Leaving Cert Chemistry

zam

Like an idiot I didn't pick chemistry, want to do medicine, it is now the start of fifth year and I need to take it up.

I'm planning on getting a private teacher for an hour a week.

I already do 7 other HL subjects and need to get a C3 or higher.

Is this in any way doable?

li-evo7

You do know that you have to do all the experiments aswell which are percentage of your grade! And chemistry is very difficult...im not sure one hour a week will do you and then how are you going to do your experiments?

doug.irl.92

zam wrote: »

Like an idiot I didn't pick chemistry, want to do medicine, it is now the start of fifth year and I need to take it up.

I'm planning on getting a private teacher for an hour a week.

I already do 7 other HL subjects and need to get a C3 or higher.

Is this in any way doable?

Yes I'd say its very doable! It does depend however on your other subjects, since you're going for med i assume you are doing hons maths so you will have no bother with the calculations involved and then there is just a good bit of learning.
You should try and cover most of the course this year to ease the load next year but honestly I'd say you'll be able to get a C3 in your sleep!

On the other hand would there be anyway you could switch subjects in school, as it is a good "points subject"?

pathway33

isn't UCC the only college you HAVE to do chemistry for with regard to medicine?

Like with some of the other colleges if you don't have chemistry it means doing 6 years instead of 5.

doug.irl.92

li-evo7 wrote: »

You do know that you have to do all the experiments aswell which are percentage of your grade! And chemistry is very difficult...im not sure one hour a week will do you and then how are you going to do your experiments?

I pretty sure this isn't the case as you don't get any marks for your experiments in chem. There are however questions on the experiments in the exam so you will need to know how to do them!

pathway33

li-evo7 wrote: »

You do know that you have to do all the experiments aswell which are percentage of your grade

How do you mean the experiments are a % of your grade? Like that the exam is worth only 80% and the experiments you do in the lab are worth 20%? news to me :eek:

Blur

Unless they changed the course from 09 LC then the experiments count for no percentage of your final grade.

I didn't even have a lab copy.

Not all medical schools require chemistry and yes it is very doable to get an honour in one year - I assume that if you're going for medicine it should be well within your capacity anyway.

Lola92

pathway33 wrote: »

How do you mean the experiments are a % of your grade? Like that the exam is worth only 80% and the experiments you do in the lab are worth 20%? news to me :eek:

Same here!!!!

Personally there is no way in hell I could cover the entire chemistry course in 7months with only one hours tuition per week.

Struggling as it is with 5 x 40 min classes and an excellant teacher, also only four in the class so its not for lack of personal attention! I also love the subject!

But others may have differant opinions. I think it is a very challenging course...Best of luck!:)

jumpguy

It's the start of 5th year? Do you mean 5th out of 6 years (transition year included) or 5th out of 5? If you mean 5 out of 6 then why can't switch in your school and take up chemistry? We're allowed change our mind for a while...although the later you do it the more difficult it is obviously. If you're not allowed, talk to your teacher or principal, it might be worth a shot.

Fad

The experiments in Chemistry are not a percentage that get before the exam, there are however 3 questions on the paper guaranteed based one experiments and the associated calculations. (The institute are offering a course now where you can do the experiments now afaik)

I would strongly advise you to reconsider doing Chemistry outside of school without the facility of a lab, Chemistry experiments are much harder to bluff through, the colour changes etc are much easier to remember if you've seen it in real life.

pathway33

Fad wrote: »

The institute are offering a course now where you can do the experiments now afaik

very true very true

http://www.ioe.ie/parttime/science-practicals.html

theowen

I never really saw the benefit of doing the experiments. You can learn more from a revision book IMO

Fad

theowen wrote: »

I never really saw the benefit of doing the experiments. You can learn more from a revision book IMO

They are mandatory, you have to do them.......and it solidifies things for a lot of people.

phasers

:eek: I wish I hadn't wasted time with experiments now!

theowen

Fad wrote: »

They are mandatory, you have to do them.......and it solidifies things for a lot of people.

It's not like they check. Suppose everyone learns differently!

Fad

theowen wrote: »

It's not like they check. Suppose everyone learns differently!

They do check though, just there's so many schools in this country, if I was minister for education it'd be something on my list, experiments are important in Science (imo anyway).

pjtb

I started Chemistry outside school in the beginning of fifth year, one hour grind every week... It worked fine for me. I really liked it and got an A1 in the end.

