TransitionTimes: If homework-heavy subjects dominate your timetable, consider art

What subjects are you taking for the Leaving? You might consider art a specialised subject for the few with exceptional talent, but one in five students took art last year, and the honours rates were comparatively high. It's an excellent choice for students who have a homework-heavy selection of subjects and are hoping to balance the books with a more hands-on, right-brain activity.

"There is a wild misconception out there that you cannot learn to draw," says Jane Campbell, an art teacher. "People believe that they already have to be great artists before they can take art as an exam subject. The truth is, if you like art you can learn to get better. There is a system for learning how to draw: believe me, I teach it every day."

Much of the Leaving Cert art syllabus is class-based practical work rather than book learning. As homework goes, the load is relatively light, although you have to be committed to learning the skills of the artist in order to get any satisfaction from the subject.

There are four exams to sit at the end of sixth year - three will be done and dusted before the Leaving Cert even starts. The three practical exams - life drawing, still life and design craft - are held in May; students receive their papers a week in advance, in order to prepare for their composition. The fourth paper, on art history, falls in with the regular Leaving Cert calendar.

"The art-history component draws from an enormous syllabus, but students only have to answer three questions out of 23. You can be quite specific about what you study for art history," says Campbell.

Field trips are an important element of the art syllabus, so students can expect to visit galleries or museums and write about their experience in the art-history exam.

The current art-history syllabus has not been reviewed for more than 80 years, but it's wide enough for teachers and students to update and interpret for their own needs. That said, the art syllabus as we know it is about to change, and the students of 2006-7 will probably be launching into a brand-new course.

"If you have any artistic aptitude and have a lot of heavy subjects for the leaving, I would recommend art," says Campbell. "It's not an easy subject, but it's a break from the norm, because it uses a part of your brain that no other Leaving Cert subject calls upon."