Subject selection and advice - Law (1 Viewer)

[PeterWorman]

Hi,

Recently my family's plans to transfer overseas fell through, so now I'm re-enrolling at my school and making late subject selections. I want to study law after graduating and need advice from past hsc students and others with similar ambitions. I also have a couple of questions regarding some subjects.

For my pre-lim courses I'm planning on taking:
- Ext. English
- Legal Studies
- Economics
- Modern History
- Mathematics
- Music 1

and for my HSC:
- Ext. 2 English
- Legal Studies
- Economics
- Modern History

So, what are your opinions on taking these subjects for law? Do I cover the necessary prerequisites? Also, will I be at a disadvantage in legal studies and economics having not taken commerce during grades 9 and 10? And finally, will dropping maths for my hsc significantly affect my ATAR/chances of getting in to law? Its never really been my strength, and along with music, is just there to fulfill the necessary unit requirements.

Thanks in advance

 

[Tangent]

To my understanding there really is no prerequisites for law, though legal studies and the history will help.

You'll be fine, just focus on getting the marks for the course

 

[PROFESSOROAK]

Ok bias incoming. Law doesn't really have prerequisites so just do high scaling subjects because it demands a high ATAR depending on your uni you want to attend. For UNSW its like 99.5 UAI not sure what it is for ATAR but yeah, I guess you have to do really good in legal and modern history because they are the lower scaling subjects, Eco and Ext 2 subjects scale pretty well demands alot of work though.

 

[duckcowhybrid]

Not Modern, but legal yes scales poorly. Also it's 99.4 UAI or 99.4 ATAR for UNSW, 99.55 for USyd. You might want to hold onto 2U maths, (drop Music 1 though, scales worse than Legal). Music 2 however is a good choice if you can take it. That works out incredibly efficient (easy + high scaling) if you are musically inclined. Music 2 is the highest scaling non Extension Subject (bar languages).

 

[Tangent]

when i say legal and modern will help, i mean for the background into aust society and the legal system, but there are no prerequisites

 

[xXmuffin0manXx]

mm..remember legal studies isnt a law course..

also..probably keep maths because ext 1 english..
lol..has to be one the hardest subjects to get a band 6 in?

and if u wanna get into law..you want as many band 6s as you can get

 

[ari89]

Hi,

Recently my family's plans to transfer overseas fell through, so now I'm re-enrolling at my school and making late subject selections. I want to study law after graduating and need advice from past hsc students and others with similar ambitions. I also have a couple of questions regarding some subjects.

For my pre-lim courses I'm planning on taking:
- Ext. English
- Legal Studies
- Economics
- Modern History
- Mathematics
- Music 1

and for my HSC:
- Ext. 2 English
- Legal Studies
- Economics
- Modern History

So, what are your opinions on taking these subjects for law? Do I cover the necessary prerequisites? Also, will I be at a disadvantage in legal studies and economics having not taken commerce during grades 9 and 10? And finally, will dropping maths for my hsc significantly affect my ATAR/chances of getting in to law? Its never really been my strength, and along with music, is just there to fulfill the necessary unit requirements.

Thanks in advance

No set prereqs for law, other than a freaking high UAI. Go for the UAI, and don't be completely retarded at English (to survive if you get in.) Nothing else is really needed, unless there has been some change with UAC (who knows what is going on there) that offers benefits to relevent subjects. You'd find this out by checking law at the respective unis on the UAC site.

 

[PeterWorman]

Thank you all for the responses so far.

I don't know what to do about maths. English is definitely my strength, but only having 10 units could be a bit risky.

I'm not too familiar with how the whole scaling/aligning marks thing works, but would it really hold you back if you aced every assessment and exam for a subject? How much would scaling affect my grades in legal?

 

[joshuarG]

don't panic about legal studies. It doesn't scale that bad, although it isn't the best, there are definitely subjects that scale worse than it. BUT, the main thing is for you, not to worry about scaling or anything like that, but to do well in all of your subjects. Aim for 90%+ in every assesment task, & do really well in your actual HSC exam. Get the syllabus, go through it, make sure you understand every dot point, & you're on the road to success luckily, there are no prerequisites for LAW in UNI, you just have to achieve very high marks.

p.s, extension 2 english is AWESOME ^-^ just have your idea planned out early-ish! + this subject is really good for the research aspect; which you'll be doing a lot of in LAW

 

[ValentinesM]

as people have said earlier, there’s definitely no prerequisite for law, although i’d say that doing legal studies would give you a good taste of what law might be like so that it will either strengthen your ambition in pursuing a career in law or tell you quite simply that perhaps you should re-think about law.

i totally agree with joshuarG. i wouldn't be worried about scaling in your case, because all your subjects scale reasonably, i mean you can't expect everything to scale as good as maths extension 2. your key aim should be to excel in all your subjects, make sure you MANAGE YOUR TIME WELL and pace yourself so that you can absorb things slowly and have the time to continuously revise whatever it is you've been learning. you'll observe that each time you study something, you'll pick up something new, like watching a movie i guess.
Also, i’d advise you not to take up a subject with the intention of dropping it at the end of Prelim because that tends to put yourself in the negative and complacent mindset. You might even end up in an undesirable situation where you’re struggling to fill up the required 10units for HSC.

Not having taken commerce earlier will NOT put you at a disadvantage. A student from my school never did commerce in the junior years yet she was consistently at the very top for economics and ended up coming first in the HSC year.

About dropping maths: if you find yourself struggling in maths and not achieving results as good as your other units and you have the capacity to drop 2units, then you should drop maths. Instead of adversely affecting your ATAR, i’d say that dropping maths (if it’s your weak point) will allow you to devote more time to the other units so you’re likely to do better overall, and hence get a better ATAR. Just remember that doing maths does not equal to 99+ ATAR. The HSC is about MAXIMISING your potentials, therefore you should be doing subjects you’re very strong at.

Final point, do the best you can in all your subjects, give your best effort because input = output. Continuously evaluate your progress and at the end of Prelim, think hard about which subject is really letting you down and whether or not you enjoy doing a certain subject. Who knows, sometimes subjects can really surprise you (in a good way)!

Best of luck

 

[Shadowdude]

Law is at least 99 in most universities, I've seen as low as 90-ish at University of Wollongong.

Still, you should do fine - but you'll need around 85-90 in every subject, no exceptions to get into UoW, approximately.