Help Offering

Header15

I achieved 8 A1s in the leaving cert this year and understand how difficult and scary the leaving cert can seem at the beginning of the year. If anybody has any questions or requires any tips I would be more than happy to offer my assistance based on my experiences.

The_N4sir

Hi Header and congrats on your results!

Just a quick question for chemistry.

I'm currently a B student in chemistry but I would like to improve by next June in order to achieve an A2/A1. I thought I had done really well for my chemistry summer exam but I came out with a C1 which I was dissapointed with tbh.

We do exam papers in class but I can't seem to keep the info in my head. As soon as we move on to a new chapter, I forget the older chapters quite quickly.

All my other subjects seem to be fine but I was wondering if you could give me a few tips for Chemistry.

Thanks

Header15

The_N4sir wrote: »

Hi Header and congrats on your results!

Just a quick question for chemistry.

I'm currently a B student in chemistry but I would like to improve by next June in order to achieve an A2/A1. I thought I had done really well for my chemistry summer exam but I came out with a C1 which I was dissapointed with tbh.

We do exam papers in class but I can't seem to keep the info in my head. As soon as we move on to a new chapter, I forget the older chapters quite quickly.

All my other subjects seem to be fine but I was wondering if you could give me a few tips for Chemistry.

Thanks

I got a B in 5th year summer so don't let that discourage you. Chemistry is a subject that really clicks in sixth year. It's a short course so you will have plenty of time for revision.
Ask your teacher to include old chapters in class tests so you will be forced to study them keeping them in your brain. Focus a lot on organic as it can be 4 questions (out of 8) possibly as well as titrations but you can almost forget about the experiments that came up this year.
Download all of the marking schemes and practise a lot of exam questions. The chemistry paer is very repeditive and so by using marking schemes you will learn how to exactly phrase your answers so as to maximise marks.

I hope this Helps 😄

banham

Congrats OP well done

Randomstudent

How did you go about achieving the a1s in English and biology? Congrats by the way

Header15

Randomstudent wrote: »

How did you go about achieving the a1s in English and biology? Congrats by the way

Hi,

Thank you!
Like chemistry, for biology i downloaded all of the marking schemes to my phone. I then practised a lot of past exam questions. Your past exam papers are very important in biology. Learn a lot of definitions insude out - I had all of my definitions for very chapter written in the back of my class copy. Key words are so important in biology as the marking schemes will show you. Also, learn your experiments very well as these can be very easy marks and the section Cs can often be quite difficult.

For English, in paper one I did the speech. This is a really nice and relatively easy composition as there is a very defined structure allowing you to maximise marks.
Paper 2: Shakespeare- know themes, characters etc and know a lot of quotes. You can base your answer around quotes once you know the themes and the characters and always make clear reference to the question throughout. I.e., i believe this clearly demonstrates how.....
Poetry- I had a flash card for each poet with 4 poems. I had a few quotes for each poem and an explanation behind each quote. I based this on answers I had done for my teacher so i could in some way replicate the standard.
Comparitive: sprinkle your answers with phrases luke similarly, also, in contrast to etc. and again always refer back to the question.

I hope this helps and please feel free to ask for anything more in depth or for further clarity.

Header15

banham wrote: »

Congrats OP well done

Thank you!

The_N4sir

Header15 wrote: »

I got a B in 5th year summer so don't let that discourage you. Chemistry is a subject that really clicks in sixth year. It's a short course so you will have plenty of time for revision.
Ask your teacher to include old chapters in class tests so you will be forced to study them keeping them in your brain. Focus a lot on organic as it can be 4 questions (out of 8) possibly as well as titrations but you can almost forget about the experiments that came up this year.
Download all of the marking schemes and practise a lot of exam questions. The chemistry paer is very repeditive and so by using marking schemes you will learn how to exactly phrase your answers so as to maximise marks.

I hope this Helps 😄

Thanks very much

Oscar.

Tips for getting an A1 in Maths would be much appreciated.

Header15

Oscar. wrote: »

Tips for getting an A1 in Maths would be much appreciated.

A lot of practise of exam questions. The phrasing of project maths problems can be quite confusing so the more familiar you are with the phrasing the easier you will find the exam. I did all of the exam papers (both educate.ie and edco) cover to cover. The only way to improve in maths is to do more and more questions.

Also, on the day timing can be a real issue. If you find a question tricky, give an attempt and then move on so that you maximise marks in easier questions and then if you've time at the end go back to the difficult question. Remember that if you find a question difficult so too will most others. Due to the 'bell curve' this means difficult questions will be marked easily and so an attempt might get high marks where if you run out of time for an easy question you will throw away marks.

seriouslyfunny

OP, did you do physics or economics?

Header15

seriouslyfunny wrote: »

OP, did you do physics or economics?

Only economics

robman60

Header15 wrote: »

A lot of practise of exam questions. The phrasing of project maths problems can be quite confusing so the more familiar you are with the phrasing the easier you will find the exam. I did all of the exam papers (both educate.ie and edco) cover to cover. The only way to improve in maths is to do more and more questions.

Hi Header, huge congrats on your achievement.

I completed the Leaving Cert this year so I'm asking purely out of curiosity. I managed 600 points with a B1 in maths. The subject I gave most time to was definitely maths, and I completed the Edco papers in their entirety. I found that our actual exam (particularly paper 1) was completely different to anything I'd done previously. So my question is did you find The Educate papers more useful for the actual exam or am I just incorrect in my assertion? When I was doing paper 1 I thought it was the most difficult exam I'd done!

Header15

robman60 wrote: »

Hi Header, huge congrats on your achievement.

