Just bringing over a new version of this discussion thread from the now-archived ATAR Notes Forums. No matter your state or year level, you can keep adding to this discussion thread as your opinions or perspectives change on your subjects.

There's also a uni equivalent, if that's something that interests you.

I studied in Victoria, but I hope we get lists from all over Australia. A rough outline of my favourite --> least favourite VCE subjects below (some slight changes since I posted in that original thread):

  1. English Language 3&4
  2. Visual Communication Design 3&4
  3. Health and Human Development 3&4
  4. Psychology 3&4
  5. Visual Communication Design 1&2
  6. English Language 1&2
  7. Psychology 1&2

--- considerable gap ---

  1. Business Management 3&4
  2. Art 1&2
  3. Further Maths 3&4
  4. Maths Methods 1&2
  5. Business Management 1&2

    QCE student here:

    1. Chemistry
    2. Ancient History
    3. Physics (I don't understand it half the time but its just so damn cool)
    4. English
    5. Methods
    6. Religion and Ethics (really boring, glad its over n done with)

    -jinx_58

    specialist 3/4
    psych 3/4
    bio 3/4
    chem 3/4
    methods 3/4
    specialist 2 (picked this up)
    psych 1/2
    methods 1/2
    bio 1/2
    english 3/4
    chem 1/2
    history 1 (the single unit probably gives a good indication)
    english 1/2
    religion and society 1/2 (compulsory)

    i ultimately enjoyed units 3/4 more than the 1/2 for all of my subjects which is interesting. i think i was just more engaged lolll

      bw304 Yeah I was the same with this as a general rule - found it a lot easier to be interested in Year 12 than in Year 11.

        vce student here
        I'm only gonna do my 3/4 subjects because my 1/2s were a flop for all but 1

        pls note: all of these are extremely close

        • Health and Human Development 3/4
        • Biology 3/4 - tied with - English Language 3/4
        • Literature 3/4
        • Legal Studies 3/4

        *considerable gap

        *a void

        *a black hole

        • Methods 3/4 (i’m ok at maths, its just a horrible style of assessments. vce maths made me abhor maths)

        11 going into 12 here. (Doing 3&4 Global Pol now)

        In order:

        • Media
        • English
        • Politics
        • History
        • Drama (dropping for Sociology going into Year 12)

        My Subject Rank:

        1. Biology 3&4
        2. Biology 1&2
        3. Visual Communication Design 3&4
        4. Chemistry 3&4
        5. Studio Arts 1&2 (dropped in year 12)
        6. Chemistry 1&2
        7. Visual Communication Design 1&2
        8. English 3&4
        9. Further Maths 3&4
        10. General Maths 1&2
        11. English 1&2

        I guess it does sort of depend on the topics and I tended to enjoy units 3&4 a lot more, but biology will always be my favourite at heart!

        10 months later

        i do hsc in nsw

        1. business studies
        2. legal studies
        3. economics
        4. maths adv
        5. english adv
        6. art (dropped after year 11)
        1. Specialist maths
        2. Physics
        3. Maths Methods
        4. Extended Investigation
        5. Chemistry
        6. English (I absolutely hate it. The most disgusting , abhorrent, hateful subject in my opinion. I wish I could somehow drop it)

          QCE:

          1. Biology
          2. Chemistry
          3. English
          4. Physics
          5. Specialist maths
          6. Math methods

          Tbh, I'm good at maths but I don't really enjoy it too much.

          QCE: (probably highly affected by my teachers)

          1. Music (Music theory is hard and I hate performance but it is really fun to compose and break down songs)
          2. Japanese (If you understand it its fun)
          3. Methods Maths (If you understand it its fun)
          4. Chemistry (Starting to get on my nerves)
          5. Literature (I love reading but I can't memorise quotes and talk about them well I also can't spell)
          6. Religion and Ethics (I mean it's enforced religion)

          I'm only allowed to do 6 subjects (I would have done music extension [composition] if my school offered it)

          1. Modern history (I actually don't like modern or, well, more like 20th century history when compared with other histories, but I just love history so much)
          2. Economics

          WALL

          1. English (mainstream, my schools too shit to offer anything else) and psych are about head to head. They're very equal. I don't love or hate either. And I feel like in both, it really depends on what we're learning at a given time

          ANOTHER, CONSIDERABLY THICKER WALL

          1. Legal studies. Fuck. I hate it so much. But that's tbh my classmates fault - a few people in my class are really just headaches to be around and disgustingly disruptive that going to class makes me depressed. Also the content is dry as hell.
          2. Food tech. Pretty much legal x 10. Also I really did not want to pick this subject, but my school, as aforementioned, has terrible fucking subject selection that I just chose it because I had to choose something. Also god it's boring. I just use it as study time for other subjects

          VCE Student ;~;

          1. Visual Communications 1/2 & 3/4

          2. Business Management 1/2 (Because of the teacher)

          3. General English 1/2

          4. General Maths 1/2 & 3/4

            • Small Gap

          5. Screen and Media w/ AIE (Counts towards VCE)

            • Large Gap

          6. Chemistry 1/2

          Haven't finished yet:

          1. Food Studies 3/4
          2. General English 3/4
          3. Art Marking & Exhibitioning 3/4

          Man I wish I could have done an VCE Language, Psychology or Music. Didn't have any language teachers in our area and the other classes had less then 5 people sign up.

