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Preliminary vs HSC - difficulty? (1 Viewer)

kpq_sniper017

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i'm only in yr11 right now and i'm finding chemistry pretty good. but is there a large "step up" to yr12 chemistry from yr11 in relation to difficulty?
coz i was flicking through an hsc chem. book and it looked extremely confusing :confused: with a lot of subjects, u can read ahead, but with chem i just totally confused.
is yr12 chem. actually much harder? what's the difference in the course content?

btw. how do they standardise the difficulty of the "options" section of the hsc exam? what if one is more difficult than the others? will certain people be disadvantaged?
 

sig

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don't think it's really more difficult then year 11 if not about the same provided u understood most/everything in year 11 and ur putting effort in year 12


as for options the most popular ones (prob shipwrecks etc) are generally deemed easier probably due to more resources etc. on it the option course

choosing a rare option might make it a bit more difficult
 

hipsta_jess

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hsc was about the same as prelim, if not easier (and this is coming from someone who sucked at chem)
 

cj_bridle

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i was struggling in yr11 but after a year the concepts clicked in yr12 and im going awesome now.. i reckon it gets easier personally
 

tina_goes_doo

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If you have a good idea about the prelim stuff, you shouldn't have much trouble with yr 12. It's easy if you know the basics of bonding, solubility, etc.

But honestly, i find the HSC course rather tedious. The questions they ask are fairly open response (eg. outline the benefits/problems of using a named radioisotope). Less chem than before.
 

kpq_sniper017

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thx for ur opinions :)

is it possible to read ahead into hsc topics while in year 11?
coz i had a flick through excel hsc chem. and hsc conq. chem and it just confused me - in fact, i didn't understand any of it, so there wasn't much confusion at all :confused:
 

kpq_sniper017

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sig said:
as for options the most popular ones (prob shipwrecks etc) are generally deemed easier probably due to more resources etc. on it the option course

choosing a rare option might make it a bit more difficult
what would happen if the questions in the actual hsc exam were more difficult for one option? is that just bad luck?
what if they spotted that the highest mark in forensic was only 80%, and yet for the others, several students got 95%??
 

(^o^)

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Ah damn my school normally does forensic in year 12 chem....
how stupid...
 

kpq_sniper017

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(^o^) said:
Ah damn my school normally does forensic in year 12 chem....
how stupid...
what's wrong with forensic science??

btw. my forensic - 80% was only an example. it wasn't based on any facts.
 

mojako

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pcx_demolition017 said:
i'm only in yr11 right now and i'm finding chemistry pretty good. but is there a large "step up" to yr12 chemistry from yr11 in relation to difficulty?
coz i was flicking through an hsc chem. book and it looked extremely confusing :confused: with a lot of subjects, u can read ahead, but with chem i just totally confused.
is yr12 chem. actually much harder? what's the difference in the course content?
...
(and several other posts...)
they're basically the same. u get confused becoz u havent read the HSC topics step-by-step. u just "flicked" through the book, right?
you can read ahead, but maybe it's not really of any use...
u still have semester holiday in ur HSC year (as in July hols) to read things you dont understand ;)
and i agree that HSC chem has more memorising stuff than prem, and less chem theories.
and i think you can still do quite well even if u dont fully understand the prem topics :p

i dont know about electives scaling, but in conquering chem, forensic is the hugest section.. just count the number of pages, or have a flick through it.
 

(^o^)

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pcx_demolition017 said:
what's wrong with forensic science??

btw. my forensic - 80% was only an example. it wasn't based on any facts.
Oh good.. but still.. i don't wanna do forensic cos it seems like there are more "english" writing than maths stuf.. u know what i mean?
 

Xayma

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(^o^) said:
Oh good.. but still.. i don't wanna do forensic cos it seems like there are more "english" writing than maths stuf.. u know what i mean?
That is the entire HSC sciences ;)
 

*girl04*

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^^ damn! i like the maths in chemistry as it is airly easier. i dont like the theory and english stuff as it is hard to understand all the concepts
 

(^o^)

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Xayma said:
That is the entire HSC sciences ;)
Huh? oh I was comparing forensic to other options though.
It just seems like that forensic is harder than other options, as well as having less resources (okay, let's say in BOS here), since not many people pick that option.
 

kpq_sniper017

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mojako said:
they're basically the same. u get confused becoz u havent read the HSC topics step-by-step. u just "flicked" through the book, right?
you can read ahead, but maybe it's not really of any use...
u still have semester holiday in ur HSC year (as in July hols) to read things you dont understand ;)
and i agree that HSC chem has more memorising stuff than prem, and less chem theories.
and i think you can still do quite well even if u dont fully understand the prem topics :p

i dont know about electives scaling, but in conquering chem, forensic is the hugest section.. just count the number of pages, or have a flick through it.
too right :)
i just saw all the diagrams etc. and got confused by the terminology. i guess it's best left until the term 3 holidays (after finishing yr11).
 

kpq_sniper017

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Xayma said:
That is the entire HSC sciences ;)
my maths teacher said has said a few a times (in reference to physics):
"back then (when he was young i guess) we used to actually learn physics. now, students learn about physics".
i dunno if that's true coz i don't do physics....but any comments??
 

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