Advice to someone heading into the LC?

wayhey

I know it's a few weeks away yet (thank God) but when September rolls around I'll be heading into 6th Year. I really don't want to leave everything after the mocks, I want to knuckle down from the start. I guess I'm looking for any advice any ex-LCer can throw out there. My points threshold is pretty high, I'm aiming for the 600 cos I want to do Medicine (and I do English, Irish, Maths, French, Geog, Chem and Biology, all HL, tho considering dropping to OL in Maths).

So any tips? I know ye're all anxiously waiting on results and stuff so I'm not expecting too much but anything would be great. How'd you study, e.g in an after school thing or at home? How much studying would you get in a day aside from homework? How much studying at weekends? Where were you left for chilling out time and how much? For someone who didn't work exceptionally hard (but pretty well) in 5th Year how obtainable is a good LC?

Maybe others will pitch in with their own questions and best of luck with the results lads!!!

neil_18_

Well if I could give you 1 piece of advice on studying it would be not to waste free classes! You can get loads of extra study and homework done. Even ask can you go to a quiet room on your own or with a friend to study! But also don't over do it and take some free classes as break!
For French what really helped me for the essays were link words(ex. also, in my opinion, despite) and idioms (raining cats and dogs, making a mountain out of a mole hill). Then for the journal intime phrases such as "What a nightmare" or "I have just had the worst day of my life" really come in handy! For the oral know your tenses! During my french oral she asked me will i be going on holidays this summer and i said "i am going to spain" and then i forgot all of my other holiday phrases. At the end i mentioned that i forgot my phrases and she said "to be honest i was just checking your tenses anyway". Practice the oral by doing mock orals with a teacher(i must have done 10) and the actual oral exam will come to you as second nature! Keep practicing the aural too! Its the same for irish!

For maths its all about practice! keep doing your past papers and have your teacher correct them! When you finish the past papers...do them again! If you are not sure about a particular question make sure you ask the teacher to explain it! Even if you drop to ordinary you must still keep practicing!

Just don't over do it and stay up til late at night and all that you will just tire and stress! You need to relax too!
Good luck, hope you get 600points!

tootyflutty

wayhey wrote: »

I know it's a few weeks away yet (thank God) but when September rolls around I'll be heading into 6th Year. I really don't want to leave everything after the mocks, I want to knuckle down from the start. I guess I'm looking for any advice any ex-LCer can throw out there. My points threshold is pretty high, I'm aiming for the 600 cos I want to do Medicine (and I do English, Irish, Maths, French, Geog, Chem and Biology, all HL, tho considering dropping to OL in Maths).

So any tips? I know ye're all anxiously waiting on results and stuff so I'm not expecting too much but anything would be great. How'd you study, e.g in an after school thing or at home? How much studying would you get in a day aside from homework? How much studying at weekends? Where were you left for chilling out time and how much? For someone who didn't work exceptionally hard (but pretty well) in 5th Year how obtainable is a good LC?

Maybe others will pitch in with their own questions and best of luck with the results lads!!!

A good leaving cert. is very achieveable, a great leaving cert. requires work. What you need to do is pace yourself, it's where I made my biggest mistake. Right at the beginning I threw myself into the long hours, grinds, evening study and all the extra work I could fit in. Believe me it wasn't long before I totally crashed out exhausted! Evening study is a great way to work, it makes you focus and gets you into a regular pattern. Ease yourself into your work, I reccommend going maybe 2/3 a week a first and build it up. You should maybe go on a friday evening and get as much of your written work out of the way, that way you can take more time to rest and revise bits from your 5th year work.
For language courses, you should get the cd's for the aurals and work your way though them at home in a quiet surrounding. It won't be long before you notice your oral work improving also. This also goes for exam papers, regardless of what you do in class, I always made time to work through them myself, to read the comprehensions and time myself as according to the alloted times.
As for how long to study/relax, it is up to you, but you really don't want to push yourself too hard. I found myself doing 3 sometimes 4 hours a night which included eveing study and a listening or comprehension. On nights when I had little homework I wouldn't go to study and just go home and relax beofre doing work, you wiull need it. And as for weekends I did a half day on Saturday morning and take the rest off and then the opposite on the Sunday. I sadly gave up most of my hobbies this year and completely regret it. You need them to keep you sane, and relax your brain. I needed them towrads the end when the breaks were few and far between. The resting is just as important as the study in my opinion. I have a friend who got 700 points in her leaving and she didn't give up a single hobby, she even played a camogie match the night of her Maths 2 exam!
And finally as for the maths level, do what you feel comfortable. Maths was my only pass subject and it really was a nice break to go to after all my iother higher subjects. You can actually feel less pressure in that class, it was such a releif to have one subject not to stress about.
Hope all this helps,
just remember RELAX AND TAKE BREAKS!!!!
TootyfluttY

