Engineering Studies and other subjects (Subject Selection) (1 Viewer)

[Bryceyo]

Hello! I am a year 10 student who has just recently picked my year 11 and 12 subject choices, however they are not confirmed and I have until the end of the year to decide on confirmations. I have picked these subjects: English Advanced, Mathematics Advanced, Chemistry, Economics, Modern History, and Engineering Studies. In university I want to pursue engineering, and I am aware that the assumed knowledge is physics and mathematics extension 1, which leads me to my second point. I enjoy both chemistry and physics, (and have an interest in engineering), so I have decided to pick Chemistry due to my interest in it, and engineering because I want to be an engineer and have an interest in engineering, however I also definitely enjoy Physics, however I feel like if I were to take it as well as chemistry that may be challenging. For year 12, I plan to drop one of my subjects (most likely engineering if I pick it), or either physics or chemistry if I choose to take on both.

I was just hoping if somebody who may be familiar with or chosen engineering studies can give advice on whether it is a good subject, fun, boring, hard, easy, is the year 11 course boring? (as there is a good chance it would be the one I drop for year 12) and also advice on Physics and Chemistry, which one is more fun, harder, easier, etc. A lot of people in my year picked chemistry, is it misleading? .

Also any general advice on any subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

 

[Socialism]

Hello! I am a year 10 student who has just recently picked my year 11 and 12 subject choices, however they are not confirmed and I have until the end of the year to decide on confirmations. I have picked these subjects: English Advanced, Mathematics Advanced, Chemistry, Economics, Modern History, and Engineering Studies. In university I want to pursue engineering, and I am aware that the assumed knowledge is physics and mathematics extension 1, which leads me to my second point. I enjoy both chemistry and physics, (and have an interest in engineering), so I have decided to pick Chemistry due to my interest in it, and engineering because I want to be an engineer and have an interest in engineering, however I also definitely enjoy Physics, however I feel like if I were to take it as well as chemistry that may be challenging. For year 12, I plan to drop one of my subjects (most likely engineering if I pick it), or either physics or chemistry if I choose to take on both.

I was just hoping if somebody who may be familiar with or chosen engineering studies can give advice on whether it is a good subject, fun, boring, hard, easy, is the year 11 course boring? (as there is a good chance it would be the one I drop for year 12) and also advice on Physics and Chemistry, which one is more fun, harder, easier, etc. A lot of people in my year picked chemistry, is it misleading? .

Also any general advice on any subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

hii!! welcome to BoS...
Firstly, i'm sorry, are you saying you'll drop engineering? that doesn't seem conducive to becoming an engineer

I haven't done engineering, or any sciences for that matter, but as far as i know, when they say they assume that knowledge for uni, it is possible to do courses to um, get that knowledge? if you know what i mean? that also might be for preqs though, so look into that

if you're keen on doing physics as well, maybe you could replace economics with it? it is possible to do both, but if you don't think you could, it might be a better idea to pick economics... am i completely off the rails here?

good luck!!! sorry i couldn't really help

 

[fromthethickofit]

im not reading all that but, DO NOT DO ENGINEERING STUDIES, or drop it in year 12. It has terrible scaling and its extremely hard, i would say youd probably need a brain of someone who does 4u math to do this subject iykwim.

 

[C2H6O]

Hello! I am a year 10 student who has just recently picked my year 11 and 12 subject choices, however they are not confirmed and I have until the end of the year to decide on confirmations. I have picked these subjects: English Advanced, Mathematics Advanced, Chemistry, Economics, Modern History, and Engineering Studies. In university I want to pursue engineering, and I am aware that the assumed knowledge is physics and mathematics extension 1, which leads me to my second point. I enjoy both chemistry and physics, (and have an interest in engineering), so I have decided to pick Chemistry due to my interest in it, and engineering because I want to be an engineer and have an interest in engineering, however I also definitely enjoy Physics, however I feel like if I were to take it as well as chemistry that may be challenging. For year 12, I plan to drop one of my subjects (most likely engineering if I pick it), or either physics or chemistry if I choose to take on both.

