LC Chemistry in a year?

Consonata

I didn't get enough points combined for Medicine so I will be repeating next year. One major thing that closed alot of doors for me was not having Chemistry. I intend on taking it on as an extra subject next year and dropping OL Irish since I already have the grade from this years LC.

Does anybody have any experience in taking Chemistry in a year. How did you do? do you have any tips on where to start the course etc. etc.

daraghwal

For medicine you have to do Irish again. Medicine is the only exception where you have to meet matriculation and cao points in the one sitting I think. I am pretty sure about this but not 100% so maybe someone can confirm

everesteduc

daraghwal wrote: »

For medicine you have to do Irish again. Medicine is the only exception where you have to meet matriculation and cao points in the one sitting I think. I am pretty sure about this but not 100% so maybe someone can confirm

AFAIK this is correct except for Trinity where a 'third language' can replace Irish. So if you dropped Irish, TCD is the only college you could apply for. AFAIK that was the case for 2016. Check for 2017 and double check everything I said

retweet

From what I read on boards, it's doable in a year! Will be doing it myself next year as well.

Jadmarpow

I did chemistry in a year and managed a C2 at higher level, took a lot of effort but its not impossible.

rainbowtrout

Consonata wrote: »

I didn't get enough points combined for Medicine so I will be repeating next year. One major thing that closed alot of doors for me was not having Chemistry. I intend on taking it on as an extra subject next year and dropping OL Irish since I already have the grade from this years LC.

Does anybody have any experience in taking Chemistry in a year. How did you do? do you have any tips on where to start the course etc. etc.

You have to meet all the subject matriculation requirements in one year so if you repeat you can't drop Irish. Medicine is the only course in the country that has this requirement.

If you are not using it for points (considering you were going to drop it) perhaps take it at OL to ease your workload, if you are taking up chemistry.

Samurai12

Chemistry is doable in a year just depends on how much work you are willing to put into the subject. I strongly suggest that you go to the maynooth Chemistry Experiment day. Especially if you are close enough to the school. It is a whole dayy out in Maynooth where you go through some pretty important experiments and in my experience anyway, it really helped me out a lot infully understanding those experiments. Especially in the areas that people find tough such as Organic Chemistry

Consonata

rainbowtrout wrote: »

You have to meet all the subject matriculation requirements in one year so if you repeat you can't drop Irish. Medicine is the only course in the country that has this requirement.

If you are not using it for points (considering you were going to drop it) perhaps take it at OL to ease your workload, if you are taking up chemistry.

everesteduc wrote: »

AFAIK this is correct except for Trinity where a 'third language' can replace Irish. So if you dropped Irish, TCD is the only college you could apply for. AFAIK that was the case for 2016. Check for 2017 and double check everything I said

daraghwal wrote: »

For medicine you have to do Irish again. Medicine is the only exception where you have to meet matriculation and cao points in the one sitting I think. I am pretty sure about this but not 100% so maybe someone can confirm

Yes, I'm beginning to see this now. Awkward speed bump. Means I have to go through sraithpictiurí again :rolleyes:

Samurai12 wrote: »

Chemistry is doable in a year just depends on how much work you are willing to put into the subject. I strongly suggest that you go to the maynooth Chemistry Experiment day. Especially if you are close enough to the school. It is a whole dayy out in Maynooth where you go through some pretty important experiments and in my experience anyway, it really helped me out a lot infully understanding those experiments. Especially in the areas that people find tough such as Organic Chemistry

I'll be taking a grinds teacher along side the teacher in school to make up for work missed. I'm just wondering is it doable to get a B2+ in it, when I have effectively missed a year of learning in it?

Icemancometh

Like you, I repeated for medicine. It was many years ago, and it seems the matriculation has changed, as I was able to drop languages. I picked up Chemistry in the year mostly to have it for college rather than for points (it ended up counting thanks to an absurdly perfect paper for me). It is pretty useful for medicine, particularly if you are going to a course without pre-med (is it required now?).

