Do you need to study a lot for the JC?

AulBiddy

I was thinking of starting to study for the JC just before midterm. I noticed that in 2nd year it was SUCH a doss and I didn't even notice it until I got into 3rd year and it has really demotivated me.Even for class exams I have done very bad; I've gotten a 65% in my maths and a 51% in my history (which I am not surprised at since I am very bad at history but I am really good at maths, I don't know what happened). How do I motivate myself to study? I'm finding it very hard.

Justin10

After October Mid term?
I think that is way to early. Just doing a little bit here and there and then before you mocks start doing a little study when thats over get down to the studying.

Slow Show

I did a fairly impressive JC without studying a whole lot..if I said I didn't study I'd be lying, but I certainly didn't study consistently - I went through short, sporadic bursts of studying loads, then I flopped afterwards and did nothing for weeks and weeks until the next burst came on. An example of this is how I spent the first two days of our week off before the JC pretty much having my life revolve around study study study, then did nothing at all for the remainder of the week. Like, at all...I certainly don't advise this method, I'm just saying it worked very well for me, but everyone's study habits are different. And I have an abnormally good memory so I suppose I probably didn't need to study as much as a lot of people anyway.

I did my homework and studied for tests right up to Third Year so my results were consistently quite good, but if you're disappointed with current results it might be an idea to study more for your tests. If you have Christmas tests coming up, maybe study for them.

I never liked people telling me that the JC was a waste of time and it doesn't count for anything and studying for it is stupid...although it's a tiny bit true. I wouldn't start serious study with the exams in mind right now, in my opinion keep doing your homework and studying for class tests/house exams up to Christmas, and then if you feel the need to, work towards mocks after Christmas, see where you need to improve after the mocks and work towards improving those areas up until the Junior Cert. Oh also, regarding your disappointment in maths, maths is very much a subject that really begins to click when the course is covered and you're practising exam questions, so don't worry too much!

Regarding motivation...I failed miserably in this regard for the most part, but getting my results was up there with the happiest moments of my life and I'm in excellent classes this year because of my results and also, they do count if you want to apply abroad. I'm seriously considering applying to UCAS for my course next year (applying to universities in the UK if you're unfamiliar), and my JC results are certainly going to come in handy for this. Just a thought if you're in any way inclined that way...

Stupidly long post, hope I helped somewhat, good luck!

hsds

hello 2 hrs a night minimum is what we were told:eek:

ShatterResistant

hsds wrote: »

hello 2 hrs a night minimum is what we were told:eek:

2 hours a night is the minimum for third year but thats includig homework... until the mocks anyways. And after christmas you should be doing 2 or 3 hours on a saturday. I did the JC this year and had a teacher convinving us we had to do 3 hours during the week and 6 hours on the weekends if we wanted to get a b or c in our subjects :P! Can honestly tell you i did 2 hours during the week and nothing on the weekends and got on fairly good.(Got an A in that teachers subject!)

spurious

• Listen properly in class
• Ask questions if you do not understand something
• Do your homework to the best of your ability

You will do much better than you think in the Junior Cert.. It is designed that way.

DarkDusk

spurious wrote: »

• Listen properly in class
• Ask questions if you do not understand something
• Do your homework to the best of your ability

You will do much better than you think in the Junior Cert.. It is designed that way.

+1 for listening in class and homework. Last year, I didn't do any real study other than homework until after the mocks and still got great results. It really depends on how much you listen and do your homework. I listened carefully in every single class (except maths because our teacher was dreadful and I could teach myself!:D) If you don't listen in class, you'll have to do 3x more study - so keep that in mind.

James.

Karl96

Right well its waaaaay waaaaay too early to be studying! go and enjoy yourself until easter at the very least! Just listen in class and do your homework all year. Then study for a week before the jc and youre sorted! Jc isnt as bad as its made out to be.
I did my hw and listened and studied the week before and ended up with 9 as and 3 bs (all higher) so like unless youre really worried dont be studying now! wait till easter

AulBiddy

ta guys defo won't start study for a good while then maybe 2 - 3 weeks before mocks and when i have days off and nothing to do thanks

chatterboxxx95

No, you don't need ti study too much for the jc, i done well and everyone kept saying to me"oh you must have done nothing but study" which i just laughed at because it wasn't true, the main things are listen in class and do your homework, also, never leave a classroom if you don't understand something. I started studying a little before Christmas, then took a break over the holidays and started again before the mocks. Another thing is don't study too much before the mocks or otherwise you'll feel a little burnt out after them! if you really feel worried about study though, even every night read back over what you did in class that day and that's one less thing to learn before the exams! Best of luck this year btw

matthew8

spurious wrote: »

You will do much better than you think in the Junior Cert.. It is designed that way.

