Choosing Physics or Biology? (1 Viewer)

[Winterseason]

I am in two minds whether to do Physics or Biology. I plan to take Chemistry but only taking two sciences. I think three would be a bit too much. I have term rotations of the 3 sciences in Year 9 and 10. I found Biology easier but then again the test was easy practically every got 44/45 or 45/45 bar two people. All I know is some say Biology has a lot of memorising and Physics has abstract concepts.

This following question may seem strange but how do you know whether you like the subject or not? In all three sciences I had times feeling when will this lesson end.

Could anyone give me an insight what both subjects are like and the type of people who like it or suited for it.

 

[Kurosaki]

If u want I can send some scanned pages to you from a couple of textbooks so u can see what the content is like

 

[honey23]

I do biology and not physics; though I am only in year 11, I'll tell you what I think
Biology is very interesting, it is my favourite subject at the moment. The concepts aren't hard to grasp, but there is a lot of memorising of cell structures, types of animals, etc.
However, if you have a great teacher like mine, it shouldn't be too hard.
I quite enjoy learning about our bodies and the environment. It really depends if you are interested in this kind of thing, otherwise studying could be tedious and annoying.
Good luck in your choice!

 

[Dan895]

I have done all three up until last monday when I dropped Bio. I would say Physics complements Chem more because they get you in the mindset of the 'harder' sciences and are just allround more enjoyable to me. Plus physics has much better scalling historically. So if you are doing the any maths > general I would suggest doing Phys.

 

[RivalryofTroll]

This following question may seem strange but how do you know whether you like the subject or not? In all three sciences I had times feeling when will this lesson end.

Could anyone give me an insight what both subjects are like and the type of people who like it or suited for it.

Whether you like the subject or not?

Indicators include:
- How you feel when you're in the class? Bored, excited, happy, etc. Do you look forward to attending the class or are you dreading it?
- How much effort do you put into the subject? Time on making notes & doing questions, memorising/covering the syllabus, etc.
- Are you happy with putting this much effort or does it like an 'eternal hell'?
- If you're doing well in it, you're more inclined to like the subject.

I do Physics and I'm relatively decent at it (it's actually one of my weakest subjects, if not the weakest) but I have to say... people are misinformed by the level of mathematics needed... Physics isn't just all about CALCULATIONS (in fact, in my school... the guy topping Physics atm only does 2U maths... and most of the Physics students are doing 3U or 3U + 4U)...

Yes, Biology is probably more memorising-inclined than Physics but the content load for Physics isn't small either....

Yes, Physics rewards understanding more than most HSC subjects. My understanding for Physics is basically 'crap' so it's defs the reason why I tend to do better at Business Studies or Economics (where hard work and grit alone can get you through... basically because of their nature - know your syllabus and you'll do well) compared to Physics....

In a sense, Biology is similar to the 'nature' of humanities - social sciences or histories.

Biology rewards the effort that one makes when it comes to memorising the syllabus...

 

[Kurosaki]

If u want I can send some scanned pages to you from a couple of textbooks so u can see what the content is like

I sent you them

 

[Winterseason]

I sent you them

Thank you very much hopefully it can help me decide.

 

[Kurosaki]

Thank you very much hopefully it can help me decide.

No problem

 

[wannabesurgeon]

Whether you like the subject or not?

Indicators include:
- How you feel when you're in the class? Bored, excited, happy, etc. Do you look forward to attending the class or are you dreading it?
- How much effort do you put into the subject? Time on making notes & doing questions, memorising/covering the syllabus, etc.
- Are you happy with putting this much effort or does it like an 'eternal hell'?
- If you're doing well in it, you're more inclined to like the subject.

I do Physics and I'm relatively decent at it (it's actually one of my weakest subjects, if not the weakest) but I have to say... people are misinformed by the level of mathematics needed... Physics isn't just all about CALCULATIONS (in fact, in my school... the guy topping Physics atm only does 2U maths... and most of the Physics students are doing 3U or 3U + 4U)...

