Should I take physics 1/2 in year 10?

[InNeedForHelp]

Hey!

I'm in year 9 and I'm thinking about what subject/s to take early.

My maths teacher is recommends that I should take physics 1/2 in year 10. I am by no means an extremely smart student. I'm in main stream at box hill high, but I like to think I work extremely hard in class. I usually go a slightly above average in all of my subjects currently.

So, is physics hard? For some reason I think physics is a hard subject that I didn't shouldn't take early since I might fail..but I could be completely wrong.

How good does your math skills have to be for physics 1/2? My current maths teacher says I should be able to do physics, but I'm not entirely sure.

Also, the physics syllabus is changing in 2016, so if I take it next year I'll have a lot more practice exams and what not.

[Reus]

It's just more complex maths questions with theory behind it all really. Not that hard - is hard at times haha (dependent on a specific individual), but as you can see  I didn't pursue it in year 12 because it simply did not interest me.

Go for it

[datfatcat]

Even though physics syllabus is changing in 2016, I seriously doubt the changes would be significant.

I wouldn't say physics is hard, but you really need to understand all the concepts and have the ability to apply them to the questions.

Go for it if you want.

[lzxnl]

Hey!

I'm in year 9 and I'm thinking about what subject/s to take early.

My maths teacher is recommends that I should take physics 1/2 in year 10. I am by no means an extremely smart student. I'm in main stream at box hill high, but I like to think I work extremely hard in class. I usually go a slightly above average in all of my subjects currently.

So, is physics hard? For some reason I think physics is a hard subject that I didn't shouldn't take early since I might fail..but I could be completely wrong.

How good does your math skills have to be for physics 1/2? My current maths teacher says I should be able to do physics, but I'm not entirely sure.

Also, the physics syllabus is changing in 2016, so if I take it next year I'll have a lot more practice exams and what not.

Physics isn't hard mathematically. The hardest thing you're asked to do in maths is probably type in 10 log(5.7*10^-10/10^-14) into your calculator. Seriously. If you can work your head around logs and trig functions, you'll be fine for physics 3/4 (and maybe 1/2...forgot what maths was in that)

You don't need to be extremely smart. VCE physics doesn't really assume much prior knowledge of physics IMO. Just make sure you're willing to work hard in physics if you do choose to it next year.

[InNeedForHelp]

Physics isn't hard mathematically. The hardest thing you're asked to do in maths is probably type in 10 log(5.7*10^-10/10^-14) into your calculator. Seriously. If you can work your head around logs and trig functions, you'll be fine for physics 3/4 (and maybe 1/2...forgot what maths was in that)

You don't need to be extremely smart. VCE physics doesn't really assume much prior knowledge of physics IMO. Just make sure you're willing to work hard in physics if you do choose to it next year.

Thanks, I'll definitely be working hard at physics and my other year10 subjects. Do you think it would be better to take biology instead though? I've heard biology is easier since it's mainly memorising and logic. Is that true?

[InNeedForHelp]

Even though physics syllabus is changing in 2016, I seriously doubt the changes would be significant.

I wouldn't say physics is hard, but you really need to understand all the concepts and have the ability to apply them to the questions.

Go for it if you want.

Thanks for the input, on a side note is there any websites that tell you when the syllabus of a subject is changing?

[Shinkaze]

Thanks for the input, on a side note is there any websites that tell you when the syllabus of a subject is changing?

Yeah this is the one for physics: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/physics/physicsindex.aspx
VCAA says it all

I was also thinking of doing Physics 1/2 in year 10 but unfortunately my school doesn't allow :C Was thinking to do it other ways so looking at distance ed now ahahah

[InNeedForHelp]

Yeah this is the one for physics: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/physics/physicsindex.aspx
VCAA says it all

I was also thinking of doing Physics 1/2 in year 10 but unfortunately my school doesn't allow :C Was thinking to do it other ways so looking at distance ed now ahahah

Seems like we're on the same boat. We're doing SLA Chinese in the next couple of years and clueless on what else to pick. Anyway, you're highly likely to be a lot smarter than me 

[Stew_822]

Hello there,

I do Chemistry, Physics and Biology (as well as Enviromental science, further and english) (currently in yr12). I find physics easier than biology, but I've got a great physics teacher. There are mostly formulas that you just plug the data into to get your answer - much easier than trying to remember all of the nuts and bolts of biology. Biology is a lot easier if done with chemistry, because a lot of the concepts of chemistry (that are glossed over in bio) are really useful when looking at the molecular structure of cells. Like, REALLY useful. Half of biology, at least at the yr12 level, is chemistry. And some of chemistry is biology. There's quite a large crossover.

