What subject are you most stressed about?

JBoyle4eva

Finding Business and Irish a drag at the minute, but I'm doing fine in all the other subjects.

But, what subject do you find most stressful?

PurpleFistMixer

Irish for me. They expect you to be amazingly fluent, and my grammar is just pathetic.

And by the way, you forgot History on your thing, which would be another concern of mine.

Buttmunchy

Maths and Irish. Well I'm in 2nd year now so my Junior Cert will be next year but I HATE Irish and Maths. And yeah they do expect that just because you live in Ireland mkae syou brilliant at Irish. I'm not good at Irish.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

JC 2K3

Why is it always Maths and Irish people find hard? If you have a short attention span then unfortunately it will be difficult but if you pay attention in class and ask questions when you need to you shouldn't have a problem. And don't give me that "Oh my God Irish/Maths is so pointless it's never going to help you in life and they expect you to be really good at it" bull****, you just haven't been paying attention over the last 10 years of studying it.

Oh and good luck with your JC

JBoyle4eva

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

And by the way, you forgot History on your thing, which would be another concern of mine.

Well, there's about 15-20 subkect in the Junior Cert course, but I couldn't fit them all in the poll.

PurpleFistMixer

Yes, but Technical Graphics got its own section? I'd have thought History is a fairly default subject choice... but perhaps outside all the schools that I happen to know people in, it's not as common as I thought?

PurpleFistMixer

JC 2K3 wrote:

Why is it always Maths and Irish people find hard?

I'll not comment on maths (find it fairly straightforward myself tbh), but Irish is hard becuase they expect you to be fluent enough in it to discuss poetry and literature, among other things. And to know far more grammar than anyone has realistically been taught unless they go to an all Irish school.

Rozabeez

I was stressed bout English, but when i sat the exam i was ok.

Fobia

Irish.

Maths and science are easy if you understand them...I don't have any plans to study for business, history, geography or CSPE (I'm dropping them next year, so what's the point?). As PurpleFistMixer said the standard in irish is much too high for us non-gáeilgeholics, so I'm trying for a B at best.

As for English, it's piss easy for jc

Fobia.

declan_lgs

Irish... crap teacher... the rest of the Irish classes in the year have all the grammer and verbs covered, but our teacher has hardley mentioned 'em (except try to make out how important they are, but he never teaches them to us... ever)... have the rest of yas done grammer and verbs in class?

English isn't exactly easy imo, but theres not too much to learn in it.. just learn the very little that ya need to know and ya can fly through it.. but if ya don't know it, won't be so easy, obviously

JC 2K3

Fobia wrote:

Irish.

Maths and science are easy if you understand them...I don't have any plans to study for business, history, geography or CSPE (I'm dropping them next year, so what's the point?). As PurpleFistMixer said the standard in irish is much too high for us non-gáeilgeholics, so I'm trying for a B at best.

As for English, it's piss easy for jc

Fobia.

The standard in Irish is not too high, you've been learning it for 10 years for Gods sake! And it's harder for us Gaeilgeoirí(there's no fada in Gaeilge btw) because a bunch of papers from the same school are sent to the same examiner and if you're in an all Irish school with a high standard of Irish the examiner's going to compare the papers and mark you based on comparision with other people of high standard. Yup, I got a B in Irish(as did a lot of good people who should have gotten As, and some who weren't as good got As - I got an A in my mocks! The teachers noticed this and have a theory that there were 2 examiners, a tough one and a more lenient one). I'm 90% certain I would have got an A if I had gotten it rechecked but I didn't bother seeing as I'm not that much of an elitest and what's one other A when you already have 5 As and 6 Bs :P

And English isn't as easy as you think, it's actually probably the hardest subject on the course, there's a lot to write in a relatively short amount of time....

JC 2K3

declan_lgs wrote:

Irish... crap teacher... the rest of the Irish classes in the year have all the grammer and verbs covered, but our teacher has hardley mentioned 'em (except try to make out how important they are, but he never teaches them to us... ever)... have the rest of yas done grammer and verbs in class?

Did you never learn verbs in primary school? Or even 1st or 2nd year? In 3rd year you should be studying the texts, not learning grammar, you should have picked up enough grammar by now, I'm sure you've done many grammar excercises in your lifetime.

declan_lgs

We did do the verbs in primary school but jeeze, I was always useless at 'em... And we've never done them (or other grammer stuff) in 1st/2nd year at all...

All we've done since 2nd year is study the texts, and I hardly understand any of 'em.
We've done a bit of that Draocht book and some other one, but haven't done feck all grammer/verbs/tenses in them.. I'm gonna try and get some of it done myself sometime...

I'm not the only one in the class that can't do this stuff btw. The rest of the Irish classes in the year have all this stuff done since 1st year (which would be much handier).

Fobia

JC 2K3 wrote:

The standard in Irish is not too high, you've been learning it for 10 years for Gods sake!

