5th Years!! (2010-2011)

Nicole.

I study abit yes, when it's during the school term and there's a lot of work to be done. At least 2 hours including homework per school night and then if I'm stuck on stuff I'll spend a little longer and for tests. I'll do a little at weekends too but not overly, has been going fine so far.

I am studying for next year too because I know I didn't study from 1st to half of 3rd year and had so much cramming to do it was a nightmare, won't let that happen this time around.

I won't get my Christmas results until the 10th of Jan which is kind of annoying, it's making me a tad nervous xD

As a matter of interest does anyone know once you've applied for an exemption from certain things in the Leaving Cert when do you find out whether you will get those exemptions or not? (Only reply to that if you KNOW the answer, thanks xD)

alleystar

I’m only in fifth year and I’m already sick of hearing about the Leaving Cert. I think it should be done away with, people are becoming obsessed with the points they get and are aiming for courses that have the highest points and are in the best universities. I don’t mind those who actually have wanted to do the course for ages, they deserve to get the points and to do that course, I’m just sick of those fakers who do these courses for show, even though it may not be what they really want to do at heart.
I’ve even noticed it in my own school, asking people what they want to do and they come out with Medicine and courses in Trinity- even though their talents might lye somewhere else. Not only are these fools putting people's future well being in their hands but they’re also fooling themselves.
The Leaving Cert brings out the ugliest qualities in people. They become obsessed with points, and competitive towards their peers, not to mention becoming totally overworked.
At the end of the day, if you’re really good at something and determined to get there, you will. The people who got the 600 points in the Leaving might not even get as far. After all the only life experience you can get form the leaving is how unfair life can be and how selfish people really are..

IveSeenFire

I think that's a bit of an overstatement above. It's not the systems fault that people have an elitist mentality. Like if people are going somewhere for the show that's their problem, not the systems. I think the LC is awesome. It rewards those who work hard and not those who don't. It's a complete level playing field- everyone has an equal opportunity and there's no sort of "who you know" involved in the LC and cao- you're just a number- no bias. Like in the UK and US I know a serious amount of namedropping goes on and money is a big issue. So yeah...

PictureFrame

alleystar wrote: »

I’m only in fifth year and I’m already sick of hearing about the Leaving Cert. I think it should be done away with, people are becoming obsessed with the points they get and are aiming for courses that have the highest points and are in the best universities. I don’t mind those who actually have wanted to do the course for ages, they deserve to get the points and to do that course, I’m just sick of those fakers who do these courses for show, even though it may not be what they really want to do at heart.
I’ve even noticed it in my own school, asking people what they want to do and they come out with Medicine and courses in Trinity- even though their talents might lye somewhere else. Not only are these fools putting people's future well being in their hands but they’re also fooling themselves.
The Leaving Cert brings out the ugliest qualities in people. They become obsessed with points, and competitive towards their peers, not to mention becoming totally overworked.
At the end of the day, if you’re really good at something and determined to get there, you will. The people who got the 600 points in the Leaving might not even get as far. After all the only life experience you can get form the leaving is how unfair life can be and how selfish people really are..

Do you mind me asking what do you want to do in college?. Not being smart or anything but everyone just wants to do their best. People may now say they want to do Medicine or as you put it "Go to Trinity" but I can guarantee you the majority of people will have changed their mind by the time their Leaving Cert. comes around.

I'm considering around 7 courses at this present time the lowest points wise is Commerce & French in NUIG which I think is around 470. My highest is Geography & Economics in TCD which is 475. Don't worry about what everyone else wants, just consider what you want to do in college and how you are going to achieve it..

alleystar

IveSeenFire wrote: »

I think that's a bit of an overstatement above. It's not the systems fault that people have an elitist mentality. Like if people are going somewhere for the show that's their problem, not the systems. I think the LC is awesome. It rewards those who work hard and not those who don't. It's a complete level playing field- everyone has an equal opportunity and there's no sort of "who you know" involved in the LC and cao- you're just a number- no bias. Like in the UK and US I know a serious amount of namedropping goes on and money is a big issue. So yeah...

Firstly I'm not going to question my own opinion on the topic, that's what I've witnessed over the past few years. I dunno about you... you obviously haven't.

