Reasons for English? Compulsory? (1 Viewer)

[Boxxxhead]

Like other people have said, it's used for scaling purposes.

They need a common subject to scale against, and everybody needs English to some degree, so it was made compulsory.

Also, maths won't ever be compulsory, because:

1) Not everybody needs to do maths, whereas pretty much everybody needs to speak english in Australia, even if the structure of HSC English is flawed.

2) This means there would be a common maths subject, which would be VERY hard to cater to the abilities of all students of. The top General students in year 12 in my year couldn't pass 2unit in year 11, so trying to put the bottom General students on the same scale as the top 4unit Maths students would be next to impossible, since maths has a much higher standard deviation in results compared to english.

 

[ccc123]

Like other people have said, it's used for scaling purposes.

They need a common subject to scale against, and everybody needs English to some degree, so it was made compulsory.

Also, maths won't ever be compulsory, because:

1) Not everybody needs to do maths, whereas pretty much everybody needs to speak english in Australia, even if the structure of HSC English is flawed.

2) This means there would be a common maths subject, which would be VERY hard to cater to the abilities of all students of. The top General students in year 12 in my year couldn't pass 2unit in year 11, so trying to put the bottom General students on the same scale as the top 4unit Maths students would be next to impossible, since maths has a much higher standard deviation in results compared to english.

QFT. Everything said above echoes my own sentiments and is correct.

Though it is true the current English syllabus is indeed flawed, I think people need to accept that English is compulsory for these reasons and move on.

 

[Forbidden.]

English is universal in any form of written type of English literature.
The ability to write with flair and fluency is important to me when writing reports.
These skills have been acquired from English so I don't mind it being compulsory at all even though I'm aliterate.

N.B. The meaning of aliterate - http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aliterate

 

[hollyy.]

"english" is not the study of the english language its the study of literature. i personally love eng ext, but hate eng ad, pretty sure i dont need to know about hamlet to be an actuary...

 

[Boxxxhead]

"english" is not the study of the english language its the study of literature. i personally love eng ext, but hate eng ad, pretty sure i dont need to know about hamlet to be an actuary...

Are you kidding? Hamlet is integral to Actuarial. More integral than double integrals.

Lol jokes. You don't need to know a lot of stuff in English, but it's just to bring up your analytical skills and grammar. I have to say, I wish grammar were focused on more. The amount of people I know who can do english, but can't differentiate between your and you're is sickening.

Btw, good luck on getting into Actuarial! The cutoffs might have gotten lower, but the majority of people I've met do really well in the HSC (a shitload of 98+ UAI people) so it's still competitive.

 

[hollyy.]

Are you kidding? Hamlet is integral to Actuarial. More integral than double integrals.

Lol jokes. You don't need to know a lot of stuff in English, but it's just to bring up your analytical skills and grammar. I have to say, I wish grammar were focused on more. The amount of people I know who can do english, but can't differentiate between your and you're is sickening.

Btw, good luck on getting into Actuarial! The cutoffs might have gotten lower, but the majority of people I've met do really well in the HSC (a shitload of 98+ UAI people) so it's still competitive.

lol, and thanks! i envy you, you're doing exactly what i want...what was your UAI?

 

[michael1990]

lol, and thanks! i envy you, you're doing exactly what i want...what was your UAI?

LOL!

 

[Boxxxhead]

lol, and thanks! i envy you, you're doing exactly what i want...what was your UAI?

LOL thanks for using correct grammar.

Haha I only got 93, but that was with sickness throughout the HSC, so I got EAS to get 97. It was well deserved EAS though LOL, I'm pretty average for an Actuary at Mac, and I estimate the average UAI to be something like 97.5 from the people I know. There will be people who get over 99 who you will beat coz they only got in by studying their asses off, but there will also be a couple people who barely get in who will beat you.

BTW I got EAS coz not only do I have diagnosed chronic insomnia, which was REALLY bad during year 12, but because of it, I had chronic migraines for a good portion of the HSC, and it affected me pretty bad.

 

[hollyy.]

LOL thanks for using correct grammar.

Haha I only got 93, but that was with sickness throughout the HSC, so I got EAS to get 97. It was well deserved EAS though LOL, I'm pretty average for an Actuary at Mac, and I estimate the average UAI to be something like 97.5 from the people I know. There will be people who get over 99 who you will beat coz they only got in by studying their asses off, but there will also be a couple people who barely get in who will beat you.

BTW I got EAS coz not only do I have diagnosed chronic insomnia, which was REALLY bad during year 12, but because of it, I had chronic migraines for a good portion of the HSC, and it affected me pretty bad.

you did pretty good to get 93 with chronic migranes

 

[Boxxxhead]

you did pretty good to get 93 with chronic migranes

Haha thanks

 

[charithjperera]

"Not everybody needs to do maths, whereas pretty much everybody needs to speak english in Australia."

Come on dude that is poor, speaking english is one thing while being able to write 4 bloody essays is another.

Also, how can it be used as a common scale when different students are better at DIFFERENT things.
Personally, anything that has essays totally stuffs me up because I am bad at memorising stuff...
Because I am bad at english, using it as a common scale would say I am a failiure of a student however I am not a failiure at subjects that are more concept based like maths or physics...
Do they take this into account?

Has anyone from the board of studies ever given a reason for why english is compulsory?

 

[weeenie]

I completely get you, i am sitting here looking at this bullshit fuckery and trying to pull some symbolism shit out of my asshole to be "englishy"



And for the reason of "it's a national language" is completely bullshit, because we aren't learning grammar, no, WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT HOW 400 YEARS AGO , MR SHAKESPEARE DECIDED TO WRITE A PLAY , AND WE NEED TO FIND TECHNIQUES. like bruh......

bruhhh, this ain't a national language , symbolism fucking metaphors , LORD HELP ME NEXT YEAR

 

[eyeseeyou]

B/C it's important and applies to everyday life (I don't see that happening though)

IMO it's so much better than fcking humanities (economics, legal, history, geography, etc). I can't stand how boring humanities are, would rather English over it. The only thing I hate about English is the AOS, the modules I don't mind as much but if english weren't compulsory then I wouldn't do it (no one would do it literally lol)

 

[plane]

English sucks but is still necessary.

 

[si2136]

We live in an English-speaking country. It's like saying, why would I need to learn Chinese if I live in China?