ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: charmanderp on April 22, 2012, 07:16:03 pm
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Personally there were a few VCAA studies I really wanted to choose but couldn't, either because they weren't offered by my school or I didn't have space. It'd be interesting to see if anyone else had the same experience, and for what reasons.
My current subjects are Lit, English, Methods, Chem, Media and Politics, but ideally I would have loved to have done Lit, Classics, Politics, Philosophy, Latin and Theatre Studies, and potentially a uni subject too, or Music Performance.
I've found that I enjoy Chem and Media in a way I would have never realised under different circumstances, but Methods and English bore me to tears.
So yeah, your turn. Discount anything like uni prerequisites, parental pressure and even the English requirement, if you want :p
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Subjects i should have done: Chem instead of health, i sucked at biology but i guess I needed it for uni anyway.
My german teacher sucked last year, but then again the 10+ boost for SS got me what I needed for my atar.
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I would have liked to have done another History subject - most likely Renaissance or something interesting like that. But I would have had to do it by distance education, and as last year's history was quite a difficult, time-consuming subject on its own, without distance ed, I figured it would be better to do something 'easier'. Perhaps I should have done it, but it's too late now either way.
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I really really regret not doing Interpol OR History Revs. Chose the all sciences/maths route (+Accounting :P), and now that I've decided I don't want to do Med, it kinda makes me think doing Chem was a waste of time. Even if I can get a better SS doing Chem then History/Pol (most likely), both of those subjects are much more interesting imo.
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Would have loved to do Specialist Maths, seems pretty interesting
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Latin (it would be so useful right now!)
Ditch physics (obviously - it's not even a real subject or real physics...)
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Would have loved to do Specialist Maths, seems pretty interesting
Took the words right out of my mouth.
That, or the fact that I have to do it now for the first time thanks to the Melbourne model.
#shouldhavegonetomonash
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If only my school offered Nat Pol..even though it advertises specifically on its site that it does 0_0
Regret over choosing philosophy but will settle for Legal Studies.
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I really wanted to do some of the Humanities subjects, such as Legal Studies and BusMan but being at a science school, sadly these weren't offered :( Geography will do I guess
Media, IT and French were subjects I originally wanted to do in VCE, but then I slowly started to lose interest in them.
Thanks for posting this by the way. First I thought I was stupid for choosing all the Asian 5 subjects, now I've realised I've done the right thing :)
Edit: Also, wouldn't mind National/International Politics too
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should've done uni maths :(
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Hmm... if we were ignoring all restrictions and considering hypothetically a nice mix of subjects to undertake - hence I'm also ignoring a lot of other factors that did shape my decisions to take the subjects I am doing (which I'm actually extremely happy with) - this selection sounds pretty good to me:
Literature, Media, Specialist Maths, Chemistry, History Revolutions and UMEP Physics
The lack of Methods and VCE physics would probably mean that Spesh and UMEP Physics would be a lot harder haha. Perhaps Methods, VCE Physics and History Revolutions in Year 11, and then do the rest in Year 12 would fix that issue.
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should've done uni maths :(
Same here :(, (would have replaced further with it)
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Physics and Philosophy. :(
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Philosophy, Sociology & Religion and Society
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Would have loved to do Specialist Maths, seems pretty interesting
Took the words right out of my mouth.
That, or the fact that I have to do it now for the first time thanks to the Melbourne model.
#shouldhavegonetomonash
Still have to do a Math unit at Monash Science. Choice between Calculus and Stats
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studio arts :(
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I'd like to do Latin, but my school doesn't offer it. :(
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Philosophy, History and Lit :(
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English Language. That's it.
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Four of them:
- Specialist—it wouldn't have been too hard for me; I failed Year 11 GMA not because I was incapable of grasping the concepts, but because I didn't apply myself enough. That, and the spesh knowledge would have helped my Methods in an indirect way...
- Biology in Year 11
- Chemistry, instead of Physics—now that I think about it, chemistry feels far more interesting to me than Physics; I should have realised that sooner.
- Latin, instead of French—the lack of audio and oral components in Latin would have been a huge plus :(
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History - would have been really interesting...!
Latin - if only my school offered it...
Economics - would have liked to take it but I couldn't take any chances as I wasn't sure whether it was a strength of mine...
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History - would have been really interesting...!
Latin - if only my school offered it...
Economics - would have liked to take it but I couldn't take any chances as I wasn't sure whether it was a strength of mine...
Haha just like Eng Lang? ;) Are you doing it as breadth in uni? I really wish I'd been able to study Latin, I've always been quite fascinated with the language.
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History - would have been really interesting...!
Latin - if only my school offered it...
Economics - would have liked to take it but I couldn't take any chances as I wasn't sure whether it was a strength of mine...
