Science in VCE

[ard3n_05]

Hi guys, I need some help..

So I'm in year 9 and in my school, we are already thinking about what subjects we are going to take into VCE. For me, science was something that I never really liked, and now when it comes to making important decisions, I'm considering dropping it in VCE. I intend to take a Business or Law pathway in uni because that's my forte. Some people are worried for me that I might not score a high ATAR without a science subject, but I think that if I do it, I won't enjoy it, thus not scoring well because of my lack of interest in it. At the same time, what if I make a last-minute decision and do take a medical pathway?? I'm super conflicted, can you help me out?

[Owlbird83]

Hey, welcome to AtarNotes.

I might not be the best person to advise you on this because I did do science, but I want to say that definitely do the subjects you enjoy!! If you've never really liked science, I don't really think it's likely you'll suddenly start to enjoy it in VCE. Yeah you are completely right, if you take subjects that you don't like you won't be motivated to study for them and you won't do as good as if you like studying and learning about them! The dux at my school a few years ago had only humanities subjects which I thought was super cool! Please pick business/law/subjects you enjoy, you'll do better and just have a better time in VCE! :)

[keltingmeith]

I did a subject purely because it "scales well", which is the whole reason people think you should do science - because they scale well. I did so poorly in that subject that it barely affected my ATAR (without going into the details behind how ATARs are calculated)

If you don't want to do science, don't do science. It won't end well, otherwise

Also, if you don't like science at all, you probably won't enjoy being a medical professional. Just an FYI

[Sine]

Hi guys, I need some help..

So I'm in year 9 and in my school, we are already thinking about what subjects we are going to take into VCE. For me, science was something that I never really liked, and now when it comes to making important decisions, I'm considering dropping it in VCE. I intend to take a Business or Law pathway in uni because that's my forte. Some people are worried for me that I might not score a high ATAR without a science subject, but I think that if I do it, I won't enjoy it, thus not scoring well because of my lack of interest in it. At the same time, what if I make a last-minute decision and do take a medical pathway?? I'm super conflicted, can you help me out?

Given you've already talked about a preference for humanities and never really liking science I wouldn't be doing science subjects. The notion of high scaling subjects making it easier to score a higher ATAR is false. Scaling is there to ensure that each subject score is standardised and thus you are able to compare scores between subjects.

However, it would be interesting to know why a medical pathway is in your mind when you don't like science.

[dutyfree]

Hey hey,
On top of the advice given above, just giving a smol caution, I had a couple of friends who were set on law and actuarial studies but were convinced to keep chemistry, which they hated, (just in case they wanted to try for med). They ended up losing the little motivation they had at the start of the year and chem turned out to be their worst subject. So I would say if your school allows for flexibility, try to get an elective for science in year 10, to decide if you have any interest in it at all because I personally, don’t recommend taking subjects you hate as a ‘just in case’ prereq or for the scaling.

[hums_student]

A little late, but just to offer a different opinion, there's no harm trying it out. I'm a humanities person through and through but I did chem in VCE purely because I wanted a little variety. It ended up being one of my absolute favourite subjects and also one of my best in terms of study scores.

It was the most useless subject I did (all of my humanities subjects and methods are really relevant to my uni course) but it did made year 12 really enjoyable for me.

You can always get a little taste of it in year 11 and see whether or not it's for you. I found VCE subjects to be really different in comparison to their year 10 counterparts, so I recommend keeping an open mind and trying out something even if you assume you won't be good at it.