Big Problem Help!

samapp

Hi Im going into fifth year! I was doing HL maths and in forth year I had a very good teacher the best in the school. I could mostly do all the work over the year but it seems in tests everything falls to pieces. In christmas last year I got 58 and in summer 43! :eek: Im so annoyed. And I spent so much time on maths in 4th year. Anyway I am aiming for 540 points and Maths dragged me down I am considering going to pass so I can concentrate on the rest of my good subjects but I have a problem.

1. I feel as if I am ruling myself out of courses but cant find out if they need honours maths. I dont do any science and dont plan to go into that field at all. Is there a list of courses which require honours maths anywhere?

2. I feel as if I might be making a big mistake by dropping to pass when I feel I could handle honours if I put in 1000% but then again it will take too much time.

3. People are telling me to wait till 6th year but is there any point if Im just going to drop anyway? And quite honestly I dont want to waste my time with it when I could be putting the effort into my other subjects.

4. Will people look down upon someone who did pass maths but Im doing honours in all my other subjects.

5. Is pass really easier or is it just as hard and time consuming?

6. What would you do in my position?

Im doing 8 subjects if that helps so I will still have 7 honours subjects.

Please Help!

P.S. does accounting or finance or Law or commerce in college require HL maths and what about Computer science?

Any help is greatly appreciated

phasers

I was in your position, and in the end I dropped to pass maths. Higher level was just too time consuming to me. Saying this, you may be a harder worker than I was and may handle study better. I was the same, did great in class and found it easy to understand, but I just couldn't get the results I wanted.

Generally, only science/engineering courses require HL maths. If you are in any way interested in those areas I'd hang on in HL until you feel you've made a concrete decision.

(I dropped to pass the day of the exam and got a B, you have tons of time to decide!)


And yes, if you can handle HL stuff in class then OL is a breeze imo.

I'd say maybe give it until Christmas of fifth year and see how you go, you're not losing too much time and you'll be more sure of your decision then because you'll have had a proper experience of Higher maths.

QueenOfLeon

samapp wrote: »

1. I feel as if I am ruling myself out of courses but cant find out if they need honours maths. I dont do any science and dont plan to go into that field at all. Is there a list of courses which require honours maths anywhere?...

P.S. does accounting or finance or Law or commerce in college require HL maths and what about Computer science?

On qualifax you can find out how many courses need honours maths....just go here: http://www.qualifax.ie/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=77 put in HL maths and it shows how many definately require and may require it.

samapp wrote:

2. I feel as if I might be making a big mistake by dropping to pass when I feel I could handle honours if I put in 1000% but then again it will take too much time.

3. People are telling me to wait till 6th year but is there any point if Im just going to drop anyway? And quite honestly I dont want to waste my time with it when I could be putting the effort into my other subjects.

Have a look at this thread: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595700, loadsa advice there about whether or not to stick with honours

samapp wrote:

4. Will people look down upon someone who did pass maths but Im doing honours in all my other subjects.

Definately not......in any schools that i know, the majority of people do pass maths

arthistory

4. Will people look down upon someone who did pass maths but Im doing honours in all my other subjects.

No!!!

5. Is pass really easier or is it just as hard and time consuming?

It's really easy compared to honours. had friends who dropped from honours and couldn't believe how easy it was compared to honour!!

6. What would you do in my position?

8 honours is tough going but it really is up to you. I was in your position last year except I only did 7 subjects. Did all honours but it really was work. In 5th year I was the same as yourself in the Christmas tests and seriously considering dropping. (also had class teacher but i just couldn't do any better despite hard work) summer tests..i think i got a C. BUT in 6th year it somehow started making sense (a bit more anyway...our teacher was great craic which hellped!!!) got a C1 in the mocks but the week before the leaving i was so stressed about maths. felt like i couldn't do any of the past papers. really paniced and came soooooooo close to dropping. anyway I got a B2 and am so glad I didn't drop. That's my story but you have 8 honours...fair play to you...that's hard!! You don't want to overstress yourself either...at the end of the day, you can only count 6 subjects for points.

Chat to your teacher and see what she/he says. If you do decide to do honours i'd say do lots of practise with past papers and get the marking scheme off examinations.ie. Mathsbank is a great book for practise too.