ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => VIC Year 9 Discussion => Topic started by: Sconey on August 03, 2017, 10:44:46 pm

Title: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Sconey on August 03, 2017, 10:44:46 pm
Hey All!
I've posted a few other posts about various other subjects on AN, but I've finally submitted my preferences for my accelerated Unit 1/2's next year (Year 10); Maths Methods and Biology. Hopefully they get accepted! Anyway, I'd love to here from some of the forum members about their experiences with the subjects, especially if they accelerated in, and some tips for me! All reply's welcome.

Sconey
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Quantum44 on August 04, 2017, 07:35:56 am
Hey All!
I've posted a few other posts about various other subjects on AN, but I've finally submitted my preferences for my accelerated Unit 1/2's next year (Year 10); Maths Methods and Biology. Hopefully they get accepted! Anyway, I'd love to here from some of the forum members about their experiences with the subjects, especially if they accelerated in, and some tips for me! All reply's welcome.

Sconey

I'm doing methods this year and did bio last year, and I think they are great subjects to accelerate if you are pushing for a high ATAR. First and foremost, you have to acknowledge that this will be a big step up. Work hard next year and you will be rewarded in year 11 with good study scores. For methods, I think 1/2 is very important and is very similar to the 3/4 course, but for bio it is superfluous (I didn't do 1/2). But that doesn't mean it can't be advantageous for you, and having done both the 1/2s next year will help you a lot in year 11 when you have to cope with two 3/4s and four 1/2s. Just don't be complacent and make sure you fully understand the course.

If you have any further questions about these subjects, feel free to PM me.
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Joseph41 on August 04, 2017, 09:19:44 am
Hey All!
I've posted a few other posts about various other subjects on AN, but I've finally submitted my preferences for my accelerated Unit 1/2's next year (Year 10); Maths Methods and Biology. Hopefully they get accepted! Anyway, I'd love to here from some of the forum members about their experiences with the subjects, especially if they accelerated in, and some tips for me! All reply's welcome.

Sconey

Hey Sconey!

Great work on the accelerated Unit 1/2s. Really clever choice IMO. :) Let us know how the application goes!

I didn't do either subject (actually, I did do Methods 1/2, but the less said about that the better haha), so can't offer too much subject-specific advice. But this may (or may not) interest you: a guide to starting VCE early.

:)
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Sconey on August 04, 2017, 08:37:57 pm
Thanks for the replies!
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Sconey on August 05, 2017, 02:43:05 pm
but for bio it is superfluous (I didn't do 1/2).

Thanks for the reply,
Just wondering, when you say the 1/2 for bio isn't too important. Is this because all content is learnt again in the 3/4, or is the content completely different to the 3/4, and you're only examined on the 3/4 content. Cheers.

Ps, I thought I should post here instead of PM, so others can see the answer.
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Shadowxo on August 06, 2017, 12:39:30 pm
Thanks for the reply,
Just wondering, when you say the 1/2 for bio isn't too important. Is this because all content is learnt again in the 3/4, or is the content completely different to the 3/4, and you're only examined on the 3/4 content. Cheers.

Ps, I thought I should post here instead of PM, so others can see the answer.
I only did Bio 3/4 but from what I saw, 1/2 content was largely irrelevant to 3/4. My school had bio 3/4 as one of the main year 11 subjects so they did accomodate for the fact that many students didn't do 1/2, but it seemed as though those that did do 1/2 were doing fairly different topics :)
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: Sconey on August 06, 2017, 12:49:33 pm
I only did Bio 3/4 but from what I saw, 1/2 content was largely irrelevant to 3/4. My school had bio 3/4 as one of the main year 11 subjects so they did accomodate for the fact that many students didn't do 1/2, but it seemed as though those that did do 1/2 were doing fairly different topics :)

Thanks for replying! Hmmmm, I was hoping that the content would just be gone over again, meaning the 3/4 wouldn't be as much work. Oh well, I think I'll manage :)
Title: Re: Tips for Next Year
Post by: K888 on August 06, 2017, 01:13:58 pm
Quote from: Sconey
Just wondering, when you say the 1/2 for bio isn't too important. Is this because all content is learnt again in the 3/4, or is the content completely different to the 3/4, and you're only examined on the 3/4 content. Cheers.
Quote from: Sconey
Thanks for replying! Hmmmm, I was hoping that the content would just be gone over again, meaning the 3/4 wouldn't be as much work. Oh well, I think I'll manage :)

I did Bio 1/2 and 3/4, but take this with a grain of salt, because of the old study design, so idk how much Bio has changed.
I felt like 1/2 Bio covered some of the basics of 3/4 - mainly organelles. But we went over that again at the start of 3/4. It very basically covered photosynthesis and cellular respiraiton, but it was very basic (the teacher even said, we didn't need to know it particularly well in 1/2, as the detail would come the next year), and we learnt it in depth in 3/4.

Apart from that, I feel like a lot of the 1/2 stuff was pretty irrelevant, and I don't think the people who didn't do 1/2 were disadvantaged at all.
So yeah, basically, the fundamentals that you need for 3/4 are covered again in 3/4, and the rest just doesn't really matter. To me, 1/2 Bio was quite dry - though I believe this has hopefully changed a bit with the new SD, from what I've heard about it? :)