Share your advice with those who have yet to sit their Leaving Cert!

Dave!

Hey dudes, as I'm sure some of you know, I just got the results of my Leaving Cert, and I thought it'd be good for those like me who have finished, to share any advice with those who are going to be doing it next year, or in 2 years' time. I was gonna post this in another thread but it turned out to be quite verbose, so I figured I'd post a new thread Here's the post...

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Some advice: get organised early! That doesn't mean spend hours studying every night, but you should get organised right away, that makes it easier to study when you get to it. Buy folders, loads of them, poly pockets, labels, get a desk if you don't have one, etc. You won't regret it! I was very unorganised, so all my notes were in the one box, unsorted, unlabelled, etc., so whenever I went to study, I first had to spend ages finding the notes! Tres annoying. I really had to organise my notes every time I tried to study.
So just be organised. Don't worry about room going to waste or anything like that, make sure all subjects are seperate, and each subsection is seperate too(eg. algebra, trig, etc., for maths; hitler, stalin, etc., for history)

Another really important thing that you should do is go through your exam papers! I know some of them don't come out for ages, but try and get your hands on an old set even, it doesn't matter. Go through the papers meticulously! Use 100's of A4 sheets if you need, and write out a plan if you like of the paper, what each section, and subsection, and question, gets you -- marks, and percentage overall; this helps you to see visually(you could even do a spider diagram) how much attention you need to give some areas, and when you can sacrifice some attention. You should also go through each paper and section and write out (plan) what you need to learn off, what questions they can ask you, etc. For instance, in Irish, you have 5 stories, and in those stories there are characters -- plan out an A4 page on each character, based on the questions previously asked. What kind of person are they? Do you like them? Why? Learn some vocabulary about them, too. Lots of adjectives can be impressive(I was stuck saying deas, mór, beag, etc:p) It's also very important to be able to write out a synopsis of the whole story, start to finish. It doesn't need a load of detail or crazy quotes, just know yourself what events happen in the story(bo dearg becomes king, lear is upset, bo gives his daughter or something to lear, lear's happy, the chick dies, bo gives his sister or somethin to lear, lear roides her lol, kids born, etc etc etc), and be able to write it out in basic Irish(this is for ordinary level anyway, lol)... And this is just one section of one subject.
For geography... you have to know mapwork and regions, and you should learn fieldwork, and for me, physical. So take mapwork... there's only a certain amount of questions they can ask you on it! So go through them all one by one and plan the main aspects of them. Historical settlement! Go through the list of about 15 antiquities, know when they're from and by who. Have a nice generic introduction and conclusion for everything, lol.
Physics... learn your formulas, experiments and definitions. It's just a matter of sitting down and memorising them, really, but it's certainly annoying. It helps immensely to know what the f*ck you're learning, too! Know how things relate to one another. "Velocity is the rate of change of displacement with relation to time." So V = s/t. Two birds with one stone! lol. It also helps to relate concepts and things to every day use... Pressure = Force/Area... Ever put a thumb tack into a piece of wood? It has to be pointy, that means there's a tiny area where the force is acting. eg. 20 = 40/2... But if the area is bigger, then the pressure is smaller... multiply the area by 2... 10 = 40/4.
I only came to understand how graphs work half way through 6th year(my teacher was crap), but that really helped me. Ask about how they relate to y=mx +c, if you don't know. I can't explain it well unfortunately.

Sorry for spending so long on specific subjects, actually...

hmmm... Ok, a study timetable! I have friends who made them up and stuck steadfastly to them, and they worked wonders. I personally spent ages TRYING to make one, but it was too complicated, lol... I don't really have the self-discipline for one, so it wouldn't have made me study more, believe me(I was also on heavy medicine, so I was tired always, and it was too unpredictable to work); but other people swear by them, so it depends on what type of person you are.

Ok I'll stop rambling now! lol.. I know brothers, sisters, teachers, parents, always tell you to start studying and to do all this, but we never listen do we! Well I really should have, so I'm just sharing my experience. Hopefully someone will learn from my mistakes(they weren't terrible mistakes; I got 410, 70 points I didn't need, but I might have gotten higher, not that it matters:p)!

Enjoy!

Everyone with advice feel free to share, as this is just a load of ramblings. You'll probably be more helpful than moi

thejovialhost

What he sed^^ and its NEVER too late to study.if you focus on exam paper q's it will pay dividends!!never underestimate the usefullness of a weekend just studying(sounds stupid but really works-just apply yourself). a planned timetable really helps things.