You're still saying that as though it's a fact even though a fair few in the predictions/results threads pointed out lower grades than predicted, such as myself.

I managed not to fall behind on work throughout the 3 years which meant I only had to study properly for the last month, if that. I only spent a couple of hours studying during that month. Don't study anything now unless you're in dire straits in that subject (or area of a subject) and need to get a foothold in it.

If there's any subject you can't pass right now study it until you can pass it.

spurious

matthew8 wrote: »

You're still saying that as though it's a fact even though a fair few in the predictions/results threads pointed out lower grades than predicted, such as myself.

Why you predicted too high results for yourself is a matter for you. Most JC students underestimate how they will do, as teachers often mark mocks very strictly.

It does not make it any less true to say the exam is designed for people to do really well. Neither does it change the fact that the vast majority of people do better than they expected.

chatterboxxx95

From personal experience, most people i know done better than they thought, myself included. I had myself convinced that i had messed up all the exams and yet came out with all a's, people i know were panicking thinking they'd failed things and came out with their honour.:) very few weren't happy, and of those most of them had boasted about how easy each exam was.

Eathrin

I can tell you that I honestly did zilch and came out with 8 A's and 2 B's. It probably comes down to how well you perform in class, I never found studying to be necessary, the most I ever did was come into school an hour before the exam to try and cram 3 years of work into my head.

Indiego

matthew8 wrote: »

You're still saying that as though it's a fact even though a fair few in the predictions/results threads pointed out lower grades than predicted, such as myself.

I managed not to fall behind on work throughout the 3 years which meant I only had to study properly for the last month, if that. I only spent a couple of hours studying during that month. Don't study anything now unless you're in dire straits in that subject (or area of a subject) and need to get a foothold in it.

If there's any subject you can't pass right now study it until you can pass it.

Perhaps this is why you did worse than expected... maybe you took you own ability for granted.

Thats what I did and I barely studied for the mocks, and I got very disappointing results, so I realized I needed to work a bit harder and I ended up with my best results ever (since 1st year) in the actual exams..

To each is their own I suppose.

Slow Show

JC is designed for you to do better than you expect, fact. My results were my most optimistic estimate ever (I made pessimistic/realistic/optimistic predictions because I overthink everything far too much ). They were way better than my mock results too, though I did fairly well in my mocks in my opinion, got a few A's and the rest B's, so it wasn't a very motivational kick.

I really think me just listening in class and doing my homework (most of the time) all through the three years was what counted in the end. Like I'm sure I've said this before but that outweighed what little serious study I did. Oh, and in a lot of subjects the courses were finished fairly early (Business, Maths and English for example) so we had lots of time in class to revise, particularly Business...I never studied for Business and I'm fairly certain it was my best exam result. And I loved the accounts. And this is fairly pointless but I'm just saying, I don't think studying is actually the most important thing when it comes to studying for the JC. It's important, yeah, but listening and homework is the key. Indeed.

DarkDusk

Slow Show wrote: »

It's important, yeah, but listening and homework is the key. Indeed.

Definitely

P H A 7V T O M

I only studied for the last month or so and did pretty god damn good. It's weird, the JC, all the hype leading up to it, and then when you get the results it's all like "meh" from the teachers.

shadowninty

Dont study much, just do your homework.

RobbieSEI

I didn't study one bit, and dossed for most of third year. The first thing I said to myself when I went into the exam's were ' Why the fcuk did I not study and do my work'. Do as much of it as you can, Around Christmas would be a good time to start. I did fairly well in my Junior, 8 honours and 3 passes, But I know for a fact if I had of studied and done the work I could have achieved honours in all honours subjects.

