Not Enough People For A Class You Want! / Can you do 13 Units? (1 Viewer)

[A l]

This year I will be going to Year 11 and I have noticed many people didn't get the courses they wanted due to insufficient numbers for a class. I was planning to do French Continuers as a preliminary course, but had to switch to Biology since there were not enough people (less than 10) for a class. As a result I am doing THREE sciences which is likely to be hell as many teachers and students have warned me.
Some other people I know didn't get the courses they wanted especially languages such as French Continuers, French Beginners and Japanese Beginners. Some people didn't get Art courses and a lot of people got the science subjects instead.

Also, in Year 11, you are required to do at least 12 units of courses. For my school I can only do 12 units and not more. As a result, there are many who are doing 1 unit courses they do not like or are not interested in (e.g. Studies Of Religion) just to fill up the 12 units. This is common with people doing extension courses for only one subject. I know some schools like Fort Street High School allow students to go beyond the 12 units.

Does your school allow you to do only 12 units or are you allowed to do more than 12 units worth of courses?

 

[wanton-wonton]

Don't kill yourself with 13 units. 12 is enough....more than enough.

 

[BobbyBobbyBob]

ALL ppl who chose 3u maths did 13units in my school.... same as any other school and i guess it works for any other subjects with an extra unit.
your school is gay.. u should complain and winge about it to the principal or something... *if u can be bothered*

 

[elisabeth]

This isn't answering your question, but...

DO NOT SETTLE FOR A CLASS YOU DON'T WANT!

I do German cont' but I'm the only one in the school doing it - same with a lot of students with other languages. We do it through Open High School or Distance Education - where you have a teacher down in Sydney, they send you work, you do it and sent it back to be marked... then you call your teacher to do speaking exercises/ask for help.

Normally a school has a quota of people they can have for OHS/DE.... but if you nag, beg, cajoule and get your parents in to complain how French is vitally important to your future (really wank it up - you've got French relatives, you intend to study French in uni etc.) they'll probably sort it out for you to do French that way. Even threaten to change schools if they're not accommodating - I had to do that, and they finally agreed to give me the subjects I wanted. If all else fails, consider getting an outside tutor... the girl who topped Swedish this year did it that way.

Let me know how it goes, yeah? Good luck.

 

[wrong_turn]

wtf?! when i was in year 11 there were only 7 altogether in my english extension class. there was about 6 for my ancient history class, and in my history extension class right now, we have only 12 people doing it. there is no such thing as a class with too little people doing it. a class is a class, full stop.

 

[White Rabbit]

what school do you go to? If you really wanted to fight it, you could always take it up with the Dept. Education and Training/BoS or transfer.

Or do Open High School, like Elisabeth suggested, I know ppl who did Italian conts, German conts, Russian background... a whole lot. Ask your school about it and if they refuse, contact OHS about it.

Also, technically, the school can refuse to run classes that are too small. True, usually they try and compensate. but they can still refuse if the class has less than 10 people if they really want to...

 

[meLoncoLLie]

of course you're allowed to do more than 12 units. speak to your school about it. if they still want to be dickheads and not let you do 13 units, ring up the Board of Studies and watch them give your school an earful.

 

[wrong_turn]

apparently at my school, the english department is on probation, due to students and statistics proving we weren't up to standard in our hsc results.

 

[A l]

of course you're allowed to do more than 12 units.

The reason that I cannot do more than 12 units is that the timetable, which has periods arranged for all years in the school in the same way, can only support 12 units. If I do 13 units this results in excessive periods for the normal timetable.

And also, since I've recently decided to go for a science career, I guess Biology could be of some use, and I plan to drop Biology for Year 12 anyway.

The reason that I wanted to take French Continuers was because I enjoy French lessons. I would have dropped French Continuers in year 12 if I wasn't that good at it. I'm only on average in my French Elective class in Years 9 and 10. So I'm not that good at French. Some other people really wanted French Continuers more than I did.
(note that a course that one enjoys doesn't necessarily mean a course that one is good at)

So basically I've got a decision between a course I enjoy and a course I may need for career purposes...in Year 11 only.

 

[hello99999]

This year I will be going to Year 11 and I have noticed many people didn't get the courses they wanted due to insufficient numbers for a class. I was planning to do French Continuers as a preliminary course, but had to switch to Biology since there were not enough people (less than 10) for a class. As a result I am doing THREE sciences which is likely to be hell as many teachers and students have warned me.
Some other people I know didn't get the courses they wanted especially languages such as French Continuers, French Beginners and Japanese Beginners. Some people didn't get Art courses and a lot of people got the science subjects instead.

Also, in Year 11, you are required to do at least 12 units of courses. For my school I can only do 12 units and not more. As a result, there are many who are doing 1 unit courses they do not like or are not interested in (e.g. Studies Of Religion) just to fill up the 12 units. This is common with people doing extension courses for only one subject. I know some schools like Fort Street High School allow students to go beyond the 12 units.

