should i drop chemistry or legal studies? (1 Viewer)

[nobodyhome]

hey guys, i need a bit of guidance with subject dropping. for context, i take 3u math (math adv is accelerated), 3u english, visual arts, chemistry, legal studies, and in year 12 i plan to pick up eng ext 2. altogether that would be 13 units, with me doing 11 of them in year 12. however i’m planning on dropping one of my subjects so that id only be doing 9 units (still 11 units total)

i’m thinking of entering some psychology / criminology / arts related degree although i’m also open to something like forensic science, which makes me hesitant to have no science-related subjects. my atar goal is around a 96 but realistically id be happy with 90+

i haven't gotten prelim marks back but if i had to predict my marks, i failed chem (although most of the cohort felt like they failed), and got mid/high 80s for legal. my average mark for chem is a low band 5 and for legal a high band 5 (been doing assignments mostly last minute…)

anyways here’s my thought process for dropping chem/legal:

pros of dropping chem:
> way less time spent labouring, time i can instead spend on major works. it took me like 2 hours for me just to wrap my head around the basic concept of limiting reagents and yet what was tested in the prelim paper was waaayyyy harder than just that.
> less stress, whenever i walk into the classroom my brain becomes smooth as a bowling ball. i'm more of an english person so it doesn’t naturally click.
> im performing worse in chem than i am legal. if i had to guess, in year 12 after the cohort shrinks, my rank would be dead centre or even in the lower half. (last time i checked my rank was in the upper half)

cons of dropping chem:
> i actually enjoy it and when i DO take the time to study the concepts (i don’t bc of poor time management) it is super rewarding
> i would appreciate some variety in my subjects, like hell, most of my exams involve an extended response of sorts so chem / math ext counterbalances that
> teacher is good, if i got enough assistance i could actually do well in this subject. i also converse with my classmates quite a lot, hence a lot of teamwork
> still scales better than legal, and my chem marks are only marginally less than my legal marks.

pros of dropping legal:
> not as mentally engaging nor exciting as chemistry, also most of the class doesn’t want to learn and we hardly do any work so it’s a very distracting environment. that being said, half the class is gonna drop lol
> i also dont like how the class is taught, all we do is take notes and answer textbook questions and it’s not engaging at all.
> i have no friends in this class, thus no teamwork or sharing of notes, but that might change as the class gets smaller

cons of dropping legal:
> one of the few subjects that i know how to study for, so my time spent studying here would most likely guarantee me a high band 5 at least (unlike chem which might still result in some lacklustre marks). my teacher used my essay as an exemplar for the class once so clearly i do have skill.
> not gonna lie the hsc course is more interesting than the prelim course bc there’s a whole unit on crime.
> it’s one of the subjects that doesn't require much mental effort on my end. as i said before, with just enough studying i can get a good mark.
> im above average in the class. my rank in year 12 would most likely be top 25%

if you have any other questions i'm happy to answer them. I previously considered dropping art because it's notoriously a low-scaling subject and i'm scared it will affect my atar, however my rank is near the top (2/11), my mark is around a low band 6, and im confident with enough dedication and time management i'll be able to get 95+

 

[enchantedivory27]

i think you should drop chem, 2 major works is full on and Legal hsc course is so much better from my experience, yes a lot of people drop it but if you stay and work hard you can go better than most. also if you know the Legal skills and are sure you will do well i say definitely keep it. your rank will go up if you put in work, i went from 20s to 9th final year 12.

There are better ways to learn legal content than textbook Qs for sure, u could suggest ideas to your teacher? thats not rlly your job but even little changes like as a class, timing yourselves doing essay plans is great to learn, makes you think on the spot. Crime is very interesting but preferably i like the options better its chiller oddly even tho its 50% of the Hsc paper, crime is soooo much u have to know and have to write on the spot but its still much better than year 11

 

[nobodyhome]

i think you should drop chem, 2 major works is full on and Legal hsc course is so much better from my experience, yes a lot of people drop it but if you stay and work hard you can go better than most. also if you know the Legal skills and are sure you will do well i say definitely keep it. your rank will go up if you put in work, i went from 20s to 9th final year 12.

There are better ways to learn legal content than textbook Qs for sure, u could suggest ideas to your teacher? thats not rlly your job but even little changes like as a class, timing yourselves doing essay plans is great to learn, makes you think on the spot. Crime is very interesting but preferably i like the options better its chiller oddly even tho its 50% of the Hsc paper, crime is soooo much u have to know and have to write on the spot but its still much better than year 11

hello sorry for late response but i agree. got my prelim marks back, and i ended up getting the highest mark for the legal studies prelim (92), chem i still did relatively well. but i actually ended up dropping art bc i don't think i'm prepared to do 2 major works and also still be required to sit an exam for art that i performed pretty poorly on anyway, so i'd rather not at all. yeah our teacher admitted that the year 11 coursework was very dry bc in order to get the real interesting content you have know the history and fundamentals of our legal system, as covered in year 11.

 

[keyboardsmash]

chem is a very hard subject from what i've heard, i would personally recommend you keep legal studies as it's just a syllabus dump. it may be boring but the content will be easy to stick into your head rather than chem