Should i choose Va or Physics (1 Viewer)

[catdijon]

Hi, so I’m in year 10 and have already picked my subjects. However, i am still hesistant on doing physics. My other subjects are ext1 maths, adv english, chem, modern history, sor. My school only allows 12 units . And I currently go tutor for physics but find no joy in doing it. It could be because of the whole COVID situation and also starting late there. But i do va in yr 9 and 10 and i got nearly full marks.

I dont know what i want to do in uni but i may be aiming for med. so i was just scared if not doing two sciences would be sufficient especially since a lot of people in my year seem to do be doing 2 sciences. Va also is a lot of a workload. So i really dont know.
Or even any other subject like ancient or business.
PLS HELP !!!!

 

[Drdusk]

Hi, so I’m in year 10 and have already picked my subjects. However, i am still hesistant on doing physics. My other subjects are ext1 maths, adv english, chem, modern history, sor. My school only allows 12 units . And I currently go tutor for physics but find no joy in doing it. It could be because of the whole COVID situation and also starting late there. But i do va in yr 9 and 10 and i got nearly full marks.

I dont know what i want to do in uni but i may be aiming for med. so i was just scared if not doing two sciences would be sufficient especially since a lot of people in my year seem to do be doing 2 sciences. Va also is a lot of a workload. So i really dont know.
Or even any other subject like ancient or business.
PLS HELP !!!!

You like VA more and have no interest in Physics. Doing Physics will drain you and will do much more harm than good. I suggest VA.

 

[cchan334]

Generally, physics is not a prerequisite subject for science related degrees (engineering maybe), if you are thinking of a science related degree, usually chemistry is the prerequisite (medicine, pharmaceutical etc.) Judging from your current selection of subjects, you seem to be be leaning towards a social-science degree so do whichever one you like better. However, if you are planning on doing a science degree, the skills learnt in chem and phys are super beneficial, so it really depends on yourself!

Heads up, VA is a lot of work (im not a reliable source tho, as i havent done VA myself, only heard it from friends who do), which has a major works (from what I've heard) and a lot of essays. If you do end up taking VA you will end up writing a lootttt of essays. Plus when it comes to these major work type subjects, continued effort is very important as you really can't cram it into one night.

On the other hand, i did do physics in yr 11 and i am continuing it for yr 12. I reckon physics in yr 11 gets a lot more conceptually interesting, and to be honest, the math required in physics is so easy that an ext 1 person will have no problem with it. The only problems you would encounter in physics as opposed to your other subjects would be the depth study, which if you do chem, your school might have them on at the same time which is a pain. However, since you have a tutor for physics this should be no problem. Another problem with physics is that usually school teachers tend to not teach physics very well, but this problem should be mitigated by your tutor.


Finally, for scaling. Physics and VA scaling is definitely very different. Although everyone says scaling doesn't matter, it really does... idk how the VA scaling works, but i can guarantee you would have to be in a higher percentile (e.g. 5%) as opposed to idk a lower percentile in chem and phys (e.g. 10%) to achieve the same score. However, I do know that chem and phys generally scale the same.

So, before you make your decision, i reckon you should be checking both of the textbooks out for both phys and VA and seeing which one you like better. (Perhaps try and do a quick summary of both of the contents for the year in the hols and maybe you will change your mind)


Quick question. If your school only allows 12 units for yr 11 how are you doing ext 1 math??? Wouldnt that make you have 13 units? Or do you have 11 units + ext 1 english or something???

 

[catdijon]

Generally, physics is not a prerequisite subject for science related degrees (engineering maybe), if you are thinking of a science related degree, usually chemistry is the prerequisite (medicine, pharmaceutical etc.) Judging from your current selection of subjects, you seem to be be leaning towards a social-science degree so do whichever one you like better. However, if you are planning on doing a science degree, the skills learnt in chem and phys are super beneficial, so it really depends on yourself!

Heads up, VA is a lot of work (im not a reliable source tho, as i havent done VA myself, only heard it from friends who do), which has a major works (from what I've heard) and a lot of essays. If you do end up taking VA you will end up writing a lootttt of essays. Plus when it comes to these major work type subjects, continued effort is very important as you really can't cram it into one night.

On the other hand, i did do physics in yr 11 and i am continuing it for yr 12. I reckon physics in yr 11 gets a lot more conceptually interesting, and to be honest, the math required in physics is so easy that an ext 1 person will have no problem with it. The only problems you would encounter in physics as opposed to your other subjects would be the depth study, which if you do chem, your school might have them on at the same time which is a pain. However, since you have a tutor for physics this should be no problem. Another problem with physics is that usually school teachers tend to not teach physics very well, but this problem should be mitigated by your tutor.


Finally, for scaling. Physics and VA scaling is definitely very different. Although everyone says scaling doesn't matter, it really does... idk how the VA scaling works, but i can guarantee you would have to be in a higher percentile (e.g. 5%) as opposed to idk a lower percentile in chem and phys (e.g. 10%) to achieve the same score. However, I do know that chem and phys generally scale the same.

So, before you make your decision, i reckon you should be checking both of the textbooks out for both phys and VA and seeing which one you like better. (Perhaps try and do a quick summary of both of the contents for the year in the hols and maybe you will change your mind)


Quick question. If your school only allows 12 units for yr 11 how are you doing ext 1 math??? Wouldnt that make you have 13 units? Or do you have 11 units + ext 1 english or something???

11 units and then studies of religion. Also i forgot to mention but i excel in english based subjects more than math even though i am doing ext 1 maths so there is that factor.

 

[cchan334]

So you would have to do 13 units? From your choice of subjects, you definitely seem more like a social science person. Is there a specific reason you didn't pick ext 1 english then?

