Free LC Help from a Bored Student

Vainglory

Got this and wrote an incredibly long reply to it (I'm meant to be studying for my own exams, but hey, procrastination is so much fun) and I thought it might be of help to some of the rest of you too...If it's not, feel free to ignore.

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I'm just wondering have u any tips on

English - I find the comparitive question quite challenging its just so general. Also did u have an essay prepared beforehand? How many poets did u study?
Business - I'm unsure how to study this subject and your advice would be particularly helpful on this subject as i'm teaching myself the subject.
History - did u gamble and learn certain number of essays off by heart? or have general knowledge on everthing? i'm unsure how to study it.
Irish - my oral is strong enough but my grammer and writing lets me down always. Any method of me improving it?

If u can give me any advice or tips it would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks a million!

My reply...

English - I find the comparitive question quite challenging its just so general. Also did u have an essay prepared beforehand? How many poets did u study?

English

This was probably my best subject even though I didn't get the A1. As far as the comparative study goes, it's pretty much the most waffly question you'll do throughout the exams, but that's where you can work it to your advantage. As far as I know (and this is what we were always told), the majority of marks are purely going for the amount of hard and fast comparisons you make between the texts and whatever film you did. So it's better to start off like..

Throughout the novel "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood, the work is dominated by an underlying theme of female dominance, not only due to the gender of all the main characters but also to the insignificant and minor roles afforded to their male counterparts in all aspects of the plot. In stark contrast , "Cinema Paradiso" directed by Guiseppe Tornatore is heavily centred around a partiarchal and intensely conservative male oriented society, with the female characters playing only ancillary roles in deference to their opposing gender.

than...

Throughout the novel "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood, the work is dominated by an underlying theme of female dominance. This is shown by the way Cordelia and the author herself are the main characters and men really don't figure in the plot at all. At the start of the book we are introduced to Cordelia etc etc etc (and then making the comparisons further down in the piece)

Make the comparison or contrast right away . And keep making them. If possible, try not to ever make a statement of fact about the plot/theme of one of your texts without comparing or contrasting it one of the others. Remember, it doesn't always have to be a similarity. If you mention something about one book which is completely unique to that text, then feel free to point that out.

"Cinema Paradiso", directed by Guiseppe Tornatore, shows the strong influence exerted over the local Italian community by the Catholic Church. We do not see this sort of religious involvement in either of the other two texts. However, it is possible to compare this aspect of "Cinema Paradiso" with "Cat's Eye" under the broader theme of Control, when we see the dominant and negative influence held over the author by her friend Cordelia.

The comparitive study isn't hard. It's just really boring. I didn't prepare an essay, I sat down and tried to think outside the box a bit and identify as many links (as waffly as you like) between the texts that I could. Everyone's going to have the obvious ones. If you can think of a few for yourself, and keep them to yourself, then you're flying.

Also, it's worth remembering that because the marks are pretty much going for comparisons/contrasts, don't beat yourself up too much in the exam if you don't think you've written it in the nicest language possible. I remember thinking that my Comparitive in the Leaving was the most obnoxiously phrased thing I'd ever written, but I got an A2 so I must have done something right.

Poets, hmmm. My year Plath was pretty much gauranteed to come up because Bishop had been up the last two years and they're always pretty likely to put a female poet on the paper. But you never know..

I'd say if you're really really pushed for time, learn the female poets (and especially whichever one hasn't come up in a while) FIRST and BEST. But try to at least know some quotes and major themes of another three, in case the Department try to screw everyone over and put four male poets on. Stranger things have happened.

If you're not pushed for time, learn 5 poets well. Then one will come up for definite. Just to scare ye all a bit...friend of mine a few years ago learnt 4, thinking NOBODY could be that unlucky...and the other 4 came up

Same still goes for that female poet if you're not pushed for time..learn her really, really well..but keep in mind if they think everyone's expecting her then they might make the question harder...and also, if EVERYONE answers that question then it's likely to be marked a bit harder than if you answer a poet that only 10% of the rest of the country answered on.

Business - I'm unsure how to study this subject and your advice would be particularly helpful on this subject as i'm teaching myself the subject.

I had the worst business teacher in the world, so I pretty much had to teach myself the subject as well. People aren't taking the piss when they say it's probably the easiest Leaving Cert subject to pick up points in, so try not to worry too much. The marks really are there for the taking.

