Is 13 units manageable? (1 Viewer)

sweetalmond

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Hi guys,
So i'm doing 14 units at the moment, but I definitely need to drop. I do two extension subjects english and history. The question is whether I should drop one of my extensions to take the heavy workload off OR drop Italian Continuers so I can get study periods, and in effect have more time to complete work. My extension subjects often run in the afternoon which is annoying as it gives me less time. :(

I like learning Italian cos its useful, but I do really really good at my history subjects, and my teacher says i'm capable of history extension. I don't do as good at Italian, but I don't do bad either. I'm averaging at a B.

Please give some insights. If I were to drop an extension subject is 13 units manageable in the HSC. I did it in year 11, and I managed. It was stressful at times but I pulled through with some pretty good grades. :D
 
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Can I ask why you want to keep 13 units?

(Not being rude or anything) But 13 units of study in the HSC is so stupid.

3 units WILL NOT count to your ATAR, what's the point of doing extra 3 units? Not only does it take up your time but also limits your ability to further excel in subjects you are doing well in.

In my opinion, it's better to drop down to 10 units, that way you can focus more on only like 4 or 5 subjects and maximise your marks rather than wasting time on 3 units which will not count towards your atar
 

Cleavage

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Hi guys,
So i'm doing 14 units at the moment, but I definitely need to drop. I do two extension subjects english and history. The question is whether I should drop one of my extensions to take the heavy workload off OR drop Italian Continuers so I can get study periods, and in effect have more time to complete work. My extension subjects often run in the afternoon which is annoying as it gives me less time. :(

I like learning Italian cos its useful, but I do really really good at my history subjects, and my teacher says i'm capable of history extension. I don't do as good at Italian, but I don't do bad either. I'm averaging at a B.

Please give some insights. If I were to drop an extension subject is 13 units manageable in the HSC. I did it in year 11, and I managed. It was stressful at times but I pulled through with some pretty good grades. :D
It's definitely manageable, depending on the individual.

Personally, I've only studied for 10 of my units properly, but there is someone in my grade who is on 13 units, and they are likely to get the second highest atar in my school. Last year, someone who did 14 units (Adv Eng, MX1, MX2, Chem, Phys, Bio, SDD) managed to B6 5 subjects, and get a 98.9 ATAR.

If you want to do 13U, by all means go for it. You can always shed the workload later in the year.
 

Kittyrules

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Can I ask why you want to keep 13 units?

(Not being rude or anything) But 13 units of study in the HSC is so stupid.

3 units WILL NOT count to your ATAR, what's the point of doing extra 3 units? Not only does it take up your time but also limits your ability to further excel in subjects you are doing well in.

In my opinion, it's better to drop down to 10 units, that way you can focus more on only like 4 or 5 subjects and maximise your marks rather than wasting time on 3 units which will not count towards your atar
^ This exactly. i'm in year 10 so i havent got that much experience, but my school will not even let you do 14 units in year 11 and 12 units is absolute maximum in year 12. But i did do accelerated IPT this year, meaning that i got to study just one subject and put all my effort into it, and try get the very best i could. so i would suggest that to you to drop some units, you'll also have time to have fun with friends :)
 

zhertec

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13 units is manageable, but generally it is recommended to do 10-12 units due to the sheer workload. Although you are currently doing well, there are usually times of stress in the HSC, in which the desired marks are not achieved. This generally leads to the improvement of those subjects, but then the negligence of others, resulting in a perpetual downstream of constantly needing to prioritise who units to do focus more on. If you're extremely organised and enjoy all of your subjects, feel free to continue studying the course, however as you have heard many times; the hsc only counts your best 10 units. This means while you are indulging yourself in a diverse variety of subjects (which isn't bad), that may or may not help you in the future (depending on what career you are aiming for), others have more time to perfect their methodology in exams, allowing them to further maximise their atar. Assuming your course requires a high atar, this would mean that it is more beneficial to study for more crucial subjects such as english, which can be a detrimental impact if done incorrectly/without as much effort placed in the subject; rather than study for multiple subjects and only having a few that count. Remember if you are solid in 10 units, why would you need "safety nets"?
My recommendation currently is to drop the subject that you are not doing as well as your other units (provided that you enjoy all your subjects), and further perfect the subjects you are achieving well in. And if you really want to continue to learn those subjects, there are 3 months after the test that you can use to study those subjects (and this time it will be for enjoyment and not for the marks).

