• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Should I change software engineering to economics? (3 Viewers)

Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Hey everyone, I'm at the end of year 10. I kind of fooled around in year 10 English (despise the subject) and forced to do English Standard (NSW). The subjects I'm doing are:
Math Adv
English Standard (ES)
Business Studies (BS)
Software Engineering (SE)
Chemistry
Investigating Science (IS)

I received the list of the subjects I got. I've got a friend who is considering changing SE to Economics while I want to change SE to Economics. I enjoyed Commerce and think Economics could further expand my love for business. Is economics a particularly hard subject and does it have a high enough scaling or should I stick with SE. It's subject to change with placements and marks.

The more conflicted matter is changing IS to Bio. I've got friends who do accelerated IS and they think it's a load of bullocks. I'd like to work either in medicine, law, business/economics, or software/IT. To change IS to Bio is a huge stretch but a possible one. It'd involve changing IS (line 3) to Business studies and changing Business Studies in line 5 to biology. A HUGE stretch but most likely not going to happen.
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Economics is hard, but it's scaling is really good (up there with phys and chem). It's the highest scaling HSIE subject I think.

If you enjoyed Commerce and are interested in business-related degrees in the future, absolutely do eco. It can be quite conceptual and you're required to keep up-to-date with the news, but I'm finding it really rewarding because you get to know the world better and apply what you learn to actual events. There's a bit of maths and lots of graph interpretation/drawing, although you're doing maths adv so it shouldn't be a problem. Possibly the hardest bit is the essay writing, but if you find it interesting you'll be motivated to do it. It's not like english essays which are atrocious

Overall, it's a challenge but I think you should give eco a try! You can always drop it since you have extra units, but scaling will help you a bit too even if you don't do extremely well
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Economics is hard, but it's scaling is really good (up there with phys and chem). It's the highest scaling HSIE subject I think.

If you enjoyed Commerce and are interested in business-related degrees in the future, absolutely do eco. It can be quite conceptual and you're required to keep up-to-date with the news, but I'm finding it really rewarding because you get to know the world better and apply what you learn to actual events. There's a bit of maths and lots of graph interpretation/drawing, although you're doing maths adv so it shouldn't be a problem. Possibly the hardest bit is the essay writing, but if you find it interesting you'll be motivated to do it. It's not like english essays which are atrocious

Overall, it's a challenge but I think you should give eco a try! You can always drop it since you have extra units, but scaling will help you a bit too even if you don't do extremely well
Thank you so much! I personally despise essay writing with a passion so if it's not like english essays, I'm extremely happy :)
If I do make it to Economics, do you have any advice or tips that could benefit and make the overall process alot easier?
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Thank you so much! I personally despise essay writing with a passion so if it's not like english essays, I'm extremely happy :)
If I do make it to Economics, do you have any advice or tips that could benefit and make the overall process alot easier?
Certainly! There's a lot of content, so make sure you revise at home regularly and stay on top of what you're learning in class. This is true for all subjects, but take notes throughout the term. Also, always know what's happening in the Australian and global context. Y11's more about microeconomics (think market dynamics, consumers and businesses) so it might need less context, but Y12 is about macroeconomics (global trade, inflation, economic growth, unemployment) so you really need to know your stuff.

For essays, as soon as you learn enough to be equipped to write a proper essay, start practicing. It'll help you learn to think economically and connect a lot of dots in your head, helping you gain a holistic understanding of the course. You can ask your teacher for practice questions and hand them in to be marked (hopefully your teacher is helpful, they're usually quite willing to give feedback).

I know it sounds like a lot of effort and you probably only need to do all this if you're determined to top, but personally that's what I think is the recipe for success in eco. Hopefully you get in!
 

lumora

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2024
Messages
37
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2025
all my friends that did software said it was absolute dookie and they all dropped it this term, idk the exact reasons why, but I do economics and that shits lowkey interesting but yeah the graphs can be annoying and sometimes hard to understand
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
all my friends that did software said it was absolute dookie and they all dropped it this term, idk the exact reasons why, but I do economics and that shits lowkey interesting but yeah the graphs can be annoying and sometimes hard to understand
Sweet! Thank you! You and @Hehehe22 have managed to convince me to change SE to Eco. I was on the fence about SE as it's something I enjoy but I doubt it scales well

Do you have any tips or advice about eco and what I should look out for? How's the essay writing?
 

