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April 21, 2026, 04:52:19 pm

Author Topic: Things You wish you knew  (Read 5387 times)  Share 

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pi

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2012, 10:55:31 pm »
0
Like VegemitePi, I probably would not have picked Physics this year - I should've picked Biology instead. Although, that could have made things very difficult because I have to drop a subject at the end of this year anyway... :/

Why do all of you regret about doing Physics? I wish I did it because it could help me the kinematics topic in Spesh.
Anyways, Bio is awesome though. I'm happy with it :P

Spesh helps physics kinematics (from GMA), not physics helping spesh :P


What's wrong with physics

1) Two of the worst teachers in my life (boring, ignorant, cocky, wrong, mean, slow, crap "jokes", etc.)
2) The subjects matter was extremely dry
3) No real maths (I mean no calculus? Really?)
4) There was all this theory, and then there was a cheat sheet... So why the theory? ???
5) Calc errors determine the top end (like 40+ end) more than knowledge and problem solving ability
6) Crap textbooks that have next to no relevance for the exams in terms of relevant questions (+ the theory went outside the course for some reason...)
7) EPI, 'nuff said
8) Units 1 and 2 could have been a lot more relevant to units 3 and 4 (random nuclear stuff, flight, etc.)
9) Electronics (deserves it's own place on the list of reasons imo)
10) Gives people a false impression about what real physics is actually about
« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 11:15:29 pm by VegemitePi »

WhoTookMyUsername

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #16 on: June 30, 2012, 10:56:20 pm »
0
Personally i don't think selecting bio in year 12 is a good choice (of course it depends hugely on the individual); as there are 8 SACs and 2 projects right before exam time. In addition the time investment required for a certain SS is very high compared to say physics or BM for example

Jenny_2108

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #17 on: June 30, 2012, 11:04:05 pm »
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Personally i don't think selecting bio in year 12 is a good choice (of course it depends hugely on the individual); as there are 8 SACs and 2 projects right before exam time. In addition the time investment required for a certain SS is very high compared to say physics or BM for example

Yeah, thats why I feel a bit regretful because I didnt do unit 3/4 Bio last year. It takes me huge time to study compared to other subjects.
What projects do we need to do before the exam? Why dont we do it earlier?

WhoTookMyUsername

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #18 on: June 30, 2012, 11:05:20 pm »
+1
uh we had immunity and genetic modification websites i think. don't do it earlier because those 2 topics are the last in each unit

b^3

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #19 on: June 30, 2012, 11:05:34 pm »
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Like VegemitePi, I probably would not have picked Physics this year - I should've picked Biology instead. Although, that could have made things very difficult because I have to drop a subject at the end of this year anyway... :/

Why do all of you regret about doing Physics? I wish I did it because it could help me the kinematics topic in Spesh.
Anyways, Bio is awesome though. I'm happy with it :P

Spesh helps physics kinematics (from GMA), not physics helping spesh :P
Physics wasn't that bad, I don't particularly like some of how its set up and the topics (and the lack of proper maths). But I'd still rather it over some of the other subjects.

Also I would say physics helped spesh a little at the end, just to understand what displacement, velocity and acceleration is, and some of the motion/vector diagrams (as some of them had not come across it before spesh). We had some people in our spesh class who struggled at the topic since they didn't know/understand what those were and what it was representing.

(Also don't say that you should have known it form GMA, some schools use GMA to set students up for methods and further as thats what the majority do (12 people end up in spesh while there is about 5 classes of further), and GMS sets them up for just further. We didn't cover any Kinematics or complex numbers or vectors (well we did cover "vectors" in the sense of yr 11 physics, but not form a mathematical approach) until we did spesh :( ).

Too bring this back on topic, I wish we covered some of the spesh stuff in GMA, nothing we could do about it though.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 11:14:10 pm by b^3 »
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Jenny_2108

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #20 on: June 30, 2012, 11:11:14 pm »
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Thats true, I always struggle to draw diagram of motion, this kinda stuff just torment my brain.
Actually I chose Physics at the beginning of year 11 and then the career teacher advised me to take Bio because he said it was easier ==!
You are all lucky to study Physics, dont feel too bad about it just due to your teacher or textbook

Bhootnike

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2012, 11:14:14 pm »
0
uh we had immunity and genetic modification websites i think. don't do it earlier because those 2 topics are the last in each unit

lol MHS though, you guys are special :p
last year my school finished well in time for exams !

oo, and i wish i knew all my computer coding. i used to know computers back to front, but its been long time since i've done any coding, web design or any  program coding. i regret it cause i wish i could make some apps for android and some .. other ... things ... mmwahaha .

