Choosing Sciences (1 Viewer)

[gfung]

I'm going into Year 11 this year at a top selective school and I'm taking the Asian Five (Ext Maths, Adv English, Chemistry, Physics and Economics), plus Geography. My school only lets me choose up to 2 sciences. After speaking to some people who have graduated recently, I've heard that physics is becoming increasingly difficult, especially with the introduction of quantum mechanics and more worded answers (I think? Not too sure). I initially chose physics because it was the most 'mathy' subject (I enjoy maths a lot and it's my best subject) and I found year 10 physics pretty straight forward. Similarly, I chose chemistry because it was too pretty straight forward, but, after having gone to the senior chemistry Olympiad classes at my school (which basically taught year 11 and 12 topics for the Olympiad), I've realised that chemistry isn't nearly as straight forward as year 9/10. I enjoy both phys and chem because they're more subjects where you apply knowledge in order to complete problems, rather than bio, which, stereotypically, is more verbal vomit. But I've also heard that bio has been scaling as well as chem in like the past 2 years. I don't mind bio, especially learning about the structures of things, but it seems it's just a bit too much to learn as my school requires me to have 12 units in year 12.

What do you think? Should I keep phys and chem? Or swap something out for bio?

 

[idkkdi]

I'm going into Year 11 this year at a top selective school and I'm taking the Asian Five (Ext Maths, Adv English, Chemistry, Physics and Economics), plus Geography. My school only lets me choose up to 2 sciences. After speaking to some people who have graduated recently, I've heard that physics is becoming increasingly difficult, especially with the introduction of quantum mechanics and more worded answers (I think? Not too sure). I initially chose physics because it was the most 'mathy' subject (I enjoy maths a lot and it's my best subject) and I found year 10 physics pretty straight forward. Similarly, I chose chemistry because it was too pretty straight forward, but, after having gone to the senior chemistry Olympiad classes at my school (which basically taught year 11 and 12 topics for the Olympiad), I've realised that chemistry isn't nearly as straight forward as year 9/10. I enjoy both phys and chem because they're more subjects where you apply knowledge in order to complete problems, rather than bio, which, stereotypically, is more verbal vomit. But I've also heard that bio has been scaling as well as chem in like the past 2 years. I don't mind bio, especially learning about the structures of things, but it seems it's just a bit too much to learn as my school requires me to have 12 units in year 12.

What do you think? Should I keep phys and chem? Or swap something out for bio?

Drop eco or geo lol. Phys and chem is fine.

 

[gfung]

Drop eco or geo lol. Phys and chem is fine.

Do you mean do physics, chem and bio? Or just keep phys and chem?

 

[Qeru]

I'm going into Year 11 this year at a top selective school and I'm taking the Asian Five (Ext Maths, Adv English, Chemistry, Physics and Economics), plus Geography. My school only lets me choose up to 2 sciences. After speaking to some people who have graduated recently, I've heard that physics is becoming increasingly difficult, especially with the introduction of quantum mechanics and more worded answers (I think? Not too sure). I initially chose physics because it was the most 'mathy' subject (I enjoy maths a lot and it's my best subject) and I found year 10 physics pretty straight forward. Similarly, I chose chemistry because it was too pretty straight forward, but, after having gone to the senior chemistry Olympiad classes at my school (which basically taught year 11 and 12 topics for the Olympiad), I've realised that chemistry isn't nearly as straight forward as year 9/10. I enjoy both phys and chem because they're more subjects where you apply knowledge in order to complete problems, rather than bio, which, stereotypically, is more verbal vomit. But I've also heard that bio has been scaling as well as chem in like the past 2 years. I don't mind bio, especially learning about the structures of things, but it seems it's just a bit too much to learn as my school requires me to have 12 units in year 12.

What do you think? Should I keep phys and chem? Or swap something out for bio?

Lol there was always 'quantum mechanics' in hsc physics (note quantum mechanics in quotation marks since its really not quantum mechanics just memorizing some ideas and using super basic formulas).

 

[gfung]

Lol there was always 'quantum mechanics' in hsc physics (note quantum mechanics in quotation marks since its really not quantum mechanics just memorizing some ideas and using super basic formulas).

Yeah, that's why I was unsure. Do you think physics has gotten harder over the years or stayed the same?

 

[Qeru]

Yeah, that's why I was unsure. Do you think physics has gotten harder over the years or stayed the same?

Def harder going from old syllabus (which I heard was mostly memorising) although to be fair there is still a lot of memorising in the new syllabus.

 

[gfung]

Def harder going from old syllabus (which I heard was mostly memorising) although to be fair there is still a lot of memorising in the new syllabus.

Right, so I'm guessing more to practical application?

 

[Qeru]

Right, so I'm guessing more to practical application?

More conceptual. For example in the old syllabus there was this topic where you had to compare contributions of Edison and Westinghouse on AC and DC motors and generators. Then people realised who gives a shit? So stupid stuff like that is removed (although there still is a little bit of that like the history of the speed of light). Whereas now for motors and generators it's all conceptual and the actual physics principles (motor effect, lenz's law etc.) are emphasised.

 

[idkkdi]

More conceptual. For example in the old syllabus there was this topic where you had to compare contributions of Edison and Westinghouse on AC and DC motors and generators. Then people realised who gives a shit? So stupid stuff like that is removed (although there still is a little bit of that like the history of the speed of light). Whereas now for motors and generators it's all conceptual and the actual physics principles (motor effect, lenz's law etc.) are emphasised.

Except when u dig deeper u realise that old syllabus had all this practical application engineer stuff that is probably harder to understand than the concepts themselves. New syllabus borderline easier lol.

 

[black.mamba]

I'm going into Year 11 this year at a top selective school and I'm taking the Asian Five (Ext Maths, Adv English, Chemistry, Physics and Economics), plus Geography.

Lol these were my yr 11 subjects too!

My science results were really inconsistent from year 7 to 10, but maths was always my strong point. I chose phys/chem because they were maths-based, and I thought that my performance in maths would translate well to phys/chem (I guess it did, my results shot up in year 11).

Also, don't let struggles in olympiad dissuade you from taking the sciences; personally, I struggled in phys olympiad in year 11, but the HSC and olympiad require a very different skillset. Anyway, if you took part in olympiad classes in year 10, you're already well ahead of most of the cohort.

 

[black.mamba]

If you enjoy phys and chem, I would keep them over bio
Also chem/phys scale wayyy better than bio (chem/phys scaled mean mark is ~31, compared to ~26 for bio)

For eco/geo, I'd drop one of them in year 12 (or maybe even both!) and take up 4u.

my school requires me to have 12 units in year 12.

if this is grammar, around a third of the year will end up applying for an exemption to do 10/11 units in year 12 and i think that the exemptions are almost always granted