I think step one is checking out the matriculation requirements of all the medicine courses you're interested in and seeing what your options are.

daraghwal

Consonata wrote: »

Yes, I'm beginning to see this now. Awkward speed bump. Means I have to go through sraithpictiurí again :rolleyes:



I'll be taking a grinds teacher along side the teacher in school to make up for work missed. I'm just wondering is it doable to get a B2+ in it, when I have effectively missed a year of learning in it?

It completely depends on how much work you put into it yourself but it is probably possible although could affect your time with other subjects. Regarding Irish, you have already done the poems and stories etc. so that shouldn't really be a big time consumer. Good luck!

Samurai12

Consonata wrote: »

rainbowtrout wrote: »

You have to meet all the subject matriculation requirements in one year so if you repeat you can't drop Irish. Medicine is the only course in the country that has this requirement.

If you are not using it for points (considering you were going to drop it) perhaps take it at OL to ease your workload, if you are taking up chemistry.

everesteduc wrote: »

AFAIK this is correct except for Trinity where a 'third language' can replace Irish. So if you dropped Irish, TCD is the only college you could apply for. AFAIK that was the case for 2016. Check for 2017 and double check everything I said

daraghwal wrote: »

For medicine you have to do Irish again. Medicine is the only exception where you have to meet matriculation and cao points in the one sitting I think. I am pretty sure about this but not 100% so maybe someone can confirm

Yes, I'm beginning to see this now. Awkward speed bump. Means I have to go through sraithpictiur again :rolleyes:

Samurai12 wrote: »

Chemistry is doable in a year just depends on how much work you are willing to put into the subject. I strongly suggest that you go to the maynooth Chemistry Experiment day. Especially if you are close enough to the school. It is a whole dayy out in Maynooth where you go through some pretty important experiments and in my experience anyway, it really helped me out a lot infully understanding those experiments. Especially in the areas that people find tough such as Organic Chemistry

I'll be taking a grinds teacher along side the teacher in school to make up for work missed. I'm just wondering is it doable to get a B2+ in it, when I have effectively missed a year of learning in it?

The initial chapters of chemistry are pretty easily covered. I would advise taking time to learn off the little bits of information such as Famous chemists and what they did. As these chapters can help you to get little marks here and there in the exam. If you feel you will be stuck for time, I suggest studying enough chapters to cover the minimum amount of questions needed to be answered. But again its all up to you. The first few chapters are easily understandable and can be basically learnt off. But the last few big chapters, which are mostly covered in sixth year, really require you to properly understand the material so as to answer the questions properly.

rainbowtrout

Consonata wrote: »

I'll be taking a grinds teacher along side the teacher in school to make up for work missed. I'm just wondering is it doable to get a B2+ in it, when I have effectively missed a year of learning in it?

It is possible. I used to do Chemistry grinds and have taught the course in a year. Remember a teacher in a classroom is teaching 20 students and can only go so fast, while making sure that the whole class are able to keep up, has to check homework, perhaps spend more time on a concept that some students find difficult. You can go as fast as you are able.

If you were going for Medicine this year, I presume you got a pretty decent LC in the first place and you are able to apply yourself. Maybe put Irish on the back burner and do enough to pass it to keep your colleges options open, and get down to work on the Chemistry course straight away. Why wait a week or two to sort out a grinds teacher? Go and get a book today and make a start, and start working through exam papers as you go. When you have started the course, get your grinds teacher to go through the sections of the course that your class teacher would have done in fifth year so you are not overlapping sections and then missing other ones. I'd also echo attending the Maynooth Chemistry day. They usually fill up the places pretty fast (it's on the first two weeks of January) and they take reservations from the second or third week of September.

Consonata

rainbowtrout wrote: »

It is possible. I used to do Chemistry grinds and have taught the course in a year. Remember a teacher in a classroom is teaching 20 students and can only go so fast, while making sure that the whole class are able to keep up, has to check homework, perhaps spend more time on a concept that some students find difficult. You can go as fast as you are able.

