Impulse Repeat

Feliciano

I have decided that I'm going to sit the Leaving Cert again in June. I did my Leaving Cert last year and my points were in the low 400s. I would like to do Business and Law, Actuarial and Financial Studies, or Economics and Finance in UCD next year so I'm aiming for 520 points at the absolute minimum. I'm currently working full-time which makes things a bit more tricky. You all probably think I'm crazy and that I'm wasting my time but I do love a challenge.

I'm going to be doing the following subjects:

Accounting - HL
Business - HL
Economics - HL [NEW]
Chemistry - HL [NEW]
Physics - HL
Maths - HL
French - OL [NEW]

I am looking forward to the challenge ahead. Obviously I'm going to have to put in a serious amount of work but I believe it's doable. I will update this thread on a regular basis.

Good luck.

thelad95

You are bat shít insane. If you want to repeat, you're better off waiting till 2016. How in the name of God are you going to do three new courses in two and a half months while also working full-time?

Come on, surely this is a wind up?

dazzadazza

I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Good luck.

Feliciano

thelad95 wrote: »

You are bat shít insane. If you want to repeat, you're better off waiting till 2016. How in the name of God are you going to do three new courses in two and a half months while also working full-time?

Come on, surely this is a wind up?

Why wait another year? Yes it is possible that it won't work out but what if it does? It's not the end of the world if it doesn't go to plan - I'll lose the repeat fees and a bit of my time. I can live with that.

dazzadazza wrote: »

I'm interested to see how this works out for you. Good luck.

Thank you.

endacl

Doable. If you're as strategic as fook and the right questions appear. Best of luck. Following with interest.

thelad95

There's some serious delusion on this thread. OP, at least you're somewhat realistic about your chances of getting the points you need. If you prove me wrong then great.

Endacl, I would not describe this as doable and it's worrying that some students think taking on three new subjects in two months with the intent of achieving 500+ points is 'doable'. OP, I'm not writing off your academic ability, I think what you're proposing is doable in a year but to pull this off would be nothing short of miraculous given the timeframe.

I Am_Not_Ice

Can I ask why you're doing seven subjects rather than six? It's not like you need the seventh for points calculation purposes. If I were you, I'd forget about French completely and concentrate on the other six.

Feliciano

I Am_Not_Ice wrote: »

Can I ask why you're doing seven subjects rather than six? It's not like you need the seventh for points calculation purposes. If I were you, I'd forget about French completely and concentrate on the other six.

I didn't do a third language last time and I need it to get into UCC/UCD.

randylonghorn

Feliciano wrote: »

It's not the end of the world if it doesn't go to plan - I'll lose the repeat fees and a bit of my time. I can live with that.
.

Well, if that's the way you're looking at it I guess you don't have much to lose, so fire away!

While I admire your cojones, though, I have to say that I think a decision to start work now aiming for 2016 would give you a much higher probability of hitting your goal.

spurious

I hope you have your application in.
If not, it will be pricey, with the repeat fee and the late fees.
External candidate application

ko3p

I'd say you could manage a decent grade in Economics with some good work, but to be honest Chemistry would be really difficult.
Best of luck though!

NOS3

I'm pretty sure for chemistry you have to do experiments and write them up afterwards and get it signed off by a teacher. Good luck anyways. :P Have a look into PLC's or level 7's which can lead to getting into those courses also.

fitzyg

NOS3 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure for chemistry you have to do experiments and write them up afterwards and get it signed off by a teacher. Good luck anyways. :P Have a look into PLC's or level 7's which can lead to getting into those courses also.

you have to have a teacher sign off saying youve done all the experiments, otherwise you either wont be allowed sit the exam or, if they find out after, your results are withheld.

EoghanIRL

Swap chemistry for biology. ! The lc biology course is very basic and doesn't go into detail on topics. Understanding wise it isn't very perplexing either. You need to play your subjects for points to maximize your potential to achieve your goal!

Feliciano

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Swap chemistry for biology. ! The lc biology course is very basic and doesn't go into detail on topics. Understanding wise it isn't very perplexing either. You need to play your subjects for points to maximize your potential to achieve your goal!

It seems to be a very long, content heavy course with a lot of learning required. I was considering but I don't know if it's feasible to cover the entire course in ten weeks?

QuiteHumerus

If you are looking for an A grade I think Biology would be too much work but if you just need a C or so it would be doable. If you don't mind me asking, how are you finding Chemistry? I honestly can't imagine how you are going to do this in 10 weeks when others have spent 2 years learning it but I wish you the best of luck!

Edit: Didn't see that you are working full-time as well! There's no harm in trying but I will be amazed if you pull this off.

