VA scaling (1 Viewer)

[salshel]

Hi
I'm a Yr 10 who's going through subject selection now (yay!) My school unfortunately only offers a maximum of 13 units (for Yr 11s) and I was wondering if you guys could give me your opinion on my subjects? (particularly for VA). I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole concept of scaling haha (I never fully understood it, even though I'm doing IPT accelerated)

What I know I want to do:

* 3 unit maths (4u in Yr 12)
* 3 unit English (3u in Yr 12)
* Chemistry (2u)
* VA (2u)
* ?? (Thinking about biology, society and culture or Italian beginners. That or physics)
* Additional unit? (Will Visual design help VA? Will studies of religion help Society and culture?)

I'm doing accelerated IPT but my teachers recommend that I don't count it towards my ATAR (as it scales very low). I'm a student who until recently, didn't express much interest in my subjects. I do well in most, but I neither particularly like, or dislike my Yr 10 subjects. I take IPT, Philosophy (which I find interesting) and Commerce as Yr 9 electives. As I don't particularly mind my subjects, I personally think that scaling may play a huge role in what I should choose. My school continually comes in the top 8 (I think that's the lowest we dropped?) in the state so I am aiming for the top (hahaha).

I've been lurking around BoS for a few days now and I saw somewhere that chemistry scales marginally lower than physics? I recently started to take a liking towards chemistry (because of the chemistry olympiad and the National chemistry quiz, both of which I find extremely capitvating) but I also would not mind dropping chemistry for physics. One of my friends told me that biology scales almost as well as physics. If so, does chemistry scale higher or lower than biology?

From what I did in VA in yr 7 and 8, I was consistently at the top of the class (My teachers occasionally told me I was at the level of a senior- in terms of practical composition and skill). I am however, self-taught and as a result, fail quite miserably in VA theory. I understand VA is also quite conceptual so there is that "added risk". I definitely do want to do VA, unless it scales so badly that it's not worth trying. I was hoping that my philosophy base (I'm at the top of the class) would help with the conceptual aspects of VA.

Regarding my last subject choice, I was wondering if everyone could offer their opinion on SoCu, Italian or Bio? (In terms of scaling, I use it as a base to see if the subject is easy or hard ) I perform very well in commerce and geography (As or full marks) and I don't mind doing Society & Culture (some people have told me that it's like Philosophy?) I was however, fluent in Italian from studying six years of Italian in primary (I have forgotten most of the stuff since I didn't use it), but I'm hoping taking it might be an easy course for me (should my memory decide to revive itself). Should I do another science? I'm not sure what I want to do in Uni yet, right now I'd rather cover myself in all bases and aim to have a high ATAR so that I can allow myself the liberty of choice when I'm older.

My school excels in languages and the social sciences if that helps. (we often get state rankings) We're very weak when it comes to science though, and rather weak in English. I also heard that EE1 scales higher than EE2?

Thank you!! <3
P.S Can anyone recommend a good way to self study for English? (particularly in writing for essays and creative. I'm pretty good with spotting techniques and coming up with conceptual statements for texts) I'm probably going to start tutoring in Yr 11 (pretty much 99% of my classmates do it already) but I want to learn ahead by myself right now.

Sorry if this

 

[kourto]

hi there! im in year twelve at that moment and i do art.. actually did my trial today!
ill give you the pros and cons of art...
personally i love it! its a subject that you can pretty much if you know dates and can interpret images figuratively you will be fine!!! im topping art! so the theory is easy although there are alot of case studies hahah
that major on the other hand! its so stressful! im doing digital media and its just ahhhhh


i did society in year 11 and loved it as all we did was watch HEAPS of movies and learn about India and the way they communicate (behavioural science e.g. they tugg their ear to say sorry) although i dropped it in year 12 as i already had an art major and having two would have been a bit much i think as its such a major task... and the girls who kept it really hate it... but thats just my personal experience

