• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Help in choosing subjects? What scales good and bad? (1 Viewer)

emma5795

New Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
13
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Hi i need some help in picking my subjects so far I have :

General maths - ( am in advanced maths now and hoping i can get band 6 in general, by doing general it will let me focus on other subjects)
Adv English
Extension English
Modern History
PDHPE
Japanese beginners ( hoping to get in via open high)
Economics

If i don't get into open high am pondering to choose between:
german continuers, french beginners, food technology, biology or business studies/
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
And which one do you like most of those?


Your subjects scale meh overall.
 

emma5795

New Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
13
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
I love PDH - that is why I'm doing it. I also love food tech however shitty shitty scaling. Does french beginners or german continuers scale any better than either food tech or business? What do each of those scale? (my pondering subjects)
 

LoveHateSchool

Retired Sept '14
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
5,136
Location
The Fires of Mordor
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
^German Continuers defs scales the best, then prob French Beginners, then Business and then Food tech quite a low scaler.

However, you shouldn't pick based on scaling! OP, if you've done German as a 9/10 elective, is there a reason doing continuers isn't your first choice but rather doing beginner jap through open?
 

emma5795

New Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
13
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Yes i don't really enjoy the actual language of german. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn japanese - therfore it would make me strive to study. How good is scaling for continuers german compared to other subjects? Is it up there?
 

Hermes1

Banned
Joined
Oct 4, 2010
Messages
1,282
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Yes i don't really enjoy the actual language of german. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to learn japanese - therfore it would make me strive to study. How good is scaling for continuers german compared to other subjects? Is it up there?
German continuers scales really well, bcuz theres a relative small cohort doing it. my sister is doing it herself and u should definitely consider it.
 

jnney

lemon
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
Messages
1,437
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
You have to be really committed to japanese to be doing open high. it can be difficult because you are on your own; there is no support provided.

But seriously pick the subjects you Love.
 

emma5795

New Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2011
Messages
13
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
I love japanese so i'm doing it. if i dont suceed/cope i can drop the open high - but i have to get in first!
But yeah how is german continuers scale compare to food tech and business? and how are those subjects for scaling?
 

funnytomato

Active Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Messages
847
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
for most languages, continuers always scale better than beginners
www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2010_HSC_Table A3.pdf may help you a bit
also there's absolutely nothing wrong with choosing the subjects you actually like, regardless of the scaling factor
I love japanese so i'm doing it. if i dont suceed/cope i can drop the open high - but i have to get in first!
But yeah how is german continuers scale compare to food tech and business? and how are those subjects for scaling?
german continuers actually scales better than phys and chem, which are generally regarded as "good scaling subjects"

business is slightly better than food tech,but they don't scale very well.
technically they're both "capped", e.g. the Max. Mark (after scaling) for food tech was 92 last year
 

fiesycal

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
117
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Please, please, please for your sake if you're in advanced maths this year at least do Mathematics (level above general). Doing general maths is just not worth it if you're half decent at maths. Since you're in advanced maths it won't even be that much extra work. Before you decide on general really think about the decision because people will say scaling doesn't matter, but the difference between general and mathematics scaling is big enough, and the difference in difficulty small enough, to warrant a proper consideration of both options. If you hadn't guessed i'd recommend mathematics.
 
Last edited:

michaeljennings

Active Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2009
Messages
2,074
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Please, please, please for your sake if you're in advance dmaths this year at least do Mathematics (level above general). Doing general maths is just not worth it if you're half decent at maths. Since you're in advanced maths it won't even be that much extra work. Before you decide on general really think about the decision because people will say scaling doesn't matter, but the difference between general and mathematics scaling is big enough, and the difference in difficulty small enough, to warrant a proper consideration of both options. If you hadn't guessed i'd recommend mathematics.
+1
 
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
67
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
Hi i need some help in picking my subjects so far I have :

General maths - ( am in advanced maths now and hoping i can get band 6 in general, by doing general it will let me focus on other subjects)
Adv English
Extension English
Modern History
PDHPE
Japanese beginners ( hoping to get in via open high)
Economics

If i don't get into open high am pondering to choose between:
german continuers, french beginners, food technology, biology or business studies/
I'm in year 10 as well and picked half of the subs u did. Pretty much everyone's told me not to choose subjects based on scaling. If you like a subject that scales bad than ur still going to do better than if you do a "high scaling" subject that you're no good at. Bottom line is do what you enjoy and what you are good at. For maths if your doing well at Advanced why not do Maths 2 Unit? You could always drop down (which is probs what I'm doing to end up doing) and just contradiciting everything I just said, it scales significantly better - that's if you think u would be able to cope with it, if you think it would be too hard than maybe just stick to general. But anyway: good luck choosing and just do what u enjoy and what you are good at :)
 

LoveHateSchool

Retired Sept '14
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
5,136
Location
The Fires of Mordor
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
Well if you really want to learn Jap, you should pursue it. I've been to Japan and it's amazing, Japanese is a cool language to learn. (Maybe I should have done beginners through OHS lol). But I think it's really good to choose a language if you're good at/like them, I still kick myself sometimes for not giving French Continuers a go. (Like I essentially picked Economics over it, I must have been crazy in Yr 10 :p)

But then I also think, if you've done German for so long, it's prob so much easier to have a school class and do continuers than do beginners o9f another language through OHS. But I see you considered this by just doing general maths? I honestly think you should consider trying mathematics-you may kick yourself out of boredom in general.
 

tambam

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
507
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
Unless you're aiming for an atar of 98+ (not just for kicks, but because you actually need it for a career/course you want to pursue)
Scaling should not even be a deciding factor of what you choose.
Bottom line is, if you pick what you like and are good at, you will do better than if you pick a subject that you 'don't mind' just for the scaling, and later on find much harder to grasp or find no motivation to study for.

(But yes, if you are decent at maths, then you should do more than general maths)
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Language scaling is erratic. You can have a great cohort one year who makes it scale really high, and then an average cohort to follow which makes it scale mediocre. For the mainstream kind of languages - I assume German is one of them, it's pretty constant. But don't expect things like Malaysian Continuers or Latin Extension which have like 6 people per year to have steady scalings.
 

Shadowdude

Cult of Personality
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
12,145
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Hi i need some help in picking my subjects so far I have :

General maths - ( am in advanced maths now and hoping i can get band 6 in general, by doing general it will let me focus on other subjects)
Adv English
Extension English
Modern History
PDHPE
Japanese beginners ( hoping to get in via open high)
Economics

If i don't get into open high am pondering to choose between:
german continuers, french beginners, food technology, biology or business studies/
Also, take Mathematics - not General Mathematics. General Maths are for those doing 5.1 Maths. 5.2 and 5.3 maths people should be doing Mathematics because that follows on from your Year 10 content.
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
320
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
I'm doing Japanese Cont. through Open High School. Unless if your motivated, don't do any language/course through correspondence.
Also if your doing extremely well in Year 10 maths, then do 2U Mathematics (not General). But I can't tell from experience because I dropped maths all together.
 

LoveHateSchool

Retired Sept '14
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
5,136
Location
The Fires of Mordor
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
Yeah OP, I'm tempted to say don't do maths at all if you don't want, you could do german continuers and Japanese beginenrs through OHS on the maths line if you wanted. You strengths seem to lie in humanities.

2U maths or no maths is prob better than general for you
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top