Haha just like Eng Lang? ;) Are you doing it as breadth in uni?
LOL, eng lang :P
We aren't allowed breadth in first year (I'm dying with med alone!)
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UMEP Biol,
methods in yr 11
UMEP math in yr 12.
just for kicks.
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Japanese. I want to read manga and watch anime without subs...
WHY DID I CHOOSE INDO FOR MY LANGUAGE :'(.
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WHY DID I CHOOSE INDO FOR MY LANGUAGE :'(.
But you got like a ridiculously high SS !?!?!?!
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Yeah, but I would also like to do Jap...would've done with Indo it if not for the fact we only can pick 1 language from yr 9.
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Economics
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Do English Language/Literature concurrently (DROP THE SHIT OUTA PHYSICS). STUPID BLOCKING SYSTEM AT SCHOOL RUINED IT ALL.
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I would've liked to have studied English Language, but my school doesn't offer it. Maybe being able to accelerate in Methods and maybe Biology in Year 11 would've been nice too, but again my school doesn't allow acceleration in either subject. Hence, I'm not studying Biology at all because while it is a very interesting subject, it involves a fair amount of remembering concepts and also it is not necessary for many health science related courses. Other subjects that I would love to have learnt, but have not chosen due to a lack of space (or a certain aspect, such as the required learning technique) include Economics, Media and Psychology.
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My current subjects are:
Literature, Methods, Specialist, Philosophy, German.
I wish I could have done:
English Language, Methods, Specialist, Philosophy, Latin and accelerated Psychology.
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Current subjects:
English, Chemistry, Physics, Methods, Spesh, Music (yr 11)
Should have done:
Psychology (yr 11), Chemistry, Methods, English, Literature, Specialist Maths
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wow a lot of people don't like physics
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Geography, accounting. Sigh...
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wow a lot of people don't like physics
For good reason ;)
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wow a lot of people don't like physics
I actually quite like the subject, but there not much to it. Its quite draining , involving formulae rather than fully understanding concepts. Something contrary to chemistry, and so it conflicts with the study patterns that I have, and gets very confusing. Plus, scaling isnt that amazing, so I would rather take Spesh (helps with methods too:))
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wow a lot of people don't like physics
It's not Physics which is the problem, its VCE Physics which is, it still annoys me that we had to count boxes instead of using proper calculus!!!!!!!!! -_-
EDIT: Really, they should have a look at the current physics course, a lot of it is just plugging numbers in, not proper physics, but then I suppose what can you really do when they restrict the required level of maths down....
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I think that they should make you do methods to do physics, just like they do with specialist. That way, there would be no excuse not to include calculus in physics.
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EDIT: Really, they should have a look at the current physics course, a lot of it is just plugging numbers in, not proper physics, but then I suppose what can you really do when they restrict the required level of maths down....
Did you just put maths and physics together for a moment there b^3?
Poor form mate :P
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I would've loved to do a politics subject. lol jks I'm doing them all.
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psychology, HHD, studio arts, Literature, Further
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wow a lot of people don't like physics
It's not Physics which is the problem, its VCE Physics which is, it still annoys me that we had to count boxes instead of using proper calculus!!!!!!!!! -_-
EDIT: Really, they should have a look at the current physics course, a lot of it is just plugging numbers in, not proper physics, but then I suppose what can you really do when they restrict the required level of maths down....
haha, yeah! counting boxes in 12th grade is ridiculous in my opinion. also, i personally find electronics extremely boring, would be so much better if it was replaced by E&M. i hope unit 4 is more interesting
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Wish I did Psychology, seems like such a cool subject
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Physics and Philosophy. :(
(http://i.qkme.me/357j2p.jpg)
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Is Physics at VCE level really NOT Physics?
I know you can use calculus and all, at higher levels of Physics, but how different?! I don't know why all the hate. ;)
EDIT: Thought I'd contribute by saying I wish I did Economics and Accounting in Year 11. Why? Because I did commerce (That was the name of the subject at my school) in year 10 and absolutely enjoyed it completely! Alas, It could not be offered.... :(
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I would have probably chosen
Psychology in Year 11
English, HH&D, Methods, I.T Applications and Business Management in Year 12.
I think the reason why I'm going to fail VCE is because I chose the subjects which I absolutely hate and are not good at instead of subjects which I enjoyed and fit my personality well.. I'm really not a science person, I have no idea why I chose science subjects.. for all the Year 10s or Year 11s out there, pick your subjects wisely because it can really come back and haunt you. If you pick a subject which you don't like and find difficult you will most likely end up spending the majority of your time on it without getting no where and then you will risk falling behind in your other subjects.. :(
Also make sure to pick Methods, since it opens up many pathways so you might as well choose it.
