Year 11 subject selection help (1 Viewer)

TB88

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I'm not exactly sure on what subjects I want to do in Year 11/12 but I have a rough idea and plan to do something commerce or law related in uni. The subjects I'm thinking of are:

English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
SOR 1 or SOR 2
Economics
Business Studies or Legal Studies
Modern History or PDHPE

My last two subjects I'm unsure about, as well as SOR 1 or 2. I am aiming to get an atar of 95. Anyone have any ideas on what I should choose?
 

Drongoski

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Why not do a science subject like Physics or Chemistry in lieu of Business Studies or Legal Studies or PDHPE. If you do one of these science subjects, esp. Physics, many other course options are open to you should you later find that you'd like to pursue an Engineering type course or a course that requires a background in Physics or Chemistry. Without, e.g., Business Studies, you are not handicapped doing Commerce. In fact, in my mind, Economics is the foundation discipline for Commerce. Of course if you are 100 % sure you'll never pursue and Engineering or technical degree then don't worry not doing one of those science subjects I suggested.

In fact if I were to choose, I'd include Maths 3U and 4U, Physics, Chemistry & Economics; what I call the solid discipline courses. I am not suggesting you do the same. In fact when I did my HSC, I did Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
 
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Frostguard

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I'm not exactly sure on what subjects I want to do in Year 11/12 but I have a rough idea and plan to do something commerce or law related in uni. The subjects I'm thinking of are:

English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
SOR 1 or SOR 2
Economics
Business Studies or Legal Studies
Modern History or PDHPE

My last two subjects I'm unsure about, as well as SOR 1 or 2. I am aiming to get an atar of 95. Anyone have any ideas on what I should choose?
As Drongoski said, choose subjects that don't limit your career choices unless you are most definitely sure you want to pursue a career in that area. Thing I find weird is that your combination of subjects adds up to 10/11 units which for the Preliminary course requires 12 units, I don't know but yeah
If you plan to do a degree in commerce, choose both business studies and economics which seems suitable but since you're interested in both commerce and law, then choose maybe economics + legal studies. Business Studies has a lot of rote learning and can be very tiring to remember whereas Legal Studies is a whole new career path and although it is the same, basically memory and application, it is a good indicator for choosing Law in the future. Obviously you do not need to take Legal Studies to study Law, but it'll help you in deciding if Law is the right job for you.

As for Modern History and PDHPE, those are two very different subjects in different faculties so I'm not really qualified to tell you what to choose, but I assume both subjects are memory and writing subjects? Also just see if you have a genuine interest in history or physical education, I can't really tell... as for now, I find Modern History very interesting and we even have our own historical investigation and is basically just a step up from junior History

As for SOR too, I'd suggest just to take 1 unit, (my school doesn't have SOR).. I don't really know what to say for this one either...

Basically choose subjects that you have genuine interest in and don't let outside factors influence your decision making eg scaling or popular subjects
but I'd take Modern History, Legal Studies and SOR 1. Good Luck in choosing your subjects and the near future! :)
 

stopcrying

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choose the subjects you're interested in. With that said though; if they all interest you fairly equally choose the highest scaling.

So in this case:

English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
SOR 1
Economics
Legal Studies
Modern History
 

TB88

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As Drongoski said, choose subjects that don't limit your career choices unless you are most definitely sure you want to pursue a career in that area. Thing I find weird is that your combination of subjects adds up to 10/11 units which for the Preliminary course requires 12 units, I don't know but yeah
If you plan to do a degree in commerce, choose both business studies and economics which seems suitable but since you're interested in both commerce and law, then choose maybe economics + legal studies. Business Studies has a lot of rote learning and can be very tiring to remember whereas Legal Studies is a whole new career path and although it is the same, basically memory and application, it is a good indicator for choosing Law in the future. Obviously you do not need to take Legal Studies to study Law, but it'll help you in deciding if Law is the right job for you.

As for Modern History and PDHPE, those are two very different subjects in different faculties so I'm not really qualified to tell you what to choose, but I assume both subjects are memory and writing subjects? Also just see if you have a genuine interest in history or physical education, I can't really tell... as for now, I find Modern History very interesting and we even have our own historical investigation and is basically just a step up from junior History

As for SOR too, I'd suggest just to take 1 unit, (my school doesn't have SOR).. I don't really know what to say for this one either...

