JC off topic '12

SChique00 wrote: »

We were told at the start of the year that a minimum of 30 pages was required, but I can't remember mine ever being that long. Quality over quantity - type it up (obviously), use a professional font with colour in the headings, interject long paragraphs with pictures/sketches of your project at the stage you're talking about, or sketches of the tools you have used. I reckon with pictures and an average font size, 3 or 4 pages for each section is more than enough. Oh, and don't forget to use the proper technical terms/language - examiners will know when you're BSing but they eat that technical crap up
B in HL Technology SCUPP :cool:

Yeah i'm screwed. My project is terrible :L

SChique00 wrote: »

Don't worry, my project was properly sh!t - in fact, only one person in our class of 20 had a decent idea and finished project - but we all passed! ^^" I think it was my snazzy report that did it - don't over-concentrate on the actual project, just try and win as many report marks as you can what were the options this year?

Amm I chose to make a revolving jewelry tree , im not to sure of the other options.

KirkCheated09 wrote: »

What were your JC results if you don't mind me asking and how long did you spend studying each subject?

No problemo, here they are (I did all HL, btw ):
English (A) - English is my favourite subject because I love to write, but in the weeks leading up to the exam I was properly sh!tting bricks because I was afraid that I would be caught off-guard by the questions on paper two (wasn't really worried about paper one because you just work with what you're given, and I always find an essay title to suit something I've written before). There's no secret to English - it's all about hard graft and a little bit of natural flair - so I just kept doing questions for studied drama, fiction and poetry, preparing sample answers for every possible type of question that they could throw at me. For example, for my studied fiction (To Kill A Mockingbird) I wrote out a sample answer for questions about Scout, Atticus, Boo, relationship between Scout and Boo, atmosphere and a key scene. Ditto Romeo and Juliet. For poetry, try and prepare a poem for each theme they could throw at you - war, love, nature, etc. I probably could've devoted more time to my other subjects, but I really wanted this A! If anyone needs any help with English please let me know!
Irish (B) - ugh, Irish -_- 'tis the bain of my existence, but I did try hard at it last year - for the uairscéal I wrote out sample answers for bás, brón, eagla, etc. I made sure I knew at least 3 different poems and wrote out the themes present in each one. I bought one of those overpriced revision books (because they were useful for grammar) and just kept practising sentence structures, writing out the different tenses, and gave them to my teacher to correct. Didn't do any study for the oral and I got seriously lucky with the tape xD I would deffo study for the oral if I could do it again, though. A lot of natural ability is needed for this subject, which I don't have. :P
French (A) - did much the same as with Irish, except it was a lot easier - know a few generic and unique sentences for the letter and postcard, know your tenses (can't stress this ENOUGH), listen to recordings of French people and do lots of oral work, and build up your vocabulary in order to breeze through the comprehensions (but they're fairly easy to start with!).
Maths (C) - got grinds for Maths, and don't think I would've done half as well without them. I still struggle with Maths and reckon I'll be dropping to OL next year, but I'm only going to do what I'm capable of. Just practise the questions in exam papers, and LEARN YOUR THEOREMS. The amount of people that complain about them - they're practically handing you the marks for memorising a formula!
These next three I spent more or less the same amount of time one - just going back over class notes, practising exam questions, etc. etc. I made sure to show every paper I got through to my teacher to get feedback
History (A) - a lot of this mark arose from chance - I had made predictions before the exam, and they were all (thankfully!) accurate. I learned off a few people in history (not all of them); ditto the essays, and focused on the Social History question because it always comes up. A lot of people will ward you off it completely, and AFAIK I was the only person in my year to attempt it, but I was good at it and my teacher encouraged me to go with my gut, so I did! If you're doing Social History, remember NEVER to BS - some people reckon that it's dead easy, but an examiner will see straight through any waffle because it's expected of the question, so know your facts and incorporate them appropriately. I found flash cards a big help with this subject!
Geography (A) - Handy enough, just go back over class notes, past papers and don't neglect the short questions because they count for a lot - as our teacher told us, if you mess up as little as two short questions, you've lost yourself an A. I did the physical geography questions because they are ridiculously easy, so long as you're reasonably good at drawing and colouring in, and you know your facts and features (and there aren't that many). We were told to do the map question all along but I opted out on the day as I found them very time consuming, but just my opinion.
Business (B) - not making excuses, but Business is a really long exam and unless you're doing OL, you won't have any time left at the end (I didn't and I'm a fast writer). Just try and do as much as you can with the time you have, and in Part B and the 2nd paper, only do 4 questions - don't try and do an extra one, focus on making the four you've done as good as they possibly can be.
Science (B) - didn't do a whole lot of study for this one, if I'm honest xP SPHE, Home Ec and Technology overlapped a lot with the topics in Biology and Physics, and some of the Chemistry questions were plain common sense. Just go back over notes, make sure all of your experiments are in your folder (because 20% is not to be sniffed at!) and learn off formulas for physics, technical biology terms/phrases, and chemistry experiments in your book.
Home Ec (A) - came down to my awesome practical work and BSing skills in the written exam - just chose the consumery and health questions and threw in facts from Embarrassing Bodies, Business and other places Spent a lot of time on my textile project and getting my cookery plan off-pat, so by the time April/May rolled round, all I had left to do was learn off the info from the book and regurgitate it in the exam!
Technology (B) - hahahah I really did get lucky here; my excellent report got me through it (hell, I didn't even finish the paper!)... studied the electrical components, different mechanisms, and did endless Technology in Society questions, because our teacher only ever did those in class :L
CPSE (A) - no study involved, we didn't even use the CSPE book (complete waste of money). Once you have a decent, well-developed action report and do the poster question in the written exam, you're sorted (I left after a half-hour!)

