Help with choosing 5th subject for 2018?

[scisci]

Hey guys, I'm currently in year 11, and I'm considering the subjects I will take next year.
Currently I am doing:
English 1/2
Methods 1/2
Chem 1/2
Biology 3/4
Literature 3/4
Health 1/2

I am continuing with Methods, English and Chemistry, and will be repeating Biology, regardless of study score. I would like a 5th subject to add on that extra 10% to my ATAR. I am not interested in continuing Health, I absolutely HATE it. I was considering moving into Psych 3/4, even though I have only done prep for VCE Psych way back in year 9, (I have friends who did it this year who could help), or doing Further Maths. I don't know which one to choose. What do you guys think?
EXTRA INFO:
I want to do Undergraduate Medicine at Monash, which I believe I could do if I really put in the hard yards. My fall backs are Biomed or Science at Monash, Undergrad Med at Adelaide (MAYBE), Biomed at Melbourne, or Biomed at another Uni.

tia.

[Joseph41]

Hey scisci,

Welcome to ATAR Notes!

Sorry about the brevity of this message; I'm on my phone at the moment.

What's the rationale behind repeating Bio? I think you'll be fine picking up either Psych or Further. Which are you most instinctively interested in?

[vox nihili]

Hey guys, I'm currently in year 11, and I'm considering the subjects I will take next year.
Currently I am doing:
English 1/2
Methods 1/2
Chem 1/2
Biology 3/4
Literature 3/4
Health 1/2

I am continuing with Methods, English and Chemistry, and will be repeating Biology, regardless of study score. I would like a 5th subject to add on that extra 10% to my ATAR. I am not interested in continuing Health, I absolutely HATE it. I was considering moving into Psych 3/4, even though I have only done prep for VCE Psych way back in year 9, (I have friends who did it this year who could help), or doing Further Maths. I don't know which one to choose. What do you guys think?
EXTRA INFO:
I want to do Undergraduate Medicine at Monash, which I believe I could do if I really put in the hard yards. My fall backs are Biomed or Science at Monash, Undergrad Med at Adelaide (MAYBE), Biomed at Melbourne, or Biomed at another Uni.

tia.

Would caution against repeating Biology. Yes there are vague benefits in terms of study score, potentially, but you have an amazing opportunity to learn interesting things in VCE in a greater breadth of subject areas than you'll ever get to study again when you do medicine, so I'd encourage you to take advantage of that and take a different subject

[exit]

To be blunt, I don't know how I would give good advice to someone who wants to repeat their year 11 subject Biology 100% regardless of score. Would you repeat it if you got 50?

[Sine]

Hey guys, I'm currently in year 11, and I'm considering the subjects I will take next year.
Currently I am doing:
English 1/2
Methods 1/2
Chem 1/2
Biology 3/4
Literature 3/4
Health 1/2

I am continuing with Methods, English and Chemistry, and will be repeating Biology, regardless of study score. I would like a 5th subject to add on that extra 10% to my ATAR. I am not interested in continuing Health, I absolutely HATE it. I was considering moving into Psych 3/4, even though I have only done prep for VCE Psych way back in year 9, (I have friends who did it this year who could help), or doing Further Maths. I don't know which one to choose. What do you guys think?
EXTRA INFO:
I want to do Undergraduate Medicine at Monash, which I believe I could do if I really put in the hard yards. My fall backs are Biomed or Science at Monash, Undergrad Med at Adelaide (MAYBE), Biomed at Melbourne, or Biomed at another Uni.

tia.

what are you expecting to get for biology?

If you don't do as well as you want to I don't see any reason not to repeat biology, seen many students do this for maths methods. I only feel you can repeat it because you are also completing lit 3/4 this year.

How is your maths/do you like it? If it is great and you like it I'd choose further over psych as it will be a much easier path to a higher score. Given you more time to put into you rother subjects.

[undefined]

Can I also have some recommendations/feedback on my subjects picks?
I've currently picked 5 and am unsure on the 6th. I'm currently in year 10.
Eng Lang - decent at english, but not the best. don't want to do mainstream because I have a lot of difficulty reading the books given and end up looking at summaries.
Methods (3/4)
Chemistry
Physics
Japanese SL

and I'm stuck between Spec/Psych/Enviro
I think I'm better at applying things rather than remembering, but I've looked at the spec course and don't think I'd be able to understand the concepts. I don't want to do bio because it's too content heavy with remembering things. Also I can't do further because it's not offered.
thanks.

[vox nihili]

Can I also have some recommendations/feedback on my subjects picks?
I've currently picked 5 and am unsure on the 6th. I'm currently in year 10.
Eng Lang - decent at english, but not the best. don't want to do mainstream because I have a lot of difficulty reading the books given and end up looking at summaries.
Methods (3/4)
Chemistry
Physics
Japanese SL

and I'm stuck between Spec/Psych/Enviro
I think I'm better at applying things rather than remembering, but I've looked at the spec course and don't think I'd be able to understand the concepts. I don't want to do bio because it's too content heavy with remembering things. Also I can't do further because it's not offered.
thanks.