That's just my 2 cents.
P.S. sorry for the wall of text.
 

sweetalmond

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my worst subject currently is mathematics. But I can't drop it cos I still feel its important and I need something different to all my humanities subjects.

That's why I want to stick to 12 or 13, because even as hard as I try, I can't trust that I can do really well at maths. It's not my forte and its so competitive as there are so many really good maths kids at my school. so ranking wise it's not that good. That's why I need ten other strong units.
 

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my worst subject currently is mathematics. But I can't drop it cos I still feel its important and I need something different to all my humanities subjects.

That's why I want to stick to 12 or 13, because even as hard as I try, I can't trust that I can do really well at maths. It's not my forte and its so competitive as there are so many really good maths kids at my school. so ranking wise it's not that good. That's why I need ten other strong units.
Drop maths. Considering its your worst subject, why do it if it's not gonna end up counting anyway?

Once upon a time I had 13 units when I still did biology and 4u. Once I dropped them (after term 1 of year 12) life was so much easier. So I would recommend dropping down to 11 units and if maths is the clear outlier, then it should go. :p
 

Kittyrules

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my worst subject currently is mathematics. But I can't drop it cos I still feel its important and I need something different to all my humanities subjects.

That's why I want to stick to 12 or 13, because even as hard as I try, I can't trust that I can do really well at maths. It's not my forte and its so competitive as there are so many really good maths kids at my school. so ranking wise it's not that good. That's why I need ten other strong units.
So when chosing units we were told to do it for 3 reasons ONLY:

-you are good at it
-you enjoy doing it
-it will help your future job

so take a think, if you're a humanities type person, you're a humanities type person and thats all ok!
for me for example, i cant STAND humanities, and the only reason im doing 3U english is so that in year 12 i can do 4U and make a movie (what i really love to do). Its ok,go by your strenghts, and if you dont see yourself doing maths in the future, dont do it well, especially if you KNOW already that its not going towards your ATAR. thats what the HSC is. Its not all learning - its mostly competition!!

pretty much all the maths you need in life you probably already know from year 9/10.
 

VenomousCharm

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juts to offer an alternative view, I do 13u and my predicted atar is a 94.45, which considering i go to a country school, is incredbly good. You can do 13u easily, it requires a little bit of extra work, but when it gets to the final exams when everyone stresses out about whether they stuffed one of their subjects up, I'm here sitting pretty because even if i do horrible in one, it won't count at all. Gl Hf
 

SuchSmallHands

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Friend coped on 14 units...

(Friends insane though)
I also coped on 14 (and I'm not insane). You'll be fine. And if you're not coping, then you might want to consider dropping. If you're doing well in all of your subjects and like having maths to balance out your humanities don't just drop for the sake of it.
 
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zhertec

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11 is the magic number
Do not to 13 units
Hey, just out of curiosity, what happens if you do well in like 8 of your 11 units, and then well in an extension (1 unit, so in total 9 units done well) like do they take half the marks for your other 2 unit subject (that you didnt do so well in) and the extension to obtain the total of 10 units? Or do they disregard the extension unit as it does not add up to 10 units?
 

Queenroot

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Hey, just out of curiosity, what happens if you do well in like 8 of your 11 units, and then well in an extension (1 unit, so in total 9 units done well) like do they take half the marks for your other 2 unit subject (that you didnt do so well in) and the extension to obtain the total of 10 units? Or do they disregard the extension unit as it does not add up to 10 units?
Yes. If they disregarded the 1 unit it would be a total waste doing it. This is why I said 11 is the magic number.
 

BLIT2014

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I also coped on 14 (and I'm not insane). You'll be fine. And if you're not coping, then you might want to consider dropping. If you're doing well in all of your subjects and like having maths to balance out your humanities don't just drop for the sake of it.

As in her short term memory is amazing
 

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