VCE Subject Choices

[jackchill]

Hi All,

I'm in year 11 and and doing these subjects this year:

General Maths 1/2
English 1/2
Business 1/2
Media 1/2
Food Studies 1/2
Software Development 3/4

I have two options for next year (Yr 12):

4 Subjects:
English 3/4
Informactics 3/4
Food Studies 3/4
Business 3/4

5 Subjects:
English 3/4
Informatics 3/4
Food Studies 3/4
Business 3/4
(Unsure)

I'm not the best at English and don't need maths and I don't enjoy maths either, and I am not keen on doing media either

I have a question,

What would be the easiest subject to pick up for 3/4 as a 5^th?

I'm aiming for an ATAR of 65-70, is this achievable?

[patriciarose]

an ATAR of 65–70 is 100% achievable with 4 subjects in year twelve, but if you want to do five, what do you LIKE? in terms of sciences, psych and bio need more memory and application than english/maths skills (never done physics so i can't comment, chem isn't very maths-y really but i dislike maths too and hated it haha), apparently pe is quite science-y too? health doesn't require you to write overly eloquently but does require writing, there are all the art subjects (which you do have to write for though) like viscom and studio arts if you feel like doing a folio since i'm pretty sure food studies doesn't have one anymore. the easiest subject will probably be the one you like the best tbh, because then you'll actually bother studying for it. but if nothing really catches your eye, then the five/six i've listed above are ones i/people i know have picked up with relative ease in year twelve.

might be a good idea to work out what subjects your school offers, then search around the relevant forum boards here til you find one that interests you/doesn't seem too hard (:

[literally lauren]

Hey jackchill!

If you already know you're not keen on keeping Maths or Media, it sounds like you're making the right choice in dropping them. That said, because you've already done the 1&2 equivalents, both of those subjects would probably be good 'easy' options, so it's worth making sure you definitely want to drop them both.

It's a bit tough to say which subject you should pick up though, since we're not sure what your school offers! Could you give us a list of the ones you'd be considering?

In general, you'd probably won't be able to pick up Chemistry, Physics, or any subject where the 1&2 equivalent is "highly recommended"/compulsory. Have you considered any of the health science subjects like Psychology, HHD, or P.E.?

Otherwise, since you're already taking Business Management, perhaps a related subject like Legal, Economics, or Accounting might be the way to go.

Are there any other IT-related subjects your school offers? Like Software Development? That might also be a decent option!

Hope that helps

[jackchill]

Hey Lauren,

I'm already doing software development this year and ideally I want to be doing 4 subjects next year but the school is against it, but I would ovbiously use the extra free time to focus on getting better marks on the 4 subjects I will be doing.

The Subjects I enjoy are Food Studies, Business Management and Software. I can't really think of what to do if the school makes me do 5. I was thinking legal but I've heard that is hard to do 3/4 without 1/2 and I'm not the best and writing essays anyway.

[jackchill]

Some Subjects i'm considering are:

Geography Unit 3 & 4
Legal Studies Unit 3 & 4
Economics Unit 3 & 4

Whichever one is best without 1/2

[literally lauren]

Whoops - totally missed that you were doing Software Development already, haha!

It's a shame that your school is forcing you to do 5, but maybe that extra increment you get to your ATAR will make the difference in the end, so it's certainly worth finding a decent 5th subject for next year just in case. Out of the ones you've mentioned, most have new study designs currently or for next year, meaning that most students will be flying blind, even if they have done 1&2.

Geography: FallingStar has put together a great overview of Geo resources here, so have a look through some of those to see if this subject seems interesting to you. The exam seems pretty straightforward as it's all short-answer questions with no major 'essay'/10-mark question component, through these questions do still require lots of evaluation and analysis, so can't escape the writing element here

Legal Studies: this subject requires more writing than the others, as you can see from the exam, though if the subject matter is interesting to you, you might be able to look past this.

Economics: this is a slightly maths-y subject, but the advantage is that the exam is made up of multiple choice questions too, so you won't have to worry about written responses as much. This does seem to be the most complex of the three, but again, if it's interesting to you, it's definitely worth considering.

I haven't done any of these subjects myself, so hopefully someone else can offer some more specific advice if you need it

[jackchill]

Hi All,

I emailed the humanites leader at the school and she said that Legal studies is easy to pick up but History and Thearte Studies would be options to think about as well.

What do you guys think about this?

[AnnieL]

Hi All,

I'm in year 11 and and doing these subjects this year:

General Maths 1/2
English 1/2
Business 1/2
Media 1/2
Food Studies 1/2
Software Development 3/4

I have two options for next year (Yr 12):

4 Subjects:
English 3/4
Informactics 3/4
Food Studies 3/4
Business 3/4

5 Subjects:
English 3/4
Informatics 3/4
Food Studies 3/4
Business 3/4
(Unsure)

I'm not the best at English and don't need maths and I don't enjoy maths either, and I am not keen on doing media either

I have a question,

What would be the easiest subject to pick up for 3/4 as a 5^th?

I'm aiming for an ATAR of 65-70, is this achievable?

Hey jackchill! So it sounds like you're starting to get a sense of what options you have and what actually interests you. I noticed that you were considering legal studies 3/4, without having done the 1/2. I thought I would just share my experience - I did legal studies 3/4, without having done the 1/2, and I didn't really think that I was at a disadvantage not having done it. Although there are topics that build on things from year 11, it is not necessary - you can learn the content in the 3/4, and still do well. There is a lot of writing involved in legal studies, but you are writing about things you should be sure of, things you have learnt and memorised, rather than writing about your perspective on an essay (as in english), if that makes sense! Legal studies involves a lot of memorisation, so if you're good at that, or think you could commit a lot to memory, it could be a good subject for you! Succinct summaries with exactly what you need to know really help through this subject, and it's a matter of memorising content and practicing questions. Hope this helps

[jackchill]

Hi Everyone,
Thought i'd ask here instead of creating a new thread.

So my school has allowed me to do 4 subjects next year. YAY!
So my subjects are now as follows:

2017:
Software Development

2018:
English
Informactics
Food Studies
Business Management

So, I've said before, I'm not naturally gifted in English and to be honest averaging E+ to D+ on my SACs.
with the extra time I get in the free periods to study and possibly with the help of a tutor do you reckon i'll be able to achieve a study score of at least 20 in English?

Thanks!

[Sine]

Hi Everyone,
Thought i'd ask here instead of creating a new thread.

So my school has allowed me to do 4 subjects next year. YAY!
So my subjects are now as follows:

2017:
Software Development

2018:
English
Informactics
Food Studies
Business Management

So, I've said before, I'm not naturally gifted in English and to be honest averaging E+ to D+ on my SACs.
with the extra time I get in the free periods to study and possibly with the help of a tutor do you reckon i'll be able to achieve a study score of at least 20 in English?

Thanks!

20 in english is around the bottom 7% iirc and around 3-4% don't even do the exam so chances are likely. Basically half the state doesn't even try in english until the last month so if you just try your best for the whole year no matter how good or bad you are at english you will get a a score over 20 and more than likely higher than that.