Help choosing subjects

Maemae

I'm in 5th year and as I didn't do TY I've been advised by my careers teacher to repeat the year not because I'm performing badly but because she feels I'd be doing my leaving cert too young and that I'd benefit from the extra year.

So last year I did 8 subjects 7 in school and 1 outside:
English, Irish, French, accounting, chemistry, economics and music at honours and maths at pass.

I'm basically wondering if people think it would be crazy to go changing subjects ? I was think of dropping music which I do outside of school and going up to honours maths for the start of the year anyway and then maybe changing from economics to biology because I hated economics this year.

I'd really appreciated some advice about weather honours maths is really as hard as they make out. I got a B at JC and have been getting As all year in pass and also weather it's a good idea to change to biology ??

pathway33

I wouldn't repeat 5th year. If you want 3 years for the leaving cert, I'd do the leaving cert next year and then if you don't get what you want it's easy to repeat. The only extra work you will have will be english and irish. For most courses you can even leave out a subject you don't need for points.

There is a big difference between pass and honours maths. I'd say you will be capable of honours maths but it will take up a lot of time and other subjects might suffer.

Maemae

pathway33 wrote: »

I wouldn't repeat 5th year. If you want 3 years for the leaving cert, I'd do the leaving cert next year and then if you don't get what you want it's easy to repeat. The only extra work you will have will be english and irish. For most courses you can even leave out a subject you don't need for points.

There is a big difference between pass and honours maths. I'd say you will be capable of honours maths but it will take up a lot of time and other subjects might suffer.

You see though if I don't repeat I'm stuck with the subjects I chose for this year and what ever about the others I absolutely hate economics !!

pathway33

I'd drop to pass economics and do biology if I had to repeat. However repeating would only come into the equation if you didn't get the points you want first time. If you are positive you can nail your points in one shot after repeating 5th year anddoing subjects you like then maybe repeating 5th year is the option for you. I would say age has nothing to do with it. I know quite a few who did the leaving when they were 16

dragonfly!

Maemae wrote: »

You see though if I don't repeat I'm stuck with the subjects I chose for this year and what ever about the others I absolutely hate economics !!

i hated economics too but you are doing 8 subjects and only top 6 will be counted so unless you want biology for an entry requirement id day stick with it. i got on way better than i thought i would with eco theres loads of choice on the exam papers and if you do really badly in it well you dont have to count that one

Des23

Would you not be better off doing your leaving cert next year, then you give yourself three options:

1. Do your leaving and continiue on to college. That is if you disagree with what you guidance teacher said. Also if they think you too young to be doing your LC then why did they leave you skip 4th year in the first place? (I'm assuming you did skip)

2 Do your leaving and repeat if you need more points, you are still going to be doing 3 years but doing 6th year twice and 5th year once would be infinetely (sp?) more benificial than doing 5th year twice.

3 Do your leaving and take a year out, earn some money, travel (if you are old enough!:D), and other various things that I can't think of.

IMO I would feel these three options would all be better than doing 5th year twice.

regob

choose subjects that you have an interested in thats all i can say

Maemae

I didn't skip 4th year we don't have it in our school. thanks for all the great advice btw

xOxSinéadxOx

I wouldn't repeat 5th year. get out as fast as you can. and you can repeat 6th year if you **** it up cos you're young!

Disease Ridden

As other posters have said, DONT repeat 5th year! a few points that I'm sure you've thought about..

a) If you do the leaving next year and you don't get the results you were after, just think of it as a trial run. You can make sure to pass english and irish first time round and then drop to 6 subjects that you can concentrate on to get really high points!

b) I dont know about you, but I would have found it very depressing to have still been in 5th year, for the 2nd time, while the rest of my mates were graduating from 6th year, having their debs, getting their results, moving on with their lives etc. It's nice to leave secondary education with all your mates at the same time I think. Without bing able to look forward to these things collectively with your mates, I think 6th year would be quite depressing.

c) I think if you needed to do an extra year in school, be it as a result of being too young or due to poor performance, the repeat L.C year would be easier and more laid back than repeating 5th year. The teachers would be able to get more work done with you in the repeat year because you're likely to be in a smaller class and because the work only has to be revised and not looked at for the first time.

d) Also, if you feel you are too young to be starting college at late 16/ early 17 then you can always take a year out!


Regarding economics; you should take a look at http://examinations.ie/ for the marking schemes. I pretty much learned them off and got an A in the mocks and the leaving when I did them, whereas many others in the class failed; seriously, I think it would be extremely tough to get an A otherwise.

I'm not sure if it would be wise to take up biology in one year; its do-able but would you're other subjects suffer? I think the biology course is pretty long and it takes a lot of going over and over it in class to get it all into your head.

Maths...I would only do higher if I thought I was only going to get a C in both English and Irish; if you think you could be getting B's and A's in them then I'd stick to pass maths

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

i HATE my subjects!!


:mad::mad::mad::mad:

pathway33

Disease Ridden wrote: »

If you do the leaving next year and you don't get the results you were after, just think of it as a trial run. You can make sure to pass english and irish first time round and then drop to 6 subjects that you can concentrate on to get really high points!

excellent advice unless you want to do medicine (i think). Think you have to do everything in the one year for that.

marblesolutions

pathway33 wrote: »

excellent advice unless you want to do medicine (i think). Think you have to do everything in the one year for that.

I don't think so just the 6 subjects you are using for your points