My school woes.

roast

Right.Heres a short few paragraphs about my life at school.
1st year-little snobby know-it-all. Aced every test.
2nd year-Mother dies, start going downhill at school.
3rd year.Take up smoking, lose all interest, dont study for the JC, come out with all honors.
5th year. Didnt do a tap.
6th year.Suspended 3 times, still didnt do a tap until now.

Now I have 2 days before the leaving cert. Its finally kicking in how much I want to go to college.
My first exams are english, and I'm not joking when I say...I HAVENT DONE ANY STUDY!

I did fairly well in my music practical, and got a definite 139/150 for my construction studies project (a guitar).But now the real exams are on, and i dont know what to do.

Someone, please help.
Michael.

Spank

Repeating not an option?

Smellyirishman

You'd be surprised how much you can learn in the days before an exam. Do the work before the exams, see what it gets you. If it's not enough, repeat.

roast

Definitly cant repeat. Long story, but id rather not get into it. I know im only 17, and taking a year out/repeating before going to college would ruin the plans I have.

Anyway, I think i'm pretty much sorted for english paper 2, as I was always good at writing stories and stuff, but is it really possible for me to get the 365 points I need at this late stage?
Cheers for all the replys so far.

sunflowerz

Of course its possible....u sound like on of those people who can make stuff up on the spot which im planning to do for art, english geography, french and irish! im only studying 4 maths cuz its honours and music cuz i have a week of no exams before it. if u really want it you can do it. what subjects and levels are u doing?

mp3guy

roast wrote:

Anyway, I think i'm pretty much sorted for english paper 2, as I was always good at writing stories and stuff

*cough* I think that's paper 1 you're talking about there

justbringit89

write stuff on your legs if it helps?? now i no smartass's be b sayin '' cant write an essay onur leg'' but u can write fourmulas etc etc

Spank

Yeah those points are possible I'd say. For english poetry I'd say just learn the 2 females, you've gotta just take a chance this late.

If you have big gaps in between some exams then you're away. Maybe consider doing ordinary level in some subjects aswell with alot of info e.g. if you're doing history or biology. good luck!

dancingpixie

Yeah im in pretty much the exact same situation... Basically I've been doing pretty much no work over the past 6 years but still getting pretty good marks, never really felt motivated to study since i had no idea what i wanted to do after school. Then a few days ago i finally decided on a college course i wanted and began to realise that I actually really did want to get this course, only problem being that its 515 points. Basically, at this stage, Im relying on predicting what's going to come up and desperately cramming over the next few days.

For Irish, have an essay prepared, its a pretty big part of the exam and if you learn it properly you can use the vocab from it for your pros and filiocht answer. Im going to learn one on death on the roads, maybe something to do with politics/voting, and something to do with crime and social problems. Dont bother trying to learn off a whole three-page essay, its much easier to learn little paragraphs of perfect irish with relevant vocab. Go here for some good phrases. When you're doing the comprehensions, underline any good phrases that could be applied to the subject of the aiste, then use them as much as possible, since you know that they are going to have perfect grammar and everything. For filiocht, just learn off the poetry terms, like alliteration, metaphor, contrast, atmosphere and stuff like that. You're given the poems on the page anyway so once you know how to speak about them you can just wing it. Stair is hard, you dont really have a choice except to learn it off, but some of it you might know already (like an gaeltacht, gaeilge mar teanga ceilteach, sort of general knowledge really.)

For english you should be ok for paper one, its basically down to how good you are at writing. Read a few newspaper opinion articles or short stories before you go in, get some good phrases or ways of desribing thing into your head and try and copy the style of articles that seem well written. Be careful about layout in your question B in the comprehension, you can lose a third of the marks for format and it would be annoying to lose that many marks over something stupid like putting the address in the wrong place on a letter. For paper two, read up on the character of lady macbeth and macbeth, and if you have time read about themes like kingship as well. If you're in any way good at english, you're far better off just reading about macbeth and then putting those ideas into your own words than learning off an essay word for word. Type Macbeth into google and see if there are any college level or serious academic essays written on it, chances are you will be able to get a few ideas from them that most students wont have in their essays. Sparknotes.com is good too. For poetry, Im learning Plath and Yeats and hoping for the best. Just make sure you know a few quotations, they are easy to learn if you just say them to yourself again and again and will get you the marks. Comparitive, apparently cultural context is tipped to come up this year. Just try and get as many comparisons, however tenuous, in as possible, and maybe try and pre-prepare an ending that makes you sound really deep-thinking and insightful!