In defence of bio, there's a degree of thinking involved and it's certainly less content heavy than psych...

[K888]

In defence of bio, there's a degree of thinking involved and it's certainly less content heavy than psych...

Agreed

I didn't find Bio to be too content heavy, and the good thing is that it's not about writing definitions down word for word, it's about applying your knowledge Plus, Bio can be really useful if you're considering a science/health sciences/biomed sort of path in the future.

Undefined, I'd recommend having a chat to your careers counsellor for some advice And perhaps also go have a chat to teachers of the subjects you're considering doing!
The good thing is, you're only going into year 11 next year, so you can always change your subjects around if you start the school year and find that you don't actually like one of them or that you really struggle with a certain subject

[Merna001]

 ;DIf i were you.I won't choose  Biology and Math.Because It's hard for me.

[rocksonchan]

Can I also have some recommendations/feedback on my subjects picks?
I've currently picked 5 and am unsure on the 6th. I'm currently in year 10.
Eng Lang - decent at english, but not the best. don't want to do mainstream because I have a lot of difficulty reading the books given and end up looking at summaries.
Methods (3/4)
Chemistry
Physics
Japanese SL

and I'm stuck between Spec/Psych/Enviro
I think I'm better at applying things rather than remembering, but I've looked at the spec course and don't think I'd be able to understand the concepts. I don't want to do bio because it's too content heavy with remembering things. Also I can't do further because it's not offered.
thanks.

Disclaimer: Psych and Enviro are great subjects too but I didn't do them so can't really offer any advice there

Since you are better at applying things rather than remembering, spesh is actually one of the better subjects for you, where rote learning isn't the only way to get good marks (for subjects like Business Management), because once you learn the concepts a lot of the times you can't memorise the questions that VCAA will give you at the end-of-year exam. I understand that you may worry that you won't understand the concepts in the spesh course, but spesh (and heaps of other subjects) are just like learning a new language. Seeing as you're doing Jap, the concepts in spesh are not actually as hard as you might think they are, and as long as you put in the hard yards, you should be able to do pretty well in it!

Hope this helps

[forbiddensoulxx]

Hey there, I can be the advocate for psych since I'm doing 3/4 this year.  It's quite an interesting subject to pick because it's really fun to learn and you can apply principles you learn into your every day life (to an extent). Granted there is a lot of content, you don't need to know exact definition for stuff other than 4 or 5 terms. Even though it's content heavy, if you can get your head wrapped around the stuff, you'll understand it by yourself and be able to define it with ease. Hope this helped! 

[AngelWings]

Can I also have some recommendations/feedback on my subjects picks?
I've currently picked 5 and am unsure on the 6th. I'm currently in year 10.
Eng Lang - decent at english, but not the best. don't want to do mainstream because I have a lot of difficulty reading the books given and end up looking at summaries.
Methods (3/4)
Chemistry
Physics
Japanese SL

and I'm stuck between Spec/Psych/Enviro
I think I'm better at applying things rather than remembering, but I've looked at the spec course and don't think I'd be able to understand the concepts. I don't want to do bio because it's too content heavy with remembering things. Also I can't do further because it's not offered.
thanks.

What career do you want and what course do you want to go into when you leave VCE? That may determine what you should do. If you haven't, check out VTAC Course search to determine what pre-requisites you need to do to get there.

I did all of those subjects except Physics. If it were me, I'd have chosen Psych for the 6th, but I'm not you. If you think you are better at applying than remembering, I'd say Spesh is actually the one for you like someone else said. If you want something that is a little more content heavy than application, then Psych may be handy. I also found that I really liked Psych (but I did it in my Year 11 as Year 12 subject). I think you should go to your careers teacher or VCE coordinator to talk this out. Ultimately the choice is yours and not ours to make for you - we don't know you as well as you know yourself, but do consider your post-VCE life when you're doing this.

[Globe]

In terms of thinking about doing Psychology, I would definitely recommend it. I picked up psych this year without doing the 1/2 and I'm managing without any problems. The content is pretty interesting also, and a lot of it can be applied back into your own life, which is nice for a change. At times it can be a little bit content heavy, and there is some rote learning involved in terms of memorising content and definitions. In a sense it is a little like Bio because some questions require you to apply your knowledge of the content into practical examples. VCAA is currently shifting Psych from being one of those 'rote learning subjects' to more of an application like science one, especially in the final examination.

If you do Psych, your also required to conduct your own research assignment (experiment) which in itself can be quite time consuming depending on what you are doing, so that's also important to keep in mind, as your other subjects sound like they have a big work load.

Overall, psych is really enjoyable, and you'll probably be in better hands next year because of it being the second year of the new study design, and not the first year. Feel free to ask anymore questions!