Bio or Eco? (2 Viewers)

[LIZard_]

Subject selection ends soon and I can't decide between Biology or Economics.
My current subjects are:

• Advanced English
• Advanced Maths
• Modern
• SDD
• Language Continuers

I don't know what course I want to do later at uni but I am interested in DNA, genetics, genealogy, ethnicity type stuff so I should do Bio but for this will I also need Chemistry?

Tbh I don't really have a reason to do Eco, other than it scales well and it's apparently fun. I'm kind of put off from Bio because of the Year 11 syllabus, amount of notes and memorising, and I heard lots of people saying they regret choosing it.

 

[Minari243]

I think that if you are interested in those topics, you should do it. Chemistry might help but I don't think its necessarily important for it. If you like those topics then I'm sure you would enjoy studying it. I'm not speaking from experience though, I'm also in yr 10.

 

[Minari243]

Biology would probably also help with your writing, along with modern.

 

[jazz519]

Biology will probably be more important to you if you are going down the root of DNA, genetics etc. The stuff you will learn in high school chemistry is not really related to biology, maybe it might be useful if in your degree if you have to do any chem subjects at uni but if you don't then chemistry won't be that important per say, because every part of chemistry you will need will be probably taught to you

 

[SuperAltastic]

Well when you start at uni and you choose a natural sciences major (anything except stats, math, chem and phys) you will do first year biology. I did bio for the hsc and it helped only for first sem first year but thats about it from the next sem onwards it was all new stuff.

 

[BLIT2014]

How does your school typically perform in both subjects?

Lots of people find economics really boring/hard when I did it, so you will find people not enjoying both subjects.

 

[BLIT2014]

From the sounds of it, you seem to be more leaning towards Biology.

 

[Drdusk]

Picking eco because of scaling isn't a good idea.

 

[sida1049]

I don't know what course I want to do later at uni but I am interested in DNA, genetics, genealogy, ethnicity type stuff so I should do Bio but for this will I also need Chemistry?

If you might be interested in doing biology in uni, then HSC biology is a good idea.

Tbh I don't really have a reason to do Eco, other than it scales well and it's apparently fun. I'm kind of put off from Bio because of the Year 11 syllabus, amount of notes and memorising, and I heard lots of people saying they regret choosing it.

I did both biology and economics in year 11. I found economics way more interesting and useful (even outside of school/uni). Moreover, I found that studying economics somewhat helped develop my essay writing skill (even more so than English, since English essays are nothing like what you'd write in university). I had some minor interest in biology, but I personally found preliminary biology to be boring, and my teacher wasn't very good. I dropped biology with no regrets in Year 12.

Seeing as though you're studying modern history, I'd actually recommend economics over biology purely on the basis that you'd enjoy the former more.

If you're still interested in pursuing biology in uni, that's no problem; not doing HSC biology will not prevent you from doing biology in uni, plus you can always self-study biology during the long break after the HSC. That way, you don't have to go through the memorisation-based teaching style of Year 11/12 biology, and you can specialise on topics that you're interested in (e.g. DNA and genetics) without having to go through the topics you might not be interested in (e.g. an entire god damn section on mangroves).

 

[LIZard_]

How does your school typically perform in both subjects?

Lots of people find economics really boring/hard when I did it, so you will find people not enjoying both subjects.

Tbh I'm not sure how my school does at those subjects. I think I'll choose a Science over Eco. Would doing Chem be more useful for population genetics (since that's what I'm mostly interested in)? A lot of university courses seem to have Chem as 'Assumed Knowledge' rather than Bio.

 

[LIZard_]

If you might be interested in doing biology in uni, then HSC biology is a good idea.



I did both biology and economics in year 11. I found economics way more interesting and useful (even outside of school/uni). Moreover, I found that studying economics somewhat helped develop my essay writing skill (even more so than English, since English essays are nothing like what you'd write in university). I had some minor interest in biology, but I personally found preliminary biology to be boring, and my teacher wasn't very good. I dropped biology with no regrets in Year 12.

