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why do science students they are so much better than humanities students

Okay so I do all humanities at A level. My science teachers told me I could have done those subjects if I had wanted to but I enjoyed History/Literature much more. The students doing sciences and maths at my college seem to look down on those of us who chose humanities as if are subjects are less worthy. This is despite the fact that at the end of lower sixth many of them struggled writing a coherent essay because the as course hadn't required it. I hate it when people say sciences are the only useful subjects - we can keep designing new technology and helping people live forever but what's the point unless life makes you happy. Many people get enjoyment out of reading, music and just being able to communicate with others.

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#Rant
STEM students tend to have poor social skills.
Reply 3
I see people taking the high ground as Scientists all the time on TSR. Doesn't happen at my Sixth Form though. You've summarised it well though, do what you want and try your best not to give a damn what others think about it. It is those that are enjoying their subjects whom will succeed anyway.
The physics teacher at my school claimed that many universities see history and physics to be the same level of difficulty (they just require different skills). Considering, many argue that physics is the hardest a-level science, then the case is closed :tongue:

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In my experience, no I'm not talking about all of them, many teachers and government officials teach students that if you're 'smart' you do maths or science. So you're not as smart if you do anything 'less' and throughout my whole school career I've seen that. They equate science and maths with difficulty and therefore with intelligence which is rude because they look down on almost every other subject which I can assure you they would not be very good at if they tried. Everyone is good at something different and that shouldn't be something you feel you're better for than others.

You have no idea how many times I've been told english is easy, art is easy. If it were so easy, everyone would pass first time round and get A*'s and guess what? They don't.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by labby
Okay so I do all humanities at A level. My science teachers told me I could have done those subjects if I had wanted to but I enjoyed History/Literature much more. The students doing sciences and maths at my college seem to look down on those of us who chose humanities as if are subjects are less worthy. This is despite the fact that at the end of lower sixth many of them struggled writing a coherent essay because the as course hadn't required it. I hate it when people say sciences are the only useful subjects - we can keep designing new technology and helping people live forever but what's the point unless life makes you happy. Many people get enjoyment out of reading, music and just being able to communicate with others.


I think that this might be because of the way that students were taught in the lower years, teachers always made it seem like the sciences were the most important subjects and humanities weren't given much of an emphasis.

But to be honest I don't really think there's anything wrong with doing humanities (this is coming from a science student) and sometimes I actually think that doing humanities can be a lot harder than taking the sciences (considering all the essays and case studies you look at)
Reply 7
Science graduates have to subsidise arts/humanities graduates because many A/H graduates will never earn enough to pay off their student loans.
Original post by cookiemonster15
I think that this might be because of the way that students were taught in the lower years, teachers always made it seem like the sciences were the most important subjects and humanities weren't given much of an emphasis.

But to be honest I don't really think there's anything wrong with doing humanities (this is coming from a science student) and sometimes I actually think that doing humanities can be a lot harder than taking the sciences (considering all the essays and case studies you look at)


In that case, it's quite clear that you're NOT a science student.

How can you consider humanities harder? I'm all for hearing someone trying to say that they're the SAME difficulty but if you're saying that a subject like sociology is more difficult than physics, then you clearly aren't educated enough.
I did both sciences and humanities subjects at A-level, and I love both types of subjects equally. At my sixth form, nobody was looked down upon for Humanities, in fact, they were respected for their intellectual skills and ability to write extremely well (for the most part).
Anyway, humanities subjects are in no way 'mickey mouse' subjects by any length, so tell those science snobs they can do one. :h:
Original post by Butternuts96
In that case, it's quite clear that you're NOT a science student.

How can you consider humanities harder? I'm all for hearing someone trying to say that they're the SAME difficulty but if you're saying that a subject like sociology is more difficult than physics, then you clearly aren't educated enough.