lumora

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2024
Messages
37
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2025
Do you have any tips or advice about eco and what I should look out for? How's the essay writing?
I personally find the essay writing really easy, I think it's pretty straightforward so I don't have any advice other than just keep practicing and asking for feedback, especially on how u incorporate graphs into ur response because some teachers are real picky about how u do it (my teacher ☹)

but please please please please please keep up to date study notes, I did not do this because I was lazy and now I think I flopped my first year 12 assessment, but I am catching up this holidays
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
I personally find the essay writing really easy, I think it's pretty straightforward so I don't have any advice other than just keep practicing and asking for feedback, especially on how u incorporate graphs into ur response because some teachers are real picky about how u do it (my teacher ☹)

but please please please please please keep up to date study notes, I did not do this because I was lazy and now I think I flopped my first year 12 assessment, but I am catching up this holidays
Sweet thank you so much! I always struggled with keeping up notes so that will be one of my main priorities next year!
Are you currently revising for yr11/yr12 t1 topics or going ahead studying for t2?
 

lumora

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2024
Messages
37
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2025
Sweet thank you so much! I always struggled with keeping up notes so that will be one of my main priorities next year!
Are you currently revising for yr11/yr12 t1 topics or going ahead studying for t2?
I am just gonna revise and finish my notes for yr 12 T1 since I have a lot of other work to do this holidays, so I can't study ahead. I probably should revise yr 11 but that's just way too much effort
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
I am just gonna revise and finish my notes for yr 12 T1 since I have a lot of other work to do this holidays, so I can't study ahead. I probably should revise yr 11 but that's just way too much effort
I see! Good luck with your studying!
I wish I could prepare and pre-studyinf for yr 11 but that doesn't seem like it's happening sadly as I'm oging overseas!

Do you have any like study notes for eco or really any subject I'm doing?
Just wanna try to get a headstart if possible?
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I personally find the essay writing really easy, I think it's pretty straightforward so I don't have any advice other than just keep practicing and asking for feedback, especially on how u incorporate graphs into ur response because some teachers are real picky about how u do it (my teacher ☹)

but please please please please please keep up to date study notes, I did not do this because I was lazy and now I think I flopped my first year 12 assessment, but I am catching up this holidays
Lol yeah essay writing isn't bad and often the only graph you need is the supply and demand curve

I sorta flopped my assessment too but it was the oddest thing ever, there was no essay
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Sweet! Thank you! You and @Hehehe22 have managed to convince me to change SE to Eco. I was on the fence about SE as it's something I enjoy but I doubt it scales well

Do you have any tips or advice about eco and what I should look out for? How's the essay writing?
Yay! If you need more guidance throughout the year I'm happy to help
 

lumora

Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2024
Messages
37
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2025
Do you have any like study notes for eco or really any subject I'm doing?
Just wanna try to get a headstart if possible?
I only have digital notes for yr 12 eco not yr 11 since it was all physical stuff, and I don't do any of ur other subjects besides math adv which I didn't take notes for since I don't need notes for it
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Lol yeah essay writing isn't bad and often the only graph you need is the supply and demand curve

I sorta flopped my assessment too but it was the oddest thing ever, there was no essay
Oh damn! That doesn't sound too bad. What was your essay like?
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Oh damn! That doesn't sound too bad. What was your essay like?
There was no essay this time... but we had multiple choice questions where we had to justify our answer for another mark :cold: so strange
We also had to do research to answer SA questions about economic trends in unemployment, inflation and growth
Last term we got to choose between a market failure and monetary policy for our essay
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
That actually sounds kinda nice!
I love MCQ and do consistently well in them. Were you caught by surprise that it was not an essay?
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
There was no essay this time... but we had multiple choice questions where we had to justify our answer for another mark :cold: so strange
We also had to do research to answer SA questions about economic trends in unemployment, inflation and growth
Last term we got to choose between a market failure and monetary policy for our essay
That actually sounds kinda nice!
I love MCQ and do consistently well in them. Were you caught by surprise that it was not an essay?
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I see! Good luck with your studying!
I wish I could prepare and pre-studyinf for yr 11 but that doesn't seem like it's happening sadly as I'm oging overseas!

Do you have any like study notes for eco or really any subject I'm doing?
Just wanna try to get a headstart if possible?
I actually uploaded some of my y11 notes onto BOS (you can find them in my profile) and a practice essay
They're not great because I sorta slacked on note-taking in y11, but I did workbook questions and read the textbook which was mostly sufficient for my purposes
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
34
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
I actually uploaded some of my y11 notes onto BOS (you can find them in my profile) and a practice essay
They're not great because I sorta slacked on note-taking in y11, but I did workbook questions and read the textbook which was mostly sufficient for my purposes
No worries! Any notes is better than none at all :)
I appreciate the practice essay too
Thank you so much for the advice and help. You're truly the best :D
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
208
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
That actually sounds kinda nice!
I love MCQ and do consistently well in them. Were you caught by surprise that it was not an essay?
Yess MCQ are good, but they made them very difficult and I had no clue how to do one of them. It's also unlikely that your school will make you do a similar task because idek what my teachers were thinking o_O

Also, it wasn't a surprise because we were told what the exam structure would be, but I was caught by surprise by the difficulty of the MCQ and the lack of time we were allowed. Hopefully your school does it more conventionally
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 3)

Top