LC chemistry option

conormccarthy92

just wondering if that option , industrial chemistry is worth doing ? teacher seems to think its junior cert standard yet he doesnt recommend doing it ? its a garenteed half question every year which sounds quite appealing to me anyway . opinions ?

BrendaN_f

conormccarthy92 wrote: »

just wondering if that option , industrial chemistry is worth doing ? teacher seems to think its junior cert standard yet he doesnt recommend doing it ? its a garenteed half question every year which sounds quite appealing to me anyway . opinions ?

i was wondering this too. my teacher has ignored them completely, and we're finished the course now. ill have time to do every question in the exam, i might have a look at it over easter

luciemc

il have the time to do it... but i dont think i will, didnt pay attention to a single bit of it in class.. it is very simple but a good bit of learning and its never going to come up as more than that half a question? hardly worth the effort when the a and b part of that question are always lovely!

ride-the-spiral

Our teacher never does, she thinks its better to drill the organic and titrations into our heads.

Westsa

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Our teacher never does, she thinks its better to drill the organic and titrations into our heads.

Your teacher is right. Question 1 is always a titration, Q2 is always an organic question, Q6 is another organic question (fuels and heats of reaction) and there is always one more question on organic families and reactions. Considering you have to do two questions from section A and six from section B, your teacher is wise to drill you with tirations and organic chemistry as 4 questions in the paper is better than wasting two weeks teaching the options for part c of a three part question that only requires you to do two parts (the first two parts coming from the core material). Believe me you are better off ignoring the options and concentrating on the core areas of the subject.

dtfo

I was in the same situation nearing the end of the course , my tutor recommend we do it and Im glad we did. Its fairly easy, a guaranteed 1/2 question and 1 in q4. It doesnt hurt to at least go over it and see how you feel after

Fizzical

Westsa wrote: »

Your teacher is right. Question 1 is always a titration, Q2 is always an organic question, Q6 is another organic question (fuels and heats of reaction) and there is always one more question on organic families and reactions. Considering you have to do two questions from section A and six from section B, your teacher is wise to drill you with tirations and organic chemistry as 4 questions in the paper is better than wasting two weeks teaching the options for part c of a three part question that only requires you to do two parts (the first two parts coming from the core material). Believe me you are better off ignoring the options and concentrating on the core areas of the subject.

You don't think there's any educational value in learning about atmospheric chemistry in these times?

Or is education out of the question?

Westsa

Fizzical wrote: »

You don't think there's any educational value in learning about atmospheric chemistry in these times?

Or is education out of the question?

There is every value in learning about atmospheric chemistry however, atmospheric chemistry doesn't come up every year as this option also includes a case study on industrial chemistry and there is every chance that after these students spend time studying this section it may not appear on this years paper. By all means go and learn it but don't bank on it coming up. In addition the chemisrty course is very long and it is better to concentrate on learning the mandatory experiments which will gurantee 3 questions. I'm a firm believer in education for learning however, the leaving cert unfortunately is a points race and if you want to do well stick to the core material as that will make up 99% of the paper.

wayhey

Westsa wrote: »

Your teacher is right. Question 1 is always a titration, Q2 is always an organic question, Q6 is another organic question (fuels and heats of reaction) and there is always one more question on organic families and reactions. Considering you have to do two questions from section A and six from section B, your teacher is wise to drill you with tirations and organic chemistry as 4 questions in the paper is better than wasting two weeks teaching the options for part c of a three part question that only requires you to do two parts (the first two parts coming from the core material). Believe me you are better off ignoring the options and concentrating on the core areas of the subject.

You don't need 2 weeks to learn the Option. You could easily cover it in a weekend yourself using the Chemistry Live! Workbook and the exam papers.

If you're comfortable with electrochemistry/radioactivity/Le Chatelier's/pH, acids, bases and indicators I don't see why you should avoid it. It isn't a hard chapter. It's one I'm hoping I can do as well as any organics. I've done all the question 11s through years and I think I can answer them pretty quickly as well. You're right about Organics- but if you're comfortable with all that why not give yourself an extra, guaranteed question??

mpdg

Fizzical wrote: »

You don't think there's any educational value in learning about atmospheric chemistry in these times?

Or is education out of the question?

The Leaving Cert =/= education.
In any case, learning about pressing, real-life stuff should be gone about in a comprehensive, contextualised way. The topics covered on the LC are not comprehensive nor are in context.

Fizzical

mpdg wrote: »

The Leaving Cert =/= education.
In any case, learning about pressing, real-life stuff should be gone about in a comprehensive, contextualised way. The topics covered on the LC are not comprehensive nor are in context.

Maybe that's why we should put some education into it.

Are you suggesting that pressing, real-life stuff should not be taught to Leaving Cert students? I suppose you don't teach radioactivity either.

Is it that you don't teach in a comprehensive or contextualised way?

Or should nothing be taught in school unless it's taught perfectly.....???? That would leave them watching videos!

mpdg

Fizzical wrote: »

Maybe that's why we should put some education into it.

Are you suggesting that pressing, real-life stuff should not be taught to Leaving Cert students? I suppose you don't teach radioactivity either.

Is it that you don't teach in a comprehensive or contextualised way?

Or should nothing be taught in school unless it's taught perfectly.....???? That would leave them watching videos!

Oh no, I'm not saying the system is in any way positive. I completely agree regarding educating people rather than glorified rote-learning exams.

