Hey I'm doing 1/2 spec this year and we started doing kinematics recently. Is it true 3/4 spec is mostly physics? I didn't do physics 1/2 and don't really like that subject. Is it going to be hard to do 3/4 spec without prior physics knowledge?
Not even close, no need to stress. Firstly, let me put your mind at ease about the content - there are 6 areas of study:
1. Functions and graphs. No physics here.
2. Algebra. Mostly complex numbers. No physics here.
3. Calculus. Applications of calculus can involve physics stuff, mostly kinematics, but it still feels like maths. You're still doing maths. Very little physics here.
4. Vectors. You can apply vectors to physics problems. VCE does not do this. It's all about the maths. SOMETIMES, there will be some motion questions that have a physics flavour, but it really is just about the maths. No physics here.
5. Mechanics. Yeah, look, this is all physics.
6. Probability and statistics. Again, there can be physics contexts, but it's all about the maths. No physics here.
You won't be disadvantaged if you haven't done physics. How do I know this? The amount of physics in the study design is the same amount of physics as when I did specialist maths. I did not do physics in VCE. I hadn't touched physics since year 9. I got full marks on the mechanics section of the exam. I got full marks on all my mechanics SACs. Did I study any extra physics? No, I only went over what my teacher taught, and did practice problems. I beat everybody in the class that did do physics.
I'm not going to say that doing physics doesn't help, because I'm sure it did. But it's not the physics they're testing you on, it's your ability to work with numbers and do maths. That's it. They will ask you to interpret equations, that usually only means describing the motion of a particle (eg, it's moving anti-clockwise in a circle). Mechanics, yeah, you might have to work a bit harder than your peers - but not much. So don't worry, you don't need to stress.