What should I drop???

[denise119]

So I've just started year 12 and I currently am on 14 units. Obviously, that is a lot of units and as a result I won't be able to put as much effort into each subject as others who do less units will. So I've been thinking of which subject I want to drop and I've narrowed down to two subjects: biology and legal.
The thing is, for both these subjects, I am struggling quite a bit. I haven't been doing amazing in both subjects and I really do not enjoy studying for either of them; I really REALLY want to drop both of them but that would put me at 10 units and I feel like that's too unsafe, considering that I'm not great at English (too bad I can't drop it  ). My marks for both of them have been up and down (a few extremely good tasks and a few extremely horrible tasks). In addition to all this, both biology and legal scale pretty badly. Please aid me in my process of deciding which subject I should drop.

[CyberScopes]

Firstly, biology and legal dont scale bad! Theyre quite decent scaled subjects. As for what you want to drop - it depends. What do you want to do in the future? Are your subjects more humanities centred or science/math centred? Which subject do you think will help you in the future? Plus its important to mention that subjects change from year 11 to 12 - I havent done both subjects myself, but for example, physics in year 12 was entirely different and much more engaging course in year 12 compared to 11. At the end, it depends which one you enjoy more - or even which one you can force yourself to be interested in at least.

[Lumenoria]

Well, you seem to hate them both equally; but ultimately there is no point carrying the weight of 4 extra units that you won't work towards to over having 10. Honestly, you're probably actually better off without the burden of legal and biology because atleast then you have the time to spend time on your other subjects as necessary, therefore your overall marks for the 10 units should increase as a result. Hell, your marks in the remaining 10 might even drop if you keep the extra 4 units because you'll be spending a lot of time trying to grasp something you hate. However, if it were me, I would absolutely drop biology over legal; Legal is my favourite subject and biology is literally the subject I hate the most in the entirety of the world lol. Dropped it last week and even though I'm only on 11 units, it feels so much better not having to drag myself to hell almost everyday. If you decide to keep them, then atleast put in the effort. If you know you won't do that, then you're far better off without it. Honestly, see how you go and decide accordingly from there

[Potatohater]

I reckon drop both of them cause you're more likely to do well in subjects you like and there's no reason to keep the one that drain you hanging around. I know that drops you down to 10 but even though you say you're bad at English, English has to count regardless so it doesn't change anything, so I reckon there's no use keeping the safety net. I use this example a lot but I'm gonna use it again - I dropped the subject I was coming 1st in cause I hated it and I'm so much better off for it, allowing me to improve in all my other subjects, including English so I don't even need that safety net anymore. Whilst I do think bio is a good course, I reckon for you drop both.

[denise119]

I reckon drop both of them cause you're more likely to do well in subjects you like and there's no reason to keep the one that drain you hanging around. I know that drops you down to 10 but even though you say you're bad at English, English has to count regardless so it doesn't change anything, so I reckon there's no use keeping the safety net.

Well, you seem to hate them both equally; but ultimately there is no point carrying the weight of 4 extra units that you won't work towards to over having 10. Honestly, you're probably actually better off without the burden of legal and biology because atleast then you have the time to spend time on your other subjects as necessary, therefore your overall marks for the 10 units should increase as a result. Hell, your marks in the remaining 10 might even drop if you keep the extra 4 units because you'll be spending a lot of time trying to grasp something you hate. them, then atleast put in the effort.

My school says they prefer if we do at least 11 units because if we do 10 units everything counts. If we want to do 10 units, my school makes us fill out a form where we put all our year 11 assessment marks and ranks for each subject. And I really doubt my school will say yes after seeing my marks and rank for english. So dropping both isn't an option for me. 

As for what you want to drop - it depends. What do you want to do in the future? Are your subjects more humanities centred or science/math centred? Which subject do you think will help you in the future?

I've searched the pre-requisites for the courses I'm interested in and none of them are biology or legal. I'm aiming to be in the business industry (actuarial studies or commerce).

[lorbubblegum25]

It is good that you don't have to worry so much about the prerequisites, and even then, you could always do either as a foundation first year unit or bridging course at uni, if you suddenly decided you wanted to be something that required bio, for example.

