How hard do you find specialist?

[JackSonSmith]

I am deciding my subjects for next year. I enjoy Methods but am not that good (Average low to mid 80%) whereas there are kids in my class getting consistent 90+ (Although class average is below 60).

I am tossing up between Specialist, IT Applications, Physics and Business management. I am currently unsure what exactly I want to do in the future. I enjoy all my current subjects and am doing reasonably well.

So how hard is specialist compared to physics and/or methods? How heavy is the workload? I do about 4 - 5 hours of methods a week.

English, Methods and Chinese are set in stone.

[keltingmeith]

Specialist isn't really harder or easier than methods - it's different. Often people will say it's harder because you need methods knowledge to do it, which ends up making methods easier, however if you look at the content blankly and consider each exam differently, they're no harder or easier than the other. Similarly, physics is different to specialist, you can't really compare them like that. (granted, I didn't actually do VCE physics, I just did Monash's crappy bridging unit)

If you're unsure what to do after uni, I'd say do physics so you still have a physical science in case you decide to do science at Monash or Melbourne (although I think Monash accept methods as a relevant science VCE unit). However, if you like maths more than you like physics, or BusMan more than you like physics, choose those instead. You should always choose what you enjoy.

[Crystall97]

I agree with Euler that specialist is not exactly harder than methods. If you choose the subject anticipating its difficulty, you will give it is not there, really.
If you think you want to go down the engineering/maths/science path then I would recommend specialist. Although if you are not yet certain what you wish to pursue after school, maybe you are better off keeping your options open.

If you said you do 4-5 hours a week of methods, be willing to do much more for spesh. It might not be harder but the class is still a fast paced, content heavy environment.

[JackSonSmith]

Did you find the Physics workload to be higher or lower than that of Specialist?

[Crystall97]

Did you find the Physics workload to be higher or lower than that of Specialist?

Physics generally has a lesser workload to spesh. it is often considered the 'joke' science subject of VCE. Everything is practically content learnt in year ten and barely broadened.
Would definitely recommend if you had an interest in it. An easy subject to do well in, if you understand the concepts. (: