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When to start studying for LC and best subject choices
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07-08-2012 10:23pm#1
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The course is actually different for you guys - they alternate the document book between European and Irish, and because the 2012 document was European, we had to study two Irish books. The worse of the two that I did is your documents book, so no need to worry too much there. :P Chances are you'll study Dictatorship & Democracy and The US, I did the first and it was actually really interesting. The latter wasn't an option since our other European book had to be the european retreat from empire, but you should enjoy it overall.Thanks. I don't have a major interest in Irish history but from what we did this year, I found it very interesting. Cheers for the feedback
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I just found this on the internet http://www.scoilnet.ie/hist/docs/lc_history_sy.pdf Is this the syllabus you had to do or was it different??The course is actually different for you guys - they alternate the document book between European and Irish, and because the 2012 document was European, we had to study two Irish books. The worse of the two that I did is your documents book, so no need to worry too much there. :P Chances are you'll study Dictatorship & Democracy and The US, I did the first and it was actually really interesting. The latter wasn't an option since our other European book had to be the european retreat from empire, but you should enjoy it overall.0 -
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I don't know about the subjects, but this is my advice for studying:
F#ck the mocks, HPAT is on around the same time and is far more important. Treat studying for it like a subject, begin practising logic tests, lateral thinking tests and sequences etc. After February it can be forgotten about completely.
As for the LC, I always begin to study at March 17th of 6th year. It's just the right time. On that day, create a timetable each day until the first day of LC. Thereafter, you can forget about your timetable and focus on the nearest tests in order of their date.
Lastly, take it easy. Cover some material in 4th year yourself [this is very important so your brain doesn't turn to cotton], almost finish the entire thing in 5th year, and finish it and revise in 6th year. Exam papers are your friends
JC means absolutely nothing btw ^^0 -
I can't actually see any specificity in there - there's two syllabi there (one early and one late, but there are no books for early history as far as I know) and they didn't specify a document book. So yes since it's the history syllabus it is what I did, but yours will be slightly different - the book we had to do was The European Retreat from Empire and the Aftermath (a non-Irish topic), while yours is The Pursuit of Sovereignty and the Impact of Partition (an Irish topic). That means that you have to study 2 European books in full and one Irish one in full, whereas mine was the other way aroundI just found this on the internet http://www.scoilnet.ie/hist/docs/lc_history_sy.pdf Is this the syllabus you had to do or was it different??
I was gonna say business is more relevant but the OP finds it boring. :P I've heard chemistry is harder than physics actually but I don't know since I didn't do any, but a few of the boardsies here did the 3 sciences and seemed to enjoy it. It wouldn't be any harm, I remember someone doing medicine said they had to learn how a pendulum worked to make sure their brains were fit for medicine or something weird :pac: It'd be no harm.As for a third subject I'd recommend geography. It's certainly the most interesting and relevant (to real life) subject on the LC curriculum but it's not related to medicine obviously. That said the only other subject really related to medicine (other than biology and chemistry) would be a very small part of physics and 3 science subjects would drive most people insane. (Also physics is the most difficult science subject for most people and is unnecessary to get into medicine!)
Geography is a looooooot of learning though OP. I remember people thinking I was mad for doing it with history and didn't see why, but I do now
It's not a bad subject but it's not predictable like it used to be.
As Geo10 said it's 20%, just wanted to add that the average mark is like 89%, pretty handyI am hoping to get into Trinity and I was thinking of doing Geography as it is technically a science but Trinity dont accept it as a Science, unfortunately. I dont have any interest in Geography and only scraped As from 1st to 3rd year but I am really interested in history and I hope that I will do better in history. Do you know how much the history project is worth btw?
It's tedious though - unlike just writing up experiments, there's a lot more to it e.g. deciding a topic, researching it, cutting down to fit the word count, reviewing sources, but apparently history is the best subject to prepare you for college.
Business is boring for the LC because there's no accounts to go to for a change, and the marking scheme is pretty rigid with only 3-4% getting A1s. Some of it is really relevant and enjoyable e.g. your rights :P, but some of it is pointless and mind-numbing e.g. taxes, EU bodies, and then some of it like ratios is automatically going to let you down because accounting students will set the bar for answers. It's a nice subject to do but I wouldn't rely on it for points, personally. There's an applied section where you might think you're right with the source of finance you're suggesting (e.g. short-term loan) but then you realize it's a rural business and they'd go for a more specific loan and you're not as correct as you thought. Really frustrating. :pac:I was really good at business but after the mocks I literally just stopped caring as I researched medicine to death for all of last year and I got something like 78% in the mocks so I just gave up on it. Honestly business is just boring, in my opinion. did u do it for the leaving?
