Subject Advice (2 Viewers)

[Stormey]

Hey,

I'm doing the following subjects

Mathematics
PDHPE
SDD
IPT
SOR2
Standard English

I was talking to my sister who's in uni about my subjects. She asked about my progress in my maths work. I told her that I was at the same place as last time. I then said "I don't even know if I need it". At that point in time, she said - "What, you want to drop Maths?". I replied with "Well, I don't even know if I need it for my course".

Much to my shock, she said "Don't be an idiot, your subjects are already dodgey You need Maths" and walked off without continuing the conversation.

I got 50% in my first Mathematics test of the HSC course, but that was a long and tough achievement - it wasn't as though I spent 10 minutes studying, I spent quite a while for it. I felt that whilst I was spending the extra time studying for Maths, I could have put the extra time and effort to another subject. In other words, I felt that Maths was taking up too much time in my schedule.

I'm thinking about dropping to General Mathematics, not only will this be a better course for my level, but I feel that I can get a much better mark in General then one I would achieve in Mathematics. As a result, it will free up more time for me to excel at other subjects.

Here are my questions:

1. Are my subjects dodgey?
2. Is an ATAR of 90 (+ or - 3) possible with my subjects?
3. What would you do in my situation?
4. Any advice?

 

[alex09hsc]

Hey,

I'm doing the following subjects

Mathematics
PDHPE
SDD
IPT
SOR2
Standard English

I was talking to my sister who's in uni about my subjects. She asked about my progress in my maths work. I told her that I was at the same place as last time. I then said "I don't even know if I need it". At that point in time, she said - "What, you want to drop Maths?". I replied with "Well, I don't even know if I need it for my course".

Much to my shock, she said "Don't be an idiot, your subjects are already dodgey You need Maths" and walked off without continuing the conversation.

I got 50% in my first Mathematics test of the HSC course, but that was a long and tough achievement - it wasn't as though I spent 10 minutes studying, I spent quite a while for it. I felt that whilst I was spending the extra time studying for Maths, I could have put the extra time and effort to another subject. In other words, I felt that Maths was taking up too much time in my schedule.

I'm thinking about dropping to General Mathematics, not only will this be a better course for my level, but I feel that I can get a much better mark in General then one I would achieve in Mathematics. As a result, it will free up more time for me to excel at other subjects.

Here are my questions:

1. Are my subjects dodgey?
2. Is an ATAR of 90 (+ or - 3) possible with my subjects?
3. What would you do in my situation?
4. Any advice?

There's a lot of negativity towards the subjects you're undertaking, but they're not dodgey at all. You will just need to get around 90 (rougly) in each of them to achieve an ATAR of 87-93. If Mathematics was taking up so much of my time, I would not hesitate to drop it, and focus on the remainder. Dropping to general maths is a very good idea and it won't be too difficult to catch up with the term you've missed out on. You could also choose to wave goodbye to all maths and focus on the remaining ten units.

I would drop to general and focus on pdhpe, sdd, ipt, sr22 and std english as well.

Best advice: don't listen to your sister.
Also, gtfo this and start studying for everything except maths (cos you're either not in general yet or mathematics is too time consuming), you need very high eighties at least to get ATAR 90.

good luck.

 

[proletariat]

No subject is dodgey. If you get the marks, you can get 99.95 ATAR with any combilation of subjects that hits ten units.

Yeah, any atar is possible as long as your effort and marks are consistent.

If I was in your situation, depending on how hard general maths is for me, I would drop it or keep it. In my own situation, i dropped 3 unit maths to 2 units, and dropped physics to pick up extension 2 english. I'm stuck with 10 units, yeah but I'm confident about them :3 If you're confident about them, dont be scared to drop them.

Advice: Dont have a life this year, srs

 

[alex09hsc]

lol well treat yourself to a bit of a life only if you deserve it.

 

[Stormey]

There's a lot of negativity towards the subjects you're undertaking, but they're not dodgey at all. You will just need to get around 90 (rougly) in each of them to achieve an ATAR of 87-93.

Negativity? I don't understand. They're just the subjects I enjoy. I guess Standard English and General Maths would bring about this negativity.

If I was in your situation, depending on how hard general maths is for me, I would drop it or keep it. In my own situation, i dropped 3 unit maths to 2 units, and dropped physics to pick up extension 2 english. I'm stuck with 10 units, yeah but I'm confident about them :3 If you're confident about them, dont be scared to drop them.

Advice: Dont have a life this year, srs

General Maths won't be hard for me, I'm confident I can get a good mark for that without too much effort.

Don't think I'd be too confident with 10 units. I think I'll keep something just as a backup.

As for the advice, I think I'll have to follow it hehe. 8 months and it brings an end to 13 years of schooling.

I was sitting there talking to my friend one day. She pointed out that in our schooling lives, we'll attend 51 terms of school. Up to date, we've attended 48. 3 more terms left! Bring it on!

