Prerequisites are subjects you must pass to qualify for entry into a particular course. If you already know what you want to do at uni, then make sure you find out whether there are any prerequisites. Some courses have no prerequisites, whereas others are impossible to get into if you haven’t done the prerequisite subject or obtained the necessary grades in that subject.
You can find out which prerequisites apply to particular courses:
- the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre guide (VTAC – or equivalent in your state - http://www.vtac.edu.au/)
- university handbooks and course guides, which you can get by phoning individual unis or checking their websites
Some courses also recommend particular subjects. Those subjects aren’t prerequisites, but they can give you a very good background in the area.
You’ve probably heard people telling you to ‘keep your options open’. This means not dropping subjects that you might need as prerequisites later on. Often, people interpret ‘keeping your options open’ to mean that you need to do a final year heavy in maths and science subjects. For many courses, this is true. These subjects also tend to be scaled up when calculating ENTER scores. However, if maths and science aren’t your strengths, it’s not a good idea to choose subjects that you really don’t like just because it might get you some extra points. You’re more likely to get a better score if you study subjects that you’re interested in.