Junior Cert in 3 weeks help and advice?

missdons

Im 15, i'm doing my Junior Cert in exactly three weeks and i'm worried. In first year I was a really good student and I always got As + Bs but then when I went into second year I was always sick on and off through the year. I dropped to Cs and Ds. The most of this year (third year) i've yet again unfortunately been sick and missed ALOT of school especially since February. Its depressing in a sense because I do have interest in school and I always do my best to catch up but i find it very stressful when i'm studying for exams etc mostly this year in particular. I always do my homework, I listen and never disrupt my class. I missed my pre exams as i was in hospital.
I am only back to school about 2 weeks (since easter break finished) and we are revising constantly for the JC. I'm really nervous but i'm trying not to get too worried about it because after all its only the Junior Cert but i know its still important and its important to me too. I get anxiety and cry alot over it. Im not expecting straight As or anything and I definitely haven't over estimated myself and my ability right now. Thankfully my mom understands and isn't putting much pressure on me because she feels that would be unfair since i've been sick all year. She is more concerned about me feeling better and recovering. Its impossible for me to get an amazing Junior Cert giving my circumstances and i know i will be disappointed next September. I wish it wasn't this way but it is.
Ar School some of my teachers don't even acknowledge my existence in class because i've been sick and they have lost interest in me which I feel is unfair as its out of my control. Some of my teachers are good to help though but like all some are bad.
I'm doing pass maths since the start of the year because I felt it would be way too stressful for me to keep on honours maths when im off school alot. I have been doing honours everything else all year but I have decided i'm going to drop to pass business and history on the day of the exam as i've been finding them really hard and i'm giving them up this year anyway and i have enough stress with other subjects. My mom has spoken with my vice principal who recommended i do this too.

Thankfully i'm doing TY this September coming and even though its expensive, it will be worth it as its a year for me to get my heath back on track and catch up on what I need to know before fifth year. My head teacher also recommended i do it and im really looking forward to it!!

English is my favourite subject at school but I don't like my teacher. i only have her this year and she has never given me a chance. She spends her class time on two particular students who she thinks are better than everyone else. But still I am confident about the subject and i'd be aiming for a C or B. Also if I could get an A in CSPE i'd be happy as that A still counts even though its CSPE!!.

At the moment my weakest subjects are science and irish. Every other subject i study are hard but im dealing with them ok.
I can honestly say that I know nothing about the science curriculum only the basics. My teacher is the WORST and never teaches our class. He lets us play games on the computers and never gives homework. The only reason i'm doing honours science is because I did the project and the lab book which are worth 35% of the exam or something. I have a revision book which i'm going to look at and I got a copy of the pre exam with the answers from him which will be a help.

As for irish I feel like i'm way behind the rest of my class. My teacher is good, one of the best irish teachers in my school but I feel stupid sitting in her class. In second year I had a different teacher who didn't teach us much only irish stuff equivalent to pass, when we thought we were doing honours irish. Then this year three other girls and I were put into another Irish class who had much more work done than us. which was harder again.
I find the whole irish paper complicated and hard to understand. I plan to buy one of those revise wise books as I have some for other subjects already and i think it will be a help. We learn off alot of essays and answers to poems which i find the hardest to learn off. I really don't know what story or letter im going to write or how i'm even gonna get though both papers. Its a nightmare. I dont want to drop to pass irish on the day of the exam for 2 reasons:
I think 3 pass subjects is enough and when im older i'd like to be a teacher which I need honours irish for.
Now all my teachers are piling on the homework since we went back to school and once im finished it i'm tired and i don't feel up to studying. I've made out study plans, the lot but I never stick to them. Its hard. One of my biggest problems is I have no motivation to do anything. I do care about what grades I get but its been a struggle to keep up and i'm fed up of everything and sometimes i don't see the point. All that aside...
This is what I hope to get in my Junior Certificate. Please God.

English: B/C Higher
Irish: C/D Higher
Maths: C Pass
French: B/C Higher
Music: C/D Higher
Business: C Pass
Geography: D Higher
Science: D Higher
History: C Pass
CSPE: A Common

I guess i'm looking for some advice and i'd appreciate anyones opinions, suggestions and comments on what I should do now. For 3 weeks am I aiming too high? What subjects should I focus on? and what areas of the subjects? (i have exam papers for each subject but im not sure are they any help right now) What can I do to motivate myself? I finish the 18th of June and I really can't wait for it all to be over and done with but in the mean time I need to try study. PLEASE HELP ME and thanks for taking the time to read this. Have a nice day

spurious

You will be fine. Honestly, come September you'll wonder what you were worrying about.

needhelpquick

Wow That Must be Awful! I am kinda freaking out myself as I've missed all This weak as I'm Very sick, Oh well.

