Thinking of doing History or geography outside school.

TheStook

Hello everyone,
Im currently halfway through 5th year and im thinking of starting either history or geography as an extra exam subject and i just wanted advice/opinions such as- Exam layout, study time, personal thoughts and work/notes.
My friends are pretty mixed but tell me geography would be easier but i had more of an interest in history in junior cert but had to pick different subjects in order to take french.
I am doing- Business H
Economics H
French H
Biology H
Religion H
English H
Maths O
Irish O

So i already do religion as an extra subject but time isnt a major problem at this stage anyway, and biology would help with geography i guess but isnt there a geography project or something? anyway any advice is appreciated

0mega

I wouldn't recommend doing history outside of school.. I think Geography would be the better option.

TheStook

0mega wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend doing history outside of school.. I think Geography would be the better option.

Yeah i heard historys a LOT of work but if im really interested in it, that shouldnt be a problem. I plan on doing maybe an hour study a day during the summer on this extra subject which should be the course, leaving me with a year of light shtudy. but theres a project in geography or something so im really uncertain

0mega

TheStook wrote: »

Yeah i heard historys a LOT of work but if im really interested in it, that shouldnt be a problem. I plan on doing maybe an hour study a day during the summer on this extra subject which should be the course, leaving me with a year of light shtudy. but theres a project in geography or something so im really uncertain

There's a project in history too! A special topic essay.

Canard

Theres a project in history too!
You'd really need a teacher more for history than geography. I do both and I loathe history. The documents book is the European Retreat from Empire and it's not too bad, nor are the European topics - we're doing Dictatorship & Democracy in Europe, but the US and the wider world looks good too. You have to do two Irish history books which are incredibly boring. We did Sovereignty and Partition and Society and Politics in NI, the former is earlier than the latter, but there's also Movements for Political and Social Reform (early history) and Government, Society and the Economy in the Republic (later history). Some of it is interesting but the exam questions are very, very tricky I think, whereas geography is more to the point.

I see you're doing economics too - there's electives in geography and one of them is patterns and processes in economic activities. It's handy for me, doing business, but for someone who does business and economics it'd be even better. There's no huge overlap but it definitely helps.

In both subjects the project is worth 20%, the courses are both pretty large. I liked history for JC but I got a different LC teacher which definitely has influenced it but really its the difficulty that's caused me to dislike it I think. Geography is full of nitty gritty details too but its handy enough

TheStook

Patchy~ wrote: »

Theres a project in history too!
You'd really need a teacher more for history than geography. I do both and I loathe history. The documents book is the European Retreat from Empire and it's not too bad, nor are the European topics - we're doing Dictatorship & Democracy in Europe, but the US and the wider world looks good too. You have to do two Irish history books which are incredibly boring. We did Sovereignty and Partition and Society and Politics in NI, the former is earlier than the latter, but there's also Movements for Political and Social Reform (early history) and Government, Society and the Economy in the Republic (later history). Some of it is interesting but the exam questions are very, very tricky I think, whereas geography is more to the point.

I see you're doing economics too - there's electives in geography and one of them is patterns and processes in economic activities. It's handy for me, doing business, but for someone who does business and economics it'd be even better. There's no huge overlap but it definitely helps.

In both subjects the project is worth 20%, the courses are both pretty large. I liked history for JC but I got a different LC teacher which definitely has influenced it but really its the difficulty that's caused me to dislike it I think. Geography is full of nitty gritty details too but its handy enough

Thank you very much, this is exactly what i was looking for!
The stuff you said about history is making me lean towards geography and my stupidly optimistic mind is saying i should do both which ill regret in a years time. Right now its all fine and dandy to pick a few extra subjects but i know when im completely swamped with work i wont find time for them all and my social life on top! decisions decisions..
Is leaving cert geography similar to J.c but just more detailed cause thats basically what my friends say...and for the field trip im sure i can tag along with the geog class...thank you !

Canard

TheStook wrote: »

Thank you very much, this is exactly what i was looking for!
The stuff you said about history is making me lean towards geography and my stupidly optimistic mind is saying i should do both which ill regret in a years time. Right now its all fine and dandy to pick a few extra subjects but i know when im completely swamped with work i wont find time for them all and my social life on top! decisions decisions..
Is leaving cert geography similar to J.c but just more detailed cause thats basically what my friends say...and for the field trip im sure i can tag along with the geog class...thank you !

