Advice Needed; Subject Dropping (1 Viewer)

[dsakvyilsa]

Hey everyone, I have just started year 12 and thus the 12 or 10 unit predicament has begun.
In Year 11 I have done;

English Advanced - 1st (100%)
English Extension - 3rd (75%, class is combined w other schools in the area)
Maths Advanced - 1st (92%)
Maths Extension - 1st (75%, also a combined class)
Biology - 1st (76%, rest of cohort failed)
Chemistry - 1st (60%, rest of cohort failed)
Business Studies - 1st (92%)

I am aiming for an ATAR of at least 86, ideally above 97. The highest ATAR achieved at my school last year was ~88, and we received one band 6 (not in any of my subjects), it's a low ranking school.

I am taking extension 2 maths for year 12, and am definitely dropping english extension 1 (I did not enjoy the subject). My predicament is whether I should keep or drop business. I did little-to-no study and was still able to get a high mark, however I absolutely despise the students in the class, I genuinely cannot focus and I dread going to class, hence why I am wanting to drop it. I also like the idea of additional study periods, and one less assessment task each term. I'm worried however, that 10 units will be risky, and that if I flunk a subject my ATAR will be ruined. However, all my subjects typically scale well (though I don't want to rely on scaling).... so a raw 60% in chemistry isn't that bad (right?)
I know I am capable of doing MUCH better in all of my subjects, I did not consistently study throughout year 11, and my results reflected a lack of exam-style practice (damn THSC for only having 1 bio past paper).

Help?

 

[idkkdi]

Hey everyone, I have just started year 12 and thus the 12 or 10 unit predicament has begun.
In Year 11 I have done;

English Advanced - 1st (100%)
English Extension - 3rd (75%, class is combined w other schools in the area)
Maths Advanced - 1st (92%)
Maths Extension - 1st (75%)
Biology - 1st (76%, rest of cohort failed)
Chemistry - 1st (60%, rest of cohort failed)
Business Studies - 1st (92%)

I am aiming for an ATAR of at least 86, ideally above 97. The highest ATAR achieved at my school last year was ~88, and we received one band 6 (not in any of my subjects), it's a low ranking school.

I am taking extension 2 maths for year 12, and am definitely dropping english extension 1 (I did not enjoy the subject). My predicament is whether I should keep or drop business. I did little-to-no study and was still able to get a high mark, however I absolutely despise the students in the class, I genuinely cannot focus and I dread going to class, hence why I am wanting to drop it. I also like the idea of additional study periods, and one less assessment task each term. I'm worried however, that 10 units will be risky, and that if I flunk a subject my ATAR will be ruined. However, all my subjects typically scale well (though I don't want to rely on scaling).... so a raw 60% in chemistry isn't that bad (right?)
I know I am capable of doing MUCH better in all of my subjects, I did not consistently study throughout year 11, and my results reflected a lack of exam-style practice (damn THSC for only having 1 bio past paper).

Help?

keep it for now and see how u go with mx2. it's a fair bit harder than mx1. especially if you did mif.

 

[MJRey]

If you didn't enjoy English Extension 1, you're making a good call to drop it. That's super impressive you're coming first in pretty much everything except 3U English! I'd say drop Business Studies and get the extra study periods because if you use the opportunity to work super hard on Chemistry and your more difficult subjects, then you can reduce the probability of flunking them. At the end of the day though, do what you feel is right for you.
Hopefully that helps!

 

[dsakvyilsa]

If you didn't enjoy English Extension 1, you're making a good call to drop it. That's super impressive you're coming first in pretty much everything except 3U English! I'd say drop Business Studies and get the extra study periods because if you use the opportunity to work super hard on Chemistry and your more difficult subjects, then you can reduce the probability of flunking them. At the end of the day though, do what you feel is right for you.
Hopefully that helps!

Thankyou, this is helpful! I'm leaning heavily towards dropping business, I don't really think it's worth keeping. My MX2 teacher also advised me to drop it (though my business teacher is trying to convince me to keep it )

 

[dsakvyilsa]

keep it for now and see how u go with mx2. it's a fair bit harder than mx1. especially if you did mif.

