Most difficult optional subject (Honours)

Dbstf

Most difficult optional subject (Honours)

partyatmygaff

?

Edit: Ah there's a poll. My mistake. I'd say Art would be one of the more difficult subjects due to the subjectivity of the marking. For more technical subjects, i'd say Chemistry. It's not a subject that you can coast through.

._.

Chemistry is definitely up there.. It all only came together for me at the end of this year. I hear physics is pretty hard too.. and applied maths.

Gumbi

Isn't History just a lot of learning? Sure, some flair for English counts towards it, but is that not it?

PictureFrame

It all truly depends on the individual, and the workload you put into the respective subjects. However, i've just completed 5th year and have done a lot of work this year, although I have invested a lot of time in French, it still manages to fu** me over in the listening tests, I truly can't comprehend it. And worst of all no matter how much you learn there is always something you can't understand, whether it be an oral/comprehension/tape question! Very frustrating!

Framble

Of the subjects I do, history... of all the others I'd say it's only Physics and Chemistry that are up there.

Student2

Out of the subjects I do, History.. Just due to the mountain of information you have to know and the physical exhaustion of writing all those essays.. suprisingly, Physics is my easiest subject

xclw

religion is a very hard subject because we get no choice on the paper and are expected to write 2-3 page essays on things that are only a paragraph in the book..

lisabisa

Out of my subjects I'd say business, purely because I hate it. It'd be well easier for someone with a I interest:) however over all I'd say chemistry or physics but then again depends on how much you personally like it. I know one guy who got an a2 in honours physics and failed geography so it really depends on the person:)

conormccarthy92

ye you left applied maths out of the poll .....
i do applied maths physics and chem and i reckon applied maths is a fair bit tougher than either of the other two . saying that , its still my favourite of the three tho :cool:

J_E

Chemistry is brutal if you don't 'get' the concepts.

TiGeR KiNgS

why is geography even an option ?

ChristinaIndigo

History for sure....

what I'd give to have chosen differently... :rolleyes:

salbal

physics is so easy, dont do history but it looks bad

Fbjm

Who the heck chose music?? I saw an official rating somewhere once and music was the second easiest subject in the whole lc, just behind ancient Greek! So it's the easiest mainstream subject on the leaving cert.

EXAMPLES: A few years ago, 3/4 of my old teacher's students got As in their leaving.

In the year of my leaving, most of us got B1s. Lowest was a C3.

I got a B1, without opening a book.



Chemistry is nigh on impossible though.

J_E

I agree with music. Still though, it's only easy if you're generally a musical person!

Ezkimosrawk

Chemistry.
Although I really have to say, it completely depends on the teacher.
Our chemistry teacher had us underline the entire book.
A class of 26 higher fell to 4 higher, 19 ordinary.
15 of those ordinary guys are failing. Badly. =\

CrabRevolution

Ah come on, engineering isn't that easy, the questions are unoriginal alright but the practical side can be tricky.

iLikePiano99

Fbjm wrote: »

Who the heck chose music?? I saw an official rating somewhere once and music was the second easiest subject in the whole lc, just behind ancient Greek! So it's the easiest mainstream subject on the leaving cert.

EXAMPLES: A few years ago, 3/4 of my old teacher's students got As in their leaving.

In the year of my leaving, most of us got B1s. Lowest was a C3.

I got a B1, without opening a book.



Chemistry is nigh on impossible though.

It all really depends on the person. Music requires some natural talent for it as well since the practical is worth 50%! The reason so many people do well in music is because the vast majority of them either did music outside of school such as piano or guitar OR they just have a natural flare for the subject. Music may be easy for you or me but for another student music may be the hardest subject as many of my classmates discovered during the Junior Cert. They have now vowed to NEVER do music again for the LC.

pockets3d

Out of the subjects i do definitely Chemsitry but that's mostly my fault because i spent the first year of the course dossing and then we got a new teacher this year and I've been barely attempting to pass it.

If you don't get some of the concepts of it the rest of the course is impossible.

BOHtox

economics deserves to be up there

Daniel S

Where's maths, english, and german?

polka dot

mtb_kng wrote: »

Where's maths, english, and german?

