Junior Cert Predictions Thread 2012

Louise6

The junior certs in 2 days and i'm trying to cram as much as i can at this point, and there is just so much things to learn i've no idea what to focus on. Any predictions at all would be appreciated??

Shield

Moved from Newbies & FAQ to Junior Cert with redirect expiring in 7 days.

Cill Dara Abu

I predict a riot

Doublechinlolz

I predict everybody will fail and some will die from the spanish cucumbers..

iliketwixbars

Hey fellow JCers,

Thought this would be a good idea for people to chat about how 3rd year is going for them.

It is also intended as a place where people can share predictions etc. for actual Junior Cert.


HINTS/TIPS FOR MOCKS/PRES IS NOT ALLOWED (there is a perfectly good thread for that already open).
Obviously, general chat and discussion on the mocks/pres is fine.


Mod Note:
Seeing as the mock season is over and people were still posting in this thread I have decided to merge the two of them together.
Here you are free to post any predictions and chat about the upcoming JC.
Just please God for your own sake, dont bank on predictions, it has so much scope to go terribly, terribly wrong..

Deise_Girl

The One Who Knocks

You see, this thread just illustrates my point that there is nobody who simply wants to dicuss the mocks, without asking/giving tips.

iliketwixbars

Jamez735 wrote: »

You see, this thread just illustrates my point that there is nobody who simply wants to dicuss the mocks, without asking/giving tips.

It's not only for discussing mocks, its also for sharing predictions about the REAL junior cert and also for off-topic purposes. Don't be so negative.

The One Who Knocks

iliketwixbars wrote: »

It's not only for discussing mocks, its also for sharing predictions about the REAL junior cert and also for off-topic purposes. Don't be so negative.

Apologies, didn't mean to come across as negative,

I just made a point on the mocks thread stating that 99% of people just want to give/get hints and not discuss the mocks, even though, ironically, that thread's primary function was as a mock discussion thread.

Anyway, I wish you all the best with your soon-to-be highly successful thread.

dalta5billion

Anyone else have atrocious mistakes on their mocks?

ButtonBox

dalta5billion wrote: »

Anyone else have atrocious mistakes on their mocks?

I haven't started mine yet, but don't worry if you did make mistakes. It's only the pres/mocks. They don't count for anything, and you'll have 3 months to fix up what you did wrong, so you don't do it again.

xfabgalx

I forgot to include "I couldn't believe what I was hearing" in personal writing for English

whats going to happen ?

lol

ButtonBox

xfabgalx wrote: »

I forgot to include "I couldn't believe what I was hearing" in personal writing for English

whats going to happen ?

lol

If it was one of the "include this sentence in your essay" ones, then you could get a fair few marks taken off for leaving it out.. As it's the pres, I doubt they'll take all marks off, but in the actual exam, you'd need to be really careful with things like that because the examiners would be obliged to give a zero.
Don't worry though! Only the pres, and when the exam in june comes, you'll be extra careful not to do it again. :P

xfabgalx

ButtonBox wrote: »

If it was one of the "include this sentence in your essay" ones, then you could get a fair few marks taken off for leaving it out.. As it's the pres, I doubt they'll take all marks off, but in the actual exam, you'd need to be really careful with things like that because the examiners would be obliged to give a zero.
Don't worry though! Only the pres, and when the exam in june comes, you'll be extra careful not to do it again. :P

Yeah I thought so and I'm not that worked up over mocks .. I have another 3 months to improve plus we haven't done any personal writing in English.
Its only the mocks anyway

ButtonBox

xfabgalx wrote: »

Yeah I thought so and I'm not that worked up over mocks .. I have another 3 months to improve plus we haven't done any personal writing in English.
Its only the mocks anyway

None at all? Try looking up past papers and trying some out maybe- personal writing is worth 70 marks of one paper, and if you have stuff thought out already, it's easy marks.
Good luck!

xfabgalx

ButtonBox wrote: »

None at all? Try looking up past papers and trying some out maybe- personal writing is worth 70 marks of one paper, and if you have stuff thought out already, it's easy marks.
Good luck!

Thanks!

