Predictions!! Good or Bad???

galway.gaa · 17-06-2009 6:12pm #1

well has predicting papers in the exams worked for ye?

ive predicted alot and left alot out of many of the courses. it worked great. didnt get caught out once. worked a charm:D
i think you have to predict papers cause the courses are to long to get every bit of material covered.

did anyone get caught out or have any problems? i hear the higher irish paper was a bit strange.
would you advice predicting?

TanG411 · 17-06-2009 6:20pm

yeah, i'd advise predicting. It gives you a bit of a thrill leading up to the exam because you hope what you learned comes up

I made a massive gamble in my accounting. In my test, i had to do 4 questions. I took a chance and only looked over 4 certain types of questions out of about 10. and luckily for me, the 4 questions came.

So predicting has to be done. But be sure you predict well :pac:

Dante · 17-06-2009 6:20pm

Worked like a charm for English and geography......failed badly for history!

All in all I was pleased with the predictions this year!

Gavin "shels" · 17-06-2009 6:25pm

Worked great for English and Physics (experiments), failed on the option question for Geography though.

tootyflutty · 17-06-2009 6:25pm

will let you know tomorrow

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 6:46pm

English : Nailed it
Classical : Nailed it
Physics : Nailed it
History : Thank **** I don't rely on it.

D.R cowboy · 17-06-2009 6:56pm

errlloyd wrote: »

English : Nailed it
Classical : Nailed it
Physics : Nailed it
History : Thank **** I don't rely on it.

what you think about the "challenges to the tradition" instead of Rites of passage? for religion man

Dubs · 17-06-2009 7:05pm

its been a very predictable year for most subjects i think, only one of mine it didnt really work for was maths, so im happy enough... bleach for chemistry next year :P

7Steve · 17-06-2009 7:06pm

Worked grand for most subjects

But lets not forget that Irish P2 "Stair na Gaeilge". What a disaster that was, no way could you have predicted that thing...

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 7:08pm

D.R cowboy wrote: »

what you think about the "challenges to the tradition" instead of Rites of passage? for religion man

Was that on any of the mocks ?

Tbh just do them both.

SarcasticFairy · 17-06-2009 7:13pm

Wasn't really caught out anywhere, besides when I tried to pick a second stair question in Irish, but meh, I literally only learned two, so you can't win them all :P

D.R cowboy · 17-06-2009 7:17pm

errlloyd wrote: »

Was that on any of the mocks ?

Tbh just do them both.

you said humanist is that for the first q or the 2 man

Bat_Ami · 17-06-2009 7:21pm

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

Worked like a charm for English and geography......failed badly for history!

SO TRUE! History was disgraceful. Even the stuff that I predicted right came up in a weird way like Stalin's Show Trials and the Jarrow March! Don't have a clue what they were up to for early Irish either!

Ahhhhh if I don't think about it, it didn't happen lallalalalalla....

errlloyd wrote: »

Classical : Nailed it

Classical studies?! Really?! The Penopolesian War questions nearly killed me. I think I spent 5 mintues just staring at the questions and praying that if I read them again they would magically change. The rest was grand though, but that's down 25% already

Thank goodness it was the last exam or I would have cracked up!

phasers · 17-06-2009 7:25pm

Didn't work for History. No sir. We got pretty damn crazy essays this year actually.

OxfordComma · 17-06-2009 7:33pm

phasers wrote: »

Didn't work for History. No sir. We got pretty damn crazy essays this year actually.

Amen to that. I'm quite annoyed at the fact that they tried to screw us over this year in History. Like surely they're aware of the fact that it's not possible to cover the entire course in depth... They shouldn't be trying to catch students out. Like I was certain (as was everyone else in the country) that a question on the economic policies of C na nGael and Fianna Fail would come up...but only half of it came up, and it was only half a question! Thank god I'd learned those 13 chapters from the politics section... And and and, they more or less gave a question on the Jarrow March for the fifth time in a row (06-09 + sample paper)!! Like are they off their heads on acid or what??:mad:

Damien671 · 17-06-2009 7:37pm

Predictions worked fairly well for me English had it all predicted
But Irish p2 stair na gaeilge screwed me and construction was a bit odd but ok

ironictoaster · 17-06-2009 8:50pm

Didn't work for art...