Basically choose subjects that you have genuine interest in and don't let outside factors influence your decision making eg scaling or popular subjects
but I'd take Modern History, Legal Studies and SOR 1. Good Luck in choosing your subjects and the near future! :)
Yeah the reason you counted 10/11 units is because with Maths Extension 1 its 3 units as I also have to do Maths Advanced, and therefore it would add up to 12/13 units. Thanks for the help though. Really appreciate it!
 
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TB88

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Why not do a science subject like Physics or Chemistry in lieu of Business Studies or Legal Studies or PDHPE. If you do one of these science subjects, esp. Physics, many other course options are open to you should you later find that you'd like to pursue an Engineering type course or a course that requires a background in Physics or Chemistry. Without, e.g., Business Studies, you are not handicapped doing Commerce. In fact, in my mind, Economics is the foundation discipline for Commerce. Of course if you are 100 % sure you'll never pursue and Engineering or technical degree then don't worry not doing one of those science subjects I suggested.

In fact if I were to choose, I'd include Maths 3U and 4U, Physics, Chemistry & Economics; what I call the solid discipline courses. I am not suggesting you do the same. In fact when I did my HSC, I did Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
Yeah I'm 100% sure that I don't want to do a course in engineering or anything like that which is why I'm not picking any sciences. Also, the science department in my school isnt very good. And I have to do religion because it is compulsory at my school.
 

si2136

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You need to do mathematics to get into Commerce USYD when u do ur HSC.

Legal Studies is very different from Law.

Business Studies makes you prepared to write a one to two thousand words in an hour.

PE and Modern are totally different subjects. You can always switch at the start of yr 11.
 

sourmilk

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Why not do a science subject like Physics or Chemistry in lieu of Business Studies or Legal Studies or PDHPE. If you do one of these science subjects, esp. Physics, many other course options are open to you should you later find that you'd like to pursue an Engineering type course or a course that requires a background in Physics or Chemistry. Without, e.g., Business Studies, you are not handicapped doing Commerce. In fact, in my mind, Economics is the foundation discipline for Commerce. Of course if you are 100 % sure you'll never pursue and Engineering or technical degree then don't worry not doing one of those science subjects I suggested.

In fact if I were to choose, I'd include Maths 3U and 4U, Physics, Chemistry & Economics; what I call the solid discipline courses. I am not suggesting you do the same. In fact when I did my HSC, I did Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.
That is terrible advice. Nobody should do courses due to the fact it 'opens more options' career-wise. Based on the subjects OP gave us, he is definitely more of an humanities person. Encouraging someone to do maths or hard science is just stupid imho lmao
 

sourmilk

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I'm not exactly sure on what subjects I want to do in Year 11/12 but I have a rough idea and plan to do something commerce or law related in uni. The subjects I'm thinking of are:

English Advanced
Maths Extension 1
SOR 1 or SOR 2
Economics
Business Studies or Legal Studies
Modern History or PDHPE

My last two subjects I'm unsure about, as well as SOR 1 or 2. I am aiming to get an atar of 95. Anyone have any ideas on what I should choose?
I'm not sure whether Modern History or PDHPE is better for your selection, but I recommend Business Studies over Legal Studies. Mainly because if you do decide to pursue in Law, legal studies is not gonna benefit you any way (and the coursework is harder compared to business studies). While business studies also won't give you any benefit in commerce, it's kinda of beneficial to understand the entry-level knowledge of business/commerce, and is also easier - and it'll definitely go well with economics too.

I have friends doing law or are going to do law, neither did legal studies and are definitely not worried that they didn't do it. However, I have friends in commerce or are going to do commerce who did business studies, and they found similarities in HSC and their Uni coursework.
 

Drongoski

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That is terrible advice. Nobody should do courses due to the fact it 'opens more options' career-wise. Based on the subjects OP gave us, he is definitely more of an humanities person. Encouraging someone to do maths or hard science is just stupid imho lmao
Have you not come across the many cases on Bored where students suddenly decided they wanted to do Engineering or a STEM course without the necessary foundational subjects? In many cases students doing only Gen Maths and no Physics suddenly decided they wanted to pursue Engineering.
 
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si2136

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Have you not come across the many cases on Bored where students suddenly decided they wanted to do Engineering or a STEM course without the necessary foundational subjects? In many cases students doing only Gen Maths and no Physics suddenly decided they wanted to pursue Engineering.
Then it's their fault if they want to pursue engineering. Everyone should research what they're heading towards in year 10, and by the looks of it, law and commerce which is accurate.