First things first..you should have a copy of past papers and literally have done and learned every single past short question for the last ten years. You've probably been told this already, but I can't stress its importance enough..the short questions are all worth either 8 or 10 marks (can't remember which) and it's a lot easier to pick up those marks in this section than in a 60 marker long question. Some important definitions that spring to mind that you definitely shouldn't be setting foot in the exam hall without knowing are Economy of Scale and Inflation, they love asking them.

Don't be afraid to really fill up the space they give you for the short questions either..if you've only written one line for a definition, you'll probably only be getting 3 of the marks available. Flesh it out a bit. GIVE AN EXAMPLE . Marks very often go for concrete examples. If you haven't written anything, they can't give you any marks.

The ABQ is very important, and it's worth a lot of marks. Generally this is doable enough as the text is there in front of you..as long as you don't FORGET the text is there! Biggest mistake people make in ABQ's is seeing a question below it that they've learnt off an answer to, ie

"What are the seven elements of a legal contract?"

...and launching into their pre-prepared answer without even reading the text. Big, big mistake. This is an APPLIED BUSINESS question and you must treat it as such. You're not going to get as many marks for saying

"For a contract to be legal, there must be consideration."

than you would for saying..

"For a contract to be legal, there must be consideration. This is shown in the text as the 10,000 euro Mary paid to Philip for his second hand BMW convertible"

Refer back to the text with everything you say. It's there to help you, so use it. If you don't use it, the most you can hope for here is half marks.

As far as I can remember, the ABQ is focused on a certain set of chapters every year, and is gauranteed to be taken from those chapters. While I don't know which ones they are this year, I know that since you have no choice but to study these chapters really well as the ABQ is compulsory, it would be stupid not to also have it in mind to be choosing to answer the questions in the long questions section which are on these chapters. It should be at least half of them, and means that Business is a subject where you really can leave out all but a basic knowledge (enough for short questions) of around 1/3 of the chapters like I did and still get the A1.

When answering your long questions, do everything in point form. Don't write essays. I did everything in point form, and got an A1. It stops you waffling and repeating yourself, and keeps your focus. It also helps the examiner. If they don't have to go searching for your points in between a whole lot of waffle, they'll like correcting your paper a lot more.

With regard to specific questions, like I've already said, keep giving examples. You'd be surprised how often 2 marks out of 12 going for a section would be allocated to the giving of an example, and it's the easiest thing in the world to do.

If there's an EU question I'd do it, it's usually straightforward enough. If you have your head around those financial ratios, do those as well. Easy marks for easy Maths. Don't forget your calculator!

History and Irish to follow...

Vainglory

History - did u gamble and learn certain number of essays off by heart? or have general knowledge on everthing? i'm unsure how to study it.

History is really a bitch of a subject. There's not enough time in the exam and you can really be ****ed by a dodgy paper. I was never as nervous before in my life as I was waiting to turn that paper over, and I think I asked for extra paper about 9 times. But there are ways of studying History that can get you around some of these problems and make it a lot more doable.

First of all, everyone who does History is going to try and predict what's coming up, because you just have to. That's not to say that you don't have to cover yourself for every section, but what I did was identified what I thought was really likely to come up, and made sure I knew those topics like the back of my bloody hand.

I'm a bit out of touch with the patterns and I don't have last years paper, but if I was doing the Leaving this year, this is what I'd be going into the exam able to sing off like a song..

France in section C, if it didn't come up last year.
No question on Northern Ireland last year, so I'd almost bet my life on it coming up this year. Maybe history 20-66?

If someone can tell me what exactly was on the paper last year, I'd be in a better position to make predictions.

The exam itself...You've probably been told to write your special topic first, but I wrote it last. I always felt that in the last 20 minutes of the exam, it's preferable to be bashing out something you know off by heart than to be trying to plan an essay and answer on a question you've never seen before.

When writing essays, they should be all in clear paragraphs. Begin every paragraph with an assertion relating to the question which contains some argument . Even if it sounds a bit stupid to you. Example..

Question : France, 1870-1914
Treat of the challenges to, and the achievements of the French Third Republic during the period 1870-1914.

Start your paragraph by saying..

A huge challenge facing the Third Republic from the point of its very inception was that of the loss of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Born of defeat in this conflict, the Third Republic was long associated with failure and embarrassing war indemnities.

This is 100% better than saying..

France lost the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and had to pay a huge amount of money to cover the war costs. They also had to let the German army march through Paris to celebrate their victory blah blah blah..

