Plans For VCE 1/2,3/4

[Pary_N]

Hello fellow y9 students!
This is a thread for discussing your plans and aspirations for VCE, whether you're taking a Unit 1/2 in year 10, or whatever else your plans for the surprisingly near future may be.


'Guess I'll start!

(This is how it'll go if I don't get into JMSS)
 
Eng Lang
Methods
Specialist
Chem
Psych
French
Bio (3/4 y11)


If I DO get in,

Eng Lang
Methods
Specialist
Chem
French
Bio
Uni Extension (BIOMED/Chem)


Pls contribute and let's keep the discussion going lol!!!

[Bri MT]

Hey!
I'm not quite in year 9 anymore but I love the idea of this thread & I hope it's ok if I contribute

This is what my plan was:
- outdoor ed (3&4 in year 11)
- biology (3&4 in year 11)
- chemistry
- literature
- Japanese second language
- extension bio

@Pary_N  how did you decide on these subjects?

[Pary_N]

Hey!
I'm not quite in year 9 anymore but I love the idea of this thread & I hope it's ok if I contribute

This is what my plan was:
- outdoor ed (3&4 in year 11)
- biology (3&4 in year 11)
- chemistry
- literature
- Japanese second language
- extension bio

@Pary_N  how did you decide on these subjects?

Absloutely! Sorry I shoul have made that sentence more inclusive...

Well I've always known that I've wanted to work in the medicine field, and up until the start of this year i was SURE I wanted to be a Cardiac Surgeon. But as I progressed through the year (advanced placement) I learnt so much more about the sciences than I thought I could, and currently I have an unstoppable obsession with chemistry (Covalent bonds and polarity and stuff is coooool man). So then I thought, maybe I don't need to sort of, have my future set in stone. I know I will work in medicine, but who knows what I want to do with my education life? So yeah Bio only cuz Human Biology is so fascinating, Chem cuz OMG I'M IN LOVE (affectionately stares at Periodic Table background on laptop). Methods and Spesh cuz I'm an absloute math nerd. Lang cuz I don't like the "grey" aspect of Mainstream English and Literature, like I'm a very black and white person. The answer is either right, or it's wrong. I just can't stand normal English. French because I love it so much omg. Psych because I've always been interested tbh, but it's the one that I'm not like EXTREMELY passionate about. Like I like it a lot but not nearly as much as the rest. I'd do uni BIomed or Chem at Monash since I'm absloutely obsessed with both, but that's only possible if I get into JMSS ( due to many reasons).
JESUS THAT WAS A RANT

ps. How'd you find your subjects? Difficulty level? Enjoyment level?
ps2. So your plan didn't quite match up with what you actually did?

[Bri MT]

[Snip]

ps. How'd you find your subjects? Difficulty level? Enjoyment level?
ps2. So your plan didn't quite match up with what you actually did?

That's great!  (Passion is so infectious & it's one of the things I love about my course)

I knew for SURE that I wanted to be a marine biologist since forever, except that in year 9 I started having minor doubts and in year 12 I had major doubts. 

My school was fairly small,  we had 3 VCE (uni pathway for years 11&12) homegroups and 2 VCAL (TAFE/trade pathway) homegroups . So there were lots of issues with timetable clashing and only being able to choose particular combinations of subjects. 
In year 10 bio 1/2 & jap were in the same time slot so I had to drop jap. Then in year 11 bio3/4 and outdoor ed 3/4 were in the same time slot, so I had to drop OE.

I looked into uni bio but I felt that the travel to the nearest place I could learn it was too much. (Jokes on me since I now travel 2 hours each way for uni)

I picked up psych and physics because they were both sciences, and for physics the idea that it was math based was a bonus (I liked maths and was good at it but my school didn't offer spec).

In year 11 I felt that I wasn't learning at all in literature & I had heard about eng lang from friends at scouts, so I decided to do eng lang by distance ed in year 12 (it wasn't offered at my school).

I'm one of those people who would study everything if they had time,  but I really did enjoy my VCE subjects - more so in units 3/4 than in 1/2.    My favourite would have to be biology, simply because I've always loved bio & VCE bio was transformational for me. 

Btw, chemistry will definitely be important to you if you go on to med    (and I think it's required for all entry pathways into med too)

I didn't even know JMSS existed until year 12, best of luck getting in - it seems like you'll be a great match !

[Pary_N]

That's great!  (Passion is so infectious & it's one of the things I love about my course)

I knew for SURE that I wanted to be a marine biologist since forever, except that in year 9 I started having minor doubts and in year 12 I had major doubts. 

