Mocks vs leaving cert

Dylan2122

First of all i will give you my subjects, along with my mock grade.
Keep in mind i did no study at all, to be honest i dont know how to study.

English HL - D2
Geography HL - D3
Biology HL - D3
Business HL - 24% (gave up in the middle of the exam)
Maths OL - C3
German OL - D1
Irish OL - 11% (not bothered with Irish, not a requirement)

So the mocks gave me a pathetic 185 points. I need 300+ and a C1 in maths (i can do the maths) but 300 points in under 50 days seems easy until i consider my mock results and how i fear history may repeat itself.

Has anyone ever been in my position? What can i do? Its not so easy to study when there is so much content to go through and in such detail. Can anyone give me advice ie get an idea of each chapter or zone in on several chapters in detail and ignore the rest?

Im quite a bright person so i feel rather disgusted when i see people who are incompetent yet get far better results than myself.

A big thank you in advance if you choose to give me some guidance.

thelad95

Firstly you need to find a method of studying that really suits you. Sitting there staring at books doesn't work for anyone.

For biology, you can narrow down the course a lot. If you knew every chapter in unit 1 and 2 and all the practicals you wouldn't be too far off a B. Make sure you also have a decent general knowledge of unit 3 however. Keep practising Exam questions on unit 3 every day and learn units 1 and 2 off by heart.

For business, obviously you need to know units 1,2 and 3 for the ABQ. You could then leave out unit 6 or 7 if you wish. To be honest you might be better served dropping to OL business and getting a high grade in that.

Also, you should never give up on an exam. If you do that you are destined for failure. If you stay till the end and make an attempt of some sort at everything then you may pass or even better. I remember doing history last year and the minute I received the paper I wanted to leave. I hated the subject and only chose it because I was a stupid TY. Nothing I had studied came up. However I could remember bits and pieces about the questions that were on the paper. I waffled my way through the whole thing and even attempted extra questions. I only wrote about a page and a half for each where you are meant to write at least 4. I ended up with a D1.

Dylan2122

The business course is rather short by comparison to biology, English etc.
The teacher i have is really good yet very laid back and so im very laid back in his class. Usually he would just talk for 20 minutes of the 45 minute class and disappear for the other 25 minutes. So doing nothing but listening to him usually got be 70% on his exams but suddenly i open the mock exam and im confronted by unpleasant questions mostly i topics i knew little about. I once upon a time loved business, so much so that i planned on doing it at 3rd level.
Dropping levels is not something im prepared to do as it will only crucify my chances of exceeding 300 points.

Biology , i also usually got 70% with little or no revision but theres a big difference between a test on two or three chapters and a mock with just everything in there.

Quite a daunting feeling when theres so much to do and also struggling to be motivated (when of course i want to go to college and i want my level 8 course) yet i cant seem to study.

Everything i look at while attempting to study is either very familiar or completely abstract and horrifying when i come across these chapters.

How did you do between mock vs LC, also how much work did you put in before and afterwards?

Laura75

At least I'm not the only one that feels like this
What helped me in business was practising the exam questions. Stick to what is being asked and do not give general answers. I lost loads of marks in the mocks for doing this.
For english once you know your texts the most important thing is to repeat the key words to the question in your paragraphs.