Junior Cert Question.

Colm! wrote: »

Right. Here's the basics to get As in all the subjects I did...
I spent ages writing this, and might add more to it whenever I can be bothered. Feel free to PM me if you've got something to add as well

Maths
Maths is a very, very straightforward subject. It's practically static, year after year the same things come up. Practice exam papers, see if your answers are right. If they're not, ask a friend who's good at maths, your teacher or Boards.ie for help, you'll get an explanation. After a while, you will just start getting good at it.
There's a lot less study and revision in maths: you don't need to learn off much any more (since the introduction of the new tables, most of what needs to be learned off are the theorems and their proofs).

Irish
I didn't get an A in Irish, maybe this is bad advice
Irish is a notoriously difficult A. Being good at speaking the language is a lot of it though. Speak Irish from time to time. If you've gone to a Gaelscoil or summer Irish college, you've got the advantage of having spoken Irish.
Familiarity with the language is half the battle though.
A lot of Irish is comprehension. Watch a bit of TG4 to see if you can understand it, maybe read Foinse occasionally (they happen to have good tips and information for people doing the exams) or a novel in Irish.
For the written sections, practice is the key. Your Irish teacher probably gives you a lot of homework in this area anyway: do some in your study time as well. Learn some handy phrases. Your Irish teacher will give you a lot of these but check out the notes thread too.
For the sections based on the prose and poem, don't be reliant on learning off notes. Try to understand the text and adapt your knowledge to the question. If that doesn't work, I guess using a prepared answer might have to be an option.

French \ German \ Spanish (etc?)
The French paper is divided into three sections (and as far as I know, this repeats across the other foreign language subjects):
1. Listening Comprehension
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Written Section

Again, the key is practice.
To prepare for the Comprehensions: Although you won't know much as much French as you do Irish, listening to and reading a bit of French is important to get you used to the language. The tapes can be difficult: it's spoken quite quickly. This can be a shock at first but in time you will be able to pick up the language as it's spoken. Do past papers when you can. Practice is the best study.
For the written section: Again, practice. But a handy tip is to learn a lot of phrases. You'll find them in a lot of places: again, ask your teacher, or check out the amazing notes thread. You'll find posts such as this. They help keep your letter\postcard interesting. Take a look at the papers, see what types of things you'll be asked to write about. Learn how to talk about those things.

History
History is very study-intensive. But the key is to focus study into areas that need it. Pick an exam question, try to answer it. If you think your knowledge is lacking, get learning.
Exam technique and time management are VERY important in History. To quote a post from a thread last year about the Q4 (People In History) question:

So, use all the time you've been given to fill your answers with significant, relevant information. That's how to get history: smart studying technique, smart exam technique. It's a very easy exam in my opinion.

Geography
didn't A this either
Geography's paper is the easiest to prepare for: the short questions are simple so long as you know the subject well. They also count for a lot of the paper, giving Geography the reputation as an "easy" subject. Less that 3.2% failed the HL paper last year.
That means nothing. Only 9% of people will get an A: meaning the second part of the paper, the long questions, are a lot harder than they appear. They will be marked difficultly.
When attacking the long questions, answer questions with three well-developed points. In this case, a "well-developed point" is a statement backed up with an example and an explanation. Here's an example of an adaquete point in Geography:

(obviously you're not meant to write "statement, example, explanation" next to it, it's meant to be as a paragraph. I just did that to point out the format)
Studying is much the same as History. Check what you know, learn what you don't.

English
The English paper is a test on your ability to read and write. You will write. A lot. Use ALL of your time, but manage it well. Bring a watch to the exam (well, to every exam, but this one is the most important in terms of time IMO). Everything is just based on the ideas of being able to read and write well. And as I said before in every subject, practice is key. So, for the love of God, read and write as much as you can.
Read books, newspapers, poems, short stories, Boards.ie...
Write short stories, poems, books, posts on Boards.ie...
This helps a lot. Marks are going for your writing ability.
Read the novel\short story\play\poem you've been given to study, know it, know its characters, memorable scenes but most importantly of all be able to quote. I don't expect you to know all the lights of Dulce Et Decorum Est but I do expect you to know important lines from the poem which you can use to illustrate your points in the exam. Your teacher's notes (and Boards's notes!) will only bring you so far. You're going to have to understand what you're writing about! Take your own notes for quick study, post them in the notes thread (share the love, people). In the case of poems, focus your study on ones that you like, but make sure you have this at least:

