YEAR 12 SUBJECT SELECTION HELP

[ji-coco]

Hello, beautiful people

Subjects in 2016:
- English
- Mathematical Methods
- Chemistry
- Japanese (SL)
- Chinese (SL) (completed in 2015)
- ??

The only subjects left over that i can do are Specialist maths, Further maths and Biology. I don't wan't to do Further maths so I'm thinking of doing specialist maths or biology (I haven't done bio 1/2, not sure if it makes a difference) and have an interest in doing health sciences in the future. I know doing bio would be good since it kinda helps with med but I'm not very interested in it and don't think I will get AMAZING results. Spesh on the other hand is very appealing to me but I'm not sure whether I should do it because of all the hype about it's difficulty. I'm not a mathematical 'genius' but i think i'm ok with maths (90-95 methods, 80s AGM).

In summary:
- want to do med
- pick either bio or spesh
- not really interested in bio but people tell me to do it + not sure if i do very well
- spesh seems hard from the rumours
- don't know if I should 'play it safe' and do bio or take a risk with spesh
Seriously need help :/
ADDITIONAL NOTES: I have done a bit of yr 11 bio but not at school
Thanks in advance!

[pi]

Do Spesh, the "hype" is just that - "hype". It's a rewarding subject, especially after scaling.

[Sine]

I would recommend to do Specialist Maths

1.Biology has a large workload and would be difficult to undertake in year 12 hence why many people do it in year 11. If you are not interested in it why would you want to do it?(unless its a prerequisite)

2.Getting a 30 raw in spesh which scales to a 42 is so much easier than getting a 41 in Biology which scales to a 42.

There is not much a risk of actually taking Specialist Maths if your decent at maths, even if you have a bad day on the exam your raw score may be low but the scaling will do you justice.
I would actually argue that Further Maths is quite risky(if you want it in your top 4) considering its is marked down slightly and at the top end a loss of each mark is a loss of 1 study score.

[Splash-Tackle-Flail]

Hello, beautiful people

Subjects in 2016:
- English
- Mathematical Methods
- Chemistry
- Japanese (SL)
- Chinese (SL) (completed in 2015)
- ??

The only subjects left over that i can do are Specialist maths, Further maths and Biology. I don't wan't to do Further maths so I'm thinking of doing specialist maths or biology (I haven't done bio 1/2, not sure if it makes a difference) and have an interest in doing health sciences in the future. I know doing bio would be good since it kinda helps with med but I'm not very interested in it and don't think I will get AMAZING results. Spesh on the other hand is very appealing to me but I'm not sure whether I should do it because of all the hype about it's difficulty. I'm not a mathematical 'genius' but i think i'm ok with maths (90-95 methods, 80s AGM).

In summary:
- want to do med
- pick either bio or spesh
- not really interested in bio but people tell me to do it + not sure if i do very well
- spesh seems hard from the rumours
- don't know if I should 'play it safe' and do bio or take a risk with spesh
Seriously need help :/
ADDITIONAL NOTES: I have done a bit of yr 11 bio but not at school
Thanks in advance!

I was in a really similar situation to you (although wasn't sure btw bio or further- in the end blocking made my choice), but from my perspective I would also recommend you to take specialist maths (for reasons stated by above). Specialist is incredibly rewarding especially if you enjoy maths (and you seem to be pretty good at it), and does wonders for methods- especially in the calculus and functions sections. While Biology is an option, you said yourself that you're not very interested in it, and trust me taking a subject you're not interested in genuinely sucks (further reopened my eyes to the meaning of ad nauseum).  Added on to the fact you haven't done 1/2, it will only increase your workload and make things difficult.

Not to mention specialist has amazing potential for your ATAR due to scaling- not saying you should choose a subject simply for scaling- but you said you wanted to go into the health sciences, and you need high scores to do so..

tl;dr: specialist will (ironically) be the best choice to max your chance into med imo- and no point doing bio if you don't find it interesting

[The Usual Student]

I would recommend to do Specialist Maths

1.Biology has a large workload and would be difficult to undertake in year 12 hence why many people do it in year 11. If you are not interested in it why would you want to do it?(unless its a prerequisite)

2.Getting a 30 raw in spesh which scales to a 42 is so much easier than getting a 41 in Biology which scales to a 42.

