Leaving Cert. subject choice

Neodymium

0000879k wrote: »

I could say the same to jackobyte about science... ''Is three really necessary'' ??

And please don't give me that crap about my age, I'm 15 which may seem young but that doesn't mean I'm immature.

First of all, I never suggested for you to do three science subjects, If you read my post you would see that I said that you could swap one of your business subjects for a science subjects.

Secondly, nowhere did I mention that you were immature, I only mentioned that your viewpoints will change when you become older.

A famous quote from Muhammad Ali: "A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. " This is the same case, just your timeline is shorter.

And to be honest, your reaction seemed quite immature to me, I was only trying to give you some advice. :rolleyes:

0000879k

Neodymium wrote: »

First of all, I never suggested for you to do three science subjects, If you read my post you would see that I said that you could swap one of your business subjects for a science subjects.

Secondly, nowhere did I mention that you were immature, I only mentioned that your viewpoints will change when you become older.

A famous quote from Muhammad Ali: "A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. " This is the same case, just your timeline is shorter.

And to be honest, your reaction seemed quite immature to me, I was only trying to give you some advice. :rolleyes:

First of all, I wouldn't live my life by the words of a man with an IQ of 78. Secondly, the reason that may have 'seemed immature' to you is because I did not ask anyone's advice yet you gave me some... that I did not need.

cathalio11

0000879k wrote: »

First of all, I wouldn't live my life by the words of a man with an IQ of 78. Secondly, the reason that may have 'seemed immature' to you is because I did not ask anyone's advice yet you gave me some... that I did not need.

That was a pretty snobby comment.
That makes you more knowledgeable than anybody with a less IQ than you then?

Filled out my subject choice today. Was reluctant to do a Science subject instead of Business Studies but did so as I don't want to be extremely restricted.

English
Irish
Maths
French
Accounting
Economics
Physics
Applied Maths

Neodymium

0000879k wrote: »

First of all, I wouldn't live my life by the words of a man with an IQ of 78. Secondly, the reason that may have 'seemed immature' to you is because I did not ask anyone's advice yet you gave me some... that I did not need.

If you didn't want anyone's advice then why did you post your subject choices in a thread asking about leaving cert. subject choices. And even if you didn't want the advice, maybe someone else in a similar situation to yours could have found it useful, which still doesn't excuse the immaturity of your response.

And on your remark about Ali, yes he did have an iq of 78, but if you actually researched past the first google search which you made you would have learned that he took the iq test when he was 25 in a conscription centre for the vietnam war, a war which he did not agree with and he could have purposefully did badly on that test as not to be made join the military. He was even offered a position as a lecturer in poetry at Oxford. If you achieve even a portion of the things which he achieved, you would have lived a good life. Maybe do some research before you make ignorant comments.

Just another quote for you by Einstein: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Does he have a high enough iq for you?

Canard

cathalio11 wrote: »

That was a pretty snobby comment.
That makes you more knowledgeable than anybody with a less IQ than you then?

Filled out my subject choice today. Was reluctant to do a Science subject instead of Business Studies but did so as I don't want to be extremely restricted.

English
Irish
Maths
French
Accounting
Economics
Physics
Applied Maths

I might be wrong, but doesnt applied maths count as a science? even still, business is quite tedious and physics is a good idea for applied maths.

Midlife Crashes

I'm planning on doing law when I finish school, what subjects would you suggest studying.?

PictureFrame

cathalio11 wrote: »

That was a pretty snobby comment.
That makes you more knowledgeable than anybody with a less IQ than you then?

Filled out my subject choice today. Was reluctant to do a Science subject instead of Business Studies but did so as I don't want to be extremely restricted.

English
Irish
Maths
French
Accounting
Economics
Physics
Applied Maths

If you know for sure you don't want to do Science/Healthcare etc. why would not doing a Science subject restrict you? I don't do a Science Subject, nor Higher Level Maths for that matter. I do 2 business subjects, a language, Music and Geography. Best decision I ever made not doing Science, you'll regret it if you're sure you do Science and know you don't want to go down that route, it's way too much hassle!

cathalio11

PictureFrame wrote: »

If you know for sure you don't want to do Science/Healthcare etc. why would not doing a Science subject restrict you? I don't do a Science Subject, nor Higher Level Maths for that matter. I do 2 business subjects, a language, Music and Geography. Best decision I ever made not doing Science, you'll regret it if you're sure you do Science and know you don't want to go down that route, it's way too much hassle!

I exaggerated a tiny bit for advice purposes

I like the thought of learning about Physics and everything like that and I love Maths. My desire to do Physics and Business were basically equal so I went with Physics for a bit of variety. Complements Applied Maths very well too!

starlit

OP, I think it be wise to have a combination of choosing your options subjects that you like, score well in and be useful for a college course you want to do.

