Should I drop to 10 units? (1 Viewer)

[tavee222]

I am at the start my first term of year twelve with 12 units: Advanced English, English Extension 1, English Extension 2, Economics, Legal Studies, Society and Culture and French Beginners through open high school.

I thoroughly enjoy all of my subjects, with the exception of French Beginners and I have therefore been contemplating dropping the subject for quite some time.

The main issues being:

1. The lesson style of open high school often leads to me prioritising other subjects that I enjoy over French.
2. Due to being enrolled quite late, I feel that I am fairly behind, especially still, due to the first reason. The more I feel I am behind, the more I accept that i should drop it and therefore allow myself to fall behind further.
3. I don't enjoy the course and teacher.

While I take full ownership on my failure within year 11 to catch up after being enrolled late and also own the fact that I allowed myself to work on other subjects during those periods, it feels too late to catch up and get into that rhythm at the start of year 12. I acknowledge that simply not liking a course/teacher is not reason enough to drop however along with the other reasons and the fairly low scaling, I feel it is relevant. I also know that I would use free periods after dropping the subject productively as I effectively do so now, just with guilt at the back of my mind as I know I should be working on French.

Throughout year 11, I naively believed that I would simply drop down to 10 units, leaving French behind in year 12. However, now that I have spoken to a few of my teachers and researched, I worry that it would be the wrong decision as I am essentially getting rid of any safety net. By the same logic though, is it really a safety net if I already don't study it?

To sum up, three main questions:

1. Is it possible/optimal to change my attitude and behaviour on the subject and catch up rather than drop it and focus on others as I already do (specifically one done by correspondence)?
2. Is dropping to 10 units a good idea if aiming for a high ATAR?
3. Is it worth waiting to drop a subject if my history shows that I probably won't work as hard on it as other subjects and could be using the time to improve the ones I enjoy?

Also to be noted: I am quite busy both at school and outside of as I am a School Captain, a part of exec bodies within extracurriculars, as well as undertaking two major works. In terms of grades, I go to a selective school and I am ranked 3rd in my English subjects, top 10 for all others except French as we are not given rankings (I don't imagine it would be very good though).

Any advice/answers highly appreciated. I have also made a poll, see above.
Thanks!

 

[supR]

Hey, most people in term 1 of HSC like myself battle with the 10 or 12 unit struggle, so don't feel alone.

To answer your specific questions -
1. Of course it is possible to change your attitude if you want to. By the sounds of the post, it appears as though you have little interest in the subject. I'd like the ask why you chose it in the first place?
2. A 99.95 can be achieved with 10 units or 12 units, so either way you can still achieve a high atar.
3. In this situation, it may to worth the wait as by asking for help on BoS, you are indicating that you are unsure as to whether you should drop it.

Overall, the big question here is to decide whether you actually enjoy learning French. If not, then I think we have our answer
But if you do enjoy French, then it isn't too late to "get your head in the game" and get back on track with the coursework.

 

[tavee222]

Hey! Thanks for your advice. To answer your question, I originally chose to study French as my careers advisor told me to do so after I expressed that I had an interest in working internationally, as well as many past students saying it was really rewarding. Ultimately, I think it is less the subject and more the learning style that makes me lose all enjoyment of it. Your point on being able to change my attitude only if I want to really resonates. The thought that I will magically start working hard if I decide not to drop it is probably quite idealised.
I think I have my answer, and that is to drop it. There's just the part of my mind asking what happens if I bomb one of my exams. Then again, what use will a subject I barely study for be if I do so?

This has now just become my inner thoughts written out here, sorry haha! Thank you again

 

[Frostguard]

I see you're kinda like me except your French is my Biology. I don't hate Biology but I don't love it either, I'm just doing it for the sake of just doing a Science and reading your stuff it seems you chose French not necessarily because you wanted too but because it yields good international outcomes and learning a language does seem pretty cool, that is if you can actually perform the basic skills of reading, writing and speaking.

1) Whilst it can be achieved, this is just a huge motivation or personality factor, it's hard trying to change yourself just for the final year of high school, I see my friends who have been extremely lazy throughout entire of high school and now have stepped up, becoming more organised and making sacrifices. You usually maintain your habits from year 11 and if you haven't really been studying French, then it is kind of an indicator that you won't put a lot of motivation and thought into Y12 French.

2) Dropping to 10 units will not damage your chance of a high ATAR, many kids who drop to 10 units do actually 99.95 ATAR (but then again they do 4U Math, Chem, Eng Adv and Physics) but the point is 10 units isn't going to kill your dream of a good ATAR. Just means you gotta make sure you do your very best in those 10 units.

3) With this question, most of my teachers recommend that if you're still considering dropping a subject, then keep it for a little while and see how you perform in your first assessment. Your results will show whether or not you actually have the chance of getting a good mark and thus using it as a safety net. If you perform well, but still dislike the subject, then maybe drop it, but if you perform badly and you still dislike the subject, it's probably best for you to stop.

Just remember once you drop a subject, you cannot pick it back up (although I'm not sure about Open High School subjects) but yeah you gotta make a confident decision where you won't regret it, and based off your reasons, I'd stay drop it, unless you don't find it a burden then keep it. Good Luck for the future buddy!