge advantage. I was contemplating of doing 5 next year, stick with physics, but i don't know if its worth dong 5 having done 2 this year. Only reason i would do it is as a backup incase i do bad in another one, really don't want to do it out of heart

[sjayne]

From what I've seen from other people, once you enter year 12 you put a lot more pressure on yourself but for me year 11 was definitely hard (probably due to my subjects). It won't get any better next year though, four 3/4s is still a lot more demanding than two 3/4s and four 1/2s.

[~V]

Year 11 doesn't matter too much. It's obvious/sensible to focus on your 3/4 since you have 2. With that amount of free periods, study hard and try do well of course in further and BM, when you get to year 12, a little pressure comes off when you already have say 2 of your top 4 subjects in place. As everyone said, if you get 50%, you still get an S. if you get 100%, it's still an S. That said, you should focus on building really good foundations for methods and chem. And no, wtf, year 11 is not harder than year 12.

[lzxnl]

For me, year 11 was just painful. I had to make sure that I was setting a good foundation for English Language in 1/2 as well as ensuring I'd do as well as possible in Chinese. That entailed a LOT of work on my detailed study and general conversation as well as countless essays. Then, I had four other subjects to worry about as well.

Year twelve, in comparison, wasn't quite as stressful. Sure, I had to worry about English Language, but I only had 4 3/4s in total. My uni subject didn't end up being that much of a burden because it was just one lecture a week. In the end, the fact that I only had 4 3/4s and that a third of my periods were spares helped me a LOT.