dropping ext 1 with 11 units? (yr12) (1 Viewer)

[smiskis]

I have a question...
so I'm currently in year 12 and doing 11 units including 3u maths.
I'm contemplating dropping ext 1 maths as I believe that 1 extra unit wouldn't really benefit my atar...
my performance in this subject is quite average, and I'm lacking the motivation to study for it.
however, what's holding me back from dropping ext 1 is that I've heard that the content we learn helps with advanced,
and I also believe I could do well if I put the effort in.

so would keeping an additional unit, such as ext 1 maths, benefit my atar?
and if it doesn't make much of a difference, then should I drop it?

 

[cheesynooby]

i believe ext 1 is really likely to contribute way more than many other subjects, and youd have to do considerably better at adv for it to scale better than ext. and even if it doesnt end up replacing adv to contribute to ur atar it would still likely replace ur worst contributing subject because it just is a pretty powerful subject if ur decent at it. also in my experience ext 1 doesnt rlly help thaat much with adv so it probably shouldnt be a huge consideration.
anyway i dont rlly know anything

 

[Legendary16]

If you choose to stay in ext1, I would say that your best bet to get good results is to have an exposure to a wide range of question types. Again, this is once you have a sound understanding of concepts so to consolidate this, you can ask your peers, a teacher, or find videos online that would provide more insight into anything you find challenging. As for practicing questions, there will be a number of preliminary papers on thsc or other websites you know of, or you can even look at year 12 trial papers since a good number of questions are assessed on year 11 content.

I was in a similar position as you with 11 units and considering dropping ext1 in year 12 given some of my internals, but I felt that I could make it work with how much I enjoyed the content and I decided to put the effort in. It ultimately paid off with a b6. You can definitely achieve something similar if you feel that you enjoy the content you learn, because at this point it is one of your biggest possible motivators to do well.

 

[smiskis]

If you choose to stay in ext1, I would say that your best bet to get good results is to have an exposure to a wide range of question types. Again, this is once you have a sound understanding of concepts so to consolidate this, you can ask your peers, a teacher, or find videos online that would provide more insight into anything you find challenging. As for practicing questions, there will be a number of preliminary papers on thsc or other websites you know of, or you can even look at year 12 trial papers since a good number of questions are assessed on year 11 content.

I was in a similar position as you with 11 units and considering dropping ext1 in year 12 given some of my internals, but I felt that I could make it work with how much I enjoyed the content and I decided to put the effort in. It ultimately paid off with a b6. You can definitely achieve something similar if you feel that you enjoy the content you learn, because at this point it is one of your biggest possible motivators to do well.

I appreciate your advice! like you said, I also do enjoy extension 1 content and this could motivate me to do better,
however, we've been looking at further vectors lately, which was the topic I struggled with the most in term 1 of year 12,
so I fear I might also flop at2...

I was also wondering what raw mark (an estimate is fine) would I need to achieve an e4 in extension 1?
because the highest mark I've gotten in this subject is only an 80% in year 11, and my at1 for year 12 wasn't great...

 

[smiskis]

i believe ext 1 is really likely to contribute way more than many other subjects, and youd have to do considerably better at adv for it to scale better than ext. and even if it doesnt end up replacing adv to contribute to ur atar it would still likely replace ur worst contributing subject because it just is a pretty powerful subject if ur decent at it. also in my experience ext 1 doesnt rlly help thaat much with adv so it probably shouldnt be a huge consideration.
anyway i dont rlly know anything

yeah, I've heard ext 1 has a really high scaling, as my accelerated friends were able to get an E3 despite receiving 50% in their external hsc... however, I believe I'd need to do really well for it to count, and it just seems like a lot of effort to try and get near perfect scores since I kinda flopped at1... I'm just wondering whether this effort would be worth it considering it's my worst subject and it might not even be counted towards my atar...

 

[Legendary16]

I appreciate your advice! like you said, I also do enjoy extension 1 content and this could motivate me to do better,
however, we've been looking at further vectors lately, which was the topic I struggled with the most in term 1 of year 12,
so I fear I might also flop at2...

I was also wondering what raw mark (an estimate is fine) would I need to achieve an e4 in extension 1?
because the highest mark I've gotten in this subject is only an 80% in year 11, and my at1 for year 12 wasn't great...

I appreciate your advice! like you said, I also do enjoy extension 1 content and this could motivate me to do better,
however, we've been looking at further vectors lately, which was the topic I struggled with the most in term 1 of year 12,
so I fear I might also flop at2...

I was also wondering what raw mark (an estimate is fine) would I need to achieve an e4 in extension 1?
because the highest mark I've gotten in this subject is only an 80% in year 11, and my at1 for year 12 wasn't great...

There's this website that shows you different raw marks and what they have been aligned to over the last few years. https://rawmarks.info/mathematics/mathematics-extension-1/

My weakness was combinatorics when we had it in year 11 and despite my assessment task going well, I was not confident in that topic. If you're worried about the actual mark for your internals, your focus should just be to perform well among your classmates. In due time, when you turn your weaknesses around for the hsc exam, it will pay off with your final band.

 

[funnytomato]

What's your other subjects and your performance in those? Like shared above the raw marks do not easily compare across subjects.

