Question about this exam...

Bountydublin

Hello,

could you tell me :
- how many subjects are there for this exam ? ( minimum...) and which?
- Art or music are optional ?

sorry for these questions ( and my English...) but I'm french and I would like to know a little bit more ...
Thank you
Bounty

ciano1

Well most people do 9-12 subjects for the exam (im doing 11)

Different schools do different optional subjects but most tend to do history and/or geography, science

Here more info on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Cert

PurpleFistMixer

12? Jaysus. I thought 11 was bad enough. I did 10.

Everyone does English Irish and Maths, though a French person wouldn't be obliged to do Irish unless they'd been living here for a length of time, I would say! You have to do another language also, I believe. French or German or Spanish would be the typical ones.
After that it's up to your school, though History and Geography and Science are fairly common as ciano1 said. Music and Art are also options, not all schools offer them but it's definitely possible.
Personally I did English, Irish, Maths, French, History, Geography, Science, Art, Business Studies and CSPE (CSPE is a joke of a subject.. Civic, Social and Political Education, the paper involves things like matching up politicians faces with their names... and according to that wikipedia entry, it's a compulsory subject too.)

seamus-2k7

Also religion is compulsary as an exam subject. I can see the advantage of learning about different religions etc. I do not think it should be an exam subject.

Bountydublin

Ok thank you,
but is it possible to do only 8 subjects? without option?

Bounty

PurpleFistMixer

I think religion being compulsory depends on your school.

seamus-2k7

Em no, the teachers wouldn't let you hang around the corridors for 3 classes a day.
You only have to do 7 subjects for the leaving cert btw.

Bountydublin

I understand what you mean...;)
but without thinking of teachers , is it possible ? I don't speak about timetable..but just about subjects

spurious

It is possible to do just one subject if that is all you wish to do. There is no minimum number of subjects to enter for the Junior Certificate examination.
Generally, five is considered a minimum number of passes to have 'passed' the Junior Cert.

Most of the answers here are discussing the situation for people who sit the Junior Cert. in a school setting, but the exam is not exclusive to them.

A number of centres where adults would be getting a second chance at education only sit 3-6 subjects.

ciano1

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

I think religion being compulsory depends on your school.

Yup....My school doesnt do religion as an exam subject

oh ya 300th post

rainbowtrout

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

I think religion being compulsory depends on your school.

Yep. religion is not a compulsory exam subject, it depends on the school, they can choose to have it as an exam subject or not.


As it stands English, Irish, Maths, CSPE (Civic Social and Political Education) and SPHE are all compulsory subjects at Junior Cert. SPHE is not examined.

Vocational schools are not obliged to teach History or Geography and I know of a few schools that do not offer these subjects at all. They are obliged to teach Science. It is the opposite in secondary schools.

A modern language is also compulsory


All other subjects are decided by the schools in question as to whether or not they are a compulsory subject or a choice subject.


It is possible to do 8 subjects. When I did the JC it was only in existence 3 years, and CSPE and SPHE and Religion as an exam subject did not exist. I did 9 subjects which would have been the norm, but lots of people in my school only did 8 as they did 1 foreign language and the class I was in did 2.

Piste

I'm not too sure on the modern language being compulsory, there are girls in my year who did no language for the JC.

rainbowtrout

Piste wrote: »

I'm not too sure on the modern language being compulsory, there are girls in my year who did no language for the JC.

ya, there's a few in my school that don't do a language who have special exemptions, there's also quite a few that simply aren't able for another language on top of English and Irish that are put in language classes but don't actually do the language or sit the exam, i'm sure it's just to prevent less paperwork with the department.

highlydebased

You dont have to do a foreign language- but there would be implications later on for college courses and so on

-Els-

You must do English, Irish Maths and CSPE, you must also do SPHE but there is no exam.

I think 90% of schools have history and geography as compulsory subjects for Junior Cert.

You don't have to do a foreign language at all if you dont' want to, but if you don't have a foreign language then you cna't get into any NUI universities (UCD, UCC, UL, NUIG etc..) so most schools make you do a foreign language. If you have an exemption for Irish or a foreign language you don't have to do them and can still get into NUI universities.

Some schools do religeon as an exam subject, i think in these schools everyone does the exam. In my school we dont do it for the JC, but we still ahve 3 classes a week of it.

Then there ar loads of optional subjects...

I'm not sure how many subjects you must do. I think, unless you have an exemption of some kind, then you must do 9. But really if you want to do 8, and just not turn up for one of your exams you probably could.

For my JC I had to do
English
Irish
Maths
History
Geography
CSPE
Then I did
German
Science
Business
Classical studies

muldoon-boi

you also have the option of doing

- technical graphics
- wood work
- metal work
- technology
- typewritting
- Environmental and Social Studies
- Home Economics
- latin
- italian
- ancient greek

hope this helps!

spudington16

seamus-2k7 wrote: »

Em no, the teachers wouldn't let you hang around the corridors for 3 classes a day.
You only have to do 7 subjects for the leaving cert btw.

Actually assuming you want a chance to get full marks (ie 600 points) you need only 6 subjects.

Jay P

seamus-2k7 wrote: »

Em no, the teachers wouldn't let you hang around the corridors for 3 classes a day.
You only have to do 7 subjects for the leaving cert btw.

Actually, I know people aho are doing six.

And I did 11 subjects for the JC. Religion was compulsory for everyone except those who weren't catholic, which I didn't get because our teacher constantly told us the course was designed for poeople of different religions.

rainbowtrout

-Els- wrote: »

You don't have to do a foreign language at all if you dont' want to, but if you don't have a foreign language then you cna't get into any NUI universities (UCD, UCC, UL, NUIG etc..) so most schools make you do a foreign language. If you have an exemption for Irish or a foreign language you don't have to do them and can still get into NUI universities.

That's changed. UL is not NUI anyway, so it only requires English and another language (which can be Irish or a foreign language) and some of the NUIs have changed this year to drop the language requirement for some science/engineering courses