I crammed like MAD for 12+days up to the first day of the L.C. 7hrs a day-helped SO much.what did i get you ask??550-waiting for my commerce place in galway on monday morning :cool:

Scarinae

Definitely start early, hardly anyone actually does this properly so you'll b giving yourself a huge advantage. Because this is a race for points and college places, so give yourself the advantage over as many people as possible if you want to do well. Organisation is important - I wasted so much time before my mocks just trying to find all my notes and organise them, I should have done it way earlier in the year. Make sure you understand the structure of each paper and what areas you need to concentrate on. Identify your weaknesses and get extra help - for example, if you suck at the Irish aural, ask your teacher if you can bring in a blank tape for them to record some aurals onto, so that you can practice at home.

abercrombie

thanks...thats all actually been really helpful!!!

fearcruach

yeah thanks alot. By start early, how early do you mean? I've started going over what i did last year because i need 550 - 590 points. Crud.

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

Start the day you go back... come home and do 5 minutes study. That's all. Pick one class you had and go over what happened in it for five minutes. Work your way up until you're doing about an hour a day at Christmas... that's an increment of about 4/5 minutes a week. It really will pay off as long as you've paid attention in class.

Oh, never, EVER, just sit there reading something - it's more or less wasted time. Always have a pen in your hand and be making small notes, etc.

And finally, sixth year was the best year of my life so far - I went to more parties, more trips, more days out than ever before and still managed to maintain school at a reasonable level so do NOT let school rule your life for the next 9 months.


Oh, really finally - people say it will fly through, and my God it's easy to ignore them - but don't. Sixth year was the 'fastest' year of my life... it's start of term, BAM, Hallowe'en, BAM, Christmas, DOUBLE BAM, Mocks, BAM BAM BAM, Orals, and OH FSCK, the Leaving itself. Enjoy!

Dave!

Yeah it does fly in, doesn't it?

Start as soon as you go back, yeah... Just do a tiny bit every day if you like. But get organised of the first day, get your folders, polypockets, etc., ASAP. Think of it as, you have a certain amount of work to learn off, and a certain amount of time to do it in. Every day that goes by you still have the same work to learn, but less time to do it in... Kinda unnerving, but it's true. I only started doing the work in the last 2 or 3 months, maybe, and that was a horrible time, cos I was so panicked, and I had so much to learn in such a short time. Scary!

defiantshrimp

Bob wrote:

Start the day you go back... come home and do 5 minutes study. That's all. Pick one class you had and go over what happened in it for five minutes. Work your way up until you're doing about an hour a day at Christmas... that's an increment of about 4/5 minutes a week. It really will pay off as long as you've paid attention in class.

I'd say if you are aiming for high points you really shouldn't take all the way until Christmas to start studying for an hour you should be doing it sooner and possibly more. The way i did it and found it kept me sane was to do all my work and study during the week so I had the weekend free. But the most important thing is to start study straight away and keep consistently at it.

Another thing I found really helpful as the leaving cert gets near is to practice past papers in exam conditions, preferably all at once. It was great practice for me and it meant i was completely familiar with timing and exam technique.

EdgarAllenPoo

If you're going into fifth year do not take history unless you are very very good at it. Depending on the course you want to do (if you even have a clue about that at this point) take a language, most colleges insist on it for their entry requirements.

Take subjects that run into each other like Biology and Home Ec or Businees,Accounting and Economics that will help you out.

For those doing the leaving this year, don't panic everyone here will tell you it's not as bad as you think and after it's done and you're in college nobody give a flying ****e how you did in the leaving it's all about how you do in college. Do the work teachers give you, work at exam papers til you're blue in the face and ask questions constantly to make sure you know what to do and how to do it.

I wish I'd taken some of my own advice. meh

deek

Write as many English and Irish essays as you can at the start of the term because if you're serious about studyin you WONT have the time later on in the year

the smiley one

deek wrote:

Write as many English and Irish essays as you can at the start of the term because if you're serious about studyin you WONT have the time later on in the year

yes yes yes - VERY true. And if you plan on learning off stuff for Irish...do it NOW...again, you won't have time later on.

Try and aim for about 3 hours after xmas every day (including homework) You should be well set up then.

And saving that...have a BLAST! Despite the many horror stories; sixth year is actually good fun and don't let all of the media hype "pressure" get to you....oh and have sensible (non-stressed) friends to help keep your feet on the ground.

Dave!

Someone suggested not doing history and doing subjects that run into each other, but I don't think you should be concentrating so much on the fact that you'll be examined on it. Do what you enjoy, what you're good at, and what you want to do after school, or you'll hate 6th year! If you enjoy it, you'll do much better, trust me. I did history, and I only started to enjoy it half way through 6th year, but I put in alot of work from then, and I got a C1... not great, but considering I was failing exams for all of 5th year, and didn't practise essays at all, I think it's quite good. History is a very interesting subject if you're at all into politics or learning about the world, so I'd recommend it to anyone! Just my thoughts, though!

sabriel

If theres a facility for supervised study in your school you should definatly think of doing it.It really helped me,wouldnt have done any at home.

andrew163

For the love of Gawd, study in fifth year. Don't go nuts, even just an hour a week on a specific subject (Different one every week, say)...

Because the mocks come scarily quickly.