Classical Studies for LC

Jazzboy97

I am currently in 3rd year and am going into TY next year, as opposed to fifth year. I want to do classical studies go leaving cert. but my school doesn't teach it. Will I just buy the necessary material and study myself, or do I need help? Thanks in advance.

TheStook

Jazzboy97 wrote: »

I am currently in 3rd year and am going into TY next year, as opposed to fifth year. I want to do classical studies go leaving cert. but my school doesn't teach it. Will I just buy the necessary material and study myself, or do I need help? Thanks in advance.

First of all, fair play to you for showing excellent incentives dude..I wish I was like you before doing TY lol.
To be honest, I know nothing of classical studies, but I do know about doing extra subjects and I would recommend, since you are going into TY now, that you try it yourself throughout TY, nothing major, maybe 2 hours a week.
This way you will know if you are capable of doing it yourself and will have plenty of time to decide what you want to do. Other than that I guess Grinds is always an option. Hope I helped

Jazzboy97

TheStook wrote: »

First of all, fair play to you for showing excellent incentives dude..I wish I was like you before doing TY lol.
To be honest, I know nothing of classical studies, but I do know about doing extra subjects and I would recommend, since you are going into TY now, that you try it yourself throughout TY, nothing major, maybe 2 hours a week.
This way you will know if you are capable of doing it yourself and will have plenty of time to decide what you want to do. Other than that I guess Grinds is always an option. Hope I helped

Hah thanks yeah you did my friend who <with help of his dad> got me into CS is going into fifth year so I'm gonna try learn with him through TY thanks

Rebekahx

Coming from someone who has their Classics exam next week, I'd find some sort of grinds or evening class to do it in. It's very heavy, we only finished the course about a week before graduation. You have 2/3 plays, 2 books on Alexander the Great, 2 Ancient Epics and either Roman or Greek art and architecture. Along with that, you have roughly (as my teacher put it) 27 minutes and 45 seconds for each 2 1/2 to 3 page essay It is incredibly stressful, I'm just lucky I've the day off before it to go over everything! They don't print mock exams for it, and exam paper books like for English or Maths or whatever are only available through teachers as again, edco and the sorts don't print them. I'm not trying to deter you from it, it was one of my favourite subject in school and would suggest it to anyone capable of it, but I would really look into finding someone to do it with.

Nescio

Midway through my Leaving Cert year (last year ), I decided to do the Classics exam through self study, as I was absolutely diabolical at Chemistry, and wanted an insurance subject. I was well acquainted with the course materials through general reading, but bought the course book anyway, and promptly forgot about the whole thing until approximately a fortnight before the exam.

I did Alexander the Great, Greek Drama, The Philosopher in Society, and Ancient Epic. The last three topics I knew quite well due to bookwormish tendencies, but really, the only thing I knew about Alexander was that he had a thing for Hephaestion, and thought Achilles and Patroclus were kinky.

Erm, the point to all this rambling is that I got a B2 in Honours through bluff and random homosexual facts, and that Classics is absolutely doable if you have an interest. If you happen to be good at History/English (for essay structure etc.) that's quite a fair indication that you'll do well in Classics :P

If you want to discuss it further, don't hesitate to give me a PM

Evan93

I've only taken up my interest in Classics over the past year or so. I did my leaving cert last year & if I were to do it again (which will never happen :pac: ) I would definitely do it. Have no regrets. I'm not sure about the workload but I know it's far easier to study something you enjoy than something you do not enjoy.

Didn't seem to answer you question. I would imagine that you would have to be guided through the syllabus somehow. Maybe get a grind every so often if you are finding it difficult, if you think you can manage by yourself just get the relevant material & go for it! You've plenty of time anyway.

LC_sucks

well classics is my absolute fave subject, but i have to say i would find absolutely impossible to do without the guidance of a teacher, so i would definitely not recommend doing it on your own!

absolute fair play to nescio though, you must be a genius!

Kelix

LC_sucks wrote: »

well classics is my absolute fave subject, but i have to say i would find absolutely impossible to do without the guidance of a teacher, so i would definitely not recommend doing it on your own!

absolute fair play to nescio though, you must be a genius!

