HSC subject selection advice (3 Viewers)

[blackaragorn]

Hello I am currently in the process of choosing my subjects for the hsc and I would like some advice. I put the questions at the bottom but if there is anything else I should know, please include in your response. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

I am thinking of doing:
3u eng
3u maths
french continuers
SOR 2
Business Studies accelerated (already doing)

Reserve:
Economics
Chemistry
1 more idrk what other reserve


My questions are:

1. Is the workload for choosing 2 ext subjects too much along with my other subjects? From someone who is in yr 11 or 12 and is doing well, how many hours of study are you putting into 3u eng and 3u maths (excluding and combining with adv)

2. Should I be picking french continuers if my school hasn't scored a band 6 since 2016? I am quite good at the subject and am also interested in it. I have been doing since year 8. I wouldnt say that I am first in my cohort, but out of the 20-odd kids who do the subject, I reckon I am top 5. I will ask my french teacher on what she advises and update.

3. Most of my subjects are writing-based but I am currently planning on becoming an actuary or something similar. (My planned subjects meet the prereq requirements) If there is any need, what tweaks should I make or what should I prioritise? I am also good at math, but am not fast. I get good marks but usually do not have much time at the end of tests to review. With english, it is easily the subject which I put the most work in due to its ambiguous nature. I am also currently performing well (avg around 92%, last year avg was 96%), but I know that I am not naturally gifted and my raw writing abilities without prep is at a B level.

 

[lunaaaa4403]

too much writing, don't do chemistry

 

[hscccc]

Idk anything abt math or doing two exts at once but 3u eng isn't that much work. Ext is easier than adv imo, and the HSC exam is really chill with only 2 sections and is decently predictable. Ext will help you build and further develop ur writing for adv. I think like 40% of the cohort ends up with an e4?

 

[jane1820]

1. depends on your abilites tbh, my sister did both ext (she ended up dropping both at the beginning of yr 12 bc she thought it was unnesecary for her beyond of yr 11 - she just wanted the skills) ext eng, from what i heard, is easier than adv and hence needs less effort than adv. this is bc (or at least yr 11) being mainly focused on creative and novels, reading and analysing, oposed to adv which is HEAVILY analysis of not just novels but shakespeare and its honestly just a drag.
ext math needs a VERY STRONG foundation of yr 10 5.3 math. if you dont have that excellent foundation than its pretty late for it. but its lowkey easier than what ppl make it sound like. its all just rules, see number, know rule, apply rule and boom solved. the only topics that need understanding are further functions (graphing) and perms and combs but even for me perms and combs didnt need that much of understanding if you can visualise the scenario

2. yes. it doesn matter how much b6s your school got for the subject you want to do and that should never be a deciding factor.
3. everything should be a priority. study schedule or good time management skills is crucial in yr 11. there is no such thing as 'ill do chem first bc im getting higher grades in this'. they are all a priority. they all matter. they all count towards ur atar and ultimately your uni pathway

 

[krillics]

hi! i do 3u eng and 3u maths. to answer your first question, it depends on the school but my 3u english is super chill (the hw is typically just readings and the occasional writing task etc, although this is just my experience ofc). with maths there is a bit of extra homework and study you need to do but its manageable. both subjects also improve your 2u skills, have really interesting content, and scale great, so i would definitely say the extra effort is worth it.

as for the study hours, each subject is only worth 1 unit so as a general rule do half the hours you do for your 2u subjects. another good rule you could follow is 2-3 hours of study a week per hour of the subject. personally i would say i do around 3-4 hours per week for english ext and 6 for maths ext, but you have the whole of year 11 to learn what works for you so don't stress too much now. extension subjects are also very easy to drop so just give it a go!

just touching on your last point about english: you're doing really well right now, but you should keep in mind the exams for ext aren't really something you can prepare 100% for. you're given a prompt and it could be an essay, creative, etc. so if you want to start preparing now, i would highly recommend reading and writing more in your spare time as this will improve your raw abilities. in yr 11 i read around 36 books on top of doing 14 units and ended up topping eng ext with very little study (literally made my creative up on the spot). that's not to say you can't do well without reading a ton, but it definitely made it a lot easier in my experience.

also i'm not an expert on actuarial science but from what i know it's pretty much just math, so you should be fine.
if you have any other questions let me know

 

[blackaragorn]

just touching on your last point about english: you're doing really well right now, but you should keep in mind the exams for ext aren't really something you can prepare 100% for. you're given a prompt and it could be an essay, creative, etc. so if you want to start preparing now, i would highly recommend reading and writing more in your spare time as this will improve your raw abilities. in yr 11 i read around 36 books on top of doing 14 units and ended up topping eng ext with very little study (literally made my creative up on the spot). that's not to say you can't do well without reading a ton, but it definitely made it a lot easier in my experience.

Thanks for your advice. I used to read quite a bit in primary but stopped in high school until around halfway through year 9. I got back into it and usually read or do flashcards on my commute to and from school, but I find that I am also a slow reader. How do you recommend improving speed whilst maintaining comprehension? With the writing practises, what do you recommend? For a creative its quite easy to make/find a stimulus, but for essay writing and discursives, is it just doing more practise questions on the topics I am currently learning at school?

