What’s an easy A? Should students pick their subjects based on how likely they are to get an honour, or based on what they are interested in?

Year after year, the same subjects tend to give the highest number of honours grades. But it’s rarely because a particular subject is necessarily “easier”: a combination of factors including how interested students are in the topic and, increasingly, whether or not some element of continuous assessment is involved, also come into play. Ultimately, an analysis of grades year on year suggests that students should go for the subjects they love – not those they think will be easier.

From next year, students who get 30 per cent or more will pass their subject; we can expect to see a marked decline in failure rates (which also tend to be consistent from year to year).

So which honours subjects had the best and worst success rates this year, and why?

“Easy” honours

Music and art This year, 6,046 students took the higher level music exam, with 94.3 per cent getting an A, B or C at higher level including 15.7 per cent who secured an A. Of the 7,789 students who sat higher level art, 80.9 per cent got an honour, although only 5.2 per cent secured an A grade.

These figures are not surprising. Students have consistently been the most likely to get an honour over the years. This is because students who take music tend to be particularly passionate about their subject and are likely to have been performing since childhood, while students who are drawn to art also tend to be rather skilled at it.

Both of these subjects also have a significant component devoted to continuous assessment and project work, which helps relieve pressure at exam time.

Latin

This has been a surprisingly controversial paper in recent years. The 2016 higher level paper was described by one teacher as “extremely difficult” and “another milestone on the road to extinction”.

However, while 104 students took the subject, 94.2 per cent secured honours including 30.7 per cent who got an A grade. Nobody failed.

Latin was compulsory for university matriculation until the 1970s, but is now generally only offered in a few fee-paying schools – which may go some way towards explaining the high success rates.

Irish

The most divisive of subjects can also be the most rewarding; if students put the work in, they can do very well. This year, a total of 20,098 students sat the honours paper; 13.6 per cent got an A while another 71.7 per cent secured an honour (B or C grade). The introduction of 40 per cent marks for an oral exam has helped improve scores. By way of comparison, Arabic, with 110 students – most of whom are native speakers – had an honours rate of 84.6 per cent.

The failure rate was just 0.6 per cent – second only to Latin and Russian which have much smaller numbers.

For the ordinary level paper, which was taken by 23,549 students, the results were less impressive: 72.6 per cent got an A, B or C while 4.3 per cent failed.

Home economics

Last year, 80.1 per cent of home economics secured an honour in the paper; this year, the figure is up slightly, to 83 per cent. Home economics is still very female dominated, with just 1,385 boys sitting the paper compared to 11,899 girls.

Design & communication graphics, engineering and construction studies

These are, again, three subjects that tend to be taken by students with a particular interest and aptitude. For design & communication graphics, 82.9 per cent got an A, B or C, while the figures for engineering and construction studies were 80.9 and 79.3 per cent.

“Hard” honours

Physics & chemistry

Students sitting this subject take physics and chemistry on the same paper. Year after year, it has the lowest success rate, the highest fail rate (13.2 per cent this year) and the lowest number of honours grades (65.9 per cent). A total of 438 students sat the paper this year.

Classical studies

Yet again, the number of students securing an honour in classical studies is very low – second only to physics & chemistry. Of the 551 students who sat the honours paper, 67 per cent got an A, B or C; the failure rate of 9.1 per cent was the third-highest, after physics and physics and chemistry.

Biology

Here’s where received wisdom meets uncomfortable reality. Biology is, by far, the most popular of all non-compulsory subjects, with 25,212 students. It’s generally seen as a lot easier than either physics or chemistry. But, in fact, it has the third lowest-rate of honours grades, at 68.5 per cent, while the failure rate is 8.9 per cent.

By comparison, 70.1 per cent of physics students get an honour and 10.2 per cent failed and 71.4 per cent of chemistry students get an honour. It suggests that, while science subjects by their very nature can be challenging for some students, those who are interested in physics or chemistry should go for it.