Junior Cert tips

Eathrin

I got a load of A's in the junior cert and if anyone had questions regarding:

Maths
Irish
English
Business
French
Geography
Science
Cspe
Religion
History

Feel free to ask

Eathrin

Study advice also given happily

GO'S

study advice wouldnt be bad

Eathrin

any particular subject?
Id rather not start a 100 line rant on everything

GO'S

geography?

Eathrin

As you probobly know geography is split into two sections, short questions and long questions.

SHORT QUESTIONS

These require no more study than reading over your book and filling out the exam papers. out of 20 short questions you answer 20. You should aim to get over 15 correct. Questions like ticking boxes and one word answers shouldnt require too much of your intellect. You should have no problem answering these if you can fill out the previuos exam papers without looking back.

LONG QUESTIONS

You have to do 3 out of 5 but i reccomend doing as many as you have time for. Make sure you do three questions really well then try and answer a fourth one if you can. To answer these you have to provide three pieces of information: A statement, a backup of statement and an example or reference. You must know certain sections in depth to answer these such as case studies. Refer to your exam papers to see what comes up regularly. Theres usually a physical geography question, i cant remember others but im certain there is a semi predictabkle pattern

spurious

For every subject:

1. Believe you can do well in the exam
2. Answer the right number/selection of questions
3. Answer the questions you are asked.

The JC is an exam designed for people to do well in.

Eathrin

spurious wrote: »

For every subject:

1. Believe you can do well in the exam
2. Answer the right number/selection of questions
3. Answer the questions you are asked.

The JC is an exam designed for people to do well in.

In addition to these tips:

4. Do not stress yourself before an exam, as said by spurious the jc is designed for people to do well in.

5. what you get in the mocks you will probobly get 1 grade higher in the jc assuming you continue working hard!

Leftyflip

Someone felt like bragging... :rolleyes:

Eathrin

Someone felt like helping...

Hurler29

what kind of study would ya do 4 french??
im really bad at it.

soccymonster

Hurler29 wrote: »

what kind of study would ya do 4 french??
im really bad at it.

Verbs, verbs, verbs! Try your best to learn your verbs, it will seriously help you in the comprehensions and the letter and note writing and listening as well.
Also, practise letters, notes and postcards in your exam papers and learn off nice little phrases (that you understand) to pop in.

Vocab, keep a small copy and look through comprehensions in your book and exam papers looking up words you dont know and writing them into the copy and looking over them every night. I also read 'la monde', a french newspaper, i think, on the internet :P.

For listening, i just used the vocab i knew and listened to the cd that came with the exam papers over and over.

It prob seems like so much work but it does pay off, trust me .

Oh and dont get stressed! The morning before my exams i was always bricking it so i just went outside into my garden and pucked a sliothar against the wall for a few minutes. Doing something you love really does calm you down!! (well it did for me :P).

Edit: my french teacher used to always shout 'TENSE!' at us for our verbs. I went into my exams and when writing up my letter, her voice just came into my head 'TENSE!' and i noticed that all my verb tenses were all in the present form (so i had to go back and change some). Moral of the story : Tense of verb - always check over it!

padocon

Oh, I need tips on Science and History!
Thanks in advance!

soccymonster

padocon wrote: »

Oh, I need tips on Science and History!
Thanks in advance!

oh i love science to bits! Got an A (with alot of hard work though!).

1. Experiment Folder.
Just make sure you have all the experiments written up. No biggey.

2. The assigned experiments.
Tbh, all i can say is to write it up to the best of your ability. Get your teacher to help if you are unsure. Dont take any chances.

3. Written exam.
I studied for the exam section by section. Firstly chemisty, physics and then biology. Tbh, i spent the time of at least 2 months learning it to get everything learnt off perfectly (as i wanted an A so much).