Maths isn't optional! Was wondering where Spanish was as well though.

Out of my subjects (Spanish, Geography, History, Biology) I said history, purely because there is so much to learn and so little time to write a 4 page essay in the exam.

stealinhorses

According to this poll, I do the three hardest subjects :pac:

Physics and chemistry are grand, once you've worked on them a bit yourself and understood the main concepts.

History is a bitch. Too much to write in 170 minutes, too much.

Salty

Surprised nobody has mentioned home-ec. It is far from the doddle everyone seems to think it is. It's ridiculously broad, impossible to retain, and the exam...too much to write in so short a time. The reason I'm not going to be doing what I really wanted in September.:mad:

Music is not as easy as everyone thinks either. Learning the works is hellish...and they're only worth 12.5%! The composing paper is impossible if you haven't worked for it, not the kind of thing you could expect to just walk into the exam without previous practise and do well in. However, if you've any cop on, and do a really decent practical, then there is no reason why you shouldn't get a B. A flare for music is essential to do really well in this subject.

NotExactly

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Ah come on, engineering isn't that easy, the questions are unoriginal alright but the practical side can be tricky.

I think so little selected it because so little do the subject. I'd say it would be the same case for Technology.

NotExactly

BOHtox wrote: »

economics deserves to be up there

IMO Economics is handy enough.

teacher30

I'm a French teacher - i completely understand what you're saying, if it's any consolation! We've been fighting the NCCA to change the syllabus but it falls on deaf ears. Anyway, i hear you!! :-)

Fireball07

Physics by a distance, for me.

I do history but I think that's grand. Physics has a lot of learning too, definitions and stuff and although the maths part is grand in general, sometimes there are very tricky questions.

I don't do chemistry but of the people who do it in my class- a third of them regularly get As and got A2s in the mock. None of them got below a C and their teacher is supposed to be bad.

So I'd definitely say physics.

ClaireMarie

Fireball07 wrote: »

I don't do chemistry but of the people who do it in my class- a third of them regularly get As and got A2s in the mock. None of them got below a C and their teacher is supposed to be bad.

I really think chemistry is just for certain people. Personally, I love it and there's about five of us in the class who do and continually get As. The ones who don't warm to it find it extremely difficult!

martyllia

for me geo,just anything i'm studying doesn't stay in my head for longer than 2 days! and our teacher is a joke! well was...
i'm doing history and the thing for history is that you have to like it,otherwise it's hard to study it.
art history is the worst course ever! so much to study for only 37.5%
but if you learn it ,it's easy to get good grade in it! i did nothing for the whole 2 years,just crammed one evenin before the mock and got b3!

Planemo

Chemistry - it's taken me 3 years to be able to understand a two year course (and I've only just gotten the hang of it)
That being said, I think Business is very hard to get an A in but overall it's easy enough

kilrush

i definitely think its either applied maths or latin.Though i suppose if your good at history and languages Latin isn't that bad.

niamhallen

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

Ezkimosrawk

niamhallen wrote: »

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

..5 Pages long?
Are you all mental? :L

If one breaks it down. 12 marks possible per paragraph for CM.
And an average paragraph with good knowledge is between 8-11.
So thats 7 paragraphs to guarantee an A in CM. Which is 60%.

For OE, they DEDUCT you for excess information and lack of relevant material/analysis/question focus. If you write 5 pages of wide ranging data instead of 6 concise paragraphs + intro/conclusion thats 8.
Its insane if you can get 15 pages AND the case study done in 2hr50m.

Its not insane, its expected.

angelfire9

niamhallen wrote: »

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

Its funny
Back in the dark ages when I did my LC I studied history as an extra subject outside of school because it clashed with the timetable for Chemistry in school and I got an A1
Its not all about facts & figures it's about understanding the affect of events on society at the time

I did 8 LC Higher papers:
English, Irish, Maths, French, Biology, History, Chemistry & Economics and I found Chemistry the worst by far!!!!

Seaner1878

I can understand why people think History is tough but I like it and think its ok..the problem is getting it done in 2hr 50m

Fireball07

Seaner1878 wrote: »

I can understand why people think History is tough but I like it and think its ok..the problem is getting it done in 2hr 50m

I agree.


