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Subject Selections?! HELP! (1 Viewer)

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Hey! So I'm picking my year 11 subjects a week from today and I really don't know what to choose as my final 2 unit subject. So far the subjects I've picked are:
  • Advanced English
  • English Extension 1 (7th in my year atm so I should be able to get in)
  • Mathematics (Not the biggest fan of maths but I think it'd be really helpful after school and my parents will kill me if I drop it. Currently doing 5.3 advanced but ranked 39th and have passed 1 exam in two years :/ All the teachers reckon I should do 2 unit though and if its to hard I'll drop down to general)
  • Studies of Religion: I (Catholic school so I have to do a religion but II seems kinda interesting. Can anyone tell me any more about it?)
  • PDHPE (just slightly obsessed with PDHPE and PASS and I think I'm coming 1st in my class for both so there is no way I'm going to drop it even if it is mostly theory)
  • Modern History (I really like History Elective and I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 10. But would Ancient History be better than Modern? I like both but I'm only doing 1.)
  • Sports Lifestyle and Recreation (As I said I like PE and PASS and this would make up for the prac.)
So this leaves me with one more 2 unit subject to choose. I do want to do one so I don't want to do 2 unit RE and extension english and end up with 12 that way - I just don't know which one to pick. When I finish school I'm thinking of becoming a PDHPE teacher but I HATE science with a passion so I don't think I'd like Biology very much. I'm also considering the Navy or the Police Force. So here are my options:
  • Legal Studies (It looks interesting and could be useful in the future)
  • Entertainment VET (I'm interested in production and stuff but would it be after school?)
  • Drama (I like drama and love performing but Mum reckons its a waste of time gave me this whole lecture on not doing it and well I'm not that great at it (B in year 9 but mostly cause I was good at the theory).
One more question. My school doesn't do dance but I really wish I could do it and I've been dancing for almost 13 years. Is there any way that I could do it not at school?

So what do you think? What are your opinions on the subjects and which one do you think I should do? btw I don't care about scaling, enough people have told me you can get any ATAR with any subjects, crappy scaling or not. THANK YOU!!!!!!
 

TheGreatest99.95

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they sound like good subs, what atar are you aiming for? Id suggest going through the syllabus and asking older students doing the three subs you are tossing up about, making it easier to make the decision.
 
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they sound like good subs, what atar are you aiming for? Id suggest going through the syllabus and asking older students doing the three subs you are tossing up about, making it easier to make the decision.
I'm probs aiming high 80s, 90s but tbh i haven't really thought about it that much. I spoke to the legal studies and drama teacher but they just made me even more confused about which one I should do.
 

enoilgam

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I think you can do most courses outside of school at TAFE. Personally, you should choose the subjects you want to do. Dont fall into the trap of parental pressure - at the end of the day your the one who is going to do all the work for that subject and the exams not your parents. Considering that you have only passed one 5.3 exam in 2 years, you are really going to struggle in 2 unit. Personally, I think you should drop maths altogether and do drama and dance (if you can arrange to do it at TAFE) as you seem to want to do those subjects most. If you cannot do dance, then do legal as the skills you learn in it link well with modern, SOR and advanced english.

Also, most HSC courses dont really help you at university. Unless you are doing a degree where a subject is recommended or assumed knowledge, choosing subjects based on what will help you outside of school is pointless. I hope my advice was helpful and not too negative or pessimistic.
 

enoilgam

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I spoke to the legal studies and drama teacher but they just made me even more confused about which one I should do.
Dont trust the opinions of such teachers. They are confusing you because they are trying their best to recruit you to their subjects. Since your aiming for 80's/90's, I'm assuming your a high ranking student, so teachers will really want you to take their subject in order to push the marks of the cohort up.
 
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I think you can do most courses outside of school at TAFE. Personally, you should choose the subjects you want to do. Dont fall into the trap of parental pressure - at the end of the day your the one who is going to do all the work for that subject and the exams not your parents. Considering that you have only passed one 5.3 exam in 2 years, you are really going to struggle in 2 unit. Personally, I think you should drop maths altogether and do drama and dance (if you can arrange to do it at TAFE) as you seem to want to do those subjects most. If you cannot do dance, then do legal

Okay. I'm trying not to listen to them. Well - Dad doesn't really care but yeah, I know what you mean, Mum's not studying it, I am. I haven't really thought much about dropping maths but it is very tempting. I'm hoping that the teacher I get next year (assuming I do mathematics 2 unit) will explain things well. I'm in the second 5.3 class and last exam 4 people in my class passed - i think i can 6th or something - so if they don't i reckon the whole class will probably fail. I'm still going to consider dropping it though. I'm looking at the dance thing at TAFE atm but I'll look properly 2moz. I don't think I'll do it cause I don't reckon I'll have much outside of school time with studying, normal dancing, extension and stuff but I'll still consider it. Legal is still very tempting. Thank you :)
 

clissold

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Do..

