I'm in Year 12, I finished 3/4 biology last year.
I'm taking 3/4 Literature, Chemistry, Psychology, and General Maths this year, with my free periods from bio used as study sessions.

However, the VCE head recommended I reconsider picking up a 6th subject in place of bio, and suggested Health and Human Development or English. He said HHD is relatively easy, but also that if I took English and Lit together, he thinks I could do really well (I'm pretty good at englishy stuff).

So should I pick up HHD or English? Because now I really wanna do a 6th, please help me pick which would be easier for me, I heard the English final exam is 3 essays in 3 hours, which sounds crazy scary, and the workload from English is usually complained about by other students. On the other hand, diving straight into 3/4 HHD without any bg knowledge sounds equally crazy scary, idk idkidk I really need help!! 😭😭🫠

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Hey! Former year 12 student here. I did practically the same subjects as you so I might be able to give a bit of information to help you make a decision.
In terms of HHD, unit 3 content does have a bit of overlap from 1/2. Rest assured, if you were to start in 3/4 directly, all of the prior content is reviewed (in a lot of detail if your teacher is good, otherwise textbook questions are great for practice cause it’s simple stuff). The only content you will need to know is health and wellbeing, health status, nutrition, and Australia’s health system.
So, if you’re worried about lack of knowledge for HHD, it’s actually not so bad. You can catch up in no time. Now, is HHD easy though? I would say it’s easier conceptually than other subjects (e.g. specialist) but that means that a lot of people do well in it. To score highly in it, you’ll need to do a lot of practice (esp. Cause it scales lower). Nevertheless, it was my favourite and highest scoring subject in VCE so it’s possible for you to do well without your score scaling down.

English, though, can be a double-edged sword. Because you do literature, practising writing more essays is definitely a plus. While assessments and ways of thinking are quite different in both subjects, you can still benefit by building vocabulary, writing speed (helpful in the exam!) along with the general quality of your written expression. It’s also beneficial because if you do poorly in Literature, you have a back up. English is always in your top four so if scoring high is your priority, english is the safer option. But the workload for both can be challenging to manage. Reading so many texts and writing essays is a huge time sucker.

So overall, viewing both HHD and English from an effort less can be helpful but if you’re aiming for higher scores, it’s better to consider interest. If you’re passionate about a subject, you’ll naturally do more work for it and then score better. Have a good think about where your interests lie. I hope that you can make the best choice for yourself. Good luck for Year 12!

You freaking ANGEL HSJSFJ

I read this in the morning and weighed everything you said and you don't know just how much you've helped me. For English, building vocabulary and writing speed + expression definitely is a monumental set of skills in essay-writing, and of course writing and reading in general has just always been my favourite pastime, but in the end I can only write so much before getting worn out, so for me I would much rather focus all my energy into perfecting my poetic prose in literature essay-writing and maintaining the quality of work I create in that class.

And on the other hand, I'm quite interested in HHD already, I've read parts of my friends' textbooks with intrigue and it's the reason I ended up contemplating it. Hearing you say it was your favourite and highest-scoring subject really boosted my morale, and I'm ready to do as much practice as it takes to score well!

Today I officially told my VCE head about deciding HHD to fill my study session slot, and he said he'll change it by tomorrow, so I'll be having my first health class tomorrow and I know it's all gonna go well and I have you to thank for helping me pick so thank you so much, I'M HOPING FOR THE BEST FOR BOTH OUR YEARS AHEAD!!

  • Tas likes this.
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