This time of the year our students in Year 8 and Year 10 are starting to face some choices about their learning. Which subjects do they want to pursue? What areas interest them which they wish to know more about? For students heading into Year 9, they are able to make 2 selections after no longer needing to complete Music, Visual Arts and Technology Mandatory. For students about to commence their HSC journey, the options are endless. With the only compulsory subject being English (and Studies of Religion at some schools) the remaining units are completely up to the student depending what the school has on offer.
Here a a few tips and words of guidance we share with our students during this time…
Pick what you love: Often students are guided to pick the ‘smart’ subjects because they believe this will increase their overall marks or ATAR ranking. However, these subjects may not be the areas of strength for these students. As a result, they will struggle to keep up with the content and finding the motivation to study will constantly be an uphill battle. In effect, these students will score lower than average marks and have a negative impact on their overall marks. Therefore, the end result is the opposite of the intention.
To overcome this and allow students to achieve their best (both with internal marks and rankings) we always recommend picking subjects that you are interested in and and have a genuine passion to learn more. This way, the content won’t seem overwhelming and studying will be enjoyable. Mix this together with determination and you have already taken the first step to success.
Aim for a balanced workload: Each subject has a unique offering and when put together with your other work load, you want to make sure there is a nice balance. For example, History, PDHPE, Business, Religion, Legal Studies, Geography (and many more) are known as content heavy subjects. That means that there are lots of facts, case studies and specific bits of information you need to memorise to do well. However, subjects with a practical element have give you a chance to break things up. Whilst there is some content and an exam to be sat, you get to spend time on your Body of Work. This could be a piece of artwork, musical performance, construction of a physical or digital piece. That means that you get to have a variety of tasks to work on. So, pick a nice mix of the two…some content and some practical.
Think of the future. Or Don’t: Some students have a clear idea of the path they would like to take after school. Others have hundreds of different options. Then there are the students that draw a complete blank. All three of the above are absolutely fine and one is not more desirable than the other. However, we can offer some guidance to all three groups. For those that know where they are heading, the choice is clear. Pick those subjects that will give you the most prerequisite information so you are prepare for further studies. Those who can’t make a decision here nor there, pick a variety so that way you can start to shape your views and narrow down options. And those that have no idea, see above Pick what you love. So long as you do what you love, the marks will come without effort. Then you will be in a position whereby the options are endless.
We hope the above is a little helping hand! If there are any questions you’d like to ask us drop us a line any time, we’d love to chat!
More info https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/year-10/Yr10-tips-for-choosing-HSC-courses.pdf