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pi

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #22 on: June 30, 2012, 11:16:53 pm »
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Thats true, I always struggle to draw diagram of motion, this kinda stuff just torment my brain.
Actually I chose Physics at the beginning of year 11 and then the career teacher advised me to take Bio because he said it was easier ==!
You are all lucky to study Physics, dont feel too bad about it just due to your teacher or textbook


You have an amazing careers teacher :) Be very thankful :)

Jenny_2108

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #23 on: June 30, 2012, 11:19:04 pm »
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LOL actually the behind reason: his wife is my Bio teacher haha :D

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #24 on: June 30, 2012, 11:29:27 pm »
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Spesh>Methods>Physics>Everything else

anonymous1

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #25 on: July 01, 2012, 12:14:18 am »
+1
Like VegemitePi, I probably would not have picked Physics this year - I should've picked Biology instead. Although, that could have made things very difficult because I have to drop a subject at the end of this year anyway... :/

Why do all of you regret about doing Physics? I wish I did it because it could help me the kinematics topic in Spesh.
Anyways, Bio is awesome though. I'm happy with it :P

Spesh helps physics kinematics (from GMA), not physics helping spesh :P


What's wrong with physics

1) Two of the worst teachers in my life (boring, ignorant, cocky, wrong, mean, slow, crap "jokes", etc.)
2) The subjects matter was extremely dry
3) No real maths (I mean no calculus? Really?)
4) There was all this theory, and then there was a cheat sheet... So why the theory? ???
5) Calc errors determine the top end (like 40+ end) more than knowledge and problem solving ability
6) Crap textbooks that have next to no relevance for the exams in terms of relevant questions (+ the theory went outside the course for some reason...)
7) EPI, 'nuff said
8) Units 1 and 2 could have been a lot more relevant to units 3 and 4 (random nuclear stuff, flight, etc.)
9) Electronics (deserves it's own place on the list of reasons imo)
10) Gives people a false impression about what real physics is actually about

+100 for the list

May i have the sweet pleasure to add:

11) IMO not taught well in general, even the revision lectures for it tend to be dull, boring and useless (only went to unit 3, didn't bother with unit 4)
12) Electric Power in particular magnetism is like WTF

hmm can't think of much more yet, vegemitepi pretty much said it all

nacho

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #26 on: July 01, 2012, 12:27:55 am »
+2
when i saw the thread title, i was going to write 'how to dance'..

i still wish i knew how to dance when going into year 12

(but seriously, it's that year 12 isn't the be all end all. i had a very kuku picture of year 12 in my head when i was about to go in)
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WhoTookMyUsername

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #27 on: July 01, 2012, 09:07:37 am »
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Yeah, pi i agree with the calc errors determine top end.
That's very annoying ( e.g. I made one error with calculator will cost me 2 marks on an easy exam) if physics used calculus and real maths it would basically become another maths subject, so theoretically one could have 3 maths (spec, phy, methods) in top 4. It is essentially a dumbed down course, but just about every vce subject is to some extent. IMO it's still quite interesting

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience
« Last Edit: January 13, 2017, 06:11:06 pm by pi »

nerdgasm

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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #28 on: July 01, 2012, 06:22:53 pm »
+6
I wish I had had a clearer picture of what English Language was about, then I could have done it instead of regular English. That being said, I probably should have put more effort into English as well, as I'd actually been doing OK throughout the year, but completely neglected it in my exam preparations.

Being part of a group that usually takes two or three 3/4's in Year 11, I wish I knew how high the bar was set in order to get 40+ in VCE. I was completely taken aback when I received my first Statement of Marks, thinking I had blitzed the exam, but actually just scraped an A+. Later on, I realised that my school's maths cohort wasn't particularly strong compared to any of the top schools, so I wish I knew how strong the competition was at the top end before Year 11 and 12.

On a different note, I wish I had paid more attention to all of the Year 12s who had gone before me, who always said, "Year 12 will be gone before you know it. Make the best of it while you still can." SACs came and went, midyear exams and the Formal came and went, Graduation Night came and went, end-of-year exams came and went, and suddenly there was no need for me to come to school again - a very saddening realisation.

