Can 1 Subject Bring your ATAR down? (1 Viewer)

D94

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Come on guys! Standard is not the same (or nearly) difficulty than Advanced! An Advanced student would smash Standard! A lot of people who do standard don't even try that's why they do so bad overall
The concepts, ideas, techniques, quotes, structure, analysis etc. are pretty much the same. Sure the texts might be different in difficulty, but to write a great essay, you're still going to need those set criteria to get a high mark.

A Band 4 Advanced student (or even low Band 5) wouldn't beat a Band 6 Standard student (ie. top 50 of state).

Obviously if you don't try in any subject, you'll do bad overall. But with Standard, to get that Band 6, you'll have to be as good as the top Advanced students, so it's sort of self-defeating.
 

pasta8

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The concepts, ideas, techniques, quotes, structure, analysis etc. are pretty much the same. Sure the texts might be different in difficulty, but to write a great essay, you're still going to need those set criteria to get a high mark.

A Band 4 Advanced student (or even low Band 5) wouldn't beat a Band 6 Standard student (ie. top 50 of state).

Obviously if you don't try in any subject, you'll do bad overall. But with Standard, to get that Band 6, you'll have to be as good as the top Advanced students, so it's sort of self-defeating.
Fair point, but wouldn't you agree that it takes a lot less time and effort to write a good essay on a less complicated text... okay maybe they are closer than I thought.. doing Advanced is generally a better idea but you're not totally doomed by doing Standard can we at-least all agree on that?... glad I'm in the course I want now and don't have to worry about these things anymore... sigh

I would think a band 4 student in Advanced is capable of getting a band 6 in Standard.. If they put the same effort in, my point is that not many people try in standard, but those who do will do well and may even get a band 6, I was so close to getting band 6, I got 89... and compared to my friends who did Advanced on only got low band 5s or even band 4s, I put very little effort into it..
 
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Riproot

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English standard brought my ATAR down from 95.XX to 94.75.
 

Riproot

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Fair point, but wouldn't you agree that it takes a lot less time and effort to write a good essay on a less complicated text... okay maybe they are closer than I thought.. doing Advanced is generally a better idea but you're not totally doomed by doing Standard can we at-least all agree on that?... glad I'm in the course I want now and don't have to worry about these things anymore... sigh

I would think a band 4 student in Advanced is capable of getting a band 6 in Standard.. If they put the same effort in, my point is that not many people try in standard, but those who do will do well and may even get a band 6, I was so close to getting band 6, I got 89... and compared to my friends who did Advanced on only got low band 5s or even band 4s, I put very little effort into it..
No way in hell. Lol
Essays are essays in English. You advanced people think "oh my topic is harder" but at the end of the day it's just an essay and it's the same basic stuff.
Also, everyone that dropped out of advanced at my school was capable of a band 4 or more but only like 3 that dropped got a band 5 (and the other two were brought up because they had higher internals than me).
Also, I beat majority of the advanced kids at my school in paper 1 in the trial and HSC (and I screwed up the HSC creative) and everyone doing advanced at my school got a band 5 or higher. So, really… no…
 

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No way in hell. Lol
Essays are essays in English. You advanced people think "oh my topic is harder" but at the end of the day it's just an essay and it's the same basic stuff.
Also, everyone that dropped out of advanced at my school was capable of a band 4 or more but only like 3 that dropped got a band 5 (and the other two were brought up because they had higher internals than me).
Also, I beat majority of the advanced kids at my school in paper 1 in the trial and HSC (and I screwed up the HSC creative) and everyone doing advanced at my school got a band 5 or higher. So, really… no…
+1
I dont think many people that do advanced think that standard is so much easier
This is just a standard person fooling themselves in believing they did picked the right subject because advanced is so much harder

I would think a band 4 student in Advanced is capable of getting a band 6 in Standard.. If they put the same effort in, my point is that not many people try in standard, but those who do will do well and may even get a band 6, I was so close to getting band 6, I got 89... and compared to my friends who did Advanced on only got low band 5s or even band 4s, I put very little effort into it..
Half of the students with a band 6 in advanced would not be capable of getting a band 6 in standard.
Sorry its not about how smart you are and how hard you try, its just how shit standard aligns and scales compared to advanced
 

Riproot

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I dont think many people that do advanced think that standard is so much easier
This is just a standard person fooling themselves in believing they did picked the right subject because advanced is so much harder
Okay cools.
Because Advanced isn't much harder at all. I mean sure, the concepts in Module A are easier for Standard, but at the end of the day it's just essay writing and if you can't grasp the concepts for the Advanced modules then you're probably not cut-out to do the HSC in general.
 

enoilgam

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Essays are essays in English. You advanced people think "oh my topic is harder" but at the end of the day it's just an essay and it's the same basic stuff.
Couldnt agree more. The texts are less complicated in standard but the essay questions are usually at the same level. This makes writing an essay in both subjects around the same difficulty.
 

pasta8

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This is just a standard person fooling themselves in believing they did picked the right subject because advanced is so much harder
Advance would have been harder for me, maybe not for you... cut with the crap that they are so much similar in difficulty... for someone who struggles with English, Standard is the way to go... in terms of ATAR, you are better off choosing Advanced if that's all you care about... ATAR isn't everything
 

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Bad aligning, bad scaling, bad teaching.
Technically, they have the same scaling. :D

In all seriousness, if you're bad at English, you might as well do Advanced, be at the bottom of it and get a decent shot at 80+ rather than do Standard and pretty much be guaranteed a mark in the 70s or lower.
 

SunnyScience

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Technically, they have the same scaling. :D

In all seriousness, if you're bad at English, you might as well do Advanced, be at the bottom of it and get a decent shot at 80+ rather than do Standard and pretty much be guaranteed a mark in the 70s or lower.
This would be the ideal situation for the weaker student. However, many teachers and schools will not allow these weaker students an attempt at the advanced course as they threatened to drag down the rest of the capable advanced students.
 

someth1ng

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This would be the ideal situation for the weaker student. However, many teachers and schools will not allow these weaker students an attempt at the advanced course as they threatened to drag down the rest of the capable advanced students.
Schools are not allow to say 'no' to any student from entering a course that is available at the school.
 

Riproot

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Schools are not allow to say 'no' to any student from entering a course that is available at the school.
I got kicked out of advanced. (my teacher started failing me because he didn't like my attitude)
Your move.
 

someth1ng

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I got kicked out of advanced. (my teacher started failing me because he didn't like my attitude)
Your move.
They're not allowed to do that - should have contacted your Head Teacher, if that failed, your Principal, if that failed, the Board of Studies.
 

Riproot

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They're not allowed to do that - should have contacted your Head Teacher, if that failed, your Principal, if that failed, the Board of Studies.
Head Teacher didn't care, Principal didn't care, BOS wouldn't have cared, director of Teaching at my school cared - she made it so that teacher isn't teaching advanced anymore, but I had already dropped.
 

someth1ng

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Head Teacher didn't care, Principal didn't care, BOS wouldn't have cared, director of Teaching at my school cared - she made it so that teacher isn't teaching advanced anymore, but I had already dropped.
Man, that would really suck - I would never tolerate shit like that but I suppose if it did happen to me then I'd react differently to what I say here. I also doubt my teachers would be like that.
 

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