As regards keeping record of the experiments you're supposed to have done, is there a chemistry class running in your year? You could speak with the teacher and try and sort something out about it. There are ways an means! And it is very unlikely that you would be inspected anyway.

Lawliet

pjtb wrote: »

And it is very unlikely that you would be inspected anyway.

Still someone has to be checked. It's better to have the experiments done and not be checked, than to not do them and then be checked.

And speaking as someone who did the chemistry paper last year, having an actual memory of an experiment to fall back on, makes things much easier.

Homicidal_jesus

li-evo7 wrote: »

You do know that you have to do all the experiments aswell which are percentage of your grade! And chemistry is very difficult...im not sure one hour a week will do you and then how are you going to do your experiments?

like others have said there not worth any percentage in your expieriment copy theres just 3 experiment related questions on the paper and you MUST do 2 of them

Fad wrote: »

They are mandatory, you have to do them.......and it solidifies things for a lot of people.

no you dont have to do them even though its says there mandatory i have friends who did there leaving in a private school and they just go over the theory of them they never actually do them!



and yes i would say its quite do-able..theres a fair bit there..but there are topics that come up every year ie.thermochemistry which you can learn and have basically a guaranteed question

Fad

Homicidal_jesus wrote: »

no you dont have to do them even though its says there mandatory i have friends who did there leaving in a private school and they just go over the theory of them they never actually do them!

I'm assuming you mean grind school, there's a distinction

They are mandatory, if you get inspected and you dont not have write ups done (And presumably a teacher to say you have actually done the experiments) you will not be allowed to sit the exam

theowen

Fad wrote: »

I'm assuming you mean grind school, there's a distinction

They are mandatory, if you get inspected and you dont not have write ups done (And presumably a teacher to say you have actually done the experiments) you will not be allowed to sit the exam

So it's not mandatory for those in grind schools?

Fad

theowen wrote: »

So it's not mandatory for those in grind schools?

That wasnt my point, they're mandatory for everyone.

Homicidal_jesus

Fad wrote: »

I'm assuming you mean grind school, there's a distinction

They are mandatory, if you get inspected and you dont not have write ups done (And presumably a teacher to say you have actually done the experiments) you will not be allowed to sit the exam

no i mean private not grind i do no theres a difference:D

ya thats true but the school is told in advance when there are inspectors coming so you could just do them before they arrive

pjtb

Homicidal_jesus wrote: »

ya thats true but the school is told in advance when there are inspectors coming so you could just do them before they arrive

The teachers probably would know if an inspectors was coming, because it is quite likely that the inspector would be supervising the teaching of chemistry as a whole, not just the records. We had a subject inspection in Geography in 6th year and this was how it worked. The teachers knew a few weeks in advance (they were quite worked up about it actually).

When I was doing Chemistry as an extra subject I kept records of the experiments that the Chemistry class in school had done, I had arranged this with the Chemistry teacher. Most of the time they didn't actually do the experiments anyway, they just read them. Another person did the same a few years beforehand. You should try and get talking to a teacher, OP.

Fad

Homicidal_jesus wrote: »

no i mean private not grind i do no theres a difference:D

ya thats true but the school is told in advance when there are inspectors coming so you could just do them before they arrive

An inordinate amount of people dont know....

I kinda doubt your story though, I really doubt that the department would pay for a teacher to teach a subject in a school so ill equipped. If Spurious pops along, she will probably clear this up.

Homicidal_jesus

pjtb wrote: »

The teachers knew a few weeks in advance (they were quite worked up about it actually).

god they really do we had an english one last year and she was freaking for the entire month before hand ha

Fad wrote: »

I kinda doubt your story though, I really doubt that the department would pay for a teacher to teach a subject in a school so ill equipped. If Spurious pops along, she will probably clear this up.

doubt it if you must but the department cant keep track of every teacher in the country at all times so some teachers are bound to take shortcuts

rainbowtrout

zam wrote: »

Like an idiot I didn't pick chemistry, want to do medicine, it is now the start of fifth year and I need to take it up.

I'm planning on getting a private teacher for an hour a week.

I already do 7 other HL subjects and need to get a C3 or higher.

Is this in any way doable?

