leaving cert subject choice help!!!!

Msrebeckyxo

So I'm wanting to take music woodwork and maybe business but the only thing is I've never done any of those subjects. I do guitar and piano so I'm not worried about music but would I really struggle with say woodwork?

emersyn

Honestly by taking subjects that you haven't done before you're putting yourself at a disadvantage before you even start. I have no idea about woodwork but if you didn't do business or music in the junior cert you would struggle to catch up unless you're very devoted. A large part of the music course is theory so although being able to play instruments definitely helps, you would still be quite a bit behind the students who did music at junior cert level. If you're determined to take the subjects and are in transition year at the moment I would start trying to catch up now to prevent unnecessary stress in 5th year. Make sure to talk to the teachers as well, I know that some teachers wouldn't be keen on accepting students who haven't done the subject at junior cert level. Unless you're really set on doing them I would recommend taking at least one subject that you've already studied, such as a science subject (which would hugely broaden your options for university courses).

spurious

By woodwork do you mean Construction Studies? It's a fair bit more than Woodwork. Did you do TD for the Junior? That might help.

Msrebeckyxo

spurious wrote: »

By woodwork do you mean Construction Studies? It's a fair bit more than Woodwork. Did you do TD for the Junior? That might help.

I have done TG for the junior, but I wasn't overly keen on it, I got an A in OL for the junior though!

Msrebeckyxo

emersyn wrote: »

Honestly by taking subjects that you haven't done before you're putting yourself at a disadvantage before you even start. I have no idea about woodwork but if you didn't do business or music in the junior cert you would struggle to catch up unless you're very devoted. A large part of the music course is theory so although being able to play instruments definitely helps, you would still be quite a bit behind the students who did music at junior cert level. If you're determined to take the subjects and are in transition year at the moment I would start trying to catch up now to prevent unnecessary stress in 5th year. Make sure to talk to the teachers as well, I know that some teachers wouldn't be keen on accepting students who haven't done the subject at junior cert level. Unless you're really set on doing them I would recommend taking at least one subject that you've already studied, such as a science subject (which would hugely broaden your options for university courses).

At the moment in learning music theory myself to help myself out. Like I could devote myself to the subjects, but in all fairness im probably thinking, if construction studies doesn't fit into my combination, then I might take biology or geography with either Economics or Business with music. Like my friends have told me that business is easy enough to catch up with if I tried really hard. Thanks for your reply!:)

Magnate

These questions seem to be popping up a lot recently so I'll paste both my previous replies.

In short, I took up business for leaving cert not having done it at junior cert and now it's my best subject. Construction is easy to do well in but hard to master.

Magnate wrote: »

I'd highly recommend business, especially if you're going to teach it to yourself. An A1 is definitely achievable. There's a knack to it alright, but once you get it down it's pretty much all waffle and common sense.

Basically depending on the question the examiner is looking for "Name, Explain, Example" for every point. You might have to give your opinion on something or advantages/disadvantages depending on how it's phrased. People lose marks when they waffle on with one point for pages.

Now if you look at a textbook, you're gonna see about 400 pages of pure waffle. It may help you to understand concepts whatnot by giving you more detailed information, but it's unlikely you'd need help in the first place. Get yourself a revision book and print off the syllabus. They're your bible for business.

What I find is that it's very easy to explain something but hard to come up with it in the first place. So when you're making notes just take down bullet points for each "name" part. There's no need to memorise the "explain" and "example" parts unless you really don't understand something. It's very easy to come up with explanations and examples on the day. That way you're avoiding information overload and the course becomes a lot more manageable. Also for the advantages/disadvantages they're very similar across the board. They almost always revolve around time/money/efficiency/productivity/morale/industrial relations.

If you really wanted to cut corners you could just study the units for your abq inside out and maybe one additional one but then you might be stuck for a short question or two. I'd recommend that you have a read of past exam papers for business to get more of a feel for it, likewise for chemistry. You'll get a better idea of the subjects.

Magnate wrote: »

Tech graph is a huge help as there's a compulsory drawing question and an optional one too.

The syllabus itself is very different from woodwork at junior cert level, so you'd have no problem picking up the theory.

There's a project worth 10% and a practical test worth 25% so that's potentially 35% requiring practical skills. I say potentially because you could do a theory project or make a model house, as opposed to making a furniture piece.

While it would be advantageous to have done woodwork it is by no means necessary.

A word of caution though, the A1 rate is 2%, the 3rd lowest of all subjects. While it's easy to get a B, if not an A2, the A1 requires a very balanced student. Usually people will find a weakness in either the practical, drawing or theory element and this may make it difficult to get the A1.

Msrebeckyxo

Magnate wrote: »

These questions seem to be popping up a lot recently so I'll paste both my previous replies.

In short, I took up business for leaving cert not having done it at junior cert and now it's my best subject. Construction is easy to do well in but hard to master.

Awh thank you! That's a really good help for me to try figure out what subjects I want to pick. We get subject talks in our school from each teacher so ill have a listen to those and definitely take your advice on board when deciding what I want to pick.