Leaving cert economics/ag science books

omg123

Hi, im new to boards.ie but ive a few q's to ask

im probably going to be repeating my L.C next year and i'm thinking bout covering economics and ag science myself over the summer and in 6th year, next yr. Can anyone give pointers on either of these and what book/books to use, i.e books without loads of packing, and good for leaning on your own without a teacher. even though i think theres only one book for ag science:o

Also, how hard are these subjects? i dont think ag science would be too hard cos i did geo, bio and chem last year. also how hard is economics. would it be hard to get an A on a H.L paper in 1 and 1/4 years without a teacher?

thanks, any comments or suggestions would be great:)

Rozabeez

I found economics difficult, but mainly because I found it boring/sat beside a good friend and seldom paid attention in class. Its mostly learning off stuff, then the part C of the questions is usually applying what you've learned off to the current economy.

AdMMM

Regarding Economics, you only really need 4 things in order to secure a good result.

1) The Textbook
I actually already forget the name of our textbook but I'm pretty sure that it's the only Leaving Cert textbook available.

2) Exam Papers
By looking over past papers and doing questions on a continual basis, you will be able to familiarise yourself with the type of questions they ask. Also try do a full paper every once in a while as it will help you with time management which is critical in the economics exam.

3) Marking Schemes
These can be downloaded from http://www.examinations.ie . They are vital as they show you the types of answers that the examiners will be looking for. One thing to keep in mind is that just because your answer isn't in the marking scheme, doesn't mean it's incorrect - Economics is a vast subject and the marking schemes should only be used as a guideline rather than a bible.

4) Statistics on Economy
Up to date statistics on the economy are crucial in the Macroeconomics section of the sylabus. Make sure you are familiar with; The Rate of Interest, rate of inflation, National debt, the GDP, GNP etc before going into the exam. If you are a regular reader/listener of the news then you should have no problem with this. Otherwise you can find ample information at RTEs business section Here and clicking on "Economy at a glance".

Regarding how difficult the subject is, I found it to be relatively easy. I did however have a good teacher but I was also always curious of the economy and how it worked. You shouldn't find that you have to dedicate too much time to it, as long as you have a fundemental understanding of a few economical concepts then everything else will come easily as long as you exercise common sense.

If you have any other questions regarding the subject, you're free to contact me by PM.

Adam.

GretchenWieners

I repeated this year and I did Economics. I spent a lot of work on the course to do well in it. This involved doing about 1-2 hours EVERY NIGHT. I still found the exam quite difficult because of the fact there were a few shockers on the paper.
With Ag Science, I really wouldn't recommend it however you did Bio and Geog so you should be ok. The project takes up a lot of time especially when it comes to orals and other projects and you have little time to study for the exams then. If you can try and get it done before Christmas. The paper this year was very severe, a lot of people told me they think they failed it.
If you're going to repeat you really must focus throughout the year and really want to repeat your LC. However I think if you're planning to study now, fair dues.

Shane80

omg123 wrote:

Hi, im new to boards.ie but ive a few q's to ask

im probably going to be repeating my L.C next year and i'm thinking bout covering economics and ag science myself over the summer and in 6th year, next yr. Can anyone give pointers on either of these and what book/books to use, i.e books without loads of packing, and good for leaning on your own without a teacher. even though i think theres only one book for ag science:o

Also, how hard are these subjects? i dont think ag science would be too hard cos i did geo, bio and chem last year. also how hard is economics. would it be hard to get an A on a H.L paper in 1 and 1/4 years without a teacher?

thanks, any comments or suggestions would be great:)

Truly don’t do economics for a number of reasons

It takes two years and you can’t really take two days off with out loosing out on so much .. Sometimes it takes a few days before you can understand how to do things in it …. And you must like government and banking , how a business makes it profits and the laws of economics … very hard to get a A with one years study . Just do the subjects u did last year …. There maths in economics by the way and not normal maths,

Shane

regob

its hardly the most difficult maths

Seinas

i highly recommend ag.science... its a great subject:D

yeah there is only one book, the problem is that it hasnt been updated for almost 20 years, you could know that book inside and out and you still might not have a chance of getting an A1.. :rolleyes:

md99

it's a great subject, but learning it yourself over the summer/in sixth year WITH ag science.....:rolleyes:

easy in theory, not so easy in reality

it's NOT nearly all learning off stuff as previously posted... In recent years it's very much based on your own economic thought, which is good but not so good as you still have the same amount of theory to learn off, only now it's worth fewer marks......

seriously, if you want to do something by yourself, make it business, economics is no walk in the park by any means...

Is the aforementioned textbook 'Modern Economics' ? If so, avoid like the plague.......! We didn't use a textbook at all, although we bought one at the start. Our teacher is considering dropping the textbook completely (ie not asking the students to buy it) because it's so unfriendly and needlessly complicated...

AdMMM

Modern Economics is horribly outdated. It was modelled based on the 1990s and as a result many questions and sections that it covers in great detail no longer come up.

nedward

Ag Science is great, but get the project out of the way before Christmas