year 11 subject selections *HELP!* (1 Viewer)

[dropkick101]

Hi, I am currently going through the process of choosing my year 11 subjects. They are due this Thursday but I am feeling quite overwhelmed so I was hoping to get some advice. I am aiming for a 98+ atar and I hope to either study medicine, commerce/economics or a degree in actuarial in uni.

I am thinking of taking the following subjects:
-ext1 Maths
-ext1 English
-Chemistry
-Economics
-Society & Culture

My back up subjects include:
-Biology
-Modern History

I was originally planning to take 3U maths, 3U english, chem, bio and eco but I think it may be too stressful for me to take.
(the reason I am unsure of doing two sciences is because I have only barely gotten over 90% in most of my junior exams so I am not sure if I will be able to excel in both)

I am unsure about whether to do Society & Culture as my knowledge of the subject and its content is quite limited at this point in time.
I am also not sure if I should take Modern History as I haven't taken history elective. Would I be at a disadvantage?
Does anyone have advice on these subjects? Will these subjects allow me to achieve my atar goal? Will this combination of subjects be too much of a heavy workload??

Any advice would be much appreciated!
THANK YOU SO MUCH

 

[jazz519]

You shouldn't really worry too much about if you just barely got 90% in Year 10 exams, obviously if you got like a 40% in a science exam then yeah that's a bit worrying in terms of being able to handle 2 science courses, but anything more than 80% and you can refine those skills for sure and hit 90s consistently. When I did Year 10 exams my best science was Physics and worst probably chemistry, yet now I'm doing a degree in Chemistry, so it's not that good of an indication. Two sciences is quite a common subject choice for students, the subjects have their advantages over others in terms of you don't have to write long essays, but there are disadvantages in terms of they are subjects you have to practice a decent amount to get good at, but you can look at in a good way as well in terms of if you work hard you do well.

 

[dropkick101]

You shouldn't really worry too much about if you just barely got 90% in Year 10 exams, obviously if you got like a 40% in a science exam then yeah that's a bit worrying in terms of being able to handle 2 science courses, but anything more than 80% and you can refine those skills for sure and hit 90s consistently. When I did Year 10 exams my best science was Physics and worst probably chemistry, yet now I'm doing a degree in Chemistry, so it's not that good of an indication. Two sciences is quite a common subject choice for students, the subjects have their advantages over others in terms of you don't have to write long essays, but there are disadvantages in terms of they are subjects you have to practice a decent amount to get good at, but you can look at in a good way as well in terms of if you work hard you do well.

Thank you for the advice I was also thinking about the content that was in each of the sciences. For me, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the genetics unit in bio however I really hated the topic on plants. I have heard that in yr11 they mainly focus on the plants side of things and I am unsure whether I will be able to commit myself to study for it.

It wasnt really about the two sciences that I was scared about, it was more so about whether I would be able to study them alongside economics + ext english + ext maths. Do you have advice in regards to that as well? Also do you have advice for any chemistry tutors on the north shore side of sydney?

 

[jazz519]

Thank you for the advice I was also thinking about the content that was in each of the sciences. For me, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the genetics unit in bio however I really hated the topic on plants. I have heard that in yr11 they mainly focus on the plants side of things and I am unsure whether I will be able to commit myself to study for it.

It wasnt really about the two sciences that I was scared about, it was more so about whether I would be able to study them alongside economics + ext english + ext maths. Do you have advice in regards to that as well? Also do you have advice for any chemistry tutors on the north shore side of sydney?

I didn't do biology personally so can't comment on the content, but in general every subject will have boring and interesting parts to it, regardless of what course it is

You should be able to manage it with good study habits. I also did 2 sciences (physics and chemistry) with ext math, advanced English and business studies and found the workload to be fine. If it becomes too much you can usually change subjects during Year 11 as well, so it's probably best to start off with the difficult courses and then see how you go, as you can't really go the other way around most of the time

In terms of chemistry tutors, I offer chemistry tutoring but given your location it's probably too far for you to travel. I would recommend you look for a tutor who either did the new syllabus chemistry course during 2019/2020 or is doing some kind of degree in chemistry so they have learnt the new syllabus stuff already. This is because unless the tutor has gone out of their way to learn the content in the new syllabus then their knowledge is probably lacking even if they did well in the old syllabus, as the content has changed quite drastically in chemistry particularly in module 7 and 8 for Year 12. So if you are to consider going for a tutor who did HSC in the old syllabus and isn't doing a chemistry degree, I would ask them specifically about what have they done to adapt to the new syllabus and to provide some kind of evidence of it, to avoid being stuck with a tutor who doesn't really understand the content changes