Is year 11 and 12 chemistry hard? (1 Viewer)

SaraJayne

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
30
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Hi!

I am thinking about doing Chemistry for year 11 and 12 and i was just wondering, if it really is as hard as everyone plays it out to be? Like, i get good grades in both math and science and chemistry really interests me! I actually find it quite fun! But a few people in my family dont really have that must faith in me...and that brings me down a little but i am actually quite confident about it...so yeah, anyway i was just wondering if it is really hard...
We get to choose 3 elective subjects and there are 3 compulsory subjects (religion, english and math) and i am planning on doing Biology, HPE and hopefully Chemistry! So please let me know!! xxx
 

madharris

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
2,160
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Well if you enjoy it then do the subject as you will be more inclined to study the subject (i mostly studied subjects which I enjoyed, and neglected the ones which I didn't - bad decision but I still did it)

tbh I found year 11 chemistry more difficult than year 12 chemistry, and at times it was boring, whereas I found most of year 12 pretty easy and interesting.

It's definitely not difficult if you keep on top of it, only when you cram will it become difficult.

Year 11 chemistry is basically what chemistry is and year 12 chemistry is what chemistry is used for

Btw PE, chem and bio is a really good combination :) - even though I didn't do PE i wish I had
 

Shadowless

Member
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
342
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Well if you enjoy it then do the subject as you will be more inclined to study the subject (i mostly studied subjects which I enjoyed, and neglected the ones which I didn't - bad decision but I still did it)

tbh I found year 11 chemistry more difficult than year 12 chemistry, and at times it was boring, whereas I found most of year 12 pretty easy and interesting.

It's definitely not difficult if you keep on top of it, only when you cram will it become difficult.

Year 11 chemistry is basically what chemistry is and year 12 chemistry is what chemistry is used for

Btw PE, chem and bio is a really good combination :) - even though I didn't do PE i wish I had
+1
 

SaraJayne

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
30
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Thank you so much for replying! You've just given me so much more motivation! Do you think i should not listen to what everyone says and just do what i think is right and what im interested and confident about? Xx
 

feeo_o

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
13
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
If you're interested in chemistry, then you should definitely do it. You'll probably do well in it if you like it.
 

SaraJayne

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
30
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Thank You! I think i will do Chemistry! Will doing 2 sciences be okay to handle? Like would it be really hard to do 2?
 

feeo_o

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
13
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
Thank you so much for replying! You've just given me so much more motivation! Do you think i should not listen to what everyone says and just do what i think is right and what im interested and confident about? Xx
Don't listen to what everyone says. I think you'll really like it. It's probably my favourite subject that I'm doing.
 

feeo_o

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
13
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
Thank You! I think i will do Chemistry! Will doing 2 sciences be okay to handle? Like would it be really hard to do 2?
If you're consistent with your work and rarely (or never) cram, then it won't hard to handle. I'm doing both Chemistry and Biology, and I find them both really interesting, and that kind of motivates me to study them, because when I learn, I actually want to understand the work, and not just rote learn it for the sake of exams and assessments. But there are some things that you just have to memorise.
 

feeo_o

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
13
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
Do you have to be really good at math?
There's barely any maths in Biology, and if there is, it's REALLY simple. With chemistry, the actual calculations are easy (basic multiplication, division, subtraction, addition), however, understanding what the question is asking can be a bit tricky sometimes. But, no. You don't have to be really good at math.
 

SaraJayne

Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
30
Gender
Female
HSC
2015
Okay that sounds pretty good to me! Thank you so so much for taking the time to reply to me and giving me advice! :)
 
Last edited:

feeo_o

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
13
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2013
Okay that sounds pretty good to me! Thank you so so much for taking the time to reply to me and give me advice! :)
No problem. I'm assuming you're going to consider doing Chemistry now? If you do, good luck with it! I'm pretty sure you'll do well if you put the effort in. And you can just ask any time for help. :)
 

LoveHateSchool

Retired Sept '14
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Messages
5,136
Location
The Fires of Mordor
Gender
Female
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
You seem really keen on it, so you should try it :)

I found the yr 11 course harder than the yr 12, but it may have also been contributed to the fact our teacher was away a lot.

I think the thing that makes chem 'hard' is that it is not a subject to cram, and to get good results you really need to have a more consistent effort. And no you don't have to be amazing at math, the maths you use in science is very applied so you shouldn't struggle with it as it can be quite basic.

It's good to have done as some of the yr 12 concepts will be useful for uni chem, if you are going to take a science course after HS.

I did two sciences in the HSC, and it's fine workload. Bio was my fave and best subject :D
 

Phillip Tran

New Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
13
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Uni Grad
2015
+2
I did horrible in my Chem Prelims... Pretty sure I failed in that test if I could remember properly. Most of my friends dropped the subject after the Prelims.... but somehow Year 12 Chemistry was easier LOL
Thank You! I think i will do Chemistry! Will doing 2 sciences be okay to handle? Like would it be really hard to do 2?
Back in high school, I was one of the only 3 students who did 3 science subjects (Bio, Chem & Phys). I swear everyone told me to drop a science subject because of the amount of workload they think I had to do. But let me tell you now, if you love a subject alot and find it very interesting to do, then you can do great in the exams. That is probably one of the reasons why I didn't do so well in the Prelim course - it wasn't as fun as the Year 12 course. Saying that, you still have to put in a consideral amount of effort to really ace these subjects!
Do you have to be really good at math?
I did 3 Units Maths and Advance Mathematics and I can tell you that you don't have to be good at maths to do Chem or Bio. The hardest maths in these subjects are just substituting numbers into equations which are already given. For Bio, I don't even think you have to do maths. The only time I could remember doing maths in Bio was estimating the size of red blood cells or something (I can't remember what it was exactly) and using a formula for it. Physics is the one where being good at maths really helps you (especially for topics like Projectile Motion), but you can still do fine without having a good Maths background.
 

madharris

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
Messages
2,160
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
+2
I did horrible in my Chem Prelims... Pretty sure I failed in that test if I could remember properly. Most of my friends dropped the subject after the Prelims.... but somehow Year 12 Chemistry was easier LOL
Haha! I failed my prelims too for chem! I think i got like 47%! I remember telling my friend "I hope I can get a band 5" haha
- in saying that though, i only crammed for prelims, didn't study at all :p
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,354
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
Haha! I failed my prelims too for chem! I think i got like 47%! I remember telling my friend "I hope I can get a band 5" haha
- in saying that though, i only crammed for prelims, didn't study at all :p
You're not alone .
 

nerdasdasd

Dont.msg.me.about.english
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
5,354
Location
A, A
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2017
Haha! I failed my prelims too for chem! I think i got like 47%! I remember telling my friend "I hope I can get a band 5" haha
- in saying that though, i only crammed for prelims, didn't study at all :p
You're not alone .
 

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

Top