5 months left until Leaving Cert. Tips for someone who hasn't done any study.

nowyertalking · 13-01-2015 09:00PM #1

Hello guys, basically have done absolutely nothing since 4th year, it ruined me really. Since primary school I have never sat down to do homework, I felt I had better things to be doing. I usually just speedwrite before my classes for my homework and wing tests. No motivation to study as the course I have wanted since 3rd year is 260 points which is in reach at the moment but pressure from parents/relatives want me to do better and get at least 415 which is slightly worrying.

I have decided to actually put my head down for the last 5 months and see how I get on, sure losing 5 months of a social life isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Seeing as I haven't studied properly before I need some help with starting me off and to set goals for June.

I'm usually an "open the book the night before" kind of person but I want to start studying properly now to take that stress off.

Any bit of advice will help,

Cheers.

Seanf999 · 13-01-2015 09:05PM

nowyertalking wrote: »

Hello guys, basically have done absolutely nothing since 4th year, it ruined me really. Since primary school I have never sat down to do homework, I felt I had better things to be doing. I usually just speedwrite before my classes for my homework and wing tests. No motivation to study as the course I have wanted since 3rd year is 260 points which is in reach at the moment but pressure from parents/relatives want me to do better and get at least 415 which is slightly worrying.

I have decided to actually put my head down for the last 5 months and see how I get on, sure losing 5 months of a social life isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Seeing as I haven't studied properly before I need some help with starting me off and to set goals for June.

I'm usually an "open the book the night before" kind of person but I want to start studying properly now to take that stress off.

Any bit of advice will help,

Cheers.

Honestly, all you can do is start..

is mise spartacus · 13-01-2015 09:10PM

Well done on deciding to do this now. Some won't start until Easter which in my honest opinion, is too late. Start small by doing 1 hour of study after your homework, gradually increase this by half an hour every 2 weeks. You'll soon get used to it. Best of luck

You can do it

king_of_inismac · 13-01-2015 09:13PM

Put together a study plan for each subject with input from your teachers. A good plan will help you focus, give you an idea for what's achievable and help you monitor your progress.

Fair play for putting the head down. You'll be thankful you did, and with 5 months, you have a bit of time.

Very best of luck!

emersyn · 13-01-2015 09:27PM

Exam papers are your best friends at this point - spend a day or two just going through the previous exam papers and marking which topics are common, and which ones haven't come up in a while and are due to come up. Base your study plans around those rather than studying random chapters. As the others said, put a bit of time into making an effective study plan and gradually increase your workload. Good luck

nowyertalking · 13-01-2015 11:15PM

king_of_inismac wrote: »

Put together a study plan for each subject with input from your teachers. A good plan will help you focus, give you an idea for what's achievable and help you monitor your progress.

Fair play for putting the head down. You'll be thankful you did, and with 5 months, you have a bit of time.

Very best of luck!

How much time should I give to each subject a night? What should I do for weekends?
Should write down relevant notes from the textbook and then do questions in the exam paper and workbook from those notes? Thanks for all the responses

Saipanne · 13-01-2015 11:20PM

Decide how many hours you do per day. How many days, per week. Break it all up into two hour blocks, spread over five months.

Divide your subjects into sub topics. Distribute these topics into your two hour blocks.

Take breaks between blocks. This is very important.

Stick to the plan. Good luck.

king_of_inismac · 14-01-2015 09:45AM

nowyertalking wrote: »

How much time should I give to each subject a night? What should I do for weekends?
Should write down relevant notes from the textbook and then do questions in the exam paper and workbook from those notes? Thanks for all the responses

What you'll get here on boards is general advice. What you need is subject specific advice.

All the details depend on your ability, work to date, your aims in terms of grades, etc.

My advice is to use the expert advice available to you (your teachers). They will give better advice than any of us can, since they know you. Meet your teachers this week.

The more effective study you do, the better your grades will be. They key word there is effective. You need to ensure you're studying the right material, and doing the best preparation for the exams. Again, use your teachers to determine what material to target in order to get the best grades.

spurious · 14-01-2015 11:36AM

As always, you need to find out what way you learn. Once you know that, and study in an appropriate way, you will make quick progress. Trying to study using an approach that does not suit your style of learning will be painful, slow and frustrating.

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/vak_quest.htm

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?obj_id=598

ChloClifford · 17-01-2015 12:42PM

Keep a folder for each subject and get organised and a study plan helps too

and don't overload your study timetable or you won't feel like doing anything

first step is wanting to study and do well so well done and good luck !!

if832uspx4eogt · 17-01-2015 08:56PM

spurious wrote: »

As always, you need to find out what way you learn. Once you know that, and study in an appropriate way, you will make quick progress. Trying to study using an approach that does not suit your style of learning will be painful, slow and frustrating.

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/a3_aspects/pages/vak_quest.htm

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?obj_id=598

In all of those it says I'm an auditory learner!
That's not good when I do most of my study after school with no music allowed!

spurious · 17-01-2015 09:52PM

Emma Cuddly Toadstool wrote: »

In all of those it says I'm an auditory learner!
That's not good when I do most of my study after school with no music allowed!

You could also tape yourself reading notes and play that while jogging/on the bus etc..

if832uspx4eogt · 17-01-2015 10:13PM

I will try that, I don't see how it would work.

emersyn · 17-01-2015 11:21PM

Emma Cuddly Toadstool wrote: »

I will try that, I don't see how it would work.

If you're an auditory learner you learn best from hearing information over and over again. If you record yourself reading information and listen to it in your spare time you will remember it a lot easier than other study methods such as writing out notes.

RedemptionZ · 17-01-2015 11:50PM

I don't know what your aims are (you say 260 but is that because you see that as a lot more doable or you genuinely want to do that course? Only you can know that at the end if the day) or how gifted you are academically, but if I were you and had done no study I would be realistically aiming for 3 results in the D1-C2 range and 3 in the C1-B2 range. That's 360-450 points, a very solid leaving IMO. That's assuming you do 6 honours, if it's there's a few ordinary levels in there simply up the grades you're aiming for in those subjects or have lower expectations.

Solid work put in now till the end and you could very well be looking at a 400+ leaving cert which a lot of people who study regularly for 2 years will be getting. You have to be smart about how you go about it now though, time isn't on your side. Find out what questions always come up in your exams by going through exams papers and make sure you have an A1 answer for all of them. Then look for the questions that come up fairly regularly etc. all the way down to the questions that have only come up once. The more frequent the question the better your answer should be. Obviously in an ideal world all your answers would be 100% but this is reality and time is too finite to learn everything on the course curriculum and you've got to play the game as best you can and learn the info based on importance.

5 months left until Leaving Cert. Tips for someone who hasn't done any study.

Comments