DONT CHOOSE SUBJECTS ON SCALING!!! whatever you do! you need to pick subjects you will enjoy and if you do amazing at them regardless you will scale just fine! scaling relates to how well you do in relation to your class and other schools... so just get top marks in subjects you enjoy otherwise it will be a drag and you will hate your senior years

i get tutored for english as its so damn hard in senior years to pull good grades... well at my strict school anyways haha they are the hardest markers ever! but anyway... i study HOW i will write my essays rather then remembering the whole thing... thats almost impossible... i write down my techniques and quotes on a piece of paper and separate them into paragraphs e.g.

technique
quote
technique quote

technique
quote
technique quote

etc etc...


creative writing i have used the same one since year 11 yearly exams and through the repetition of that i know how to make it better and i pretty much remember it like a speech. write one that you can link to practically any stimulus and just learn it and youll be fine


hope i helped haha
PM me if you need any more help
xo

 

[hazelpug]

I'm also in year 10, and I love art and ive been getting straight As for VA since year 7. But literally everyone keeps telling me not to do it (except my va teacher lol) because of scaling but guess what I still chose and plus scaling changes every year and choosing subjects just based on scaling is stupid. Same goes for ipt, if you do well scaling wont matter!!!!!

 

[nerdasdasd]

I'm also in year 10, and I love art and ive been getting straight As for VA since year 7. But literally everyone keeps telling me not to do it (except my va teacher lol) because of scaling but guess what I still chose and plus scaling changes every year and choosing subjects just based on scaling is stupid. Sane goes foe ipt, if you do well scaling wont matter!!!!!

Just do it, if you have interest in a subject, you will likely do well in it!!

 

[salshel]

Thanks Kourto! I just did my IPT trials today hahaha and the VA seniors were right beside me. They were so intently focused lol. Are you doing EE1 or English Advanced? : o

@nerdasdasd the only problem with doing a subject for enjoyment, rather than scaling, is that some combinations are guaranteed to never get a 99.95, no matter how hard you try. (Even if you top the subject) e.g IPT (Unless you get state rankings like the school next door) I've used an ATAR calculator (Maybe I'm taking this too far head haha) and it seems that without maths (with Italian beginners, English Advanced, Ancient History, Chem and VA), it's impossible to get anything higher than a 99.85 (if you input 99 for all these subjects). As much as I like a subject, from what I can see, scaling does appear to play a huge part on ATAR scores (With 3u Maths and 4u maths, it consistently appears as 99.95, even if you screw up another subject) and I would rather a high ATAR than take 10 units that I would probably enjoy more as a pastime

I was also considering economics too?

 

[nexusbrah]

Honestly,

Stick to what you will enjoy!It is the easiest way to maximise your atar!

As you posted in the post above me about not being able to get a 99.95, that it is because subjects such as art have a cap of what they will scale to.

Eg; Many of the extension languages and 4U maths scale beyond a 50. While art may be capped at a certain scaling :/

So if you don't need an atar of 99.95 don't worry about the scaling TOO much.

 

[nexusbrah]

Also I forgot to answer the question about the sciences
The Scaling order is Chem > Physics > Biology

Chem scales slightly better than physics whilst their is a decent difference between Physics and Bio (+ Bio is heaps boring from what I've heard!)

 

[enoilgam]

What is your goal ATAR?

 

[salshel]

@nexusbrah Thank you for your answer! Are you sure that Chemistry > Physics > Biology? I've always had the impression it was Physics>Chem>Bio.
I'm also quite an apathetic student and will (most probably) not care whatever I choose as long as it is not Ancient History (preserved corpses freak me out)

@emoilgam: Goal ATAR, as high as possible so yes, that would be a 99.95

 

[enoilgam]

@emoilgam: Goal ATAR, as high as possible so yes, that would be a 99.95

In that case, I would think hard about doing VA.

 

[salshel]

In that case, I would think hard about doing VA.

