chemistry or physics (1 Viewer)

sami90210

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Hi all I have chosen chemistry for next year (I'm in year 10 lol) but everyone I speak to in year 11/12 says its so bad and that they're going to drop it/have dropped it. I think schools have an option to change a subject within the first week of year 11 or something, should I drop chem and pick up another subject?

I really enjoy physics but I believe chem is going to be more useful as I am planning to study either nursing or undergrad science for medicine.
 

jazz519

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If you are going to do science subjects at uni, chemistry probably has more transferable skills as physics is more useful for the engineering side of things

The reason why people say that is they may have different interests or didn't perform as well in the subject. I might be a bit biased since I like chemistry a lot, but you should understand that the experience of one student in a subject shouldn't really be a reason you switch subjects. This is because everyone will be different in terms of what they are good at or find interesting. I'm sure the same argument can be made by people doing physics or other subjects that they wish they had changed or dropped a subject. I would ask your friends their reasoning behind wanting to drop it, because it may come down to factors such as a poor teacher or different interests etc.
 

idkkdi

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Hi all I have chosen chemistry for next year (I'm in year 10 lol) but everyone I speak to in year 11/12 says its so bad and that they're going to drop it/have dropped it. I think schools have an option to change a subject within the first week of year 11 or something, should I drop chem and pick up another subject?

I really enjoy physics but I believe chem is going to be more useful as I am planning to study either nursing or undergrad science for medicine.
Do chem.

*Or even better, do chem and phys.
 
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TheShy

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Look into the course forboth yr 11 and 12 for chem and phys, and choose which one seems more interesting. Don't worry bout how others r doing with it, if they are doing bad, high chance that they find it boring. So choose which one has more interesting content
 

jojosiwa123

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Do the one you find interesting, both subjects get dropped by students because they can be quite difficult. You're less likely to drop something you find interesting and you'll be more motivated to study as well.
 

Etho_x

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Hi all I have chosen chemistry for next year (I'm in year 10 lol) but everyone I speak to in year 11/12 says its so bad and that they're going to drop it/have dropped it. I think schools have an option to change a subject within the first week of year 11 or something, should I drop chem and pick up another subject?

I really enjoy physics but I believe chem is going to be more useful as I am planning to study either nursing or undergrad science for medicine.
My personal advice is why let other people influence your choices? You know what you want to do!

To put it simply, if Chemistry is going to be more useful for your uni course/future career, straight up you should be doing Chem. That's all for that. You can choose Physics though if you want to as it's good to do some subjects for fun (for me I'm doing Drama for fun). May I also say that Chem is a massive prerequisite or assumed knowledge for a lot of science university courses as opposed to Physics which as jazz519 has said above is more useful for engineering-based courses.
 

pikachu975

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Hi all I have chosen chemistry for next year (I'm in year 10 lol) but everyone I speak to in year 11/12 says its so bad and that they're going to drop it/have dropped it. I think schools have an option to change a subject within the first week of year 11 or something, should I drop chem and pick up another subject?

I really enjoy physics but I believe chem is going to be more useful as I am planning to study either nursing or undergrad science for medicine.
If you enjoy physics imo just keep that, unless chem is a PREREQUISITE or ASSUMED KNOWLEDGE for ur uni degree. If it's not then I wouldn't bother since they'll teach the required content anyway. For example I did first year economics and it was basically the same as HSC economics apparently but it was still fine even without doing it during HSC.

And also yeah just decide for yourself rather than using other people's opinions, e.g. I dropped chem even though most people would say a phys/biology combination is weird.
 

Etho_x

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If you enjoy physics imo just keep that, unless chem is a PREREQUISITE or ASSUMED KNOWLEDGE for ur uni degree. If it's not then I wouldn't bother since they'll teach the required content anyway. For example I did first year economics and it was basically the same as HSC economics apparently but it was still fine even without doing it during HSC.

And also yeah just decide for yourself rather than using other people's opinions, e.g. I dropped chem even though most people would say a phys/biology combination is weird.
Phys/bio combination is actually reasonably common surprisingly so not a bad choice...
 

sami90210

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I might keep chem as physics is very maths-based, and I already come from 5.2 math doing 2 unit next year so another math subject would burn me alive heh
 

Etho_x

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I might keep chem as physics is very maths-based, and I already come from 5.2 math doing 2 unit next year so another math subject would burn me alive heh
From what my Physics teacher has told me, the minimum amount of math needed for Physics is at a Year 9 level. It's mostly substitution into formulas and conversion of units. So you're definitely capable I'm sure of that but I suppose if you want to get into a uni course that doesn't require Medicine, I'd suggest ditching any irrelevant subjects that are going to take up a lot of your time.
 

pikachu975

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I might keep chem as physics is very maths-based, and I already come from 5.2 math doing 2 unit next year so another math subject would burn me alive heh
I THINK chemistry has harder maths than physics, because physics was just basic knowledge about substituting, equating formulas, converting between units.
 

sami90210

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i think im keeping chemistry i already started studying the syllabus kogpreawfjkgrpthegarjfproeh
I'm so indecisive i hate this
 

Etho_x

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i think im keeping chemistry i already started studying the syllabus kogpreawfjkgrpthegarjfproeh
I'm so indecisive i hate this
That's alright, it's good you're getting a head start! If you need any help with Yr 11 Chemistry shout me a DM and I'll try to respond
 

sami90210

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That's alright, it's good you're getting a head start! If you need any help with Yr 11 Chemistry shout me a DM and I'll try to respond
Bruh you're actually so supportive I swear ppl on this website are more helpful than my teachers
 

Etho_x

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Bruh you're actually so supportive I swear ppl on this website are more helpful than my teachers
It's fair to say that most students you speak to for advice are more helpful than your average teacher who either can't string two sentences together or gives you a completely vague answer for a question you need help with.
 

sami90210

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It's fair to say that most students you speak to for advice are more helpful than your average teacher who either can't string two sentences together or gives you a completely vague answer for a question you need help with
right? the science teacher I've had for 3 years can't say anything but give worksheets on google classroom and expect the class to actually learn
I just hope I don't have him for chem because then ill have to invest in a lot of external tuition lmao
 

Etho_x

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right? the science teacher I've had for 3 years can't say anything but give worksheets on google classroom and expect the class to actually learn
I just hope I don't have him for chem because then ill have to invest in a lot of external tuition lmao
For me, I’ve had no option but to do Physics this year due to the subject algorithm at my school. If having no interest for the subject was bad enough, I also have a teacher who uses videos and worksheets to teach us all the time and I swear she makes sure to get as much theory on the page as possible so she can open her mouth less. Not to mention she’s very incapable of teaching Physics as she looks at some kind of textbook nearly every time a student asks a question. From what she’s told our class, she did Physics online for university. I don’t think anyone who has not had hands on experience at university should be teaching in a classroom, after all us students depend on the teacher to teach properly and doing your degree a half-assed way to get into teaching is potentially setting up the students for failure.
 

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