          QCE Student here:

          1. Physics
          2. Specialist Math
          3. Philosophy
          4. Methods
          5. Chemistry
          6. English

          I feel like Methods and Chemistry are a bit of a tie, but nonetheless, everyone agrees that specialist >>>>>>>>> Methods.

          8 days later
          1. Psych 1&2 - I can still remember most things from this subject, and only this subject. I liked how we learnt about visual and taste perception, the lobes of the brain and also some social psych in there. It was a good variety.
          2. Psych 3&4
          3. Health 1&2 - inspired me to study developmental biology and my love for health
          4. Health 3&4 - loved the global health part
          5. Bio 3&4 - immune system content <3
          6. EngLang 1&2 - my teacher was an absolute legend. Best teacher ever. You could tell he really cared about getting everyone up to speed. I enjoyed coming to class, even during remote learning, because he made sure WE WERE ACTIVELY LEARNING, something staff teaching some of my uni subjects should really learn how to do. If I become a teacher, I wanna be like this dude.
          7. Further 3&4 - I literally still use this stuff in my degree and also job today, basic stats. Should probably rank it higher for that reason. Also liked the financial stuff.
          8. Bio 1&2 - I hardly remember this subject but my teacher always used to apply the content to her family. By the time I left that class, I knew more about her family than the content itself (kidding, but she did talk a lot about her family)

          big gap

          1. EngLang 3&4 - didn't love it, was a bit dry (sorry linguistics fans, I like it a little but not a lot, whoops). Teacher played awesome indie tunes though, helped expand my music taste (these comments have nothing to do with the subject content itself, it's just the "vibes" I got going to each class).
          2. Chem 3&4 - found most of it super tricky but the content was interesting for the most part, especially food chem.
          3. Chem 1&2 - had my best friend in my class and it was fun doing titrations. I'm sad there were no explosions though, didn't live up to my expectations.
          4. Methods 1&2 - as soon as I fell behind and couldn't catch up, I gave up, which is probably one of my biggest high school regrets.
          9 days later

          This is for VCE ( currently in year 12, so I may change my opinions after the exams haha)

          1. Biology (completed in grade 11, I enjoyed the content so much)

          2. Chemistry ( struggled in grade 11, but happily going well in year 12 so I'm very glad I didn't drop it)

          3. Physics ( I kinda ended up in this class by chance, but I have no regrets, a very interesting subject)

          4. English ( almost did literature instead, I am so glad I choose english for year 12, I did literature in grade 11 and it was no fun at all, the teacher literally told me "you write like an english student" , well that is where I ended up and I couldn't be happier honestly)

          5. Mathematical Methods ( Probably the hardest subject for me, but not too bad, I'm more a science person than a maths person)

          6. Food Studies ( compared to my other subjects this is so easy, and quite boring honestly, thats why I hate it, also the new study design in 2023 sucks)

          I'm in year 11 and these are my preferences so far

          Physics 1&2: literally my favourite subject, I didn't pick it initially because I thought it would be too hard to have 3 sciences, but I swapped it from health and development and it was the best decision ever. I'm topping the class and I genuinely enjoy the content a lot. I had a previous interest in physics, so learning more physics was nothing but enjoyable for me. The circuits stuff and nuclear stuff was really interesting. Sometimes it is a little tricky though

          Chemistry 1&2: My teacher is great, my class is eager to learn and the content is very enjoyable. Although the content is getting more and more difficult, its still really cool.

          Methods 1&2: I either get really confused or it just clicks in class. Either way, I eventually click and it's so satisfying. I like making connections with physics as well. If I wasn't under timed pressure I would enjoy it more though.

          General Maths 3&4: it's quite easy, so either it gets boring, or frustrating when I make a silly mistake. Sometimes its a nice "break" subject from like chemistry or methods.

          Biology 1&2: just boring, class was kinda fun

          Biology 3&4: I hate this. It's so frustrating trying to figure out what VCAA wants you to regurgitate. Also I don't really benefit much from my teacher and class is really boring. DNA manipulation and immunity was really interesting though

          English 1&2: If it weren't for my great English teacher, I would've never done anything in this class. I'm just not an English person. I am honestly so surprised at how much hope my teacher has in me. Hopefully I'll get to do EAL next year

          a month later

          Anybody from the Class of 2023 (or others) have thoughts? 👀

          1. Japanese (for me personally)
          2. Visual Communication & Design
          3. Biology
            4.Psychology
            5.English

          Very very last. Methods (I despise that subject so much I regret choosing this subject in any way possible)