The One Who Knocks

Hmm, my biggest mistake was presuming pizarro was portuguese...ughhh

overall the mocks went well, although I'm pissed at having to repeat maths again after midterm (exam company mixed up papers & sent us maths instead of project maths)

iliketwixbars

ButtonBox wrote: »

None at all? Try looking up past papers and trying some out maybe- personal writing is worth 70 marks of one paper, and if you have stuff thought out already, it's easy marks.
Good luck!

I agree with your point that he should look up past papers and try some of the questions. However personal writing for the vast majority of students is not easy marks.

The only way to improve your personal writing is by reading (lots and lots of reading) and writing.

DO NOT LEARN OFF ESSAYS/STORIES ETC. FOR PERSONAL WRITING. The chance of an essay you have learnt matching perfectly to the essay title asked in the exam in little to none. It is a waste of time.
I would recommend you to try doing random exam questions (that you have never seen before) in the amount of time the exam allows (approximately one hour). If you do this regularly over the next 3 months you will see a drastic improvement in your personal writing skills.

Hope the above helps.

xfabgalx

iliketwixbars wrote: »

I agree with your point that he should look up past papers and try some of the questions. However personal writing for the vast majority of students is not easy marks.

The only way to improve your personal writing is by reading (lots and lots of reading) and writing.

DO NOT LEARN OFF ESSAYS/STORIES ETC. FOR PERSONAL WRITING. The chance of an essay you have learnt matching perfectly to the essay title asked in the exam in little to none. It is a waste of time.
I would recommend you to try doing random exam questions (that you have never seen before) in the amount of time the exam allows (approximately one hour). If you do this regularly over the next 3 months you will see a drastic improvement in your personal writing skills.

Hope the above helps.

I should be fine then. I'm a total bookworm and proud. Even when the people in class laugh at me because I read a lot - I laugh at them. They're the ones who will face the consequences of not embracing the world of literature.

Sound like a total nerd. :L

The One Who Knocks

iliketwixbars wrote: »

DO NOT LEARN OFF ESSAYS/STORIES ETC. FOR PERSONAL WRITING. The chance of an essay you have learnt matching perfectly to the essay title asked in the exam in little to none. It is a waste of time.

I couldn't disagree with you more to be honest. Obviously you are not going to guess the exact title but there's always an opened ending question in the JC that you can twist to suit you.

Make up a few interesting characters and learn them off, then learn 3 different plots and you'll be able to write about anything (if you twist it to suit you)

However for the personal writing section, I find it's much easier to stick to the speech question. (write a speech for/against a motion)
Learn the general structure, key phrases to use etc.

The added bonus of doing the speech is that it's generally acceptable to write less than a usual short story, so 2 & a half pages would be considered plenty.


I would do the story question, but I find my essays are either hit or miss, amazing or brutal, so I don't want to risk it in june.

Whatever you do, make sure you learn interesting characters off by heart, as they can be used in any story you write

xfabgalx

Jamez735 wrote: »

I couldn't disagree with you more to be honest. Obviously you are not going to guess the exact title but there's always an opened ending question in the JC that you can twist to suit you.

Make up a few interesting characters and learn them off, then learn 3 different plots and you'll be able to write about anything (if you twist it to suit you)

However for the personal writing section, I find it's much easier to stick to the speech question. (write a speech for/against a motion)
Learn the general structure, key phrases to use etc.

The added bonus of doing the speech is that it's generally acceptable to write less than a usual short story, so 2 & a half pages would be considered plenty.


I would do the story question, but I find my essays are either hit or miss, amazing or brutal, so I don't want to risk it in june.

Whatever you do, make sure you learn interesting characters off by heart, as they can be used in any story you write

I remember in first year on my xmas exams, a question about surprises or something came up and I used a story I wrote in 6th class Got a really good mark too.

