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Year 11 course advise (1 Viewer)

deano059

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hey guys

i was after some info/feedback on the following subjects for the prelim course

biology
IPT
ecos
busines studies
ad eng
ext eng
general maths

thanks guys
 

asscookie

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general maths = major bludge, personally I think it's great..
advanced english: you study some good texts, but the analysis is a bit superfluous
IPT: Assessments can be rather large.
Biology: Very technical language needs to be used, heh.
 

Trev

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ipt - bludge, u can easily get by with doing nothin, pretty boring too but having an alrite teacher makes it bearable.
business studies - hate this, so boring and wish i didnt choose it :uhhuh:
adv eng - its pretty good, glad im doin adv not standard, it seems less plain n shit than standard
theyre the only subs i do that u chose... hav fun bludging thru prelim :) we dont get that privalege as of term 1 next yr :(
 

moffat

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biology- i dropped it for yr.12....everyone says its the easier science but its not easy..i thought i was alright at it. the prelim is alright. didnt want to stick around for the hsc part...it gets really tough
IPT- my friend isnt that good with cpu's and she's ranked 10/80 and we go to a good skool..so yeah go for it.
adv eng- my best subject. do adv! u do basically the same work as standard it just gets marked tougher..its a good course.
ext eng- i luv this class.it is soooo much..lots of movie watching and a few books to read
general maths- i did adv maths all the way to yr 10...was getting around 75%..in general prelim, my best mark was 86%...it's not easy.don't pick it because u think it's easy. pick it if u enjoy it and u have the time to put in the hours of h/w that it takes.
 

Jago

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economics is very much content based, i heard it's like eco, but easier although i don't do bus to be able to compare. I'll be straight with you, you need to remember A LOT. You don't learn the course, you remember it.
 
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Jago said:
economics is very much content based, i heard it's like eco
Er...what?

Anyways...
Jago said:
You don't learn the course, you remember it.
If you're talking about economics, I kinda agree and kinda don't. I reckon there are definitions which you must REMEMBER, but understanding concepts is better than memorising, coz if you understand and get the jargon right, it's all good...and in essays just text book regurgitating sometimes aint the best way to go. Prelim eco is a bit different to yr 12 (from what i've seen after a term). You'll learn concepts and basic frameworks so its pretty easy to understand. I find this year more interesting coz you're applying the concepts to current affairs. Verdict: fab sub :)

English advanced is my most detested sub right now coz it's all analytical, but I enjoyed prelim a lot more. I'm guessing you're good at english so it should be a breeze. I really hated extension in yr 11 coz we had the worst texts, besides catch 22. Again, i find i'm more interested now but that's coz I really enjoy the elective I've chosen. Excelling in your english will definitely assist you in your business and eco essays. It'll show...:)

Cliff-notes version: If you enjoy your subs then you're more likely to succeed. And scaling is important to some...but your choices sound fine to me.

Oh and also, while i haven't completed the course yet, i'd definitely recommend ext 2 english for yr 12 if you like writing. Early days i know, but i might not get another chance to praise it :)

Wow i've written a lot. I'll stop rambling now.

Well that's all from me. So yeah. Peace out.
 

meLoncoLLie

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Jago said:
economics is very much content based, i heard it's like eco, but easier although i don't do bus to be able to compare. I'll be straight with you, you need to remember A LOT. You don't learn the course, you remember it.
LOL @ Jason's nonsensetalk :p

I think Biology is a very interesting course, just beware of all the big words, also there's not much calculation involved, you need to be good at expressing ideas concisely. As for ext English, definitely take it up as it can help you a lot with your general English skills, you can always drop it if you don't like it. It's very different from Advanced English, Advanced is more restricted and there are certain things they expect you to say.
 
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deano059 said:
hey guys

i was after some info/feedback on the following subjects for the prelim course

biology
IPT
ecos
busines studies
ad eng
ext eng
general maths

thanks guys
biology; i dont do it, its not GREAT scaling, but physics and chemistry scale much higher
IPT; very easy, i dont do it but my friends do and i help them with most their work
ecos; i heard its hard, but the scaling on it is ALOT higher than business
biz; scales you down slighly (-0.5) and alot of theory, easy subject though, i dont think its worth it

dont ask me for english, i hate it :p

gen maths; very easy almost too easy, id do mathematics if i was you
 

Wesnat

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Just finished the HSC and can fill some things and tips in:

Economics - enjoyable, interesting. Reading newspapers and knowing things outside the textbook will get you those extra marks in the exams! Writing essays is an important skill (thankfully, u don't have to be good in English -shudders- to be able to do this well).

