I don't know what to do about not being able to pass English.

[Tavd]

I'm doing VCE units 3/4 this year but I'm not going to pass because I've had to drop out of English Literature, so I won't have unit 3/4 of any English. I really don't know what to do in this situation. I failed Unit 2 of general English last year and moved to Lit because I thought that the work would be easier for me to handle (not easier to do necessarily, though). Turns out I was wrong and it is just as bad, except without the impossible oral presentations.
I'm going to have to do another year to get my English requirement but the only English subject I haven't tried and failed at yet is English Language. I don't really know what that involves though and I'm scared I'd have a repeat of this year - I think that I'll be able to do something because of the information on the subject in the study design but I just can't cope with it when I actually get the work in front of me. Or it might be the other way around and I would be able to do the work but the study design puts me off.
I'm pretty stressed about this because I don't have many options even if I do pass VCE, so there's basically nothing if I can't pass. My school suggested finding out if there is a chance I would be able to get special consideration and just be able to leave out English altogether and be able to pass anyway but I'd guess that would be impossible. So yeah, I just don't know what to do.

[literally lauren]

You definitely need to sit down with someone (career counsellor?) at your school and sort this out. I'm not sure what options your school would offer, but I highly doubt not doing any English is a viable option.

Just to check, are you currently not enrolled in either English or Lit? If you've started Lit this year already it should be fairly easy for your school to slot you back in; otherwise I'm sure you could be put into a one of presumably many mainstream English classes. Not only to most courses require a pass, but I'm under the impression you need an English subject to even get an ATAR.

As an absolute last resort, you could look into doing English via distance ed. but that seems unnecessary if you've got a school that can cater for you. Generally speaking dist.ed. subjects require a lot more work anyway because you don't have the same access to resources that a school can provide.

With regards to fears of not passing, don't worry, it's easier than you think! Giving up on an entire subject after only a few weeks of studying it is definitely not the way to go about this. Objectively, you'll probably prefer English and it'll be easier to score well because it's such a huge cohort. Literature tends to appeal to students who are already good at English, so it's usually considered more fiercely competitive.

So assuming you try and get back into English, your entire year will consist of learning how to write three essay types, most of which will already be familiar to you from previous years. The oral (which I'm assuming is difficult becuase you don't like public speaking?) is just a single SAC. It's over in 5 minutes, and it's worth the least out of everything. Most teachers don't mark harshly because they know how tough it is, and I'm sure if it was sever enough you could have a word to your teacher about your anxieties then they'd be prepared to work out an alternative arrangement (ie. you just perform in front of them rather than a whole class - which you'd probably have to do anyway if you were transferring in so late.) Once you learn how to hit the criteria, it's really not hard to do well; it's only people on the far ends of the bell curves that have to struggle. If you're far enough to the left (ie. can't write essays, perhaps should be in EAL but wasn't eligible, don't understand the texts, etc.) then just scraping a pass can be a challenge. By contrast if you're on the far right, the efforts needed to move from a 9/10 to a 10/10 are monumental compared to, say, a 4/10 to a 6/10.

When you were doing English in Year 11, what aspects of the course did you find difficult?

[Tavd]

I was actually doing Literature by Distance Ed because it wouldn't fit in my timetable otherwise. I was removed from the class because I hadn't completed the first SAC and I was still struggling with work from the first week in week 6
In English, the oral was actually impossible for me to do - I would have to apply for special consideration to get out of it because I have selective mutism and haven't been able to speak to anyone at school since year 4. A lot of the other problems that I had in English were with tasks that required opinions - they cause me a lot of anxiety and I worry that what I write will be wrong. And even if I were to be able to go into a normal English class I would be ten weeks or so behind, with work I would struggle with and I'd have missed the first SAC, so it's not really an option at this point.

[literally lauren]

I was actually doing Literature by Distance Ed because it wouldn't fit in my timetable otherwise. I was removed from the class because I hadn't completed the first SAC and I was still struggling with work from the first week in week 6
In English, the oral was actually impossible for me to do - I would have to apply for special consideration to get out of it because I have selective mutism and haven't been able to speak to anyone at school since year 4. A lot of the other problems that I had in English were with tasks that required opinions - they cause me a lot of anxiety and I worry that what I write will be wrong. And even if I were to be able to go into a normal English class I would be ten weeks or so behind, with work I would struggle with and I'd have missed the first SAC, so it's not really an option at this point.

So is going back into Literature your only option at this point, or would you consider picking up another English subject?
Going back into English would probably mean you'd have missed two SACs, one of which would probably be the oral, and given you have a genuine medical condition, I'm sure you could get around that. The other will be a kind of essay you work on throughout the year, so that's not too big a deal either.

Luckily for Year 12 there's not a whole lot of persuasive/opinion-based work. For some essays you do have to have a contention, but this is more of a focus than an argument, and there are some really easy methods you can learn so that you're providing a safe answer that the assessor's aren't likely to criticise you for being 'wrong.'

I know it might seem daunting, but English isn't a conceptually difficult subject. Are you doing anything else by distance, or are your other subjects all done through school? What are those workloads like so far, if you don't mind me asking?

[Tavd]

I don't even know if I would be able to get back into Lit if I tried. I'll probably have to do whatever English subject next year, which I'm okay with if it means that I can pass. I'm considering English Language but I don't know much about the subject.
I'm doing Chemistry by distance ed also, which is a lot of work and I'm a bit behind in that, but I'm doing the rest of my subjects (which are Maths Methods, Specialist Maths and Physics) through school and the workload is pretty easy to handle usually, especially when I am ahead in Methods.

[S33667]

Tavd - you write really clearly - I think you'd do really well in mainstream English!   Lit and what not is harder in my opinion and much more competitive (that's why I'm not doing it).

Is there anyway that you could join a class at school and not do the missed SACS? (I missed a psych SAC last year because I joined the subject late and it was OK).    I agree with Lauren, your school needs to find you a solution for THIS YEAR.

[literally lauren]

If you're willing to put the effort in, you'll be able to pass Literature. However, if spreading VCE over two years is an option, then you might be better off spreading out your subjects, or possibly picking up another subject next year to count as your 6th (+10% aggregate for your ATAR.) You'll either have one fairly difficult year of catching up and working hard, or you'll have two years that'll be less strenuous (hopefully,) and more relaxed. The risk there is that you'll have between now and the start of school next year of absolutely no English, which will make the first few months of 2016 kinda difficult because you'll be going from pure maths/science to just English/Lit.

English Language tends to be more appealing to Maths/Science students, though because it's fairly different you'll probably struggle to pick it up initially. I'd say it's easier than Lit, but more challenging than regular English - though that's entirely debatable.

If you're aiming for a really high ATAR, then giving yourself an extra year to cover English and maybe Bio or Further Maths might be better since you won't be compromising your scores this year in order to boost your English mark. Aside from the delay with going to uni, are there any major disadvantages to spreading out your 3/4s? I doubt your school would have a problem with it, given the situation. Still worth talking to them about Special Consideration options though