subject selection advice needed :’) (1 Viewer)

[niecoups]

hello!
Im a year 10 who currently needs to be considering their subject selections and I really just have a vague idea of what I want to do but I’m really clueless in general of what is good and what is bad and all the technical stuff like being able to do a 1 unit subject, subject dropping, scaling making ur marks higher or lower or any other things regarding subject selection and the courses.

i am honestly interested into going for a medicine related career in the long run and the subjects I have kind of ruled out for year 11 (?) so far include:

Eng Adv (2U)
Maths Extension 1 (3U)
Chemistry (2U)
Biology (2U)

and the subjects I’m not rlly sure about taking include

Japanese Continuers (2U)
Legal Studies, Business Studies or Economics (2U).

if you have taken any of these courses, I would love to know your experiences on taking them all because I genuinely haven’t discussed this yet with any of my teachers nor have looked over the syllabuses at all! I have also heard things about some subjects requiring 2 (?) essays in a single exam, so please tell me if any of these require that .

also, I would love to know out of which of the three commerce based subjects would be most recommended. (i alr have an interest in all of these subjects already btw which is why I am ruling them out)

thank you so much 🥹

 

[its_ace21]

legal is 3 essays while business is one essay plus a business report so basically 2

dont pick legal, i think business is easier than eco but its boring

i did business and legal but not eco so i cant comment on that

 

[niecoups]

legal is 3 essays while business is one essay plus a business report so basically 2

dont pick legal, i think business is easier than eco but its boring

i did business and legal but not eco so i cant comment on that

could you give me more information on both legal and business if its alright (like what you learn in the syllabus etc.)? ive heard from others that legal is rlly interesting and although content heavy, more easier to understand conceptually than business but i wouldnt know... legal was also what i was most inclined to choose out of all but i rlly dont want to do 3 essays

 

[its_ace21]

could you give me more information on both legal and business if its alright (like what you learn in the syllabus etc.)? ive heard from others that legal is rlly interesting and although content heavy, more easier to understand conceptually than business but i wouldnt know... legal was also what i was most inclined to choose out of all but i rlly dont want to do 3 essays

yea legal is pretty interesting, i cant really remember the year 11 syllabus (i remember learning about like domestic violence and ATSI people/law/customs or something but i think it changes from school to school) but in year 12 theres crime, human rights, and 2 options that ur teacher/school picks from like 8? we chose consumer and family, which was pretty good for me since the consumer topic tied in well with business studies so a lot of content overlapped and i didnt need to study that much but yea im pretty sure a lot of schools choose like world order which ties in with ur human rights

business suckssss its genuinely so boring but i found it really easy. Id sleep in class and then go home and teach myself half the stuff coz its literally just memorisation. Business i cant remember year 11 content that much coz we skipped the last part but ull find it easy if u did commerce in year9-10. Year 12 content theres 4 main topics so its Operations, Finance, Marketing and Human Resources. I personally loved finance and operations and hated HR but everyones different (some stuff from hr tied in with legal which was nice).

For ur legal (hsc) exam, 65% of ur paper is essays, so its split into 20 mc (crime + human rights only), 15 mrks short answer (hr only), one crime essay (15 marks), and 2 option essays (25 marks each). MC and short answer u can finish quickly and if u write quickly ull def finish the exam on time BUT im pretty sure i didnt have time to check over my work in the hsc

Business is split into 20 mc, 40 marks short answer, 20 marks business report and 20 marks essay

So although legal is more interesting, i would rather choose business, while both subjects its pure memorisation, legal is more and CRIME SUCKS

 

[mmmmmmmmaaaaaaa]

I would pick economics. It’s interesting. You get to appreciate and understand the connectedness of everything … how one thing impacts another - both at a domestic level, as well as international. The exam format isn’t that bad either. It’s a bit different in university however but you’ll cross that bridge when you come to it.

I did legal studies for hsc as well.

 

[Neogotmyback]

I second economics

 

[moonsuyoung]

I second economics

same I recommend eco and the content is really fun as well but its quite content heavy

 

[niecoups]

I would pick economics. It’s interesting. You get to appreciate and understand the connectedness of everything … how one thing impacts another - both at a domestic level, as well as international. The exam format isn’t that bad either. It’s a bit different in university however but you’ll cross that bridge when you come to it.

I did legal studies for hsc as well.

could i hear how you feel about legal studies and more about economics if its alright? based off of its_ace21's comments i now feel more inclined to choose business over legal but i would love to know more about legal and economics if you could add anything on :'). also wdym its a tad bit different in uni?

