USyd Advanced & Specialist Chemistry 1A (1 Viewer)

[LennonTheLemon]

I am trying to decide whether to do advanced (CHEM1911) or specialist (CHEM1991) Chemistry 1A at USyd.

• How much more work is specialist when compared with advanced?
• How much more do I have to attend campus to do specialist, and would it be a bad idea if COVID-19 comes back and everything moves online?
• If you (or had friends) who did either one, what was it like balancing it with other units and were the exams actually harder than standard stream?

Thanks in advance

 

[jazz519]

I am trying to decide whether to do advanced (CHEM1911) or specialist (CHEM1991) Chemistry 1A at USyd.

• How much more work is specialist when compared with advanced?
• How much more do I have to attend campus to do specialist, and would it be a bad idea if COVID-19 comes back and everything moves online?
• If you (or had friends) who did either one, what was it like balancing it with other units and were the exams actually harder than standard stream?

Thanks in advance

I haven't done the exact courses since I went to UNSW, but we also have Chemistry 1A and Higher Chemistry 1A courses.

The higher level of courses usually just means you do some extra content the normal level subject doesn't. Exam is a bit harder because of those extra questions but most of the core content is the same.

You will have to look at the timetable if there is more classes for the higher level, but usually there isn't it's just the lecture content goes more in depth.

Usually these higher level courses you find for chemistry, physics, maths are for people where their degree requires it. For example, people doing a major in those areas will be required to do the higher level course. For everyone else it is optional to do it. Generally speaking I would advise to just do the normal level one unless you are someone doing a major in that area (where it's required) or you are someone who is highly curious in that subject area and wants to learn some extra stuff.

If you aren't doing a major in that area and it's like your degree just requires you to do one or two chemistry subjects, then there isn't much benefit from doing the higher level. You could instead use that extra time on focusing on subjects relating specifically to your major and/or use it for other areas like getting a job/working, social and sports activities.

If you are doing the major in that area though it would be beneficial to do the higher level because you will most likely gain a more indepth and complex understanding of the content, which may be helpful for understanding things in future chemistry courses you do in year 2 and 3 of your degree.

I say that above because uni is a bit different to high school. In high school you want to ideally be doing the highest level subjects if your ability is up to that standard because it can benefit you in terms of the scaling of more difficult subjects if you are good at them. At uni it's not really the same, you can still get high marks like high distinction or distinction doing the normal level course with less workload and there is little to no scaling between the different levels.

 

[LennonTheLemon]

I haven't done the exact courses since I went to UNSW, but we also have Chemistry 1A and Higher Chemistry 1A courses.

The higher level of courses usually just means you do some extra content the normal level subject doesn't. Exam is a bit harder because of those extra questions but most of the core content is the same.

You will have to look at the timetable if there is more classes for the higher level, but usually there isn't it's just the lecture content goes more in depth.

Usually these higher level courses you find for chemistry, physics, maths are for people where their degree requires it. For example, people doing a major in those areas will be required to do the higher level course. For everyone else it is optional to do it. Generally speaking I would advise to just do the normal level one unless you are someone doing a major in that area (where it's required) or you are someone who is highly curious in that subject area and wants to learn some extra stuff.

If you aren't doing a major in that area and it's like your degree just requires you to do one or two chemistry subjects, then there isn't much benefit from doing the higher level. You could instead use that extra time on focusing on subjects relating specifically to your major and/or use it for other areas like getting a job/working, social and sports activities.

If you are doing the major in that area though it would be beneficial to do the higher level because you will most likely gain a more indepth and complex understanding of the content, which may be helpful for understanding things in future chemistry courses you do in year 2 and 3 of your degree.

I say that above because uni is a bit different to high school. In high school you want to ideally be doing the highest level subjects if your ability is up to that standard because it can benefit you in terms of the scaling of more difficult subjects if you are good at them. At uni it's not really the same, you can still get high marks like high distinction or distinction doing the normal level course with less workload and there is little to no scaling between the different levels.

Thanks very much! For part of my degree I'm majoring in chemistry so I'll take your word (as a chem PhD) and do the advanced. At USyd, the specialist is supposed to be content-equivalent to advanced, but "involves more lab work".

I'm just wondering whether or not the extra lab work, time put into writing up reports, and practical assessments will be worth it. I don't want it to slaughter my WAM. After all, I won't get a job in chemistry, but it's just something I'm really passionate about.

 

[jazz519]

Thanks very much! For part of my degree I'm majoring in chemistry so I'll take your word (as a chem PhD) and do the advanced. At USyd, the specialist is supposed to be content-equivalent to advanced, but "involves more lab work".

I'm just wondering whether or not the extra lab work, time put into writing up reports, and practical assessments will be worth it. I don't want it to slaughter my WAM. After all, I won't get a job in chemistry, but it's just something I'm really passionate about.

If you are majoring in the chem then it might be a good idea to do the specialist depending on how far your degree goes into chem.

If you might do an honours year in the chemistry major, those extra lab skills and experience you get early on will be quite useful.

If it's just a year 1 - 3 kind of degree for the chem without honours, then probably not that important since honours is where you do your own research project and so any prior skills would be helpful so you don't have to learn things from scratch. However, if you aren't doing honours in chem then all your chemistry subjects will probably give you methods to work off which you don't have in honours since it's based on developing new research.

In saying that if your WAM is quite important to you, you don't have to gain those skills through an actual subject. Once you go into 2nd year you can start messaging supervisors if you are motivated and just ask them if they would be willing to mentor you or allow you to help out with some research activities. I did that through applying for a summer vacation research scholarship during my 2nd year and got to work in a research lab at the uni for 2 months. That supervisor was really nice and willing to mentor students even in undergrad and so he let me continue doing small projects throughout the year and I did around maybe 3-4 months more of research in the lab. The skills through that I gained were really beneficial to helping me perform well in honours and also developed a good relationship with that supervisor who I continued doing research with for my honours and now PhD. So if you want to maybe take it a little easier during first year doing something similar to what I did is also an option if you want to gain some extra skills / experience later on. It will however require your own initiative to contact supervisors and getting lucky if there are willing to allow you to do some lab work even if its unpaid and volunteering will be useful

 

[LennonTheLemon]

If you are majoring in the chem then it might be a good idea to do the specialist depending on how far your degree goes into chem.

If you might do an honours year in the chemistry major, those extra lab skills and experience you get early on will be quite useful.

If it's just a year 1 - 3 kind of degree for the chem without honours, then probably not that important since honours is where you do your own research project and so any prior skills would be helpful so you don't have to learn things from scratch. However, if you aren't doing honours in chem then all your chemistry subjects will probably give you methods to work off which you don't have in honours since it's based on developing new research.

In saying that if your WAM is quite important to you, you don't have to gain those skills through an actual subject. Once you go into 2nd year you can start messaging supervisors if you are motivated and just ask them if they would be willing to mentor you or allow you to help out with some research activities. I did that through applying for a summer vacation research scholarship during my 2nd year and got to work in a research lab at the uni for 2 months. That supervisor was really nice and willing to mentor students even in undergrad and so he let me continue doing small projects throughout the year and I did around maybe 3-4 months more of research in the lab. The skills through that I gained were really beneficial to helping me perform well in honours and also developed a good relationship with that supervisor who I continued doing research with for my honours and now PhD. So if you want to maybe take it a little easier during first year doing something similar to what I did is also an option if you want to gain some extra skills / experience later on. It will however require your own initiative to contact supervisors and getting lucky if there are willing to allow you to do some lab work even if its unpaid and volunteering will be useful

Alrighty, thanks.