Slicence

Once school started this year I've been doing 40-60 minutes of study everyday, and about 2.30hrs every weekend. I'm doing all honors because I feel I'm up to it even though I am not a genius (reasonably smart) and struggle quite a bit in Maths, partly down to my dreadful teacher.
Should I keep up what I'm doing, or do more, or do less?
Thanks.

shadowninty

Slicence wrote: »

Once school started this year I've been doing 40-60 minutes of study everyday, and about 2.30hrs every weekend. I'm doing all honors because I feel I'm up to it even though I am not a genius (reasonably smart) and struggle quite a bit in Maths, partly down to my dreadful teacher.
Should I keep up what I'm doing, or do more, or do less?
Thanks.

I probably shouldnt discourage you, but (unless you are counting homework as study!!), that sounds like a lot of study at this time of year. Still, maybe its a good habit if you keep it up into 6th year :pac:

spurious

Slicence wrote: »

Once school started this year I've been doing 40-60 minutes of study everyday, and about 2.30hrs every weekend. I'm doing all honors because I feel I'm up to it even though I am not a genius (reasonably smart) and struggle quite a bit in Maths, partly down to my dreadful teacher.
Should I keep up what I'm doing, or do more, or do less?
Thanks.

You don't have to be a genius to do all honours in the Junior, you just need to be in the majority. Most JC subjects divide roughly 70/30 Honours and Ordinary.
Always try the highest level you can. Even if you fail (unlikely) you have still worked at a higher level than if you settled early for Ordinary.

Remember, for some subjects, there is not a lot of difference between the Higher Level JC syllabus and the Ordinary Level LC syllabus, so see the JC as a foundation you will build on later.

Don't fall into the trap of blaming your teacher if you are having trouble in a subject - maybe you're not able for it? If you believe the teacher is the problem, then by all means study as much as you say you are doing in that subject, but for other subjects, listen properly in class, never leave a classroom not understanding something and always do your homework as if it is an exam question.

You don't have to kill yourself with work for the JC and if you do it properly, you will have a great basis for the LC and find yourself one of the people who don't have to do as much study for LC as others do.

AoifeCN

I'm in third year too and to be honest I haven't started studying at all yet. I have a small list of things I really need to study but I just cannot motivate myself to do so. I do mostly higher level subjects and I am smart it's just I'm terrible at studying!

theginger

I don't understand how people can just sit back and not study from September I have been doing 2 hours of study per night and 3 hours at the weekends, and I still feel like I'm behind!!

AtomicKoala

theginger wrote: »

I don't understand how people can just sit back and not study from September I have been doing 2 hours of study per night and 3 hours at the weekends, and I still feel like I'm behind!!

Behind who? I doubt you're behind anyone in your class at that rate, good on ya!

The One Who Knocks

I cannot stress how important listening in class is. I got 11 A's in my mini-mock, and the only study I did was an hour or 2 the night before the exams.

Listening in class is key, and not just listening, ACTIVELY listening. If the teacher is busy, or trying to deal with the class, make it YOUR responsibility to learn the material yourself.

You can sit there in class, pretending to listen, but it's not good enough, go over the material, make sure you understand it, if you dont, ask the teacher. If you have finished your work in class, instead of waiting 10 minutes for the teacher to correct it, revise!

Honestly, listening in class as well as doing your homework is 90% of what you need to do for the JC,

As for cramming, it works for me anyway, i absolutely hate the stress of it, but at the same time, it motivates me.

If you have already covered 90% , the only thing left to do before exams is just a quick look back over everything.

The way i see it, I'm stuck in school from 9 to 3.30 for the next few years, I might as well make the most of it.

buyer95

I sat the junior cert last year, and if I was in your position now I would have approached it very differently. I did all honours subjects, even with a weakness in maths. I had coasted through first and second year doing the bare minimum, and getting mainly B' s and the odd A, by doing some cramming the night before. This all meant my motivation to study going into third year was literally non-existent. I presumed that I would be fine maintain my average and not have to kill myself studying.

The mocks rolled around, I had virtually no preparation done, and to be honest they were a disater. I cant remember exactly what I got in them, but I dropped down on average a grade in every subject and in some cases 2. In all my 3 years in secondary school up to that point I had never failed a test, but when the results came back after the pre's my record was not still intact, I failed Science and Tech Graph, 2 subjects I absolutely hated with burning passion, both for different reasons( My Science teacher was awful, she didnt understand the subject nor could she control the class. I was just plain bad at Tech Graph, I didnt understand it.) I was still shocked to received 31% and 29% respectively, as I usually managed to scrape c's and d's... It wasnt as bad after that, I managed to get a d in honours maths and got c's b's and 1 a in the rest.


