Stuck with subject selection and require help (1 Viewer)

[yanujw]

Hi, first time posting here, and I need some help with regards to my subject selection for senior years.

My current thoughts about selections are;

Business Studies
Economics
English (advanced or standard)
Maths Extension
Physics
(and I still require at least 1 more unit)
Reserves: Geography, Legal Studies and smth else

So what I need to know is;
1) Is it better to do English Advanced or Standard? I'm not the best at English, but I've heard that because of scaling, it's almost always better to do Advanced compared to Standard. I'm not good at or particularly interested in English, so is advanced still a good choice for me?
2) I'm thinking of moving legal up to my main selections, but is it advisable to do all 3 commerce subjects? I may drop legal going into Y12, but will it add too much to my workload in Y11? And that still leaves me with having 2 reserves that I have to pick, I don't know what would complement my other subjects though.

For context, I plan on doing a career in the finance industry, and am ok in science (hate bio, chem and phys are ok), competent in maths, just fine in english, and my hsie marks vary quite a bit.

 

[ahri]

1. Would definitely recommend advanced over standard, the scaling for standard is not great (and definitely not worth the amount of effort you need to put in). Choosing standard probably won't increase your interest in the subject so you might as well do advanced unless you genuinely believe you won't do well at advanced, but generally speaking, you will need to band 6 standard to get the equivalent of like a band 5 in advanced.

2. Nothing wrong with doing all 3 commerce subjects, it is a little content-heavy but you will be fine as long as you have an interest in the subject. Likewise, I know plenty of people who did all 3 sciences or all 3 commerce subjects or even 4u eng and 4u maths at the same time. Pretty much, you can do any combination of subjects for the HSC, as long as you are interested and willing to put effort in. Don't worry so much about complementing subjects, really just pick what you like lmao, complementing subjects don't necessarily mean you will do well. From your choices right now, just pick whichever one you like better + see yourself doing better in.

 

[mikikieko12]

Hi!

1. English Standard vs English Advanced
If we are talking about scaling, advanced is the option period. Standard scales very poorly and getting a band 6 is also limited, if you do choose standard you must excel in it. In terms of advanced, it is definitely harder than standard, but also scales better.
Since you're not really into english, I would actually recommend you to do advanced! The main reason is that doing worse in advanced is better than doing worse in standard. But you will also need to study harder for advanced than standard (but that pays off sorta..).
Of course its really up to you in the end, but if you really desperately want to boost your atar and are willing to work hard, than I recommend advanced.

Also dropping in Year 11 is also a possibility if you find it too hard, so doing advanced is considerably flexible compared to standard.

2. Rip I don't do any commerce subjects so can't help you for the 2nd question.

 

[Velocifire]

What about if you bomb adv?

 

[mikikieko12]

What about if you bomb adv?

If you do, good job! Your Atar will be much higher, cause advanced scales pretty well (also because english must count towards your 10 units)

 

[Velocifire]

Wait, what? You know that means to do right?!

 

[mikikieko12]

Wait, what? You know that means to do right?!

Nani? Wakarimasen! Thought bomb meant excelling nvm....

 

[quickoats]

Sorry kids^^ but standard scales exactly the same as advanced (the point is to scale the 2-unit English courses as one). The difference is in the alignment which takes the raw mark you achieve in your HSC exam and adjusts it into your final HSC mark.

For example, an 85 HSC mark in both standard and advanced will scale the same - giving the exact same contribution to your ATAR. However, the standard student probably got about 83% in their exam, whereas the advanced student got around 76%. It is up to you to determine which of those marks are easier to get - some people (like me) found it a lot easier to do well standard rather than do average to poor in advanced.

I will note that the way alignment is curved, it is very difficult to get a band 6 in standard, so it is not recommended as a “strategic” move for a competent advanced student to drop to standard to try and “game the system”.

 

[Tasfia]

just do advanced you can drop if you want later but its hard to move up if u picked standard

 

[moon_princess]

Hi, first time posting here, and I need some help with regards to my subject selection for senior years.

My current thoughts about selections are;

Business Studies
Economics
English (advanced or standard)
Maths Extension
Physics
(and I still require at least 1 more unit)
Reserves: Geography, Legal Studies and smth else

So what I need to know is;
1) Is it better to do English Advanced or Standard? I'm not the best at English, but I've heard that because of scaling, it's almost always better to do Advanced compared to Standard. I'm not good at or particularly interested in English, so is advanced still a good choice for me?
2) I'm thinking of moving legal up to my main selections, but is it advisable to do all 3 commerce subjects? I may drop legal going into Y12, but will it add too much to my workload in Y11? And that still leaves me with having 2 reserves that I have to pick, I don't know what would complement my other subjects though.

For context, I plan on doing a career in the finance industry, and am ok in science (hate bio, chem and phys are ok), competent in maths, just fine in english, and my hsie marks vary quite a bit.

i do geography and its pre easy to do well but studying for it and getting notes is literally ass. the syllabus is so broad and textbook is so bad that you literally need to do everything yourself. you need a really good teacher for this subject that knows whats necessary to study and what not. you should check the geography syllabus and see the difference with a business syllabus. most of the teachers don't even know what to teach for hsc geography. i do economics as well and overall its a bit of a headache but if you're willing to put time and effort, its definitely interesting and rewarding. i reckon you will see the world a bit more differently if you study economics since its all about current trends and Australian trade history. I used to suck shit for eco but im ranking 2 after investing 2hours everyday. i also study business studies and i always wanted to study bcom at usyd or unsw but honestly because of hsc business, i don't think i wanna do business in the future. ITS SO SHIT. i didn't understand others when they told me business studies is shit but its literally the worst. tbh i cant believe im saying this cos i was so so so passionate about business and that was my 1st priority for subject selection. if you're willing to put time and effort, i definitely recommend studying economics and even 4u maths. both subjects are very rewarding and i regret not choosing 4u. 3u is pre alright but there's times when im like damn if only i studied harder when i was a lil younger and chose 4 unit and dropped a subject!