How much studying should I be doing?

Bigdeadlydave

Guys, everyone keeps giving me the "its a big year, work hard" speech now that im in 6th year. However I am finding it real hard to motivate and get any study done, partly because I am not too sure how much I should be doing. Any advice would be very muh appreciated. Heres the subjects im taking:

Geography HL
Irish HL(prob weakest subject)
History HL
Classical Studies HL
English HL
Maths OL
Economics HL

Be nice guys.... Im new

jumpguy

Study is not about how much time you spend at it, it's how much you revise while at it. I think it's a quality of quantity thing. I hear of people studying into the late hours of the night (past 10:30 maybe) and doing 6 hours one night here and 5 hours there. It's bull****. How can one study well at midnight? You'd be far too tired, absorbing nothing.

You should plan your objectives for study, for example "I'm going to do chapter/section x, y and z tonight" and so on. You don't have to get everything done in one night and I know it can get overwhelming when there's a lot on your plate, and you literally don't know where to start. Then, I'd start with my favourite by default, and keep moving through them.
Study is at the end of the day sitting down and learning your stuff and there's no real tips to make it any easier, all you can do is make it as productive as yourself. For motivation, have a look at what you want to do in life. Then think, are you going to get it by sitting on your arse watching TV all night? No. It's gonna benefit you for the rest of your life if you get [insert whatever you want here]. Imagine the benefits, if you're going to uni/college imagine the excitement, the feeling of achievement of getting the results you wanted.

Bigdeadlydave

Yeah loadsa my friends say they are studying lots, but I'm always burned out after my written homework (about 2 hours worth)

unknown13

The way I way motivate myself is I imagine where I want to be this time next year.

Depending on the points you want is the time you need to spend studying, if you are doing an hour a day and you need to get 550 the chances of you get the course are very slim

AfterDusk

Not that I'm encouraging it, but I didn't study tbqh. I crammed in the last two weeks!! I got 410, but I know if I had studied I would have done much better, and been more satisfied with mysef. It depends on what you want as well. But I just burned myself out waaay too early, and that was my problem.

Also at college level, the LC is basically p*ssed on. I don't know how many times I've heard "forget what you did in the Leaving Cert". That goes for study techniques, course material (so some of what you learn is not quite right), essay writing, etc....

NothingMan

Personally I was never a studier, I didn't do badly in the leaving cert and I barely picked up a book. Saying that I didn't do great either, but I wasn't looking to do a high points course. I got into a media course on the billionth round.

I did come out of my shell a lot in 5th and 6th year though. Remember you're at an age where you're old enough to party properly. That's a way more important part of life than academics.

elmoslattery

depends how many points you want to get and how productive you are when studying.

After HW i do around 2hrs study on a weekday and 4hrs on sat/sun.thats wat i plan on doin until about 2 weeks before the exam when ull do alot more.I want to get around 360-400 points.

p1akuw47h5r3it

Do as much as u can.

sherdydan

just got me results this august. i got 275 points, way more than i needed by doing

1)no i repeat NO study
2) going to school around 11 each day
3)cut out around 2
4)not going in at all at least 1 day a week

and with that i still managed to get my 275 points and 3 A's (they were at ordinary, but still)

anyways, no matter how bad ya might do, there are always other opportunities open to ya. i suppose if you were to study, the best way is to simply go over what you have done in school that day, and keep going until you can quite easily remember it all? i dunno

Shane101

Ye do as much as you can but don't burn yourself out and leave plenty of time for socializing(goin out on the weekends etc).

thomond2006

Three words: Do Your Homework.

Follow this as best you can, you will be up to date.

Make sure any study (outside of homework) you do is constructive, find a method of retaining information that works for you e.g writing out notes, mind maps etc. "Reading" is useless imo.

Make sure you make time to relax and chill out too. Finding a balance is key to success.

Whatever you do, don't burn yourself into the ground. There is life after the LC you know.

swatch

I'm aiming for about 520 points...I do 2 hours of hw and then 2 hours study every night....should I up this a bit or is that enough?