PhysiologyRocks

Have you considered taking on another subject? Why are you considering OL maths? You don't say if you find it difficult or just time consuming. If your problem is the latter, then you might consider taking on physics, which is quite manageable. Only six honours subjects might be a little bit of a risk, particularly English.

Make sure you don't burn out before Christmas. Keep on top of everything and don't panic.

Hope you get medicine, it's brilliant!

Secoundrow

My advice..


Dont take advice from us on boards


Last years leaving certs on here made me feck up my leaving with their advice:(


:DHey Results are out on wensday and I need someone to blame:p

Secoundrow

not to waste free classes

The fact is if the teacher knows their was going to be one they will have gone to the end of the earth to set you work and home work anyways.


Oh and ignoring my first comment

If a teacher sets you work especially after christmas when things start picking up unlike the rest of time you spent in school ..feel free to tell them you didnt have time to do it as projects start setting in and stepping up a gear they normaly (teacher dependant ) leave it at that

Its your leaving not theirs your going to hear that alot

Craguls

OP has great taste subject wise, I did the exact same ones! :P

They're all very good subjects too, very fair exams if you put the work in.

Chem: I'd recommend buying Rapid Revision Chemistry it was my best friend this year. It's much smaller than other Chem books so it's not a pain to take home for study.

Make sure you know the experiments really well they'll take up 3 of your 8 experiments in the exam (maybe more if your lucky). Oh and organic chemistry is a great section, the standards been low in recent years so the questions have been pretty fair and easy.

AVOID Q5 they take marks off for small mistakes like poor phrasing.

Here's the book: https://www.schoolbooks.ie/22236-Rapid+Revision:+Chemistry+-+Leaving+Cert+Folens+School+Book

Bio: Work as you go along, seriously, it'll make your life so much easier. They ask topics like ecology and genetics every year aside from that the experiments have to be known pretty well because they're asked in section B of the exam and creep into section C.

Geo: I loved this subject. Your marked on how many points you make per answer, so just try fit in as many as possible. You'll know most of the first section from JC it's all physical geo. Learn your regions pretty well you can't really avoid them. Human geo is very wishy washy waffle, I'd recommend economic it's a bit safer.

This book's filled with good notes: http://www.wiseowl.ie/product-detail/33122/Lc+Revise+Wise/Geography_+Leaving+Certificate_+Higher+Level

French: This one's hard to call. It's very unpredictable, but practice practice practice should help you out. http://www.lemonde.fr is a good place since the exams very current events based. Try listen to the news alot too.

That's the best advice I can give really. Feel free to PM me about anything else.

timmywex

Do your homeowrk well, learn what you've been asked to learn and make sure you know the stuff before moving away for it.

After christmas start revising for the mocks, after the mocks lay off it a bit again.

Then after easter absolutely bomb the study, the best 2 weeks are the ones before the exams, i was doing 10 hour days.


I dont know if this method works though, think it did for me, ill let ya know next week :cool:

Craguls

I read through your post again. So I've some more advice if you'd like it.

Are you particularly good at Irish? The higher level syllabus is very very long and laborious, languages being languages as well it can be hard to know exactly how to get full marks. The OL syllabus is so much shorter is shocking. You cut out the novel, 8 poems and stair na gaeilge.

Maths on the other hand can be tackled in a very strategic manner, you could focus and practice certain elements of the course and it's a subject where you can't debate the answer.

It's probably something to consider anyway. I studied about 3.5-4.5 hours a night (for two years) but I'm a worrier/nerd who needed high points. Here's hoping Wednesday goes well!

straight_As

wayhey wrote: »

I know it's a few weeks away yet (thank God) but when September rolls around I'll be heading into 6th Year. I really don't want to leave everything after the mocks, I want to knuckle down from the start. I guess I'm looking for any advice any ex-LCer can throw out there. My points threshold is pretty high, I'm aiming for the 600 cos I want to do Medicine (and I do English, Irish, Maths, French, Geog, Chem and Biology, all HL, tho considering dropping to OL in Maths).