Are you in 5th year doing the LC in 2010 or 2011? If it's 2010 you will find it tough, the course is long and you may need more than one hour a week. I would say at least two. Actually I would recommend 2 hours a week for the two years. That's what I normally do when teaching students chemistry outside school.

li-evo7 wrote: »

You do know that you have to do all the experiments aswell which are percentage of your grade! And chemistry is very difficult...im not sure one hour a week will do you and then how are you going to do your experiments?

Not true. Where did you get that idea from?

Fad wrote: »

The experiments in Chemistry are not a percentage that get before the exam, there are however 3 questions on the paper guaranteed based one experiments and the associated calculations. (The institute are offering a course now where you can do the experiments now afaik)

I would strongly advise you to reconsider doing Chemistry outside of school without the facility of a lab, Chemistry experiments are much harder to bluff through, the colour changes etc are much easier to remember if you've seen it in real life.

+1 on everything here. You must answer questions on at least 2 of the mandatory experiments (25%) in total and you have the choice of answering the third question, which brings total up to 37.5%. Experiments can also come up on second part of paper. In theory if you knew your experiments inside out you could pass LC Chemistry. It does help to actually do them though. You're far more likely to remember them if you've done them, and especially if you made a mess of it on the day!

theowen wrote: »

I never really saw the benefit of doing the experiments. You can learn more from a revision book IMO

No way, learning off the method for an experiment from a book is no way a substitute for actually doing the experiment.

theowen wrote: »

It's not like they check. Suppose everyone learns differently!

They do check.

Fad wrote: »

They do check though, just there's so many schools in this country, if I was minister for education it'd be something on my list, experiments are important in Science (imo anyway).

I know for the JC Science practicals, lab copies have to be kept in the school. Dept sends someone out to a random selection of schools and checks that the copies exist and experiments have been done. There's 10% going for the practicals in JC Science. They can do the same for Biology and Chemistry. In practice very few schools probably get inspected. Personally I think that all copies should be inspected as students and teachers know the chances of copies being checked are very slim, if copies had to be submitted with the exam paper on the day of the Chem/Bio exams much like the History special topics, JC Science practicals booklet, CSPE project, just to prove the experiments were done, it would stop people skipping the practicals.

Homicidal_jesus wrote: »

like others have said there not worth any percentage in your expieriment copy theres just 3 experiment related questions on the paper and you MUST do 2 of them



no you dont have to do them even though its says there mandatory i have friends who did there leaving in a private school and they just go over the theory of them they never actually do them!

and yes i would say its quite do-able..theres a fair bit there..but there are topics that come up every year ie.thermochemistry which you can learn and have basically a guaranteed question

Well they are supposed to do them, as I've said above. Personally I would think any chemistry teacher worth their salt would do practical classes to benefit their students.

Fad wrote: »

I'm assuming you mean grind school, there's a distinction

They are mandatory, if you get inspected and you dont not have write ups done (And presumably a teacher to say you have actually done the experiments) you will not be allowed to sit the exam

yes, in theory this is correct, although I've never heard of it happen. I hate the way the Dept come up with ideas and then there's no follow through. As I said above, copies should be submitted with exam, even if there's no marks going for it, just to prove they were completed. No copy, no marks.

Fad wrote: »

An inordinate amount of people dont know....

I kinda doubt your story though, I really doubt that the department would pay for a teacher to teach a subject in a school so ill equipped. If Spurious pops along, she will probably clear this up.

There possibly are old labs not very well equipped. At the same time, 35% of the marks in JC Science are mandatory so I would imagine that labs in all schools are functional to some extent and therefore it should be possible to conduct chemistry experiments.



And back to the OP.. if you're going to do chemistry outside school with a teacher and just do the theory part, I'd probably advise that you sign up for the practical chemistry course in Maynooth in January. It's a one day course and get's booked out very fast, they do all the main/most important experiments on the LC Chemistry course, some you get to do and some are demonstrated. They provide you with a booklet of notes as well with it and you would get what I think is important practical experience.

Lawliet

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'd probably advise that you sign up for the practical chemistry course in Maynooth in January. It's a one day course and get's booked out very fast, they do all the main/most important experiments on the LC Chemistry course, some you get to do and some are demonstrated. They provide you with a booklet of notes as well with it and you would get what I think is important practical experience.

