Should I change investigating science to biology? (1 Viewer)

Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
32
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Hey everyone, I'm at the end of year 10. I kind of fooled around in year 10 English (despise the subject) and forced to do English Standard (NSW). I go to a really shit school The subjects I'm doing are:
Math Adv
English Standard (ES)
Business Studies (BS)
Software Engineering (SE)
Chemistry
Investigating Science (IS)

I received the list of the subjects I got. I've got a friend who is considering changing SE to Economics while I want to change SE to Economics. I enjoyed Commerce and think Economics could further expand my love for business. So I'm most likely going to change SE to Economics.

The more conflicted matter is changing IS to Bio. I've got friends who do accelerated IS and they think it's a load of bullocks. I'd like to work either in medicine, law, business/economics, or software/IT. To change IS to Bio is a huge stretch but a possible one. It'd involve changing IS (line 3) to Business studies and changing Business Studies in line 5 to biology. A HUGE stretch but most likely not going to happen. Otherwise I could do 2 sciences (chem, bio) and Inves, leaving BS but I'd rather keep BS.
I'm really concerned with the workload being too much to comprehend and understand. Any thoughts?
 

PhoenixG1rl

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2024
Messages
41
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I don't know anything about investigating science, but I've found bio really easy. Its a pretty chill science (the most "english-y" of the sciences offered at my school, compared to chem and physics which are much more math-based) but as long as you can interpret data and remember stuff, you'll be fine. (that goes for any subject really)
Sorry if that is not at all helpful, but sharing my experience in the hopes that its somewhat relevant :)
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
32
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
I don't know anything about investigating science, but I've found bio really easy. Its a pretty chill science (the most "english-y" of the sciences offered at my school, compared to chem and physics which are much more math-based) but as long as you can interpret data and remember stuff, you'll be fine. (that goes for any subject really)
Sorry if that is not at all helpful, but sharing my experience in the hopes that its somewhat relevant :)
Yeah no worries. Investigating science is just science skills. Moreso explaining why something happens instead of how it happens. It was reccomended to do with another science course but is honestly a load of horseshit according to my friends doing accelerated IS.

I'm just a little worried I won't be able to keep up with 2 main sciences (and IS), economics, math adv, english standard. I know that bio requires a lot of english which I am mostly concerned about and is very theory content heavy. I suck at writing essays in English so would I struggle with writing paragraphs to bio questions?

There's also the whole dropping a subject in yr 12 which I'd rather not do, so I can have a fallback incase I do poorly in a subject on my HSC. Any thoughts or advice?
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2024
Messages
92
Gender
Female
HSC
2026
Yeah no worries. Investigating science is just science skills. Moreso explaining why something happens instead of how it happens. It was reccomended to do with another science course but is honestly a load of horseshit according to my friends doing accelerated IS.

I'm just a little worried I won't be able to keep up with 2 main sciences (and IS), economics, math adv, english standard. I know that bio requires a lot of english which I am mostly concerned about and is very theory content heavy. I suck at writing essays in English so would I struggle with writing paragraphs to bio questions?

There's also the whole dropping a subject in yr 12 which I'd rather not do, so I can have a fallback incase I do poorly in a subject on my HSC. Any thoughts or advice?
Honestly doing 2 main sciences+ IS should be fine as IS is a pretty chill subject compared to many others. As long as u are good with time management and u have good organisational skills I should be fine
 