You can also look at
https://hscscalinggraphs.au/ to see how different percentile compares across subjects

But if your reason is not ATAR but rather motivation related that is a different problem.

 

[smiskis]

@funnytomato thank you for your input!
my subjects for the hsc include maths advanced (3u), english advanced, chemistry, biology, and design and technology.
I'm in the top 10 for 4/5 of these subjects, except maths as there are around 150 students doing maths advanced in my cohort
and it is very competitive...

I do understand how scaling works, however, my concern is that maths extension 1 would be my weakest subject
and hence will not count towards my atar, which is a shame because I would need to put in a lot more effort to do well in this subject.
I don't currently do tutoring for maths but I was considering it if I were to continue with extension.

 

[Legendary16]

Math ext1 would’ve been a lot more different for me if I didn’t have tuitions. Definitely look into tuitions if you’re doubtful about doing well enough (art of smart, matrix or alchemy are good options)

 

[funnytomato]

@funnytomato thank you for your input!
my subjects for the hsc include maths advanced (3u), english advanced, chemistry, biology, and design and technology.
I'm in the top 10 for 4/5 of these subjects, except maths as there are around 150 students doing maths advanced in my cohort
and it is very competitive...

I do understand how scaling works, however, my concern is that maths extension 1 would be my weakest subject
and hence will not count towards my atar, which is a shame because I would need to put in a lot more effort to do well in this subject.
I don't currently do tutoring for maths but I was considering it if I were to continue with extension.

Design and technology is the worst scaling subject here putting things into perspective:
- if you are the 90th percentile in state for design and technology that's 90 HSC mark which gives about 74.2 scaled mark
- comparatively for maths extension 1 the 25th percentile (bottom 25%) is around 72 HSC mark(around 50% raw mark or a little bit less) which gives 73 scaled mark (roughly same scaled mark as 90th percentile in design and technology)
- in other words unless you are getting higher than top 10% in the state in Design and technology and at the same time getting much less than 50% raw mark in maths extension 1 -> then maths extension 1 would still count as 1 unit

That being said you do wanna get the best value for your time as well i.e. If you need to spend a lot time on maths extension 1 (seeing that's only 1 unit for you) than other subjects worth 2 units -> you may consider whether that is worth investing the time on it.
Also you may do find the lower raw marks in maths extension 1 along with struggles with certain topics discouraging and hence lose further motivation.
Anyhow you should make up your decision for yourself wisely considering all factors.

 

[smiskis]

Design and technology is the worst scaling subject here putting things into perspective:
- if you are the 90th percentile in state for design and technology that's 90 HSC mark which gives about 74.2 scaled mark
- comparatively for maths extension 1 the 25th percentile (bottom 25%) is around 72 HSC mark(around 50% raw mark or a little bit less) which gives 73 scaled mark (roughly same scaled mark as 90th percentile in design and technology)
- in other words unless you are getting higher than top 10% in the state in Design and technology and at the same time getting much less than 50% raw mark in maths extension 1 -> then maths extension 1 would still count as 1 unit

That being said you do wanna get the best value for your time as well i.e. If you need to spend a lot time on maths extension 1 (seeing that's only 1 unit for you) than other subjects worth 2 units -> you may consider whether that is worth investing the time on it.
Also you may do find the lower raw marks in maths extension 1 along with struggles with certain topics discouraging and hence lose further motivation.
Anyhow you should make up your decision for yourself wisely considering all factors.

thank you for the explanation! this definitely clears a lot of my doubts regarding scaling.
for design and technology, I've been consistently receiving 100% for my internal assessment tasks (for year 11 and term 1 of year 12)
so design and tech scaling isn't a great concern of mine... however, I understand how scaling works for maths ext 1 now
and I suppose it might be worth it to keep extension.

I was also wondering, does the total assessment mark get aligned like the examination mark?
say I received a 85% for my total assessment mark, would it be adjusted or remain the same?

 

[funnytomato]

thank you for the explanation! this definitely clears a lot of my doubts regarding scaling.
for design and technology, I've been consistently receiving 100% for my internal assessment tasks (for year 11 and term 1 of year 12)
so design and tech scaling isn't a great concern of mine... however, I understand how scaling works for maths ext 1 now
and I suppose it might be worth it to keep extension.

I was also wondering, does the total assessment mark get aligned like the examination mark?
say I received a 85% for my total assessment mark, would it be adjusted or remain the same?

Yes your school assessment mark gets moderated

Essentially the actual absolute value itself(like 85% or 75%) doesn't matter but rather your moderated assessment mark depends on all of:
1. Your cohort's exam marks
2. Your ranking on the internal assessment mark
3. The gaps between ranks

In other words : your moderated assessment mark is your 'share' of the total pool of exams marks of your cohort - where your 'share' is based on how well you ranked internally (in school assessments)

For more details please see the examples here:

Assessment moderation

Learn how the process of moderating school assessments works in the HSC, making it fair for students.

www.nsw.gov.au

Part 1: How HSC Marks are Calculated

Know how HSC marks are calculated? Read this guide to learn the details of how your HSC mark is calculated.

www.matrix.edu.au

Be aware that the matrix one looks like kind of over simplified by ignoring the gaps between ranks. But the benefit is that it's easier to understand.