I got a big refill pad and took down loads of notes looking over them every night so i Wouldnt forget them. Learnt all the equations in chemistry and you'll have to learn all the experiments too for each section (30 i think there is in total..).
For physics and the formulas, i just wrote them in the back of the refill pad as well as in my notes and kept looking over them. For biology, i drew lots of diagrams. I learn better with diagrams, not sure what you're like though..
Revise wise science is really good btw. Well worth a tenner or whatever it is.

Oh and exam papers! They are key.. The questions in chemistry especially, i found, repeated alot (making 02 and CO2 especially).

History, well i learnt a few people in history essays. I Wouldnt be a good person to give advice on that subject because thats preety much all i did .

jumpguy

padocon wrote: »

Oh, I need tips on Science and History!
Thanks in advance!

In science Soccymonster's advice is pretty much it. For science:

In experiments make sure you've written out all the mandatory experiments. The ones that aren't mandatory don't matter. Easy stuff.

For the project:
Write a "mock" project before you do the real thing. See if your teacher will have a look at it. Plan what you'll write in each section. Don't just make-it-up-as-you-go-along. You'll make mistakes.

Make sure you completely understand each section.

If you've discovered what you're project is through research, don't be apprehensive about indicating that to the examiner. I.e. don't play dumb, if you've found out through research what you're doing, then write it down.
For example, last year we had "Qualitatively investigate the relationship between current and heat produced" or something to that effect. Through research, I found out that basically we were proving Joule's Law. I wrote down that I had found this out in my project and wrote in my title "To Prove Joule's Law" (again, make sure you write this in your right section).

Don't be afraid to ask your teacher. I pestered mine.

For the exam:
If you want a B, pressure's off if you did everything else well. Know your stuff to an okay level and you'll be fine.
If you want an A, make sure you know all your experiments, biology, chemistry and physics.


History:

This is just a load of learning. There's no understanding. There is clever ways of doing it though. I predicted what was coming up on our papers in the "Political History in Ireland in the 20th Century" on Q6 which comes up every year. I also predicted the "People in History" question (Q4 I think). It's risky and don't rely on it completely...just focus abit more on what's likely to come up. That's what I did and I got an A, especially in the Q6 section on Irish history. Don't hold me responsible if it all goes wrong though (i.e. you rely on it completely).

That said, make sure you know everything else, just in case. Also, it's a risk, but who dares wins. You still need to comprehensively know all your stuff for the short questions anyway, the documents and pictures questions, and Q5.

For the exam:

Prioritise question 6. It's 60 marks out of 180. Irish history, social change and WW2 come up every year. Irish history is difficult, I hated it. I predicted what'd come up for the essay on it and I was right. If you want an A, don't do social change. Just don't. It sounds easy, but it's marked incredibly harshly. If you misread a question you're completely ****ed, to be crude. If you want a C, maybe a B, do it.

Pictures and documents are random and easy. Get the most marks you can, but don't waste your time on them.

Short Q's are easy if you know your stuff. Attempt as much questions as possible (don't just do the bare minimum of 10) and you're pretty much gauranteed full marks in that section, if you know your stuff.

Question 4 Essays. Write sample essays. Don't learn ones off, just learn key points. They don't have to be the best English. They're looking for key points.

Every 2 marks is one key point. In a 10 mark question, they want 5 points.

Read every question carefully. A misreading could be costly.



God, that was quite an essay. I have to start copying and pasting...

Just Contribute

Are you still offering help?

Did you learn off an essay for Irish?

Borak

Why didn't you do German? I know I'm going to get a NG on it

grinds

jumpguy wrote: »

In science Soccymonster's advice is pretty much it. For science:

In experiments make sure you've written out all the mandatory experiments. The ones that aren't mandatory don't matter. Easy stuff.


There is a great book out there with a free dvd that goes through loads of experiments. Think its called "Science experiments shortcuts to success" Well worth a look

Borak

grinds wrote: »

jumpguy wrote: »

In science Soccymonster's advice is pretty much it. For science:

In experiments make sure you've written out all the mandatory experiments. The ones that aren't mandatory don't matter. Easy stuff.


