Leaving Cert 2016/17 Off-Topic Thread

thetalker · 16-04-2017 01:50PM

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Do you mean like the options at the end of the book? Our teacher didn't even bother doing them with us, he said they're not worth the time considering how much they actually appear on the paper, which is normally only half a question at most. I wouldn't worry about them, titrations and organic are the bigger fish to fry.

Yeah those ones, though for us they're in the workbook. You're probably right. The exam has been very predictable for the last 10 years and I kinda doubt it'll change so drastically as to make the options mandatory knowledge.

Ron603 · 16-04-2017 02:06PM

thetalker wrote: »

Yeah those ones, though for us they're in the workbook. You're probably right. The exam has been very predictable for the last 10 years and I kinda doubt it'll change so drastically as to make the options mandatory knowledge.

We haven't even touched the options in Chemistry and our teacher is not planning on doing them either. We still have electrochemistry left to do. I'm still revising equilibrium :pac:, I'm nearly there.

BadBannana · 17-04-2017 03:29PM

Getting a bit nostalgic for years gone by, loads of people will off to other counties/countries. It'll be a sad summer once we're done. Anyone else in a similar situation?

ciara18 · 18-04-2017 03:41PM

Just decided I'm not going to look at the chemistry option at all either! Getting to the point where I don't want to be throwing away time learning lots of extra information as a 'just in case'

Mr Rhode Island Red · 18-04-2017 05:34PM

BadBannana wrote: »

Getting a bit nostalgic for years gone by, loads of people will off to other counties/countries. It'll be a sad summer once we're done. Anyone else in a similar situation?

I am going to run out that door like a bullet and not look back. It's well time for a change of scenery.

Manufan123 · 19-04-2017 10:58AM

How is the study going? How many hours roughly is everyone doing? I'm doing around 4 hours per day. Struggling to concentrate after that.

thetalker · 20-04-2017 07:53PM

4 hours a day is great, I don't time myself but its on and off. Sometimes I could spend a day looking through stuff and other times I barely do anything.

Consonata · 21-04-2017 12:57PM

Ron603 wrote: »

We haven't even touched the options in Chemistry and our teacher is not planning on doing them either. We still have electrochemistry left to do. I'm still revising equilibrium :pac:, I'm nearly there.

Option is a much safer bet than Electrochemistry imo. Electro only comes up every once in a while, whereas the option is guaranteed. Plus the option questions are relatively easy, especially atmospheric, hardest bit is knowing the Oxygen Free Radicle formulas, and there's only like 3 of them.

Ponguin · 21-04-2017 11:45PM

Consonata would you say electro is even necessary to cover? We've done options in class but still have Water and Indicators to cover (I've read through these myself but just wondering should I try and learn electro too by myself)

Mr Rhode Island Red · 21-04-2017 11:52PM

Our teacher said that electrochemistry gives very little back in return considering the amount there is to learn about it versus how little it actually appears on the paper.

Consonata · 22-04-2017 11:48AM

Ponguin wrote: »

Consonata would you say electro is even necessary to cover? We've done options in class but still have Water and Indicators to cover (I've read through these myself but just wondering should I try and learn electro too by myself)

Like we aren't covering it. If you haven't done Water or Indicators yet, 100% do them because they are nice, plus indicators is fairly key if an Acids and Bases full question comes up.

Electro comes up only once every so often, whereas Water comes up fairly regularly and the option always comes up.

padraigmck · 26-04-2017 05:12PM

4 weeks today my school will be having our grad mass..... hard to believe the year is nearly over!

Mr Rhode Island Red · 28-04-2017 09:50PM

Do ye think I could get away with not learning human reproduction if I know the rest of the biology course well? It's just that it looks to be a fairly lengthy chapter and right now I have bigger fish to fry.

Bazinga_N · 28-04-2017 10:33PM

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Do ye think I could get away with not learning human reproduction if I know the rest of the biology course well? It's just that it looks to be a fairly lengthy chapter and right now I have bigger fish to fry.

In all honesty if I was leaving any chapters out for biology I wouldn't leave out Human Reproduction! It comes up quite a bit! However it usually only comes up as a short question and part of a Q.14 or Q.15 so you might be able to skip it but it's a bit risky

carefulnowted · 28-04-2017 11:35PM

It's a long chapter but you probably know ~70% of it already from JC science. The questions don't tend to be too bad on it either. Personally, it wouldn't be a chapter I'd be inclined to skip - it tends to pop up fairly often on the paper.

EireLemon · 30-04-2017 09:40PM

Anyone else not able to stand English? I'm sick of the countless poets and endless essays. It's so difficult to improve because there is no definite correct answer like in the vast majority of other subjects.

Liordi · 30-04-2017 10:23PM

EireLemon wrote: »

Anyone else not able to stand English? I'm sick of the countless poets and endless essays. It's so difficult to improve because there is no definite correct answer like in the vast majority of other subjects.

