How do humanties students hold up when it comes to ATAR ?

[taiga]

Haha im going to be honest i just made up those numbers i never aimed 95+ high haha so it wasnt really of interest to me to know those numbers

claim it anyway!

[Hutchoo]

Why is spec scaling going down? =/

[Menang]

Why is spec scaling going down? =/

Yeah, why is spesh scaling going down?

Also, yeah, I'm doing mainly humanities subjects too, with the aim of getting into Arts/Law. I think it's quite possible.

[shinny]

Why is spec scaling going down? =/

Yeah, why is spesh scaling going down?

Because increasing numbers of students are taking spesh to take advantage of the scaling, hence diluting the relative intelligence (as always, I use that term loosely here) of the cohort. Put simply and politically incorrectly, dumber and dumber students are taking spesh to try to abuse the scaling causing the overall smartness of the cohort to drop, meaning less competition when it comes to study scores.

[schmalex]

I got 98.95 without any science subjects, and even though I did methods, it was only my 4th best after scaling, even though I did a lot of work for it. I actually think that the humanities subjects I did paid off better in terms of work\study score ratio.

[Truck]

Though I must say that most people on the 95+ scale has something scaling up.

Taiga is right. You can do as well, if not better(if you are good at the subjects you choose) with humanities. This is up untill a certain level though.

As taiga said when it gets to about 95 or over ATAR wise a lot of those people have subjects that scale over 50. They give you an ATAR based on an aggregate of all your study scores added together. Even if you get 50+50+50+50+50, near the very top it gets very competitive so you need to have something that scales over 50 to push you over the edge. Spesh and Latin are examples of this as far as im aware.

That however is just for the very highest end of the scale.

Otherwise if you are good at your subject you have just as good of a chance, if not better at getting like 93 compared to someone doing science/mathsy type stuff.


I'm sure they took these things into account .

6 50's will get you a 99.95 =P.

Not in all years

Though given the deflation of spesh scaling (and of a couple other subjects), it probably won't reach that stage.

And 5 50's won't always get you a 99.95 believe it or not :X

Honestly that's insane, like I duno if I got 6 50's and didn't get a 99.95, on the one hand like CHYEAH 99.90 but on the other hand you'd feel pretty gibbed LOL.

[iffets12345]

You have to make sure you're very good at humanities like taiga and pomba have been saying. My school is popular in like humanities and health/pe/food tech but they never get high scores because people take it for granted, thinking its easy. Since you're on this site and you seem fairly intelligent I'm sure it's fine.

[flash36]

I got 97.1 by doing English, Legals, Business Management and PE, with 10% from Further Maths.

[slothpomba]

VCE also gives you a little sampling of what the subject will be like at uni.

If you want to take humanities subjects in uni, like those in VCE, I suggest you take their VCE equivalent.

I did not think much of biology at all before VCE, i wanted to be a chemist (Mao will kill me for this maybe haha or who knows more hot chem chicks for him) up until mid-way through year 11/12. What changed? I needed to fill in a spot on my VCE preference sheet, so i decided, I’ll just ask my mates and see what most of them are doing and choose from that.

It was a toss up between Biology and Geography. I ended up choosing Biology and by far now, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I really found out what an awesome subject it was, if it weren’t for experiencing it in VCE I’d still have those same old thoughts. So, it exposes you to new things.

In addition, the converse is true; it might change your mind about other things. You might think yeah i like Chemistry or Psychology or something but who knows, maybe you just like the *idea* of them, rather than the content.

One of my regrets is not having any room to study humanities in VCE because i knew i wouldn't get much of it in uni, this is another reason for choosing. I love many different humanities areas and I would love to study them formally, problem is i did not get that chance in VCE or now in Uni (due to how i structured my stuff, i only had one option really).

So, those are also all things to consider.

(Remember learning for the sake of learning/enjoyment isn't a bad thing either! i think sometimes in this country we're a little too narrow minded and focused on what can get us a job rather than broadening our horizons a little and learning more about the other aspects of the world.)

[Truck]

VCE also gives you a little sampling of what the subject will be like at uni.

If you want to take humanities subjects in uni, like those in VCE, I suggest you take their VCE equivalent.

I did not think much of biology at all before VCE, i wanted to be a chemist (Mao will kill me for this maybe haha or who knows more hot chem chicks for him) up until mid-way through year 11/12. What changed? I needed to fill in a spot on my VCE preference sheet, so i decided, I’ll just ask my mates and see what most of them are doing and choose from that.

It was a toss up between Biology and Geography. I ended up choosing Biology and by far now, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I really found out what an awesome subject it was, if it weren’t for experiencing it in VCE I’d still have those same old thoughts. So, it exposes you to new things.

In addition, the converse is true; it might change your mind about other things. You might think yeah i like Chemistry or Psychology or something but who knows, maybe you just like the *idea* of them, rather than the content.

One of my regrets is not having any room to study humanities in VCE because i knew i wouldn't get much of it in uni, this is another reason for choosing. I love many different humanities areas and I would love to study them formally, problem is i did not get that chance in VCE or now in Uni (due to how i structured my stuff, i only had one option really).

So, those are also all things to consider.

(Remember learning for the sake of learning/enjoyment isn't a bad thing either! i think sometimes in this country we're a little too narrow minded and focused on what can get us a job rather than broadening our horizons a little and learning more about the other aspects of the world.)

Mate so much good advice in that post. Up till recently I've wanted to do Medicine, but I guess I've realized (like you said) I only like the *idea* of medicine, I don't really wanna be a doctor, work in hospitals etc. So now all I know is I wanna do Biology as that is in fact my favorite subject, so you know, maybe a Bachelor of Science, or Biomolecular Engineering, but hey, better then going into medicine and being depressed because I'm doing something I dislike =).