I did say it can 'sometimes' be harder and wasn't implying that it was harder overall. And 'hardness' is measured on a personal level so something I find hard can be easier to you and vice versa, and I wasn't actually specifying anything, sociology is not the only humanities subject and neither is physics the only sciences subject. I do think they are the same difficulty, just at times one can be harder than the other, and if you want to specify, not everything in physics is impossibly hard and not everything in sociology is easy either.
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 11
In my opinion, chemistry and physics are more difficult than most humanities. I have done psychology (which I would say is a lot easier) and history (which I would say was fairly on par). But it does depend on the specific subjects and a persons specific skills... I did 3 sciences and 2 humanities at AS, and found history and chemistry equally the worst :smile: either way, nobody should be looking down on anybody else, because society needs all kinds of people
"Do not judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree" - Albert Einstein

I thought that this was fitting for the anwser, which are very agreeable but I am biased towards science because it it basically the only thing I am good at.
The reason is because many of the assessments in quantitative assessments such as physics and mathematics are objective. That is, the answers you provide are verifiable correct or incorrect.

In humanities, often assessments are in the form of essays, requiring the marker to come to a subjective assessment of the ability of the student. It is thus easier for an average student to succeed in this subject without mastery of their field. As long as the student can convince the teacher in an essay that they know their subject well they can potentially receive a good or at least average grade.

Therefore students who objectively know they are great students will often gravitate to the subject that is marked objectively rather than subjectively.
Reply 14
Original post by Butternuts96
In that case, it's quite clear that you're NOT a science student.

How can you consider humanities harder? I'm all for hearing someone trying to say that they're the SAME difficulty but if you're saying that a subject like sociology is more difficult than physics, then you clearly aren't educated enough.


It's pretty obvious why he's saying it. Most of the top science students focus solely on STEM subjects and since all of these subjects tend to link together they end up getting very good at them. If they were to study a humanity subject, which is completely different, they would either have to start at a low level or struggle. When he's saying humanity subjects are harder he's speaking subjectively, and I think quite a bit of only science students would agree with him.

Edit: I should probably add that I am a Science student and completely agree that STEM subjects are incredibly more useful than most humanities. I'm just commenting on the difficulty of the subjects.
(edited 8 years ago)
STEM subjects provide for everything we have in society - electricity, clean running water, road network, the very house you live in, mobile phones, cars, healthcare, computers and so on. We need people from STEM subjects in every walk of life as much as we need business students, economists and accountants to manage the firms that provide these services.

What do we need English literature graduates for? What skills do they provide that are so essential to society that a STEM graduate cannot also offer? When would society ever need an English graduate? And how many people do we need to study history? Not like we need thousands of historians.

Just waiting for the hate for posting this on TSR...
Reply 16
Tbf, if someone is looking for a dos subject (since they are legally required to say in education)- they are more likely to choose a humanities than a science, because it is easier to initially engage with. So that could be where some of the negativity comes from? Just a thought...
As one of my friends put it- "it's easier to get an A in a humanities, but harder to get an A*" (don't completely agree, but I get what he meant)
Original post by labby
Okay so I do all humanities at A level. My science teachers told me I could have done those subjects if I had wanted to but I enjoyed History/Literature much more. The students doing sciences and maths at my college seem to look down on those of us who chose humanities as if are subjects are less worthy. This is despite the fact that at the end of lower sixth many of them struggled writing a coherent essay because the as course hadn't required it. I hate it when people say sciences are the only useful subjects - we can keep designing new technology and helping people live forever but what's the point unless life makes you happy. Many people get enjoyment out of reading, music and just being able to communicate with others.


I know this does happen, but I don't know why. The sciences and humanities need different types of skills to be successful. I did the sciences, loved it and things like physics and maths come fairly naturally to me. However, writing an essay is not something that would come as easily for me. Everyone has different skill sets - that doesn't make them better or worse than someone else. It would be good if people just appreciate each others qualities and skills, and shared whatever knowledge they had in their subject. I like having discussions with people who do humanities - it can be very interesting so long as theyre open minded!
You're exaggerating, no one is going to look down on you because you picked different subjects. Having said that, I've seen someone comment that humanities subjects are harder than science, but that's pretty wrong. Although people have different opinions on what's easy and what's difficult, the one main thing is that science is very objective and humanities are subjective. Therefore in humanities you get marks for most valid points you make, but in sciences (especially maths) there is only one valid answer, so if you don't get that, you won't get the marks. Even back at the simple GCSE level I actually had to learn the science and then could bs my way through history and English. Nothing wrong with doing it at a level though, I'm sure the content is still difficult
None of this humanities v. STEM stuff happens in my school, if anything its probably the other way round. History AS is viewed as one of the hardest subjects even by people who dont take it and do 3 sciences + maths + fm

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