anyone else feel out of their dept?

interpolian

Wasnt expecting the leaving to be soooo hard and time consuming, anyone else feeling like there up the stream without a paddle.
theres so much to do and i dont have a subject that i shine in and dont need to do as much study for :mad: im doing 3 ordinary and 4 highers but french and business are so hard but i cant afford to drop because i need a good few points for the course i want, im sure im one of thousands felling like this but
everyone around me seems so relaxed but im stressing bad right now
if anyone has any tips on effective study methods they'd be greatly appreciated!

geminilady

Maybe you could get grinds or something? or arrange help from one of ur friends. I seem to work better when im not stressed. Perhaps if you wrote down all your worries or something. I read that if you do that its suppose to help.

cson

Put thingsin perspective here for a minute, at this stage you should know your strengths and weaknesses and what your capable of attaining in the LC. Your CAO/whatever should reflect this.

You say you need high-ish points but you have to understand your limitations, work around them and come up with some sort of plan that allows you to maximise your points. In other words, concentrate on what you can do well in, even narrow it down to areas in subjects. Its about playing to your strengths, not improving your weaknesses at this stage.

And try to relax, play sport do whatever it is that you enjoy! There is time for it

Steve01

interpolian wrote:

Wasnt expecting the leaving to be soooo hard and time consuming

What exactly were you expecting?
Honestly I dont think its as bad as its cracked up to be. Put some consistent study in throughout the year and the workload is well managable. I'm doing 6 honours and 1 pass and luckily for the most part I enjoy the subjects.
Different study methods come into play for different subjects.
For instance I think the best way to do maths is to do question after question in the exam papers. Usually what I do is take a particular question at a time, like all the Paper 1 Q7s and do them out until I understand whats involved. Break your subjects down into managable chunks like that and you'll do fine.
For subjects which rely heavily on theory I recommend writing out an answer to a question and then looking back over it and seeing where you went wrong. Generally when you see what you've done wrong you won't make the same mistake twice.

Good luck with it.

interpolian

well obviously i knew it would be hard, but i brezzed through the junior cert and wasnt expecting it to be as detailed as many answers have to be, thanks alot for the advise on it. im gonna put it into practice because what im doing now just isnt working

JC 2K3

@OP

For you, how much time is "soooo time consuming"?
How many points do you actually need?
What subjects are you doing?
What does "studying" involve for you? I'd say you need a new method. You mention Business being hard. Now I don't do Business but from the impression I get from friends doing it it seems very easy and just involves learning stuff off. You probably just need to learn to make notes more effectively. Dunno how to study languages effectively myself, so can't help you with French I'm afraid.

Haven't a Clue

Woah, woah, woah. You reckon business is hard? And French?

Business is mostly common sense, you just have to learn a few laws, roles of certain people etc along the way.

I find french a doddle too and after 5 years of no work, and I mean nothing, I'm still expected to get a C by the teacher. Maybe even a B.

md99

Really what were you expecting?

Business can be difficult in that the course is very long... You could know one section perfectly and it may not even come up.. Though if you focus on certain sections it can be very beneficial! The three business subjects are, I must say, the three most easily predictable for what will come up...

Just try your best in French, it's the kind of subject some will cruise and others will find difficult to no end, lots of practice on listening and reading comp's (which you can easily get the solutions to) is advisable, they will be tough at first though.

Burning Eclipse

Haven't a Clue wrote:

Woah, woah, woah. You reckon business is hard? And French?

Business is mostly common sense, you just have to learn a few laws, roles of certain people etc along the way.

I find french a doddle too and after 5 years of no work, and I mean nothing, I'm still expected to get a C by the teacher. Maybe even a B.

Obviously the OP is worried about his/her LC and this is the response you come up with. I don't see how it helps at all.

I'd echo what cson said, and definately find time for your hobbies as not having fun will be a huge mental drain when studying. Good luck

Mushy

I only find myself out of my depth at Maths, mainly cos I can never remember stuff. I'm just gonna have to put in extra work at it anyway.

