Take up an extra subject or focus on the others?

Coeurdepirate

The course I want to do is 450, and I'm not doing my leaving cert until 2012 so I'm aiming for around 470. However, I do 2 pass subjects
To get 470, I'd need to get an A2 in French, a B2 in Chemistry and B1s in everything else. Realistically, I don't see this happening. So I'm thinking of taking up another subject outside school, just for points.
If I did take up another subject, I'd just need to get a C1 in that, B1 in French, B3 in Chemistry and B2s in everything else, and although it's still hard to achieve, I think it looks a lot more reasonable than the other grades.
So does anybody have any advice for me? And would there be a subject that I could do to a C1 standard from a revision book?

Coeurdepirate

Anybody?

Muggwoffin

I do Ag Science as an extra subject with a teacher from a grinds school. Its about €30 a lesson but it's fantastic

MissBrightside

Ag science seems to be a big hit when it comes to an 8th subject. It's supposed to be fairly manageable if you do biology; throw in geography and you've half the course. I dunno bout doing it from a revision book though...There's a project, an oral and lots of practicals which take time. I also know of a guy who picked up economics in 6th year and got an A1.

Meglamonia

I'm in fifth year and I'm doing economics as an extra subject outside school to make up for me doing pass maths.I dunno will it be uneccessary pressure doing 8 subjects come 6th year tho?

seriouslysweet

I'd say concentrate on what you have unless you can get a really good grinds teacher simply cos it's a lot of extra work and you'll need lots of guidance. Just my opinion though.

Coeurdepirate

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was thinking about Ag actually, but there's a practical so that wouldn't be possible.
I'm thinking of doing Economics, because I do Business too and it's a relatively short course. It'd be fantastic if I could do it from a revision book and still achieve a B3/C1, but what could I do about questions on the chapter? I mean the questions at the end of each chapter which teachers usually give for homework. That'd be quite awkward.
Also, can anybody recommend a good book/revision book for it?

Meglamonia

Rapid revision economics is absolutley brilliant!!If you studied that book alone well you'd get an A..it covers everything you need to know and buy the exam papers too and get familliar with the questions and you're sorted!

Chuchoter

Could you give us a breakdown of what subjects you're doing, what you want in them and what you are currently getting in them. 8 subjects is a lot of subjects, not forgetting you'll still have to do all the homework/christmas tests/class tests for the other subject you don't like. Economics is a fairly straightforward course I think, and you could always ask a teacher in the school if she could help you with chapter questions.

johnmcdnl

you could drop one of the pass subjects and take up ag science or economics

they always seem to be the "easy" subjects

Coeurdepirate

crayolastereo wrote: »

Could you give us a breakdown of what subjects you're doing, what you want in them and what you are currently getting in them. 8 subjects is a lot of subjects, not forgetting you'll still have to do all the homework/christmas tests/class tests for the other subject you don't like. Economics is a fairly straightforward course I think, and you could always ask a teacher in the school if she could help you with chapter questions.

Without an extra subject: (not counting Irish)
HL English - Need B2, Realistically I see myself getting a C1
HL French - Need A2, I think I could get that.
HL Chemistry - Need B2, Realistically I'd get a C1 or C2
HL Biology - Need B2, I'd probably get that
HL Business - Need B2, and that
OL Maths - Need A1, but realistically I'd get around a B1 or 2.

With an extra subject:
HL English - B3
HL French - A2
HL Chemistry - C1
HL Biology - B2
HL Business - B2
HL (probably Economics) - B3
Those grades seem a lot more reasonable, in my opinion.

Chuchoter

A lot of your realistic vs need subjects are only 5-10% away from each other (for example chemistry, English) if you worked a bit harder on those two would it work out the same without the extra subject? 8 subjects is just so many, and it will eat massively into study time for everything else (you will have to do 'class time' as well as study time for it out of hours). The French, Biology and Business B2s could suddenly become much harder to get.

Coeurdepirate

But isn't it a relatively short course? I can't see it being too demanding if I do it over the 2 years.

ruadhan

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

But isn't it a relatively short course? I can't see it being too demanding if I do it over the 2 years.

Ok I have to say something here, I'm in 6 th year now and am doing economics. Yes it's not too long of a course, we have three chapters left out of like 32 in the book and it's still September. BUT I would definitely say economics is not an easy subject at all, and I'm good at it. Parts of it are quite complicated and hard to understand and i'd say without a teacher you'd be slightly lost as to what's going on especially with all the graphs for micro. Aswell the marking schemes are quite tough and particular and it can be hat to do well in. It requires quite a bit of learning but all the topics do tie in quite nicely.
There is an amazing choice in the exam, do 4 out of 8 long questions but I would definitely suggest not leaving any prt of the course out. They can tie all sorts of topics together and you don't know what is gonna be the handy question till the end. You really have to have definitions word perfect and you have to learn factors affecting and consequeces of about everything which gets annoying too.
Anyway, I have a really good teacher and everything and some people do still struggle. It's a tough subject, definitely not easy as someone else said and very exact. And lots of people end up disappointed with their results. Just look a few pages back on this forum. So overall, I really don't think I would advise economics as an extra subject wihout a teacher.
By all accounts ag science is piss easy though

By the way, what happenned to the Japanese?

Coeurdepirate

ruadhan wrote: »

Ok I have to say something here, I'm in 6 th year now and am doing economics. Yes it's not too long of a course, we have three chapters left out of like 32 in the book and it's still September. BUT I would definitely say economics is not an easy subject at all, and I'm good at it. Parts of it are quite complicated and hard to understand and i'd say without a teacher you'd be slightly lost as to what's going on especially with all the graphs for micro. Aswell the marking schemes are quite tough and particular and it can be hat to do well in. It requires quite a bit of learning but all the topics do tie in quite nicely.
There is an amazing choice in the exam, do 4 out of 8 long questions but I would definitely suggest not leaving any prt of the course out. They can tie all sorts of topics together and you don't know what is gonna be the handy question till the end. You really have to have definitions word perfect and you have to learn factors affecting and consequeces of about everything which gets annoying too.
Anyway, I have a really good teacher and everything and some people do still struggle. It's a tough subject, definitely not easy as someone else said and very exact. And lots of people end up disappointed with their results. Just look a few pages back on this forum. So overall, I really don't think I would advise economics as an extra subject wihout a teacher.
By all accounts ag science is piss easy though

By the way, what happenned to the Japanese?

Thanks a lot for your advice. I actually would definately do Ag, because it's easy and also quite short, but what would I do about that damn project?
Japanese... Wahh, it's still a possibility, but a less likely one. To be honest, it's the characters that would make it difficult for me, I think.