My school was fairly small,  we had 3 VCE (uni pathway for years 11&12) homegroups and 2 VCAL (TAFE/trade pathway) homegroups . So there were lots of issues with timetable clashing and only being able to choose particular combinations of subjects. 
In year 10 bio 1/2 & jap were in the same time slot so I had to drop jap. Then in year 11 bio3/4 and outdoor ed 3/4 were in the same time slot, so I had to drop OE.

I looked into uni bio but I felt that the travel to the nearest place I could learn it was too much. (Jokes on me since I now travel 2 hours each way for uni)

I picked up psych and physics because they were both sciences, and for physics the idea that it was math based was a bonus (I liked maths and was good at it but my school didn't offer spec).

In year 11 I felt that I wasn't learning at all in literature & I had heard about eng lang from friends at scouts, so I decided to do eng lang by distance ed in year 12 (it wasn't offered at my school).

I'm one of those people who would study everything if they had time,  but I really did enjoy my VCE subjects - more so in units 3/4 than in 1/2.    My favourite would have to be biology, simply because I've always loved bio & VCE bio was transformational for me. 

Btw, chemistry will definitely be important to you if you go on to med    (and I think it's required for all entry pathways into med too)

I didn't even know JMSS existed until year 12, best of luck getting in - it seems like you'll be a great match !

Hmmm I see... Honestly you're such an inspirational person you went through so many challenges and crappy school problems and still got an amazing ATAR...

[lm21074]

WHAT ARE U DOING IN VCE FELLOW LUNATIC

Well... here's my rough plan (with not so great justifications lol):
- Psych (3/4 in Year 11) - The brain fascinates me. I read the study design and I was drawn to psych
- Health (3/4 in Year 11) - Interested in health and wellbeing in Australia and the rest of the world.
- Chem - Chem really tickles my whiskers. Chem pracs are cool.
- Methods - Maths is fun. Nuff said.
- Bio - Human biology is awesome. Learning about organisms and their functions is fascinating to me.
- English Language - Language acquisition and language change sounds like something I would be interested in learning about. Really looking forward to studying EngLang.

-snip-

Science is just so fascinating, isn't it?
If you don't mind me asking, how come you had doubts about doing marine biology? Also, if you were to do VCE again and you could do any subject combination you want without any problems, would you have followed your original plan?

[Bri MT]

[Snip]

Thankyou!
I was lucky in other ways, such as having good year 12 teachers & in the end I wouldn't change the school I went to.
Who knows, you could very well surpass me

[Snip]

They sound like pretty great reasons to me
Eng lang 1/2 & psych 1/2 should complement each other nicely & same for the sciences together

Science is truly amazing
For a long time I was cautioned about marine biology because of job security, level of competition, that it wouldn't work out how I wanted etc. and after a while it really got to me & I started questioning myself. 

If I were to do VCE again the main thing I'd want to change would be doing specialist maths,  I'm making up for that with math units at uni, but that's still definetely the main thing I'd want to change. Aside from that,  I don't know. I really like ourdoor ed as a subject but I think it's hard to train yourself to score well on it so I'd probably stick with the sciences since studying then was a really positive experience.  If I could study eng lang at school I'd do that,  otherwise I'd complete standard English for units 1-4.


Do you intend on studying science after highschool?

[hums_student]

I hope it's ok if I contribute too (year 12 now but I like to crash different threads )

I actually just dug up my year 9 yearbook the other day and for one section we had to talk about what subjects we were planning to do for VCE, and this was what Lsjnzy13 from 2015 wrote:
• Literature
• Maths Methods
• Specialist Maths (LOL RIP)
• Psychology (bludge)
• Music Performance
• History - Revolutions

Turns out the only subjects I actually ended up doing were lit and methods. I had spesh in my original plan cos my sister was good at maths so I thought I should be too (turns out I missed out on all the good genes).

As for psychology, I actually picked psych for 1/2, but I despised the subject so much I dropped out two weeks later for economics (which I did as a bludge for year 11).

I would've picked music perf (in year 9 and 10 I had my path set on becoming a professional pianist) but my school didn't offer the subject, and same goes for revs. So instead of spesh, music, and revs, I ended up doing chem, global politics, and ancient history (which didn't even exist back in 2015).

So yeah, looking back I ended up doing a nearly completely different set of subjects to my original plan. I know for sure that back then I would've never even considered subjects like chemistry and global politics, 2015 me would be throwing a fit if he found out I'm not doing spesh, music, and revs for VCE. But in all honesty, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end, and even though I'm forever complaining about my subjects I do enjoy them (yes even chem and global).

