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Dropping His Ext? (1 Viewer)

LoveHateSchool

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I'm considering dropping His Ext.

You see the project part of it's fine I have a good idea and some early research, but I'm not really getting into doing the "What is History?" segment. It was okay at first, but I'm already bored of it. And that's essentially all of the rest of course. I mean we haven't started the Case Study yet but I presume seeing as its the historiographical side of it, it's more What Is History? in disguise.

The workload is insane for a one unit! Like it is the same amount of offline classtime as both my EE1 and EE2 almost.
I have to stay back two afternoons a week, having about 2 and three quarters of class of class just for it. It's also quite hard because it's the same two days I have to go to school preschool for EE1. (And one of those two days, I don't have any frees).

I feel that doing 13 units is asking for trouble later down the track at trials time, and it could be detrimental spreading myself thinner.

But the only reason I'm ambivalent is because I'm worried my Ext 2 concept isn't strong enough and I keep changing my mind on it, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it once I decide. Doing a short story is much more appealing than a history essay to me. But if I dropped His Ext and had more time for EE2, it could help. And if EE2 doesn't pan out, I could always drop it and still have one "backup" unit.

I'm confident in my 5 "2 unit" subjects...Eng Adv is compulsory anyways, Mathematics I feel much greater understanding since I've been practicing more and feel sure this next test I'm going to do much better than last time, Bio is a good subject for me, Chem my first assessment I've already gotten back and I'm in the top few and Modern I believe is fine. English Extension 1 is a fine subject too.

I think the best thing to do is stick out the rest of the term in all I'm doing now, and then decide in the holidays with some distance. Do you think this sounds like a good idea? What do you guys think? I jsut think that if I apply myself in all my subjects I can achieve good results and shouldn't be worried about having back up units.
 

tambam

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I think the best thing to do is stick out the rest of the term in all I'm doing now, and then decide in the holidays with some distance. Do you think this sounds like a good idea? What do you guys think? I jsut think that if I apply myself in all my subjects I can achieve good results and shouldn't be worried about having back up units.
I also started off doing history extension, and ended up dropping it. My class started off with around 20 people and had around 7 by the end of the year. Yeah, i think it is extremely demanding for 1 single unit.

It sounds like you've pretty much made up your mind and convinced yourself that dropping history extension is what's best for you, so that's what you should do. You'll be fine with 12 units, even if eng ext2 doesn't end up working out. If you don't find classwork interesting, ie. the 'what is history' stuff, then there's no point staying on, you might as well just drop it now.
 

passionxmusic

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I think you should drop it not because I think you can't do well in it. Do not get me wrong ~ I believe you can but its easier to focus on a few subjects rather than eight don't you think and only ten units are used to calculate your ATAR at the end of the day. =] The choice is yours - make it worthwhile and best of luck.
 

stillthinkin

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I was in the exact same situation, I was doing both EE2 and His Ext as well as society, so I obviously had to drop one subject. His Ext can be really boring as it is tedious and largely abstract. It is extremely content fuelled and trust me when it comes down to it would you like to be doing 2 majors as well as an extra HSC test for his ext. Just drop it, I did and now I have so much more time for EE2.

From the look of your subjects you seem to be under control, so just drop it and don't waste any more time on it. Your subjects are really similar to mine and I'm assuming that we both have the same interests considering you can, like me, get really bored of His Ext. Both my sisters did it and my cousin and they both regret it towards the end of the course.

Instead of regretting it later just save yourself right now!
 

Bored_of_HSC

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Drop it. You gave it a good try and now you can focus on your other 12 units. Gl.
 

loaves

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Having done Hist ext myself (as my tenth unit), I would drop it. The workload is simply too much for a 1 unit course - and like you, I was fine with the major work (except for writing it all the day before it was due - oops) but I found the exam essays pretty difficult, and in recent years the quotes for What is History have been shitty and hard to answer. Plus, you still have room to drop another 1- or 2-unit subject if you want to!
 

jessxxr

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if you're feeling this way now, i would definitely say drop it, i dropped it pretty early in, our class went from like 6 to 0, there was just wayyyyyyy tooo much content, i remember our teacher gave us such a thick bundle of pages on each historian we had to read, it was just a crazy amount, you seem pretty confident that you'll be fine without it and there will be less stress because of this
 

D94

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All this talk about workload....it's pretty straightforward if you've made notes on historians/debates/sources for historiography and case study. If you've got notes which cover the key questions then you're pretty much sorted. Most of the stuff your teachers teach you are just to get you thinking, rather than for memorising. Most of the stuff your teachers give you are frankly pointless and ramble on and on, but you just find the relevant information and use that only. By doing so, you are developing your own line of argument and historiography.

Case study is based on debates, rather than "what is history". It actually goes into the details of the event, but relates to how there are changing debates or differing views of the event.

But I guess everyone has their prerogative. The essays aren't that bad, but only because from practice and more practice.
 

Galladrim

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All this talk about workload....it's pretty straightforward if you've made notes on historians/debates/sources for historiography and case study. If you've got notes which cover the key questions then you're pretty much sorted. Most of the stuff your teachers teach you are just to get you thinking, rather than for memorising. Most of the stuff your teachers give you are frankly pointless and ramble on and on, but you just find the relevant information and use that only. By doing so, you are developing your own line of argument and historiography.

Case study is based on debates, rather than "what is history". It actually goes into the details of the event, but relates to how there are changing debates or differing views of the event.

But I guess everyone has their prerogative. The essays aren't that bad, but only because from practice and more practice.
+1

Once you become familiar with the syllabus and the style of questions in the exam, the content becomes so much more simple. It's to make you think not regurgitate the whole lot.

I had to do it before school as well, and that was a drag. I found balancing HE with EEXI and II to be a matter of patience and prioritization. However, you are doing 13 units, which is a lot, so I'd probably advise you to go through until the end of the year, and if there's something your not doing so well in, get rid of it. I hung on to Mathematics through the whole course, and in hindsight I probably should have dropped it. The extra time can go a long way. Because you're doing such high level subjects, I'd back you not to blow one anyway.
 

LoveHateSchool

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Okay well I've definitively made up my mind now, going to march up and get the paperwork and have all the awkward coversations. But there's no point wasting time in an offline subject I'm not loving. Fun day ahead :/
 

Siennalady

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I agree,
you should drop it.


I had the same issues, I had extension history at the start of the year, I was struggling with it as well, but then I was struggling with chemistry. Dropping Extension History was a good decision, if you feel that you can excel really well with the extra time, and less work load of dropping extension history. Than I recommend you do it.

well done on keeping the other subjects stable!

Hope this helps! and good luck!
 

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