What's the key to doing well in...?:
Personal Writing? Practice. Really. You'll get better at writing this section in time. Some people find the short story to be the ideal answer for this question, but start thinking about how to approach it in different ways. Diary entries? Descriptive pieces? Get experimenting.
Functional writing? Practice. Just get good at writing.
Media Studies, Comprehension? Having a good ability to understand what you're reading and answer questions based on it. How do you get that ability? Practice.
Studied poetry\play\short story\novel? Make sure you understand it well. Practice essays. Read notes if you need to.
Unstudied poetry\play\short story? Same as the above. Practice old papers. You won't know them, so you won't have the benefit of notes: get used to reading.

Business Studies
Guess what I'm going to tell you to do here.
Practice and study.
Certain things come up year after year. Final Accounts and the Ledger question have shown up every single time. Practice them. Learn them. Get the marks.
Although a lot of theory in BS can be called "basic common sense", don't neglect this subject. Study for it the same as you would for History and Geography: don't assume you know everything, find out what you don't know and get learning that.

CSPE
I didn't get an A in this! No, seriously. CSPE isn't as easy as it sounds
If you approach CSPE with the idea that you are going to get an A in CSPE, you more than likely will not get an A in CSPE.
Although 40% of the marks go for the easiest paper in history which is basically a test of common sense and your knowledge of current affairs, the other 60% go for the project. You will have to provide a detailed report of the project you have done, explain everything well and clearly. You're going to need a good project for a good report, so put the effort in when you do the project and you will be rewarded with plenty to write about for the report.

You could easily get 100% in the paper and still not get an A as a result of the project. Be warned.

Religion
25% of this is project. You can do the project individually or in a group. Usually it's very simple: maybe do some research, interview a few people about their faith, etc. You must learn something new, present your findings to the class, and write up a project booklet about the project, what you've learned and your own opinions on what the project was about: has this opinion changed by undertaking the project?
The exam is actually rather difficult. You will need to do a LOT of writing: it'll be hard to do all the questions in the time limit. In fact many of my friends said that they didn't finish the paper in time. Bring a watch, be careful, keep an eye on the time at all times.
Study the subject matter and know it well. There isn't much room for practice here, the exam is mostly a test of your knowledge. There's also many questions where personal opinion comes into play. Here's a quote from the marking scheme:

As you can see, it leaves room for interpretation. In many ways, if you'll do well in English, you'll do well in Religion, your ability to write will go a long way.

Science
Didn't get an A in this, I blame lazy project work
As with CSPE and Religion, project work will play a large role in the Science paper, and it will definitely be a difference between an A and a B. Write out all your experiments for the project coursework clearly, explaining everything and covering everything you have done. It's important.
The Science paper is short, but it will challenge your knowledge and understanding of many aspects of the course. EVERYTHING must be revised and understood. You'll also need to have learned off specific experiments and formulae, these will be explained to you by your teacher. Remember them.
As I've said for everything else: study what you're not too sure on, and practice papers.


Finally...
Don't panic. Aiming to get an A in every subject is challenging work. Some of the smartest people I know haven't done that. My brother still got Bs in his JC despite moving on to get 580 points.
I didn't get an A in every subject. Why? Because I didn't work hard enough to. I didn't study as much as I'm advising you to.However you're setting yourself high targets, so you should be prepared to work hard to get them.

Don't throw your life away for the JC. An hour or two a day is plenty. Don't go overkill and don't do what some of my friends did and just cut off their social life for the JC (although one of them emerged with 8 As)

My advice for every subject I listed above sounds like I'm telling you to do the same thing over and over again, but that's just what you have to do.

Remember: the JC is something you're meant to do well in. It's a practice for the LC. Don't stress yourself to get the As. At the end of the day, this is just a first step. Don't panic, don't stress, don't over-work.
I got 6 As. Looking back, would I have worked harder? Of course, then I'd maybe have gotten 8 or more.


I think that might have helped.