Yes, you've landed on the right page; this article is about the easiest Higher School Certificate (HSC) subjects. Granted, 'easy' and 'favourite' aren't synonymous in any sense of the word but there are greater lessons to learn from these word choices.
For instance, if you can do something easily, you must favour that activity to some extent. Otherwise, you wouldn't have put in the time to master it.
Or perhaps you have a natural talent or aptitude for that 'easy' thing. For example, my mate is an avid gardener who harvests stores of fresh veg every growing season but has never liked riding a bike. By contrast, I've yet to have even a houseplant survive but I would ride a bike all day if circumstances permitted.
All this is to say that determining 'easy' depends on a lot of factors. Students who are dyslexic will likely not find HSC English easy. Neither would students whose first language is other than English - but you might. And you may have great maths skills while other students struggle in that subject.
So we need to look at which subjects most students prefer; the ones that see the highest enrolments. We'll talk about the reasons behind current course selection trends and what they might mean.
We'll cycle through the 'hard' subjects to discover that they're not that hard. And then, we'll look at a few subjects that have fallen so out of favour, relatively few students choose them.
Easiest HSC Subjects: Trends
As mentioned in this article's introduction, what's easy for you might not be for me, and vice versa. But if we look at the subjects with the highest enrolments, we can get an idea of which subjects might be easy. Of course, this assessment doesn't take into account why any student chose the subjects they did. Maybe their future career depends on studying those subjects.
Some students pick their HSC subjects with an eye on university admissions. Some degree plans demand a high Australian Tertiary Assessment Rating (ATAR). Other require the student to study specific subjects.
Every student has their reasons for selecting the HSC subjects they do; it's not always because the subject is easy.
So what do the statistics reveal? English is the top course, no surprise there. Sitting the English exam is compulsory, which begs the question: why aren't Maths exams required, too? Maths is everywhere and we use maths every day.
When you leave home for university - and when you start your life in earnest, you'll find out just how much you need maths skills. And if you want to work in the finance or tech sectors, you'll rue not focusing on maths. But it seems many students have caught on, either to this subject's importance or that they'll need maths skills. Maths is the second most frequently selected subject.
However, the maths extension courses didn't fare as well. But what about the sciences? Biology seems to be the overwhelming favourite, with physics not too far behind.
But the news is not all good, especially in physics; records show the number of students choosing physics is at a 20-year low.
Statistics also reveal that students are moving towards Religious Studies and Personal Health and Development, and Physical Education (PHDPE). By all accounts, those are easy subjects and, considering their specialised nature, may be students' favourites, as well.
It's hard to tell why students chose those courses just by looking at the numbers. But this could be a worrying trend because these courses do little to prepare students for their working life.
Do the Easiest HSC Subjects Scale Well?
As the numbers show, more students want to take courses they believe are easy. If you know anything about how scaling works, you can see that that won't end well. It's not a matter of 'the harder the course, the higher the scale'. Rather, it's how many students select that course and how well they do compared to all the other students and all the other courses. And, of course, all the other scores.
Scaling involves ATAR and Universities Admissions Centre (UAC) figures, along with students' exam scores and classwork performance. It's a complicated system that we address in a companion article.
For our purposes here, we only need to state that the more students in a course and the easier it is, the lower it scales.
If you find Maths or Chemistry extension courses easy and choose them as your subjects, high scaling will be your reward. That's because fewer students choose those courses. Same if you're bilingual and wish to test in your other language, and for the same reason. But if you choose only standard courses in subjects you've studied throughout your time in education, they will likely scale lower.
That's because those courses typically have higher selection rates. It seems unfair that the more popular courses - the easiest HSC subjects should 'suffer' because they're popular.
But the New South Wales education system has lots of easy courses to choose from. They've just fallen out of favour.
The Easiest HSC Subjects Nobody Likes
For more than a decade, every outlet has shone a spotlight on STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Educators, industry leaders and politicians had all correctly predicted technology's dominance.
Perhaps keen to get in on the ground floor of a booming industry, students gravitated towards STEM courses.
Luckily, our STEM wave hasn't even crested yet, and we still need thousands of competent entrants into this field. This market is nowhere near at risk of saturation but another one is at risk of becoming dangerously short-handed. Statistics show that students are choosing fewer craft and technology subjects.
Not Information and Communication Technology (ICT); those numbers are still healthy.
But Agricultural Technology, Textile and Design, Design and Technology... All of these subjects and more saw around or fewer than 5000 enrolments over the past few years. If these trends continue, we'll labour under a shortage of food technicians, which could put our food supply at risk.
And as fewer students select Software Design and Development, Australia may fall behind the technological innovation curve.
It's hard to say why these HSC subjects fell out of favour but some believe it's because there's no future in those fields. Take Agricultural Technology, for instance. This course's low enrolment numbers reflect the global trend towards agricultural decline. It seems that even fewer are keen to farm anymore, including in Australia.
Students selecting comparatively harder HSC subjects points to the idea that they do so with an eye towards their futures. They're more likely to choose Business Studies over an 'artistic' course like Design. A student majoring in Business or Hospitality will graduate job-ready and with marketable skills but a History major might not.
So maybe we should say that the hardest HSC subjects are those that don't hold much promise for students' futures.
How to Choose the Easiest HSC Subjects
The previous segment should have given you a hint at what some of the easiest HSC subjects might be. Those that few students take, that you might do well in. Some of those unpopular subjects will teach you real-world skills that you can put to work right away. So they're both easy and practical, even if working in those fields won't make you rich.
Earlier, we mentioned that students choose their HSC subjects with an eye towards their future careers. That isn't a bad idea but it shouldn't be your sole consideration. You'll learn something from every subject you study and though you might not apply all that knowledge, you'll surely need those skills.
For instance, if you want to be a meteorologist, pairing Earth Sciences courses with Agricultural Technology would be a good idea.
Choosing a blend of easy and hard subjects is an effective strategy to maximise your grade-earning potential. You won't need to work so hard on the easy subjects, which frees your time and attention for better focus on your hard subjects. Alternating between tough and fun will make your studies less stressful, too. And, as you're likely to score better on the easier courses, you might boost your overall grade.
Finally, blending your course selection gives you a scaling advantage. You won't present with a full complement of popular courses that are likely to scale down. Your more difficult selections will give you a scaling boost.
With that said, we sound a note of caution. Your 'hard' selections don't need to be of the extension variety (unless you want them to be). Remember earlier, when you read that Physics is trending downward?
It's a hard course that fewer students want to take but you'll learn valuable skills like critical thinking and reasoning, which makes it worthwhile.
All of this is said with no idea of what you think is easy. As you go through your HSC subjects list and choose your courses, consider diversifying your selections.
That way, you'll have a broader range of knowledge and skills to enter the workforce with.
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