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Leaving Cert Revision Books :)

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  • 17-12-2012 8:30pm
    #1
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭


    Please help, as I will be sitting my Leaving Cert in 2014 and would like to purchase revision books to help me with my studies. These are the subjects that I am studying:
    Maths (H)
    English (H)
    Irish (H)
    French (H)
    Biology (H)
    Geography (H)
    Religion (H)
    Religion is not really a concern, but I would really appreciateyour help with the others. Thank you. :)


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    #2
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    Maths - Forget it, there aren't any out there for 2014. You can thank project Maths for that. It's a shame, I would've liked to use one for Maths. Some parts of the revision books published in 2011 would be relevant for 2014 though but not much.

    English - Key Notes is the most common one. It has the Shakespeare play(Macbeth for us) and all the poets

    Biology - I use Revise Wise, it's really good and ties in with the edco Leaving Cert Biology book, it's by the same author.


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    #3
    Found This Fork Sir
    Registered Users Posts: 374 ✭✭Found This Fork Sir


    I haven't bought any yet, although Revise Wise or Rapid Revision seem to be the popular ones for most subjects in my year. Most people seem to stay away from Less Stress More Success, I've heard they aren't great.


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    #4
    user.name
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭user.name


    Found This Fork Sir wrote: »
    I haven't bought any yet, although Revise Wise or Rapid Revision seem to be the popular ones for most subjects in my year. Most people seem to stay away from Less Stress More Success, I've heard they aren't great.
    Less stress are actually good it depends on what subject you get it in.less stress is great for history but in the case of some subjects for the OP i would suggest sparknotes for english they are really good, revision books arent the best for it. Biology is quite easy to study i make my own notes. The revision books do cover a good bit of the course but i find they dont cover every last detail. Maths i agree revision books are useless for it. Rewise for irish is good. If you are buying a revision book look through them and decide for yourself. Ive revision books from all of the types there is no bad ones


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    #5
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    Found This Fork Sir wrote: »
    I haven't bought any yet, although Revise Wise or Rapid Revision seem to be the popular ones for most subjects in my year. Most people seem to stay away from Less Stress More Success, I've heard they aren't great.
    It really depends on the subject.
    Less Stress for History is meant to be great. It's generally good for Humanities, I wouldn't use it for science subjects. I use it for Art History and it's just amazing so. I also have one for French but I haven't had a look at it (too early :)).

    There's a revision book called Exam Edge, it's only available for Physics and Chemistry and it's the best I've seen for those subjects.

    I found that you can't just pick one publisher for everything cos it really depends on the subject and the actual author.


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    #6
    Found This Fork Sir
    Registered Users Posts: 374 ✭✭Found This Fork Sir


    Nimrod 7 wrote: »
    It really depends on the subject.
    Less Stress for History is meant to be great. It's generally good for Humanities, I wouldn't use it for science subjects. I use it for Art History and it's just amazing so. I also have one for French but I haven't had a look at it (too early :)).

    There's a revision book called Exam Edge, it's only available for Physics and Chemistry and it's the best I've seen for those subjects.

    I found that you can't just pick one publisher for everything cos it really depends on the subject and the actual author.

    Ah, I steer well clear of history, it was my downfall at JC, ruined my page of results :o I may look into it for art history though, thanks :)


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    #7
    Geo10
    Registered Users Posts: 1,545 ✭✭✭Geo10


    "Exam Skills" by Sue Honan is a must-have for geography. I lived off of it for the LC (I also used "Shortcuts to Success" as it has some very good sample answers- but it only does physical and regional- but you'll find some extra details and answers in that book that aren't in "Exam Skills")
    I never used my textbook in geography- those 2 revision books will cover you! :)


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    #8
    HugsiePie
    Registered Users Posts: 11,156 ✭✭✭✭HugsiePie


    Best revision book for Biology = NO REVISION BOOK
    Make notes (like an A4 notebook) from your book, you will learn as you're making the notes and you will recall what you learned form writing the notes you made much easier when reading the notes than just studying straight from your book, but don't just repeat the chapters word for word, MAKE THEM YOUR OWN AND CONDENSE! Trust me, using Revision Books in Bio brought me from an A to a C! I am going back to writing notes ASAP!


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    #9
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Too bad we havent received our biology textbook yet, just relying on the teacher's notes, which dont help much with studying :/


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    #10
    HugsiePie
    Registered Users Posts: 11,156 ✭✭✭✭HugsiePie


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    Too bad we havent received our biology textbook yet, just relying on the teacher's notes, which dont help much with studying :/

    WHAT?! :eek:


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    #11
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    HugsiePie wrote: »
    WHAT?! :eek:
    Yeah, thats how useless my school is :L


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    #12
    HugsiePie
    Registered Users Posts: 11,156 ✭✭✭✭HugsiePie


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    Yeah, thats how useless my school is :L

    That's CRAZY! Your in 5th year right? 3 months into school, YIKES. Well if that's the case in Bio get Exam Essentials Biology it's a tiny book which gets straight to the point (If you do Chem I would only study out of that book for Chem and not bother with the text book) but for Bio use that along side your teacher's notes. It is extremley straight forward and gets straight to the point, but as I said earlier use your other notes as well.


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    #13
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    HugsiePie wrote: »
    That's CRAZY! Your in 5th year right? 3 months into school, YIKES. Well if that's the case in Bio get Exam Essentials Biology it's a tiny book which gets straight to the point (If you do Chem I would only study out of that book for Chem and not bother with the text book) but for Bio use that along side your teacher's notes. It is extremley straight forward and gets straight to the point, but as I said earlier use your other notes as well.

    Yeah, i am. Thank you for your help :)


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    #14
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Still need some peoples advice, so any would be helpful :)


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    #15
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    HugsiePie wrote: »
    Best revision book for Biology = NO REVISION BOOK
    Make notes (like an A4 notebook) from your book, you will learn as you're making the notes and you will recall what you learned form writing the notes you made much easier when reading the notes than just studying straight from your book, but don't just repeat the chapters word for word, MAKE THEM YOUR OWN AND CONDENSE! Trust me, using Revision Books in Bio brought me from an A to a C! I am going back to writing notes ASAP!
    Sounds like a lot of effort :p It's my second Biology test with revision books now but I don't rely solely on them, my teacher's notes are really good tbh so I use a combination of both

    But for the likes of Art History..I need Less Stress More Success


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    #16
    thefasteriwalk
    Registered Users Posts: 565 ✭✭✭thefasteriwalk


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    Please help, as I will be sitting my Leaving Cert in 2014 and would like to purchase revision books to help me with my studies. These are the subjects that I am studying:
    Maths (H)
    English (H)
    Irish (H)
    French (H)
    Biology (H)
    Geography (H)
    Religion (H)
    Religion is not really a concern, but I would really appreciateyour help with the others. Thank you. :)

    http://www.educate.ie/view-book.php?id=87


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    #17
    user.name
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭user.name


    Nimrod 7 wrote: »
    Sounds like a lot of effort :p It's my second Biology test with revision books now but I don't rely solely on them, my teacher's notes are really good tbh so I use a combination of both

    But for the likes of Art History..I need Less Stress More Success
    Yes get less stress for art history im using it since 5th year and its really good. If your art his textbook is red then its the biggest waste of time ever :P


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    #18
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    user.name wrote: »
    Yes get less stress for art history im using it since 5th year and its really good. If your art his textbook is red then its the biggest waste of time ever :P
    Nope it's the 1998 version of a book called Appreciation and History of Art. It's too complicated and according to my teacher they're all equally useless


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    #19
    user.name
    Registered Users Posts: 283 ✭✭user.name


    Nimrod 7 wrote: »
    Nope it's the 1998 version of a book called Appreciation and History of Art. It's too complicated and according to my teacher they're all equally useless

    oh yeah i acidently bought that last year and had to get another one :P I'd use the less stress though. Of course it doesn't have every last detail in it, but I found studying out of the textbook horrid and nothing stuck :P


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    #20
    mockshelp
    Registered Users Posts: 106 ✭✭mockshelp


    As a past leaving cert student I want to say don't put too much attention on revision books. They are only good if you want to revise or refresh memory of the course coming up to an exam. They are of course REVISION books so you should use your normal textbook for learning the course and only use revision books to quickly revise/refresh your memory of the course before exams. For instance the biology revise wise is very good for revision but it is very very condensed down.

