oh we only pushed for it in year 11
we thought it was a bit silly for the school to offer us ext. 1 but not ext. 2, and since we had about five smart people in the grade, we were all collectively "wtf"
it also helped that half the grade left in year 10, most of which to go to a selective school, so we pulled the whole "omg why didn't we just leave the school, look at those people who left, they get to do extension 2s" (quietly) and... yeah
if you're self taught, you don't have internals iirc - and you can get a tutor to help you out, i think davidgoes4hsc or whatever his name is is trying to do that
And no you don't need to do a subject to enjoy your HSC, but Ext. 2 English was the most fun awesome subject I did, and that just boosted my enjoyment of the HSC year so so much
also the bolded illustrates my point exactly, because you're presupposing the outcome