Is it worth doing 5 subjects?

[JaredV]

Hi there,

So I just finished year 11. I did two 3/4 subjects; Biology and Maths Methods. I was extremely happy with my biology mark (44 raw), however I wasn't so happy with methods (37 raw). That being said, I didn't by any means do horribly but I'm aiming for a enter score of 96 so I need to do relatively well in all my subjects

Obviously the main reason I chose to do two 3/4 subjects in year 11 was to be able to do 4 in year 12, thus lightening my workload. At the moment I'm signed up for English (however I could do lit, would appreciate advice on that as well haha), Revolutions, Psychology and Legal studies.

However after seeing my methods SS I started to think if I should pick up a fifth (and overall a seventh) 3/4 next year in order to increase my chances of getting a higher enter. If I were to do this I would probably pick up further maths, as I don't have any maths subjects next year so it would help balance things out..

Thoughts?
Thank you in advance 

EDIT: added study scores for each subject

[Charmz]

If it were me, and my Methods result was really dismal, i'd pick up a 5th, but if its above, say 35, I wouldn't pick up another. If you think you can get a much better result in a 7th subject, then sure, you should go ahead. However, if you don't think you're doing very well in the 7th sub, you can always drop it. But it's entirely up to you, I don't know your capabilities.

[Special At Specialist]

It's only for a 10% increment. If you pick up a 7th subject and get a 40 in it instead of a 30 in your 6th subject, that will increase your aggregate by 1 point.
Most likely picking up a 7th subject will increase your aggregate by less than a point, but the stress of having 5 subjects instead of 4 might cost you a few points on your primary 4 subjects, so I don't think it's worth it.
6 is a pretty ideal number of subjects in my opinion.

[Aurelian]

Personally I would stay with just the four subjects. Your Methods result is still very good, and as Specialist has said it can only really affect your aggregate by a maximum of 0.9, and that's only if you get 50 in everything else. This will have a negligible effect on your ATAR at the end of the day, and the extra workload of five subjects compared to four could ultimately prove more detrimental (getting 40 instead of 45 in English, for instance, because you have to study for more subjects, has a far greater final impact).

The only time I think this would be worth consideration would be;
1. If you're aiming for a really top end score (like, 99.90/99.95) and even then I don't think it'd be necessarily worth it. But for an aim of 96, you'd be far better off sticking with the four.
2. If there's a subject that you actually really want to do purely for interests sake. Given your absence of burning desire to do further, I'm assuming that this doesn't really apply to you, so again, stick with the four.

Hope that helps! =)

[Scooby]

I'd say stick with four subjects. As the others have said, taking a seventh subject to replace Methods would increase your aggregate negligibly. Unless you are taking Further because you're interested in it, it really isn't worth the extra workload and pressure. After all, the increased workload of five subjects instead of four might actually compromise subjects you'd like to see in your primary four.

Your Methods score will scale to around 41, meaning if you take a seventh subject and knock the Methods score out of your top six subjects, it will only add an extra 0.9 to your aggregate - assuming you receive a 50 for this subject and all of your others. If you scored a 42 for your seventh subject, knocking your 41 for Methods out of the aggregate, you'd only be looking at an aggregate 0.1 points higher. That being said, you'd still have to achieve above a 41 in at least two other subjects (that aren't English) for your Methods score to be outside your primary four (Biology's already above 41 and English has to be there regardless).

Essentially, I don't think it would be worth taking a seventh subject, given the dramatically increased work load and the limited benefit it would have on your ATAR.

