For those of you who took grade 11 & grade 12 sciences, which one did you think was harder and WHY?

In biology 12, I noticed it was a lot more chemistry based, but I also realized that the content was not as memorization-based, it was much more about understanding (synapse, wave of depolarization, Replication, Transcription, Translation, operon). Granted, there was still some memorization (hormones, brain parts, neuron parts, glycolysis, kreb's cycle, electron transport chain) but it was not as memorization heavy as grade 11 bio (especially plants and diversity). I think that's why I did better in biology 12 than biology 11 and a lot of my friends did as well, because diversity and plants was sooo much memorization.

In chemistry 12, I did think it was harder, but it wasn't that hard overall. I think it's only because chemistry 11 is so easy (the only hard units Solutions and Atomic Theory are much harder in Chemistry 12), and Reactions, Stoichiometry, and Gases is assumed knowledge right now. Chemistry 11 could be studied in one day before the exam, not Chemistry 12, too many 10 step calculations and there's a lot of theory to know, but I liked it a lot.

Physics 12 was obviously harder. Physics 11 Dynamics and Forces was expanded on, and you did more harder calculations, Momentum was like Energy but much harder problems, I thought light was harder than sound, and electricity was expanded on as well.

What are your opinions?

Aside from the difficulty increase one could expect between grade 11 and grade 12 courses, I found that the sciences between the two grades aren't exactly comparable. I guess in a sense they would opt to put material that is easier to digest in grade 11 and then some in grade 12. But if you took grade 11 and grade 12 sciences, you encompass almost all of the different fields on each of the discipline. There's also the fact that grade 11 stuff holds some foundation for grade 12 (especially in physics and chemistry).

These differences weren't really apparently to me when I took them, but I liked how the transition (if there even was one) between the grades wasn't too bad and that in each of these courses my study habits were challenged.

I would love to TA this stuff haha!

I feel like grade 11 was really just there to prepare you for grade 12, especially in chem and physics as Particle said. On a scale of difficulty they are tough to compare, I did much better in 4U courses but thats probably because despite much more information to digest I found the courses much more interesting.

I only took biology in grade 11, there was a lot of memorization in it.. didn't really enjoy it. I liked chemistry and physics in grade 12 more than in grade 11.
Grade 11 chemistry wasn't too bad but I didn't really enjoy the material. Grade 12 chemistry was more enjoyable, the only unit that I didn't like was the first one (I think it was about the spdf levels and all that). Thermodynamics and electrochemistry were my absolute favourite in grade 12. I felt that chemistry in grade 12 needed more work (specially practising with redox reactions and thermodynamics)..I didn't find chem in grade 12 to be difficult, I just thought it needed more work than grade 11.

I enjoyed physics in grade 12 more than in grade 11 and felt that grade 12 physics was easier (my favourite unit was the electricity one).
When I came to university, I lost my interest in thermodynamics in chem 1e03, bust still enjoyed certain topics like redox reactions and few others.
Also, I enjoyed grade 12 calculus and advanced functions much more than functions in grade 11. I enjoyed grade 12 calculus more than any other high school math I ever took.

All in all, I enjoyed my science and math courses much more in grade 12. Physics in grade 12 was more interesting, chem in grade 12 was more enjoyable and required more work. I didn't find grade 12 to be more difficult than grade 11, just more work.

. . . they're all easy compared to 3rd year.