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How well does chemistry go with physics?

I'm in year 12 and I'm doing physics chemistry geography and maths. I might want to study physics or environmental engineering at uni.
I'm having a bit of trouble deciding if I should drop chemistry or geography but I like both subjects equally. So I was wondering if I decide that I like geography more and drop chemistry would it be some sort of a disadvantage? How useful is it to do chemistry?
if you do decide to study physics there will be no requirement to study chemistry. for environmental engineering I don't think chemistry is required either.

Saying that I really think you should stop thinking about which subject to drop, It WILL affect you physiologically and you may therefore perform differently in as exams. so If you think to yourself of dropping none, you can perfrom to your max potential and get the top grades that you most certainly want.

ps. im also in year 12, and I just tell myself im taking all 4 subjects for next year aswell, so that I treat them equally and try my best aha
good luck
Reply 2
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Da Bee
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Original post by Science_help
if you do decide to study physics there will be no requirement to study chemistry. for environmental engineering I don't think chemistry is required either.

Saying that I really think you should stop thinking about which subject to drop, It WILL affect you physiologically and you may therefore perform differently in as exams. so If you think to yourself of dropping none, you can perfrom to your max potential and get the top grades that you most certainly want.

ps. im also in year 12, and I just tell myself im taking all 4 subjects for next year aswell, so that I treat them equally and try my best aha
good luck


I know I want to stop thinking about it but my head of year is forcing me to choose by next week because he's entering us for AS exams really soon :angry: Obviously chemistry is part of the new specification but geography is unaffected so if do chemistry for 2 years then I'm gonna do all of the exams at the end of 2 years. If I don't he'll have to enter me for the AS chemistry. I told him to enter me for the AS chemistry exam anyway and I'll decide after the AS exams but he said no :angry: I seriously don't understand the problem if I decide to carry on chemistry then I'll just do the exams again
The two subjects have a bit of Chemistry... :mmm:

:getmecoat: sorry.

I did the two subjects at A-level with the same board, so ISAs (which may not exist for you now) and the exam papers were similiar in a way, I was familiar with how their mark schemes work and what kind of things they look for. There might've been a tiny bit of overlap but not anything significant. And again it was just great to do two sciencey things and being able to think about experiments etc.
Chemistry for us ( 2 year content at end of a2 ) will be really hard imho. And also not having done an as exam for it may affect your uni offers as they don't have a valid way to see how good you are, as school exams can be bias etc. I would therefore suggest you take chemistry at AS only. it would also reduce a lot of stress, because chem grade will be based at the end of 2 years, in just 3 exams - a really unfair way of seeing how good a student is. good luck
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Original post by SeanFM
The two subjects have a bit of Chemistry... :mmm:

:getmecoat: sorry.

I did the two subjects at A-level with the same board, so ISAs (which may not exist for you now) and the exam papers were similiar in a way, I was familiar with how their mark schemes work and what kind of things they look for. There might've been a tiny bit of overlap but not anything significant. And again it was just great to do two sciencey things and being able to think about experiments etc.


I do the same exam boards for both the subjects too and I see what you mean.
Are you more of a physics or chemistry person? And I was wondering how interesting did you find chemistry at A2?
Reply 6
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Original post by Science_help
Chemistry for us ( 2 year content at end of a2 ) will be really hard imho. And also not having done an as exam for it may affect your uni offers as they don't have a valid way to see how good you are, as school exams can be bias etc. I would therefore suggest you take chemistry at AS only. it would also reduce a lot of stress, because chem grade will be based at the end of 2 years, in just 3 exams - a really unfair way of seeing how good a student is. good luck


This is the point where we blame the government for making things so complicated for our year :colonhash:
But thank you for the advice :smile:
Original post by Da Bee
I do the same exam boards for both the subjects too and I see what you mean.
Are you more of a physics or chemistry person? And I was wondering how interesting did you find chemistry at A2?


Physics, because I am a Maths person and it had more Maths in it than Chemistry did :tongue:

I didn't find any of it boring but only a few parts were interesting, like how batteries work, different reactions that some things have etc.
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Original post by SeanFM
Physics, because I am a Maths person and it had more Maths in it than Chemistry did :tongue:

I didn't find any of it boring but only a few parts were interesting, like how batteries work, different reactions that some things have etc.


Thank you :smile:
Tbh if I could I would probably/maybe choose to drop maths (with respect :redface:) just because I like the other 3 subjects more. But obviously I can't...
Original post by Da Bee
Thank you :smile:
Tbh if I could I would probably/maybe choose to drop maths (with respect :redface:) just because I like the other 3 subjects more. But obviously I can't...


:eek4: I see. It looks like for both of those courses an A* in Maths is desirable for the top unis and then either an A or A* in Physics, and then any third subject at A grade. If you think you can get an A overall in Geography I'd suggesting dropping Chemistry if you absolutely had to drop something as it was definitely the hardest A-level I did (personally) between Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.
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Original post by SeanFM
:eek4: I see. It looks like for both of those courses an A* in Maths is desirable for the top unis and then either an A or A* in Physics, and then any third subject at A grade. If you think you can get an A overall in Geography I'd suggesting dropping Chemistry if you absolutely had to drop something as it was definitely the hardest A-level I did (personally) between Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry.


Wow it was harder than physics/ further maths! :afraid: I feel like maybe/probably/perhaps I am leaning towards geography now because we got our mocks back and we all did terribly :s-smilie: Now one of our teacher hates us and keeps telling us that we're lazy and in general today chemistry just drained me and I can't be bothered with it.

Again thank you ever so much for your help! Can I just say I respect you for doing those 4 A-levels I tried that for a couple of weeks and I died
Original post by Da Bee
Wow it was harder than physics/ further maths! :afraid: I feel like maybe/probably/perhaps I am leaning towards geography now because we got our mocks back and we all did terribly :s-smilie: Now one of our teacher hates us and keeps telling us that we're lazy and in general today chemistry just drained me and I can't be bothered with it.

Again thank you ever so much for your help! Can I just say I respect you for doing those 4 A-levels I tried that for a couple of weeks and I died


Ah that's not cool of your teacher, I guess you have to prove him wrong now :shakecane: it is too late in the day now anyway for any work :tongue:

No worries :tongue: it can be exhausting, stressful, definitely not easy. :dontknow:

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