Extension 2 maths or Ancient History? (1 Viewer)

[2323]

Piano lessons are going to take up lots of time (if you're not doing music for HSC and just for personal purposes, I think it would be more suitable if you maybe sacrifice 1 year only because it would save a lot of time and stress). I advise to focus on your HSC for this period if you are aiming for a good ATAR, but if you love Piano then go for it!

From my personal opinion, I find 14 units a real time killer, that extra 4 units could be spent well on those 10. I would only do 14 units if I wanted to take the safe way out (If you're not very confident also), but with good study habits and time efficiency you could do a lot better with 10-11 units. Workload and stress wise, 14 units is a lot to handle also.
I would say try it at least give it a go and if it doesn't work out, drop whatever subject is the weakest and you do not feel comfortable or confident with. I am not sure if you should drop Ancient or 4U, or keep both, this depends on your marks and how well you are at these subjects. But I think Ancient is a very good subject and you could easily score marks, it's a very straightforward subject as I did it for my HSC.

Lastly, Extra curricular activity is always a good compliment and will benefit you a lot for University You would also fit in much well with the societies and clubs also!

Yeah that's the issue, cause it's not one of my subjects for the HSC, and it takes up 5-10 hours a week, but I thought maybe having piano lessons it would be a break, so I have something to go to that isn't school related, but I'm not sure. I think 14 is an extremely safe option, so I think 11-12 would be better and less stress on me, although I'm just nervous which I will flunk out it, do you reckon I should just wait for my results in the year 11 yearly exams to make a decision?

 

[2323]

It's alright to keep extracurriculars, as long as they don't take too much time. You should definitely not do 12 units, not even 14 units. If you take 14 units, you'll have so much work, that your performance in them might not indicate what would happen if you were down at 10 units, so you might drop a subject that you shouldn't. Seen it happen a lot for subjects which require a lot of work in particular, like Maths.

If you're doing the same in Ancient History and 3u maths, markswise, then 3u will be hell of a lot better for your ATAR than Ancient.

If you want to get into Med, depending on how you go in UMAT and what not, you ought to get the highest atar as possible. I would drop to 10 units, by dropping one of the sciences. doing 4u maths means a lot of maths work, which will help with 3u as well in the long run. But this will make it so much easier to get the ATAR you need...

Ideally drop Bio, but if you dislike one of the others or like Bio, there's no problem with dropping one of the others.

Thank you for the advice. Yeah you are right, but do you think a couple weeks of 14 units will be so bad? So is ancient actually scaled lowly? What atar is needed for medicine? And I don't particularly want to drop a science because I especially need bio and chem for medicine, and I am doing better in them than the others, so not too sure hey

 

[ahdil33]

Thank you for the advice. Yeah you are right, but do you think a couple weeks of 14 units will be so bad? So is ancient actually scaled lowly? What atar is needed for medicine? And I don't particularly want to drop a science because I especially need bio and chem for medicine, and I am doing better in them than the others, so not too sure hey

A couple of weeks may be alright, but I'm not sure if they'd give you a good indicator of how you'd do in the long run.

in terms of scaling, it might not be the best way to show it, but a flat 90 in Ancient is equivalent to an ATAR of 93, while a flat 90 in Ext2 is equivalent to around 99.75, according to one of the Atar calculators. But 4u is honestly brings up ATAR by so much if you can just do alright in it.

There's heaps of ways to get into Med. If you want undergrad though, depends if you're willing to travel and leave Sydney, or stay here. You mainly have UWS and UNSW here, which both take UMAT into account.

For UNSW, this year I believe the lowest ATAR there was 99.3, and the median 99.7 or something ridiculous, and you've also got to do well in their UMAT and interview.

UWS is actaully good for undergrad med, but it's in Campbelltown or nearby there, so it's a bit far, but depending on where you live, you need mid 90s for your ATAR and a good UMAT to get into their 'interviews'.

Then there's Uni of New England, you can go to either Armidale or Newcastle, there's Griffith, there's UQ in Queensland. I'm not an expert on any of these, but I believe some of them don't require UMAT, and mostly need around 99 ATAR (except for UNE, which is lower, just UMAT for UNE).

In terms of dropping, I know people who did med without chem/bio and said they didn't need it much, and others who did bridging courses. if you like them, of course keep them. But I would try and drop the science you dislike most or are doing worst in.

If you're scared of taking 10 units because of not having a backup...don't be. The HSC isn't some exam you can just flunk in a second, there's so many tests and questions you do that will determine your final mark. I've seen people take extra units, and perform worse overall just because they had too much work to do, worse than they probably would've done had they just taken 10 units and concentrated on them.

No matter what, take up 4u if you can, at least start with it...

 

[2323]

A couple of weeks may be alright, but I'm not sure if they'd give you a good indicator of how you'd do in the long run.

in terms of scaling, it might not be the best way to show it, but a flat 90 in Ancient is equivalent to an ATAR of 93, while a flat 90 in Ext2 is equivalent to around 99.75, according to one of the Atar calculators. But 4u is honestly brings up ATAR by so much if you can just do alright in it.

There's heaps of ways to get into Med. If you want undergrad though, depends if you're willing to travel and leave Sydney, or stay here. You mainly have UWS and UNSW here, which both take UMAT into account.

For UNSW, this year I believe the lowest ATAR there was 99.3, and the median 99.7 or something ridiculous, and you've also got to do well in their UMAT and interview.

UWS is actaully good for undergrad med, but it's in Campbelltown or nearby there, so it's a bit far, but depending on where you live, you need mid 90s for your ATAR and a good UMAT to get into their 'interviews'.

Then there's Uni of New England, you can go to either Armidale or Newcastle, there's Griffith, there's UQ in Queensland. I'm not an expert on any of these, but I believe some of them don't require UMAT, and mostly need around 99 ATAR (except for UNE, which is lower, just UMAT for UNE).

In terms of dropping, I know people who did med without chem/bio and said they didn't need it much, and others who did bridging courses. if you like them, of course keep them. But I would try and drop the science you dislike most or are doing worst in.

If you're scared of taking 10 units because of not having a backup...don't be. The HSC isn't some exam you can just flunk in a second, there's so many tests and questions you do that will determine your final mark. I've seen people take extra units, and perform worse overall just because they had too much work to do, worse than they probably would've done had they just taken 10 units and concentrated on them.

No matter what, take up 4u if you can, at least start with it...

Oh wow! Thank you so much! No that gave me a pretty rough idea, so what about if you get a band 3 or something in ext.maths 2, would that be still better than getting say a band 5 in ancient history? Yeah uni anywhere, I was thinking I might do an undergraduate course first like medical science, then go into medicine? Wow that is really high, so basically only top students..

Yeah I will probably keep the sciences, but why do you recommend dropping one of them?

So would 12 units still be an overwhelming amount of work?

Thank you so much! Helped loads

 

[krnofdrg]

Yeah that's the issue, cause it's not one of my subjects for the HSC, and it takes up 5-10 hours a week, but I thought maybe having piano lessons it would be a break, so I have something to go to that isn't school related, but I'm not sure. I think 14 is an extremely safe option, so I think 11-12 would be better and less stress on me, although I'm just nervous which I will flunk out it, do you reckon I should just wait for my results in the year 11 yearly exams to make a decision?

But yeah it really depends on you, it's your HSC remember . If you feel that 14 units is safer and you're not confident about 11-12, then go for it!

If you want to save time to the maximum for your HSC, dropping piano (Saving 5-10hrs a week) and 11-12 units would be much more suitable. Remember, do what you like and you feel comfortable with .

Year 11 results are a very good indicator and yes try make a decision before you hit year 12.