for English nerds
Choosing subjects is hard. Hoping this wordy guide can help you just a bit :)
Anyone finding errors or with literally any suggestions, please throw them at me - I will dedicate a special PM of thanks to you.
tl;dr of this post:
> don't pick based on scaling, your parents or friends
> before choosing, consider your interests and strengths
> check that you fulfil any possible uni prereqs, and consider choosing subjects related to possible careers/courses of interest
> research each subject thoroughly (look at the VCAA subject pages (esp the Study Summary documents and a couple of past exams), and ask teachers/friends), and then match with your interests/strengths
> ultimately this isn't the hugest life decision; you can't know everything beforehand about the subjects you choose, so once you've chosen, make the best of what you've got
Basic information about how subjects and scores work
If you already know very basically how ATARs and study scores are calculated, skip this section!
Each subject is intended to take two years (generally, year 11 and 12), and has four units: 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each unit is one semester of work. Units 1 and 2 aren’t assessed by VCAA and don’t contribute to your final subject score; you don’t actually need to do them, but they generally provide a good foundation for Units 3 and 4. You MUST do both Units 3 and 4 together. You need at least 4 3/4 subjects, one of which must be an English (English, Literature or English Language).
For each Unit 3/4 subject you do, you’ll receive a final number called your study score, between 0 and 50.
This number is based on your scores in:
> SACs (School-Assessed Coursework): assessments your school organises and marks throughout the year (VCAA then modifies them, attempting to equalise between schools)
> the VCAA exam, where everyone sits the same externally marked exam
> (and in arts subjects) the SAT: a school-assessed task; the school assesses a product which you design and create.
Different subjects are calculated differently, and it all gets very confusing. Just know that VCAA plugs a huge bunch of numbers into a big whirly machine that spits out a final number, and then just do your best.
Study scores are a bell curve, with 30 as the mean. So, in any one subject:
• ~93% of people get 20 or over
• 25+ - 79%
• 30+ - 53%
• 35+ - 26%
• 40+ - 9%
• 45+ - 2%
This score is the ‘raw’ score; it is then turned into a ‘scaled score’ (a few points added or taken away) based on how competitive the subject and cohort are. For instance, Specialist Maths scales up to compensate for the fact that it’s harder (and picked by people with a higher average IQ) than, say, Health.
They take these scaled scores to make your aggregate, and add your English subject score (English, Eng Lang or Literature) to your top 3 other scores, plus 10% of the next two scores.
Then your ATAR is how your aggregate compares to others. If you get a 77.00, for instance, your aggregate was higher than 77% of people doing VCE.
How to pick subjects
Pick subjects based on:
• Your interests
• Your strengths
• What you’re thinking of doing at Uni
• Any pre-requisites you might need to for Uni courses
• Laziness (ie pick easy subjects ;))
Do NOT pick subjects based on:
• Scaling
• The fact that they sound prestigious, or are part of the Asian Five, or your parents want you to do them
• What your friends are doing
Explanation
Think to the future
Before choosing subjects, do consider what you’re interested in doing long-term. First check for prerequisites for ALL courses that are on your radar – if you don’t fulfil a prereq, you probably won’t be able to do your dream course even if you get the ATAR.
Then look at your possible careers. If you’re interested in commerce, pick economics or accounting; or if you’re considering law, do legal studies. If you have a few ideas, try to broadly taste everything. VCE is your chance to get a taste for what various fields are like, so you can decide if they’re for you or not. VCE subjects will also prepare you with the basic skills you need for related first-year Uni courses, making first year easier.
Consider your skills and what you enjoy
Sit down and think what you’re good at, and what stuff you enjoy doing. Ask teachers, parents and friends for their opinions of your strengths. If you’re hopeless at essay writing, don’t take humanities subjects or two Englishes; if you and maths don’t go well together, don’t take two maths. Play by your strengths – look at where you perform well, and go with subjects like that.
Similarly, if you hate a subject, you’ll not only get a poorer score in that subject because you’ll procrastinate, but the stress and frustration will have a flow-on effect to your other subjects and how much you enjoy the year as a whole. Picking a subject you’ll at least somewhat enjoy will both improve your score and your enjoyment of the year.
