Fifth year subject choices

nokia211

Here are the subjects I am studying
English
Irish
Maths
French
Physics
Geography
Lcvp
Biology

I am kind of nervous because I have two science subjects even though I like both of them. I'm just wondering could someone who has experience please kind of tell me what they thought of them and how they found each of the subjects particularly physics, geography and biology
Thanks and any help is appreciated

is mise spartacus

Biology- long course, not as easy as people expect but okay once you understand the basics
Geography- again long-ish. Lots of essays to be learned and diagrams, imo if you got on well in your JC you'll be grand for LC :pac:
I don't do physics so hopefully someone answers your q's on that

Frigating

Physics - not too bad. Can't judge length of the course (haven't finished) but if you're good at maths, you mainly just need to learn off definitions and experiments

Blue giant

I'm only doing geography. It's not too bad. It's much the same as JC just a little bit more in detail. You will be writing a good few essays but they're not too bad I find.

Troxck

Physics is a brilliant subject to have, saying that you do need to work at it. The paper is split into two section, A and B. Section A has 4 experiments and you must answer 3 of them. It's a great section really you should come out with 85%+ in that. Section B consists of long questions, 7 to choose from, do 5.

In 5th Year you'll cover Waves, Light and Sound (brings you to Christmas), then Heat, Mechanics and your teacher may touch on Electricity (only Static). Waves, Light and Sound are said to be the easiest sections (personally I didn't find them the easiest) but also the most boring. I found Mechanics the most interesting and the easiest so far, although our teacher left Circular Motion and Simple Harmonic Motion & Hooke's Law for 6th Year when we determine what level we'll sit.

You'll generally have the course done for the Mocks, leaving the rest of the year for revision.

JUST LEARN DEFINITIONS, LAWS, PRINCIPLES AND EXPERIMENTS!

Saying that, I worked hard and only came out with a C1 at Summer.

Jammysticks

I did physics, biology and geography for the leaving cert.

Biology:
Mostly rote-learning. It's a longer course than most people expect; my class hadn't finished it until two weeks before the leaving cert. The key to doing well is constant revision throughout the two years, in all areas of the subject. This obviously applies to all subjects, but is especially important for biology because there is an emphasis on memory rather than understanding. I found some parts of the course very interesting (human defence system, vascular and lymphatic system, kidneys), and others incredibly boring (pretty much anything to do with plants). It is quite possible to do very well in biology if you keep up to date with the study. Studying for it is easy, as there are no long essay answers; you are basically learning facts and regurgitating them in the exam. One tip: The exam this year was quite different than the ones in previous years. This was true for many other subjects too. This lack of predictability means that you should use notes and/or the textbook as well as past exam papers for studying. Primarily using exam papers for study doesn't work anymore (rightfully so, I think). You need to know the subject inside-out to get an A1. When you do use exam papers, though, do so in conjunction with marking schemes. There are certain 'key words' the examiners are looking for which aren't always obvious. "Why? Because larger surface area" is an answer for pretty much every question in the exam.

Geography:
It's generally perceived as an easy subject but this is not entirely true. It is easy in the sense that there are no concepts you have to 'grasp'. This however, does not take away from the fact that there is a lot of information to learn. The content of the course is easy, but there is a lot of it. The best way to study geography is to make your own notes, and practice writing essays. Lots of them. Important: You can't waffle. Your essays are graded according to how many SRP's (significant relevant points) they contain. For the standard 30 mark essay you need 15 SRP's. For this reason, you don't need to be particularly good at english to do well. If you can list off 15 relevant facts, connected by a few bridging sentences, you'll get the marks . The subject is split into three areas: Human, regional, and physical geography. Physical geography is the easiest, and it resembles the junior cert geography course. It's also the most interesting in my opinion. The other two are slightly more difficult, and quite a bit less interesting too. The project is worth 20% of the end grade, so take it seriously. There's no reason not to do well in it.

Physics:
This was by far my favourite subject. I was always into science, and it was great to finally be able to understand the basic reasons behind some of the phenomena I had read about when I was younger. Most people I talked to who did all three sciences said they found physics to be the hardest, as it involves more understanding than rote learning. I agree that it is harder than biology for this reason, but not chemistry (which, as I remember from 4th year, is pretty tough). I see two aspects to physics: 1- understanding how the system works (whether it's how a pendulum swings, or how light waves travel), and 2- applying maths to this understanding (every equation you need is in the tables book, you just need to know when to apply which). If you can get to the point where you intuitively understand what's going in on a situation, then you'll naturally know what equations you need to use to solve it. I'm bad at maths, but that had no effect on my ability in this subject. It's just + - x (can't make a divide sign, but you get the idea). So first of all, try to understand how the phenomenon/mechanical system you are studying works in a visual way, then move on to using equations to solve problems. Don't try both at the same time. It's confusing.
I hope I didn't make that sound too complicated, by the way--it's really not.
There are also experiments, which are with a lot of marks. They're easy enough to learn off. Just make sure you understand why different things are done, as questions are sometimes asked about that. You also need to know definitions, which crop up all over the exam paper.
They're easier to learn if you actually understand them, too. Always remember F=ma.

Hope this helps