The One Who Knocks

xfabgalx wrote: »

I remember in first year on my xmas exams, a question about surprises or something came up and I used a story I wrote in 6th class Got a really good mark too.

yeah exactly, I know a few interesting characters & 3 completely different plots, so if I wanted to do the story question, i wouldnt have a problem

Below are all the REALLY open ended questions from the past few exam papers

2011
Write a story beginning, “I knew I would need a lot of courage to get through
the day …”
2010
Write a story which includes the words, ‘I wish I had listened’.
2009
Write a composition including the line, “That really was the last straw”.
2008
Write a composition including the line, "It was the unfairness of it all that annoyed me most."

as you can see, it would be possible to use the same story for all of them

For example, just picking a random story out of my head, it would be possible to write about "a bad day" for all of them


I'm not sure what the best stories to learn off are, but go through past exams and see what you think

iliketwixbars

Jamez735 wrote: »

I couldn't disagree with you more to be honest. Obviously you are not going to guess the exact title but there's always an opened ending question in the JC that you can twist to suit you.

Make up a few interesting characters and learn them off, then learn 3 different plots and you'll be able to write about anything (if you twist it to suit you)

However for the personal writing section, I find it's much easier to stick to the speech question. (write a speech for/against a motion)
Learn the general structure, key phrases to use etc.

The added bonus of doing the speech is that it's generally acceptable to write less than a usual short story, so 2 & a half pages would be considered plenty.


I would do the story question, but I find my essays are either hit or miss, amazing or brutal, so I don't want to risk it in june.

Whatever you do, make sure you learn interesting characters off by heart, as they can be used in any story you write

Fair points, however if the story/essay/speech etc. is not consistent throughout you will be heavily penalised. So if you go to the bother of learning off a brilliant story with amazing vocab, grammar etc. and then you have to "twist" the story around the fit the title, the examiner will know.

I agree with your points on the speech, excellent option to choose. I personally would recommend choosing the essay over the short story however, that is of course unless you can compose an excellent, (and well developed!) story in less than three pages. This is extremely difficult to do, much harder than writing a full book where you have plenty of time to develop and show different sides of your character throughout.

Anyway, I'm not going to argue any more :P , best of look with everything, have you done your pre's yet?

Slow Show

Jamez735 wrote: »

2011
Write a story beginning, “I knew I would need a lot of courage to get through
the day …”

I did that essay :')...and made it up on the spot.

I'm strongly opposed to the idea of learning off essays. Learned-off essays can be spotted a mile away unless you get very, very lucky with the title they give you. That said, I had to do quite a few essays for homework and the like and if one of them could have slotted into the question, it would've been fairly handy. However, none did, nor did I expect any to. It's no harm to hope, but don't resign yourselves to writing an essay you've learned off. At the start of the exam, look at your options, then go off and do the rest of the paper and hopefully some ideas will have formed in your mind by the time you come back.

At the very least, don't learn off an essay word for word. If you get into that mindset, it's hard to manipulate it to actually fit the question. Have the gist of the story, but be open to the idea of adding new bits and taking stuff out to make it work with the question asked, this will also make it look a lot more fresh. If you can write a coherent post on boards, you can write a decent essay. They're not asking you to write a story worthy of being published, just answer the question with relevance, use good grammar and punctuation and throw in some nice words/adjectives (someone should start a word thread, big fancy words are awesome!) for good measure.

Also, best advice anyone can ever give you regarding English: Read.

iliketwixbars

Slow Show wrote: »

I did that essay :')...and made it up on the spot.

I'm strongly opposed to the idea of learning off essays. Learned-off essays can be spotted a mile away unless you get very, very lucky with the title they give you. That said, I had to do quite a few essays for homework and the like and if one of them could have slotted into the question, it would've been fairly handy. However, none did, nor did I expect any to. It's no harm to hope, but don't resign yourselves to writing an essay you've learned off. At the start of the exam, look at your options, then go off and do the rest of the paper and hopefully some ideas will have formed in your mind by the time you come back.

At the very least, don't learn off an essay word for word. If you get into that mindset, it's hard to manipulate it to actually fit the question. Have the gist of the story, but be open to the idea of adding new bits and taking stuff out to make it work with the question asked, this will also make it look a lot more fresh. If you can write a coherent post on boards, you can write a decent essay. They're not asking you to write a story worthy of being published, just answer the question with relevance, use good grammar and punctuation and throw in some nice words/adjectives (someone should start a word thread, big fancy words are awesome!) for good measure.

Also, best advice anyone can ever give you regarding English: Read.

