Is physcis or chemistry easier? (1 Viewer)

[girlworld_club]

Which is more enjoyable?
Which one would get scaled higher?
And which one is more necessary (recognized) if you want to get into the medical field including optometry and pathology?

 

[Sammy2011]

If you're in year 10 and choosing subjects, I suggest borrowing some Chem/Physics text books and having a skim through and finding what you enjoy the most.

If you're above that, choose what you are enjoying the most. Personally, I found Physics easier, and doing the Medical Physics option made me fall in love with it. Chemistry is amazingly interesting in an endless detail kind of way.

Scaling doesn't matter.

As for Optometry or Pathology, look it up. No courses have an necessary 'prerequisites' that demand to be done, only recommended knowledge. You'll probably find Biology would be recommended, but most simply say 'one of Biology, Chemistry or Physics'. Still, look it up.

 

[SleepyZM]

This year, the Physics HSC exam was easier IMO, so Chemistry will probably scale better. But they are usually on par with each other regarding scaling each year (Chemistry is usually SLIGHTLY higher, but it wont make much of a difference). Overall, I found the Physics course harder to get your head around, but Chemistry has ALOT more content.

Both have options that sort of cover medical fields, like medical physics or forensic chemistry. It really doesn't matter. Just do what you enjoy the most, because I've been told alot of what you learn in Physics is 'wrong' or extremely simplified compared to what you will learn in Uni.

And what ones more enjoyable depends on who you are. I found chemistry alot more enjoyable because I found it more relateable to real life, rather than all of this atomic theory in physics that was all hypothetical. The majority of the physics course (Ideas to Implementation and Quanta to Quarks especially) were pretty heavy on history and developments, so I didn't find that very intriguing. Chemistry was just more interesting, for me anyway.

One things for sure though, Biology is shit

 

[yum135]

Which is more enjoyable?
Which one would get scaled higher?
And which one is more necessary (recognized) if you want to get into the medical field including optometry and pathology?

CHEMISTRY WOULD DEFINITELY GET MORE RECOGNITION (because its the main prerequisite: excuse my spelling im brain dead from HSC) Personally, i enjoy chemistry more than physics, however, it would range person to person.

But like others i found this years chem slightly harder then physics

Hope this helps ^^

 

[RawrJohnT]

I guess chemistry gives you a wider variety of pathways.

However, I think Optometry is more physics-based.

By the way are you aware of the 95 ATAR requirement + Relatively high UMAT requirement for Optometry?

I kind of flunked UMAT, so even if I got 99 ATAR I would not be able to get into Optometry. You should check out Bachelor of Science / Adv Science too, because it's possible to transfer into Optometry from there if you do well in those courses and select the Vision Science elective. Oh and this is assuming you're going to UNSW (pretty sure it's the only Uni around here that does Optom.)

So in terms of BSc / AdvS... both Physics and Chemistry offer bonus points depending on your ATAR performance. Also if you do Biology there's an option topic called 'Communications' which goes quite in-depth into the eye's structure and function.

Sorry but I can only talk about Optometry lawl.

 

[brent012]

For me physics was both easier and more interesting and the whole course seemed more logical in a way. Chemistry just seemed like a tonne of completely unrelated content with heaps of formulas to remember and the odd difficult calculation (titration...) which isn't focussed on in class but without fail appears in every test -.- Preliminary in chem is just horrible, some of the stuff in HSC is interesting and it's all a lot better but still IMHO Physics > Chem (personal opinion completely). I had a massive argument about why chem sucks and the structure of topics makes no sense and each are too unlike each other to be in the same subject but i removed it because it was too subjective lol.

Oh and teachers might make a difference but my physics teacher has a strong accent and most of his teaching was done off powerpoint slide shows so I honestly don't think you could argue that i feel that way about chem and physics because i had a good physics teacher and/or bad chem teacher.

 

[someth1ng]

I think Preliminary Chemistry is absolutely easy - rank ~30 school and almost got top place with no tutoring unlike alot of other students who go tutoring...etc. I actually think it is just one step above Year 10 - not that much of a jump. The HSC course seems alot more demanding AFAIK for Chemistry.