I'm doing umat but i do no sciences. If does not mean that I am disadvantaged in the umat. I just do better in humanities than science, but it doesn't mean that I'm bad at science.
 

pikachu975

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Then it's their fault if they want to pursue engineering. Everyone should research what they're heading towards in year 10, and by the looks of it, law and commerce which is accurate.

I'm doing umat but i do no sciences. If does not mean that I am disadvantaged in the umat. I just do better in humanities than science, but it doesn't mean that I'm bad at science.
Usually an interest in medicine could relate to an interest in sciences, e.g. I like bio and want to do medicine etc etc but yeah you're right
 

sourmilk

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Have you not come across the many cases on Bored where students suddenly decided they wanted to do Engineering or a STEM course without the necessary foundational subjects? In many cases students doing only Gen Maths and no Physics suddenly decided they wanted to pursue Engineering.
I've also come across cases where people who did hard sciences and decide to pursue a career in journalism and PR, does that mean everybody should also do humanity heavy subjects too?

HSC is all about strategically maximising your atar and marks, if this person does hard sciences - and fails, he won't even get into anything. I have buddies who did hard sciences and maths but were stronger in humanities and ultimately they didn't get into any of their preferences.
 

laura-jayne14

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Do subjects you enjoy and see yourself going well it to get the best out of your marks!

No use doing science if you're not interested in it. It'll impact your motivation.
 

bujolover

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Business Studies or Legal Studies
Modern History or PDHPE
Legal Studies is higher scaling than Business Studies, so especially since you are interested in law, I'd strongly recommend you to do it. I'm sure it's nothing like law (law is waaaaay harder; you have to write hella more essays, apparently), but it gives you a taster of the real thing. Anyway, you can switch it/drop it in Yr 12 if it's your weakest subject/you hate it (in which case, reconsider your career choice).
Modern History...well, in our school, MH has a pretty terrible teacher, and both my friends who took it dropped it after a couple of lessons. Especially since MH and Law don't really correlate much, and if you know that MH doesn't have any outstanding teachers, maybe just take PDHPE for a different type of subject. I know MH is different because it's a history, while the others are social sciences, but they are honestly still pretty similar (after all, history and social sciences fall under the umbrella of HSIE). It does get boring to have to study similar types of subjects, even if you love them (take it from me, I do 3 sciences (chose them cos science is pretty much my only consistently strong subject besides maths), and now they're my least favourite subjects of all; you need a variety sometimes). Again, just switch it after a couple of lessons (if you can) if you absolutely hate it, or else, wait till Yr 12 to decide whether to drop it (a whole 3 terms of the subject might lead you to love it). Yes, PDHPE is a science-y subject, but honestly, it's interesting - there're real-life applications to the theory (ok, I'm talking from 7-10 PDHPE experience, but shouldn't be too different, right?) - and yes, you still really do need to get off your butt and go outside and do sports as part of practicals even in Yr 11. But the up-side is: if you pursue it in Yr 12, there is apparently NO SPORT (yes, that's right, you'll always get to sit in a classroom for your PDHPE lessons in Yr 12), so...something to look forward to, I guess?

Anyway, you still have PLENTY of time (a full 5-ish months, hopefully?) before you have to finalise your selections. Five months is actually a long time - you might go to a uni Open Day and find that medicine is indeed your new career goal; you might discover you like science despite the bad teachers; and, who knows, you might even end up hating Maths with the passion of a thousand burning suns (please try not to, though :D). And remember, it's only Yr 11 next year, so you'll still have another 3 terms to find out exactly what you like. All I have to say is, choose subjects that you think will help you achieve your golden 95 ATAR (which are usually subjects you're good at and/or really like). And, again, have a variety: it can do wonders for your motivation, I'm sure. :)
Oh, and to top off what everyone else here has been saying, don't necessarily follow Drongoski's advice (no offence) about doing the "99.95 Formula" subjects, aka Phys, Chem, 4U Maths and 2U English just cos "everyone" does them or because they're high-scaling or just cos they'll meet the requirements for a STEM course, cos at the end of the day, if you hate them, and if you struggle in them, not only will you fail to achieve the much-coveted 99.95, but you won't even get 90. Anyway, you shouldn't want to do a STEM course in uni if you don't like science in the first place. So think twice before following trends - academics isn't a fashion show. ;)

On a less serious note...

SOR 1 or SOR 2
I don't even know the difference between the two religion courses lol. :p
 
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