Plus they do this cool thing with a glove and liquid nitrogen!

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

why don't u switch it with a different subject???? the years only starting!

drop a language or an irrelevant subject like art or history before its too late.

chemistry and biology are the two most important subjects you would need for medicine. switch with a different subject ASAP! you do not want to be studying 8 subjects in 6th year trust me.

you're going to sacrifice loads of time and money by taking it outside school when it is so easily avoidable.

i really wish i dropped accounting in 5th year and took up either chemistry or physics so please learn from my mistake!!

jumpguy

theowen wrote: »

I never really saw the benefit of doing the experiments. You can learn more from a revision book IMO

I generally like the experiments, makes it far more easier to remember and what real science-lover enjoys rote learning tonnes of theory all the time?

theowen wrote: »

It's not like they check. Suppose everyone learns differently!

If an inspector comes there's a fair chance they'll check. However, if they aren't done I'd say it's more the teacher that'll get the blame unless it was just a particular student.

dee o gee

Im in LC at the moment doing chemistry, theres only 9 in our class, we have 5 x 45 min classes a week, we do all the experiments and we have an excellent teacher and im still struggling, to be honest with you its a long hard course that im struggling with over two years and would dread the thought of only an hour a week for a year. But then again everyone's different and some people would do ok with just an hour a week, id suggest talking with the chemistry teacher in your school. And if you really have your heart set on medicine you could stay back in 4th year, I know the year has already started but if you plead your case with the principal they might make an exception!

And just to clear things up do you mean 5th year as in the year after TY or the leaving cert year??

pjtb

dee o gee wrote: »

But then again everyone's different and some people would do ok with just an hour a week,

I did it an hour a week, and had almost all the course finished in one year. It really does depend on yourself, and if you put the work in.

dee o gee wrote: »

id suggest talking with the chemistry teacher in your school.

I concur!

IHeartChemistry

I'm doing Chemistry, 5 x 45 minute classes a week and still gettin grinds. Like I'm in 6th year and I need minimum B2 for my points, try the marking schemes and papers, they're really helping me so far like By reading them you'll find out what you need to learn etc and they should help you in the long run, so yes try papers and marking schemes, see how you go in terms of grinds for 6th year...but honeslty...unless you've grasped the main concepts of it...you'll find it hard in an hour a week! Good Luck though

lasair

Coming from a chem teachers point of view, it is doable (if you have a good tutor!!!) you have 2 yrs to do it and understand it....get tet papers, a chem book (chemistry live is good,inc a work book) and a "grind book", I reccommend rapid revision for chemistry..in some book shops you can buy a small fold out thing like a map with chem info on it..,..

the key is practice, practice, practice at exam questions....

if you need any info/help pm me.....

best of luck..

zam

Woops! What I meant to say at the start is that I'm now at the start of sixth year and need to start chemistry.

Would 2 hours grind a week really be necessary if I did study on my own, or is the course too difficult? I should really get my act together with this whole chemistry thing..

rainbowtrout

zam wrote: »

Woops! What I meant to say at the start is that I'm now at the start of sixth year and need to start chemistry.

Would 2 hours grind a week really be necessary if I did study on my own, or is the course too difficult? I should really get my act together with this whole chemistry thing..

Well it depends, just put it in perspective for a minute. In most schools, students have 5 x 40 or 5 x 45 min classes a week in an exam subject. That's 3hr20 - 3hr45min a week allocated to the subject over two years. You are planning on doing the 2 year course in one year in less time than would be given to one year of the course normally. I'm not saying it can't be done, but you would want to pick things up pretty fast and retain it all, chemistry is detailed.

It also depends on how disciplined you are to study on your own and if you will be able to teach yourself the course. Grinds do have the benefit that you will have a set time to study chemistry every week and be following a certain course.

If you're going to do it you would want to get started pronto, every week that passes is a week less. This is the third week of the school year for most students.

ChiefBrody

The majority of my class last year didn't like it at all, and I'm repeating and still finding it quite difficult. That said, I do have a friend who took it up in 1 year and got an A1, like most subjects it depends on the student.

lasair

it depends on the person.....

ChiefBrody whatever you do dont get an edge on it or it wont sink in...if ya need any help let me know...im a chem teacher but i do be floating about nuig too during the week..