Am I too late to start history?

exovoomnia

I'm currently in 5th year and up until now I've been doing chemistry
Do you think it's too late for me to move to history? Have I missed too much?

LostBoy101

I don't think it's too late to start now but you might have a bit of catching up to do.

JDOC1996

Keep in mind, you will have 3 books and 3 other case studies to learn as well as a b*tch of a project to do. If you really want to do it, by all means go for it. But think carefully about your decision.

exovoomnia

I think I will go for it, I always loved it at Junior Cert but then I was scared into picking two sciences with the whole ''But what if you want to do medicine??!!!'' thing

LostBoy101

exovoomnia wrote: »

I think I will go for it, I always loved it at Junior Cert but then I was scared into picking two sciences with the whole ''But what if you want to do medicine??!!!'' thing

You may say you loved in Junior Cert but I hate to tell you that if don't like politics then you are in for a long ride.

Jolly Red Giant

There is not a lot of comparison between JC and LC history. In effect JC history looks at the who, what when and where - LC history concerns itself with the how and the why.

History is no more difficult than any other subject and Lost Boy is not necessarily correct that you have to like politics - it would depend on which topics you do.

Furthermore - I would disagree with JDOC's contention that the project is a b*tch - the project allows you the flexibility of selecting, researching and writing your own topic (and in the process you will learn skills that you will use in third level) and is actually the easiest part of the course as it is the one area where you can ensure you are doing something you want to do yourself.

At this stage you will probably have missed out on one full topic (although it will be revised next year) - I would suggest that you discuss your options with your history teacher to see what the story is.

LostBoy101

It depends on your preferences I suppose and the topics as well. I dreaded the Northern Ireland history as it full of politics and too much information.

Squidgy Black

History's a hell of a lot of work. And it's a lot to study for the exams, it's just essays essays essays. It's nothing like JC history, the exam had multiple choice short questions etc, where you just had to know the basis of the topic. LC history is like an in-depth analysis of the topics, and you have to just study essay after essay.

I wouldn't recommend it.

weirdspider

exovoomnia wrote: »

I'm currently in 5th year and up until now I've been doing chemistry
Do you think it's too late for me to move to history? Have I missed too much?

By no means is it too late. Many take up a subject in one year and you have only missed about 2 months. I would advise you however to get chatting to the history students and have a good read through their books/notes to get a feel for the subject.
I personally disliked history as it involved a huge amount of rote learning and this was made more difficult by the fact that the info can be incoherent and scattered throughout the book/essays. I also found the essays laborious and difficult to write as around 10-12 facts had to be included in each (large) paragraph for an A and even then an A wasn't always guaranteed. You also have to worry about the structure/format of the essay like in English as it is an essay after all. The marking scheme is just as vague as it is for English and examiners can be subjective. As far as I remember no-one in my class got an A, even the very top students and we had an excellent teacher.(presumably the quota of As had been filled...)
Chemistry on the other hand is, in my opinion, much easier to get an A in provided 1.You have a teacher that can explain the concepts well and/or 2.You are an independent learner and can study complex concepts yourself. After that revising notes and continuously doing exam papers and correcting using the marking schemes should ensure a high grade.
I would advise you to do chemistry for the reasons above but if you wish to do history for your own reasons then go for it.