Secondly I'm suprised at the statement you've made above. How on earth can the L.C be "a complete level playing field"? What if a person is landed with a crap teacher? What if they can't afford grinds whilst others in the class can? How is that fair? I can't see it myself.

FAO Pictureframe

I know what I want to do in college, I was just making a general statement of what I've seen in my school. And I've hardly ever noticed people who aim for the 600 changing their course before they get the leaving. I've only ever seen them drop out two months in to it, when they realise they've made a huge mistake.

PictureFrame

Ok I don't really care to be honest. One question, what does "FAO" mean? :L

alleystar

PictureFrame wrote: »

Ok I don't really care to be honest. One question, what does "FAO" mean? :L

For the attention of.

padocon

Contentious assessment for the leaving!

IveSeenFire

alleystar wrote: »

Firstly I'm not going to question my own opinion on the topic, that's what I've witnessed over the past few years. I dunno about you... you obviously haven't.

Secondly I'm suprised at the statement you've made above. How on earth can the L.C be "a complete level playing field"? What if a person is landed with a crap teacher? What if they can't afford grinds whilst others in the class can? How is that fair? I can't see it myself.

FAO Pictureframe

I know what I want to do in college, I was just making a general statement of what I've seen in my school. And I've hardly ever noticed people who aim for the 600 changing their course before they get the leaving. I've only ever seen them drop out two months in to it, when they realise they've made a huge mistake.

No ive encountered exactly what you're talking about, I just don't care.
The LC doesn't measure how good you're teacher was but rather how hard you worked. Disregarding the teacher a student who works hard is rewarded under the current system no? and if it isn't fair what alternative do you propose? Grinds may give a perceived advantage but is there any actual evidence to that effect?

PictureFrame

padocon wrote: »

Contentious assessment for the leaving!

Could be very good in one way but could also be very hard. Imagine having 5 Leaving Certs, each one equally important as the previous one!.. Not for me i'm afraid, too much of a panicker! And you wouldn't be able to cram!:P

leaveiton

Do all/any of you have a book for maths, may I ask? There was one put on our booklist at the start of the year, but it was impossible to find in the shops. When I went back in September, the teachers that I have told us not to bother with a book, as they'd just be writing questions on the board for us to do in our copies. I personally hate this approach, though, so I was wondering what book(s) you guys use? A friend of mine said that at the start of the year, the book for Project Maths hadn't been printed, which is why we couldn't get it in the shop. Don't know how true this is, but if it is, is there a book currently available? Any help would be appreciated, thanks

alleystar

IveSeenFire wrote: »

No ive encountered exactly what you're talking about, I just don't care.
The LC doesn't measure how good you're teacher was but rather how hard you worked. Disregarding the teacher a student who works hard is rewarded under the current system no? and if it isn't fair what alternative do you propose? Grinds may give a perceived advantage but is there any actual evidence to that effect?

Well you can't really say that. Okay I'll admit for some subjetcs it may be easier due to the fact that you like the subject and are good at it for example English or History. But you're fecked if you have a bad Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Physics teacher etc. My sister had a terrible Biology teacher for the leaving and she nearly failed it along with most of her class. She worked really hard at Biology, she did her work every night - how was she rewarded? Because of that teacher she didn't get the course she wanted to do. The other Biology class had a brilliant teacher- the majority got brilliant results.

I'll be truthful and tell you I don't know what to propose. I suppose it's the luck of the draw what kind of teachers you get. I do think it's still unfair though that you have to suffer because of their unfit teaching capabilities. Maybe the state should get each and every teacher to sit some kind of test each year and get rid of those who they brand unfit to teach.

Yep I do believe grinds give some advantage. Some people who fail their pre's, get grinds - come out with better results due to both their hard work and the grinds, but the grinds made it alot easier along the way.

Ally7

We do continuous assessment in school instead of end of term exams and I quite like it. It does mean you have to be a consistent worker if you want good results but it can ease a lot of pressure at the same time.

leaveiton wrote: »

Do all/any of you have a book for maths, may I ask? There was one put on our booklist at the start of the year, but it was impossible to find in the shops. When I went back in September, the teachers that I have told us not to bother with a book, as they'd just be writing questions on the board for us to do in our copies. I personally hate this approach, though, so I was wondering what book(s) you guys use? A friend of mine said that at the start of the year, the book for Project Maths hadn't been printed, which is why we couldn't get it in the shop. Don't know how true this is, but if it is, is there a book currently available? Any help would be appreciated, thanks

We're using the book Active Maths atm, it's one of the books available for the Project Maths. For the strands of the coursr that haven't been changed, we use Discovering Maths 4. To be honest, I've never heard of a class not having a maths books at all, but maybe some schools just have a completely different approach to teaching.

