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[Snow Leopard]

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[J_Rho]

I'd go with gen math, purely because in comparison the workload is less plus it shouldn't be too difficult to grasp if you are a strong math student
But if you think you'll like hhd, go for it! I personally thought it's be interesting but it didnt click with me does your school allow you to try a subject and change if you change your mind??
IMO from studying HHD, gen math and psych
HHD - 'easy' but content heavy
Psych - 'medium', not really hard subject and workload is not at all that bad (personally think its toeing the line btwn not content heavy and content heavy)
gen math - 'easy' if good at math, not very content heavy at all

[blueycan]

Hi Snowleopard! I'm studying General Maths, Psychology and 3/4 HHD this year so I hope some of my advice resonates with you.

HHD isn't an extremely difficult subject, but it does require substantial effort in order to memorise and understand the concepts. The stuff covered in 1/2 is very similar to 3/4, so it's worth recognising that you'll need to learn these various concepts and definitions and revise over both years. As you said, the content isn't difficult to grasp but there is a LOT of it. Not to discourage you from considering it though, it's a good subject. Also I wouldn't worry about scaling, even though those 4 points sound scary, if you do reasonably well it won't matter at all.

General maths isn't that difficult IMO so I don't think you'd have trouble balancing it with Methods if you are strong maths student (like J_Rho said.)

I may be biased as psychology is one of my favourite subjects, but it's a worthy contender. It's slightly different from other sciences in that there's a social aspect to parts of it, so if that's something you're interested in I'd def consider it. In my case, psychology's workload isn't as much as HHD, but it's more than general maths'.

I guess it depends on your interests and opinion, however if I was in your position, I'd go with either psych or HHD. Maybe have a look through the study design/forum/chat with friends to see which one would be best. (:

[Snow Leopard]

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[blueycan]

Nope, as far as I know my school wouldn't let me change my mind on my subjects in Yr 12.
With that I'm not really a person that naturally good at Maths. I had a really weak foundation in Maths in Primary School (as in, they taught us how to do division and multiplication in Yr 6) so my basic arithmetic is quite bad and if I can't use my CAS then I have to literally write everything down (simplifying fractions etc, etc)_{I also don't know my timetables off by heart I kinda have to think about them for a while with the less common ones.} That's why I'm hesitant to do General Maths. Plus like I'm hardly finishing my Methods hw (I'm very slow, especially at Maths hw) so I'm not sure that I'd be able to handle hw for 2 maths subjects. Apparently, general maths/ Further is quite like Yr 9 Maths which I did quite well in Sem 2. But I definitely had to do a lot of preparation in it to do well plus stress myself out to get good marks. (seeing as you can't drop a lot of marks in Further)

I get where you're coming from, I don't think you should pressure yourself to do a subject if you have doubts bc you ideally want to be in a subject that you're going to enjoy. If that subject happens to be general then HHD or psych would be a better option. (: Keep us updated ! 

[lm21074]

Hey Snow Leopard!

Do you have any ideas as to what you want to do after you finish high school? Which subject are you leaning more towards?

From a past thread, I've noticed you were interested in medicine. If this is still the case, there is a bit of HHD content in med (from what I've heard from a med student) and it can help you understand Australia's healthcare system. At Monash, there is a subject in medicine called Medicine of the Mind which has some overlap with psych.

I completed psych and HHD last year (1/2) and am doing 3/4 at the moment. In psych unit 2, you learn about sensation and perception (mainly the eye) and social psychology (e.g. topics on bullying, prejudice and discrimination). In 3/4, you learn about topics such as the nervous system, stress, learning and memory, sleep, mental health and consciousness (not exactly in this order). What I like about psych is that you can think of real-life examples.
In HHD unit 2, you learn about development across the lifespan and the healthcare system, as I mentioned in your thread about HHD. In 3/4, you learn about health and wellbeing as a concept, public health and targets for health promotion (like smoking, road safety and skin cancer), Indigenous health and wellbeing, Australia's health and healthcare system and sustainability, aid and global health.

All the best with your decision!

[lm21074]

So I think that if I add Psychology to the mix, that's not really gonna help me a lot in terms of improving in Biology and Chemistry.

Could you please explain what you mean by this?

I want to do Medicine (preferably undergrad at Monash I think??So I'm pretty sure 30+ in English and Chemistry is all I need in terms of prerequisites). Tbh, I'm leaning more towards Health since I'm already doing Biology and Chemistry and I'm not doing very well in them. So I think that if I add Psychology to the mix, that's not really gonna help me a lot in terms of improving in Biology and Chemistry. Plus I think that I'd like a bit of variety.

Do you reckon Psychology or HHD would be/is more content heavy?

My friends who are doing / have done both and I think psych is more content heavy, but this is based on our opinions (and experiences) - some bias here. Others might think the opposite.
HHD would definitely give you more variety compared to if you did psych as HHD is not a science subject.

Edit: see posts below by Jeyda and whys

[lm21074]

Sure . I meant that since I'm already doing 2 sciences and not handling the workload for them too well (and therefore not doing that well in them) adding another Science (Psychology) will make my workload even higher and then I might just neglect Biology and Chemistry even more.

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This can happen when doing psych, but even so when doing HHD. But if you find that you don't enjoy Unit 2 of HHD, you can pick up psych 3/4 or another subject next year.

[blueycan]

(speaking of personal experience- edit: whys said it better in the post below me!  )
The content heaviness of the subject really depends on your school, but generally, both subjects have a substantial amount of content. In psychology, you learn content blocks one at a time so you'd focus on one area before moving onto the next. An example of this would be- We learnt about the parts of the brain at the start of Unit 1, then moved on to a research task, and then we moved onto developmental psychology. So basically, it isn't really light stuff you're learning about, but it's a bit easier to sanction off the content you're learning at a time.

In HHD, things like definitions and terminology (and especially in the way you answer questions) blend into each "content unit" so you'd need to remember those to relate them to the new things you're learning.

To give you a better understanding of what I'm trying to say, it'd be like this:
You'd begin HHD with learning about the dimensions of health and wellbeing (physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual.) Then, in a later unit, you'd learn about Medicare. In a SAC question, you might be asked for example "How can the services provided by Medicare improve physical health and wellbeing?" I hope this gives a better view of what I mean by things blending in HHD.

I wouldn't be discouraged that they're heavy subjects. If you're doubting doing Psychology and pick HHD you might find that HHD has a lot of content too, you know, it's subjective honestly. That being said, if you aren't too sure about psychology, I think you'd like HHD more. It's less science based, so it won't be too similar in workload to Biology and Chemistry. You really learn how to answer questions in ways where you address different points all together (seen in the above example.) As you mentioned you want to get into medicine, it'd be great that you're learning about the details of the Australian health system and gaining insight into how healthcare affects different people in Australia. If you'd like any excerpts of student work or information about HHD I'd be more than glad to help you out. (:

[whys]

To be honest, it's best not to base your subject selection on others' perceptions of how content-heavy each subject is. It is a far more viable option to go with the subject you think you will enjoy more - perhaps talk to the teachers at your school who teach these subjects and ask them a bit about them and what exactly they entail if you still aren't sure after reading the study designs. Of course it's good to get the opinions of others, but these things are honestly super subjective. For example, I didn't really find psych 'content-heavy' as such, and the content was not difficult to grasp, but this is my opinion and will probably differ from others' and yours. Either way, this other subject will require some of your attention no matter how content-heavy or difficult it is, and it is up to you how much time you decide to devote to each subject.

I am definitely not biased when I say you should choose psych by the way