Chemistry

Hooly22

I don't know if this is the right place to post this.... I'm sorry if it isn't.


I'm going into 5th year.... and although alot of people say I have time to sort it out... I'm getting extremely stressed about my subject choices.

My first question is, how hard is chemistry? (honours)

My JC results:

Irish (o) - A
English (h) - A
Maths (h) - A
Spanish (h) - B
French (h) - C
Geography (h) - B
History (h) - B
Science (h) -B
CSPE(c)-A
Religion (h) - B


In relation to those..... I was lucky with Maths, the paper just suited me, and I think we had an easier paper that year. Most of those results I think were really just luck so don't take them into too much consideration.


I don't know wether to do honours maths.

See, I need points (obviously) but I'm so worried with my subject choice, I won't get high points.

I'm taking: English(h) Maths (h for now) Spanish(h) Irish(o) Business (h) Biology(h) Chemisty(h???)



Please someone help me somehow?! I'm so confused

genericgoon

For this year Id advise you stick with all Higher going on your excellent JC results. If you feel that the course is too hard after this year then maybe consider dropping down. But you still have two years to go so Id say go for all higher for now.

toastomatic

Hmmm...Ok well I'd say do honours maths for now and decide at the end of 5th year. If you got an A or a B in honours jc then pass maths will be easy enough to do in a year because its similar to honours junior cert maths.

I cant really help about chemistry cos it was my hardest subject, but I never liked it at all at all, and I'm just not good at it. Its not my forte. If you loved science and doing experiments and dont have a problem with getting your head around things, then do it. If youre not that sort of person, then maybe do home ec instead, its more like business...bit more straightforward.

Lucas10101

I think you should decide what area you would like to step into for your career. If you want to study Arts subjects, then maybe Chemistry is not required, however, if you want to step into the Science area, then Chemistry and Honours Maths you should want to do.

I got a C in honours Science, you got a B, so maybe you're better prepared. To be honest, it's the hardest subject I had,...I found honours Maths easier. I still liked it, the 28 experiments you must learn off by heart and you'll be sick of learning them but they're fun to do. There's a lot to learn but if you work consistently, it's not that bad and is quite easy, the problem I had was the memorising of what I found to be a lot of stuff.

Although saying this, the paper is very student freindly with a lot of choice so there's a good chance you can answer what you like rather than the opposite. I should get a high B tomorrow in my results, but I worked extremely long hours to get it.....

The mathematical part of chemistry for LC is very repetitive and quite easy, especially the experiment calculations, but the other maths work can be demanding at times. But seen as you got an A in maths, you shouldn't have a problem.

More importantly, what career path are you leaning towards??

genericgoon

Or do phys/chem. Its far easier. Although your school proabbly wont do it.

lemansky

Start woth all higher. If you find it too hard its the easiest thing in the world to drop down, but don't shoot yourself in the foot by starting out at pass.This is especially true of maths.

Chemistry isn't so hard, it's a world apart from the junior cert, totally different and way more interesting/fun, so definitely do it a higher. What you got in science won't necessarily determine how well you do at HL chemistry. I've seen people who got A's in the jc scraping by in chemistry, and to a certain degree vice versa. Don't worry, based on those jc results you should be fine. The only thing you need to succeed in Hl chem is a good teacher who can inerest and challenge you. If you don't have one you get bored. grades slip, and it appears hard. With a good chemistry teacher you'll fly, assuming you have the interest in the subject, but again don't judge it by jc chem, it's different!
I hated jc chemistry and loved it for the LC, as they have the space to go into the topics and explain things, which is better than the jc. There is no real explaining there, just learning things that dont make loads of sense due to no explanations.