I need advice on whether to drop physics or software design and development. (1 Viewer)

[Jack Dawson]

Hello everyone, I'm currently a year 11 student who's completing my preliminary exams in four weeks' time and starting year 12 next year. I want to drop down from 12 units to 10 units as I want to focus more on my other subjects whilst continuing to work a part-time job. At the moment, my current subjects are: advanced English, economics, advanced maths, ext 1 maths, SOR 1, physics and software.

Reasons to keep physics:

• I enjoy learning physics concepts
• Positive learning environment

Reasons to drop physics:

• Not relevant to future university degree (bachelors in commerce)
• Heavily dislike depth analysis and secondary source analysis

Reasons to keep software:

• Could potentially be helpful when getting a job in commerce
• Performed marginally better compared to physics

Reasons to drop software:

• Heavily dislike coding and fearful of year 12 major project
• Don't enjoy theory work half the time

 

[jks22]

Hello everyone, I'm currently a year 11 student who's completing my preliminary exams in four weeks' time and starting year 12 next year. I want to drop down from 12 units to 10 units as I want to focus more on my other subjects whilst continuing to work a part-time job. At the moment, my current subjects are: advanced English, economics, advanced maths, ext 1 maths, SOR 1, physics and software.

Reasons to keep physics:

• I enjoy learning physics concepts
• Positive learning environment

Reasons to drop physics:

• Not relevant to future university degree (bachelors in commerce)
• Heavily dislike depth analysis and secondary source analysis

Reasons to keep software:

• Could potentially be helpful when getting a job in commerce
• Performed marginally better compared to physics

Reasons to drop software:

• Heavily dislike coding and fearful of year 12 major project
• Don't enjoy theory work half the time

You don't need to worry about your subjects being helpful in your future degree/course (unless it is a prerequisite) - but considering the information you've provided it seems that you are more interested in physics so perhaps you should consider dropping software in that case

 

[d1zzyohs]

Hello everyone, I'm currently a year 11 student who's completing my preliminary exams in four weeks' time and starting year 12 next year. I want to drop down from 12 units to 10 units as I want to focus more on my other subjects whilst continuing to work a part-time job. At the moment, my current subjects are: advanced English, economics, advanced maths, ext 1 maths, SOR 1, physics and software.

Reasons to keep physics:

• I enjoy learning physics concepts
• Positive learning environment

Reasons to drop physics:

• Not relevant to future university degree (bachelors in commerce)
• Heavily dislike depth analysis and secondary source analysis

Reasons to keep software:

• Could potentially be helpful when getting a job in commerce
• Performed marginally better compared to physics

Reasons to drop software:

• Heavily dislike coding and fearful of year 12 major project
• Don't enjoy theory work half the time

While Physics seems as though it has nothing to do with Commerce; often, it is the critical thinking skills acquired in Physics and Mathematics which businesses tend to look for.

This applies to coding too - but the mathematical reasoning in Physics leads to physics majors being head-hunted at times for their abilities (I talked to someone at USYD about this);

I'd (personally) stick to SDD; (I've never done the course) - but if you do not enjoy it 'half the time'; and do not want to do the major work - drop it.
It is not worth doing something you hate for a year.

Good luck!

 

[dasfas]

Your y12 units have ZERO effect on what kind of job you get at uni. So go with physics since that's what you enjoy. But fyi, physics + software dev is a great combo at uni for finance type jobs

 

[MJRey]

I think you should drop SDD. It sounds like you enjoy Physics a lot more, and the fact you have a positive learning environment for your Physics classes is also great. A learning environment like that can help you to succeed and stay motivated.

 

[jimmysmith560]

Hi guys,

I have to finalise my HSC subjects before Week 1 of Term 4. Problem is, I don't really know what to do and have had a lot of conflicting advice. My Prelim subjects are:

Eng Adv and Ext
Maths Adv and Ext
French Continuers
Modern History
Legal Studies

I'm currently leaning towards dropping Legal Studies and picking up 4U English and History Extension. I do quite well in Eng Ext and MHIS. However 4U English and History Extension are both major work subjects, so I feel like there may be a lot of additional stress. Our school also has a policy where any extension subjects (4U Maths + Eng/ His, Sci Ext etc.) have to be studied on top of 10 regular units, so there's that.

Does anyone have advice? Thanks in advance

By "10 regular units", do you mean that if you wish to take an Extension subject, you should have at least 10 units of non-Extension subjects? For example, if you were taking 10 non-Extension units and wish to take an Extension subject in year 12, does that mean that you must take 11 units in year 12 and so on? If that is the case, wouldn't your suggested combination not be possible because you would be taking 4 Extension units and 8 non-Extension units?

Regardless, while taking subjects that you are interested in and can perform well in is essential, it is also important to ensure that the subject combination that you end up choosing as you commence year 12 does not impose an overwhelming workload, especially since year 12 is the most important year of school. As far as I am aware, English Extension 2 is a relatively challenging subject, which would suggest that favourable performance in this subject would require a sustained commitment. What is certain is that adding History Extension to English Extension 2 (and vice versa) will make things more challenging from a workload and time management perspective. Based on this, you should only take both English Extension 2 and History Extension if you are confident in your ability to manage your time effectively to perform favourably in both subjects while at the same time ensuring that your performance in your other subjects will not be affected by this.

I would personally advise against taking both subjects, especially when considering that you also need to focus on your other subjects . Instead, I think that taking History Extension and keeping English Extension 1 allows you to access the Extension level of History subjects while at the same time still taking English at Extension level.

Alternatively, you could take both subjects and see how you go at the start of year 12 (you may need to confirm this option with your school). If you find that this combination is not problematic, then great! If not, then you could decide on the subject(s) to be dropped.

I hope this helps!