[Joseph41]

-snip-

It's interesting how things change, isn't it? I reckon if I had to guess what I would have predicted in Year 9 (on the assumption I knew a bit about the subjects (which I didn't)):
* English
* Biology
* Methods
* Psychology
* Art
* Visual Communication Design

And that turned into:
* English --> English Language
* Biology --> Health & Human Development
* Methods --> Further Maths
* Psychology
* Art --> Business Management
* Visual Communication Design

So, like you, just the two subjects remained!

[lm21074]

-snip-

Interesting! Glad to hear you had a positive experience.
Studying science after high school is something I will definitely do! I particularly like the biomedical sciences, but I would enjoy chem, maths and physics. I'll also do some arts units (philosophy, psych, criminology, linguistics, anthropology), and maybe education ones.

-snip-

What do you think caused the change?

[Joseph41]

What do you think caused the change?

Good question. I guess a number of things that come with time: experience, changing interests etc.

* English: I never really disliked it, but I felt a bit disillusioned, I think. I didn't really have any experience with EngLang, but when the time came to choose, I just went with my gut. No regrets.
* Bio: I wish I did it. I dropped it because I had no confidence. Picked up HHD in the end as my last subject because I didn't know what else I wanted to do.
* Methods: See Bio. Wish I continued with it - I would have been fine.
* Art: Didn't like my teacher, also didn't want to do two folio subjects in VCE and was already pretty set on VCD. BusMan was not a good replacement choice (well, it was fine, but not something I'm hugely interested in when I reflect).

If I had my time again, I wouldn't do the same subjects. It's easy with hindsight because, of course, interests change all the time.

[Aaron]

My interesting VCE path:

Unit 1/2:
* English
* General Maths
* Business Management (in Yr 10)
* Chemistry
* Health and Human Dev
* Physical Education

Unit 3/4:
* All of the above, substitute Chemistry for IT Applications. 3/4 Business completed as Yr 11.

My school sucked. It barely ran anything decent so was forced to choose areas which I didn't really want to do. Sad reality for alot of schools today. Would've probably picked Software Development if it ran, and if Algorithmics was introduced earlier, probably that. I wanted to do Accounting/Economics too... so alot of 'what ifs' but its important to understand VCE is temporary and you can correct any mistakes by exploring these areas at uni level later on, which is what I did

If I did methods maybe I would be better off as a teacher of maths given my scope is currently 7-10 only.. perhaps my IT degree would've been Computer Science.... again, what ifs that were too late to correct. I think i've done alright for myself in the end though

[hums_student]

If I had my time again, I wouldn't do the same subjects. It's easy with hindsight because, of course, interests change all the time.

What subjects would you have picked if you could go back in time right now?

[Joseph41]

What subjects would you have picked if you could go back in time right now?

I reckon something like (changes a bit depending on my mood haha):

* Year 10: Further Maths
* Year 11: Health and Human Development, Visual Communication Design
* Year 12: English Language, English, Psychology, Biology, Methods

So,

IN: Biology, Methods, English
OUT: Business Management

Possibly also English.

[jeffisgod228]

I'm in year 9, and I'm thinking of doing either Methods or Physics (Units 1/2, not the year 10 versions)  in Year 10.
Maths without a doubt is my favorite and strongest subject. (I score high a+/100%s on tests and exams consistently with only studying <30 mins). Physics is great as well.
My career path is much headed towards a mix of Analyzing stocks and program development for the stock market..
My plan for year 10 assuming that I pick physics early:
-Physics (1/2)
-Methods
-Algorithims
-Economics
-Computing
-Business Mgmt.
-[insert other electives here]
-English (compulsory)
All subjects listed apart from english, methods and physics are electives and only run for 2 terms each.
At our school, almost all of our year 10 subjects/course are electives.
Yr11
-Methods (1/2)
-Physics (3/4)
-EngLang (1/2)
-Economics (1/2)
-Specialist. (1/2)
Yr12
-Methods (3/4)
-EngLang (3/4)
-Economics (3/4)
- Software Development OR Algorithmics (I'm very interested in algorithmics. I really don't know which one to choose, any opinions? I know it's probably really early to even think about it. )
- Specialist (3/4)

So the real 2 questions here are: Software Dev or Algorithmics in yr12? and  vce Physics or vce Methods in year 10? (I believe I can only pick 1 vce subject in yr10)