Leaving Cert Subjects Next Year

English: It gets a lot tougher in regards to Paper II. The poetry and single text you have to study much heavier compared to what you need to do for JC.

Chemistry: JC Chemistry is a joke tbh! The first day of Chemistry my teacher (who taught me for JC Science) told us to forget everything about chemical bonding! It's still a nice subject but I wouldn't worry about JC Chemistry when you're going in there. I'm sure there are some parts that just develop from what you learned in JC.

Accounting at leaving cert level is based on the principles that you learn in junior cert when working out the ledger accounts ie sales is a cr entry, purchases is a dr entry. If you're strong at the accounting side of business studies, I'd highly recommend taking up accounting as it's easy going when you're familiar with the principles from junior cert. Depending on the questions you do, it can be quite simple to grasp the concepts of the questions and how to answer them.

In terms of the exam, I find it to be relatively predictable (although, ill see for myself on Monday). Questions tend to have a chronological order of when they're coming up etc. some questions, as in every subject, tend to be a lot easier than others.

You also get options as to which qs you want to study. Depending on your teacher, they may want to teach you the 120 mark question which can be a sole trader, company or departmental account or they may want to choose the 60marks route. There are also 100m questions, one of which (interpretation of accounts) is guaranteed every year. These questions are based on formulae such as the acid test ratio from JC level and using them to analyse accounts. Then it's into the 80 mark questions, you're given 2 and you only have to do 1. These can vary from budgeting to costing questions, all of which will be familiar to you if you take it up. In the actual exam, you have one 120m question or the option of three 60m questions (choose two) then you have three 100m questions (choose two) and two 80m questions (choose one).

Overall, I find this to be an easy subject to take up and learn because I have an interest in accounting and I had a firm grasp on the principles from junior cert. Hopefully I've explained this somewhat reasonably and if you've any further questions, just PM me! Good luck!

Chemistry really requires you to understand the subject completely, it's difficult to get by just memorising answers. So if you have more of an analytical/sciencey brain, go for it!

English - Ok I'm going to give a word of advise for English, it is a monster of a subject at higher level. It's very time consuming and few reap the rewards of a high grade due to the technicality of the marking scheme and the pressure of time during he exam.
My advise, not sure if you'd be up for it though, but is do sit the ordinary exam in 5th year so you won't have to do it in 6th. Trust me, if you attend classes in 5th year you'll certainly be able to pass ordinary level next June.

Irish - I'd give the same advise for this subject, unless you're fluent in it, I'd recommend getting it out of the way in 5th year for mandatory requirements sake, same for French. (However just be aware that most medicine courses require you to sit all the mandatory subjects in one year).

Maths - My advise would be to go Honours for the extra 25 points, or get it out of the way in 5th year at ordinary level.

History - I'm not sure about this one. You see History is a great subject. However similar to English it's very time consuming and all your hard work can backfire on you if you don't keep track of your timing in the actual exam. Also, many people I know that study History seem to only study History due to it being of the few interesting subjects they do. Yes it's important to study something you're interested in but overall I would not recommend this subject if you wish to maximize your points.

Geography - Definitely would recommend, can feel overwhelming at times with the volume and diversity of the course, but overall the exam paper is fairly fair and the project gives you a huge boost.

Accounting (compare to the accounting parts of JC Business Studies) - never did it, or business at JC level so can't provide much insight here. But as I know it's a fairly straight forward course. Many people I know who do well in it aren't the brightest bunch but they just practice past exam papers with this one and manage to do well, the same seems to be apply for maths and physics (exam papers is key for most subjects btw).

Chemistry (compare to the chemistry section of JC Science) - Don't do this one either and I can't remember JC for the life of me. But as far as I know it's exam paper and study technique is similar to biology where you just do past exam papers and keep up with the course to do well.



Other Subjects I'd recommend.. It's important to note that it all depends on what your strengths are and of course what you plan on doing in third level. If your technical and aim to do engineering then physics and honours maths if your a science person and want to do medicine or science then chemistry, home ec, biology and ag science .It really just boils down into what you're capable of doing well in and where you want to go.

Having said that here are my personal recommendations (provided you get irish, english and a language out of the way in 5th year)

Maths (Honours)
Geogrephy

Business - Course is fairly dense but the content is very straight forward. If you get a hang of the style of answering and practice exam papers you should do well.

Biology - very nice subject. Similar to business there is alot to cover, but the exam paper is a beauty in my opinion. You're not tight for time in the exam there's a decent amount of choice and same with most subjects just eat exam papers regularly and you're guaranteed to do well

Econmics - This one in my opinion is very nice. However it sort of depends on whether your're a business type person or not. The course is very short and can easily be done outside of school. Coupled with that the exam paper is lovely (6 out 9 choices for short questions and 4 out 8 choices for long questions, just you ask for anything better?). Some of the diagrams are tricky to grasp at first but once you do get the hang of it you're on your way.

Home Ec - ties in well with biology ok, a project to back you up and similar to business everything is fairly basic to understand

Other subject (I would recommend 7, just incase one exam doesn't go as planned). 8 is one to many and you'll only be letting yourself down.

Ok apoligizes for going on for that long, had no intention to. I'm actually doing my leaving cert know and I'm meant to be on my study break now, oh well, impossible to get this all out of my head.