• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Highest Scaling Subjects (Not Maths) (1 Viewer)

LeadTaco

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
Messages
94
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Hi, i'm currently in Year 10 and next term im gonna have to choose my subjects for HSC.
Ive been thinking about it a lot but before i come to a decision i wanted to see which were the highest scaling subjects, excluding Maths it was the subject that took up all my time during the exam and i still ended up getting a C for it.
Also what is the difference between IPT and ICT and how do they scale.
Thanks
 

xamineO

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
61
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
if you don't want to do any extension maths.
Then I would think extension 1 english, chem, phys or eco would be the highest scalers.
 

LeadTaco

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
Messages
94
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
if you don't want to do any extension maths.
Then I would think extension 1 english, chem, phys or eco would be the highest scalers.
Wow, thats awesome, since i was already planning to do English Ext, chem and eco
Do you know what the difference is between english advance and ext cause i see alot more people doing advanced
 

AbsoluteValue

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
136
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Do what you are good at, for example, I do only science and maths because I hate any other subjects.
Scaling will not give you a better ATAR, just do the subjects you are good at.
If you are good at maths/science, then do the subjects I do, you will enjoy them a lot.
Extension 2 maths isn't that hard and it is the highest scaled subject, so if u like maths do it, it isn't hard at all and it will help you develop a variety of skills that will benefit you a lot like critical thinking and problem solving skills.
 

RivalryofTroll

Sleep Deprived Entity
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
3,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Uni Grad
2019
Wow, thats awesome, since i was already planning to do English Ext, chem and eco
Do you know what the difference is between english advance and ext cause i see alot more people doing advanced
When you do Extension 1 English or 3 Unit English, you do both the English Advanced Course (2 units) and Extension English itself which is 1 unit.
 

LeadTaco

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
Messages
94
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
When you do Extension 1 English or 3 Unit English, you do both the English Advanced Course (2 units) and Extension English itself which is 1 unit.
Lol, what i meant was what's the point of doing Extension English or any extension subject?
 

starshine02

Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
436
Location
Newfoundland
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Lol, what i meant was what's the point of doing Extension English or any extension subject?
If you enjoy english then ext. english will be very interesting. In terms of difficulty, it is a bit harder but only a tiny bit and you have to talk about the deeper stuff about texts and yeah. People do ext. subjects because they are good at them or enjoy them........or they want high scaling subjects :\
 

RivalryofTroll

Sleep Deprived Entity
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
3,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Uni Grad
2019
If you enjoy english then ext. english will be very interesting. In terms of difficulty, it is a bit harder but only a tiny bit and you have to talk about the deeper stuff about texts and yeah. People do ext. subjects because they are good at them or enjoy them........or they want high scaling subjects :\
Basically this.

I chose Extension English for Year 11 (most likely going to drop it for Extension 2 Mathematics in the HSC) because I thought it might be helpful to improving my overall English skills like creative writing, essay writing, etc.
Though, you learn different content.

What makes Extension subjects appealing for those who are not naturally gifted at the subject is the scaling. Scaling is a BIG factor in many decisions despite people saying 'don't base your choice off scaling'
 

Demento1

Philosopher.
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Messages
866
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
Did you just make another identical thread?

Anyways, you shouldn't really base your subject choices on high scaling subjects but I will tell you the subjects which scale higher then 4U mathematics. If you do Classical Greek or Latin, they beat 4U mathematics easily. This is not to say, every school provides language based subs such as Latin, although it is worth considering if you are seriously choosing subs based on 'high scaled = success'. You may have to check with your school if they teach such languages, as they aren't really mainstream.
 

LeadTaco

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2012
Messages
94
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Basically this.

I chose Extension English for Year 11 (most likely going to drop it for Extension 2 Mathematics in the HSC) because I thought it might be helpful to improving my overall English skills like creative writing, essay writing, etc.
Though, you learn different content.

What makes Extension subjects appealing for those who are not naturally gifted at the subject is the scaling. Scaling is a BIG factor in many decisions despite people saying 'don't base your choice off scaling'
Thanks for answering, i was going to choose extension anyway since i want to do journalism in uni but i just wanted to verify if it scaled higher
 

starshine02

Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
436
Location
Newfoundland
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
It's weird but I chose ext. eng because I naturally enjoy/am good at english and I do find it quite interesting. I chose ext. maths because I was OK at maths but I just mainly wanted scaling. In the end (for this semester anyways) I got the same mark for my extension subjects. I guess good marks just depend how much you try.
 

