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Subject help (1 Viewer)

zoeeee

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Should I drop to standard English from Advanced?

I'm going pretty bad in advanced English so I was thinking to drop to standard. However, I am unsure as standard ranks badly and there is a low percentage of receiving a band 6.

Please help!!
 

Lumenoria

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What are your marks and rankings thus far? The difference is minimal between them, yes, but I'd have to argue that Advanced requires much more critical thinking due to the complex nature of the modules. Nonetheless though, dropping to Standard will by no means guarantee better marks if you don't seek out your errors and work on them. My school, for example, forced the the bottom half of the Advanced cohort after prelims to Standard in Year 12 and most of those people, for their first year 12 assessments, have attained marks just as bad as their previous Advanced marks - some even worse than the pre existing Standard students. The thing is though, the calibre of the students are exponentially lower in Standard, generally, so you'd have to try to remain in the top 5 (depending on your cohort, but this would be the case for my school) to avoid being dragged down by the dropkicks lmao. Think about it, talk to your teachers - you might even a clearer understanding of what is best for you :)


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Frostguard

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You should generally avoid English Standard because the aligning and scaling is really bad....
Both Englishes are similar, with the exception that Advanced is much more critical and in depth than Standard
There is no guarantee that if you drop to Standard you will perform better for the gap between the students is proportionally bigger than the gap between Advanced Students.
I think the biggest factor here is your marks within Advanced, you should tell us so we can give you better advice on what to do!!!!!!!!!
 

BLIT2014

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You should generally avoid English Standard because the aligning and scaling is really bad....
Both Englishes are similar, with the exception that Advanced is much more critical and in depth than Standard
There is no guarantee that if you drop to Standard you will perform better for the gap between the students is proportionally bigger than the gap between Advanced Students.
I think the biggest factor here is your marks within Advanced, you should tell us so we can give you better advice on what to do!!!!!!!!!
Scaling is similar but aligning is very different.

Stick with Advanced, your ATAR will be better.
 

captainhelium

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I would recommend sticking to Advanced.

Although Standard English scales similar to Advanced English, it aligns rather poorly from what I've heard. I think this means that scoring a Band 6 in Standard will be much harder than scoring a Band 6 in Advanced.

To put it into context, according to UAC, 15% of Advanced English students scored a Band 6 whereas only 1% of Standard English students scored a Band 6 in the 2017 HSC.
http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/Scaling-report-2017-TableA2.pdf

Ultimately, my suggestion would be to stick to Advanced English - remember that your early Year 12 assessments generally don't carry much weighting so just make sure you do well in the rest of the assessments and you should be fine!
 

darkk_blu

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I would recommend sticking to Advanced.

Although Standard English scales similar to Advanced English, it aligns rather poorly from what I've heard. I think this means that scoring a Band 6 in Standard will be much harder than scoring a Band 6 in Advanced.

To put it into context, according to UAC, 15% of Advanced English students scored a Band 6 whereas only 1% of Standard English students scored a Band 6 in the 2017 HSC.
http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/Scaling-report-2017-TableA2.pdf

Ultimately, my suggestion would be to stick to Advanced English - remember that your early Year 12 assessments generally don't carry much weighting so just make sure you do well in the rest of the assessments and you should be fine!
But you should also consider that generally, students in standard didn't perform as well as students that chose advanced in the first place, hence the lower percent of band 6 students. Even after scaling, the difference is marginal. The workload between the two doesn't change very much either and you already share the same Area of Study. In my school, there were a few students who were "forced" to take standard rather than advanced but clearly belonged in advanced, even if you dropped down, you wouldn't be guaranteed any top spots. My advice is that you should keep Advanced and benefit from scaling unless you are really under performing. You should only consider dropping to standard as your final resort.

In addition, dropping to from advanced to standard isn't recommended. People in my school who were "forced" to drop were put in the same class, the class became very gloomy and most were unmotivated to do much work in English. Though this might just have been my school, I strongly advise you to keep up with advanced rather than drop back down to standard. I hope this helps.
 

MajesticMemes

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I dropped from advanced to standard about halfway through prelim because of my mediocre marks and unwillingness to sit through Shakespeare and the other politically-oriented texts. In standard, I was lucky enough to end up in a class with a very dedicated teacher who provided detailed and helpful notes and guidance. In addition, he also provided consistent feedback when I handed up paragraphs and essays. I mostly owe my band 6 to him. Essentially, I would not drop unless you were guaranteed a dedicated teacher who will push you so that your level of writing and analytical thinking matches what is expected in advanced.
 

gallen88

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^ What MajesticMemes stated was pretty spot on. Also if you consider dropping do keep in mind that you need to be willing to put in the hardwork.

@ MajesticMemes - congrats for the Band 6 in English Standard! : )
 

Robbie M

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I wouldn't recommend dropping to standard like others have said it scales awfully, additionally the text's are "easier" which just limits you and your essays as there are less techniques and talking points etc.
 

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