 

[niecoups]

well firstly university economics is quite math heavy, opposed to hs economics which doesn’t feature much maths at all. There also isn’t much essay writing. What more do you want to know about economics on the hsc level apart from what I’ve already said? Economics was my best (in terms of marks) and favourite subject in high school so there may be some bias. The content is interesting and it’s quite satisfying once you see how it all connects etc. I would definitely pick it over business.
For legal, I did consumer and workplace. I had similar feelings to ace about the subject. The content itself isn’t hard to grasp but it’s very rote learn, there’s so much memorisation and content in the syllabus. Also, the exam is really tough on time, I always struggled to finish the exam and be happy with the amount I wrote. One good thing is that it’s so easy to guess the essay questions - something that helped me a lot because I prioritised other subjects (especially given exam times).

hm... when you say 'its satisfying once you see how it all connects etc.' could you please elaborate? im sososo sorry bc all im thinking about rn when you say that is the 5 sector circular flow model which i dont find that satisfying at all imo also do you get what the economic essay structure is like? bc i saw some art of smart blog post telling about someone failing it and now i feel sad bc i know nothing about economic essays im rlly sorry if im racking your brain rn

and also oh my thank you for telling me about legal studies being rlly tough on exam time bc even in general i suck at writing essays (haha english) so i think i would have a mental breakdown in the actual hsc if even you found it time constraining. i guess i wont be considering legal anymore thank you sosoos much!

 

[shoulfer]

hello!
Im a year 10 who currently needs to be considering their subject selections and I really just have a vague idea of what I want to do but I’m really clueless in general of what is good and what is bad and all the technical stuff like being able to do a 1 unit subject, subject dropping, scaling making ur marks higher or lower or any other things regarding subject selection and the courses.

i am honestly interested into going for a medicine related career in the long run and the subjects I have kind of ruled out for year 11 (?) so far include:

Eng Adv (2U)
Maths Extension 1 (3U)
Chemistry (2U)
Biology (2U)

and the subjects I’m not rlly sure about taking include

Japanese Continuers (2U)
Legal Studies, Business Studies or Economics (2U).

if you have taken any of these courses, I would love to know your experiences on taking them all because I genuinely haven’t discussed this yet with any of my teachers nor have looked over the syllabuses at all! I have also heard things about some subjects requiring 2 (?) essays in a single exam, so please tell me if any of these require that .

also, I would love to know out of which of the three commerce based subjects would be most recommended. (i alr have an interest in all of these subjects already btw which is why I am ruling them out)

thank you so much 🥹

don't do bio I despise bio.

 

[niecoups]

don't do bio I despise bio.

y if you despise it then you don't do it i find it pretty fine imo

 

[shoulfer]

y if you despise it then you don't do it i find it pretty fine imo

I enjoyed it in y10 too, not anymore.

 

[xoNat]

legal is 3 essays while business is one essay plus a business report so basically 2

dont pick legal, i think business is easier than eco but its boring

i did business and legal but not eco so i cant comment on that

you would have loved economics

 

[its_ace21]

you would have loved economics

Ikk I wish my school offered it

 

[weeze]

heyy I dont know if this is too late of a reply but I take Legal, Business & Bio and currently studying for trials so here is my opinion whilst i procrastinate studying at 3am:

--> a lot of people dropped legal studies after yr 11 at my school but its a nice subject that gets better in year 12 imo (honestly most subjects get better in year 12 except for business studies lol)

--> business studies sucks its super boring but its a good bludge and easy pass if you memorise the entire syllabus however I wish I dropped it because it got worse in year 12 since u have to kinda use your brain but its like not even rewarding brain usage since ur just memorising the syllabus

--> legal studies is like the worst hsc exam format out of my current subjects, its a lot of writing + multiple choice + u gotta memorise a lot of cases + u should probably check what your school teaches since theres multiple choice of topics for legal studies but if your school does world order as a topic then do it since that topic is superr interesting since you get to talk about real world international issues and conflicts. if you suck at writing essays DO NOT TAKE LEGAL STUDIES!!! also crime sucks i think someone already mentioned that but its really the worst

--> if i was in yr 10 again I would pick less content heavy subjects to ease my work load right now and your subject preferences are like 100x harder than mine hahahahha so just think about where you will be in 2 years because the jump from year 10 to being a senior is a big one

--> i dont take economics but ive heard its the hardest of the humanities and a lot of my friends aren't doing so hot in it right now but it seems a lot more rewarding than business studies

--> bio is the best subject ever
--> i miss year 10 work

take this all with a pinch of salt as I haven't finished the HSC but I've done quite a lot of practice papers from bio, legal & business hsc exams ... personally if i was you i would choose the gigachad humanities subject: modern history (jk, but perhaps if u dont mind writing a lot and like learning about war?)

