LEAVING CERT GEOGRAPHY 2014 ADVICE

gabsy

Hello everyone Im going into 6th year in September and will be sitting the 2014 LC. I have decided to take up Geography as an extra subject but I have to catch up on a lot of chapters during July and August. I guess I am just asking for advice , am I crazy to take it up now? I am a hardworking student and the subjects that I am studying are.....
English H
Maths H
French H
Music H
Biology H
Chemistry H
LCVP

Thanks

spurious

You have to do a project in Geography which has to be signed off on by a teacher. Will you be doing it in school or on your own?

gabsy

The geography teacher in our school is going to help me along through the year and yes I get to go on the trip and he will help me with the project but most of the work I will be doing myself he will just guide me through the course and correct my stuff which is great but I'm still having doubts am I putting too much pressure on myself I also don't do Irish so I have a free study period everyday sometimes even a double and I have decided to use that as a geography class. Thanks for your reply

After just sitting Geography I think you're crazy! The course is ridiculously long and the exam is so tight for time! If you were set on picking up an extra subject I would not recommend Geography.

Pai Mei

TBH I wouldn't recommend taking it up either. It's a tough enough course and the marking scheme is pretty tough also. It would be a difficult subject to take up in one year and then expect to get a good grade out of it also. You already have six higher subjects and LCVP so my advice would be to focus on those and maximise your ability so that you will do very well.

ray2012

Hey I was doing the same thing when I was going into 6th year last year, except I was thinking of keeping on economics. I ended up taking the subject up as I had an interest in it too. However I got little time to do any work for it as I had 7 other subjects, and 6 of them were HL. I ended up studying just the bare essentials in my week off before the LC. I didn't get to study much at all before that, cause I couldn't focus hugely on it with 7 other subjects. I'm not even lying when I say this but the first set of SQ's I did for economics, I did the day before the economics LC exam. :pac: You could say I wasn't prepared at all! I relied a lot on what was predicted to come up, and it paid off for the Long questions. I usually found the SQ's easy but this year I found them absolutely atrocious. I think I got them all wrong. Maybe if I had time to focus on more than the bare essentials I would have known them, but I didn't have the time.

Honestly, I look back now and think to myself "What did I keep it on?". If I had the choice again I'd put more study into some of my weaker HL subjects. It'd be better. I'm pretty sure I won't be counting economics after all the stress, panic and wasted time it cost me! If I had put work into other subjects instead of taking on a new one it would have been better, for me anyways.

However you mention that you'll have a teacher to help you out and correct homework or whatever, and also that you'll have free study periods.. I had none of those, I had to do it by myself. It's a toughie, but I'd say maybe put the work into your weaker HL subjects. It'll pay off in the long run I'm sure.

gabsy

Hi guys! Huge thanks for your opinions and replies ! As I said I'm not sure what to do and now that I think of it , it really is a long course but I do have a study period every single day. My teachers told me to go for it but I just don't know now .... Since LCVP only has a max of 70 points and its even hard to get the distinction that's why I wanted to pick something up. I don't want to rely just on my 6 incase something goes wrong on the day. I am hoping to do Medicine next year so my decisions are crucial now. I also have to focus on the HPAT .... Is geography not very predictable ? And it kind of is common sense with a few essays. I'm probably wrong ...

JDOC1996

Coming from a guy who was taking an 8th subject throughout 5th year (heading into 6th and also pursuing medicine), I wouldn't recommend it.
I took up economics, however I decided around April that it just wasnt worth it.
The extra subject cut into my time so much, that it just became a burden. I found that it was also hard to find the motivation to learn all of the material.
You're probably better off focusing on your other subjects, which you have the luxury of studying in a classroom.

Dropping No Eaves

I know someone who did Geo in a year and she had no issues.

Having said this, she was a repeat and only did 6 subjects not 8.

