| The most important ingredient to a high UAI is to | | | | your mathematics subjects, given that both |
| ace all your subjects. While we place a huge | | | | Maths Extension 1 and Extension 2 counts for 2 |
| emphasis on English these days (being the only | | | | units each. Keeping in mind that the scaled mean |
| compulsory subject in the NSW HSC), the hype | | | | for Extension 1 is around 39-40 in recent years, |
| over English is slightly overrated by now. Put in a | | | | and that of Extension 2 is around 43-44, this |
| simple way, if you ace your HSC English but ace | | | | makes these subjects unparalleled in terms of |
| nothing else, your UAI will be mediocre at best. | | | | scaling power, and definitely deserves more |
| Instead, do not over-focus on any particular | | | | attention than English. |
| subject. Every student's goal is to maximise their | | | | That is not to say you should neglect English |
| UAI, so their best ten units count towards their | | | | either. Treat it as you would any other subject. |
| all-important UAI. The obvious thing here is that | | | | There is nothing special about English, except for |
| each unit is equally weighted, and there is no | | | | the fact that it is the only compulsory subject in |
| inherent reason why a student should treat HSC | | | | the NSW HSC, because of the way scaling works |
| English any different to any other HSC subject | | | | and UAI is calculated, which requires a common |
| they are doing as part of their 10 or more units. | | | | denominator for comparison. However this mere |
| In fact, the rational way to allocate study time is | | | | fact does not affect the individual student. There |
| to allocate more time to the higher-scaled | | | | are rumours and misinformation floating around |
| subjects, as they will be more beneficial to your | | | | over student forums and by word of mouth, but |
| UAI than lower-scaled subjects. Historically English | | | | the simple fact of the matter is that English is |
| Advanced has a scaled mean of around 30, which | | | | just like any other subject and is given no |
| is practically equal to the scaling of HSC Chemistry | | | | preferential treatment when it comes to UAI |
| and Economics in the past several years. These | | | | calculation. Therefore if this is the case, English |
| trends are not expected to change significantly | | | | should not be given any special treatment by |
| year to year, so we can expect the same for at | | | | students either. What this means is you should |
| least the near future. If you're a student who | | | | split your time equally as you would any other |
| does English Advanced and Maths Extension 2, | | | | subject that scales similarly (e.g. Chemistry, |
| you should definitely focus more of your time on | | | | Economics). |