When I did the leaving cert a few years ago, I was probably lucky I chose my option subjects according to the ones I liked, good at, would score well in and would be useful in college. Which were Geography (liked, favourite subject, scored well in), Home Economics (did not like, one of my best subjects, scored well in) and Business (liked, subject was useful for my college course, did well in)

I did the LCVP meaning I had to choose modules either Home Ec and something, Either two science subjects or two Business subjects or one of each, art was an option with one of them I think was Home Ec. I went with Home Ec and Business. While I'd have liked to have done History and Geography as I had an interest in the two subjects. I could only do one of them due to me doing the LCVP but if I didn't do the LCVP I probably would have done the two but might have still have gone with the subjects I picked in the end.

For you I say I would go for these combination for option subjects:
Either Business or Accounting or both not sure what you could do with economics unless you really like it and good at it, I think Accounting be more useful than business but either one or two of them be fine
Either Biology or physics maybe applied maths or two of them, I don't think chemistry have much use really but depends if you want to go down the food science route
Either History or Geography or both if you really enjoy them, Geography is classed as a science subject I think and it be more useful for the course you be interested in though make sure you clarify with the course requirements that Geography is classed as a science subject for that course you want as requirements can vary from course to course. Not just cause I have done Geography for the leaving, I'd highly recommend doing it for the leaving as it be handy for your college course. If the course is very scientific go with more than more science course and either humanity or business course for your other subject. You can always change your mind at some point or do an extra subject in a grind school.

I don't know if having a foreign language make a difference for your course though and career path might be handy but I just go with one foreign language one of which you like, enjoy and good at or at least try your best in. Unless it a requirement to have for your course, you be best to do a language, I recommend French or at least a European Language anyway. Depends if your school makes students do a language for the leaving that be different, you must do a language other wise.

If you into maths do subjects in those areas, if into languages do subjects in those areas, if into science go with subjects in those areas if into business go with those subjects if into humanity subjects go with them. Especially if you really good at them!

So basically have
Business/Accounting/Economics
Biology/Physics/Applied Maths
History/Geography

I definitely recommend one science subject, one humanity subject and one business subject but its up to you really if you want a combination of two of them and one other one.


I think people make the mistake on focusing on what they score best in or best at mainly, or just go with subjects for the sake of a college course (unless its a requirement to have a science subject or two science subjects that would be understandable, different for a business course you don't necessary have to have one or two business subjects but be wise to have at least if not two but three might be a bit much as you might get sick of having three similar subjects).

I think the combination of all of subjects you like, good at and score well in and be handy for college, the combination of them is better you get to do a subject you like, do well in and be handy for your college course, great if you can pick at least two subjects that have combination of two or three of the things that might influence your decision.

No point doing a subject you'd hate or wouldn't be good at for the sake of having a science subject for your course or at least pick a science subject you like/good at/score in or could do your best in at least. Go with at least one subject you like, one subject you are good at and one subject be useful for your college course is probably the best way to go and make your choice of subjects easier for you.

Do a lot of research, ask students who have done the Leaving and who are doing or have done the course you wish to do best way to get informed and from your own experiences from school. What subjects you decide now could have or may not have a huge bearing on your career so think about that though the subjects you choose, choose for you as well as for your course and your future.

Best of luck with your decision OP

starlit

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

I'm planning on doing law when I finish school, what subjects would you suggest studying.?

I've a friend who studied law. I studied law as a module in college and I'd recommend History and Economics as possible subjects to go for but go for subjects you like and good at not just subjects handy for college unless certain subjects are a requirement. I say Accounting or Business might be handy subjects as well as there are some law courses that have a combination of law and accounting say. Depending what Law course you plan to do.

Jackobyte

cathalio11 wrote: »

I exaggerated a tiny bit for advice purposes

I like the thought of learning about Physics and everything like that and I love Maths. My desire to do Physics and Business were basically equal so I went with Physics for a bit of variety. Complements Applied Maths very well too!

If you had decided on Applied Maths already, Physics would be a no brainer. As my App. maths teacher says, with Physics, HL Maths and App. Maths, you get 3 subjects for the price of two. After applied maths, Physics linear motion, collision, (fill in relevant mechanics topic) questions seem like pass applied maths questions. It's such a huge advantage.

Togepi

0000879k wrote: »

First of all, I wouldn't live my life by the words of a man with an IQ of 78. Secondly, the reason that may have 'seemed immature' to you is because I did not ask anyone's advice yet you gave me some... that I did not need.