NightOwl91

Hey! so, im aiming for 500 - 520 pts.....
Id love to get A1's at higher level (lol like the rest of Ireland)
But Im worried! My homework takes up most of my time and then Im knackered after!
I made a study plan for 2hrs of homework and 3 hrs of study on wkday and 5hrs of study on saturday and 5hrs on sunday but its hard to stick to it....any tips ? share peeps and swats alike!! x

laura93

NightOwl91 wrote: »

Hey! so, im aiming for 500 - 520 pts.....
Id love to get A1's at higher level (lol like the rest of Ireland)
But Im worried! My homework takes up most of my time and then Im knackered after!
I made a study plan for 2hrs of homework and 3 hrs of study on wkday and 5hrs of study on saturday and 5hrs on sunday but its hard to stick to it....any tips ? share peeps and swats alike!! x

I'm in the same situation. The teachers say that we should be doing homework, revision and a sport or something. But by the time I get my homework done, I'm too tired/annoyed to study.
I've made a study plan though, and I plan on studying 2 subjects a day for 30-45 mins each. It's not much, but I think it's better than trying to study for 5 hours!

NothingMan

NightOwl91 wrote: »

Hey! so, im aiming for 500 - 520 pts.....
Id love to get A1's at higher level (lol like the rest of Ireland)
But Im worried! My homework takes up most of my time and then Im knackered after!
I made a study plan for 2hrs of homework and 3 hrs of study on wkday and 5hrs of study on saturday and 5hrs on sunday but its hard to stick to it....any tips ? share peeps and swats alike!! x

Sounds horrible. If you let your social life slip and you get stressed over studying without a way to relax you'll only end up burning yourself out.

stainluss

Bigdeadlydave wrote: »

Guys, everyone keeps giving me the "its a big year, work hard" speech now that im in 6th year. However I am finding it real hard to motivate and get any study done, partly because I am not too sure how much I should be doing. Any advice would be very muh appreciated. Heres the subjects im taking:

Geography HL
Irish HL(prob weakest subject)
History HL
Classical Studies HL
English HL
Maths OL
Economics HL

Be nice guys.... Im new

The best way to motivate yourself is to know what course youre doing and how many points those course(s) require.
If you want it enough you'll stick the head in the books;)

arlenemcgrath

wel i find it very hard 2 get any time 2 study with da amount of homework im gettin
last week i spent 5 hours at it:mad:
im aiming for around 550 but im already thinking i wont get it
im doin honours n 8 subjets and im really feelin the pressure specially since some of my teachers are no help at all
any advice

zoom!

arlenemcgrath wrote: »

wel i find it very hard 2 get any time 2 study with da amount of homework im gettin
last week i spent 5 hours at it:mad:
im aiming for around 550 but im already thinking i wont get it
im doin honours n 8 subjets and im really feelin the pressure specially since some of my teachers are no help at all
any advice

That's pretty mucht the same as me... I get home from school at around 5-7 depending on the day and I'm just so tired from school and then after my bucketload of useless homework I just can't study. If it were up to me I'd rather just get tested everyday rather than do some comprehension questions like a zombie. I think the best thing to do for now is to try and keep up to date with what your doing in class. When mid term comes around start revising for the mocks and if you do enough over the mid term, you should have a good sense of what ur revision times shud be.

merryhappy

Ok lads I think deep breaths are needed all round, if you get yourself all wound up at this stage of the game you will struggle to make it to the finish line.

I was in your shoes this time last year, I knew exactly what i wanted to do, knew exactly how to get there but had major doubts as to whether I would get there or not as it happens I did:)

Anyway, getting back to the nitty gritty.. I would say at this stage 3-4 hours a night is plenty for homework and study. Remember that your homework isn't just some pointless chore that has to be done every night, every piece of homework you do will contribute to your final grade no matter how trivial it seems at the time.

I did 8 subjects, 7 hons and pass maths. The way I spread it out was that I studied a different subject everyday even if I only had 10 minutes to devote to it. Then at the weekends I would do any spill-over form during the week, ended up doing mainly biology because the course is so big.

As I siad before it's early days and you really can't afford to be getting stressed. You will find that stress can often lead to illness and that in turn leads to time off school.

Also please don't spend your mid-term break studying do 3-4 hours a day and have 1 or 2 days off and enjoy yourself, you need it!

Good luck!