When to start studying?

Gavin "shels"

In 5th at the moment, just wondering when people would recommend to start studying for the Leaving?

My plan is to start making notes between now and the end of the year, starting off with Macbethh notes, then Physics, etc... And then to start studying aa week after I start 6th year.

Xhristy

This post has been deleted.

WexCan

Start as soon as you can tbh, go over everything you've done each day while doing homework that night, start condensing everything into notes.

Depending on the way your school/teacher does things, your 5th year work may be covered again brifly in 6th year, but don't count on it so make sure you're confident about your 5th year stuff before you move on.

Some people, like Xhristy, can do well with little study in 5th year, but not everyone so work out what works well for you.

Right now.

Gavin "shels"

Deleted User wrote: »

Right now.

Honestly though.:D

Naikon

Gavin shels wrote: »

Honestly though.:D

May of sixth year, if you want to hit around the 350 mark:)
Worked for me:D

Seriously though, the hours of study a night approach does not really come into the mix unless you want above 450 points.
Not everyone is the same though, Cramming just personally worked for me.
Remember to work consistantly and do most of the homework.
That was my "study" till late april/early may.

Good luck btw.

Gavin "shels"

Naikon wrote: »

May of sixth year, if you want to hit around the 350 mark:)
Worked for me:D

Seriously though, the hours of study a night approach does not really come into the mix unless you want above 450 points.
Not everyone is the same though, Cramming just personally worked for me.
Remember to work consistantly and do most of the homework.
That was my "study" till late april/early may.

Good luck btw.

Someone who speaks sense:D Well I'd probably try aiming for 450 even though I only need about 350.

Cheers for the advice.;)

Naikon

Gavin shels wrote: »

Someone who speaks sense:D Well I'd probably try aiming for 450 even though I only need about 350.

Cheers for the advice.;)

No problem.
I was pondering these questions last year too just to add:D

Patrickisperfec

start Christmas next year just like me

Prowetod

Would making notes in 5th yr benefit you alot in 6th yr. I am in 5th yr also and cant seem to see myself making notes even tho I would like too. Do you have any tips on making notes?

Patrickisperfec

they would benifit you if u took notes on everything in a certain area- not just on parts of it and if you filed the notes well, only real focused people can do it

JC 2K3

eoccork wrote: »

Would making notes in 5th yr benefit you alot in 6th yr. I am in 5th yr also and cant seem to see myself making notes even tho I would like too. Do you have any tips on making notes?

Make them quick, short, messy, abbreviated, concise, use letters and numbers as labels and 2 different coloured pens for labels and content.

I know some people make really nice looking, neat notes and they organise them really well etc. but personally, I don't think that's a very efficient way of studying. Don't get all attached to your notes and think they're brilliant. They're just things you scribble down on paper to make things go into your head easier. I just had a copy for every subject and scribbled down random notes in there.

Oh and making notes would benefit you IMO, but I wouldn't try to make notes on everything until 6th year. The notes you make in 5th year wouldn't be for looking back on in 6th year, you'd be making them again, but essentially, making notes is a very effective way of studying. So next time you have a class test, make notes on the chapter(s) instead of just reading the book.

Prowetod

Ok thanks for the help

straight_As

I'll keep it concise.

IMO, the best way to study depends entirely on the subject and the person.

For example, apart from theroms, notes for maths would seem pointless. Initial understanding and then practising the questions would seem to be far more beneficial.

Pick a routine that works for you and only you, not someone else. That's how you create an efficient study pattern.

Andrewf20

The leaving cert is behind me (1998), and I studied about 2/3rds as much in 5th year as I did in 6th year. I found that over the summer hols between the 2 years I forgot alot of info, but when it came to revising in 6th year, the 5th year info came back to me very quickly. If you are aiming for big points with average intellect, then get into the books now but dont go too mad. When mid - late 6th year comes you really get a sense of how large the whole curriculum is so give yourself a head start. Not only are you hit with as much stuff in 6th year, but theres a full year of stuff from last year to keep up to speed with.

Some folks didnt make notes in 5th year from the posts above, but I did and it helped.

Polarity

I was going to make a thread about this too, but I'll just post here.

