Is it worth keeping Advanced in my case? (Ex-HSC marker teacher) (1 Viewer)

[Bug_Z]

Okay so hear me out. This isn't the exact same as all those other posts.

I have an ex HSC marker as a teacher and recently she has become completely honest with our English advanced class about what is expected is us in the HSC. Apparently for an essay or creative story 6 pages is minimum for a B-A mark while in standard 3-4 will suffice for a B-A (factoring in quality of course) While she has been preparing me since year 7 (was lucky to have her every year since then) I am a really slow writer, I am bad at techniques and given practice papers I'm really struggling to keep on par with other students. It just doesn't come as natural, part of this is representative of my grip, it's really poor and will continue to haunt me however that's not my main reason, it was just a deciding feature to make me want to post this.

I am currently planning to pick up extension 2 mathematics, which will put my subjects are:

English advanced - 64% (70% but I feel like I flunked on my critical anlysis so guessing it Brought me down a bit)
Mathematics - 100%
Mathematics extension 1 - 90% (I messed up a chain of questions in the beggining of a question and little mistakes keep bringing me down -_-)
Physics - 95%
Chemistry - 97%
Software D&D - 85% (distance ED, basically self taught and I've been more focused on learning then performing well in tasks)
Mathematics extension 2 - N/A

Other 2 units is from a one year accelerated course (aviation cert 3 remote pilot (VLOS) which doesn't count for atar.

I am very passionate about all Mathematics, chemistry and SDD (maybe physics if my teacher wasn't just handing us the syllabus, no textbook and saying google it with the occasional single sided worksheets). However I'm not sure I will be able to cope with advanced English, a lot of my friends in standard keeping telling me they don't know why I'm in advanced, it's extra work for no payoff. And through my research a lot of atar calcs say the same thing, same mark and very limited scaling.

I just wanted to get an understanding of what you guys thought about the situation. I have read all the other posts and have been constantly watching over this thread for a long time, but now I have an account .

 

[tishermes]

If the reason for moving from Advanced English to Standard English is because you are thinking that the one is easier than the other, than I am not entirely sure that the motive is right.

You mentioned that you are bad at techniques. This is required in Standard English too.

I think you should keep Advanced English, but maybe engage more with the text you are studying, and realise what concepts are being explored by the composer. If you do this, technique analysis comes naturally, and the subject becomes quite enjoyable.

Techniques are simply the tools the composer uses in order to demonstrate a particular concept or idea.

To write quicker, attach a battery to the top of your pen. It works.

 

[BLIT2014]

It's similar work to standard, and the aligning is a lot better in Advanced.

Better aligning means more people in the state get band 6s, 5s or 4s then standard English.

I've never managed to do 6 pages, probably averaged 3-4 pages and still got within the a-b band.

Also sometimes standard teachers have higher expectations, one standard class was expected to have a minimum of 4 body paragraphs rather than 3 at the minimum in advanced.

 

[Tzuyu]

The band 6 rate of 2016's HSC for standard was 0.81%.

At our school, we have a joke going around: 'ESL SCALING'
Teachers have shown us graphs and what not and even ESL scales better than standard...

Honestly though don't worry about the amount of pages you're writing. You have to take into consideration handwriting size, quality etc. It is quality over quantity.

I currently sit on 12 units and although the workload is a bit heavy, it'll pay off in the long run... Jokes I have 4 tests in week 2

Honestly if you think you're that 0.81% then by all means... Scoring a raw 70 would probs boost decently well in advanced

 

[shehan123]

When you guys are saying 3-4 pages, are you saying 3-4 double sided pages, or 3-4 sides?

 

[BLIT2014]

When you guys are saying 3-4 pages, are you saying 3-4 double sided pages, or 3-4 sides?

I'm refering to 3-4 single size.

 

[shehan123]

Wow, most of the exemplars i see have like 7 single sided papers, your writing must've been full of quality

 

[Microsoft Word]

Don't drop to Standard and fuck yourself over like i did. It will ruin your atar, i guarantee you. You'll be putting in more work than Advanced kids, for less marks in your HSC, due to the atrocious aligning. It's not worth it. Ez ranks in the short term, but getting a band 5/6 is damn near impossible. If you're not 1st, you're better hope you're smashing all your other subs.

 

[BLIT2014]

Wow, most of the exemplars i see have like 7 single sided papers, your writing must've been full of quality

Or tiny