Hello guys!
I know this forum has not been posted on in more than a year, but if someone gets this message can you please help me out with my subject selection? I am in year 9 and have decided to take biology or psychology units 1/2 next year as acceleration. Sadly I can not do both which is what I intended to do initially, and I think it is beneficial for me to do 2 3/4s in y11 so that I get more study time in y12. The subjects that I want to do overall are certainly (methods, chem, bio, englang, japanese). I have to choose 1 of (spesh, further, psych) . In terms of performance my maths and science are strong, and I have received permission to do 1/2 bio OR psych by my teacher as an acceleration subject. Is it beneficial to do 2 acceleration subjects? Also what subject out of the ones I have to choose o you recommend for someone who is passionate in maths and science?
Hey there!
I actually did most of the subjects you have there that you want to do for certain, except Bio, so I kind of remember what it feels like to have a similar workload.
Contrary to common belief, I believe it’s actually case-dependent whether someone will benefit from doing 2 U3/4s in Year 11 vs. 1 U3/4. For me, personally, I benefited more from doing 1, despite having 3 U1/2s in Year 10 and don’t think I would’ve scored as well had I done more in Year 11. (Extra spare periods and doing less U3/4s in Year 11 can be both a blessing and a curse to students.) However, I understand everyone is different so I would recommend doing what you are most comfortable with, given that choice.
In terms of selecting your U3/4 for Year 11, I’d recommend either, though I do agree that Bio is the slightly more content-heavy one, so it might be better to have more time to dedicate to it earlier. Both are still great choices nonetheless.
As for which subject to pick between Spesh, Further or Psych, it depends on what you’re after.
I’d suggest looking at each of these subject’s study designs to see what best suits you. In the perspective of prerequisite subjects (compulsory subjects you must do for direct entry into a certain course after VCE, pending other factors e.g. ATAR), Further and Spesh fulfil the prerequisites for different courses, while Psych less so.
If you’re hoping to study engineering in uni/ higher education, Spesh would probably be the better call.
Further fulfils the “any mathematics” prerequisites for many STEMM (the last M being medicine) courses, including biomed, nursing and teaching (from memory, I might be wrong though), however, if you’re already doing Methods, that covers it too and Further would be a different perspective on maths, but typically considered to have a “lower workload”, so would help to balance out some of the “heavier” subjects you have. The caveat here is that it’s harder to score at the very top end, so if it’s a high study score you want, you’d have to be cautious of your competition.
Psych is particularly good if you learn well conceptually, want something different from maths, if you wish to study it further and/or want to understand some of the thoughts and processes involved with the mind (personally, I found it was sometimes helpful in daily life).
All three are great choices, but in different ways for different people.