Biology or Visual Arts? (1 Viewer)

[Karie]

I'm going into year 12 next term and I'm deciding whether I should drop biology and keep VA or drop VA and keep biology. The other subjects I'm definitely doing are: Advanced English, 3U and 4U maths, studies of religion 1 unit, and chemistry. Art is one of my favourite hobbies and I've done pretty well this year. However, one reason I don't like about the subject is my teachers. Sometimes I feel the VA teachers at my school are very biased and they often contradict themselves e.g. one teacher says this but another teacher says the other, and I feel the marking is kind of unfair. This just makes me not enjoy the subject as much and makes me lose motivation in a way. For biology, it wasn't my best subject but I did better than average. I don't find it too difficult, it's just too much to memorise so that's why I was kind of lazy this year and didn't do the best of my ability. I think if I put more effort in year 12, I guess I would be fine. Also, I enjoy the lessons better than VA. But, I guess a reason why I should drop biology is because maybe I might not do better and if I extrapolate my results from my year 11 marks, I think I might struggle and do poorly in the HSC and won't be able to get a band 6. So I just wanted to know anyone's opinions and suggestions on whether keeping biology or VA is better for me?

 

[RyanT7]

I'm going into year 12 next term and I'm deciding whether I should drop biology and keep VA or drop VA and keep biology. The other subjects I'm definitely doing are: Advanced English, 3U and 4U maths, studies of religion 1 unit, and chemistry. Art is one of my favourite hobbies and I've done pretty well this year. However, one reason I don't like about the subject is my teachers. Sometimes I feel the VA teachers at my school are very biased and they often contradict themselves e.g. one teacher says this but another teacher says the other, and I feel the marking is kind of unfair. This just makes me not enjoy the subject as much and makes me lose motivation in a way. For biology, it wasn't my best subject but I did better than average. I don't find it too difficult, it's just too much to memorise so that's why I was kind of lazy this year and didn't do the best of my ability. I think if I put more effort in year 12, I guess I would be fine. Also, I enjoy the lessons better than VA. But, I guess a reason why I should drop biology is because maybe I might not do better and if I extrapolate my results from my year 11 marks, I think I might struggle and do poorly in the HSC and won't be able to get a band 6. So I just wanted to know anyone's opinions and suggestions on whether keeping biology or VA is better for me?

Keep both until the few assessments or so, and figure out what will work for you. Probably drop them based on what you are doing better in and how much better. For example if you are only doing better in Visual arts by a few ranks, it's probably better to keep bio unless you are doing much better in it. Also what is your ATAR goal ?

 

[BLIT2014]

Have a look at the schools external HSC performance in the respective subject too.

 

[Karie]

I'm aiming for 95+

 

[RyanT7]

I'm aiming for 95+

Like blit suggested, check how your school went in VA and Bio through the site http://www.topscores.info/

If you don't know how to use it, just post your school name here or pm it to me and I can find it out for you

 

[strawberrye]

I personally would recommend you to drop VA if your teachers contradict each other-->then that's gonna be pretty bad for marking unless only one teacher marks it somehow. And it is also extremely time consuming having major work in Year 12-because there is no fixed number of hours you need to work on the major work-->whereas there is likely to be a more objective indication of study time for biology given the uniform content (but major work-the scale and medium and time everyone spend is very different)-This is from having done VA myself in year 12.

Particularly if you are considering ATAR in mind-you are better off choosing and sticking to biology, particularly as you are enjoying those lessons more anyways.

 

[SkyeHeartz]

Currently studying for the HSC, I personally hate biology and wish I'd dropped it instead of another subject. But, up to you. I'd wait and see if you're not sure.