I was just hoping if somebody who may be familiar with or chosen engineering studies can give advice on whether it is a good subject, fun, boring, hard, easy, is the year 11 course boring? (as there is a good chance it would be the one I drop for year 12) and also advice on Physics and Chemistry, which one is more fun, harder, easier, etc. A lot of people in my year picked chemistry, is it misleading? .

Also any general advice on any subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

Aight so I did engineering in yr 11, but you should know I did it distance ed cause our teacher dipped last minute so I might be biased cause tbh the assessments were really easy. Also I dropped in yr 12 but bc I was forced to due to having to leave distance ed spaces for kids that actually need it.
Engineering is a fairly easy subject tbh. There’s a lot of conceptual understanding of how stuff works like braking systems, electronics, and production of materials. With it is incorporated very simplified chemistry and simplified physics so it’s not overall that difficult. There’s also a lot of drawing diagrams and dimensioning (search up something orthogonal drawings/engineering dimensioning; you’ll be drawing a lot of those in exams with a pencil and ruler and set squares). A little bit of history on the development of various technologies like bikes or engines or something, as well as really bs-able stuff on the implications of things on society. You may also have to write a couple engineering reports (search up for examples) on some random piece of technology. There are a good amount of mathsy questions but it’s always pretty easy plug it in the formula type questions (take a look at the formula sheet but it might look overwhelming rn). The questions are mainly just wordier and more applied versions of easy physics questions (incline planes, pulley systems, torque/turning moments, electronics) nothing like crazy. So overall quite a bit of content but nothing too difficult just the amount may be overwhelming. I found it pretty easy with moderate effort and it’s a very yappable subject like business studies. I’ve heard that year 12 is not too different just more technologies and applications.
Boring? I think it will differ for everyone, if you’re interested in learning how different technologies work/are developed, as well as writing about it then you might find it fun. Tbh it can very easily get boring but imo it’s got the right amount of difficulty to keep you invested but not freak you out.

In terms of chem and phys I’d say they’re definitely not to be underestimated. They’re labelled most difficult non extension subjects for a reason. If you’re passionate you can definitely do well in both though. I’m doing both but obviously I now only have 3 subjects so idk how it is like to manage double science with all subjects at once.
I think chemistry is funner but that’s just me. Chemistry can get very deep as it’s more specific. Physics I feel like has a lot more diverse content which can make it harder as there’s so much to cover (not rote learning though); you jump all over the place from basic things like incline planes, pulleys, collisions to things like electromagnetism, astrophysics, nuclear physics and quantum physics. Doing both chem and phys tie in very well as they do overlap a tiny bit in the last year 12 module. If you’re gonna do engineering in uni I’d say engineering will prepare you pretty well generally for things like writing reports and core skills of engineering, but it’s not a prerequisite for a reason; I think physics does unfortunately get to that next level of depth. I’m not sure how much chemistry knowledge you’ll need in engineering - definitely a basic understanding of molecules, but unless you do material engineering, biomed maybe or chemical engineering idk how much it would apply to mechanical or civil. I’m by no means an expert but I’ll be happy to answer any other questions you got.

 

[Bryceyo]

im not reading all that but, DO NOT DO ENGINEERING STUDIES, or drop it in year 12. It has terrible scaling and its extremely hard, i would say youd probably need a brain of someone who does 4u math to do this subject iykwim.

Really? is it really that difficult? I have other people saying its easy. Was hoping for engineering to be like the subject that is a bit more of a break compared to my other ones.

 

[Socialism]

Really? is it really that difficult? I have other people saying its easy. Was hoping for engineering to be like the subject that is a bit more of a break compared to my other ones.

just in case you want some more opinions, i'll ask around about the difficulty... while i don't do it i've seen some assessmnet tasks that look pretty difficult, but I had assumed it would be easier if you had done the course?

