Answering classic debate: Biology easier than chemistry (2024)

Noah Friedman, staff writer • November 17, 2023

Biology and chemistry are two of the required science classes for MCPS high school students. They can be stressful and difficult classes for students who struggle in that subject. However, biology is an easier subject to learn than chemistry.

The strongest supporting evidence for that claim is the relatability between biology and our everyday lives. The course content of biology is all around us. In biology, we learn about the environment we walk through every day. We learn why our eyes are the color they are. We learn what makes our muscles grow stronger when we do pushups everyday. When a student is able to learn new information and make connections to their own body, understanding the information is much easier. “I always felt that learning biology is easier because I would connect what I was learning to my own experiences,” junior Ben Phillips said.

Chemistry, on the other hand, has much less opportunity for real life applications. The elements we learn about make up the world around us, but they don’t affect us on a level that we typically notice.

This observation doesn’t apply to every topic in each course. But generally biology reflects our experiences in everyday life more so than chemistry. “That is probably the biggest difference in how I would learn in each class,” Phillips said.

Another factor in the debate is the huge presence of math in the chemistry course. The class includes frequent calculations with calculators, units, multi-step equations and more math-oriented problems. Biology has some math in its curriculum but not nearly as much as a chemistry course. “Math isn’t necessarily my strongest subject so that affects my ability in chemistry. It sometimes feels like a second math class,” sophom*ore Jack White said.

Chemistry can also be a more dull class, making it harder for students to enjoy and understand. Students often fill out long pages of equations that are repetitive. “There is so much repetition. It’s so easy to get tired of it. I feel like I am not learning as much as just writing down the same thing over and over again like a robot,” White said.

A challenge that can arise in chemistry is the need to have a solid understanding of the first unit. That unit is key for the entire year because students learn terminology and how to make conversions. Without a good understanding of that unit, a student can struggle for the rest of the course.

Biology certainly has difficult units. However, they are generally independent from one another, allowing you to shake off a tough one and succeed in the next. The argument that biology has tougher units is generally true. But the independence of each unit is something that doesn’t exist in chemistry courses. “I think that certain bio units are harder but they don’t continue into the next unit which is helpful,” sophom*ore Joanna Jacob said.

The real life connections, smaller amount of math, independence of units and other factors make biology an easier subject to learn than chemistry. “Biology is easier to learn and understand. It also is much easier to study in groups, which is great,” Jacob said.

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