Maths, if you know it you know it, if you dont you dont. If you're worried about it then id try and focus on a few broad topics (like algebra, differentiation and trigonometry) rather than trying to learn off everything in one go. Ok, so you wont get an A, but you wont fail either.

I dont know what other subjects you're doing, but basically just read over your notes (or your book if you dont have notes) again and again. Use little study aids, like say you're trying to learn off a list of information, make a sentence with the first letter of each word you need to learn. Draw diagrams to represent information, like for example if you do biology then a diagram of the carbon cycle is easier to learn than just reading the information. If all else fails, write a few formulas or whatever on your leg - you probably wont use them but it might calm you down a bit before the exam if you know you have that to rely on. Drag in every bit of information you could possible know when you're answering something, and never leave a blank space, even if you think you dont know the answer.

Ok well this has been a ridiculously long post, anyway good luck with the exam and hope it all goes well!

Spank

lol now that's being helpful.

roast

Dancingpixie, thanks somuch!! that helped.

Subjects and level-wise, im doing:
English-Higher
Irish-Ordinary
Maths-Ordinary
French-Ordinary
Construction Studies-Higher
Geography-Higher
Music-Higher

Im hoping to do Music Technology in UL, its 365 points. What do I haveto get in my subjects to get this??

Much Thanks to all!!

Haven't a Clue

Right, your average there is about 60% per subject. That'd require C2s in yer higher subjects (I think) and A1's in your ordinary. Judging by your construction predictions though, I'd say you'd even need less.

roast

Oh im fcuked then.

OctavarIan

Yeah honestly OP, you can give it your best shot this time around, but you can't expect to walk out smiling having "not done a tap" in the two years.

StephenC_IRL

roast wrote:

Right.Heres a short few paragraphs about my life at school.
1st year-little snobby know-it-all. Aced every test.
2nd year-Mother dies, start going downhill at school.
3rd year.Take up smoking, lose all interest, dont study for the JC, come out with all honors.
5th year. Didnt do a tap.
6th year.Suspended 3 times, still didnt do a tap until now.

Now I have 2 days before the leaving cert. Its finally kicking in how much I want to go to college.
My first exams are english, and I'm not joking when I say...I HAVENT DONE ANY STUDY!

I did fairly well in my music practical, and got a definite 139/150 for my construction studies project (a guitar).But now the real exams are on, and i dont know what to do.

Someone, please help.
Michael.

aside from the mother and the smoking thing im the exact same way, didnt do a tap, but mehh

Agri_trust

OctavarIan wrote:

Yeah honestly OP, you can give it your best shot this time around, but you can't expect to walk out smiling having "not done a tap" in the two years.

Dont be scare mongering, I didnt do a tap in maths for two years and over the past two days ive thought myself enough to get a B, I failed it in the mocks.

One of my friends did nothing in English (honors) for two years no one bit of homework or anything got an A1 in the mocks, by studing for it two days before the exam.

I do lots of history the whole time but im only going to come with a C in it id say.

Just cram, its what im doing and I know loads of other people doing it aswell, and from looking from what ive done in the past im going to be getting B's on most of my honors papers and hopefully an A1 in art.

I dont care what you people think, the leaving cert isnt everything you know.

Naikon

^follow the advice above.
Give it your best shot, you have nothing to lose if you at least went to class throughout the year and listened.
Study is overated:P

OctavarIan

Agri_trust wrote:

I dont care what you people think, the leaving cert isnt everything you know.

That's good, because I don't care what YOU think either. :rolleyes: By doing nothing all year then cramming at the end you're limiting yourself in what you can achieve, you're handicapping yourself and you're playing a very risky game that a only supreme minority of people pull off.

DanOB

sunflowerz wrote:

Of course its possible....u sound like on of those people who can make stuff up on the spot which im planning to do for art, english geography, french and irish! im only studying 4 maths cuz its honours and music cuz i have a week of no exams before it. if u really want it you can do it. what subjects and levels are u doing?

you should also study your english because 'Cuz' isnt an actual word

Agri_trust

OctavarIan wrote:

That's good, because I don't care what YOU think either. :rolleyes: By doing nothing all year then cramming at the end you're limiting yourself in what you can achieve, you're handicapping yourself and you're playing a very risky game that a only supreme minority of people pull off.

Oh I will pull it off.

Haven't a Clue

Agri_trust wrote:

Oh I will pull it off.

There's my childish laugh of the day done. Thanks.