HSC Modern History or Business Studies? (1 Viewer)

[Yusra366]

So i am in my second week of year 12, and i am quite unsure on whether to drop modern history or business.
My subjects are:
- Biology
- Standard Maths
- Standard English
- Modern History
- Sor 2

With modern history, i love the content as it's interesting and it scales higher than business but there is quite a lot of content and you are required to learn 2-3 sources per dot point. Regarding the exam for it, there are a lot of marks allocated for each question, ranging from 4 markers to 15 markers and the essay is worth 25 marks. With business, i find the content quite dry and boring, especially finance as i find that difficult, but business studies is a subject that you are bound to receive a band 6 in. However, i performed better in the business exam than in the modern history exam as I had to skip a 15 marker to do the 25 marker essay. With the business exam i was able to finish on time and get a high mark in my report and in the overall exam. I looked over the 2019 business past paper and it doesn't look to bad. My teacher for modern history is also adamant on me staying in her class but i am quite confused on what to do.
I am guessing I am just need some advice on what i should do?

Thank you

 

[jojosiwa123]

aren't you doing 12 units? meaning you don't have to drop one...it is good to have a few more hours free per week however you'll lose your safety net, on top of that standard english in particular is difficult to get a band 6 in (and it HAS to count in your atar).
I highly recommend you keep all of your subjects until at least the first assignment

 

[Yusra366]

aren't you doing 12 units? meaning you don't have to drop one...it is good to have a few more hours free per week however you'll lose your safety net, on top of that standard english in particular is difficult to get a band 6 in (and it HAS to count in your atar).
I highly recommend you keep all of your subjects until at least the first assignment

My school forces us to drop to 10 units that’s why but I do agree that keeping 12 units is better to act as a precaution however it’s what my school does

 

[jojosiwa123]

My school forces us to drop to 10 units that’s why but I do agree that keeping 12 units is better to act as a precaution however it’s what my school does

have you checked how many band 6s your school gets for both those subjects?

 

[Yusra366]

have you checked how many band 6s your school gets for both those subjects?

Well for business there have been quite a lot of band 6s but for modern history it was offered for the first time as a subject this year at my school. Though for the yearly marks for year 11, there was only one 90+ and the rest were 80s, 70s and it went lower than 65% as well

 

[thetestdude]

I had a similar experience: In year 11 I was really interested in Earth and Environmental Science but I later realised it was way too much for me, so I dropped it after the year 11 yearly exam. My marks weren't that great either (between high 70s and low 80s).

I feel Business Studies will give you less of a hard time than Modern (Modern seems quite hard dang). Honestly the finance questions are just basic maths. With a little bit of effort you should be able to easily smash those. Like you said, it's not hard at all to get a band 6 in Business.

If your main goal is academic performance, maybe you should keep Business.
If you think you can get good marks in Modern, keep Modern.

 

[Yusra366]

I had a similar experience: In year 11 I was really interested in Earth and Environmental Science but I later realised it was way too much for me, so I dropped it after the year 11 yearly exam. My marks weren't that great either (between high 70s and low 80s).

I feel Business Studies will give you less of a hard time than Modern (Modern seems quite hard dang). Honestly the finance questions are just basic maths. With a little bit of effort you should be able to easily smash those. Like you said, it's not hard at all to get a band 6 in Business.

If your main goal is academic performance, maybe you should keep Business.
If you think you can get good marks in Modern, keep Modern.

Yh that is true, I can perform better if I put a bit more effort in it. This was really helpful. Thank you so much

 

[thetestdude]

Yh that is true, I can perform better if I put a bit more effort in it. This was really helpful. Thank you so much

No worries, good luck!

 

[Yusra366]

No worries, good luck!

haha i ended up dropping modern today

 

[studiesofboard]

haha i ended up dropping modern today

I was going to say you should keep Business Studies. I am doing Modern History and it's killing me. I am doing both Business and Modern.

 

[Yusra366]

I was going to say you should keep Business Studies. I am doing Modern History and it's killing me. I am doing both Business and Modern.

thank you for that. Oh that must be really stressful. Do you enjoy both subjects?

 

[studiesofboard]

I hate Modern. Business is pretty good though. It is a lot easier to grasp.

 

[Yusra366]

I hate Modern. Business is pretty good though. It is a lot easier to grasp.

What is it about modern you hate? the content?
yh that is true, business is easier but i find the content to be really dry at times

 

[studiesofboard]

Heavy content. Yes business is boring.

 

[Yusra366]

Heavy content. Yes business is boring.

yup there's too much content and you need to know 2-3 sources per dot point which is way too much.

 

[studiesofboard]

yup there's too much content and you need to know 2-3 sources per dot point which is way too much.

Yes true. They could give you a two or three dot point based question as seen below. This would require more than 4 sources as you would have 3-4 body paragrapahs containing 2 sources each - so 6-8 sources.
How significant were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russian campaign in leading to the Allied victory in the European War?

 

[Yusra366]

Yes true. They could give you a two or three dot point based question as seen below. This would require more than 4 sources as you would have 3-4 body paragrapahs containing 2 sources each - so 6-8 sources.
How significant were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russian campaign in leading to the Allied victory in the European War?

yas exactly!!! they usually have questions with more than one dot points joined to form a question which is super annoying!

 

[YonOra]

I'm doing Business (although not Modern) and I enjoy the Year 12 content (granted i've only just started like you) much more than Year 11. The students in my year who do Modern history literally revolve their lives around revising and understanding - what i'm trying to get at is it's definitely very content heavy. However, so is Business! The only difference is that Modern is a lot harder to learn, while Business doesn't REALLY take a second thought. Ultimately, you need to do a couple things here - weigh up the pros and cons. You mentioned you enjoy Modern much more, and there are some aspects of Business you don't understand. At the end of the day, just try and picture what you'll do the best in - and use your Year 11 marks as a GUIDE; not the be all and end all. Also, look at your schools ranking, amount of Band 6's per topic, teachers for the topics and your current work load - and whether one of the two subjects would be too much stress to pick up.
Hope this is somewhat helpful.

 

[Yusra366]

I'm doing Business (although not Modern) and I enjoy the Year 12 content (granted i've only just started like you) much more than Year 11. The students in my year who do Modern history literally revolve their lives around revising and understanding - what i'm trying to get at is it's definitely very content heavy. However, so is Business! The only difference is that Modern is a lot harder to learn, while Business doesn't REALLY take a second thought. Ultimately, you need to do a couple things here - weigh up the pros and cons. You mentioned you enjoy Modern much more, and there are some aspects of Business you don't understand. At the end of the day, just try and picture what you'll do the best in - and use your Year 11 marks as a GUIDE; not the be all and end all. Also, look at your schools ranking, amount of Band 6's per topic, teachers for the topics and your current work load - and whether one of the two subjects would be too much stress to pick up.
Hope this is somewhat helpful.

Woah this is some really great help! Honestly appreciate it a lot. You summed it all up so perfectly. It's a good thing I dropped modern then.. and yes I do agree that with business, while it is somewhat content heavy, your able to grasp it easily. Quite the opposite with modern where it requires you to do your own research and work outside of school hours and is way more stressful.
Thank you once again for this help! Really helped a lot

 

[jojosiwa123]

Yes true. They could give you a two or three dot point based question as seen below. This would require more than 4 sources as you would have 3-4 body paragrapahs containing 2 sources each - so 6-8 sources.
How significant were the Battle of Stalingrad and the Russian campaign in leading to the Allied victory in the European War?

wtf are you guys referring to by "sources" do u just mean stats and historians?