Contemplating as to whether to drop Physics or not in 2015

[Einstein]

Alright, so I'm doing 1/2 Physics this year and we have only had 3 lessons so far and i really don't like the subject.

I read the review made my pi on physics and when i read it i thought that it surly wouldn't be as bad as he hyperbolically expressed it, but yes it is that bad.

If i drop it, i will pick up spesh next year. The reason i don't want to drop it this year is because i need a subject to fill its spot, and theirs really nothing besides physics that is better. Im not allowed to drop it because i will need a B+/A in methods average to get into spesh. I enjoy maths a lot, got 100% in year 10 exam, but also on that note, our school doesn't offer GMA, so i feel disadvantaged to the rest of the state.

Now my question is, does it get any better next year? My teacher claims he is a assistant chief assessor, but when i search his name nothing comes up - is their a list of all the assessors per subject?

I will be doing english, chem, methods, spesh (if i drop physics) after doing 2 3/4s in year 11.

Thanks, and any help would be great sorry for being a bit convoluted.

[T-Infinite]

I dropped Physics I'm only doing English, Methods, Chem and Spesh this year.
To bes honest, dropping Physics was the best decision I made! Of course, after speaking to many people I decided to drop it because
1. I hate it sooo bad, doing 1/2 made me hate the subject even more.
2. The teacher is known by students to be the shittest in the school, I only have 1 physics teacher at my school so I knew that he was going to continue teaching year 12.
3. It's not really a prerequisite for my desired course, my course needed Chem + Methods/Spesh/Physics meaning I can do Methods OR Spesh OR Physics.
4. Dropping Physics would give me alot more study periods thus I'm now able to spend more time on my 4 subjects at school

I remember making a thread asking whether dropping Physics would affect me in Specialist, you can go look it up. But yeah, there is 1 area in Spesh where it's called Dynamics I think and thats where Physics comes in Spesh. Honestly, don't worry too much because the teacher will go through it and you'll just have to self-study a bit during that area but by all means, you won't be THAT disadvantaged.

Someone told me that it's more like doing Spesh would help you with Physics, not really with Physics in order to do well in Spesh.

Good luck!    

[Einstein]

Thanks for your reply man I just read the thread you were talking about and I can see what everyone is talking about.

Something I'm really worried about is that, is 1/2 spesh NEEDED for 3/4? Will I be disadvantaged in any way? Is their anything I should/could do to fill those gaps?

Any advice would be great

[bucklr]

Thanks for your reply man I just read the thread you were talking about and I can see what everyone is talking about.

Something I'm really worried about is that, is 1/2 spesh NEEDED for 3/4? Will I be disadvantaged in any way? Is their anything I should/could do to fill those gaps?

Any advice would be great

I didn't do physics 3/4 and I had absolutely no problems with Spesh 3/4. I would strongly recommend doing spesh 1/2 - it covers some essential concepts needed to succeed in 3/4.

[T-Infinite]

Thanks for your reply man I just read the thread you were talking about and I can see what everyone is talking about.

Something I'm really worried about is that, is 1/2 spesh NEEDED for 3/4? Will I be disadvantaged in any way? Is their anything I should/could do to fill those gaps?

Any advice would be great

I was fortunate that my school taught GMA, to be honest I think it helped me quite a bit so far. I noticed that GMA overlapped with Methods 1/2 ! I forgot whether Vectors were in Methods 1/2 or not but I did alot of Vector stuff in GMA and it certainly helped so far in Spesh 3/4. Of course, some of the stuff in GMA will be in Spesh 3/4 but if you can't do GMA because your school doesn't offer it, don't worry too much. Most of the stuff will be taught again in more details so you'll pick it up just fine. I know alot of people who did really well in Spesh without having done GMA. Work hard and good luck

[lzxnl]

I'm not sure how reliable my memory is on these matters, but here's a list of what I recall doing in GMA.

Vectors, ellipses/hyperbolas, complex numbers, sequences and series, circle geometry, partial fractions, trigonometry (sine and cosine rules), calculus (differentiation of sine, cosine, tangent, chain and product rules; yes my school did this in GMA year 11)...I don't think I recall anything else that my class did. My class didn't do dynamics in year 11 from memory.

Out of these, the calculus is covered in Methods 3/4, the circle geometry is almost not needed, the sequences and series is definitely not needed, all of the first three topics ARE needed and are not covered in Methods, and trigonometry is assumed knowledge in spesh and doesn't often appear on exams.

GMA (I detest the label 1/2 spesh because that technically doesn't exist as a subject; GMA doesn't technically either according to the VCAA syllabus as the year 11 subject is just called General Maths, but at least books call it Advanced General Maths ) is useful for spesh, but it's not essential. Granted, you'll need to do a bit of work by yourself but it's not impossible. Heck, I learnt the spesh course before I learnt the GMA course I doubt you can't do it.

As for whether physics helps with GMA...I did spesh before I learnt any real physics too

[PB]

I guess, it really boils down to the type of teacher you had... I personally enjoyed physics so much due to an awesome teacher. Besides, your username is Einstein! You cannot be Einstein if you are not doing Physics!

[Einstein]

My teacher personality wise is a great guy. The way he teaches doesn't really suit me. What i mean by this is, i learn by examples. The way my teacher teaches is just walking for the whole period about random crap. Ask him a simple question about, say, why are elements radioactive, he will talk about bloody covalent bonding!! haha maybe not that off topic but you get the idea.

He claims his the assistant assessor, can i check this somewhere?

[Rod]

Physics 3/4 is fahaaking awesome!

You will love it! But it is your choice. I assume you are doing radioactivity at the moment, guess what? There is no radioactivity in 3/4, nor do you need to know any of it to do well in 3/4. Radioactivity is booring as hell.

When you get to electricity + motion you will see how fun physics is! Come on bud hang on for one more semester!

Rod

[Einstein]

Physics 3/4 is fahaaking awesome!

You will love it! But it is your choice. I assume you are doing radioactivity at the moment, guess what? There is no radioactivity in 3/4, nor do you need to know any of it to do well in 3/4. Radioactivity is booring as hell.

When you get to electricity + motion you will see how fun physics is! Come on bud hang on for one more semester!

Rod

Hahaha!!

I did physics in year 10 and that went for a semester, we basically covered all of radioactivity and touched on motion, well we started graphing the velocity/distance etc graphs as well as using f=ma etc.

Right now, yes, I'm doing radioactivity, its quite interesting but motion is what I'm dreading haha. Ill see how i go, if i get 40+ in both my subjects i only have to do 4 next year (drop physics) if i get below 40, school forces me to do 5 next year (hence doing physics)