"I'm not an [insert school subject here] kind of person"

[JR_StudyEd]

I hear this so many times, it's not even funny. It deserves its own topic for discussion.

How many times have you heard this from peers over the years? Why do you think people view certain subjects in this way? What tips and advice would you give to someone who is really struggling in a particular subject and uses this as an excuse as a kind of way out and not to try their hardest in a subject?

Looking at my subjects, you would think that I am really STEM-oriented, but personally I feel I am more inclined towards the humanities (hence why I studied Psych and chose Geography, but the class didn't run due to lack of numbers ) I should not be in Bio, but that's how it turned out.

I've personally been told that I'm "generalising" my weakness. What I mean by that is, just because I struggle in Circular Functions, my brain kind of extends this to mean "Because I struggle in one significant topic, I struggle with the entire Methods course". I suppose mindset is everything, but it's kind of difficult to counteract this mindset since the subject is so demanding and doesn't offer you much solace.

[brothanathan]

I hear this so many times, it's not even funny. It deserves its own topic for discussion.

How many times have you heard this from peers over the years? Why do you think people view certain subjects in this way? What tips and advice would you give to someone who is really struggling in a particular subject and uses this as an excuse as a kind of way out and not to try their hardest in a subject?

Looking at my subjects, you would think that I am really STEM-oriented, but personally I feel I am more inclined towards the humanities (hence why I studied Psych and chose Geography, but the class didn't run due to lack of numbers ) I should not be in Bio, but that's how it turned out.

I've personally been told that I'm "generalising" my weakness. What I mean by that is, just because I struggle in Circular Functions, my brain kind of extends this to mean "Because I struggle in one significant topic, I struggle with the entire Methods course". I suppose mindset is everything, but it's kind of difficult to counteract this mindset since the subject is so demanding and doesn't offer you much solace.

Totally agree with this (hence my quote below).

[Joseph41]

I think a lot of it is probably confidence-based. Like, if pushed, I'd call myself a humanities/English person, but that's really only because I was more confident with those subjects and subsequently pursued them.

When I chose my VCE subjects in Year 10, my marks were actually pretty consistent across all of my subjects (nothing special, but consistent), and had I put the same amount of time into maths/science as I did humanities/English, things probably would have worked out very differently.

I'm not sure it's always used as an excuse as such, though - perhaps not intentionally, at least.

P.S. I wonder if being "a maths type of person" suggests you're more interested in maths, or better at maths. Or maybe both? What do you think, JR?

[JR_StudyEd]

P.S. I wonder if being "a maths type of person" suggests you're more interested in maths, or better at maths. Or maybe both? What do you think, JR?

I suppose mindset has a lot do with it as well, at least in my experience, or at least how you react to adversity with regards to studying particular subjects. I always associated the 'maths type' with the 'maths proficient'.

I'm a believer that proficiency in any subject can be cultivated with effort and dedication. You're not 'locked in' to doing brilliantly in one subject and below average in another for your entire life. From what I remember, I didn't choose my VCE subjects on the sole basis of how good I thought I would perform in each. I just thought about how interesting the content would be to learn in each subject, and went from there.

EDIT: Never mind. I was wrong. Prerequisites had a lot to do with my VCE subject selection as well.

EDIT II: I really should have chosen some more humanities subjects, huh. Legal and History would've been great replacements for Bio and Chem. I kinda feel bad that it's taken me this long into the year to realise this. Ah well, guess I'll just have to endure it.