Is it worth dropping these subjects? (1 Viewer)

[erruchan]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right board, so my apologies!

I'm in year 11 this year, and I'm seriously considering dropping levels in a few of my subjects.

At the moment I'm doing:
Studies Of Religion (1U), which is compulsory at my school.
English Advanced
General Mathematics (I did Mathematics for 1 term before dropping to General, and I'm averaging about an 85 in General so far).
Biology (which I'm dropping at the end of this year)
Chemistry
Legal Studies
Japanese Continuers

The two I'm wanting to drop down are English Advanced and SOR. I'm doing okay-ish in Advanced English, but would like to drop down to Standard at the end of year 11. However, our class received a huge lecture from our teacher about NOT dropping to Standard, as it's apparently near impossible to get a band 6 in Standard, which, frankly, I don't believe. Basically he told us it's not worth it.

Our school only offers Catholic Studies in year 12, so I have the option of dropping from SOR1 to Catholic Studies at the end of this year. On one hand, staying in SOR is going to give me a fallback subject in my exams, but Cath. Studies will give me a bludge subject so I have more time to focus on my other subjects, so, as you can see, I'm conflicted.

What would be the best option? I'm generally a bright student but my marks are mostly affected by laziness and a lack of organisation and motivation.

 

[duckcowhybrid]

You better believe the Standard lecture. It's true, it's damn true. Don't pull wool over your eyes, just don't do standard. Worst decision you could make. Any chance of a Band 6 is literally gone. First in the State in Std English gets 93. If you're not top 60 in the state in standard, you don't get a Band 6. In comparison, top 1200 in Adv get a Band 6. Your teacher wasn't lying. And if you're doing okayish in Advanced you won't be buttfuckraping Standard.

Btw Bright Students don't keep Gen Maths. It's a fail subject that scales down terribly. SOR1/Bio blows it out of the water. I'd keep Bio and drop Maths IMO, and keep SOR1, since you have some back up, or potentially drop it later. Also because you don't want Gen maths counting since it's a shit subject. Too many retards doing it drag down any chance you have of a good mark (if you're bright like you say you are). Hell even 100 in Gen Maths scales down to 91.

 

[hscishard]

Dropping to English Standard is never worth it.

 

[shaon0]

You better believe the Standard lecture. It's true, it's damn true. Don't pull wool over your eyes, just don't do standard. Worst decision you could make. Any chance of a Band 6 is literally gone. First in the State in Std English gets 93. If you're not top 60 in the state in standard, you don't get a Band 6. In comparison, top 1200 in Adv get a Band 6. Your teacher wasn't lying. And if you're doing okayish in Advanced you won't be buttfuckraping Standard.

Btw Bright Students don't keep Gen Maths. It's a fail subject that scales down terribly. SOR1/Bio blows it out of the water. I'd keep Bio and drop Maths IMO, and keep SOR1, since you have some back up, or potentially drop it later. Also because you don't want Gen maths counting since it's a shit subject. Too many retards doing it drag down any chance you have of a good mark (if you're bright like you say you are). Hell even 100 in Gen Maths scales down to 91.

What Duckcowhybrid has said is very true. There's no point of taking General Maths, it won't do anything for your ATAR. Also, don't drop to Standard, i was contemplating the move in yr11 but decided to stay with Adv. in yr 12 as doing work no work in Adv.>>doing little work in Standard. And keep SOR1, you can still get a mid E3-E4 w/o any work in the subject and i mean NO work.

 

[erruchan]

My biggest problem in English is that when I get to exams, I can never write enough, no matter how much I practice. Although I got a 12/15 for my critical analysis essay, it was only 2 1/2 pages and I'm being told it should be bordering on 4. Same with creative writing. I express my ideas in a strange way, and sometimes it can get me full marks, other times I'll only get 50% as the marker "has trouble following my thoughts". Which I'd say is a reflection on them, not me. English Advanced at my school is incredibly tedious, and I'm really not keen on any of the texts we've studied so far.

Although, your confirmation of what we've been told may change my mind on dropping to Standard.

Maths is a subject I really love, so I'm not too keen to drop it, and I can definitely do better than an 85%, exam-wise. I think my problem was that I got too overconfident and made some really stupid mistakes. I should be getting mid-high 90's.

I'm definitely dropping Bio, I'm bordering on failing already, I'm really struggling (as in, below 50), and I'd rather get scaled down in Gen. Maths than get what I'm getting in Bio atm.

I'm leaning towards keeping SOR1, although I have the added stress of another exam compared to if I drop to Cath. Studies, at least it's a backup if something else goes horribly wrong.

On that note, how do Chem, Jap. Continuers, and Legal scale?

