subject selection help!!! please!!!! (1 Viewer)

wbirch22

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Hi guys, I've (kinda) decided on my subjects for year 11 and 12. Im hoping to get a 95+ atar? thats the requirement for the psych class at usyd. I'm in year 10 rn, A, high B student. I get good grades with minimal effort but obviously I would try really hard in senior years.

What do you think? Do I need to go for higher scaling subjects?

YEAR 11-
- 3U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 1
- BIO
- SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- SLR

HSC YEAR-
- 4U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 2
- BIO
 
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idkkdi

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Hi guys, I've (kinda) decided on my subjects for year 11 and 12. Im hoping to get a 95+ atar. I'm in year 10 rn, an A, high B student in my core classes. I get good grades with minimal effort but obviously I would try really hard in my senior years. My school is pretty shit though.

What do you think? Do I need to go for higher scaling subjects?

YEAR 11-
- 3U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 1
- BIO
- SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- SLR

HSC YEAR-
- 4U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 2
- BIO
don't be so sure that ur going to do 4u english so soon lol. maybe take something other than slr to have more options.
 

jimmysmith560

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I don't think that your current subject selection (for neither year 11 nor year 12) contains any particularly high scaling subjects, except for Mathematics Advanced and English Advanced perhaps. I'm not entirely sure about the scaling of English Extension and English Extension 2 but I believe they don't scale as well as Mathematics Extension 1 and Mathematics Extension 2.

However, it is important to remember that you can achieve a high 90's ATAR with any combination of subjects. Subject scaling should not be a priority when picking your subjects. You should instead focus on the subjects you're currently performing well in (in year 10)/are confident you can perform well in going into year 11 and 12 as well as subjects you personally like and enjoy, as there is no point in picking high-scaling subjects and then underperforming in them as the effect this can have on your ATAR can be quite detrimental.

I hope this helps! :D
 

Leadmen4y

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No, scaling doesn't matter at all unless you're aiming for 99.5+ (still possible even with 1/2 bad scaling subject). You're subjects are great, 4u eng most likely scales well (I'm unsure but its an extension subject), ADV maths is good if you get 95+ which u probs can if u work hard, bio scales pretty much equiv to chem and phys (even scaled higher than chem last year), SOR 2 also is pretty good tho I don't know much, you can have a look here https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/scaling-reports/scaling-report-2020-nsw-hsc.pdf at page 47.

95 is achievable with pretty much any combination, you should also look at unis that offer psych and which unis u want to attend, and what the requirements r, but 95 should get u in pretty much all psych courses.

I think it comes down to doing well with ur subjects, band 6 ADV maths is very doable if u put in the time and effort, bio is a lot of memorisation but also having the ability to apply the concepts. A lot of people misconceptualise bio as pure rote, though through looking through the hsc papers myself that only gets u to a band 4/5. Fundamentals like cells, enzymes are important but year 11 goes through a lot of the other things that don't get tested at all in year 12, so if u slack off in yr 11 make sure u don't in yr 12 (coming from someone who slacked off BADLY in year 11 and doing quite well right now XD). but yeah, and also being good at English is HUGE, as it puts u at an advantage as its a compulsory subject, maintain that advantage!
 

not_sure

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Hi guys, I've (kinda) decided on my subjects for year 11 and 12. Im hoping to get a 95+ atar. I'm in year 10 rn, an A, high B student in my core classes. I get good grades with minimal effort but obviously I would try really hard in my senior years. My school is pretty shit though.

What do you think? Do I need to go for higher scaling subjects?

YEAR 11-
- 3U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 1
- BIO
- SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- SLR

HSC YEAR-
- 4U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 2
- BIO
Um are you sure you've got 12 units in Year 11? Cause it only seems like 11. Also why not start with SOR2 instead of doing SLR, or better yet still do SLR cause like I said I think you've only got 11 units. If you only do SOR1, by the time you get to hsc year you'll have to learn all the basics of one religious depth study that wasn't covered in SOR1 but is a requirement for SOR2 (which has 3 depth studies rather than 2 that you study both in prelim and hsc). 🤷‍♂️
 

saltshaker

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Are you sure you can just do one unit of SOR in year 11 and upgrade to two in year 12? I thought that couldn't be done.
 

jimmysmith560

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Are you sure you can just do one unit of SOR in year 11 and upgrade to two in year 12? I thought that couldn't be done.
If the SOR II syllabus includes Preliminary content (which it does), a student technically shouldn't be able to pick up SOR II in year 12.


This is very similar to a scenario where a student doing Mathematics Advanced in year 11 wishes to pick Mathematics Extension 1 in year 12, which I believe isn't possible either.
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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If the SOR II syllabus includes Preliminary content (which it does), a student technically shouldn't be able to pick up SOR II in year 12.


This is very similar to a scenario where a student doing Mathematics Advanced in year 11 wishes to pick Mathematics Extension 1 in year 12, which I believe isn't possible either.
Yeah I dont know how it works in other schools but my school and many others (from what my friends report) don't allow students to pick up ext courses in year 12. It makes sense because you would miss so much prelim content you would need for year 12, making it pointless.


Hi guys, I've (kinda) decided on my subjects for year 11 and 12. Im hoping to get a 95+ atar. I'm in year 10 rn, an A, high B student in my core classes. I get good grades with minimal effort but obviously I would try really hard in my senior years. My school is pretty shit though.