Nope, I moved over here from Scotland when I was 7 or 8, if I had moved here like 6 months later or something I wouldn't have to do irish...

JC 2k3 wrote:

And English isn't as easy as you think, it's actually probably the hardest subject on the course, there's a lot to write in a relatively short amount of time....

Maybe this is hard for someone who speaks irish in school etc, but I find most of the course easy, the only hard thing for me is the novel, but that's because I'm doing a simply horrible one, The Cay, written by an author I have no respect for and can't stand reading, Theodore Taylor.

I dunno, I don't think irish should be at the standard it's at, if it's going to be at such a high standard then it should be a choice after jc, most people I know who've sat the leaving cert didn't have irish in their top 6 subjects, so as long as they passed it so that they could enter college it didn't matter what they got......

Also, irish is taught very badly in schools imo, it should be just talking during primary school then grammar etc in secondary. That way the learning process would be similar to your mother tongue - you didn't learn english grammar when you were two years old, did you?


Then again I can't exactly change the system.

declan_lgs

Fobia wrote:

Also, irish is taught very badly in schools imo, it should be just talking during primary school then grammar etc in secondary.

I agree... (so long as we get good secondary school teachers heh)

PurpleFistMixer

I finished at least half an hour early for both my english exams... it's a lot of writing, but 2 and a half hours is also a lot of time.

And also, heh I did The Cay as a book report some time in second year. Isn't it a bit of a ... short book to be doing as a novel? I do recall hating it, though. Absolutely boring and the main character annoyed me no end.

Fobia

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

And also, heh I did The Cay as a book report some time in second year. Isn't it a bit of a ... short book to be doing as a novel? I do recall hating it, though. Absolutely boring and the main character annoyed me no end.

True, I think we do it because we arent streamed and maybe some of the lads couldn't handle a proper novel

I considered doing a different novel by myself (maybe "the blue nowhere", as it would fit in perfectly with most questions), but I wouldn't be able to get a hold of notes etc for it. It's annoying but it's only about 5 hours more of my life...

JC 2K3

Fobia wrote:

Nope, I moved over here from Scotland when I was 7 or 8, if I had moved here like 6 months later or something I wouldn't have to do irish...

Oh, well that's kinda different I suppose but still it's 7 years...

Fobia wrote:

Maybe this is hard for someone who speaks irish in school etc, but I find most of the course easy, the only hard thing for me is the novel, but that's because I'm doing a simply horrible one, The Cay, written by an author I have no respect for and can't stand reading, Theodore Taylor.

You might just be naturally good at English but trust me, I know a few people who thought English was easy and got like Cs or Ds in their JC. I got a B.

And speaking Irish in school makes no difference whatsoever to your English education, although I did have a **** teacher :P

Fobia wrote:

I dunno, I don't think irish should be at the standard it's at, if it's going to be at such a high standard then it should be a choice after jc, most people I know who've sat the leaving cert didn't have irish in their top 6 subjects, so as long as they passed it so that they could enter college it didn't matter what they got......

This is Ireland you know, I know I'll be attacked by cynical teenagers who hate Irish for saying this, but it's part of our culture and even if people don't excel in it at least they're picking up at least some Irish and keeping the language more alive.

Fobia wrote:

Also, irish is taught very badly in schools imo, it should be just talking during primary school then grammar etc in secondary. That way the learning process would be similar to your mother tongue - you didn't learn english grammar when you were two years old, did you?

I didn't learn grammar until about 4th class, but yeah it is badly taught a lot of the time I guess...

Fobia

JC 2K3 wrote:

This is Ireland you know, I know I'll be attacked by cynical teenagers who hate Irish for saying this, but it's part of our culture and even if people don't excel in it at least they're picking up at least some Irish and keeping the language more alive.

I agree with this, which is why I think it should be compulsary up until Junior Cert, but to have a subject which you hate and that barely anyone speaks here determining whether you can go to college or not is quite annoying to say the least

Victor

declan_lgs wrote:

And we've never done them (or other grammer stuff) in 1st/2nd year at all...

?

And we've never did them (or other grammer stuff) in 1st/2nd year at all...

Plunky

Victor wrote:

?

And we've never did them (or other grammer stuff) in 1st/2nd year at all...

grammAr

Victor

Plunky wrote:

grammAr

Nopes, u is thinkin o' speeling.

Rozabeez

JC 2K3 wrote:

And English isn't as easy as you think, it's actually probably the hardest subject on the course, there's a lot to write in a relatively short amount of time....

Thank you! I thought I was the only person finding English hard...

Fobia

Victor wrote:

?

And we've never did them (or other grammer stuff) in 1st/2nd year at all...

Actually, the original post was correct bar the spelling mistake in 'grammer', "We have never done them" makes more sense than "We have never did them", which is the correction you made Victor...sorry .

