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Sciences are easier than humanities....

science is harder to get your head round in the first place then its fine and after the exam you will know if you completely messed up or not.

however with humanities its easier to learn but harder to structure your answer and no certainty if you've done bad or not.

mind you there are quite a few essay styled science q's now.

Reply 21

Fat-Love

15

If your smart science A levels are easier - if your dumb and you know how to speak bullfaeces then humanities will be easier.

Reply 22

KhizzReynzz

I agree and disagree...

With humanities it is difficult to prepare, you'll never know what will come up. I mean, for my English Lang exam we prepare all year for older texts and when we sat down in the exam we had a text from 1930! And with English Lit you can only really read the books and remember contextual information.

With Science you do remember facts, but you also have to really understand what it is. You can't just remember a random fact, you have to understand a process from the beginning.

But marking is probably much easier for Science because it is either wrong or right. With humanities it is subjective...

Hmmm...

Ps. Also, with science you could look through a book to revise, with humanities you have to do a lot of your own research because it isn't really in a text book...especially with English Lit where you have to read essays and stuff and other people's interpretations :/

Reply 23

Ultimate1

OP

soutioirsim

Im sorry but i find maths is a skill. Sure there are loads of equations you have to learn and apply but then theres algabraeic manipulation, proving and just tonnes of **** you have to understand! Whats the point in learning equations if cant even understand them and thats what they test you on, understanding. Eg sketching complex graphs. Doesnt sound that bad but **** it can be hard and you cant just remember every single known function and all the transformations. Suck my balls humanities are easier, I got A* in religious studies without studying. You could never do that in science or maths.

Exactly whats there to leanr on how to apply graphs? WTF? Sciences are so easy its just facepalm whereas Humanities relies more on your natural ability in the said subject whereas any tom and dick can do sciences with a bit of effort. How can someone tell me it's easy to have a strong writing style for english rather than cramming in a few formula's and just using them in science exams apart from the odd question which requires you to think.

Reply 24

Dude Where's My Username

15

This "argument" stinks of a massive inferiority complex and repeated self justification. Why get hung up over this subject?!

Reply 25

Alexdurrant7

10

Funnily enough we tried this at our college. Gave 5 students studying three sciences an english lit and a philosophy paper, and gave 5 students studying three arts/humanities a biology and a maths paper. The average grade for science students doing the essay exams was a high C, and the highest for the arts/humanities students doing the science exams was a high E.... you just can't blag a science exam.

Reply 26

Drummermean

7

Well you can't just ramble on about random things in Science subjects as there is always a specific answer for them.
Humanities you can easily ramble and get a decent grade as the mark scheme isn't as stringent.

Reply 27

melonhead1992

Look. When people say that science subjects are only 'pure learning' subjects, it's cause maybe to them it is ;- they don't try to understand it and just learn and repeat the facts. You have to have a full understanding of science in order to be able to get full marks, and it's true that it's easier to identify weaknesses in your understanding in science than humanities where you have to waffle your way around a question. That said the concepts aren't any easier. You'd know if you actually took them.

Reply 28

Ultimate1

OP

Alexdurrant7

Funnily enough we tried this at our college. Gave 5 students studying three sciences an english lit and a philosophy paper, and gave 5 students studying three arts/humanities a biology and a maths paper. The average grade for science students doing the essay exams was a high C, and the highest for the arts/humanities students doing the science exams was a high E.... you just can't blag a science exam.

lol and this proves my point? Obviously if you are going to go into a maths/biology exam without CRAMMING anything you are quite simply going to get ripped to shreds and I don't know why the humanity grades were high, maybe because the teachers marked it wrong? And how the hell can they get a 'C' without having read the books? Looks like some made up BS.

Reply 29

neverforever

just to throw this out there, on a single remark i went from a C/D to an A in english lit, around 20 marks out of 80
(on two subsequent remarks i got about another 6 marks or so)

so yeah, sometimes even if you do everything well in a humanities subject, you can be told you're ****. i think it was a case of the marker putting down something like 20+18 instead of 20+18+26 on the final mark, but that doesn't happen in science.
i don't think either set of subejcts is OBJECTIVELY, UNDENIABLY easier than the other, but obviously some people are more suited to certain modes of thinking, and that will make it seem as though they are! and an A in physics is certainly nothing to do look down on and think 'well, it's not like its history or anything.'

Reply 30

teenie_mcgee

5

ace_uchiha

Well that's a load of crap!
You can bullshyt a humanity subject exam and still get an A*/A, yet you cant bullshyt a science subject exam and expect to get an A*/A.
Plus, it was proven that Science subjects are more respected at A-level because of their content and exam style questions!

Got to disagree on this one

not really seeing how you can ******** your way through a language exam, personally, just sayin' . . .

obviously science and maths, etc. need you to know a formula or set of rules.

However, there are still sets of rules that need to be respected, I'm using languages as an example, you can't just decide how to form a sentence structure as you feel or change grammar patterns to fit your mood. And on top of this, there is usually 1 or 2 answers that can be correct in science / maths questions, where as humanity questions are a lot more subjective.

oh and last, but not least, there has been a lot of debate around the whole "sciences are more respected" blurb, as general rule, maths and physics are widely respected, but in recent years, humanities have been boosted on the "ladder" especially subjects like languages.

right, rant over, sorry.

