What exactly is a unit? (1 Viewer)

Falla

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I'm half-way through year 12, taking my half-yearlies right now. The concept of the HSC and the ATAR and all of that has been continually confusing for me, but I believe I have a general enough understanding of it and some of the processes. Ultimately, after sinking a few hours into it at the beginning of the year in an attempt to understand the underlying processes, I decided against fully understanding it. Big picture's more important anyway.

In the spirit of that sentiment, units are the only major thing that I don't have a grasp on. I'm doing no extension subjects or anything exceptional, so all of my subjects are worth 2 units, and 12 in total. From my understanding, when calculating the ATAR, the Bored of Studies (or NESA, now) takes your best 10 units into consideration. That much is certain. However, I was told, or I read, some months ago, that a unit can be 'broken off' from a subject and paired with another.

For example, if I performed poorly in 1 unit of 2-unit Mathematics but performed exceptionally in the other, and the same was true of my other subject, Business Studies, the better unit of both subjects would be broken off and paired with the other. Effectively, these 2 units would be made up of a business studies units and a mathematics unit.

Am I wrong in assuming that this is a thing that actually happens? If so, it would be very helpful if I could define what a unit is, exactly. Even if the process as described above is not an actual thing that happens, it would still be helpful to know.

Help? Please and thank you.
 

Zoinked

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Ok so most subjects are 2 units, except extension subjects. Your best 2 units of english are taken and then your best other 8 units are taken to form your atar. You will only ever have "Half of mathematics" count towards your atar if you have 11 units and mathematics is your worst.
 

Falla

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Okay, fair enough - no breaking off 1 unit from one subject and pairing it with another.

Still though, what is a unit, anyways?
 

donkily

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Okay, fair enough - no breaking off 1 unit from one subject and pairing it with another.

Still though, what is a unit, anyways?
one unit is 60 hours per year and since most subjects are "2 units" they will be 120 hours worth of work per year
 

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