When I did the Leaving music was about the hardest subject to get an A in, and something like 50% of people who sat the honours paper got a C.ICUH8N said:classics, latin, music, applied maths are niche subjects; you end up with very small class sizes (if any classes) and students who are unusually motivated/talented, and the results are usually disproportionately good compared to the norm, I think.
I could be wrong about this, but I've heard that Leaving cert marks are adjusted to fit pre-decided proportions of grades. If that is the case you're basically competing for grades with everyone else who's sitting the exam, so if you want to do well you should choose subjects that attract dullards