ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Humanities => VCE Arts/Humanities/Health => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Australian Politics => Topic started by: Nic K on December 17, 2009, 07:23:03 pm
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It may be slightly premature for this topic to be created but who cares. I'm sure we all have some form of holiday homework haha.
I must admit, this is the subject I'm looking forward to the most!! It sounds so interesting ;D
Who else is doing this class? We can be friends ;)
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I'm doing National Politics next year. :)
Definitely looking forward to doing it.
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Yay, someone else doing the subject!!! :D
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Until now I didn't know anyone else doing the subject... I'm glad there's at least two of us!
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Yeah there's not many people in Victoria that do it!! Did you have an orientation week at your school where you did the subject?
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Nope, I'm doing it at the CAE. They do have an orientation session, but not about the actual class.
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Oh okay. I had an orientation week where we had three lessons and it seems pretty good!
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That's good! I wish our school ran the class, it would have been much easier.
What textbook are you using?
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Ummm, Power and National Politics I think it's called. Gilby is the author. You?
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hey! I did national politics this year and got a 43, so feel free to PM me for any advice or whatnot. I was as enthusiastic as you this time last year, I knew very little about the Australian or US political systems so I did a lot of research over the holidays. Sites like Wikipedia and the Australian government websites helped, and I also read some books.
good luck, I found it a really enjoyable subject (for the most part, I got a bit sick of it later in the year:P)
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The Indigo Handbook for VCE National Politics Unit 3 and 4, but it seems to be more of a study guide, so I'm thinking about getting a copy of power and national politics.
hey! I did national politics this year and got a 43, so feel free to PM me for any advice or whatnot. I was as enthusiastic as you this time last year, I knew very little about the Australian or US political systems so I did a lot of research over the holidays. Sites like Wikipedia and the Australian government websites helped, and I also read some books.
good luck, I found it a really enjoyable subject (for the most part, I got a bit sick of it later in the year:P)
Thanks. I might take you up on that offer a bit later in the year.
I'm glad it was overall a good subject :)
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Never thoguht I'd see the day this thread was revived, we just need to make sure the oxygen keeps flowing throughout the year =P
I've already offered my support to Nic, and SGeorge and anyone else that does the subject feel free to ask as many questions you want on the boards/threads/PM, i'll ensure I'll answer them ASAP :)
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The Indigo Handbook for VCE National Politics Unit 3 and 4, but it seems to be more of a study guide, so I'm thinking about getting a copy of power and national politics.
hey! I did national politics this year and got a 43, so feel free to PM me for any advice or whatnot. I was as enthusiastic as you this time last year, I knew very little about the Australian or US political systems so I did a lot of research over the holidays. Sites like Wikipedia and the Australian government websites helped, and I also read some books.
good luck, I found it a really enjoyable subject (for the most part, I got a bit sick of it later in the year:P)
Definitely get power and national politics. It's only like $46 +delivery if you need it. The Indigo thing is good to give you ideas and stuff, but it's definitely not enough on it's own. Personally, I found it an interesting subject, but domestic policy gets a bit tedious and I think I just put so much work into it that I got sick of it towards the end of the year. I thought I was going to do really badly because I didn't do much study later in the year but somehow I survived: )
Thanks. I might take you up on that offer a bit later in the year.
I'm glad it was overall a good subject :)
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The Indigo Handbook for VCE National Politics Unit 3 and 4, but it seems to be more of a study guide, so I'm thinking about getting a copy of power and national politics.
We got given a copy of some pages out of that book and 'Power and National Politics' on the constitution and to be honest, I found that the Indigo book was very much based on the assumption that people had prior knowledge about it (which wasn't the case in my class for two or three students). I much prefered Power and National Politics.
Nova and/or schmalex, which textbook did you use and what was it like?
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I'm sure there'll be plenty of oxygen flowing through this thread, particularly when it starts nearing exam time.
Thanks for clearing up the differences up between the books. More book purchases! :D
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In regards to the textbook we didn't use a particular one, I personally went and bought
The Indigo handbook for national politics / Rod Wise. (it's mroe like a study guide, really good but skips a lot/doesnt go into detail, so you need to COMPLIMENT IT with another)
Power and national politics : VCE National Politics unit 3 & 4 / Paul Gilby ; content editor Maryellen Davidson.
