• 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

choosing subjects for Year 11 (1 Viewer)

atrocityx

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
37
Gender
Female
HSC
2010
heyys everyone,

i know this is too early to choose subjects, but the whole idea of choosing subjects that might scale you down or whatever in the HSC and what subjects i should choose to get into UNI is really starting to get me worried ><" i mean, we're nearly there into a future career we want and schools nearly over T_T" .. only 2 more years to go... so really im starting to plan out my subjects for year 11...

my question is, i dont know if i should choose maths next year... cause its not in my career path... ( i might go for photography graphics designing or marine biologist :D)

so... does your UAI scale you down if you dont choose Maths in the HSC course? O_O"

thankss
 

Aerath

Retired
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
10,169
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Scaling should really not be a factor in your subject decisions.

The only things that should be are:
1. Does the course you wanna get into in Uni have some 'assumed knowledge'? If so, you might as well do them, because it's either now or later.
2. Do you like those subjects?

Friends, teachers and scaling should not influence your decision whatsoever.
 

Jess007

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2007
Messages
293
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
well i didnt choose maths... not for the uai purposes but id say if ur good at it stick with it, coz if u doreally well it will scale u up. but if ur shit at it, it will only scale u down, like every other subject

i dropped maths coz im shit at it... i dont really have any uni aspirations...just tafe then cops later on, then uni when im older...

the things u say ur interested in like marine biologists would require more science thigns, but maths is involved in a lot of scienece aswell... so ?

hopefully it helped in some way...
 

atrocityx

Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
37
Gender
Female
HSC
2010
ohh~ thanks everyone i really appreciated your comments but i wouldnt mind any more comments from different peoples views about this! but thanks for the advice everyone :)
 

undalay

Active Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
1,002
Location
Ashfield
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
scaling should be a factor in your decisions.
Although just a part of it, not the whole thing.
 

michael1990

Active Member
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
1,776
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Are you good at Mathematics?

There is no point choosing it if you are bad at it.

But if you are good at it, then your best of choosing it to boast your UAI.

And its all up to personal preference, and how the line structure of your subjects work.

Until you get your line structure you can't really pick your subjects. Because say for example, you decide your going to do Maths but Visual Arts is on the same line. (not sure if your into that) but you get the example.
 

midifile

Na Na Na Na Naa
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
1,143
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
atrocityx said:
heyys everyone,

i know this is too early to choose subjects, but the whole idea of choosing subjects that might scale you down or whatever in the HSC and what subjects i should choose to get into UNI is really starting to get me worried ><" i mean, we're nearly there into a future career we want and schools nearly over T_T" .. only 2 more years to go... so really im starting to plan out my subjects for year 11...

my question is, i dont know if i should choose maths next year... cause its not in my career path... ( i might go for photography graphics designing or marine biologist :D)

so... does your UAI scale you down if you dont choose Maths in the HSC course? O_O"

thankss
Scaling doesnt work one which subjects you dont do, but subjects that you do do. So not doing maths wont neccesarily scale you down, however doing maths may scale you up. And that said, it will not neccesarily scale you up. If you are gonna do bad in maths (even though it is relatively high scaling) you would be better off doing well in a subject with worse scaling.

So it depends on how well you are doing in maths. The mathematics course and above (3 unit and 4 unit) do get quite a bit harder than the year 10 course and if you are stuggling or having trouble now, I would advise general maths or none at all. Maths is also beneficial in other subjects. If you are interested in marine biology you may end up doing chemistry (I know they are not really related but many university science courses have presumed knowledge of chemistry) and the people in my chemistry class who dont do maths struggle with calculations (and there are a tonne in the HSC) because theyve ridded their brains from all maths.

But apart from that, I advise doing subjects that you enjoy and do well at (despite the scaling). If you still can't deciede try to get a variation (ie one humanity, one science, one maths etc) so that if you change your mind about your interests or future goals halfway through year 11 or 12 (as many people do) you arent stuck doing 4 or 5 subjects you hate.
 

-may-cat-

Tired Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
3,472
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
look, no one really understands how scaling in the hsc works, my society and culture teacher is a hsc marker and even she says it dosnt make any sense. honestly, so long as u do reasonably well in english (which is mandatory anyway) your bound to get a good uai.

seriously tho, dont des-credit everyones advice, if u choose subjects just for 'scaling' but dont actually like them, u will have hell in the hsc. i know ppl who did it and ended up dropping out cuz they hated it so much.

just go with what you love or are interested in!
 

SG1991

The crazy volunteer <3
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
35
Location
A messy bedroom with a messy desk :)
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
You are going to have a lot of work in year 11!! My advice is to forget what your:
  • friends say
  • teachers say (unless you respect your teacher)
  • scaling
  • career parts (it is estimated generation Y will change career paths 5-6 times during their life :read: )
Which subjects do U think sound INTERESTING? My friend did French as she thought learning French would be cool. She is now 1st in her French class.

I pick my subjects to what I knew, I would enjoy. Its the only that keeps me sane during assessments.

What subjects are u good at? I came 3rd in Commerece last yr. I did a branch of Commerce - Legal Studies. I keep 4th for my legal studies assessment.
 

cs01001

Active Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,196
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Choose what you think interests you. Trust me, it will make the year 12 journey much more enjoyable.
 

michael1990

Active Member
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
1,776
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
cs01001 said:
Choose what you think interests you. Trust me, it will make the year 12 journey much more enjoyable.
Yeah but i still believe you should know about scaling.

Because if your're tossing up between Legal and Information Technology (using myself as an example) but you do not know about scaling and you find out in year 12 that Information Technology is scaled so badly. Would you have chosen it in year 11? I KNOW I WOULDN'T HAVE.

