Where to Start?

Timans

I'm really starting to get serious about this Leaving Cert malarky.

I did NOTHING last year, rarely even homework. I just don't know where to start this year. There is just so much to learn.

I do :

- Maths (H)
- Irish (H but 90% sure I'm dropping down tomorrow)
- English (H)
- Economics (H)
- History (H)
- Geography (H)
- Spanish (H)

I used to be very confident in Spanish because I had a fantastic teacher but she left the summer just gone and I am not confident any more. I was expecting an A2, but the rate I'm going now I'd be lucky to get a C :eek: We didn't have a book either, just lose pages in a folder, it doesn't help that I have found I have very little of those notes.

Economics and History I'm feeling alright about, lot's to learn but going for A's in them and I think it's feasable. Where to start though? It's hard to call.

Geography, ugh, my class isn't exactly peaceful with VERY LITTLE -> NO work getting done. I find Phys Geog annoying as well. I guess Geo is just learning though, not much understanding involved.

Irish I'm awful at, I COULD just learn EVERYTHING off by heart but that would mean taking a lot of time where I could be improving at subjects I feel I could do well at. At best, I'd only get a C in Irish. Am I right to drop down? Hard to call.

Maths I struggle at, totally due to a lack of work last year. I think that given revision I can do well, get my B2 or so, but a lot of work is needed.

English is hard to know, it's so subjective to mark by the looks of it. I have a good vocab etc but it's just answering the questions is my problem, I tend to stray away from the question in order to fill up the pages.

My main problem is that I am the most unorganized person you will meet. My notes consist of scrap pieces of paper and doodle ridden books. I'm drowning in a sea of pages. I'm actually starting to worry a lot about the LC even though it's so far away. Especially when I'm aiming for 500 odd points.

Thanks for listening to my ranting and raving.

PurpleFistMixer

You say your notes aren't great, so how about remake them/organise them?

I find the easiest thing to do is break everything down into segments. With some subjects (ie maths, physics) this is easy as you just take "chapter 1-3" or whatever as a segment. For stuff like Irish and languages, cut it up like "pass poetry, stories, honours poetry" etc... Then you just work on one segment at a time and it doesn't seem like too much.

And put your pages into folders. : p

JC 2K3

Pfft, folders, I used to just shove my loose pages into the textbook of that subject.

And I always used to use copies to write notes in. To this day I still can't fathom why most people make notes on loose A4 pages and keep them in plastic covers in big cumbersome folders.


Anyway, you ask where to start? Try AT THE START.

Just make a vague plan of what you hope to achieve in each subject by a certain time. At this time of year, make Christmas your deadline.

Can't really help you in Spanish, since the foreign language I did, French, was the subject I pretty much ignored.

For History, Economics, Geography and Maths, decide that you'll have a certain amount of chapters studied by your deadline. Make sure you have a method of studying that works for you. For rote learning stuff I used to just make out a load of short, messy(no one has to read them but yourself), quick notes on every chapter of a subject. Organising points with different coloured pens and numbers and letters is a good idea. For Maths just take it chapter by chapter and do a load of questions again and again.

For English, hopefully your teacher is giving you plenty of homework. Unless you're naturally very good at English, make sure you do all of this. If you're not getting homework, then do at least one exam question every week. Focus on one area of paper 2 at a time. For example, maybe study poetry for the next few weeks.

cson

A bit of advice for English: If you have the edco exam papers use those examit codes, the answers given are fairly good quality, esp. the poetry ones, and should give a good guideline of what an A1 answer is.

Mars Bar

Don't drop down in Irish if you think you are going to get a C, it's almost the same amount of points to get an A in pass...
You might surprise yourself yet...

yeah-boy

mars bar wrote: »

Don't drop down in Irish if you think you are going to get a C, it's almost the same amount of points to get an A in pass...
You might surprise yourself yet...

Yeah but the workload is different. OP probably feels he wont need it for points. Atleast thats the impression I got while reading his post.