Please help! Possible to take Chemistry in Yr 11 w/o background info in Yr 10?

c:_melly

Year 10, Victoria and I am currently in the process for VCE subject selections and I want to take Chem, however I didn't take any Chem related subjects in Yr 10. Here are my current subject selections:
Literature
Legal 3&4
Methods

However, I don't know what other subjects to choose and I'm worried I'm already behind and considering that Chem is notorious for being a hard subject I don't know how I'll do.

AngelWings

c:_melly If it comforts you somewhat, I had a very similar situation as you; I did very little science in Year 10 (just U1/2 Psych) from memory and walked right into my first VCE Chem class with nearly no preparation, and still did alright. (In fact, I also didn’t do a single Bio class since Year 9 and walked into first year uni Bio too! I ended up extended majoring in genetics i.e. biology.)

If there’s anything to revise, it would probably be the following (note: I graduated high school almost 10 years ago so may be outdated):

how to write a scientific report (you’ll need this for psych too, based on your other post)
how to balance chemical equations (stoichiometry)
brush up on super basic maths like how to transpose maths equations (this is for when you use formulas later)
brush up on your scientific calculator skills (you won’t have the TI or ClassPad like in Methods/ General!)
have a glance over the periodic table so you know what it looks like generally
have a read of the study design to learn what you’ll be studying, but don’t stress over it looking like a lot; you’ll cover it all over the next 2 years. The pace in chem is quick and jarring at first but you get accustomed to it quite quickly. It’s built to go from basics, so everyone will be starting from scratch.

Side note: if you’re intending on studying medicine or engineering in uni, Chem’s a prerequisite so you’ll need to cover them eventually anyway for these two direct pathways.

Hope that helps! 🙂

Matti

I am assuming you would have taken a general science in year 9.
From my experience VCE subjects do usually start pretty basic, and revise what common knowledge students would have usually gotten from year 10.
Even if you do find they are discussing things you are unsure of, you will only be in year 11 and have plenty of time to catch up. Which shouldn't take too long, maybe a week and a bit if you study often.

So basically, it definitely IS possible to do, if you are willing to put in a bit of extra effort and are okay with maybe getting slightly lower marks on your first SAC.
If it is a subject you are passionate about, I have no doubts you will succeed as long as you stay engaged with the work!

Best of luck!

c:_melly

Matti

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I really am hoping that's the case, I'm looking toward finding some extra resources to help prepare myself because I'm insanely stressed at the moment. (*´∀人) Thanks~

Matti

c:_melly

That's all good, anytime!

Stress is totally normal around this time, especially during subject selection month. Just remember that your ATAR and VCE scores aren't everything and are really only paths into universities.

If you find yourself looking at a university course that has an absurdly high ATAR requirements, just remember that universities like to put up their 'required' ATAR for the purposes of weeding out students who aren't committed, but there are still many students who get ATAR's under the 'requirements' who will still be accepted!

I have a friend who didn't even do Maths in VCE, he got into economics via Bachelor of Arts (no math required) and then transferred into a Bachelor of Commerce (which requires math) and just did one term of a university math elective to make it up. Just a reminder that there are many ways around not doing prerequisites or getting a lower ATAR than you wanted

Take time for yourself and put some space between you and your CAS calculator every now and then and save the panic attacks for year 12 when things are actually worth stressing about!

Message me if you have any questions at all!