First I want to say congratulations to all Form 3 juniors that achieve good results in your PT3 exams. Now that you know your results, I guess it's time for me to give you some information about science stream and its subjects that you'll learn in Form 4.
The general requirements that you should have are:
~Obtain at least C in Mathematics and Science
~If you pass all subjects and you really want to enter science stream
The requirements may different from above, it depends on your school.
Usually, the chances you want to enter science stream is easier if less student want to enter science stream. In fact, the percentage of science stream students is decreasing every year, which is why the Ministry of Education wants the ratio of 60:40 of science students to art students for each school. Wait, why decreasing? The best reason I can give is how hard the subject is. Let me explain the main science subjects one by one for you to get the idea.
Chemistry
This subject is one of the important subject to apply for local universities especially Matriculation. Chemistry study about chemical reactions and how to form equations of a reaction between chemicals. If you want to master Chemistry, you need to know a lot of forming equations from a reaction, observations on experiments and give inferences like a real scientist. However on me opinion, Chemistry is the easiest subject to score because you don't need to memorize all the equations and facts because not all experiments will give you the accurate answer. Just master all the basic knowledge in Form 4 and some in Form 5 and you can score well.
Biology
For some students, this subject is the hardest one to master. Why? Because this subject needs a lot of memorization and the subject that contains the most experiments that you need to know. (2nd: Physics, 3rd: Chemistry) You have to know the function of something and the whole process of the product formed. For example, how does urine formed? Explain the process of meiosis/mitosis......
Yup, it's hard and exhausting but if you're good at memorizing, then this subject should be easy for you. To students who are weak at it, you better start taking notes because the information in the reference books are long!
Physics
This is the subject that I think is the hardest for me because it requires a lot of basic knowledge and wants you to know how and when to apply a formula to the question at the right situation. You also need to memorize all the definition of subtopics because every first sub-question of a question requires you the meaning of a topic that worth 1 mark in SPM or more during school exams.
My advice is to jot down every single formulas and definitions into a piece of paper so you won't flip your books when the exam comes, but don't worry, some formulas are given during exam, you just need to know the meaning of the symbols and units.
And I should introduce this subject too.......
Additional Mathematics
This subject is quite challenging for smart students and consider one of the important subject to apply for universities and matriculation. This subject needs you a lot of thinking skills. Even though this subject is hard, but it's the easiest subject to earn marks compare to mathematics. In maths, if your answer is wrong, you'll lose all of the marks. But in add maths, even your answer is wrong, you can still earn some marks if you follow the formula correctly. That's why I said applying formula is important. There's no shortcut to ace this subject, you'll need to PRATICE AND MASTER EACH TOPIC, you'll forget easily after sometime, so be sure to revise them frequently.
That's all you need to know about science stream. I don't think science stream is hard as long as you're hardworking and the will to learn new things. Remember, form 4 IS NOT A HONEYMOON YEAR!!! It's the year that all basic topics comes in and you'll need to master them all. Good luck juniors!
