Subject selection for leaving c. w/dyslexia

lir1

Has anyone got any advice for subject selection at leaving cert when you are dyslexic? My daughter likes geography but really can't get ordinal survey maps and has decided that she won't take it because of that!! Agricultural science is not offered at her school, so she's selected Chemistry. So far her subject selection is: English, Math, Home Ec, Biology, Business, Chemistry and French. She is looking for subjects that overlap to help with the workload. Business will be new to her as she did not take it for leaving cert. She would love to take history but I have advised her that the breadth of the course is immense and bears no relationship to the junior cert course!! Am I giving bad advice. I'm very worried. She did a good junior cert but a lot of that is rote learning. Constructive comments please!!

spurious

I'm quite surprised it's the maps she has trouble with in Geography, as any child I've taught with dyslexia found them the easiest part of the course. Geography is a good choice for many children with dyslexia as there is a lot that can be communicated in drawings in answers rather than writing all the time like History.

The Field Study project for Leaving Cert. Geography also clocks up the marks outside an exam situation and gives students a chance to 're-do' things if they don't get it right first time.

Canard

History is an awful subject all round imo, a huge course and no time to show what you know in the exam. It'd definitely be hard for someone with dyslexia too, not only because of the German and French terms you have to learn for studying WWII etc. Geography is a very easy subject and might be easy for her, is it drawing or reading them she finds hard? I cant draw a sketch map for my life, personally, but theres a lot of choice in the exam so she could avoid them if she really had to

If shes picking up a business subject I think economics would be best. My cousin teaches it and advised my sister to do it back when we were going into 5th year, and the marking scheme is a lot nicer than business from what I've heard!

crayon1

There's much more to Geography than OS maps...they don't take up a huge part of the course. They are however an advantage to have going into the exam as you can pick up marks on them!

fizzyorange

I would definitely advise geography, it's a large enough course but you have around 20% going in and as mentioned before you can draw diagrams and gain marks.

I wouldn't advise chemistry unless she really liked it in junior cert science, the majority of the chem class in my year is failing because they picked it up just to fill in their timetable.

Is your daughter good at art of music? Most marks in those exams are given for practical work and although their are essays in the actual exam, the written exam itself isn't worth too much of the overall grade. A lot of dyslexic girls in my year do music or art.

Weirdly enough all of the girls in my year that are dyslexic do history and do very well in it. It might simply be coincidental however.

Biology is brilliant too. Lots of diagrams and short answers and using logic to work things out. It's also easy enough to understand and learn because there are parts in biology are based in general knowledge.

Good luck to your daughter in whatever she picks anyway.

finality

If she likes maths, physics could be an option? There's some overlap with chemistry in some sections, e.g. radioactivity and heat, but not a huge amount.

Also, the leaving cert is mostly rote learning too, depending on your subjects.

gaahurling

My son was diagnosed with dsylexia the other day, he has struggled with Business all during 5th and 6th year. He us sitting leaving cert next week. Geog and HE are grand. They both has assisgnments worth 20% of total. Business is a subject he finds difficult, he cant learn things off rote and cant picture things in he head,, like legislations etc

Canard

Just to correct the above post, business has no project at all, geography does though.

Nicole.

Hi, I find map reading hard too, I also have a disability but I'm just planning on avoiding that question if possible. It can come up as one of the Short questions (8 marks) or a part A of a LQ (20 marks) but there's so much choice that she could just avoid that question.

Is it the drawing of maps or just reading them? I find the abreviation LEN easy to remember how to read maps, it stands for letter, Easting, Northing which means that you read the subletter (letter on the map), read the numbers from the horizontal side to the east direction and next read the letters on the vertical side of the map going up north.

I do Leaving Cert history and yes, it is much more difficult than Junior Cert history. The course is so broad and there is very little revision time, you work until nearly the last week (in my school anyway). It could pose some challenges to someone with dyslexia because of the amount of writing and reading essays in it.

However, there is a girl with dyslexia in my class and she's doing fine. The project is a big help but everyone doing history in my school no matter how smart they are find history so difficult but rewarding.

Whatever subjects she decides to do make sure that she really likes them (as much as possible anyway:pac:). The leaving cert is hard enough without adding personal dislike of a subject into the mix.

I would advise that if you could meet some teachers at school of the subjects she's interested in and talk to them about it, they'll be supportive. Also check out the books for each subject as they'll give you a good indication of what the course is like and good luck!:D

lir1

You were very kind to take the time to reply. I take on board all your comments. At a subject selection meeting the Geography teacher told us the the course has leaned more and more towards your ability to read maps and draw sketch maps which were proving a problem. I think my daughter has a mental block, i feel that if she had the right instruction map reading would fall into place. She got a c on the honours J.C. Still undecided. But thank you again.

Coeurdepirate

My best friend is dyslexic and did her leaving this year, she did Biology and Business and she liked them both! I'd suggest that she doesn't do Chemistry though, it can be very difficult to understand in parts, and if she has difficulty with drawing maps then she could have the same difficulty with drawing hydrocarbons and their isomers, and that's quite a large part of the course.

lir1 wrote: »

... a lot of that is rote learning ...

The leaving cert is all about rote learning too, so don't worry, once she has the motivation to study she'll be fine! Also I'd suggest looking into getting her spelling waiver in 5th year (you need to talk to the principal about this) as another dyslexic friend left it too late and couldn't get it. The spelling waiver means that your daughter will not lose any marks in English for spelling or grammar mistakes.

Geo10

In relation to geography and maps, the maps can be easily avoided! I didn't have a problem with OS maps but I found they took up more time than other part A questions so I didn't do any on my LC! It's very easy to completely avoid them at LC level!

Canard

lir1 wrote: »

You were very kind to take the time to reply. I take on board all your comments. At a subject selection meeting the Geography teacher told us the the course has leaned more and more towards your ability to read maps and draw sketch maps which were proving a problem. I think my daughter has a mental block, i feel that if she had the right instruction map reading would fall into place. She got a c on the honours J.C. Still undecided. But thank you again.

I agree with geo10! I personally dont see any growing map trend in geography. I hated them and my teacher neglected them awfully, I was never able for things like "What way was the camera facing when this picture was taken?" or "Find the location on the map of the bridge in the photograph", it takes up way too much time for the 8 marks you're going to get from it. Q1A has always been a map but it's easily avoided, as are sketch maps - pretty sure I only drew one diagram in my entire geography leaving cert actually. I think she could do it but its up to you.