really need help, course selection

[hard]

well i just came back from a course counseling session from my school, and now i'm really, really confused.

okay well here is what i originally thought i would choose.

1)  finished legal and vis comm this year, try get over 39 in each and do relatively well in them both. Following this, i will drop physics, keep chemistry, methods, English and pick up uni enhancement philosophy of science and/or business management.

However, my counseling teacher, vce coordinator and chemistry teacher put me as a recommendation for specialist, physics and methods. I've chosen methods but physics i know i don't like so i've dropped. They tried to urge me into picking it up but i insisted that i'm not fond of it.

Then, i told them up the enhancement. my vce coordinator/chem teacher said that i would be a good candidate since the principle and himself would write good comments as part of the application for the enhancement subject. my course counseling teacher however, kept saying how it is a big workload and many people would not cope. She and the other teachers urged me to do specialist maths. So they put down methods, english, chemistry, specialist with a ? mark, and enhancement. They want me to do both specialist and enhancement for around 2 weeks at the start of next year and then decide to drop one.


But i'm very unsure of what to do. Firstly, i've heard that specialist is VERY hard and can consume a majority of your time which i'm not fond of. Secondly, how hard would it be to get a 30 in specialist considering i get around 90's in methods currently.
Is enhancement subject a better choice is it too much workload?
Also do you think i'll get accepted in history and philosophy of science at melb uni when the perquisites are to do well, i.e. A/A+ in some humanities and science subject, which i think i meet since i expect over 40 in legal, average 85 in chem, 94 in meth and around 80 in phys.

Can you please help me decide. What should i do???

thanks for your help in advance.

[costargh]

I don't see the rush to do a Uni subject. The only time I see Uni subjects in Year 12 as a good idea is when in areas of Maths where someone has done Methods 3/4 in Year 11 and is naturally mathematically gifted and will assurred that their Uni maths won't detrimentally effect their ENTER.
This is just my opinion though.

I know it's nice to say "yeh I am doing a Uni subject in VCE" but it's only one extra year to go to Uni and then you can experience Uni life. Also, your current marks in methods plus your VCE co-ord (plus others) recommendation to do Specialist seems to indicate that you may be able to get a pretty decent score in Specialist which would help you achieve a higher ENTER and therefore actually open up your options and paths into University.
From a lot of reports I've heard, people are telling me that they are doing better in Specialist than in Methods so I think the whole 'whispers' that specialist requires 12 hours of hw a night plus no social life is nonsense.

I was thinking about applying to do Accounting at Monash this year and I am happy I didn't. I'm not sure whether I would have had my priorities straight if I did a Uni subject. And I think personally for me, I just wanted to be able to say "yeh I'm doing a Uni subject" basically because I've always wanted to be at Uni and this was going to be a way for me to be some part of the way there one year earlier.

I think if you're good at maths then do Specialist because it will help you get a higher ENTER. There's no point doing a Uni subject if your ENTER will be lower as a result, meaning that some courses you wanted to apply for are now not available to you.

[hard]

I don't see the rush to do a Uni subject. The only time I see Uni subjects in Year 12 as a good idea is when in areas of Maths where someone has done Methods 3/4 in Year 11 and is naturally mathematically gifted and will assurred that their Uni maths won't detrimentally effect their ENTER.
This is just my opinion though.

I know it's nice to say "yeh I am doing a Uni subject in VCE" but it's only one extra year to go to Uni and then you can experience Uni life. Also, your current marks in methods plus your VCE co-ord (plus others) recommendation to do Specialist seems to indicate that you may be able to get a pretty decent score in Specialist which would help you achieve a higher ENTER and therefore actually open up your options and paths into University.
From a lot of reports I've heard, people are telling me that they are doing better in Specialist than in Methods so I think the whole 'whispers' that specialist requires 12 hours of hw a night plus no social life is nonsense.

I was thinking about applying to do Accounting at Monash this year and I am happy I didn't. I'm not sure whether I would have had my priorities straight if I did a Uni subject. And I think personally for me, I just wanted to be able to say "yeh I'm doing a Uni subject" basically because I've always wanted to be at Uni and this was going to be a way for me to be some part of the way there one year earlier.

I think if you're good at maths then do Specialist because it will help you get a higher ENTER. There's no point doing a Uni subject if your ENTER will be lower as a result, meaning that some courses you wanted to apply for are now not available to you.

LOL "just wanted to be able to say yeh I'm doing a Uni subject," that's exactly like me. See what i find annoying is that the teachers are all giving me different opinions.

I think that with the uni enhancement, it would only consume part of my w/end while specialist will ultimately take care of nearly my whole week. It's just the fact that specialist is portrayed to be SO hard that pisses me off. Like when some one says it's hard, okay, but then someone else says it's easier then methods. So how does that work? if i can manage over 30 in spec than i'd be happy, actually over 25 would be nb either. I'm like lost in the mist right now lol. thanx for you help costa.

EDIT: changed list to lost.

[bubble sunglasses]

  How high/hard to get into is your preferred course?
   If it's high, I'd pick the subject that will optimise your score. If it's not that high, choose your preferred subject.

[hard]

well i'm hoping to get into chemical engineering or a double degree with chem and maybe finance. vic uni requires like 60, no chance. Monash needs like 91, would be nice. rmit needs 75, considering it. Deaking not sure. Melbourne uni needs 85 but with the new melbourne model im not really interested.

