Is doing only 4 VCE subjects in year 12 smart ?

[mizzrene]

Hi,
I am currently in year 11 and my subjects look like this:
English 1/2
Religion and society 3/4
Biology 3/4
Methods 1/2
Chemistry 1/2
Physics 1/2
Health 1/2

Because I am doing two 3/4 subjects this year, I can do 4 VCE subjects next year rather than 5 (plus unit 2 RE because I go to a catholic high school ). I recently put in my subject preferences and they went like this:
English 3/4
RE 2
Chemistry 3/4
Further Math 3/4
Methods 3/4
Health 3/4

I put in 5 VCE subjects for my preferences because I am not sure whether 4 VCE subjects is the best way to go about getting a high atar (because I'm aiming for something in science and the atars for that aren't too friendly, especially for Melbourne and Monash). I was wondering if anyone did only 4 subjects in VCE and would recommend doing the lesser amount? How well did you use all of your extra study time? If you did 5 VCE subjects, would you have preferred to do 4? What subjects did you do in year 12 and what were your scores like for them?

Sorry for the giant amount of questions, I have no clue about what's coming for me in Year 12.
Thanks!

[Alter]

Like you, I did two unit 3/4 subjects in year 11. As a result, I only did four subjects in year 12. That being said, I think one of my bigger regrets from high school is not having done an additional subject in year 12, even if it would've meant one of my other subjects didn't count towards my top 6. The reason for this is that I found the jump from 6 subjects to 4 to be really awesome and gave me so much extra spare time, but it destroyed my productivity a fair bit.

Having a whole subject less than other people really let me enjoy my final year a lot more than I might've otherwise. However, I think it meant that I slacked off a bit too much, and I didn't really prepare myself for uni. In hindsight, I really would've liked to have done VCE Bio (to help with uni) or Literature (for fun).

Your case is a bit different in the sense that you have to do RE as a compulsory subject. With that considered, I'd be tentative to pick up a "6th" subject as you'd have a pretty massive workload. So, as a result, you should ask yourself the following questions:

- How manageable do you find 6 subjects to be in year 11?
- What do you want to do after you've finished year 12-- is there a subject that might put you at an advantage if you pick it up? (in my case, doing bio would've helped with uni massively, as I had never done it before)
- How much time will unit 2 RE consume?
- How well did you do in your current 3/4s, and were you unhappy with either of them such that you want a new subject to be in your top 6 instead? Obviously you can't answer this one yet, which is why I'd wait until the end of the year before deciding.

Hope this helps. Have a nice day.

Nb - just noticed this was a double post from his other thread. If a Vic/nat mod could kindly merge this into the other thread, that'd be swell.