Leaving Cert 2016/17 Off-Topic Thread

Liordi · 31-05-2017 11:06PM

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

I wonder is there many people that go into the exam having only studied one or two poets.

Me. :P I only know Bishop and Boland decently.
I don't intend on counting English at all though so if neither of them appear I won't mind.

daraghwal · 31-05-2017 11:38PM

I know someone knew two last year. Neither came up, bad idea. He is now repeating.

katekitty88 · 31-05-2017 11:40PM

daraghwal wrote: »

I know someone knew two last year. Neither came up, bad idea. He is now repeating.

I know quite a few people who only studied Yeats, which was a terrible idea.

alisonh · 31-05-2017 11:53PM

Hey guys, does anyone have any predictions for geography and the Irish essay? Anything wouldn't be much appreciated x

alisonh · 01-06-2017 12:03AM

Hey guys, does anyone have any predictions for geography and the Irish essay? Anything would be much appreciated x

Bazinga_N · 01-06-2017 12:04AM

alisonh wrote: »

Hey guys, does anyone have any predictions for geography and the Irish essay? Anything wouldn't be much appreciated x

I could see something about Refugees or Terrorism coming up on the Aiste or else maybe something on the EU or Politics in general. Environment hasn't come up since 2013 either!

randylonghorn · 01-06-2017 03:55AM

daraghwal wrote: »

I know someone knew two last year. Neither came up, bad idea. He is now repeating.

There was someone here a couple of years ago who covered 4 ... and the other 4 came up!!

Now that was seriously shítty luck!

Mr Rhode Island Red · 01-06-2017 08:40AM

That now would be a pain, you'd think by learning 4 you'd have slightly better than 50/50 odds of being able to write about something. Sickening for them.

One of the English teachers in my school has put on a 20 euro bet with a few lads that Boland is definitely coming up. A large amount of my class, seeing how confident the teacher is with the prediction, are taking it as gospel and now plan on learning Boland and Boland alone.

Even though I'd say Boland is likely to come up, I just wouldn't be comfortable going in knowing one poet, so I plan on doing 5. It just makes me feel like I'm wasting my time considering that most of my class seem quite confident and relaxed just learning Boland.

spurious · 01-06-2017 09:01AM

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

That now would be a pain, you'd think by learning 4 you'd have slightly better than 50/50 odds of being able to write about something. Sickening for them.

One of the English teachers in my school has put on a 20 euro bet with a few lads that Boland is definitely coming up. A large amount of my class, seeing how confident the teacher is with the prediction, are taking it as gospel and now plan on learning Boland and Boland alone.

Even though I'd say Boland is likely to come up, I just wouldn't be comfortable going in knowing one poet, so I plan on doing 5. It just makes me feel like I'm wasting my time considering that most of my class seem quite confident and relaxed just learning Boland.

Reminds me of Plath the other year.

There be dragons.

Mr Rhode Island Red · 01-06-2017 11:11AM

spurious wrote: »

Reminds me of Plath the other year.

There be dragons.

What was the story there?

Rachel flower · 01-06-2017 11:33AM

Hi guys.. anyone here doing art??? Any ideas on which European/ Renaissence artists are coming up?? Also does a gallery question come up every year?? Thanks

Crazyteacher · 01-06-2017 12:51PM

Please don't limit yourself in the poetry guys. Have 5 poets done well. Take no chances.

VG31 · 01-06-2017 01:57PM

randylonghorn wrote: »

There was someone here a couple of years ago who covered 4 ... and the other 4 came up!!

Now that was seriously shítty luck!

I did some probability revision.

If you study four poets you have a 98.57% chance that at least one of them will come up. Three poets is 92.85%, two poets is 78.57% and one poet is 50% (for 1+ to appear on the paper),

daraghwal · 01-06-2017 02:39PM

VG31 wrote: »

I did some probability revision.

If you study four poets you have a 98.57% chance that at least one of them will come up. Three poets is 92.85%, two poets is 78.57% and one poet is 50% (for 1+ to appear on the paper),

I think you need to do more probability revision.

VG31 · 01-06-2017 02:41PM

daraghwal wrote: »

I think you need to do more probability revision.

What's wrong with it?

There's some similar figures here: http://www.625points.com/2016/05/leaving-cert-predictions-english.html

ciara18 · 01-06-2017 03:10PM

Do ye think I'm safe in learning these Hamlet essays, please let me know if I'm missing anything major that I've forgotten!

- deception/corruption/appearances vs. reality
- role of women
- hamlet vs. claudius
- theme of revenge
- theme of love
- role of soliloquies
- tragic hero
- imagery and symbolism
- hamlet's madness/weaknesses/strengths

jogd1234 · 01-06-2017 04:50PM

VG31 wrote: »

What's wrong with it?

There's some similar figures here: http://www.625points.com/2016/05/leaving-cert-predictions-english.html

Assuming all poets are equally likely of coming up (they're obviously not),

1 poet: 50% chance of coming up
2: 75%
3: 87.5%
4: 93.75%

Crazyteacher · 01-06-2017 05:16PM

That's still a 7.25% chance that you won't be able to answer any poetry question.