Yeah, definitely dont do both - sure you already have 8 subjects anyway. Yep LC geography is very similar to JC but its also very different with a lot more detail, whereas LC history is a lot more focused on seeing a large picture and analysing it. The field trip is pretty easy and you can ask a teacher for help to make sure you get good marks in it, and its quite a laugh too :P

The questions in LC history are all 100 marks each so a lot goes into them. In geography each section (short questions, physical, regional, economic/human, then the option which is atmosphere-ocean, geoecology, culture & identity or global interdependence) is 80 marks and all - with the exception of shorts which are I think 8 marks each, and the option is just one long 80 mark question - are divided into 20,30,30 marks each. The 20 mark parts are mostly graphs and its pretty difficult to get them wrong, the 30 mark ones are a little hard but theres a choice of 3 questions each time and they're never too hard - you need 15 points of information so as you can imagine, the course is pretty information filled. :P

0mega

TheStook wrote: »

Thank you very much, this is exactly what i was looking for!
The stuff you said about history is making me lean towards geography and my stupidly optimistic mind is saying i should do both which ill regret in a years time. Right now its all fine and dandy to pick a few extra subjects but i know when im completely swamped with work i wont find time for them all and my social life on top! decisions decisions..
Is leaving cert geography similar to J.c but just more detailed cause thats basically what my friends say...and for the field trip im sure i can tag along with the geog class...thank you !

I'm in 5th year now too and at the start of the year I tried taking on an 8th subject on my own, but after homework and revision of other subjects - it's actually hard to motivate yourself to just read through a textbook on your own and answer questions. Make sure it's something you definitely want to do and you are interested in the subject.

I also realised that if I put too much time into trying to teach myself a new subject, my other ones could suffer so now I've decided to just drop it and focus more on Maths, Irish, etc.

angelfire9

To put the cat amongst the pigeons slightly I did History as an extra LC subject and managed an A in it
I got the project out of the way in 5th year (as in I did it and got the teacher to review it and I'd time to perfect it before submission)
My LC Subjects at school were
English
Irish
Maths
French
Biology
Chemistry
Economics

So I'd ALOT of learning to do BUT i had a real interest in history it was more like reading a story book than learning if you get my drift
I also found that I didn't use the same books as the class at school at times I bought additional texts and having the syllabus I was able to pick topics from different books as different texts cover certain topics differently (if you know what I mean)

If you're doing either History or Geography as an extra that means one of the subjects you're doing in school won't be needed for points so whichever school subject you find hardest you could always do at ordinary level to give you more time for your extra??
That's what I did with Maths (there were other issues but it gave me alot more time than Hons Maths would have)

Pick whichever you are most interested in as the more interest you have in a subject the easier it will be for you to study it

Good luck!!

QueenOfLeon

With 6 honours subjects already do you think you need another one? Nine subjects is a huge undertaking for the LC. I know time mightn't seem like an issue now, but when you get to the final few weeks and the exam period itself, I think nine subjects could be a strain.

Even if you do get all the material covered over the summer, you still have to spend time revising and learning it over the whole LC year. Also, coming into your LC year, will you be burned out after covering one whole course in just a couple of months?

I'm sure you have your reasons for wanting an extra subject but don't underestimate the amount of time you'll need to spend on it. You don't want to stretch yourself too thinly when you could spend more time concentrating on your other subjects.

Togepi

I did History for the the Leaving last year because I had always loved the subject. However it turned out to be far more difficult than the Junior Cert course, and not nearly as enjoyable. I ended up hating the subject, the workload was just too much I suppose.

If I was to go back and pick my subjects again I'd give be putting Geography ahead of History on my list anyway.