    To get top marks I would say: use your normal textbook, make your own notes from it, use examinations.ie and download past papers and marking schemes. That's all you need.

    I only got a B in biology for the leaving cert. I was running out of time and used the revise wise revision book. It's good in a way if your running out of time the Revise wise will quickly give you the main points of information. But it won't get you a A.

    So basically revision books are great if you want to revise quickly but if you want A's do not be totally dependant on them!


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    #21
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Geo10 wrote: »
    "Exam Skills" by Sue Honan is a must-have for geography. I lived off of it for the LC (I also used "Shortcuts to Success" as it has some very good sample answers- but it only does physical and regional- but you'll find some extra details and answers in that book that aren't in "Exam Skills")
    I never used my textbook in geography- those 2 revision books will cover you! :)
    Purchased the two books, and love them, thanks :)


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    #22
    biohaiid
    Registered Users Posts: 923 ✭✭✭biohaiid


    For Higher Biology I used 'Essential Exam Revision' by Sarah Dilleen. Brilliant book, no extra material just exactly what you need to know.
    Although for most subjects I would recommend using a combination of revision book notes, teacher notes and textbooks to create your own written notes and learning them, I pretty much learned this book front to back for the Leaving Cert.

    For Higher English the 'Key Notes' book is unreal. I had a useless teacher, so I used mostly this book and my own notes, but I have to say it was absolutely brilliant. Just don;t learn their sample answers off, use them as a guide to help create your own.


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    #23
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Purchased Key Notes for English and i love it, thanks for the suggestions :)


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    #24
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Thinking of purchasing my own biology textbook, any suggestions?


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    #25
    biohaiid
    Registered Users Posts: 923 ✭✭✭biohaiid


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    Thinking of purchasing my own biology textbook, any suggestions?

    Biology textbooks are useless.
    We never used ours once.
    All teachers notes, most of which were adapted from revision books.
    Most bio textbooks have excessive material that can be confusing.


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    #26
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Yeah, but the notes that my teacher gives us are really useless, he leaves out key information and we have no textbook to fall back on :/


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    #27
    biohaiid
    Registered Users Posts: 923 ✭✭✭biohaiid


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    Yeah, but the notes that my teacher gives us are really useless, he leaves out key information and we have no textbook to fall back on :/

    Oh really?
    I'd still stick with a revision book though. The one I used was essential exam revision by Sarah Dileen. Excellent book, most of my teachers notes came from it anyway. You wont be missing out key info with this one. :)


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    #28
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    biohaiid wrote: »
    Oh really?
    I'd still stick with a revision book though. The one I used was essential exam revision by Sarah Dileen. Excellent book, most of my teachers notes came from it anyway. You wont be missing out key info with this one. :)
    A bit late on the reply, but oh well :L really considering the Sarah Dileen revision book, thank you :)


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    #29
    Sparkyhav
    Registered Users Posts: 33 ✭Sparkyhav


    Any other suggestions? I think I have Biology and Geography sorted for revision books, but would appreciate any tips on other subjects :)


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    #30
    biohaiid
    Registered Users Posts: 923 ✭✭✭biohaiid


    Sparkyhav wrote: »
    A bit late on the reply, but oh well :L really considering the Sarah Dileen revision book, thank you :)

    No problem :)
    Go for it I say!


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    #31
    internet_user
    Registered Users Posts: 973 ✭✭✭internet_user


    anyone any recommendations for a business revision book?


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