Is it worth the risk? Subject selection

[mindBLOWN]

Hey Fam, I need some advice
I have 2 options

English
Health
Business
Further
Psychology

Or

English
Further
Business
Psychology
ACU step up program (5 th subject and only counts as 10%)

For the second one do you think it's worth the risk if I only do 3 electives, like if I bomb one subject that would be the end as the subject I bombed will not count as 10% but instead the whole study score as it's in the primary 4.

[brenden]

How do the mark say work for the Step Up program? I.e., do you get a grade for it, or does it just take 10% of your average study score?

[mindBLOWN]

Yep, so we get it as a 10 percent increment (through my study score for acu)  as they don't allow it as a whole study score to be accounted for the atar.

[Shadowxo]

I would recommend against only taking 4 3/4 subjects. It means if you do happen to do badly in an exam, even if it's out of your control, your ATAR could be affected significantly without any backup. I'd say do the 5 subjects, and you can do the step up program as a 6th if you want

[brenden]

It's sort of a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Because like, if you took the program and got 4 scores of 40, you'd basically have 5 scores of 40. But if you bombed a subject, that would impact your increment as well - so adding insult to injury.

I don't think it's necessarily a cut-and-dry "oh no,  take 5 subjects just in case!"  - you're totally able to take 4 and just work really hard. But 5 does offer the backdrop obviously. This scenario comes down to personal choice I think, I wouldn't strongly advise you either way - both options could work out okay for you in the end.

[Shadowxo]

It's sort of a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Because like, if you took the program and got 4 scores of 40, you'd basically have 5 scores of 40. But if you bombed a subject, that would impact your increment as well - so adding insult to injury.

I don't think it's necessarily a cut-and-dry "oh no,  take 5 subjects just in case!"  - you're totally able to take 4 and just work really hard. But 5 does offer the backdrop obviously. This scenario comes down to personal choice I think, I wouldn't strongly advise you either way - both options could work out okay for you in the end.

I believe that it's a university extension program which means it'll only count 0-5 points towards your aggregate (instead of 0-50), ie it can't be in the top 4. It's its own subject so it wouldn't be affected  by any good or bad marks in the other VCE subjects

Doing the step-up program would be good for the future as I believe you get credit for it in university, but I'd only take it if you were either really confident in your 4 subjects (as they'd all be in the top 4), or if you took 5 subjects so wouldn't have to rely on all your subjects doing well.

Good luck in your decision and let us know what you choose

[brenden]

I believe that it's a university extension program which means it'll only count 0-5 points towards your aggregate (instead of 0-50), ie it can't be in the top 4. It's its own subject so it wouldn't be affected  by any good or bad marks in the other VCE subjects

Doing the step-up program would be good for the future as I believe you get credit for it in university, but I'd only take it if you were either really confident in your 4 subjects (as they'd all be in the top 4), or if you took 5 subjects so wouldn't have to rely on all your subjects doing well.

Good luck in your decision and let us know what you choose

Sorry, to clarify... I think when the OP says that it counts as 10% - it means the program is ALWAYS an increment (i.e., considered a 5th or 6th subject), but instead of funcitoning as a uni extension subject does with marks from 0-5, it takes your average study score and gives you 10% of that as a 5th subject.

So what I mean when I said it's like a free 40...

If your average study score was 40, then you'd have your top 4, and then you'd have your 5th subject be a 4... which would be like having 5 subjects of 40.

(I could definitely be wrong - but the 10% increment thing is what you get when you do a Cert 3 or 4 in retail or something else that counts to your ATAR, because there are no marks awarded for that certificate in the same way as uni extension!)

[Shadowxo]

Ah, I didn't know other programs worked that way. Always good learning something new

If that's the case, I'd be less reluctant to only do 4 but I would still only do it if you're pretty confident in them and willing to work really hard for all of them. Doing 5 would still be the safer choice but if you could focus on your 4 subjects, you could still do really well with the step up program provided you don't have to worry about it much during the exam period