Have a go practicing with your friends, set a weekly time or multiple times where you will meet up and practice speaking. Speaking and listening is the number 1 way you can improve at a language from what i've heard.
like any experiemnts you do in class i believe count towards those hours, although literally no one counts how much time you spend. the experiments should always go through what you are already learning in class; e.g you learn about friction and you will conduct an experiment on friction, depth...
Here are some snippets from the UAC FAQ page (I can't link it :rolleyes:)
Which courses get a good ATAR?
Just about any combination of courses can lead to a good ATAR; it all depends on how well a student has done in all their courses in comparison to other students. Your choices should be based...