Biology or accounting

coffeelover

Hi!.
Ok I'm going into 5th year next week and the subjects I'm doing are english, irish, maths, french, business, music, biology and lcvp. But I am thinking of doing accounting instead of biology. I was wondering which is easier? And would I be better of having one science subject?

lctake2

well they are both considered quite easy subjects, maybe accounting a little more so. there's no need to take a science subject unless you want to do something either med or science related

Vurnon San Benito

Accounting Accounting Accounting.

Thing is, once you know how do the questions, they're practically all the same.
Would highly recommend it!

The Paws

Could you do biology instead of business studies? and keep on accounting? You can do accounting and finance in ucc and I dont think business studies is needed ( correct me if I am wrong here).

I will worry what if you like to do science course later in life and without a science leaving cert subject - you cant do any science related courses.

I think the more options you have the better. eg you can do arts, languages, music, science, accounting etc....

coffeelover

God i thought accounting sounded harder.
Ya i'm not really sure what i want to do so i was kinda keeping my options open by doing biology :cool:

coffeelover

The Paws wrote: »

Could you do biology instead of business studies? and keep on accounting? You can do accounting and finance in ucc and I dont think business studies is needed ( correct me if I am wrong here).

I will worry what if you like to do science course later in life and without a science leaving cert subject - you cant do any science related courses.

I think the more options you have the better. eg you can do arts, languages, music, science, accounting etc....

Am no i could do ag science instead of business studies?. O right and if i wanted to do eg. business studies in UL would i need business?

glow

you dont need business as a subject to get into any particular college course as far as i am aware.. the same goes for accounting. You can pick these up at third level.. Biology on the other hand you require for certain subjects. I didn't take any science subjects because i knew i wanted to do something businessy. I think accounting would be the easier of the 2 options if you have an interest in it - the paper is more predictable..

coffeelover

glow wrote: »

you dont need business as a subject to get into any particular college course as far as i am aware.. the same goes for accounting. You can pick these up at third level.. Biology on the other hand you require for certain subjects. I didn't take any science subjects because i knew i wanted to do something businessy. I think accounting would be the easier of the 2 options if you have an interest in it - the paper is more predictable..

I'm thinking of doing something businessy myself so maybe i should go for accounting but I think we might have a crappy teacher . Just out of interest what course did you do glow?

glow

If you are interested and prepared to practice the questions - Accountancy is the way to go.. seriously there are only so many ways they can ask the same thing if you get what I mean..

I ended up doing Commerce in Galway.. great foundation course in business as you get to sample all aspects of it before deciding what to specialise in.

QueenOfLeon

If you think you'll eventually do a business related course, do accountancy. A science related course, you'd be better off with biology.

If you're good at learning off loads of theory, biology is more or less that, you don't have to understand an awful lot. Accountancy is learning a method and using it again and again, bit more logic and mathsy.

Coeurdepirate

Accounting is harder, and also a lot longer. The Accounting book is just over 600 pages, as opposed to about 450 for Biology.

**Timbuk2**

Accounting isn't easy, as you need to do a lot of work to do well - you can't cram accounting. I got an A1 in accounting, but I was working consistently hard at the subject - redoing questions over and over is the key to doing well. The timing is also very difficult in Accounting - a lot of people struggle to get it finished in the time given, that's why practice practice practice is so important for accounting.

I picked accounting as I wanted a mathsy type subject that allowed me to do actually do questions, rather than learn reams and reams of information off. I would have hated Biology, but some people love it.

Gordon Gecko

Accounting, or for that matter ANY business subject, is NOT required for ANY business course. However there are lots of courses that require a science. Furthermore you can do business anywhere for virtually no points: DIT, GMIT, CIT, DBS etc. Personally I think Biology is the easier of the two as it simply requires learning off the stuff off by heart. I took it up in a year and got an A1 in it, so it's not rocket science!

coffeelover

Thanks for the replies . Ya i'm nearly better at learning loads of by heart so I think i'll go for biology if no business subject is required for a business course. I'm not that good at maths either so maybe biology is the better choice :rolleyes:

TowlieMcD

i did biology and accounting this year and got an A1 in biology and an A2 in accounting(both higher)
Personally i would recommend biology, not cause i got a higher grade, but because its a little easier. Sure there is a lot to learn but its not difficult. Practically everything in unit 3(the biggest unit) has been done in junior cert
There are one or two tough chapters relating to genetics but its certainly not impossible.

Accounting on the other hand...well its not the hardest subject but i found i had to work a little at it and like people have said above ^ you only really need to learn how to do a few questions and practice practice practice. Still some of the adjustments can be awful confusing.

You won't go far wrong with either tbh

ClodaghJoan

In my opinion you're better with a science, but it come down to whether you prefer subjects with theory(biology) or calculations(accounting)

Aoifey!

I did both Accounting and Biology this year, got B2 in both (H). If I was to recommend one I'd say Biology as you really have to work consistently for Accounting, whereas Biology you can cram easily before the exam. I went from an E in mocks to B2 with Biology, but I never could have done that with Accounting.

But at the end of the day, it's purely what you have interest in you'll be better at.

Patri

lctake2 wrote: »

well they are both considered quite easy subjects, maybe accounting a little more so. there's no need to take a science subject unless you want to do something either med or science related

I disagree, you should always keep your options open, especially when you are forced to contemplate future career choices at 15 years old. I went into 5th year certain I wanted to do something business orientated, now a year on, I prefer science, I regret taking up 2 business subjects, but am grateful I did biology

EDude

Hi OP

I didn't do accounting, but have close friends who did, so I hope what I'm saying here will be useful

1) I highly recommend having a science subject if youre trying to keep your options open. Biology would be the best science subject to have as I found it was the easiest one.

2) Since you already do Business and lcvp, which are quite similar in ways, I would suggest possibly switching one of these to accounting? If thats not possible then you're back to square one!

3) Accounting can be quite challenging and unless you enjoy Maths etc. it may not be a good idea...

coffeelover

Thanks for all the replies guys

Since you already do Business and lcvp, which are quite similar in ways, I would suggest possibly switching one of these to accounting? If thats not possible then you're back to square one!

No thats not possible if i were to do accounting i wouldn't be able to do biology but I could do ag science instead. Personally I think I would be bored to death in ag science :rolleyes:

Accounting can be quite challenging and unless you enjoy Maths etc. it may not be a good idea...

Ya towards the end of the JC i started to struggle with maths so if there is a lot of maths in accounting maybe i'd be better of not doing it!



I think biology would be better as many of you have said that it's better to keep my options open. And if I do end up doing something in science i'll be glad i did biology .

Ditzie

because you are already doing business I would reccommend accounting as the courses overlap in areas and if you're learning information for 1 subject you may aswell use it in another! I know it would be better to keep you're options open etc etc but honours maths is counted as a science subject so you should be covered!

norwegianwood

I do both, and tbh I'd say Biology is easier, but it depends on how your brain works. If you prefer learning a method, and sticking to it, go for Accounting, as it's more of a subject that you learn by practicing. It also helps to be neat and good at timing yourself, that'll be crucial in the exam.
Then Biology on the other hand is pure learning off, with very little understanding involved (so I think anyway), so if you're good at memorizing large volumes of information, go for it.

Hope this helps a bit.:)

**Timbuk2**

Just for the record, although you are working with numbers all the time in accounting, it doesn't contain difficult maths - nothing that would need a scientific calculator. Usually the main things involved are adding, subtracting, multiplication, division and finding percentages and fractions (for example, if an asset was owned for 9 months of a year, you would calculate the yearly depreciation at a given percentage, then multiply by 9 and divide by 12 to find the depreciation figure).