I went pretty well. Graduated last year with a 98 ATAR and band 6s in my sciences and maths. My English just never reached that band 6 level lol.
After year 11, I dropped English extension. I was never really good at it and the course was very in depth and demanding. My school teachers marked ridiculously harsh and it was just all round inconsistent between teachers.
In it's place I picked up extension 2 maths. My maths improved a lot throughout my HSC mostly thanks to my private tutor who was able to really cover up my weakness and teach me all the techniques. Ext 2 maths was the best decision I ever made. Not only does it give you a massive advantage in Ext 1, it's also very rewarding in terms of scaling. You only have to get 65% for a 90!
The sciences have always been my strong point and I thoroughly enjoyed them in both year 11 and 12 with all of them having really interesting course content (although bio could be repetitive at times). The way they connect and the transferable skills between them just made it a breeze to study for them. You tend to master your study techniques for the sciences and then it's multiplied three fold if you're doing three of them - very efficient.
English advanced was the big pressure point and a major headache throughout the HSC. I only really started to engage with it properly in Y12 and lifted my marks up to a higher band 5 level. Honestly, it was more of a mindset thing. I thought I was too good for English and the subject was pointless and easy. Bad marks were blamed on inconsistent and biased marking. Later on, I realised that just like any subject, there was a specific formula for success. I would say that if I had taken the subject seriously from the beginning I probably could have done much better.
Are you going into year 11 this year? If so I'm happy to answer any other questions you got.
As a passing note, it's absolutely astonishing how quickly these two years passed by. I got your reply notification on this post and honestly do not even remember making it. Rereading it just brought so much nostalgia from two years ago. I can still remember how anxious I was, but remember that one day you too will be surprised how quick time passes and reap the rewards if you put in your best these two years
.