Yes, Biology is probably more memorising-inclined than Physics but the content load for Physics isn't small either....

Yes, Physics rewards understanding more than most HSC subjects. My understanding for Physics is basically 'crap' so it's defs the reason why I tend to do better at Business Studies or Economics (where hard work and grit alone can get you through... basically because of their nature - know your syllabus and you'll do well) compared to Physics....

In a sense, Biology is similar to the 'nature' of humanities - social sciences or histories.

Biology rewards the effort that one makes when it comes to memorising the syllabus...

Couldn't agree more with this ^^

In my opinion Biology if your also taking Chemistry. It kinda links with chem in terms of some of the things you learn. Yes, biology has a lot of memorising but it pays off if you find it interesting. Though in Yr 11 I found biology to be quite boring but now in Yr12 I absolutely love it!

The problem with doing Chem and Physics is the workload.. Yes biology involves doing a lot of memorising and work but Physics and Chem have an extreme workload and so many concepts to learn.

 

[Jimmy2064]

I am in two minds whether to do Physics or Biology. I plan to take Chemistry but only taking two sciences. I think three would be a bit too much. I have term rotations of the 3 sciences in Year 9 and 10. I found Biology easier but then again the test was easy practically every got 44/45 or 45/45 bar two people. All I know is some say Biology has a lot of memorising and Physics has abstract concepts.

This following question may seem strange but how do you know whether you like the subject or not? In all three sciences I had times feeling when will this lesson end.

Could anyone give me an insight what both subjects are like and the type of people who like it or suited for it.

\

Currently in yr 12 and doing all 3 sciences. Just to start, I HATE chemistry - very mathematics type inclined with reactions etc (and just a bore for me) Just not my fav at all, but hey, you might like it. Biology is easy, as some people have already stated before its mainly memorising content in regard to syllabus points. If you put a bit of time in (which I don't and still do well - so not overly necessary) then its easy and pretty interesting. Many people perceive physics to be a lot of calculations etc. Not really. My teacher said something like 5% of marks (or maybe it was 15, cant remember all too well) in the hsc physics exam are derived from calculation based questions. I find it really interesting as well. There is a bit of math involved however, but I'm only doing 2U math and I find Physics quite easy in comparison, so don't get bogged down by the idea that it'll be really hard. Physics should scale better, but you really should make your decision on what aspects of science you will enjoy most.

If you like learning about the environment, human body (systems), genetics etc from yr 10 then Biology is a good option.

If you like learning about motion, forces etc. in the physical world, space, function of motors/generators etc. then Physics is your subject. It is a bit abstract yes, but nothing you won't be able to get your head around with a bit of work.

 

[timeslowsdown]

I was in the exact same position as you and decided to drop physics. I like physics, but it was my weakest science out of the 3 of them, so I dropped it. Best decision ever, because I wouldn't have got as high an ATAR. Also, I loved the HSC biology syllabus; IT IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN PRELIMINARY SERIOUSLY. Yes there's a lot of content, but it's easier to do well in because a lot of it is learning the content which I loved doing because it's so fascinating.

 

[madharris]

I didn't do physics, only chem and bio:

Year 11 Bio: Most boring thing of my life - failed almost everything because I was so uninterested in it that I didn't study - was going to drop it but decided to wait until the year 12 half yearlies before I dropped anything -

Year 12 Bio: The subject suddenly got a lot better! I found myself being interested in class and wanting to actually study the subject, though it is mostly wrote learning and thus some of the concepts might not be properly understood, I found it extremely interesting and actually in a way 'fun'! If you can get through the boring prelim topics then bio is worth it! The topics include: the basics of the human body (enzymes and such), evolution, genetics, diseases, communications, biochemistry and a few others!