What do you think? Do I need to go for higher scaling subjects?

YEAR 11-
- 3U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 1
- BIO
- SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- SLR

HSC YEAR-
- 4U ENGLISH
- ADV MATH
- SOR 2
- BIO
If you're decent at maths, I suggest picking maths ext 1 over 3U eng. The trend for students who pick Math Adv is normally that they drop to math std mid-term or at the end of year 11 if they're average or not doing as good however if they were good at adv, then they just regret not picking up ext because they would have been able to be rewarded for their skill with a high scaling subject and they have fewer techniques to used compared to other ext students. I guess its good if you're in that range where you can't be bothered with maths but you're good at it that you can do the questions quickly without it taking up a noticeable time to make much of difference if you were to do std content? but thats a minority.

I originally went into yr 11 doing adv only but I was pretty lucky to move up to ext-1 in the first term because I was doing extremely well, I'm really glad I was able to do ext-1 instead of adv because now I have way more options in term of uni-courses with ext-1 assumed knowledge and the fact i can pick up ext-2. I never really enjoyed maths before year 11 but just doing ext-1 has made me so fascinated because the topics are more interesting and enjoyable, as they expand on the basics u learn in adv.

Even if you're skill is suited for Adv-level content, its more beneficial just to try ext and see how it goes then if you're struggling too much and you can't cope with it, drop down - theres some adv students in my class who are pretty good at maths and couldve done ext but now they're regretting not choosing ext. From what I've heard from ex-adv students in math std, they have way more time to spend on other subjects such as english or business studies than they had before with adv.

TL;DR Pick Math ext-1 even if you don't think you can do it and if its not your thing, just drop down to adv. If you're just not that good at math and ur better suited doing english or other subjects in ur spare time, just do std from the start so u can maximise time doing stuff like 3u eng.

(ALL PERSONAL OPINION AND JUST COMES FROM MY EXPERIENCE)
 

may22

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Yeah I dont know how it works in other schools but my school and many others (from what my friends report) don't allow students to pick up ext courses in year 12. It makes sense because you would miss so much prelim content you would need for year 12, making it pointless.

If you're decent at maths, I suggest picking maths ext 1 over 3U eng. The trend for students who pick Math Adv is normally that they drop to math std mid-term or at the end of year 11 if they're average or not doing as good however if they were good at adv, then they just regret not picking up ext because they would have been able to be rewarded for their skill with a high scaling subject and they have fewer techniques to used compared to other ext students. I guess its good if you're in that range where you can't be bothered with maths but you're good at it that you can do the questions quickly without it taking up a noticeable time to make much of difference if you were to do std content? but thats a minority.

I originally went into yr 11 doing adv only but I was pretty lucky to move up to ext-1 in the first term because I was doing extremely well, I'm really glad I was able to do ext-1 instead of adv because now I have way more options in term of uni-courses with ext-1 assumed knowledge and the fact i can pick up ext-2. I never really enjoyed maths before year 11 but just doing ext-1 has made me so fascinated because the topics are more interesting and enjoyable, as they expand on the basics u learn in adv.

Even if you're skill is suited for Adv-level content, its more beneficial just to try ext and see how it goes then if you're struggling too much and you can't cope with it, drop down - theres some adv students in my class who are pretty good at maths and couldve done ext but now they're regretting not choosing ext. From what I've heard from ex-adv students in math std, they have way more time to spend on other subjects such as english or business studies than they had before with adv.

TL;DR Pick Math ext-1 even if you don't think you can do it and if its not your thing, just drop down to adv. If you're just not that good at math and ur better suited doing english or other subjects in ur spare time, just do std from the start so u can maximise time doing stuff like 3u eng.

(ALL PERSONAL OPINION AND JUST COMES FROM MY EXPERIENCE)
I want to add to do this: I do both ext English and ext math; ext Eng is quite time consuming, especially when you have to get all the practise in for essay writing, creative writing, etc. You'll be expected to write about 12 pages in an hour or so, and the things you'll have to include in your essays, plus the depth of analysis, critique and justifications, will be quite different to advanced English. However, if you're great at writing, by all means take it up. Note that certain skills are transferrable between advanced and ext; ext just goes further

As for ext math, I agree with taking it up if you're up for it; but again you'll need to dedicate time to practise. I've found the best way to do well in math (both adv and ext) is just exposure to different types of questions and being able to solve them both accurately and quickly. There's no harm in doing only advanced however, especially if you optimise your time to get a great mark in it.
 

Leadmen4y

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I want to add to do this: I do both ext English and ext math; ext Eng is quite time consuming, especially when you have to get all the practise in for essay writing, creative writing, etc. You'll be expected to write about 12 pages in an hour or so, and the things you'll have to include in your essays, plus the depth of analysis, critique and justifications, will be quite different to advanced English. However, if you're great at writing, by all means take it up. Note that certain skills are transferrable between advanced and ext; ext just goes further

As for ext math, I agree with taking it up if you're up for it; but again you'll need to dedicate time to practise. I've found the best way to do well in math (both adv and ext) is just exposure to different types of questions and being able to solve them both accurately and quickly. There's no harm in doing only advanced however, especially if you optimise your time to get a great mark in it.
also not to mention how much it helps with 2u, if u do 11u in year 12 bombing out in mx1 is okay if u do well in 2u so that's also something to consider. I made the mistake myself about 2 years ago lol

Edit: also gives u the option for 4u hehe
 

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