How did/do you 'play the system'?

[werdna]

Haha so use your teachers to your advantage, for subjects like BM/Legal/LOTE/Eng?

[taiga]

There was a bloke from our school that got 99.90 with no subjects that scaled up. Whilst holding respect for others who got that ATAR, I think this is a more difficult achievement Tongue

Did he pretty much get all 50s?

yeah 4 50s in year 12 and bottom two were like high 30s

[pi]

I think one of the MGS 99.95ers had no math/science whatsoever though - I think they had Revs, Lit, Latin, Eng, Philosophy and something else.. MGS kids correct me!

Wasn't he also the school captain or something? Latin helps...

There was a bloke from our school that got 99.90 with no subjects that scaled up. Whilst holding respect for others who got that ATAR, I think this is a more difficult achievement Tongue

Did he pretty much get all 50s?

yeah 4 50s in year 11 and bottom two were like high 30s

Wait, how many 50's in year 11?!?!?!

[jane1234]

There was a bloke from our school that got 99.90 with no subjects that scaled up. Whilst holding respect for others who got that ATAR, I think this is a more difficult achievement Tongue

Did he pretty much get all 50s?

yeah 4 50s in year 11 and bottom two were like high 30s

Wow year 11?? Makes me wish I'd done more 3/4's last year...
All this stuff about "playing the system" with subject selection kind of isn't helpful now though... we're all stuck with our subjects now

[Liuy]

Seriously, just do the subjects you enjoy then you are bound to do more work and be far more likely to succeed rather than picking subjects which scale up.

[Aurelian]

I think one of the MGS 99.95ers had no math/science whatsoever though - I think they had Revs, Lit, Latin, Eng, Philosophy and something else.. MGS kids correct me!

That's right. The last subject was Economics.

Wasn't he also the school captain or something? Latin helps...

That is correct.

[Zien]

I think one of the MGS 99.95ers had no math/science whatsoever though - I think they had Revs, Lit, Latin, Eng, Philosophy and something else.. MGS kids correct me!

Yep, the guy was a legend. He did Revs in Year 11, and Lit, English, Latin, Philo and Economics in Year 12. He was also School Captain and involved in a variety of activities around the school to boot. He managed to pull off a 99.95.

[EvangelionZeta]

@MGS guy, yes, he did English, Lit, Revs, Latin, Philosophy and Economics, and got 50s in the first three and a 40 in Latin, hence the 99.95 - plus he's just a freak of nature and an amazing person.  He was indeed the school captain, as well as a two time DAV octofinalist, 1sts rower, 1sts rugby player and all-round nice guy.

My advice is understand what the markers want.  Best thing you can do.

[Water]

@MGS guy, yes, he did English, Lit, Revs, Latin, Philosophy and Economics, and got 50s in the first three and a 40 in Latin, hence the 99.95 - plus he's just a freak of nature and an amazing person.  He was indeed the school captain, as well as a two time DAV octofinalist, 1sts rower, 1sts rugby player and all-round nice guy.


My advice is understand what the markers want.  Best thing you can do.

That is beast >_<!  What a champion.

[Darren]

I have a friend who thought he could 'play' the system by picking chinese (had to do chinese SLA) and spesh. He isn't doing great in both, I thought he was crazy when he told me he chose spesh, he kept telling me about the 'scaling', it's odd because we're almost neck and neck in methods and I pretty much am a methods dud. I would feel bad for him, but hey, it was his choice. Scaling's put for a reason.. the lesson is don't try and undermine that reason :S
                                       

[TrueTears]

Study English before it's too late!

[m@tty]

I have a friend who thought he could 'play' the system by picking chinese (had to do chinese SLA) and spesh. He isn't doing great in both, I thought he was crazy when he told me he chose spesh, he kept telling me about the 'scaling', it's odd because we're almost neck and neck in methods and I pretty much am a methods dud. I would feel bad for him, but hey, it was his choice. Scaling's put for a reason.. the lesson is don't try and undermine that reason :S
                                       

Exactly.

I have a friend who did VCE over three years (3+4s) so he would have more time to tackle the 'hard' subjects: chem, spesh, methods, etc.

His only motivation for doing these subjects was for scaling and to be quite honest, he lacked in the mentality to perform well in them (what I mean is he didn't study in the right way: he did lots of work, but lacked understanding of the concepts.)

He ended up with an ATAR of 33.

Do the subjects you like and enjoy. If you're one of the lucky people who enjoy the subjects which scale highly, well done; that, I think, is the best way to 'play the system'.

Oh, and up until next year or whenever the change is being made, extension studies were also a good, easy boost to your score. (Much better than VET because of the ability to get 5 or more without having to average 50 in your top 4 .)

[Dr.Lecter]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Now just trying to choose between Revs and BM.. can't decide which one 'should' be in the bottom 2.

Revs

[m@tty]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Now just trying to choose between Revs and BM.. can't decide which one 'should' be in the bottom 2.

Revs

Yeah, definitely.

If you're thinking in terms of workload then BM is much, much lighter than revs. Also, there's no reason why you can't get a great score to bring the top 4 average up.

I've heard revs requires a lot of commitment to perform exceptionally in.

[werdna]

Just to clarify, I'm doing the subjects I like. I've already tried my hand at Bio, Chem and Spec, and after dropping these subjects, I'm dead sure that I'm doing the right subjects this year.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Now just trying to choose between Revs and BM.. can't decide which one 'should' be in the bottom 2.

Revs

Hmm.. I was leaning towards having BM in the bottom 2. :S I'm not too sure, I guess I may have to try and put in equal effort for all subjects.. I'd feel really guilty knowing that I'd be neglecting a subject.

Yeah, definitely.

If you're thinking in terms of workload then BM is much, much lighter than revs. Also, there's no reason why you can't get a great score to bring the top 4 average up.

I've heard revs requires a lot of commitment to perform exceptionally in.

Good point m@tty, now I'm not sure which one to 'neglect'.....