So I vote you go for Geography, but only if you really must take up another subject. You don't want to add extra pressure, the Leaving Cert year is strenuous enough with just six or seven subjects!

jessiepoo410

I did history last year and got an A1 in it. Believe it or not, history has a much higher rate of A's than Geography. It is also a lot more work. For the project you need 3 sources, two of which must be books. This means that along with doing your homework and study every night you are going to have to read two large and detailed books and take relevant notes. It REALLY eats into your time. I really enjoyed History but at the end of the day it really ate into the rest of my subjects. In saying that, if you have a flair for it you will be able to juggle your other subjects. There is no room for waffle in Leaving Cert history so bare that in mind. It would be easier to do at home than geography so i would advise you to do it!:D

crayon1

While I understand you probably want to have a back up honour...i think it would be a big mistake for you to try and take up either of these subjects. 9 subjects would be an awful amount of work to be doing. You have to acknowledge the length of the courses of the 6 honours you already have, they in themselves are a huge load. I'm repeating my LC this year..I'm taking 6 higher level subjects this year after doing 7 last year. I feel alot less pressure as a result and have much more time to focus on what I need to learn. I think your time would be better spent focusing on the subjects you have now rather than taking up another one. Geography and History are both incredibly long courses aswell so my advice would be to stick with the ones you have!

The projects also have to be signed off on by a teacher and in my opinion the geography/biology courses don't really overlap much if at all! I hope this helps!

TheStook

Thanks very much everyone, ive definitely got enough opinions and ill mull it over i suppose but right now it seems geography would be the better option ,if i was to do an extra (extra) subject especially with this reading two books in history which i never knew about! Once again thanks!

spurious

Make sure you have a teacher who has agreed to sign off on your project work.

cmerush2dstars

I'm in 6th year now and will be sitting the LC in June. I was wondering if it would be possible to do either history or geography course completely by then? I've already done half the Biology course by myself, as I switched into it after 5th year. And I'm doing the Home-Ec course at home at the moment, I did the project last year. But if necessary, I could drop the Home-Ec and take up either Geography or History, whichever one is shortest. Otherwise is there any subject the involves Law or is similar to Law, that would be easier to take? Your probably wondering why I'm asking and it's a long story, so I'm not going to explain. Thanks, Claire

Coeurdepirate

Why would you take up any extra subjects when you already have 6 honours?

Canard

You wont get the geography course done and the only thing you could rely on for history is predictions, and you'd have two months to do a project in either of them, so realistically you cant do it. I dont even know why you'd try. :eek:

cmerush2dstars

If it isn't possible to do History or Geography, would it be possible to do Economics in that amount of time? Its not so that I can do 8 honour papers, there's another reason which I'm not going to explain. Also, I forgot to mention the subjects I'm doing. I'm doing them all at honours level. They are: English, Irish, Project Maths, French, Chemistry, Biology, Design and Communication Graphics and Home-Ec, which could be dropped if necessary. Also I only need a C at Honours Level if I took up Economics.

RMD

cmerush2dstars wrote: »

If it isn't possible to do History or Geography, would it be possible to do Economics in that amount of time? Its not so that I can do 8 honour papers, there's another reason which I'm not going to explain. Also, I forgot to mention the subjects I'm doing. I'm doing them all at honours level. They are: English, Irish, Project Maths, French, Chemistry, Biology, Design and Communication Graphics and Home-Ec, which could be dropped if necessary. Also I only need a C at Honours Level if I took up Economics.

If you're doing 8 already why burden yourself with yet another honours subject? Sounds ridiculous to be perfectly honest.

pbthevet

Forgrt history, not wprth the effort. Geography is possible even if you only do grinds once a week. Lots of it can be prepared well in advance and i found it easy enough to get the a1 in. The project element is handy out. What you want points wise? I notice your not doing chemistry which rules out medicine/ veterinary. Not to be rude but usually this means high 400's or low 500's will get you what you need and the subjects your doing shoukd already get you this handily enough. Is geog and the extra time lost really necessary for you?

Coeurdepirate

cmerush2dstars wrote: »

If it isn't possible to do History or Geography, would it be possible to do Economics in that amount of time? Its not so that I can do 8 honour papers, there's another reason which I'm not going to explain. Also, I forgot to mention the subjects I'm doing. I'm doing them all at honours level. They are: English, Irish, Project Maths, French, Chemistry, Biology, Design and Communication Graphics and Home-Ec, which could be dropped if necessary. Also I only need a C at Honours Level if I took up Economics.

Your other subjects will suffer. Forget it.

cmerush2dstars

OK, thanks for the advice.

pbthevet

I did economics in one year, did business studies aswell.
nfound them both easy enough. Very predictable subjects.

BritBrit

Don't listen to the people telling you not to do 9 subjects, they're just jealous.
Yes it is very possible to do 9 subjects. I do and none of my other subjects suffer. In fact I deeply regret not doing 10 now.