I did it on my own this year, and I definitely believe I can get an A1. I look through the exam papers and I'm sure I can answer all the questions on the topics I studied. I think it's down to your own personal skills, I'm good at English and essay subjects so it suits me, but if your skills are in maths and etc you might want to think about it a bit more. Have a look at the syllabus and the exam papers over the Summer and see if you think you can do it. I found it similar to English but with more material to study. Either way, I think it could be worth your time to give it a go.

DepoProvera

One of the lowest A1 rates also, just FYI

Nescio

LC_sucks wrote: »

well classics is my absolute fave subject, but i have to say i would find absolutely impossible to do without the guidance of a teacher, so i would definitely not recommend doing it on your own!

absolute fair play to nescio though, you must be a genius!

Hardly, it wasn't a very clever thing to do after all I was just lucky with the exam questions. Thank er, Apollo, that Medea and Oedipus Rex came up - I think the Aristophanes play is "The Frogs"? I may be wrong. The only quotation I could recall from that play, was the little frog song "We are the musical frogs, we live in the marshes and bogs..."

OP, just a few quick things you should read to get an edge in the Classics exam. Dodds' "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex", Bertrand Russell's little spiel on Plato in "The History of Western Philosophy" (and the other pre/post-Socratic philosopher sections too, if you like), and Davidson's "The Greeks and Greek Love" for gossip on Alexander the Great - and the amusing conjecture that Plato's Phaedrus is set in a brothel :cool:

DepoProvera

Medea and Oedipus have to come up.. Unless you mean the questions were kind to you?

And AFAIK Arrian and Plutarch are the only texts to to be used for Alexander and they are dense enough to know well(especially Arrian's) without having a 3rd text.

Edit: Especially for Roman A & A you'd need some guidence. Wheeler's book is archaic and totally inaccessible to a student with horrible structure and layout to boot.

Dapics

I picked up economics at christmas.... it's a very nice subject if you have an interest in buisness... odds are your school dosen't do it, my school didn't but I found it very easy to learn at home.

I know nothing of classics but would definately recommend an extra subject as I dropped to ordinary german and irish and needed six honors so go for it man!

As for classics, I know nothing of the subject but am a bit of a bookworm and know alot about the topics within the course, mainly topics based on the roman/greco-roman empire and the hellenistic era..... but yeah man, do an extra subject if you think you can handle it!

TheStook

Anybody in here do Classical Studies? Is this possible? I know it's a lot of reading etc. but I'm very interested in the subject but i'm not sure if I could do it in a year..Any help is appreciated

Kelix

I did it in a year this year, exam on Friday and I'm very confident I can get an A. If you find it interesting and your good in English class then you can do it. If you don't find it interesting or are really bad at English, I'd stay away from it. There's a certain amount of opinion and interpretation in some of the answers, it's not all just answering with fact. It's definitely worth looking into.

QueenOfLeon

TheStook wrote: »

Anybody in here do Classical Studies? Is this possible? I know it's a lot of reading etc. but I'm very interested in the subject but i'm not sure if I could do it in a year..Any help is appreciated

Merged into a similar thread, you might find some answers in previous posts here!

TheStook

Kelix wrote: »

I did it in a year this year, exam on Friday and I'm very confident I can get an A. If you find it interesting and your good in English class then you can do it. If you don't find it interesting or are really bad at English, I'd stay away from it. There's a certain amount of opinion and interpretation in some of the answers, it's not all just answering with fact. It's definitely worth looking into.

Yeah that suits me perfectly tbh. Did you get grinds or self study as I'm planning on self studying and have no idea how that could turn out lol. Thanks for your answer..

bazinga_

Nescio wrote: »

Hardly, it wasn't a very clever thing to do after all I was just lucky with the exam questions. Thank er, Apollo, that Medea and Oedipus Rex came up - I think the Aristophanes play is "The Frogs"? I may be wrong. The only quotation I could recall from that play, was the little frog song "We are the musical frogs, we live in the marshes and bogs..."

OP, just a few quick things you should read to get an edge in the Classics exam. Dodds' "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex", Bertrand Russell's little spiel on Plato in "The History of Western Philosophy" (and the other pre/post-Socratic philosopher sections too, if you like), and Davidson's "The Greeks and Greek Love" for gossip on Alexander the Great - and the amusing conjecture that Plato's Phaedrus is set in a brothel :cool:

while it may be beneficial to read around the topics, i know for alexander at least you won't get any marks for any information not in arrian or plutarch