Going a bit off-topic (not sure if the thread should be split here, this might be a prime example of where off-topic buttons are useful  ;)), I thoroughly enjoyed VCE Physics, particularly due to having teachers that would go through various derivations and discuss the actual concepts behind what we were learning, rather than just teaching us to calculator-bash.

Like VegemitePi, I probably would not have picked Physics this year - I should've picked Biology instead. Although, that could have made things very difficult because I have to drop a subject at the end of this year anyway... :/

Why do all of you regret about doing Physics? I wish I did it because it could help me the kinematics topic in Spesh.
Anyways, Bio is awesome though. I'm happy with it :P

Spesh helps physics kinematics (from GMA), not physics helping spesh :P


What's wrong with physics

1) Two of the worst teachers in my life (boring, ignorant, cocky, wrong, mean, slow, crap "jokes", etc.)
2) The subjects matter was extremely dry
3) No real maths (I mean no calculus? Really?)
4) There was all this theory, and then there was a cheat sheet... So why the theory? ???
5) Calc errors determine the top end (like 40+ end) more than knowledge and problem solving ability
6) Crap textbooks that have next to no relevance for the exams in terms of relevant questions (+ the theory went outside the course for some reason...)
7) EPI, 'nuff said
8) Units 1 and 2 could have been a lot more relevant to units 3 and 4 (random nuclear stuff, flight, etc.)
9) Electronics (deserves it's own place on the list of reasons imo)
10) Gives people a false impression about what real physics is actually about

+100 for the list

May i have the sweet pleasure to add:

11) IMO not taught well in general, even the revision lectures for it tend to be dull, boring and useless (only went to unit 3, didn't bother with unit 4)
12) Electric Power in particular magnetism is like WTF

hmm can't think of much more yet, vegemitepi pretty much said it all

Regarding the lack of calculus, I think VCE Physics is designed to ensure one does not need to take Methods or Spesh in order to go through the content. To me, that's not too bad an idea - some people may not have a particular aptitude for maths, but can still take some introductory steps into a vastly fascinating world and gain an appreciation of it, even if further studies of physics do require a great deal of maths.

With regard to points 4 and 5, I disagree heartily! :P Going through the Assessor's Reports for 2011 (the most recently available), it appears that the questions the majority of the cohort struggle with are conceptual, rather than calculator-based. For example, only 8% were able to answer a conceptual question about spring potential energy, and 29% were able to design an effective circuit, given some boundary conditions. 14% were able to give a satisfactory explanation regarding modulation in an unfamiliar scenario, and 18% were able to apply clipping to that scenario. Over half the cohort were unable to perform vector addition, and less than a fifth could explain how Lenz's Law applied to a particular case. The most poorly-answered question, with 5% getting full marks, required students to explain part of an experiment regarding the photoelectric effect. On several occasions, the Chief Assessor noted that students were simply copying from their cheat sheets, rather than addressing the specific question at hand. This body of evidence leads me to think that conceptual questions determine separation at the top end, and that this holds despite students being allowed a cheat sheet.

I agree with point 6, the textbook we used wasn't that good in terms of teaching the course, which I think emphasises the importance and fortune of having a good physics teacher (or better-written textbooks!). For point 7, I think the EPI was intended to show students a bit of the practical side of physics (even though as a theorist, I didn't like it very much). We do lots of practical work in Chemistry, and some pracs in Biology, so it makes sense to at least do some practical work in Physics, giving students their first taste of scientific research.

For point 8, I think the idea of Unit 1/2 Physics was to give a broad overview of all areas of physics, just so people don't think that motion, electronics/electromagnetics, sound and quantum physics are all that physics is about, though I agree a greater degree of connection between 1/2 and 3/4 physics might be a good improvement. For point 10, I suppose this begs the question, "What is physics really about?". I completely agree that physics is far from number-plugging, and this was made abundantly clear to anybody who believed it did in the first physics lecture at university.

In summary, though VCE Physics does have quite a significant amount of 'plug-and-play' questions, I genuinely believe that conceptual understanding does allow one to separate oneself from those that just memorise formulae and copy explanations from cheat-sheets, and that there is enough there for a curious student and a good teacher to explore and truly benefit from it, as I'd like to believe I have done. :)

P.S. I really think I've derailed this thread a fair bit, so here I'll appeal again to the powers-that-be to have parts of it split.





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Re: Things You wish you knew
« Reply #29 on: July 01, 2012, 10:14:56 pm »
+1
I just should've started studying earlier and not just do a 40 hours weekend before the exam