Should I Take English Extension 1? (1 Viewer)

[phieno]

I'm in Year 10, and the time has come for me to choose my electives. I like English; I think that it's an interesting subject, I like writing and I might want to become a solicitor in the future. I'm not the best at English, but I'm pretty above average in my school. I want to take English Extension 2 in Year 12 and to do it I have to take Extension 1 in Year 11. I'm aware that choosing to do it means I have to go to morning classes which I'm definitely not enthusiastic about. If I take English Extension 1, that's 14 units, so I could definitely drop Extension 1 and just go into the English Advanced stream.

What should I do? Is English Extension 1 fun? I like most of the English teachers at my school by the way.

 

[Armon]

I thought it was neat in year 11, but I wasn't particularly passionate about it in year 12 so i dropped. Its very dependent on whaat your teacher wants to do but I thought it was worthwhile and it helped in Advanced in some regard. Give it a go

 

[v.tex]

Just do it, If your not enjoying it just drop it.
You don't want to regret it later so just give it a go.

 

[iloveeggs]

i agree that you should give it a go and drop it later... but 14 units???? idk man you should think about your workload before you make that kind of commitment because e1 english is a lot of work just for 1 unit

 

[phieno]

i agree that you should give it a go and drop it later... but 14 units???? idk man you should think about your workload before you make that kind of commitment because e1 english is a lot of work just for 1 unit

Would this be slightly redeemed by the fact that I'm only taking six unique subjects?

Provisional List of Subjects I'm Taking
English Ex. 1
Maths Ex. 1
Japanese Continuers (Accelerated)
German Beginners
Legal Studies
Chemistry

I don't really count German Beginners as a subject I really need to study for as I have a lot of background knowledge already and am acing all my exams with little studying. (idk i might be getting ahead of myself a little)

 

[iloveeggs]

Would this be slightly redeemed by the fact that I'm only taking six unique subjects?

Provisional List of Subjects I'm Taking
English Ex. 1
Maths Ex. 1
Japanese Continuers (Accelerated)
German Beginners
Legal Studies
Chemistry

I don't really count German Beginners as a subject I really need to study for as I have a lot of background knowledge already and am acing all my exams with little studying. (idk i might be getting ahead of myself a little)

ok the fact that your accelerating a subject and that you find german very easy are the only redeeming factors here. i hear that legal is somehwat content heavy (don't quote me on this) and ik for a fact chem will take effort. and obv you will have to worry about your accelerated jap in y11 and prioritise it over other subjects to some extent, at least until hsc for jap is over, so you will only reap the benefits of having a subject done early AFTER your jap continuers hsc is done. so ultimately i am still kind of concerned but im sure if you were very dedicated and organised you would be okay

also i was like you and i tried to treat both of my extension subjects as one subject when to justify choosing them. they are, in reality, vastly different and what i do in advanced is pretty much unrelated to my e1. that means the work is also different and at any given time ill have completely different sets of work with advanced and e1. the benefit, though, is that e1 develops my general skills in a way that can be applied to advanced e.g. good essay writing and analytical skills in e1 put me in a great position for adv and same goes for topics in maths. but the work is diff and the one unit extension subjects have an equal amount of work to most 2 unit subjects so you are essentially signing up for almost double the work

btw im not discouraging you from joining. you should def give eng e1 a shot if you really like it and you feel like you can cope.you probably can cope in e1 but im concerned about your workload overall

im just trying to help you consider that taking 14 units of subjects will not be beneficial for you and will only end up putting pressure on you. only 10 of those units will go toward your atar, so you could drop a subject or 2 and invest that time and effort into your other subjects. im assuming to cope with your extra units you also have to take morning/afternoon classes too. i personally cannot justify taking more than 12 units in y11 (2 spare units if things go wrong, also gives you the opportunity to pick smth else up in y12 if you are eligible and drop a subject if you need to)

 

[foxisaro]

I currently like English Ext a lot more than Advanced rn to be completely honest but that's almost entirely because I like the coursework and the texts a lot more, so I feel like it might depend on the texts you're going to look at. Although, I also think that you're given a lot more freedom in English Ext in terms of what you can argue in your analysis. Like in Advanced if you try to argue something they don't teach you in class they will probably shoot you on sight but in Ext you're free to argue whatever you want as long as you have actual evidence to back it up.

That being said, I really do not recommend taking 14 units. That workload is genuinely insane and you definitely shouldn't do that Especially because you're doing an accelerated subject, I just don't think you want to be studying for your HSC while also juggling 12 other units of work and assessments... It genuinely sounds like a nightmare. If you want to do Eng Ext bc you find it really interesting, go for it! But I really don't think you should do 14 units.

 

[iloveeggs]

I currently like English Ext a lot more than Advanced rn to be completely honest but that's almost entirely because I like the coursework and the texts a lot more, so I feel like it might depend on the texts you're going to look at. Although, I also think that you're given a lot more freedom in English Ext in terms of what you can argue in your analysis. Like in Advanced if you try to argue something they don't teach you in class they will probably shoot you on sight but in Ext you're free to argue whatever you want as you have actual evidence to back it up.

totally agree, i also like e1 english better bc imo the adv english course just isn't it. you have to remember that its the one course everyone has to take (at least in a lot of schools they dont have standard english options) and so ppl are in the course or teaching the course out of obligation more than anything else. also if you are good at english the content just doesn't challenge you enough and it gets boring really quickly.

 

[Cute-Duckie]

yup I pretty much agree with everything everyone else has said here, i like english e1 way more than advanced for most of the modules, but also 14 units is kinda crazy. the workload steps up a lot for yr 11, and doing a yr 12 subject accelerated is another huge step up in workload (I noticed it a lot for my accelerated course).

maybe also consider what subjects you'll need for uni / whatever you want to do after school, if you have any ideas yet? you seem rlly capable, but you don't wanna burn out in yr 11 and then flunk out in yr 12