 

[shaon0]

My biggest problem in English is that when I get to exams, I can never write enough, no matter how much I practice. Although I got a 12/15 for my critical analysis essay, it was only 2 1/2 pages and I'm being told it should be bordering on 4. Same with creative writing. I express my ideas in a strange way, and sometimes it can get me full marks, other times I'll only get 50% as the marker "has trouble following my thoughts". Which I'd say is a reflection on them, not me. English Advanced at my school is incredibly tedious, and I'm really not keen on any of the texts we've studied so far.

Although, your confirmation of what we've been told may change my mind on dropping to Standard.

Maths is a subject I really love, so I'm not too keen to drop it, and I can definitely do better than an 85%, exam-wise. I think my problem was that I got too overconfident and made some really stupid mistakes. I should be getting mid-high 90's.

I'm definitely dropping Bio, I'm bordering on failing already, I'm really struggling (as in, below 50), and I'd rather get scaled down in Gen. Maths than get what I'm getting in Bio atm.

I'm leaning towards keeping SOR1, although I have the added stress of another exam compared to if I drop to Cath. Studies, at least it's a backup if something else goes horribly wrong.

On that note, how do Chem, Jap. Continuers, and Legal scale?

Chem's pretty good, Legal's not bad, idk about Jap, nut languages scale well iff you get ~85+.

I was in a similar position in yr11, with my subjects, i personally didn't like my english teacher's teaching style (no offence to her) and my school's cohort was p. rubbish at english. However, by skill or luck i kept a decent rank in english w/ writing an essay (if that) before each assessment task. Then, crammed epically before the HSC English exam w/ the help of an awesome teacher and got a band 5 which was decent.

If you really like Math's maybe you should contemplate moving back to Mathematics. I have a couple of friends who were doing Gen. maths and regretted not moving up to Maths.

 

[erruchan]

I really can't afford to move back up to Maths, nor will they let me. I was struggling really badly in Maths, as most of it (at least, how we were being taught) is 'conceptual', and a lot of it didn't make sense to me, i.e. why on earth do we need to prove this, and that damn 'completing the square' or whatever it is, how you're told you can't just put a random number in an equation but you CAN in this...it was just confusing and I found it really difficult to grasp.

I work better with formulae and structure, which is more General Maths.

As I said, I'd rather get scaled down a little, because I CAN get a 90's mark, than be in Mathematics and having the stress of not being able to do it weighing down on me, and getting a crap mark. I was averaging a 55 in Mathematics.

 

[muzeikchun852]

Chem's pretty good, Legal's not bad, idk about Jap, nut languages scale well iff you get ~85+.

Japanese Extension > Chem > Japanese Continuers > Legal Studies.

Japanese Continuers scales as well as economics. and why dont u think about Japanese Extension, but i heard it requires loads of work. if u are willing to work for good marks, japanese extension isnt a bad choice.

 

[erruchan]

Unfortunately, my school doesn't offer Japanese extension, and we can't afford distance ed :mad1:

 

[Existential]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right board, so my apologies!

I'm in year 11 this year, and I'm seriously considering dropping levels in a few of my subjects.

At the moment I'm doing:
Studies Of Religion (1U), which is compulsory at my school.
English Advanced
General Mathematics (I did Mathematics for 1 term before dropping to General, and I'm averaging about an 85 in General so far).
Biology (which I'm dropping at the end of this year)
Chemistry
Legal Studies
Japanese Continuers

The two I'm wanting to drop down are English Advanced and SOR. I'm doing okay-ish in Advanced English, but would like to drop down to Standard at the end of year 11. However, our class received a huge lecture from our teacher about NOT dropping to Standard, as it's apparently near impossible to get a band 6 in Standard, which, frankly, I don't believe. Basically he told us it's not worth it.

Our school only offers Catholic Studies in year 12, so I have the option of dropping from SOR1 to Catholic Studies at the end of this year. On one hand, staying in SOR is going to give me a fallback subject in my exams, but Cath. Studies will give me a bludge subject so I have more time to focus on my other subjects, so, as you can see, I'm conflicted.

What would be the best option? I'm generally a bright student but my marks are mostly affected by laziness and a lack of organisation and motivation.

i agree with most people - you shouldn't go lowering yourself any further.
this is what you could do (to retain your dignity):

Studies Of Religion I
English Advanced
Biology
Chemistry
Legal Studies
Japanese Continuers

 

[kyokaku92]

I really can't afford to move back up to Maths, nor will they let me. I was struggling really badly in Maths, as most of it (at least, how we were being taught) is 'conceptual', and a lot of it didn't make sense to me, i.e. why on earth do we need to prove this, and that damn 'completing the square' or whatever it is, how you're told you can't just put a random number in an equation but you CAN in this...it was just confusing and I found it really difficult to grasp.

