Subject Selection for Medicine
Hello! I’m currently in Year 12 in New South Wales, Australia, and I’m aiming to pursue a career in medicine. Last year, I completed Advanced Mathematics, Chemistry, Legal Studies (compressed), and English. This year, I’ve decided to drop Chemistry and am now studying compressed Business, English, Advanced Mathematics, compressed Music, compressed Physics, and compressed Economics.
I’m considering dropping one of the compressed subjects to better focus on maximizing my ATAR, which I estimate I need to be at least 93 for medicine. I enjoy all of my current subjects and am performing well in them, so I would appreciate a straightforward, objective recommendation on which single compressed subject I should drop to optimize my ATAR for medical school. Thank you!
It’s great to hear that you’re focused on maximizing your ATAR for medicine! Given your current subjects, here’s an objective breakdown to help you decide which compressed subject to consider dropping:
Physics: Generally, physics can be quite challenging, but it also aligns well with medicine-related fields. However, if you find it more strenuous than the others, it might be a candidate for dropping.
Economics: This subject can be beneficial for understanding aspects of healthcare systems and medical economics. However, it may not have as direct a correlation to medical studies compared to other subjects.
Music: While music is a wonderful subject and can be very enjoyable, it tends to have less weight in competitive ATAR calculations compared to more traditional academic subjects.
If your goal is purely to maximize your ATAR, dropping music could be a strategic choice, especially since you mentioned wanting to focus on subjects that are more relevant to your medicine pathway. This allows you to dedicate more time and energy to physics and economics, which typically have significant weight in ATAR calculations and can also help with your future studies in medicine.
Ultimately, it would be advisable to weigh how comfortable you feel with each subject and the workload, as well as how well you perform on assessments within those areas. Best of luck with your studies and your future in medicine!