I'm a mess, someone help? (1 Viewer)

[SuchSmallHands]

I tried to give this a more specific name, then realised that there are so many things I need help with that it was impossible to round it down to a sentence.

For starters, I'm currently in year ten and my ultimate ATAR goal is 9.65, but I go to a small rural Catholic school (about 450 people for year 7 to 12, my year has about 90) and the people there aren't exactly geniuses. Maths is my worst subject and I'm ranked third, my second worst is science and I'm first. The highest mark anyone at my school achieved last year was 98.4 and that was considered amazing. Is the fact that the people in my classes won't be overly bright going to damage my mark greatly with scaling. I'm pretty certain that I'll be quite far ahead in all of my subjets (I know that sounds conceited and awful, but it's true) and I've heard that if you're ahead by enough the marks of people in your class won't affect you so much. I don't really get how scaling/moderating in relation to your class works.

Secondly, I'm considering taking up English Ext. 1 & 2, French Ext. and History Ext. Is it true that they only take your best two units of English, if so would it be worth the effort of doing four units? Also, in picking up all of the extension units in year twelve would require me to either do 16 units (15 without English Ext. 2, which I'm slightly ambivalent about taking) or drop my only non-humanity (Chemistry).

Which I guess leads pretty perfectly into my major concern, the fact that I'm doing pretty much only humanities. I'm doing Legal, Modern, French Continuers, SOR II, English Adv., English Ext. and Chemistry for year eleven and thinking of dropping Chemistry and taking up the three extra units of extension. I'm definitely doing French Ext (I've already booked a three month exchange) and History Ext. (I absolutely love history and it's my best subject) and English Ext. 1, and I really don't want to do 15 units by taking up the extension and keeping chemistry. My strength is definitely in the humanities, I love them and I'm good at them, but I'm worried about my chances of getting the ATAR I want with only humanities. I'm desperate to go to UNSW and their cut-off last year was 99.65, would a mark like that be realistic with my subject set?

 

[deswa]

Ok just quickly (I'll be to the point):

1. If you are ranked first at school, the performance of others has no effect on you. So theoretically if you top everything, you could get 99.95
2. Your best two units of english HAVE to count but you can count more than your best two
3. I'll be 100% honest, getting 99.65 with those subs is quite hard- its definitely doable but you have to be amazing. Look at the person who got 98.4 at your school and make an honest judgement about how much better you are. Remember that even though from 98.4 to 99.65 is only 1.25 ATAR points, there is a MASSIVE difference -> a 98.4 is a walk in the park compared to the high 99's.
4. If you want UNSW, just get your school to nominate you for the Academic Achievement Award (look it up)- it'll get you 5 bonus ATAR points and you only need 94.65 then

 

[iampeterr]

if you get first in all your subjects, youll be fine and you're aiming for 99.65 right?

 

[RedDeadMaddie]

How are you doing 4 extension subjects in such a small school? :O My school only offers two, Math 1 and English 1, and they're on at the same time. They've stopped running now because there was only 1 kid in each. We have about 1000 kids, but we are ranked verrrry low. Late 500s. I'm imagining distance ed? That's a lot of work!
Edit: Sorry, I know that wasn't one bit helpful, I'm just very jealous of your opportunities!

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I'm doing French Continuers distance ed and French Ext. distance ed (no qualified French teacher for continuers or extension) but my school will run extension classes even if only one person does it if they think that person's good enough, so they'll run it for me. I guess I'm just lucky in that way with my school. My school is a tiny rural one, if there is any official ranking I don't know about it

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I'm really hoping that I'll get in via a rural scheme, I hadn't heard of the Academic Achievement Award before though. Thanks so much for all of your help, it makes a lot more sense now!

 

[enoilgam]

Ok just quickly (I'll be to the point):

1. If you are ranked first at school, the performance of others has no effect on you. So theoretically if you top everything, you could get 99.95
2. Your best two units of english HAVE to count but you can count more than your best two
3. I'll be 100% honest, getting 99.65 with those subs is quite hard- its definitely doable but you have to be amazing. Look at the person who got 98.4 at your school and make an honest judgement about how much better you are. Remember that even though from 98.4 to 99.65 is only 1.25 ATAR points, there is a MASSIVE difference -> a 98.4 is a walk in the park compared to the high 99's.
4. If you want UNSW, just get your school to nominate you for the Academic Achievement Award (look it up)- it'll get you 5 bonus ATAR points and you only need 94.65 then

This pretty much. As I have said many time before on BoS - the biggest determinate of a students ATAR is the student themselves. Dont worry too much about your school and stuff because that is out of your control. As deswa said, if you top your subjects then you alone have the power to determine your ATAR through your external performance. If you dont make it, there are always other ways of transfering into your desired course, or you could go for the triple A thing (which you would probably be likely to recieve since you go to a smaller school). So good luck and dont give up hope!