I work better with formulae and structure, which is more General Maths.

As I said, I'd rather get scaled down a little, because I CAN get a 90's mark, than be in Mathematics and having the stress of not being able to do it weighing down on me, and getting a crap mark. I was averaging a 55 in Mathematics.

I like your philosophy on doing easier subjects for higher marks as opposed to tougher subjects for less than average marks. Personally, I wouldn't think about dropping until after the yearlies because they give you the "best" indicator to what subjects you should keep for yr 12. Having said that, I recommend you to pick up your game in English, as I believe there is not much difference between Std and Adv (the latter with generous scaling for little work).

 

[duckcowhybrid]

My biggest problem in English is that when I get to exams, I can never write enough, no matter how much I practice. Although I got a 12/15 for my critical analysis essay, it was only 2 1/2 pages and I'm being told it should be bordering on 4. Same with creative writing. I express my ideas in a strange way, and sometimes it can get me full marks, other times I'll only get 50% as the marker "has trouble following my thoughts". Which I'd say is a reflection on them, not me. English Advanced at my school is incredibly tedious, and I'm really not keen on any of the texts we've studied so far.

Although, your confirmation of what we've been told may change my mind on dropping to Standard.

Maths is a subject I really love, so I'm not too keen to drop it, and I can definitely do better than an 85%, exam-wise. I think my problem was that I got too overconfident and made some really stupid mistakes. I should be getting mid-high 90's.

I'm definitely dropping Bio, I'm bordering on failing already, I'm really struggling (as in, below 50), and I'd rather get scaled down in Gen. Maths than get what I'm getting in Bio atm.

I'm leaning towards keeping SOR1, although I have the added stress of another exam compared to if I drop to Cath. Studies, at least it's a backup if something else goes horribly wrong.

On that note, how do Chem, Jap. Continuers, and Legal scale?

I really can't afford to move back up to Maths, nor will they let me. I was struggling really badly in Maths, as most of it (at least, how we were being taught) is 'conceptual', and a lot of it didn't make sense to me, i.e. why on earth do we need to prove this, and that damn 'completing the square' or whatever it is, how you're told you can't just put a random number in an equation but you CAN in this...it was just confusing and I found it really difficult to grasp.

I work better with formulae and structure, which is more General Maths.

As I said, I'd rather get scaled down a little, because I CAN get a 90's mark, than be in Mathematics and having the stress of not being able to do it weighing down on me, and getting a crap mark. I was averaging a 55 in Mathematics.

If your marks are affected by laziness and a lack of motivation I don't think that's an excuse for dropping the subject. That's just you can't be fucked, so toughen up and deal with it. If you actually don't get it, and you picked subjects you don't understand, then I can't say you'd be classified as bright.

Also 2U Maths is not conceptual at all. Completing the Square is Year 9 Maths, and you need to prove it because things just don't happen. I don't just appear out of nowhere and type posts, I was born, lived etc. Also never heard of subbing in random numbers into equations. 2U Maths is entirely formula and structure. Anyone that's"bright" and "loves maths" should find it piss easy.

People that love Maths don't do General maths. They do 4U.

For Bio, if you're borderline failing it and it's not due to laziness, then you're not bright for picking that subject.

Btw General Maths doesn't scale down a little bit, it destroys your ATAR. Then again, depends what you're aiming for. For me I'd shudder if Gen Maths was counting. Instant -9 from aggregate, and then some.

English: I have fat chunker handwriting so i do about 950 words ins ~16 pages. That's all I do in 40 minutes. And dropping to Standard isn't gonna make them mark easier. Your essays should be as long as you can write, and in Standard they still expect 4 pages. And 12/15 is good enough for Advanced. Standard just sucks.

Also bright kids don't do Standard English and General Maths. That just means you suck at both.

Sorry for having a pole up my arse. I just love doing this.

 

[Schoey93]

Whoever said to wait until after the yearlies to decide what to drop gave good advice. You're also wise to realise that a Band 6 or close to it in General Mathematics is better than a poor result in Biology (e.g. a Band 3). At the moment I would recommend that you drop Biology, only because you don't seem to enjoy it and are doing poorly. However, most people I know who are currently doing HSC Biology have found that the HSC course is amazingly better (i.e. more interesting) than the preliminary course. And if you're more interested, you're more likely to do well in it.

 

[madsam]

If your marks are affected by laziness and a lack of motivation I don't think that's an excuse for dropping the subject. That's just you can't be fucked, so toughen up and deal with it. If you actually don't get it, and you picked subjects you don't understand, then I can't say you'd be classified as bright.