(Sorry for this essay of a post, just trying to help :P)0 -
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Thanks, that really helped!! Now I know I'm definitely not doing geography!!! The ratios and formulae that we had to learn for business was just ridiculous so I'm staying clear of that. All our teachers said to us "the JC is going to decide your future", what a load of bull. Our dean said to us that the students who perform well will get automatic places into the "top classes". He said this applies for all classes but my brother is going into 5th year this year and streaming only applies for English. He done literally nothing for the JC and TY and got into the 2nd best class with the best teacher in the school, while the top class gets an alcoholic!! I worked for the whole year and realize I worked for nothing. Ah well, it's confidence building i suppose. Is there a massive difference between work for the LC and JC???
I can't actually see any specificity in there - there's two syllabi there (one early and one late, but there are no books for early history as far as I know) and they didn't specify a document book. So yes since it's the history syllabus it is what I did, but yours will be slightly different - the book we had to do was The European Retreat from Empire and the Aftermath (a non-Irish topic), while yours is The Pursuit of Sovereignty and the Impact of Partition (an Irish topic). That means that you have to study 2 European books in full and one Irish one in full, whereas mine was the other way aroundI just found this on the internet http://www.scoilnet.ie/hist/docs/lc_history_sy.pdf Is this the syllabus you had to do or was it different??
I was gonna say business is more relevant but the OP finds it boring. :P I've heard chemistry is harder than physics actually but I don't know since I didn't do any, but a few of the boardsies here did the 3 sciences and seemed to enjoy it. It wouldn't be any harm, I remember someone doing medicine said they had to learn how a pendulum worked to make sure their brains were fit for medicine or something weird :pac: It'd be no harm.As for a third subject I'd recommend geography. It's certainly the most interesting and relevant (to real life) subject on the LC curriculum but it's not related to medicine obviously. That said the only other subject really related to medicine (other than biology and chemistry) would be a very small part of physics and 3 science subjects would drive most people insane. (Also physics is the most difficult science subject for most people and is unnecessary to get into medicine!)
Geography is a looooooot of learning though OP. I remember people thinking I was mad for doing it with history and didn't see why, but I do now It's not a bad subject but it's not predictable like it used to be.
As Geo10 said it's 20%, just wanted to add that the average mark is like 89%, pretty handyI am hoping to get into Trinity and I was thinking of doing Geography as it is technically a science but Trinity dont accept it as a Science, unfortunately. I dont have any interest in Geography and only scraped As from 1st to 3rd year but I am really interested in history and I hope that I will do better in history. Do you know how much the history project is worth btw? It's tedious though - unlike just writing up experiments, there's a lot more to it e.g. deciding a topic, researching it, cutting down to fit the word count, reviewing sources, but apparently history is the best subject to prepare you for college.
Business is boring for the LC because there's no accounts to go to for a change, and the marking scheme is pretty rigid with only 3-4% getting A1s. Some of it is really relevant and enjoyable e.g. your rights :P, but some of it is pointless and mind-numbing e.g. taxes, EU bodies, and then some of it like ratios is automatically going to let you down because accounting students will set the bar for answers. It's a nice subject to do but I wouldn't rely on it for points, personally. There's an applied section where you might think you're right with the source of finance you're suggesting (e.g. short-term loan) but then you realize it's a rural business and they'd go for a more specific loan and you're not as correct as you thought. Really frustrating. :pac:I was really good at business but after the mocks I literally just stopped caring as I researched medicine to death for all of last year and I got something like 78% in the mocks so I just gave up on it. Honestly business is just boring, in my opinion. did u do it for the leaving?
(Sorry for this essay of a post, just trying to help :P)0 -
There's only a few rations in LC business and they're pretty handy, I actually did one in the exam (though because I didn't plan to I forgot how to calculate some stuff - I didn't pick accounting for a reason, dammit :pac:). My school did that too, my JC Irish teacher told us that with the "huge demand" for HL Irish we'd need an A/B in our mocks. I was the only one from my year who got that (the rest did TY), such demand hahaha. I wouldnt worry about the streaming! My year had that and honestly I never even knew about it. :S My friends were in the top English class while I wasn't, despite getting higher than them in our mocks, and both classes had people who weren't even fit for HL. Their class had my JC teacher, an absolutely disgraceful teacher, while I got the best teacher in the schoolThanks, that really helped!! Now I know I'm definitely not doing geography!!! The ratios and formulae that we had to learn for business was just ridiculous so I'm staying clear of that. All our teachers said to us "the JC is going to decide your future", what a load of bull. Our dean said to us that the students who perform well will get automatic places into the "top classes". He said this applies for all classes but my brother is going into 5th year this year and streaming only applies for English. He done literally nothing for the JC and TY and got into the 2nd best class with the best teacher in the school, while the top class gets an alcoholic!! I worked for the whole year and realize I worked for nothing. Ah well, it's confidence building i suppose. Is there a massive difference between work for the LC and JC??? You could ask to be in your brother's class so you'd be doing the same material maybe? I know if I'd been put in the "top class" I'd have kicked up a fuss, English is really a subject you need a capable teacher for.