Reply 31

Ultimate1

OP

melonhead1992

Look. When people say that science subjects are only 'pure learning' subjects, it's cause maybe to them it is ;- they don't try to understand it and just learn and repeat the facts. You have to have a full understanding of science in order to be able to get full marks, and it's true that it's easier to identify weaknesses in your understanding in science than humanities where you have to waffle your way around a question. That said the concepts aren't any easier. You'd know if you actually took them.

And you don't think I have done both hence why I made this thread? Epic fail.

Reply 32

Banburyhammer

1

I dont know about you but my physics paper was full of vague questions giving you one, maybe two pieces of information, then asking you to find a completely unrelated variable.

You need proper understanding to do those, random equations isnt gonna help.

Reply 33

BlueSheep32

11

I do three science and two humanities subjects. I've found the science subjects harder because no matter how well I've learnt something, if I don't understand it I can't apply my knowledge in the way the questions require. I haven't really found science marking to be easier either, particularly in biology & chemistry - what you've written can be perfectly correct, but because you've missed out a single word you can miss out on a mark for that question.

History & geography were harder in terms of how much I had to learn for the exams and the time constraints, but writing essays is a lot easier than having to understand, for example, organic reaction mechanisms, because you just need to know how to remember and analyse evidence & facts to write a good essay. Again using reaction mechanisms as an example, you can't just learn the nucleophilic substitution mechanism for a particularly haloalkane & nucleophile, you have to be able to apply it to any two substances given in the exam, and work it through in your head to determine what you will end up with at the end.

I had this debate with two of my friends who do RE & sociology and tried to claim they were much harder than sciences, because of how much you have to learn & how much time you get in the exams. Strangely, when I was sat with them doing chemistry & physics practice papers just before my exams, or whenever I talk about science, they say that it's impossible to understand, yet I can join in their discussions about religion & sociology etc. and still understand most of it. They also often talk about how easy RE & sociology are, which completely contradicts what they said to me. I say sciences are much harder.

Reply 34

Ultimate1

OP

Banburyhammer

I dont know about you but my physics paper was full of vague questions giving you one, maybe two pieces of information, then asking you to find a completely unrelated variable.

You need proper understanding to do those, random equations isnt gonna help.

and surely such questions you should have seen in past papers because that is what sciences have become....ploughing through the past papers whereas for humanities its actually getting to know books/resources inside out and actually understanding them and their impacts rather than just knowing a formula.

Reply 35

sc0307

8

theyre both hard subjects, theyre just completely different in terms of mark schemes and style of learning and questions, lets just leave it at that, i do all 3 sciences and a humanities and i find them both challenging, and nobody can ever ever say that either of them r easy at A-Level and beyond otherwise ur just an absolute ignorant pig.

Reply 36

OMG TOOTHBRUSH

14

Duckzilla

Yes you're right in the mark schemes for humanities being more objective and one marker can interpret differently to what another one would resulting in an undeserved grade, but it is easier to waffle on about something and go out on a limb in humanities subjects. In science and maths subjects, there are right or wrong answers and no room to improvise or compromise. In humanities subjects, anything that sounds vaguely okay gets you marks if can be backed up by twisting quotations or sources the way you want to.

Because of this, it is easier to blag and get good marks in humanities subjects than science subjects, as what you say in humanities subjects doesn't even have to be right or even on course of correctness if you can waffle and twist things. In science you either know how to do it or you don't, you can't make anything up like you can in humanities. People make things up in humanities subjects all the time and get high marks because it is easier to twist and manipulate something you don't understand into something that can't be proved right or wrong so you get marks for it.

For example in English I can say that Romeo is bisexual and confused for his love for Juliet with his romantic love for Mercutio and find some quotes I can interpret to back me up. In chemistry I can't say the oxygen chemically bonded with the magnesium because they are the best of friends and want to have a party.

Yes you can because this is exactly why they bond. You obviously don't study chemistry :rolleyes:

Reply 37

ace_uchiha

2

teenie_mcgee

Got to disagree on this one

not really seeing how you can ******** your way through a language exam, personally, just sayin' . . .

I'm not taking about a foreign language. I'm referring to Eng. Lang., R.S., Eng. Lit., etc...
And I know wat I'm taking about because I BS-ed all those exams for my GCSE mocks and got predicted A*'s for them all! Heck, I didn't even finish reading half of the books for Eng. Lit.! Yet if you didn't finish reading half of the text books for, let's say Chemistry, I am almost certain you would've failed...

teenie_mcgee

obviously science and maths, etc. need you to know a formula or set of rules.

However, there are still sets of rules that need to be respected, I'm using languages as an example, you can't just decide how to form a sentence structure as you feel or change grammar patterns to fit your mood. And on top of this, there is usually 1 or 2 answers that can be correct in science / maths questions, where as humanity questions are a lot more subjective.

Being as it is more subjective implies that it is obviously easier to get it right, since their is no concrete answer like there is in a science based subject!

teenie_mcgee

oh and last, but not least, there has been a lot of debate around the whole "sciences are more respected" blurb, as general rule, maths and physics are widely respected, but in recent years, humanities have been boosted on the "ladder" especially subjects like languages.

Yea I'm pretty sure they have boosted on the "ladder" but there is still a large gap between a subject like Physics and a foreign language like French!
Research it if you don't believe me!

teenie_mcgee

right, rant over, sorry.