If you were going for Medicine this year, I presume you got a pretty decent LC in the first place and you are able to apply yourself. Maybe put Irish on the back burner and do enough to pass it to keep your colleges options open, and get down to work on the Chemistry course straight away. Why wait a week or two to sort out a grinds teacher? Go and get a book today and make a start, and start working through exam papers as you go. When you have started the course, get your grinds teacher to go through the sections of the course that your class teacher would have done in fifth year so you are not overlapping sections and then missing other ones. I'd also echo attending the Maynooth Chemistry day. They usually fill up the places pretty fast (it's on the first two weeks of January) and they take reservations from the second or third week of September.

Thanks for this. Do you have any particular recommendations, or anyone else, on where to start in the course. just so I have a rough idea of the pathway I should take with it.

Samurai12

Better off to start from the beginning. The basics are not the biggest portion of the exam but they can get you little marks here and there. And also they are necessary for understanding the course. One part that most students tend to find hard are the organic chemistry chapters. They can be confusing for some, especially when you have to learn all the different families of organic compounds as well as their characteristics

Bazinga_N

Consonata wrote: »

Thanks for this. Do you have any particular recommendations, or anyone else, on where to start in the course. just so I have a rough idea of the pathway I should take with it.

Yeah I'd start with The Periodic Table, followed by all the Atomic Structure stuff. Then I'd do Trends, Radioactivity, Chemical Equations and Chemical Bonding. That'll cover you for Question 5 and bits of other questions too!

After that I'd do The Mole Concept, Stoichiometry and Properties of Gases. Very easy chapters once you get the hang of them.

Following this I'd go onto Acids & Bases, Oxidation-Reduction and the Volumetric Analysis of both. After this I'd take on the Water chapter.

Then I'd go for Rate of Reactions, Chemical Equilibrium, pH and Indicators.

I'd finish up with the Organic Chemistry then, which is probably the most tiring section of the course (at least in my opinion).

There's also the Option too (which is only two chapters) but lots of people leave it out, so I suppose it's up to you really.

rainbowtrout

Bazinga_N wrote: »

Yeah I'd start with The Periodic Table, followed by all the Atomic Structure stuff. Then I'd do Trends, Radioactivity, Chemical Equations and Chemical Bonding. That'll cover you for Question 5 and bits of other questions too!

After that I'd do The Mole Concept, Stoichiometry and Properties of Gases. Very easy chapters once you get the hang of them.

Following this I'd go onto Acids & Bases, Oxidation-Reduction and the Volumetric Analysis of both. After this I'd take on the Water chapter.

Then I'd go for Rate of Reactions, Chemical Equilibrium, pH and Indicators.

I'd finish up with the Organic Chemistry then, which is probably the most tiring section of the course (at least in my opinion).

There's also the Option too (which is only two chapters) but lots of people leave it out, so I suppose it's up to you really.

This pretty much covers what I was going to post. The atomic theory section has very little in the way of practical work in it, so it would be most practical for you at the moment if you are going to start into it. It's also done normally by most teachers at the start of 5th year, so if you are put into the LC class you will have missed all of this already. It's unlikely the teacher will go near it again until they start a bit of revision towards the end of the year so you'll have to do it yourself/in grinds.

daraghwal

Just if you're looking for a revision book I would recommend Folens Chemistry Live Revision book. The text book has a huge amount of unnecessary padding. From Christmas of 6th Year I stopped using the textbook and just used the revision book.

malnurtured

daraghwal wrote: »

Just if you're looking for a revision book I would recommend Folens Chemistry Live Revision book. The text book has a huge amount of unnecessary padding. From Christmas of 6th Year I stopped using the textbook and just used the revision book.

Haven't used the Chemistry live Revision book but if you're in the market for them I'd recommend the "Revise Wise" chemistry book. It was extremely useful.

Also, make sure you have the Chemistry Live textbook. The other one, 'Understanding Chemistry', was terrible. I used it for the first year and absolutely hated it, while using CL was a joy.