RivalryofTroll

Sleep Deprived Entity
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
3,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Uni Grad
2019
Thanks for answering, i was going to choose extension anyway since i want to do journalism in uni but i just wanted to verify if it scaled higher
good choice.

Extension 1 English is a good course.
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
I took both Extension 2 English and Extension 2 Mathematics for the HSC... and why did I take those? Because I enjoy both English and Maths.

Really, and personally, most people should pick subjects they enjoy.


I'd think that if you want to play the ATAR game, then maybe take heed to scaling - but only a little bit, but really... for the majority of us, just do what you enjoy. You'll be doing it for two years - and wouldn't you want to study something you at least somewhat enjoy anyway?
 

xdosha

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2012
Messages
89
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
I took both Extension 2 English and Extension 2 Mathematics for the HSC... and why did I take those? Because I enjoy both English and Maths.

Really, and personally, most people should pick subjects they enjoy.


I'd think that if you want to play the ATAR game, then maybe take heed to scaling - but only a little bit, but really... for the majority of us, just do what you enjoy. You'll be doing it for two years - and wouldn't you want to study something you at least somewhat enjoy anyway?

I'm currently undertaking both extension 2 English & Maths.
With this you'll need to have good time management though as extension 1 English is very hard!
& your piece for Extension 2, has to be great to stand out as I heard the markers are very pedantic.
Since you're not going to do Maths.
If you're going to do physics & chemistry, they also require time.
I didn't do these subjects for the scaling, I didn't even know about scaling in year 10.
I chose these subjects as I've had a passion for science, maths & English :)
But NOTE: BOTH physics and chemistry are hard!
 

xdosha

Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2012
Messages
89
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Did you just make another identical thread?

Anyways, you shouldn't really base your subject choices on high scaling subjects but I will tell you the subjects which scale higher then 4U mathematics. If you do Classical Greek or Latin, they beat 4U mathematics easily. This is not to say, every school provides language based subs such as Latin, although it is worth considering if you are seriously choosing subs based on 'high scaled = success'. You may have to check with your school if they teach such languages, as they aren't really mainstream.
Are you sure about that though?
I went on the Atar calculator, I know it's not approximate.
But it gives us a little hint on how each subjects scales compared to others.
Putting in Latin Continuers, Extension and Classical Greek a mark of 80 and they all scale to like 72.
While getting 80 in Mathematics Extension 2 is like a guaranteed 95 +
 

D94

New Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
4,423
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Modern History w/ Extension History (Year 12).

Extension History scales better than Physics and personally, I found it much easier than Physics. Though obviously, do the subjects you like.
 

someth1ng

Retired Nov '14
Joined
Sep 18, 2010
Messages
5,558
Location
Adelaide, Australia
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2021
Modern History w/ Extension History (Year 12).

Extension History scales better than Physics and personally, I found it much easier than Physics. Though obviously, do the subjects you like.
This depends on the HSC marks. The higher end of Physics scales much better than the high end of History Extension

Example:
High End:
HSC mark of 89/100 in Physics equates to 84.8/100 scaled.
HSC mark of 45/50 in History Extension equates to 38.2/50 scaled

Low End:
HSC mark of 68/100 in Physics equates to 48.4/100 scaled.
HSC mark of 34/50 in History Extension equates to 60.8/50 scaled

The higher the mark, the more Physics seems to scale than History Extension but the lower you get, the better History Extension scales over Physics.

Though, overall, History Extension technically scales better.
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Remember that scaling is redone every year.

So just because... Classical Greek Extension or whatever outscales MX2 one year, doesn't mean it will outscale it every year because of the small number of people who take it. However, for the more popular subjects - including MX2, you can be pretty sure only a certain type of person will take that subject (beasts at maths)... so scaling would normally be very similar.
 

Demento1

Philosopher.
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Messages
866
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2014
Remember that scaling is redone every year.

So just because... Classical Greek Extension or whatever outscales MX2 one year, doesn't mean it will outscale it every year because of the small number of people who take it. However, for the more popular subjects - including MX2, you can be pretty sure only a certain type of person will take that subject (beasts at maths)... so scaling would normally be very similar.
Yes, MX2 is the subject of choice for highest scaling mainly because it's mainstream and readily accessible to most students whereas subjects such as Latin and Classical Greek vary and depend purely on the school offering it. Quite true on your nest statement, that obviously, the best at maths reflect the candidature, thus scaling well and it obviously fluctuates in scaling between languages and MX2 in a year.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top