Is an eighth subject worth it?

SorchaDorcha

I've just started fifth year and found our that one of my friends is doing an extra subject, also another school in my area makes everybody study eight subjects instead of seven. I'm wondering if it's worth the extra study/stress/time to get another option on results day.

Any comments would be appreciated

Thankies.

Maybe_Memories

How are you with maths?

RH149

When I did my LC everyone in my school had to do eight subjects. We just got on with it and didn't know any better- just coulnted our best six grades for points. Looking back on it, I think we probably were spreading ourselves a bit thin (my 'eight' subject was Art which I did no work for but really enjoyed so I didn't mind but some friends had a heavier workload with all three science subjects included). I think now that seven is plenty to concentrate on, unless you couldn't get your subject choice and need to do one outside school.

irish_man

Not worth it IMO. Too much work unless you're that type of person who wants 8 A1's

wayhey

I'm repeating this year and I'm taking up Agricultural Science because I like (and got As in) Geography and Biology. I don't think an 8th subject is worth it unless you'll like it/are good at it/are forced to make that decision because your school doesn't offer the subject you need for your course. If you haven't a clue what you'd like to do, or what area you'd like to go into, I think the seven are generally enough.

Unless you're especially weak at languages and intend to go onto college (because you'll need Irish and a modern European like French or German to get into an NUI, although Trinity will accept Irish only as far as I know). So if you're weak at languages you could still find yourself facing English, Irish and another language .If in that situation and you need a lot of points (and let's face it, they're not getting lower) then it might be worth it.

Also take into consideration the subjects you are doing. Some think it doesn't matter but I definitely believe that different combinations of subjects can be harder than others for a well-rounded student. Like if you're doing Honours Maths, it is going to eat up A LOT of your time whereas something like Geography is generally considered easier at Honours level.

Think it over and act fast if you're taking it up, but I really think 7 is usually enough for most. Good luck!

EuropeanSon

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

How are you with maths?

Lol

i like pie

it all depends on if you are doing a pass subject like irish or maths! if you are and you need high points then maybe you should take up another subject. if not, eight higher level subjects is a lot imo. i was doing eight but dropped the extra one i was doing outside of school at the end of 5th year. if you really want to do an extra subject start now as you'll have more time in 5th year, don't wait until 6th year! doing a course in one year can be pretty tough and will take up a lot of time with grinds/study/homework.

Maybe_Memories

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Lol

Yeah, I'm a bit obsessed with convincing people to take up Applied Maths. :cool:

OP, Applied Maths is probably the subject with the shortest course.
You do not need to be absolutely brilliant at maths to do very well in it, i.e, get an A.
HL Maths is NOT required but it would make Applied Maths easier, and you'd be able to do Q10 on the day (needs Integral Calculus from HL maths), which is the easiest question, along with Q9, Hydrostatics.

I did the subject by myself as an eight subject outside school. Personally I had no problems with the lack of a teacher - got 89% in mocks, 99% in Leaving Cert.


It's also the subject that gets most As every year. 30% of students who did HL this year got an A.

Dafydd Thomas

I only did 7 subjects and had to include an OL but got 480. I only know of one person who did really well with an 8th subject. Usually it takes too much time away from other subjects. I wouldn't recommend it.

SorchaDorcha

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

Yeah, I'm a bit obsessed with convincing people to take up Applied Maths. :cool:

OP, Applied Maths is probably the subject with the shortest course.
You do not need to be absolutely brilliant at maths to do very well in it, i.e, get an A.
HL Maths is NOT required but it would make Applied Maths easier, and you'd be able to do Q10 on the day (needs Integral Calculus from HL maths), which is the easiest question, along with Q9, Hydrostatics.

I did the subject by myself as an eight subject outside school. Personally I had no problems with the lack of a teacher - got 89% in mocks, 99% in Leaving Cert.


It's also the subject that gets most As every year. 30% of students who did HL this year got an A.

The Applied Maths course isn't changing this year? Or are they rolling out a Project Applied Maths that I haven't heard of? I'm okay with maths, seem to be much better this year as I have an excellent teacher but it's early days yet.

Cat Melodeon

I also did Art as an extra Higher Level subject, got a B1 which I was delighted with. Without the 8th subject, I wouldn't have had enough points to get my first choice at uni, as I'd made terrible subject choices, ended up doing 2 at Ordinary Level and knew beforehand that I'd be lucky to scrap a pass in a 3rd. By taking on the 8th subject, I managed to have 5 decent honours and only had to count OL Maths (A1, so not so bad).

Art was handy enough for me as I was interested in art & archaeology anyway and wasn't too bad at drawing etc. If you're taking on an extra subject with teacher support, I don't think it's that big a deal. If you're doing it on your own, make sure it's something you already have an interest in and an aptitude for, otherwise it'll detract from your other subjects.

lctake2

there is no point in taking up an 8th subject unless you are doing 2 pass subjects and need 6 honours for points. just think that all the time you will have spent studying 2 of your subjects would ultimately count for nothing, in the context of the lc at least

Maybe_Memories

SorchaDorcha wrote: »

The Applied Maths course isn't changing this year? Or are they rolling out a Project Applied Maths that I haven't heard of? I'm okay with maths, seem to be much better this year as I have an excellent teacher but it's early days yet.

No, Applied Maths isn't changing. Project Maths will have no affect on Applied Maths whatsoever. The AM course hasn't changed since 1977, and even then the change was very VERY minor. The only way it'll change is if they take Integral Calculus and Trig identities from the HL maths course.

The only issue is that I've heard vectors are have been removed from HL maths, (need confirmation on this) which would cause a problem if a question requiring the dot product came up. But then again, you only have to do 6 out of 10 on the day.

The question type also very rarely changes.
This year, I'm pretty sure everyone knew we'd get an easy pulley and a wedge question for Q4. There's very little variation in types of question.
Questions 3, 4, 5, and 10 are practically the same every year, so almost everyone does them.

I'm pretty sure EuropeanSon will back up what I've said too.

PM me if you want any info.

gaeilgegrinds1

My opinion, don't do it. Do 7 really well instead.

RolandIRL

i would say no, unless you're doing 2 or more OL subjects and want to get high points for some course that's say, 550+
i took app maths outside school with a grinds teacher. at the time i was doing OL irish and HL history. i knew from the workload of history that i was going to drop down, so i wanted to take an extra subject to further my options (in case i wanted to do a high points course)

btw i actually wouldn't have needed app maths, cos i was doing undenominated science but it helped me in first year when i took it up. really made the year easier