Scaling and prestige
The scaling (or Asian-Five-ness) should not be the reason why you choose a subject.
Remember, scaling aims to balance it all out. If you have ‘equal’ skill levels in the two subjects, and spend the same amount of time on each, you will probably get a much lower raw score in an up-scaling subject than a down-scaling subject, and theoretically scaling will make them equal. (I do confess that the harsh scaling on Arts subjects is just plain mean and unfair.)
But this ignores the fact that the subject that scales down may better match your strengths and enjoyments. If that’s the case, you’ll end up doing better in the subject, ever after scaling. Case study: in HHD, I’m certain I got a far better scaled score than I could have got if I did Specialist or Latin. I did well because: I enjoyed it; it matched with my strengths; it’s overall an ‘easier’ subject; and there’s little competition.
You can get 99+ ATARs with any combination of subjects (though 99.95 requires subjects that scale over 50). There's nothing wrong with up-scaling subjects, just the scaling itself should not be (or even influence) the reason.
Research
Once you’ve gone through and listed out your strengths and interests, it’s time to match them up with the subjects you have available! Don't just fly in blind.
For each subject on your shortlist, check out the VCAA subject page. You can read the Study Design, but first try the simpler Study Summary document, the last document under ‘Curriculum’ in each subject page. Also skim a few past exams to see what sort of questions they ask, and check the question format (MC, short answer, extended response, essays, solving maths problems, etc) to see if it’ll match your strengths. Ask teachers/anyone who's done the subject what the subject involves, or feel free to post in these forums asking for a precis of the subjects you’re deciding between.
Hopefully this will provide a feel for what the subject’s about, so you can better compare it to your strengths and likes!
FAQs
Should I do a Unit 3/4 subject in year 11?
If possible, yes. (Or two, even). See Year 12 subjects in Year 11: A guide to starting VCE early.
How many subjects should I do in total?
Case study: none of my family did year 11 3/4s. I did 5 3/4 subjects in year 12. Doing 5 + uni subject in year 12, one brother got exactly the same ATAR as me, and another got 0.05 above me. Moral: whether you do 5 or 6 subjects total, you can get a similar ATAR; the extra workload balances out the extra 10% aggregate.
However, I’m a fan of doing more subjects, because more breadth gives you more opportunity to find out more about different fields. So you’ll have more well-rounded knowledge, and may unexpectedly land on a passion which totally changes your career choice.
My recommendation, from best to worst (remembering it all balances out, so honestly don't stress too much!):
1. 2 3/4s in year 11 + 5 3/4s in year 12 (or 1 in year 10)
2. 1 + 5 or 2 + 4
3. 1 + 4, 0 + 5 or 0 + 6
4. 0 + 4. Just don’t.
5. 0 + 0. Probably should have put this first. TAFE RULES THE WORLD!
My school doesn’t offer what I want. Should I consider Distance Education?
I did one subject through DECV, and found it worked very smoothly. If you really struggle with time management, organisation and self-motivation, you’ll probably find it very difficult (however, great practise for Uni). But if you’re self-motivated, and really want to do a particular subject, definitely consider it, as the teachers do keep well in touch. The fees are something like $400/unit if you go to a private school, or $80/unit for a public school. Discuss your options with your VCE coordinator, but if you’re passionate about a subject, don’t miss your chance!
Can I swap subjects if I hate them and pick up 3/4s without 1/2s?
Depends on the subject, but in general, yes. As a broad generalisation, it’s less likely to work with strongly skills-based subjects like Methods, Spesh or English, than content-based subjects. But for most subjects – like Further, Psych, Biology, Business Management, Legal Studies, History Revs or HHD – you should be absolutely fine to pick up. Just make sure that before the summer holidays you check with your teacher what knowledge is ‘assumed’ or in both 1/2 and 3/4, so you can learn it before the year starts.
Should I avoid rare subjects with few resources?
Non-mainstream subjects are, in some ways, far more difficult, because it can be hard to know what you’re even doing. If you have an awful teacher, it’s worse, because you often don’t have anywhere to go for help. You’re much more ‘on your own’, so if you really need support, steer clear of this sort of subject.