Good, detailed, and practically the only "textbook" available in Victoria for National Politics.
The key to success is to do your OWN research and get your own NOTES.
Because you use the textbook for about 2/3 of the course, the rest involves you choosing a DOMESTIC policy, and a FOREIGN policy....this is where your own notes, video viewing, news watching, internet research come in handy
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I'm just wondering what people who did National this year studied as their suggested area of change for 'Continuity and change'?
Also, what the Senate being removed from Parliament and the fact that although its purpose has changed, it should not be removed an area of change that can be studied? Or is it better to be broader and study Parliament in general?
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You no longer have to study a suggested area of change, you study all of them. You have to study one aspect of domestic policy though. I studied the issue of our treatment of refugees, then realised it was too broad and switched to the ETS at the last minute.
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Oh. But our SAC for that task is an essay on one suggested area of change. Would what I suggested be a suitable area?
I look forward to the domestic policy topic :D That will be my favourite area of study I reckon.
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Oh. But our SAC for that task is an essay on one suggested area of change. Would what I suggested be a suitable area?
I look forward to the domestic policy topic :D That will be my favourite area of study I reckon.
Foreign Policy was my favorite area, domestic was too, it gives so much freedom.
Suggested area of change can include
-Lowering the voting age
-Removing compulsory voting
-Having fixed elections instead of allowing the Gov to call an election when it suits them.
I hope they help, I will upload some more in the sticky thread 2morrow I think.
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Oh. But our SAC for that task is an essay on one suggested area of change. Would what I suggested be a suitable area?
I look forward to the domestic policy topic :D That will be my favourite area of study I reckon.
your teacher might pick the area of change. They might not tell what the area of change is either. But if you do get a choice, the options are the constitution, parliament and the electoral system. Personally, I'd prefer to write about the constitution, because there are a wide variety of changes and I find this area interesting. Parliament is the most boring area for me, and most of the changes to parliament involve changes to the other areas anyway. Electoral sytem changes are probably the easiest to look at because it's all very straight forward and the electoral system is constantly being scrutinised, so there are a lot of resources for that.
THere have been some recent green papers and senate inquiries on electoral change. I can't remember the name, but I'll look it up late. If you're really keen google "electoral system white paper" or something like that and tick the "pages from australia"
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Hmmm lots of ideas for the area of change! Too many to choose from actually...I hope I get to choose the area of change for myself.
Nova, what area did you study?
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Err *tries to bring back form the recycle bin/memory)*
OO, it was....
Whether the Parliament was a rubber stamp, like whether Parliament NEEDED to be changed. I started arguing yes and no in order to fill up lines, A+ LOL.
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haha You did very well, no matter how you argued it.
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Oh. But our SAC for that task is an essay on one suggested area of change. Would what I suggested be a suitable area?
I look forward to the domestic policy topic :D That will be my favourite area of study I reckon.
Foreign Policy was my favorite area, domestic was too, it gives so much freedom.
Suggested area of change can include
-Lowering the voting age
-Removing compulsory voting
-Having fixed elections instead of allowing the Gov to call an election when it suits them.
I hope they help, I will upload some more in the sticky thread 2morrow I think.
Thanks for those, I look forward to seeing the different options you can do :)
Oh. But our SAC for that task is an essay on one suggested area of change. Would what I suggested be a suitable area?
I look forward to the domestic policy topic :D That will be my favourite area of study I reckon.
your teacher might pick the area of change. They might not tell what the area of change is either. But if you do get a choice, the options are the constitution, parliament and the electoral system. Personally, I'd prefer to write about the constitution, because there are a wide variety of changes and I find this area interesting. Parliament is the most boring area for me, and most of the changes to parliament involve changes to the other areas anyway. Electoral sytem changes are probably the easiest to look at because it's all very straight forward and the electoral system is constantly being scrutinised, so there are a lot of resources for that.
THere have been some recent green papers and senate inquiries on electoral change. I can't remember the name, but I'll look it up late. If you're really keen google "electoral system white paper" or something like that and tick the "pages from australia"
Yeah my teacher said we will be writing an essay on an area of change of our choice, that's why I am wondering about the Senate as an option. If I can, I think I'd like to write about the Senate's role in Parliament and how it shouldn't be removed. Unless when Nova puts up more areas of change you can discuss, I find a more interesting one to focus on.
