ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: theresalim on January 09, 2012, 08:03:37 pm
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Hi guys,
What do you guys think. Psych or bio. I want to go into like med/pharmacy in the future. I know bio is better, that's what I'm leaning towards at the moment. Currently my subjects are Lit 3/4, Further 3/4, Methods 1/2, English 1/2, Chem 1/2 and _____[blank]_____. I'm really undecided at the moment. What do you think?
Thank you :)
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hey, although biology definately does help for med/pharmacy, it's not a prerequisite. i think you should pick whichever one you think you'll do better at, but in looking at your subjects i see that you'll be doing this subject in year 12. i've heard from many people that biology is very, very difficult to do well in year 12 (there are of course exceptions, but this is in general), so if you do choose it, you should be prepared for hugeee amounts of study :)
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same: wanting to get into Pharmacy. :)
I think bio, but choose the subject that you enjoy.
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Biology/Philosophy! :D Diversity!
I think this would make a really great combination. Biology will be enjoyable if you're interested in the health field, and philosophy will be great for your critical thinking abilities (and is also very interesting).
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Psychology and philosophy. They are MUCH more interesting.
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Oh ahahha sorry i made you guys confused, I meant bio/psych or like if neither of those then maybe accounting/philosphy. So undecided!
ahahah, but narh I find that psych will interest me, yet it will also be a very competitive subject, then again...biology is a lot of work but it will best benefit me. I want to get a really good ATAR because although I semi know what course I want to get into, I want to maximise my opportunities and so..I need a good atar. HAha
Do you guys think bio is more work in year 12? and Plus which one would be easier to score in . I find both subjects very interesting but the teachers for those subjects are a bit...boring. Philosophy on the other hand, the teacher for that is like amazing! But i guess it's really up to you to make the effort. :\
I'm so frustrated because I can't decide. I feel like if i chose psychology, it will be very competitive yet less frustrating to learn but with bio, there will be a LOT of work and I dont know if i can handle the pressure. I really don't know?
Thanks for your comments btw!
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Flip a coin. Not because it solves the problem, but because for the brief second it's in the air, you'll suddenly realize what you're hoping for.
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Flip a coin. Not because it solves the problem, but because for the brief second it's in the air, you'll suddenly realize what you're hoping for.
in the heat of the moment LOL
i support this move.
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Oh ahahha sorry i made you guys confused, I meant bio/psych or like if neither of those then maybe accounting/philosphy.
Ooo I misread your opening post as there being two blank spaces my bad.
As for biology vs. psych, I think the best thing to do would be look through the study design of each and basically just go with what interests you. I can't really speak of the difficulty/workload of either, but I can't imagine a demonstrable discrepancy existing, and you're more likely to succeed in that which you are more greatly interested in anyway =)
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I guess it depends on what you want to do in the future, then you can decide whether you want to pursue a subject that is related to that field or pursue another field which interests you, ok, so that was kinda a mouthful, so I'll give an example :D
I've always wanted to do Medicine, but I'm also interested in other things, namely Maths, IT and Physics, so even though I could have done Biology, PE or HHD which would be a little more related to Medicine, I decided to do Software Development, Methods, Spesh and Physics because it was a chance to pursue some interests before going into Medicine, after which there would be little opportunity to pursue those interests. I'll end up doing Biology and stuff anyway, so my logic is "why waste a year 12 subject on it, if it's gonna be repeated in uni!" :) - And I guess in the end I was happy with my decision.
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Hmm well for pharmacy, bio would be good (although it isnt a pre-req), but if you really have an interest in psychology then I suggest you choose psych! :) I did psych last year and I've got to say it's one of those subjects where you can get a really high SS if you put in the effort :)
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Thanks everyone for all your input. I've (90%) chosen biology, just gotta wait till school starts and see if i am able to do it , but I'm defs leaving psychology as a backup incase i don't enjoy biology in year 11. But thanks everyone :)
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yeah to get a top score in bio it's much easier in year 11 IMO. THere's just so much you need to master there's really no time for it in year 12
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I really enjoyed Biology. Best advice I can give you is cover all prerequisites and then do what you enjoy most. If you have any questions regarding Biology or Psych just let me know, I did both of them.
Good luck!
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Ahh I've been reading the biology section of this forum and you guys are scaring me. I thought bio was those subjects you can pick up in year 12 but from what I'm hearing, biology is a whole lot harder than I thought o;
argh, I will fully decide when school comes around the corner. :\ I really want to do well in terms of ATAR scoring wise.
And oh Samuel, did you do bio in year 11/12 :o and if so which would you recommend doing for year 12, psych or bio?
And thank you !
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Ahh I've been reading the biology section of this forum and you guys are scaring me. I thought bio was those subjects you can pick up in year 12 but from what I'm hearing, biology is a whole lot harder than I thought o;
Bio is definitely a subject you can take without 1&2! At least 75% of those who took Bio at my school last year did so without taking 1&2 (they were all year 11s since we didn't have any year 12s). Everything relevant in 1&2 is reviewed in 3&4, so you won't be disadvantaged in any way. After all, you can catch up and prepare for 3&4 over the holidays. Bio's a subject that isn't too hard to self-teach :)
As for whether you should take Bio or Psych - you should have a look at the study design of both. Maybe take a look at Bio and Psych textbooks. It just comes down to which one you find more interesting. Don't worry about scaling or about how competitive they are when you're making the decision. If you choose a subject you don't like just because it's less competitive, you'll probably become demotivated and find it really hard to study, and you'll end up doing worse than you would've if you chose the more competitive subject that you enjoy more :D
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You seem to be quite good at English (as you are taking Lit and English) and so I would either pick Psyc or Philosophy. Bio is a lot of work (similiar to chem) and even tho it might be beneficial, the basics should not be that difficult to pick up when you get to uni. Take Accounting only if you want to become an accountant.
I think Philosophy scales up by quite a bit too? idk.
In the end, I would definately pick Philosophy. I wish I had done it.
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perhaps if you told us your aims it would be easier to answer you original question. What i've found for biology is that typically to achieve a top score (i'm talking 48+) you need a huge knowledge base and time to spam lots of practice exams for application, if your aiming for a slightly lesser score of say ~45 this isn't as absolutely necessary and it's still a viable year 12 subject (of course this is a generalization, but accurate in many cases).
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I've had a look at both textbooks, to me psych seems to be about rote learning whereas biology is more of a challenge. I did lit 1/2, english and philosophy last year and when exam time came, half of my exams were based around writing essays. T'was slightly a nuisance but I do enjoy philosophy but it is kind of mind boggling sometimes.
Well if I was to do biology(/philosophy), I think i would be very happy with around 40+. For psych, I would possibly aim higher, maybe 42+ ?.
Would you say biology takes a lot of your energy? Because I know the people at my school complain about the amount of work there is to be done for biology, like during their exam they had to hand up a 20 page assignment on the ecosystems or something. :\ And what's worse is my school is completely new so we don't have students from the higher grade to kind of give us guidance on certain subjects.