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

[jh123]

Hi there. I have chosen the subjects English (Adv), Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Legal Studies and Software Design & Dev. for Yr 11 next year.

I have seen a lot of ppls subjects on the forum aiming for 99+ choosing maths Ext1/2, and other language extension subjects.

Would these subjects allow me to reach an ATAR score of 99+? Would they rank high enough?
Also do you think choosing Engineering Studies instead of Legal would be a good idea?

thnks

 

[nonsenseTM]

depends on whether or not you like and you're good at the subject you're choosing

for sclaing, you could check the A3 table at uac, mx1 mx2 do scale well, but it all depends on you r percentile and the corresponding sclaled mark

 

[brent012]

All of them are fine except legal studies which scales down. You could get 99, but remember you have to do really good to get 99 whatever subjects you choose.

 

[Shadowdude]

Firstly, welcome to the BoS!

And, any combination of subjects can get you 99. However, if you are an ATAR aimer - you should probably pick the better scaling subjects like the Sciences and Maths, while harder, they scale better and therefore technically it is easier to get to a higher ATAR. Besides, the smart people take those subjects anyway, so it's an even better boost.

Also, Legal > Engineering.

Remember, ATAR depends on how you go internally and externally, and every mark you drop is a loss in aggregate and a loss in ATAR. You are competing against the state, and you have to maximise marks - and scaling is an easy way to get marks, as usually ATAR scales down HSC marks. Like the average HSC mark is 75-ish, while the average ATAR is 70.

 

[aimhigh10]

As may wise people have already said in this thread, you can get an ATAR of 99 with ANY subjects. You just have to make sure you do well in your subjects and get sufficient ranks within your school, which can then convert to high ranks within the state.

Make sure that when you pick your subjects, that they are subjects that you enjoy, subjects that you would picture yourself really wanting to study. This really helps in terms of keeping your motivation up, because I have to admit that two years studying the same subjects can become very very boring and tiring if you lose interest in them.

I see that you are going to choose 2U maths, and you ask whether it would be better to do 3U or 4U. For both 3U and 4U, you really have to begin to have a 'love' of maths, because you end up working about 2 or 3 hours just on maths each night, and then the weekend is the time when u can catchup on any maths exercises that you havent been able to finish during the week. Sorry, I'm not trying to convince you not to take 3 or 4 unit, but you have to be very dedicated. The upward scaling really pays off in the end, but if you don't do well (say <40/100) then you have kind of mucked up your ATAR...

Physics and Chem both scale up, and English Adv is a good choice (English ext does not scale up a lot in comparison to a similar mark in advanced), however i have to say that with Legal, you will have to work harder to get the same scaled up mark that you would get from physics or chem by not working as hard. Just maintain your rankings and you will be fine.

You mention that you could choose engineering instead of legal... as shadowdude said legal > engineering.

There's a thread somewhere on here which has all the scaling ratings of subjects, i'll post it if i can find it - it might be good for you to have a quick look

hope this makes your decision easier

 

[jh123]

Thank you all for your help. I didn't know that your score was influenced by how well you have performed against others in your own school too. So if i get the highest mark in my school for lets say physics, i could be scaled up in ATAR/ HSC marks??

I picked Legal Studies because the principal of the school recommended it over Engineering as it would leave all my options open (Law, Medicine etc), and its classed as a subject between a medium and a high level of difficulty (since i've got so many hard subjects).

Btw i should ad I'm thinking of a career in either medicine/medical or engineering (something with computers).

No one mentioned anything about Software Design, but im guessing it wont scale as well as the sciences Though its the only subject that is one of my interests and i think i will do very well in it anyway, so that ok .

 

[Oladele]

I have the same dilemma. I'm taking Math Ext. 1, Mathematics, English Adv., Business Studies, Modern and Ancient History, Japanese Beginners next year. I hope I made the right decision!

 

[nonsenseTM]

Physics and Chem both scale up

??? they scale well, but don't scale up

So if i get the highest mark in my school for lets say physics, i could be scaled up in ATAR/ HSC marks??

No one mentioned anything about Software Design, but im guessing it wont scale as well as the sciences Though its the only subject that is one of my interests and i think i will do very well in it anyway, so that ok .

you rank is related to your internal mark, i.e. if you're first in your school, you get the most internal mark , regardless of your raw hsc mark (internal+hsc external=final mark )

http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf -----sdd isn't so bad, so do it you'd like to

 

[jh123]

I have the same dilemma. I'm taking Math Ext. 1, Mathematics, English Adv., Business Studies, Modern and Ancient History, Japanese Beginners next year. I hope I made the right decision!

Im not suprised others are in the same position as well.