Cheerios

I don't think this is a good idea... But if you're going to go ahead with it then I suggest picking something else other than chemistry. I am currently doing it and I find it hard enough as it is even with a teacher AND grinds. Also, as others have already pointed out, you need to have written up a total of 28 (I think) experiments and get it signed by a teacher. If you really want to do something sciency then I would go for biology instead. It's muuuuuuch easier than chemistry and the marking scheme is less "strict" compared to the chemistry marking scheme.

Anyways, if you really are going ahead with your plan then good luck!

dalta5billion

Chiming in on the Chemistry thing. 2 years, and I still don't really *get* Chemistry.

ronivek

Firstly I just want to say that as someone self studying two Leaving Certificate subjects and not working full-time; I feel like you're giving yourself an incredibly difficult task to try and achieve in the remaining time. You're risking burn-out, frustration, stress, and financial implications. You're also risking your performance in your current employment.

If you really want to achieve something towards your goal for this year I would suggest maybe picking one subject (I would recommend French or any other language) and tackling that one to the best of your ability. Even if you change your mind about the whole thing; French or any other language is a valuable thing to have. It's also the type of subject you can continue practising and improving in without necessarily having to dedicate the same type of effort to it: watching French movies, reading French books, joining French Skype learning sessions, posting on French discussion boards etc.

I'm currently doing Biology and Chemistry within a similar time-frame to you; but I'm already 1/4 of the way through the courses give or take. I'll briefly compare the two from my perspective:

Biology: Is more about learning facts and the structures of nature... there's very little in terms of complicated relationships or concepts to wrap your head around. As such this subject is more about your ability to rote learn and retain information... so if you have an eidetic memory this would be the best choice. There's also a DVD with all the experiments available for a few euros; it's handy to have and there is far less effort involved when compared to the Chemistry experiments.

Chemistry: Couples the learning of facts and structures along with complicated relationships and the application of rules and formulae. There are a lot of relatively straightforward experiments but there are subtle differences which could catch you out in an exam situation unless you've genuinely carried them out or spent a lot of time revising them. There are also a LOT of experiments to get through; far more than in Biology. There are videos available of all the experiments online from Folens; which again is useful. It's also riskier in a sense as some concepts may just be difficult to grasp; so the time taken for each topic is highly unlikely to be linear. In other words you may struggle with a really important topic for the exam such as organic chemistry; and that might make it a real struggle to complete in limited time.

LauraKc

Wow you have guts to attempt this especially with a full time job!

How are you planning on being ready for the French oral if you are only starting now?

I would recommend biology rather than chemistry too. The chemistry course is pretty much just as long as the biology course to do because it's a lot more difficult to get your head around. A lot of the biology course you might know from common knowledge too.

I certainly wish you luck!

Magnate

Feliciano wrote: »

I'm going to be doing the following subjects:

Accounting - HL
Business - HL
Economics - HL [NEW]
Chemistry - HL [NEW]
Physics - HL
Maths - HL
French - OL [NEW]

Right I'll try and be optimistic.

You've done accounting, business, physics and maths. Assuming you're mathematically inclined and you can scrape a B3, that should be around 400 points.

Then you've got 2 subjects left over, and need 60 points in each. I actually think this is somewhat doable. However, please swap chemistry for biology.

10 week is enough to get an A1 in biology, never mind a C2. I know, you all think I'm crazy but hear me out. The course can be condensed so much, do not go near a textbook. The marking scheme is your bible, especially in biology.

I would offer you my notes pdf notes but I think you'll need something a little more detailed just to understand some of the concepts, so pickup a revision book. Trust me when I say this, even revision books have too much waffle when it comes to biology. Also, get yourself a studyclix pro account.

Here's how it goes.

1. Read the full chapter in your revision book.
2. Make a test on studyclix consisting of every question ever asked on that topic.
3. Print the exam and the marking scheme
4. Attempt the exam under exam conditions.
5. Correct it yourself, paying attention to the marking scheme.

Rinse and repeat for every chapter.

Now here's the beautiful thing about biology:

Surplus Answers
In Section A, a surplus wrong answer cancels the marks awarded for a correct answer. In the other sections of the paper, there may be instances where a correct answer is nullified by the addition of an incorrect answer. This happens when the only acceptable answer is a specific word or
term. Each such instance is indicated in the scheme by an asterisk *.

This means that for the majority of the long questions, where you're asked to give an account, outline or describe, you can waffle to your heart's content and not get penalised for being wrong. I don't think it's the same in any other subject. It even applies to diagrams. Not sure of the difference between a transverse section and a cross section of a stem? Draw both! Can't remember if that diagram was of a stem or root? Draw every diagram of a plant that you can think of. The examiner has to mark the correct one.