There is a great book out there with a free dvd that goes through loads of experiments. Think its called "Science experiments shortcuts to success" Well worth a look

Exploring Science has a DVD as well, though, I've yet to have a look.

whistlin_boy

Just Contribute wrote: »

Are you still offering help?

Did you learn off an essay for Irish?

For Irish...you can....and you can't learn an essay........It depends on what essay you learn and also how confident you are in twisting parts of essay's around to suit the title......but a general set of phrases e.g (like a person fainting in front of you, you call ambulance and go to hospital with person, doctor comes out and everything's okay) can be very useful as long as you have the ability in Irish to write 6 or 7 sentences to provide context to the story. Having said that only 10 marks go for the context so.......:D

Indiego

any tips for irish? (higher level)
im sooooooo scared about the irish exam
i always seem to do ok in exams, i usually get a B, but these exams arent as hard, so im nervous, becasue i get A's in everything else...
should i be concerned that as of today, ive done 1 poem and no prose, and we havent even looked at the prose question on paper 2 0_o

Azuraiii

Business pls.


There is so much to cover in the book.
Which area should i DEFINITELY focus on?

Just Contribute

Azuraiii wrote: »

Business pls.


There is so much to cover in the book.
Which area should i DEFINITELY focus on?

Know your Books of First Entry, Budgeting, Business Documents, Trading P/L Appropriation Account inside out. They pretty much come up every year, so there's no excuses for not knowing them.

aarong1169

im not tryin to be sarcastic now but why are ye worryin about d jc if its so far away or...should i be worryin?

Just Contribute

aarong1169 wrote: »

im not tryin to be sarcastic now but why are ye worryin about d jc if its so far away or...should i be worryin?

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

aarong1169

Just Contribute wrote: »

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

no serious though, it is really early yet and lyk im only concentrating on my christmas tests and only studyin wa we did so far this year...is it too early to start worryin about it lyk? on the 1st january im gonna start studyin for my mocks.....but, for now im only concentrating on my christmas tests or am i wrong to do that?

Just Contribute

aarong1169 wrote: »

no serious though, it is really early yet and lyk im only concentrating on my christmas tests and only studyin wa we did so far this year...is it too early to start worryin about it lyk? on the 1st january im gonna start studyin for my mocks.....but, for now im only concentrating on my christmas tests or am i wrong to do that?

Well, no. I'd imagine we are all concentrating our study towards our Christmas tests at the moment. Anything else would be quite stupid.

anirishlad

No christmas tests

Borak

aarong1169 wrote: »

im not tryin to be sarcastic now but why are ye worryin about d jc if its so far away or...should i be worryin?

Depends. If you're a 3rd year, then you shouldn't be dossing about. If you're second year, it shouldn't worry you too much. Good luck on it though

horse outside

Any tips for Religion HL or Irish OL ??

TehFionnster

horse outside wrote: »

Any tips for Religion HL or Irish OL ??

Well, As I do HL irish, I can't really help you, but i'd imagine that you'd wanna learn of some really nice A standard phrases, if you're looking for an A.
Other than that, Learn Grammar, Check the notes thread, I have some notes, on modh cionniollach and saor briathar, also, Do reading comprehensions.
The only way to do well in the Leamhthuiscint, is (IMO) constant practice.
Unless you wanna learn off reams of vocab

Never do anything in Religion.
Hate it.
My teacher is an idiot.

Coeurdepirate

Seriously, do not stress over the JC. The examiners will be DYING to give you marks, and you honestly don't have to kill yourself at all to do very well.

horse outside

would any one have an irish essay on "the match" / cluiche

readystudypass

The chief examiners reports on www.examinations.ie can give you pointers sometimes

niaroh1x96

Any tips for HL Irish?? especially Aiste, Litir etc.
Thanks :-)

storm2811

horse outside wrote: »

Any tips for Religion HL or Irish OL ??

Religion HL is simple, I only got a C but that's because I didn't study.
Learn the festivals and rituals in Islam (Or whatever other religion you're focusing on), learn symbols and prayer, prepare to write a lot and do a good bit of work in exam papers.