My school won't allow us to drop subjects after week 3 (which is stupid, but I think they would allow exceptions) so I potentially have to make a decision ASAP.

 

[dsakvyilsa]

keep it for now and see how u go with mx2. it's a fair bit harder than mx1. especially if you did mif.

oh, and on the topic of mif, do you think it would be sufficient to primarily use mif and also then use cambridge's enrichment questions to further understanding?

 

[pikachu975]

oh, and on the topic of mif, do you think it would be sufficient to primarily use mif and also then use cambridge's enrichment questions to further understanding?

Just learn the content either through teacher, textbook, or tutor, then move to solely past papers. Imo textbook for maths is useless after you have the basics down.

 

[dsakvyilsa]

Just learn the content either through teacher, textbook, or tutor, then move to solely past papers. Imo textbook for maths is useless after you have the basics down.

My teacher basically doubles as a tutor, since I'm the only student in the class He acknowledged that the mif textbook is not as difficult as the HSC q's, and he said that we would work through HSC questions in class as well as the mif stuff, so hopefully that will work out well And of course, I will practice with past papers and whatnot in my own time, outside of school.

 

[pikachu975]

My teacher basically doubles as a tutor, since I'm the only student in the class He acknowledged that the mif textbook is not as difficult as the HSC q's, and he said that we would work through HSC questions in class as well as the mif stuff, so hopefully that will work out well And of course, I will practice with past papers and whatnot in my own time, outside of school.

Yea I just believe textbook questions aren't needed at all after u learn the basics/get a good understanding of each topic as they don't really resemble the HSC questions

 

[idkkdi]

My teacher basically doubles as a tutor, since I'm the only student in the class He acknowledged that the mif textbook is not as difficult as the HSC q's, and he said that we would work through HSC questions in class as well as the mif stuff, so hopefully that will work out well And of course, I will practice with past papers and whatnot in my own time, outside of school.

make him use cambridge instead then haha.

oh, and on the topic of mif, do you think it would be sufficient to primarily use mif and also then use cambridge's enrichment questions to further understanding?

i highly doubt you would be able to do cambridge enrichment qs if you take that path.

 

[Masaken]

oh, and on the topic of mif, do you think it would be sufficient to primarily use mif and also then use cambridge's enrichment questions to further understanding?

enrichment can get pretty hard - throughout year 11 my teacher would do practice questions for a topic then make us do enrichment questions before allowing us to do classwork/homework (i think even the authors of the textbook admitted that some of the enrichment qns were meant to be beyond the scope of mx1 + mx2) and they could get pretty challenging (it was fun to work through them though). i think making the switch from mif to cambridge entirely would be better - each exercise has three sections - foundation, development and enrichment in that order - and working through some of the foundation for consolidation and being confident with the development questions would be 100% better than using mif at all

and in terms of dropping subjects, it seems like the best idea would be to drop business - even if you're good at it what's the point of taking the subject if you don't like the class? and having 10 units rather than 12 should be good because you have more time to work on those subjects

 

[carrotsss]

My school won't allow us to drop subjects after week 3 (which is stupid, but I think they would allow exceptions) so I potentially have to make a decision ASAP.

In that case, I’d probably recommend dropping business. I’m in a similar predicament where I’m highly ranked in business but don’t enjoy it, and I think dropping it is the right call because at the end of the day if you don’t enjoy it, then you won’t do well enough in it for it to be a useful backup anyways (keeping in mind a high mark in business is equivalent to a pretty average mark in chem).

Your school not allowing dropping subjects after week 3 sounds like a dumb rule though, it seems counterintuitive to not let people have a go at subjects for a term or so because I feel like that rule just forces people to drop their subjects without giving the year 12 course a go…

 

[Vall]

In that case, I’d probably recommend dropping business. I’m in a similar predicament where I’m highly ranked in business but don’t enjoy it, and I think dropping it is the right call because at the end of the day if you don’t enjoy it, then you won’t do well enough in it for it to be a useful backup anyways (keeping in mind a high mark in business is equivalent to a pretty average mark in chem).

Your school not allowing dropping subjects after week 3 sounds like a dumb rule though, it seems counterintuitive to not let people have a go at subjects for a term or so because I feel like that rule just forces people to drop their subjects without giving the year 12 course a go…

I mean they can't force you to not drop a subject. If you decide you don't wanna do business in like week 5 you can just not go to class.

 

[carrotsss]

I mean they can't force you to not drop a subject. If you decide you don't wanna do business in like week 5 you can just not go to class.

Sounds good in theory but I guarantee that would get you into a fair bit of trouble (at least at my school)

 

[fattymcdaddy]

My predicament is whether I should keep or drop business. I did little-to-no study and was still able to get a high mark, however I absolutely despise the students in the class, I genuinely cannot focus and I dread going to class, hence why I am wanting to drop it.

Honestly, drop business if you don't enjoy it. It's a lot of work in year 12. you'll def have more time for your other subjects if you drop it.

 

[dsakvyilsa]

Honestly, drop business if you don't enjoy it. It's a lot of work in year 12. you'll def have more time for your other subjects if you drop it.

Yeah I'm defs dropping, I had it today and I really am at my limit, I cannot focus, and I absolutely hate the way the teacher delivers the material (basically just caters to the non-atar students who don't care at all about school). We literally don't get given notes to write anymore (because my classmates don't like writing) and we do nothing for the majority of the lessons. When we do do work, it takes soooo long to get anything done (no-one has any critical thinking ability whatsoever, if we get given a worksheet and the answers aren't explicitly stated in the material, they are simply incapable of even attempting to answer the questions).

 

[carrotsss]

Yeah I'm defs dropping, I had it today and I really am at my limit, I cannot focus, and I absolutely hate the way the teacher delivers the material (basically just caters to the non-atar students who don't care at all about school). We literally don't get given notes to write anymore (because my classmates don't like writing) and we do nothing for the majority of the lessons. When we do do work, it takes soooo long to get anything done (no-one has any critical thinking ability whatsoever, if we get given a worksheet and the answers aren't explicitly stated in the material, they are simply incapable of even attempting to answer the questions).

Ouch, I feel like the teacher should at least try to provide proper material and help to you since you actually care and want to do well

 

[dsakvyilsa]

Ouch, I feel like the teacher should at least try to provide proper material and help to you since you actually care and want to do well

You'd think so, but I think they think I'll be able to "do well" all on my own I think they're trying to convince me to keep the subject so I can bring the class average up tbh (majority of the class got less than 50% on their prelim, I got over 90% w/out studying )

 

[fattymcdaddy]

Yeah I'm defs dropping, I had it today and I really am at my limit, I cannot focus, and I absolutely hate the way the teacher delivers the material (basically just caters to the non-atar students who don't care at all about school). We literally don't get given notes to write anymore (because my classmates don't like writing) and we do nothing for the majority of the lessons. When we do do work, it takes soooo long to get anything done (no-one has any critical thinking ability whatsoever, if we get given a worksheet and the answers aren't explicitly stated in the material, they are simply incapable of even attempting to answer the questions).

Oh my days, that sounds really bad! I do business studies and I genuinely dislike it A LOT however I am aiming to do my best in the HSC. It's usually a lot of headache as there is a lot of content and it's all rote learning. You'll do yourself a huge favour and save lots of time if you drop it. Sometimes you just gotta put yourself first and do what's best for you.

 

[dsakvyilsa]

Oh my days, that sounds really bad! I do business studies and I genuinely dislike it A LOT however I am aiming to do my best in the HSC. It's usually a lot of headache as there is a lot of content and it's all rote learning. You'll do yourself a huge favour and save lots of time if you drop it.

I think so too, no point in having a 'safety net' if I probably won't even do that well in it, attending the class is literally the biggest waste of time. Today, in the entire 50 minute period, we were given a few EASY short-answer questions to do from the textbook, and that was it.