But wait, it gets so much better!

You don't even have to understand and memorise complicated processes. It would help of course, but all they're really looking for is concise keywords. Students waste so much time writing paragraphs to explain something and then the examiner comes along and underlines 3 words at 3 marks each, for a total of 9.

I tried to find a better example but let's just take a look at question 10 from the 2014 paper. I've underlined the only 3 questions where you get penalised for incorrect surplus answers. Now you'll still need to know the right answers to get the marks, but unless they're looking for a single specific answer, you've got room to waffle.



But as you'll see, there's no need to waffle in the first place.



Let's take a look at this 12 marker, (b) part (iv)

Name and outline the procedure used for analysing the DNA samples that revealed the presence of horse meat in products labelled as beef.

Now look in any textbook or revision book and you'll find a huge paragraph complete with several diagrams trying to explain this. Compare this with the marking scheme and all you need to get full marks is:

Profiling. Cut with enzymes, analyse results.

Profiling = 3 marks
Cut = 3 marks
With enzymes = 3 marks
Analyse results = 3 marks

I could go on. You'll still need to know your stuff for the short questions and the experiment questions, but practise exam questions and you'll find they're all very repetitive.

You're getting 2 marks per word, there's no other subject as easy. Everyone says the biology course is one of the longest but if you follow the subject syllabus and the marking schemes, and be smart about it, it's one of the shortest by a mile.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Bazinga_N

Feliciano wrote: »

I have decided that I'm going to sit the Leaving Cert again in June. I did my Leaving Cert last year and my points were in the low 400s. I would like to do Business and Law, Actuarial and Financial Studies, or Economics and Finance in UCD next year so I'm aiming for 520 points at the absolute minimum. I'm currently working full-time which makes things a bit more tricky. You all probably think I'm crazy and that I'm wasting my time but I do love a challenge.

I'm going to be doing the following subjects:

Accounting - HL
Business - HL
Economics - HL [NEW]
Chemistry - HL [NEW]
Physics - HL
Maths - HL
French - OL [NEW]

I am looking forward to the challenge ahead. Obviously I'm going to have to put in a serious amount of work but I believe it's doable. I will update this thread on a regular basis.

Good luck.

Fair play for deciding what you want to do and I honestly wish you the best of luck with it! since 4 of your subjects are just repeats, and you just need to pass French and everyone says economics is very short and not overly difficult, I'd say you should be okay apart from chemistry.

Chemistry isn't a course you can rush. It requires a lot of understanding and some of the topics are quite abstract. Biology on the other hand requires little to no understanding, however it's far too long of a course to do in 10 weeks imo.

May I suggest Applied Maths instead? With higher level maths and higher level physics already done it shouldn't be too difficult for you to take up. It's a short course, you only have to do six questions and it's reasonably doable! There's a slight overlap with physics and obviously maths comes into play too. I feel it would be a much better option for you than chemistry.

Regardless of whatever you decide, best of luck with it and I really hope it works out for you!

spurious

Re Magnate's post, it's really not as simple as just flinging down keywords.
Please don't think it is.

Magnate

spurious wrote: »

Re Magnate's post, it's really not as simple as just flinging down keywords.
Please don't think it is.

Perhaps I've oversimplified it a bit.

My main points is that by following the subject syllabus exactly and doing exam papers religiously you can cover the course quite quickly.. Maybe that's just me, but I love biology.

spurious

Magnate wrote: »

Perhaps I've oversimplified it a bit.

My main points is that by following the subject syllabus exactly and doing exam papers religiously you can cover the course quite quickly.. Maybe that's just me, but I love biology.

I would agree too many candidates 'pad' their answers, perhaps in an effort to show what they know, when in fact they just need to answer the beeping question.

Feliciano

Thanks to everyone for all the responses and feedback. I have taken your advice on board and have opted to do Biology instead of Chemistry. Any tips on the best way to approach this as 42 chapters is a tad intimidating. I've seen that you can get a B3 by just learning the first two units and all of the experiments, so I guess that's where I should begin?

Also, I'm not sure why this thread was moved. I had intended for it to be a study log.

Magnate

Feliciano wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for all the responses and feedback. I have taken your advice on board and have opted to do Biology instead of Chemistry. Any tips on the best way to approach this as 42 chapters is a tad intimidating. I've seen that you can get a B3 by just learning the first two units and all of the experiments, so I guess that's where I should begin?

Also, I'm not sure why this thread was moved. I had intended for it to be a study log.

Again, studyclix and a revision book is the way to go. I'd recommend ReviseWise as your main "textbook" to use in order to first cover and understand the topics. Then something like essentials unfolded to quickly revise chapters.

