OMG YOU HAVE THE SAME SUBJECTS AS ME
Sorry haha. No one has the same subjects as me
because apparently it goes against the rules to do sciences and then pdhpe
But at the end of year 11 I was making the exact same decision– whether to keep pd or to pick up 4u maths, and in the end I chose pdhpe. I'd say definitely consider some of these things:
- The variations in difficulty between the subjects: its pretty obvious that 4u will be much much harder, and subsequently also much more time consuming. Honestly if you're even vaguely decent at being a professional bullshitter (my personal preferred approach to the subject) i.e. you can write somewhat decently and think fast after combining in knowledge of what you already know, then pdhpe is like free marks to your atar. I've gone through half yearlies and trials without memorising much except for a few statistics and I think I've done pretty well. If you keep pdhpe you will need to refine your writing skills and make notes and keep on top of doing papers/questions (Outcomes Textbook <3 ), then you can be pretty damn good at it. For maths, its obviously going to take time to grasp the concepts and practice (because there's no use just knowing how to do maths without practicing), and more time will need to be devoted. Definitely consider the rest of your workload (seeing as you have phys and chem, workload isn't much at all) when deciding. There's easily enough time to devote to another subject
- Scaling/Aligning/whateveritisLOL: Depends on what atar you're aiming for, but if its 99+ I'd say go for 4u if you can. The thing is, getting below 90 is pdhpe will bring you down, and unless you get a top mark (95+), gg atar. Right now at times I seriously regret not doing 4u because I know I must get 97+ in pdhpe (almost a state rank lol) to achieve my atar goal of 99.5... so this does come into play
- Peers: I don't think this should be a worry. I know pdhpe is a bludgey subject but from my experience, most people who realised that it did take some degree of effort dropped it by the end of year 11. Don't worry about the 'top selective school' thing, I do attend a selective school and I assure you that whilst this is a bit of a benefit for subjects like maths phys and chem, I don't think it makes much of a difference for pd. An example is that the average for our pdhpe trial was only 82% (believe me, they didn't mark hard) and half yearly only 84%, with a really vast range from the 60s to 97 so that clearly shows school makes no impact. Do it if you like it lol
- interest: personally, maths is a chore and pdhpe is interesting, so I chose it. plus, I really want to do medicine and I thought it would be more human-based than biology. Likewise, you should probably consider what you're more interested in, and if you think you can sustain motivation in each subject
Basically, pick what you think will be the best for you. Don't worry about your class, as long as you know that you're someone who's pretty oblivious to what others do and are self-motivated. On the other hand, if you know that majority of your motivation comes from extrinsic factors, you might be better off doing a subject that your cohort will be better as, so that you can sustain competition. Though pdhpe is not a hard subject (year 11 kinda was though, so much content), I agree its easy to lose focus when others aren't motivated and so in order to not be negatively affected by selecting the subject, really do aim for 1st/2nd place throughout the year (if you do pick it). And the atar thing is pretty important too, just depends on your goals lol
Good luck!
