Your tales of mock results compared To leaving results

Camilo

This is just a wee thread for all the ex-leaving certs out there to come and share their wisdom to us unfortunate plebs with another few months ahead of us.

Since it is that mock time of year ive been curious to know how people find their mock results compare to the actual results they got in the leaving cert. Ive heard tales of people popping up aboot 10%, or dropping down several grades or shooting from a fail to an A1 and various other wonders but i think all us studious buggers could really benefit from some actual first hand accounts

So...Tell, tell!

luciemc

oo good idea! I'm only doing my mocks now so unfortunately no stories to share.. but I look forward to hearing them! I went from a D to an A in my junior cert English, shows you just how subjective the marking can be, I wrote the same things!

Camilo

Aye i agree.
No matter how much they harp on about the "proper" marking scheme so much of your grade simply depends upon the bloke marking it. He could be pissed off, like only a certain style, or be a complete arse-hat and your leaving cert could get completely funked just depending on that one blokes mood.
Tis ridiculous.

GoldRush4821

Haha yea, especially so in the likes of English where so much is left to the discretion and impression of the marker. I can just see myself getting a marker whose divorce has just been finalised or something and is just waiting for someone to take it out on

EuropeanSon

Here are my results.

Mock Real
English B3 B3
Maths A1 A1
App Maths A2 A1
History C2 A1
Chemistry C1 A1
Accounting A1 A1
Irish B3 B3
German C3 B2
Points 510 580

sparagon

where?:P

Skuxx

I don't remember my exact results but know I went from 330 points in the mocks to 450 in the actual leavin! Twas no where near as bad as I was expecting!

luciemc

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Here are my results.

Mock Real
English B3 B3
Maths A1 A1
App Maths A2 A1
History C2 A1
Chemistry C1 A1
Accounting A1 A1
Irish B3 B3
German C3 B2
Points 510 580

wow I'm impressed, any advice..?:p

chemistry I'm assuming you just buckled down after the mocks? Applied maths came easily to you? I find it a good bit more challenging than maths? maybe I need to do more practice on it? we only have two classes a week and get no homework..and accounting...how on earth did you study for it? I do it outside school but am finding it impossible, I don't even know where to begin!

thank you! and out of interest why didn't you do physics? your results certainly indicate an aptitude for it?

**Timbuk2**

I dropped 45 points from the mocks

Having said that for a few of the exams in the mocks I knew what questions were coming up. That advantage obviously doesn't exist in the real LC.

evercloserunion

About 405 in mocks -> 560 in real thing.

EuropeanSon

luciemc wrote: »

wow I'm impressed, any advice..?:p

chemistry I'm assuming you just buckled down after the mocks? Applied maths came easily to you? I find it a good bit more challenging than maths? maybe I need to do more practice on it? we only have two classes a week and get no homework..and accounting...how on earth did you study for it? I do it outside school but am finding it impossible, I don't even know where to begin!

thank you! and out of interest why didn't you do physics? your results certainly indicate an aptitude for it?

Chemistry: Just did exam papers for a month, very little else, over and over and over till I pretty much knew them by heart. Also had a book of quasi-exam questions, the name of which I cannot recall, which I did too. Just questions, questions, questions.

Applied Maths, truth be told, was more difficult for me than regular Maths (I'm now studying Maths in TCD), but last year's was the easiest paper they've ever given, and so I scored 98%, way above my expectations. Also, do Q9 ffs. Nobody does it, and IT'S SO EASY, IT'S RIDICULOUS. They set super easy questions on it precisely because nobody does it.

I didn't do Physics because in my school my choice was between History and Physics, and I preferred History, I love History. My mock result for History is misleading, I did precisely zero study for my History mock, whereas I knew the entire course backwards for the real.

As for Accounting, don't waste time making them super neat and presentable, like some people seem to. Analyse exactly what the cause and effect for each adjustment is before you start writing up the accounts, and make sure you know the "why" for every entry you make. And don't try doing large sums in your head, it leads to errors. By the way, doing it outside school, I do hope you are getting grinds or some form of instruction at least. Rudimentary knowledge is required.