English Advanced
English Extension One
2U Mathematics
PDHPE
Legal Studies
Modern History
Studies of Religion I

Good subjects, wide variety of fields, drop most hated one in Year 12, 90+ definitely achievable.. :)
 
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Dont trust the opinions of such teachers. They are confusing you because they are trying their best to recruit you to their subjects. Since your aiming for 80's/90's, I'm assuming your a high ranking student, so teachers will really want you to take their subject in order to push the marks of the cohort up.
Haha, I could sorta tell. The sac teacher kept trying to talk me into it and stuff. uh uh, not gonna do that. Yeah, I'm doing pretty well this year with an A in everything but maths and I haven't exactly studied for anything except maths and PASS but that;s gonna have to change next year. The PE teacher even came into my pass class and told us that he'd be very dissapointed if the top 20 pass students didn't do pe :p well he got his wish from me anyway. Thanks for the answers too :)
 

Shadowdude

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Hey! So I'm picking my year 11 subjects a week from today and I really don't know what to choose as my final 2 unit subject. So far the subjects I've picked are:
  • Advanced English
  • English Extension 1 (7th in my year atm so I should be able to get in)
  • Mathematics (Not the biggest fan of maths but I think it'd be really helpful after school and my parents will kill me if I drop it. Currently doing 5.3 advanced but ranked 39th and have passed 1 exam in two years :/ All the teachers reckon I should do 2 unit though and if its to hard I'll drop down to general)
  • Studies of Religion: I (Catholic school so I have to do a religion but II seems kinda interesting. Can anyone tell me any more about it?)
  • PDHPE (just slightly obsessed with PDHPE and PASS and I think I'm coming 1st in my class for both so there is no way I'm going to drop it even if it is mostly theory)
  • Modern History (I really like History Elective and I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 10. But would Ancient History be better than Modern? I like both but I'm only doing 1.)
  • Sports Lifestyle and Recreation (As I said I like PE and PASS and this would make up for the prac.)
So this leaves me with one more 2 unit subject to choose. I do want to do one so I don't want to do 2 unit RE and extension english and end up with 12 that way - I just don't know which one to pick. When I finish school I'm thinking of becoming a PDHPE teacher but I HATE science with a passion so I don't think I'd like Biology very much. I'm also considering the Navy or the Police Force. So here are my options:
  • Legal Studies (It looks interesting and could be useful in the future)
  • Entertainment VET (I'm interested in production and stuff but would it be after school?)
  • Drama (I like drama and love performing but Mum reckons its a waste of time gave me this whole lecture on not doing it and well I'm not that great at it (B in year 9 but mostly cause I was good at the theory).
One more question. My school doesn't do dance but I really wish I could do it and I've been dancing for almost 13 years. Is there any way that I could do it not at school?

So what do you think? What are your opinions on the subjects and which one do you think I should do? btw I don't care about scaling, enough people have told me you can get any ATAR with any subjects, crappy scaling or not. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Pick the subject you like the most. If you can't decide between them - pick the subject that interests you the most, if that fails, pick the subject that will best equip you for the future, but know that basically no uni course has formal prerequisites. That's the basics really...

If it were me, I'd do Legal. Though since you love performing - pick Drama. I'm not sure about VET's so I won't comment on that.
 

LoveHateSchool

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You can do dance by correspondence or at distance ed-not as good as a class though. Never done dance as a school subject, though I'm an avid dancer outside of school. I prefer to keep it outside of school as a hobby, so high five fellow long time dancer.

