VCE subjects...

[vcaa]

i am doing 5 subjects next year(Phys, Chem, Spesh, Methods, English)and I would like to know if  it is  better for me to concentrate on my 3 best 'subjects' and english since they form the basis of my enter or to devote my time equally to all my subjects?

[TrueTears]

Do what you enjoy more!

[amirite?]

If you know what your top 4 are gonna be then definitely. Your 5th subject if you focus will get you what? 3.7 to your aggregate. If you dont focus on it you'll get 3.0 to your aggregate for you. You can easily make up .7, hell i'd think up to 5 more points, if you focus on your other subjects.
Im in the same position doing 5 but im not exactly sure what my top 3 + english language will be so neglecting one so early would be almost stupid. Maybe for the first month or so work hard on everything then if ones really lagging just do the bare minimum, or whatever leaves you enough time to achieve what you want for the other subjects. Who knows maybe you'll be able to maintain all 5.

[naved_s9994]

I know what you mean, but I thought about this exact thing when holidays began.
What I thought, was...you don't know how hard or easy the exams will be!
So, If you stuff up on a particular exam, you have to have good knowledge in another
to cover for it...

So its ideal to not pick your Top 3, rather try your best for them all.

[xD_aQt]

So its ideal to not pick your Top 3, rather try your best for them all.

well said

[brightsky]

Yes, I agree with TrueTears. Do what you enjoy most. Most high-scoring individuals give this advice. If you clearly know that you are weak at one particular subject (in that case don't even do it...), than, yes, it may be best to focus on a selected few. That said, you never know what may happen in VCE, some of your weaker subjects may turn up in your top four. If your aiming high, I'll spread my efforts into all subjects, or (don't hit me with another James Lu debate! ) focus on subjects that don't have much scaling (aka English, etc.)

NB: Lol, Asian Five...nice..

[appianway]

Devote your time equally. You never know what can happen in the exam itself.

[darkphoenix]

Yeah i would concentrate on all, you never know what might happen.

[Gloamglozer]

So its ideal to not pick your Top 3, rather try your best for them all.

well said

Well that depends on your situation.  I was trying my best for all subjects up until I finished my mid-year exams.  After that, I just concentrated on EL, Further and Methods purely because I knew that they would be in my top 4 because I screwed up mid-year exams really badly.

[jayfan]

So its ideal to not pick your Top 3, rather try your best for them all.

Agreed. you will never know which ones will be your top 3 (at least not until after mid-year results), and its better to try your best in all of them. you can, say, stuff up your final exam for your favourite subject (esp. maths) and completely screw up your study score. but if you work evenly throughout, at least you can be assured that you have done your best in every subject

[enwiabe]

I found the opposite to be true, in my case.

After completing 2 3+4 subjects in year 11 (methods and hebrew), I firmly knew that Hebrew (scaled 41.5, raw 28 ) would be relegated to my bottom 2, to join my enhancement subject, University Mathematics. This left my other year 11 score (44 raw in methods, scaled 47.5), to round out my top 3 along with Specialist Mathematics and Chemistry. This prediction worked marvellously, with Chemistry (scaled 46.5), and Specialist Maths (scaled 51.7) filling the rest. These were scores which I felt I was going to achieve (around abouts) pretty much all year.

The point is, if you know your abilities, there's no reason why you shouldn't pursue predicting your top 3, so long as you actually are a good read of what you can achieve. Remember that the bottom two only contributes 10% of the scaled scores, meaning pouring in the extra effort to get 40+ may not be worth it as 30-35 will only net you a decrease of 1. Compared with if you put those hours of effort into a top 4 subject, for which the difference between 30-35 and 40+ is marked and worth it. However, if you're in doubt, then you would definitely be safer in having a fall back and working just as hard in a 4th. It all depends on you, and good luck with it

[kyzoo]

I would focus on Spesh and English if I were you because they are your most important subjects in relation to your aggregate

[slothpomba]

Im terrible at methods but i need it for my backup course...should i focus so i get a decent scaled score in it (anything over 25 scaled is fine for me...im really terribad at it) or just totally drop that ball and focus on everything else which im much better at?

[crappy]

Im terrible at methods but i need it for my backup course...should i focus so i get a decent scaled score in it (anything over 25 scaled is fine for me...im really terribad at it) or just totally drop that ball and focus on everything else which im much better at?

If your dream course is MBBS at monash, why is your chem prediction so low? isn't the prerequisite 35 raw or is that biomed?

[Aden]

Sorry for my deleted post before, thought I had misinterpreted your post. The prerequisite is 30 raw in chem for MBBS and 25 raw for biomed at Monash.