Trouble studying

ilcaptiano

Basically I just started fifth year and I want to do well in my leaving cert but I'm finding it hard to settle down to homework/study. I didn't do TY and I did reasonably well in my JC.


Id consider myself an average student who can do well when i put my mind to it, but thats the problem.

I'm doing History Geography and Bussiness and I cant seem to remember anything from them when i try to study them.

Anyone got any tips/advice?

Cheers.

djcervi

Instead of reading the book try to summarise material into short hand keywords. Have a structure and write no more than 3 points for a subsection/ title given in bold writing.

PurpleFistMixer

I feel like I've written the same stuff about studying over and over, so I'm going to do the lazy thing and just direct you to posts I've already made about it. (The threads they're from are also full of other useful info from other posters so I'd recommend you check them out if you're inclined.)

PFM on "Advice for LC 09"
PFM on "Study Timetables and the Sorts"
Entire (Short) Thread on "How to Make a Study Timetable"
Entire Thread on "How Much Do You Study?" (okay a lot of this is sorta chat and not necessarily advice, I'd advise you read this last.)
Alan4Cult on "How Much Study to get 600" and Kimmy-XxX on "How Much Study to get 600" (Even if you're not intending on getting 600, the advice is still useful as general "how to go about studying" info.)

The crux of the issue when it comes to remembering stuff though is - write it down. Draw pictures of it. Make diagrams. Flash cards. Whatever. Reading is passive, you're probably half drifting off while you're "revising" if you do it like that. You have to read, then test yourself, or make notes, or whatever. Be active in the learning. If it helps you to stand up and pace around while reciting the steps that lead to WW2 (or whatever you do in history), do it. Different things work for different people, but I certainly found for myself, unless I wrote it down, or engaged with it somehow, it just went straight out of my head.

Hope I haven't bogged you down with too much reading, but "how to study?" is a topic that comes up here frequently enough, so there's a lot been said about it!

damienricefan

Lol you don't need to study in fifth year too heavily

just keep up with work and etc.

and do well in summer exams and you should have a good grab of facts stored for 6th year

but don't go mad!

PurpleFistMixer

Oh, hmm, somehow glossed over the fact that the OP was in 5th year.. Yeah don't go too mad, or you'll burn yourself out. Just keeping on top of everything is all you need to do in 5th year. If you know what you're doing now well, revising it in 6th year will be much easier.

As far as motivating yourself to do it - what I did was sat down and did it as soon as I got in from school. While still in your uniform if possible - you're still in the "school mode", and you're not too tired to do it, then once it's done, you're free. If you lapse and go "ah well I'll just watch a bit of TV first", it'll be hours before it gets done, and you'll just end up feeling bad.

xOxSinéadxOx

you don't have to study in 5th year just do your homework and keep up to date with stuff, basically just don't fall behind