Is it possible to jump 100 points and any advice on how to do so?

You will get a lot of posts saying of course you can, they are par for the course on this forum. Effectively looking at spoilers for the mocks means you cheated. Did it benefit you grade wise and points wise for the mocks? Assuming you could knock of 20 points off your 420 for boards spoilers, you will need to come up 120 points or so, that's 20 points in each subject at Higher Level. That means you need to come up 20% in each subject to go up 4 grades.

Do you think you can do that in every subject? Bringing your B2s to A1s and D3s to C2s?????? Nobody here knows your ability so they won't be able to tell you if you can do that or not.

525 is 3 A2s and 3B1s at Higher Level. Or 3A2s, 2B1s and a C3 in HL maths with the bonus points. 525 just doesn't come out of nowhere. Studying a bit and cramming the night before doesn't lead to a 525 score. You are lucky in that you can score 420 with very little work, but you need to get your head in your books and work consistently from now until June if you want to pull up those grades.

Roughosing wrote: »

woah okay, i see the cheater remarks and I must correct myself. I was only informed about Boards having insights to the paper the weekend after the bulk of exams. I had already completed Maths Paper 1, English Paper 1, Irish Paper1, Chemistry and German. I only had a quick look at the History paper and saw that Nazi Propaganda was coming up, for the rest I was in the dark. Although i hear what you're saying, I just would like my story to be heard before being branded so harshly. As for Chemistry, its always been my weakest subject, Class wise I've always gotten in the C/B region with general C's in the Christmas/Summer Tests, but with the added work I've been doing I was hoping for such a result as I do need it. Work is a definite there is no denying that, I am just asking have you seen been done before and if so, what advice other than the cookie cutter study 3-4 hours a night, could you give? the study is a necessity, I know, but is there any other advice?
At the moment, like you said, I am studying for the orals. I have my German on Monday and I am aiming for an A or high B considering the work I am putting in, But only time will tell.

The cheating comment wasn't meant to be harsh, just asking you to step back and have a realistic look at your results and consider how much looking at hints on boards may have bumped up your results, i.e. where do you stand grade wise without hints.


Regarding the bit highlighted above, there is no magic solution. It's a case of get the head down and do the work for the next 2 months. You are doing ok in English, History, German and Art by and large and you could probably improve those grades a little. Clearly Chemistry and Maths are currently your problem areas. As Irish is Ordinary level i assume you are not as worried about this as you have 6 higher level subjects.

Regarding maths and chemistry, pick a topic, work through all the questions in that topic. Mark yourself with marking schemes, you will see what type of questions are asked regularly and what kind of information is required.

I am a chemistry teacher so in terms of requirements for that paper.

in section A there are 3 experiments, you must do 2 of them and 6 questions from section B. You also have the option of doing all three experiments and doing 5 questions from section B instead.

Q1 is always a titration. There is always a part which asks about the procedure for making up solutions/filling pipettes/burettes. This is very straightforward. Usually worth 15 out of the 50 marks on offer for the question. There is typically a question on a colour change for the titration in the question. Go and learn your colour changes and suitable indicators. The final part of the question is mathematical and always asks for a mole calculation. Practice them they are very repetitive.

Q2 is always organic experiments. Typically no maths here but you need to know your procedures and name of chemicals used.

Q3. THe third experiment is anything that isn't covered by titrations or organic. Rates of reaction may turn up here this year.

Experiments that have turned up in Section A in the last 2 years are unlikely to be examined this year so it might help you to prioritise which ones to learn.


Section B

Q4 is always short questions from all over the course. Questions are straightforward, it's a popular question, but it depends on how well you know the course.

Q5 Periodic table, bonding, trends in the periodic table, electronegativity. No Maths involved, again practice past questions, it's very repetitive, a lot of information can be worked out from periodic table provided in log tables.

Q6 Thermochemistry and fuels, hess law. A handy enough question and the final part is usually calculating heat of combustion/reaction.

Q7 or 8 is always an organic question. Usually asks about identifying compounds, mechanisms, converting one compound to another.

Q 7 or 8/ 9/ 10/11

One of these questions will usually contain a full/half question on chemical equilibrium

Q10 and 11 are usually divided into 3 parts to do 2 so there is a choice within each question. Q11c is always on the option which is easy to learn off.

Go and practice different topics and do all the questions in those areas. Do the same with your maths.