Yr 11 Electives Advice please.... (1 Viewer)

[Schoey93]

Something like that - it's a complicated system... Legal Studies is of medium scaling.

My impression, and what I was told, was to look at A3 - and if the max scaled mark for a subject was not 50 - the subject was capped.

The key word being was not is. The subject may or may not be capped in 2011. It is really impossible to say with 100% accuracy and certainty, "general maths will never be uncapped in its life". If everyone did poorly in the external HSC examination for General Mathematics in 2011 due to the proposed new exam format and different question types, it would scale better than it has in previous years due to obvious difficulty of the 2011 General Mathematics HSC course. The course content didn't change, but the difficulty of the examination did.

Anyway no point worrying about this scaling business if we're all going to be dead in the ground come the year after our HSC, 2012, fucking LOL.

 

[Schoey93]

We get to blow some stuff up at my school...

To the OP:

English (Adv), Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Legal Studies and Software Design & Dev.

Out of the 20 99+'s I know of for this year - 17 did English Advanced, 3 did Mathematics (the other 17 did MX1 or higher), 14 did Chemistry and Physics, 2 did Legal Studies and none did SDD.

Chemistry sucks. Don't do it OP. Georgia Stenning from Marian College Online) who did her HSC last year in 2009 told our maths class, "Chemistry sucks. No seriously, don't do it." Admittedly I believe she got a Band 6, but she's a genius and good at stuff she hates/hated.

Covalent bonding is not fascinating trust me. Do Biology, it's applied chemistry which makes it much more interesting. And Physics is fine. But if you like maths you'll be disappointed by the mathematics content, which is very lacking (i.e. non-existent in HSC physics, maths is not even needed).


And Physics students, I'm sorry. Last time I checked plugging numbers into equations isn't real maths. Real maths is a lot more than that. It takes skill and finesse. If you can do it in five seconds like you can for HSC physics then that is not fucking hard maths. It's punching in figures. Any CPA can do that. (LOL my Dad would not find that joke funny given he believes accounting maths is serious, and is a CPA)

 

[Name_Taken]

The more likely scenario is:
Mrs Bard: So James, what was your ATAR? Your HSC results were very good. Five Band sixes and a Band five in Hospitality and PDHPE.
James: I don't feel comfortable telling you, but let's get it over with.
Mrs Bard: yes?
James: It was 94.70
Mrs Bard: Congratulations! But I told you so. No way you were getting over 95 with Hospitality and PDHPE
James: You bitch I still made the UWS M.B., B.S. cut off of 93 for GWS
Mrs Bard: You're better than UWS/ what about UNSW?
James: *Groans* I had UWS as my first preference! UNSW sucks. It takes an extra year
Mrs Bard: Well whatever/good on you. Go to a shit uni then

LOL You tell her

 

[study-freak]

Chemistry sucks. Don't do it OP. Georgia Stenning from Marian College Online) who did her HSC last year in 2009 told our maths class, "Chemistry sucks. No seriously, don't do it." Admittedly I believe she got a Band 6, but she's a genius and good at stuff she hates/hated.

Covalent bonding is not fascinating trust me. Do Biology, it's applied chemistry which makes it much more interesting. And Physics is fine. But if you like maths you'll be disappointed by the mathematics content, which is very lacking (i.e. non-existent in HSC physics, maths is not even needed).


And Physics students, I'm sorry. Last time I checked plugging numbers into equations isn't real maths. Real maths is a lot more than that. It takes skill and finesse. If you can do it in five seconds like you can for HSC physics then that is not fucking hard maths. It's punching in figures. Any CPA can do that. (LOL my Dad would not find that joke funny given he believes accounting maths is serious, and is a CPA)

That's only Georgia Stenning and your opinion.
It's ridiculous that you're instructing OP to do what you would have done. Many people find Chemistry interesting. Just because you don't, it doesn't mean that everyone in this world finds it uninteresting.

 

[study-freak]

You do not need Mathematics Extension 1 or Extension 2 to score a rank of 99.95 (First place in the country, as ATAR will be nation-wide from 2010, except for Qld who are stuck in the past.)

You can achieve first place in the state with those subjects. It is highly possible that if you work smart and when it is smart to work hard, work hard will gain an ATAR of >99.

Engineering Studies is only a good idea if you're interested in engineering as a profession, which I'm not, except for maybe Biomedical Engineering. A lot of blokes are interested in Civil Engineering though.

You don't need 99.00. It just opens doors. Besides, if you first enter university at age 21 (mature-aged entry scheme) you ATAR will be irrelevant.


