Most difficult optional subject (Honours)

Planemo

Chemistry - it's taken me 3 years to be able to understand a two year course (and I've only just gotten the hang of it)
That being said, I think Business is very hard to get an A in but overall it's easy enough

kilrush

i definitely think its either applied maths or latin.Though i suppose if your good at history and languages Latin isn't that bad.

niamhallen

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

Ezkimosrawk

niamhallen wrote: »

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

..5 Pages long?
Are you all mental? :L

If one breaks it down. 12 marks possible per paragraph for CM.
And an average paragraph with good knowledge is between 8-11.
So thats 7 paragraphs to guarantee an A in CM. Which is 60%.

For OE, they DEDUCT you for excess information and lack of relevant material/analysis/question focus. If you write 5 pages of wide ranging data instead of 6 concise paragraphs + intro/conclusion thats 8.
Its insane if you can get 15 pages AND the case study done in 2hr50m.

AdamD

Its not insane, its expected.

angelfire9

niamhallen wrote: »

History is one my favourites but its by far the most difficult. Learning 2 huge books for 4 essays which have to be about 5 pages long in 2hr50. Just so hard. I love the subject but I am dreeeading the exam.

Its funny
Back in the dark ages when I did my LC I studied history as an extra subject outside of school because it clashed with the timetable for Chemistry in school and I got an A1
Its not all about facts & figures it's about understanding the affect of events on society at the time

I did 8 LC Higher papers:
English, Irish, Maths, French, Biology, History, Chemistry & Economics and I found Chemistry the worst by far!!!!

Seaner1878

I can understand why people think History is tough but I like it and think its ok..the problem is getting it done in 2hr 50m

Fireball07

Seaner1878 wrote: »

I can understand why people think History is tough but I like it and think its ok..the problem is getting it done in 2hr 50m

I agree.


But I would also say that it's impossible to write 3 5-page essays + a document in the time.

I'm an extremely fast writer, I can write faster than anyone in my school and it's just not possible to write around 18 pages in 2 hours 50 mins. Unless your writing is massive or you have some sort of super speed.`

3.5-4 pages is what we were told was expected with 5 body paragraphs (6 if you can manage it), with an introduction and conclusion. But we were told that the intro and conclusion aren't marked as part of the cumulative mark, only as part of the O.E. But they still need to be quite good.

AdamD

Intro + conclusion are a part of the 60 marks

niamhallen

My writing is actually quite small but to get all the relevant information in, I always go onto the 5 pages. Anything less and I feel I'm leaving relevant information out.

UrbanSea

I cannot understand why anybody would have voted business. Business is not hard in the slightest,people don't do well in it due to sheer laziness.

scotty_irish

._. wrote: »

Chemistry is definitely up there.. It all only came together for me at the end of this year. I hear physics is pretty hard too.. and applied maths.

applied maths is the biggest joke of a subject!

CF_Hoop

I picked up Chemistry in October because I needed to know the basics for college, obviously I'm not doing Higher Level, but I'm aiming for a B in Ordinary.

Hedwig

Well I've only just finished 5th year but for me the hardest subject by far is Chemistry. It's just so fricken difficult! I'm also doing History, Biology and Geography all of which are ok. The insane amount of learning that goes with History puts a lot of people off it, but I love it and don't find it bad at all ... and both Biology and Geography are grand.

Chemistry though *shudders*, seriously people, think twice (or three times... or four times) before choosing it!!

Oenone

Chemistry.

I shall fail it proudly.

Barrt2

history due to the amount of information needed, the time you have for each essay and the amount of study needed to do well, the history project should be worth more than 20% for the effort put into it,

Mr. Maths

scotty_irish wrote: »

applied maths is the biggest joke of a subject!

I completely agree, the fact thats theres so much choice on the paper makes it quite easy if you have any kind of an aptitude for maths. As for the whole hardest subject thing, its really just a matter of personal choice... me, i actually find physics really easy, and a lot of others struggle with it.

amymak

For me personally, I would say French is the hardest, but that's because I don't really have a knack for foreign languages.

History is both one of my favourite and least favourite subjects. It's extremely difficult. You have to learn off reams and reams of material, and then in the exam you have to write three four page essays and do the document in 2h50. And, you may know the information, but if you haven't got the essay plan done beforehand, you're in huge trouble. It's more of a speed test than a measure of how much information you know.

However it is really interesting stuff. We have a brilliant teacher for it, and the common consensus in the class is that it's their favourite subject and least favourite exam.

I don't know why people think that physics is so difficult. There are definitions and laws to learn off, but less then there are in other subjects. The maths really isn't difficult, it's not near higher level maths standard. The exam is pretty straightforward.
For physics, I did my homework, but I only sudied for it the night before the 4 or so tests I got in the year and I still got 96% in my summer test, which was made up completely of exam questions.

Maybe_Memories

for me it was anything that involves actually having to write proper sentences... :rolleyes:

anything with numbers, graaaand. :cool:

Yeah Buddy

amymak wrote: »

For me personally, I would say French is the hardest, but that's because I don't really have a knack for foreign languages.

History is both one of my favourite and least favourite subjects. It's extremely difficult. You have to learn off reams and reams of material, and then in the exam you have to write three four page essays and do the document in 2h50. And, you may know the information, but if you haven't got the essay plan done beforehand, you're in huge trouble. It's more of a speed test than a measure of how much information you know.

However it is really interesting stuff. We have a brilliant teacher for it, and the common consensus in the class is that it's their favourite subject and least favourite exam..

This! Although my teacher was hardly brilliant, plus most of the class were too busy throwing papers around and the like.

It's very annoying though when you know you've done really well in the exam, answered the exact question asked, wrote the write amount etc, only to hear "times up" when you're halfway through your final essay and then miss out on the A as a result!

Call Me Lia

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

for me it was anything that involves actually having to write proper sentences... :rolleyes:

anything with numbers, graaaand. :cool:

I'm the same ! It's crazy, I find english very difficult (though I know it's not optional). But I really like all the mathsy subjects. All in all if I were to choose the most difficult option, I'd go for chemistry. It's hard work at first , but once I understand a topic I love it. I find it the most interesting subject

Maybe_Memories

Call Me Lia wrote: »

I'm the same ! It's crazy, I find english very difficult (though I know it's not optional). But I really like all the mathsy subjects. All in all if I were to choose the most difficult option, I'd go for chemistry. It's hard work at first , but once I understand a topic I love it. I find it the most interesting subject

I regret not doing chem for my LC...
Did Applied Maths outside school. During 6th year I lived and breathed that subject.

Also regret not doing music.

DufferO8

seriously go look up the DCG exam papers on examinations.ie and then tell me the hardest honors subject