Specialist Further or Physics?

[peepala]

At the moment I am doing (year 11)
Methods 3/4
Specialist 1/2
Latin 1/2
Italian 1/2
English Language 1/2
Chemistry 1/2

Do you think I should lighten the work load and take further or physics instead of specialist? As I hear its only worth doing it if you put a lot of effort into it and i am not sure whether I will have the time!

tell me what you think so confused about life right now xx

[keltingmeith]

Let's assume you don't put effort into a Further and get a 35 - this will scale to around 33. Now, let's assume you don't put effort into specialist and get a 25 - this will scale to around 35. It's the scaling that determines your ATAR, so you want a higher scaled score.

Every time, I will tell students that they should do specialist. If you want to do anything in STEM, more knowledge of maths can only be helpful, so you should take that into consideration as well.

[odeaa]

If you don't have the time to do well in spesh you won't have the time to do well in physics or further, especially after scaling as Euler explained perfectly

[JackSonSmith]

While I am enjoying specialist, I'm finding my workload to be very very intense. I would say do specialist if you enjoy maths, or wish to pursue studies/career in a related field.

Workload wise, here is my own experience: Specialist > Psychology > English > Chinese > Physics > Methods.

[cosine]

While I am enjoying specialist, I'm finding my workload to be very very intense. I would say do specialist if you enjoy maths, or wish to pursue studies/career in a related field.

Workload wise, here is my own experience: Specialist > Psychology > English > Chinese > Physics > Methods.

Key to success in specialist. Take his words!!

[Kel9901]

At the moment I am doing (year 11)
Methods 3/4
Specialist 1/2
Latin 1/2
Italian 1/2
English Language 1/2
Chemistry 1/2

Do you think I should lighten the work load and take further or physics instead of specialist? As I hear its only worth doing it if you put a lot of effort into it and i am not sure whether I will have the time!

tell me what you think so confused about life right now xx

IMO defs don't do further, it's probably easier to get a 40 in spesh than a 50 in further (silly mistakes blah blah blah), but physics is fine because it's just that smidgen less competitive than further. IMO do 1/2 spesh, and 3/4 spesh OR physics depends on what you feel about 1/2 spesh (in particular complex numbers and vectors/mechanics), since 1/2 physics, while useful for 3/4, isn't quite that useful and it lets you keep options more open (I think it's harder to go to spesh 3/4 w/o having done 1/2)

[Zealous]

IMO defs don't do further, it's probably easier to get a 40 in spesh than a 50 in further (silly mistakes blah blah blah), but physics is fine because it's just that smidgen less competitive than further. IMO do 1/2 spesh, and 3/4 spesh OR physics depends on what you feel about 1/2 spesh (in particular complex numbers and vectors/mechanics), since 1/2 physics, while useful for 3/4, isn't quite that useful and it lets you keep options more open (I think it's harder to go to spesh 3/4 w/o having done 1/2)

I agree with this. I'd go for Specialist or Physics. If you feel the maths in Specialist is getting a little strenuous it might be better to just hop into Physics which is less competitive and the maths isn't too difficult - you can score pretty high in Physics without too much effort if you study smart.

[peepala]

Thank you everyone for the replies,

is it possible to do physics 3/4 without the 1/2? How behind/disadvantaged would I be?

I have heard unit one has nothing to do with unit 3/4, but unit 2 is quite useful....

[Maths Forever]

Hi Peepala,

Unit 1 covers electricity (which is useful for 3/4 Electronics and Photonics). Nuclear Radiation isn't covered in units 3/4, even though it is taught in unit 1.

Unit 2 covers motion (which is useful for 3/4 Motion in One and Two Dimensions). Although Light is taught in unit 2, the content taught in 3/4 Light and Matter is quite different.

In my experience, all the concepts covered in units 1 and 2 that are required for units 3 and 4 are revised again. Although 1/2 is useful, you could cope with just units 3/4. But it's up to you.

Hope this helps! 

[JackSonSmith]

Thank you everyone for the replies,

is it possible to do physics 3/4 without the 1/2? How behind/disadvantaged would I be?

I have heard unit one has nothing to do with unit 3/4, but unit 2 is quite useful....

I dropped Business Management halfway through year 11 to pick up Physics. I wouldn't say you are too disadvantaged, especially when you have things like VTextbook to help you catch up. I'm doing fairly reasonably in Physics at the moment.