HHD vs. PE vs. Bio

[aejays]

Could someone please compare these three subjects in terms of the workload, the style of questions and the overall difficulty of achieving a good score?

I have a space to choose either one of them for Year 12, but I'm not doing any of them as 1/2s. I'm interested in Bio but I've heard it's harder to do well in than the other two. HHD I've heard is all rote learning, but I'm worried that I won't be able to memorise things word for word. So right now I'm leaning towards PE, which has some more application I believe.

[~V]

I've done/doing all three. I've done 1/2 biology and Physical education so i can't really comment 3/4 of those subjects and the 1/2 is quite different but i do know people who've done it/doing it. For health 3/4, it's pretty chill, content is easy but just trying to full mark a SAC is pretty hard as it is in all subjects but in health you can lose really stupid marks due to your definition, not reading questions properly or not using the data to support your answer. What you heard about biology is true, but biology is a pre req like chem for many science courses, so what are your other subjects? If you're interested in a science course and don't have chem or physics, then you would do biology. But if not, PE 3/4 i heard is a tad bit like bio but idk. Health is pretty content heavy and it gets fairly dry (unit 4) and the bulk of the exam is unit 4... but since you're doing 2 3/4s already then you can afford to spend adequate time on 4 subjects, choose the one you like regardless of the difficulty or scaling in that respect.

[Aaron]

HHD is not necessarily all rote-learning. The way you combine all your knowledge and apply it to a given question is something that you must be able to do as well. Sure you can rote learn definitions (believe me, there's alot in 3/4) but you need to know the content in order to put it all together.

There's also quite alot of content in PE. When I did PE there was a 6-week fitness program we had to plan and report on.. This was in 2012 though, so not sure if it's changed since. Apart from that there was rarely any practical (apart from the odd one to support a case study/topic).

tl;dr - both subjects have alot of content. I would pick HHD out of the 3. Didn't do Bio so can't comment.

[Smiley_]

Hi
I also did all of these subjects. I loved them all but I’ll give you quick run down on them all.

The workload was more in biology but then again I had a teacher that didn’t actually teach me anything. Health and PE have a fairly similar workload.
So with biology you can do it without units 1 and 2 but it will be more that picking up Health or PE but it can be good in terms of Uni and keeping your opinions open. The style of questions is mainly application but last year there was a few definitions in the exam.

I found Biology to be harder to do well in, but then I probably enjoyed it a little bit less than Health and PE.

PE is fine to pick up as a ¾, as well as Health because nothing is assumed knowledge.
PE does have application questions but not as much as Biology.
(Aaron the study design hasn’t changed since 2012)

Health does have a fair bit of memory work but if you get these down pat them you have a good chance of scoring really well but remember that there is more than memorising as Aaron said.

If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to ask.

If you think that you will enjoy PE go for it !! Doing the 6 week training program and other pracs were a great way to break up my other classes.
Good luck with your decision

[aejays]

Thanks for your responses everyone!

So with biology you can do it without units 1 and 2 but it will be more that picking up Health or PE but it can be good in terms of Uni and keeping your opinions open. The style of questions is mainly application but last year there was a few definitions in the exam.

I found Biology to be harder to do well in, but then I probably enjoyed it a little bit less than Health and PE.

What you heard about biology is true, but biology is a pre req like chem for many science courses, so what are your other subjects?

My other subjects are English, Methods and Chem for Year 12 (I did Psych and Further this year). So I wouldn't necessarily take Biology to keep options open, but more because it seems more beneficial for uni if I do a science course. However all three of my subjects for next year a pretty hard for me so it would just be better to take a relatively easier subject, PE, and focus on those three right?

[Smiley_]

Pe is a great subject! Go for it