So any tips? I know ye're all anxiously waiting on results and stuff so I'm not expecting too much but anything would be great. How'd you study, e.g in an after school thing or at home? How much studying would you get in a day aside from homework? How much studying at weekends? Where were you left for chilling out time and how much? For someone who didn't work exceptionally hard (but pretty well) in 5th Year how obtainable is a good LC?

Maybe others will pitch in with their own questions and best of luck with the results lads!!!

You do realise that if you're aiming for med, 600 is really only 10 points more than 550. I know it's only a small thing now, but don't fantasize about 600 and stress yourself out. The new system is there to help, not hinder.

As for subjects and study etc., you seem to have a decent mix.

Chem is a beautiful subject, especially orgchem. Just remember, chem is all about understanding and visualisation. If you can imagine the molecule's appearance, or what should happen in an experiment, chem becomes handy enough. The only real bit of rote learning in chem is the applied section, but that's usually pretty interesting stuff so it's fun knowledge, rather than boring stuff, as is usual with by-heart information.

<edit>Just remembered how nasty the marking in Q5 is. The effort required to know the definitions perfectly, for me, doesn't correlate with marks awarded, so I'd avoid that question.</edit>

Bio is simple. Again, diagrams and visualisation make it much shorter than what people make it out to be.

French is a bitch. If you're like me and are decent at the oral but miserable with the grammar, you won't enjoy it. I certainly don't.

Is teanga iontach í an Ghaeilge. Great subject. Poetry's a whore-in-an-alley but they give you the poem on the exam paper, so it isn't too bad. The oral and the aural pimpsy if you try to speak it at home. And apparently grammar is only worth like 15-20% of paper two so it's coolio in that regard. A decent grasp of grammar is, however, needed for paper one. Please don't learn an essay by heart, though. It defeats the purpose of learning the language.

I don't do geo or OL maths so I can't help you there, unfortunately.

Poop, next year won't be fun for me. :mad:

bythewoods

S'craic man!
I did the same subjects as yourself and I too am aiming for the medicine.

So, here's my advice:

-Don't quit your hobbies. No no no.
I mean it. If you play sport, keep playing sport. Whatever. Quit nothing. Quit working maybe. But not pastimes.

- Buy a few folders.
Organisation is the key to success! Get your notes for all those subjects in good order.
For English, for example, have a folder for your Shakespearean play, a folder for poetry, a folder for comparative and a folder for Paper 1.

-Don't wait on teachers to set work for you.
To a certain extent, obviously.
Especially in Irish and stuff. Like, write your own essays out/ oral notes/ whatever and give them to your tezacher to correct. Otherwise it'll all be a mad rush towards the end.
Also, for Chemistry, don't doubt the easiness of Chemical Equilibrium. It often shows up as a full question on the paper, or at least as half a question, and it's so repetitive and simple. A lot of teachers skip it. Speaking from my own experience (I repeated) - both of my Chemistry teachers left it out totally. I taught myself and always got full marks there.

I dunno. I could write a book on stuff for you to do. I won't though.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

I would seriously advise you to block a few of the websites that you usually go onto.. Boards, Bebo, facebook, etc. You'll tell yourself you'll only go on for 5-10 mins, and before ya know it your on it 2-3 hours!

eoins2345

For higher level Irish your oral notes for the abstract topics and general handy phrases you can throw in anywhere can be used in the essay in paper 1.For Irish aurals i would practise all the aural from 1995- 2009.It will really help as many of the vocabulary comes up again and again.like urraiocht seems to come most years.For irish paper 2 i would learn key phrases for poetry and stories.Just try and get 2 or 4 sets of notes and take ur favourite bits and make ur own notes.

For french its all about idiomatic expressions that you can use anywhere.ex il a couté les yeux de la tete- it cost a fortune.You can use all these phrases for the oral as well as the written expression.Get a notebook and jot down handy phrases you see in comprehensions.Look up every single word you dont know in comprehensions and look over them most nights.