Tbh, everyone told me that bio was a very content heavy subject however, if you find it interesting then it doesn't seem like that much! Chem was actually the subject that I thought had more content in it, but maybe that was just the fact that I spent so much time studying it

EDIT: I realised that I don't actually think I gave you anything useful ~~ I'm so tired D:

 

[Praer]

Physics > Biology
All my friends that do biology says that there're billions of things to remember.
Whilst physics tend to lean towards the concepts, biology is all about route learning.
If you have time, go do bio. If you are smart go do physics.
As a side note. Physics scales much better than bio

 

[starshine02]

I think it depends on which subject interests you more because physics and biology are both quite different. I'd imagine chemistry to be the 'in-between' subject but I think either of those sciences would complement chemistry. I do chemistry and biology and the pair didn't really have that much in common during the preliminary course but for hsc I can sort of see the similarities and how they can complement chemistry. I guess another factor to consider would also be the teacher and the scaling.

 

[Vandal]

I do biology, chemistry and physics.
There is a huge difference between physics and biology.
Biology requires very very basic maths, requires a lot of rote-learning and you will find it very boring if you are a type of person who learns better through critical thinking.
Physics has much more maths than biology but still very basic maths. It requires much more conceptual understanding though, rote-learning is very bad for physics as you have to understand the concepts very well in order to answer some questions. Have a look at the special relativity chapter, see if you like it (it isn't in depth though, relativity goes way beyond that).
I personally like chemistry and physics very much and they complement each other very well.
It really depends on what you like and what you want to do later at university. By the way, if you want to do medicine you do not need biology, unless you are interested in learning the content.

 

[Winterseason]

Everyone thank you for your input. For university I'm thinking of a B Commerce. So it looks like I'll think about it still. It's a huge decision to make. Rote learning is a daunting task remembering 3/4 terms of work for one exam. For physics, I guess just like Maths if you do not understand the concept well the exam would be very difficult.

 

[Eg155]

Save yourself while you can. I regret dropping physics and keeping bio.
To put it into perspective of how route it is: I have 106 pages of notes for a topic and a half.

 

[madharris]

Save yourself while you can. I regret dropping physics and keeping bio.
To put it into perspective of how route it is: I have 106 pages of notes for a topic and a half.

That's not notes, that's a textbook!
For bio, I had an average of about 30 pages for each topic and even people told me that was quite a lot!

 

[Eg155]

That's not notes, that's a textbook!
For bio, I had an average of about 30 pages for each topic and even people told me that was quite a lot!

It kinda is
But like details from 4 sources are in one document under syllabus dot points so that you don't have to search around for the answers...
But yeah I'm a bit of a notes nazi.

 

[Zokunu]

Whether you like the subject or not?

Indicators include:
- How you feel when you're in the class? Bored, excited, happy, etc. Do you look forward to attending the class or are you dreading it?
- How much effort do you put into the subject? Time on making notes & doing questions, memorising/covering the syllabus, etc.
- Are you happy with putting this much effort or does it like an 'eternal hell'?
- If you're doing well in it, you're more inclined to like the subject.

I do Physics and I'm relatively decent at it (it's actually one of my weakest subjects, if not the weakest) but I have to say... people are misinformed by the level of mathematics needed... Physics isn't just all about CALCULATIONS (in fact, in my school... the guy topping Physics atm only does 2U maths... and most of the Physics students are doing 3U or 3U + 4U)...

Yes, Biology is probably more memorising-inclined than Physics but the content load for Physics isn't small either....

Yes, Physics rewards understanding more than most HSC subjects. My understanding for Physics is basically 'crap' so it's defs the reason why I tend to do better at Business Studies or Economics (where hard work and grit alone can get you through... basically because of their nature - know your syllabus and you'll do well) compared to Physics....

In a sense, Biology is similar to the 'nature' of humanities - social sciences or histories.

Biology rewards the effort that one makes when it comes to memorising the syllabus...

I agree with this guy. But it also really depends on what you're doing as a career, stuff like that. Some people pick 3-4 Unit math when they don't even like the subject ==. They picked it in order to get better jobs and at the end they end up fcking up their ATAR.

Just do what you like