 

[Bryceyo]

hii!! welcome to BoS...
Firstly, i'm sorry, are you saying you'll drop engineering? that doesn't seem conducive to becoming an engineer

I haven't done engineering, or any sciences for that matter, but as far as i know, when they say they assume that knowledge for uni, it is possible to do courses to um, get that knowledge? if you know what i mean? that also might be for preqs though, so look into that

if you're keen on doing physics as well, maybe you could replace economics with it? it is possible to do both, but if you don't think you could, it might be a better idea to pick economics... am i completely off the rails here?

good luck!!! sorry i couldn't really help

Thanks for the response, yeah I was wanting to only proceed through year 12 with 10 units because I heard that it's better to put more time into less subjects than have a backup, and idk I feel like engineering would be the subject that I would be most likely to drop mainly just due to the scaling which I heard was poor. I am very keen on doing physics, its more so just the workload of both physics and chemistry as well as the other subjects which I fear

 

[Bryceyo]

Th

just in case you want some more opinions, i'll ask around about the difficulty... while i don't do it i've seen some assessmnet tasks that look pretty difficult, but I had assumed it would be easier if you had done the course?

That would be useful, thanks!

 

[Bryceyo]

Aight so I did engineering in yr 11, but you should know I did it distance ed cause our teacher dipped last minute so I might be biased cause tbh the assessments were really easy. Also I dropped in yr 12 but bc I was forced to due to having to leave distance ed spaces for kids that actually need it.
Engineering is a fairly easy subject tbh. There’s a lot of conceptual understanding of how stuff works like braking systems, electronics, and production of materials. With it is incorporated very simplified chemistry and simplified physics so it’s not overall that difficult. There’s also a lot of drawing diagrams and dimensioning (search up something orthogonal drawings/engineering dimensioning; you’ll be drawing a lot of those in exams with a pencil and ruler and set squares). A little bit of history on the development of various technologies like bikes or engines or something, as well as really bs-able stuff on the implications of things on society. You may also have to write a couple engineering reports (search up for examples) on some random piece of technology. There are a good amount of mathsy questions but it’s always pretty easy plug it in the formula type questions (take a look at the formula sheet but it might look overwhelming rn). The questions are mainly just wordier and more applied versions of easy physics questions (incline planes, pulley systems, torque/turning moments, electronics) nothing like crazy. So overall quite a bit of content but nothing too difficult just the amount may be overwhelming. I found it pretty easy with moderate effort and it’s a very yappable subject like business studies. I’ve heard that year 12 is not too different just more technologies and applications.
Boring? I think it will differ for everyone, if you’re interested in learning how different technologies work/are developed, as well as writing about it then you might find it fun. Tbh it can very easily get boring but imo it’s got the right amount of difficulty to keep you invested but not freak you out.

In terms of chem and phys I’d say they’re definitely not to be underestimated. They’re labelled most difficult non extension subjects for a reason. If you’re passionate you can definitely do well in both though. I’m doing both but obviously I now only have 3 subjects so idk how it is like to manage double science with all subjects at once.
I think chemistry is funner but that’s just me. Chemistry can get very deep as it’s more specific. Physics I feel like has a lot more diverse content which can make it harder as there’s so much to cover (not rote learning though); you jump all over the place from basic things like incline planes, pulleys, collisions to things like electromagnetism, astrophysics, nuclear physics and quantum physics. Doing both chem and phys tie in very well as they do overlap a tiny bit in the last year 12 module. If you’re gonna do engineering in uni I’d say engineering will prepare you pretty well generally for things like writing reports and core skills of engineering, but it’s not a prerequisite for a reason; I think physics does unfortunately get to that next level of depth. I’m not sure how much chemistry knowledge you’ll need in engineering - definitely a basic understanding of molecules, but unless you do material engineering, biomed maybe or chemical engineering idk how much it would apply to mechanical or civil. I’m by no means an expert but I’ll be happy to answer any other questions you got.