I'm also in 5th year and I want to do medicine (aiming for about 575-580 points). Would now be a good time to start studying hard or what? So far I've just been doing homework and trying to make sure I understand what's been done in class.

kkumk

I spent basically the whole of 5th year in the library and I don't feel like it's done me any good this year!! Although I wouldn't like to imagine how I'd be doing if I hadn't gone...!

daggy

oh. man. you are all such good students! I have been doing sweet f.a and i'm in 6th year... i also need about 530-555 points. Did nothing last year.
trying to study but really its not working..i even did after school study but recently just quit! Last years summer results gave me 500 even points and recent xmas results gave me 460, which is till a good bit off.
Looks like I should start eh... I admire you all. start now. i might too.. nah.

Overheal

Honestly? Keep up with your class work. You need to be doing out your questions each night in math for a start. Every night you should fill a page (or two) per subject about the day's lecture. For example if you scribbled down some economics notes this morning you should transcribe them to a neat A4 copy in the evening and do all the fancy colors on them: it really helps you to remember it all. This approach is great for all your science subjects like Math Economics Physics Chemistry and Biology. Don't neglect meaningful diagrams in your math either: make your photo memory work to your advantage.

For the literature Ill tell you a secret: we got 2 women poets to come up in that year: so all you had to do was study just the two of them and you were sexistly guaranteed one of them would come up. I was right actual notes for english are best done in essay form: not bullet point. You need time to explain your understanding. Instead of 'Shylock really didnt like whatshisface' you need a good paragraph to explain you understand where the hatred might have come from and back it up with 1 or 2 good quotes - if you overquote you will never recall them.

Also for english I strongly recommend getting on one of the boards on here that discusses television and movies in depth. If you look at heroes, for example, theres a lot of detailed discussion that happens there. Get involved with that: its that style of writing that is going to help you remember your shakespeare on game day. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055194962 read this thread and you can get a great feel for how you might like to write up your essays.

And finally: begin to ease yourself into a light study rhythm now. if you leave it till after your mock results come out to think about studying you'll lose a lot of time panicking about it later because you didnt plan out how you were going to study ahead of crunch time.

daggy

Overheal wrote: »

Honestly? Keep up with your class work. You need to be doing out your questions each night in math for a start. Every night you should fill a page (or two) per subject about the day's lecture. For example if you scribbled down some economics notes this morning you should transcribe them to a neat A4 copy in the evening and do all the fancy colors on them: it really helps you to remember it all. This approach is great for all your science subjects like Math Economics Physics Chemistry and Biology. Don't neglect meaningful diagrams in your math either: make your photo memory work to your advantage.

For the literature Ill tell you a secret: we got 2 women poets to come up in that year: so all you had to do was study just the two of them and you were sexistly guaranteed one of them would come up. I was right actual notes for english are best done in essay form: not bullet point. You need time to explain your understanding. Instead of 'Shylock really didnt like whatshisface' you need a good paragraph to explain you understand where the hatred might have come from and back it up with 1 or 2 good quotes - if you overquote you will never recall them.

Also for english I strongly recommend getting on one of the boards on here that discusses television and movies in depth. If you look at heroes, for example, theres a lot of detailed discussion that happens there. Get involved with that: its that style of writing that is going to help you remember your shakespeare on game day. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055194962 read this thread and you can get a great feel for how you might like to write up your essays.

And finally: begin to ease yourself into a light study rhythm now. if you leave it till after your mock results come out to think about studying you'll lose a lot of time panicking about it later because you didnt plan out how you were going to study ahead of crunch time.

...eep. Conclusion:start now or pay later, right? This sounds really crazy right , but i sort of just go with the flow for english and normally come out with B's or the odd A. Irish is a game of pure waffling. My teacher is long past expiry date. Been teaching the course waay too long. When you hand up an essay , she literally looks at your name , plucks a mark from the air and gives a little tick. My mark is usually 77/76 . I have had her for 6 years , i have been getting 77 for 6 years. I personally have NO idea whether my irish is adequate . You're right about maths, and i do it every night.
Likewise with physics which is a touchy subject with me. haha pun not intended.My teacher is actually hilarious fun in class. Called me a "dirty , dirty bitch " in class one day, honestly!

i would love to make out notes like your saying every night but to be absolutely honest , when you get home you are just wrecked and in home work alone you could spend anything from 2-4 and a half hours. After its all done you are just fit to collapse , which is most of the reason why i NEVER study.. if you were me , what would you do?

Overheal

if not every night then every other night, or once a week at the bare outset.

goodgodholmes

I did sweet FA for my leaving cert years.

