English Ext 1: worth it? (1 Viewer)

zombies

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
663
Location
Riften
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Hey guys, new here so hopefully I'm posting this in the right section.

I'm in year 10, and I have to make my decision as to what to take for yr11.

So far I've got:

Physics
Chemistry
3unit Maths
Modern History
Advanced English

And I'm trying to choose between Ancient History and English Ext 1.

I'm leaning towards English ext 1 because it'll leave me with 12units instead of 13 if I do Ancient (and I can just drop it when I get to yr12 and pick up maths ext 2), but I'm not really the biggest fan of English...so, what would the pros/cons of 3unit English be? Is it worth taking even if I don't like English that much? Or should I just do Ancient history?

I'm also not even really sure if I want to be doing Modern history over Ancient.. does either one of them scale better? Because I don't really mind taking either.
 

Haemolymph

Banned
Joined
Apr 12, 2011
Messages
102
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Do EE1 then in year 11 pick up EE2 ME2 and HE. Then you'll have 15 units. Yay!
 

Omnipotence

Kendrick Lamar
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
5,327
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Uni Grad
2016
Why can't you take both?
The workload is intimidating. For Prelim I did; MX1, EX1, Physics, Chem and Ancient (12 units) and at the instigation of the year I dropped EX1 and Ancient.
 

zombies

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
663
Location
Riften
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
The workload is intimidating. For Prelim I did; MX1, EX1, Physics, Chem and Ancient (12 units) and at the instigation of the year I dropped EX1 and Ancient.
What made you decide to choose Ancient over Modern?
 

Omnipotence

Kendrick Lamar
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
5,327
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Uni Grad
2016
Modern and Physics were on the same line, since I prefer Physics - Ancient had to be the choice. Yeah, its pretty arbitrary.
 

tambam

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
507
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
Extension English is not a lot of work, and if you have a good teacher, it's actually quite interesting, so if your school makes you do a minimum of 12 units, and you don't want to do a whole extra subject, then it's probably a good option.

But on the other hand, for year11 i actually recommend doing 13 units, so if you completely hate a subject or have a terrible teacher who you can't stand, you can drop it for year 12, and still have a safety barrier of 2units.

Modern scales better than ancient. But i do ancient and i find it enjoyable and interesting.
It depends what you like,
Modern is mainly politics + war, and ancient is societies, ancient personalities etc.
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
OP says she doesn't like English. Therefore, do not take English Extension 1. Simple.
 

RivalryofTroll

Sleep Deprived Entity
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
3,805
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Uni Grad
2019
At my school, Eng Ext 1 is a much more elite subject due to the fact that people tend to drop it and do only Adv later on as they originally thought they could handle it.
At my school this year (my school rank is like 120ish?), around 20 of the 40 year 11 students doing Eng Ext 1 decided to drop it. This caused the head teacher to only allow only limited spots for Eng Ext 1 as he wanted an elite English Extension 1 class so only 1 Year 11 class for Ext 1 Eng will be formed (20 students max) next year. I was considering Eng Ext 1 but I doubt I can be within the top 20 for English at my school... Yeah, this is all due to the Year 11 students thinking that they could handle it but in the end, fail to do so...

As opposed to Maths where there may be 3 - 4 classes of Ext 1...

Also, what do you want to become or what course do you want to study in university?
If you want to do commerce or medicine, you don't even need it?
However, if you want to become a writer, newspaper editor or journalist then you probably will need it...
You basically need the passion for English I guess...
 

zombies

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
663
Location
Riften
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Extension English is not a lot of work, and if you have a good teacher, it's actually quite interesting, so if your school makes you do a minimum of 12 units, and you don't want to do a whole extra subject, then it's probably a good option.
Well that's reassuring lol.


OP says she doesn't like English. Therefore, do not take English Extension 1. Simple.
OP is also not particularly interested in doing two histories :(

At my school, Eng Ext 1 is a much more elite subject due to the fact that people tend to drop it and do only Adv later on as they originally thought they could handle it.
At my school this year (my school rank is like 120ish?), around 20 of the 40 year 11 students doing Eng Ext 1 decided to drop it. This caused the head teacher to only allow only limited spots for Eng Ext 1 as he wanted an elite English Extension 1 class so only 1 Year 11 class for Ext 1 Eng will be formed (20 students max) next year. I was considering Eng Ext 1 but I doubt I can be within the top 20 for English at my school... Yeah, this is all due to the Year 11 students thinking that they could handle it but in the end, fail to do so...

As opposed to Maths where there may be 3 - 4 classes of Ext 1...

Also, what do you want to become or what course do you want to study in university?
If you want to do commerce or medicine, you don't even need it?
However, if you want to become a writer, newspaper editor or journalist then you probably will need it...
You basically need the passion for English I guess...
Well I want to be an engineer, so I don't really need English, but then neither do I need History.


Ah well, thanks for your help guys! I think I'll just take ext 1 english, and hopefully it'll help me in advanced english. And then I can just drop it for yr12.
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
English Extension 1 will not help you in Advanced, it's not an hierarchical subject.
 

zombies

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
663
Location
Riften
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
English Extension 1 will not help you in Advanced, it's not an hierarchical subject.
But since I'm taking another unit of English, wouldn't I be getting more practice at English, and therefore do better?

.. At least that's what I thought.
 
Last edited:

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
English Extension 1 has a different focus to what you do with the texts. EX1 wants you to understand the texts while Advanced just wants you to analyse them. There is no deconstruction textual analysis or whatever in EX1.
 

fiesycal

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
117
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
If you're picking up MX2 in year 12 i'd say just do EX1 and drop it. That's what I did, it'll waste less of your time rather than doing another 2 units of history.
 

LoveHateSchool

Retired Sept '14
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
5,136
Location
The Fires of Mordor
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
If you don't like English, don't do it. But if you're pretty impartial about it and just want a filler till yr 12 then take it.
 

zombies

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
663
Location
Riften
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Ext English is fun, do it!
If you're picking up MX2 in year 12 i'd say just do EX1 and drop it. That's what I did, it'll waste less of your time rather than doing another 2 units of history.
If you don't like English, don't do it. But if you're pretty impartial about it and just want a filler till yr 12 then take it.
Thanks for that, guys! Helps me feel better about my decision lol.


English Extension 1 has a different focus to what you do with the texts. EX1 wants you to understand the texts while Advanced just wants you to analyse them. There is no deconstruction textual analysis or whatever in EX1.
Okay.. well thanks Shadowdude.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top