For Chemistry get the marking schemes of examinations.ie and go throught your exam papers looking up any answers you dont know.I found it handy to revise a section like Rates of Reaction or something and then do every exam question on that,check my answers,correct myself and then do the next section

Just pay attention in class and try not to miss too many days.Take notes and summarise them when you get home.Good luck

dermo1990

If you just keep a steady pace from september onwards, you should have no problems increasing the load...when the time comes. You shouldn't be completely fixated on getting 600, you'll be putting too much pressure on yourself.

Since you're doing Irish HL, be aware that irish can take up a significant portion of your time, particularly paper 2 given there is a considerable amount of material to study in that part of the course.

In some subjects you should be doing work independently like redrafting essays because you can practically walk into english paper 2 with the answers already known, so it would be somewhat foolish not to have redrafted poetry or comparative essays before the exam.

Generally for most subjects you are better making your own notes than depending on revision books as when writing these notes you may learn something in the process.

myfatherrsson

Make PLANS as you go along! and be flexible!!

Sept - Dec: monthly plans (a general list of stuff you want to cover in the given month)

Jan - April: 4 Weekly Plans (as in 4 weekly plans for January etc..)

May - Exams: 7 Daily plans, one for each day of the week

Divide up the subjects into their topics.
Have a day of english, day of Irish etc...

Keep it simple at the start

After the Orals get serious and start doing long hours then lik 3.5+ everyday.

Organisation is key! If you know what you're going to do an what you have done then then its easier to retain the knowledge! Write everything down! What gets written down gets done!

DO EXAM PAPER QUESTIONS!!

UTILISE THE MARKING SCHEMES FROM DAY 1!!
KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!!

PREPARE ESSAYS!
English essays(personal/short story)/poets/single text/comparative
Irish essays/Maidhc Dainin/Danta/S na G/Pros
Language - Oral topics/Written topics

Towards the last two months start handing up extra work to teachers; exam paper questions, essays and such. have them correct it and double check with the marking schemes.

Thats exactly what I did anyway.

dermo1990

I have to agree, organisation is vital. It would probably be a good idea to have an A4 binder for each subject you're doing. You'd be surprised how fast they fill up with notes and whatnot.

~me~

do every essay/ set of notes/ experiment write-ups well when you're given them! dont just do them to get them done, you'll end up having to re-do them properly closer to the time anyway!

i found those key card things great! if you study a chapter of lets say biology write out all the key terms and a few pointers on each onto a key card and put them all together so that when you go to study all you have to do is look at the cards and see if it all makes sense and why all the pointers are important then if you're stuck on some you only need to look up them- if you feel like it takes too much time you can do it while watching tv or whatever cause its more an aid than studying!

talk french all the time! it really helps! if you can get someone whos fluent to speak with you then that'd really help! i went on a trip to france and you'd be surprised how quick you learn to speak when you need to!

dont get yourself worked up about it! sometimes the teachers can pile on the pressure and make you feel like its the be all and end all, its not! theres ways around it if it all goes horribly wrong! it will be tough but if you milk it for what its worth and actually do all the work you're advised to do it will be grand! its very do-able! i didnt do as much as i should've and i got my first choice (granted the points werent quite as high as yours!) so if you work hard you'll get yours!

Dante

Don't get overwhelmed. It will be a lot easier and less stressful if you dont freak out. Thats about it!

Jam-Fly

wayhey wrote: »

I know it's a few weeks away yet (thank God) but when September rolls around I'll be heading into 6th Year. I really don't want to leave everything after the mocks, I want to knuckle down from the start. I guess I'm looking for any advice any ex-LCer can throw out there. My points threshold is pretty high, I'm aiming for the 600 cos I want to do Medicine (and I do English, Irish, Maths, French, Geog, Chem and Biology, all HL, tho considering dropping to OL in Maths).

So any tips? I know ye're all anxiously waiting on results and stuff so I'm not expecting too much but anything would be great. How'd you study, e.g in an after school thing or at home? How much studying would you get in a day aside from homework? How much studying at weekends? Where were you left for chilling out time and how much? For someone who didn't work exceptionally hard (but pretty well) in 5th Year how obtainable is a good LC?

Maybe others will pitch in with their own questions and best of luck with the results lads!!!

Okay, since you want to do Medecine, and you are already looking for advice on the LC, I assume you're a fairly intelligent person who is willing to work hard.


