Subjects for the leaving

doctor evil

I was wondering about subjects for the leaving, I`m going to do Chemistry,Biology,Classics,Accountint,Geography at honours and Im exempt from languages. I`m thinking of dropping geo or acc and taking up history or business, and I`m wondering about peoples experiences of these subjects in the exam and prior to it.
I`m also repeating fifth year (long boring story)at the institute So I have bit of an idea about bio and che. Since Im repeating 5th year I can do leaving cert maths this year since I am doing ordinary level, and I am wondering about what other peoples experiences on this are. Since its ordinary all I really need to do is pass

Pugwash

I do history myself and am often pretty annoyed to see certain people on this site flouting history as the easiest subject out there.

Incase you didnt happen to notice lads, its bloody hard! The workload is huge whatever method you use to do the exam - learning pre-written essays or learning the info and inventing the essay on the day.

the course is huge, it rivals the biology course for sheer size.

aswell as this you have to prepare a special topic yourself if you undertake the decision to do so,9 students out of 10 do afaik.
The exam is a bastard:around 4 or 5 essays(cant remember) to be done in the allotted time which means constant,furiously-paced writing for all which enevitably leads to mistakes which leads to panic which leads to disaster! (how morbid )

all im saying is think twice before taking history, you'll be doing yourself a favour if you take up buisness as it is one of the subjects that can be covered in a year and is generally based on a common sence of buisness ethitics and the usual terminology, and it unlike history is a requirement of some courses.

nuff said.

sionnach

accounting is a gr8 subject for points imo. It may be boring but if u know the layout of each question uve got half teh marks already, get the rest of the marks by knowing ur adjustments n getting ur calculations right.

DSMe

Im doin english , maths , business , accountancy , physics , history , geography , im repeatin at the institute also , and yes history can be hard enough but u could cover it in a year, but on the day of the exam it is more like a fitnes test for your hand ...so so much writing. All those are hons but i might take up ord french aswell cause i never did a language last year

Heresy

Can safely say geo is the biggest load of nonsense ever. Don't do it.
I loved App. maths. That was back in the old day, when we used the 'brown book' by O. murphy from leeson st. It's a great subject and also, there's a shortfall of technically minded people working in technical jobs in this country. Alot of square pegs in round holes.

PHB

If you are doing maths at an honours level and you are doing physics, drop history and do applied maths.
I love history, Im doing it in college, but applied maths will bea lot easier to get an A1 in, espiclaly with the institute teacher, he rocks.

Take up applied maths and drop one of your wussy subjects, it'll make your life so much easier.

richindub2

What pugwash says about history is sort of true - it is a longish course and there is a lot of work to cover however most people that do it would think of it as a hell of a lot more interesting than something like business or bio and so mightnt regard it has boring / hard to study.

Economics is a nice short, easy course and i cant recommend it enough for points. The economics teacher in the institute 5th year, tony finn, is sound and fairly interesting. If you can do both business and economics do, they overlap somewhat and are both fairly easy

Nietzschean

Originally posted by PHB
If you are doing maths at an honours level and you are doing physics, drop history and do applied maths.

I agree somewhat with you there dave, but you have to be fairly strong at both maths and physics to do app. maths. In my experence people weak at espically maths can struggle alot with app. maths when it comes to a tricky paper, You need to be well onto of your maths and to just worry where to start Having said that, picking up an A1 in all 3 as combo works very well, A1's in all 3 for me doing less study for the 3 combined than any single one of my other subjects (if only college maths/phy was dat easy......)

I'd recommend business, i did it in 5mts r so and got an A2 and i'm rubbish at memorising stuff and english so anyone half decent at either shouldn't find it much bother.....

Kold

I spent most of 5th yr drifting from subject to subject

I hate geography but i've been persuaded to keep it for lc as i'm told its a piece of piss compared to other subjects, just in the way that you know most of the things coming up. History is an interesting subject (not irish history mind, thats just plain boring) However it is a huge course and im only keeping it because i need a 7th subject.

How are you exempt from languages? I'm exempt from irish cos im only living here 3 yrs.

doctor evil

I`m exempt from languages because I`m dyslexic not just slightly dyslexic. I think I`m going to have to drop history even though I absolutely love it and I`m good at it :mad: because of the other subjects such as biology, chemistry ,geography because theyre wide courses. I`m not too bothered about geography either way. For those of you who have done or doing classics does any one know what the structure of the exam is like, I`m doing the subject because I am interested in Greek and Roman history. And one last thing is any one else going to the institute for 5th year?

claire h

I do history myself and am often pretty annoyed to see certain people on this site flouting history as the easiest subject out there.

Hear hear.