Also for books, which do you think will help me overall in adv and ext? What genres you recommend etc (would they just be the texts studied at school to gain a better understanding beforehand??? if possible pls provide booklist )

 

[Socialism]

Also for books, which do you think will help me overall in adv and ext? What genres you recommend etc (would they just be the texts studied at school to gain a better understanding beforehand??? if possible pls provide booklist )

hello blackaragorn,

I know your question wasn't addressed to me, but i'd strongly recommend asking the ext 1 &/or advanced teachers what books their respective classes will be studying, and working from there. Your teachers are going to have the best list, since they're the ones teaching the course
Not sure about the rest of your questions though...

hope this helps,
Socialism

 

[99.95dreams]

yea depends on the person. i did both ext english and maths in year 11 and discovered that i could not do it, so i ended up dropping ext english.

on a different note, def consider taking chem! i personally find it a very enjoyable subject, and i think it will be a good change of pace from the rest of your subjects.

 

[krillics]

Thanks for your advice. I used to read quite a bit in primary but stopped in high school until around halfway through year 9. I got back into it and usually read or do flashcards on my commute to and from school, but I find that I am also a slow reader. How do you recommend improving speed whilst maintaining comprehension? With the writing practises, what do you recommend? For a creative its quite easy to make/find a stimulus, but for essay writing and discursives, is it just doing more practise questions on the topics I am currently learning at school?

Also for books, which do you think will help me overall in adv and ext? What genres you recommend etc (would they just be the texts studied at school to gain a better understanding beforehand??? if possible pls provide booklist )

the most important thing you can do to improve reading speed is just to read more and actively evaluating and engaging with the text in your head (asking yourself questions, thinking "do i like this/agree with this? why/why not", making predictions). it also doesn't have to be novels, reading short articles/stories is also good for building speed and comprehension without being too much of a time commitment. also, if you're not already, try to group words together instead of reading each individual word (using your peripheral) and not "saying" the words in your head like a conversation. there's plenty of articles/reddit threads online that explain this a lot better than i can haha

as for the writing practices, yeah it's pretty much just doing practice questions for the most part. there are plenty of fun writing exercises online that you can try out as well, or you could try emulating a particular story/poem you really like. personally i used to just write random phrases that came to mind into my notes app and ended up using some of them lmao, so really anything helps. journalling is also great for developing skills in organising and expressing ideas (as well as being a great stress relief tool!) so i recommend that, even if it's literally just a couple sentences recounting your day.

i'd be happy to put together a reading list for you, i'll try and dm it to you within the next couple days you can ask your teachers too.

 

[coolcat6778]

too much writing, don't do chemistry

yup, sadly there's no subject other than physics, and I've already done phsics so I have to do stupid fucking shit chemistry. this subject pisses me off

 

[mickeyd_357]

I do eng ext and math ext, and I also do a language. I think if you really like French you should definitely do it, because you will realise at the end of 2 years how much the subject has actually helped you not only for being fluent at a second language (which can be really helpful for some jobs) but also the random life advice you get

I don't really put in too much work for english extension, but I would recommend doing it (check what texts you are doing first because it could be a really long year if it's something you don't like)

Ext maths is great, but it does need a bit of work, try it first and see what you think. If you are decent at maths, you should be ok, as long as you make the effort to do a bunch of questions.

I would recommend just doing the things you like, don't think about scaling, just think about what you would be motivated to study that will maximise your marks.

Also just remember that at the end of the day, year 11 doesn't count, so no matter if you have a bad exam, just learn from it and keep pushing

 

[jane1820]

i personally find it a very enjoyable subject

i hate chem, brings trauma every time i walk in there.

 

[Legendary16]

Hello I am currently in the process of choosing my subjects for the hsc and I would like some advice. I put the questions at the bottom but if there is anything else I should know, please include in your response. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

I am thinking of doing:
3u eng
3u maths
french continuers
SOR 2
Business Studies accelerated (already doing)

Reserve:
Economics
Chemistry
1 more idrk what other reserve


My questions are:

1. Is the workload for choosing 2 ext subjects too much along with my other subjects? From someone who is in yr 11 or 12 and is doing well, how many hours of study are you putting into 3u eng and 3u maths (excluding and combining with adv)

2. Should I be picking french continuers if my school hasn't scored a band 6 since 2016? I am quite good at the subject and am also interested in it. I have been doing since year 8. I wouldnt say that I am first in my cohort, but out of the 20-odd kids who do the subject, I reckon I am top 5. I will ask my french teacher on what she advises and update.

3. Most of my subjects are writing-based but I am currently planning on becoming an actuary or something similar. (My planned subjects meet the prereq requirements) If there is any need, what tweaks should I make or what should I prioritise? I am also good at math, but am not fast. I get good marks but usually do not have much time at the end of tests to review. With english, it is easily the subject which I put the most work in due to its ambiguous nature. I am also currently performing well (avg around 92%, last year avg was 96%), but I know that I am not naturally gifted and my raw writing abilities without prep is at a B level.

With a lot of actuary courses, they do specify math ext 1 as a prerequisite but I'm not overly sure if that was included in the more recent changes to requisites in just requiring math advanced, so you'd have to check that with your preferred uni. Math ext1 does require regular practice, and probably being a little proactive with covering content ahead of the class, but there are a number of areas that overlap with advanced so it's not completely foreign. As for time to review, the natural course of practicing math on the regular would improve your timing in tests and if you get tutoring or employ good time management, that can be taken even further. Depending on your career path (or paths), you'd have to prioritise your subjects accordingly.