Physics or Biology

board7890

I'm not sure whether to do physics or biology for leaving certificate? I'm doing all honour subjects. I hear there is a lot of learning for biology but it's easy to understand where as you have to be able to have a good understanding of physics. any advice please?

carefulnowted

board7890 wrote: »

I'm not sure whether to do physics or biology for leaving certificate? I'm doing all honour subjects. I hear there is a lot of learning for biology but it's easy to understand where as you have to be able to have a good understanding of physics. any advice please?

I do both and much prefer physics because I have an interest in it, whereas I find biology really boring. The number one thing is to choose subjects you're interested in and think you will enjoy - this has a HUGE effect on how easy it is to study them.

I'd be a bit wary of doing physics if you're very weak at maths. If you don't have a good basic understanding of algebra and rearranging formulas etc, I'd think long and hard about choosing to do physics. There's no need to be an A1 HL student, but if you struggle with maths you'll probably struggle with physics.

Biology is very easy to understand, it's just the volume of definitions/information to learn off that's daunting. You're right in saying that you need to understand physics to do well in it - the exam questions have curveballs that won't always be in the book.

Hope this helps

board7890

Thank you for your help.
So far I do find physics interesting and doable but I feel that biology may be more easy to understand. I've only started physics but I scanned through the book and the other chapters look quite complicated which worries me. I got an A in higher level maths for junior certificate so I have a decent grasp of algebra and manipulating formulas. I did biology in TY and found it kind of boring but I'd be willing to do it despite this. In the end I want to do the subject that would be easiest to achieve a high grade with a reasonable amount of work as I am doing all honour subjects so I don't want to do something that's too time consuming or takes a long time to figure out.

carefulnowted

I get your point about time consuming/difficult subjects. The only thing is that I think biology is just a huge amount of definitions/info to learn off which can take a long time, depending on how good you are at memorising stuff. The fact that you seem to find physics more interesting than biology is going to make it so much easier to study than biology; you'll want to study physics whereas biology could be a drag.

It's completely your decision but I feel like physics seems to be more up your alley. The chapters look complicated but once you learn the theory it's easy to apply logic to them, if that makes sense. Biology may be seen as an easy A but it does require a lot of study and revision, and if you don't find biology absolutely thrilling it's going to be a bit of a bore.

board7890

I do business as well which has a lot of theory in it, which is why I'm also unsure whether to do biology as that would be a lot of learning off. But then biology appeals to me as it's straightforward topics. Does physics overlap a lot with maths and do you think that business and biology would be too much theory/ learning off or would it be doable?
I am of course willing to do the work, it's just (like everyone)I don't like the idea of an overwhelming amount of theory to learn off! I'd say biology was my strongest section at junior cert level but then again my teacher spent the majority of the time doing biology. I don't do chemistry, home ec etc so I'd have nothing overlapping with biology but the biology teacher is very good in the school.
What do you think?

carefulnowted

board7890 wrote: »

I do business as well which has a lot of theory in it, which is why I'm also unsure whether to do biology as that would be a lot of learning off. But then biology appeals to me as it's straightforward topics. Does physics overlap a lot with maths and do you think that business and biology would be too much theory/ learning off or would it be doable?
I am of course willing to do the work, it's just (like everyone)I don't like the idea of an overwhelming amount of theory to learn off! I'd say biology was my strongest section at junior cert level but then again my teacher spent the majority of the time doing biology. I don't do chemistry, home ec etc so I'd have nothing overlapping with biology but the biology teacher is very good in the school.
What do you think?

Physics doesn't really overlap with maths at all, no. I know lots of people who do subjects like geography/history and biology and they don't seem to have trouble learning off reams of information, so I think you'd be grand in that regard.

I think that if you want something that doesn't require a huge amount of learning (there are still a good few definitions and proofs etc) but does require some logic and thinking, have a look at physics. If you're more interested in a subject that is generally straightforward but requires a lot more rote memorisation, biology is the one for you. This is a very simplistic view but hopefully it'll help you with the decision.

board7890

ok thanks very much for your help!