Your first line in each paragraph should contain at least some of the words used in the question. This keeps your focus. It shows the examiner you are answering the question and not just streaming off lines and lines of learned facts. Even though this is a "treat of" question, try to use some argument. Always ASSERT. "Such and such an event WAS A HUGE CHALLENGE FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE DURING THIS PERIOD" or "Such and such a thing WAS A HUGE ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE DURING THIS PERIOD".

Believe me, it sounds stupid and insignificant, but it makes your essay read so much better. It makes sure you are answering the question, and it's the single most important thing I was ever taught by a history teacher. And again, an A1 meant it was a good idea.

Don't learn off essays, learn off essay plans. For example, if you're studying France 1870-1914, you should be going into the exam knowing that if a question comes up on this, then you're going to immediately write down in your rough work.

-Intro
-Franco-Prussian War
-Boulanger
-Dreyfus
-Panama Scandal
-Church/State Relations
-Divisions between Left and Right
-Conclusion

That's 8 paragraphs you know you'll be writing, and thats what you know by heart.

History is marked in quite a weird way. It's marked by paragraph. Every paragraph is marked out of 10 marks, and the maximum for paragraph content altogether is 60. The remaining 20 is an "overall impression" mark which the examiner gives at his or her discretion, and is for the structure, argument, and expression of your essay.

You will be marked out of 10 for every paragraph you do. So do as many as you can. Even if they're short, make as many clear and separate points in different paragraphs as you can, and you will be marked on each in turn. Beware of long long paragraphs on the same point. If you write an amazing long paragraph on the Dreyfus affair that takes up a whole page, you're still only getting a maximum of ten marks for it.

Think of it this way. If you write 8 paragraphs, and only get 6/10 for each, that's 48/60 already. Then, if you get 12/20 for the overall mark, your score for the essay will be 60/80. 75%. B2. 80 points. You're laughing. And that's only on an average mark for your paragraphs of 6/10? If you're doing the assertions at the start of each paragraph like I said and have the facts to back it up, then you should be scoring a lot higher than that.

I know that's a bit complex, so I'd be happy to answer any further questions on how History is marked in the Leaving Cert.

Irish - my oral is strong enough but my grammer and writing lets me down always. Any method of me improving it?

If your grammar is really bogey, then at this stage it's better off going for damage limitation than trying to overhaul the stuff you've been slipping up on since senior infants.

Make sure at least you know your aimsirs...REALLY obvious mistakes will probably piss off the examiners.

One tip I'd suggest is that after you write your essay in Paper 1, go through it with a red pen and ruthlessly mark out anything you think is probably grammatically incorrect or spelt badly. 80% of the marks on the essay are going for spelling and grammar. So even if it means cutting out a bit you liked and saying it in a simpler way that you know is grammatically correct and spelt properly, then it's the best idea.

Reading comprehensions - Don't look at the questions at all until you've read the thing through, very slowly, at least twice. Sounds cliched, but believe me, it works.

Again, I don't have last year's paper handy so predictions are difficult, but I'd be willing to make a few if it was given to me.

Try learn some stock phrases that can apply to everything and that you know are grammatically correct. Good verbs are "Seasann" (It stands for, ie. Seasann an éan don...The bird represents the..) and Taispeanann..it shows.

To be honest, Irish is hard to give general tips about..it's a tough subject at honours level that really needs the hours put in, especially for the litríocht. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions on the stuff though, if you have any.

Hope this has helped somewhat!

I am REALLY going to fail these exams in college next week

Gone West

Jaysus!

FuzzyLogic

FuzzyLogic wrote:

Jaysus!

:eek:

Cheers for the comparative essay tips.

In the Irish i'd disagree with the comprehension tip, though - surely it's better to read the questions first so that you know what to look for when you're reading the passage?

Vainglory

That's what I was told too, but I personally found that if I read the questions first, I was sometimes put off by not immediately understanding what they meant.

However, if I ignored them and read the comprehension first, I'd know where the answers were as soon as I looked at the question, because the language used would very often be contained in the text as well.

In a really pressurised situation like the Leaving, you can really be freaked if you look at a question and just point-blank don't understand what it's asking you, and this can affect your performance. However, if you've read the piece twice, slowly and calmly, then it would have to be a really really hard question for you not to have a clue what you were on about when you read it after reading the text first.

Worked for me anyway, others could be different!

Vainglory

Oh and ehh, I got a few PMs asking about my own results so I'll just post 'em here as well.

English (Honours) - A2
Irish (Honours) - A1
French (Honours) - A2
Biology (Honours) - A1
Business (Honours) - A1
History (Honours) - A1
Maths (Ordinary) - A2

Yeah? You make me sick.