Legal Studies is a great subject. My girlfriend did it for the HSC and she loved it. It was one of her favourite 4 units, the other 2 being Food Technology. Consider dropping something a bit light-hearted into the mix. Physical sciences (Engineering, Chemistry, Physics) get quite dry without something to liven up your school hours, like Hospitality, IPT, a language (I do Continuers Italian). Food Tech is great too. Business Studies is fun. Drama more so.

The HSC doesn't have to be all about subjects relevant to your "career" (what a disgusting unnatural word, people are animals, we're not meant to have houses or careers). Lighten up a bit. Scaling won't shat on you. Not that much anyway.

I'm looking forward to my ATAR result coming out in 2011 and it being 97.50 or more and then Mrs Bard saying to me, "WHAT THE FUCK? 97.5 with HOSPITALITY counting? OH MY FUCKING GOD" (I have never heard her swear so to provoke such a response would be fucking hilarious. She's a bit of an unte our principal though.


The more likely scenario is:
Mrs Bard: So James, what was your ATAR? Your HSC results were very good. Five Band sixes and a Band five in Hospitality and PDHPE.
James: I don't feel comfortable telling you, but let's get it over with.
Mrs Bard: yes?
James: It was 94.70
Mrs Bard: Congratulations! But I told you so. No way you were getting over 95 with Hospitality and PDHPE
James: You bitch I still made the UWS M.B., B.S. cut off of 93 for GWS
Mrs Bard: You're better than UWS/ what about UNSW?
James: *Groans* I had UWS as my first preference! UNSW sucks. It takes an extra year
Mrs Bard: Well whatever/good on you. Go to a shit uni then

Who do you think you are?
Some people need 99+ to get into their undergraduate courses. If you are saying that there are alternative ways to study degrees through e.g. graduate stream, that's fine if YOU are the one who wants to do it. This is about others' lives and you are not in the place to judge whether or not THEY need 99+.

Seriously, wth, if one wishes to get into a particular uni course, who on earth would like to get into the course as a mature aged student, rather than straight after high school or after one gap year?

 

[x jiim]

That's only Georgia Stenning and your opinion.
It's ridiculous that you're instructing OP to do what you would have done. Many people find Chemistry interesting. Just because you don't, it doesn't mean that everyone in this world finds it uninteresting.

This is true. I found chem fascinating, and when I did bio I thought it was dead boring. But that's probably because my bio teacher was pretty crap.

@OP: As everyone else has said, yes, it is possible if you work hard enough. I'd say stay with legal unless you try it and hate it or something. It's true that a lot of people do maths and language extensions and get good marks/ATARs/whatever, because they tend to scale well, but if you're not extremely good at maths/languages/whatever there's really not much point in doing extensions. Stick with your subjects for at least a few weeks next year and see how it goes before you decide to change/stay.

 

[study-freak]

this is true. I found chem fascinating, and when i did bio i thought it was dead boring. But that's probably because my bio teacher was pretty crap.

@op: As everyone else has said, yes, it is possible if you work hard enough. I'd say stay with legal unless you try it and hate it or something. It's true that a lot of people do maths and language extensions and get good marks/atars/whatever, because they tend to scale well, but if you're not extremely good at maths/languages/whatever there's really not much point in doing extensions. Stick with your subjects for at least a few weeks next year and see how it goes before you decide to change/stay.

+1

 

[strasiotto]

All your subjects are pretty decent- they scale reasonably, and you can get a high mark if you're smart enough and work hard enough. You could pick an extension subject if you wanted, but remember, the no point in doing maths ext.1 if you suck at maths.

Personally for me, chemistry has been a ton of work- but I'm almost positive thats just my teacher

(and miss, I know you're on the forums, I don't care.)

 

[lpodnano]

That's only Georgia Stenning and your opinion.
It's ridiculous that you're instructing OP to do what you would have done. Many people find Chemistry interesting. Just because you don't, it doesn't mean that everyone in this world finds it uninteresting.

Agreed. You just can't tell someone that covalent bonding is not interesting.

 

[jeshxcore]

I don't completley understand it.. so does this mean that our marks have to be higher than the "mean/average" to not be "scaled down" by uac?
Is that what this whole 'scaling' thing summarizes to?

 

[Shadowdude]

Scaling summarised is a way to differentiate marks in one subject, by another. If scaling was not there, a 91 in General Maths would be better than a 90 in Maths Extension 2. Therefore, the UAC scales subjects based on how students go in their other subjects, to determine the relative strength of a particular cohort.

For example, if a Ancient History cohort (statewide) gets all Band 6's and scores very highly in English Advanced, while the Modern History cohort does not - all other things being equal - Ancient History will be scaled higher than Modern History, because the Ancient cohort is obviously stronger than the Modern cohort in English Adv. They do this with all other subjects as well, so you get a rough picture of it.