Leaving Cert points

Lexii307

From the 31st of this month i will be in 6th year. Im planning to start studying as soon as i go back because the college course i want has highish points (around 520) but im tyrin to aim for 530 if possible. I want to know does anyone have any tips on how i can achieve this by the 8th June (when my leaving starts). Im thinking 2 hrs homework and 3hrs study during the week and then 6 hrs at the weekend.The subjects im doing are:
English (Honours)
Maths (Honours)
History (Honours)
Spanish (Honours)
Home Economics (Honours) my best subject
Biology (Honours)
Irish (Pass)

Maybe_Memories

You've probably heard this a million times, but it's not how much studying you do, it's what you do in the time that counts.

I'm getting LC results on Wednesday, and I'm expecting around 500-520 points.
I have one solid piece of advice for you: Do your homework. Do it properly. Keep it filed away so you can review it when you get close to exam time. You're given homework because it relates to the final exam, so it's very important.

I'm a complete hypocrite saying this, because I did hardly any homework in 6th year. My motto was to forget homework, and just study. This was very stupid of me, because the homework we were getting would've made studying in the weeks before the LC much easier.
Do NOT go down this road. Do your homework properly. Trust me, it'll be worth it.

In school I was doing Maths, Physics, English, Irish, French and Biology. I did Economics, but gave it up around april. All HL except Irish.
Outside school I did Applied Maths by myself, at HL.

The only reason I think I'll get between 500 and 520 is because maths was my strong point. I just kept doing maths day in day out. Not for studying it, but because I extremely enjoy the beauty of mathematics. (Someone's gonna call me a freak now. :P)
I forgot about everything else, now I'm only expecting high Cs, low Bs in the others.

Most of your subjects are the "learn everything, vomit it out on the day type". This is good, and can get you very high points, if you know how to study properly.

In terms of languages, i.e. Spanish, watch your favourite DVDs in this language. I watched all of Lost in french once.

As for maths, just do exam paper after exam paper, thinking about why everything works, coming up with a general case for every problem.
Here's an example, f(x)=x^k , what's the nth derivative? I got bored in french one day and came up with this.

Hope I helped.

sheep-go-baa

Maybe_Memories wrote: »

I have one solid piece of advice for you: Do your homework. Do it properly. Keep it filed away so you can review it when you get close to exam time. You're given homework because it relates to the final exam, so it's very important.

Just to add to this, if a teacher says your homework is to read some pages, this counts as homework, DO IT!
Teachers know what they are talking about and know how to get you to learn it best.

Also it is very improtant to keep files. Have an organised system for all the sheets you get. Studying is impossible if you don't have all the stuff you need to learn in front of you. By the end I just had piles of paper and missed out on loads of irish essays before the exam. So keep on top of it.

And most important of all, always believe that you can get the points you need.
You have loads of time, use it well and good luck.

rainbowtrout

While it's horrible to be so exam focused, that is the reality. Get all your exam papers as soon as possible. You can download them for free from examinations.ie. Even if some of your teachers aren't starting them yet, if you are going to be doing some study of your own each evening, take an exam question from a topic you are studying and do it. At the start some of them will be daunting, but once you get a feel for them it's not as bad as it seems. You will soon see what is expected of you in the LC (marking schemes also on examinations.ie) and when it comes to doing those questions for homework later on in the year, you will be revising them , making your life a little easier and allowing you to work on something else if needs be.

Also get a proper sleep every night - no marathon sessions where you feel that you need to do X amount of hours every night. 45 minutes of productive work is better than 3 hours of being half asleep on top of the books, where you have read the same page 5 times and it still hasn't gone in. If you need a break, take it. Also maybe try and get in a short walk each evening, even if it's only 15-20 mins just to get some fresh air and exercise. it will do you the world of good.

Get your Home Ec and History project out of the way in plenty of time, then you can forget about them and get on with other stuff. Don't leave it till the last minute.

EuropeanSon

Maybe_Memories post is spot on. I did my homework, and did it properly, every night. I did no study until Easter, discounting the few weeks prior to the mocks. I'm hoping for something around 560+, and the same advice came from my sister, who got 600. She was right.

If you do intend to study full pelt all year, then my advice (for what it's worth) on the 3 subjects I do that you do, is as follows:

Maths: Do exam questions. Do more exam questions. Rinse and repeat. This is all you need to do. If timing is an issue for you, make sure to limit yourself to the time allowed. There is almost nothing on the course which hasn't come up in the past. And don't leave topics out. Any topic can come up anywhere, and nasty questions might come up in topics you prepare. Choice is a wonderful thing, and can prevent panic setting in if you meet a question you can't deal with. I know several people who panicked when they saw the sequence and series part in Q1 P1 this year, and it threw them right off. Best to be ready for any eventuality.