So what I would reccommend is, from September to Christmas, do all your homework from every subject and do it is well as you possibly can. Tackle every question you are given as if you are doing it in the Leaving cert. Specific 'study' is not all that important up until Christmas. If you know what your learning, and doing the homework well, and understanding everything, then you will be surprise how much that helps when June comes around. I would also make sure that you attend all classes and pay attention in all classes. Make sure you know what's going on, and try to understand all the material that is being thought.

The other thing to focus on from September-December is projects etc. Make sure you have as much work done as possible for all your projects. I didn't Geo, Bio or Chem, but I'm pretty sure you need some sort of report or project for at least one of them. If possible, have that as close to 100% completed. You do not want any extra pressure hanging over you after Christmas. I would also include Irish and French oral material in 'projects'. It's a set % of the exam that you can obtain before sitting the written exam. Get your story together for the oral, learn your verbs, learn 'connecting' words and practice getting a conversation to flow.


The reason I would not encourage serious study up until Christmas is simply because it's too hard, it's not that beneficial, and you run the risk of burning yourself out. 6th year is a hard year. By the end of the exams, you will be absolutely shattered. There's no need to go at the study full throttle from the start. If you insist on doing some 'study', I would reccommend something simple. Revise just one chapter from one subject a night. Something simple. Read a chapter in the Chemistry. Re-familiarise yourself with the material. All these little things will help when June rolls around.

After Christmas, you'll be coming to the end of the course in most of your subjects. This now gives you a chance to step back, and look at the course as a whole. I remember looking at the Physics course at the start of 5th year. I was thinking to myself, "holy ****, how the f*ck am I supposed have all this stuff in my head". When we finished the course in 6th year, I was able to look at the course as a whole. I was able to see all the sub-divisions within sections, and I was able to see that the course was actually manageable. Looking at the course when you're finished is a big help and it really does make it easier to study.

As for the actual, hard core, no messing, LC study, the trick is exam papers, exam papers, practice, practice, exam papers. Make sure you are familiar with all parts of the course in all your subjects. Make sure you have the books studied. If you have not done this (and trust me, if you've been doing all your homework, paying attention in class, and understand the material, you will have an excellent grasp on the material, despite not doing that much 'study'), then do it. Make sure you are familiar with the course to at least make an attempt to answer any question that could come up. If you are familiar with the material, bate into exam questions.

First, practice answering the questions as best you can. This means if it takes 2hrs to write an English essay, you write it. Once you have familiarised yourself with the types of questions asked, and the techniques to obtaining maximum marks in the questions, you then must practice timing. In most exams in the LC, timing is huge. You have to be able to produce a quality answer in a set amount of time. There's no point writing 7 pages of high quality English if it's taking you 2hrs to write those pages. Practice under time constraints and you before long you will be writing quality answers in the given time.


If you do all this, you should be well able for the pres. The mocks give you a chance to practice for the leaving cert. Do not pass up this oppurtunity. Whatever you do, do not cheat (ie, look up the exam papers on the internet, trust me, it's really easy to do). If you are ready, then you shouldn't have to cheat. If you aren't ready, well maybe failing a few mocks is the kick up the ass you need to get you going again. The mocks are a golden oppurtunity to practice timing and exam technique.
If you are not ready for the mocks, don't worry. In the week before, try to know as much information as you can going into the exam, and try to put together some answers. If you can manage 50% answers (ie, there are 80 marks for a Question, and you get 40 marks) in a pre, those answers can easily be brought up to around 80% by June.

After the mocks, you're usually going to be concerned with orals. Be as familiar as you can with spoken French/Irish and just do your best in the oral. The oral is probably the thing people are most nervous about, but it's way easier than you'd think. Just be confident and you'll be fine. The week before the oral, French or Irish will really be the only thing on your mind. You will be spending a disproportionate amount of time on your languages but that's okay. You're other subjects may suffer a little for a week or two but that's a sacrifice that can be made. Be confident and you'll be fine in the oral. It's definitely one of the easiest places to pick up marks in. And if you're really not good at it, remember, it's very hard to fail the oral part of the test. Even if you're dire, you'll more than likely get over 50% of the marks available for the oral.


Once the orals are over, you're heading into the home stretch. Believe it or not, if you've done f*uck all up to this point, it's still very achievable to get really good results. The last few weeks is where it all comes together. If you've done nothing up to this point, then you will have to work like hell for the last few weeks. Crash courses of familiaring yourself with a full course in three nights, and then practicing exam questions on the fourth and fifth nights. It's not easy, but it can be done.

