maths

[elo2939]

Hi, I'm starting Year 12 and need some subject advice. Sorry I don't have proper ranks as of yet. Considering Law courses for Uni btw.
My subjects for Year 12 are 4U english (my rank for adv. is 3/125), Modern History, Economics, Biology and 2U Maths. For maths I am not doing well and my rank would definitely be in the bottom half. I haven't been putting in my 100% effort or time but I am really not sure how well I can do considering prelim knowledge is required. My biology marks are just average/sometimes below. The reason for this is because in yr11 I always felt I would drop it anyways so I never tried too hard.Despite not loving biology should I keep it for the sake of my Maths marks?


Hope this all makes sense, Thanks!

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hi, I'm starting Year 12 and need some subject advice. Sorry I don't have proper ranks as of yet. Considering Law courses for Uni btw.
My subjects for Year 12 are 4U english (my rank for adv. is 3/125), Modern History, Economics, Biology and 2U Maths. For maths I am not doing well and my rank would definitely be in the bottom half. I haven't been putting in my 100% effort or time but I am really not sure how well I can do considering prelim knowledge is required. My biology marks are just average/sometimes below. The reason for this is because in yr11 I always felt I would drop it anyways so I never tried too hard.Despite not loving biology should I keep it for the sake of my Maths marks?
So, should I keep biology and have 12 units or drop it and have 10...or drop maths? (but there is a lot of pressure from family to keep it etc.)
And lastly, how soon should I drop it, at the end of term 4 or earlier? I'd like to have extra time on my hands and I believe I would work way better with less units.
 (fyi...for yr11 I also did chemistry but I have dropped it already)

Hope this all makes sense, Thanks!

hi, welcome to the forums! i'd just like to start off by saying dammmmnnnnnn that's a good english rank :-)

my first question is: how well do you think you can do in biology and maths if you tried really hard? you said that for maths you haven't tried your best, and i think you have a lot of time to improve. biology seems like a subject you don't want to do, and you shouldn't force yourself to do something you don't like, because it sucks to do stuff you don't like and not get anything out of it right? i think you should keep both maths and biology as a test run for this term coming up, and if you do better in, say, maths, keep that and drop biology and vice versa.

i get you on dropping maths (very tempting) but maths provided a really good break of sorts for me because most of my subjects are totally writing-based and to do something that wasn't just essay writing is refreshing sometimes. also, your family doesn't define your future, you do. if you think dropping maths is the best decision for you, go for it! if you think dropping biology is the best decision, go! i reckon go for the test run this term, and if you really think dropping one or the other is going to make you work better, awesome. sometimes it is good to have a backup subject though, just in case.

hope this helps - best of luck for year 12,
fantasticbeasts

[Potatohater]

Would changing to general maths be an option? Because that way you might be able to drop bio and do better in maths (since it requires less effort to do well when you've come from 2U). - just another potential option. That's how I was able to ditch the subject I hated and not worry about how maths would affect my score. If you're not sure there's no pressure to drop units straight away, so maybe stick it out for term 4, but if you were to change maths that descision would have to be made soon.

[Opengangs]

Keep them both until the end of Term 4 or start of Term 1 and see how you're progressing in both courses. It's harder to pick the subject back up than to drop if you're really not doing well in it.

The preliminary for Biology is very bland, but the HSC course is hella fun so maybe use that to inspire you to do well in it.

[RuiAce]

I had written a guide for this previously. May be worth a look.

[maddiewainwright]

Hi elo2939,
I did Biology for the HSC, and I definitely think that it's worth keeping. If you study effectively, the content is not too heavy, and can be very interesting. I also did 4 units of English, and found it to be a good compliment because I didn't have to focus too much on my expression, as I felt pretty confident for the longer response Bio questions.
I dropped mathematics for the HSC, and it took a huge load off only doing subjects I enjoyed, and I think that was reflected in my marks. I'm now studying science/law at uni, and did a mathematics bridging course to fulfil science prerequisites, so honestly I don't think I limited my options by dropping it.
Hope this helps!