English: Write as much, as often as you can, and get your teacher to read it and suggest improvements. Not necessarily exam questions. Any subject you like is fine. For paper 2, make yourself familiar with the texts, and the themes of the poetry etc. DO NOT rely on predictions or learned off essays, many people who did that were caught out this year.

History: Take notes. Don't try to study by just reading the book, it is very inefficient. Writing the points down, even in bullet points, reinforces them very well, in my experience. And study for class tests, because that helps with remembering the topics when it comes to the exam.

My Irish is awful, so I can give no advice of use in that. I did none of your other subjects.

I hope that helps a bit, and the best of luck to you next year!

Edit: one more thing I forgot-use marking schemes. Correct every exam question you do, in every subject, or have a teacher do it.

Lexii307

Thanks. You're all really helpful. For the last half of the summer i have actually been doing exam papers because i find it the best way i learn things. I’ve done all the maths questions in papers i intend to be doing in June and have gone over the sections we did over the year including the start of paper 2. For English i just relearned poems and the Play and looked over sample essays. For Irish i did the same for poems and stories. Biology I’ve done the sections we've done this year in the papers. I have 2 history exam essays done so far. I’ve started Spanish this week and i only have a question or two for Home Ec.
Thanks. You're all really helpful. For the last half of the summer i have actually been doing exam papers because i find it the best way i learn things. I’ve done all the maths questions in papers i intend to be doing in June and have gone over the sections we did over the year including the start of paper 2. For English i just relearned poems and the Play and looked over sample essays. For Irish i did the same for poems and stories. Biology I’ve done the sections we've done this year in the papers. I have 2 history exam essays done so far and should have the project done by Christmas. I’ve started Spanish this week and i only have a question or two for Home Ec but I’ve the project done since May. And maybe_memories they are very good ideas that I will try. I would love to know how you all do and I hope you get what you want

EuropeanSon

Wow. Anyone who works that hard already, deserves to get what they want. I hope you do really well, I've very little doubt you will if you're putting that much work in already!

As one of the other posters said though, do try not to overwork yourself, and make sure to get enough sleep. It's a marathon, not a sprint (if you'll excuse the cliche :P ), and there's no use burning yourself out by April with huge workloads and unnecessary anxiety.

Maybe_Memories

Completely agree with EuropeanSon and rainbowtrout.
Don't work with full steam from the very beginning. Gradually increase the ammount of work you do.

Lexii307

Thanks. I do know what you are saying about don't burn myself out. On the other hand i do want to do well and im afraid if i dont put in the work NOW i'll fall behind and fail. Im a downer. I know. I just want to make sure i get my points. But it makes sense. As for lots of sleep im actually a very bad sleeper and the thoughts of failing dont exactly help me. Organisation is another downfall which is why im thinking of doing timetables to help me focus

Ditzie

timetables are a brilliant idea, i did mine out at christmas and found them lifesavers! don't just write down a subject though, also write out what part of that subject you're going to study. If you stick to your study plan you will fly it! I had good intentions but I didn't do as much work as i intended so if one saturday you feel like a break, just relax and try not to worry or feel guilty about not studying, simply go back to your routine sunday! good luck!

rainbowtrout

Lexii307 wrote: »

Thanks. I do know what you are saying about don't burn myself out. On the other hand i do want to do well and im afraid if i dont put in the work NOW i'll fall behind and fail. Im a downer. I know. I just want to make sure i get my points. But it makes sense. As for lots of sleep im actually a very bad sleeper and the thoughts of failing dont exactly help me. Organisation is another downfall which is why im thinking of doing timetables to help me focus

I was and I still am terribly disorganised when it comes to study. Timetables are great if you can stick to them, just beware that you don't spend more time creating a study timetable for yourself than you actually do studying! Maybe it would help to be task oriented than time oriented. Eg instead of saying 'I'll do 3 hours of study tonight' or I'll do one hour of history, 45 mins of English and 30 mins of maths' it might help if you gave yourself a short list of things to do each evening. Eg Answer a full question on photosynthesis in biology, summarise hitler's foreign policy in history, complete a question on differentiation in maths, learn the past tense of 3 verbs in Spanish etc and set yourself new tasks each day. Don't set a big list that's unachievable otherwise you might feel like you aren't getting anything done if you don't finish the list every day.

Lexii307

Thats brilliant because then i know what to do. Im not wasting time deciding what chapters or pages on books i need to know in a day

rainbowtrout

Lexii307 wrote: »

Thats brilliant because then i know what to do. Im not wasting time deciding what chapters or pages on books i need to know in a day

Exactly. Just make sure you don't neglect any one subject in favour of doing a home ec question every night as it's your favourite. I was a master at neglecting Irish!:D

Lexii307

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Exactly. Just make sure you don't neglect any one subject in favour of doing a home ec question every night as it's your favourite. I was a master at neglecting Irish!:D

Funny but its not my favourite, its just the one im best at because i studied it really hard. Biology is actually my favourite. I hope i wont neglect any because then ill just be annoyed and frustrated!