Biology or Ext English (1 Viewer)

[1611134585]

Hey guys
Is it better to take 3U english or Bio?
I personally find english quite difficult, and put in a lot of study but bio is a lot more content to memorise
I'm first in both Year 10 science and english
Opinions?
For bio are there a lot of skills exams?
Is 3U english heaps of work for one unit?

 

[Flop21]

Are you choosing between 13 units vs 14? Why..?


Bio is a lot of content, exams are filled with content questions + basic science skills. Go check the stage 6 bio syllabus, and a few past hsc past papers.

English is good if you like english.

It really comes down to what you like. Bio for me is great, content is interesting. English is shit, for me.

 

[crowley926]

Which one would you enjoy doing more though, regardless of workload? I think that should be your main driving point

Bio is definitely a lot of content so I would only suggest you do that if you find that kind of science interesting. Bio exams are mostly content based with some skills based questions that are worth like 6-10 marks (usually writing out experiments or drawing graphs or calculating results etc). But yes you do have to memorize a lot.

Eng ext 1 doesn't have much of a workload imo. It's one essay and one creative (each about 1.3k words/1 hour of writing in the exam) that you improve on for the whole year. But it is definitely more challenging than Advanced: there are more readings (but whether you read them or not is a different story) and it is a lot more theoretical (solid underpinning by critics' opinion but I think that depends on the module you do) but like I said you have 1 year to perfect it.

You would probably do well in either subject based on your Year 10 results so it really comes down to your personal interests and possibly uni goals

 

[blackbird_14]

Bio is a lot of content, and the "skills" require you to know some knowledge of the content. Yr 11 Bio has evolution (bleh) and stuff about organisms and their environment.

I hear the English extension is more similar to year 10's English format, and because of that it's easier. However the advanced course screws you over twice, so IMO, do it if you're really passionate- and hope the advanced course doesn't f you up.

 

[crowley926]

I hear the English extension is more similar to year 10's English format

In what way have you heard it's similar?

because of that it's easier. However the advanced course screws you over twice

Haha I and pretty much everyone I know who does 3u finds ext a far more difficult course than advanced. Advanced is very formulaic in terms of essay content and actual structure (ITEE will get you through any and every paragraph with your eyes closed) whereas in Extension it's a bit more sophisticated and you can't just rely on ITEE or rigid essay writing structures to get you through

 

[blackbird_14]

In both standard and advanced you have An area of study, which wasn't in the year 7-10. I found it challenging for my mind to grasp an area of study and get to terms with it. Along with that a creative writing piece has to be around that area of study, and the texts that you analyse as well. The modules are more similar to year 7-10 work in that you have a text, you read it, analyse it, and form your own opinions to write an essay.

English extension works this way too I believe (but I would have no clue as I don't do English ext), but you have more essays to write and they expect you to be writing at a higher standard than in advanced.

Perhaps check out the English threads on here for what's required for English extension- probably a more reliable source than me!