An old (EPIC) post about study!

SirDelboy18

I've been looking for a few hours, but there was a long, very detailed epic post about study which has been going around these parts for a few years, originally posted before 2010, not sure when though

If anybody at all know what I'm talking about then I'd really appreciate it.

It basically comprised of tips and a list of scenarios for starting proper study e.g after x-mas, after pres and whatnot.

Cheers!

SirDelboy18

Found it!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055644307&page=2

#19 by Jam-Fly, the best study post on here.

Bears and Vodka

*sigh* if you've made a thread about a particular post you might as well just quote it here

Jam-Fly wrote: »

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.