For some subjects, the degree of scaling seems fair to me, while for others, the scaling is simply not reflective of the difficulty of the course. I think you and I can both agree that some subjects scale much more than they probably should, while others are the opposite.
Regardless, it's impossible to get a scaling system that satisfies everyone, so I think we just have to deal with what we get haha.
I think when it comes to the very small cohorts - like in Languages - some of the scaling is ridiculous. But for the big mainstream subjects, it seems about right. So for a general system, I think it's okay.
How rude. I actually did try at English, it's just not my thing. I'm sure I'm not the only person who just isn't good at English. I'm at uni now and I'm over it. I have to write essays for the education portion of my degree and I'm pushing through.
I'm JUST saying it'd be swell if people could choose between maths and english being their compulsory 2 units. That's all I originally said, I don't know why some people on here can't just chill out and not feel like it's their duty to attack opinions different to their own.
In the words of Albert Einstein: "Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid"
This is exactly why I think people should be able to choose and not be forced into something they're not good at/really don't like doing. It's got nothing to do with scaling or anything of the sort, and I know nothing will come of this. I just think it'd be excellent if students had a choice.
My opinion is different to yours. Get over it.
Yes, it'd be fantastic if people had a choice - however, the thing is that when we are considering it to make a workable system in determining who gets into what university course - it fails.
I think if you allow maths or English to be compulsory, you're still going to be 'scaling' based on how they go in common subjects. And that'll be even worse - because you may end up finding out how say... Japanese will scale based on how a portion of the students go in maths and how a portion go in English, and the numbers may not match up (perhaps the maths people go awesome and the English people fail - so how do you scale Japanese then if maths and English are the yardstick and thus are not scaled at all?).
English being compulsory I think is accepted - English being the yardstick that is used to scale other subjects is disputed, but it's probably the best system we can have. If we say 'no scaling', then I might as well have done General Maths and gotten 100 in that rather than take Extension Maths and get something lower - and hence be disadvantaged in a way (unless universities gave like bonus points for performance in subjects).
That's a bit dramatic. Plus, they're already making people do English when a lot of people really don't want to- I came 9th last in advanced english, but was top 3 in all my other classes. I calculated my UAI using religion as my other 2 units instead of english and it went up by like 7 or something. How is that fair?
But, hey, each to their own. I think maths is important (and also the best) and I think English is important (but also the worst). The HSC isn't gonna change any time soon, so meh. The thread asked for our opinion, so I gave mine. I just think it'd be neato if students atleast had the option of choosing between the two, maths or english, because they might be able to pick one they prefer/compliments their other subjects more. Who cares about having to do 2u or advanced, but a choice between the 2 wouldn't be bad.
ANYWAY c'est tout. I have a maths exam and 5.5 weeks uni break to prepare myself for.
It may not be fair to some, while totally fair for others. Despite that, it is perhaps the best system we can get. I disagree strongly with the content of Advanced and Standard English - I think that Extension 1 English is a fantastic mix of theory and creative writing (50/50), as it should be. Extension 2 would be great - however we'd get mass plagiarism and the like.
