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Leaving Cert 2015

  • 25-10-2013 7:53pm
    #1
    JenniferAnne
    Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭


    Started 5th year this September and was just wondering if anyone had done the applied maths course. Is it worthwhile to do as an 8th subject??

    My subjects are:
    English (HL)
    Maths(HL)
    Irish(HL)
    French(HL)
    History(HL)
    Geography(HL)
    Business(HL)
    Applied Maths(HL)

    If anyone has any tips I'd be really grateful about how to study for them/revision books etc
    Thanks :):)


Comments

  • #2
    oncex
    Closed Accounts Posts: 505 ✭✭✭oncex


    JenniferAnne wrote: »
    Started 5th year this September and was just wondering if anyone had done the applied maths course. Is it worthwhile to do as an 8th subject??

    My subjects are:
    English (HL)
    Maths(HL)
    Irish(HL)
    French(HL)
    History(HL)
    Geography(HL)
    Business(HL)
    Applied Maths(HL)

    If anyone has any tips I'd be really grateful about how to study for them/revision books etc
    Thanks :):)

    I haven't done applied maths,but from my experience I would only take it on if you dropped a subject. You have geography history and business which have SOOOO MUCH WORK. They are also subjects you can do really well in by knowing your stuff really well. I would advise you to concentrate on what you have done. Unless you're amazing at maths and if there is an applied maths class in school.
    Remember you only count 6. 7 is a good number of HL's.


  • #3
    Corvo Attano
    Registered Users Posts: 8,446 ✭✭✭Corvo Attano


    An 8th subject like Applied Maths is VERY VERY time consuming and often you will loose out over all since you loose a lot of time on that subject you could have spent elsewhere.

    Why do you wish to do an 8th subject?


  • #4
    yoho139
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 209 ✭✭yoho139


    I'm in sixth year, taking Applied Maths as a seventh subject. I'm doing it in school, so it's not that time consuming. However, I can see it being very time consuming if maths doesn't come to you naturally and you're not good with spacial reasoning.


  • #5
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,403 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    I'd advise against taking up Applied Maths as an 8th subject.


  • #6
    yournerd
    Registered Users Posts: 4,159 ✭✭✭yournerd


    Max Id do is 7 subjects like why bother?


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  • #7
    yoho139
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 209 ✭✭yoho139


    As fallback? If you're not good at one of the mandatory subjects, you effectively have 6 subjects.


  • #8
    Corvo Attano
    Registered Users Posts: 8,446 ✭✭✭Corvo Attano


    yoho139 wrote: »
    As fallback? If you're not good at one of the mandatory subjects, you effectively have 6 subjects.

    Which is exactly why 7 are facilitated in school with only 6 being counted.


  • #9
    yoho139
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 209 ✭✭yoho139


    Corvo Attano wrote: »
    Which is exactly why 7 are facilitated in school with only 6 being counted.

    I think you misunderstand. You do 7 subjects, but you're bad at one of the core subjects. Why would you not take an eighth subject as fallback?


  • #10
    Corvo Attano
    Registered Users Posts: 8,446 ✭✭✭Corvo Attano


    Time. Simple as. With 7 subjects its already hard enough to comprehensively cover all the courses. If you are weak at one you are already covered by your seventh. Surely if you are weak at one you need more, not less time.


  • #11
    aimzLc2
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 662 ✭✭✭aimzLc2


    JenniferAnne wrote: »
    Started 5th year this September and was just wondering if anyone had done the applied maths course. Is it worthwhile to do as an 8th subject??

    My subjects are:
    English (HL)
    Maths(HL)
    Irish(HL)
    French(HL)
    History(HL)
    Geography(HL)
    Business(HL)
    Applied Maths(HL)

    If anyone has any tips I'd be really grateful about how to study for them/revision books etc
    Thanks :):)

    Honestly ,like others have said it is ridiculous to do 8 subjects and pointless because you are fully covering 2 subjects which you will not be able to count!
    If you only did 6 subjects you would have plenty of time to cover all of them well enough so that you don't need a backup but i understand if you want 1 back-up incase one subject 'goes wrong' but not 2!


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  • #12
    yoho139
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 209 ✭✭yoho139


    Corvo Attano wrote: »
    Time. Simple as. With 7 subjects its already hard enough to comprehensively cover all the courses. If you are weak at one you are already covered by your seventh. Surely if you are weak at one you need more, not less time.

    Yes, you're not understanding.

    One of your 3 base subjects is ****. You don't spend time on that subject. If you have 6 others (for a grand total of 7) you spend time on those. One of those exams you pull a blank, and you're effectively left with 5 subjects. That's why you'd do eight.


  • #13
    Corvo Attano
    Registered Users Posts: 8,446 ✭✭✭Corvo Attano


    yoho139 wrote: »
    Yes, you're not understanding.

    One of your 3 base subjects is ****. You don't spend time on that subject. If you have 6 others (for a grand total of 7) you spend time on those. One of those exams you pull a blank, and you're effectively left with 5 subjects. That's why you'd do eight.

    You do what I done, drop it to pass and use the extra time to pull your worst subjects up to your best.


  • #14
    JenniferAnne
    Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭JenniferAnne


    Thanks for the advice
    The applied maths so far is just ordinary level stuff which I get A's in easy enough I'm more worried once we start the higher level parts in sixth year it will start getting particularly hard and I'd have wasted a year of work

    Only reason I'm doing the 8 is probably my Irish/French which are both fairly awful for me minus my the ole dictionary.
    I see what you mean though about how time consuming it will be


  • #15
    Corvo Attano
    Registered Users Posts: 8,446 ✭✭✭Corvo Attano


    Im really not trying to scare you or disuade you but dont let pride get in the way. Sure you dont want to waste a years work but its better drop it that spend ever increasing amounts of time facilitating it with all your other study. And there is a lot.
    How many points are you looking for?


  • #16
    yoho139
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 209 ✭✭yoho139


    Look at the Higher questions. They're considerably harder than the Ordinary stuff. I don't know why you would leave them until the following year... Strange system.


  • #17
    student111
    Registered Users Posts: 29 ✭student111


    Definitely I would advise doing 7 honors subjects max, no matter how intelligent you are! If you feel you could do very well in applied maths, drop another subject :)


  • #18
    mendelmania
    Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭mendelmania


    A lot of my friends do applied maths as an eight subject and there are mixed reviews. I think it's helpful for physics but apparently it's not really doing anything for their maths.

    I also do 8 subjects, mainly because I couldn't choose which one to drop, if I could I'd be doing art as well! (That said, I'd drop German or Irish in a gunshot.) My eight subject is Religion so I guess it's a completely different situation.

    If you're not finding applied maths too time consuming, keep it on for now I'd say - at least wait until Christmas. That's what I'm doing.


  • #19
    MegGustaa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 232 ✭✭MegGustaa


    Applied Maths is a fantastic subject if you're reasonably good at Maths and are considering Engineering. I wouldn't bother unless you think you can do better in it than one of your 7 other subjects - but until you think it's detracting from your studies why not keep it up? Just do the homework consistently and before the end of 5th Year try to tackle a few exam questions in the topics you've covered, and maybe then make your decision. Just don't think it's an easy subject to get the A1 in - it does require as much work as any other subject, just a different kind (not learning loads off but practicing questions a lot).


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