What is the competition like?

[Stick]

So as many of you know, I'm doing Further Maths this year and the competition is insane. While the mathematics behind it all is relatively simple, I've been stressing out heaps that I won't do well in this subject simply because it is just too competitive. It's quite draining. So, I was just wondering what the competition is like for the following subjects compared to Further Maths:

- English
- Specialist Mathematics
- Mathematical Methods
- Chemistry
- Italian

Thanks.

[ligands]

methods is competitive (not as much as further)
english isn't competitive but seems alot of people do it, it sorta makes it competitive
chemistry is competitive
spesh and italian im not so sure (dont think italian will be but spesh might be on the same level as methods)

[golden]

Chemistry is super competitive.
So is specialist - people tend to actually do a lot more work for specialist as compared to methods.
I would presume that methods would be less than further.
English is a subject where many people don't take it seriously but many people do, so it's a very big spread. Maybe you can use the normal distribution with arbitrary axes of 'trying hard' and 'hardly trying' lol to plot a graph.

[pi]

English is the most competitive subject there is, however, a fair proportion of the state doesn't care about it

Spesh is very competitive, if you want 45+ raw, you'd want near full marks on both exams (I think losing 3 over both is too much)

Chem is quite competitive too, more margin for error

Methods is very competitive, more margin for error than spesh, but very competitive in the top end

Further is, as you said, highly competitive, 100% on both exams doesn't guarantee a 50


Basically, the more subjects you do from the 'asian 5', the more competitive things get

[Special At Specialist]

Spesh is very competitive, if you want 45+ raw, you'd want near full marks on both exams (I think losing 3 over both is too much)
Methods is very competitive, more margin for error than spesh, but very competitive in the top end

You're basing this on last years exam, which is a very bad representation of the big picture.
Last year, the specialist exam was very easy, easier than it had been for the past 6 or so years.
On the contrary, last year, the methods exam was very hard, harder than it had been for the past 6 or so years.
So if you're going to compare methods to specialist, don't use the easiest specialist exam vs the hardest methods exam.

Now that that's out of the way, I'll tell you a bit about them:

Further maths only gets competitive in the 40+ range. To reach a 40 in further is quite easy because most people who attempt this subject put in little effort, but at the same time, a handful of people see it as an "easy 50", so the top end (especially the 45+ range) is VERY competitive.

Maths methods has a much lower spread of marks. If you're going to try to excel at a subject, this is quite a good one to try. A 45+ in methods is quite achievable and does not require specialist maths (though specialist does help). The competition isn't too bad at the top end, since most of the 45-49 scores in methods come from people who score 40-44 in specialist. A 50 is also achievable, since this is a large subject and roughly 35 people are able to score a 50. So you only have to be rank 35 in the state.

Specialist maths is very competitive, since most students that choose this subject have a genuine interest in mathematics and work quite diligently. To score a 35-40 in specialist is about as hard as scoring a 45 in methods. Most people that do methods and specialist put more effort into specialist, so you'll have to work pretty hard to beat them at their own game. Due to such a low number of participants, only about 10 can score a 50, so the 45+ scores are very limited. I would say that this is even more competitive than further maths at the top end.

[pi]

Yes, I used last year's exam as reference, but for three reasons:
1) It was the most recent
2) It was the exam after VCAAs new stance on spesh scaling
3) It is the worst case scenario for competition and it's best to be prepared for the worst

[ecvkcuf]

what about for business management?