Mature aged student: DECV or tafe?

[Tsav]

Hi,

First a little bit about my situation, or or you can skip to my questions.

I'm 23 and am planning on doing VCE units 1/2 next year - English, methods, physics, general maths (and possibly biology/chem). My goal being to have some flexibility in going into a science or engineering degree after I complete units 3/4.

I was wondering if it would be worth going through DECV, rather than attending a TAFE (CAE). I would prefer to put the education first, however, if I choose to do DECV (4 subjects), i could continue to work part time - it pays well - yes, I could also find another job. If I go to TAFE (and possibly do 6 subjects), the hours will conflict.

My goal is to get a high ATAR in year 12, but first I need the assumed knowledge, so I thought i'd do units 1/2 first.

My questions are.
1. Is TAFE much better than DECV when it comes to achieving a good score/general learning?
2. How many hours would you expect to study per subject through DECV, or TAFE/school in general (DECV recommends 5-8 hours)?
3. Should I just skip the whole idea of enrolling in units 1/2, and self study for a year instead? (this would allow me to continue working my current job)

I appreciate any advice, experience, or knowledge that anyone has to offer,

 thank-you!

[brenden]

Are you going for the more advanced general math or the mainstream general math? If the latter, I'd save the time and drop it. Can't offer advice on Tafe/DECV. I'd probably go for DECV just because of the greater flexibility, personally.

[Tsav]

Are you going for the more advanced general math or the mainstream general math? If the latter, I'd save the time and drop it. Can't offer advice on Tafe/DECV. I'd probably go for DECV just because of the greater flexibility, personally.

I initially wasn't planning on taking general maths, but after reading through the subject guides on DECV/TAFE websites, they recommend doing general maths along side methods - possibly a requisite for specialist? which I'm planning on doing in units 3/4.

I still don't fully understand the differences between the two (advanced vs standard), and why they suggest taking it. I was going to clear this up on enrollment day.

[Professor Polonsky]

The 'advanced' form of general maths (the one that leads on to specialist) is the one that you'd obviously want to do if you are interested in doing spesh. It can be a little bit useful to do concurrently with Methods, but if you weren't going to do it otherwise, not worth it.

If it's the 'mainstream' form (leading on to Further), drop it.

[Tsav]

Which should be noted, is actually useful for engineering

Thanks, I'v heard this before. A good reminder.
 

The 'advanced' form of general maths (the one that leads on to specialist) is the one that you'd obviously want to do if you are interested in doing spesh. It can be a little bit useful to do concurrently with Methods, but if you weren't going to do it otherwise, not worth it.

If it's the 'mainstream' form (leading on to Further), drop it.

My intention is to continue onto specialist. I'll look into this further, thanks for clearing this up.

Does anyone else have suggestions on DECV vs TAFE? I'm curious if the TAFE's 3 hour sessions - once per week - make a noticeable difference.

[hobbitle]

If you are self motivated, keep your job going and do DECV.

I didn't go through DECV because I didn't need to officially redo Year 12, I just needed a refresher before starting Uni at 26, so I did it on my own whilst working using textbooks.

Although there seems to be a limit of two subjects for students over 21 at DECV? I dunno that website is pretty confusing.

[Tsav]

If you are self motivated, keep your job going and do DECV.

I didn't go through DECV because I didn't need to officially redo Year 12, I just needed a refresher before starting Uni at 26, so I did it on my own whilst working using textbooks.

Although there seems to be a limit of two subjects for students over 21 at DECV? I dunno that website is pretty confusing.

I definitely have the motivation and I'm living at a parental home - cost of living is cheap - the savings from my job would be a bonus, but i wouldn't want it to interfere with studying. I was just confused as to how much time is required by the studies. The website recommends 5-6 hours/week, per subject - i'd be doing 4 subjects (20-25 hours).

EDIT: I'll try to make my post more concise.

My goal is 92+ ATAR. I am unsure of how important units 1/2 are to doing well in 3/4.

Depending on if i go through DECV or TAFE. My options are:

DECV (4 subjects) + current job
Physics
English
Methods
General maths (advanced)

TAFE (5-6 subjects) + seek a new casual job
Physics
English
Methods
General maths (advanced)
+chemistry
+(optional) additional subject.

It would be a waste of 2 years if I didn't get a high ATAR for the course I wanted.

*After units 1/2 an additional option would be to use an alternate entry pathway which lets me do units 3/4 at University, such as Melbourne Uni's Community access program. I would need to do 3 subjects which costs $3000 per subject over 1 semester.

[hobbitle]

You're going to struggle to get any direct advice on mature aged pre-studying on ATAR Notes because we are definitely in the minority, although some year 11/12s would be able to give you an indication of how difficult 1/2 units are.
IMO the DECV option still seems better and yes 8 hrs per week per subject sounds reasonable though if you are aiming for 92+ then you will probably want to allocate more like 10 hrs per week per subject.

The only think I have left to offer is not to rush it - it sounds like you are allocating the full two years to getting your Year 12 cert, which is great.

Good luck!

[hobbitle]

Also, avoid the Community Access Program at UoM. It's a real rip off if you need to do more than 1 subject.
 I was going to have to do that for 5 subjects and did a bit of a sneaky to get around it.

[Tsav]

Also, avoid the Community Access Program at UoM. It's a real rip off if you need to do more than 1 subject.
 I was going to have to do that for 5 subjects and did a bit of a sneaky to get around it.

It does seem too expensive. I was only pondering on the idea of it because its 1 semester, as opposed to VCE which is 1 year.