Repeating Year 12? (1 Viewer)

[DADGER]

Hi everyone,
Firstly I apologise if this is the wrong section to post this in, I thought it would have been the most appropriate though
So I am in year 12 this year and attend a rather well achieving school that I'm fortunate enough to hold a scholarship at but throughout the last year I have encountered a lot of personal problems that have basically led to me achieving very poorly in all my assessments and exams so far. I should mention that I'm independent and work two jobs to support myself, suffer from complex PTSD which affects my sleep patterns greatly, am attempting to break some not so nice addictions I have picked up recently and have also just had to undergo emergency surgery after injuring myself at a party :/ Basically my life has been QUITE challenging over the last year.
I'm wanting to study medicine, and have for as long as I can remember. The idea of life-long learning with great rewards is very appealing to me and I have a keen interest in the human body and helping others above all. My teachers have always expressed they have felt I am capable of this. I have been DUX of my year and topped numerous subjects every year of my schooling life; and many previous students of my school, who achieved at a similar level, have gone on to study medicine at university as well.
To get to the point though, I was speaking with my teachers and they have said that I'm achieving in the bottom 5 of all my classes which is VERY unusual, upsetting, but then not surprising to me. I have addressed the problems with my therapists and have built up a solid support network that are willing to help me address these issues and get myself back on track. However, I am worried that I am too late to do all this and turn my results around completely in 5 months...
I was studying 3 unit english, 3 unit maths, chem, physics and legal studies up until just recently, when I dropped both extension courses. This was mostly due to my poor achievement, however, I also felt that the workload was just too much to handle, along with everything else I had going on at the time.
My question is, could some of you please shed some light on what you think my best option is? I definitely want to study medicine and so will have to achieve an ATAR of around 95 to do this, taking into account I'm both a rural and ACCESS student.
Am I better off cleaning up my personal life now and then re-commencing year 12 with the 2015 HSC intake in term 4 of this year? Or should I try to rectify my current results as much as possible and see if it is enough? Some teachers have said they doubt it will be, whilst others have said they can see me achieving a justifiably alright result...but then there's also my own personal desire to do well in year 12 and achieve the ATAR I believe I am capable of?
Sorry for the extremely long explanation, just want to give as much information as possible Please be polite, I'm sure you all will be though and thankyou in advance for your replies!

 

[aero2146]

Since you say that you are rural then you are eligible to enter through the rural pathway to med in UNSW (If you live around sydney) or UWS with an ATAR above 91 and a UMAT score of 75+. If you think you could pull it off, then you should go for it, and do remember is that even if you don't get into med after HSC you could do medical science and enter through excelling in it. However considering your current situation it would be best to enter med directly, as the more time you spend not completing the course the more time you would have to work two shifts.
Considering you are at the bottom of your classes it is best said to repeat and excel the second time and hope you do well

P.S. - Just wondering, doesn't centrelink help you out if you tell them about your situation?

 

[hit patel]

Hi everyone,
Firstly I apologise if this is the wrong section to post this in, I thought it would have been the most appropriate though
So I am in year 12 this year and attend a rather well achieving school that I'm fortunate enough to hold a scholarship at but throughout the last year I have encountered a lot of personal problems that have basically led to me achieving very poorly in all my assessments and exams so far. I should mention that I'm independent and work two jobs to support myself, suffer from complex PTSD which affects my sleep patterns greatly, am attempting to break some not so nice addictions I have picked up recently and have also just had to undergo emergency surgery after injuring myself at a party :/ Basically my life has been QUITE challenging over the last year.
I'm wanting to study medicine, and have for as long as I can remember. The idea of life-long learning with great rewards is very appealing to me and I have a keen interest in the human body and helping others above all. My teachers have always expressed they have felt I am capable of this. I have been DUX of my year and topped numerous subjects every year of my schooling life; and many previous students of my school, who achieved at a similar level, have gone on to study medicine at university as well.
To get to the point though, I was speaking with my teachers and they have said that I'm achieving in the bottom 5 of all my classes which is VERY unusual, upsetting, but then not surprising to me. I have addressed the problems with my therapists and have built up a solid support network that are willing to help me address these issues and get myself back on track. However, I am worried that I am too late to do all this and turn my results around completely in 5 months...
I was studying 3 unit english, 3 unit maths, chem, physics and legal studies up until just recently, when I dropped both extension courses. This was mostly due to my poor achievement, however, I also felt that the workload was just too much to handle, along with everything else I had going on at the time.
My question is, could some of you please shed some light on what you think my best option is? I definitely want to study medicine and so will have to achieve an ATAR of around 95 to do this, taking into account I'm both a rural and ACCESS student.
1)Am I better off cleaning up my personal life now and then re-commencing year 12 with the 2015 HSC intake in term 4 of this year? 2) Or should I try to rectify my current results as much as possible and see if it is enough? Some teachers have said they doubt it will be, whilst others have said they can see me achieving a justifiably alright result...but then there's also my own personal desire to do well in year 12 and achieve the ATAR I believe I am capable of?
Sorry for the extremely long explanation, just want to give as much information as possible Please be polite, I'm sure you all will be though and thankyou in advance for your replies!

I understand what you mean. However considering the financial conditions and your expectations, I would recommend you try to achieve a desirable atar by repeating. i.e. Option 1).

 

[enoilgam]

Well, first of all, you should try to get some form of concession from BOSTES for these personal issues. That is something that will need to be discussed with your school, as they know more about the process.

In terms of repeating, it's usually a very bad idea, because you are far better off starting uni and transfering. That way, you can take units related to your intended degree, which means that you wont waste time like you would with repeating the HSC. Also, people usually think about repeating because they were lazy in year 12 and in these cases, old habits die hard and the repeat usually ends in a similar result.

All that being said, the only real reason to repeat is due to health and personal problems which are an issue for you. Considering that your goal is Medicine, repeating might be an option because a low ATAR would kill your chances of transfering. However, if you choose to go with post-grad medicine, then I'm pretty sure it's your uni marks which count. In that case, not repeating is a better option.