Leaving Cert

boy1234

Hi,I am currently a fourth year student and slightly uneasy at the thought of picking leaving cert subjects. I got 1A 8B 1C in the JC all at higher level.I am very ambitious and want to get as much points as possible in the leaving. I am very interested in a career in a science/medical&health proffesion.Does anybody have any suggestions as to good/bad subjects to do for leaving cert?Thanks in advance.

TSMGUY

boy1234 wrote: »

Hi,I am currently a fourth year student and slightly uneasy at the thought of picking leaving cert subjects. I got 1A 8B 1C in the JC all at higher level.I am very ambitious and want to get as much points as possible in the leaving. I am very interested in a career in a science/medical&health proffesion.Does anybody have any suggestions as to good/bad subjects to do for leaving cert?Thanks in advance.

The first thing I'd tell you to do is work on your spelling and grammar! I'm not trying to be a jerk but I can't tell you how many students I've seen who are brilliant at science and maths but struggle with honours English just because of trivial grammatical/spelling issues. Definitely invest time in your English, it's a really easy "A" compared to something like chemistry.
Next up I'd tell you to avoid chemistry, but if you're interested in being a doctor/scientist you might need to take it. Personally, I found it damn near impossible to hack. I recommend you take physics and bio, they're way easier than chem and applied maths.
DON'T DO ACCOUNTING, IT'S A NIGHTMARE.
Basically, I say you do physics, bio, economics, history or business and then all of the mandatory subjects. It's really stressful doing more than 2 science subjects alongside honours maths, but if you feel up to it, go for it. Good luck, mate!

cgill

TSMGUY wrote:

DON'T DO ACCOUNTING, IT'S A NIGHTMARE.

I couldn't disagree more with this, I find accounting one of my most manageable subjects. It's all a case of whether or not you have an interest in the subject but it's really not that bad. Choose subjects that you're strong at, have an interest in and will suit your college course/requirements. Good luck.

Conaaaa

I do biology chemistry and physics and find that chemistry is undoubtably the least time consuming subject i have. Very little learning but logical thinking is essential- can be abstract.
It depends on what subjects you like for juniour cert. Yes theyre different but more or less same concepts

hasdanta

I'd advise to definitely do Biology and French as I personally find them manageable provided you learn the notes very well. Chemistry is my favourite subject, but is a lot more difficult than Biology. A guy in my year who does all three sciences said that chemistry is definitely the most interesting on the sciences, but the hardest (honestly, I don't find it too difficult. I got a B in JC for Science and have been getting consistent As in Chemistry).

I advise not picking History. The RSR is handy to have however essays are marked harshly and you'll be under serious time constraints in the exam no matter how fast you can write! I wished I'd picked Economics over History.

shluachra

Some medical /dentistry / pharmacy courses may require leaving cert chemistry as an entry requirement so make sure you don't want to do these courses if you are not picking chemistry

Mr Rhode Island Red

Avoid Chemistry unless you need it for your course or you have a genuine interest in atoms, matter, chemicals etc.

Most of the people in my Chemistry class chose it because they thought it would be cooking meth W.W style, blowing stuff up, and brewing poitín.

It's more along the lines of mix 2 chemicals, note colour change, write up the experiment and write up an equation. There are some cool experiments (ie. flame tests etc.) but there's a large proportion of theoretical and often abstract concepts that have to be understood, rather than learnt off.

And if anyone tells you that there's only a biteen of maths in physics, they're lying. There's a lot. It's not too terribly difficult, but there's a lot of it. You really would have to like working with maths and numbers to like physics really (much the same with accounting I'd imagine)

Biology is an easy A if you put any sort of effort into it at all.

Boaty

Accounting is a bit of a nightmare, but it is very manageable due to the course being relatively short.

Business is somewhat easy if you are good at learning off stuff.

If your practical and creative, engineering is an easy A but its not available in every school.

