Can't decide between VCE literature or Legal studies!! Help!!

[Sophie1610f]

Hi guys!
For those of you that have done both literature and legal 3/4, which did you prefer? Which one did you do better in?
Even if you did one or the other, what were your thoughts? Need DESPERATE help.
Thank you!!

[clarke54321]

Hiya!

I've done both, so will shed some light.

Last year I did Legal and absolutely loved it. If you have done 1/2, it will give you a pretty good indication of 3/4. If you have an interest in the parliamentary system, the methods by which laws are made, the court system and the constitution, you will love Legal. I'd recommend looking at previous exam papers, as these will give you an insight into common topics. With Legal, you are working from the book and dealing with facts. But the subject allows you to look into the 'grey' areas of arguments and weigh up the value of things. Practice questions are key in Legal. With this a 45+ is achievable.

Now onto Lit. Keep in mind I'm still going with Lit in 3/4. I love Lit because you are so free. There is no structure and there is much more opportunity for you to explore ideas than in English. It rewards thinking and careful understanding. I suppose the difficult thing about Lit is staying on track and forming an interpretation that is sustained and so forth.

At the end of the day, Legal and Lit are very different in style. By nature, Legal is from the book and Lit is from the head. Therefore, it comes down to what you find more interesting and what better suits your learning style. All the best!

[patriciarose]

Hi guys!
For those of you that have done both literature and legal 3/4, which did you prefer? Which one did you do better in?
Even if you did one or the other, what were your thoughts? Need DESPERATE help.
Thank you!!

tl/dr (at the start instead of the end to save you some time from my rambling haha): i'm doing both right now, and so far i'm doing miles better in lit (100 average vs. like ?? 83 rip atar lmao). i prefer lit because writing tends to be my forte and also there's so much more freedom than there is in legal. in lit basically you can write whatever you want however you want (providing it's a legitimate view and not totally trite haha), whereas in legal you'll still be writing a lot, but there's so much content to learn and you need to basically say it exactly right. you'll be writing quite a lot whichever subject you pick, though. so if you're better at memorising and prefer that go for legal but if you're a big fan of essays i'd say lit (: it'll be fun! (but if you're not a big fan of essays though it'll be the antithesis of fun oh my god don't touch it with a barge pole tbh.)

pros of lit:
– essays (unless you hate them in which case, like i said above, no no no nope don't do it)
– your class is probably more focused if it's anything like mine, everyone actually likes reading/writing as opposed to english classes haha
– the books are super good! much more interesting than the english ones to me and also you get to go much more in depth analysing them (but also ?? they're LONG. again, if you don't like reading and writing don't go near it. which probably should be common knowledge tbh oops)
– helps with english and kind of vice versa (not so much writing style, but your vocabulary can only improve!)
– it's not easy but that makes it more rewarding somehow? idk.

cons of lit:
– hard cohort. people don't take it (usually) unless they're quite adept at english which means it's a harder cohort AND smaller. makes it more difficult to get into a higher percentile
– so many essays it'll break your hand probably i think i need therapy and it's only may
– i tend to bs my way through english essays (certain teachers apparently get off on pretentious sentences asdfghjl) but you really can't do that in lit
– you do several sacs in formats that will not be on the exam (but i'd probably quit if i had to do another creative piece lmao so maybe that's a good thing!)
– the bell curve is probably not your friend nope it doesn't play nicely with others
– you actually have to be switched on in classes and they'll probably make you contribute to discussion (this could be a plus if you're an extrovert, but i'm not and this is my list ahaha)

pros of legal:
– (ah god idk tbh. for the record, i have a sketchy teacher and detest the constitution which is a major part of unit 3 so this is biased and i'm not even sorry) um if you're good at memorising it's kind of a chill subject? i mean i'm not doing super well since it's my 7th but as someone who writes her notes the night before and studies day of, if you can memorise and regurgitate what you've learned you can get 80s. so i assume with sliiiiightly more work (oops?) you could pull 90s the same way
– a lot of people do it which means it's statistically easier to get into a higher percentile. but on the flip side you have more people to beat, so.
– the study design's changing next year so i'm not going to comment on content but i've heard it's getting more philosophical? which in my head sounds like "less memorising!" and that's always a plus amiright
– you learn about quite a few court cases which actually is interesting so if that's your thing you might like it
– you don't particularly need to cultivate a great vocabularly (though it never hurts haha)

cons of legal:
– memorising. headaches. also i die every class oops but again if you have an engaging teacher i'm sure it'll be great. if not, self-motivation does wonders (or so i've heard lmao)
– if you don't keep on top of your notes they 100% will unite en masse to end you the night before a sac. fun times
– i'm seriously not joking you can't cram the period before the sac if you don't have notes that is the Bare. Minimum.
– ... don't cram the period before the sac it's not a good time
– it's content heavy so if you're sick for a lesson you'll probably miss three new areas of study, they'll have updated the constitution and there'll be a new prime minister (the latter is probably most likely though wow i love australia)
– you do actually have to write a lot and you have to write it fast. which i think is normal for most vce subjects but hey i hate it and this is a con list so have at it

this is super messy and incoherent but hopefully it helps? feel free to post/pm me for clarification ahaha. also if anyone else wants to tell me i'm wrong there is a 100% chance you're right so please do! (: