**Chemistry...Before/After

do try to enjoy chemistry!...though learning notes is essential but do understand whatever u'll do..trust me it'll make chem a lot more easy! if u won't have any interest in chemistry u'll get confuse very easily & I think in chem understanding the course is much more important then learning it.Infact once u'll understand wat u r doing it will b much more easier for u to learn it (I guess)

It's a short course but you need to both enjoy it and be willing to work hard for your grade. The easiest way to study it I found is to stop and think. Don't just blindly read the book or learn algorithms for answering questions. Stop, think and make sure you understand everything.

partyatmygaff wrote: »

It's a short course but you need to both enjoy it and be willing to work hard for your grade. The easiest way to study it I found is to stop and think. Don't just blindly read the book or learn algorithms for answering questions. Stop, think and make sure you understand everything.

I couldn't disagree more with this, at least in the sense of wanting to obtain a high grade.

Obviously understanding the subject helps. You need to look at previous marking schemes though. Repeated questions come up all the time and in relation to certain topics there are key words and phrases that examiners are looking for to simply tick and hand you marks. Understanding helps, but there is a definite exam technique of repeating papers again and again and looking at marking schemes.

The paper is really lovely and if you've worked hard you'll have so much choice.

The experiments are absolutely crucial, you only have to answer 2 but you should aim to answer 3. Knowing Organics inside out is key to a good grade. You have to practice calculations from the book and old papers and mocks to ensure you can get full marks on those calculations. Beyond that, cover the Atomic History and Theory well for the short questions, as well as Gases. I don't think you should leave anything out, it's not a huge course. Option question (11 I think?) is lovely if you have time

You can do it in a year, but you will have to commit to working hard and being confident enough in your other 5 subjects that you can balance it. Doable though!

wayhey wrote: »

I couldn't disagree more with this, at least in the sense of wanting to obtain a high grade.

Obviously understanding the subject helps. You need to look at previous marking schemes though. Repeated questions come up all the time and in relation to certain topics there are key words and phrases that examiners are looking for to simply tick and hand you marks. Understanding helps, but there is a definite exam technique of repeating papers again and again and looking at marking schemes.

If you know the "marking scheme" but don't know the course properly and the examiners decide to put on completely novel questions you'll do absolutely terribly. If you know the course, you'll have plenty to write for everything. If you know the marking schemes, you'll have a few key words to write for a few certain questions.

Everyone in this thread is going on about how hard chemistry is, everyone goes on about how difficult chemistry is. Everyone is trying to advise me not to chemistry next year but i see it being useful to me.

everything falls together

Yes,but

one of the nicest and easiest subjects

I don't think so

diarmo06 wrote: »

Simply don't. Tried to take an interest in that three years ago, genuinely tired. Every other subject, in my opinion, bar history is far easier then any of the science subjects.

Don't advise people on which subjects to do based on your personal preferences, inform them, sure, and give your opinion, but I really think it's wrong to say "don't do that subject."

I also don't think taking the easy way out is always the best option, but that's another story. :P

Personally I think Chemistry is one of the easiest subjects. In 4th year, it seemed ridiculously hard and complicated but it soon comes together and after a few exam papers, you see the same stuff comes up all the time. People then say Geography is easy, but I find it to be one of the hardest because of how boring it is.

Chemistry is really easy in my personal opinion. The exam paper is really predictable. It gets to the point where you can look at a chapter and say 'If a question on this comes up, they'll definitely ask me this and this, they'll probably ask this, and there's a chance they'll ask this'.

Do loads of exam questions and you'll eventually be able to answer anything they throw at you!

Despite the fact that it appears to be a long course, it really isn't that bad. A lot of the books are just really rubbish and are full of things you don't actually need to know to do well. So if you're studying from a book (which isn't advisable), make sure and cut out all the filler when you go to revise.

finality wrote: »

Don't advise people on which subjects to do based on your personal preferences, inform them, sure, and give your opinion, but I really think it's wrong to say "don't do that subject."

