Teaching myself Biology and Doing 3 Science?

ThisGuy_6781

Doing 4th year this year. Just finished my JC. Planning on studying (not heavy study) for the LC all throughout 4th year to get a Head Start. I want to teach myself Biology as I'm going to do Economics Physics and Chemistry in School. I'm good at all subjects except maths and Irish (Still did HL in those subjects for the JC though. Weren't impossible but they weren't easy either). That being said I hated pretty much every subject during the JC years except French,Science and Business and also English. Science and Business were my best subjects and I found the JC Science and Business exams easy. Is it risky doing 8 subjects, 3 Sciences and teaching myself biology?? Please reply

BrianBoru00

Well based on your post you do seem quite focused. Is there a reason your choosing economics instead of say accounting?
What is the benefit of studying an eighth subject?
If your studying all higher levels I'd recommend you aim to do your eighth subject and Maths for 4th year. Aim to get both or at least the 8th and Maths Paper I for example completed by the end of the year and that would take huge huge pressure off you in LC.

Risky? Its as risky as you make it . as above if you've two subjects pretty welll done by start of 5th year then it lessens the risk considerably.

Bazinga_N

ThisGuy_6781 wrote: »

Doing 4th year this year. Just finished my JC. Planning on studying (not heavy study) for the LC all throughout 4th year to get a Head Start. I want to teach myself Biology as I'm going to do Economics Physics and Chemistry in School. I'm good at all subjects except maths and Irish (Still did HL in those subjects for the JC though. Weren't impossible but they weren't easy either). That being said I hated pretty much every subject during the JC years except French,Science and Business and also English. Science and Business were my best subjects and I found the JC Science and Business exams easy. Is it risky doing 8 subjects, 3 Sciences and teaching myself biology?? Please reply

It's definitely not risky. I mean if you're not getting anywhere with Biology after 4th year you can always give up and it'll be no harm done. I did 3 sciences for my Leaving Cert and it's honestly not a bit harder than any other 3 subjects. Biology is definitely the easiest. It's only just a bit more in-depth to Junior Cert Biology.

Get yourself a copy of Biology Plus (or even a second hand copy of Leaving Cert Biology by Michael O'Callaghan - practically the same thing). Go through it and make notes for yourself on each chapter. Make sure to watch the videos on all the experiments too because you'll be expected to know the procedure in the exam. My advice would be to get Unit 1 done in 4th Year, maybe the stuff on Cell Structure, Diversity, Division and Transport too. That's probably the easiest section and it'll give you a good basis for getting the rest of the course done.

On top of this I'd highly recommend watching the Khan Academy Biology videos. They're not tailored exactly to the leaving cert course but they cover a lot of the stuff and they're done really well. You'll find lots of other free videos on Youtube as well.

These websites have fantastic stuff for Biology as well and will be of huge help to you:

http://www.mrcbiology.com/

http://www.leavingbio.net/

http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/leavingcertbiologyhome.html

http://www.leavingcertbiology.net/index.html

Honestly I think you'll be fine doing Biology. Feel free to ask any questions on here if you ever get stuck or feel free to PM me as well if you need help with anything Best of luck!

Inspector Coptoor

Bazinga_N wrote: »

It's definitely not risky. I mean if you're not getting anywhere with Biology after 4th year you can always give up and it'll be no harm done. I did 3 sciences for my Leaving Cert and it's honestly not a bit harder than any other 3 subjects. Biology is definitely the easiest. It's only just a bit more in-depth to Junior Cert Biology.

Get yourself a copy of Biology Plus (or even a second hand copy of Leaving Cert Biology by Michael O'Callaghan - practically the same thing). Go through it and make notes for yourself on each chapter. Make sure to watch the videos on all the experiments too because you'll be expected to know the procedure in the exam. My advice would be to get Unit 1 done in 4th Year, maybe the stuff on Cell Structure, Diversity, Division and Transport too. That's probably the easiest section and it'll give you a good basis for getting the rest of the course done.

On top of this I'd highly recommend watching the Khan Academy Biology videos. They're not tailored exactly to the leaving cert course but they cover a lot of the stuff and they're done really well. You'll find lots of other free videos on Youtube as well.

These websites have fantastic stuff for Biology as well and will be of huge help to you:

http://www.mrcbiology.com/

http://www.leavingbio.net/

http://www.thephysicsteacher.ie/leavingcertbiologyhome.html

http://www.leavingcertbiology.net/index.html

Honestly I think you'll be fine doing Biology. Feel free to ask any questions on here if you ever get stuck or feel free to PM me as well if you need help with anything Best of luck!

"A bit more in depth than JC"

Are you having a laugh?
Don't think I've ever heard such garbage.

Respiration, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, DNA replication, negative feedback loops....


Biology is a very long course.
You could do it well in three years for sure but the advice above is well off in relation to difficulty of the course.

Bazinga_N

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

"A bit more in depth than JC"

Are you having a laugh?
Don't think I've ever heard such garbage.

Respiration, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, DNA replication, negative feedback loops....


Biology is a very long course.
You could do it well in three years for sure but the advice above is well off in relation to difficulty of the course.

The JC course touches on most of those topics albeit very lightly. I meant it in the sense that it's not totally different from JC science in the way that Chemistry and Physics are.

Biology is quite a long course in comparison to say Economics or something, but I wouldn't say it's overly long. A TY student with a reduced workload would easily make a dent in it. It really is quite an accessible subject.

Mr Rhode Island Red

You could definitely teach yourself biology, most students end up doing so in the end anyway, regardless of whether they have a teacher or not.

daraghwal

If you are focused and work well on your own, I would recommend it. I did Biology as an 8th subject and dropped to OL Irish. It is a good subject to do on your own and there's not many other subjects you can do on your own as easily as Biology. Exam papers are your best friend when teaching yourself, as the textbooks do have a good bit of irrelevant information. One of the most important things is to plan what chapters you are going to do and when. One thing I do regret is putting Biology on the long finger when trying to complete other projects and prepare for orals etc. This resulted in me taking up too much time before the exams to do Biology, but that was down purely to my poor time management.

padraigmck

daraghwal wrote: »

One thing I do regret is putting Biology on the long finger when trying to complete other projects and prepare for orals etc. This resulted in me taking up too much time before the exams to do Biology, but that was down purely to my poor time management.

I did biology myself and had suffered the same problem! Time management is very important from the very start

hasdanta

Just enjoy TY. The head-start will do you no good in the long run.