SF science subject choice: chemistry or geology?

d4gurl

The title says it all. I never did geolgy for JF but I am thinking of dropping chemisrtry becuase even though I passed I know I will struggle next year. I would much prefer to concentrate on Bio1 and bio2 and do a less time consuming subject such as geolgy. But as I have said I never did geolgy so was just wondering if anyone could shed some light if they have had a similar experience.

Cheers
(ignore my screen name just read the post )

ApeXaviour

Three of my friends did that. Two after repeating a year. They never regretted it. One actually fell in love with geology went into it and graduated this year with a II-1. It's quite an employable degree at the moment.

Chemistry would be a good bit more useful to you I imagine if you went in the biochemistry/neuroscience area, but it gets a lot harder in SF.

John

Depends what you want to do in 3rd/4th year. If you're doing any of the more molecular based subjects (biochemistry, neuroscience, genetics, physiology, etc.) then I suggest chemistry. It's tough but a sizeable chunk is useful. If you're going down the zoology, enivronmental science, etc. route, maybe geology might be of more use.

What I do suggest is no matter what subjects you pick, do the schols in your strongest subjects, aim high and even if you only get exemptions, you can concentrate on your weakest subject in the summer exams having already achieved a decent mark in your good subjects.

Kevinly_

Drop that chemistry. It's too boring. Geology is great. There are a couple of field trips and 2 labs a week (2 hours) so it will still take up a fair bit of time but it's fairly handy. I dropped chemistry after 1st year and took up geology myself. I'm doing Zoology now and there's plenty of stuff from geology (palaeontology for example) that are very relevant.

Having said that, a good sound knowledge of chemistry will always stand to you, regardless of what type of science you end up in. But a year might be enough and it will save you a lot of heart ache swapping to geology.

d4gurl

Thanks guys for your advice! still a bit confused! I want to hopefully do biochemistry with cell immunology and clearly chemistry is involved but like kevinly said 1st year and LC chemistry might suffice.
john just a quick question.. I thought that if you do SCHOLS you do all of the subjects from 1st and 2nd year. I'm taking from your post that you can chose which subjects you would like to schols in..?is this right?
thanks again guys!

Kevinly_

In Natural Science you take scholarship exams in 2 subjects (you can pick). So in SF you do Bio 1, Bio2 and Chem you pick two and do schols in them.

double check that chemistry isn't required for biochemistry in 2nd year ( i don't think it is but double check). If you're certain you want to do biochem you should definitely consider doing SF chemistry as it may be much more help then geography.

d4gurl

thats brilliant. I think Ill stick with the chemistry even though I hate it with a passion.. Il go for schols in the two bios just for pure incentive to study because Ive gotten a real kick in the arse after just scraping an overall pass!cheers kevinly and all!

ApeXaviour

iirc schols in science only involves 2nd year material covered up until the exams. As kev said, only two subjects of your choice. The exams themselves though being a good bit more tough than end of year ones. I only did them in maths and physics though, so not utterly certain on the bio ones, though I'd imagine it's a similar story.

John

We shared lectures with the biochemistry class (who haven't I shared lectures with?) and being comfortable with chemistry helps a lot. That being said, there was a lot of SF chemistry that didn't apply but the bits that did apply were valuable.

The schools are tough but getting an exemption is easy enough once you do a bit of work. Well I say that after only getting one exemption but I imagine most people work harder than me. I did the two biology courses in schols and once you make a decent study plan and start studying well in advance, you can do brilliantly.

Kevinly_

just a little broader advice. How certain, after only doing JF science are you of doing biochemistry? I personally found biochemistry very tough and boring in SF (some people do love it) and would never consider it for a degree. However, you may indeed love it. Just be mindful of changing your opinion on it and the other choices.

scengi

hey, i just finished sf science doing both chemistry and geology (geog was the third subject). geology is lovely. some really nice lecturers, a few fieldtrips including a week in wexford which is so much fun!! also 50% of the marks are accounted for before you sit either of the written papers...
Chemistry is tough. i got a third in first yr. this yr i needed to get grinds and even still got an even lower third. labs aren't too bad but you really need to be relatively good at it to do well in the exams.

d4gurl

in response to kevinly I have this set idea that I want biochem but your right I have no clue other than the webcourse details to go by so by the end of next year my mind might of changed!
and to scengi I scraped third although I did minimum study for it this year. now Im back to square one! which to chose! thanks though.

zuluin

Employment wise does it matter if you do chemistry or geology?

Leopold.

zuluin wrote: »

Employment wise does it matter if you do chemistry or geology?

If it takes you 5 years or so to respond to a post then i'm afraid your employment prospects are slim.