13 HSC Units = Heavy Workload? (1 Viewer)

[Amleops]

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what I am going to do in terms of subjects for Year 12 next year.

I am currently doing Studies of Religion 1, Advanced English, English Extension, Mathematics, Mathematics Extension 1, Chemistry, French Continuers and Music 2. Next year I'm definitely dropping Chemistry and picking up English Extension 2 and Music Extension. But I'm undecided about Maths.

Originally, I opted to drop Extension, and I said that on the subject selection form I had to hand in a few weeks ago. But I was talking to my Maths teacher today, and she said I'm still on the list for doing 3 Unit Maths next year. So there was obviously a mistake and I was going to inform the Director of Studies.

But that got me thinking. Currently I'm coming about 10-15th out of 50 people for Maths Extension 1 which isn't too bad, but it's still one of my worst subjects. People I've talked to are surprised that I'm dropping down to 2 Unit, especially since I'm one of the higher achievers in the grade. But maths isn't really a subject that I am natural at, and there are one or two concepts that I'm not too sure about. I still find it relatively interesting though.

I have been quite lazy in terms of study this year, and I know for next year I really have to start studying every day and constantly going over some supplementary material (not having much of a social life helps), so I think I can achieve good in Maths Extension 1 if I keep at it, and I can always get a tutor as well. I'm aiming pretty high for my ATAR so I thought having another high scaling subject might help. And if I still don't do too good in it, I can always drop it early on next year.

But that leaves me with 13 units. Our school recommends that for the HSC we only do 11 or 12 units, as they consider 13 units to be a bit of a high workload. Our school timetable only accommodates for 13 units maximum, but I'm pretty sure that some Music Extension and English Extension 2 classes are out of school hours anyway, so I think I'll still have a few study periods for catching up on work.

So would you recommend for me to keep Maths Extension 1, considering how I am doing currently? Or would it be putting unnecessary pressure on myself?

 

[Shadowdude]

Well, do you like doing maths? If so, do it - if not, drop it. If not sure, keep it and then drop it later so you have no regrets.

Is 13 units a heavy workload? If you want it to be - yes. If you want to do 16 units and do nothing all year, then that has zero workload. Is 13 units a lot usually? I don't think so.

 

[muzeikchun852]

maybe you should stay with mx1 for now. because you haven't start the work on your new extension subjects, there are possibilities that you won't like either of them. so keep mx1 for now would be a safe option.

 

[Amleops]

Yeah, that's fair enough.

Thanks for both your help.

 

[Zeroes]

I don't think 13 would be too bad, especially if you have some free periods and you're pretty decent at all of your subjects. I'm planning to do 13 as well, but my school makes us do 12 anyway so it's really not much extra for me.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Ehhh 13 can definately be a big workload, but if you're motivated in your subjects, than it should be fine. And after all, you can always drop a subject after the first term of yr 12 if you feel it's not for you.

But in your case, your 13 u because there's lots of exts, the work is more likely to be interlinked i.e you don't have six separate subjects.

I'm going into the HSC with 13 too, but if the work's too much I will most likely drop EE2 or Hist Ext for 12 units. My sister had that rationale too of dropping something, but then she ended up keeping them for the whole HSC!

 

[someth1ng]

Considering that you are good at your subjects, I suggest trying to found out statistics about how your school goes in those subjects. By that, I mean how many Band 6s per year.

If you find a subject that gets 0 Band 6s and is the average scaling subject (SOR) compared to your other subjects (MX1) then drop that poorer scaling subject. I think scaling becomes quite important in this regard since you are good at your subjects.

In contrary, if your school gets say 20 E4s in MX1 then I'd say it's worth keeping since it scales very highly.