I mean that the nature of the LC makes it nigh impossible for the material to be covered in a way that the teacher can place it in context. They're racing to get the courses - which are simplified and misleading - finished, and so sacrifice the students a) learning things relevant to today's world and b) understanding what they're memorising.

whadabouchasir

conormccarthy92 wrote: »

just wondering if that option , industrial chemistry is worth doing ? teacher seems to think its junior cert standard yet he doesnt recommend doing it ? its a garenteed half question every year which sounds quite appealing to me anyway . opinions ?

We did it.From what I remember it was easy enough.Our teacher covered evrything though and advised us to answer every part of every question on the paper!I'm sure the examiner loved us for that!

ride-the-spiral

whadabouchasir wrote: »

We did it.From what I remember it was easy enough.Our teacher covered evrything though and advised us to answer every part of every question on the paper!I'm sure the examiner loved us for that!

Your teacher advised you to do everything on the paper? I don't consider that good advice at all.

whadabouchasir

ride-the-spiral wrote: »

Your teacher advised you to do everything on the paper? I don't consider that good advice at all.

If we had time then yes.I did everything on the paper.If you don't waffle and include only relevant points in your answers then it's definitely possible.

rainbowtrout

whadabouchasir wrote: »

If we had time then yes.I did everything on the paper.If you don't waffle and include only relevant points in your answers then it's definitely possible.

I'd be inclined to agree with ride-the-spiral. Chemistry is one of those exams where you are extremely pushed for time. It's hard enough to fit in 8 questions in the time allowed without aiming to fit in 11.

Pwpane

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'd be inclined to agree with ride-the-spiral. Chemistry is one of those exams where you are extremely pushed for time. It's hard enough to fit in 8 questions in the time allowed without aiming to fit in 11.

If you know your stuff (and don't write irrelevant reams), the timing is fine. There are always students in my class who are finished early - good students! And it's a good idea then to answer extra questions. It can be hard to judge how well you'll do in any question. Often students do better in a second question that they mistakenly judged 'harder'. You can see that all the time in house exams too.

goosey93

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'd be inclined to agree with ride-the-spiral. Chemistry is one of those exams where you are extremely pushed for time. It's hard enough to fit in 8 questions in the time allowed without aiming to fit in 11.

I can get a full question done in 10-15 minutes and come away with must of the marks. If you look at the marking schemes you realise you need very little to gain marks. Doing all 10-11 questions in the exam is very achievable!

jumpguy

At the end of the day, they only count your top questions, so you might as well make sure what you get what you need to get done well, instead of trying to get more done badly.

ride-the-spiral

Well it's easy to get more done if your absolutely sure your right, but if you're not entirely sure then it's much more beneficial to spend a bit of time deliberating over answers and methods to make sure you get the questions you have done right. I answered 9 questions on my mock and got an A1, but a lot of my right answers were because I checked over things.

rainbowtrout

I think the average student finds the chemistry paper tough enough and time consuming. I also think the typical student who is interested enough in Chemistry to come on boards and post about it is probably scoring above average. That is probably a general trend in LC students in this forum. Check out the results thread in August. Average points in the LC is about 300. Average points in a typical thread on here is about 500. That probably does tell it's own story about the cohort of students that use this forum in the main.

For the average LC student, it's often a different story and there are many who will struggle to be so precise and to get more than 8 questions done properly on the day.

NotExactly

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Average points in the LC is about 300. Average points in a typical thread on here is about 500.

I think this is true to a certain extent,but most people here post their results because they got high points and it appears everyone using the forum gets high points.

jumpguy

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Check out the results thread in August. Average points in the LC is about 300. Average points in a typical thread on here is about 500. That probably does tell it's own story about the cohort of students that use this forum in the main.

True, it shows there's a higher-than-average amount of liars :pac:

I jest, I jest!

rainbowtrout

NotExactly wrote: »

I think this is true to a certain extent,but most people here post their results because they got high points and it appears everyone using the forum gets high points.

I agree, those that failed subjects are less likely to post, however I see more of the 'I'm thinking of taking chemistry, what do I need to get into medicine, is ag science a good points etc etc etc' type posts way more often than 'I'm doing 2 higher and 5 ordinary level subjects for the LC and thinking of a Higher Certificate in Office Administration, the course is only 150 points, anyone know anything about it' type posts

surfergirl92

We're not doing the option either.After reading a few valid posts,I'm not so sure I'm happy about that anymore. :rolleyes:

I mean would it be wise to concentrate on the rest of the course and leave out the option?

You'd think it being the option there would be a compulsory full question on either option 1 or 2.Would they be allowed to suprise everybody and do this?!

rainbowtrout

surfergirl92 wrote: »

We're not doing the option either.After reading a few valid posts,I'm not so sure I'm happy about that anymore. :rolleyes:

I mean would it be wise to concentrate on the rest of the course and leave out the option?

You'd think it being the option there would be a compulsory full question on either option 1 or 2.Would they be allowed to suprise everybody and do this?!

At this stage, it's probably best not to worry about it. There isn't really enough in the option to warrant a full question unless both topics were to be examined in the same question. Even at that the type of question that could be asked is limited so you would find very little variation in it from year to year

surfergirl92

rainbowtrout wrote: »

At this stage, it's probably best not to worry about it. There isn't really enough in the option to warrant a full question unless both topics were to be examined in the same question. Even at that the type of question that could be asked is limited so you would find very little variation in it from year to year

Cool.Thanks for the reassurance!Yeah,I get what u mean,you would have had to cover both options to answer the full question.:)