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Is Physics at VCE level really NOT Physics?
I know you can use calculus and all, at higher levels of Physics, but how different?! I don't know why all the hate. ;)
edit: Might be time for a topic split with the physics stuff.
I don't claim to have a very good understanding of all this and also I also don't claim that VCE Physics is anywhere near perfect, but hopefully somehow I manage to get my opinion of the issue explained well enough here.
tl;dr:
- VCE Physics is fairly standard along with it's international counterparts
- I don't think that lack of calculus isn't the main issue here, it really isn't necessary to teach physical concepts.
- By no means do they introduce us to 'fake' physics concepts.
- Physics concepts are cool
- breadth vs. depth in physics courses
My opinion is probably going to be different to everyone elses, I dunno how it is I approached VCE Physics differently to everyone else, but overall I enjoyed the hell out of the subject. There definitely is a lot of flaws with VCE Physics, and there definitely is a flaw with high school physics as a whole (including year 10 physics etc.) something that isn't particular to VCAA alone (you can pick a random equivalent international course and then be likely to see that they're also getting quite similar criticisms).
I've largely ignored the negatives of VCE Physics here - the main one I have something to say about is the exams - the 'plug and chug' thing is the main issue, being too easy etc. to pull a random quote off the internet (I googled 'high school physics quality drop' - article was talking about A-Level Physics), which seems agreeable for VCE Physics
Students are more or less guided through the answer. Not very much careful reasoning is required.
The others on here will probably provide enough elaboration on those negatives, so I better put in some positives:
I will say that I don't think that lack of calculus isn't the main issue here, it really isn't necessary to teach physical concepts. the fact that you can't use calculus on the exams doesn't really have much bearing on the physics/explanation of how the world works to be understood here - which I guess is my limited understanding of what the subject is about.
The lack of calculus also has the advantage of having a broader range of students be able to undertake the subject, which, from what I understand, is the a pretty high priority for high school physics - get people interested in physics (seems that the complete opposite has happened here lol).
There's nothing wrong with non-calculus based physics courses in my opinion. By no means do they introduce us to 'fake' physics concepts. (okay I probably could have cut down my post to those two sentences there, but after having written all that, I'm not getting rid of the rest of the post). Personally, I think it's these concepts/ideas/attempt to explain the world that are the core part of the course, and that's where the emphasis should be placed.
Looking from Units 1 to 4, VCE Physics is one of those introductory physics courses that try to introduce students to the very broad range of main topics in Physics. International physics courses seem to be quite similar in the content that is covered, take a look at AP Physics B, IB Physics, A-level Physics etc - e.g. the same broad topics/non-calculus approach.
These international courses might cover things here and there a bit differently (slightly more depth for topic A, slightly different topics covered etc.), however, they still take the same approach where a broad range of topics are covered. Mostly the core content of the courses will be similar, the concepts such as: Newtonian Mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Waves/Optics, Development of the Quantum Model of the Atom, Nuclear Physics - they all seem fairly standard topics to cover, which VCE Physics does.
There is also a few courses like "AP Physics C" I think it's called, one of which looks just at electromagnetism and the other that just looks at (Newtonian) mechanics - e.g. depth over breadth. These are also calculus based and aimed directly at 'advanced' students. Simply just a different approach to teaching physics, it is debatable which approach is better though (that's a question beyond me). What I am trying to get at is that VCE Physics isn't as much of a train wreck as it's portrayed to be.
As an aside:
http://www.vicphysics.org/documents/teachers/Physics.pdf
The (now out-of-date) 2010 Australian Curriculum draft for VCE Physics was packed with content, it went even more further with the breadth of content thing - there were concepts such as Standard Model, semiconductors etc. that were introduced. I know off the top of my head, the stuff covered in IB Physics was similar to that. There's been a few changes to that AC draft, new one comes out soon-ish I believe (I think also they might be using that detailed studies system, another thing that a few physics courses around the world do).
The latest info I could find about AC Physics was in this document: http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Senior_Secondary_Australian_Curriculum_Update.pdf
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The two subjects that I am most proud of myself for choosing are specialist maths and philosophy. I wasn't going to do them until at the end of year 10 when I decided to. I have no regrets about them whatsoever :)
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Biology, Philosophy and Methods (Capable, but Glandular Fever got the better of me in Year 11, so I decided it was best to drop it)
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biology and methods in year 11
philosophy (school dosn't have it :(), chemistry, spesh and eng lang in year 12
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German.
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German.
Worst teacher for that in year 12.
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specialist or physics.
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Sociology or Philosophy, weren't offered at my school. :(
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I wish I accelerated psychology and legal studies... they sound like such interesting subjects and I feel like I'm missing out.