Reading what you've written it sounds like you could excel the most at legal. (Good english and history marks suggest you would also be able to perform in this subject). Though you could also pick Drama if you really love it.
 

mangoz

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Yeah i want to umm emphasis a point. NEVER LISTEN TO YOUR TEACHERS (Y). Follow what you think is right, take a look at the courses and the syllabus for each one. Background knowledge for why i said the thing in caps is because teachers convinced me to take accelerated Geography instead of modern history when i was coming 3rd in my grade for history and i really liked it but yup, teachers those convincing bastards. LOL :)
 

lil_pembo

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If you are doing SLR one unit just for the year, thats fun, but if you are doing it as a 2 unit course, it is a waste of time.
If you want to be a PDHPE teacher, I would suggest doing community and family studies...
Drama is a major works subject which is partially dependent on other people, making it even more difficult as a major work.
Chances are, you'll drop to general math, but if you fail your first test massively, drop straight away, the longer you take to drop, the harder it is to catch up (I dropped at the end of yr 11 so I got all the yr 12 stuff, but parts of the yr11 can be tested...
The english sounds good :) as does PE, it is awesome, I love it.
Biology is pretty interesting, but if you dont like science, dont bother.
If you like history, why not do both? they are very different, no content overlap...
Legal is very essay based, which if you are good at english, you will be fine.
SOR I is really interesting, if you like history and english, you will love it. Usually SLR 1 unit and SOR I are on at the same time as SORII, but I wish I had done 2 unit, gives you greater options at the end of yr 11 also. You can always drop down to 1 unit aswell...
 
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If you are doing SLR one unit just for the year, thats fun, but if you are doing it as a 2 unit course, it is a waste of time.
If you want to be a PDHPE teacher, I would suggest doing community and family studies...
Drama is a major works subject which is partially dependent on other people, making it even more difficult as a major work.
Chances are, you'll drop to general math, but if you fail your first test massively, drop straight away, the longer you take to drop, the harder it is to catch up (I dropped at the end of yr 11 so I got all the yr 12 stuff, but parts of the yr11 can be tested...
The english sounds good :) as does PE, it is awesome, I love it.
Biology is pretty interesting, but if you dont like science, dont bother.
If you like history, why not do both? they are very different, no content overlap...
Legal is very essay based, which if you are good at english, you will be fine.
SOR I is really interesting, if you like history and english, you will love it. Usually SLR 1 unit and SOR I are on at the same time as SORII, but I wish I had done 2 unit, gives you greater options at the end of yr 11 also. You can always drop down to 1 unit aswell...
SLR: For SLR my school only offers 1 unit so that's the one I'm doing. I wouldn't do 2 unit, too much time for something that's not going towards my HSC.

CFS: I would maybe do that but my school doesn't offer it and I don't think I'd have enough time to do it at tafe.

Drama: If I did drama it'd be my only major work subject but I don't think I'd be too great at it. The class would probs be more worried about me dragging them down rather than the other way around :/

Maths: Yeah, I don't know how long I'll last but I'll try to do 2 unit, like my tutor and teachers recommended but deffs dropping down if it's too hard. And if I can't drop to general cause of lines of class sizes than I'll just drop maths all together :)

PDHPE: That's great! Everyone at schools reckons its really good too :)

History: As much as I like history I don't know if i be able to cope with 5 units of it (good chance I'll pick up extension history in yr 12) but I guess I'll consider it.

SOR: I deffs not the biggest fan of religion and I really want to do SLR so I think I I'll stick with 1 unit :)

Thanks :)
 
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Just one concern I've kind of got about doing Legal Studies alongside what I've already got. If I did Modern History, English Extension 1, SOR 1 and Legal Studies will there be like tonnes of essays and writing or is it managable? Thanks :)
 

enoilgam

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It should be managable. I did SOR I, Economics, Legal Studies, Modern History and Advanced English and I didnt find the workload to be unmanagable. The advantage of doing several essay writing subjects is that you will develop very strong writing skills which will really help you on the HSC and in uni
 

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It'd be manageable for most. I know people who have managed the workload of predominately essay intensive subjects.
 

lil_pembo

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SOR is pretty different to religion through. It is actually interesting. haha.
But it is much more of a subject and less of a bludge. and it isnt just catholic what did mary do when jesus...blah blah. Like atm I am studying Jewish feminism, and Liberation theology. It is much more about social movements that were caused by religious things. There is heaps on Aboriginal spirituality and religion post 1945, bit of a modern look on how society is changing.....
 
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Drop SLR
Pick up SORII
Pick up Biology
I really hate science though and PE doesn't really have any prac which is why I want to do SLR. If I pick up ex history in year 12 than I'd have 14 units (unless I hated something and wanted to drop it) and that'd be too much work, so this way I'm dropping down to 13 regardless.
 

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