Extension 2 maths or Ancient History? (1 Viewer)

[2323]

Hi guys,

After this term year 12 begins and I'm unsure of what subjects to drop/keep etc. Also with piano lessons, deciding whether to keep them or stop.

I'm tossing up in a decision of:
1) dropping Ancient, keeping 11 units (Adv.eng, bio, chem, phys, 3unit maths) also keeping piano
2) keep Ancient, stick with 13 units, keeping piano
3) keep ancient, pick up extension 2 maths and do 14 units, keeping piano
4) pick up extension 2, drop ancient and do 12 units, keeping piano
5) drop piano, drop ancient and focus on 11 units

I'm not sure how I'll go with the work load of 14 units, but is it worth a crack for at least the first term on year 12? I am doing around the same in both ext.maths 1 and ancient, although I need ext.maths 1 more than ancient i would think... Just need the highest ATAR as possible and not sure which option will allow this, also does it benefit me for uni doing an extra curricular activity?

Ideas and advice please?

 

[enoilgam]

I would go with option 3, try all of them out, see what works/doesnt and then drop down.

 

[ExcelHSC]

Option 3, is good imo.
Although it seems you are inclined in keeping piano, so it's ultimately up-to you, what are you planning to do in UNI?
Does it consists of ALL the three sciences?

 

[2323]

Thank you! Yeah I'm not sure about piano hey. I want to either try getting into medicine or do medical science. I think keeping the three sciences would benefit, although physics not so much. But also they are probably my better subjects

 

[uniquee]

Thank you! Yeah I'm not sure about piano hey. I want to either try getting into medicine or do medical science. I think keeping the three sciences would benefit, although physics not so much. But also they are probably my better subjects

That is good, then you should keep them!
Pick up Ext 2. Maths, if it's too much for you, you can drop it.
I'm doing Ancient History and love it, I would keep it, do you like Ancient?

 

[lolcakes52]

I would go with the least amount of units with maths ext 2. I do 9 units, as i did chemistry last year, and I have a great workload.

 

[2323]

Good plan!
Yeah that's true, but just not sure if it will benefit me having a smaller workload? I love the content in Ancient, just I seem to be getting terrible marks at it, so it makes me like it less I suppose

 

[krnofdrg]

Piano lessons are going to take up lots of time (if you're not doing music for HSC and just for personal purposes, I think it would be more suitable if you maybe sacrifice 1 year only because it would save a lot of time and stress). I advise to focus on your HSC for this period if you are aiming for a good ATAR, but if you love Piano then go for it!

From my personal opinion, I find 14 units a real time killer, that extra 4 units could be spent well on those 10. I would only do 14 units if I wanted to take the safe way out (If you're not very confident also), but with good study habits and time efficiency you could do a lot better with 10-11 units. Workload and stress wise, 14 units is a lot to handle also.
I would say try it at least give it a go and if it doesn't work out, drop whatever subject is the weakest and you do not feel comfortable or confident with. I am not sure if you should drop Ancient or 4U, or keep both, this depends on your marks and how well you are at these subjects. But I think Ancient is a very good subject and you could easily score marks, it's a very straightforward subject as I did it for my HSC.

Lastly, Extra curricular activity is always a good compliment and will benefit you a lot for University You would also fit in much well with the societies and clubs also!

 

[hagridface]

I currently do 11 units and am about to complete the HSC later this year and can tell you that 11 units is still difficult to stay ontop of. Shit, 13 units is a lot of work also. Are you even allowed to do 14 units? That is insanity to me. You will find it reaaaaally hard to stay ontop of work. Especially since there is so much content to cover and preliminary shit to remember and study over.
I had 13 units at the beginning of year 12, the only benefit was being able to drop two subjects down to 11 (one was 1 unit) because my workload was immense, not only do teachers bombard you with assessments all year round, especially priming up for exams or trials but atleast 4 hours of study a night is necessary. You do NOT need to put so much pressure on yourself by doing so many subjects. Considering your best 10 units are picked for grading I would cut down on units and focus hard on subjects.
Don't make the mistake so many others make; revving up for year 12 and burning out within a few weeks. Extra Curricular activities look good on your resume for jobs and playing an instrument is always a benefit to you but as far as I know there is no benefit at Uni.
As a person that was as keen as mustard to start year 12 studying hard and long, I can tell you, it's an effort and a half. Take it easy.

