ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: zuko_rules! on January 21, 2013, 06:48:40 pm
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Ive decided to choose subjects that only scale up... ie methods, literature, chemistry, french, specialist. Is this alright, assuming i really love all my subjects? or is this going to be a huge mistake?? Thanks guys, would really appreciate any advice thanks :)
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Ive decided to choose subjects that only scale up... ie methods, literature, chemistry, french, specialist. Is this alright, assuming i really love all my subjects? or is this going to be a huge mistake?? Thanks guys, would really appreciate any advice thanks :)
I was in a similar situation having done English Language, Methods, Italian, German, Biology. In the end I got an atar of 90 something which was fine enough because I got into the course I wanted to. Had I achieved the same scores in subjects that were scaled down I could have expected an atar somewhere in the 70s range.
I mean, you've got your work cut out for you but as you said you enjoy the subjects so you shouldn't have much to worry about, just work hard! :)
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Generally speaking, scaling is good because it's a safety net. The more you fall down (screw up an exam) the more scaling boosts you back up.
Just make sure you know what you're getting yourself into, especially with respect to Literature and French. I should also note I don't think you gain too much with Literature scaling. Because you need a high English score to do well anyway, and Lit's +2 scaling does very little at the extremities. Anecdotally, I wasn't the hugest fan of Literature 1&2 when I did it in year 10.
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thanks you guys! i feel considerably more at ease :D yeah i was a bit apprehensive about choosing french, but i thought that i would be moronic not to, considering i was raised in a french speaking household :) thanks again you two! feel much better
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Do the subjects you most enjoy or require as prerequisites. Don't worry about scaling (either up or down).
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Subjects scale up for a reason. They're perceived to be tougher in comparison to those subjects that scale down. Hence you could argue that the competition is more intense in high scaling subjects.
But if you love your subjects, this shouldn't be a problem. :) Whether they scale up or down, you're more likely to succeed if you choose what you're interested in.
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Thanks you guys! i really appreciate at all the kind words of envouragement :) youve made me feel happy about my subject choice for the first time in weeks :D
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I don't think it's too bad. I took a pretty similar courseload (french, methods, chemistry, physics, english language, english and a UMEP) and I found that the classes I took catered more to my learning style. The scaling does act as a bit of a safety net - I remember waking up devastated the night after my chemistry midyear because I realized how I'd completely misread a question, but my 47 scaled to 49, so even though I didn't do as well as I'd have liked, it was still a good overall score :)
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an average student gets 30 in spesh...Same student also gets 42 in further..no difference at all
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assuming i really love all my subjects?
Go ahead. Whether you're doing a subject that scales you up considerably like specialist maths or scales you down terribly like media or music, don't let it effect your work ethics and the hard work you are willing to put in.
Personally, I wouldn't adopt a "safety net" type thinking because you might be too dependent on thinking that your score will get scaled higher anyway so you do not try as much.
Do your best and have fun with your subjects.
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no problem doing just subjects that scale up.
you just get rewarded even more for your hard work.
just make sure that you do work hard