Hope that helps!

luciemc

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Chemistry: Just did exam papers for a month, very little else, over and over and over till I pretty much knew them by heart. Also had a book of quasi-exam questions, the name of which I cannot recall, which I did too. Just questions, questions, questions.

Applied Maths, truth be told, was more difficult for me than regular Maths (I'm now studying Maths in TCD), but last year's was the easiest paper they've ever given, and so I scored 98%, way above my expectations. Also, do Q9 ffs. Nobody does it, and IT'S SO EASY, IT'S RIDICULOUS. They set super easy questions on it precisely because nobody does it.

I didn't do Physics because in my school my choice was between History and Physics, and I preferred History, I love History. My mock result for History is misleading, I did precisely zero study for my History mock, whereas I knew the entire course backwards for the real.

As for Accounting, don't waste time making them super neat and presentable, like some people seem to. Analyse exactly what the cause and effect for each adjustment is before you start writing up the accounts, and make sure you know the "why" for every entry you make. And don't try doing large sums in your head, it leads to errors. By the way, doing it outside school, I do hope you are getting grinds or some form of instruction at least. Rudimentary knowledge is required.

Hope that helps!

yeh that really does help. maths in trinity is actually number 2 on the oul CAO... love it! how are you finding it?

haha dont worry i go to a class once a week, i figured it'd be easier and require zero work but i spent the first few weeks last year completely lost, I hadn't done business for junior cert.. I suppose I don't really need it for points but I do enjoy the challenge in a twisted way, I just do need to start studying.. half way through my mocks with nothing done. it'll be an interesting test of my ability to say the very least!

Mahogany

My question is, is 3 months enough for someone like me to pull up my socks and get 400 points? I'm doing the mocks and I reckon I'll be hitting around 280 at the most.

EuropeanSon

luciemc wrote: »

yeh that really does help. maths in trinity is actually number 2 on the oul CAO... love it! how are you finding it?

haha dont worry i go to a class once a week, i figured it'd be easier and require zero work but i spent the first few weeks last year completely lost, I hadn't done business for junior cert.. I suppose I don't really need it for points but I do enjoy the challenge in a twisted way, I just do need to start studying.. half way through my mocks with nothing done. it'll be an interesting test of my ability to say the very least!

It's excellent. There is a very wide variety of stuff you can do (which isn't really the case if you do a TSM by the way), so you'll certainly find an area you enjoy more than others, and if there is one particular area you dislike, we had the option of dropping it at Christmas in first year. The choice gets larger in 2nd year, and gets really large as you get to 3rd year, so you can really specialise too if that's what you want, or get a broader knowledge.

For first semester this year we had:
Linear Algebra I
Introduction to Analysis
Advanced Calculus
Introduction to Mechanics I
Introduction to Statistics I
Mathematical Computation I (C Programming)

You have the option to drop one of the latter 3 at Christmas, I dropped mechanics, and am now doing:
Linear Algebra II
Analysis on the Real Line
Introduction to Group Theory
Introduction to Statistics II
Mathematical Computation II (C++ Programming)

TSM students don't get to do Stats, Mechanics or Computation, or Linear Algebra II, at least not till 2nd year. You could also do theoretical physics, which forgoes Stats, Computation and Group Theory, but does Physics modules too, plus all the other Maths modules. Some of the lecturers are amazing, some are pretty difficult to comprehend, but I suppose you'll get that anywhere.

Trinity in general is just fantastic too, all the societies etc. are great.

EuropeanSon

Mahogany wrote: »

My question is, is 3 months enough for someone like me to pull up my socks and get 400 points? I'm doing the mocks and I reckon I'll be hitting around 280 at the most.

Yeah. 3 months, if you use them properly, is enough to get well up in your grades.

