LC Off Topic Thread (2015/16)

DublinArnie

How's school going for everyone?

Beca19

DublinArnie wrote: »

How's school going for everyone?

Meh I'm sick so missed a few days and I'm pretty behind :P also struggling to write an essay on Elizabeth Bishop :rolleyes:

Take Your Pants Off

Since the start of the year I have been studying from exam qs for all my subjects apart from business and maths.
For example, if I had a biology test tomorrow on photosynthesis I would study all the photosynthesis qs's that came up for a number of years back. The results showed good. I have been getting above 70 in all my tests so far.
But my friends tell me that by doing this you actually wont understand anything, your just learning text.
I do understand as I learn it, but problem is, would this cause any upsets or any downsides to my way of studying for lc.
Obviously I will use the book notes etc when it comes the time to study for the lc exams, but atm in 5th year?

randylonghorn

There's nothing wrong with looking back on old exam questions for a topic, in fact it's a good idea.

However, there are two possible dangers:

1) Assuming that if you have covered everything that came up before, you're safe. Nothing stopping them putting up something that hasn't come up before, or at least taking a new angle on it.

2) Learning off answers by rote memory (if I'm understanding you correctly). This can make it difficult to adapt to even a slightly different approach in the question.

A better approach would be to make sure you know and *understand* the material first, then look back on old exam questions and check that you can answer them ... thus putting the horse back firmly in front of the cart, rather than the other way round!

Take Your Pants Off

randylonghorn wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with looking back on old exam questions for a topic, in fact it's a good idea.

However, there are two possible dangers:

1) Assuming that if you have covered everything that came up before, you're safe. Nothing stopping them putting up something that hasn't come up before, or at least taking a new angle on it.

2) Learning off answers by rote memory (if I'm understanding you correctly). This can make it difficult to adapt to even a slightly different approach in the question.

A better approach would be to make sure you know and *understand* the material first, then look back on old exam questions and check that you can answer them ... thus putting the horse back firmly in front of the cart, rather than the other way round!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INFO AND ADVICE, MUCH APPRECIATED.

Troxck

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

Since the start of the year I have been studying from exam qs for all my subjects apart from business and maths.
For example, if I had a biology test tomorrow on photosynthesis I would study all the photosynthesis qs's that came up for a number of years back. The results showed good. I have been getting above 70 in all my tests so far.
But my friends tell me that by doing this you actually wont understand anything, your just learning text.
I do understand as I learn it, but problem is, would this cause any upsets or any downsides to my way of studying for lc.
Obviously I will use the book notes etc when it comes the time to study for the lc exams, but atm in 5th year?

This is a good approach, however it is dangerous to do. If you are only rote answering questions, you're going to lose out, if a curve ball is thrown at you in an exam you won't be able to handle it.

I don't do Biology but I do Physics and I suppose lab sciences at second level can be similar in terms of approach. In fifth year I learnt how to answer questions without undertsnading it, ended up being a terrible idea as my teacher then gave us questions from an obscure mock for our summer test, it was awful.

This year I decided I would understand the topics rather than rote learn answers. I had my mock paper recently and although you could do well with just rote learning, a lot of questions were there for those who took time to understand the topic. This time I was ready as I fully understood the area rather than just knowing past examples.

It also makes the subject much more interesting.

I hope this made some sense.

spurious

Troxck's approach means you can also look at questions from other systems (GCSE exams, Australian exams etc.) and try to answer them too, all the time improving your own competence.

Troxck

spurious wrote: »

Troxck's approach means you can also look at questions from other systems (GCSE exams, Australian exams etc.) and try to answer them too, all the time improving your own competence.

This is very true, I was able to use questions from AP Physics from America along with others.

Ask your teacher for mocks if possible, if your teacher has been around a while, he/she will have a massive selection. Whenever we revise, we get about 10 A4 pages of past pre questions.

Don't make my mistake, I wasted a whole year doing this and it's catching up with me now.

user53

Hey, i was wondering if anyone could help me, I'm looking for websites for researching college courses, i know qualifax and careersportal and they're very good but i remember awhile ago being on a site and on it you could search up a course and it had reviews written by people in the course but i forget the name. Does anyone know the name of this site or any other good sites? Thanks

koolis02

I hate home ec journals with a passion >:(

spurious

user53 wrote: »

Hey, i was wondering if anyone could help me, I'm looking for websites for researching college courses, i know qualifax and careersportal and they're very good but i remember awhile ago being on a site and on it you could search up a course and it had reviews written by people in the course but i forget the name. Does anyone know the name of this site or any other good sites? Thanks

The two sites you have mentioned are the best.

I can't see how you could have valid reviews of college courses, since very few people would have done more than one, so how would they know if a course is better/worse than another?

user53

spurious wrote: »

The two sites you have mentioned are the best.

I can't see how you could have valid reviews of college courses, since very few people would have done more than one, so how would they know if a course is better/worse than another?

Its more like they write a review on the course they've done and if they would recommend it and the pros and cons and then the person using the site looks up a course and could read the pros and cons of that course and another course and thinks about which course is better for them.

Anonymagician

The site is called coursehub but it seems to be down now. It was very useful, had loads of stuff from how many hours a week to what the nightlife is like.

user53

Anonymagician wrote: »

The site is called coursehub but it seems to be down now. It was very useful, had loads of stuff from how many hours a week to what the nightlife is like.

that's unfortunate thank you though

spurious

Looks like it's been dead a while, though the registration is still valid.
Last capture for the Internet archive was August 2014.

Take Your Pants Off

Anyone have notes on Foster by Claire Keegan, looking for cultural context especially.