 

[niecoups]

heyy I dont know if this is too late of a reply but I take Legal, Business & Bio and currently studying for trials so here is my opinion whilst i procrastinate studying at 3am:

--> a lot of people dropped legal studies after yr 11 at my school but its a nice subject that gets better in year 12 imo (honestly most subjects get better in year 12 except for business studies lol)

--> business studies sucks its super boring but its a good bludge and easy pass if you memorise the entire syllabus however I wish I dropped it because it got worse in year 12 since u have to kinda use your brain but its like not even rewarding brain usage since ur just memorising the syllabus

--> legal studies is like the worst hsc exam format out of my current subjects, its a lot of writing + multiple choice + u gotta memorise a lot of cases + u should probably check what your school teaches since theres multiple choice of topics for legal studies but if your school does world order as a topic then do it since that topic is superr interesting since you get to talk about real world international issues and conflicts. if you suck at writing essays DO NOT TAKE LEGAL STUDIES!!! also crime sucks i think someone already mentioned that but its really the worst

--> if i was in yr 10 again I would pick less content heavy subjects to ease my work load right now and your subject preferences are like 100x harder than mine hahahahha so just think about where you will be in 2 years because the jump from year 10 to being a senior is a big one

--> i dont take economics but ive heard its the hardest of the humanities and a lot of my friends aren't doing so hot in it right now but it seems a lot more rewarding than business studies

--> bio is the best subject ever
--> i miss year 10 work

take this all with a pinch of salt as I haven't finished the HSC but I've done quite a lot of practice papers from bio, legal & business hsc exams ... personally if i was you i would choose the gigachad humanities subject: modern history (jk, but perhaps if u dont mind writing a lot and like learning about war?)

ooh i see! thank you so much for this! my subject preferneces as from back then to now have altered quite a bit as now i am just contemplating whether i should be taking business and eco or if its anything crazy im considering taking maybe geography and business, but i geniunely dont know anything about geo bc i haven't bothered asking for experiences nor can i testify if im good at it or not bc i haven't spent a good chunk of my school life having it as a subject.

thank you for telling me all about your legal studies experiences! i'm absolute shit at writing essays so now ive learnt to steer right away from ever choosing legal studies but thank you for the things you've told me about it.

also is business studies really that bad in year 12... im planning on doing 12 units in year 12 bc i am just panaroid about my capabilities even though im only in year 10 so im not planning to drop it if i take it. i am so sorry that you cannot drop it though you will ace this

how do you know if a subject is content heavy or not? my school is making our subject selections due week 2 of term 3 i think and i geniunely don't know anything about some of the subjects and my school won't be hosting their info session thing until like a week before subject selections are due. could i know what subjects you chose if alr as well?

also thank you for saying that bio is the best i feel quite passionate about bio already so that is very assuring to me.
im very sorry i dropped history elective in year 9 and our school had made it so you couldn't do modern or ancient history unless if you were approved by the elective history teacher in year 9 and i never even considered taking it so yeah ;-;

 

[amatterra]

ooh i see! thank you so much for this! my subject preferneces as from back then to now have altered quite a bit as now i am just contemplating whether i should be taking business and eco or if its anything crazy im considering taking maybe geography and business, but i geniunely dont know anything about geo bc i haven't bothered asking for experiences nor can i testify if im good at it or not bc i haven't spent a good chunk of my school life having it as a subject.

thank you for telling me all about your legal studies experiences! i'm absolute shit at writing essays so now ive learnt to steer right away from ever choosing legal studies but thank you for the things you've told me about it.

also is business studies really that bad in year 12... im planning on doing 12 units in year 12 bc i am just panaroid about my capabilities even though im only in year 10 so im not planning to drop it if i take it. i am so sorry that you cannot drop it though you will ace this

how do you know if a subject is content heavy or not? my school is making our subject selections due week 2 of term 3 i think and i geniunely don't know anything about some of the subjects and my school won't be hosting their info session thing until like a week before subject selections are due. could i know what subjects you chose if alr as well?

also thank you for saying that bio is the best i feel quite passionate about bio already so that is very assuring to me.
im very sorry i dropped history elective in year 9 and our school had made it so you couldn't do modern or ancient history unless if you were approved by the elective history teacher in year 9 and i never even considered taking it so yeah ;-;

eco rules

 

[Average Boreduser]

Ikk I wish my school offered it

Your school offered you nothing AS A FKING PRIVATE SCHOOL AND ITS ACC SO FKED OKMFOPVJ:LNR#KVIJDLSGHKBJWD. FUCK UR SCHOOL HOENSTLY./ Yall shouldve like applied to a public schools bc you'd likely get 10x more subject opportunities- assuming from the fact that about 80% of your cohort got forced to do the same subejcts... LIKE WHO TF R THEY TRYING TO IMPRESS? 'Oh look we have the highest Ext2 b6 rate'- Meanwhile, the school hiding the fact that they had a grand total of 10 students doing the course Bruh U cant be srs rn if there's enough classes cater nearly a full cohort surely there is sufficient funding to cater students who want to extend themselves? Ok im done ranting .