Thanks for your replies alex and proletariat.

 

[alex09hsc]

Yeah it's good you chose the subjects you like/

People often frown upon your particular subjects because they're low scaling, like your sister for example.!

Just get band sixes in them okay and you will be fine.

 

[Stormey]

I'll feel like a fool if I don't get around 85 with these subjects. Just to clarifiy.

In the General Maths HSC exam, if you get a raw mark of 100%, it gets aligned to 91 correct?

 

[Stormey]

No, I mean an ATAR of 85

 

[alex09hsc]

I'll feel like a fool if I don't get around 85 with these subjects. Just to clarifiy.

In the General Maths HSC exam, if you get a raw mark of 100%, it gets aligned to 91 correct?

Haha, nah nah.

If you somehow got 100% in general maths, that's excellent. The mark doesn't get aligned to 91, the score that contributes to the aggregrate ATAR is approximately 91..

This happens for all subjects...
a 95 raw mark in chemistry = 91 to aggregate ~.

Seriously, best advice I can give you is just study, study study and achieve the highest possible ranks you can get in all your subjects. You should be aiming for 1st place in all........and then aim to successfully achieve band sixes (or around) in the hsc exams....

It's really confusing, just remember, you cant go wrong with band sixes.

 

[Stormey]

Haha, nah nah.

If you somehow got 100% in general maths, that's excellent. The mark doesn't get aligned to 91, the score that contributes to the aggregrate ATAR is approximately 91..

This happens for all subjects...
a 95 raw mark in chemistry = 91 to aggregate ~.

Seriously, best advice I can give you is just study, study study and achieve the highest possible ranks you can get in all your subjects. You should be aiming for 1st place in all........and then aim to successfully achieve band sixes (or around) in the hsc exams....

It's really confusing, just remember, you cant go wrong with band sixes.

Ahh yeah, I sort of get it. I put in 100 for general maths into SAM and the aggregate for General Maths on the right hand side was 91.

I'm planning on starting to study A LOT more then what I have recently. Part of the reason why I don't study is distractions. I start playing games on my computer.

Gonna head out and buy a laptop so that I can move away from this computer, I can put the laptop to aside for when I don't need it. However, if I need the internet or want to update my notes, I can quickly whip out the laptop and use it, then put it aside again.

A quick question: Once I've made my notes, how can I study? I know of the following methods, are there anymore which I can add to my list?

• Complete past papers
• Practise questions
• Essay questions
• Read over my notes 24/7 (not literally, but when I'm laying in bed at night)
• Write out my notes (not only will this make them stick in my head, but also improve my handwriting for the HSC exams)

Any more to add? On the flipside, any that you recommend not doing?

 

[alex09hsc]

Ahh yeah, I sort of get it. I put in 100 for general maths into SAM and the aggregate for General Maths on the right hand side was 91.

I'm planning on starting to study A LOT more then what I have recently. Part of the reason why I don't study is distractions. I start playing games on my computer.

Gonna head out and buy a laptop so that I can move away from this computer, I can put the laptop to aside for when I don't need it. However, if I need the internet or want to update my notes, I can quickly whip out the laptop and use it, then put it aside again.

A quick question: Once I've made my notes, how can I study? I know of the following methods, are there anymore which I can add to my list?

• Complete past papers
• Practise questions
• Essay questions
• Read over my notes 24/7 (not literally, but when I'm laying in bed at night)
• Write out my notes (not only will this make them stick in my head, but also improve my handwriting for the HSC exams)

Any more to add? On the flipside, any that you recommend not doing?

Complete past papers, practise questions, essay questions and get them checked by teachers or even people here on bos.
Work a lot on essay writing and structure, add flare and flamboyance to your essays....making sure the opening paragraph is 100%..........this is essential as English will definitely count.

Start making notes now......and memorise them........memorise the textbook if you can!

it's like 5am so...........forgive me if im not helpful.......

just practice practice practice

 

[speedofsound]

you don't NEED maths. do what you want.

 

[wendybird]

Indeed. You don't need maths.

 

[Stormey]

Hmmm. I'd rather do General Maths than no maths. Gen. Maths would help me with everyday life I'd still prefer to have the extra backup units in case something goes wrong in the exam

Some fair points here. Thanks for your help so far guys

 

[ValentinesM]

making notes is only part of the ingredient to getting a good mark, understanding and absorbing the content is another. doing past papers is a good way to test your knowledge and understanding. try to get past papers not just from your own school, but ask friends from other schools too in order to get a broader perspective into the types of questions you can expect in upcoming assessments or even the HSC. the HSC is about APPLYING your knowledge, not regurgitating, so yep, make sure you understand what it is you just wrote down.

you can't just make notes once and then file them away (whether you bothered to learn it or not), you should be continuously revising it, improving it or adding new information to it. Good luck and enjoy Year 12! =]

 

[Enchantress91]

Hmmm. I'd rather do General Maths than no maths. Gen. Maths would help me with everyday life I'd still prefer to have the extra backup units in case something goes wrong in the exam

Some fair points here. Thanks for your help so far guys

Yeh General Maths definitely BOOSTED my ATAR big time! I got 96 hsc mark for it and none of my other very low-scaling subjects were above 91.

