Going into third year

animalcrazy

I'm goin into 3rd yr so ill b doin d junior cert. ii cant do more den half an hr study at 1 time b4 mii mind wonders or ii get 2 bored 2 do nemore. Any1 gt any tips on how to get motivated? Tanx!

tracker-man

if your mind wanders... do half an hour of HONEST good study, write out whatever you're trying to learn over and over again till it sticks. Take a short break, come back and quickly scan what you were learning just before, then move on to your next subject/topic. Don't start doing 3 hours study from september unless you really need to, you'll find you do well in the mocks and then slack off when the work is really needed comin up to the exams. Set yourself a time, and feckin stick to it no matter what. I used to say to myself, 'right, i'm gonna stay at this desk till 8pm, i'm gonna feckin stay no matter what', and even if you're just reading over something, you'll remember at least some of it... Em... Alot of people will tell you to listen to you're teachers all the time every time, i disagree! If they're still workin from the book in october, start Practicing exam papers, for nearly every subject the same type questions are repeated from year to year, practice them till you get them correct each time, this works especially well for subjects like maths. Anyways, thats just my opinion oh, one more tip... This ones for boards... No more text speak!

TransititionMan

Well I wouldnt worry really the same happened to me you just have to make a decision really and you WILL make the decision...
When you find out everyone else is studying and your not and its 2 weeks to the exam, you will realise you will have to study and my God you will study.
I started studying a month to go and I crammed and studied so much I'd be offended if I never got 600 points for the Leaving Cert :P
All in all,
The Junior Cert isnt as bad as its portrayed, you walk into one of your class rooms and do a few 2-3 hour tests spread out over the next few days :P =]
You will study, you just chose when you will do so...
I would suggest studying ASAP but that would totaly eniolate your social life which isnt good as the Junior Cert just isnt worth it unless your not sociable ... but you proberbly are so I wouldnt advise starting just then
I think 1-2 months beofre the exam is a suitable time, for the forst month just look over things and write out important bits but when its only a month to go then study like you've never studied before, which judging by the amount of time you can study, shouldnt be hard :P

By the way, Junior Cert this year is on the 3rd of June.

IrishKnight

Tips to make study easier, no matter what stage.

i) Listen in class, and I don't mean sit there, I mean listen. If you don't understand something ask. There is no such thing as a silly question.

ii)Do ALL you homework. And don't copy. Copying homework is a pointless exercise. Do your homework and best you can and only look up the answer if you don't know it.

iii)Exam papers are your best friend at this point. Just keep doing papers. If you run out of papers to do, and if you are any good you should, re do them.

iv) Spend the most time on the subjects you are worst at, and the least time on your good subjects. But do spend time on allsubjects.

v) Look for help when you need it.

In terms of the study environment, no music, no phone, no computer. Just you, pen, paper and books. If your mind wonders a lot, do it somewhere like the local library or see if your school does after school study.

Delphi91

animalcrazy wrote: »

I'm goin into 3rd yr so ill b doin d junior cert. ii cant do more den half an hr study at 1 time b4 mii mind wonders or ii get 2 bored 2 do nemore. Any1 gt any tips on how to get motivated? Tanx!

Without trying to sound smart, you might work on your english first - that post was a struggle to read.

Cathal93

Listen......everyone this year is gonna say to u study study study........but the j.c. is a pointless exam........i didnt study at all will still get decent results......but wont care!! My advice is this......if u dont lik a subject.....and r 100% positive u wont b keeping it on in 5th year.......ignore it......it may sound harsh.......but it 10 years from now and i'm in a job interview for some medical thingy.......the interviewee wont ask me wat grade i got in my T.G. junior cert exam.......concentrate on subjects u lik.......dont worry about it......its actually a straightforward exam.......no pressure......in fact some people actually enjoyed it!!!!!! So y dont u


U'll hear various views on the j.c. over the next year.....but think of it this way......if it really was important......wouldnt it count toward your career or L.C. results (cuz it doesnt)

The only reason the j.c. is done is to settle nerves as much as possible b4 the leavin cert.......trust me!!!!

spurious

It's not a pointless exam.

It is the foundation that the LC is based on.
I can guarantee you that very few people who take all ordinary and foundation levels papers at Junior Cert. go on to do a Higher LC. So, how you do in JC is important. It will put the basics of each subject into your head. There is no point at the end of 5th year wanting a teacher to explain basic concepts that were covered in 2nd year while you were doing nothing for your 'pointless' exam.

OP, listen in class, do your homework, ask questions if there is anything you do not understand, look over exam questions and you will be fine.

oponodon

Do ordinary for subjects you dont like, dont stay with higher if u know you wont be doin it, becoz theyre different exams, and thers no point learning stuff you wont need. Focus on one thing at a time. B4 studying say to urself, "ok, ill learn the factorisation equation and 3 irish phrases tonight," and just keep drilling urself with them untill you know them. Much better than busting your head doing loads.


I also find, writing stuff out helps immensly. For the ratios in business (gross profit margin, all that ****) i did one a week, and when i did a new one, i tore out an A4 page, and wrote it out over and over and over, sayin it aloud as i did, untill i'd fill both sides of the page.

Of course when exam day came, there wasnt a single bloody ratio Q, but whatever... :mad: (and i still know them by heart. **** sake.)

Also, if ur learnin a maths equation, try write it out as a sentence. for example: when AX squared plus BX plus C equals zero, the X equals minus B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus four AC, all over 2A.

