Should I do Leaving cert. Chemistry? Is it a really hard subject to do?

Helenm98

Hi everyone,
I'm so stressed, I have no idea what subjects to pick for leaving cert, I have biology and business in my mind. I would like to study food science in college so I'm think of chemistry but my friends says that its a hard subject and they think i shouldn't do it cuz i am not the kind of person who takes stuff in quick and understands everything , I'm a slow absorber but i really do have interest in chemistry cuz i enjoyed it in junior cert. what do you guys think? Should i give it a try/bet? Please help me!

kateconolly

Chemistry is a subject that depends on how good a teacher is at explaining stuff. Its a LOT more detailed than Junior Cert and I mean A LOT more detailed. I do think you would need to be quite a quick absorber in order to keep, however a bit of study every night on the topics you cover will also go a loooong way. I have friends who want to do food science in college doing chem and they love it! Its important to enjoy it, and absorb it.

kc90

Helenm98 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I'm so stressed, I have no idea what subjects to pick for leaving cert, I have biology and business in my mind. I would like to study food science in college so I'm think of chemistry but my friends says that its a hard subject and they think i shouldn't do it cuz i am not the kind of person who takes stuff in quick and understands everything , I'm a slow absorber but i really do have interest in chemistry cuz i enjoyed it in junior cert. what do you guys think? Should i give it a try/bet? Please help me!

At Leaving Cert level you don't really need to understand a lot of the content. Most exam questions have defined answers that you could basically rote learn. If you go over a few exam papers with the marking schemes and the syllabus, you'll see the same sort of answers over and over. It's a lot less content heavy than biology, and if your interested in it, you should be able to do well.
I don't think you should make your decision based on how difficult it is perceived. Having an interest in a subject is far more important and you'll most likely do better in the long run. Even so, you should be allowed change subjects if you decide it's not for you after a few weeks.

Helenm98

kateconolly wrote: »

Chemistry is a subject that depends on how good a teacher is at explaining stuff. Its a LOT more detailed than Junior Cert and I mean A LOT more detailed. I do think you would need to be quite a quick absorber in order to keep, however a bit of study every night on the topics you cover will also go a loooong way. I have friends who want to do food science in college doing chem and they love it! Its important to enjoy it, and absorb it.

Thank you so much, it helps thank you

Helenm98

kc90 wrote: »

At Leaving Cert level you don't really need to understand a lot of the content. Most exam questions have defined answers that you could basically rote learn. If you go over a few exam papers with the marking schemes and the syllabus, you'll see the same sort of answers over and over. It's a lot less content heavy than biology, and if your interested in it, you should be able to do well.
I don't think you should make your decision based on how difficult it is perceived. Having an interest in a subject is far more important and you'll most likely do better in the long run. Even so, you should be allowed change subjects if you decide it's not for you after a few weeks.

Thank you so much but what if the teacher doesn't explains things well enough , would hard work will do?

full_irish

Chemistry is one of those subjects that has to 'click', but once it does it all comes together.

For me it was the most difficult subject that I did for the LC but it isn't the one which I did worse in. I know that's a wishy-washy statement, if you have any specific questions - happy to help.

Helenm98

full_irish wrote: »

Chemistry is one of those subjects that has to 'click', but once it does it all comes together.

For me it was the most difficult subject that I did for the LC but it isn't the one which I did worse in. I know that's a wishy-washy statement, if you have any specific questions - happy to help.

Hi,
Thank you so much and I do understand what you mean but do you think hard work can get me an honour , as i mentioned before I'm not a quick absorber , i need to spend a lot of time on one thing and get them into my head and so I'm wondering how hard it is so i would like to know the summary of what is covered in LC chemistry?

Helenm98

Does anyone know any good website that has some notes on chemistry? Wanna take a look to get an idea what is taught and if I'm able for it.
Thanks Guys

sawdoubters

I would do it

full_irish

How did you fare at JC science?

_Redzer_

I didn't have the option of doing chemistry for the LC, I did biology. I'm in a science course now, so my recommendation for you, if you choose to do a science degree -which most likely will have some form of chemistry in it, is to do it.

It makes it infinitely easier if you have a strong base in chemistry from the leaving. Biology is very easy to learn and understand, there's just so much of it to learn, that's the only difficulty, but it's very manageable. Chemistry is quite abstract in comparison, IMO.

If you can do both chemistry and biology then do them, if you have to pick one, pick chemistry.

Helenm98

full_irish wrote: »

How did you fare at JC science?

I got a B in HL

kc90

Helenm98 wrote: »

Thank you so much but what if the teacher doesn't explains things well enough , would hard work will do?

I think someone mentioned already, understanding really helps with chemistry, it makes it a lot easier, you might feel a bit lost for a while, but then everything just clicks into place. Even if this doesn't happen, there's not a huge amount of material, and if you work hard, I think you should do fine.

Helenm98 wrote: »

Does anyone know any good website that has some notes on chemistry? Wanna take a look to get an idea what is taught and if I'm able for it.
Thanks Guys

Some notes here as a general outline but not the best:
http://www.skoool.ie/examcentre_senior.asp?id=2083

If you go here, you can look up exam papers, with marking schemes/answers, and also the full curriculum:
http://www.examinations.ie/


If you happen to be in a book shop, try to find rapid revision chemistry, if you do nothing else but read that book, you should have no problems passing the exams. Even if you could check with one of your science teachers, they might have a copy they could lend you for a few days?