5th year subject choice

orlaxxx

hi all, currently in Transition Year and unsure what subjects to pick for leaving cert. As for career I am between primary teaching and accountancy!! I have picked three of my subjects; French, Accounting and Ag Science, unsure what i should do for my fourth ! between Biology,Geography and Business!
Would Geography be useful for primary teaching?

richardh330

Don't be fooled by geography! It's a really nice subject for junior cert but for leaving cert it's completely different. Unless you like writing tons of essays and learning off is for you, I would very much un-advise this subject.

As for biology and business I do neither but I know both of these subjects are very rote learning based. Business is a very subjective subject and it can be hard to get an A1. Biology is the most popular of the sciences for leaving because it seemed easier for junior cert. Never be fooled by this and try not to compare the difficulty of subjects between leaving and junior. Biology has one of the longest courses for leaving along side history and it is quite a difficult subject. Pick the subjects you are both interested in and can achieve high points.

I do accounting (slightly boring but great and handy subject at the same time), physics (very practical and understandable), music (very short course but the exam is a prick!)

Best of luck

richardh330

Just an extra note about your reason for picking geography. Your subject choice for the leaving (excluding HL Irish) will not effect your standard of primary school teaching, especially if you did geo or not. For leaving you learn about developments of cities and regions, migration, rocks, soil, formation of land, rivers and lakes etc etc. Primary school geography is names of countries capitals and rivers and mountains of Ireland. Overall I see no advantage of leaving cert geo for primary teaching, plus you will learn everything necessary in college. Focus on maximising your points first!

Mr Pseudonym

richardh330 wrote: »

Don't be fooled by geography! It's a really nice subject for junior cert but for leaving cert it's completely different. Unless you like writing tons of essays and learning off is for you, I would very much un-advise this subject.

As for biology and business I do neither but I know both of these subjects are very rote learning based. Business is a very subjective subject and it can be hard to get an A1. Biology is the most popular of the sciences for leaving because it seemed easier for junior cert. Never be fooled by this and try not to compare the difficulty of subjects between leaving and junior. Biology has one of the longest courses for leaving along side history and it is quite a difficult subject. Pick the subjects you are both interested in and can achieve high points.

I do accounting (slightly boring but great and handy subject at the same time), physics (very practical and understandable), music (very short course but the exam is a prick!)

Best of luck

I disagree with most of what was said about Geog and Bio. If I had to coach someone to a an A1 in any LC subject, I would probably chose Geog.

The "essays" required in Geog are quite different from conventional ones. There is no "Coherence" mark, so the corrector literally ticks every time you've made a relevant point and then counts the ticks. The content itself is utterly unchallenging. The paper is predictable and the first section of short-q's is only marginally more advanced than for JC. There's also a Field Study which is submitted prior to the exam, and which is worth 20%.

Biology is the most popular non-core subject, yet still has a remarkably high A-rate of ~16%. It's long, but I don't know anyone who found it difficult. As simple as this: if you put in sufficient work, you will get an A.

shedu

If you pick geog and ag sci, you'll be doing 2 big projects this time 2 years. Projects are good for picking up marks but time consuming. But if you enjoy projects then that's cool.

orlaxxx

thanks all! deciding to do business as i absolutely adored the subject for Junior Cert and found geography a bit of a bore!

Emlie

If you want to pick a science and you're not really good at them (like myself) then I'd recommend biology. Personally I liked physics the best for the junior cert but it wasn't my best! Obviously pick the one you like more if you care less about the points (but you're probably looking for the best possible results if you trying for primary teaching)

Without question biology is a very manageable subject. If you hate science, you can definitely get a B. Not saying you hate it ofcourse, you might actually love it for all i know! But anyways biology is really just a subject that requires consistent learning (stuff you learn early on is very important because its constantly referred back to in later chapters.) With all the learning and written work, homework can be excessive but its really just the case of what you put in is what you put out. If you put a 75% effort in you will get 75%. If you put 0% effort in you get 0%.

Finally, a lot of people in my class (not trying to be offensive) would not be the brightest bunch, however, they absolutely excel in biology! Like I said, I was never ever a science girl but some chapters in biology are quite interesting, and when they're interesting, you listen in class and then you understand and perform well. At the same time, I think some chapters are horrible and boring but that's the same with any subject really. You're not going to like every little bit.

Note: This is my overall opinion, and my teacher is great and gives us very good notes. This might not apply to you but a lot of people would agree with biology being very manageable. Not everyone will get A's but you can most definitely get a B.

Sorry for the long answer!:p I don't do geo or business. Probably geography is the most useful because you do (well from my primary days, don't know whats changed) absolute nothing in science or business. Though I wouldn't be choosing any of those subjects on a basis for whats most relevant to primary school teaching. If anything music would probably be most relevant after maths, irish, english but you're obviously not considering that so that doesn't matter.

If you are still very unsure, just go for the one you enjoy the best. It can be really hard to choose, I know, but picking your favourite means you'll work at it and hopefully get a good mark.

* For biology being too long - There is a lot of chapters but you will get through them quick enough and there should be plenty of time for revision in 6th yr. (thats what I hear.) And just another reason why I have grown to enjoy biology is all the information is given to you and you just have to learn it. I do Art and while I love it, its great to have a break from all the essays. In that way, Bio and Art balance for me very well.