Is this a good combination? (1 Viewer)

[Procrastinator103]

I'm in year 10 and I'm doing subject selection for next year. I'm not sure what course I want to do in uni but I'm pretty good with maths and foreign languages. I'm not that good at writing essays though I'm thinking about doing these subjects:

English - probably advanced since most people at my school do it, but I might end up doing standard if I do badly in the next few tests. My school doesn't have ESL as an option.
Maths - year 12 2 unit + year 11 extension 1, because I'm doing accelerated this year
Chemistry
Physics
French Continuers
Japanese Continuers
(13 units in total)

Is this a good combination? Will it be hard? What are good uni/career options if I do these subjects? I'm not from Australia and I'm planning to go back to my hometown to work. As for uni, I might do it here or overseas, I'm not sure yet.

 

[sharoooooo]

well, you said maths and foreign languages are your strong points, so i guess they are good options and they wont be hard if youre good at it?
it doesnt really matter what you do at school, its the ATAR that counts in the end that determines the options you have for uni courses.
So just stick with what your good at

 

[si2136]

Your subjects are quite good, but stick with Advanced. You can always drop it, and being in Advanced for a year is giving you an advantage to all the students doing Standard for a year.

 

[WrittenLoveLetters]

The best combination is something you feel you're confident in.

Its too subjective, especially with what is the "best" combination. My best combination is Business & Economics, but for others its not.

 

[blackbird_14]

The best combination is something you feel you're confident in.

Its too subjective, especially with what is the "best" combination. My best combination is Business & Economics, but for others its not.

Mhmm I second this. Choose whatever you want to do/feel confident in/love(?) doing and you'll want to do better in it anyway because you're more likely want to study for it. For example I love music, and science, and absolutely detest the visual arts and eco subjects, which is reflected in my subjects below.

 

[Green Yoda]

DONT drop to standard

 

[danpowell]

Not a good idea to do two languages and physics and chemistry make sure these are your favourite subjects as they are the MOST time consuming honestly could not get more time consuming haha. Dont drop to standard please youd just be giving those maths marks to someone else through standard and english counts no matter what.

 

[Procrastinator103]

Your subjects are quite good, but stick with Advanced. You can always drop it, and being in Advanced for a year is giving you an advantage to all the students doing Standard for a year.

DONT drop to standard

Thanks guys! Is Standard supposed to be about the same difficulty level as Advanced? Or does Advanced look better on your report? Sorry I still don't know how it works haha

Not a good idea to do two languages and physics and chemistry make sure these are your favourite subjects as they are the MOST time consuming honestly could not get more time consuming haha. Dont drop to standard please youd just be giving those maths marks to someone else through standard and english counts no matter what.

Thanks, I love languages but I'm not sure if I should do 2 sciences or 1 science and something like IPT or Business. My commerce teacher was really honest with me and said that I shouldn't do Legal or Economics because I wouldn't be able to handle the amount of writing, but I have a SLIGHT chance with Business...but on information night they said that the exam has like 2 essays in 3 hours!

 

[BLIT2014]

Advanced has a similar difficulty to Standard, it is just the texts which are studied that are different.
Standard and Advanced also share a single paper, AOS.

Advanced has better aligning (the proportion of people getting band 5/6s) in comparison to Standard.

 

[Procrastinator103]

Advanced has a similar difficulty to Standard, it is just the texts which are studied that are different.
Standard and Advanced also share a single paper, AOS.

Advanced has better aligning (the proportion of people getting band 5/6s) in comparison to Standard.

So even if I'm bad at writing, I still have a better chance at getting a band 5/6 if I do Advanced?

 

[WrittenLoveLetters]

So even if I'm bad at writing, I still have a better chance at getting a band 5/6 if I do Advanced?

No, if you're bad at Advanced, you're bad at Advanced. But it is a little easier to attain a Band 5/6 if you put the effort in and reach higher standards in English. Which is of course predominantly your writing.

What are your results like in Year 10 English? What was your half yearly report grade and mark? I can give you a better feedback if I know

I feel like the difference between Standard and Advanced is the well standard of marking they have on the students.
Well excluding the HSC Paper 1 & 2 where both Standard and Advanced do, so they won't be able to differentiate.
Whilst all subjects allow students to have a chance to get a Band 5/6, Standard is much harder because (personally, I feel like) students are just taught at low standards and stay there if they submit to it and feel no need to improve.