Pai Mei

If you're going for medicine then you're obviously a smart guy/girl and since your teachers are saying go for it then they obviously believe you have the ability.
I get that LCVP is only 70 points but if you put the work in you can achieve the distinction (even though it is hard to get :pac: ) plus you will have that subject finished before the LC starts so it does take some pressure off of you for the week of the LC.
Honestly Geog is slightly predictable but you can never take that chance of just predicting what would come up (trust me I did it this year and my LC was a mess :rolleyes: ). A lot of Geog is common sense but you still need to know the foundations of the course and if you're good at waffling then that helps too .
I went in with six higher subjects into the LC this year because I found seven was too much to handle but TBH if you're heading into a high points course like medicine then the back-up is good to have. It all depends on whether you think you can handle it with one year left (11 months to be precise :pac:).

STP50

Have you considered Ag Science ?
is there anyone who could support you with this as there are projects etc, but could work well with your biology & chemistry.

Otherwise Home economics - but this also has a project component and would need teacher support.

gabsy

They don't do ag science in my year as nobody wanted to do it so that wouldn't be an option. The geography teacher in my school is excellent and he would be helping me along the way but I'm still not sure since I'm doing all higher level subjects ! Home Ec was amongst my options and personally I love the subject but I wouldn't get much support from the teachers and I feel like the course cannot be covered in 11 months ! I think ill talk to my teachers again and see what they think. I have another month to study the basics so I should be fine and if it happens that I can't handle it , ill just drop it ! I'm not looking for an A1 , a high B will do just fine thanks for the replies ! Also does the project require a lot of time ?

Pai Mei

The project doesn't require a lot of time but make sure to put the effort in as it is worth 20%

catherinek12

i think you ll be grand, obviously your a smart lad/girl. I've a friend that picked it up in November of 6th yr after getting kicked out of the class at the start of 5th yr and she did fine. Bitta guidance with the project you ll be laughing, and distinctions aren't that hard come by for LCVP if you do everything to the marking scheme and requirements its not as bad a people are making out ,

parts of geography are so predictable but others are a complete guessing game. For example if you choose geoecology Biomes and Soil are the two sections both come up every year , you could easily read one and study the other. Again the whole subject is based on essays and if thats what suits you, you'll fly it. just get the revision book thats got a blue spine and a pic of Ireland on front, it will literaly become your bible for geography as funny as that sounds it has essays for every exam q ya want , also dont be afraid to use the internet for sample questions
these sites may be of some use

http://studynotes.ie/leaving-cert/geography/formation-of-a-waterfall-physical-geography-sample-answer/

http://lcgeography.preswex.ie/index.html

-bbc -gcse

-skoool.ie (kinda crap but has some info)

-edco or examit exam papers come with some sample answers too


also youtube and studyclix are just as good for bringing some understanding to the subject

just remember to condense your answers to a learnable size and not to much that you forget masses of info , i know i did that with geoecology and left me a page sort in an answer

hope this was some help to you. im not a teacher but a bitta guidance in the right direction can go along way

catherinek12

oh yeah you ve probly already took a look but check out some of the leaving cert forums on this and maybe facebook if there are any who knows might be of some use to you

gabsy

Thank you so so much for all the I formation and help I've decided to start tomorrow and see how I get on, and ill keep going with it and if I find it too difficult to manage ill just drop it but honestly thanks so much for your help )

damoPL

If your teacher is going to help you with the project next year and you had studied Geo for JC then you should have no problems. I'm going into 6th year now and I've been bored in my Geography class all year in 5th year due to how simple the course is. It's mainly extra info on top of what you would have learned in year 1 - 3.

The Red Lad

Anyone know can you repeat geography from home as external candidate if you pay a qualified teacher or examiner for grinds to sign off and supervise the project practical work would only take 5 or 6 grinds as the project itself does not take long to complete

oncex

damoPL wrote: »

If your teacher is going to help you with the project next year and you had studied Geo for JC then you should have no problems. I'm going into 6th year now and I've been bored in my Geography class all year in 5th year due to how simple the course is. It's mainly extra info on top of what you would have learned in year 1 - 3.

Really? I picked the subject up in 5th year and got the A2. I didn't think there was much overlap from Junior Cert?