Modern History or Biology? (1 Viewer)

[DoctorPie]

As shown in my sig I chose Biology when Bio and Modern History were on the same line. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that I've made the right decision.

I have interest in both subjects, so that's not really an issue. My question more relates to those who have taken/are taking either course: in terms of scaling and the course outlines, is there a great deal of difference?

 

[notovereighteen]

Initially, I was doing both modern history and biology and I found biology really, really boring. However, i suggest you should choose history cause for some odd reason, it helped me understand some topics we were learning in extension english. The thing with english is, you have to understand the context. History thus gives you this chance, rather then mitosis.
This is purely subjective.
I <3 History.

 

[~Fire Jade~]

Modern history has a lot of writing in it...essays....essays...essays....
Biology has stacks of info to remember....well, then...its ur choice. ^^

 

[xXmuffin0manXx]

modern history:
The preliminary modern history course focuses on the key social, economic and political changes ofthe C 19th cand C20th tha have helped shape the modern word. This is achieved through an invetigation of deph studies and a core stdy o the wrld at the beginning ofthe twentieth century. the hsc course bidls onthe knowledghe an skills developed in the prelm course to invesigate acore sudy on world war 1, a twentieth century natonal stdy, a studoy of a significant personaity in the C20th nd an inernational study in peace and conflict. Modern history sdents are elegibileto stdy the 1unit HSC history xt course in year 12

example

prelim course

• case studies:
  the chinese government and tiananmen Square
• the reign of terror in france

hsc course
core study: world war 1
natonl study: russia and soviet union 1917-1941
personalities: leon trotsky

biology:
biology is the sdy of living organisms, ife pocesses and tneractions between organis,s and their environment
the prelm course ncorporates the sdy of the mechanisms and systems living things use o obtain, transport and use merial or their own growth and repar; biotic ad abiotic features ofthenvironment anthe rleationshps between and interdependence oforgaisms in an ecosystem; the evolution of life on earth; and the ffects of global changes onthe diversity of Astraian biota duringthe formation of the Astralian continent

The HSc course builds upon the prelim course. it examines he processes and structures ta plants and animals use to maintain aconstant internak environment and the ay in which te inheritance o characterisitcs are transitted from geeration to gneration.

the options cover awide variety of interest topics and draw on the development in technology to examineareas of current research

example

prelim course

• a local ecosystem
• patterns in nature
• lifeon earth
• evolutino of Astralai bota

hsc course
core topics

• maintaining a balance
• blueprint of life
• search for better health

one option

• communication

course req.
the prelm course ncludes a field study related to local terrestrial ad aquatic envirnoments. practical xperience should ocupy a minimum of 80 indicative hours across preim and hsc course tme wth no less than 35 in the hsc.


there you go

 

[b00m]

a friend of mine got scaled down for doing modern history... i dunno

 

[possessionless]

modern history was on the same line as 2 unit maths for me
& i was pretty confident i could do really well in 2 unit maths so thats what i chose.
i have an interest in both subjects but i could only really tell you about bio cos thats what i do.
i found the yr 11 course for bio boring. but yr 12 is so interesting & im so glad i stuck with it & didnt drop it! it is quite difficult but i think that if you put your mind to it, its not too bad but yeah some concepts are quite hard.
at our school you could change in the first few weeks of yr 11 if you found you made the wrong decision. i changed from chem to legal...best decision ever! lol

 

[camomile.tea]

I don't know whether to do Modern History or Biology either. So far, Modern seems more interesting. I'll have to develop my essay writing though.

a friend of mine got scaled down for doing modern history... i dunno

Pretty much everything scales down with the exception of mx2 etc. In terms of scaling both subjects are very similar e.g. this year an aligned mark of 47, in bio would be scaled to 45.2 while in modern it would have been 45.3. So scaling shouldn't be much of a factor in choosing which one to do.

 

[annabackwards]

I had the choice between modern history and bio.

I thought i was going to get a job in the engineering/science fields anyway so i should try bio to keep my options open.

I hated it. Transfered to bio after a week and i love it

But i have to say... my bio friends seem to have to do what a science subject demands, regurgiatating lots of information in the right way whereas for modern it's just your usual history essay writing.

If you love your subject, information is not a problem though

 

[Schoey93]

Modern History scales slightly better than Biology.

 

[possessionless]

Modern History scales slightly better than Biology.

really?

 

[imsopostmodern]

at the end of the day, scaling isnt going to make a HUGE difference. sure, it will play a small part, but it would really depend on how much you enjoy the subject and are prepared to work for it. also, due to the different nature of the exams, you may find one easier than the other.

i did both modern history and biology for hsc last year and i personally enjoyed history more and therefore did slightly better in it. history is a much larger workload than biology due to the huge scope of the syllabus where you can almost choose how much you want to learn - in the sense that there are syllabus dot points but each can be learnt at a superficial level or you can do extra background reading etc. biology on the other hand, has very specific syllabus dotpoints so it's effectively easier to learn exactly what you need to know and reproduce.