Unless you took Lit 1&2, I wouldn't take Lit 3&4. Even if you have taken Lit 1&2, from what I've heard, although Literature may be more interesting than English for those looking to analyse their texts in depth, it requires far more work and devotion to achieve a decent study score. It's just too competitive. You could be sacrificing a potentially great English study score for a mediocre Lit study score. That being said, if you really like reading, writing and analysing text, and feel you could do well in it, go for Lit

[totaled]

you could simply repeat methods possibly? and get a higher mark than you wanted seeing as you are unhappy with your mark
i dunno if vcaa put a penalty if you do, but you could look into it

[shinny]

you could simply repeat methods possibly? and get a higher mark than you wanted seeing as you are unhappy with your mark
i dunno if vcaa put a penalty if you do, but you could look into it

There's no penalty for repeating subjects. However, I still wouldn't bother. All that work for a maximum of 0.9 of an aggregate point - is it really worth it? You'll improve your other subjects by far more than that in the time saved by not having the additional subject.

[totaled]

well seeing as he was unhappy with his score, methods could indeed be in his top 4,
it all depends how confident he is with his maths

[JaredV]

Thank you everyone! So it would seem that the smarter decision is to just stay with 4 subjects next year.

As for repeating methods, while I'm not ecstatic about my SS, I'm not crying over it. In fact I was kind of expecting something like what I got, but actually seeing it freaked me out a little bit because it made me realise how well I need to do in everything else. I did end up liking the course and I wasn't too bad, but I think it's the exam 2 that I just happened to freak out in and do horribly. Anyway, I just don't think I could cope with redoing all it again, I'd rather do a new maths course if I'm doing maths at all. Which leads me to ask, should I do further over something else?

@ Scooby: I actually did complete units 1/2 lit and while I didn't do particularly amazing, it was mainly because I slacked off in all my 1/2s to focus on my 3/4s. I did quite well on my end of year exam and only 3 others are doing lit in my year so class size would be amazing. However, I do know that english is much less competitive as well as less complex and sophisticated than lit. I'm just worried because I haven't done english for a whole year :S

[Jdog]

Thank you everyone! So it would seem that the smarter decision is to just stay with 4 subjects next year.

As for repeating methods, while I'm not ecstatic about my SS, I'm not crying over it. In fact I was kind of expecting something like what I got, but actually seeing it freaked me out a little bit because it made me realise how well I need to do in everything else. I did end up liking the course and I wasn't too bad, but I think it's the exam 2 that I just happened to freak out in and do horribly. Anyway, I just don't think I could cope with redoing all it again, I'd rather do a new maths course if I'm doing maths at all. Which leads me to ask, should I do further over something else?

@ Scooby: I actually did complete units 1/2 lit and while I didn't do particularly amazing, it was mainly because I slacked off in all my 1/2s to focus on my 3/4s. I did quite well on my end of year exam and only 3 others are doing lit in my year so class size would be amazing. However, I do know that english is much less competitive as well as less complex and sophisticated than lit. I'm just worried because I haven't done english for a whole year :S

if you are aiming for ther very top top scores in english, it is most definately competitive,

[hargao]

you could take an extra subject and do very little amounts of work in it. you'll have nothing to lose and maybe you'll get lucky and get higher than 37 in it.

[paulsterio]

English is insanely competitive!

[Scooby]

I never said that English isn't competitive - it's just that Literature is more competitive 
Lit is usually taken by people that have an interest in the subject and are wanting to do well (yeah, there are definitely exceptions). On the other hand, English is taken by almost everyone, including people that take it just because they need it to earn their VCE but really don't care how well they do. 

[max payne]

It's only for a 10% increment. If you pick up a 7th subject and get a 40 in it instead of a 30 in your 6th subject, that will increase your aggregate by 1 point.
Most likely picking up a 7th subject will increase your aggregate by less than a point, but the stress of having 5 subjects instead of 4 might cost you a few points on your primary 4 subjects, so I don't think it's worth it.
6 is a pretty ideal number of subjects in my opinion.

+infinity
took the words right out of my mouth. logically it makes no sense. The only way I see you benifiting from this is if the 7th subject is a uni extension. At least u have a chance to get 5.5, otherwise, just stick with 4 and use the extra time you would be spending on the 5th, and just increase one of your primary sub by 1 Study score (if that makes sense)... same thing