Is Philosophy hard?

[Spiritual]

Thinking of replacing media with Phil, is fascinated by the subject but is scared if it might be too challenging, as I've never done it before. I conducted some research and apparently most content is analysed by an individual's perspective, thus there is no right or wrong answer. How do the scoring of the exams work though?

Any assistance would be appreciated, thanks

[HossRyams]

I think the 2014 study design is a bit different to the 2013 study design (the year I took VCE Philosophy) but anyway:
The subject is pretty hard I'd say. There's a fair bit of reading (and the readings are in almost incomprehensible English since it's generally translated stuff) but the concepts aren't ridiculously difficult. It's a lot easier if you just have genuine interest in philosophy, but some of my classmates who took it for fun really struggled to do well.

In the exam you get short answer questions and an essay. Honestly, VCE Philosophy lets you do a bit regurgitation but it's the evaluation aspect that really distinguishes you from other students. I wouldn't agree that "there is no right or wrong answer", because from my experience, the examiners are actually looking a certain range of things. Essentially, the important skills you need are: to be able to understand the theories of each philosophy, to critically evaluate these theories and compare and contrast between them. I'd say the latter two skills are more important. Moreover, you need to be able to relate the philosophers' theories to contemporary debates.

Usually the amount of marks in each question is dedicated to something like 1 mark for identifying an issue, and another mark for explaining it etc... The essay section is the tough part and it's the real distinguisher between who gets average study scores and those who get 40s and above.

In my honest opinion, a lot of research regarding critical evaluation etc. can get you good marks if you remember it all. Obviously, the main part is whether you can accurately answer the question on the spot and "do philosophy". But I still think VCE Philosophy is a but content-vomitty and very different to university level Philosophy in terms of assessment style.

Hope that helps, feel free to ask anything else

[Spiritual]

I think the 2014 study design is a bit different to the 2013 study design (the year I took VCE Philosophy) but anyway:
The subject is pretty hard I'd say. There's a fair bit of reading (and the readings are in almost incomprehensible English since it's generally translated stuff) but the concepts aren't ridiculously difficult. It's a lot easier if you just have genuine interest in philosophy, but some of my classmates who took it for fun really struggled to do well.

In the exam you get short answer questions and an essay. Honestly, VCE Philosophy lets you do a bit regurgitation but it's the evaluation aspect that really distinguishes you from other students. I wouldn't agree that "there is no right or wrong answer", because from my experience, the examiners are actually looking a certain range of things. Essentially, the important skills you need are: to be able to understand the theories of each philosophy, to critically evaluate these theories and compare and contrast between them. I'd say the latter two skills are more important. Moreover, you need to be able to relate the philosophers' theories to contemporary debates.

Usually the amount of marks in each question is dedicated to something like 1 mark for identifying an issue, and another mark for explaining it etc... The essay section is the tough part and it's the real distinguisher between who gets average study scores and those who get 40s and above.

In my honest opinion, a lot of research regarding critical evaluation etc. can get you good marks if you remember it all. Obviously, the main part is whether you can accurately answer the question on the spot and "do philosophy". But I still think VCE Philosophy is a but content-vomitty and very different to university level Philosophy in terms of assessment style.

Hope that helps, feel free to ask anything else

Thanks for the input