SOFT subjects (the easy way out) . Your thoughts? (1 Viewer)

dim-won

New Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Messages
5
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
I apologise for being intrusive, didn't mean to come across like that. I just know the VA students, and none of them study 4U English and 3U French as well. Again, just curious is all.

EDIT: P.S. just to avoid causing confusion myself, my given name isn't actually Dim Won
 

fallenstar

liberate, educate.
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
645
Location
Lismore
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
Black.Magic said:
Ah, how typical of a bigot. You singled out the one and only spelling error in my wonderfully crafted spiel. This just shows that my point of view is so logical and well expressed that you draw a blank when it comes time to disagree with me or agree with me. This highlights your lack of sophistication, as does your blanket statement "fucking idiot". Two can play at that game: I could single out the fact that you neglected one of the most fundamental rules of English: that each sentence is begun with a capital letter. I could then go on to make a stupid statement that you are clearly missing a good 40% of your brain because you can't even demonstrate proper use of the English language at the age of 17/18. But I'm not going to do that, because I'm not a bigot.

P.S. To all the people who questioned my choice to study visual art and French: I never said I was a genius. You seem to have fabricated that notion yourselves. I would study French Background Speakers if the course existed, but the fact of the matter is that the Board of Studies has not yet created a French language course that is adequately challenging for somebody of my linguistic capabilities. Oh yes, I do say so myself. Sue me. Also, French Extension is a bit of a joke. It's like the equivalent of English Standard.
Yes, I also study Visual Art, because I am a talented artist. No, that is not arrogance, it's just stating a fact. The BoS has not made this course sufficiently challenging. This is not my preference; I would prefer much more complex essay questions in the exam. But I suppose we must accommodate all the drop-kicks who choose VA because they want to waste time. I am exempt from the label 'bludger' (one who studies soft subjects) because I routinely achieve over 96% in each and every assessment task for the subject with an average of two hours study. The same is true for French. What I am saying is, if the BoS had the bravado to make French and VA more difficult, I could still achieve band 6 results every time. Am I arrogant, or merely different to all you anti-intellectual swine? Don't answer that, it's what's called a 'rhetorical question'.

Also, once and for all I would like to condemn Biology as a soft subject. It is a course that can be master one hundred percent simply by way of rote learning. You can conquer the course by making one 20-page word document of notes. That, to me, is not true academia. That is test of how well you can commit things to memory and regurgitate information in an exam situation.
The same goes for all of the soft subjects that people try to defend by saying 'oi but mate there's a shitload of shit to learn bro!'
Think about it. I'm condescending and loving it! If you want to disagree with me, please put a little bit of time into developing some eloquence; otherwise you come off as a bit of a simpleton. Not that that matters; we love simpletons here in Oz.
This was actually quite hilarious and also rather insightful. I do agree with you in that rote-learning is not true academia and one of the things I hate most about the HSC is that regurgitation is rewarded. Many times I have injected analysis and personal research into my responses, only to be told, "You only need to argue this, and it will guarantee a 9 or 10 out of 10. Don't make it hard for yourself." Well, excuse me for exercising independent thought and research.
I also found VA insufficiently challenging; hence, dropped it at the end of year 11. The essay questions are fairly basic, as you said. However, they have to be, to accommodate a wide range of students. If they made the questions overly difficult, it wouldn't be fair to students who have put in the study but are not cognitively advanced to that extent.
So I suppose I do share your intellectual frustration; however I don't think condemning subjects as 'bludge subjects' is necessarily the right way to go in expressing it. There are many students out there who do put an extensive amount of time and study into stereotypically 'soft' subjects. For instance, I study Society and Culture, which is often labelled as a bludge. However, the major project constitutes one of the most intense research works produced during secondary schooling, requiring a high level of analysis and an extensive amount of time. Same for History Extension, but I don't think many would call that a bludge.
Anyway is this even important?!
Let's just do our best in the subjects we have chosen.
 

runnable

Active Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
1,412
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Black.Magic said:
Also, once and for all I would like to condemn Biology as a soft subject. It is a course that can be master one hundred percent simply by way of rote learning. You can conquer the course by making one 20-page word document of notes. That, to me, is not true academia.
Would you say English Advanced is a soft subject then?
 

brigittaclare

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2008
Messages
36
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
runnable said:
Everyone should study at the level they are comfortable with.

Declaring certain subjects "soft" sounds like baseless arrogance to me.
(y) totally agree. i try pretty hard with my hard subjects

and it turns out i would get a better UAI if i do your "soft" subjects.

maths for example, which i am failing,
i have seen the other exams for general maths, and yeh
i would like, ace them.
 

Yamiyo

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Messages
146
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
runnable said:
Would you say English Advanced is a soft subject then?
+1. The only subject I can think of that you can't pass with rote-learning alone is maths.
 

runnable

Active Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
1,412
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Exactly. I do Physics, Economics and Biology. I find myself memorising stuff for all of them (although I need to memorise a lot more for Econ). Maths seems to be one of the few subjects which requires skill at the subject. Same goes for other subjects requiring creativity etc.
 

joker252

I feel the knife going in
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
78
Location
If I don't recover, Sell this house and find some
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Black.Magic said:
Ah, how typical of a bigot. You singled out the one and only spelling error in my wonderfully crafted spiel. This just shows that my point of view is so logical and well expressed that you draw a blank when it comes time to disagree with me or agree with me. This highlights your lack of sophistication, as does your blanket statement "fucking idiot". Two can play at that game: I could single out the fact that you neglected one of the most fundamental rules of English: that each sentence is begun with a capital letter. I could then go on to make a stupid statement that you are clearly missing a good 40% of your brain because you can't even demonstrate proper use of the English language at the age of 17/18. But I'm not going to do that, because I'm not a bigot.

P.S. To all the people who questioned my choice to study visual art and French: I never said I was a genius. You seem to have fabricated that notion yourselves. I would study French Background Speakers if the course existed, but the fact of the matter is that the Board of Studies has not yet created a French language course that is adequately challenging for somebody of my linguistic capabilities. Oh yes, I do say so myself. Sue me. Also, French Extension is a bit of a joke. It's like the equivalent of English Standard.
Yes, I also study Visual Art, because I am a talented artist. No, that is not arrogance, it's just stating a fact. The BoS has not made this course sufficiently challenging. This is not my preference; I would prefer much more complex essay questions in the exam. But I suppose we must accommodate all the drop-kicks who choose VA because they want to waste time. I am exempt from the label 'bludger' (one who studies soft subjects) because I routinely achieve over 96% in each and every assessment task for the subject with an average of two hours study. The same is true for French. What I am saying is, if the BoS had the bravado to make French and VA more difficult, I could still achieve band 6 results every time. Am I arrogant, or merely different to all you anti-intellectual swine? Don't answer that, it's what's called a 'rhetorical question'.

Also, once and for all I would like to condemn Biology as a soft subject. It is a course that can be master one hundred percent simply by way of rote learning. You can conquer the course by making one 20-page word document of notes. That, to me, is not true academia. That is test of how well you can commit things to memory and regurgitate information in an exam situation.
The same goes for all of the soft subjects that people try to defend by saying 'oi but mate there's a shitload of shit to learn bro!'
Think about it. I'm condescending and loving it! If you want to disagree with me, please put a little bit of time into developing some eloquence; otherwise you come off as a bit of a simpleton. Not that that matters; we love simpletons here in Oz.
tl;dr
your burn is way to long.
 

