What subjects to take? Looking to do Psychology for VCE

[mafoo2412]

I recently got accepted in John Monash Science School for 2021 as a Year 10 (yay!). I'm currently trying to pick my subjects, and my science interests would be psych, chemistry and biology. I'd like to work somewhere in psychology, but I'm open to anything. What subjects should I take??

[scientificllama]

Hey there

Welcome to ATAR Notes!

The first thing I definitely recommend is to take classes that you like and are passionate about.
If you are looking for a career in psychology, I definitely recommend to pick up psych as it helps get a feel for the subject and areas you might be interested in. Also, taking biology in conjunction with psych will help a lot as VCE psych has many overlapping things from bio.   

Hope this helps

[AngelWings]

What subjects should I do?

As pointed out by scientificllama, subjects that you like and subjects that you must take for your intended course(s) after Year 12 (known as prerequisite subjects or prereqs for short) would also be good choices. Here’s a list of some subjects for your consideration:
- an English subject (at least one of English, English Language, Literature or English as an Additional Language - there are rules about whether you qualify for this last one or not): this is compulsory as a VCE student to finish Year 12 successfully. 
- Psychology: due to your interests and career intentions
- Biology: due to your interests
- Health and Human Development (HHD): kind of crosses between Biology and Psych, so might be nice
- Methods and/or Further: maths and stats are a part of Psych. It’ll also help if you decide to switch into another STEM course.
- Chemistry: due to your interests
- any prerequisite subjects you require after Year 12 (see below)
- something else that tickles your fancy.

In terms of prerequisite subjects, most Psych courses in uni require a certain score in English most of the time, but there are a few courses out there that also require a maths (usually Methods) e.g. Melbourne Uni’s Bachelor of Science - psychology major. To check what prereqs you need, you can check out VTAC CourseSearch, but note that this only covers Victorian unis and the list is non-exhaustive (there are more courses than listed there), so will need to do more research yourself on top of searching there.

Are there any prerequisites to be able to take Psychology/ Chemistry/ Biology in VCE?

This is usually a school-dependent thing, so you might want to ask a JMSS student/ graduate about this.

I have almost no idea how th Australian, let alone Victorian VCE and university system work.

If you have any VCE or uni questions, feel free to ask around the forum. 

Also, what's HSC??? lol.

HSC is the New South Welsh/ Australian Capital Territorial version of the VCE.