Also 2U Maths is not conceptual at all. Completing the Square is Year 9 Maths, and you need to prove it because things just don't happen. I don't just appear out of nowhere and type posts, I was born, lived etc. Also never heard of subbing in random numbers into equations. 2U Maths is entirely formula and structure. Anyone that's"bright" and "loves maths" should find it piss easy.

People that love Maths don't do General maths. They do 4U.

For Bio, if you're borderline failing it and it's not due to laziness, then you're not bright for picking that subject.

Btw General Maths doesn't scale down a little bit, it destroys your ATAR. Then again, depends what you're aiming for. For me I'd shudder if Gen Maths was counting. Instant -9 from aggregate, and then some.

English: I have fat chunker handwriting so i do about 950 words ins ~16 pages. That's all I do in 40 minutes. And dropping to Standard isn't gonna make them mark easier. Your essays should be as long as you can write, and in Standard they still expect 4 pages. And 12/15 is good enough for Advanced. Standard just sucks.

Also bright kids don't do Standard English and General Maths. That just means you suck at both.

Sorry for having a pole up my arse. I just love doing this.

I concur

Also, don't forget that when you drop to standard you're still doing 50% the same work as advanced, marked by the same markers who don't know whether you do standard or advance, and they don't care. This means you can't just "drop to standard" because you should be better at it, complete bull, just harden up and do advanced.


If you're forced to do religion, why bother dropping to CS and doing minimal work in that when you can do SOR and do minimal work,with the off chance of you needing it later on?

And to the guy who said a 100 in general scales to 92, complete bullshit. You can't scale 100. You can scale 99 like all hell, but you can't change a perfect score. Besides, ~12/15 people in our general class got band 6's last year (highest proportion of band 6 in the state) and i'm pretty sure some of them got over 92....

 

[duckcowhybrid]

I concur


And to the guy who said a 100 in general scales to 92, complete bullshit. You can't scale 100. You can scale 99 like all hell, but you can't change a perfect score. Besides, ~12/15 people in our general class got band 6's last year (highest proportion of band 6 in the state) and i'm pretty sure some of them got over 92....

Complete not bullshit. Raw 100 = Report Mark 100 which gets SCALED AGAIN to a 91. So yes they do change perfect scores. Go check http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf

Scales down to 90.6. Check that entire list. There's multiple cases of a 50.0 (aka 100) scaling down. A lot of subjects are capped. This doesn't mean that your HSC Mark is capped, just means that even if you get 100 for your HSC for that subject they will still scale you down.

 

[forward]

English: I have fat chunker handwriting so i do about 950 words ins ~16 pages. That's all I do in 40 minutes. And dropping to Standard isn't gonna make them mark easier. Your essays should be as long as you can write, and in Standard they still expect 4 pages. And 12/15 is good enough for Advanced. Standard just sucks.

Also bright kids don't do Standard English and General Maths. That just means you suck at both.

Sorry for having a pole up my arse. I just love doing this.

the fuck?

I have pretty big handwriting and write about the same as you, but still only about 8 pages. Do you like skip lines or some shit or just have monstrous handwriting lol?

But yeah I agree with everything else you've said, solid advice for anyone who's looking for a competitive atar.

 

[madsam]

Complete not bullshit. Raw 100 = Report Mark 100 which gets SCALED AGAIN to a 91. So yes they do change perfect scores. Go check http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf

Scales down to 90.6. Check that entire list. There's multiple cases of a 50.0 (aka 100) scaling down. A lot of subjects are capped. This doesn't mean that your HSC Mark is capped, just means that even if you get 100 for your HSC for that subject they will still scale you down.

Now uh, i checked that site, and the only two subjects that have a score of 50/50 scale to less than 48/50 are industrial design and greek extensioners. Industrial design is a category B subjects, and greek extensioners has less than 40 students. So 50/50 in gen maths i think would do better than the 49.5/50 scaling to ~91

After checking the site, i think i have discovered the problem, i thought you were talking about HSC scaling, while you were talking about UAC scaling, so yeah, in that sense gen maths scales pretty horribly. But for the sake of this guy, i uh, don't think he's aiming for 95+ so is it really a major concern?

 

[duckcowhybrid]

Now uh, i checked that site, and the only two subjects that have a score of 50/50 scale to less than 48/50 are industrial design and greek extensioners. Industrial design is a category B subjects, and greek extensioners has less than 40 students. So 50/50 in gen maths i think would do better than the 49.5/50 scaling to ~91

After checking the site, i think i have discovered the problem, i thought you were talking about HSC scaling, while you were talking about UAC scaling, so yeah, in that sense gen maths scales pretty horribly. But for the sake of this guy, i uh, don't think he's aiming for 95+ so is it really a major concern?

Check Ancient History.