DublinArnie

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

Anyone have notes on Foster by Claire Keegan, looking for cultural context especially.

The novel is set in rural ireland, during the 1980s (the hunger strike thing supports that). You can see the culture being very different, with the wake and everyone being very neighbourly when compared to city life even now days.

Etc

CookieCat97

Hi guys can anyone help me solve this, we did it in class but I completely forget how to get the answers. The answers (at the back of the book) are 15x-8y+78=0 or 15x-8y-92=0 but I've no idea how to get to that point here's the question:
Find the equation of the lines that are perpendicular to 8x+15y+1=0 and are a distance of 5 units from (1,1)

Kremin

CookieCat97 wrote: »

Hi guys can anyone help me solve this, we did it in class but I completely forget how to get the answers. The answers (at the back of the book) are 15x-8y+78=0 or 15x-8y-92=0 but I've no idea how to get to that point here's the question:
Find the equation of the lines that are perpendicular to 8x+15y+1=0 and are a distance of 5 units from (1,1)

here you go, I don't know if it's my error or yours but the signs at the end are different than the answers you gave. I think mine is correct, when you are getting the perpendicular line you change the sign and the coefficient.

CookieCat97

Kremin wrote: »

here you go, I don't know if it's my error or yours but the signs at the end are different than the answers you gave. I think mine is correct, when you are getting the perpendicular line you change the sign and the coefficient.

Thank you so much! I understand it now!

iCrazzy

Anyone here do chemistry could help me with Q.1 part(iv)

coolerboy

I think it goes from a golden-brown colour to a pale yellow colour but not sure.:) And if you Add starch solution it goes blue/black

TheEdgeofGlory

iCrazzy wrote: »

Anyone here do chemistry could help me with Q.1 part(iv)

How many chapters have you covered in chemistry? :eek:

Take Your Pants Off

TheEdgeofGlory wrote: »

How many chapters have you covered in chemistry? :eek:

We only have 8 more chapters left.

Seanf999

Sorry for butting in but one thing I still have no clue about is note taking. In school we just write what the teachers scribbling on the board, answer questions and all that craic into the one copy. I've had other teachers say that we should be doing our own little note taking (condensing down everything we took down in class) some say we should have a duplicate copy at home for everyone one of our copies. Now I don't know about other schools but we haven't been told anything of how to actually take notes we were just told to do it but then the teacher gives out if your writing when she is talking!
My biggest issue is when I go to study I can never use my copy because 1-the page is crammed with words so I can barely see what the hell I'm looking at. And secondly I have to flick through 3 copies full 50/50 with stuff that may be useful and stuff that is not useful its like a minefield.
How do ye manage?

iCrazzy

Seanf999 wrote: »

Sorry for butting in but one thing I still have no clue about is note taking. In school we just write what the teachers scribbling on the board, answer questions and all that craic into the one copy. I've had other teachers say that we should be doing our own little note taking (condensing down everything we took down in class) some say we should have a duplicate copy at home for everyone one of our copies. Now I don't know about other schools but we haven't been told anything of how to actually take notes we were just told to do it but then the teacher gives out if your writing when she is talking!
My biggest issue is when I go to study I can never use my copy because 1-the page is crammed with words so I can barely see what the hell I'm looking at. And secondly I have to flick through 3 copies full 50/50 with stuff that may be useful and stuff that is not useful its like a minefield.
How do ye manage?

I have two copies for most of my subjects.
1 copy for just notes taking other for hw.

Kremin

Seanf999 wrote: »

My biggest issue is when I go to study I can never use my copy because 1-the page is crammed with words so I can barely see what the hell I'm looking at.

And that's why you take notes :P. I think the reason teachers make you take down what they write on the board is to ensure you are still concentrated/listening. If you didn't it's a lot easier to drift off.

To take notes I'd advise getting a second copy, an A4 Hardback if possible (lots of space and will last the test of time, a softback copy will fall apart etc)

Clearly put a title on the page so you know exactly what the notes are for.
Depending on how much you need, take notes. (Some people require like 5 words that they remember which triggers an entire paragraph, some people need to write almost everything to remember it. It really comes down to how much you retained from the book/class. If you don't remember it, write it down.)

Use different colour pens, highlighters, whatever helps. If you write the entire thing in black pen you're more likely to lose focus, writing in different colours helps retain focus. i.e write sentences in black, statistics in red and quotes in blue, obviously tailored to each subject.

And write the notes neatly, it's easier to just get a second copy than it is to read crammed together words in the end.

I'm no expert on notetaking but this is what we've been told constantly from various teachers. Just remember different people have different methods. Some people would prefer just to write out an essay and learn it rather than take notes on it. Some people don't even take notes, they just use their books to answer exam questions etc. In the end you have to do what works for you.

iCrazzy

Hey guys. Can anyone with free time solve this qs.10

Kremin

iCrazzy wrote: »

Hey guys. Can anyone with free time solve this qs.10

Distance formula looks like,
distance from A->P compared to distance from B->P
From the tables books, the formula for distance is sqrt(x2-x1)^2+(y2-y1)^2

AP = sqrt(4-2)^2+(-3-(-2))^2
= sqrt(4+1)
=sqrt5

BP= sqrt(-2-2)^2+(0-(-2))^2
= sqrt(16+4)
=2sqrt5

sqrt5:2sqrt5
AP:PB
1:2

Disorganised Disaster

Anyone have any tips on time management? I've never really had to structure my study to do well before and I genuinely have no idea where to start in terms of making a timetable or anything! :L