Leaving Cert advice

dajaffa

Just thought it was about time someone started a thread with advice and s**t. I repeated and did pretty well so I'll start;

Biology: Learn your exps, and the reasons for each step(should be in your book). If you can nail your ecology and genetics, you'll have at least one Q in sections A and C sorted. For articles in section C, just read them carefully and apply whatever bio you can, they're handy for picking up good marks.

Business: The best thing you can do is summarise every chapter to about one page. If you can remember the key points, you can easily flesh them out wit your own cop-on. I did this (and basically nothing else) and got an A2 in a year.

Physics: Know your exps, your axes for graphs, and knowing your atomic physics (incl option), should cover 2 long Qs. If you want, you can leave out one section altogether. I left out electricity, which is about a quarter of the whole thing, and still had choice in the paper.

Chem: Basically learn your experiments really well cause they can be tough in the exam, and practice calculations.

Home Ec: Learn your food and your option really well, and either the social or the economic stuff. I'd say the economic stuff if you want a high grade cause it's hard to get full marks in the social.

English: All I'll say is learn the female poets cause you'll be sorted for the poet Q.

French: Remember for the comps, apart from the last Q, you can basically take your answers directly from the text, once you put on quotation marks.

Maths:It's basically a question of practice. You can seriously improve between now and June. Do some work on probability cause they tend to be easy, short Qs which don't really change from year to year and give you some extra time for the rest of the paper. Write out all the formulae you need to remember (there aren't actually that many), and learn them.

Good luck!

Aporia

dajaffa wrote:

Business: The best thing you can do is summarise every chapter to about one page. If you can remember the key points, you can easily flesh them out wit your own cop-on. I did this (and basically nothing else) and got an A2 in a year.

thanks for that I'm repeating at the moment and I failed business last year I didn't study atall and I got what I deserved really. that seems like a pretty good idea I'm going to try it out.

Rockee

I didnt do absolutely wonderful in my Leaving, I passed and all but Id just like to wish everyone the best of luck and if you dont get what you want straight away dont worry.:) Chin up!

dajaffa

Just noticed I made an error. In biology for ecology and genetics there'll be at least one of each in sections A and C.

Aporia wrote:

thanks for that I'm repeating at the moment and I failed business last year I didn't study atall and I got what I deserved really. that seems like a pretty good idea I'm going to try it out.

Business will be grand. Don't be afraid of using whatever you know just from common knowledge. eg in HRM you have your 6 headings. Once you know them, anybody could make a decent stab without having studied business ever.

Oh, if anyone has any Qs just post them or pm me and I'll be glad to help.

Gangsta

Cheers mate, great post.

Just one question, is there any way to figure out what goes on what axis? It's got the ol noggin itching.

Faith

The thing you can control goes on the X axis. Like in physics, if you're doing a graph of I/V or something, the one that goes on the X axis is the one that you physically controlled and the Y axis is the results for the other one.

dajaffa wrote:

French: Remember for the comps, apart from the last Q, you can basically take your answers directly from the text, once you put on quotation marks.

Pay attention to the wording of the question. I can't remember the exact details, but ask your teacher. The question tells you how it wants the answer. If it asks for "un mot" it wants one word and that's it. If it says "Relevez" or something, they want you to quote.

dajaffa

Gangsta wrote:

Cheers mate, great post.

Just one question, is there any way to figure out what goes on what axis? It's got the ol noggin itching.

I found it handy just to go through the book and do a rough sketch with the title of each exp with the axes labelled. It's grand cause there isn't actually too many of them. Also try to remember if it's a sraight line or a curve cause you'll be able to spot some mmistakes if you make them.

yumtastic_fluff

i did my leaving last year and did surprisingly well. if anyone has any questions bout ordinary maths (a2), honours business (a1), honours french (a1), or honours classical studies (a2)-this one especially as i know how frustrating it is trying to find decent advice since so few people study it! id be more than happy to help!!!!

sariane

Wow A1 in honours french that's impressive! I'm aiming for an A1 too! What was ur technique for like doing french if ya know what i mean? how did u go about getting your A1? god i really don't think this makes sense but sure u might know what i mean!

sariane

oh and about the axis thing, for example : sinI/sinR = N(refractive index) so therefore SinI = NSinR which is in the form y=mx so therefore SinI goes on the y-axis and SinR on the x-axis and N is the slope. that's how i decide anyway! :rolleyes:

yumtastic_fluff

sariane wrote:

Wow A1 in honours french that's impressive! I'm aiming for an A1 too! What was ur technique for like doing french if ya know what i mean? how did u go about getting your A1? god i really don't think this makes sense but sure u might know what i mean!

to be honest, im in love with the language so it came very easy! really i just worked at it a lot. i did every part of the exam papers (including EVERY written production) back until 1997, getting my teacher to correct them for me.
verbs- i never really studied them too hard. i made an a3 poster out of cardboard putting the most important verbs (avoir, etre, aller etc) in the most important tenses (past, present, future and conditional) for special stuff like the subjunctive i just learned a few easily adaptable sentences to get me thru.
i guess its mainly practice!! i made it more interesting by listening to some french music (their rapping is hilarious!!) and french films are great (w/out subtitles is a good idea)- try amelie, love me if you dare and a long engagement to start!!
hope that helps in some way!!!