SugoiHito · 17-06-2009 9:08pm

creggy wrote: »

Didn't work for art...

You mean art history?Yeah,its a big gamble cos the course is so big and some teacher choose not to cover most of it!I was so caught up studying for biology that i neglected my art history completly and just looked over la tene and Michaelangelo in the last half hour before exam and woooh they came up so it worked really well for me!Didnt predict the rest...just studied everything!

ALincoln · 17-06-2009 9:15pm

1fahy4 wrote: »

Amen to that. I'm quite annoyed at the fact that they tried to screw us over this year in History. Like surely they're aware of the fact that it's not possible to cover the entire course in depth... They shouldn't be trying to catch students out. Like I was certain (as was everyone else in the country) that a question on the economic policies of C na nGael and Fianna Fail would come up...but only half of it came up, and it was only half a question! Thank god I'd learned those 13 chapters from the politics section... And and and, they more or less gave a question on the Jarrow March for the fifth time in a row (06-09 + sample paper)!! Like are they off their heads on acid or what??:mad:

The people who devise the History exam are not trying to catch anybody out. They are trying to test your knowledge of the course, and therefore are completely within their rights to examine material that has appeared before on the paper.

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 9:30pm

ALincoln wrote: »

The people who devise the History exam are not trying to catch anybody out. They are trying to test your knowledge of the course, and therefore are completely within their rights to examine material that has appeared before on the paper.

Do you do history?

My History teacher is retiring this year, he's been teaching for 40 years. He says after the history paper most of the Dublin history teachers have a dinner and discuss it, apparently they were extremely annoyed, he says it will be marked quite nicely.

dermo1990 · 17-06-2009 9:33pm

Only predicted for english and irish. payed off in English paper 2, kinda worked in Irish paper 2 (hl)

OxfordComma · 17-06-2009 9:37pm

ALincoln wrote: »

The people who devise the History exam are not trying to catch anybody out. They are trying to test your knowledge of the course, and therefore are completely within their rights to examine material that has appeared before on the paper.

...Did you actually read what I wrote? I think asking a question on social and economic problems in Britain four years in a row IS trying to catch people out, but maybe you think differently? My point is that the History course is very, very long, much more so than any other subject. And I'm not writing as some kind of slacker that only crammed the night before, and hoped for the best. I worked at History for my entire LC year, and I still didn't have enough time to learn everything on the course. We don't have time to learn EVERYTHING, so I think it's reasonable to expect that the examiners won't try and catch us out by repeating topics several years in a row. Did you actually do History?

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 9:45pm

1fahy4 wrote: »

...Did you actually read what I wrote? I think asking a question on social and economic problems in Britain four years in a row IS trying to catch people out, but maybe you think differently? My point is that the History course is very, very long, much more so than any other subject. And I'm not writing as some kind of slacker that only crammed the night before, and hoped for the best. I worked at History for my entire LC year, and I still didn't have enough time to learn everything on the course. We don't have time to learn EVERYTHING, so I think it's reasonable to expect that the examiners won't try and catch us out by repeating topics several years in a row. Did you actually do History?

Its not as long or unpredictable as classical studies, but still very long.

Michaelrsh · 17-06-2009 9:46pm

1fahy4 wrote: »

...Did you actually read what I wrote? I think asking a question on social and economic problems in Britain four years in a row IS trying to catch people out, but maybe you think differently? My point is that the History course is very, very long, much more so than any other subject. And I'm not writing as some kind of slacker that only crammed the night before, and hoped for the best. I worked at History for my entire LC year, and I still didn't have enough time to learn everything on the course. We don't have time to learn EVERYTHING, so I think it's reasonable to expect that the examiners won't try and catch us out by repeating topics several years in a row. Did you actually do History?