My science teacher, rather pig headedly told me " You should seriously consider dropping to pass " I was so angry I almost told her she was an awful teacher and it was really her fault(which actually was kind of true, more than 60% of the class failed the exam.) But it was the kick up the arse I needed, I was motivated and worked hard at science to try and manage to pass it. I also got a few grinds in Tech Graph.

I started to work after the pre's but with limited time I decided to prioritize. Science, Maths, Tech Graph obviously and also History( simply because I like it, and didnt mind studying it). The exams in June went quite well overall, for all my work I found the science and T.G exams very hard and was very worried about failing. English went well, and it is another subject I'm good at, and I was shocked to get a C in the mocks.

The key is really to get motivated I think, failing science was the best thing that ever happened to me, as it motivated me in all subjects to work hard as well. If you can find inner motivation, unlike me you will do very well. Also, the exam is the easy part, its the work beforehand which is difficult.

When the results came back I got:

Irish C
French B
English A
Maths B
Geography C
Tech Graph C(OVER THE MOON)
Science C (DELIRA!)
Business B
C.S.P.E A
History A

Carl1997

I dont study at all and I get Cs-Bs on every test (except science, french). Ive done better on mocks than class tests. Need to start studying though, but the JC is simple really

AtomicKoala

Carl1997 wrote: »

I dont study at all and I get Cs-Bs on every test (except science, french). Ive done better on mocks than class tests. Need to start studying though, but the JC is simple really

Its far from simple. Granted, it's not horribly difficult, but easy, no.
Easy is having to translate countries/places/house stuff from x studied language into English, not having to learn off lots of information, and develop an understanding of many things too.

Carl1997

AtomicKoala wrote: »

Its far from simple. Granted, it's not horribly difficult, but easy, no.
Easy is having to translate countries/places/house stuff from x studied language into English, not having to learn off lots of information, and develop an understanding of many things too.

Well I find it easy enough;)
Pay attention in class and do HW and you should get C's and B's even without studying. Im in all higher level subjects

Indiego

Carl1997 wrote: »

Well I find it easy enough;)
Pay attention in class and do HW and you should get C's and B's even without studying. Im in all higher level subjects

But wouldn't an A be nice?

Carl1997

Indiego wrote: »

But wouldn't an A be nice?

Suppose but it's only the JC. As long as you pass or get a C really, you can stay in higher level for LC. That doesn't mean I'm not going to study though, but mainly for Irish English and maths because im dropping the others for LC anyway and i just did the mocks and i probably got an A on history without even studying and a B on most other subjects

AtomicKoala

Carl1997 wrote: »

Well I find it easy enough
Pay attention in class and do HW and you should get C's and B's even without studying. Im in all higher level subjects

Your definition of easy must be a little off then! Are you one of those people who never opts for any anestethic?
That may be true for you or I, but not for most people, and its an attitude that will easlily lead to a wild D appearing in September.

Carl1997 wrote: »

Suppose but it's only the JC. As long as you pass or get a C really, you can stay in higher level for LC. That doesn't mean I'm not going to study though, but mainly for Irish English and maths because im dropping the others for LC anyway and i just did the mocks and i probably got an A on history without even studying and a B on most other subjects

You won't entirely drop the others, chances are you'll be doing some bits of business/science, and by the sounds of it History! And whatever language you do too

It's the JC, sure, but it'd be nice to have two or three A's on your CV, and no D's, no?

Carl1997

AtomicKoala wrote: »

Your definition of easy must be a little off then! Are you one of those people who never opts for any anestethic?
That may be true for you or I, but not for most people, and its an attitude that will easlily lead to a wild D appearing in September.



You won't entirely drop the others, chances are you'll be doing some bits of business/science, and by the sounds of it History! And whatever language you do too

It's the JC, sure, but it'd be nice to have two or three A's on your CV, and no D's, no?

JC doesnt go on your CV does it? And Don't think ill be doing history its an effort and I dont like it that much. Dropping french too, you dont need it for nearly all courses now. (88% of all courses in Ireland)

AtomicKoala

Carl1997 wrote: »

JC doesnt go on your CV does it? And Don't think ill be doing history its an effort and I dont like it that much. Dropping french too, you dont need it for nearly all courses now. (88% of all courses in Ireland)

JC certainly does go on your CV! Of course, its superceded by your LC results, but you'll be needing a decent CV to get summer jobs and work experience placements in the mean time!
If you are as good at history as you've indicated, it's not much effort, just lots of writing /top of class. Still, dont do it if you dont like.
Dropping French is not a good idea at all! It's great to have a language, and I always here regrets from people who didn't do one. Again, you're smart, you're able for it. And what about those 12% of courses?