But I would also say that it's impossible to write 3 5-page essays + a document in the time.

I'm an extremely fast writer, I can write faster than anyone in my school and it's just not possible to write around 18 pages in 2 hours 50 mins. Unless your writing is massive or you have some sort of super speed.`

3.5-4 pages is what we were told was expected with 5 body paragraphs (6 if you can manage it), with an introduction and conclusion. But we were told that the intro and conclusion aren't marked as part of the cumulative mark, only as part of the O.E. But they still need to be quite good.

Intro + conclusion are a part of the 60 marks

niamhallen

My writing is actually quite small but to get all the relevant information in, I always go onto the 5 pages. Anything less and I feel I'm leaving relevant information out.

UrbanSea

I cannot understand why anybody would have voted business. Business is not hard in the slightest,people don't do well in it due to sheer laziness.

scotty_irish

._. wrote: »

Chemistry is definitely up there.. It all only came together for me at the end of this year. I hear physics is pretty hard too.. and applied maths.

applied maths is the biggest joke of a subject!

CF_Hoop

I picked up Chemistry in October because I needed to know the basics for college, obviously I'm not doing Higher Level, but I'm aiming for a B in Ordinary.

Hedwig

Well I've only just finished 5th year but for me the hardest subject by far is Chemistry. It's just so fricken difficult! I'm also doing History, Biology and Geography all of which are ok. The insane amount of learning that goes with History puts a lot of people off it, but I love it and don't find it bad at all ... and both Biology and Geography are grand.

Chemistry though *shudders*, seriously people, think twice (or three times... or four times) before choosing it!!

Oenone

Chemistry.

I shall fail it proudly.

Barrt2

history due to the amount of information needed, the time you have for each essay and the amount of study needed to do well, the history project should be worth more than 20% for the effort put into it,

Mr. Maths

scotty_irish wrote: »

applied maths is the biggest joke of a subject!

I completely agree, the fact thats theres so much choice on the paper makes it quite easy if you have any kind of an aptitude for maths. As for the whole hardest subject thing, its really just a matter of personal choice... me, i actually find physics really easy, and a lot of others struggle with it.

amymak

For me personally, I would say French is the hardest, but that's because I don't really have a knack for foreign languages.

History is both one of my favourite and least favourite subjects. It's extremely difficult. You have to learn off reams and reams of material, and then in the exam you have to write three four page essays and do the document in 2h50. And, you may know the information, but if you haven't got the essay plan done beforehand, you're in huge trouble. It's more of a speed test than a measure of how much information you know.

However it is really interesting stuff. We have a brilliant teacher for it, and the common consensus in the class is that it's their favourite subject and least favourite exam.

I don't know why people think that physics is so difficult. There are definitions and laws to learn off, but less then there are in other subjects. The maths really isn't difficult, it's not near higher level maths standard. The exam is pretty straightforward.
For physics, I did my homework, but I only sudied for it the night before the 4 or so tests I got in the year and I still got 96% in my summer test, which was made up completely of exam questions.

Maybe_Memories

for me it was anything that involves actually having to write proper sentences... :rolleyes:

anything with numbers, graaaand. :cool:

Yeah Buddy

amymak wrote: »

For me personally, I would say French is the hardest, but that's because I don't really have a knack for foreign languages.

History is both one of my favourite and least favourite subjects. It's extremely difficult. You have to learn off reams and reams of material, and then in the exam you have to write three four page essays and do the document in 2h50. And, you may know the information, but if you haven't got the essay plan done beforehand, you're in huge trouble. It's more of a speed test than a measure of how much information you know.

However it is really interesting stuff. We have a brilliant teacher for it, and the common consensus in the class is that it's their favourite subject and least favourite exam..

This! Although my teacher was hardly brilliant, plus most of the class were too busy throwing papers around and the like.

It's very annoying though when you know you've done really well in the exam, answered the exact question asked, wrote the write amount etc, only to hear "times up" when you're halfway through your final essay and then miss out on the A as a result!