Excellent advice ....I'm gonna start that word thread now, love big fancy words :P

The One Who Knocks

Slow Show wrote: »

I did that essay :')...and made it up on the spot.

I'm strongly opposed to the idea of learning off essays. Learned-off essays can be spotted a mile away unless you get very, very lucky with the title they give you. That said, I had to do quite a few essays for homework and the like and if one of them could have slotted into the question, it would've been fairly handy. However, none did, nor did I expect any to. It's no harm to hope, but don't resign yourselves to writing an essay you've learned off. At the start of the exam, look at your options, then go off and do the rest of the paper and hopefully some ideas will have formed in your mind by the time you come back.

At the very least, don't learn off an essay word for word. If you get into that mindset, it's hard to manipulate it to actually fit the question. Have the gist of the story, but be open to the idea of adding new bits and taking stuff out to make it work with the question asked, this will also make it look a lot more fresh. If you can write a coherent post on boards, you can write a decent essay. They're not asking you to write a story worthy of being published, just answer the question with relevance, use good grammar and punctuation and throw in some nice words/adjectives (someone should start a word thread, big fancy words are awesome!) for good measure.

Also, best advice anyone can ever give you regarding English: Read.

Oh yeah, I completely agree,

When I say learn off 3 plots, I'm talking about learning the general gist of them, learning a whole essay word for word is pointless.

Once you have a beginning middle & end planned, you can then twist them to suit,

If you learn a whole essay word for word & then try to twist it, it'll only sound forced.

For example:

Write a story beginning, “I knew I would need a lot of courage to get through
the day …”

If I wanted to learn off a "Bad day" essay, I would plan it like this

Characters:

Me
Best Friend
Horrible teacher
Out-of-reach love interest


Setting:

School's always a good option


Beginning: Background to school life etc
Middle/Event: test/epic-fail etc
End: wrap it up

---

The above plot will generally work for everything

2011
Write a story beginning, “I knew I would need a lot of courage to get through
the day …”
2010
Write a story which includes the words, ‘I wish I had listened’.
2009
Write a composition including the line, “That really was the last straw”.
2008
Write a composition including the line, "It was the unfairness of it all that annoyed me most."

So all I'm saying is make sure you know the general gist of your story as well as key characters

iliketwixbars

So anyone got any predictions for the REAL jc???:)

The One Who Knocks

iliketwixbars wrote: »

So anyone got any predictions for the REAL jc???:)

The Junior Cert is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get.
So I don't advise anyone to take shortcuts as you need to revise everything.

paddzdaman

hi i just thought there really isn't a place where students can put up patterns or predictions for the junior cert .. if you have any post them up for other people to see. Such as what people reckon will come up in people in history .. or woodwork .... ect

fannyadams

Manufactured boards is definite for woodwork this year.. Go to your woodwork exam papers and look up a question on acrylic.. I will bet you those to will come up.

fannyadams

iliketwixbars wrote: »

DO NOT LEARN OFF ESSAYS/STORIES ETC. FOR PERSONAL WRITING. The chance of an essay you have learnt matching perfectly to the essay title asked in the exam in little to none.

I learned off an English essay for my mocks..... I got 68/70 because i spelled one or two words wrong..

ohsurelook

DO NOT LEARN OFF ESSAYS/STORIES ETC. FOR PERSONAL WRITING. The chance of an essay you have learnt matching perfectly to the essay title asked in the exam in little to none.

I'm learning one off. Of course you're not going to get one that matches perfectly,but that's not the point. If everyone stuck perfectly to the essay title all the essays would be the same...

NinjaNinja

Surds haven't come up the past two years in Higher Maths. There's a high likelihood of encountering them this time round.

TL;DR: Expect square roots, people

EatRowSleep

With serious cramming starting know, im just thinking about what could come up. This is all i haave;

English: Sport (Olympics) or Social Media (due to their involvment in london riots last year) in essays or media or functional.

anybody anymore?