 

[BLIT2014]

So even if I'm bad at writing, I still have a better chance at getting a band 5/6 if I do Advanced?

Yes. But you'll still need to put in a lot of effort into English no matter which ''version'' you pick.

 

[Procrastinator103]

What are your results like in Year 10 English? What was your half yearly report grade and mark? I can give you a better feedback if I know

I got a C on my report card, probably average or slightly below average.

 

[CandyCupcake]

Look I was in advanced and I can tell you it is hard going especially if you have a crap teacher, who never taught you to write essays. If you're got half a brain in your head you'll get a band 5 in standard, but you need to at the top of it, like 87-89% to keep it, well band six is just unattainable unless your just a lazy ass and were capable of doing extension 2 english. About 0.5% of kids who take standard get a band six. In standard english to get a good score you must do extremely well in the area of study, we you are tested with the Advanced kids and the modules A B C which all very basic and simple. Have complicated and sophisticated thesis as that what separates you from the bands 4,3,2,1 kids, integrate quotations, use complex language, talk about context of the texts authors', emphasis how that shapes the authors and well as strong analysis on their writing style and language features which shape the meaning of text and create whatever theme it is your studying. Your related text need to have sophistication, anything making a political statement is good, think To Kill a Mockingbird (excellent for discovery or module C in both Advance and Standard). I'm currently in standard and find it difficult to receive full marks on anything my highest being about 19.5/20. All your internal assessment need to be fantastic (they're about 50% of your total mark). I'd stick with advanced for year 11 and drop if you think you can't get a band 4 in advanced. I you can get a band four in advance you'll definitely keep it and scales pretty well. Standard while simple, it takes a lot to convince that marker that you are intelligent because they just have extremely low expectations of you (such a poor way of thinking). Most universities expect you to have advanced unless your a maths or science whiz. The double text study and examination of context in module A is difficult. The thing with advanced is you find plenty of half decent essay online. This is not the case with standard so if you have a crap teacher who does not analyse anything and you have trouble trying to analyse your text, well you're kind of stuffed (standard text aren't too bad but due to there simplicity it hard to find language techniques to analyse sophisticatedly).

Whatever you pick I wish you all the luck, and remember in exams just answer the question, integrate quotation in your argument, and also integrate the language of the question in the response and always be linking to the question everything you use evidence. Your subjects look fine to me, it you're really interested in improving you essay technique message me and I'll send my formula. As for your school not running ESL, you could always try distance education.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards Candace

 

[mx3]

It's hard to get a good scaled mark for standard since band 6s are extremely rare. If you want a high ATAR, go with advanced.

Furthermore, you're better off having the option of dropping down to standard rather than moving up to advanced.

Good choice of maths and sciences and languages since those are your strengths.

 

[andrew12678]

^ Agree with mx3, do advanced!

 

[iforgotmyname]

Japanese continuers scales really good (better/ equal to sciences) and a relatedly simple course if you are kanji background and like watching a lot of anime/ Japanese drama. But two languages with sciences might be kind of overkill, although its gonna pull in a lot of marks in term of raw scaling, you need to consider whether if doing these courses together is too laborious. Although should start considering what you want to do in the future and how these subject can benefit your dream career path

 

[Procrastinator103]

Japanese continuers scales really good (better/ equal to sciences) and a relatedly simple course if you are kanji background and like watching a lot of anime/ Japanese drama. But two languages with sciences might be kind of overkill, although its gonna pull in a lot of marks in term of raw scaling, you need to consider whether if doing these courses together is too laborious. Although should start considering what you want to do in the future and how these subject can benefit your dream career path

Well yeah, I have a kanji background and I've been learning Japanese for 5 years. The subjects I mentioned above (apart from English) are pretty much the only ones that don't require a lot of essay writing, and I still can't decide what I want to do in the future even though I've been thinking about it for a year already! So I want to choose subjects that I'm good at and will give me more options in the future.

 

[Procrastinator103]

Ok so I just had my career interview, and the career advisor said that my subjects are good, and I can do pretty much any uni course I want to! Thanks everyone for your advice!