Blue giant

I think you'll find everyone will give you different answers as to what subjects you should pick. Some people find accounting easy, others will say its impossible and the same for almost every subject I'd say. If you do want to do medicine,veterinary etc. it probably would be advisable to do chemistry because it's apparently the toughest science to pick up in college but not impossible either. Likewise it couldn't hurt to do 2 science subjects if that's the field of study you want to do. In the end though I'd say to just pick whatever subjects you enjoy and/or are good at and then go from there.

maevewiiinters

boy1234 wrote: »

Hi,I am currently a fourth year student and slightly uneasy at the thought of picking leaving cert subjects. I got 1A 8B 1C in the JC all at higher level.I am very ambitious and want to get as much points as possible in the leaving. I am very interested in a career in a science/medical&health proffesion.Does anybody have any suggestions as to good/bad subjects to do for leaving cert?Thanks in advance.

Hey,
I'm just going to tell you my experience of the leaving cert so far (I'm in 5th year):

HL CHEMISTRY - Very, very difficult. There is so much learning to do as well as difficult maths. There is a whole book of experiments alone and countless definitions to learn. I'm not really sciencey but I've heard that chemistry is the hardest of the main three sciences, however that's just what I've heard and is by no means fact. I must add that I find some of the maths-type questions in chemistry harder than LC higher level maths, but I did get an A in HL maths in the Junior Cert and a B in HL science. All that being said, I don't do especially well in Chemistry but some people in my class do as much as 20% better than me because science is their forte and not really mine.

HL HOME ECONOMICS - I would not advise taking up home economics for the Leaving Cert if you did not do it for the Junior Cert, because I didn't. I just had to pick it because two subjects I wanted to do clashed together on the timetable in my school. There is an enormous amount of information to be learned, possibly even more than Chemistry! The people who did Home Ec for the Junior Cert know some of this information already, but I knew none of it starting off. The Home Ec coursework project was the bane of my life at the start of the year, it took an unbelievable amount of time considering it is only worth 20% of the exam. I'm not sure how hard/easy it is if you did it for the Junior Cert , I just know how challenging it was picking it up for the Leaving Cert.

HL MUSIC - I would consider music to be a delightfully pleasant subject in comparison to my first two choices. I did it for the Junior Cert and a lot of it is the same sort of stuff for the Leaving Cert. Practical music is not challenging - if you have talent and are willing to work, you should be fine. The composition paper is a step up from the Junior Cert in some ways, but it's still a lot of the same stuff from the Junior Cert. Bach is not easy, but I have found so far that with Tchaikovsky if I work at it it's okay. Trad is alright too if you understand it (those are all I've done so far!). In comparison to Chemistry and Home Ec, music seems more feasable to learn for me as there isn't so many long lists to learn and having a good ear for music is half the battle.

HL FRENCH - French was definitely my favourite and best subject at JC level, and probably still is now. The thing I love about French is that you only have to be able to do one thing, and that's speak the language. Some written pieces can be challenging but their format can be learned and made much easier with practise. So yeah, Vive La France! However I know that a lot of my class are doing ordinary level and do find it hard, I just don't find it as hard as other subjects because I'm stronger at languages than science, for example.

HL CLASSICAL STUDIES - Along with seven higher level subjects during the week, I do classical studies every Saturday morning. Daunting, I know! The prospect of taking on an extra subject sounds scary and believe me it is no joke, but Classics is so interesting and it's a refreshing break from sciencey subjects for me. However, it has to be taken into account that classics is based mainly on myth and what some people call 'nonsense', so if you're a factual person, don't do it!

Hope this has helped, and good luck choosing your options! You got a good Junior Cert so you'll probably be okay. Just make sure you choose subjects that you enjoy and not only the ones that may be easier to get points in, you'll have a far more enjoyable Senior Cycle and probably get better results because of it!

jogd1234

Do 2 science subjects, physics is really interesting imo but only if you're doing HL maths. Bio supposedly easier than Chem, probably a good idea unless you're interested in chem. After that economics is interesting & easy, could be a good option. Applied maths also great if you're good at maths & it helps with physics, means you could then drop to pass English/Irish to take the pressure off. Bottom line is pick subjects you're interested in & don't do three sciences imo.

randylonghorn

Um, given that original post was April '16, I suspect he may have picked his subjects by now!

jeonahr

I was just wondering if you'd be able to give us feedback on what you chose and how it's going? I'm a TY student and have just chosen subjects as well however in my school we are allowed to change as long as the subjects are in the same block etc.