There is not much a risk of actually taking Specialist Maths if your decent at maths, even if you have a bad day on the exam your raw score may be low but the scaling will do you justice.
I would actually argue that Further Maths is quite risky(if you want it in your top 4) considering its is marked down slightly and at the top end a loss of each mark is a loss of 1 study score.

Just out of curiosity, why do you say that it is easier to get a 30 raw in spesh then a 41 in Bio? I thought the scalding worked towards making the subjects equal in difficulty.

[Adequace]

Just out of curiosity, why do you say that it is easier to get a 30 raw in spesh then a 41 in Bio? I thought the scalding worked towards making the subjects equal in difficulty.

Teacher seem to always suggest this when it never makes sense. If a student has a good grasp on maths, that student would most likely score better than spesh opposed to bio. (Obviously assuming that student doesn't find biology as easy.)

[Sine]

Just out of curiosity, why do you say that it is easier to get a 30 raw in spesh then a 41 in Bio? I thought the scalding worked towards making the subjects equal in difficulty.

My opinion is that Biology is highly underestimated as a subject thus students believing its the 'easier' science therefore only a +1 scaling Whereas for the other science subjects Chemistry and Physics scales +4, +2-3 respectively.
Although in terms of difficulty Chemistry>Biology>Physics

If scaling was as per difficulty of a subject Biology would scale more than physics.

I'm only saying that Spesh 30 is easier than 41 in bio if the student is doing well in Methods and willing to put in the effort.

Do Spesh, the "hype" is just that - "hype". It's a rewarding subject, especially after scaling.

^

You have probably also seen this but a quote from EulerFan101 Further vs Spesh

Should I do specialist or further?
Adding a separate section for this because it is the most asked thing ever on these forums.

In principle, you should not pick something because it has good scaling... But, picture this:

You do Further, work really really hard, and get a 46. Decent score, yeah?
And in another dimension, you do specialist, work really really hard, get a 35. Not as nice, but it's specialist.

Now, here's the kicker - your scaled score is what contributes to your aggregate, not your raw. So, we scale those scores:
Further: 46----->45.2
Specialist: 35--->47

So, even though your raw score was worse in specialist, it very easily becomes a higher addition to your aggregate. And I'm talking similar workloads to get these two scores, btw - it's not as if you'd be putting more effort into specialist for this. Add on the fact that uni-wise, Further is very useless next to specialist, specialist seems like the obvious winning choice to me.
(obviously if specialist is beyond your skill-set, choose Further - but if you're tossing up between the two at all, this tells me you're capable of specialist).

[heids]

Curious, if you're not very interested in Bio, why would you consider health sciences/med?  (Not that I have the slightest experience of either), I would imagine they include a lot of biology (not necessarily VCE Bio, but microbiology, A&P, immunology etc.)  If you don't find this interesting, is this the course for you?

Despite that, if you're strong at maths, I'd go with spesh too.  As the scaling is supposed to equalise things when a student is equally strong at two subjects, if you're stronger in one, you'll theoretically do better in that subject after scaling, whether it's the down-scaling or up-scaling one.  So do the one you're stronger at/enjoy more!

[pi]

Curious, if you're not very interested in Bio, why would you consider health sciences/med? 

awks I'd take vce maths over vce bio any day LOL

[ji-coco]

Curious, if you're not very interested in Bio, why would you consider health sciences/med?  (Not that I have the slightest experience of either), I would imagine they include a lot of biology (not necessarily VCE Bio, but microbiology, A&P, immunology etc.)  If you don't find this interesting, is this the course for you?

I guess it's just a matter of personal preference. It's not that I'm completely uninterested in bio but compared to my other subjects I don't find it as interesting.

[n.a]

I'm in Year 11 now, and I did Biology 1&2, and I have friends who will be completing 3&4 this year. I'd recommend not doing Bio if you're not interested in it. And as someone above mentioned, it's a lot of workload, and requires you to actually like it to remember it. I get you; I want to do med too, but 3/6 of my subjects are Maths, and I'm only doing Bio because I like the stuff you learn. I'll be doing Spesh next year, and although people make it seem hard, I've spoken to Year 12s and they say it's not all bad and helps with Methods. Good luck!

Feel free to PM me if you need anything else.