PictureFrame

leaveiton wrote: »

Do all/any of you have a book for maths, may I ask? There was one put on our booklist at the start of the year, but it was impossible to find in the shops. When I went back in September, the teachers that I have told us not to bother with a book, as they'd just be writing questions on the board for us to do in our copies. I personally hate this approach, though, so I was wondering what book(s) you guys use? A friend of mine said that at the start of the year, the book for Project Maths hadn't been printed, which is why we couldn't get it in the shop. Don't know how true this is, but if it is, is there a book currently available? Any help would be appreciated, thanks

We have no book yet and we've covered all of Algebra, Complex Numbers, Co-ordinate Geometry, Arithmetic and started Area & Volume.. So we're pretty much fecked if they change the layout of the questions too much..

leaveiton

Ally7 wrote: »

We're using the book Active Maths atm, it's one of the books available for the Project Maths. For the strands of the coursr that haven't been changed, we use Discovering Maths 4. To be honest, I've never heard of a class not having a maths books at all, but maybe some schools just have a completely different approach to teaching.

Thanks Yeah, it's not so much that we have a different approach to teaching, I just have completely useless teachers :rolleyes: They're perfectly fine when it comes to covering material and teaching, but the rest is very questionable. I say "they" because I have 2. The 2nd one was brought in because the main one is terrible, she's constantly making mistakes which throw everyone off. He always has to intervene to correct her. The no book thing is awful, and the tests they give us are pretty bad too.

Anyway, sorry, small rant over Thanks for the reply, I'm going to look into purchasing a maths book for revision purposes, because it's one of my best and favourite subjects, and I'd hate to do badly in it just because of bad teaching methods.

Namlub

Yeah it's probably best to buy a book anyway, unless your notes are perfect. We had no book in fourth year so when it came to the summer tests I was studying off random bits of paper with the few bits of homework I'd done and without a book it's easy to forget sections. It didn't go well -.-

jackindebox94

hi guys.. any chance of any notes for honors Irish leaving cert 2012. Im pretty good orally and aurally but i have literally the worst teacher in the world so any helpful notes would be much appreciated. Sound

leaveiton

jackindebox94 wrote: »

hi guys.. any chance of any notes for honors Irish leaving cert 2012. Im pretty good orally and aurally but i have literally the worst teacher in the world so any helpful notes would be much appreciated. Sound

I'll just copy/paste something I said in another thread, might be useful here This is just my method of making notes, rather than actual notes themselves.

Basically, all my Irish teacher ever does for prose/poetry is translate the notes in the book into English, and we've to figure it out from there. After a fair amount of trial and error during the year with different study techniques, I eventually found one that I think really works for me. This is just me, though, so it might not work with others at all! But I used this for all the prose and poetry I had to learn for my Christmas exam, and got a pretty good mark in it.

First, I read through all the notes in the book, a lot of which I had translated above the text in Irish. Just to make sure I understood it.

Then I went over it again, picking out key words - themes, adjectives, anything relevant really - and just writing those words on their own down. I paid particular attention to any words that kept cropping up in the notes and sample answers. I focused mainly on these words, as if I knew some decent words, my logic was that I could just construct simple sentences around them, e.g. "Feicimid X sa dán seo" or "Déanann an file cur síos ar an X"

As well as the isolated words, I also went through the notes and wrote out some full sentences. I didn't learn these off word for word, it was just to give me a general idea of what I need to mention in the answer, and also to put the words in some context. Now and again, I'd encounter a sentence that I'd learn off, because it was a good sentence, but I definitely didn't go overboard on that.