But its a subject that i find very easy.
 

solomarc20

*Yawn
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
146
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Hav u thought of what degree u want 2 do. I'd speak with ur careers advisor and ask him about uni courses.

But 2 b honest with u, I wouldn't worry until Year 10 shapes up a bit more 4u. Y10 is one of the best years of High School. Try not 2 worry about the HSC yet!

What subjects do u want 2 take in Y11?
 

law

Member
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
48
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
How you choose your subjects:

a. Look at what subjects are assumed knowledge for the uni course you want (remember if you can't choose these then you can always do a bridging course)

b. Do subjects you enjoy

c. The teacher DOES matter

d. Do subjects you can get a HSC mark of 85% or over (it doesn't matter what subjects you do so long as you can get this mark)

e. Do not do more than 13 units worth in yr 11 and in yr 12 try to keep around 12 units (students that do 10 units GENERALLY don't do as well as students that do 12 - remember if you stuff up a HSC exam, then that subject doesn't have to count toward your UAI)
 

m&ss2008

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
125
Location
The Shire
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
-may-cat- said:
look, no one really understands how scaling in the hsc works,
thats not true at all, there are plenty of explanations.
very very basically, all subjects have varied difficulties and should not be treated equally. for example, if someone gets 80% in 4unit maths and another person gets 80% in general maths, obviously the 4unit mark is better.

if you do well in a poorly scaling subject you are exempt from bad scaling and you are not punished for it. however, if you do badly in a generously scaling subject UAC will punish you by scaling you down considerably.

dont choose subjects just so you can get scaled up because you might find it disadvantages you. if you're bad at maths dont do maths. ignore scaling for subject selection but once you're locked in its always worth a look to see common scaling to determine how much effort should be put into each subject.

good luck with the SC and the senior years
 

fallenstar

liberate, educate.
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
645
Location
Lismore
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
As a seasoned Year 12 student, I must stress the following point to you Year 10's,

CHOOSE SUBJECTS THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT,
NOT WHAT YOU THINK WILL SCALE WELL.

Because if you achieve well in something, your mark and UAI will reflect that and scaling will not pull you down.

Good luck!
 

foram

Awesome Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
1,015
Location
Beyond Godlike
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
fallenstar said:
As a seasoned Year 12 student, I must stress the following point to you Year 10's,

CHOOSE SUBJECTS THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT,
NOT WHAT YOU THINK WILL SCALE WELL.

Because if you achieve well in something, your mark and UAI will reflect that and scaling will not pull you down.

Good luck!
Not only that, try to avoid general math. If you can do 2Unit math well, then it will scale infinitely better than general math. You can get a 99 in general math, and that will scale down to about 92, whereas a person who got 96 in 2U math will scale to about 93.

Also, standard english compared to advanced english is the same. Try to do advanced english because it scales infinitely better than standard english. If you can do well, please do advanced, not standard, no matter how much you may dislike english, just do advanced, like all the people in selective schools. Standard english is one of the WORST scaling subjects, because most state average people do it.

Heres a list of what I believe to be the best scaling subjects starting from the best and decending in an approximate order (languages excluded. all languages scale well except for chinese):

4U math
3U math
3U english
4U english
chemistry
physics
economics
advanced english
biology
2U math
modern history
anciend history

(Here is where it starts to get bad)

society and culture
legal studies
buisness studies
engineering studies
software design and development
drama

(Very bad scaling)
visual arts
pdhpe
food technology
design and technology
standard english
general math

and everything else i forgot to mention scales badly.
 

michael1990

Active Member
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
1,776
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
foram said:
Not only that, try to avoid general math. If you can do 2Unit math well, then it will scale infinitely better than general math. You can get a 99 in general math, and that will scale down to about 92, whereas a person who got 96 in 2U math will scale to about 93.

Also, standard english compared to advanced english is the same. Try to do advanced english because it scales infinitely better than standard english. If you can do well, please do advanced, not standard, no matter how much you may dislike english, just do advanced, like all the people in selective schools. Standard english is one of the WORST scaling subjects, because most state average people do it.

Heres a list of what I believe to be the best scaling subjects starting from the best and decending in an approximate order (languages excluded. all languages scale well except for chinese):

4U math
3U math
3U english
4U english
chemistry Economics
physics Physics
economics Chemistry
advanced english
biology
2U math
modern history Legal Studies
anciend history Modern History
Ancient History may scale the same (Modern and Ancient)

(Here is where it starts to get bad) By bad you mean, if you do well in these subjects it won't matter. Above 90 and scaling will not matter.

society and culture Business Studies
legal studies Society and Culture
buisness studies
engineering studies
software design and development
drama

(Very bad scaling)
visual arts
pdhpe
food technology
design and technology
standard english
general math

and everything else i forgot to mention scales badly.
I disagree with you with the things in red. I would change them to things next to it.
 

Aerath

Retired
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
10,169
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
That being said, if you have a passion for the arts or sport, you should really consider doing Visual Arts, PDHPE, Food Tech, DT etc. Scaling should not be a factor in deciding your subjects. Ever.
 

imoO

Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2008
Messages
302
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Choose subjects which you are good at, and for what you think your future career may be, or what you want it to be. It can steer you in the right derection, and there's always the optin to change which is a hassle, but hey, I'd do it if I really needed to/wanted to. I remember the first 3 weeks of school in year 11 were hectic, everybody changin subjects...lol
 

law

Member
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
48
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Look, the board of studies confuses everyone just so they can pull a few strings and keep James Ruse College coming first every year and everyone else is none the wiser!
 

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

Top