Hi,
I am currently in Year 11, doing Methods, Specialist, Literature, Chemistry, Biology and Japanese SL. (WACE)

I have decided to do Methods, Chemistry, Biology and Japanese SL in year 12.

As for the one compulsory english subject - I AM SOOO CONFUSED.
In lit this year I am getting 70% so far, I haven't done the final exams yet, but I have basically remained at 70% for the whole year. My initial plan was to do Lit in year 11, and then drop to english in year 12 because I heard english is easier in yr 12 if you did lit in year 11. But now I am hearing that some people have failed going from lit to english, because they do not know the content covered in year 11. I really do not know what to do now! Has anyone gone from literature to english in yr 12? How did you go?

Secondly, I don't know if I should continue Spec or not. I decided to drop spec, but now people are telling me that doesn't matter even if I get in the 50s or 40s next year, but the bonus points make a huge difference.
I was getting 66% when I was putting effort in spec. After I decided to drop, I stopped putting effort in it and I am getting like 57%. I haven't gone to tutoring for spec yet. And if I did do it, it will be my 6th ATAR. Should I do it, but not put too much time to it (basically do it just for the bonus points)?

I am really, really confused, and I need to give in my subject selection soon, can you guys please give me some advice?

Thank you so much for reading this longgg question!

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    theATARbatch

    Hi! I’m in y12 this year, and am doing spec,Chem,physics & English. I did 3/4 methods & bio last year too…

    With regards to Lit, without having done it myself - I suspect that you wouldn’t find it very hard dropping down into English. The reason being - I did almost no work for english last year. And this year I have managed to turn it around completely.

    The only difficulty would be is that English is after a different writing stile than Lit. It is much more direct - and doesn’t take to flowery metaphorical stuff… more so it’s after clear and concise arguments/logic. A lot of people, including myself, struggled with that on the creative sac - where we tried to make it too fancy…

    Having said that, I haven’t done Lit myself so perhaps someone can provide a better answer.

    Spesh on the other hand…. Is a mixed bag. Throughout the year it’s been fine - I never really put that much work in (like very very little in y11, and a decent amount in y12 - but not enough). Which was fine (like I was still getting A+ on the sacs), including 100% on the last probability one

    But the exams are a different beast. If u do spesh, I’d strongly suggest doing physics as well. Although it’s a new study design next year (and I think they’re removing part of physics stiff), but it was sooo helpful this year.

    However, a 50% on the exam scales to about a 40 study score… so it depends.

    It’s a lot of work, and it can pay off. But it won’t be fun, nor good for ur self esteem.

    Personally I’d suggest dropping spec, but it’s up to you.

    Good luck with ur year!

    Ps. Also if u want to do medicine, plz check out the UCAT. Don’t make my mistake and start practicing two weeks out from this exam. (I used medify but they’re are others out there)

        Actually my bad, didn’t realise this was for WA thread. (My VCE bias might be showing here)

        God
        Thank you for your reply!
        Unfortunately, I cannot take up physics now, but I was thinking the same about spec. I know I say I don't care about spec and will only do it for the bonus but I feel like if I was to get bad marks next it will really stress me out. But not sure if it might be worth the bonus 10%.

        Same! I also have started doing UCAT on Medify, and I also heard MedEntry is good. I intend to spend a lot of time on it on the holidays. Have you done UCAT? How was it?

        Yeah, its sucks how different things are across states... I used to be very confused when you guys said you 3/4 in yr 11. Nothing like that exists here, we do 6 subjects in yr 11 and we can choose to drop 1 or 2 in year 12 thats it.

        Thank you for your help once again 🙂

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            theATARbatch

            All good! Hope I’ve helped!

            Re: The ucat…. It was probably my biggest academic mistake to date (touch wood). I got a combine score of 2480 (46th percentile iirc), and have so far been rejected from Adelaide uni because of it. (They consider it, and only it, for interview selection)

            Im hoping for a 99+ atar, and with the regional boost might be able to get in to Monash med (in melbs) but we’ll see.

            Strongly recommend practice from these holidays onwards. You really have to ace it, because for some reason the (expletive expletive) people who made the system seem to value it more than ur Atar in some cases.

            Apologies for the rant! Bus basically, devote a decent amount of time for it! Not two weeks like me (slap face emoji).

            🙂

              Thank you!

              Oh wow... that sucks! Better start soon then...

              Good luck for you to find a uni!

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