Subjects?

Gwyllin

I'm not Irish so I don't know much about the Leaving Cert. What subjects can you choose from and how many can you take(minimum - maximum)?

*Angel*

You might wanna check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_Cert

6 subjects are counted for points so you'd generally take at least 6 subjects cos it makes sense, although you can pretty much take as many as you want and then use your 6 best.

phantom_lord

There's about 20+ subjects so you should probably check out www.examinations.ie for the list. Your best 6 subjects are used for points so really that's the min while normally people do 7. I did 8 any more than that is unusual. Hope that helps.

phantom_lord

Just pipped me to it...

*Angel*

I guess I did...

Gwyllin

Allright! Do you take minimum 6 subjects in one year or over a longer period?

2 years.

Psychedelik

You can get 70 points with the LCVP, equal to a C1. Has anyone any opinions on this? Is it a good idea to rely on LCVP for the points instead of a regular subject?

BTW, I see on the Wikipedia site (such an excellent resource, isn't it?): "As a Canadian myself, I consider the Irish secondary education curriculum to be far superior to the Canadian, US or UK models."

How bout that, huh?

*Angel*

Are you coming over here Gwyllin or are you just interested for some unknown reason?

JBoyle4eva

Is it possible to do sign language for the LC? Somebody please clarify for me.

*Roisin*

Not for the leaving cert established or whatever the original one's called, but I think it's a module for leaving cert applied.

Check www.examinations.ie

Gwyllin

Oh I'm just interested. For some unknown reason. No, not really. I just like knowing the differences between the Norwegian system and the Irish. Norwegian schools demands their students to take a lot more subjects, about 50% compulsory(foundation maths, religion, physical ed., nature science, english, norwegian, a second language(most often german!) und so weiter und so weiter). The rest is optional.

During my three years I have taken about 17 subjects. Some just for one year, some for two and bla-bla-bla. So.. 17 is a lot more than 6.. which means that Irish students get a lot of sparetime and more time to organise their own studies. Is that true? I envy you!

EDIT: By the way, I am 19 years old and I've finished secondary shcool so I don't need to go to Ireland to get a Leaving Cert.

abercrombie

Gwyllin wrote:

Oh I'm just interested. For some unknown reason. No, not really. I just like knowing the differences between the Norwegian system and the Irish. Norwegian schools demands their students to take a lot more subjects, about 50% compulsory(foundation maths, religion, physical ed., nature science, english, norwegian, a second language(most often german!) und so weiter und so weiter). The rest is optional.

During my three years I have taken about 17 subjects. Some just for one year, some for two and bla-bla-bla. So.. 17 is a lot more than 6.. which means that Irish students get a lot of sparetime and more time to organise their own studies. Is that true? I envy you!

EDIT: By the way, I am 19 years old and I've finished secondary shcool so I don't need to go to Ireland to get a Leaving Cert.

jesus...are you serious??


who wants to move to norway?!?!

Gwyllin

There are those who take more subjects too. And those who want to study medicine need a lot of maths, physics and chemistry and they need top grades(A's) in ALL of their subjects to be able to study medicine. THat's crazy and it's so far from the requirements in universities in other countries. The total minimum number of hours you need over these three years is 90. That's a lot!! :eek: You have about 30 hours each week the first year, the same the next year and so on.

In my first year I had 7 compulsory subjects. In the second year I had about the same, but it was less the third year. The amount of work of course depends on what subjects you choose. There was a guy in my class who had almost 40 hours of lectures and lab-work(because he took physics, chemistry and biology). 40 hours is more than an adult works weekly!!! But he was very keen though, and very efficient. And MOTIVATED.

But it is hard to find motivation and many students drop out of classes because it is too much to do. And now some wacky politician wants us to do MORE! More languages and more maths!

And they are so impressed with the way they do it in England - but England is incomparable with this army-ordeal that we have! :mad:

newgrange

Psychedelik wrote:

You can get 70 points with the LCVP, equal to a C1. Has anyone any opinions on this? Is it a good idea to rely on LCVP for the points instead of a regular subject?

Not sure what you mean by 'instead of a regular subject'....

The LCVP module requires independent work by the candidate, which some people who excel at learning off and giving back stuff aren't so good at, so if you are the sort of person can work alone, and you are willing to put in a bit of work, it's very possible to get the full marks for the module.

Personally I think it's worth doing from a lifeskills point of view anyhow, but it does depend a little on the teacher who is responsible for it in the school and how dedicated to it they are. If you have a teacher who sees the LCVP module as a timetable filler and not a 'regular subject' you will get that attitude in their classes, in their organisation and in the results of their students.

If you're interested in going to college, the independent nature of some of the work for the LCVP is much better preparation for college work than many other LC subjects.