With envy.

Vainglory

Heh, well...just goes to show the Leaving isn't everything, because I'm currently dangerously close to failing out of second year in college.

I kinda want to be a teacher so hence why I wasted the time I should be spending studying for my exams on writing that mini-novel

grimloch

you wouldnt happen to have any tips on studying biology would you?

i find it to be the worst to study because theres quite a deal of it

is_that_so

grimloch wrote:

you wouldnt happen to have any tips on studying biology would you?

i find it to be the worst to study because theres quite a deal of it

Use Mind maps.They may take a bit of time to do but immensely effective especially with topics that have lots of detail and sub-topics. In other words perfect for Biology

http://www.peterussell.com/mindmaps/mindmap.html

You can even get free software these days

http://www.peterussell.com/Mindmaps/MMSoft.html

angeldelight

grimloch wrote:

you wouldnt happen to have any tips on studying biology would you?

i find it to be the worst to study because theres quite a deal of it

Firstly know the practicals inside out and upside down. The questions they ask you on that aren't actually too bad, and they're quite predictable, look at the exam comission sample paper and last years LC paper.

What I found helpful was not learning chapters seperately, learn them in logical groups e.g. learn nutrition and human digestion together even though they're in different units of the course.

The next thing I did was used past papers for everything. My Physics and Biology teacher for the LC swore by them. Whenever you study something and learn it, go and do questions from last year the sample and also the samples produced by folens and the educational company. In science subjects, practice really helps as theirs only so much they can ask so you often find yourself answering a few questions in the real thing that you've done before, which is reassuring.

Also if there's any areas of the course you're having problems understanding, ask for help now. Don't wait any longer, just go to your teacher after the next class and ask. I know I was totally confused with genetics for ages, doing out the punnett square and stuff so I eventually went to my teacher and it was great getting help just by myself, and if you do it now you still have time to learn what he/she explains to you. If you have a nice teacher they might correct exam questions for you too.

Another tip is try "teaching" yourself out loud (maybe not if you study at school!). Read a chapter, make suer you understand all of it then pretend you're teaching somebody else it, explaining everything and only looking at sub headings and stuff in the book to remind you what comes next. Really works.

Also practice drawing the diagrams over and over and over again. Even if you jsut spend 15 mins during the day on any scrap of paper cause in bio especially, LABELLED diagrams can be used instead of some descriptions e.g. its so much easier to draw a nephron if you've practiced than describe it. You do need to practice drawing it though and not just look at it and think "yeah i can do that" because no amtter how simple you think the diagram is when you're under pressure in the LC if you haven't drawn it before you're more than likely not gonna remember all the detail.

All of the above works for all LC science subjects, I did all that and got 3 H level A1s last year so it does take hard work and time but they're good subjects to do well in. If you've any specific Qs feel free to pm me. Apologies if this is a bit long I just loved science for LC!!

Good luck!

grimloch

thanks for the help you two, might get cracking on that now before i hit sixth year, although weve only covered a third of the biology course due to a variety of reasons....

randomfella

i think one of the best points made was about answering poplular questions. The standard of answering is raised when more people answer the same question. So in one way its really a catch 22. Also u are competing against your class. Really never though about these two factors.

the smiley one

I am acutely aware of the fact that I'm judged against my peers esp. in English. I'm in the "top" honours class and we are doing different comparitive texts to everyone else in our year......so the examiner will be able to pick us out.......about 3/4 people in my class of 20-ish want to do english in college next year........ahhhhhhhhhh!

randomfella

every class in our year does different comparitive texts, i think thats the norm. But i know what u mean.

the smiley one

what I meant to say was that all the other classes in our year i.e. 80+ people, are doing the same comparitive texts
We on the other hand, (20) are doing others.......

randomfella

ok that is strange!!

Only Human

Those History tips are excelent. Thanks a million!

rainbow kirby

Vainglory wrote:

Heh, well...just goes to show the Leaving isn't everything, because I'm currently dangerously close to failing out of second year in college.

Same boat here. I got 570 3 years ago in the LC, and I just pulled out of my 3rd year college exams.
College made me such a waster.

Vainglory

Yeah...I left my work ethic back in that sweaty gym at the end of Leaving Cert 2003.

Any more questions on any of my subjects I'd be happy to answer, btw.

is_that_so

Off topic - IMHO no-one should be allowed to go to college straight after school.
You should get a rucksack and a free plane ticket instead on passing the LC