As for everything else, no point in stressing out too much. Getting plenty of work done, training three times a week. Maybe the Mocks might help people in showing what they need to do. All the harsh reality has been settling in now, but only 4 months and thats it, plenty of time.

md99

I think the pres/mocks are a fantastic motivator, both before (for those already working hard - they can focus on getting at least a certain grade, etc) and after (for those who haven't done a tap)

interpolian

Thanks alot, your advice is quite useful! good to see not everyone is letting the leaving take over their life like myself :eek: mocks next week so we'll see how they go. but suppose these exams arent the end of the world

md99

interpolian wrote:

well obviously i knew it would be hard, but i brezzed through the junior cert and wasnt expecting it to be as detailed as many answers have to be

Everyone goes through this at some stage... True, there is no comparison between the two exams. Many get A's in HL subjects for the JC and end up doing OL in the Leaving (like myself in maths).

The amount of detail and accuracy they look for, for one thing, is a major difference, also the questions are often asked differently than in the JC, for ex. different wording, and the size of the courses in general...

mateo

interpolian wrote:

Wasnt expecting the leaving to be soooo hard and time consuming, anyone else feeling like there up the stream without a paddle.
theres so much to do and i dont have a subject that i shine in and dont need to do as much study for :mad: im doing 3 ordinary and 4 highers but french and business are so hard but i cant afford to drop because i need a good few points for the course i want, im sure im one of thousands felling like this but
everyone around me seems so relaxed but im stressing bad right now
if anyone has any tips on effective study methods they'd be greatly appreciated!

I'm exactly the same. I feel like I'll never get anything done at this stage. I spend ages studying something only to discover it's a tiny part of what I need to study. :mad: I hate this so much. I get so frustrated. I am constantly unhappy with this piece of s*#t education system. :mad:

These f#*king mocks aren't helping either. How the hell are we meant to study everything for them?? URGH!

md99

mateo wrote:

I'm exactly the same. I feel like I'll never get anything done at this stage. I spend ages studying something only to discover it's a tiny part of what I need to study. :mad: I hate this so much. I get so frustrated. I am constantly unhappy with this piece of s*#t education system. :mad:

These f#*king mocks aren't helping either. How the hell are we meant to study everything for them?? URGH!

You're not meant to study everything for them... At least in most subjects.

What you need to do, if you feel you'll never get everything covered, is to get a great knowledge of those topics which come up the most frequently...

Very few students cover EVERYTHING in great detail.

JC 2K3

mateo wrote:

I'm exactly the same. I feel like I'll never get anything done at this stage. I spend ages studying something only to discover it's a tiny part of what I need to study. :mad: I hate this so much. I get so frustrated. I am constantly unhappy with this piece of s*#t education system. :mad:

These f#*king mocks aren't helping either. How the hell are we meant to study everything for them?? URGH!

You're disorganised and you have a bad attitude. Quit moaning. If you think the mocks aren't going to help then don't bother studying for them. However, I recommend you do as they serve as a practice in exam technique for the LC and this experience could be invaluable to you come June. And let's face it, if you had no mocks you wouldn't be studying right now would you? Better to realise you've nothing done now than in June.

Haven't a Clue

The time you start feeling sorry for yourself is the time yer bollixed. The mocks only provide a guide as to where you stand at this present moment. Like, you still have just under 4 months to study for the big one.

melekalikimaka

interpolian wrote:

anyone else feel out of their dept?

emmm english would be one to work on....i believe its spelt depth

ZorbaTehZ

emmm english would be one to work on....i believe its spelt depth

Such spelling skillz - omg.
You should be a teacher !

yurmothrintites

I don't feel alot of pressure, the way I think about the LC is that stressing gets you nowhere so what's the point. When I feel out of my depth I get a cup of tea and open a textbook and study for a while. It calms my nerves. If I do that everytime I get stressed I should be well on my way to passing the exams.

I know, I'm such an old woman with the cup of tea!:)

Corruptedmorals

I don't know yet- I'll see when I get my results. I need 510, so if I get I dunno, 430 or lower, I'll be very annoyed. I'm not stressing, not until I know how much more to do anyway..