Of course, a much better way of putting it would be "And we never learnt verbs or any of the other grammar stuff in first/second year at all..."

Either I'm correct or I'm just made a right fool of myself ,

Fobia.

JBoyle4eva

Well, I personally find Englsih, CSPE and French the easiest subjects, while maths, Science, Geography and Technical Drawing are kinda ok, but I'm uselss at Irish, Business Studies(just the bookkeeping) and Metalwork.

I have to have my metalwork project comepleted by 8th April, and I'm doing is since 2nd November and barely 80% of the way. Irish is ok when it comes to the aural and reading, it's thw ritten I'm just crap at!

declan_lgs

JC 2K3 wrote:

This is Ireland you know, I know I'll be attacked by cynical teenagers who hate Irish for saying this, but it's part of our culture and even if people don't excel in it at least they're picking up at least some Irish and keeping the language more alive.

I do not hate the Irish language...
I'm just crap at it, that's all.

declan_lgs

Fobia wrote:

Of course, a much better way of putting it would be "And we never learnt verbs or any of the other grammar stuff in first/second year at all..."

You interpreted it correct, so I assume the rest would have too.
This is the internet, not an English exam (thankfully)

Crania

Science for me, i cant stand it, its so stupid, i hate all the experiments

I also find honours maths impossible and I'm seriously considering dropping down to pass

Victor

Fobia wrote:

Actually, the original post was correct bar the spelling mistake in 'grammer', "We have never done them" makes more sense than "We have never did them", which is the correction you made Victor...sorry .

My apologies. See what time I posted

Fobia

Heh, np, I just can't help myself when I see irony like that

Mysteryfish

Did you know that grammar is not on the irish course? Yes, it's not laid down as something the teachers have to go over at all or in depth. And I think a fair few people in my school would like to be able to speak irish fluently so not everyone hates irish. If you compare the way it's taught to the way other foreign languages are taught it's amazing how poorly structured and taught irish is. And lets face it, Irish SHOULD be taught like a foreign language because to most of my generation it IS a foreign language (particularly to Dubliners I think).

Someone said it earlier, there is a tendency in the system to just assume that because you're irish you know the words for this, that and the other. When the reality is, how can you know what you've never been taught?

The subjects I'm most worried about are English (I'm good at it I just hope i can write everything in the time), Irish (I happen not to be the best at our 'native' language- though i'm doing higher level), and also Maths paper 2 (Geometery is NOT my strong point).

Flashling

All of my teachers through my school life have assumed that my class had learned grammar and basic words from the teacher before us. I agree with Mysteryfish in that our basic knowledge of Irish shoudn't be taken for granted and that if they want a basic level of lingustic skill they have to teach it like any other languague in secondary school. (As you can see my spelling is terrible, looking forward to my english mock tomorrow! Yay!)

But as for people who want to learn Irish and people who don't, that is one of the side effects of streamed classes. You get most of the people who want to learn, and are good at the subject, mainly the latter, in one class, and the people who only do Irish to get into colledge in another class. I realise that that is a very genralised statment, but think of it objectivly.

All in all, Ireland is very lucky to have its own culture, and a big step to keeping it alive is to realise that. Irish as a laguague is a very important part of this culture, and one that is, for me, most apprieciated when you are in a forgiene country and are trying to keep something from the pesky natives.

Darn french exchange girls.

philologos

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

I'll not comment on maths (find it fairly straightforward myself tbh), but Irish is hard becuase they expect you to be fluent enough in it to discuss poetry and literature, among other things. And to know far more grammar than anyone has realistically been taught unless they go to an all Irish school.

thats why they have ordinary level. Im at the most worried about Maths and Science

JCB

Mysteryfish wrote:

Did you know that grammar is not on the irish course?

Sure :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Of course its on the course, over 70% the exam is writing and YES you must be able to write correctly which involves using the right grammar obviously. In the essay 70-80% of the marks are for the standard of Irish i.e. spelling, GRAMMAR, phrases etc. There is no specific qouestion on grammar, like in french but you MUST know it.

Mysteryfish

You misunderstood me JCB. OF COURSE grammar is on the course in the sense that you definetely need it for the exam and there is no way you could do the exam without grammar, BUT, grammar is not on the list of things the teachers have to go over with us (The teachers course, or the syllabus). They just assume we know it from before. But from before WHERE? In primary schools you're taught a scattered bit of grammar, but then you're told "you'll learn that in first year".

I am pretty certain of this. However if you are stubborn enough to prove me wrong, well then I'll be happy to know that it's just my teachers failing.

philologos

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Irish for me. They expect you to be amazingly fluent, and my grammar is just pathetic.

And by the way, you forgot History on your thing, which would be another concern of mine.

Thats why there is higher and pass levels :P
they expect most of the higher level to be good at irish
i feel i have done the worst so far in maths and business but i was most worried about music and science.