Starting HL Biology For LC going into 6th year?

doyler101

Hi!

ok so going back to school next week and i'm going into 6th year.
currently the subjects i do are business, irish, english, french, accounting and religion at HL and maths at OL.
i don't do any science subjects because at the start of 5th year the classes were all full but now some people have dropped out of biology.
i want to move to biology from either accounting or business, preferably business. but i was just wondering if you thought it might be too late to start biology now and take it at HL because you need that for a lot of courses.
i know it will be a lot of work and i am prepared to do it to catch up on the 5th year content.
do you think it would just be a stupid idea and too risky and that i might be putting too much pressure on myself??
thanks
also any tips for if i am doing it?

lctake2

i think it's a tough thing to have to do. the bio course is long. really long and you can't leave much out. if you want a science ag science is easily doable in a year

doyler101

would ag science be possible to do on your own? i had wondered about it and my dads a farmer whether that helps or not. . . they don't offer ag science in my school.
cheers

lctake2

it would help in your project that your dad's a farmer, and a little in the course. I'm not sure about doing it on your own. i did it in a year but did it at school

doyler101

ok! thankyou so much! i'll look into it more and try find the syllabus and see if you can get grinds in my area maybe.
thanks again!

theowen

doyler101 wrote: »

ok! thankyou so much! i'll look into it more and try find the syllabus and see if you can get grinds in my area maybe.
thanks again!

I wouldn't do ag science. Really horrible syllabus, awful exam setters etc etc.

doyler101

theowen wrote: »

I wouldn't do ag science. Really horrible syllabus, awful exam setters etc etc.

do you think i should just stick to dropping business and taking up biology then?

theowen

doyler101 wrote: »

do you think i should just stick to dropping business and taking up biology then?

Why are you dropping business? I picked that up and got an A2 without intense study. Well, Biology is a longgg course. You'll have to work hard but yeah, I'd pick that up before ag science.

doyler101

i was thinking of dropping business or accounting cos they're both on at the same time as biology so i could go into one of those biology classes

shwagga

Honestly, Biology is a subject which is very reasonable. We covered the course in a year and I still pulled of an A1 (98%).. Only difficulty you might have is that you will be joining a class that has a years worth of work done and you will be playing catch up. If you need a science subject for entry requirements, you should consider taking up either Ag. Science or Physchem - I took them both up as a repeat and got A's in both of them, despite only getting a C in JC Science.

Another bit of advice, don't drop Business. It's the easiest subject to bluff if you have the right format for answering questions: (SEE - State, Explain, Example).

If you do consider taking up Biology and you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll help you out!

Coeurdepirate

lctake2 wrote: »

i think it's a tough thing to have to do. the bio course is long. really long and you can't leave much out. if you want a science ag science is easily doable in a year

The bio course is quite long, but a lot shorter than the accounting course. Also, you can get 80% or 85% if you only cover 2/3 units, and I'm more than sure than the one that's only worth 15/20% is Unit 3, i.e. the longest one.

Don't quote me on anything though.

shwagga

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

The bio course is quite long, but a lot shorter than the accounting course. Also, you can get 80% or 85% if you only cover 2/3 units, and I'm more than sure than the one that's only worth 15/20% is Unit 3, i.e. the longest one.

Don't quote me on anything though.

Ya, you're right on that, but it might not be the case for 2011. Luckily, this years paper concentrated on Unit 2, which is as far as I revised. But Unit 2 in general is the most important. Genetics is up almost every year as a full question. You can leave out plants completely as well. I did that in 2009 and it didn't affect my result. There is plenty of scope to pick and mix various choices on the paper. Although Unit 3 doesn't feature prominently on the paper, it is IMO the easiest section as it's the most visual.

You will also have to write up all the experiments as well, which does take a bit of time. There is 3 experiment questions on the paper and you answer 2 so it's usually not too difficult.

theowen

I wouldn't leave out anything...

Paper this year was tricky and they'll prob continue that, meaning you'll do crap if you don't have options.

Bbbbolger

Im studying biology on my own. Im getting grinds once a week and have been for the last month and Im well on course for catching up with 5th year work and completing the course in time. If you do a bit of the 5th year work yourself once or twice a week you'll have caught up in no time. Many sections link with previous sections so it will all start to make sense very quickly.