Physics can get quite confusing but when you get around it, it's rather easy aswell. Physics in HSC does take it up afew notches but generally a good Preliminary student will still do well.

 

[thisiswar]

Depends on whether you're a maths person or not. Though both chm and physics have calculations. I would say chemistry would be more worth it as most science courses in uni require it

 

[Zeroes]

I've been liking chemistry better and it probably has more relevance if you want to do something medical. I think it usually scales slightly higher but just go with the one you think you'll like the most and do best at, because they're probably evenly matched in difficulty.

 

[someth1ng]

I've been liking chemistry better and it probably has more relevance if you want to do something medical. I think it usually scales slightly higher but just go with the one you think you'll like the most and do best at, because they're probably evenly matched in difficulty.

This is probably the best advice you can get.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

Their difficulty is on par with each other, hence they scale very similarly (chem microscopically better).

The one that will be easier for you is the one you are more interested in. So flick through both textbooks and see which taks your fancy. Of course, you could always take both, not sure if you have other subjects set in stone you want to do. Just that you seem to have an interest in both (science courses are good for what you want to do too), and the only way to compare them would be to try them both for yourself.

 

[jnney]

It is REALLY a personal thing.

At the moment, I find chemistry more interesting, physics easier. But if you like / are good at science in general, neither of them should be a problem for oyu.

 

[brent012]

Their difficulty is on par with each other, hence they scale very similarly (chem microscopically better).

The one that will be easier for you is the one you are more interested in. So flick through both textbooks and see which taks your fancy. Of course, you could always take both, not sure if you have other subjects set in stone you want to do. Just that you seem to have an interest in both (science courses are good for what you want to do too), and the only way to compare them would be to try them both for yourself.

+1 completely, i preferred physics a lot but others preferred chem.

Why not both though?

 

[someth1ng]

Actually, the difficulty of the exam has nothing to do with scaling - the reason why the more difficult subjects scale much better is because better students do it. When compared to other subjects using a common scale (English), the Maths Extension 2 cohort tend to get higher marks in English than say General Maths.

If in a case a "hard" subject has an "easy" exam, the marks are aligned anyway and the cut-off for Bands will create about equal amounts of people in each Band every year. This is why scaling is so consistent - it's directly related to how good the cohort is in that subject.

For a while now, Chemsitry has scaled slighly higher than Physics - usually about 1 scaled mark difference.

 

[Bobbo1]

This is really a matter of preference, and there is no BETTER option our of the two. Personally I found Chemistry more enjoyable mainly due to interest since there is a stronger emphasis on Society and the environment in Physics whereas in Chemistry though there is theory it it fairly well integrated into the syllabus. You will find the calculations in HSC Chemistry to be more challenging than Physics as well which can be a good thing if you are strong in your problem solving skills...

 

[RANK 1]

i find chemistry better and alot of the stuff they teach u in hsc physics is wrong at the uni level

 

[Uniqueness]

I guess chemistry gives you a wider variety of pathways.

However, I think Optometry is more physics-based.

By the way are you aware of the 95 ATAR requirement + Relatively high UMAT requirement for Optometry?

I kind of flunked UMAT, so even if I got 99 ATAR I would not be able to get into Optometry. You should check out Bachelor of Science / Adv Science too, because it's possible to transfer into Optometry from there if you do well in those courses and select the Vision Science elective. Oh and this is assuming you're going to UNSW (pretty sure it's the only Uni around here that does Optom.)

So in terms of BSc / AdvS... both Physics and Chemistry offer bonus points depending on your ATAR performance. Also if you do Biology there's an option topic called 'Communications' which goes quite in-depth into the eye's structure and function.

Sorry but I can only talk about Optometry lawl.

Sorry just wanted to clarify. My brother pretty much flunked his UMAT as well didn't get the interview and he STILL made it to Optom. Actually at UNSW. This was last year so don't give up just yet! He got an ATAR of 95 something, so I reckon you still have a chance if you get something round there