Subject selection (1 Viewer)

[mochimochi444]

Hi everyone! My name is Maya and I recently joined this forum. I am currently in yr 10 and am on trial for my HSC subjects which I have chosen. I am facing a dilemma and I really hope if graduates, yr 12 or current yr 11 students could provide me some advice on hope to go forward with this.
So far I have chosen the subjects : ADV. Eng. & Math, Bio, chem, legal and eco.
I Purely chose my subjects based on interest, as I was not aware of terms such as content heavy subjects etc. So far I am enjoying my subjects, however due to it beng a trial term they do not actually teach content related to prelim rather content which can help develop skills for those. After discussing with my teachers, they told me my subjects are all too heavy and that I should switch atleast one to a lighter subject or one with less workload compared to my other subjects. I am hesitant with economics and chemistry. This is not because I am bad at them, I really enjoy economics however I have heard it is quite challenging and am stressed abt if ill be able to cope with workload. As for chemistry, it is not one of strong suits, but I enjoy what I studied from it in yr 10, for now I have kept it as a potential subject I might drop. For advanced math I am average 70s student which is inconsistent but I make sure to score above 60s. I want some advice on how I shud move forward....Should I change sujects, or keep them, and if so which subjects should I swap for?
A little personal details are that:
- I am strong english student
- Good analytical writer
- Can write essays ( However I am unsure of the structure in terms forlegal and eco which is why I am hesistant on my future performance for those)
Overall, I just wanna thankyou for reading all of this, this has helped lift some of the stress i have been feeling.

 

[its_ace21]

legal is nice but like a lot of memorising, i think its the same with eco but i dont do it

 

[carrotsss]

The whole “subjects too content heavy” thing is dumb - no matter what subjects you do, if you’re aiming for a high ATAR you should be putting in the same amount of effort irrespective of subject difficulty (ie even if you did a less content heavy subject, you should put in the same amount of effort) because of how scaling works. Trust me, do subjects you enjoy and are interested in, your current subjects are fine.

 

[SadCeliac]

even if a subject is 'content heavy' you will be working on it regardless, and that is especially true if you like the subject - it wont feel like an effort to do if you actually enjoy the said 'heavy' content

e.g. for me bio content is a lot, yes, but I really find it enjoyable to learn and find it quite easy to see how it applies irl and be able to draw parallels with the actual syllabus
e.g. for the e.g. when we learn about infectious diseases in mod 7 bio I find it cool to try imagine the immune responses going on in my own body and drawing parallels to what I feel and how my own body responds

 

[scaryshark09]

- I am strong english student
- Good analytical writer
- Can write essays

have you considered english ext?

 

[its_ace21]

have you considered english ext?

no she considered legal

 

[souli]

Hi everyone! My name is Maya and I recently joined this forum. I am currently in yr 10 and am on trial for my HSC subjects which I have chosen. I am facing a dilemma and I really hope if graduates, yr 12 or current yr 11 students could provide me some advice on hope to go forward with this.
So far I have chosen the subjects : ADV. Eng. & Math, Bio, chem, legal and eco.
I Purely chose my subjects based on interest, as I was not aware of terms such as content heavy subjects etc. So far I am enjoying my subjects, however due to it beng a trial term they do not actually teach content related to prelim rather content which can help develop skills for those. After discussing with my teachers, they told me my subjects are all too heavy and that I should switch atleast one to a lighter subject or one with less workload compared to my other subjects. I am hesitant with economics and chemistry. This is not because I am bad at them, I really enjoy economics however I have heard it is quite challenging and am stressed abt if ill be able to cope with workload. As for chemistry, it is not one of strong suits, but I enjoy what I studied from it in yr 10, for now I have kept it as a potential subject I might drop. For advanced math I am average 70s student which is inconsistent but I make sure to score above 60s. I want some advice on how I shud move forward....Should I change sujects, or keep them, and if so which subjects should I swap for?
A little personal details are that:
- I am strong english student
- Good analytical writer
- Can write essays ( However I am unsure of the structure in terms forlegal and eco which is why I am hesistant on my future performance for those)
Overall, I just wanna thankyou for reading all of this, this has helped lift some of the stress i have been feeling.

First of all, please, please, please don't listen to people when they say 'x subject is too heavy' or 'y subject is heavy'..
Yeah, there might be a lot of content, but if you find enjoyment, which I'm assuming you do (because you said you chose the subjects based on interest) it won't feel like a lot of intensive learning and you'll actually want to learn more. Also, it's totally not true when people say pick a lighter subject so you can put less effort (in all honesty, you should be putting 100% effort into all subjects, rather than picking and choosing) - some people intentionally pick these 'light' subjects and study really hard to get those band 6s and state rankings, meaning if you don't put the effort it could even end up pushing scaling and ultimately your ATAR down. If the pre-knowledge that a subject is 'easy' would deter you from putting 100% effort into the subject, don't pick it. That's exactly my reasoning of why I decided to keep Advanced Maths rather than Standard.

Although I don't do chem, I do economics and I can say yes, there is quite a bit of content, you have to remember some key terminology, but the pieces begin to fall into place (it's quite a theoretical subject) and at some point you can link one concept to another and vice versa quite easily.

Similarly to you, I'm also quite strong with essays, and for that reason, I definitely recommend keeping eco because the essays are literally the same as those you would write in other subjects, except, for example, you might have to write a statistic or give a real-world example and then an explanation. My friends who do legal studies do a lot of memorizing, paragraph structures, sometimes even whole essays and often tell me that they get stressed right before the exams at what the question could be, if they've memorized enough.. etc.