So you also have to study a range of different suggested reforms in detail?
Thanks for your information :)
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Thanks for your information :)
Major thanks :)
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^For the SAC like you said, you don't need to because each teacher is different, and both MY teacher and YOURS allwoed us to choose.
However for the exam they tend to say a possible reform in the ELECTORAL SYSTEM, or a possible reform to PARLIAMENT, and u come up with ANY TWO (usually it's a 4 mark question).
The exam does not say a specific ONE, but offers a BROAD topic, so if you can learn a couple for Parliament, voting system, etc you should be set :)
EDIT: You don't have to study in detail, since the short answer just requires around 2-3 lines for one reform, and anotehr 2-3 if its a 4 mark question.
For the extended response you have the OPTION (remember essay 1= AOS1, Essay 2= AOS 2 for Unit 3) of doing one in good detail i.e. 2+ pages. But the risk with that is you wouldn't know how they word teh question e..g whether it's broad or not.
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Oh okay. That would be why more people choose AOS1 for the extended response in unit 3 part of the exam.
Now I just have to see the choices of different reforms and decide what I will wrote about for the SAC :)
Thanks Nova :)
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I got my politics textbook today!!! So colourful :P
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Ooh! Does it look good?
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It looks very good!!! I think it'll be an excellent resource.
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I have a question about when choosing the national policy. What are some examples of policies can you choose? Is it better to choose a clear one (like the emissions trading scheme for example) or can you do a broader policy (like an education revolution for example that has a range of policies in it)?
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It has to be ONE specific policy like the emissions trading scheme or the NT intervention. I made that mistake last year and had to cram studying for the ETS at the last minute. If the ETS is still relevent this year, use that :)
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I suppose we'll be lucky that we have a federal election this year and lots of policies will be announced. I don't think I'd want to do the ETS.
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Yeah, that's a very good point. I wasn't interested in the ETS either. I was SO happy when I didn't need to write about a specific policy on the exam :) My SS could have been so much lower if the exam questions didn't go my way. But remember you also need to write about the implementation of your policy, so it helps if it's a policy in progress, and not a proposed policy.
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Oh okay...I could do the changes to youth allowance maybe? I dunno, I have a while to decide. I have to decide what proposed change to the political system I'm going to do first.
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The domestic policy is probably more important because it involves more research and actually involves watching the issue develop, but you still don't really need to decide until second semester. You could definitely do the changes to youth allowance. It's an issue with a lot of stakeholders. The issue was recently referred to the Senate by the National party so you could look into that.
That being said, are you sure you only have to look at ONE way of changing the political system for your sac? Or are you looking at changes to ONE political institution?
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Ummm, I am not really sure. I just know that we are marked on an essay on a suggested area of change. So I'm not sure?
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I thought I'd find out how politics is going for people doing the subject (AKA sgeorge)? I'm really enjoying it so far. Although I'm looking forward to the second area of study, this area is also interesting :)
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Well I think it's going quite well :) I'm finding it very similar to Legal Studies, so I'd have to say that's a bonus.
I've forgotten what the next area of study is... care to remind me? :P
How are your classes going?
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Hahaha it's about a change to the political system ;)
My classes are very interesting. My favourite class for sure!
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Have you had a SAC yet?
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Nope, I'm doing it at the CAE. They do have an orientation session, but not about the actual class.
I did National Politics at CAE in 2008. Is Rod Wise still teaching the subject? I'm guessing so since you're using his textbook (which, mind you, tends to have many spelling, grammatical, and sometimes factual errors, haha). It's a good introduction into the material but you'll definitely want another textbook for study purposes.
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I did National Politics at CAE in 2008. Is Rod Wise still teaching the subject? I'm guessing so since you're using his textbook (which, mind you, tends to have many spelling, grammatical, and sometimes factual errors, haha). It's a good introduction into the material but you'll definitely want another textbook for study purposes.
Rod is away this year. so we had a diff teacher, who is no more, so now we have a diff teacher who seems ok.
I wish Rod was here though, i heard he was great at teaching it. And I know that the only person to get a perfect score for the subject last year, with their name in the paper was someone from the CAE