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Leaving Certificate Subjects Help?
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24-08-2010 8:40pm#1
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Do the study and you will be fine. youll see after your xmas exmas which subjects you need to work on more and get a few grinds in them before your mocks in feb-march something like that.
The easiest-hardest subjects will depend on yourself, what you enjoy and have ability for.
If you fill your cao out properly, The leaving cert results dont really matter too much.
Say you want to do computer science and you dont get enough points to do it in ucd or one of the big collages
If you have cert courses down for places like carlow it etc which are way less points you can go on to do the degree afterwards. and in alot of cases skip straight into the 2nd year of it, so its all the same
If you get all C1s in your higher subjects youll get over 400 points anyways
Put the work in for your Art project and youll be under less pressure for the exam too.
your teachers will have you well prepared when the time comes.
The leaving cert is pretty important but at the same time not really important. once your in college it means f**k all.0 -
I agree! Filling out the CAO properly is probably the most vital thing.
Also, the orals are so important - I feel like they really brought up my grades. Practice, practice, practice and most of all, be confident.
And just remember to relax, it gets very tough but getting an offer for the course you want after all the work is the best feeling in the world 0 -
Hey, I'm 16 and I'm going into 6th Year in September and I'm really freaking out about my Leaving Cert.
I'm doing the following subjects.....
English
Maths
Irish
Art
Biology
German
History
I'm in all Honours, except for Maths, I'm in Pass Maths.
I was just wondering, is there any info you can give me that will make me a little less nervous about this year and what I can expect. Also which of my subjects will be the easiest and hardest?
Thanks!
English: Know your quotes and practice answers in the time allotted in the exam!
Irish: Know a few general essays that you'll be able to manipulate, a few sheanfhocals, the themes/feelings in poems and the characters/themes in the stories and An Triail. Practice talking away to yourself for the Oral.
Maths: Practice papers
Art: Actually know the art history part really well, that's what brought me down in the exam. PRACTICE!!!!
Biology: Just practice past papers, they're your bible
History: Know the case studies in detail and enough general info. Practice writing essays and make practice essay plans
you'll be fine 0 -
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English - Have a big folder to file away anything your teacher gives you. It may look irrelevant in September but it could come in handy in May when you're under pressure.
Single Text Start learning quotes early on in the year. Do not learn 100 quotes for your single text. No need. Some people think that it is a competition to learn quotes as in 'I have 100 quotes so I'm heading for my A', the number of quotes you know is not reflective of your final grade. I recommend knowing as many as you can manage. 3/4 for each of the characters describing them, especially if there is an argument and one character is abusing another, ones that show the character's feelings towards the other.
Poetry Get a book of poetry notes in the schoolbook shop. If you have Poetry Now, the notes in the back of it are amazing. I picked 5 poets because that is the only way you cannot get caught out. 3 I loved, 2 were backups but I could write an essay on. This is the most important thing. DO NOT rely on predictions, only learn females, say 'ah sure its his anniversary this year, he's going to be there for sure'. Nothing is guaranteed. It's your leaving cert and many people this year got the message the hard way.
Comparative Look up summaries of your texts online and ready them now and then reminding yourself of them. I know we did our first text in early 5th and I had forgotten in by early 6th. Don't do this. You will probably be doing 2 of these theme or issue, cultural context, general vision or genre. The whole point here is to compare. They are not looking for an in depth analysis of each text on its own. Learn only 5 quotes or so for each of your texts. Use comparative language eg. in X we see X and in Y we see Y. This is very basic language but your teacher will show you how do use this type of language to max your grade in this section because that is what they are looking for.
Paper 1 Decide now what style of writing you will do for your main essay. You could do persuasive/argumentative, informative, descriptive, creative...This is a big deal because there is no point wasting your valuable time on writing short stories when you will write a speech. This will be worth 100 marks. Just read for paper one. Read newspapers if you see them around the house and keep up with current affairs. This is very useful for this paper. Look over the past papers and do all of the comprehensions. Get used to how much you are expected to write for each section.
Biology
Biology is a great subject and one you can get a very good grade in if you prepare in an organised way targeting certain areas that will get you maximum return on your work.
Firstly there are 3 main units in the biology course and they are equally important in the paper. This can seem strange because unit one is a bit about food, scientific method and ecology. A joke compared to about 20 chapters in unit 3. Unit 2 is somewhere in the middle. That's the beauty of the paper. If you learn all of unit 1 you can answer 1/3rd of the paper without knowing anything else. This is great to know for something like the mocks when you're under pressure and makes you feel secure.
Take out papers or look them up online for this next bit or your head will explode.
The first part of the paper are the short questions. There are 6 and you have to answer 5. 2 questions will be from unit 1, 2 from 2 and 3 from 3.
Experiments are next. 3 questions answer 2. There is one again from each unit. Therefore if you know all of the experiments in unit 1 and all in unit 2 you are guaranteed. But know the ones in unit 3 too for the long questions. Experiments are so important. You have to do so little work to gain so many marks. It's pretty much the key to this exam. Learn 20 something experiments and you can answer on them in short questions, experimental questions and in the long questions. Sounds like a joke but it's not. Learn every experiment, every colour change and outcome and you're well ahead of the rest.
Long questions make up the last section. There will be six and you have to do four. Again 2 are taken from each section. Popular ones on every year are ecology, respiration, photosynthesis, reproduction for plants and animals and always one on some system in the body eg.circulatory, breathing, lymph, digestive.
The great thing about biology is that the can't ask you anything outside what's in the book. Basically if you know the book you will easily get an A1 making you feel secure and it's great for points. Look at the marking schemes and you will see that you need to write very little to get maximum marks. No room for waffle only facts. Flashcards with your notes are great for writing down facts. Definitions are so important. Make a big list. As are diagrams. They are worth a lot of marks so draw them constantly. No need for a work of art. You can do great in this exam.
Hope this helps
I really wish someone told me all of this so you'll be fine. This is the worst part. Around October you'll just realise that you just have to get on with it and it will be over really soon. Good luck.0 -
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