Dilemma - help! (1 Viewer)

[Brookebrookebrooke]

Just started year 12 and can't decide whether it's worth dropping chemistry or not. Our chemistry teacher is new and from an IB system and doesn't know how to teach the HSC course properly + time management problems. In year 11, we hardly learnt anything and finished the year not even going over the two last chapters in the book. The 2013 year 12's started going down hill after having him as a teacher and didn't do particulary well in the trials despite having top scoring students in the class.

Now, I'm currently taking adv english, biology, chemistry, geography, standard maths and PDHPE (12 units). Im relatively strong in all subjects except chemistry mainly because of this teacher so my chemistry mark will most likely be dropped after hsc exams. I want a career in science so obvs need chemistry as a pre requistite but is it worth keeping it or doing a bridging course for chemistry before Uni? I'm aiming of an ATAR of high 80s/low 90s.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

[rumbleroar]

Science can be self taught (but it is really hard). You can use the syllabus as a guide and make notes based off that, so if you want to keep chemistry, it will take a lot of initiative and self motivation to do so.

I can relate to your position! I had a not so great teacher for physics and mostly relied on my own study and tutoring to help me get my ranks and stuff. Every physics lesson was misery because the class was so slow and things weren't being taught properly. So when I had the chance to drop it, I did (but with insane difficulty because my ranks were surprisingly good) and picked up MX2 and never looked back.

Also, I have friends in similar situations. She dropped chemistry in favour of extensions in stronger subjects and she aspires to do med. She dropped because her teacher was bad. She's going to have to do a bridging course though.

I am also going to be doing a bridging course for physics if I get into my B Arch/B Civil degree because its a prerequisite.

You also need to consider which units will be counted towards your ATAR. If chemistry is your deadweight, then you should probably drop it, unless you're willing to put lots of time and energy into making it one of your best subjects.

Good luck deciding I hope this helped!

 

[Brookebrookebrooke]

Thanks heaps! Yeah seems like the better option to drop it. The only problem with me self-teaching is that we hardly learnt anything in year 11 so I don't understand simple concepts that would be useful for year 12 thus making it difficult to learn.