Leaving cert subjects

Mandf

Hi I am currently in third year and have to choose my subjects for leaving cert.At the moment I am going to do English (h) irish (h) maths (o) french (h) and geography (h).However I could drop down to pass in French and English.

I am thinking of doing:
Business
Accounting
History
Physics
Biology
Economics

I can pick three of these subjects as I am going to do an extra subject to do.Which is the best of these options to do outside of school?

Economics is not offered in my school so I could do it as an extra subject.All aspects of business interest me however I prefer accounting.But I'm a bit concerned about the length and difficulty of the course.Although I'm good at learning off stuff which would make me suited to business.

History is one of my best and favourite subjects however I'm concerned about the length of the course and time pressure in the exam as I'm a slow writer.

I like Biology and physics however I much prefer physics.But I'm a bit worried about the maths parts of physics because at the moment I'm doing junior cert pass maths and I fear the maths would be too hard for me.However as I mentioned above I am good at learning off things which would make me suited to Biology.

I am currently at an A level in junior cert business studies science and history.I'm very stuck as to what subjects I should do and I would really appreciate any help.

Mr Rhode Island Red

If you can learn stuff off, and you're willing to put in even a moderate amount of effort, then you'll have no problems with Biology. There's 42 chapters in the course but only 5 or 6 could be classed as "tricky" like photosynthesis, respiration, genetics etc.

As for Physics, I hear many people say that you don't have to be good at maths to be good at physics, which is true, but it does help quite a bit. The maths itself isn't tricky as such, it doesn't go past manipulating formulae and maybe an odd quadratic equation, most of it is just plugging numbers into formulas. I find the trickiest part is knowing what formula to use, and when.

However, my physics teacher told us last year that from his leaving cert physics class, anybody who did OL Maths, also ended up doing OL Physics in the end, anybody doing HL Maths, was doing HL Physics, so that's something to think about.

I can't really comment on the other subjects because I don't do them.

Mandf

Thank you for your reply.Apart from the maths in physics what other tricky sections are there ?Also if you know and are very interested in physics at junior cert is that an advantage for physics at leaving cert ?

carefulnowted

JC physics is very different (and way more boring!) than LC physics, but if you like the electricity sections of the junior cert course, leaving cert physics goes into that sort of thing in more depth, and so on.

As regards difficult parts of the course - it really depends. Some people have a lot of trouble with the mechanics (speed, simple harmonic motion, gravity etc) while others hate electricity. Personally I find that the parts of the course I find interesting are easier for me because I enjoy studying them and I can remember them better.

I'd agree with Mr RIR though, they say you don't have to be good at maths to do well in physics but in my experience, people doing HL maths have a much easier time in physics than those doing OL. Don't let that put you off though - if you make the effort with physics, it's very rewarding and is a very enjoyable subject (in my opinion).

newacc2015

My maths teachers in school ( a really good school) said ordinary maths level students should not do physics. You are competing against other students with better maths grades for those limited As and Bs

Mandf

Electricity is my best section in junior cert physics.Mechanisms isn't on the course thanks for your help

Mandf

My science teacher recommended not for me to do physics because I was in pass maths.Is having honours maths an advantage in chemistry ?

Bazinga_N

Mandf wrote: »

Hi I am currently in third year and have to choose my subjects for leaving cert.At the moment I am going to do English (h) irish (h) maths (o) french (h) and geography (h).However I could drop down to pass in French and English.

I am thinking of doing:
Business
Accounting
History
Physics
Biology
Economics

I can pick three of these subjects as I am going to do an extra subject to do.Which is the best of these options to do outside of school?

Economics is not offered in my school so I could do it as an extra subject.All aspects of business interest me however I prefer accounting.But I'm a bit concerned about the length and difficulty of the course.Although I'm good at learning off stuff which would make me suited to business.

History is one of my best and favourite subjects however I'm concerned about the length of the course and time pressure in the exam as I'm a slow writer.

I like Biology and physics however I much prefer physics.But I'm a bit worried about the maths parts of physics because at the moment I'm doing junior cert pass maths and I fear the maths would be too hard for me.However as I mentioned above I am good at learning off things which would make me suited to Biology.

I am currently at an A level in junior cert business studies science and history.I'm very stuck as to what subjects I should do and I would really appreciate any help.