However, remember everyone else is flying blind just like you, and ultimately the competition is far less fierce than really mainstream subjects. Being forced to do your own research is challenging, rewarding, and plain fun. And you don’t get spoon-fed, a great preparation for Uni. I did the rare subject Texts and Traditions, and loved it. I imagine you’re considering such subjects because you have a particular passion for them. If that’s the case, do it. DO IT.
I speak another language at home. Should I do this subject?
If you know a second language fairly fluently, DO IT. The scaling is brilliant and, if you’re very familiar with the language, you should find it relatively easy.
Which English subject(s) should I do?
Well, I’ll answer that… another day.
Which Maths subject(s) should I do?
Similarly.
Conclusion*
Don’t stress too much. No subject will be exactly what you imagined – for better or for worse – and you’re sure to have some regrets no matter what. Your interests and career goals are also sure to change over time. But ultimately, it’s up to your attitude. If you’ve picked a subject, commit yourself to enjoying it and getting the most out of it (even if that’s the decision not to pursue it for a career). This should be your VCE motto:
No regrets.
*I had to make the headings colourful purely to include this beautiful new colour I discovered.
My recommendation, from best to worst (remembering it all balances out, so honestly don't stress too much!):
1. 2 3/4s in year 11 + 5 3/4s in year 12 (or 1 in year 10)
2. 1 + 5 or 2 + 4
3. 1 + 4, 0 + 5 or 0 + 6
4. 0 + 4. Just don’t.
5. 0 + 0. Probably should have put this first. TAFE RULES THE WORLD!
Nice guide! Lot of good information in it.
I actually think the 1+5 or the 2+4 is better overall if you are certain of what subjects you enjoy and what you can score well in. This is mainly because the 7th subject won't count towards your ATAR in any way - it may just add unnecessary stress or consume time which could be used in more important areas (English). Just my opinion though. :)
Plus, it can be good to have an available bludge when you discover VCE Physics is just as Pi warned you.
Then your ATAR is how your aggregate compares to others. If you get a 77.00, for instance, your aggregate was higher than 77% of people doing VCE.
Great guide! This is being quite nit-picky but I'm just going to point out that this point here is not exactly correct. The 77.00 would mean your aggregate was higher than 77% of your entire year level (at either year 7 or 9 or something like that, I can't exactly remember sorry!), including those who aren't completing their VCE. :)That... Doesn't make sense. If they're not doing VCE, how can VCAA know their level of achievement to give them an ATAR in the first place/some other form of quantifiable achievement so they know that the 77.00 beat 77% of the cohort? (If that made sense... I'm tired. .__. )
EDIT: Forgot to add le comments on this brilliant post, will be back shortlyish with those.Thanks, I'm looking forward to any suggested improvements anyone can give :)
But this ignores the fact that the subject that scales down may better match your strengths and enjoyments. If that’s the case, you’ll end up doing better in the subject, ever after scaling. Case study: in HHD, I’m certain I got a far better scaled score than I could have got if I did Specialist or Latin. I did well because: I enjoyed it; it matched with my strengths; it’s overall an ‘easier’ subject; and there’s little competition.
My school doesn’t offer what I want. Should I consider Distance Education?
I did one subject through DECV, and found it worked very smoothly. If you really struggle with time management, organisation and self-motivation, you’ll probably find it very difficult (however, great practise for Uni). But if you’re self-motivated, and really want to do a particular subject, definitely consider it, as the teachers do keep well in touch. The fees are something like $400/unit if you go to a private school, or $80/unit for a public school. Discuss your options with your VCE coordinator, but if you’re passionate about a subject, don’t miss your chance!
Which Maths subject(s) should I do?
Similarly.
Let me help you out (particularly with changing study designs, not that I'm going into terribly much detail):
Thanks, I was actually going to get round to PM'ing you asking you to write that bit, so thanks for pre-empting it! I put it in a spoiler because the sub-headings were the same as my question sub-headings so it mucked up formatting, hope that's okay.I think that'd be really cool. Not sure about other people specifically, but my school did a terrible job of explaining what each subject was about - I'd even go as far as to say we were nearly on our own (Well, aside from this thing*, but as a year 10 with no knowledge of the technical jargon, it wasn't all that helpful.) and I would've loved to have the perspective of someone who'd done or was familiar with the subjects I was considering. I picked classes without really even being aware of what was covered, other than "computer stuff", '"Greek stuff", "Book stuff, you'll be great at this one, Beth" and "this is the hard maths, you'll love it" as quoted by one of my teachers a few days ( :o) before we had to finalise our selections (luckily, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but that's not the point).
