• Year 7-10

  • Is it worth the stress of taking 6 atar subjects? Which ones do I choose?

Hi, I'm a year 10 WA student in the middle of subject selections for year 11. As of now, I have chosen to do 6 atar subjects (english, maths methods, chemistry, human bio, japanese SL, philosophy & ethics). It's not 100% confirmed but it's my general idea for year 11/12.

However I struggle with my health, my attendance in school is not good, and I know that to do well in atar I can't be missing school as frequently as i usually do. I know about the workload of chem, human bio and maths methods, which makes me quite anxious. I struggle with stress and taking 5 atar subjects already seems like a lot but I still get good grades so my academics aren't impacted by this stress for time being.

I'm debating whether to take chem, human bio, or both. I don't know what I want to be, and chem will give me a wider range of paths to choose from. However I've heard it requires a lot of work to stay on track. I'm not interested in chemistry and doubt that i would be able to study every day for it, but at the same time i want to ensure that I have more options in the future in case i change my mind. I really really want to do human bio and find it interesting, but it's not a prerequisite for most courses in uni so I don't really know if it's worth it.

Hass is my best and favourite subject, i've won awards for it, it comes naturally to me and i think that's something I should take advantage of. I particularly love geography and philosophy & ethics, i'm leaning towards philosophy because it seems less stressful, but i really want to do geography too. I would be extremely sad if i ended up not taking any hass subjects, but as much as I love hass, the need to do chem/human bio is important to me too and i don't want to overload myself.

I would really appreciate any advice, as by the end of this i will have to choose to cut out 1 or 2 subjects, which will be either chem, human bio, philosophy & ethics, and/or geography.

which subject should I cut out?

    oat Hi! I may not be of much help but I am currently in yr 12!

    Umm I would say cut out human bio, as chem is mainly the major science that gives a range of pathways (e.g. med). It will also take a huge workload off you, and will be less tiresome and better for your health as it seems that you quite enjoy philosophy and geo. Sorry this may not be of much help, good luck with your choice and future studies 🙂

    • oat replied to this.

        oat Yeah no worries, I'm currently taking chem, physics, methods, ancient and psych (I also forgot to mention but I'm taking the QCE not WACE(?)!

        • oat replied to this.

            oat
            Hey! I am also in WA, in year 12 now. I am doing chem, bio, methods, spec, lit and Japanese SL.

            One thing I would recommend is taking as much subjects as you want, try it for a bit in year 11 and dropping it if you don't like it or if it is too much. That way you won't be regretting any decisions later on. That was my plan with spec, and I ended up keeping it! But, check with your school beforehand, because each school varies with their subject changing times and stuff.

            I agree with @chocomilkenthusiast in that Chem is definitely a more useful subject in terms of the range of pathways it gives. Yes it does require effort, but as I said you could give it a try and see how it goes. With HASS subjects, it is right to do subjects that you like not how it gets scaled, BUT a good balance between them both will maximise your marks. HASS subjects tend to scale down, so I would say do them only if you really really enjoy it and if you are good at it (which I think you are).

            I don't know if what I said was any help, but feel free to ask any questions 🙂

                doe Thank you so much, that was definitely really helpful!

                I am wondering, is there any specific reason why you chose to continue to do 6 subjects in year 12 (as I heard it's quite stressful)? What is your general school/personal life balance like, and how much time do you spend studying for each subject every day? Many of my teachers have been talking about how chemistry and maths spec/methods often requires tutoring, so I am also wondering, do you have a tutor to help you in any subjects?

                  I chose to keep spec cos I decided not to put 100% effort in it, I am just doing it as a bonus for the 10%.
                  Honestly I wouldn't do a sixth subject unless its a bonus, an easy safe subject or if you are naturally good at it (having said that I still do think you should try it for a bit next year to see if its okay for you).

                  Yes having a tutor is such a big help, I don't know anyone doing chem, methods or spec without a tutor.

                  As for time management I am the wrong person to ask, hopefully someone else may be able to answer that 😅

                  6 days later

                  oat Hi! I'm in year 11 (in WA as well) and I started the year with 6 ATAR subjects (english literature, maths methods, chemistry, human bio, french SL, and music). I went into the year thinking that I would drop either french or music for year 12, but I'm halfway through the year and am dropping Human Bio for a study period (I am doing AMEB music exams, which count towards credits for your WACE, so some schools allow students who do them to have a study period instead of doing another subject).

                  Although I love human biology (I'm hoping to get into medicine), I found that ATAR human bio is quite difficult compared to year 10 (the extended responses are harder to get marks in, there is a lot more content and you need to know all of it). It ended up as my second-worst subject for this semester, so it wouldn't be counted towards my ATAR anyway. It is a very content heavy subject, and I definitely underestimated how hard it would be. I find chemistry relatively easy, but I enjoy it so that probably helps (I definitely don't study it every day though).

                  As @chocomilkenthusiast said, chemistry is probably going to open more pathways than human bio. If you need human bio for a pre-requisite there are usually bridging courses or extra units you can do in uni (eg pharmacology at UWA), but it's a lot harder to catch up on chemistry in uni (for example, chemistry is a pre-requisite for medicine at Curtin but human bio isn't, and I don't think there are bridging courses for chemistry for this degree).

                  As for the workload of doing 6 ATAR, I found it not too bad until exams, and then I found it very overwhelming and hard to manage.

                  If you think you could try to do 6 ATAR in year 11 (even if you treat one as a 'general' subject and don't put much effort in), I would recommend that, as you can try all the subjects out and see which one you want to drop after doing them, as your choice might change (like mine did). Even if you end up dropping one after a week/term/semester, I think at least trying all of them would be beneficial. If you can't/don't want to do that though, I would probably drop human bio (or chemistry if you are sure that you won't need it for uni). Definitely keep doing HASS subjects, it seems like you really enjoy them. Just curious, if you do 5 ATAR, what would you do for a 6th subject? You could always do Human Bio general (I've heard it's a lot easier, and I regret not choosing it). I would also recommend seeing if you are eligible for a study period in year 11 (some schools won't offer them to year 11s unless they have external influencing factors like high level sports, music, illness, etc), as having a study period would definitely lighten your load.

                  Sorry for the long response, I'm a lit student lol. Hope this helps 🙂

                    oat

                    Shoot I'm so sorry, I completely missed this! Chem is definitely challenging, but for the most part it's not too bad, it's really just a lot of practicing. To be honest I was really bad at chem in year 11, then coming into year 12, I learnt from my mistakes and just kind of implemented a plan that made me do a bit better this year! So you'll do great dw. Sorry this isn't very helpful, but if you have any more questions just ask!

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