Firstly if you decide to do it like this, you'll be doing 9 subjects which is way too much work (trust me I've been there). And just because you dropped to pass in English, Irish, Maths and French doesn't mean you don't have to work on them because they're actually the subjects you'll need to pass for matriculation. My advice would be to stick with Honours English anyways. It's really not that hard especially if you've got a good teacher. If you do honours english, Irish and geography then you only need 3 more to do 6 honours.

In terms of doing an extra subject outside school, pick Economics or Business. History has a project you need a teacher to sign off on and Physics and Biology both have practical aspects which you 'technically' have to have proof of doing in class. I imagine Accounting would be a lot easier with a teacher too. Business & Economics are literally just rote learning. Business seems like a long course at first but it's really not that bad. You'd easily cover it in 2 years. Economics is a very short course however.

With physics, plenty of people in my physics class had OL maths and it never really hindered them anywhere. Like really only the maths is always using formulas and that. Really not complicated at all.

Mandf

Thanks for your reply. Would business be an easier and shorter subject than history.I think I will do economics outside of school because it's a short course.

Is accounting a long course and is it a lot harder than junior cert accounting.

Finally apart from economics and music is there any good subject to do outside of school?

Bazinga_N

Mandf wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. Would business be an easier and shorter subject than history.I think I will do economics outside of school because it's a short course.

Is accounting a long course and is it a lot harder than junior cert accounting.

Finally apart from economics and music is there any good subject to do outside of school?

I don't really know about the length of business and history. It doesn't really matter how long the courses are if you do them in school, teachers will get them covered in time.

Tbh no subject is easy to do outside school. They all take a lot of work. Applied maths is another common one but that wouldn't be an easy one for you because you don't do honours maths.

Mandf

Thanks again for your reply.I was just wondering do u know much about leaving cert accounting?

spurious

newacc2015 wrote: »

My maths teachers in school ( a really good school) said ordinary maths level students should not do physics. You are competing against other students with better maths grades for those limited As and Bs

The As and Bs are not limited. People who get the marks for A and B get As and Bs.
Some 'really good school' teachers come out with awful crap.

OP, do subjects you enjoy. You will crucify yourself otherwise. Absolutely no need to do 9 subjects.

Mandf

Apart from economics and music what subjects are good to do outside of school?

spurious

I'm still not clear why you want to do so many subjects. It will only be to the detriment of subjects you have been doing all along.

I suppose in terms of needing less teacher support, if you are already doing Maths and Physics, then maybe Applied Maths would be a possibility, but again, why, especially if you're not the greatest at Maths?

Mandf

No I will be doing 8 subjects not 9.I'm just curious is there any subjects other than economics that can be done outside of school.I'm not sure what my best subjects are because I like all the options I listed in the original thread.

padraigmck

Mandf wrote: »

My science teacher recommended not for me to do physics because I was in pass maths.Is having honours maths an advantage in chemistry ?

The maths in chemistry is pretty basic, like dividing, multiplying, adding and subtracting, the hardest thing about the maths in chemistry is trying to figure out what info is the question giving you to find the answer IMO

LC Accounting is probably one of my favourite subjects for Leaving Cert, once you get your head around the layout and workings of the different questions it gets very repetitive, there's loads of choice in the paper and there's a few sections that come up every year

Mandf

Thanks or your reply.I was just wondering if being good at junior cert accounting is an advantage for leaving cert and does the trial balance appear in leaving cert accounting?

padraigmck

Mandf wrote: »

Thanks or your reply.I was just wondering if being good at junior cert accounting is an advantage for leaving cert and does the trial balance appear in leaving cert accounting?

I suppose being good at the JC accounts would be an advantage but you wouldn't have to be, like what I would say is that you have to like doing accounts, dju get me? When you say the trial balance are you talking about the Q1 on Business Paper 2?

Mandf

Ya I like doing accounts.Ya I am talking about junior cert paper 2 question 1.Also does budgeting appear in leaving cert accounting?

padraigmck

Mandf wrote: »

Ya I like doing accounts.Ya I am talking about junior cert paper 2 question 1.Also does budgeting appear in leaving cert accounting?

For leaving cert there's no ledger question like question 1 for JC. There is budgeting but the type of budgeting you would do at JC level. However final accounts come up every year in accounting

Mandf

Ya I like budgets and final accounts.Thanks for all your help.Is there any other guaranteed questions in accounting?

padraigmck

Mandf wrote: »

Ya I like budgets and final accounts.Thanks for all your help.Is there any other guaranteed questions in accounting?

There's always a ratio question