OMG, discussing LC plans in a "how much study" thread Oh dear!

Anyway, I did my JC last year, regret not studying enough, but then again it isn't the end of the world. Just have some ambition!

Carl1997

AtomicKoala wrote: »

JC certainly does go on your CV! Of course, its superceded by your LC results, but you'll be needing a decent CV to get summer jobs and work experience placements in the mean time!
If you are as good at history as you've indicated, it's not much effort, just lots of writing /top of class. Still, dont do it if you dont like.
Dropping French is not a good idea at all! It's great to have a language, and I always here regrets from people who didn't do one. Again, you're smart, you're able for it. And what about those 12% of courses?

OMG, discussing LC plans in a "how much study" thread Oh dear!

Anyway, I did my JC last year, regret not studying enough, but then again it isn't the end of the world. Just have some ambition!

Heres all the courses that require a 3rd lang.
http://www.qualifax.ie/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=26
Nothing im interested in really, but ill think about it because i dont know what else to pick

Slow Show

Lads, not being a mod here because you can have your own opinions, but I think the Junior Cert is well worth putting a bit of work into if you want to, and if you want to do really well, just ignore everyone that's telling you not to do a tap because it doesn't count for anything. I got better Junior Cert results than average and honestly, the feeling of looking at my results sheet was one of the best of my life. When I feel a bit down I still think of it, it's my proudest achievement to date. It's actually proving to be quite motivational in terms of the LC too, I really want to feel like that again...

I'm sure there'll be some threads in the future about the importance of the JC other than a lovely ego boost, and I can tell you it doesn't count for 'nothing'. Your levels for Leaving Cert will be all for people that want to stay in Ireland for college (and you may need it for looking for part-time jobs), but if you feel you want to go abroad, UCAS (system for college applications in the UK, like the CAO is here) takes Junior Cert results into account.

For example, I was looking at a course in Queen's University Belfast a while ago:
'Grade A in Junior Cert Science acceptable in lieu of Ordinary Level Physics. Performance in Junior Cert important.'

I don't do Physics, so I'm glad that I got an A in JC Science, as that door remains open to me.

Similar story with the University of Edinburgh, probably my top choice if I was to choose to go down that route...
'Irish Junior Certificate, B in Mathematics, Science and English.'

Pretty glad I got A's in those subjects too, the more doors the merrier!

I'm going on a bit but really lads, if you want to do well, try, it'll be worth it in the end if you're anything like me.

Carl1997

Slow Show wrote: »

Lads, not being a mod here because you can have your own opinions, but I think the Junior Cert is well worth putting a bit of work into if you want to, and if you want to do really well, just ignore everyone that's telling you not to do a tap because it doesn't count for anything. I got better Junior Cert results than average and honestly, the feeling of looking at my results sheet was one of the best of my life. When I feel a bit down I still think of it, it's my proudest achievement to date. It's actually proving to be quite motivational in terms of the LC too, I really want to feel like that again...

I'm sure there'll be some threads in the future about the importance of the JC other than a lovely ego boost, and I can tell you it doesn't count for 'nothing'. Your levels for Leaving Cert will be all for people that want to stay in Ireland for college (and you may need it for looking for part-time jobs), but if you feel you want to go abroad, UCAS (system for college applications in the UK, like the CAO is here) takes Junior Cert results into account.

For example, I was looking at a course in Queen's University Belfast a while ago:
'Grade A in Junior Cert Science acceptable in lieu of Ordinary Level Physics. Performance in Junior Cert important.'

I don't do Physics, so I'm glad that I got an A in JC Science, as that door remains open to me.

Similar story with the University of Edinburgh, probably my top choice if I was to choose to go down that route...
'Irish Junior Certificate, B in Mathematics, Science and English.'

Pretty glad I got A's in those subjects too, the more doors the merrier!

I'm going on a bit but really lads, if you want to do well, try, it'll be worth it in the end if you're anything like me.

Thanks for that