4U Mathematics or Chemistry (1 Viewer)

[SweatyAsian#1]

Hello fellow procrastinators, intrigued students, and bright minds,

As the title suggests, I'm stuck on whether I should choose:
1) 4U Mathematics for HSC and drop Chemistry in year 12 (10 units at the end)
OR
2) Should I stick with 3U and keep Chemistry to be on the safe side? (11 Units till the end)

Many people have told me to do 4U Maths AND Chemistry, and to drop either one if the burden is too high. Also, I fully and utterly understand that 4U would be the "best" option if I was interested in Mechanical Engineering but I like to keep my mind open to new ideas and subjects if it has very nice advantages. Teachers and cohort are both good, but I would require 75% and up for 4U to be advantageous, whilst I am finding 3U Maths hard on a scale of 6/10.
I also know that 4U takes a lot more time, effort and intelligence than chemistry, but I'm more interested in the Mechanical Engineering courses, etc. Although I am not set on going with this uni course, it seems to be the only one I'm interested atm.

Please let me know if you have any personal advice on what I should do and any experience you have with these subjects.
Thank you!

 

[osciggyz]

Well since you interested in mechanical engineering, i think 4u is the better option.

 

[cossine]

I also know that 4U takes a lot more time, effort and intelligence than chemistry, but I'm more interested in the Mechanical Engineering courses, etc. Although I am not set on going with this uni course, it seems to be the only one I'm interested atm.

Are you sure chemistry is not important for mechanical engineering?

 

[jazz519]

Are you sure chemistry is not important for mechanical engineering?

The stuff learnt in HSC Chemistry probably isn't that relevant to mechanical engineering (know from a friend of mine doing the degree). If there was any small amount of knowledge necessary I doubt it will be assumed and they would teach it at uni, the person doing HSC chem won't really get any advantage as none of the topics go over much related to engineering (unless I guess you could say chemical or industrial engineering it would be helpful). If anything the science that might give some advantage is physics, but even here probably not much as the HSC physics is simplified and doesn't include any calculus, which would be important.

Hello fellow procrastinators, intrigued students, and bright minds,

As the title suggests, I'm stuck on whether I should choose:
1) 4U Mathematics for HSC and drop Chemistry in year 12 (10 units at the end)
OR
2) Should I stick with 3U and keep Chemistry to be on the safe side? (11 Units till the end)

Many people have told me to do 4U Maths AND Chemistry, and to drop either one if the burden is too high. Also, I fully and utterly understand that 4U would be the "best" option if I was interested in Mechanical Engineering but I like to keep my mind open to new ideas and subjects if it has very nice advantages. Teachers and cohort are both good, but I would require 75% and up for 4U to be advantageous, whilst I am finding 3U Maths hard on a scale of 6/10.
I also know that 4U takes a lot more time, effort and intelligence than chemistry, but I'm more interested in the Mechanical Engineering courses, etc. Although I am not set on going with this uni course, it seems to be the only one I'm interested atm.

Please let me know if you have any personal advice on what I should do and any experience you have with these subjects.
Thank you!

4 Unit maths is probably far more relevant to the mechanical engineering degree. I would say to keep them both for the first set of assessments and then after that make a decision. You never know what could happen in other subjects as well, so that's the more safer choice. The first module for chemistry in Year 12 is pretty easy as it's mostly calculations and a bit of theory so shouldn't be too taxing in terms of time, so should be able to be managed.

Also, in terms of keeping the options open, that's good to consider. However, giving you some perspective from someone who is doing a chemistry degree at uni, it's an area of study that you really have to have passion in for it to be worth it and it isn't for everyone. Science degrees in general are some of the most demanding as you have labs, tutorials and lectures, which stack up really quickly if you are doing multiple courses with 3 hour labs for each subject. The employment opportunities aren't very broad with just a bachelors science or adv. science, so most people doing this as a single degree will go on and do further study like a PhD, so that's why I say it's something you have to passion in or it will feel like a nightmare workload.

 

[SweatyAsian#1]

The stuff learnt in HSC Chemistry probably isn't that relevant to mechanical engineering (know from a friend of mine doing the degree). If there was any small amount of knowledge necessary I doubt it will be assumed and they would teach it at uni, the person doing HSC chem won't really get any advantage as none of the topics go over much related to engineering (unless I guess you could say chemical or industrial engineering it would be helpful). If anything the science that might give some advantage is physics, but even here probably not much as the HSC physics is simplified and doesn't include any calculus, which would be important.



4 Unit maths is probably far more relevant to the mechanical engineering degree. I would say to keep them both for the first set of assessments and then after that make a decision. You never know what could happen in other subjects as well, so that's the more safer choice. The first module for chemistry in Year 12 is pretty easy as it's mostly calculations and a bit of theory so shouldn't be too taxing in terms of time, so should be able to be managed.