Summarises my feelings towards English. I hate how much time is spent on paper 2 in comparison to paper 1.

Mr Rhode Island Red · 30-04-2017 11:30PM

Annoys me that there's people who will cram 1 poet the night before the exam and it will come up for them, and yet there's people who could learn 4 poets thoroughly and still get caught out on the day.

Decided to do the human reproduction...I really NAILED it.

Wahaha

Bazinga_N · 30-04-2017 11:35PM

The comparative drives me insane! A comparative study of poetry would make easy more sense and be easier to do instead of comparing novels/plays/films. Theme isn't that bad but general vision and viewpoint is so dull to write about..

wanderer100 · 30-04-2017 11:58PM

EireLemon wrote: »

Anyone else not able to stand English? I'm sick of the countless poets and endless essays. It's so difficult to improve because there is no definite correct answer like in the vast majority of other subjects.

By far my least favourite subject. With other subjects, you study the material and feel some satisfaction in that you've made progress towards the exam. With English, you can study all you want and still have a bad exam if you didn't like the question or the poet(s) you wanted didn't come up. The exam itself is a joke with the timing. It's more of a test of how fast you can read, think and transcribe your thoughts on paper than your actual English capabilities imo. Can't wait till I'm done paper 2 and never have to worry about this subject ever again

Mr Rhode Island Red · 01-05-2017 12:10AM

So having done our subjects for as long as we have, if you could go back to the day you did up your options form, would you change any of your choice subjects?

I really had my doubts about Chemistry at the start of 5th year, but it kinda grew on me after a while.

I think I would switch out Biology for something else though, when you stand back and look at it, the course isn't really that interesting, and I had a teacher that was absent a lot and couldn't control a class, so that didn't help either, only thing going for it is that it's a handy subject to get a fairly good grade in.

Liordi · 01-05-2017 12:31AM

I'd love to have dropped Biology for Applied Maths and not have done Applied Maths as an 8th subject. We never really learned anything in class and I made all of my notes at home so I feel that I would have been better off doing it myself in my own time since I basically did that anyway.

carefulnowted · 01-05-2017 12:47AM

I wouldn't have done DCG. Such a time sink for me and I really find it difficult to improve. I thought it would be like JC tech graph but it's much more difficult and requires a kind of "intuition".

I was worried about applied maths but I'm so glad I kept working at it. Hoping for a H2/H3 in it, which I'd be really proud of.

I did a 180 on biology - I REALLY didn't enjoy it initially but it's grown on me. My teacher is poor enough though.

Ron603 · 01-05-2017 09:24AM

I wouldn't have done Biology and Art.
Biology is too long and boring, while art might seem like a doss, it's not. The practical exams are stressful enough.

I seem to get less motivated the closer it gets to the exams. I would like to finish chemistry this week, focus on biology, Irish and Spanish fr9m next week on. I'm gonna leave English, Maths and Art history until later on.

Is anyone else doing the LCVP exam this Wednesday? It's going to be so boring, especially with the audio visual being played 3 times.

swallace3454 · 01-05-2017 12:10PM

For the History project, can you use abbreviations? The topic I have chosen is Amhr?n na bhFiann, but I mention Irish National Anthem a lot. Would I be able to shorten it to INA.

thetalker · 01-05-2017 02:05PM

Gotta agree with English, when it come to the most unpredictable and hard to age exam it's English. I've seen so many times people waffle and do better than those who took time to make an answer 'well prepared'.

Also I might have swapped chemistry for economics, chemistry just feels like there's so much to know and learn and I prefer being able to just figure out a problem than regurgitate definitions and experiments.

padraigmck · 01-05-2017 04:10PM

I was unsure about accounting for while but now that we are finished the course I'm really loving it! From the start my teacher said accounting never changes and it gets easier with practise. Every time she said it we would laugh but turns out she was right

BadBannana · 01-05-2017 09:05PM

Used to love English and History but now I'm so burned out on them. Cannot wait to burn my comparative notes

hasdanta · 03-05-2017 01:10AM

swallace3454 wrote: »

For the History project, can you use abbreviations? The topic I have chosen is Amhr?n na bhFiann, but I mention Irish National Anthem a lot. Would I be able to shorten it to INA.

Yes, so long as you said it fully once and then abbreviated in brackets after so the examiner knows what you're referring to (i.e "the Irish National Anthem (ITA)" initially and then just "ITA" after).

thetalker · 03-05-2017 05:45PM

Well got LCVP out of the way now. Twas a pretty straightforward exam.

Anyone doing business, for importance of planning our book has a number of things but Q4 of the 2013 hl paper seems to have given a vastly different answer to its own question imo.

I certainly hope something similar doesn't occur this year.

Leaving Cert 2016/17 Off-Topic Thread

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