<p>The statement, if it is restricted to the subjects as taught in high school, rings true for me.</p>
<p>It seems as if every concept in chemistry connects to each another so logically that any promising student of science could study it himself/herself and come out feeling enlightened and understanding most of, if not all the topics. </p>
<p>On the other hand, physics seems to have such little continuity that self-study would only smash apart the mind of an individual attempting such a task - even mathematically advanced pupils. Seriously, I have never heard of anyone who independently studied physics and succeeded in getting a 5 on the AP exam(s) and/or 800 on the SAT II, yet several people on the old collegeconfidential board claimed that they self-studied chem. and got the highest possible score on the AP exam and/or the SAT II. </p>
<p>I don’t believe the AP Physics B/C exams and the AP Chemistry exam are comparable, nor are their SAT II equivalents. However, I do think that based on CC’ers testimonies, chemistry is easier to study by yourself than physics. This leads me to conclude that the former is more coherent than the latter: it seems as if a teacher is needed for clarification with some topics in physics, whereas that isn’t the case for the most part with chemistry.</p>
<p>What can you say about the two subjects based on your experiences with them?</p>
<p>it depends on the person. I find physics alot easier to study since my physics teacher doesnt do much teaching and I have the same mark in chem and physics. also to me physics makes alot more sense than chem does, as in physics is observable where as chem is like a whole different world.</p>
<p>I don’t think that easy to study for translates into coherence. Could it be that high school chemistry is just so much easier than high school physics?</p>
<p>“every concept in chemistry connects to each another… physics seems to have such little continuity”</p>
<p>How is that? For me at least, chemistry went from basic definitions to solutions to gases to some thermochem to quantum to bonding to equilibrium to more equilibrium to kinetics to more thermochem to electro chem to inorganic chem and finally to nuclear chem.</p>
<p>Physics went from F=ma to kinetics and work to angular stuff to thermodynamics to optics to electromagnetism and to circuits.</p>
<p>It seems chemistry is far more diffuse. Physics appears/is harder by virtue of the mathematics involved. In chemistry, you need basic algebra; physics requires a little calculus (especially in EM).</p>
<p>Physics has much more unified stuff, meaning you could sit in a room and figure out one thing and know everything. Chemistry is not like that. I still like chem about equally since chemicals are fun.</p>