So i need roughly over 80. Over 80 i would be happy with imo.

[costargh]

See, that's the thing though. It's a perception. Maybe find someone that has the Specialist text book and have a flick through at the content. You don't have to know how to do everything but some of the stuff would be similar to methods and I think doing methods would help a little in Specialist even though there is differnt course work to do in Specialist.

Getting 90's in Methods 1/2 sounds like you're good at maths so I really think that if you are confident with maths then that's the way to go.
Now would be a good time for people who have done specialist to give you some input/advice on it because I don't really know what it's like but I think people pysch themselves out too much about Specialist and then they get really stressed. Scaling is a wonderful thing remember

[bubble sunglasses]

 well based on the aims in your sig [and that you said you were being hard on yourself for eng], you should clear 91. So consider enjoyment and what will help you in the future. no need to depend on it being in your top 4

[Eriny]

I think the advice to do both spesh and uni enhancement for two weeks and then drop whichever one you like the least is pretty good. Personally, I found my uni subject much less stressful than my VCE subjects, and my ENTER probably was slightly higher for the experience, but it's up to you. As costa said, don't do it because you want to be in uni, do it out of genuine interest or because it'll be helpful to you in some way (for example, mine probably helped get me into my actual uni course and it probably has given me a bit of an advantage this year too with knowing what to expect and so on).

If you're sure that spesh won't make it to your top 4, I also personally wouldn't worry about it on terms of ENTER maximisation.

Also, you'll probably be accepted into an enhancement study with those kinds of scores, BTW.

[hard]

 

 well based on the aims in your sig [and that you said you were being hard on yourself for eng], you should clear 91. So consider enjoyment and what will help you in the future. no need to depend on it being in your top 4

yer i do think i'm being a bit hard on myself in english but maybe chem can be lowered to minimum if 30 but i do expect of 35.

That being said, can someone who isn't exceptionally gifted in maths, like ahmad nebeo dcc or coblin, give some feedback on specialist. workload? how were your methods results in year 11? any other info would be useful.


oh yes and i just went on to monash website. I saw that the offer criminal justice as a subject for enhancement. That looks quite interesting also! but they got no info on it urgh.

[hard]

I think the advice to do both spesh and uni enhancement for two weeks and then drop whichever one you like the least is pretty good. Personally, I found my uni subject much less stressful than my VCE subjects, and my ENTER probably was slightly higher for the experience, but it's up to you. As costa said, don't do it because you want to be in uni, do it out of genuine interest or because it'll be helpful to you in some way (for example, mine probably helped get me into my actual uni course and it probably has given me a bit of an advantage this year too with knowing what to expect and so on).

If you're sure that spesh won't make it to your top 4, I also personally wouldn't worry about it on terms of ENTER maximisation.

Also, you'll probably be accepted into an enhancement study with those kinds of scores, BTW.

I'm deciding to do enhancements studies because i find them really interesting and i'm pretty self motivated, although my family are very eager on me doing well . What if i dropped to around a 75 avg for phys on my report but the rest over 80, would that give me a good chance of getting in, considering that the principle and coordinator are going to give relatively good feedback?

is it a very stringent selection process?

[hard]

anyone do spesh? give me some advice if you can please on spesh and enhancement studies if you do them! thanx alot

[Eriny]

The selection process isn't too stringent. As long as you have an A average, you'll be right (which means that a B+ here and there isn't going to hurt). And you'll do even better with some shining recommendations. They want people to be tied to their university from year 12 so that there is a greater chance of them enrolling after high school, so they do actually want you there.

[Mao]

 well based on the aims in your sig [and that you said you were being hard on yourself for eng], you should clear 91. So consider enjoyment and what will help you in the future. no need to depend on it being in your top 4

yer i do think i'm being a bit hard on myself in english but maybe chem can be lowered to minimum if 30 but i do expect of 35.

That being said, can someone who isn't exceptionally gifted in maths, like ahmad nebeo dcc or coblin, give some feedback on specialist. workload? how were your methods results in year 11? any other info would be useful.


oh yes and i just went on to monash website. I saw that the offer criminal justice as a subject for enhancement. That looks quite interesting also! but they got no info on it urgh.

the new monash enhancement subjects are still waiting to be approved by VCAA.

[RD]

 well based on the aims in your sig [and that you said you were being hard on yourself for eng], you should clear 91. So consider enjoyment and what will help you in the future. no need to depend on it being in your top 4

yer i do think i'm being a bit hard on myself in english but maybe chem can be lowered to minimum if 30 but i do expect of 35.

That being said, can someone who isn't exceptionally gifted in maths, like ahmad nebeo dcc or coblin, give some feedback on specialist. workload? how were your methods results in year 11? any other info would be useful.


oh yes and i just went on to monash website. I saw that the offer criminal justice as a subject for enhancement. That looks quite interesting also! but they got no info on it urgh.

1) all those four people you have mentioned are very very exceptionally gifted in mathematics. (though coblin has lost a lot of interest, deciding that commerce and chemistry are more fun)

2) the new monash enhancement subjects are still waiting to be approved by VCAA.

I think he was trying to say someone who isn't like ahmad, neobeo etc etc.

[Mao]

ahh, oops. misinterpretation