How bad is the Junior Cert?

Apple Gal

Just wondering that for the jc do you need to know practicly every last detail in the book? Some of my teachers say it's only a minor little thing and then the others say that it's a massive thing and you need to be studying every second! I'm getting so scared thinking I won't have studied every detail in time but do I need to know every liitle detail?
I'm sorry if this thread sounds confusing but to be honest it's confusing me trying to put it into words!

Draupnir

Honestly, its many years since I did the leaving cert, 1998 I believe, but try not to get too worried about it. You will not need to no "every little detail". Instead concentrate on doing your normal study and do your past papers.

If you do some study and can answer the past paper questions, I promise that you will be fine.

Treat your Junior Cert as a good way to learn how to study and a way to practice for your Leaving Cert. I can assure you, by the time you do your Leaving, you wont remember your Junior Cert results.

The worst thing you can do is let yourself get worried and flustered by it, just keep doing homework, a bit of study and practice the past papers. You will be absolutely fine with that.

rugbug86

from what can remember, no. but i did my junior cert 5 years ago...
look at past papers and see if you can cut out any of the course, like in science you can probably pass without answering any long questions for chemistry... and if you're worried talk to your teachers and they *should* give you an honest answer...

4zn76tysfajdxp

The Junior Cert is like this:













Notice that void up there? I'll show you again:













See? The junior cert is piss-easy nothing. NOTHING!

The JC is easy enough, don't worry. Just make sure you can do past papers and you'll be grand

PurpleFistMixer

Nah, you don't need to know every little detail, so don't try learning them all.

Take history, for example. The essay-style question I got on number 5 (that's the specific topic, I think), was something about indians in america, or something. I could barely remember anything about that. What did I do? I made things up, based on little scraps of stuff I could remember, and just made it sound like I knew what I was talking about. (I got an A, btw)

You'll be surprised how much you can remember, even if it's not all completely accurate.

Like, for English, a friend of mine got through using only one quote in her Drama essay, and for my poetry essay, neither of the questions fit any of the poems I'd done so I had to make up like hell. Remember, for English, if you're doing obscure enough poems, chances are, the examiner wont be familiar with it, so if you can manipulate what quotes well enough (now, I'm not endorsing actually CHANGING them, just.. choose selectively ), and make up intelligent sounding arguments around them, you can get away with most things.

*MmmPie*

Nope, you don't need to know everything in great detail.

Make sure you look over the past papers so you know the usual questions that comes up, if you look carefully there's usually a pattern in the questions, and often you can almost predict what topics will come up, say History for example.

Lots of my friends walked into the English exam with only one or two quotes learned, but because they wrote lots and pretended they knew it, half of them managed to get As and Bs. Its really not all that difficult.

Another thing to do, is, get good at writing fast, so you can answer most of the questions even if there's a choice within the paper; it gives you a better chance of getting more marks, so read fast, think fast and write fast.:)

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Also AFAIK, the correctors can't take away marks in an English or Irish exam, if they haven't heard of the poeml you are answering a question on, so if you're really stuck, you could 'compose' your own with reams of quotes that just happen to fit the topic perfectly...

Aisling(",)

One of my teachers(who sacares the **** out of me) said to my class we should study for four or five hours every weekday and 7 or 8 hours each weekend day.She also said to quit extra-cirricular activities for this year.Do you think anyones doling that?

Some people are acting like the junior cert isthe biggest thing that will ever happen to them and then there are people who do nothing.Everyone who has it done that I know has said it is easy.

Btw:Is there anyway to make your self write quicker because i write slow and wont get the exam paper finished in time

skapunkkeith

i recomend skool.ie its what im using, its shows u what is meant to be known for the papers as there common go to the notes section it helps, and the past papers help to

Apple Gal

My hand writing kills me so much even doing a class test for 20 mins so I will be in agony over the two weeks!

PurpleFistMixer

Woah, 4 or 5 hours a day seems ridiculous. You already spend 6 hours in school!

As far as fast hand writing goes... hmm... I'd just say practise writing faster? I don't really know. I write pretty fast normally, it just gets tiring, so I end up writing loads in short bursts, then resting for a while, and back to writing.

Victor

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Take history, for example. The essay-style question I got on number 5 (that's the specific topic, I think), was something about indians in america, or something. I could barely remember anything about that. What did I do? I made things up, based on little scraps of stuff I could remember, and just made it sound like I knew what I was talking about. (I got an A, btw)

Well, be careful about making things up.

Put together a skeleton of of an answer, the core 33-50% of the marks. It probablt come from 20 keys words in a history answer and then flesh it out. For example:

Q. Comment on the effect of the Battle of Jutland on the outcome of WWI?

A. Royal Navy - Grand Fleet - German Navy - High Seas Fleet - Kaiser - overseas empires - arms race - naval build-up - Kiel Canal - Dreadnoughts - battleships - battlecruisers - destroyers - comparitive size of fleets - blockade - unrestricted submarine warfare - mines - torpedoes - technical superiority - numerical superiority.

Those few lines are the most important parts, knowing them means you can flesh it out into paragraphs. You needn't know the name of every ship (other than HMS Dreadnought) or the calibre of the guns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_jutland

Fyr.Fytr

Its fairly easy. Teacher created a big fuss about it but on my first day of fourth year they said "Forget the junior cert it isnt actually that important". I'm not the best for study but i did enough and only failed one subject and that was latin and did no study for it hated it since 1st year. Dont get too worried. Also mocks are alot harder than the real deal

PurpleFistMixer

Victor, nothing but the results of WW1 are on the JC syllabus. Your point is still valid, but, just not to be freaking out the students.

Victor

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Victor, nothing but the results of WW1 are on the JC syllabus. Your point is still valid, but, just not to be freaking out the students.

Back in my day .....

StJimmy

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Victor, nothing but the results of WW1 are on the JC syllabus. Your point is still valid, but, just not to be freaking out the students.

Phew! Was beginning to worry there.
But thanks for that tip, Victor.

Toasty

Apple Gal wrote:

Just wondering that for the jc do you need to know practicly every last detail in the book? Some of my teachers say it's only a minor little thing and then the others say that it's a massive thing and you need to be studying every second! I'm getting so scared thinking I won't have studied every detail in time but do I need to know every liitle detail?
I'm sorry if this thread sounds confusing but to be honest it's confusing me trying to put it into words!

dont worry the JC is alright.
just keep ur head down and study what ur teachers say is important and you'll be grand!
good luck with it neway!!
i'm doing my leaving this year. Yeah?:o

madbabe(",)

sean_keevey wrote:

Also AFAIK, the correctors can't take away marks in an English or Irish exam, if they haven't heard of the poeml you are answering a question on, so if you're really stuck, you could 'compose' your own with reams of quotes that just happen to fit the topic perfectly...

Only problem with this is there set poems for the course and the correctors have a list and a marking scheme! also they have big seminars to work out the marking schemes and they go over every possible answer at them. Trust me it will not work people try it every year!

Fyr.Fytr

Thats only for the leaving I think. My irish teacher who is a corrector aswell said they have to imagine no matter how stupid the poem is that its possible it could be a real poem. Anywho JC is behind me and was a bit of a joke. As said above keep your head down you'll be fine. First day is a killer your neveos proberably havnt slept well the night before and its 5 hours of english. Got a good tip from my english teacher stick a kit-kat in your pencil case and after you do your first batch of questions and stop to take a break have the kit-kat makes you feel better and it works

Faith

The JC is fine in the end, and it's really good preparation for the LC. I took german for the JC, hated it, NEVER opened a book, failed every class test, spent the night before the exam on the phone... and got a B in the exam.