Should I do DCG?

Sketching is only a very small part of the project. I would recommend if you didn't do it for the junior NOT to do it for the leaving. The leaving course is fast pased and does not go back over the basics that are assumed to still be known from junior cert. Someone tried to do it in my class in 5th year who was brilliant at art and they dropped the subject 10 minutes into it. It's a lovely subject to do, but only if you've 3 years experience in it.

I'd like to preface my post with some context. Design and Communication Graphics was my favourite subject in the Leaving Certificate last year in which I got an A1, and Technical Graphics was my favourite in the Junior Cert in which I got an A. In university I elected to do Maths and now I'm strongly considering transferring into Architecture to follow on from DCG. So, if it isn't clear, I'm somebody who thoroughly loved the subject and would consider myself quite competent.

DCG is a subject which heavily relies upon an innate understanding of the material to succeed in. You need a logical, systematic approach to optimise the speed at which you're drawing (because time is your enemy), you need to be able to visualise the completed drawing and to mentally manipulate the object ('seeing' what it looks like before you've touched the page, and being able to 'see' what it will look like if certain things happen and from a variety of angles). Depending upon how the subject is thought, this can be quite easy if you get an excellent teacher who forces you to determine every method yourself, or extremely challenging if your teacher shows you to the solution, expects you to remember the solution, and gives you an example ensuring you are simply doing rote learning.

DCG is taught at a relentless pace. In fifth year and September of sixth year you will have to learn and understand close to the entirety of the course, in October to January of Sixth Year you will be doing the project, and you will put many, many hours of relentless work into this if you want a high grade; this was pretty much the only thing I did in December and January of sixth year and there were many times I'd work on it until ten or eleven at night (I enjoyed the work and the satisfaction when you overcome a problem is immense, but this is no doss if you want a high mark), that deadline seems far away at first but if you leave it late you will not get it done. After the project is completed you're into February where you only have a brief chance at getting some material done before the Mock Examinations are in full swing, and then you have March and April to finish the course. This can be gruelling even with an A in Technical Graphics (especially if you don't understand why methods work at a fundamental level); without having any knowledge of Technical Graphics, it will be relentless. There is very little time for revising material in the DCG course, let alone the Technical Graphics course, and from the very moment you enter the class you'll be incredibly far behind as you'll need to understand that material too to do well (and develop a really strong understanding). The majority of the time you'll be drawing precisely, for maybe two months at most you'll be using Solidworks. Do not do DCG because you want to do the computer component, or you'll hate the subject; the drawing should be your primary interest and the computer section is a bonus.

Being competent with computers, unfortunately, will help you very little unless you're an expert in Solidworks already; the computer aspect of the project, while very time consuming, amounts to four pages out of fourteen (or twelve? I think fourteen) in the project (you can bump it up to five or six, possibly, but you're really cutting into your other areas). Solidworks is tricky not because people have difficulties using the computer, but because it requires you to be very precise and, many times, produces errors at unexpected times which are uneasy to resolve (I.e. Fixing one error causes five or six others), parts just don't fit and join together well, and slight imperfections in measurements early on lead to colossal errors later requiring a redesign (we had a water bottle to do so take this for example; you get the radius of 50mm early on, you shell it outside and you use this radius for everything following such as the cap, a cover, etc. however, because you shelled the outside and not inward yet didn't consider this (or alternatively shelled other objects in a conflicting direction, now your cap, the top, and any other related parts won't fit on as they are too small or large and your cap can't possibly go through the treads correctly. Now you need to compensate for this in everything, but some measurements that rely upon the radius of the bottle will break as soon as you alter this, and now you're left with a nightmare). The issues don't come from an inability to use the program well, but because small mistakes early on can lead to a butterfly effect. While everybody starts Solidworks from scratch in DCG and experience is not expected, regardless of how comfortable you are with computers you're still going to run into issues that others will. This will take up a good duration of the project as you use it twice (your original design and the existing), but the original design can be done much quicker as you can just make things up to make it work, whereas this is trickier in the existing one. Ultimately, however, this Solidworks component is still only a fraction of the course. If you do a fantastic Solidworks but the rest of your project is poor, and you aren't highly competent in the drawing, you're not going to get a great grade. Doing art will help in the project for your freehand sketching for sure, but you won't do any freehand sketching outside of the project.

It isn't all bad, however. If you understand it properly, DCG can be incredibly easy (except the project). With a fundamental understand you can walk confidently into the exam and know that no matter what happens you'll walk away with a high mark. Unlike other subjects where there is a lot to learn and commit to memory, if you understand DCG properly you will only need to briefly revise topics and that will be more than sufficient. If you keep up with the material you can also feasibly understand and recall material done in class for the entirety of the course. The subject is fun, engaging, teaches you phenomenal problem solving skills relevant beyond the scope of the course, and is extremely rewarding when you have an 'aha!' moment and everything suddenly clicks. You have to remember though that an understanding of the material and visualisation of the material is not easy to achieve or everybody would perform extremely well (particularly when many find the subject very challenging even if the content is easier than the Technical Graphics Leaving Cert course). It may have sounded like I was discouraging you from doing the subject for the majority of the post, and if it did, it's because I was. If you have an extreme passion for the subject it is possible you'll do well, but in my class we'd a few people who were in your position (didn't do Tech Graph, were interested in DCG, liked computers) and all but one left the class in the first week, and the remaining guy was middling as he couldn't keep up, and we had an absolutely phenomenal teacher. Ask yourself why you want to do DCG. If it's because you use computers, or for an easy grade, or anything similar, run for the hills and don't look back. Only if you're deeply passionate and willing to work extremely hard, including over the course of this summer to learn the entirety of the Junior Cert course, do DCG. Personally, I would not advise it without highly enjoying Technical Graphics in the Junior Cert, let alone without even doing it, but it's ultimately your decision to make.