I completed the Leaving Cert this year so I'm asking purely out of curiosity. I managed 600 points with a B1 in maths. The subject I gave most time to was definitely maths, and I completed the Edco papers in their entirety. I found that our actual exam (particularly paper 1) was completely different to anything I'd done previously. So my question is did you find The Educate papers more useful for the actual exam or am I just incorrect in my assertion? When I was doing paper 1 I thought it was the most difficult exam I'd done!

I found the EDCO sample papers to be terrible for the long questions. They didn't really have problem solving it was just like long section A's. Educate.ie on the other hand tried to use project maths style which I found helpful. To be honest I loved paper 1 but didn't like paper 2 which was different to most people, but i agree it was a more difficult exam than 2013 but nowhere near the horrors of infancy project maths. I though it was a fair exam overall that was challenging but not impossible. I think that DEB mock made everything else look like primary school maths!
Congratulations on your outstanding results by the way. A great achievement.

EoghanIRL

seriouslyfunny wrote: »

OP, did you do physics or economics?

I got an A in physics this year so if you need any help send a pm my way.

Oscar.

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I got an A in physics this year so if you need any help send a pm my way.

I'd love an A1 in Physics. Any tips?

Ompala

Header15
1 - Congrats on the results, amazing to say the least
2 - Fair play for offering advice to people on this
3 - Just curious, what are you going studying yourself now?

Header15

Ompala wrote: »

Header15
1 - Congrats on the results, amazing to say the least
2 - Fair play for offering advice to people on this
3 - Just curious, what are you going studying yourself now?

Thanks very much!
I think it's the least I can do.
I'm studying medicine in UCC.

Ompala

Oscar. wrote: »

I'd love an A1 in Physics. Any tips?

I got an A1 in physics in 2012
Learn the experiments very well, its easy to get 100-120 marks in Section A and they may appear in Section B
Practice the exam papers, a lot of stuff is repeated, not just definitions but general kind of problems to solve
If all that fails, bribe them

Header15 wrote: »

Thanks very much!
I think it's the least I can do.
I'm studying medicine in UCC.

More than welcome, my world is full of giving praise
Best of luck with it anyways, I'm sure you'll enjoy it

is mise spartacus

How did you go about studying economics? I get between C1-A2's but my teacher is somewhat unreliable and frustrating i.e doesn't give out enough notes, any tips?

Header15

is mise spartacus wrote: »

How did you go about studying economics? I get between C1-A2's but my teacher is somewhat unreliable and frustrating i.e doesn't give out enough notes, any tips?

Short questions: Very repetitive. Keep going over all of the past papers available to you and use marking schemes for exact definitions.

Long Questions: do as many micro as possible and know the questions you will be doing before you go in. If asked for 4 points give 5 just in case one point is week and give a heading clearly followed by an explanation for each point. Have done out answers to past questions, have them corrected by teacher, redraft them to be 75/75 and then learn them. Learn off headings and you should be able to logically do out the explanation without learning them off.

is mise spartacus

Header15 wrote: »

Short questions: Very repetitive. Keep going over all of the past papers available to you and use marking schemes for exact definitions.

Long Questions: do as many micro as possible and know the questions you will be doing before you go in. If asked for 4 points give 5 just in case one point is week and give a heading clearly followed by an explanation for each point. Have done out answers to past questions, have them corrected by teacher, redraft them to be 75/75 and then learn them. Learn off headings and you should be able to logically do out the explanation without learning them off.

Thanks very much

Header15

is mise spartacus wrote: »

Thanks very much

No problem :-)

Leaving Certificate 2014

Just wondering do you feel Biology is doable in one year as a subject for a repeat to pick up or is there too much to learn in such a small space of time to achieve a good grade?

Header15

Leaving Certificate 2014 wrote: »

Just wondering do you feel Biology is doable in one year as a subject for a repeat to pick up or is there too much to learn in such a small space of time to achieve a good grade?

There is a misconception that biology is an easy subject. In fact, it is very difficult to achieve a high grade due to how precise answers must be. However, if you are willing to put in the work it would be possible to get a B realistically. I would advise you to focus on units 1 and 2, knowing them inside out before moving onto unit 3 as around 70% of your answers could be from these sections. Also, it would probably be best to have a teacher for experiments. It all depends really on how much work you are willing to put in. Biology was the most detailed subject I did, meaning if you try to get by without much work your A will easily turn to a C3

burrenguy

How much work (homework + study combined) did you do on an average weeknight and at the weekend?

Header15

burrenguy wrote: »

How much work (homework + study combined) did you do on an average weeknight and at the weekend?

Tuesday-Friday: 3 and three quarter hours
Monday and Saturday: 2 hours
Sunday: Rest

This was my routine until after easter when I started to increase but never really more than 4 hours a day.

Header15

Any questions?

is mise spartacus

Do you think it's too early to start studying now? I started a good few days ago but I want to seriously start now and my teachers recommended it too, however some friends of mine said not until November?

spurious

is mise spartacus wrote: »

Do you think it's too early to start studying now? I started a good few days ago but I want to seriously start now and my teachers recommended it too, however some friends of mine said not until November?

It's never too early. There will always be 'friends' who say they are doing nothing, but it's your Leaving, you do it your way.

Header15

is mise spartacus wrote: »

Do you think it's too early to start studying now? I started a good few days ago but I want to seriously start now and my teachers recommended it too, however some friends of mine said not until November?

You should do what feels right for you. Don't benchmark yoirself off your friends as they are likely deceiving you. Personally I focused on class tests as they came and feel that because I put in such an effort at the time it really paid off in the long run.