In terms of what to cover,

Start with scientific method, bio molecules, and ecology. You're guaranteed 2 questions from section A and 1 from section C. Genetics is another guaranteed question so know that inside out. Then cover human reproduction, respiration and photosynthesis. These come up all the time. Cover the experiments as you do a chapter, it's easier than picking them randomly.

Just remember the key is to launch into those exam questions as soon as possible. It's really important to become familiar with the marking scheme. Also take a look at the subject syllabus here (scroll down to page 10) It outlines everything that they can ask you on all topics. I think ReviseWise shows you this too at the start of each chapter but I'm not sure.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by biology at times but when you see what they're limited to asking you and know the questions that come up it's not too bad. The subject syllabus is very specific in what can be asked. For example:

2.5.8 Evolution
Definition of "evolution". Theory of Natural
Selection. Evidence from any one source.

This is all you could really get asked:

1. Define evolution. (6m)
2. Name the two scientists associated with the theory of natural selection. (6m)
3. Name one observation that prompted its development. (3m)
4. Give an account of the theory of natural selection. (15m)
5. Name one source of evidence for evolution (3m)
6. Outline this source of evidence. (6m)

• Inheritable change within a population / in response to change in the environment (2x3m)
• Darwin & Wallace (2x3m)
• Variation in offspring (3m)
• Competition / survival / of the fittest / offspring survive/ traits passed on (5x3m)
• Embryology (3m)
• Different organisms / similar embryo (2x3m)

However as another user suggested, applied maths may suit you more considering you're already doing maths and physics at HL and there's an overlap. The course is very short, and if you'd consider maths or physics to be your stronger subjects then you should go for it.

irishlad12345

Theres a stigma about economics thats its an easy pass but ive been doing it since last year and still find it difficult couldnt imagine doing it in two months but if ya pass then fair play :P

spurious

irishlad12345 wrote: »

Theres a stigma about economics thats its an easy pass but ive been doing it since last year and still find it difficult couldnt imagine doing it in two months but if ya pass then fair play :P

Not sure the stats back up that opinion about Economics, but then, sure everyone was going to get an A in CSPE in the Junior.

OP, did you have to pay a huge fee to register, or had you applied long before this thread?
Looking at the information it seems to indicate late fees of 52 euro per subject.

Cheerios

Wait, I forgot to mention that you also have to have written up a total of 22 (something around that) experiments for biology and get it signed by a teacher.

Magnate

I think it's more important that you just know the experiments. The SEC can do spot checks on schools but they're not viewed otherwise and the schools are given notice. I doubt they'd check an external candidate. Maybe pick up this and you should be good to go.

thelad95

Did Biology for the LC and we never wrote up any experiments. I'm not saying you're not supposed to but it seems rare that schools actually get checked.

spurious

I'd think they'd be more likely to check an external as they know from school inspections etc. what's going on in schools.

Personally, I wouldn't take the chance. It's not like you don't learn something from doing the experiments anyway.

Feliciano

spurious wrote: »

OP, did you have to pay a huge fee to register, or had you applied long before this thread?
Looking at the information it seems to indicate late fees of 52 euro per subject.

Unfortunately I won't even be able to attempt this. I'd have to pay €690 by the end of the month and I don't think that's going to be possible.

I'm still going to do French so that I'll be able to go to UCC next year but I'm not sure if I'd be able to live with myself doing Commerce.

sReq | uTeK

Quick question and sort of hi jacking the OP's original post.

If I want to sit the LC how do I do it independently without going through one of the VEC/ETB colleges. Can I just sign up online and go to a test centre?

Sorry if the question is somewhat moronic.

spurious

There are a number of public centres in Dublin that you can use, though it will be very costly at this stage if you want to do it this year.
Information on the External Candidates page:
https://examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=ca&sc=ca

thelad95

Feliciano wrote: »

Unfortunately I won't even be able to attempt this. I'd have to pay €690 by the end of the month and I don't think that's going to be possible.

I'm still going to do French so that I'll be able to go to UCC next year but I'm not sure if I'd be able to live with myself doing Commerce.

You could do French and then go back in 2016 to do the rest?

Feliciano

thelad95 wrote: »

You could do French and then go back in 2016 to do the rest?

Ideally I would like to go college next year. I don't know if I'd be able to justify another year out.

thelad95

Feliciano wrote: »

Ideally I would like to go college next year. I don't know if I'd be able to justify another year out.

What age are you? I don't see what the big rush is to be honest. You'll see when you do make it to college that there will be people of all ages in 1st year, not just the 18-20 category some people think it is.