Riveta

I feel absolutly out of my depth, i'm doing only pass maths, and everything is just piling up on top of me, i have mocks on monday morning. I'm screwed, history i'm goign to fail, chemistry i'm going to fail, irish i'm going to fail. I only need 365 for nursing, but i'm starting to feel i cant' get there you know? it's now 12.30 and i've done no study all day. I just can't motivate myself at all. Does organisng notes count?

Famous_Séamus

Riveta wrote:

Does organisng notes count?

The only thing that counts is when you learn something. So...no.

md99

yep... only way you're gonna get nursing is to give up your free time and actually learn..

JC 2K3

Riveta wrote:

I feel absolutly out of my depth, i'm doing only pass maths, and everything is just piling up on top of me, i have mocks on monday morning. I'm screwed, history i'm goign to fail, chemistry i'm going to fail, irish i'm going to fail.

Change your attitude.

You've been learning these subjects in school for one and a half years and you don't think you can manage over 40% in a test on any of them? Come on... All you have to do is focus a bit more.

Riveta wrote:

I only need 365 for nursing, but i'm starting to feel i cant' get there you know?

365 really isn't that much and is very attainable. Have you set goals for your subjects, ie. do you know what grade you want in each subject? Don't give up, just organise yourself and focus more.

Riveta wrote:

it's now 12.30 and i've done no study all day. I just can't motivate myself at all. Does organisng notes count?

Organising notes only counts if you're going to actually study them the next day. I've taken whole weekends off studying to organise myself before and it is necessary, but it's not studying.

Without being harsh, I really think you should ask yourself, "Am I out of my depth or am I just lazy?"

mateo

JC 2K3 wrote:

You're disorganised and you have a bad attitude. Quit moaning. If you think the mocks aren't going to help then don't bother studying for them. However, I recommend you do as they serve as a practice in exam technique for the LC and this experience could be invaluable to you come June. And let's face it, if you had no mocks you wouldn't be studying right now would you? Better to realise you've nothing done now than in June.

I can't help the attitude though. There's just far too much to learn. I don't understand why. I hate this education system. I really do. I hope it gets changed one day!

Anyway, enough of my ranting. No need to reply. Just ignore me. I'm a mess

md99

mateo wrote:

I can't help the attitude though. There's just far too much to learn. I don't understand why. I hate this education system. I really do. I hope it gets changed one day!

Anyway, enough of my ranting. No need to reply. Just ignore me. I'm a mess

lol many students go through what you're going through, but face it you'd have some problem with whatever system it was... no system is flawless. i think the LC is ridiculously biased towards the maths/science subjects (going by grade distribution) but I've got to get over it.... and that ain't easy either

seriously though there's never 'far too much', I mean the key to the LC is that while the course may be ridiculously big... you can often pull a 'big' grade by only learning very selective amounts well..

JC 2K3

mateo wrote:

I can't help the attitude though. There's just far too much to learn. I don't understand why. I hate this education system. I really do. I hope it gets changed one day!

Changed to what?

There's so much to learn because is a way to seperate people of different ability/work ethic.

What do you want? Less to learn? Easier tests? Sure then everyone would get As and the points system would be messed up.

It works as it is IMO.

md99 wrote:

i think the LC is ridiculously biased towards the maths/science subjects (going by grade distribution)

How do you mean biased? There's the same amount of points for maths or a science as anything else....

Naikon

JC 2K3 wrote:

How do you mean biased? There's the same amount of points for maths or a science as anything else....

It would be handy if subjects were weighted according to course choice.
More people I know pick Geography than Science subjects because they believe they will get a higher mark in them,whereas Science subjects would be more usefull if they are going on to do Science etc.

JC 2K3

^Indeed, but that's not the issue being discussed...

md99

JC 2K3 wrote:

How do you mean biased? There's the same amount of points for maths or a science as anything else....

There may be the same points, but with the sciences/maths subjects it's a hell of a lot easier to get them than with the business/etc subjects.....

Look at the grade distribution stats... for example, chemistry and physics are extremely high compared to the likes of Home Ec and Art..