It took me a fair bit of time to do this for each poem/story I'd studied, but I feel it paid off in the end. Like I said, this is just a method that works for me, it may not help you, or even anyone else. But thought I'd share, anyway

Coeurdepirate

My sleeping schedule has been absolutely destroyed during the holidays, so I'm just gonna stay up all night tonight and then sleep all evening/night tomorrow night :S

Namlub

O hai, me too. Tomorrow's going to be a bad day

Coeurdepirate

Namlub wrote: »

O hai, me too. Tomorrow's going to be a bad day

God, today was AWFUL. I ended up crashing at about 6:30, and I'd probably be less tired if I hadn't.

coffeelover

Today wasn't too bad Got my maths test back and I passed woo

IlyOx

Sory if this comes up in a different form i'm kinda confused Cuz i tried posting and nothing was coming up anyway .. :S

Anyway im an external Candidate and don't have much help im a 5th year At the moment and im doing higher level English So far however im kinda stuck On how to study Hamlet properly If Anyone out there has tips on Hamlet ? Because its really detailed and i dont Have a cluuueee how to study it

Also .. So far i'V studied Eavan Bolands Poems Love,War Horse,This Moment,the famine road, Child of our time & the shadow doll , But the thing is i don't know how to put it into an essay So can someone please Give me some tips and that id really appriciate it

Luno

I passed maths

storm2811

IlyOx wrote: »

Sory if this comes up in a different form i'm kinda confused Cuz i tried posting and nothing was coming up anyway .. :S

Anyway im an external Candidate and don't have much help im a 5th year At the moment and im doing higher level English So far however im kinda stuck On how to study Hamlet properly If Anyone out there has tips on Hamlet ? Because its really detailed and i dont Have a cluuueee how to study it

Also .. So far i'V studied Eavan Bolands Poems Love,War Horse,This Moment,the famine road, Child of our time & the shadow doll , But the thing is i don't know how to put it into an essay So can someone please Give me some tips and that id really appriciate it

Not sure about Hamlet because we haven't done it yet but with the poems like look at the essay questions, they're kinda easy enough.
Like we had one a while ago about how Seamus Heaney's poems are about common people and that and you just had to look at the poems like The Forge and The Tollund Man and Sunshine and just talk about the characters and how he portrays them.

Coeurdepirate

coffeelover wrote: »

Today wasn't too bad Got my maths test back and I passed woo

I got some results too They were awful going by boards standards (Anything below an A2 = you're a retard who will work in McDonalds) but I was happy with them I might post them when I get the other three back.

coffeelover

I got some results too They were awful going by boards standards (Anything below an A2 = you're a retard who will work in McDonalds) but I was happy with them I might post them when I get the other three back.

I've only gotten 2 back and by boards standards I wouldn't even get a job in McDonalds :rolleyes:.. When I get them all back I'll post them here too

randylonghorn

Oy!

There is no such thing as a "Boards standard", despite what a few sometimes overly-vocal people may subconsciously seem to think.

This forum is for all those doing LC, whether they're struggling to pass Foundation Maths / whatever, or aiming for an A in Higher.

And unfortunately the sad reality out there these days is that there are people with good LCs and even degrees damn glad to get a job in McDonalds! >.<

Coeurdepirate

coffeelover wrote: »

I've only gotten 2 back and by boards standards I wouldn't even get a job in McDonalds :rolleyes:.. When I get them all back I'll post them here too

Burger King's always an option!

randylonghorn wrote: »

Oy!

There is no such thing as a "Boards standard", despite what a few sometimes overly-vocal people may subconsciously seem to think.

This forum is for all those doing LC, whether they're struggling to pass Foundation Maths / whatever, or aiming for an A in Higher.

And unfortunately the sad reality out there these days is that there are people with good LCs and even degrees damn glad to get a job in McDonalds! >.<

I know that, but the majority of students here seem to straight-A1 students, and a lot of them like to make sure that people know it!


Anyway, my results were:
English: 72 (75pts)
Irish: 60 (65pts)
Maths (OL): 68
French: 75 (80pts)
Chemistry: 78 (80pts)
Business: 50 (55pts)
Biology: 70 (75pts)
That's 430 if I've counted properly, aiming for 470 in the LC, delighted with that though, especially Business, I only studied like 1/3 of what we had to study

gfgfgf14

I was really happy with my results....
Music 88 A2 90
French 82 B1 85
German 91 A1 100
Business 82 B1