Of course you need to a good job on your project book thing aswell, waffling is alright for it, keep repeating yourself and always, always refer back to the question and try to fit in the title.
The examiners seem to like big words used in it too for some reason.

OL Irish:
Did it change? I'm not sure, since the LC Irish changed.
Anyway, learn a good few basic phrases for postcards and letters, the rest is easy enough.
Also, if you're not doing much aural in school do some at home, practice makes perfect and all that.

Tip for all JC students:

There's a brilliant little science book I'd recommend to everyone, it looks just like a leaflet or a pamphlet, about 80 pages and it has absolutely EVERYTHING in it that you could possibly need for the exam.

IloveConverse

Well I'm doing the Junior Cert this year and really not sure what to expect at all. "Quite clueless actually." As you all know, the mocks are "just around the corner" and I'd like to know if they're really difficult in comparrison to the big "JC" or not far behind at all??
I have been studying since October and want to do well, I spend about 4 and a half hours every night at my homework (study and homework.) Is this enough or should I have been studying since September?? Thanks in advance.

storm2811

IloveConverse wrote: »

Well I'm doing the Junior Cert this year and really not sure what to expect at all. "Quite clueless actually." As you all know, the mocks are "just around the corner" and I'd like to know if they're really difficult in comparrison to the big "JC" or not far behind at all??
I have been studying since October and want to do well, I spend about 4 and a half hours every night at my homework (study and homework.) Is this enough or should I have been studying since September?? Thanks in advance.

That is LOADS of study, seriously, if it all sticks you should do really well.
The mocks, everyone says they're harder than the JC but I think they just mark them harder/give you a lower grade to kind of spur you on.
Nearly everyone in my year got better grades in the actual JC than in the mocks anyway.

IloveConverse

How long were your answers for English for the exam?? (on the comprehension/unseen poetry e.t.c.) I do a full page and I'm not sure if I'll have enough time in the exam to do the same!

Thanks very much.

storm2811

IloveConverse wrote: »

How long were your answers for English for the exam?? (on the comprehension/unseen poetry e.t.c.) I do a full page and I'm not sure if I'll have enough time in the exam to do the same!

Thanks very much.

On the comprehension my answers weren't very long, about a page or two for all of them, they're not really looking for long answers on it I don't think.

For the unseen poetry I think I done about a page and half, I'm not sure.

Yeah time management is important, especially in English, I was writing up to the very last minute!

No problem.:)

kevin12345

IloveConverse wrote: »

How long were your answers for English for the exam?? (on the comprehension/unseen poetry e.t.c.) I do a full page and I'm not sure if I'll have enough time in the exam to do the same!

Thanks very much.

Depends on the question and the marks going for it. My teacher gave us this breakdown for how long we should write for a question depending on the marks allocated:
5 marks - sentence/short paragraph
10 marks - half a page
15 marks - 3/4 page to 1 whole page
20 marks - 1 page to 1 1/2 pages.

Obviously it's quality not quantity but do try to write enough. Make a point, back it up with evidence (quote). Avoid repitition, examiners will get seriously bored!

Good luck with the mocks.

IloveConverse

I was doing about a full A4 and a half for 15 marks and up to 3/4s of a page for 5 marks!


Any tips for getting full marks in people in histories; how many points of information do you have to have to get full marks?


Once again, thanks so much!

Shamrock883

IloveConverse wrote: »

I was doing about a full A4 and a half for 15 marks and up to 3/4s of a page for 5 marks!


Any tips for getting full marks in people in histories; how many points of information do you have to have to get full marks?


Once again, thanks so much!

A rule of thumb with history is this: Half the marks per question = the amount of points you would want to be writing down at a minimum. For example, 30 mark question would mean 15 valid, concise points (Examiners aren't looking for information that he was born when the sky was blue and played hopscotch as a child). Also, dates don't matter. I'd say this has already come up somewhere around here though...