Your school may not let you drop both, but you could try. Otherwise I think in your case it is more important to pick the one you think you like the best. Doing things you like can actually help guide you to a career you like, but at the end of the day after uni no one is going to look back at what you did in VCE.

Commerce etc would have legal stuff in it but I can't really speak for that.

It might also come down to balance. What are your other subjects? Some people like to say have everything in a similar area, others like a bit of a mix so their brain isn't always focussed on numbers, say, or always focussed on essays. It might be that as you can't ditch English, you might ditch legal, which has a lot of reading/writing, but then is applicable to commerce and business.

[denise119]

It might also come down to balance. What are your other subjects? Some people like to say have everything in a similar area, others like a bit of a mix so their brain isn't always focussed on numbers, say, or always focussed on essays.

My other subjects are business studies, chemistry, advanced english (because my school doesn't offer standard  ), and 4u maths.

Commerce etc would have legal stuff in it but I can't really speak for that.

It might be that as you can't ditch English, you might ditch legal, which has a lot of reading/writing, but then is applicable to commerce and business.

The commerce degrees say assumed knowledge is maths or maths ext 1.
Also the essay part for legal is making me lean more towards dropping it. But I'm nervous about the practical section in biology (since I just passed in the practical test in year 11) and my theory mark wasn't able to drag up my mark a lot. Also yea I know that chemistry has the same tasks but my year 11 chemistry practical wasn't bad but my theory test marks dragged my mark up a lot, and I also enjoy chem a lot.

[EEEEEEP]

My other subjects are business studies, chemistry, advanced english (because my school doesn't offer standard  ), and 4u maths.

The commerce degrees say assumed knowledge is maths or maths ext 1.
Also the essay part for legal is making me lean more towards dropping it. But I'm nervous about the practical section in biology (since I just passed in the practical test in year 11) and my theory mark wasn't able to drag up my mark a lot. Also yea I know that chemistry has the same tasks but my year 11 chemistry practical wasn't bad but my theory test marks dragged my mark up a lot, and I also enjoy chem a lot.

Hi there. I am currently doing a commerce degree and can confirm that there isn't a lot of legal stuff in commerce.

Whatever legal stuff there is  they will teach you (like minor marketing, HR, competition laws etc). They don't tell you to study cases (like a law degree) or require you to know in depth legal stuff. Now will you be required to do legal essays.


Notice how not much law things are mentioned.
...
As for maths,if you are going to be studying actuarial.. do maths. 

[portia1605]

hi there! just graduated myself and although i did neither of these subjects i might be able to help a bit. i would drop legal studies as biology is imho easier to improve in- there are more resources online not only for the actual HSC course itself, but also for the topics as well. i would strongly strongly recommend against doing 10 units- all my friends who did 10 units really regretted it, and I think it's always safe to have an extra unit or 2 up your sleeve JUST IN CASE something goes wrong. i did 11 units and wish i had done 12 or 13 because the exams themselves didn't go as well as I wanted.

overall, obviously choose what you want, but there's my advice. maybe also look at your teachers- do you prefer one over the other, is the science department stronger than the humanities? teachers make a BIG difference I'm sure you know. also look at your school's past results. where do they perform better? forget scaling. a lot of ppl at my school chose chem and physics over subjects such as drama and languages bc 'science scales so well' BUT we only got 3 band 6s across chem and physics last year (and we're a top 15 school so that is NOT good). on the other hand, we get 90% band 6s in french and german. so look at how your school goes! that might be an indication.

and you may not be too strong at either at the moment but DO NOT discount how important this next year is. i picked up french continuers at the start of term 3 in year 11 ( i dropped chem), went from getting 80% to topping the cohort with a trial mark of 99%. trust me, if you work hard you WILL improve. even in the gap between trials and the actual HSC, you have the time to progress as much as you want, you just need to push yourself.

good luck!! xx

[lorbubblegum25]

I agree with the latest replies above. I think if you are going to drop something, drop legal. I agree there are so many online videos and other resources to help you with the bio, and yes if there is no substantial legal in a commerce degree itself, then doesn't seem worth it.

[glinny]

I was in the same boat with you regarding subjects, I commenced Year 12 with 14 units as well. Don't drop to less then 10units, E2 maths is extremely hard an time-consuming and it won't reward you without the effort. Keep at least one unit extra so that the possibility to drop is always there.