 

[weeze]

ooh i see! thank you so much for this! my subject preferneces as from back then to now have altered quite a bit as now i am just contemplating whether i should be taking business and eco or if its anything crazy im considering taking maybe geography and business, but i geniunely dont know anything about geo bc i haven't bothered asking for experiences nor can i testify if im good at it or not bc i haven't spent a good chunk of my school life having it as a subject.

thank you for telling me all about your legal studies experiences! i'm absolute shit at writing essays so now ive learnt to steer right away from ever choosing legal studies but thank you for the things you've told me about it.

also is business studies really that bad in year 12... im planning on doing 12 units in year 12 bc i am just panaroid about my capabilities even though im only in year 10 so im not planning to drop it if i take it. i am so sorry that you cannot drop it though you will ace this

how do you know if a subject is content heavy or not? my school is making our subject selections due week 2 of term 3 i think and i geniunely don't know anything about some of the subjects and my school won't be hosting their info session thing until like a week before subject selections are due. could i know what subjects you chose if alr as well?

also thank you for saying that bio is the best i feel quite passionate about bio already so that is very assuring to me.
im very sorry i dropped history elective in year 9 and our school had made it so you couldn't do modern or ancient history unless if you were approved by the elective history teacher in year 9 and i never even considered taking it so yeah ;-;

my friends who take geography like it and from what i see its one of the more well-rounded subjects in the syllabus
sadly like every single subject is content heavy haha but in general legal, economics, both histories, all the sciences & pdhpe are notorious for having a pretty difficult workload/require a lot of revision. the least content heavy subjects are probably the arts so dance, drama, visual arts, music 1 because its more practical based as well. business studies is a bit of an odd one because there is a lot to remember and revise but what your learning isn't as difficult as the theory in economics for example

other subjects that probs have a lighter amount of theory are geography, society and culture (but u have to focus on a major work), food technology and that's rlly all i can think of right now based off of what my friends say...

i feel bad cause i kinda said avoid content heavy subjects but your choices are pretty limited since if you dont want a theory heavy subject then your only choices are major work subjects which can be a hell of its own (im currently watching my friends scramble to finish their procrastinated major works haha) but overall maybe you should do geography? my friends who take geography really like it and it seems like one of the less grueling subjects in year 12

 

[zahri992]

here to tell you about english adv, biology and maybe japanese

im a bit confused about if you're good at english or not, but it's the easiest subject to become better at. if you're considering standard, at least START in advanced for a term and see how you go.

english adv may become the bane of your existence - your best bet is to get a tutor to help you from when you start year 11, so by the time you get to year 12 you can pump out essays like a robot. i had a big ego and never wanted an english tutor because i was good at it in younger years, but kept getting slammed with 75s all through year 11, so for year 12 i sucked it up and got a tutor. you may think people don't have one, but i can assure you if you get one tutor, get an english tutor. EVERYBODY HAS AN ENGLISH TUTOR. i've had to literally change how i write completely, but hey, i'm getting 85s now so i'm much happier.

if you're already decent at english, consider picking up ext 1. it doesn't take up much of your time and is very easy to drop if needed. the final hsc exam is only an essay and a creative. it is a very high scaling subject - i was never going to do it but your best 2 units of english will always be counted. so, for whatever reason, if your advanced mark isn't as high as you'd like it to be, you have a chance to redeem yourself in ext. it is not much harder than adv.

for bio, it is very content heavy. if you like science, you'll like it. however you can't just become 'good' at it, it's so much memorising and there aren't basic principles you implement into other questions like chem or physics. you just have to know everything. my biggest tip for bio is to find out who the teacher is and make sure they're good. talk to kids in the grades above u that do bio and find out what the teachers are like. i have been cursed with a horrible bio teacher who decided to do the syllabus backwards. the yr12 content is very fun and interesting, yr11 not so much, but it's what you make it i guess. the good thing about bio is there are no essays or anything, most you'll get is an 8 marker where you just respond to a syllabus dot point (but there will only ever be 1 per paper). most of it is just repetition and practice, but the teacher is the most important thing about bio. if you try to teach it to yourself like i did, you will fall behind

for japanese, though i can't talk specifically about it i did italian continuers accelerated and got a 91 with basically no study all year (i am not exaggerating, i did 3 past papers the entire year). i'm pretty sure the syllabus for each language is very similar, but the content is very easy and absolute light work. some things are so basic, like speaking about your family, friends, school, and even holidays you've been on. if you have any prior knowledge of the language you are doing, it shouldn't even be a question if you do a language. you DEFINITELY should. I miss how easy that content was compared to the stuff i'm trying to learn now