With physics, although there are crossovers from chemistry too, they are more just "oh that's why that's like that", rather than "thank God I took chem, otherwise I wouldn't know wtf is with all these lipids and proteins"'

So, for that reason, I'd take physics first, because then when you take biology, you might have a greater knowledge of chemistry that will help you learn the concepts

[InNeedForHelp]

Hello there,

I do Chemistry, Physics and Biology (as well as Enviromental science, further and english) (currently in yr12). I find physics easier than biology, but I've got a great physics teacher. There are mostly formulas that you just plug the data into to get your answer - much easier than trying to remember all of the nuts and bolts of biology. Biology is a lot easier if done with chemistry, because a lot of the concepts of chemistry (that are glossed over in bio) are really useful when looking at the molecular structure of cells. Like, REALLY useful. Half of biology, at least at the yr12 level, is chemistry. And some of chemistry is biology. There's quite a large crossover.

With physics, although there are crossovers from chemistry too, they are more just "oh that's why that's like that", rather than "thank God I took chem, otherwise I wouldn't know wtf is with all these lipids and proteins"'

So, for that reason, I'd take physics first, because then when you take biology, you might have a greater knowledge of chemistry that will help you learn the concepts

Thanks! This really helped a lot.

[datfatcat]

Hello there,

I do Chemistry, Physics and Biology (as well as Enviromental science, further and english) (currently in yr12). I find physics easier than biology, but I've got a great physics teacher. There are mostly formulas that you just plug the data into to get your answer - much easier than trying to remember all of the nuts and bolts of biology. Biology is a lot easier if done with chemistry, because a lot of the concepts of chemistry (that are glossed over in bio) are really useful when looking at the molecular structure of cells. Like, REALLY useful. Half of biology, at least at the yr12 level, is chemistry. And some of chemistry is biology. There's quite a large crossover.

With physics, although there are crossovers from chemistry too, they are more just "oh that's why that's like that", rather than "thank God I took chem, otherwise I wouldn't know wtf is with all these lipids and proteins"'

So, for that reason, I'd take physics first, because then when you take biology, you might have a greater knowledge of chemistry that will help you learn the concepts

I don't think half of biology is chemistry, at least not when I did my VCE biology. Chemistry plays an important role in biology, explaining how humans and animals function, how plants can photosynthesise etc, but I don't think studying VCE chemistry would help much. 

[Stew_822]

That's fair enough - in any case, I didn't mean that point literally.

I found that an understanding of how substances are dissolved (the "like dissolves like" rule) helped when studying the cell membrane. Similarly, having learnt about covalent bonding and hydrogen bonding, I was better able to understand how an enzyme forms its shape and how it functions. After learning the kinetic theory of particles, understanding how different factors affect photosynthesis is far easier because you can visualise it at the particle level. I felt that by having dealt with a bunch of chemicals in chemistry, I was better prepared to understand the molecular structure of DNA - eg. the condensation reaction that forms it, how the bases have hydrogen bonds to join the two strands together.

There are more examples obviously (eg. transpiration)

I found it very helpful to understand the underlying concepts that provided the mechanism for these things to work because it gives you a greater understanding of the concept - rather than rote learning what affects the rate of photosynthesis and how, you actually are able to understand why the factors influence and theoretically you could skip that chapter because after doing chemistry, you could figure it out by yourself.

[Rod]

Maths in VCE physics?

Maths in unit 3/4 physics does not go beyond the scope of primary school mathematics.

Literally.

But it's an awesome subject. You don't really have to do 1/2 to do 3/4, half of unit 1 and half of unit 2 is completely different to 3/4.

[zsteve]

Unit 1/2 physics is pretty easy. Mathematically speaking, the most I've seen is solving quadratics.
The main thing is wrapping your head around the topics, esp. motion and electricity.

[dankfrank420]

Agree with what Zsteve said.

You shouln't be worried about the math involved in VCE pjysics 1.2, it's mainly linear equations and subbing in numbers for pronumerals. However, some topics are difficult to get your head around. Electricity is probably the hardest in unit 1, but still pretty managable. On the other hand, I found motion in unit 2 to be the most challenging part. There are some questions that require a lot of conceptual thinking, but you should be fine.