I agree, history is far too broad, it should be shortened to two topics instead of four - maybe an essay or two per topic on the exam paper. Anyway, what can I say, there's nothing much we can do about it now that we're finished the exam, I hope the exam in marked nicely!!!

Fringe · 17-06-2009 9:50pm

Not chemistry... Didn't expect that but what came up was really easy.

Biology worked really well. I sure prepared that vagina.

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 9:52pm

Fringe wrote: »

I sure prepared that vagina.

What does preparations of a vagina involve? Some sort of tenderisation or lubrication, or do you mean more in the foreplay masturbation sense of the word?

Don't worry if this is 18+ we are all college students now (except ironically the RE students, and a couple musician and applied maths heads)

jefreywithonef · 17-06-2009 10:02pm

Got screwed over in History. Was going for an A2 in that subject but I'll be lucky to get any sort of a B.

Would have loved the first English Paper II (with deception) but the second EPII worked out not too bad either.

Irish went well apart from stair na gaeilge.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo · 17-06-2009 10:09pm

Worked for english and accounting and i suppose it saved me learnin a few proofs in maths.. Although the time i spent predicting could have been a bit better spent studying! Ha

tootyflutty · 17-06-2009 10:21pm

1fahy4 wrote: »

...Did you actually read what I wrote? I think asking a question on social and economic problems in Britain four years in a row IS trying to catch people out, but maybe you think differently?

It is not to catch you out, in fact quite the opposite, they feel that seeing as it has come up so many times it may have been answered better this time, but going on opinions from the paper it doesn't seem that way. As the daughter of an examiner I can tell you, that when questions are answered badly they are asked again and again. You are able to look up how well people do on certain questions and obviously this was answered badly for the past number of years.

ALincoln · 17-06-2009 10:28pm

1fahy4 wrote: »

...Did you actually read what I wrote? I think asking a question on social and economic problems in Britain four years in a row IS trying to catch people out, but maybe you think differently? My point is that the History course is very, very long, much more so than any other subject. And I'm not writing as some kind of slacker that only crammed the night before, and hoped for the best. I worked at History for my entire LC year, and I still didn't have enough time to learn everything on the course. We don't have time to learn EVERYTHING, so I think it's reasonable to expect that the examiners won't try and catch us out by repeating topics several years in a row. Did you actually do History?

I did do History, got an A1. I learnt past questions by doing exam papers - I didn't eliminate questions out of hand just because they had come up before.

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 10:35pm

You realise we are the 4th year of a syllabus? And therefore have barely any past questions.

And I remind you we have none for certain topics because of the way the course rotates?

ALincoln · 17-06-2009 10:43pm

errlloyd wrote: »

You realise we are the 4th year of a syllabus? And therefore have barely any past questions.

And I remind you we have none for certain topics because of the way the course rotates?

What are you talking about? It's quite simple - you do three substative topics and one topic for the documents question. These topics are selected from a set list, which contains cirricular content, which is generally contained in text books or notes distributed by teachers, which students generally learn if they want to pass. There is not much room for uncertainty TBH.

As for there only being a few years of past papers, I didn't quibble with this - the new syllabus is far more student friendly than the old one. I tackled the limited number of questions available (although remember each topics has 4 questions, so for example in Dict and Dem, there would be 16 questions rather than just 4 [or 3 as it was for me]. Some might not find this enough, but I clearly lacked that insatiable apetite). Sample papers (esp. Edco) also tended to mimic the real thing convincingly, so I also gave them a shot.

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 10:47pm

ALincoln wrote: »

What are you talking about? It's quite simple - you do three substative topics and one topic for the documents question. These topics are selected from a set list, which contains cirricular content, which is generally contained in text books or notes distributed by teachers, which students generally learn if they want to pass. There is not much room for uncertainty TBH.

