Overload. 7 3/4 Subjects in Year 12? A bit too much?

[squance]

Heys. I'm a bit worried about what my sister wants to do next year in VCE.
She is currently doing 6 1/2 subjects in Year 11.

-English
-Texts and Traditions
-Physics
-Chemistry
-Maths Methods
-Specialist Maths

Next year she wants to add 3/4 Psychology (doing that subject by distance ed.) to that list.
That means 7 3/4 subjects.
Reasons that she wants to do Psych is because the school was supposed to offer her class the option of doing 3/4 subjects in Year 11 but for some stupid reason, the school stopped doing that and my sister had really looked forward to doing 3/4 Psych then. She is also very interested in the topics that that are taught in 3/4 Psych.
But the main reason she wants to do Psych is because she believes that she can pull off a study score of 40+ in Psych... which would compensate if she happens to  bombs out in Physics which is her weakest subject. However, she does not want to drop Physics for reasons she won't tell me.
She is aiming for an ENTER of 95+ (or an ENTER that is enough to get into medicine/pharmacy/biomedicine).

Only the top six subjects count towards the ENTER and I'm worried that if she has an extra subject, then it might lower all the scores of her other subjects, and hence lower her ENTER (and I know that if my sister does not pull off a high ENTER, my parents will be so disappointed because they expect great things from her).

I think 6 3/4 subjects is already too much and having a 7th subject is just an overload.
Is doing a 7 subject worth it? Especially in the final year of VCE?

Any advice or recommendations?

[bturville]

Drop texts and traditions in year 12?

[squance]

Drop texts and traditions in year 12?

She can't.
My sister goes to a Christian school and they make VCE Texts and Traditions a compulsory subject (even though the majority of the class hates it LOL)

[Glockmeister]

Just don't study for it then and let it sink to the 7th subject.

[squance]

Just don't study for it then and let it sink to the 7th subject.

Hmm..that sounds like a good idea. I think I might suggest that to her...

But then again, texts and traditions involves essays and that is her strength so I don't think she would want to do crap in that subject...and from my perspective, she is very competitive in her studies and wants to have top ranking in all subjects...

[bturville]

Yeah do that. If she is good in it then she won't need to put a lot of work in. She doesn't have to do bad in anything, if she is capable of doing the full load. But depending on her grades she should pick a subject to drop (unless of course she aces them all, which is of course possible)

[jess3254]

The workload of a distance ed subject is MUCH heavier than regular school subjects. There is more reading, more work and you're required to devote much more time to it than other subjects. People don't realise what they're getting themselves into when they sign up to do distance ed. Some people find it unbelievably stressful to study 5 subjects at school and 1 subject at DECV.

I mean, most people find it difficult and stressful to study just 5 subjects AT SCHOOL.

6 subjects at school + 1 distance ed subject is killing yourself. Tell her to drop 1-2 subjects off her list. It would be much better for her to do 5 subjects really well, rather than overload with 7 subjects and perform poorly in all of them. 

It's just not worth it.

[shinny]

I struggled with 5 so I wouldn't advise it, especially considering the impracticality of taking up a 7th subject. Your 5th and 6th's already act as a safeguard so it's pretty pointless IMO. I see that she wants to do the asian 5, but does she ACTUALLY want to do these subjects? Or is she doing it just for the sake of doing that set. I dropped physics myself since I really had no interest in it whatsoever and put a more bludgy subject just to (hopefully) improve the scores in my others. This would work even better if your sister dropped one of the asian subjects and slotted in psych since she seems to have a genuine interest in wanting to do it.

[Mao]

imo, 7 subjects is a bit too much, I wouldn't want to have to sit 3 mid-years then 9 end-of-years, with most of them in a row.

but on another note

However, she does not want to drop Physics for reasons she won't tell me.

I smell a relationship here...

[Mao]

on a closer look, I definitely think she should drop some subjects. It is very difficult to maintain top ranking in all subjects, esp in this case where she wants to do seven [6 at school]. If my gut feeling is right about her reason in physics [which could quite possibly be her reason to do specialist as well], she will definitely regret it.

I say drop one of physics/specialist, but if she doesn't want to, then try to convince her to drop psych.

[xox.happy1.xox]

I would definitely advise NOT to go ahead with the 7 subjects in year 12. You sister will basically have no free time, because she will always be studying, no free periods at school, meaning all study, no chill out time, and with Distance Ed, more responsibility for a subject which may not even end up getting used in the final ENTER calculation.

Why do 7 if one doesn't even end up counting? I was going to do 2 year 12 subjects last year, but didn't because I wanted to do 5 this year, and didn't want one to be excluded. Lol, if it was me, I'd develop a whole new study program; include some languages (scaling to the MAX), and if she enjoys the Asian 5, then I guess she should pay more attention to those subjects and not so much to Psych or T and T (one won't even end up counting AT ALL, so she might as well drop one anyway).

My two cents.

[humph]

Wait, they make her do 3/4 Texts and Traditions? What school is this? I don't know any like that...

At my school, we had to do unit 2 Texts and Traditions throughout yr12, but it didn't really count as any work...

[ShadowSong]

Like all the other people. I agree. Shouldnt do 7 in Year 12. I did 6 this year. About the same time last year when I had a careers interview, they asked me why I wanted to do 7. I said I could cope. But after talking to a Year 12 student who was doing 6. I decided it was too strenous. I dropped physics so in the end I did 5 at school and 1 outside of school. When it came to the exams, I didnt have a lot of time to devote to each of my subjects fairly. So unless your sister is extremely good at time management and willing to work full on. I would advise her to drop at least 1 subject.

I totally got killed this year. Didnt have enough time to do all the homework with time to spare. Also, by taking up so many subjects. There are going to be times when you think there are an unending amount of SACs. They just come one after another...Then you give up time for homework to study for the SACs. Then you get behind for homework. Then when holidays roll around, you will have to do all your homework. Then you have to sarcfice your social life just to catch up. Blah, im just babling now.

Besides, only 6 subjects are counted in the calculation of enter. THe 7th is redundant. So don't make my mistake and do a total of 7.

[psychlaw]

med / biomed eh?

In that case, drop specialist and physics and pick up biology

[chlloe]

My school is Catholic and we have to do RE right through to year 12.

However, in year 11, we do Unit 1 and in year 12 Unit 2. Its spread out and doesnt count, I used Peace & Justice as study periods the whole year, didnt open my text book once (and still scraped B's on SACS!)

7 Subjects is WAY too much. I doubt she would be able to cope, physically and mentally. 5 in year 12 is enough stress as is! Especially with maths having two end of year exams, her timetable would be a nightmare.

As others have said, its better to do great in 5 subjects than average in 7.