biology outside school?

tracker-man

hey everyone!
I am a 5th year student... I regret not choosing biology as a subject for my leaving cert in 2010 for medicine. I was thinking of taking it up now outside school, working at it during the summer.
To those of you who do it, is it alot of material to do in one year? Too much to cover with just weekly grinds? I'd love to hear your opinions guys!

morning-glory

Now I did my leaving cert 2 years ago, loved biology, but there was so much work to cover, I had weekly grinds in 6th year and I still only got a C. Just in my opinion it could be a little late, and the energy which you will pile into taking up this subject could be put to better use at working on your existing subjects,

Fad

I'd say its very do-able.

One hitch, you need to do the experiments, and you need a teacher to sign off and say you did them should the DOE come knocking.

pathway33

if you are clever enough to do medicine you are clever enough to catch up over the summer with what the 5th years have done and aim to be ahead of them by september to reduce your overload.

On biology, I hate to keep harping on about this as i have in other threads but how you gonna get the experiments written up for the inspection that will probably never happen

i say go for it

pathway33

snap fad

leesmom

if your willing to start at it over the summer maybe an hour in the evenings you could do it, get revisewise , its pretty good and remember to learn the 22 experiments well as they are worth 15% of the exam, and not at all difficult but i would say grinds are essential, it helps so much when somebody goes through the stuff with you,i loooovvee biology so in my opinion its well worth it and you have plenty of time, good luck:)

Ventura

I was in the same position as yourself not too long ago. Going for med and had to do biology without a teacher. Started the course in October of sixth year. There are plenty of people out there every year who have to tackle an extra subject by themselves. The major thing I found is you have to be disciplined and continually work at it.
Again everyones different so grinds may or may not suit you. I found using the textbook worked for me.

tracker-man

Thanks for the replies guys,
I have a cousin who teaches Biology (lucky enough) so I was planning to get grinds with her to do the course, although I haven't asked her yet :P It would make it a little cheaper at least and hopefully she could do a grind twice a week.
With regard to the experiments, I will have to know them I understand, but I don't think writing them up has anything to do with the LC marks or anything. I remember there was a percentage for an experiments copy in junior cert but for LC I don't think so.

marblesolutions

Teachers do not have to sign off Leaving cert Biology practicals.

Fad

marblesolutions wrote: »

Teachers do not have to sign off Leaving cert Biology practicals.

No, they dont, but if you get an inspector, and you dont have a teacher to sign off, you dont get a grade, the experiments are compulsory for a reason.

cautioner

If you find it interesting, it'll be easy to study. I read almost all of the book in 5th year while we were spending weeks on one chapter in class. Have a look at the book, and if you like what you see, go for it :pac:

Dubs

well doable... started it on my own outside school at about Halloween and finished it by new years so just revising now. Dont worry about the experiments being signed off, nobody knows your doing it so nobody knows you havent got them done... but do learn them well!
its going to hurt your other subjects a bit at the start but you can do it. Good luck!

pathway33

Dubs wrote: »

nobody knows your doing it

You're going to have a hard time finding your seat on the day of the biology exam.

Dubs

pathway33 wrote: »

You're going to have a hard time finding your seat on the day of the biology exam.

well your seats are just arranged in order of exam numbers, so just go in and sit down like all of your other exams. I cant see how thats going to be a problem

pathway33

Dubs wrote: »

well your seats are just arranged in order of exam numbers, so just go in and sit down like all of your other exams. I cant see how thats going to be a problem

if nobody knows OP is doing the biology exam that implies the OP has not registered to do it and therefore he will have no seat and you can't just pull up a seat on the day of the exam. For anybody doing extra subjects on their own check and recheck you are registered to do it :eek:

cautioner

Dunno how it works in other schools, but here we just got a sheet one day a couple of months ago and wrote down all our subjects and levels.

iamnotcrazy

what do you do in biology do you have to cut open frogs

straight_As

iamnotcrazy wrote: »

what do you do in biology do you have to cut open frogs

lol

Nope, we dissected a rat instead. It's not an official experiment, but fun nonetheless.

Fad

iamnotcrazy wrote: »

what do you do in biology do you have to cut open frogs

You dissect a heart, not a frog or anything else.

994

Fad wrote: »

You dissect a heart, not a frog or anything else.

And a plant stem!

OP, I did physics just in 6th year and got an A1, but it's a much shorter course.

Fad

994 wrote: »

And a plant stem!

I think he/she was more worried about having to poke around a dead animal.

SarcasticFairy

Some people in my class dissected a rat, but it's not on the course or anything. I wouldn't be going next nor near a rat, even if it is dead. I didn't even do the heart actually. I spent that class dancing around the back of the room with a girl who was absolutely petrified at the thoughts of dissecting the heart. That was grand because I was never really all that enamoured with the idea of poking around a sheep's heart in the first place. Point is, they won't make you do it if you don't want to.

tracker-man

thanks for all the replies! I've decided to just stick with the subjects i have at the moment for the lc, there is enough work in them without taking on biology too! In any case, i don't need it as a requirement.