Hello all,
I'm in year 10 undertaking an IDT VET and a Software Engineering accelerated course. I'm thinking about my HSC Subject Selections for next year.
My thoughts are:
IDT VET and Software Engineering - 2 units each
4u English
3u Math
Physics - 2u
For a total of 13 units.
Best case scenario, I do Software Engineering at ANU or Newcastle University with an ATAR of 90+.
Does this look ok? i.e the spread of subjects? Scaling? Do I have my 'eggs' in too few baskets?
idk what you mean by "spread" or putting your eggs in too few baskets, and tbh you shouldn't be worrying about things like that when choosing subjects.
what you should be thinking about is:
1. are you good at your subjects - you can be bad at smth and pick it and try your best but if its things like 3u/4u math or english i don't recommend it at all because they are especially meant for people who are outstanding at advanced/standard and want to extend themselves, make sure you are someone who has done well in previous years in english and math
2. do the subjects interest you - what does the syllabus look like? do you like the content enough to want to willingly do it in y11 and y12? do you find it too boring?
3. are the teachers who teach the subjects at your school good/have a background in teaching said subject? what kind of resources and support does they offer students doing this subject?
4. how did previous cohorts doing the hsc in the subject do? if your school is always underperforming in a certain subject that's a bad sign that maybe something is wrong.
don't take subjects because:
1. you feel like you have to do smth similar to your desired uni course - if you want to do law or smth don't feel like you HAVE to take legal studies, things like that or taking bio because you want to do medicine. uni is very different to high schools and unis only expect you to have your prerequisites and they don't care what subject you get as long as you have the stats to get in
2. you feel pressured by friends/teachers/parents - this is not their choice to make because they're not the ones having to grind through y11 and 12 for you
3. they scale well - scaling matters, but not for the reason people think it does. scaling doesn't matter in terms of picking a subject that scales well, but it matters because you will get dragged down by the scaling system if you do badly, and sometime you will get scaled down very very slightly even if you do great.
if you're really interested, go look at the UAC scaling report for last year - skip to page 12 and take a look at table a3, control f to find specific subjects (
https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/docum...liminary-report-on-the-scaling-of-the-hsc.pdf)
you will find that in a lot of subjects, in fact most subjects, will scale down even if you get the maximum mark, and very few that scale up by a very small amount. but what might also interest you is how as you look at the column of people in the bottom 50% of everyone doing said subject, you'll find that often their marks are scaled down quite badly.
what this all means is that you will do well in a subject if you rank well in your cohort and get good marks, regardless of scaling and if you are at the bottom of your cohort with low marks you will not do well. so you should NEVER rely on a subject that scales well to magically give you good marks if you underperform.
i will admit that a few subjects do scale down quite a lot but doing good in those subjects too will probably land a decent atar. and clearly if you are planning to do extension anything and sciences you will be fine in terms of subject scaling, but you have to worry about your individual performance more.
also i don't see anything wrong with your subjects rn i just wanted to rant
good luck!