Wow, this is interesting. On my wall in my room I have some fantastic Muhammed Ali quotes, and right beside them, some Einstein quotes. Ali's are just as good, in fact I find them more inspirational and motivational than Einstein's. (Sorry for going a little off-topic, it's just that comment was fairly ignorant and rude so I thought if reply.)

And you did ask for advice, so as bad as your fist comment was, your second one was just a downright lie.

cathalio11

Jackobyte wrote: »

If you had decided on Applied Maths already, Physics would be a no brainer. As my App. maths teacher says, with Physics, HL Maths and App. Maths, you get 3 subjects for the price of two. After applied maths, Physics linear motion, collision, (fill in relevant mechanics topic) questions seem like pass applied maths questions. It's such a huge advantage.

Aye, read that from the forums here in the last few weeks so was delighted to be doing Physics and Applied Maths!

KirkCheated09

How are ya's lads.. bit of controversy here but I'm gonna ignore it anf be selfish for moment :P

Anyway I was thinking of doing French Business Geography and Accounting.. but my guidance counsellor said I may not get both business' as there may not be a class for both so I really need to put some thought into my number 5 spot.

I was looking for a handy enough subject as I know I want to do business as a career so I don't want to pick a subject for career path just for handiness.
If your reasonably intelligent and good maths, would Physics be good? BTW my science teacher is the Physics teacher and he's really good so no problems on that side of things.

Anyway.. back to the topic of quotes.. here's a relevant one;
''Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.''
Sir Isaac Newton.
*Interesting fact about Newton, he was not always smart, after being beaten up by a bully, he fought him and won, but was not satisfied so he decided to humiliate the bully academically also.

eyescreamcone

Any truth that Latin is the easiest subject in the Leaving Cert??
Someone told me that 1 in 3 get an A
Any truth in this?

Can you swop Latin for your European language??
Would you need to do it for the junior cert to take it on for the LC??

starlit

I honestly don't know, unless you have a flare for it would you consider doing it to be honest. It wouldn't be much use unless you are going to use it for when you go to college or for a future career. It not much use in today's world.
If you were to go for a European Language either the typical French, German, Italian and Spanish be easier to pass than Latin. Anyone I know who did latin didn't do great in it yet they were good at other languages!

French, Spanish or German be more useful as be used in more than one country. While Italian isn't that hard a language to learn. Russian, Japanese or Chinese or Scandinavian language be more tricky and challenging I'd go with either a European Language or different foreign language than Latin as you probably get more use of them if you ever travel or work abroad.

I'd imagine so you probably need to have done it in junior cert before doing it for leaving cert depends on your school and what college you plan to go to and what course you like to go for.
Though I know some did two languages both french and german whether or not they did both for JC can't remember but they did both for LC as far as I know one did it for both in the JC and the LC while the other didn't do the both for JC just one of them but did the two for LC as she did a law course with foreign languages.

eyescreamcone

doovdela wrote: »

I honestly don't know, unless you have a flare for it would you consider doing it to be honest. It wouldn't be much use unless you are going to use it for when you go to college or for a future career. It not much use in today's world.
If you were to go for a European Language either the typical French, German, Italian and Spanish be easier to pass than Latin. Anyone I know who did latin didn't do great in it yet they were good at other languages!

French, Spanish or German be more useful as be used in more than one country. While Italian isn't that hard a language to learn. Russian, Japanese or Chinese or Scandinavian language be more tricky and challenging I'd go with either a European Langue or different foreign langue than Latin as you probably get more use of them if you ever travel or work abroad.

I'd imagine so you probably need to have done it in junior cert before doing it for leaving cert depends on your school and what college you plan to go to and what course you like to go for.
Though I know some did two languages both french and german whether or not they did both for JC can't remember but they did both for LC as far as I know one did it for both in the JC and the LC while the other didn't do the both for JC but did the two for LC as she did a law course with foreign languages.

An A in Latin is more useful than a B in French or German.

It's not called The Points Race for nothing!

starlit

eyescreamcone wrote: »

An A in Latin is more useful than a B in French or German.

It's not called The Points Race for nothing!

Ya I suppose from that point of view to get your points go with it but just that what might be an easy A for someone else might not be an easy A for you that is all I am saying. Every exam paper is different each year like.
Though I see what you mean that an A in Latin is worth more than a B in another language. Unless you have a flare for it like it be easy but think from personal opinion that Italian be an easier A to get. Up to you entirely like. If the curriculum is easy to pass then go with Latin.

eyescreamcone

Thanks!
I'm just researching at this stage

Bears and Vodka

If you're going the ''highest ratio of A1s'' route then this might be useful. A table showing the % of students that achieved an A grade in each subject in the Leaving in 2011.

rainbowtrout

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Any truth that Latin is the easiest subject in the Leaving Cert??
Someone told me that 1 in 3 get an A
Any truth in this?

