Modern History or Business Studies?! (1 Viewer)

[mischief1564]

Hello,

I'm in Year 10 and about to select my subjects for HSC. The subjects I'm already set on are 3U English, 2U Maths, Legal Studies, Economics, and Music 2.

I still need to choose one more subject and am having difficulty deciding between Modern History and Business Studies. In 2022, only about 10% of Modern History students in my school got a band 6; 50-60% got a band 5. Whereas for Business Studies, 30% got a band 6 and 45% got a band 5. But I know Modern History generally scales better?

I think I'll be pretty good at Business, but I am much more interested in Modern History, so I am more inclined towards the latter. However, I am not particularly good at memorising and essay writing (when it comes to History).

I plan on dropping Modern/Business (whichever one I choose) after Year 11, but I don't want to make a wrong decision so that I can still drop Legal or Music if I don't like them.

Should I:
a) take the subject I am not so good at but enjoy learning about a lot
or
b) take the subject I am better at but will find more boring.

Please and thank you!!

(P.S. There's a History teacher I like a lot, so if I get her I will probably like the subject even more? Teachers are kind of important to me)

 

[Image.jpg]

Im doing business right now, and I was at the same position as you. I was juggling between the 2. I ended up picking bus. and not dropping it, so I'm currently doing it for my hsc.

It's my worst subject and I wished I picked modern.

The prelim topic is fine, but the hsc topic isn't. Also, you kind of need to have a good teacher otherwise ur screwed regarding getting back practice questions and essays

IMO its just too much effort for a subject that doesn't scale that well. There's also a certain manner u need to write (cause and effect) which for me was extremely hard to get and something I'm still working on.

I would say pick modern but try find someone that's done it and look through the syllabus to see if you would like it.

 

[Cute-Duckie]

Honestly for the HSC you really want subjects you can enjoy. No matter how good at a subject you are in Year 10 you're gonna need to improve at some point before you sit the HSC and all that, so you want it to be a subject you're going to work towards. That being said, there is a lot of memorising in history (from my experiences with Ancient - it's not the same as Modern obv but the course styles and structures are very similar), but you can still do well even if you're not great at memorising (like me haha), you just need to spend a bit more time on it than other people.

3U English and History subjects do help each other also, and you'll get better at essays if you do 3U (history essays are easier that 3U imo because you can just be a bit more concise and you get to discuss more things, although I've done more essays for ancient than for 3U thus far so I might be biased lol).

This being said, I don't have experience with doing business so I can't offer advice in that regard, but if you're still struggling to decide, make sure to consider what you want to do as a career (or a general area if you're not sure yet, which is completely okay), how much time you're willing to invest to improve in subject areas, and what you think you'll say you wish you'd done, gone for, or learnt about when you reach the end of Year 12.

Good luck

 

[mischief1564]

Im doing business right now, and I was at the same position as you. I was juggling between the 2. I ended up picking bus. and not dropping it, so I'm currently doing it for my hsc.

It's my worst subject and I wished I picked modern.

The prelim topic is fine, but the hsc topic isn't. Also, you kind of need to have a good teacher otherwise ur screwed regarding getting back practice questions and essays

IMO its just too much effort for a subject that doesn't scale that well. There's also a certain manner u need to write (cause and effect) which for me was extremely hard to get and something I'm still working on.

I would say pick modern but try find someone that's done it and look through the syllabus to see if you would like it.

Thanks for your advice! Wouldn't structure be more important for Modern History though? I am not very good at following the structure as I sometimes tend to stray off-topic

Would it be better to get a mid to high band 4 in Modern or a low to mid band 6 in Business, do you know? Since I think Modern scales better?

 

[Image.jpg]

Thanks for your advice! Wouldn't structure be more important for Modern History though? I am not very good at following the structure as I sometimes tend to stray off-topic

Would it be better to get a mid to high band 4 in Modern or a low to mid band 6 in Business, do you know? Since I think Modern scales better?

I think regardless of what subject you choose, structure is what gets you band 6 marks like 90+ as someone in business you will need to learn the dpeel structure which is definition, point, explain, example and link.

I think modern is ur basic
P - Point (Topic sentence)
E - Explain (Explain your point with fact)
E - Elaborate (Elaborate on your facts to form an analysis)
E - Example (Provide an example to support your explanation and elaboration. Usually in modern, this is where you might use historiography)
L - Link (Linking sentence)

integration of evidence is big in modern, you need to be conducting source analysis, such as whether its a primary or secondary source, and any biases within the source. In contrast, business is very case-study heavy where facts and figures from leading companies need to be used toprove your point.

Regarding the band 6,

a band 6 in any subject will almost always be better than even the highest-scaling subject's band 4. So, with that being said, if you think you can get a low/mid b6 in business, I would highly recommend it over modern.

 

[mischief1564]

I think regardless of what subject you choose, structure is what gets you band 6 marks like 90+ as someone in business you will need to learn the dpeel structure which is definition, point, explain, example and link.

I think modern is ur basic
P - Point (Topic sentence)
E - Explain (Explain your point with fact)
E - Elaborate (Elaborate on your facts to form an analysis)
E - Example (Provide an example to support your explanation and elaboration. Usually in modern, this is where you might use historiography)
L - Link (Linking sentence)

integration of evidence is big in modern, you need to be conducting source analysis, such as whether its a primary or secondary source, and any biases within the source. In contrast, business is very case-study heavy where facts and figures from leading companies need to be used toprove your point.

Regarding the band 6,

a band 6 in any subject will almost always be better than even the highest-scaling subject's band 4. So, with that being said, if you think you can get a low/mid b6 in business, I would highly recommend it over modern.

Thanks so much. Will think it through.