Also, in terms of keeping the options open, that's good to consider. However, giving you some perspective from someone who is doing a chemistry degree at uni, it's an area of study that you really have to have passion in for it to be worth it and it isn't for everyone. Science degrees in general are some of the most demanding as you have labs, tutorials and lectures, which stack up really quickly if you are doing multiple courses with 3 hour labs for each subject. The employment opportunities aren't very broad with just a bachelors science or adv. science, so most people doing this as a single degree will go on and do further study like a PhD, so that's why I say it's something you have to passion in or it will feel like a nightmare workload.

Hello! Thank you for your advice, but if you don't mind, allow me to ask 1 more question.

The most likely option I will take is both 4U and Chemistry atm, but in your experience, how much harder was 4U or 3U (If you didn't take it) in comparison to Chemistry? Like out of 10, if you say, find 3U 6/10 hard.
I don't do tutoring for Chem, probably won't do it in year 12 since I already do it for physics and 3U maths, so that's the main reason I'm "on the fence" with Chem or 4U.

 

[icycledough]

Hello fellow procrastinators, intrigued students, and bright minds,

As the title suggests, I'm stuck on whether I should choose:
1) 4U Mathematics for HSC and drop Chemistry in year 12 (10 units at the end)
OR
2) Should I stick with 3U and keep Chemistry to be on the safe side? (11 Units till the end)

Many people have told me to do 4U Maths AND Chemistry, and to drop either one if the burden is too high. Also, I fully and utterly understand that 4U would be the "best" option if I was interested in Mechanical Engineering but I like to keep my mind open to new ideas and subjects if it has very nice advantages. Teachers and cohort are both good, but I would require 75% and up for 4U to be advantageous, whilst I am finding 3U Maths hard on a scale of 6/10.
I also know that 4U takes a lot more time, effort and intelligence than chemistry, but I'm more interested in the Mechanical Engineering courses, etc. Although I am not set on going with this uni course, it seems to be the only one I'm interested atm.

Please let me know if you have any personal advice on what I should do and any experience you have with these subjects.
Thank you!

Having done both these subjects myself last year, I can definitely say they are 2 demanding subjects which definitely require dedicated hours and consistency put into it in order to achieve the best results. I was definitely a person who enjoyed the STEM subjects the best, and as I had been getting good results up to Year 12, I knew that I would be capable of doing both those subjects and getting the results I wanted if I made sure I was dedicated to them (which luckily, I managed to get in the end).

I wouldn't go as far as necessarily comparing the two, as both subjects require different styles of thinking and don't test the same content. 4U is definitely more application of concepts learned in class (Motion, Calculus, etc), which also requires a solid foundation of 3U and 2U knowledge. Chemistry requires a much greater understanding of theory-based concepts (especially in Mod 7 and Mod 8), which are then applied into questions.

As you're in Year 11 and going into Year 12 in Term 4, I would make my decision based on how you have performed in both Chemistry and Maths throughout the year, as well as which subject you have more of an interest for and are willing to put the hard work in for. Personally, I felt like I enjoyed Chemistry a bit more, as I did find 4U quite challenging throughout the whole year. From the top of my mind, I also have a few mates doing mechanical engineering and I'm pretty sure there aren't any pre-requisites for the course, but doing 4U would definitely help as there are quite a few maths subjects involved in any engineering course.

 

[jazz519]

Hello! Thank you for your advice, but if you don't mind, allow me to ask 1 more question.

The most likely option I will take is both 4U and Chemistry atm, but in your experience, how much harder was 4U or 3U (If you didn't take it) in comparison to Chemistry? Like out of 10, if you say, find 3U 6/10 hard.
I don't do tutoring for Chem, probably won't do it in year 12 since I already do it for physics and 3U maths, so that's the main reason I'm "on the fence" with Chem or 4U.

I did accelerated 2U math as I did HSC for it in Year 11. I had the option to take 4U based on the 2U mark, but decided against it because I knew I was going into a science degree and therefore wanted to focus more on the chemistry and physics subjects. I did do 3U math though, I would say I found it harder than chemistry. This is partly to do with I am naturally gifted in the sciences (like coming first in things at uni) so this is probably not representative of the normal student weighing up both of these subjects who might have similar abilities in both. I would say 3U was like 7/10 at the beginning and then 4/10 later, as it was manageable for me as I did heaps of practice papers (probably in excess of 50 so due to that you kind of know what can be asked in exams and how to answer different styles of questions).

In terms of the need for tutoring, this depends on each person. If you are self motivated and are at a decent intelligence level in the subject then you can self-learn and practice using exam papers. It might not be such a straight forward path as a high quality tutor can make clear what to study, types of questions asked and general ways to get good marks in the subject, but it’s not something you can’t achieve by yourself. Sciences is one of the subjects where no matter how much tutoring you do, if you don’t go and do practice questions and understand things for yourself, there’s no way you will get a good mark because the questions require application rather than just rote learning.

There is mainly two types of people who go tutoring that I have seen in my time as a chem tutor, those that need a lot of help because of a very poor foundation in year 11 (like failing basically) and those that got a relatively decent mark and just going for resources and marking primarily. If you are in that second group then what I wrote above will apply to you.