leaving cert study

kenneth1512001

hi everyone..just wondering as im a sixth year now does anybody who recently finished the l.c have any effective study tips...im talkin bout the people who got extremely high points- how did they do it..how much study per night etc was done....THANKS!!!...

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I was told by a Career Guidance Teacher to start doing one past leaving cert question in every suject every week or so. Most teachers will then correct these for you, and it's pretty much guaranteed to bring your grade up, because chances are it'll be the same questions coming up again come June.

abercrombie

kenneth1512001 wrote:

hi everyone..just wondering as im a sixth year now does anybody who recently finished the l.c have any effective study tips...im talkin bout the people who got extremely high points- how did they do it..how much study per night etc was done....THANKS!!!...

Hey Kenneth!

Make out your own notes on the stuff you do in class that night and go over them then!

Like sean said, do exam questions. It doesn't have to be every night, but as they say, practise makes perfect. It's all about exam technique. In some subjects you have to be very specific, like chemistry, and you need to correct language.

You'll hear people telling you not to start studying until after Christmas/Easter etc. What I did was I went over what was done in class every night and did my homework! I didn't do anything on the weekend up until about February.

Don't stress over it or believe people when they say "I did nothing last night".

You should have a plan of what you want to cover in a week too. That worked well for me

But most importantly, GO OUT AND HAVE FUN!! GO to all the 18ths, GO to all the parties, and GO out at least every 2nd weekend!! Btw I got 8 A1s! 6th year is one of the best years of your life believe it or not! You'll have a ball

fearcruach

I think the most important thing is to start early. I never made notes. I just read the textbooks over and over and did exam questions as well. I got 580. I started at the start of year, doing 20 mins every night. As the leaving cert approached I was doing 3 hours a night. Definately have fun. Don't get stressed and don't think you have to do massive amounts of study to do well. If your friends say things like; "I do five hours a night.", they are probably lying and won't get fantastic results. Just do your own thing and you'll be fine.

Aero787

I'm looking to get at least 500 without too much effort, although I probably won't work hard enough for 600 because I've a lot (I really mean a lot!) of interests outside of school. Music and sport take up loads of my time, not to mention the aviation world. I barely have time to socialise. Anyway, all the courses I want are below 440. So, the pressure is sort of off in my case.

I'll be going to a study seminar on Friday so I'll let ye know what it's about. Basically I just wanted to avoid double Irish and French. I'm only studying at weekends because I have no time at all during the week. I'm doing one exam question for maths per week, and study one chapter of physics, chemistry. For physics and chemistry, I think it's important to simply grasp the concepts rather than learning by rote. This is also useful for college I've heard. For accounting I'm just looking over questions, it's quick and easy. I plan on leaving French, Irish and English until after midterm and then I'll focus on them. The LC is all study, no doubt about that. I had a chaotic time last year (5th yr) from Feb to June, so I'm paying for it now. Essentially I did nothing for that time so I'm going over the stuff I didn't do (quite a lot). Way too much to do outside of school. That's me anyway.

Don't listen to everyone talking about study, do it your way.

Once you get the course you want in college (if you go to college that is) your LC will be irrelevant when you graduate. People will care more about you getting a 1st or 2:1 etc. than if you got 600 or 400. LC and 3rd level are very different. Definitely agreeing with abercrombie with the "go out and have fun", but that's if I can even find the time!

The LC is all study. If you need to get high points for your course, you'll need to work hard.

My €0.02 (I rambled on for quite a bit there, apologies for boring the a**e off ye)

Tingo

Aero787 wrote:

Don't listen to everyone talking about study, do it your way.

Totally agree. Well meaning teachers have tried to give us helpful study tips, and I'm just thinking, 'no thanks, I'm going to do it my way' because I've found the most effective way for me. In the end it's about what works for you.

Individual subjects require different study methods, and a gross-generalisation on how to study is not effective. French and Maths are extremely different. In French you might find talking to yourself in the mirror helps, but in maths you might think going over the exam papers works best.

The marking schemes are probably very helpful. Examinations.ie has a good few of the marking schemes, if you want to check them out.

Nehpets

So when to start studying?

cartman444

well i know some people who got about 500 points r so and they put in a lot of work in 5th year n 6th year,3 to 4 a nite

JackKelly

I also know people who got around 500, who did nothing in 5th year, and a moderate/normal amount of study in 6th year.