That is of course if you actually use the entire 3 months, and not just wait till it's only 2 months, then 1 month, then 2 weeks... and then start.

dabestman1

failed accounting inthe mocks, got an A2 in the real thing.

joseywhales

failed french english irish and got about 330 in the mocks but i had never done any papers at that stage and I hadn't enough to actually attempt all the questions in any of the papers despite my teachers basically telling me what was coming up. Put in some painful work for a couple of months and got 500 exactly, which was quite lucky as it was the minimum requirement for the course I wanted.
Actually going on a tangent here, although it still might be in someway useful, I then went to university and scraped through all my exams, failed the finals, got to repeat a couple and scraped a 2.1.
scraped into a masters and scraped through that. Scraped into a job and am currently scraping my way around a hedge fund in NY. I'm sure I'll scrape myself somewhere else soon enough.

The point is that now is a great chance for you to establish good habits and organisation that are really what is being tested.

Don't do what I did and be immature and lazy, even if you scrape through it, it'll cause you 3 times the pain for half the reward. In the end I had to use the thought of having to repeat to motivate me, I went from not giving a **** at all to not sleeping, the panic set in about a week from the first exam. I honestly might have killed myself if I had had to endure another year of school, that was the best motivation of all.
University was more,"this single exam is worth about 5k, if someone offered me 5k for an exam I'd ace it so why not this one?"

luciemc

EuropeanSon wrote: »

It's excellent. There is a very wide variety of stuff you can do (which isn't really the case if you do a TSM by the way), so you'll certainly find an area you enjoy more than others, and if there is one particular area you dislike, we had the option of dropping it at Christmas in first year. The choice gets larger in 2nd year, and gets really large as you get to 3rd year, so you can really specialise too if that's what you want, or get a broader knowledge.

For first semester this year we had:
Linear Algebra I
Introduction to Analysis
Advanced Calculus
Introduction to Mechanics I
Introduction to Statistics I
Mathematical Computation I (C Programming)

You have the option to drop one of the latter 3 at Christmas, I dropped mechanics, and am now doing:
Linear Algebra II
Analysis on the Real Line
Introduction to Group Theory
Introduction to Statistics II
Mathematical Computation II (C++ Programming)

TSM students don't get to do Stats, Mechanics or Computation, or Linear Algebra II, at least not till 2nd year. You could also do theoretical physics, which forgoes Stats, Computation and Group Theory, but does Physics modules too, plus all the other Maths modules. Some of the lecturers are amazing, some are pretty difficult to comprehend, but I suppose you'll get that anywhere.

Trinity in general is just fantastic too, all the societies etc. are great.

yeh TP is first at the moment but I am stuck between them, I just know that it's possible to change from TP to maths.. then there's the TSM maths and economics which I've been told I should do if I don't want to work in academia..which I don't.. ughh too many good courses.. ah well I still have time! thanks for all your help!!

keeirs

cant wait for the mock results to come out..i'll admit i didnt try too hard for them but seems to be going fine (apart from the fact i have most definatly failed german & maths paper 1!) we're doing the project maths course which is IMPOSSIBLE. Im aiming for primary teaching which is currently 475 so fingers crossed i'll get it! It's the only thing I want & I really dont want to have to repeat

Dr. Ring

Came up 70 points. Went from 460 to 530

niamhallen

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Here are my results.

Mock Real
English B3 B3
Maths A1 A1
App Maths A2 A1
History C2 A1
Chemistry C1 A1
Accounting A1 A1
Irish B3 B3
German C3 B2
Points 510 580

Any tips for applied maths?

EuropeanSon

niamhallen wrote: »

Any tips for applied maths?

Do Q9.

Apart from that, general things which you've probably heard before, but which are definitely true, like (i) do as many exam questions as you can, particularly older, more challenging ones and (ii) make sure that, even if you think your answers may be way off, make sure you go through the procedures and method as far as is practicable, as the vast majority of marks don't go for correct answers, but for methods. It's actually possible to get an A without getting a single question right, or so I was told at an Applied Maths revision day last year.

surfergirl92

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Chemistry: Just did exam papers for a month, very little else, over and over and over till I pretty much knew them by heart. Also had a book of quasi-exam questions, the name of which I cannot recall, which I did too. Just questions, questions, questions.

