Vce History or Legal?! PLEASE HELP!!

[hf123]

Hey peeps,
Ok, so for the 100th time, these are my subjects for next year. I'll be in year 11

- Eng 1/2
- Chem 1/2
- Methods 1/2
- HHD 1/2
- Bio 3/4 or Psych 3/4 (still deciding)
- And my main problem: Eco 3/4, which I'm definitely going to change though. Because I hate it.
 My options are Legal Studies 1/2 or History 1/2

Which one is better?! Please let me know. What content is involved? Are they hard? Which one's more interesting/better?


Much Appreciated

[History_buff]

Hey hf123,

I've only done 1/2 history not Legal but I can definitely say it was great. I did 20th century history, which I'm assuming you would be(?). The 20th century is split into two units, Unit 1 being 1900-1945 and Unit 2 1945-2000. Obviously, WWI and II are part of U1 but you also look at Hitler's ascension to the position of Chancellor. You also look at the social life during the first half of the 20th century and the impact of ideologies, events etc. Unit 2 includes the Cold War and all the events it encompasses, movements of the late 20th century such as civil rights in the US and feminism, the Korean and Vietnam wars and others smaller topics like JFK's assassination.

Assessment depends on your teacher, but most often he/she will try prepare you for 3/4 history if you were to do it by giving you similar assessments - that's what my teacher did. We did a graphic and passage analysis in relation to a topic, for example, the Vietnam War similar to those on the 3/4 revolutions exams, an essay and a group presentation. You have to do a group presentation in some form or another and also a SAC in written form based on a visual text (eg. I had to do a persuasive essay on the film All Quiet on the Western Front as to to whether it was a historically accurate or not), the VCAA study design requires it. Many forms of assessment can be used though including:

• analytical exercises;
• annotated maps
• short reports;
• essays;
• oral presentations;
• multimedia presentations;
• film reviews;
• biographical studies;
• tests;
• responses to literature.

The VCAA study design ( http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/history/history-sd.pdf ) outlines practically everything you need to know about the subject including assessment, requirements etc.

Sorry I can't help with legal but any questions about 20th cent. just ask

[hf123]

Thanks for that
It really helped! Yeah, I am doing 20th Century History, and it seems really interesting!

[History_buff]

thats ok

yeh very interesting, it can be alot of work sometimes but its worth it, especially if you get a really good teacher the other good thing is that because there is so much content you dont have to know every little detail about something, only about the main events and if you dont like one thing your sure to like most of the rest because its such a large variety of topics studied

[sunintherain]

I'm doing both- But I haven't started History yet and I've done legal 1/2
Legal studies is a fairly easy subject all you really need is a good memory- The first unit focus's on Criminal law and the second unit is on Civil law.
History I've heard is quite similar to Literature and if that's the case then it's probably quite challenging and would require a fair amount of essay writing.
Without going in to far, I think you should base your decision on your strengths- are you good at memorizing? Are you good at essays? I think that overall Legal would be the easy choice but that History would be the more rewarding choice.

[Tragesty]

I'll chime in what I can, having done legal studies 3/4 (albeit didn't try until the exam due to ignorance of the VCE competitive system, thinking I was doing well with A's).

A lot of people say legal studies is a rote learning subject, and while I believe that's true for some of the course, such as the court hierarchy, I found most of it was applying common knowledge - for example, evaluating various topics (Parliament as a law maker for example), the strengths and weaknesses presented made sense when you thought about them (members elected to represent people, can pass legislation quickly, but they aren't always sitting etc.) In saying that, a good memory will help with legal studies, but I don't think it'll guarantee a good mark simply memorising all the information. You need to know how to answer the question asked and how to structure your essays.

It is quite a content heavy subject, but I never found that bothered me despite always thinking it would early on in the year - if you split up the topics you learn through out the year and organise all your notes, the large content load won't present much of a problem.

I went into 3/4 legal with a 'meh' attitude (mostly attribtued to being in year 11 and not really aware of the importance), however once you get your head around the content (which is rather easy, in my opinion) I found it quite interesting to learn how our system of trial works, how Parliament operates etc. - you can apply the knowledge learnt to the real world. If you're interested in learning about Parliament, our Constituion and our rights (and how they're protected), civil and criminal procedures (which might sound mundane but are quite interesting), I recommend you take up 3/4 legal.

[aabattery]

Legal is awesome and really applicable if you want to be an aware aussie citizen... Some think that its dry and boring but it really isn't if you look for its application in current affairs and aussie politics.
So...

I recommend you take up 3/4 legal.

+1

[weasleyisourking]

I have only done History but here are my 2 cents.

1/2 History is absolutely fantastic ... best subject I ever did - fascinating, humbling, riveting stuff! It was also dead easy - maybe that was my school but most of the tests were just recall + definitions, maybe a short analysis question or two and then the occasional essay.

3/4 History is a bitch to juggle with your other Yr 12 subjects. There's not much that can fully prepare you for how much work this subject is. You will only like the subject if you work hard and have an INTEREST in it - a lot of my class thought they could bludge: then found it overwhelming, neglected it, became even more overwhelmed, and gave up.
I didn't give up, I persevered with it and found it very rewarding and consequently did pretty well.

So, do history in the long run if you are interested in it ... one of the ways I chose my VCE subjects was imagining their text books laid out in front of me in a waiting room somewhere and thinking about which one's I would pick up to read through to pass the time - it allowed me to pinpoint in which areas my natural curiosity for learning lay.

Don't get me wrong 3/4 History is hard, but it is only as hard as you make it. If you do all the work you can avoid being drowned in it. It was one of my favourite subjects. Watch this for (a delicious!) taste of the content ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvSod16wfgg

... and think about if you want to study this in A LOT more in depth in Year 12.

Best of luck!

[werdna]

I spent more time on History Revolutions than I did for Legal Studies, and in the end I got a higher score for Legal Studies. Legal is definitely a more manageable subject, everything you need to know for the SACs and exam is included in the textbook, and only sometimes you will need to look elsewhere for extra info if needed (eg. real-life examples). For History, there is a lot of added research you will have to do, because the study design is very vague in what you do and don't need to know. I personally found Legal more enjoyable and interesting - do whatever you are more interested in!