SChique00 wrote: »

Wowee didn't realise I wrote so much O.O
So in short, 6 As, 4 Bs and 1 C is very achievable with a little bit of revision, as long as you've been listening in class most/all of the time, and you've built up a decent collection of notes. You also have to willing to work for the last few weeks, but don't overdo it!

What subjects did you pick for next year ?

SChique00 wrote: »

No problemo, here they are (I did all HL, btw ):
English (A) - English is my favourite subject because I love to write, but in the weeks leading up to the exam I was properly sh!tting bricks because I was afraid that I would be caught off-guard by the questions on paper two (wasn't really worried about paper one because you just work with what you're given, and I always find an essay title to suit something I've written before). There's no secret to English - it's all about hard graft and a little bit of natural flair - so I just kept doing questions for studied drama, fiction and poetry, preparing sample answers for every possible type of question that they could throw at me. For example, for my studied fiction (To Kill A Mockingbird) I wrote out a sample answer for questions about Scout, Atticus, Boo, relationship between Scout and Boo, atmosphere and a key scene. Ditto Romeo and Juliet. For poetry, try and prepare a poem for each theme they could throw at you - war, love, nature, etc. I probably could've devoted more time to my other subjects, but I really wanted this A! If anyone needs any help with English please let me know!
Irish (B) - ugh, Irish -_- 'tis the bain of my existence, but I did try hard at it last year - for the uairscéal I wrote out sample answers for bás, brón, eagla, etc. I made sure I knew at least 3 different poems and wrote out the themes present in each one. I bought one of those overpriced revision books (because they were useful for grammar) and just kept practising sentence structures, writing out the different tenses, and gave them to my teacher to correct. Didn't do any study for the oral and I got seriously lucky with the tape xD I would deffo study for the oral if I could do it again, though. A lot of natural ability is needed for this subject, which I don't have. :P
French (A) - did much the same as with Irish, except it was a lot easier - know a few generic and unique sentences for the letter and postcard, know your tenses (can't stress this ENOUGH), listen to recordings of French people and do lots of oral work, and build up your vocabulary in order to breeze through the comprehensions (but they're fairly easy to start with!).
Maths (C) - got grinds for Maths, and don't think I would've done half as well without them. I still struggle with Maths and reckon I'll be dropping to OL next year, but I'm only going to do what I'm capable of. Just practise the questions in exam papers, and LEARN YOUR THEOREMS. The amount of people that complain about them - they're practically handing you the marks for memorising a formula!
These next three I spent more or less the same amount of time one - just going back over class notes, practising exam questions, etc. etc. I made sure to show every paper I got through to my teacher to get feedback
History (A) - a lot of this mark arose from chance - I had made predictions before the exam, and they were all (thankfully!) accurate. I learned off a few people in history (not all of them); ditto the essays, and focused on the Social History question because it always comes up. A lot of people will ward you off it completely, and AFAIK I was the only person in my year to attempt it, but I was good at it and my teacher encouraged me to go with my gut, so I did! If you're doing Social History, remember NEVER to BS - some people reckon that it's dead easy, but an examiner will see straight through any waffle because it's expected of the question, so know your facts and incorporate them appropriately. I found flash cards a big help with this subject!
Geography (A) - Handy enough, just go back over class notes, past papers and don't neglect the short questions because they count for a lot - as our teacher told us, if you mess up as little as two short questions, you've lost yourself an A. I did the physical geography questions because they are ridiculously easy, so long as you're reasonably good at drawing and colouring in, and you know your facts and features (and there aren't that many). We were told to do the map question all along but I opted out on the day as I found them very time consuming, but just my opinion.
Business (B) - not making excuses, but Business is a really long exam and unless you're doing OL, you won't have any time left at the end (I didn't and I'm a fast writer). Just try and do as much as you can with the time you have, and in Part B and the 2nd paper, only do 4 questions - don't try and do an extra one, focus on making the four you've done as good as they possibly can be.
Science (B) - didn't do a whole lot of study for this one, if I'm honest xP SPHE, Home Ec and Technology overlapped a lot with the topics in Biology and Physics, and some of the Chemistry questions were plain common sense. Just go back over notes, make sure all of your experiments are in your folder (because 20% is not to be sniffed at!) and learn off formulas for physics, technical biology terms/phrases, and chemistry experiments in your book.
Home Ec (A) - came down to my awesome practical work and BSing skills in the written exam - just chose the consumery and health questions and threw in facts from Embarrassing Bodies, Business and other places Spent a lot of time on my textile project and getting my cookery plan off-pat, so by the time April/May rolled round, all I had left to do was learn off the info from the book and regurgitate it in the exam!
Technology (B) - hahahah I really did get lucky here; my excellent report got me through it (hell, I didn't even finish the paper!)... studied the electrical components, different mechanisms, and did endless Technology in Society questions, because our teacher only ever did those in class :L
CPSE (A) - no study involved, we didn't even use the CSPE book (complete waste of money). Once you have a decent, well-developed action report and do the poster question in the written exam, you're sorted (I left after a half-hour!)