Assuming you have been working up to this point however, the last weeks is all about making it come together and tieing up loose ends. Go over anything you're not quite sure of. Make sure you know all parts of all the courses. Look deep into the syllabus and see what kinda trick questions they could throw up. Keep doing exam papers. At this stage your exam technique should be getting quite good. You should be able to do nearly all questions in the given amount of time. Go through marking schemes and make sure you know how to go about getting maximum marks in each question. Polish any areas you're not quite comfortable with. Be confident in your technique, your timing and your knoweledge.

The last two weeks of school are usually a bit of a break. The focus switches from Leaving Cert to 'end of school'. If you've done your work up this point, take a bit a of a break here (you'll need it!). If you haven't done the work, you still need to struggle and do lots of study in these 'doss' weeks. Enjoy you're last week or two and enjoy the graduation night. The week before the exams start, and the exams themselves will take a lot out of you. You need a bit of a break here. A break doesn't mean doing nothing, it just means not doing as much. Still do a bit of work at night, but theres no need for the 6hr study sessions or whatever. So basically, enjoy you'll few days in school. You've worked really hard up to this point. Now you need to take a break, recharge the batteries, and get ready for the month-long grind that is the Leaving Cert.

During the few days before the exams starts, just go over everything. Nothing too intense, you're probably familiar with everything by now, but just give a check to make sure you are. If you want, practice a few more exam questions if you feel you need to. Focus on quotes and formulae and make sure you are 100% confident in all of the quotes/forumulae/dates/stats you need.
The nights before each exam, take it easy. Go through the exam paper layout and make sure you're ready for each section. Glance through you're sample answers and make sure you know your timing for each question. Other than that, relax and chill out. Get a good night sleep and be confident in yourself. Wake up the next morning and do the exam. I wouldn't really reccommend going over the stuff the morning of, or the hours before an exam. Maybe go over quotes or formulae, but there's no point trying to learn off a whole section in an hour or two, it's much too hard.



This is pretty much my reccommended crash course to 6th year. It's a long post but I hope most of it is readable and my grammar/spellling/coherency is okay. I'm sure there is also some stuff I left out. There's probably some stuff I would reccommend to do, but it seems so second nature to me that I forgot to put it in. Anyway, hope this helps and hopefully at least one person reads it.

wayhey

Everyone, thanks so much. There's nothing here that isn't ****ing unreal advice. Especially Jam-Fly, thanks a lot for that, and everyone who gave some subject specific advice!

I found Honors Maths very difficult in 5th Year (only got a pass in my summer exam) and I've been unfortunate to have brutal teachers from 1st Year in Maths.. should I stick at it, get grinds and work like crazy? Or save myself time and drop to pass? I'm just wart of jeopardising my other subjects for Maths, it wouldn't be unusual in 5th Year to have spent 2 hours doing homework (and often getting it wrong) and leaving myself kinda straddled with other subjects and stuff.

And going back over the material from 5th Year... most people seem to say work steadily til Xmas and dive in after. Did you try and go over some 5th Year material from the start of the year? How'd it go for you, whatever way you did it?

QueenOfLeon

wayhey wrote: »

I found Honors Maths very difficult in 5th Year (only got a pass in my summer exam) and I've been unfortunate to have brutal teachers from 1st Year in Maths.. should I stick at it, get grinds and work like crazy? Or save myself time and drop to pass? I'm just wart of jeopardising my other subjects for Maths, it wouldn't be unusual in 5th Year to have spent 2 hours doing homework (and often getting it wrong) and leaving myself kinda straddled with other subjects and stuff.

Have a read over this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055595700 ....which i've just noticed you started, but if you ask here again you're gunna get the same answers back anyway

And going back over the material from 5th Year... most people seem to say work steadily til Xmas and dive in after. Did you try and go over some 5th Year material from the start of the year? How'd it go for you, whatever way you did it?