You can study till it comes out your ears, but if you're not taking it's a waste of time. Everyone is different. Some people only need an hour to cover what takes others day's. Know what the course entails, and take an honest step back and ask "do i know all of this", if not, cover it.

Orizio

Its pretty simple-do your homework every night and go over everything that you did during the day at night.You may(most can't) be able to cram everything in the month before the Leaving but why take such a risk,why put yourself under such pressure going into one of the most important exams in your life?You can spend an extra half an hour tonight studying OR you can spend 14 hours of every day for two sun filled months inside cramming pages upon pages of notes until you drive yourself insane.

Trust me,its a lot easier to do it NOW.

Kurtosis

What I found worked for me (but may not work for anyone else!) was coming up to Christmas and from then on trying to go to the library every Saturday morning for 2 or 3 hours to do some study. Then as it got closer, I scaled it up a bit.

Also, I would warn against staying up late studying. I never worked past 10pm, it seemed going anytime after that and anything I did would not stick. Oh, and btw, I got 6 A1's.

Best of luck to everyone.

JoseJones

Just do your homework...I never "studied" and I got 500...Homework usually took me around 1.5hrs a night

exiot

Its down to every different person, you know yourself how much you should study depending on how many points you need. I needed 350 to be on the safe side, so I did only a bit of study the whole year and got my course.

Be organised, label things, take regular breaks. Long hours of study are useless, you need to construct your study times in such a way that your actually learning what your reading and not just lazily looking at a page with loads of words and scribbles on it.

If your school has supervised study after school, do it. Its a social club, you get your homework and study done, you can go home and put your feet up.

Naikon

Exiot speaks the truth;)
DO AFTER SCHOOL STUDY!!!
It helped me ALOT in fifth Year.

westhammer

Hey, take it easy up until Christmas, just doing your hoemwork and maybe a little revision from 5th year. After that I studied for about 3-4 hours a night (inc. homework) and at weekends a good bit as well. Just make sure its not all learning off, and that you spent half the time on exam papers/marking schemes

Oh, and making out a timetable and sticking to it really helps. Ticking off sections/chapters as you get them done, makes you feel good about yourself and shows you're making progress. For nglish and Maths, practicing questions is the only way really, and making 1 really good question per poet is good. All worked for me and I got 575

:|

penguin88 wrote:

Also, I would warn against staying up late studying. I never worked past 10pm, it seemed going anytime after that and anything I did would not stick.
Best of luck to everyone.

yeah id agree with this, try and get a good nights sleep every night, you wont realise how important it is but it really is!

and do go out and have fun at the weekend! DONT do too much study, you'll burn yourself out!

Kurtosis

Oh and just one other bit of advice: Do not spend days trying to work out a timetable and some super complicated filing system or that. If it takes more than an hour or two, it's not worth doing it, it's wasting more study time than it will save!

Setun

Practice exam questions again and again and time yourself. For each essay make out a plan, and study the plans if you want. I'd say completely forget about studying from the book in most cases. Keep doing exam q's and you'll get the hang of the speed/quality/quantity mix.

@Aero787
I was up to my eyes in extra-curricular work last year, still played gigs some weekends, band practices, portfolio work etc. It's tough but if you can get into some kind of routine as far as study goes you'll be grand, eg. try to do a certain number of questions in whatever subjects each week.

Milktrolley

I'm in 5th year, so I'm speaking with mere weeks of LC experience, but anyhoo...

I've heard loads of people going on about how important it is to make out a weekly timetable and stick to it. For me, it's much easier to make out a new timetable each day. It only takes about two minutes. I work out how long I expect each subject to take, work out an order, throw in breaks and I'm done. I end up with something like:
5:00 Business
5:25 German
5:45 --
5:50 History... and so on.

If one subject goes over by say, five minutes, I add that on. It's working for me so far, try it if you want to.

MikeTyson

abercrombie wrote:

6th year is one of the best years of your life believe it or not! You'll have a ball

thats not true at all atleast not for me.. so happy im finished it.. college is the best year of your life i tink

Naikon

I agree, it hasent been "a ball" so far in the least.:cool: