tertiary education in canberra (1 Viewer)

[canberra_guy]

would people here generally agree that the system for getting your ATAR in canberra, ACT is relatively easier compared to other states. i mean they take your best 3.6 course scores right and out of the majors you're allowed to have one bad semester, where they will get rid off your lowest score to calculate your course score. it seems like that you'd be allowed to flunk a lot of subjects, as long as you do well in the subjects that the 3.6 will be matter you'll be fine, plus you've got a bad semester allowed in your hand. i did mostly average in year 11, but i worked it out if i actually tried next year and got better grades i can still get a really good ATAR, like 90s. so is it my wrong calculation or does it actually work like this? i

and whoever says this is the wrong forum, what other forum am i meant to go to where i can find students in the ACT. all the other people in NSWs with their HSC and whatnot can't give info. apparently they're allowed to flunk year 11 as much as they want.

 

[Hypermelon]

it is quite hard to find students studying for the year 12 cert in Canberra

I like our system better than the nsw one..
right now i am only concentrating on 4 subjects, the ones where i will get the highest scores (double major specialist chem, phys).

i did mostly average in year 11, but i worked it out if i actually tried next year and got better grades i can still get a really good ATAR, like 90s. so is it my wrong calculation or does it actually work like this?

this is true, and this is why i took this year easy but remember that the ast will have a major impact on your atar


the bsss doesn't really explain much to us

 

[RB91]

Honestly, it boils down to the person. Some people worked their arses off from the get-go and felt pressure the whole way. Others slacked off the first year and then spent year twelve panicking under pressure. Some didn't care the whole way through.

And it's not like the AST isn't stressful. If your year group screws that up, you're screwed. (I still have no idea how true that is, but that was definitely the perception we got). One of the (few) good things about the HSC is you're mostly in control of your own result.

You're right though, the BSSS (and schools) explain fuck all. You'd be lucky to find one person who fully grasped exactly how the AST worked, how scaling worked, moderation etc. Though, to be fair, everytime someone did try to explain it to us we all wound up having anxiety attacks.

If I was going to give advice to someone in year 11 now, I'd say work your arse off from the start. You never know what might happen in year 12 (a unit you just don't agree with, a book you don't get, a subject area that f*cks you over, an utterly hopeless teacher) - let alone in your personal life (illness, personal mess you can't get over, etc) and trust me, by the last semester of year 12, you'll be so over school that all you'll want to do is spend time with your friends and have fun rather than study.

And seriously, try to do the best in all your subjects. At least for the first three semesters. My friend just got f*cked over with their ATAR cause they didn't expect a certain class to wind up in their best scores. After the AST it did.