Business studies - dropped it. Pretty boring for me, but might interest some people. Problem is the HSC course often rehashes the content in Preliminary course, only in a greater detail, but it will still be dull... Writing essays and business reports is necessary.

Biology - didn't do it, but you should be prepared to cut open dead animals ;)

Advanced English (shudders) - In exams, prepare to feel pain in your fingers as you write 3 essays in 2 hours. But remember: quality is better than quantity (although if you can achieve both, you'll do heaps well)! My friend only wrote 3 pages and he got the top mark for that question (18/20).
Always think outside the square! This is the most important skill you need for this subject. With today's syllabus, you must be able to broaden you perspective on each module. Read sources not given by teachers and do some research to gain those extra marks, and these marks are extremely important since they separate the top students from the bottom.
And never ever memorise essays. You may prepare them, but never memorise! Coz if you do, once you forget even a sentence in an exam, you can hit a brick wall.
Finally, don't plagiarise essays from past HSC in your exams. Teachers know some of those exemplars on the net or school server, so you don't want to risk it. Do get some of their ideas though. They're there for a reason.

But I guess since you're doing ext 1 english, you should do well in advanced english. Anyway, hope this helps.
 

Wesnat

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Btw, my friend wrote 3 pages in one of those yellow exam booklets, so, he did not write much at all.
 

elisabeth

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Wesnat said:
Biology - didn't do it, but you should be prepared to cut open dead animals ;)
You might not have to. Maybe in the HSC, is that what you mean? Because I never did it in prelim...

Anyway, bio. My two tips: don't get behind and leave all the revision to the last minute... or assessment tasks, for that matter. you have to write a lot of stuff for some of them, do them early and then after a few days, go over what you wrote and modify it. hell, that's not even specific to bio...

Also, everyone says it, but dot points. my teachers got our assessment task Q's right off them. so it helps if you've read ahead and know what's coming up. make your own summaries for all of them... especially if your teacher is crap and doesn't teach, at least you know exactly what you have to learn and cover.
 

fakingtheday

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Here's my verdict on IPT. I did IT all through the prelim until a week before the yearly exams and changed, couldn't bare it. I got third in the class with a 62.5%. So if you have common sense you can fake a lot of it. Just remember Information Technology means hardware and software used to run the the information system.

Advanced English: I found this very easy. I started in standard and went up 6 weeks late (i owe my standard teacher for her incessant ranting and preaching) and got 3rd in the year at the end, well second cause there was equal first. Done by one mark. Anyways i say go for it, just read the texts and think out side the ill-shaped polygon.

The others i really can't tell you, general maths i'm in now and it is just crazily easy.

Good luck with it.
 

Sweets

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Adv- even if your unsure about ur english skills, just give it a go cause its much interesting then standard and if you dont like it you can drop down

ext- i used to like it but stupid revenge tragedy is giving me the shits but in yr11 it was good..biggest bludge

bio- boorrring
 

Kulazzi

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business studies has a lot, A LOT, of content. It's just regurgitating out of the textbook. You really don't need anyone to explain it to you cos it's soooo detailed.
 

Jacks

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definately do advanced english...I may be biased because as a huge fan of english...so much so that I did 4u, but advanced isn't too hard and obviously you can't do 3u without doing advanced so if you choose 3u, you haven't really got a choice there. :)

I did bio in yr11, I dropped it so I could pick up 4u english...it wasn't too bad and I did reasonably well considering I pretty much suck at science but yeah it's a good enough choice...and you can always drop something if you go into yr 11 with the extra units.

I did IT, it was pretty easy...well really easy but I did software design and development as well so in comparision IT is nothing...you get the certificate II and if most of it is common sense and you know it already you might as well get a piece of paper to prove you know what you know! Don't know much about the other subjects but I chose these ones and didn't regret it...so go for it I say!
 

7th Sign

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biology - pretty hard u gotta learn alot of stuff in year 11 and 12
IPT - year 11 is easy as...year 12 so far has been very hard assignments have been majior
ecos - no idea dont do it
busines studies - midium some fat assignments in both years
ad eng - no idea
ext eng - no idea
general maths - ez
 

deano059

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thanks for all the input guys; replies really picked up over a few couple of days!! i thought i was going to be ignored.

ive heard some guys go to like careers advisors etc and pay for the service at proper business's by the hour to get advised as to what courses would suit them etc going by past reports and their skills - has anyone heard of this before?
 

Jacks

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careers advisors yes, just at school and stuff...I didn't actually know someone would bother to pay for someone to decide for them...I mean only they themselves once properly informed know what would suit them best and what they are interested in.

Though we are here to help, don't worry about being ignored we're here to help with what we can!! Come to any decisions yet? :)
 

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