Ya, i'd advise to be going over 5th year stuff from september. You don't have to do mad hours of studying every night, but if you think of it, after christmas you've only got a few weeks until the mocks. The year really really flies and you don't want to find that you've forgotten all the 5th year stuff in march. What alot of my teachers did, once we went back, was give us one topic to revise ourselves over a week, along with new material. Even just a small bit of study over things you did in 5th year will leave it alot easier to revise later on in the year when the pressures on

imakenoise

Well what i would suggest would to take it easy getting into things.
I planned on starting like the second week in on a few hours a night study and then it got annoying and i really didn't start properly till well after the mocks haha.
Ease yourself into it,dont do too much too soon. Start with like an hour a night and try build it up to two or three a night by the time its christmas,if you can do that you'll be doing well and will still have a bit of time to relax and go out,by the time the mocks come around you'd be futher ahead then most people if you studied right..from there on ya just gotta keep building and building the amount of study you do...thats what i think would work for me anyway,maybe not everyone...also cramming does work!! :P

Delta Kilo

Firstly, +100 on everything bythewoods said on the 1st page of the thread.

Seriously, you need to take lots of time away from the books as well. Find something you like that you can plan ahead for a certain evening of the week and it will keep you motivated for the week.

For me it was the gym. I went twice a week and there was nothing I liked better than going in, donning the boxing gloves and going flat out on the bag for ten minutes. It was brilliant. You need something to break the tension. At weekends I also had something planned to get me through the week. I worked on my fitness a lot over the year. It was a side project I had to take my mind off study. I did a 10k charity run in the easter hols!

You will hear lots of people telling you how to study, night study vs home. To be honest, it is different for everyone. You should spend the first few weeks finding a pattern that you like. I could never do night study at school I needed out of the place once the bell went. I relaxed and usually didn't start homework/study till 8pm! It worked for me though, it was what I was most comfortable with and that is what is most important. I often started english poetry essays at 11pm!

The year itself is funny. It seems slow going up to Xmas. But once January comes, BANG, and the year is gone. No joke, it flies! The exams are actually easier than you think they are going to be. Its all a big hype over nothing in the end.

So keep a level head, find what suits you and take plenty of time out to relax!

MrPirate

dermo1990 wrote: »

I have to agree, organisation is vital. It would probably be a good idea to have an A4 binder for each subject you're doing. You'd be surprised how fast they fill up with notes and whatnot.

This.
But what I would recommend is to have a copy for each subject for questions that you have seen in the books and from exam questions from the last 9000 years. If you can't get the papers from back then, ask an ex-LCer. If I could (I don't do any of the other subjects bar english and math) I'd give you my old papers just so you could have that extra year. Anyway, don't do them all at once. If you intend to start from September, Pace yourself. Do maybe 2-3 questions per subject per week or so. And then 3-4, 4-5, etc. Work your way up.

Keep a seperate binder/hardback copy for notes and whatever research you needed to do to answer the exam questions. Sure, it came up previously, but who's to say it won't come up/something very similar again? Plus, it'll help you get used to the way they phrase the questions on the papers.

As far as the languages: try and do letters and comprehensions. Also try and make your sentances in the most simple French as possible. It can help you oh-so-very much in understanding the language better and getting a better grasp at it.
Practice the orals frequently, you learn a hell of a lot form them!

I don't really know what else to advise.. Avoid going out the night before and getting so drunk that you wake up in a bathtub of ice in Puru.

Oh, don't overly stress yourself. Yes, you want to work, but don't have non-stop work. Give yourself breaks. You've been studying all week, go out with your friends during the weekend. Enjoy your year, don't hate it.

lilmissprincess

Invest in like a million refill pads and pens. You will use them all.
For subjects with definitions, or even History, pop quizzes work brilliantly. They help you to remember the trivial things which you can use in essays.

Learn 5 English Poets... don't fall into the trap that some 09'ers did with our second paper, learn 5 to make yourself covered no matter what the teachers/media/real paper that accidentally gets opened says.

Start talking Irish and French just randomly. I know that since the Orals and especially since the end of the Leaving I've been breaking into little bursts of both, because I don't have to I enjoy it but the practice does stand to you.

Get little groups going with friends if some of you are having real trouble studying. Get someone to do up like a "cheat sheet" which contains everything you need to know on one sheet, like if it would get you through the exam, its all you need. Photocopy and share, take turns in doing these sheets.

Do your homework... I know I'm looking back going "Oh god, look, I had the time, I didn't have to watch that tv programme/surf the net", and praying I get decent results.

Relax about it. Yes, its the Leaving Cert. Yes, everyone is piling on the pressure. I'm not saying go out every weekend and get hammered and don't study. Far from it. But remember its just a set of exams, that its not life and death and that in twenty years time nobody will care if you got 600 points or 5. Enjoy Sixth Year, you will miss it when its over. Have a laugh with teachers, do everything and anything, and fit in some study on the side.

