I might fail English unit 4 and not receive an ATAR score

[doyoueven99.95?]

Greetings,

I'm in year 12 and I might fail VCE altogether because I failed my english SAC. My case is still being reviewed so it's not final yet, but worst case scenario is that I forfeit my ATAR score due to receiving an N result for VCE English.

I'm doing pretty badly overall as well in the rest of my subjects as well, so that doesn't help me in any way. 

What else can I now do in life...? I'm not dumb, I'm not disabled, I'm just a normal person who's unfortunately ended up in this position where I probably wont get an ATAR score and now I wont be able to get into the course I want in university.

On a seperate note, I keep thinking of those people who have dropped out and ended up being extremely successful, more so than those who graduated high school and university. I'm not talking about Richard Branson or Steve Jobs successful, but just the average Joe who didn't like school, dropped out in Year 10, and is now driving a nice Lexus or something wearing a nice suit with a steady job and living in a paid off house at age 25.
I keep thinking how I could do that, but I don't know where I would focus my energy and where to start off had I dropped out early, or in this case now seeing as i have no choice and no ATAR score.

Any comments are appreciated.

Justin

[HEN_iP]

Just for one SAC? That's a bit harsh. Surely you could just ask to re-sit the SAC and study hard and do well on your final exam?

[BigAl]

My maths teacher in 8th grade told me that I would be nothing...I was going to change my school in y12. I sat for an exam to take spesh in y12 and failed..the principle said I should go to tafe or something...people told me that what the hell I am doing in Australia with no English background when I first arrived here 3 years ago...this is only beginning..all you need is dedication and hard work..the rest is just details..

[TommyLie]

all you need is dedication and hard work..the rest is just details..

That about sums it up for me. I was pretty much cruising through high school with a C to D average until I pulled my head in, in year 11 and 12, actually tried really hard, and did alright If you have the desire to achieve something, then your half way there.

[lala1911]

Don't drop out half way into term three. You should be able to resit the English test, shouldn't you?

You'll feel lost without school at such an age. I formally dropped out half way into year 8, didn't go to school for 1.5 years. I thought I was going to do something big, but in reality I wasn't. My circumstances were similar to BigAl's. I went back to school in year 10 though because I realised school is important. You should really complete your schooling first.

[slothpomba]

Listen man, shit happens, that's just part of life. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it's obviously not ideal and you already know it but there are people out there way worse than you. My mate got tuberculosis during VCE (if you ask around people still might remember) and he was obviously in hospital for awhile and had to repeat. Now doing bad in a subject is one thing, doing that and having an exotic disease that might kill you is another. The point here is people have bounced back from way worse.

If it's just English, it really is fixable. Again, it could be worse, you could be failing all your subjects. I know people who got ATARs of like 20 or 30, they obviously didn't do very well in any of their subjects, which is fine, academics isn't everyones thing, doesn't measure a person.

In the event you do fail, you will get no ATAR but it doesn't mean your other subjects are wiped blank, you can still continue to do those and get marks in those (as far as i know). All you need to do is go back next year and take English again. First of all, i strongly encourage you not to give up. Appeal your case as best you can, apply as much pressure as you can without damaging your case. Get your parents in to it, arrange a meeting for the principal either with you alone or with your parents. It's scary to stand up to authority like that man, everyone knows the feeling. It is a good idea though, arrange a meeting, argue your case, point out how it'll affect you personally. Point out how it might be a fatal blow to your education and you're considering dropping out over it (dont make it sound like a threat though).

If you do fail, you have a few options:

(1) Repeat English at school
(2) Do it at a TAFE/Adult education type place.  I strongly encourage this option. It saves the discomfort of going back to school and its much more adult. A lot of people take a gap year and other things like that, taking an extra year to get to uni is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Either way i encourage you to still continue your other subjects this year.

[PS: Holy shit man i went to CRC too, Brendan still the principal?]

[BigAl]

Also I remember one of the members here got something like below 25 but got very good scores for methods and spesh..As far as I know, he's repeating english this year and he already has really decent scores for maths.

[lala1911]

Also I remember one of the members here got something like below 25 but got very good scores for methods and spesh..As far as I know, he's repeating english this year and he already has really decent scores for maths.

I can vouch, they scored ~93 ATAR with very high spesh/meth scores but 23 in English, sorry to whoever this is but I forgot your username.

[doyoueven99.95?]

Thanks everyone for the answers!

and i failed my resit which is why i posted here, ive basically used up all of my lives so at the moment, it all depends on the principal to either pass me or fail me and if he fails me, i get no ATAR score, only a pass in VCE if i pass all my SACS for my other 4 subjects.

[lala1911]

Thanks everyone for the answers!

and i failed my resit which is why i posted here, ive basically used up all of my lives so at the moment, it all depends on the principal to either pass me or fail me and if he fails me, i get no ATAR score, only a pass in VCE if i pass all my SACS for my other 4 subjects.

You should get another chance. A kid at my school failed his resit five times before he was expelled.

[brenden]

The user you're thinking of is Spesh@Spesh, and I think it was closer to 87 with a 23 in Lit (but w/eva) - he actually passed all of his SACs and didn't do well on the exam, which is why he got the ATAR. The OP won't receive an ATAR if he doesn't get an S for English (I think that's how it works, anyway).

OP, just go HAM in trying to get your principal to pass you.

[henreeoh]

Don't all university courses require you to get at least 25 in English? What happens if you don't meet this prerequisite, but your ATAR and other prerequisites are met?

[lala1911]

Some universities only require a SS of 20 and if you don't achieve that you can still get into the course with other pathways, one of them would be doing a certificiate/diploma and transferring.

Some also don't require an ATAR score, however they have other requirements such as a portfolio or performance.

[charmanderp]

Just to reiterate what others have said, no matter what parents, councillors, peers, etc might try convince you of otherwise, taking an extra year to get to uni is literally not a big deal, at all. It is perhaps the best thing anyone could do, and certainly I know of more than a few people that took gap years or went to TAFE/adult VCE schools before starting uni and turned out just the same as everyone else, if not better.. The worst thing that you could do would be to stress and lose hope over this.

[chasej]

Don't all university courses require you to get at least 25 in English? What happens if you don't meet this prerequisite, but your ATAR and other prerequisites are met?

Not all are 25. But yeh not meeting a prerequisite means you can't get into the course until you fulfill that prerequisite.

Next time search before asking a question also. This question has been asked before and you bumped an old thread.