does scaling REALLY matter?

[MissGiggles]

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i've been reading some of these posts about people rethinking their subjects for next year. i picked the subjects i want to do in year 12 last year because that seems logical to me. however, what people have been saying about scaling is starting to worry me.

i want to study medicine once i graduate. i chose english ext. because it was a requirement and i'm fairly good, and chem and bio because they're supposed to help, and to keep my science options open, along with advanced maths.

but after those and my compulsory studies of relgion 1 unit, i had two units to fill. i absolutely love drama and i am somewhere at the top last time i checked. but i hear it scales bad. real bad.

i'm failing maths so i'll need my two backup units to cover that, but will drama's bad scaling hurt my goal of a 95+ ATAR?

[speedofsound]

no it does not matter a great deal, do not listen to the douches that say it is everything. all that matters is that you do what you like and do it well. you are far better off getting 90's in drama than 70's in maths.

[benhaddad]

i agree with speedofsound, but what you have to realise is that if you can get good marks in a subject which scales better you should.

and always go for the facts, dont listen to what people tell you.

[Dark Invoker]

I'm not sure on the scaling of drama...not to sure about the whole scaling process either because our school explained it like this "it's too complicated to explain, don't worry about it and pick what you enjoy".

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you don't really have to study for drama? So thus it should be your back up considering it doesn't scale as well as your other subjects.

My advice, work hard in Maths. I'm not failing but I'm getting no where near where I should be if I want to achieve my goal of 90+. A lot of things can happen in a year, it's a long time and if you're really motivated to get where you want and work hard for it, you'll be fine.

English Ext.
Chemistry
Biology
Maths
Religion

10 units that scale pretty well. 95 is a pretty big goal, you're going to have to put a LOT of study and effort in if you want to achieve it. I wouldn't risk being reliant on drama unless you are extremely good and extremely confident in your performance within your other subjects.

[lyounamu]

scaling matters, yes. But the extent of how much it matters depends on how well you do in that subject. If you beat the bell curve (i.e. getting better marks than most people in the course), you won't be scaled down too much.

That's why we all say: do subjects you like (because you are far more likely to work harder and better in that sub) or do subjects that you are good at.

If you have 2 subjects and if you like them equally, choose subject that is deemed more "useful" for your uni course or as a last resort, choose the subject with higher scaling

[Jaylee42003]

By looking at your subjects, you've picked pretty good scaling ones. You'd need to do especially well at Drama, but as long as you do okay in everything else( i.e. 70+), you'll be fine and scaling won't matter much. In fact, it'll actually be on your side.

[possessionless]

my subjects dont scale well....so ive heard.
i dont care, i enjoy them and the ones that apparently 'dont scale well' im doing good in anyway.

[lychnobity]

Originally Posted by Jaylee42003

By looking at your subjects, you've picked pretty good scaling ones. You'd need to do especially well at Drama, but as long as you do okay in everything else( i.e. 70+), you'll be fine and scaling won't matter much. In fact, it'll actually be on your side.

You won't get into medicine with these kind of marks. Especially if you're aiming for a 95+ ATAR, you should be getting high 80s at least

The way I see scaling, it affects everyone, so I stopped worrying about it.

[MissGiggles]

my maths is beyond epic fail. i blame the teacher. i started at ext. level and crashed and burned at 27% for our first test. so i was told by the coordinator that staying in ext. level would be like bashing my head against a brick wall repetitively. she said it to a group but i was included. they gave me a letter for my mum and i took the hint and moved down before they kicked me out.

unfortunately because they pitch the advanced lesson to the ext. classes ten times faster they went right over my head and without the foundation i am just out of my depth. i answered maybe half of the exam yesterday and then. came home and crashed on the lounge with panadol and "rescue remedy".

i am praying to god everything will reset next year, beginning with a revision topic. i have friends who are really good but my mum's idea of "tutoring" is her best friend's son, who wasn't that enthusiastic when i asked him.

i am well up near 90% for bio and 95% last time i got a drama mark back. SOR is looking at 80% and climbing. i switched from 2U near the end of Judaism to 1U near the end of Buddhism so i had to learn a whole topic in two weeks for a Buddhism viva voche, but i am extremely confident with my exam yesterday.

i started abyssimally in chem but i have climbed back to 70%. i've been told it's normal to start crap and catch up because some junior high schools (*cough* scm) do bugger all when it comes to chemistry. i climbed 15 places in the ranks in our last prac test.

so it looks like i will be using drama instead of maths, but i'm just worried about that hurting my ATAR

[Jaylee42003]

Originally Posted by lychnobity

You won't get into medicine with these kind of marks. Especially if you're aiming for a 95+ ATAR, you should be getting least high 80s

The way I see scaling, it affects everyone, so I stopped worrying about it.

Oh? My bad. Better listen to this^ instead

[lychnobity]

Originally Posted by MissGiggles

unfortunately because they pitch the advanced lesson to the ext. classes ten times faster they went right over my head and without the foundation i am just out of my depth. i answered maybe half of the exam yesterday and then. came home and crashed on the lounge with panadol and "rescue remedy".

i am praying to god everything will reset next year, beginning with a revision topic. i have friends who are really good but my mum's idea of "tutoring" is her best friend's son, who wasn't that enthusiastic when i asked him.

Hmm, if you are desperate, and in dire need of help, I can help you. Send a pm if needed.

[MissGiggles]

there are supposedly 4 bonus ATAR points with Newcastle uni if you're considered local (score!) but i wanna get into the UNSW which is gonna be even harder than Newy without bonus points i'm guessing

[speedofsound]

Originally Posted by MissGiggles

so it looks like i will be using drama instead of maths, but i'm just worried about that hurting my ATAR

i'll tell you what would hurt your atar: continuing with maths at 27%. that will not benefit you in ANY way. if you're practically topping drama, that will.

[TheStallion]

Originally Posted by speedofsound

no it does not matter a great deal, do not listen to the douches that say it is everything. all that matters is that you do what you like and do it well. you are far better off getting 90's in drama than 70's in maths.

This. Read it again OP.

[MissGiggles]

okay guys, here's an update on both the subject forms i handed in and how i feel i went in my exams

i got accepted into double extension english. woo! sounds like a bludge. with 14 units i can leave both maths and drama out. i wanted to cry during the maths test. i only answered half of it, and once you take away the questions i got wrong....

however, i only answered about 3 quarters of my chem exam. once again, once mistakes are removed it won't be in the nineties. that's much better than only answering half last time but still not there. my feeder school didn't do much chem, and it's apparently normal in my situation to bounce right back. but i might push drama ahead of maths and chem so i'm still worried about drama's scaling.

i'm happy to say i answered every question on the bio exam confidently, i wrote 3 and a half pages for both my english and english ext. essays with at least three quotes a page (my teacher liked my practice ones) and almost four pages for my ext. composing task, and i could have answered the religion paper in my sleep. i kinda bluffed the extended response but i think i was close to the worsksheets and my personal experience from before i turned atheist. we didn't screw up our drama performance and every teacher but one who saw it before loved it.

so i could easily have gotten very close to full marks for everything but chem and maths.