When it comes to physics, the math is really only yr 10 math level, so I wouldn't be too concerned about it. However, if you are someone who excels in english based subjects, but wants to do another science, I think biology would be more suitable? Biology is significantly more english based with a lot of my yearly exam being extended response and short answer questions with no calculations.

However, if you are thinking of doing a science related degree, the skills learnt in physics is more useful. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for medicine I think you need two sciences (chem and another science), so that might be why a lot of the students in your year are doing 2 sciences (in addition to the high scaling), and also for chemical engineering (which i think requires chem and phys), otherwise, I can't see many other subjects that would require two sciences (because all biology related subjects generally don't need bio as it is just content that can be learnt in uni).

Ultimately it depends on what you want to do in university. Personally, I think doing chem leaves the door open for most science related degrees you could in the future if you ever change your mind. However, if you don't end up doing physics, and it is assumed, or a prerequisite for your course, you could always doing a bridging course.

 

[catdijon]

So you would have to do 13 units? From your choice of subjects, you definitely seem more like a social science person. Is there a specific reason you didn't pick ext 1 english then?

When it comes to physics, the math is really only yr 10 math level, so I wouldn't be too concerned about it. However, if you are someone who excels in english based subjects, but wants to do another science, I think biology would be more suitable? Biology is significantly more english based with a lot of my yearly exam being extended response and short answer questions with no calculations.

However, if you are thinking of doing a science related degree, the skills learnt in physics is more useful. Correct me if I'm wrong, but for medicine I think you need two sciences (chem and another science), so that might be why a lot of the students in your year are doing 2 sciences (in addition to the high scaling), and also for chemical engineering (which i think requires chem and phys), otherwise, I can't see many other subjects that would require two sciences (because all biology related subjects generally don't need bio as it is just content that can be learnt in uni).

Ultimately it depends on what you want to do in university. Personally, I think doing chem leaves the door open for most science related degrees you could in the future if you ever change your mind. However, if you don't end up doing physics, and it is assumed, or a prerequisite for your course, you could always doing a bridging course.

I’m just more confident in english but i feel like i don’t have the interest to do ext 1. SOR is 1 unit thats why it adds up to 12. And im not doing biology solely on the amount of memorisation thats why i chose physics because i thought maybe an applied science would be better. But since in most unis there are literally no prereqs anymore i feel like there should be free rein on what to do. But since everyone usually follows what their siblings does or past years when there were prereqs it creates pressure to do two sciences? I really don’t know.

 

[Drongoski]

Maybe you are more Humanities-oriented. So don't know if you'd enjoy Physics.

Re comment by cchan334: "Generally Physics is not a prerequisite . . . ". But be very careful. The universities, in my view, had been, and most continue to be, highly irresponsible by not insisting on more prerequisites - for their own self-interest. So, even if a uni does not list Physics, say, as a prereq., I won't do Mechanical or Electronics Engineering, if I've not done Physics.

 

[aceagle007]

Hi, so I’m in year 10 and have already picked my subjects. However, i am still hesistant on doing physics. My other subjects are ext1 maths, adv english, chem, modern history, sor. My school only allows 12 units . And I currently go tutor for physics but find no joy in doing it. It could be because of the whole COVID situation and also starting late there. But i do va in yr 9 and 10 and i got nearly full marks.

I dont know what i want to do in uni but i may be aiming for med. so i was just scared if not doing two sciences would be sufficient especially since a lot of people in my year seem to do be doing 2 sciences. Va also is a lot of a workload. So i really dont know.
Or even any other subject like ancient or business.
PLS HELP !!!!

Doing Chem & Physics together would be difficult imo, having to do 2 depth studies takes a lot out of you. If you have no genuine interest in physics i don't recommend doing it, also there is a misconception that physics is very math based (the only true need for math is just the understanding of algebra and trig, i'm managing to pass just fine even with standard math lol) I find Physics more English based through the need to understand the certain laws of physics and learn to apply them properly ,if you have a look at the 2019 HSC and answers you will see that it is paragraphs of physics laws.

I do Physics and Visual arts and am doing them in my hsc next year even though I'll be pursuing a career in Engineering simply because VA is a good relaxing subject where you can wind down and do something practical (despite the course being 50% Practical 50% Theory), i do think just choose whatever you're good at and what you enjoy. Physics can be possibly overwhelming, Visual Arts not so much.

 

[BLIT2014]

Other than Medicine, what other university degrees are you considering?

If you can, may be worth speaking to a career adviser.

How does your school typically perform in each respective subject? Teacher quality?

 

[catdijon]

Other than Medicine, what other university degrees are you considering?

If you can, may be worth speaking to a career adviser.

How does your school typically perform in each respective subject? Teacher quality?

I honestly really don’t know i was thinking to be a psychiatrist or a dermatologist . I’m really open to anything and don’t have much interests other than film, which is a really really risky course.
I dont really know how my school performs in each subject. But from experience my science faculty is really not one of the best but my va teacher is very lenient with marking.

 

[BLIT2014]

Have a look at https://www.topscores.co/NSW/ to find how many band 6s your school gets in each subject each year.

If your VA teacher is lenient is marking she may not be marking to an HSC standard, and you may find that once the moderation process of marks has occurred you don't actually perform that well.

 

[catdijon]

Have a look at to find how many band 6s your school gets in each subject each year.

If your VA teacher is lenient is marking she may not be marking to an HSC standard, and you may find that once the moderation process of marks has occurred you don't actually perform that well.

Oh yeah i also considered that but shes also a va hsc marker so maybe i’m just very harsh about my work, thinking i dont deserve the marks she gives