(Its not as bad as it looks, dont worry...:D)


Also, BTW, if ur school has evening study, do it from day one. its great, coz you cant do anything but study for the two hours. (unless u pass notes and stuff, but cmon, its ur parents money, u may as well get somethin out of it....) just make sure you bring enough books. then (untill nearer exams at least), you get home wrecked, but with all ur homework done, with at least 1/2 an hour of study to boot. Then you can play xbox all night untill morning. :cool:

Jay P

oponodon wrote: »

Do ordinary for subjects you dont like, dont stay with higher if u know you wont be doin it, becoz theyre different exams, and thers no point learning stuff you wont need.

Sorry, but do not listen to this advice. Do as much honours as possible and put in a decent effort into all of them because it will certainly stand to you when it comes to the leaving cert. It will help studying things you have no interest in (Jane Eyre for comparative english springs to mind )

Other than that, go to supervised study and don't sit beside your friends there because you wil be talking to them and you won't do any work if you do end up beside them. Do all your homework as well, that is very important. What I found when I was bored in study, I did questions from the exam questions that I hadn't done before, just to do something a bit different rather than doing maths or an english essay. Obviously go back to it afterwards :P

And relax!

oponodon

Jay P wrote: »

Sorry, but do not listen to this advice. Do as much honours as possible and put in a decent effort into all of them because it will certainly stand to you when it comes to the leaving cert. It will help studying things you have no interest in (Jane Eyre for comparative english springs to mind )

I would have thought its better to cut you losses, and make it up with other things. For example, i am completely hopeless at languages, so i did ordinary french and irish, honours everything else. I did tech graph tho, and i really hated it, but i still tried honours because i knew i could do it.

Also, do you not get to pick your studied novel for leaving cert? feck, i didnt realise until a week before the JC that i didnt have to do "of mice and men." I did an awesome essay on 1984 by george orwell, because it was a book i actually liked....

spurious

Try to do as many higher subjects at JC to keep your options open for Leaving - and also to help you with the Leaving.
In some subjects, the LC OL course is not a lot more than the JC HL course. Know your JC HL course well and you will have a head start at LC OL.

Remember an A in Ordinary Level JC might sound great, but it really means you should have been doing HL.

animalcrazy

Nearly fogot about this topic, sorry about the text speak! I really can spell! The info was all great thanks! At the moment I'm doing honours everything except irish. I feel like killing myself because of all the pressure the teachers have on us! When I went back on Wednesday they started telling us to start studying now and on the way home in the car my mam was like ' Oh you can do after school study everyday except friday till 8'. I have a feeling this is going to be a bad year!

I really regret doing nothing in second year though! Especially maths! We had a really bad maths teacher who you could walk all over and we spent most of our time texting and messin, and most of the year I didn't even have a maths copy! :rolleyes: He got fired though and I have another maths teacher this year, so I actually did all my homework.

Cathal93

Jus study for things u lik.......ignore the rest......to answer wat i got......5 a's 6 b's and a c........no study......no homework......no 'questions' in class......notin! See its that easy......if i can do t so can you!!!!!

ccosgrave

As a couple of people have already mentioned, the JC isn't quite as pointless as you'd think. The only way I got what I wanted from the LC is because I was well aware of the mistakes I made for the JC and didn't repeat them a second time. Just to mention one subject in particular, maths is one that I definitely learned something about in the JC. For the JC, I studied each topic about once or twice over the course of the year and wound up scraping a B, being completely unable to do some Part B's or C's and even a few part A's. For the LC, I didn't make that mistake and intensely studied each topic about nine or ten times over the course of sixth year and wound up with an A1 in Higher Level.

I will say, however, that the results don't exactly matter too much. What matters is learning how to prepare for an exam, learning how to dedicate your time properly and learning how to cope with the pressure of the exam itself. Staying in every day until 8pm is a joke, but I do think that you should take it more seriously if you're aiming for the high points in the LC.

conorod

Start studying for half an hour per day after school and gradually increase the time you spend studying. It's only recommended that you do half an hour at a time anyway, with short breaks in between.

TimeToPretend

Honestly, the Junior Cert is not that big of a deal at ALL! I'm in TY now and I just remember how much I freaked out about the Junior Cert! Once I had done the mocks I realised how it actually wasn't that bad, as long as you get the work done and keep organised you'll be fine. Get the revise wise books they really help especially if your doing higher level maths!! I'm going to take it that your school has an evening study?! Go to that it's great for getting all your homework done and then you can study when you get home! Oh and the day you get your results is honestly the best day in the whole year! The moment the principal came in to tell us to go down to the hall everyone in our year just ran screaming down the hall knocking on all the doors it was great!! And its great if you did well and you can rub your grade in the teachers face who gave you a hard time! I'm getting a bit carried away here.. good luck anyway!

chloe15JC

IrishKnight wrote: »

Tips to make study easier, no matter what stage.

i) Listen in class, and I don't mean sit there, I mean listen. If you don't understand something ask. There is no such thing as a silly question.

ii)Do ALL you homework. And don't copy. Copying homework is a pointless exercise. Do your homework and best you can and only look up the answer if you don't know it.

iii)Exam papers are your best friend at this point. Just keep doing papers. If you run out of papers to do, and if you are any good you should, re do them.

iv) Spend the most time on the subjects you are worst at, and the least time on your good subjects. But do spend time on allsubjects.

v) Look for help when you need it.

In terms of the study environment, no music, no phone, no computer. Just you, pen, paper and books. If your mind wonders a lot, do it somewhere like the local library or see if your school does after school study.

This all seems so easy but no matter how motivated you are going into the junior cert year the chances are you wil lose your motivation as soon as you hear teacher after teacher going on and on and on about the boody JC they are putting me off it completely!:eek: