amatterra
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2024
- Messages
- 249
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2026
Would doing reallly well in EALD scale like a low b5 or something in Standards?I was about to post in your thread but you deleted it. Anyway, here are my thoughts:
I was in a similar position to you when I was your age. I was eligible to take EAL/D when I was choosing my subjects for year 11, but I wanted to take English Standard to prove that I could improve my English and study the same content as well as complete the same assessment tasks/exams as native English speakers. The teacher who was helping me with subject selection recommended that I take EAL/D given my non-English speaking background, and I reluctantly agreed. I was disappointed until I found out that I could not take EAL/D due to a clash with another subject, which made me happy because I got to take English Standard instead. I ended up achieving a band 5 in the subject, which I was happy with given my circumstances at the time.
However, I sometimes wonder how I would have performed in EAL/D, had I taken it (i.e. if it did not clash with the other subject). I think that perhaps I could have achieved a better HSC mark in EAL/D than in English Standard, given the nature of the subject. Essentially, if you come from a non-English speaking background, and have the opportunity to take EAL/D, you should definitely consider it. I believe that your teachers mean well when they recommend EAL/D. Both English Standard and English Advanced are inherently more challenging than EAL/D, and (if I am not mistaken) EAL/D marking tends to be slightly more lenient to take into account the fact that students who take this subject are from a non-English speaking background.
With that being said, if you are confident that you can do well in English Standard or English Advanced (you may wish to consider your performance in year 10 English as an indication), you could perhaps take either subject. I am one of many cases of students from non-English speaking backgrounds not taking EAL/D. You should definitely discuss this further with your teachers.
I hope this helps!
the only thing is I need to get at least a 90 ATAR for the degree I want to do and I'm just scared that 1) EALD won't help me get a good ATAR given than our English marks is one of the big contributors to our ATAR and 2) won't equip me for "academic" / university English if you know what I mean
Another thing is my EALD teacher right now isn't the best, she was a second teacher for my English class this year but now she's our main teacher since my other English teacher went on maternal leave and she's not really helpful, she goes off on a tangent instead of answering my question so that's one of the factors why I don't want to do EALD. (but she's really nice and lovely)
But looking back at my past English marks I'd probably get a low b5 or high b4 in Adv so I'll just lean towards Standard