VG31 · 01-06-2017 05:39PM

Crazyteacher wrote: »

That's still a 7.25% chance that you won't be able to answer any poetry question.

If you choose 4 poets strategically then the chance of one of them not coming up should be almost zero.

It's still ideal to learn five though.

spurious · 01-06-2017 06:26PM

spurious wrote: »

Reminds me of Plath the other year.

There be dragons.

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

What was the story there?

Oh everyone, everyone's teacher and their dogs were convinced Plath was coming up.
It was an absolute sure thing.....except it wasn't.

No sign of the bould Sylvia and lots of folk scuttling to scrabble together some sort of answer on their second choice.

randylonghorn · 01-06-2017 06:54PM

spurious wrote: »

No sign of the bould Sylvia and lots of folk scuttling to scrabble together some sort of answer on their second choice.

And some incredibly foolish people with no second choice even ... coz, sure, loike, Plath was a certainty! :rolleyes:

Irish Times wrote:

The mass outrage and grief that ensues when an expected name fails to appear, as happened when Sylvia Plath went astray in 2012, is by any standards, extraordinary. The headline in this paper referred to that time as a "Black day for poetry students".

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/why-is-there-a-national-obsession-with-who-came-up-on-leaving-cert-english-paper-2-1.2238016

And

Exam Diary, Irish Independent, the following year wrote:

Last year, for instance, Sylvia Plath's absence on the exam bereaved thousands of students who left their exam with heartbroken faces. This year things have changed. Plath came up! The States Examinations Commission has finally given their paying customers what they want.

Yes, you read it correctly.

"The States Examinations Commission has finally given their paying customers what they want. "

Lolwhut?!!!! :rolleyes:

EireLemon · 01-06-2017 06:59PM

Plath or Boland, I would be delighted with. Bishop would be ok. Keats, Durcan I'd probably get around 20% in the essay. For 50 marks, I'm not going to go in depth on 5 poets. It's ridiculous! There should be like 6 poets on the course.

A97 · 01-06-2017 07:29PM

jogd1234 wrote: »

Assuming all poets are equally likely of coming up (they're obviously not),

1 poet: 50% chance of coming up
2: 75%
3: 87.5%
4: 93.75%

Those probabilities aren't correct. You need to calculate the odds that you get exactly 0 poets on the paper.

If you study 4, the probability of the first spot being one you didn't study is 4 / 8.

Now, the probability of the second spot being one you didn't study is 3 / 7.

Then the probability of the third spot being one you didn't study is 2 / 6.

Finally the probability of the fourth and final spot being one you didn't study is 1 / 5.

The probability of all of that happening is (4 / 8) * (3 / 7) * (2 / 6) * (1 / 5) = 1 / 70. That is roughly a 1.43% chance. The other odds can be calculated similarly.

So in summary, learn at least 5 poets! It's the only way to guarantee a question.

randylonghorn · 01-06-2017 07:50PM

A97 wrote: »

So in summary, learn at least 5 poets! It's the only way to guarantee a question.

Yanno, I didn't have to do any complicated maths to figure that out! :pac:

daraghwal · 01-06-2017 08:09PM

VG31 wrote: »

What's wrong with it?

There's some similar figures here: http://www.625points.com/2016/05/leaving-cert-predictions-english.html

A97 is bang on there. I just didn't have time to do it all out.

Dropping down grades in English because you didn't study 5 poets is a high price to pay for not doing a few extra hours of study for English Paper 2.

ElmW13 · 01-06-2017 08:14PM

With regards to HL maths and proofs, is it just theorems 11, 12 and 13 that need to be proved or do the HL junior cert maths ones need to be proved again? I've been getting mixed answers on this and just want to be sure

daraghwal · 01-06-2017 08:16PM

ElmW13 wrote: »

With regards to HL maths and proofs, is it just theorems 11, 12 and 13 that need to be proved or do the HL junior cert maths ones need to be proved again? I've been getting mixed answers on this and just want to be sure

All the trigonometric proofs as well. In paper 1 theres the amortisation formula and a few others. Whatever you do don't go and learn them off line by line. Try to understand them. Ask a teacher/grinds or look up youtube videos and marking schemes to see how they're done.

VG31 · 01-06-2017 08:16PM

daraghwal wrote: »

A97 is bang on there. I just didn't have time to do it all out.

I worked our the probability of getting at least one poet of four studied. So 1 minus the probability of none coming up (1 - 1/70 = 69/70 = 98.5%)

I probably made a mess of the other calculations though!

wanderer100 · 02-06-2017 10:09AM

What Irish essays are you guys focusing on? Finding it difficult to study for this section. So many different possibilities

padraigmck · 02-06-2017 10:26AM

wanderer100 wrote: »

What Irish essays are you guys focusing on? Finding it difficult to study for this section. So many different possibilities

I'm learning an essay on Irish, Sport, the health system and maybe something on refugees.....

Leaving Cert 2016/17 Off-Topic Thread

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