Should I drop from 12 units to 10?

cheethoe

I originally started by thinking that doing an extra two units would provide a solid "back up plan", thus easing my anxiety. As time goes on, I feel like it might be a better idea to drop a subject to ensure I have ample time to focus on subjects better in scaling and personal preference. Truthfully, I like all of my subjects, I’m just unsure as to whether the time consumption of an extra subject is worth it for the purpose of a "back up plan", or if it’s a better idea to focus all my time and energy on only 10 units.

I am currently doing English advanced, English extension 1 and 2, maths standard, modern history, legal studies and business studies. If I were to drop a subject, it would be business studies.

Any advice?

Sallymelek

cheethoe
In my personal experience. I found dropping the subject I didn't like helped as there was less stress and that means I can put more effort into my other subjects. Perhaps talk to your teacher in the subject you want to drop and talk about your performance. Your teacher knows your strengths. The teacher may tell you to drop or keep going so you can reassess the situation in the future

Chelseaaaakane

cheethoe
You’re less likely to need a back up if you minimise your focus to 5 subjects❤️ I recommend dropping the subject which is your lowest mark or interests you least as you are less likely to be motivated to study for it xxx best of luck!

bobmattew100

cheethoe
12 isn’t a huge problem really; if you’re on top of your work then you shouldn’t have any problems. However if you literally feel like you’re drowning, drop to 10. I’m doing 12 and probably won’t drop anything going into the HSC cause I have a particularly bad record of doing terribly in tests

pieorgan

cheethoe
I just had a similar battle that I had to go through with my subjects: keep all 12 units and "drown" or drop either Business or Maths. I didn't want to drop either for various reasons and eventually I realised that to maximise my ATAR and HSC scores I need to lighten my load. So today I went to drop maths ext 2 because they teach the course content at uni, so I don't need it now technically.

A friend advised me to do a cost-benefit calculation on both dropping something and keeping all my subjects, and it really opened up my eyes. So that would be my second-hand advise to you - to do a cost-benefit analysis and make a sane decision as soon as possible since the year is is going to end dangerously quickly

unclenathan

I was stuck in a position at the end of year 11 where I had two options:

Keep 12 units, 2 of which I hated and another 2 of which I had terrible marks (meaning I couldn't drop just 1 subject to solve the problem)
Drop 2 units so I could spend more time focussing on the other 2 units that I hated or didn't do well in.

After weeks of deliberation, I decided to drop the 2 units (D&T was the subject I didn't like), which forced me to do well in the other 2 units (maths was the subject I was struggling with) because I no longer had a backup.

The extra time that dropping a subject gave me, meant I could really focus on getting better at Math.

The strategy turned out extremely well for me! I studied hard all year and ended up with a mark of 87 in Math.

Hope this helps 🙂

cheethoe

Thank you to everyone for the advice! You were all very helpful in my final decision to drop business studies 🙂