Is it better to do 2U and 4U subjects rather than only one extension? (1 Viewer)

[glowsticks]

I heard that doing 2U and 4U subjects would be better for scaling in the HSC, and that doing 3U subjects wouldn't be very beneficial. Is it actually true that doing 3U wouldn't scale as well and it could drag your ATAR down at times?

 

[mirakon]

No

 

[madharris]

doing crap in any subject will scale you down, it's probably not true for anyone unless you don't work.

 

[enoilgam]

doing crap in any subject will scale you down, it's probably not true for anyone unless you don't work.

It seems obvious but most people seem to forget this. To the OP, what you heard is untrue. 3 unit maths is a great scaler, so is extension english and history.

 

[Aerath]

Do whatever subjects you feel comfortable doing. Don't take into consideration scaling etc.

 

[avhead]

Do two 1 unit extension subjects if you need to (To balance it out and be of even numbered units, that's the only thing I can think of?). There is no reason that it will not be of benefit to you by doing a 3U subject. They scale better than 2U anyway.

 

[Kimyia]

As long as you do well, any subject can be beneficial especially 3U subjects which scale quite well so what you heard is wrong.

 

[Cl324]

Well scaling wise: 3u maths--> 3u english > 4u english

So no

 

[HeyJes]

No. 3U math scales very wells actually

 

[D94]

I heard that doing 2U and 4U subjects would be better for scaling in the HSC, and that doing 3U subjects wouldn't be very beneficial. Is it actually true that doing 3U wouldn't scale as well and it could drag your ATAR down at times?

Think logically - why would someone bother doing an extra extension (which would be a harder subject) if it scales down or is not beneficial? Clearly there is something wrong with this postulation.

Obviously doing crap in any subject is going to be not beneficial.

 

[such_such]

I think what you're saying is that if you do x,y, 3U maths, 3U English, is it worth it, right? Apparently even though it'll add up to 10 units, they split your extensions into marks of 50 and add them together. E.g. 3U Maths - 84 --> 42. 3U English - 90 --> 45 therefore 42+45=87. Therefore a random subject is 87. But no scaling is involved because it's not actually a subject. I dunno, this is what I've heard from people.

But yeah, I recommend doing only one extension (Maths, English or History) as all the 99.95 ATAR people have only done one. With a few exceptions of course.

 

[D94]

I think what you're saying is that if you do x,y, 3U maths, 3U English, is it worth it, right? Apparently even though it'll add up to 10 units, they split your extensions into marks of 50 and add them together. E.g. 3U Maths - 84 --> 42. 3U English - 90 --> 45 therefore 42+45=87. Therefore a random subject is 87. But no scaling is involved because it's not actually a subject. I dunno, this is what I've heard from people.

But yeah, I recommend doing only one extension (Maths, English or History) as all the 99.95 ATAR people have only done one. With a few exceptions of course.

No, your source is incorrect. Ext 1 Maths and Ext 1 English will be aligned (by BOS) and scaled (by UAC) individually and then everything is added up as normal.

 

[deswa1]

I think what you're saying is that if you do x,y, 3U maths, 3U English, is it worth it, right? Apparently even though it'll add up to 10 units, they split your extensions into marks of 50 and add them together. E.g. 3U Maths - 84 --> 42. 3U English - 90 --> 45 therefore 42+45=87. Therefore a random subject is 87. But no scaling is involved because it's not actually a subject. I dunno, this is what I've heard from people.

But yeah, I recommend doing only one extension (Maths, English or History) as all the 99.95 ATAR people have only done one. With a few exceptions of course.

This is an example of mistaking cause and effect. For example, it is well known that drowning rates increasing dramatically as ice cream sales increase. Ice cream and drowning have no correlation, but both factors are caused by the onset of summer. Similarly here, people that get 99.95 ATAR tend to be quite similar in subject patterns. I would guess that most people that got .95 did physics as one of their subject choices. That's simply because physics is one of the 'accepted' subject choices for really smart people. If a random picked physics, they wouldn't get .95, and similarly if that person chose a different subject such as ext. history, he would probably still get .95 because of how smart he actually is, not his subject choices. Obviously there are some subjects that will restrict your ATAR, but on the bottom line, its the person that makes the .95, not whether he does an extension subject or not.