 

[krnofdrg]

I guarantee 4U maths would take a huge amount of your time also

 

[2323]

So 12 units? So lucky, 9 would be bliss

 

[2323]

Wow, thanks so much. Yeah I agree 14 is a bit of a massive workload, and I suppose 10 weeks of the HSC of deciding what to keep is a bit of a time waster. I'm just so unsure which subjects I will do better in, I think I might see what my marks are at the end of the year and maybe decide on that. Will probably do either 11 or 12 units. And possibly drop piano to keep the stress off. Thanks so much! Helped loads

 

[krnofdrg]

Wow, thanks so much. Yeah I agree 14 is a bit of a massive workload, and I suppose 10 weeks of the HSC of deciding what to keep is a bit of a time waster. I'm just so unsure which subjects I will do better in, I think I might see what my marks are at the end of the year and maybe decide on that. Will probably do either 11 or 12 units. And possibly drop piano to keep the stress off. Thanks so much! Helped loads

You have to use every second of your HSC very wisely, 10 weeks is a lot into the HSC and it is already 10-20% of your Internal mark. I wouldn't risk it as it could mean your Internal marks could be jeopardized.

I think thinking before entering year 12 could be more suitable rather than what I said about 'test and trying'.

 

[dsor01]

Hi guys,

After this term year 12 begins and I'm unsure of what subjects to drop/keep etc. Also with piano lessons, deciding whether to keep them or stop.

I'm tossing up in a decision of:
1) dropping Ancient, keeping 11 units (Adv.eng, bio, chem, phys, 3unit maths) also keeping piano
2) keep Ancient, stick with 13 units, keeping piano
3) keep ancient, pick up extension 2 maths and do 14 units, keeping piano
4) pick up extension 2, drop ancient and do 12 units, keeping piano
5) drop piano, drop ancient and focus on 11 units

I'm not sure how I'll go with the work load of 14 units, but is it worth a crack for at least the first term on year 12? I am doing around the same in both ext.maths 1 and ancient, although I need ext.maths 1 more than ancient i would think... Just need the highest ATAR as possible and not sure which option will allow this, also does it benefit me for uni doing an extra curricular activity?

Ideas and advice please?

I really recommend you, especially since I have reached the same cross section right now that you have to go with option 4. You really need to focus on your subjects in year 12. You can always major in piano when your older, but you don't get another chance to major in HSC (unless you fail, which is NOT an option)
If your doing excellently well in Extension maths (3U) then I don't see the reason why you shouldn't try for Extention Maths (4U), especially seeing that Anceint History doesn't increase your ATAR mark compared to Maths extension cause of the many more indiviuals doing ancient compared to Maths 4.

So my advice go for Maths. Drop both ancient and piano.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Why do you have to drop piano? Everyone needs an outlet in the HSC, extracurriculars are great and all that jazz So I say keep piano. It musn't take up too much time. Personally all I did in Yr 12 was cut back my hours of dance (I did 20ish in Yr 10, about 14 in Yr 11 )

I think if you aren't sure, you can try them out for a short time like a few weeks. Nothing worse than subject dropping regrets. I don't agree with the doom and gloom of you will waste precious HSC time in the first term. I went overseas for a month recently (yep in July!) and I'm still less stressed than many people at my school for trials.

 

[enoilgam]

Wow, thanks so much. Yeah I agree 14 is a bit of a massive workload, and I suppose 10 weeks of the HSC of deciding what to keep is a bit of a time waster. I'm just so unsure which subjects I will do better in, I think I might see what my marks are at the end of the year and maybe decide on that. Will probably do either 11 or 12 units. And possibly drop piano to keep the stress off. Thanks so much! Helped loads

I still think its better to try so you dont have any regrets later. If you enjoy piano maybe you should keep doing it (but obviously with less stress then before i.e. dont do exams for it during the HSC)- having extra cirriculars is very beneficial during the year.

 

[ahdil33]

It's alright to keep extracurriculars, as long as they don't take too much time. You should definitely not do 12 units, not even 14 units. If you take 14 units, you'll have so much work, that your performance in them might not indicate what would happen if you were down at 10 units, so you might drop a subject that you shouldn't. Seen it happen a lot for subjects which require a lot of work in particular, like Maths.

If you're doing the same in Ancient History and 3u maths, markswise, then 3u will be hell of a lot better for your ATAR than Ancient.

If you want to get into Med, depending on how you go in UMAT and what not, you ought to get the highest atar as possible. I would drop to 10 units, by dropping one of the sciences. doing 4u maths means a lot of maths work, which will help with 3u as well in the long run. But this will make it so much easier to get the ATAR you need...

Ideally drop Bio, but if you dislike one of the others or like Bio, there's no problem with dropping one of the others.

 

[Shadowdude]

Drop piano for a year? I don't know about you guys - but if you stop playing for a year, you really lose a lot of touch and you do have to re-learn things. It's not as easy as "lol haven't played in a year - i'll just start playing just like 365 days ago"

It's time management. Learn it.

 

[lolcakes52]

It really comes down to whether you can handle getting bad marks and still doing a course. 4 unit is a really low workload for the marks it can score you. relatively.

 

[Poesent]

Hi I agree with you good sir!