Leaving Cert from home.

GS540

Hello all, I'm soon going to be studying for the leaving cert, but I'm doing it from home due to reasons I'd rather not say. Is there anybody that has done this? if so could you please share some tips and tricks that helped you?

I will be using http://www.scoilnet.ie/ and a few other things but I'm not sure just yet.

I'll be sitting the Leaving Cert school.

Chris.Buckley

I know a few people who have done this. It worked out grand for them; of course nothing beats actually learning in school (teachers train for a reason) but it's definitely do-able. Did you study for your junior from home too?

GS540

No I didn't do the junior cert at all.

spurious

You will run into trouble with any subjects for which there is a project/essay/portfolio element unless your work has been supervised by a teacher all along.

afrocod

Yeah I done it this year. Getting the results the tomorrow. Obviously I don't know how successful I've been yet.

The hardest thing is just keeping the motivation high after the first few months. When you're hold up in your room studying never talking to anyone else that's doing the leaving you don't have the same sense of urgency you would when you're in school.

Anyway, Khan Academy is by far the best online help I found for all my subjects. Pretty much learned everything off that site.

I took all honours, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Applied Maths and Economics. So I can only really speak of these subjects.

I recommend against chemistry as not being able to perform the experiments makes the material really hard to learn. The other sciences are fine without the experiments (just watch them on youtube).

I also recommend against applied maths as it's ridiculously difficult when you can't consult anyone on hard problems you may be stuck on and there are easier ways to earn points.

Also I was going to do English but dropped it in Jan and took Economics instead because it's very difficult to judge if your essay answers are of A, B or C quality and the marking schemes don't help at all. Economics is a really short course and relatively handy.

That's all I can think of but feel free to ask me any questions if you want?

GS540

Thank you so much for this reply, it's gave me a bit more confidence going into it.

Ill give Khan Academy a look. I've heard loads of people talking about it and I've heard nothing but good things.

I'm going to be doing 4 subjects. If you could recommend 4 that you think might be easy please? I really don't mind which ones.

That's it really. Good luck with your results

delta_bravo

GS540 wrote: »

Thank you so much for this reply, it's gave me a bit more confidence going into it.

Ill give Khan Academy a look. I've heard loads of people talking about it and I've heard nothing but good things.

I'm going to be doing 4 subjects. If you could recommend 4 that you think might be easy please? I really don't mind which ones.

That's it really. Good luck with your results

Id advise you carefully look at the syllabi for each subject. As spurious said, any subject requiring a practical/project component will need a teacher to vouch they.know this is your work. As regards recommendations it depends on what you like. Personally I would go with English and geography biology and maybe business but only you can decide this

afrocod

Yeah it's like the guy above said. It really does depend on what you like. I like maths and physics so I thought they were handy enough but I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't agree. On the other hand I knew nothing about economics or even had an interest before I started and thought this subject was really easy (relative to all the maths and sciences) and I picked it up really late and covered the course fairly quickly and I think the exam went pretty well.

Economics and the other business type subjects are a lot of common sense and very little learning off a load of stuff so I would recommend them. If I were to sit again I would replace chemistry and applied maths with business and accountancy. I've been told by many people that geography is an easy one but I never took it so I can't be sure.

At the same time you should check these subjects out a bit before you commit. Even though I think they are easy, if you find the material mind numbingly boring then those subjects will appear to be very hard. I'm a maths and science head so that's why I picked those subjects.

So my 4 subject recommendations are - Economics, Business, Accountancy (If you like maths), Maths (If you like maths), Biology (Is the easiest science). Pick 4.

Oh if your looking for points you'll have to do 6 subjects. I also recommend you do all honours, if your taking it seriously, which you probably are, there is no reason you would have to do pass.

P.S. Even though I said a lot of subjects were easy, this might not be reflected in my results tomorrow(just in case you ask me) because I done all this in one year instead of two and I found it really hard to keep the motivation high for the whole duration. As a result I didn't go in 100 percent prepared to any of the exams because I just didn't cover the material quick enough.

P.P.S Decide on the right textbooks early on because I wasted so much time switching textbooks in the middle of the year and then starting from scratch every time I got a new one.

All right I think that's everything. I'm writing a flippin' book here!

Dapics

Don't listen to afrocod.

Buisness is a Bálls... all about rote learning.
Economics is good though and is actually useful.

afrocod

Dapics - I only sat the pass business paper my first time round and for one nights study and no work done in class for two years I got a B. It was almost all common sense.

But I never sat the honours paper so if you have, you could be right.

Dapics

afrocod wrote: »

Dapics - I only sat the pass business paper my first time round and for one nights study and no work done in class for two years I got a B. It was almost all common sense.

But I never sat the honours paper so if you have, you could be right.

Yeah i sat higher.
Really annoyed with all the learning necessary but i suppose it's good in that sense as well.

hollingr

If you are studying on your own terms don't follow anyone's subject advice.. you will need to be completely self motivated so pick the subjects you are most interested in learning.

You need to be organised.. time will get away from you and it's very easy to put everything on the long finger when you are studying from home.

I think you may need a few grinds depending on your subject choices, but you can do the donkey work yourself, it's fairly easy to get up to C standard without anyone's help.

Can I ask why 4 subjects? What is your goal upon finishing?

blindside88

Do you have an idea of what you want to do after your leaving cert? This should influence your subject choice

GS540

Hi blindside88, I would like to build/repair computers.

GS540

afrocod wrote: »

Yeah it's like the guy above said. It really does depend on what you like. I like maths and physics so I thought they were handy enough but I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't agree. On the other hand I knew nothing about economics or even had an interest before I started and thought this subject was really easy (relative to all the maths and sciences) and I picked it up really late and covered the course fairly quickly and I think the exam went pretty well.

Economics and the other business type subjects are a lot of common sense and very little learning off a load of stuff so I would recommend them. If I were to sit again I would replace chemistry and applied maths with business and accountancy. I've been told by many people that geography is an easy one but I never took it so I can't be sure.

At the same time you should check these subjects out a bit before you commit. Even though I think they are easy, if you find the material mind numbingly boring then those subjects will appear to be very hard. I'm a maths and science head so that's why I picked those subjects.

So my 4 subject recommendations are - Economics, Business, Accountancy (If you like maths), Maths (If you like maths), Biology (Is the easiest science). Pick 4.

Oh if your looking for points you'll have to do 6 subjects. I also recommend you do all honours, if your taking it seriously, which you probably are, there is no reason you would have to do pass.

P.S. Even though I said a lot of subjects were easy, this might not be reflected in my results tomorrow(just in case you ask me) because I done all this in one year instead of two and I found it really hard to keep the motivation high for the whole duration. As a result I didn't go in 100 percent prepared to any of the exams because I just didn't cover the material quick enough.

P.P.S Decide on the right textbooks early on because I wasted so much time switching textbooks in the middle of the year and then starting from scratch every time I got a new one.

All right I think that's everything. I'm writing a flippin' book here!

Bloody hell that's a long reply thanks for all that! alot of good info ill be sure to use.