IrishLoriii

Hey
Well I had my mocks at the end of Jan and to be honest, they were hard.
I didnt fail anything but I was extremely dissapointed with my history result.
My teacher reckons I was marked badly as i got 61% and in the Pres i got an A.
Also, a girl out of my business class got 26%, went through the exam with our teacher and should have gotten 66%. Im unsure about the JC now, I find it hard to motivate myself to study when I realised how the examiners can get it so wrong!

dalta5billion

IrishLoriii wrote: »

Hey
Well I had my mocks at the end of Jan and to be honest, they were hard.
I didnt fail anything but I was extremely dissapointed with my history result.
My teacher reckons I was marked badly as i got 61% and in the Pres i got an A.
Also, a girl out of my business class got 26%, went through the exam with our teacher and should have gotten 66%. Im unsure about the JC now, I find it hard to motivate myself to study when I realised how the examiners can get it so wrong!

To be honest, I'm the very same, the mocks are supposed to tell you where you need to work, not where the examiner decided to just randomly take marks off.

It's so frustrating. I know I did poorly on the studied sections in English, yet got high marks in them. And did what I thought was a good Personal Writing and got marked really low.

It's just a bit demoralising and seems to confuse students. I know people will say "Oh, you always think you did better on some sections than you actually did, blah blah blah, but it's frustrating when you *know* you did c**p on something and get the opposite mark.

I'm going on class ranking for my results.

IrishLoriii

I get exactly what you mean!
I know I did a really good People In history Question for history, one of them was class I had all the relevant information done and all years dates etc and yet i got 10 out of 20 and the Examiner said I needed the dates when they were there? I think that the examiners just want to finish there work ASAP and that really annoys me.
I have completely lost motivation for the JC now

iliketwixbars

IrishLoriii wrote: »

I get exactly what you mean!
I know I did a really good People In history Question for history, one of them was class I had all the relevant information done and all years dates etc and yet i got 10 out of 20 and the Examiner said I needed the dates when they were there? I think that the examiners just want to finish there work ASAP and that really annoys me.
I have completely lost motivation for the JC now

Don't worry about **** marking in the pre. The junior cert correctors have much stricter guidelines: their marking is regularly checked by other correctors and they have to attend various conferences about the marking. My teacher also said that some scripts can be corrected up to three times Much more accurate and fair then the pres could ever hope to be. Don't let the pre's stop your motivation, its the junior cert that actually matters.

Pidge96

You'll lose half your marks for not using one of the given topics.

Leinsterr

Any history and geography predictions

Bazinga_N

Please feel free to post your predictions here.

Remember though, these are predictions, there is no certainty they will be correct.

TadhgSk

My History teacher today told us he thinks the Reformation is going to come up for the source question.

IceCreamGirl

does anyone have any predictions on geography and english?

Hannahbanana97

Fiscal Treaty for cspe/business and then they were taking aerial photos in boyle co. Roscommon, so that could come in the geog.

Lor1963

Olympics could come up in Irish and Carmina Burana hasn't been there the last few times music set A was up,so it's pretty likely to come up

paddyzk

Few sums in maths , be grand

ko3p

few theorems they said, be grand they said

IceCreamGirl

Theorem:

The measures of the three angles in a triangle add up to 180 (last asked in 2008)

An exterior angle of a triangle equals the sum of the two interior opposite angles in measure (last asked in 2010, 2006)

Opposite sides and opposite angles of a parallelogram are respectively equal in measure (2009,2006)

A line through the centre of a circle, perpendicular to a chord, bisects the chord (2005, 2008)

If two triangles are equiangular, then the lengths of the corresponding sides are in proportion (2004, 2009)

Pythagoras' theorem (2006,2010)

paddzdaman

I reckon that anyone not doing project maths that a histogram will come up since its the last year it can come up ( adjustments being made to it with project maths). Also a quadratic function the tingy with the box in algebra where given a side of it e.g. x-3 ( not the best english but cant think of what its called

In english for functional writing or media studies something about olympics could come up.

In geography rivers, fishing, urban functions and farming will come up i reckon

IrishLoriii

A love poem hasnt came up in english in a while!
Whats everyones loves poems?
Mine is The thickness of ice by Liz Loxley

xfabgalx

The exam papers were made before all the fiscal treaty came to surface so be careful just remember when they were made?

Leinsterr

Will anythin come up for the agricultural revolution????? I dont want to go near it. Also ENGLISH PAPER 2 PREDICTIONS