Subject Choice for 5th year!!

Orlaladuck

^ Agreed. I was pretty dead-set on it and I had to give up history for it - and I could've got an easy B in it, now I'm facing a D-C zone in chemistry. If you're not willing to give up one subject honestly shows you may not be as dedicated to it as you think. You're going to Need Biology. If anything, maybe do Ag Science as well - That'll give you a serious advantage in the large animal field. But you're going to need either bio or ag. either way - most people will be ploughing on while you're trying to figure out how one system in an animal works.
Do the work experience - make sure you watch Any operation they do and ask yourself - Would I be able to do this? That was my turning point. I can watch it no problem but hand me the scalpel and i couldn't do it to save my life - or the animals for that matter.
Also I'm sure you're not like me but if you think animals are adorable etc think again. They can be vicious as hell when you put them into a cage, you're going to have to do horrible things to them - putting animals to sleep for example. I love puppys and kittens but I could hardly stick a needle into a puppy let alone cut the poor thing open. I know I sound like I'm repeating myself but really I didn't realise what I wanted to do until I was halfway through 5th year and I was one of the earlier ones to figure this out.

aimerlans

i would advise you to do accounting if your worried about points.
accounting is very repetitive and once you get the hang of it,its easy.
its nothing to do with maths,calculator does all the work
i chose it over geography as there is practically no learning just practice,practice,practice..

thats just my experience though.

Tippgal93

Its not that "[Im] not willing to give up history for another science". I will be doing Chemistry as I need it. But after that I need subjects that I will "high" points in. I totally understand every subject needs a lot of study in order to get the A or B. But I am good at history (straight As so far and I know its a big step up for leaving) but as with the rest of the subjects I am willing to work really hard at them.!My heart is set on veterinary or medicine! The two may clash but I adore animals and I like being able to help people etc.

Orlaladuck

In most courses, it would be go for subjects that get you most points - in this case no. In Medicine it is CRUCIAL you know about the human body going in there. Biology is an easy subject, you can get an A or a B No bother at all. It's simply all learning. Just because it's not required through the paper work doesn't mean it's not essential.
Also you've got all the Stress of these courses. Medicine isn't the back up here, Veterinary is. You're going to have to sit the HPAT test first and as far as I can see not many people pass it and it's quite difficult. Secondly, when you do apply for medicine for every 5 points you get over 550 only counts as One point. So even if you do get 600 you're only going to actually get 575 points. Then the HPAT score.
My poor cousin decided to go this route after me telling her Not to, in October she completely broke down, realised it was a big mistake, changed subjects - she had the time to though. And you'll end up, like me, banging your head against a wall going 'why the hell did i do chemistry!'

Lawliet

Tippgal93 wrote: »

I will be doing Chemistry as I need it. But after that I need subjects that I will "high" points in.

You seriously do not want to be walking into these courses without biology, it would be a huge mistake. How can you realistically expect to do university level biology when all you have is Junior cert biology (which is very basic)? And remember most of the people on your course will have done biology, a small number will also be science graduates. Not doing biology now will put you at a huge disadvantage.

Also, biology is a very straight forward subject compared to chemistry, and an interesting one if you're into that sort of thing (which I presume you are if you're going for veterinary).

Biology really is a fantastic subject, it's my favourite. I wasn't even interested in medicine until I started biology. You should really ignore the long course aspect, because history's just as long, as are many other courses. If you really don't think you'll like biology you might want to re think your college plans.

All that aside, you're only in 4th year, you've plenty of time to decide your course. You might end up doing something completely different.