I dropped down from 2U in mid Yr 11. If u have no problems calculating interest rates, surface area/ volumes and probabilities, then why not give General a go. BUT I knew people who dropped from 2U and even 3U to General who ended up failing the course miserably.

And if you decide to keep PDHPE, have fun learning about the Ottawa Charter! Lol. Though you're lucky coz they've removed the Jakarta Declaration from the syllabus.

 

[Stormey]

Haha congratulations! . Awesome mark.

Well my plan is to drop from 2U to general. I'm also planning on going through the entire Year11 General Maths textbook, catch up on Term 1(term 4 basically) General Maths work and keep the pace with the current work. I'm hoping it won't be too hard. From reports by friends that dropped down, they finish all their class work AND homework before the lesson even ends. That would leave them with a stack of study time for maths. I guess I could do all the work during then.

If you don't mind me asking, what other subjects did you do?

As for PDHPE, I'll definitely be keeping that. General Maths/Mathematics are the only subjects I'm considering to swap around. The other 5 are set in concrete pretty much. I don't think PDHPE will be too bad. This year we only study 4 cores, instead of the 5 cores you would have studied last year. Apparently, a lot of things are cut out and left out as well.

Thanks.

 

[Shadowdude]

Any 2u student should be able to do General with their eyes closed.

Any ATAR is possible with any combination of subjects, people tout that, however, you must realise that with my subjects, a P50 just a state average for them will garner me 92.50 already, going by 2009 scalings and aggregates.

I'll do the same with your subjects, now I'm not sure how smart you really are, but I'm going to assume that you are your run-of-the-mill average P50 student.

With Math, PDHPE, SDD, IPT, SOR2 and StdEng your ATAR looks like:

Maths 31.4 61.8/100 (2)
PDHPE 23.3 46.6/100 (2)
SDD 25.3 50.6/100 (2)
IPT 21.5 43.0
SOR2 28.4 56.8/100 (2)
StdEng 17.6 35.2/100 (2)
Agg: 251.0/500
ATAR: 65.15

Drop to General and get a P50 result:

PDHPE 23.3 46.6/100 (2)
SDD 25.3 50.6/100 (2)
IPT 21.5 43.0/100 (2)
SOR2 28.4 56.8/100 (2)
StdEng 17.6 35.2/100 (2)
GenMath 20.9 41.8/100
Agg: 232.2/500
ATAR: 60.30

The "(2)" shows what units are counted. Now that's not from any ATAR calculator, that is straight from the UAC tables A3 (which compares scaled marks to percentiles) and A8 (which compares aggregates to ATAR's).

That is what your sister means when she means your subjects are 'dodgey'.

Do not underestimate the power of scaling in getting a good ATAR, here's an excerpt from a thing I read:

Beating 25% of the candidature in Maths Extension 2 (43.3) is...
- Better than beating 50% of the candidature in:
... Maths Extension 1
- Better than beating 75% of the candidature in:
... Design and Technology
... English Extension 1
... English Extension 2
... Music 2
- Better than beating 90% of the candidature in:
... Ancient History
... Biology
... Business Studies
... Chemistry
... Economics
... English Advanced
... Geography
... Legal Studies
... Mathematics
... Modern History
... Extension History
... Music 1
... PDHPE
... Physics
... Textiles and Design
... Visual Arts
- On par with beating 99% of the candidature in:
... Food Technology
... Software Design and Development
- Better than beating 99% of the candidature in:
... Community and Family Studies
... English Standard
... General Maths
... Senior Science

i.e. Beating 25% of the MX2 cohort is better than beating 99% of the General Math cohort, based on scaled marks.

 

[Stormey]

Thanks for the details and stats.

I'm just failing to take that all in because that's nothing like my situation.

If I went through the course without studying AT ALL (only completing homework and classwork), I'd pull roughly 70 for each subject (excluding General Maths - this would be higher, and Standard English - this could be lower). I do understand what you're saying about dodgey subjects. Although, obviously If I apply myself the same as I would for normal subjects, I should be able to pull a good ATAR

 

[iSplicer]

1. Are my subjects dodgey?
2. Is an ATAR of 90 (+ or - 3) possible with my subjects?
3. What would you do in my situation?
4. Any advice?

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Suicide
4. Ignore my previous comment about suicide.


But seriously, yeah your subjects are quite pathetic, but if you pick up your game, there's always a place called UWS, so dw