Thanks so much for the reply! I feel like engineering might be a good subject to be a break from the other ones. Just wondering would you say that Mathematics Advanced is good enough for Physics? I feel like everyone who does good in physics are the ones who picked 4u/3u math

 

[coolcat6778]

Hello! I am a year 10 student who has just recently picked my year 11 and 12 subject choices, however they are not confirmed and I have until the end of the year to decide on confirmations. I have picked these subjects: English Advanced, Mathematics Advanced, Chemistry, Economics, Modern History, and Engineering Studies. In university I want to pursue engineering, and I am aware that the assumed knowledge is physics and mathematics extension 1, which leads me to my second point. I enjoy both chemistry and physics, (and have an interest in engineering), so I have decided to pick Chemistry due to my interest in it, and engineering because I want to be an engineer and have an interest in engineering, however I also definitely enjoy Physics, however I feel like if I were to take it as well as chemistry that may be challenging. For year 12, I plan to drop one of my subjects (most likely engineering if I pick it), or either physics or chemistry if I choose to take on both.

I was just hoping if somebody who may be familiar with or chosen engineering studies can give advice on whether it is a good subject, fun, boring, hard, easy, is the year 11 course boring? (as there is a good chance it would be the one I drop for year 12) and also advice on Physics and Chemistry, which one is more fun, harder, easier, etc. A lot of people in my year picked chemistry, is it misleading? .

Also any general advice on any subject would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

Pick physics instead. For one, it scales much better than engineering studies. Two, physics is a new 2019 syllabus with less emphasis on humanities. Meanwhile the current (2011) syllabus engineering studies is a dumbed down version of the subject "engineering science" which was actual math physics and chemistry. Engineering science was last examined in 2000. The current engineering studies subject is a shitty humanities course with 20% calculation questions (if ur lucky). Three, hsc physics is clearly more accredited since you get selection points from unsw, meanwhile you don't from engineering studies. Unless you like writing essays, pick hsc physics. With physics, you write way less essays and humanities responses that analyse human behavior rather than science.

 

[Socialism]

Pick physics instead. For one, it scales much better than engineering studies. Two, physics is a new 2019 syllabus. Meanwhile the current (2011) syllabus engineering studies is a dumbed down version of the subject "engineering science" which was actual math physics and chemistry. Engineering science was last examined in 2000. The current engineering studies subject is a shitty humanities with 10% problem solving calculation questions. Three, physics is clearly more accredited since you get selection points from unsw, meanwhile you don't from engineering studies.

can i ask if you've actually done engineering studies? i'm not accusing you of lying, its just that i have NOT gotten the impression of a humanities subject... A kid on my year accelerates (2025 hsc) and all i've seen in regards to assignments are calculations and like, um, stereotypical engineering stuff? also, if they;ve been doing it since 2011, it can't be THAT bad if they dumbed it down THAT long ago, then the original might as well have been harder, and now its more "medium"

 

[Socialism]

i'm not even disagreeing, physics is not a bad subject, but it just might be a better idea to do engineering studies, even if you;re only going to drop, just to get that extra bit of experience in... then again, the same argument could be made for doing physics and droppign later...

 

[coolcat6778]

can i ask if you've actually done engineering studies? i'm not accusing you of lying, its just that i have NOT gotten the impression of a humanities subject... A kid on my year accelerates (2025 hsc) and all i've seen in regards to assignments are calculations and like, um, stereotypical engineering stuff? also, if they;ve been doing it since 2011, it can't be THAT bad if they dumbed it down THAT long ago, then the original might as well have been harder, and now its more "medium"

nope but you can see the exam papers, i looked at every page. Also the teacher may set more calculation questions cause who actually enjoys making kids do stupid essay questions and marking them

 