These were my Mock results:
English Higher A
Maths Higher B
Irish Higher B
History Higher B
Geography Higher A
Science Higher B
Business Higher B
French Higher B
Cspe Common A

From my point of view are the key things to learn,

Irish: 1 Poem, 1 Story. The 'Timpiste Bothair' for Sceal. The Tenses and A letter or two.
English: A Character in your novel and drama, and social setting, and relationship. And Poetic stuff in 1 poem.
Maths: Just do exam paper repeatedly.
History: Luther,Columbus,Washington and Rome People in history. Hitler and Social Change in Ireland.
Geography: Rocks, Land forms(volcanoes etc) , Rivers and coasts. Population and OS Maps.
Science: Ecology, Digestive system, Atom, Bonding, Air, Energy, VIR ( Voltage, current resistance) Sound, light.
Business: These are Guaranteed to come up: Budget, Final acc and balance sheets, Club acc, Business documents and books of 1st entry.
French: Exam papers and post card and letter phrases( You can get them online)
Music: Don't do it sorry!
CSPE: Honestly I don't study for this but just milk the exam and in your answers write passionately.


Hope this helps!!

needhelpquick

spurious wrote: »

You will be fine. Honestly, come September you'll wonder what you were worrying about.

That's Not good Advice! You'll get no where in life like that.

VG31

You should be able to do better than Ds in science and geography. Science is easy if you sit down and learn everything off. Geography can be self-explanatory a lot of the time. Make sure you do and know the map question in geography as it's easy to do well in.
CSPE you don't really need to study for unless you do not have a good general knowledge of basic politics/politicians.

I will go into detail about the Irish paper later.

thirteen.

needhelpquick wrote: »

That's Not good Advice! You'll get no where in life like that.

Actually its pretty brilliant advice.

Liordi

needhelpquick wrote: »

That's Not good Advice! You'll get no where in life like that.

You'll also get nowhere in life if you stress out over an exam that'll be obsolete in a few years.

Tobyglen

Liordi wrote: »

You'll also get nowhere in life if you stress out over an exam that'll be obsolete in a few years.

But you need a good work ethic. You don't get anywhere by just twiddling your thumbs and not stressing over exams that actually are an important building block in a students academic life, high achievers will have that work ethic throughout their life generally.

I got a strong result in the one particular subject which was slightly unexpected and this ended up defining my work career.

Blahhh123

missdons wrote: »

but I have decided i'm going to drop to pass business and history on the day of the exam as i've been finding them really hard and i'm giving them up this year anyway and i have enough stress with other subjects.

You can't drop down a level on the day in the Junior Cert, only in the Leaving. You'll have to ask your teachers ASAP and they may or may not be able to change it. That's how it is in my school at least.

needhelpquick

Blahhh123 wrote: »

You can't drop down a level on the day in the Junior Cert, only in the Leaving. You'll have to ask your teachers ASAP and they may or may not be able to change it. That's how it is in my school at least.

You Can with the permission of the Principal is my understanding.

missdons

well as i said my mom spoke with my vice principal about it and my head teacher has told our whole year not to stress that if we feel it would be better to take a pass paper on the day of the exam you can do so if there is one available!

spurious

As a former History teacher and corrector, I would advise you to stick with the Higher Level. Your opening post shows you are well able to write.

JC HL History can give you 40% on just the documents, pictures and short questions and a couple of correct sentences about a person in history. You would be mad to drop.

Every year we get people on this forum flapping about the JC. It is DESIGNED for you to do well. You almost have to leave questions out in History to fail.

You are worrying about nothing and you will realise that in September.

Go out and enjoy the good weather.




As regards dropping down on the day, there is no guarantee there will be a spare paper.

MysticManiac

I was in hospital every year since 1st year for 2-3 weeks. I do understand that it's difficult to catch up, and I assume it's harder for you cus I assume you've been out quite a lot from your post.

Like you said, it is only the JC and I don't think it matters if you get D's or fail subjects if you know you won't do them for LC. But make sure you do fairly good in english, irish, maths and another language. Also a science subject would be worth doing, so even if you learn only 1 of the Biology, Chemistry and Physics parts of Science, you should be ok for the LC. I prefer Physics to the other 2 subjects. Remember Geography or Home Ec also count for science subjects in certain universities

Also, if you did well in project work e.g cspe, science, that will help you get the grades that you want.

You still have time to study for subjects. Make sure to do as much as you can at the weekends cause there's only a few weekends left til the JC

Student1999

Hi! My friend is in the same position and she's just as stressed out. We're all really worried about her as she gets herself so worked up over it. The teachers are treating her the same too because they have to focus on the other students, which I also think is unfair.
Any way, just to make you a bit less worried, you seem really smart and you'd probably be well able to think on the spot, and as my sister did her junior cert last year I can say that's pretty much all it takes (once you've done a bit of study) to do well. She got 8 As and 2 Bs when she was expecting about 3 As.
Also, you'll forget what you even got in the junior cert by the time you're doing the leaving, so no point stressing yourself out while you're focusing on recovering Don't worry! Best of luck