Does your school allow you to do only 12 units or are you allowed to do more than 12 units worth of courses?

Unless you go to a very small school, the reason why you're not allowed to do more than 12 units is probably because either the person who organises timetables can't be bothered to change the system, or because the teachers at your school don't want to have to teach outside of normal school hours. When you take 13 units, the extra units really have to be done either in sport time, before/after school or during lunch. If most teachers at your school aren't willing to do that, then you can't really have people taking 13 units.

Your best option would probably be to see if you can do an Open High School course in French Continuers. This involves doing work by correspondence. You should get cassettes/CDs, workbooks and a correspondance teacher. The courses are generally quite good and teach you everything you need to know, and I guess you'd have the French teachers at your school to ask if you need extra assistance. Since there is nothing to say that you can't do more than 12 units in year 11 (plenty of people in other schools do), I can't think of a reason why your school wouldn't let you do this as you can basically do it in your own time.

 

[meLoncoLLie]

The reason that I cannot do more than 12 units is that the timetable, which has periods arranged for all years in the school in the same way, can only support 12 units. If I do 13 units this results in excessive periods for the normal timetable.

that's queer. wouldn't it result in many people not being able to take up ext eng/maths? or do the students choose ext eng/maths as the 11th unit and take up SOR I as the 12th unit filler? (also, do you go to a private school?)

And also, since I've recently decided to go for a science career, I guess Biology could be of some use, and I plan to drop Biology for Year 12 anyway.

yes, it is advised that you choose as many sciences as possible if you want a career in science.

 

[withoutaface]

This year I will be going to Year 11 and I have noticed many people didn't get the courses they wanted due to insufficient numbers for a class. I was planning to do French Continuers as a preliminary course, but had to switch to Biology since there were not enough people (less than 10) for a class. As a result I am doing THREE sciences which is likely to be hell as many teachers and students have warned me.
Some other people I know didn't get the courses they wanted especially languages such as French Continuers, French Beginners and Japanese Beginners. Some people didn't get Art courses and a lot of people got the science subjects instead.

Also, in Year 11, you are required to do at least 12 units of courses. For my school I can only do 12 units and not more. As a result, there are many who are doing 1 unit courses they do not like or are not interested in (e.g. Studies Of Religion) just to fill up the 12 units. This is common with people doing extension courses for only one subject. I know some schools like Fort Street High School allow students to go beyond the 12 units.

Does your school allow you to do only 12 units or are you allowed to do more than 12 units worth of courses?

You're allowed to do 13, I know I did.

 

[Phanatical]

I did 13 in my HSC year. One of my friends did 16 in HSC year, finished with 18 (did HSC chem in year 11, and came 5th in the year), and got a 100 UAI, all with no more than minimal study.

 

[starbaaa]

I really have to agree with Elisabeth... if you want to do a subject, do it! Correspondence is a viable option!! I do it for two courses, and even thought its a bit hard sometimes, its well worth it... much better than doing something you dont really want to

 

[esp_d]

is there some other place u can study a subject if ur sch. doesnt provide it cus of insufficient no.s for a cls??

 

[elisabeth]

is there some other place u can study a subject if ur sch. doesnt provide it cus of insufficient no.s for a cls??

You might be able to do it with a private tutor... particularly if it's a language.

The reason that I wanted to take French Continuers was because I enjoy French lessons. I would have dropped French Continuers in year 12 if I wasn't that good at it. I'm only on average in my French Elective class in Years 9 and 10. So I'm not that good at French. Some other people really wanted French Continuers more than I did.
(note that a course that one enjoys doesn't necessarily mean a course that one is good at)

So basically I've got a decision between a course I enjoy and a course I may need for career purposes...in Year 11 only. )

Dude, go with whatever you enjoy. Seriously. The more you like a subject EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT THE BEST, the harder you'll work and you may end up getting better marks than you think.

I'm not a native speaker or anything, but I like German, listen to heaps of German music and I worked damn hard - ended up coming equal 2/51 in my German cont. class! There's no way I'd be able to do that for a subject I don't like.

Even if you don't do so well - you only need to pass year 11, then it doesn't count for shit. If you're planning on dropping the 12th unit then anyway, would you rather have a spent a year doing something you like, or something you don't like under a misguided notation it might help you later? If you don't like bio, you're not gonna make a career out of it...

 

[melsc]

sometimes ur betta off not having ur classes let thro...i have 3 small classes less that 10 in all and nxt yr 4 HSC we are losing a period each 4 all three subjects!!!

 

[tabularasa]

I did 13 for prelim it wasn;t hard . but 14 is supposed ot be hell.

 

[janeus87]

Relax, try only 12 units

Don't try doing more units than 12. because yr 11 can get tough. We were only allowed 12 units. The good thing bout my school is it's small. only 250ppl. So in my classes there are 4 in Biology, 3 IPT, 12 advanced english, 15 maths, 6 EEC and me in ancient history. So i'm pretty lucky cause i could do any course i wanted.
good luck with yr 11