Should I drop from English Advanced to Standard? (1 Viewer)

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Hi! So I'll just keep it short.
Recently, I got my overall results and rank for Yr.11 English Adv.
I got 65% and ranked 105/140....Idk how to feel about it because I nvr rly studied for English nor did I practice writing (I do feel disappointed but not devastated).
Should I consider dropping down to Standard? Would it be time achievable for me to put enough effort in to attain results which will put me in top 60 for the first Yr.12 Adv assessment?
P.S. I also do 4U math, Physics and Chemistry

 

[Life'sHard]

No don't drop to standard. It's legit the same amount of work in standard and advanced so you might as well continue on the better scaling course.

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Right, so even if I'm on the lower end of Adv its better than doing Standard because of the scaling?

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

And how much time would I be expected to study every week to improve in English?

 

[Life'sHard]

And how much time would I be expected to study every week to improve in English?

As much time as you're willing to put in and where it doesn't compromise your other subjects. This type of question is quite subjective.

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Would you recommend tutoring for English? Or is it better off to self study it? I'm not too confident with the feedback my English teachers give since it's quite vague.

 

[Life'sHard]

Would you recommend tutoring for English? Or is it better off to self study it? I'm not too confident with the feedback my English teachers give since it's quite vague.

Personally I find 1 on 1 tutors for English works best if they can target your weaknesses and provide individual feedback.

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Okay yeah I'll put in effort this time and try to stay in Advanced....hopefully

 

[BLIT2014]

Technically it is "aligning" how many band 6s,5s, etc are received each year is better for Advanced than English.

But yeah, you'd be better staying in Advanced, especially given your cohort size I suspect you go to a decently ranked school.

 

[quickoats]

Do you go to a school on a farm starting with H?

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Technically it is "aligning" how many band 6s,5s, etc are received each year is better for Advanced than English.

But yeah, you'd be better staying in Advanced, especially given your cohort size I suspect you go to a decently ranked school.

It ranks in the top 90. What band would I have gotten with 65% as my overall percent for the HSC?

 

[bhgbeigowrhfow'p]

Do you go to a school on a farm starting with H?

lol no

 

[quickoats]

lol no

Ok so it seems like you school is very similar to the aforementioned school so the standard/advanced dichotomy is very different to a regular school (where the standard English class might be a bit unmotivated and a mess tbh). Rather, you’ll probably encounter more support in standard etc.

I was ranked 101/130ish in yr 11 advanced English with not so different marks to you. I decided to drop to standard for a few different reasons - this ended up working in my favour since I achieved an 89 in the HSC. If I hadn’t dropped, I would probably be getting a low-mid 70s mark in advanced based on my rank.

Advanced and Standard scale the same (an 80 in each subject gives the same boost to your ATAR), but some say it is “easier” to get that 80 in advanced. This is because they’re marked on a common scale, so standard students have to show the same amount of competence in writing as an advanced student to get the same marks (so naturally, not many can achieve these marks).

My issues with advanced English were more the inaccessibility of the texts, rather than my writing ability. Since I did mostly humanities my essay writing was p decent but my English was a bit of a flop. Once I was able to get my head around the (much more accessible) standard texts, I was doing okay. Note that the interpretation had to be of the same depth, but was arguably easier for me to reach that same amount of depth.
Another thing was the adv environment, where it almost felt like the teachers wanted you to fail and drop to standard so they could have their own “elite” class rather than some struggling students. This was common in my school since standard was kind of seen as a dump since <15% of students did it. It’s probably not so common in schools where there’s a more even split I guess.

One last thing - dropping to standard didn’t work for everyone. Some who dropped did just about the same or worse since their writing wasn’t up to scratch or they felt like they didn’t need to put in the same amount of effort.

Make of this what you will lol