to choose physics or maths specialist for year 11 and 12 . ???!!!!

[chriskesh23]

Hi guys, this is my first post so i'm new to all this.
Im currently in year 10 and in the phase of selecting my subjects for year 11 and 12.
I am studying maths, english, chemistry, physics and units 1 and 2 biology this year and units 1 and 2 Armenian this year.
Next year I am doing methods, 3&4 bio, 3&4 Armenian, Chem, english. I have to Choose between Specialist and physics.
I am still not sure which one to choose as i like both of them. Maths was my best subject last semester, hence better than physics.
Any recommendations??

[undefined]

I can't really say anything since I haven't done any of those subjects but here's a review of Physics 3/4.

[Review] VCE Physics 3/4

[chriskesh23]

thanks!  yeah if anyone has done or is doing these subjects please feel free to express how you think about it.

[pi]

Hey mate, welcome to AN! Moved your thread to this board (Victorian Education Discussion). Generally speaking, and for future reference, we like to keep questions relating to "should I do subject X or Y" in this board. Not a worry though, we can help you out if you post them in other places until you get your bearings around here, forums can be a bit tricky to initially navigate.

As for your question, hands down Specialist is the best subject. If you like maths and consider yourself good at it, Specialist is rewarding in not only having interesting and challenging content, but it also scaled quite nicely

[Swagadaktal]

Pi has a really good thread highlighting all the great points about physics!

He's an avid supporter of the subject (if I had to describe it in one word I'd use enamoured)

I'd definitely recommend you check it out!

[zsteve]

Hi guys, this is my first post so i'm new to all this.
Im currently in year 10 and in the phase of selecting my subjects for year 11 and 12.
I am studying maths, english, chemistry, physics and units 1 and 2 biology this year and units 1 and 2 Armenian this year.
Next year I am doing methods, 3&4 bio, 3&4 Armenian, Chem, english. I have to Choose between Specialist and physics.
I am still not sure which one to choose as i like both of them. Maths was my best subject last semester, hence better than physics.
Any recommendations??

Hi chriskesh23!
Welcome to AN, we hope you'll enjoy your stay here
To be very honest, do Specialist. Forget about Physics lol. Why?
- Specialist is a lot more interesting and gets you places in uni, if you need to do maths (for science, commerce, or engineering) (i.e. usually you'll get to skip a subject that you'd otherwise have to do if you only did Methods!)
- Specialist is heaps of fun (I'm not even kidding, it seriously is)
- Doing specialist will also balance out with Methods work, so studying for Spesh + Methods is more like 1.5 subjects load rather than 2 (because of overlap/complementary nature)
- At the very least, Specialist scales like none other: 40 -> 50, 50 -> 55. Crazy scaling.

Why not physics, you ask?
- VCE Physics is quite dry, monotonous, and unsatisfactory.
- Not doing VCE Physics will only impact you if you decide to do physics at uni, and even then its impact won't be extreme (i.e. won't cost you extra time at UoM, only means you have to take a different stream from the other kids)
- VCE Physics doesn't scale that much (see ATAR Notes calculator)
- VCE Physics is probably one of the most shoddily set and dodgily marked exams in VCE (except for perhaps some humanities subjects, such as History?? There have been major slip-ups with exam setting...)

[HopefulLawStudent]

Do maths since you're saying you did better at it last sem and I'm gonna run on the assumption that you like it?

Bonus: If you choose to do spec and are feeling particularly bored during the exam period, just watch out for the lunatics waving their right hands about trying to work out a physics question (apparently us physics kids are now synonymous with VCE entertainment at for non-physics kids at my school  ).

[JellyBeanz]

Do maths since you're saying you did better at it last sem and I'm gonna run on the assumption that you like it?

Bonus: If you choose to do spec and are feeling particularly bored during the exam period, just watch out for the lunatics waving their right hands about trying to work out a physics question (apparently us physics kids are now synonymous with VCE entertainment at for non-physics kids at my school  ).

Us lunatics waving right hand around to figure out the direction of magnetic fields. #vcephysics

[Swagadaktal]

Us lunatics waving right hand around to figure out the direction of magnetic fields. #vcephysics

Lmao I use both hands so sometimes you can see me doing some special 'dances' hehe

[chriskesh23]

Hhahahahhaha, i'm liking the humour in some of these replies. Anyway thanks you so much for everyone and their opinions, I still have a few days to let my school know however i am leaning towards Specialist 

[Hopelesshopefull]

I know this seems to go against every opinion in this thread but tbh not doing physics in VCE is (but not was) one of my biggest regrets. And I will explain why. So I'm doing biomed at uni and we did this subject last semester that's heavily based on physics.  I struggled with it the whole semester, spent the most studying for it, and still didn't do so well compared to my other subjects where I spent so little time on and ended up doing decently. This compelled me to question how this happened and I just can't come up with a reason but the fact that I hadn't been introduced to any sort of physics concepts prior. Most people are introduced to concepts of like forces and stuff in junior high school or whatever but the schools I went to never did.
Even a lecturer that we had once questioned to see how many of us did VCE physics and then proceeded to imply that those who didn't do physics would have a low survival rate in the course.
While I do hope to prove him wrong and while I haven't yet and while I'm sure some have already , I will say not going physics has become my biggest regret.
So basically what I'm trying to say is in choosing the subject u do, u need to factor in the courses u hope to pursuit.
Just my opinion and my experiences
Hope this helps

[Adequace]

Nah, physics is a pretty mint subject.

Honestly though, physics is only boring to the kids who are hella good at maths..