As for there only being a few years of past papers, I didn't quibble with this - the new syllabus is far more student friendly than the old one. I tackled the limited number of questions available (although remember each topics has 4 questions, so for example in Dict and Dem, there would be 16 questions rather than just 4 [or 3 as it was for me]. Some might not find this enough, but I clearly lacked that insatiable apetite). Sample papers (esp. Edco) also tended to mimic the real thing convincingly, so I also gave them a shot.

Nice one, cause we are the 4th year, which means 3 years came before us. That means we had 3 or 12.

But then consider that most of us (me included) just bailed on democracy completely, I had about 4 past paper question.

Go onto the history past papers now, and tell me how that would have possibly benefited me. Apart from that one question that needs to stop repeating, nothing else repeated. And who gives a crap about the silly Jarrow crusade anyway, I care little enough about Irish economic history, its a small town in Newcastle. There was one benefit from the past papers and that was finding what not to study, not the other way round.

Congratz on your A1, I expect one too, but past papers wouldn't have got it for me.

Btw course rotation means we had no paper, bar yours for Later Irish history (I think)

ALincoln · 17-06-2009 10:58pm

errlloyd wrote: »

Nice one, cause we are the 4th year, which means 3 years came before us. That means we had 3 or 12.

But then consider that most of us (me included) just bailed on democracy completely, I had about 4 past paper question.

Go onto the history past papers now, and tell me how that would have possibly benefited me. Apart from that one question that needs to stop repeating, nothing else repeated. And who gives a crap about the silly Jarrow crusade anyway, I care little enough about Irish economic history, its a small town in Newcastle. There was one benefit from the past papers and that was finding what not to study, not the other way round.

Congratz on your A1, I expect one too, but past papers wouldn't have got it for me.

Btw course rotation means we had no paper, bar yours for Later Irish history (I think)

Yeah, that does introduce a bit of uncertainty for you. Imagine how it was for us.:) In cases like that, taking a look at older exam papers for guidelines (while remembering that it was an older syllabus) can provide pointers. You have to work with what's available. That was the topic with Parnell though, am I right? It is hard to imagine that he wouldn't come up in that section, so maybe it wasn't 100% uncertain after all.

It is unfortunate that British econ history came up, but then it does have a case study, and the welfare state/ Keynesianism etc is quite important.

Good luck with the result, hope you get your A1!

errlloyd · 17-06-2009 11:03pm

ALincoln wrote: »

Yeah, that does introduce a bit of uncertainty for you. Imagine how it was for us.:) In cases like that, taking a look at older exam papers for guidelines (while remembering that it was an older syllabus) can provide pointers. You have to work with what's available. That was the topic with Parnell though, am I right? It is hard to imagine that he wouldn't come up in that section, so maybe it wasn't 100% uncertain after all.

It is unfortunate that British econ history came up, but then it does have a case study, and the welfare state/ Keynesianism etc is quite important.

Parnell came up as a compare and contrast with Butt.

I'm not complaining about the paper really, I am one of these people who just reads everything, I have a pretty good memory and then I formulate my answers on the day. But I know a lot of essay memory people who would have blown me out of the water if their questions had come up, but they didn't.

I just think I got a bit lucky, like I knew quite a lot about Butt from being alert in class, I didn't study him.

Similarly someone who has trouble reacting to a question didn't have a hope in European history. "Dictators using propaganda and intimidation", I'm sure you agree Lincoln that is an absolute peach of a question, really really easy. But if you don't have a broad knowledge of the course you get screwed. Similarly if you did the reasonable thing and ruled out Russia because of its double wammy in 07-08 you're already on half marks.

The treaty negotiations question wasn't too sharp either tbh.

internetaddict · 18-06-2009 10:02am

For everything except history and Irish Paper 2 and I've yet to find out about music

Secoundrow · 18-06-2009 12:55pm

yep for most

ag science- spot on
biology- well im fuc*ked
construction- spot on
english spot on

Predictions!! Good or Bad???

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