Hi CM!
I was wondering if you found VCE Bio (especially 3/4) more interesting than biology in previous years in school. When entering year 7 (many years ago haha) I thought I would be very interested in biology, however y7-10 biology kind of turned me off it ahha.
Also, how similar is bio to chem. I am loving chem at the moment and I was wondering if this love would transfer into bio and how helpful doing the studies concurrently would be to each other :)
I'm sorry for the rather silly questions but I am considering picking up bio next year and would love your advice (congrats on the premier's award... my dream)
Hi Eloise,
They're not silly questions at all (and thanks for the congratulations!). I'll try my best to answer, but definitely get lots of other opinions too as you don't want to end up studying a subject you dislike.
I definitely found 3/4 more interesting than previous years simply because of the depth of the content. I think the only topics I'd vaguely covered in previous years were DNA/cell organelles. It was nice to be able to understand these topics in a little bit more depth (obviously still high school standard though) and be introduced to many new concepts too. Personally, I LOVED unit 3, especially immunology. I also enjoyed gene technologies from unit 4 but didn't really like the evolution topic.
It's a little difficult to compare yr 7-10 science to VCE science, as every school will do junior level science differently and the enjoyment factor can be more dependent on teaching style. Overall, I would say yes, the content is definitely more interesting in 3/4 (like most things are as they begin to get more complex), however, whether you will enjoy it more really comes down to personal preferences and what type of learning/content you like. Maybe ask yourself what you didn't like about biology in the earlier years, was it the teaching style? The content too easy?
In terms of similarities to 1/2 chemistry, I'd say there is very little overlap in content. However, what I do find is that the way I study for and learn chemistry is similar to biology (part of what makes them my favourite subjects). Loving chemistry does NOT directly transfer to loving biology, although the similarities in the style of class and the fact they are both sciences mean often people enjoy them side by side. What exactly do you like so much about chemistry? If you let me know I could tell you how applicable it is in biology :)
I'd recommend (if you have time) to check out some of the 3/4 content to see whether it looks interesting to you. Perhaps check out the study design or listen to 10-20 minutes of a Douchy's podcast. This is probably the best way to find out whether you will enjoy the content.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with subject selection!
Spoiler
Really though, biology is the superior VCE subject and nothing will change this - no I'm not bias at all
Hi,
Hopefully it isnt rude to ask but what kind of marks did you get to get a 50 and a prems! (CONGRATS that's so amazing btw)
Hi Sara,
First of all, I'm happy to give you my scores but be wary of worrying too much about your results or trying to predict what your end of year score will be. Just try and develop a strong understanding of the subject and do the best that you can 8)
Scores
U3 = 48/50, U4=86/90 - These were scaled to full after exams. Also, it's not really your score that matters but your ranking, so the same SAC score will correlate to different levels of ability for different schools.