Sorry again but do you know for technology, the generation of ideas do you include your final solution in these drawings ? And one last question what is included in drawings for manufacture ?
Thanks

KirkCheated09 wrote: »

I chose business and accounting too.. everybody called me mad for picking both! :P

Don't worry - what's really mad is people opting for all four Science subjects... it's not because they're "narrowing their options for college" (they're not) it's just so much stuff to learn! I could never do it :eek:

and geography

GEOGRAPHY....kill me. hate.

KirkCheated09 wrote: »

Haha I don't really wan't to go down the science route.. the only thing that would interest me is astro physics and I can't see myself working in that :P .. I really did not want to do DCG or Construction so I chose business and accounting.. and geography

I wanted to do Art and Woodwork for the Junior - got stuck with crappy old Home Ec and Technology... H.E. didn't exactly pique my curiosity and I was glad to drop it, but Technology gave me more of an understanding and interest in mechanisms and the nuts and bolts (pardon the pun) of how machines and different types of vehicles work, i.e. not on fairy dust as I had previously envisioned :rolleyes:

ohsurelook wrote: »

GEOGRAPHY....kill me. hate.

gway you

who doesn't like geography

ohsurelook wrote: »

^I would say I'm mistaken for Beyoncé but no-one can match her brilliance

TRUE THAT

KirkCheated09 wrote: »

I should've done HE instead of TG. I love cooking and reckon I'd get used to the sewing crap :P .. I do TG instead.. which I find easy enough .. never studied it a day in my life(too long to set up:P) and have never gotten below 70% :P :P

Technology isn't offered in my school... sound interesting though :P ... haha fairy dust .. :P

The theory is a pain but it overlaps with most subjects, and the textile project can drag on and on and on (we spent the whole of second year on it without any cooking classes ), but yeah - Cookery FTW!

Technology is sort of a mix between Woodwork and TG - there's a lot of different stuff involved but again, the theory can be a biatch. And you need a good teacher who's willing to thoroughly explain stuff :L