[Study to success]

can i ask if you've actually done engineering studies? i'm not accusing you of lying, its just that i have NOT gotten the impression of a humanities subject... A kid on my year accelerates (2025 hsc) and all i've seen in regards to assignments are calculations and like, um, stereotypical engineering stuff? also, if they;ve been doing it since 2011, it can't be THAT bad if they dumbed it down THAT long ago, then the original might as well have been harder, and now its more "medium"

Well i don’t really know much about the subject but my friends do it and they say that at the beginning of each topic there is this thing where u have to explain how a certain factor or smth in engineering contributes to society but i think they still do have calculations

 

[Socialism]

nope but you can see the exam papers, i looked at every page. Also the teacher may set more math questions cause who actually wants to make kids do stupid essay questions and mark them

well, yeah. so we agree it's not really humanities focused? I think the distinction here is that the engineering studies um, essay questions are focused on like, engineering stuff i mean, i haven't looked, so i'm not trying to shut you down, but i could hazard a guess that you would need to write some essay based responses in almost every subject in the HSC, including engineering? I think it'd probably be important as understand something in the depth required to write an essay means you've learnt the content, right?

 

[C2H6O]

Really? is it really that difficult? I have other people saying its easy. Was hoping for engineering to be like the subject that is a bit more of a break compared to my other ones.

I think my guy’s trolling idk it’s definitely nowhere near as difficult as 4U maths, maybe lily 70% difficulty of physics at MOST?

 

[C2H6O]

Thanks so much for the reply! I feel like engineering might be a good subject to be a break from the other ones. Just wondering would you say that Mathematics Advanced is good enough for Physics? I feel like everyone who does good in physics are the ones who picked 4u/3u math

Nope the maths in physics is not that hard it’s just formulas, hard mathsy questions will just require more steps more algebra and trig. Adv maths is definitely good enough although there is a bit of cross over with 3u projectile motion and phys

 

[C2H6O]

well, yeah. so we agree it's not really humanities focused? I think the distinction here is that the engineering studies um, essay questions are focused on like, engineering stuff i mean, i haven't looked, so i'm not trying to shut you down, but i could hazard a guess that you would need to write some essay based responses in almost every subject in the HSC, including engineering? I think it'd probably be important as understand something in the depth required to write an essay means you've learnt the content, right?

“Writing an essay” as in long responses? It’s like questions in physics or chemistry asking you about the historical developments of the atomic model or benefits to society of the transformer so I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a humanities subject, it’s just a lot of yappery and bs-ing and just more of those types of questions than in the sciences. There’s still a good chunk of calculation questions but the way you solve it isn’t strict like you might even be asked to do a “graphical solution” which literally means you draw out the force vectors to scale, line them up, and then measure the resultant vector, whereas normally you’d resolve the vectors to components using trig and add and use pythag to find the resultant (you’ll still do this in engineering just not as much). I’d say it’s very roughly 40% calculation, 40% yappery and 20% drawing blocks/metal grain structures/dimensioning

 

[Socialism]

“Writing an essay” as in long responses? It’s like questions in physics or chemistry asking you about the historical developments of the atomic model or benefits to society of the transformer so I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a humanities subject, it’s just a lot of yappery and bs-ing and just more of those types of questions than in the sciences. There’s still a good chunk of calculation questions but the way you solve it isn’t strict like you might even be asked to do a “graphical solution” which literally means you draw out the force vectors to scale, line them up, and then measure the resultant vector, whereas normally you’d resolve the vectors to components using trig and add and use pythag to find the resultant (you’ll still do this in engineering just not as much). I’d say it’s very roughly 40% calculation, 40% yappery and 20% drawing blocks/metal grain structures/dimensioning

i literally said i haven't ever looked at a hsc engineering paper... because coolcat said "humanities" and also said he'd "read the past hsc papers" i assumed that's what he meant :sob;

 

[C2H6O]

i literally said i haven't ever looked at a hsc engineering paper... because coolcat said "humanities" and also said he'd "read the past hsc papers" i assumed that's what he meant :sob;

Nah I’m not replying to you directly just addressing the conversation thus far