Are subjects with less students more difficult?

[i-aim-to-achieve]

I'm not sure where to put this but my question is...
If you have a subject that not many people do, does that make it easier or harder to achieve better marks?
Thanks

[mark_alec]

No. All you know is that it is a less popular subject.

[Dayman]

I'm not sure where to put this but my question is...
If you have a subject that not many people do, does that make it easier or harder to achieve better marks?
Thanks

Usually if it's harder it will get scaled up heaps. Difficulty is relative. It was relatively easy for me to get a good Atar as all my subjects were science and math- which have always been my academic strengths.

So to finally answer your question it really depends on how much you like the subject as scaling will do you the justice of adjusting difficulty, but it is you who must master the subject.

[HossRyams]

Initially I would have said no, but after taking Philosophy and Global Politics and primarily having had full confidence in my cohort, I realised how difficult it was. I go to a select-entry school, but in both subjects we didn't do really well. My SS was the highest for Philosophy and the 2nd highest for Global Politics, which was pretty disappointing because I really thought my cohort and I would have done better.
I've personally noticed that in such humanities subjects, private schools seem to have the advantage. I'm guessing they have better resources? I don't know, but I'm going to say yes. Think about it - when it comes to such subjects, only people who are interested in it are going to take it as opposed to something like English where you essentially have to take it. The competition is harder, and there will be schools who have access to better resources. I did love my teacher (taught me both Philo and GP) but he didn't give us any external resources and we pretty much had to solo it, so I'm thinking for small humanities subjects, it does help to attend a private school or a school known for owning those subjects haha. Just my two cents/personal experience

[spectroscopy]

for very small niche subjects, like youshine said - people only do it because they are really really interested in it, the only exception would be some really small lotes, where the people who do it speak it at home but dont really care about it as a vce subject, ive seen people study an average amount for subjects like turkish and arabic and absolutely smash it because their competition in class was people who didnt care LOL even though thats anecdotal you get what i mean