Patar

0101 0000
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Messages
361
Location
East of the Hole, Central Coast
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Ahh, there are a few other soft subjects not on your list that I can think of :p

But meh, as namu said, we do what we like and what we're interested in, whether they're soft or not :p

I too mainly do 'soft subjects' ha - but I like them, I do well at them, they're bearable. :)

Black.Magic said:
To all the people who questioned my choice to study visual art and French: I never said I was a genius. You seem to have fabricated that notion yourselves. I would study French Background Speakers if the course existed, but the fact of the matter is that the Board of Studies has not yet created a French language course that is adequately challenging for somebody of my linguistic capabilities. Oh yes, I do say so myself. Sue me. Also, French Extension is a bit of a joke. It's like the equivalent of English Standard.
Forgive me for not adding any further eloquence but 'lol' here - beause you guys simply have to appreciate how true and well-put that is.

Black.Magic said:
Am I arrogant, or merely different to all you anti-intellectual swine? Don't answer that, it's what's called a 'rhetorical question'.
I loved that quote :) Sorry to everyone that feels insulted by this guy but, even as a soft subject taker, I found that hilarious.
 
Last edited:

BackCountrySnow

Active Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2008
Messages
1,972
Location
1984
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Too many serious posts...
Trolls don't care about how logical your arguments are.
They're just trolls.
 

Dr. Zoidberg

Member
Joined
May 23, 2008
Messages
132
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
BackCountrySnow said:
Too many serious posts...
Trolls don't care about how logical your arguments are.
They're just trolls.
Internet is serious business.



Back to topic, i find the "soft" subjects harder than the "hard" subjects for some reason. I suck at art, the social sciences etc but i'm good at maths and science. Weird.
 

squeenie

And goodness knows...
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
663
Location
Utopia Parkway
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
I'm doing fine in Mathematics, but I know for sure that I would fail General Maths if I had taken it up...

Besides, there are no such thing as 'soft' subjects. Each subject is difficult in its own way, whether you see it or not. I think the only reason they are seen as 'soft' is that they only involve rote learning. If the syllabus could be somehow changed to make them involve more critical thinking, and less rote learning, then no-one would see them as 'soft'

Anyways, the OP is clearly a pretentious jerk, and this thread needs to be shot dead.
 

fallenstar

liberate, educate.
Joined
Nov 30, 2006
Messages
645
Location
Lismore
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
patar said:
I loved that quote :) Sorry to everyone that feels insulted by this guy but, even as a soft subject taker, I found that hilarious.

haha me too. He does write pretty well. What grandiloquence!
 

twinkles.

endomorph.
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
48
Location
Not with YOU!
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
just because you chose hard subjects, and are regretting it, don't get passively aggressive on the subjects you wish you chose
 

zeam

Member
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
117
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
get off your highhorse ahole and dont ever say comradde again
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
3,635
Location
Under an invisibility cloak
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
Black.Magic said:
To all those people who do five units of history: have you ever heard that it's better to specialise at a tertiary level? You're not getting a balanced secondary education if you specialise so much that half your UAI may be based on history alone. No, I don't think four units of maths is that unbalanced, because English is compulsory, hence all the maths and science students must be judged on their English ability too.
While I agree that secondary education should be balanced, I don't think that people should be condemned for following their interests.
Although, in saying that, I spoke to a university admissions representative this weekend who said that a good balance of subjects was preferable.
 

EBHSTrooper

b0red Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
24
Location
Eastwood
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
bao28 said:
if ur only studying for the UAI, ull hafta redo some courses in UNI anyway depending on what ur studying, so why not earlier then later?
Yeah! lots of people do subjects looking for scaling... but in fact you end up wasting 2 years of life studying stuff you dont really like so you can get the chance to study what you want?

Save the time and do what you like now and do it at the correct level, forget about scaling and all that stuff...
 

lyounamu

Reborn
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
9,998
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
dim-won said:
Sorry if you already addressed this, but I go to James Ruse as you claim to in your profile. As far as I know there is no one at our school that does the subjects you claim to do...just a little confused and curious
I think you shut that fake kid down with that statement. Even his awesome writing skill could not prevail the truth.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top