At the end of the day, it's your choice and down to your individual ability and interests. I hope this helps though!

 

[raspberriesandpears]

i second scaryshark, english ext 1 might be a good fit? i would also propose modern?
the whole thing is with content heavy is that it doesn't mean a subject is harder, it's just different. do you have a good memory? or even half-decent? if so then you won't find any of the so-called 'content-heavy' subjects any more difficult than non-content heavy ones.
i did 3u english, 3u maths, chem, legal, and modern through year 11 and i found that quite manageable.
p.s. if you're english-strong, is there a reason for two sciences? are you planning to go into science/med? if not i would honestly consider just one, but im just a random person on the internet of course!

 

[mochimochi444]

i second scaryshark, english ext 1 might be a good fit? i would also propose modern?
the whole thing is with content heavy is that it doesn't mean a subject is harder, it's just different. do you have a good memory? or even half-decent? if so then you won't find any of the so-called 'content-heavy' subjects any more difficult than non-content heavy ones.
i did 3u english, 3u maths, chem, legal, and modern through year 11 and i found that quite manageable.
p.s. if you're english-strong, is there a reason for two sciences? are you planning to go into science/med? if not i would honestly consider just one, but im just a random person on the internet of course!

Hiii thankyou so much for the suggestions it means a lot to me. Unfortunately our school has a cut-off for ext. english and well I did not meet that criteria. I havent rly been put to test with my memory, but I did score quite well in history which was mostly content. I wanted to choose modern however there was the clash for eco and legal since I was rly interested in those as well, and for the science subjects I love biology but the only reason I chose chem was bec I havent rly decided on what career path I want to choose and Health is one of my options which I am taking into consideration Also thanks for giving me reference towards ur subject..one thing rly stressing me out is time management as I have never met a challenge for being organised with work since it is not that much... this rly gave me comfort so thankyou!!!

 

[mochimochi444]

First of all, please, please, please don't listen to people when they say 'x subject is too heavy' or 'y subject is heavy'..
Yeah, there might be a lot of content, but if you find enjoyment, which I'm assuming you do (because you said you chose the subjects based on interest) it won't feel like a lot of intensive learning and you'll actually want to learn more. Also, it's totally not true when people say pick a lighter subject so you can put less effort (in all honesty, you should be putting 100% effort into all subjects, rather than picking and choosing) - some people intentionally pick these 'light' subjects and study really hard to get those band 6s and state rankings, meaning if you don't put the effort it could even end up pushing scaling and ultimately your ATAR down. If the pre-knowledge that a subject is 'easy' would deter you from putting 100% effort into the subject, don't pick it. That's exactly my reasoning of why I decided to keep Advanced Maths rather than Standard.

Although I don't do chem, I do economics and I can say yes, there is quite a bit of content, you have to remember some key terminology, but the pieces begin to fall into place (it's quite a theoretical subject) and at some point you can link one concept to another and vice versa quite easily.

Similarly to you, I'm also quite strong with essays, and for that reason, I definitely recommend keeping eco because the essays are literally the same as those you would write in other subjects, except, for example, you might have to write a statistic or give a real-world example and then an explanation. My friends who do legal studies do a lot of memorizing, paragraph structures, sometimes even whole essays and often tell me that they get stressed right before the exams at what the question could be, if they've memorized enough.. etc.

At the end of the day, it's your choice and down to your individual ability and interests. I hope this helps though!

Hiii thankyou so much for this sweet response . While I am good at essays I was unsure abt the structure for eco and legal essays so this gives me some comfort. Thankyou for clearing the confusion with the 'heavy and light content' stuff, its just that my classmates and teachers have been mentioning it so much I had this sort of anxiety if my subjects might overwhelm me. For now I have decided to keep the subjects I have picked and just see how I'll go. The thing is I dont know how you are at Math but I also chose to do adv. Math even though my teachers recommended me to take the easier route, I truly enjoy doing it and I believe I can increase my results through practice. I wish u the best of luck with ur HSC !!!!

 

[mochimochi444]

Thankyou so much everyone for your responses I really appreciate this. I hope you all do amazing with your HSC!! and I would love if you could leave some advice on how I can prepare for yr 11. Wishing you all the best 🫶

 

[its_ace21]

Thankyou so much everyone for your responses I really appreciate this. I hope you all do amazing with your HSC!! and I would love if you could leave some advice on how I can prepare for yr 11. Wishing you all the best 🫶

honestly one big thing i wish i had done was keep up with notes, if u plan to do notes make sure u do them early on

 

[carrotsss]

Thankyou so much everyone for your responses I really appreciate this. I hope you all do amazing with your HSC!! and I would love if you could leave some advice on how I can prepare for yr 11. Wishing you all the best 🫶

for maths just try to do as many challenging questions as u can (ideally past prelim/trial/hsc ones), I didn’t even bother with notes bc they really don’t make a difference. and make sure u log every single mistake you make, it helps a lot with preventing them. and make sure you never ever ever fall behind your class because it is a super slippery slope

for chem same deal pretty much. some notes are good but make sure they are targeted (they don’t have to be pretty), so like if ur struggling with a topic or get a question wrong bc u just completely don’t know that topic, then write a small summary of that topic to rejog ur memory

and also i know it’s hard but try not to stress too much, everything is within your control and if you just keep putting in effort throughout the year you will guaranteed get insane results. if you get a bad result use it as motivation for a great comeback, if you get a good result then don’t get cocky but just keep putting in the effort to maintain your position.