Can you swop Latin for your European language??
Would you need to do it for the junior cert to take it on for the LC??

You're not looking at the bigger picture although the figure you give is about right. 30% of students sitting HL Latin in 2009 and 2010 got an A1 or A2 and last year it was 40%.

However, only 94 students sat HL Latin last year. It's at the extreme end of minority subjects. Those that have done it probably did it for Junior Cert. No more than other subjects, it probably the type of thing that you keep on if you like it and are good at it. Because when you consider people keep on a foreign language for entry requirements, and often a business and a science subject to keep their options open, it doesn't give much leeway for choosing remaining subjects, so to make the best use of your subjects you will choose useful subjects. Not saying Latin in useless but in a modern context considering the jobs market there are what would be considered more useful subjects, so there is probably a certain bias in the people that pick the subject for LC, hence the massive skew in the results. It doesn't mean it's an easy subject.

Business and Ag Science are often promoted as points subjects particularly in grind schools, easy to learn off, easy to do well in, yes the statistics don't reflect that. 10% A grades in HL Business last year and 12% in Ag Science. Not as easy as you would be led to believe.

http://www.examinations.ie/statistics/statistics_2011/ProvisionalResultsLC2011NationalStatsmorethan10candidates.pdf

eyescreamcone

subz3r0 wrote: »

If you're going the ''highest ratio of A1s'' route then this might be useful. A table showing the % of students that achieved an A grade in each subject in the Leaving in 2011.

Russian it is so haha
Could be difficult for a non Russian national tho, especially with the unusual alphabet
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who studied Latin, to hear their views on whether it is easier to pick up points here or not!!

cathalio11

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Russian it is so haha
Could be difficult for a non Russian national tho, especially with the unusual alphabet
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who studied Latin, to hear their views on whether it is easier to pick up points here or not!!

Nearly every person who sits the Russian paper is a Russian native or an Eastern European who picked up a fairly decent standard of Russian in their own country.

The standard of the Russian exam is a lot lower than other niche languages.

Bears and Vodka

eyescreamcone wrote: »

Russian it is so haha
Could be difficult for a non Russian national tho, especially with the unusual alphabet

To start learning Russian just for the sake of points for the Leaving is foolhardy at best. I really think you need to have an interest in it besides school or be a native speaker.

cathalio11 wrote: »

Nearly every person who sits the Russian paper is a Russian native or an Eastern European who picked up a fairly decent standard of Russian in their own country.

The standard of the Russian exam is a lot lower than other niche languages.

I'm Russian and I agree entirely. Russian exam is very easy for native speakers (not that I'm complaining or anything!) but it is challenging enough for those who only started learning it a year or two before the test. Not many of those, mind.

Canard

Agreed, a girl I know does it because she was interested but she does it at OL just for its own sake. Its definitely not a points subject.

eyescreamcone

I was being sarcastic about taking up Russian but semi-serious about Latin.

At least with Latin, unlike Russian, everybody starts at square one - unless your Dad's a priest

starlit

From experience of having done the leaving cert and the percentage of people who achieve A's in at honours level is usually English, Geography and Home Ec. might have changed since I have done the leaving cert as the curriculum changes from time to time. Any subject with most of it being rote learning and easy to learn off than just be fluent and just understand are more likely to be subjects to get easy grades in. I agree Business is an easy enough subject to learn off.

starlit

Too be with that graph it looks a bit inflated to be honest, it might be like that last year but percentage of A's in each subject could be different this year.
Could be just down to a lower number of students taking up the subject or else they were really good at it or just that the paper happen to be easy that year not to say it will or won't be this year like. It varies. Examiners can either be really tough or fair or easy on candidates.

rainbowtrout

eyescreamcone wrote: »

I was being sarcastic about taking up Russian but semi-serious about Latin.

At least with Latin, unlike Russian, everybody starts at square one - unless your Dad's a priest

yes they do, but they started it in first year. I had friends who did Latin for Junior Cert, their school didn't offer it for Leaving Cert. They had Latin textbooks. How are you going to catch up on the Junior Cert course to compete with those students?

rainbowtrout

doovdela wrote: »

Too be with that graph it looks a bit inflated to be honest, it might be like that last year but percentage of A's in each subject could be different this year.
Could be just down to a lower number of students taking up the subject or else they were really good at it or just that the paper happen to be easy that year not to say it will or won't be this year like. It varies. Examiners can either be really tough or fair or easy on candidates.

Examiners correct to a marking scheme, they don't get the choice of being tough or easy.