Geography is impossible :(

Cokehead Mother

Has to be the most insanely boring mess of a subject ever. Any tips to help actually learn this crap and resist its monotonous nature?

TheVoodoo

Dont forget the field studies project worth 20%:rolleyes:

Its boring... But easy once you get into it.

Just look at it as, If you put the work in as you go along you'll do well.

I would consider it atleast an easy 80 points on the leaving. So totally worth it


The good thing is there is only so much they can ask on the exam itself!

Naikon

Switch.

people say its a great subject, piss easy yadda yadda yadda.
The reality is that far too many people like Biology students pick this subject, and as a result it is far more difficult to score well in relative to less popular subjects.

Basically, the format is far stricter in comparison to English/less rigid subjects.
The SRP bullet point stuff is a load of balls and dumbs the subject down too much to the point were you are waffling about random "facts" ect not utilizing all the information you learned during those two years of study(or very little of it).
I went from a B2(Higher) to to a C3(Higher) in the real deal including the field study which was disappointing.
In the end, this subject could quite possibly screw you over even if you are looking for a D3 or an A1.
Switch while you still have the chance(even if you are in 6th year).

Mars Bar

I don't know why everyone is always saying Geography is simple...did ye do last years paper?
I don't do geography myself but it was my friends best subject, she got an A2 in the mock and dropped to a D2 in the actual exam...be careful my friends...be very careful...

Naikon

mars bar wrote: »

she got an A2 in the mock and dropped to a D2 in the actual exam

:eek:

Mars Bar

Yup, she was raging...she got it re-checked and got 5 more points...didn't make much difference though...

Cost Boy!!

Geography isn't hard at all, i love the subject, you only have to learn the notes and essays and the exam is very straight forward.

Naikon

Cost Boy!! wrote: »

Geography isn't hard at all, i love the subject, you only have to learn the notes and essays and the exam is very straight forward.

I felt the exact same way until the day of the leaving cert results...

Cost Boy!!

Why? How did you do??

Mars Bar

Told ya so...

Naikon

I got a C3 this year in higher, down from a B2 in the mocks in higher.
Have you read the above posts?

Cost Boy!!

My friend didn't do much studying at all for her geog exam and she managed to get a B1 HL.

SRFC90

fackin hell! some of those stories are very scary indeed!!! hoping for a B1/B2 myself!!

oh and ive done last years paper as revision and it doesnt seem too hard!! so maybe the person who said there mate dropped to a D2, perhaps she choked on the day and mis-read key words in some of the questions!!?

nedward

Geography is simple, but very difficult. The simple bit is: Learn Off Every Page Of The Textbook/Notes, You Getz A1zzzzz. I think I mentioned the difficult part. For Geog, really really really apply yourself. Try and cut down the course using the syllabus and only learn what's really necessary; e.g. for the Human elective, only learn two of the three landuse models, as chances are Guess what? only two are likely to be asked, as three is a lot of information to get down in 12.5 minutes (scary how I remember) and describing 3 in detail will sorta screw around the marking scheme so the marks won't divide evenly.

Learn physical, agriculture and how physical processes affect agriculture in each of your regions. For Ireland and your Continental region, learn secondary industry. Don't bother your arse doing tertiary or human, more than likely it'll come up as the third question in the section that nobody does. Don't do the EU under ANY circumstances.

For Physical, learn two landforms of erosion and two of dep, river rejuvenation and isostasy and one of either volcanic activity or the rock cycle, in which case know human interaction and two landforms of erosion and dep. PS you should have case studies for the above as well.

For the option, I did Geoecology, easier than Human Interdependence, and DOMINATED biomes. Learn a few soil types to be on the safe side if youse want. The Human elective-just do it all, there's no skipping it, has to be done.

Go through exam papers, even the sample ones (Edco not the best, Folens' better) a lot, and keep on doing them

Mark200

To be honest, from looking at the past-papers it doesn't seem all that difficult.

But I guess there's a lot of room where they can easily put questions in that can throw you off.

Not looking forward to doing it for the LC, but oh well.

eoghan h

I think geography is one of the easiest subjects on the leaving cert!!

soo easy to bull**** your way through answers and most of it is common sense!

Blisterman

Geography was the most pointless and difficult subject in the Leaving Cert.
It wouldn't be too bad if you got a general overview of the subject. Instead you focus in great detail on completely esoteric and useless things, like the fishing industry in Norway, or surveying rivers.

How is that going to help anyone, bar the handful of people a year who end up working in these specialised areas?

sternn

The geography exam is quite managable, if you put the work in. I got a D3/D2 in the mocks (cant really remember) and an A1 in the LC (last year). This A1 came from me anly answering the 2 sample papers we had as study, and that was it really, no other extra study.

SRP's are actually very easy to get. From viewing my exam, the marker was very leanient with reguards to giving the SRP's. My worst section by far was my field report; i lost 8 marks in it. That was a toughly marked section.

If you remember what you did in Junior Cert on rivers etc.. that question should be the easiest.

The others are really based on facts and knowledge. You cant really bull-**** through them, you either know the stuff or you dont.

1huge1

Its different for some people it seems, I love geography and find it easy for example, its definetly going to be a point earner for me
Well the physical geography is ok but regional geography is where I shine.

Geography is the only subject were I write my own notes though as my geography teacher thinks she's shakespeare sometimes and its pointless.

Remember most of the time your looking for 15srp's and to be honest a lot of regional geography is general knowledge so if you have any interest in it you can waffle on about what you know already, and if your stuck make up a few facts here or there (within reason of course) and you'll get the marks.

Mars Bar

Think about it in an exam situation, everything becomes that little bit more difficult...

adamd164

Naikon wrote: »

Switch.

people say its a great subject, piss easy yadda yadda yadda.
The reality is that far too many people like Biology students pick this subject, and as a result it is far more difficult to score well in relative to less popular subjects.

Basically, the format is far stricter in comparison to English/less rigid subjects.
The SRP bullet point stuff is a load of balls and dumbs the subject down too much to the point were you are waffling about random "facts" ect not utilizing all the information you learned during those two years of study(or very little of it).
I went from a B2(Higher) to to a C3(Higher) in the real deal including the field study which was disappointing.
In the end, this subject could quite possibly screw you over even if you are looking for a D3 or an A1.
Switch while you still have the chance(even if you are in 6th year).

Well I didn't do a tap and got an A2.

JSK 252

Being only in 5th year and all I have learned a lot about the geography exam as my teacher is one of the chief advising examiners in country.

One of the biggest things that ****ed up a lot of students in this years exam was the fact that the overall cohesion mark was abolished at this years correcting conference. The main reason for this was in the first year of the new syllabus 2006, where overall cohesion marks were graded from a scale of 0-6, teachers were only giving students a minimum of 2 to 3 marks for overall cohesion when actual fact that answers which some students were producing were either very good or excellent and did not deserve to be marked so badly. So they decided to get rid of this system and mark totally on SRP's which caused problems as many students/ teachers who believed that overall cohesion still existed were surprised to find that the maximum score that students got in questions was 24/30 due to the absence of the overall cohesion system.

The next thing which is debatable is what is considered a SRP. To one person it could be a word and to another it could be a sentence. To an extent it is subjective marking.

On the brighter side of things, well for me anyway! in 2009, is practically all the questions which can be asked in the exam will be repeated indefinetly as the lifespan of questions was supposed to last at 4 or 5 years but it looks like in 2008 that there will be a lot of repitition.

The books in my opinion for the subject are rubbish. They have way too much information than is required in the exam and it has gotten to the point where my teacher gives us notes ( the notes are legendary! ) and we dont even read from the book but only for reference.