PhoenixG1rl

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2024
Messages
41
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I know that bio requires a lot of english which I am mostly concerned about and is very theory content heavy. I suck at writing essays in English so would I struggle with writing paragraphs to bio questions?
Despite having a fair bit of writing, bio long answer questions are a lot simpler (for me at least) than english essays (I hate english too), and I find the content really easy to remember because I'm interested in it, and if you're somewhat keen on med it will probably be similar for you. I absolutely despised the microscope pracs though, thankfully there aren't that many for the year 12 course :).
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
32
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Despite having a fair bit of writing, bio long answer questions are a lot simpler (for me at least) than english essays (I hate english too), and I find the content really easy to remember because I'm interested in it, and if you're somewhat keen on med it will probably be similar for you. I absolutely despised the microscope pracs though, thankfully there aren't that many for the year 12 course :).
Sweet thank you! :)
I'm not sure whether to change BS to Bio. I'm heavily on the fence. On one hand, I would much prefer BS but Bio might be better for me in regards to medicine or possibly better scaling.
Any thoughts or advice?
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
32
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Honestly doing 2 main sciences+ IS should be fine as IS is a pretty chill subject compared to many others. As long as u are good with time management and u have good organisational skills I should be fine
Yeah thank you!
I have poor time management and organisational skills (I have no schedule and I barely study like at all) so I will be pretty affected by that. I think it's moreso a matter of which subject I prefer. I prefer Business Studies far more than biology and think I could definitely do better in it BUT bio would apply better to medicine and would have better scaling. Any thoughts and advice?
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2024
Messages
92
Gender
Female
HSC
2026
Yeah thank you!
I have poor time management and organisational skills (I have no schedule and I barely study like at all) so I will be pretty affected by that. I think it's moreso a matter of which subject I prefer. I prefer Business Studies far more than biology and think I could definitely do better in it BUT bio would apply better to medicine and would have better scaling. Any thoughts and advice?
Well if ur doing good in science than I think it will be better to do bio because then u won’t have to do a bridging course which costs money and is fast paced. But if not business studies is good too and might be easier than bio.
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
180
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Firstly, I don't think bio is a prerequisite for med anywhere, it's just assumed knowledge in some unis. I think chem used to be a prerequisite at USYD, but they cancelled it. However, since bio scaling isn't necessarily up there with subjects like phys, chem and eco, a lot of people who are aiming for the top marks to get into med don't do it at all. Don't worry about doing bio if you're just concerned about med.

Don't change BS to bio if you're interested in it, since it supports eco really well and tends to be on the easier side. I think it would be justified to change IS to bio, though, because bio is an actual science that might help you in the future. Personally I found y11 bio really easy, and although y12 bio is quite content-heavy it's definitely not that bad. But that's only if you're interested in it.
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2024
Messages
32
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Firstly, I don't think bio is a prerequisite for med anywhere, it's just assumed knowledge in some unis. I think chem used to be a prerequisite at USYD, but they cancelled it. However, since bio scaling isn't necessarily up there with subjects like phys, chem and eco, a lot of people who are aiming for the top marks to get into med don't do it at all. Don't worry about doing bio if you're just concerned about med.

Don't change BS to bio if you're interested in it, since it supports eco really well and tends to be on the easier side. I think it would be justified to change IS to bio, though, because bio is an actual science that might help you in the future. Personally I found y11 bio really easy, and although y12 bio is quite content-heavy it's definitely not that bad. But that's only if you're interested in it.
IS to Bio is such a weird stretch that I don't even know if I could do it. As you can see here I change line 5 to Bio.... and line 4 to economics. But then once I change BS to bio, I may be able to change IS to BS. The problem is there might not be any placement to transfer into another business studies class when I'm already in one which is a problem. Also I'm not sure if I can handle Econ, Chem, Math Adv, and Bio all together. I just prefer Business Studies far more than Biology. Any thoughts?
1733641397265.jpeg
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
180
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
IS to Bio is such a weird stretch that I don't even know if I could do it. As you can see here I change line 5 to Bio.... and line 4 to economics. But then once I change BS to bio, I may be able to change IS to BS. The problem is there might not be any placement to transfer into another business studies class when I'm already in one which is a problem. Also I'm not sure if I can handle Econ, Chem, Math Adv, and Bio all together. I just prefer Business Studies far more than Biology. Any thoughts?
View attachment 46038
I'd say that bio isn't that much harder than IS on top of eco, chem and maths adv in y11. Y11 tends to be a lot of work either way, but the content's easier so you can get away with studying less. It's like a taster of different subjects that you're interested in or good at. If it's a stretch then don't do it, but it might be worthwhile checking if it's a possibility to do the double switch that you're talking about. However, it doesn't seem that you're all that keen on doing bio anyways, so it's completely up to you.
 

PhoenixG1rl

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2024
Messages
41
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Whatever you do its always best to talk it through with your careers teacher and whoever's in charge of making the timetables/classes so you know that it's the right choice. Also talk to people at your school who do the subjects if you get the chance, they'll be able to tell you more about workload/difficulty for each class as your school might teach/grade subjects slightly differently than they do at anyone else's and it can really depend on the teacher sometimes. (Not that you should choose a class/not choose a class based on who's teaching it, but it can affect your decision.)
 

Hehehe22

Active Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
180
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
Whatever you do its always best to talk it through with your careers teacher and whoever's in charge of making the timetables/classes so you know that it's the right choice. Also talk to people at your school who do the subjects if you get the chance, they'll be able to tell you more about workload/difficulty for each class as your school might teach/grade subjects slightly differently than they do at anyone else's and it can really depend on the teacher sometimes. (Not that you should choose a class/not choose a class based on who's teaching it, but it can affect your decision.)
Nah this is really true, the teacher can make or break it in terms of your interest and motivation in a subject
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top