Believe me, when I say this, there is no such thing as an easy course given our ranking of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa. However, there are courses that are really demanding and require a lot of hard work from the student studying that course.
Our ranking of the difficult courses to study should not act as a deterrent to you if you have it in mind, because even courses that are perceived to be simple and easy becomes very difficult if a student does not give the necessary time required for studying. In this article, we compile a list of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa in no particular order.
1. LAW
One of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa is law; this is on the basis of the fact that it is not objective like science-related courses. To be precise, there is no such thing as a perfect answer in a typical law exam, as what is required from students writing this exam is to cite as many cases as possible to back up your answer.
Law to an extent is an argument based course, and in a debate or argument, an argument is said not to be valid unless it is backed by facts. This makes studying tough, because in exams when presenting an argument, it needs to be backed by facts, and this requires a lot of memorizing from students.
2. BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Another interesting but tough course to study in South Africa is Biomedical Engineering. It is interesting because it is a combination of medicine and technology, and it is also tough for that same reason.
Biomedical engineering is the engineering aspect of medicine or healthcare in a broader, and as such student have to deal with medical courses and engineering courses covering math, physics and massive theoretical and abstract subjects that are quite demanding.
3. MATHEMATICS
The fact that this course is on our list of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa cannot be disputed. This course requires a lot of hard work and commitment from students, due to the fact that it deals with the quantitative, logic structure and analytical science. This explains why the number of drop out from this course is very high.
4. ACCOUNTING
Apart from the calculation attached to this course, this course requires students to be familiar with a lot of principles. It is regarded as one of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa as a result of the strict guidelines set by South African Institute of Chartered Accountants as to what to be included in undergraduate and postgraduate training.
After the completion of the course in the university, for a student to be able to practice in top firms in South Africa, the student needs to pass through several exams to enable specialization in auditing, taxation and financial management.
6. MEDICINE
In every part of the world, medicine is one of the most difficult as well as the competitive courses in the world. In South Africa, the entry requirements for studying medicine in most South African universities alone portray how difficult the course is.
For example, in the University of Pretoria and Wits University, the subject requirements for studying medicine are 60 % for English, Physical science, and Mathematics.
6. ACTUARIAL AND FINANCIAL SCIENCES
It is no surprise that this course is on our list of the hardest course to study in South Africa given the subject requirement.
The entry requirement for this course is purely mathematics and students need a very high rate of 80% in mathematics for schools like the University of Pretoria. The obvious reason for this requirement is the course content, as many of the subjects students are offered are calculation-related.
7. BIOCHEMISTRY
Biochemistry is the application of chemistry to the study of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level. The content of this course obviously explains the reason why this course is on our list of the most difficult courses to study in South Africa because it goes beyond the combination of Biology and chemistry as the name suggest. Thus, a lot of dedication and hard work is needed to succeed in this course.
