It was an intense “mental boot camp”, but studying life’s big questions in philosophy led to VCE success for one star pupil.
Melbourne Grammar School student Ryan Mooney said when he talked about studying philosophy, he got many questions.
Melbourne Grammar School’s Ryan Mooney excelled in a more uncommon VCE subject.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“Speaking to people outside of my school, they say, ‘Philosophy – isn’t that what they talked about 2000 years ago? Why not study maths or something?’” he said.
But no one could question his marks – Mooney, the vice captain for 2024, received a study score of 47 in the subject and an ATAR of 99.4.
Mooney described philosophy as the study of fundamental questions about the nature of the world and people, and how we relate to each other and the world around us.
“It’s essentially the discipline of questioning, and asking the big questions,” the 18-year-old explained, adding students examined questions such as ‘What is a good life?’
Despite the subject’s “perceived obscurity”, he said it was the one that gave him the most relevant skills to engage with today’s world.
“Once you’re forced through this kind of high-intensity mental boot camp, which is VCE philosophy, you exit with this mental aptitude, which allows you to see things a bit clearer.
“You can actually understand and explore concepts, or even modern-day controversial topics, with a more profound, nuanced mind. It truly allows you to see clearer.”
If there is a fear that students of philosophy can get bogged down with “gobbledygook” and not end up with anything useful, Mooney “can definitely attest that’s not the case with me”.
“It was the most rewarding subject I took,” he said.
He pointed to debates online or in person and says philosophy gave him critical thinking skills, logic and the ability to question things.
“I think these are more important skills than ever in human history to have now, it’s precisely [because of] the lack of these faculties that misinformation is so prevalent, that people can no longer critically think or have a reasonable discussion … that we can’t combat misinformation, that we can’t come to a consensus.”
All those questions will come in useful next year, when Mooney plans to study arts at Melbourne University and pursue a law degree after that.
At Melbourne Grammar School, 15 students scored 40 or above (out of a possible 50) in philosophy. Thirty is the mean; a score of 40 or above puts a student in the top 9 per cent of a subject’s cohort.
That means about one in six top philosophy scorers statewide were in Mooney’s classroom.
Sociology is another subject that students say isn’t well understood, but Haileybury Girls’ College students Kiara Rampal and Amelia Yates both picked it.
Roughly one in five top scorers in the state in this subject studied at this school.
“Most people have no clue what it is,” Yates said of sociology, which was her favourite subject.
According to the students, it looks at culture, community and society and how it relates to life.
Yates said she particularly enjoyed learning about other cultures, and said she gained greater empathy as a result of her studies.
Meanwhile, Rampal, who got a perfect score of 50, said she loved sociology because of how relevant it was to all aspects of life.
“It really teaches students how to think beyond the box, how to be a bit more creative in the way they think about and understand the world around them,” she said.
One of the topics covered was Australian Indigenous cultures, and how issues like Native Title legislation potentially impacted the Voice referendum last year, Rampal explained.
Both said that sociology was relevant to other humanities subjects and that it helped them in other VCE classes.
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