What do you mean by that? What you recommend that I take then?
I'm not sure about VA scaling (since everyone is too concerned about maths and the sciences, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a cap; it's just hard to top it because of the simple fact that VA is subjective.

Do you think that with 4unit maths and 3unit english (and chem!) alongside VA; I would be able to achieve a 99.95?

 

[enoilgam]

What do you mean by that? What you recommend that I take then?

If you want an ATAR if 99.5+, it's risky. You will need to do extremely well in it - it's the same for society and culture and especially Italian beginners.

 

[salshel]

@ Emoilgam: Thank youuuuu!! <3

Does anyone know exactly how well VA scales in comparison to Economics, Society and Culture and Italian (beginners)?

 

[nexusbrah]

Yes I'm generally Chem scales better but don't let scaling make your decision out of the two subjects.

And Economics would scale higher I believe and it is pretty interesting in my opinion

 

[CloudDeter]

I wouldn't worry too much about scaling. Just do really well in your subjects and you'll be good. Scaling just something basically made up by the BOS to make all subjects "equal and fair". So say for I.P.T. which is actually pretty easy to do, compared to something like Engineering which is much harder. If you find you are getting really high marks in I.P.T. (90s and above) you're doing really well. Compared to Engineering (which is much harder than I.P.T. as I said before), if you got a 70% for example, that count as doing really well. (I hope I explained that right, correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[enoilgam]

I wouldn't worry too much about scaling. Just do really well in your subjects and you'll be good. Scaling just something basically made up by the BOS to make all subjects "equal and fair". So say for I.P.T. which is actually pretty easy to do, compared to something like Engineering which is much harder. If you find you are getting really high marks in I.P.T. (90s and above) you're doing really well. Compared to Engineering (which is much harder than I.P.T. as I said before), if you got a 70% for example, that count as doing really well. (I hope I explained that right, correct me if I'm wrong)

Normally, I would agree, but if you're aiming for a very high ATAR like this person, you can ignore scaling completely.

 

[nexusbrah]

Normally, I would agree, but if you're aiming for a very high ATAR like this person, you can ignore scaling completely.

If you do what a 99.95, do the Asian 6 or Asian 5 i dont remember what it was called Adv Eng, 4U maths, Chem, Physics, Economics!

 

[salshel]

Thank you so much for the replies guys!
@nexusbrah; Thanks I've decided to do chem haha. The Asian 5 is actually really popular in my school, but I'd rather do EE1 instead of Advanced English. From what I heard from my seniors (current Yr11 and Yr 12), Advanced gets boring pretty fast since you're just regurgitating quotes and techniques and "shoving them all into an essay" xD. Plus, I'm considered pretty good in Philosophy and that's mostly conceptual so i'm hoping that I'll find EE1 interesting~

I do want a 99.95 though :< Do anyone know if UNSW or USYD does med? I'm actually thinking of doing that since my mum was a doctor haha. Me follow her c:

Does economics really scale higher than chemistry? I've always thought of scaling as Maths> Sciences= English > everything else.

@CloudDeter: Thank you! I've always understood scaling like that too ! Our deputy kept reinforcing the idea that scaling was invented to make things fair- it's not meant to give anyone an advantage haha. I really wish my school would be more open and honest about scaling though. ): It's all hush hush in the dark- and I wish they would actually tell us the average mark/score for a particular subject so we would know if we should dedicate more time towards a certain subject.

I'm taking IPT more for experience than for a HSC subject. Rarely anybody who does IPT actually do count it to their ATAR, even the ones who top it- unless they do 4 unit English and 4 unite Maths and like 2 sciences haha.

@emoilgam: Why doesn't scaling affect people who are aiming for high ATARs?

 

[norwegianwood]

I'd rather do EE1 instead of Advanced English.

extension 1 english is in addition to advanced. you still have to do advanced.

@emoilgam: Why doesn't scaling affect people who are aiming for high ATARs?

i think he meant "can't"

 

[enoilgam]

i think he meant "can't"

This, it was a typo.