Good luck.

imported_guy

wayhey wrote: »

I know it's a few weeks away yet (thank God) but when September rolls around I'll be heading into 6th Year. I really don't want to leave everything after the mocks, I want to knuckle down from the start. I guess I'm looking for any advice any ex-LCer can throw out there. My points threshold is pretty high, I'm aiming for the 600 cos I want to do Medicine (and I do English, Irish, Maths, French, Geog, Chem and Biology, all HL, tho considering dropping to OL in Maths).

So any tips? I know ye're all anxiously waiting on results and stuff so I'm not expecting too much but anything would be great. How'd you study, e.g in an after school thing or at home? How much studying would you get in a day aside from homework? How much studying at weekends? Where were you left for chilling out time and how much? For someone who didn't work exceptionally hard (but pretty well) in 5th Year how obtainable is a good LC?

Maybe others will pitch in with their own questions and best of luck with the results lads!!!

first of all, good luck to you in your exams,

secondly, (im not irish didnt do irish for LC) but i heard irish is one of the harder subjects, and then math

i suggest if your expecting 100 points in irish then drop down by all means in math

otherwise just drop down in irish and get stuck in for math and get grinds etc

biology - learn section 1 and 2 of the book off by heart, and then do main topics such as human + plant reproduction from section 3, this is a guaranteed A1 in biology trust me

chemistry, know all the experiments (dont try to predict whats gona come up, just know them all, and be better at ones that might come up, some say its predictable whats comming up, but SEC are a.holes when they make the paper sometimes for chemistry), work on organic,

geography, i dont know i didnt do it

french - i did german so no comment (but as in irish and german, the aural can make or break you, same with the tape exam)

english, i did ordinary im afraid so no comment

and if you dont get medicine, try to do like science or chemical engineering or something and apply for the amazing med schools in like carrabien or something, they offer guranteed residency match programmes in america and prepare you well for USMLEs

JSK 252

I tell you whole heartedly the first month of the LC year will feel like ****e. Summer will be over, your mind will feel disorientated with the constant bickering from teachers that the leaving is 9 months away. While this is reality you have to put things in perspective and unfortunately I was overwhelemed by this for the first month or two. I was actually glad that I got the LC jitters at the start of the year as I eventually realised that its a marathon not a race. Remember that Rome wasnt built in a day. It took several days, as does getting to grips with the most important days in your 2nd level academic life. It will defo take a month or 2 to get into the stream of things.

straight_As

JSK 252 wrote: »

a marathon not a race

Charity running ftw!

IrishRed1892

Im going into 5th year now (didn't do TY) and I'll be doing Irish, English, Maths, French, Art, Home-Ec and Bio. Having 2nd thoughts on biology though, I was sh1t at science for the JC and think I should have picked geography instead.

spurious

Talk to your Year Head as soon as you go back.
There might be some wriggle room for you to move from Bio to Geog, though the cut backs are due to have really bad effects in terms of schools losing teachers and dropping subjects, so timetables may well need to be re-drawn in many schools.

Topsnakebite

STUDY thats all i can say only if i done that.........STUDY and you will be good

nkay1985

It's a great idea to ask for advice on how to tackle the LC because with hindsight and experience people can see what worked for them and where they went wrong.

My philosophy on the LC is mainly focused on two things.


1. Do your homework. I can't emphasise the importance of this. It's practical application of what you're being taught. It might seem banal but it's a great way of hammering home what you're doing in class.

2. Past papers. If I learned anything from the LC and college, it's to study for the paper and not for the subject. The way our system works, it doesn't matter how much you know about a subject; what matters is how well you can do the exam. So from week one of sixth year, work from past papers. If it's Maths and you've all of question 1 in 5th year, do Q1(a) from the last four or five years, then Q1(b), then Q1(c). If you struggle with any of them, ask your teacher to go through the specific question with you. When you've finished all Q1, rip it out and keep them together in a section of a folder. Repeat until you've done all questions.
Apply this to every subject and you'll it. It can be harder in things like English but do the questions that relate to your syllabus.


If you're serious about getting 600 points, you'll have to put in a lot of work. But just do the questions and then re-do them! Good luck with it.