History Extension or English Extension 2? (1 Viewer)

[Cute-Duckie]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently in Year 11, and I'm unsure which of history extension or english extension 2 to pick up for next year.

As a bit of context...

History:
I'm studying Accelerated Ancient History currently (trials in 2 weeks eek). My average mark in this course is currently an 89%, so I'm right on the cusp of a band 6 ATM (although that can change in a blink of an eye with the final two exams ofc).

For English Extension 2
In English Advanced this year my marks have been a 28/30 and a 19/20. For English Extension 1 my marks have been a 21/25 and a 24/45.

For General Existence
My strengths generally lie in presentations, as I'm quite good at that register and condensing over a long period of time for my writing. I'm not really sure what I want to do for uni - I'm very humanities focused (my subjects are in my signature), I;m thinking of studying music or an arts degree of some kind but it's still all quite up in the air right now.

If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask, hopefully this is enough info for someone to give some sort of opinion lol

Thanks so much!

 

[MoeyNeeds90+]

EE2 you get the whole year to cover basically a major work, in the form of a film, story, fiction, poem, etc....It is really good, tho if u don't enjoy English that much (it seems u DO) then don't do it. Its also pretty ,such independent so if u cant survive on ur own , and ur teacher wont be the best to support u don't do it.
History extension is reading, reading, reading reading reading...and reading. You just need to sink into history, and books of history, notes historians, and then create a major work on it...basically it sucks.
Do EE2, its so much better

 

[phm.zip]

I have done both EE2 and History Extension for my HSC so I feel as though I can provide some valuable insight that may help you decide what you would like to do

Congratulations on your accelerated ancient history btw (i personally didnt know that you could do this), but based on this, I think it is pretty clear that you are interested in history and therefore, thats why you may feel inclined to take history extension. For myself, I had chosen to take History Ext almost on a whim, I was second in my modern history course and I had a good, dependable teacher teaching our course so I felt as though I could take it. However, even when I am first in my modern history course now, History Ext requires a lot more nuance and a very strong understanding of historical concepts, and overall, much more challenging than your 2U history courses (my other classmate does ancient as well and finds the same issues I do). Alongside this, you will require a personal interest in a historiographic topic within history to drive your major work. I suggest that you consider what your individual interests in history is and what type of major work project you would like to create before you enter the course as it will take a significant amount of your time. Also, you should ask your teacher which elective your school teaches, or perhaps is considering teaching, as you will also have to engage with another topic with significant historiography for your hsc exam (for me, this is the perceptions of JFK). Ultimately, if you are doing this well in ancient currently, there is no harm in trying it out and you can always drop it at anytime.

For EE2, you can always integrate your historical interests into the course. I made a creative nonfiction piece based on the Sewol Ferry Tragedy for my project and my initial proposal revolved around the ways in which changing values and social attitudes have impacted the construction of historical fiction and pieces (talking about Jojo Rabbit and satiricism in general really) for an essay. However, it is extremely self driven and takes a large amount of dedication to complete, especially as you get closer to the deadline. I think ultimately if you enjoy the concept of your piece and enjoy English, it is a good choice and hopefully you have a good teacher who can guide you (i did and it made the experience much more enjoyable). Not that this is extremely important, but i am pretty sure EE2 scales better than history ext, BUT ultimately, what is important is that you are both, good at writing, and enjoy writing.

You could always take both as I did, I actually have no regrets about taking them at the same time even when some of my deadlines did cut each other a bit close, but ultimately both courses are really enjoyable and I enjoyed creating both of my projects. I might suggest even taking up both initially, the history extension major work proposal is due a lot later than the viva for EE2 and therefore, you may find that you enjoy one subject more than the other and drop it, or alternatively, really get into both of the subjects and keep them both. They are both really rewarding courses so ultimately do what you think aligns with your interests the most (and also dont take a unsatisfactory mark in extension 1 as a reason to not take ext 2, in my HSC internals I had done pretty poorly in some of my extension one assessments but get 80-90+ in my extension 2 assessments, although the marks you recieve are only reserves), but yeah, think about it a bit more and I hope this was even a little helpful