Any chance you could remember the name of this quasi-exam book of yours?:)

surfergirl92

keeirs wrote: »

I really dont want to have to repeat

Me neither...EVER!!It just wouldn't be the same with different people anyway,afer spending 6 years along side your buddies!And all the LC again of course...yuk!4 months,put in the effort and everything will be graaaaaaaaand

caroline1111

510 mocks, 550 real thing, went down in two subjects though:
cant remember exactly but something like:
Economics A1 down to A2
Chemistry A2 down to B1
Maths B1 to B1
Spanish B1 to A1
English B2 to A2
Biology B2 to A1
Irish(O) B1 to A2
In my opinion you're better to do poorly in the mocks because in my situation it wasn't that I got lazy in the real thing but I was under too much pressure to do as well as the mocks in the real thing.

Sophia91

I cheated my way throuh the mocks by going on boards and all honours every night and finding out the questions for the next days exam......i seriously spent more time doing that then studying! I still managed to fail english but then got an A2 in the real thing!
It depends on the person, but for me I found I was much better not worrying too much about the mocks, as they would have caused a lot of unnecessary stress and worry. I probably would have failed a few subjects as I hadn't studied at all, and then I would have dropped down to pass when I didn't need to!
I got 480 points in the real thing and got my first choice so I'm glad I didn't let the mocks take over!! Good luck everyone!:)

cup of tea

Over Hyped IMO...the quality of correcting in the vast majority of them is embarrassing. Tbh I didn't put a whole lot of effort into them got around the 200mark. Got 470 in the real thing. They are a good indication of time management though. If you run over time in the mock, you can be sure you won't make the same mistake in the real thing.

EuropeanSon

surfergirl92 wrote: »

Any chance you could remember the name of this quasi-exam book of yours?:)

Sorry, no. I set fire to it, along with several other books of mine which recalled hours of torment, the day the LC finished.

ozzz

Irish (Pass) B2-B1
English C2-B3
Maths B2-B2
Chemistry C2-B1
Biology A1-A2
Spanish B3-A2
D.C.G C3-A2

445-510

Its extremely important to practice as many past exam papers as you can for every subject, especially for practical subjects like Maths and DCG.

For foreign languages, I would suggest you learn as much vocab as possible and perfect your grammar. Also practicing aural and oral is very important as they carry nearly half of the marks combined.

For the Sciences, you just need to sit down and learn the theory. There is no easy way around it. If you think you know it, don't just leave it at that, test yourself by doing as many as questions that you can on each topic covered. For Chemistry, practice the Maths questions from different topics regularly as you might forget how to do them on the day.

Any one have any tips on getting an A1 in Accounting?

Aoifey!

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Sorry, no. I set fire to it, along with several other books of mine which recalled hours of torment, the day the LC finished.

I did the exact same. Had a bonfire and I burnt most of my books and my uniform - Best. Feeling. Ever.


I can't remember exactly what I got in all the mocks, but I pretty much cheated my way through them by getting all the questions on here. I think I got about 300 or so in it.

My biggest changes:

• Maths (O) - C1 to A2
• Biology (H) - E to B2 (worked my ass off for that one!)
• LCVP - Distinction to Merit

Went up to 405. If I had have done the Mocks without cheating I probably would have got about 200 or so. It is definitely possible to go up massively from the Mocks to the real thing.

pinkyc

I went from a fail in my mocks in both home ec and Biology to a B2 in Biology and a B1 in Home ec I was thrilled =]......the Mocks are great for getting used to the timing of each question and also when you get the results you realise you need to pull up your socks abit. So good luck to anyone who are doing their Mocks and LC. A few pieces of advise I would give are stay calm, do your bit, read your questions over and over and write down everything!!
Good Luck guys