I crammed everything the day before each exam in the mocks. Then, I only started studying for the LC in the 2 weeks we had off between graduation and the LC. In fairness, at that stage I was doing about 10 hours a day, but I literally did nothing other than that.

I ended up with 510 though, so I would say that if you've a decent memory for cramming, definitely don't stress yourself out if you haven't started your proper studying until, say, April. You've LOADS of time.

However, that said, a lot of people find cramming doesn't work for them so I would not recommend this approach if you're not good at cramming. You'll know yourself whether you are or not, and if you're not I'd recommend starting around March time. In my case, I didn't do well in French in my mocks, so I worked at it constantly from my mocks until the Leaving, because you can't cram for languages. Therefore I didn't have to do much for it when it came to the real cramming.

Basically what I'm saying is don't let yourself get freaked out by what teachers are recommending. You know your own ability, and if you're able to cram you'll be fine squeezing it in, but if you're not, start working on your weak subjects about 2 or 3 months before. Hope this helps

Before I get abused for this, I'm just telling you what worked for me. I was only aiming for 440 and I knew I was going to get it so I could afford to be relaxed until the end. As I said, my French grade was dragging me under the points I needed so I worked at that for a few months and pulled myself up 2 grades.

Strongest advice: KNOW YOUR WEAKNESSES. Seriously, people who say devote an equal amount of time to each subject - total BS. Spend the most time on the one you're getting the lowest grade in to bring it to an equal standard (this is talking about now/after the mocks. Don't neglect ANY subject coming up to the exams, at that time you WILL need to study all of them equally, a friend of mine had straight A1s in biology and then got a B2 in the end cos she was focused on other things at cram time and assumed Biology would be "easy").

I was a seriously lazy student though, and I still am a lazy college student. It was the tiredness that made me not arsed to work after I got home from school, but even so, I still gave time for my French and that made all the difference. Weak subjects need the extra work, and this is coming from someone who was the laziest fecker ever. If you're plain sailing though you'll be fine cramming

WHOA. Waffliest post ever... *stops talking*

Mad_Max

goodgodholmes wrote: »

It was the tiredness that made me not arsed

yawwwnnn.. I was one who just focused on homework for the first half of the year. I think its underestimated the importance of putting effort into your homework. Youd be amazed the amount of stuff that sticks without you knowing it.

It was after xmas that I really started studying. I done night study in my school, so that meant studying from 3 to 7 every night. Didnt get study done every night but in the main it was good. I ended with 470 but only needed 300 so I didnt stress myself at all.

I wouldn't recommend cramming for the LC in general. holmes is clearly someone who has the will to do it but its a hard thing to do cram 10 hours a day. Im currrently struggling to cram 4 a day in final year college!

My advice is remember they are not the end of the world and if you approach them with a good relaxed attitude then you will find a lot more stuff sticking in your head than if your bricking it

cocoa

Overheal wrote: »

For the literature Ill tell you a secret: we got 2 women poets to come up in that year: so all you had to do was study just the two of them and you were sexistly guaranteed one of them would come up. I was right actual notes for english are best done in essay form: not bullet point. You need time to explain your understanding. Instead of 'Shylock really didnt like whatshisface' you need a good paragraph to explain you understand where the hatred might have come from and back it up with 1 or 2 good quotes - if you overquote you will never recall them.

I honestly can't agree with you there, you are not in any way guaranteed that a woman poet will come up, true, it is a high probability, but if it doesn't happen you've thrown quite a few marks away.

Also, it's definitely necessary in the exam and practice essays to expand on points, but it's not very efficient to have an entire essay to go back over, most people, once they write a nice paragraph, can construct a single line to remind them of it, and from it they can expand the paragraph again, isn't this a better way?

Also, people always seem to start talking about hours of study per night and to me this is just crazy. I don't want to be the person who spends the most time doing things, I want to be the person who does the most things! Value your study not in time spent, but in topics effectively covered.

As many people have said already, there is no one best way for every person and every subject. You have to know yourself. Personally, I did barely anything more than homework through both 5th and 6th year and came out with 580 and I attribute my success to not to any amazing methods but simply the fact that I was always awake, listening, understanding and thinking for myself in classes. I will always be strongly of the opinion that if you can focus, and grasp something the first time, in class, then there's very little other work necessary.

Still, I can't stress enough, know yourself.