And yeah, I'd say there is. I didn't break my back for the JC if I'm honest but still did quite well despite that, by just reading my books and doing some exam papers when I was told to. I never really made my own notes for some reason, but in LC because you don't have 10/11 subjects anymore the work is more concentrated. If you keep on top of it its fine though! The exams are more demanding too, English P1 gives you things like a story OR a personal essay for the title, it's not like JC where you pick your style and it's nowhere near as broad, so in that regard you could say you need to practice more writing styles. You can kind of reduce that workload, though, by just picking what your best is. Irish I actually found to be less work (besides those awful picture sequences) but that's because I got a new teacher who taught the language rather than making us rote learn. History is totally different with more work, but as long as you stay interested and forming opinions you'll be fine! 0 -
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OK, here's my honest opinion on every subject. The general gist of what I'm about to go through is this: Do 3 Sciences and a language. I believe this is the best setup if you dislike rote learning (which there will be enough of in your LC with English, never mind the other rote-learning subjects!), and the 3 science subjects tie in to each other nicely. They'll give you a good foundation for whatever you do in Uni in Engi/Science/Medicine related fields.
English: If you enjoy reading/writing in your own time, this subject is 15x easier. If not... You need to start enjoying it :P Get your essays together (i.e get some off friends/people on boards/notebooks) as early as possible for each piece you do, so you don't spend half of 6th year trying to organise them and you can focus on just learning them Practice your writing style and get a thesaurus so you can seem like a gifted writer
Irish: I'll be honest, I have no perspective on this subject as I'm from the Gaeltacht and Irish is thus really easy for me. But regardless; Listen to RnaG and watch TG4 as often as possible. Stay in the Gaeltacht if you can (it's educational AND it's great fun!) and read in Irish an oiread agus is féidir leat. For the technical side of things, look for a book called Irish Grammar Book by Nollaig Mac Congaile. Study that for an hour every night and your grasp of Irish grammar and construction will be A1 standard.
French: This is one of the easiest exams in the LC in my opinion. French is a really easy language (far easier than Irish if you're non-native) and the exam papers are so, so easy (assuming you've done the work). French needs a twofold approach. For the first, i.e technical side of things, focus on learning how to construct your tenses: present, passé composé, imparfait, futur simple, conditionnel, passé simple, subjonctif. Knowledge of the subjonctif is not *required* but is an excellent way to boost your mark to that A1 grade. With regard to technical learning you should also make a point of learning plenty of prepositions and the like. The second aspect of getting a good grade in French is hearing and reading: Listen to french radio when you're studying (and when not, if possible). Even if you don't understand what they're saying at first it'll help you get used to the rhythm of the language (and develop an accent) and as your vocabulary improves it will make sense. Think of how a baby learns a language: They just listen, mostly! Also, read Figaro and Le Monde or any other online newspaper. Firing words you don't recognise into wordreference or google translate (words only, full sentences usually get fecked up!) is a great way to improve your vocabulary and a LOT of the stuff that comes up on the exam paper is taken from these newspapers.
(To be continued!)0 -
Great post. Look forward to part 2 Yay another irish speaker. I'm in an irish school. Pretty much fluent at this stage, my friends and I speak irish to each other as well a lot. Eases the pressure for the leaving I'd say, I know it did for the junior cert big time, where minimal study was required for it. 0
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Geo10 already made some very good points about chemistry, just thought I'd chip in tooIs chemistry as tough as it is made out to be??? Were you able to finish the course in time and is chemistry based around definitions it experiments?
As Geo10 said, you need a good teacher. I found chemistry a bit tough at times, but what would usually happen was that chapters would click with me a few weeks after we did them. Normally we'd be on the next chapter and I'd be revising the previous one and it would suddenly make sense. So don't worry if you don't get things immediately, it's one of those subjects where everything kind of falls into place in time.
There definitely is a focus on definitions in chemistry, and you have to be very specific with your wording. However, it's not difficult - just learn them off and it''s easy marks then! And as was already explained, you must do at least 2 experiment questions out of 3, so your experiments count for at least a quarter of your overall mark.0 -
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