Wondering if we could compile a section with summaries or reviews of major subjects (looking to new study designs of course, and going through their major content and stuff in a way that's more comprehensible than the study design)
Opinions anyone?
That... Doesn't make sense. If they're not doing VCE, how can VCAA know their level of achievement to give them an ATAR in the first place/some other form of quantifiable achievement so they know that the 77.00 beat 77% of the cohort? (If that made sense... I'm tired. .__. )
EDIT: Forgot to add le comments on this brilliant post, will be back shortlyish with those.
if you can do decently in methods 1/2, you can very easily do methods 3/4
*I swear if anyone actually reads that thing I'll eat my shoesI read the thing (http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/t4/s3/w2/espongebob.jpg)
Wondering if we could compile a section with summaries or reviews of major subjects (looking to new study designs of course, and going through their major content and stuff in a way that's more comprehensible than the study design); I could PM specific people asking for their help (only if they're willing) to write it for one subject. Hopefully from people fairly balanced, hence I'd ask Zealous or someone for Physics, not pi :P. Worth it or not? Opinions anyone? Is it expecting too much from busy people when it wouldn't be read anyway?
*I swear if anyone actually reads that thing I'll eat my shoesHope they're tasty ;D
Okay, so I'm not Year 9 or Year 10 (I'm in Year 11 :P), but I have a question. When I tell people that I'm doing Further this year, and Methods and Spesh next year, they tell me that only 2 of my 3 Maths subjects will be 'counted' towards my ATAR, so what am I doing and why am I wasting my time.
It's NOT a waste of time, because I love Maths and I love having 3/6 subjects as Maths, but is it true? Will one of them not be counted?
Not quite. Only 2 can be counted in your Top 4. Your worst one scaled will be 'bottom 2' even if it's a 50.
But it still contributes to my ATAR, right?
Yeah you still get the 10% increment.
People say its a waste of time because if you look at the bigger picture, what you get in methods and spesh will (most probably) be higher than your further score. It just sucks because even if you don't score as highly on your other subjects, one of your maths will be irrelevant (your bottom two only add to your atar score a little bit) so your top four might not consist of your actual top study scores.
But if you enjoy it man, it isn't a waste of time.
And anyway, bit late to back out now ey? You could drop spesh but I don't recommend it, it's a great subject aswell as it does wonders to your atar. Good luck man.
Yeah, I'd much prefer doing all the Maths, than having to deal with WRITING subjects, which is decidedly be crap at, anyway. Less stressful for me, in a way. Anyway, thanks for the support! :)
Advise pls!!!!!
I'm in year 11 currently and I'm doing 1/2 chemistry,1/2 methods, 1/2specialists, 1/2 English, and 3/4 biology and I'm really unsure whether to do physics for my 6th subject or not for this year
Note that I want to do the same exacts subjects for year 12 except that I'll finish bio this year
is it going to be too much work load for year 12 having spesh,methods English (EAL), chemistry and physics alltogether and If so, what other subjects do you recommend to swap with physics
is it going to be too much work load for year 12 having spesh,methods English (EAL), chemistry and physics alltogether and If so, what other subjects do you recommend to swap with physics
someone bumped this, now I realise I haven't followed up on that subject reviews thing for months... *adds another item to her overflowing plate*I can write one (and/or make someone else do it) for Further if you'd like. Given that it's module-based it might be better as a collaboration thing though.
Advise pls!!!!!
I'm in year 11 currently and I'm doing 1/2 chemistry,1/2 methods, 1/2specialists, 1/2 English, and 3/4 biology and I'm really unsure whether to do physics for my 6th subject or not for this year
Note that I want to do the same exacts subjects for year 12 except that I'll finish bio this year
is it going to be too much work load for year 12 having spesh,methods English (EAL), chemistry and physics alltogether and If so, what other subjects do you recommend to swap with physics