 

[aimhigh10]

??? they scale well, but don't scale up



http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf -----sdd isn't so bad, so do it you'd like to

sorry, i didnt really make it clear, they scale up in comparison to other subjects... but technically, yes they do not scale up.

and this document is worth having a look at^

 

[burkefan]

Guys, I have chosen

* 3 U English
* 1 U Religion Studies
* 2 U Mathematics
* 2 U Legal Studies
* 2 U Biology
* 2 U Chemistry

Are these good enough subjects to get a 99 in the ATAR or not? I saw a table and am now freaking out as I had no idea that Legal doesn't scale too well? Does that table mean that if I got in the 90s I'd get scaled down to 38/50? I don't understand? Going from what I have read in the link provided, mainly all subjects but extension subjects seem harsh???

 

[Shadowdude]

First of all, the only subject that scales up is Mathematics Extension 2. Maths Extension 1 is usually on parity, while everything else scales down to varying degrees.

burke: Each unit you do is marked out of 50 for each. The 'mean' shows how it scales relative, for example, a 37.7 in Mathematics is scaled DOWN to 30.4 aggregate. This 'aggregate' is done for your best 2 units English and best 8 other units and is tallied to create your 'ATAR aggregate'. Then, they do some fudging with percentiles and you have yourself an ATAR.

In general 99.95 is around 480 aggregate. 99 ATAR is around 445. So you can do it - every subject except a few will always scale up at the HIGHEST levels only. Therefore like a 49.5 in Physics is scaled UP to 50. If it scales DOWN at the highest level, it is "capped", like General Maths and History Extension.

For your example, your "90" would be broken into a per unit basis, or 45 for each unit. Going from the table, this is scaled down to 39.3 aggregate points, which is tallied for the ATAR.

You can get 99 ATAR but remember, you will need to average 44.5 SCALED for each subject. So for English Extension 1, that will be about 47, or a 94-ish HSC mark. For something like Legal Studies, you'll need around 96-ish to get 45.

Any other questions?

All subjects scale down except the one mentioned above - Extension subjects are not harsh especially if you love the subject. I do EX2 because I love to write, I do MX2 because I love my maths. If you are doing it purely for the scaling, you will hate it, you will fail and you'll be counter-productive.

 

[burkefan]

Oh, so that means in the ATAR, 445 is 99%, so for every mark I get overall, I will need to average 45/50, just to clarify? Thanks lots for that long post, and good luck next year... I don't know if I hold much hope, as my school is pretty bad when it comes to academics, and I don't think that'll do my marks good.

 

[Shadowdude]

No, no, no, it means 445 is the aggregate for 99 ATAR, which is 44.5/50 per each unit SCALED, or 89/100 scaled, which works out to be maybe 93-95% for most subjects.

Also thanks, the BoS is here to help support

And remember, your school does NOT factor in to your ATAR or HSC marks. All that matters is how your cohort goes in the external exams (HSC) and your internal rank and the differences in marks you have between the person above you and the person below you.

 

[burkefan]

I have one last question... if you get 50/50 for a bad scaling subject, that means you have got full points/aggregate. So if you got 50 out of 50 for every subject you get an aggregate of 500 lol? They cannot scale you down if you get 50, and not much if you get 48 or 49?

 

[Shadowdude]

If you get 50/50 for any subject, it will depend if the subject is 'capped'. If it is capped, it will ALWAYS scale down. Most subjects, save one or two (General Maths and History Extension come to mind), will always scale up at the highest level.

For example, I believe this year a 49.5 in Physics (the top mark) was scaled up to 50. Meanwhile, 50 in I think it was Industrial Technology scaled down to 43.5. So that is capped.

If you take capped subjects, you can't get the mythical 500 aggregate - which no one has ever attained...

 

[burkefan]

Thanks a lot... finally I know now about the HSC, cheers.

 

[Shadowdude]

You're welcome!

I like post count so I tend to help - no spamming forums here unfortunately <_<

 

[SImon05089]

Hey,

I have been reading all the posts from the thread, and thank you so much, I've learnt something

I just want to ask, about scaling the subjects, the up and down scaling and the aggregated mark or whatever it is called, I'm just a little confused. What are the "capped" subjects that will scale your HSC mark down? Does the "capped" subjects change every year, like to a different subject? Cus i really hope the subjects I'm doing for the HSC are not "capped" subjects!!

I also find the table:
http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf
just a little confusing. cus i was pretty amazed that Maths Ext 2 is the only subject that actually scales up!

I heard the physics, is a really good scaling subject, i really want to choose it, cus of the "great" scaling, but i really hate physics - the electricity, forces, I really have no interest.

But anyways, sorry for the long post, I just want to ask, the subject Business Studies, is that a "capped" subject? Cus i want to continue doing Business though year 12, or maybe economics.

Thank you so much =)

 

[occer]

Economics scales much better than Business I have heard.