Leaving Certificate Subject Choices

rebCIA007

Hello everyone! I'm recently having a great dilemma about my subject choices I took:

-German
-Chemistry
-Biology
-Physcs

...my first plan was to take chemistry and german because they're my favourite subjects and ones I mostly care about (there is only one chemistry class made comparing to biology which will have four because most people want to take it). I enjoy science, it fascinates me and its fun to learn so I also took biology (loads of theory but in this case I don't mind). And then when I came to my last subject... that's where my dilemma starts. In the last group I had a choice between:

-Physics, Art, Music, and Home Economics.

I'm definitely not taking Home Economics.

I love art but it's really hard to get an A (my teacher said that a very small percentage of students get A's, work has to be university standard and that freaked me out. Although I'm sure I'd get a B I'm still really concerned about the points)

So I'm left with Physics or Music. I already had music up to now, I like the subject but i never really cared about it untill recently, meaning I never thought I'd have to choose between physics and music so I didnt do particularlly well in anything other than my practical. But I know it's not that hard (like phisics would be) and if I actually spent enough time studying I coud get a high grade most likely a B. Although dictation is a nightmare...but it comes with practice. Physics I'm a bit scared of because i already have two sciences an all my teachers (including my science one) say I should re think my choices cause its strange and it might not work I talked to my teachers and for now I have

-German
-Chemistry
-Biology
-Physics

but they say that if I find it too hard I can change physics for music/art in the first two months of my senior cycle. Which one should I take?

spurious

If you like Music, take Music.

Peregrine

Why would your teachers say that it's strange? Biology, Chemistry and Physics is one of the most common combination of subjects chosen for the Leaving Cert.

rebCIA007

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Why would your teachers say that it's strange? Biology, Chemistry and Physics is one of the most common combination of subjects chosen for the Leaving Cert.

They say it's loads of theory which is hard to get high points in and that most universities only rquire 1/2 sciences and a language , so I should go for one lighter subject to make life easier for myself. Also they say it's for people who are really strong at maths, and in this case I'm really unsure about physics

AtomicKoala

rebCIA007 wrote: »

They say it's loads of theory which is hard to get high points in and that most universities only rquire 1/2 sciences and a language , so I should go for one lighter subject to make life easier for myself. Also they say it's for people who are really strong at maths, and in this case I'm really unsure about physics

That's a strange thing for a teacher to say. Music is loads of theory as well :pac:

Anyhow, Physics has a decent A1 rate (10%, it's the same as Chemistry).

I didn't like the subject when I took it up, but once I learned I had to study it (:pac: I know), it was grand, and I rather like it now - science subjects are great to study as well.

Also, if you do a science course, doing Physics will help you. It might only be marginal, and it wont really give you an edge or anything (certainly not past first year), but if you are interested in science, I would do it.

Flickka

I'm in LC now and doing all 4 of the sciences (including Ag). If they are your best subjects and you find them interesting I would definitely recommend it. I was the only one in my year who did all 3 but the workload in them, in my opinion, is not higher than other subjects. At the end of the day, the subjects you are most likely going to do best in are the ones you like the most as you won't be putting off studying them etc.
In relation to physics, for some reason there is this huge stigma surrounding it that it is super difficult which is entirely not the case. It has one of the highest percentage of A grades, a relatively low amount of theory and the calculations are not very difficult and quite repetitive. A few people in my physics class don't do HL maths and they are doing fine in the subject. I would recommend doing it if it interests you.

AtomicKoala

Yeah, Physics is something you can't cram at the last minute (I mean if you tried you could probably take up say, History a month before the exam and do great), if you revise well before class tests and do all your homework so that you understand it, then when the crunch time comes, it's grand. Like any science subject, you can just flake away at exam papers.

It's so much easier to study it than say, English or French, genuinely. Certainly at this stage. And it's this stage (a month before the exam), that matters.

rebCIA007

Ok, thank you for all advice really appreciate it, I got really worried since only one other person on my year took all three and after our teachers freaked us out she chose not to do physics while i started panicking I'll stick with physics, (unless it'll be very critically bad, then I can always move to art or music which are smaller classes and still have places) but I think it will (hopefully) work well for me in the end considering science is my strongest and subject...I might regret not choosing art after some time but ah well, physics is more useful and that's really important to me Thanks a lot!

AtomicKoala

rebCIA007 wrote: »

Ok, thank you for all advice really appreciate it, I got really worried since only one other person on my year took all three and after our teachers freaked us out she chose not to do physics while i started panicking I'll stick with physics, (unless it'll be very critically bad, then I can always move to art or music which are smaller classes and still have places) but I think it will (hopefully) work well for me in the end considering science is my strongest and subject...I might regret not choosing art after some time but ah well, physics is more useful and that's really important to me Thanks a lot!

I think Art is rather like History, you'll have great craic up until Christmas, but all my Art friends are freaking out now - they have to devote more hours to art than any other subject, ridiculous given the low A rate.