Seeing as though you're studying modern history, I'd actually recommend economics over biology purely on the basis that you'd enjoy the former more.

If you're still interested in pursuing biology in uni, that's no problem; not doing HSC biology will not prevent you from doing biology in uni, plus you can always self-study biology during the long break after the HSC. That way, you don't have to go through the memorisation-based teaching style of Year 11/12 biology, and you can specialise on topics that you're interested in (e.g. DNA and genetics) without having to go through the topics you might not be interested in (e.g. an entire god damn section on mangroves).

I'm kind of worried about not choosing a Science though. In the future, I might choose to do something with population genetics but I don't see myself doing anything Economics related at uni. I did Commerce in Year 9 and 10 and found it boring (not sure if Eco is anything like Commerce). Also, I'm not really into writing essays (it's actually my biggest concern for Modern).

If you're still interested in pursuing biology in uni, that's no problem; not doing HSC biology will not prevent you from doing biology in uni,

I thought that for most Science courses you had to complete either two of Bio, Chem, Physics or Adv Maths. Also, a lot of courses say that Chem is assumed knowledge while Bio is just recommended. Should I choose Chem instead?

 

[Drdusk]

I thought that for most Science courses you had to complete either two of Bio, Chem, Physics or Adv Maths. Also, a lot of courses say that Chem is assumed knowledge while Bio is just recommended. Should I choose Chem instead?

Assumed knowledge doesn't mean you have to have done it. They will still teach it to you from scratch.
Prerequisites on the other hand mean you have to have done it.

 

[D-BOSS]

Subject selection ends soon and I can't decide between Biology or Economics.
My current subjects are:

• Advanced English
• Advanced Maths
• Modern
• SDD
• Language Continuers

I don't know what course I want to do later at uni but I am interested in DNA, genetics, genealogy, ethnicity type stuff so I should do Bio but for this will I also need Chemistry?

Tbh I don't really have a reason to do Eco, other than it scales well and it's apparently fun. I'm kind of put off from Bio because of the Year 11 syllabus, amount of notes and memorising, and I heard lots of people saying they regret choosing it.

Drop Modern, SDD, Language (you want to do law right?). Pick up Bio, Chemistry then choose between Physics or Eco (or maybe even Business Stds or Legal Studies)

 

[sida1049]

I'm kind of worried about not choosing a Science though. In the future, I might choose to do something with population genetics but I don't see myself doing anything Economics related at uni. I did Commerce in Year 9 and 10 and found it boring (not sure if Eco is anything like Commerce). Also, I'm not really into writing essays (it's actually my biggest concern for Modern).

Economics is nothing like Commerce in Year 9/10. I found the latter incredibly boring as well.

I personally didn't like essays in the HSC either, with the exception of economics. Economics essays tend to be much more logical, and they're the kind of essays where if you understand the economic concepts taught to you, then you can generally make these essays up on the spot and they'll be good.

That said, if you'd prefer minimising essays, then switching out modern history and economics for sciences would be fair.

I thought that for most Science courses you had to complete either two of Bio, Chem, Physics or Adv Maths. Also, a lot of courses say that Chem is assumed knowledge while Bio is just recommended. Should I choose Chem instead?

As Drdusk mentioned, it's recommended to do a bit of science before going into a science degree, but it's not required. For biology, I'd argue that can come into uni fresh and be just fine.

I would personally recommend HSC Chemistry purely due to the fact that chemistry is harder to self-study than biology. At USYD, one of the hardest first year units for chemistry/biology majors is a unit called molecular biology, so chemistry would definitely be useful here!

In the end, it's really up to you. Have a look at the HSC syllabi for biology and chemistry, and pick the one that's most appealing.

Aside: I'd actually recommend picking up Mathematics Extension 1, since maths does come in handy (e.g. if you're into population genetics, then at uni you can expect to see quite a bit of statistics appearing, particularly if you end up working on research projects). But for whatever reason if MX1 isn't appealing to you, you can still learn the concepts at uni so no worries.