Will dropping to 10 units affect my ATAR that much? (1 Viewer)

[Yaburi]

I am currently in year 11 and am absolutely HATING physics. I've been wanting to drop it since day one. However, recently we had a year meeting in which our principal and year advisor used scare tactics to persuade us to keep 12 or 13 units in year 12 if we wanted a decent ATAR.
I am currently doing: Adv. English, 3U Maths, Economics, Chemistry, Multimedia and Physics. I am doing pretty well in all subjects (ranked top 5 in all) except for physics, which I barely passed.
I know that I will definitely get 100 in multimedia (will pursue career in it), but will dropping Physics (my worst subject) affect my ATAR or is it too early to tell (apparently, the subject is different in year 12)?

 

[barbernator]

is multimedia a vet course or something? and how do you know you will get 100 in it. that is a big call

 

[Chronost]

If your hating it + bad scores, it's a sign you should drop it. If you hate it just because your doing bad, then maybe reconsider. My opinion is, drop Physics if you hate it since you still have 11 units then, and you seem to be doing well in them anyway. Don't waste your time on Physics when you could be doing well in all your other subjects.

 

[Yaburi]

is multimedia a vet course or something? and how do you know you will get 100 in it. that is a big call

It's technically Industrial Technology Multimedia, and it's not a VET course. And I know that I'll get 100 from it because I'm bloody excellent (aka The Best) at it as well as comparing my work with former year 12 students that received 100 from other schools.

If your hating it + bad scores, it's a sign you should drop it. If you hate it just because your doing bad, then maybe reconsider. My opinion is, drop Physics if you hate it since you still have 11 units then, and you seem to be doing well in them anyway. Don't waste your time on Physics when you could be doing well in all your other subjects.

Thats a +1 for droppage!

 

[D94]

I don't see how dropping to 10 units will affect your ATAR. Only 10 units will count anyway. Teachers use ridiculous scare tactics to keep students in courses, but students should know better. At my high school, the main scare tactic was that no one could get 90+ ATAR if they dropped to 10 units - that was debunked too easily. I wouldn't be surprised if they used that claim again.

 

[iBibah]

The question you are asking is different for everyone. The reason your told to try and have more than 10 units is just in case you stuff a subject up.

Maybe keep physics for a bit through year 12 and if you find that it definitely will not count for you then drop it.

 

[enoilgam]

I don't see how dropping to 10 units will affect your ATAR. Only 10 units will count anyway. Teachers use ridiculous scare tactics to keep students in courses, but students should know better. At my high school, the main scare tactic was that no one could get 90+ ATAR if they dropped to 10 units - that was debunked too easily. I wouldn't be surprised if they used that claim again.

This - its just typical school scare tactics. Having 12 units is only useful if you are doing relatively well in ALL of them. If you are doing poorly in 2 units, then they arent very useful as a backup.

 

[barbernator]

but yeh also the top scaled mark of industrial technology multimedia was 40.6, so be sure you are going to get 100% in it before you drop anything else.

 

[Yaburi]

but yeh also the top scaled mark of industrial technology multimedia was 40.6, so be sure you are going to get 100% in it before you drop anything else.

I'm not completely sure about how scaling works. Would you please elaborate?

 

[someth1ng]

I don't see how dropping to 10 units will affect your ATAR. Only 10 units will count anyway. Teachers use ridiculous scare tactics to keep students in courses, but students should know better. At my high school, the main scare tactic was that no one could get 90+ ATAR if they dropped to 10 units - that was debunked too easily. I wouldn't be surprised if they used that claim again.

Yeah, they tried that on me - I was like H****t P**** got an ATAR >99...explain?

 

[D94]

Yeah, they tried that on me - I was like H****t P**** got an ATAR >99...explain?

Haha good one!

 

[someth1ng]

Haha good one!

I got an idea, get everyone to drop their worst unit - school rank goes up? profit?

 

[theind1996]

Yeah, they tried that on me - I was like H****t P**** got an ATAR >99...explain?

Wasn't that guy some maths freak that got like 99 in 3U and 98 in 4U or someth1ng (heh) like that?

 

[Spiritual Being]

"And anyone that is thinking of dropping to ten units can talk to last years year 12's who can describe the detrimental effect it had on their atar"

me: hey man did you do 12 units

uni student: nah 10

me: how was it

uni student: fucking awesome

 

[theind1996]

I got an idea, get everyone to drop their worst unit - school rank goes up? profit?

Yes! That's what Ruse does to a larger extent than other schools - Rank 1.

 

[golgo13]

Doesn't ruse get their students to accelerate one sub in the previous year and get band 6 then they are able to skim down even further on another subject so they are only really doing 8 units? From an original 12 unit build. But back to topic. It's really up to you, if your really confident about your 10 then by all means go for it. Some people i knew last year who did 12 units regrets it because you basically do an extra subjects worth of time that doesn't count in the end, which could have been invested into boosting marks for the others

 

[harrietty]

That's actually a good point. I'm probably gonna drop Ancient History because I don't need it, although I'm doing well in it, I'm doing better in other classes.. But if I get an average mark in it, is that better for my ATAR than dropping the subject if I'm still doing okay? It just confuses me

 

[enoilgam]

That's actually a good point. I'm probably gonna drop Ancient History because I don't need it, although I'm doing well in it, I'm doing better in other classes.. But if I get an average mark in it, is that better for my ATAR than dropping the subject if I'm still doing okay? It just confuses me

Well, given your aims and subject combination I would probably consider keeping ancient, unless you are pretty sure that you can get a really good mark in Hospitality, VA, Senior Science and general maths (for a 90 ATAR, you would need 90+ in these subjects). Considering you are doing well at ancient, I would probably keep it as it adds some needed scaling power to your subject combination.

 

[golgo13]

I agree with enoilgam, the ancient is a better scaling sub in general. Which makes me hesitant to recommend or even consider to drop it since ur doing well. The mark you get and what it's worth changes year to year. But it is generally accepted that ancient does quite well when it comes to scaling

 

[LoveHateSchool]

That's actually a good point. I'm probably gonna drop Ancient History because I don't need it, although I'm doing well in it, I'm doing better in other classes.. But if I get an average mark in it, is that better for my ATAR than dropping the subject if I'm still doing okay? It just confuses me

With your set can I strongly advise you to keep Ancient? Gen, Snr Science, Hospitality scale very poorly, and VA is still a fair bit below average.
Adv Eng and Ancient are your only decent scalers.