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Unusual considerations if you want to do 4U English - (Coming from someone who is about to discontinue the course) (1 Viewer)

aqwerty13402

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2024
Hey I am procrastinating my other studies so I thought I'd provide you with things to consider for choosing this course, coming from someone who is handing in my forms to drop this coming Monday. This is also coming from someone who is currently ranked 1st internally for the course. But I was dumb, and didn't consider these things below and now I feel like dropping is the only way to fix a lot of my problems.

1. Not taking your teachers ideas as absolute - There is a very, very fine line that you need to walk when you are considering both your form and concept, and the many ideas that your teacher will present. I came into the course wanting to do a multi-modal (Video) since it was my passion, and I had so many ideas that I wanted to explore. Within the first two weeks of doing the course, I had let my teacher convince me to do a ficto-critical on the Australian Political Landscape. Don't get me wrong, I was still interested, but I chose this course because I wanted to get a band 6 by making something that I would love. Letting my teacher change my concept entirely ruined that for me. Please don't get me wrong, take their advice and feedback. if they think you should pivot from your ideas, consider it! But if it's going to vitiate the core reasons that you were initially interested in this course, don't let them. I promise you, your motivation will slowly erode away (as did mine) and you will find yourself completely not able to even work on your project.

2. Workload - This might not be as unusual as the title of this thread claimed to be, but so many people (again, including myself) underestimate the sheer amount of time and effort you will need to put into your major work if you want to achieve a Band 6. Not only is the research rigorous, but the writting process is a whole lot of rejection, before you start to find your momentum. If you are sitting on too many units, it might get too much. This also loops back to my first idea of making sure you are motivated with your concept / purpose. I promise you that when it is 12am after a long school day, and you have to meet a wordcount before a meeting with your teacher tomorrow, if you are not working on something you enjoy, you'll hate every second of it.

3. HSC Trials - For me, my MW is due very close to trials. It is going to take up a very large portion of your study time throughout the year. Yes a band 6 is achievable and can contribute to your ATAR, but it could also influence your ability to achieve in other subjects.

4. Your study habits - I'm the type of person who waits until XX:15 or XX:30 to study. If it goes one minute past, I wait until the next nice number. If you think that you have a tendency to procrastinate your study as is, you really should not consider doing 4U. Your workload will snowball super quickly and it's going to be really hard to start once it gets to that point, because you truthfully won't know where to.

This is all based on my personal experiences, but I hope it can help someone.
 
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