Attn: Chemists/phycists (students that is) (1 Viewer)

[arielbelle]

Any chemistry and/or physics students with any thoughts on the HSC syllabus is welcome to type away. What option is your school doing? How do you perceive the HSC course to be in terms of difficulty and topics in relation to the preliminary?

 

[hipsta_jess]

we did shipwrecks. i thought hsc was a fair bit easier than prelim, coz prelim was like learning all these new concepts and stuff, yr 12 was a bit like that too, but it was kinda building on all the yr 11 knowledge, we saw how it related to the yr 11 work, whereas in yr 11 we were like 'wtf, how does this link to anything'

 

[kimmeh]

prelim contents aound really shit.. [and indeed they were].. i think now that i;ve started HSC material, i get a better understanding of things like theres more applications and it interesting
in the SMH like on wedneday, they had sumfing about the physics syllabus being not 'physics' but more social science.. i woudl agree so too.. theyve cut out the majority of all calculations in the syllabus.. however, i see that its a good thing because i tend to make silly mistakes [and they give u a data sheet! ^^].. but with the newsyllabus i thinks its easier to visualise and apply the knowldge to everyday...


Options:
chem: industrial chem
physics: astrophysics

 

[iambored]

forensic chemistry is a very good option, it's interesting.

hsc chem is better than prelim. the water monitoring part is crap. it's great they cut out so much.

my advice is to make notes next to the syllabus dot points. tupe a dot point and type the notes next to it. start NOW because it will take a long time.

and don't use the excel big study guide, in a month is ok, but your notes, arranged as above, from your text and possibly one other for some areas will get you through
and lots of past papers

 

[korry]

yeah i read that article too...now that they've cut out a lot of the calculations..it means u gotta go and actually 'study'/memorise all the content stuff....argh...the reason i chose sciences was to get AWAY from that.....

we're doing shipwrecks and i think medical physics

 

[juggernaut]

for me personally, prelim chem was not too bad at the beginning.. yet at the end it just got boring as... like, a whole module on water..zzzzzzz

physics.. cant even remember if i thought that was interesting or not haha


also i think the prelim of chem is more significant in the hsc course, as opposed to the physics prelim course

in the prelim of chem try get a grasp of things like moles, hydrogen bonding, diapole/non-diapole
mainly equation stuff

 

[iambored]

the prelim of chem is all about basics, you will not need to recall any information you learn, but it provides the basis for understanding hsc chem

 

[juggernaut]

well im recalling hydrogen bonding, naming alkenes and alkanes etc. right now for alkanols which yeh wat iambored said, were tought in prelim as a basis

 

[kimmeh]

Originally posted by juggernaut
well im recalling hydrogen bonding, naming alkenes and alkanes etc. right now for alkanols which yeh wat iambored said, were tought in prelim as a basis

yup... and its boring too

 

[Giant Lobster]

Originally posted by kimmeh

in the SMH like on wedneday, they had sumfing about the physics syllabus being not 'physics' but more social science..

I second that...
in fact all hsc sciences are a joke now; and the gay data sheet is just lame they dont give us a data sheet in 4u maths >.< and then theres all the inane stuff that replace the calculations in chem and phys "what is the impact of so and so on so and so" etc

the result of course is these "ppl" coming out of physics thinking they are equipped for uni... lol funny

 

[Misturi]

I did Industrial Chem...what a waste of my time that was.

 

[Rahul]

i did physics.

the maths component is of an easy 2u standard. maths isnt a concern in the new syllabus.

space: quite a basic topic, with not too many diffuclt bits of understanding. projectile motion is probably the hardest part of space. but that can easily be mastered with practice, i mean they give you the formula, apply all and see which one fits.
fi2i: a very interesting module, by fav . a lot of theories and understanding them is what this one is about. why things happened and how they came to be etc.

m&g: conceptually tough. to understand the principles of motors/generators can be a bit daunting/confusing. but the calculations are nothig special

astrophysics: this was my option. just a matter of remembering the topic. no real thinking to be done, just a lot of reasoning and memorising.

in relation to the prelim course, the hsc course is probably more interesting. surprisingly the maths involved in the prelim course was harder[ i'm thinking elastic/non-elastic collisions, tensions, etc].

a course where you have to to make notes, or you will be lost. the earlier the better.

 

[~TeLEpAtHeTiC~]

physics overall i found is a really theory based subject so as rahul and others have mentioned the maths and application involved isn't extensive
physics space: very interesting and theory fileld core, i found myself this core had the most to remeber and for me was the most challenging becuase of the amount of information that had to be absorbed
physics motors & generators: simple and straight forward, doesn't hav any difficult concepts to take in, shouldn't be too hard to tackle
physics from ideas to implementation: favourite core for me, simple to understand and grasp and not too demanding, some issues might be hard to grasp at first but they are easyto get ur head around
option medical physics: very very simple, to demonstrate, here is my experience.. i was originally doing geophysics and after realising there was absolutely no info on it watsoever (hopefully this yr they bring out some publications for it) about 4 days b4 myphysics hsc exam i changed to medical physics... i got it all done in 5 hours and frankly i think i blitzed it in hsc.. all in all this option is very interesting and easy, not much maths is invovled at all but some concepts especially PET might catch you off gaurd..otherwise its very interesting and i highly recommend it

chemistry was probably my most challenging of all my subs not to say it was difficult, just alot of content to remember
chemistry production of materials: pretty interesting and more so an extension on wat u hav learned in prelim on carbon chemistry, it also contains info on electrochemistry and nuclear chemistry, found this core rather itneresting
chemisty acidic environment: great core as far as i am concerned my favourite out of the three, really easy concepts and not too challenging
chemistry monitoring and management: lots of content to remember but nothing to difficult, really interesting core all in all
option: shipwrecks and salvage: excellent option and very easy, mostly deals with electrochemistry. found this option very interesting and learnt alot from it..highly recommended IMO

anyways good luck all ur science buffs..dont forget biology either...excellent subject lol
catch yas later

telepathetic