Yes, History's great. Yes, it's really interesting. Is it worth doing for it the Leaving? Abso-bloody-lutely not. The course is too long and too detailed - particularly the European history, you're doing 100 years of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Russia - and the exam is too short - you've got five essays to do within the allotted time, and the topics they give you mean that to cover them properly and get your marks, you're writing pretty long essays. They also give a certain percentage for how you present your essay - it's not just facts, they expect you to sound reasonably coherent and be able to be analytical at times too. More hassle than it's worth, really. (Having said that, I'm doing it, I love it, but I seem to spend more time on it than the rest of my subjects put together, simply because there's so *much* of it.)

If you've got a good grasp of Accounting (and are fairly quick at doing the questions) then stick with it, it'll get you the points. Business is a good one to take up, it's pretty straightforward. Geography is mindnumbingly boring, but again, it'll get you the points if that's what you're after.

ETA: ah, I see you're dropping History. You're probably better off - it's great, but not worth it, really.

The Classics exam is mostly a whole bunch of essays afaik.

Boston

Originally posted by PHB
If you are doing maths at an honours level and you are doing physics, drop history and do applied maths.
I love history, Im doing it in college, but applied maths will bea lot easier to get an A1 in, espiclaly with the institute teacher, he rocks.

Take up applied maths and drop one of your wussy subjects, it'll make your life so much easier.

did you do applied maths last year there, i did, your man is great craic and a great teacher.

PHB

Negative, I had a similar teacher in my school, but I've heard the guy in there is amazing.

Crash

*** i'd agree with sionnach, if you're anyway good with numbers/layouts go for accounting. its not an easy subject really, or interesting, but for certain people it just clicks. then its simple.

mattg

im doing accounting, business, economics, german, english and maths, I dont have to do Irish cause Ive only been in the country 2 years.

I reckon, business and economics are very good subjects for points. They are quite easy and not too long. As for accounting, like the lads said, if you learn off how to set out the accounts youve already got a crap load of marks.

I am doing german because I need 1 european language, and I didnt want to do french.

smemon

what's the story with the languages, if u dont do french or german what happens? were can u go? is irish and eng not enough for some places?

doctor evil

I`m starting to wonder about that now , meh I`ll just ask my mum.
But I think I would have to go back to the pshycologist or the exemption still stands for college or I might take up a language. An exemption is not easy to get. Probaly depends on what I want to do.:p

doctor evil

And I don`t do Irish as well.

Kold

You could always go to an english college

doctor evil

True, but I could probaly go to a Irish college, just have to find out what I want to do first.Hey kold where are you from?

Agent Smith

Originally posted by richindub2

Economics is a nice short, easy course and i cant recommend it enough for points. The economics teacher in the institute 5th year, tony finn, is sound and fairly interesting. If you can do both business and economics do, they overlap somewhat and are both fairly easy

i never thought that till i started it this year. so much over lap its piss easy. an lot of it is also common scence.

stuck on special topics for history tho... might just do the extre question.
irish looks to be a bitch for me, justy praying that like in the junior cert the only essy i learnt off heart comes up. i was so proud of my d in pass irish. first delaney EVER to pass irish.

also doing classical studies. HATE that subject and doing it to make up points. annoying.

what else.... ohh pass maths. did that in junior cert, thought i was well and truly boned and BAMM. Got a b in it.... (i Have no idea.)

should be grand. my cource needs 245 points. doing classics because mommy wants me to do history in tcd (why i have no idea)

btw does anyone know when you fill out the course u want comes out? (CAO)
there website is down at the mo.

Seifer

Im doing physics, chemistry, biology and applied maths (we still use the brown book). I can't stand the languages I have to do ie. english, irish and french.
Smemon, you need to pass irish and a european language to go to ucd and for trinity they accept irish as an eu language (ucd dont) but you dont need to pass it if you have another eu language.

Nike_Dude

dont be fooled by the short course in economics. Its tricky and the wording of questions in the exams can be tough. i went from a A2 in the pres to a B2 in the real thing. Take up applied maths if you can spare an hour or so an evening to practise the questions and you should easily get an A, even if you arent that strong at honours maths. Personally I think engineering is the easiest leaving cert subject, the theory paper is very predictable and you get the bulk of the marks for just handing up a project.

doctor evil

Cheers for the suggestions, I did economics last year I liked it and did well but its one of those subjects that you really have to pay attention to and work out in your head and understand. I`m doing ordinary maths so I dont think I could handle applied maths.
Keep suggestions coming

Bono_85

Yeah Economics is good, its deceptively easy. It seems that way for a while and you underestimate it. Then you go to study and you realise there is a fair bit to do. But if you just keep on top of it throughout the year your grand, alot of the questions keep repeating themselves in the papers.

CuLT

I think not doing any languages this year will be a big plus for me, so damn happy I didn't fail Irish now .
Well, I am doing English, but I can do a hell of a lot better than a damn C2 so that's going to change.

PS, any ppl going to the institute; you need to be in there at 10am tomz to sort out timetable. Says it'll take 2-3 hours on the sheet :eek: .

DSMe

By tomorrow do u mean monday because i think thats when i am in or do they have more than one assembly?