I also don't think taking the easy way out is always the best option, but that's another story. :P

Frankly, the leaving cert it s farce! It is no more a reflection of somebody's intellengence than that which could be judged of a person walking down the street. It is a raw cruel depiction of how much misery one could sustain before self-combustion occurs.
Much of this misery was brought on by chemistry: " Bromine, bromine approaches the carbon carbon double bond, it becomes saturated, splits into delta positive, delta minus. Carbonium ion formed.."
Chemistry is a horrible subject, that is if you enjoy life and not mindnumbing learning.
This is my personal opinion, which the OP sought.

Why bother trying to take an interest, it's not as if you'll actually enjoy any part of Lc anyway.

diarmo06 wrote: »

Frankly, the leaving cert it s farce! It is no more a reflection of somebody's intellengence than that which could be judged of a person walking down the street. It is a raw cruel depiction of how much misery one could sustain before self-combustion occurs.
Much of this misery was brought on by chemistry: " Bromine, bromine approaches the carbon carbon double bond, it becomes saturated, splits into delta positive, delta minus. Carbonium ion formed.."
Chemistry is a horrible subject, that is if you enjoy life and not mindnumbing learning.
This is my personal opinion, which the OP sought.

Why bother trying to take an interest, it's not as if you'll actually enjoy any part of Lc anyway.

What a depressing comment. I'm glad most people don't have such a pitiful attitude towards education.

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

What a depressing comment. I'm glad most people don't have such a pitiful attitude towards education.

Leaving Cert English for example, majority of students will have pages upon pages of possible Hamlet essays learned off this year. So as to regurgitate it on the day. Whereas a fair to good command of the english language will land you with a low C.
You tell me how well education is in Ireland? Completely flawed whereby genuine people with a aptitude for a high end job won't achieve it unless they take a brunt learning approach to such things as languages and the poetry of some old farmer who liked his hills?

Know a girl who did FIVE languages, english inclusive, went on to do medicine because she could brunt learn these.

But hey, education in Ireland is sound and well.

diarmo06 wrote: »

Leaving Cert English for example, majority of students will have pages upon pages of possible Hamlet essays learned off this year. So as to regurgitate it on the day. Whereas a fair to good command of the english language will land you with a low C.
You tell me how well education is in Ireland? Completely flawed whereby genuine people with a aptitude for a high end job won't achieve it unless they take a brunt learning approach to such things as languages and the poetry of some old farmer who liked his hills?

Know a girl who did FIVE languages, english inclusive, went on to do medicine because she could brunt learn these.

But hey, education in Ireland is sound and well.

Aptitude for a high-end job? If you can't put the work in for the Leaving Cert, which you regard as being as simple as just learning off a few answers, how the hell do you have an "aptitude" for a high end job? The Leaving Cert isn't perfect by any means but it rewards the hard working.

The people who spend their time moaning about how bad it is, how it's not real education, how it's not properly structured are generally people who were too lazy or arrogant to knuckle down and study and who ended up or will end up doing badly in it.

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

I didn't say anything about education in Ireland. I was referring to education in general. To say that people do not or would not "enjoy any part of the Lc" is very wrong. The LC gives people the chance to experiment with new subjects and develop new interests, as well as expanding their knowledge in subjects/areas they may already have an interest in. The exam system is awful for the mostpart, but that doesn't mean the premise of learning and gaining knowledge isn't enjoyable.

I get the impression that you didn't get to do whatever course you were hoping for after the LC and choose to use the LC and exam system as excuses. You're entitled to have whatever opinions you like about Chemistry/English/Physics etc, my point is that it's wrong to tell somebody to not bother trying to take an interest in a subject(s), and to tell them they won't enjoy any part of the LC.

$0.02

That's all well & good. But in truth, today the majority of people are not like this period! It's work at the end of the day and nobody enjoys it.
It's fact, that the majority of people look back upon Lc as the worrst year of their life. YES OKAY, you can argue for a small percentage of sub-human outliers but the fact remains.

Quite wrong, got computer science in nuig, had 450 points, so well over the required. Love it. As to people with aptitudes, a friend of mine was incrediblly gifted when it came to computers, designed over 20 apps during his leaving cert and couldn't put in the hours in numb learning to do the course.
I'd like to contrast this with somebody who could brunt learn for hours on end & took the course because it was "the next big thing" with no prior interest in computers.
Leaving Cert allows genuine promise to fall through the gaps in it's system.