When did you start seriously studying for the Junior?

SChique00

I always studied and got good marks right from 1st year, and in the Mocks I got about 7 Bs, 1 D and 2 As. I've only really started cramming now cos it's the holidays and all but I'm afraid I won't get everything covered by June. If anybody got good marks in the Junior (I'm talking 5 or 6 As, anyways), when did you start studying properly? And if you started before April then is it too late for me? I'm going mental thanks
Oh and how do you study for HL English? It's the only thing I want to do well in, even if I fail all the others...

Seloth

When I did my JC everyone studied a month before for the mocks and the week/night before for the actual exams.

I know you were probably told this a million times but dont belive it as your in the situation now(I know I didnt) but relax,these exams are piss easy and for the most part a waste of time with no meaning.

If you wish to do extremely well then start studying a bit in may but dont over work yourself.I got average and only studied the week or two,and in some cases the night before :pac:

niallharty

Just work on your worst subjects for now but don't forget about your best subjects because you might drop a grade. Anyway for English, which one needs more work your Paper 1 or 2? Usually it's paper 2, but I'm just wondering as I might be able to help you.

SChique00

niallharty wrote: »

Just work on your worst subjects for now but don't forget about your best subjects because you might drop a grade. Anyway for English, which one needs more work your Paper 1 or 2? Usually it's paper 2, but I'm just wondering as I might be able to help you.

Well I've started studying now for everything (is it too late?) bar English cos I'm a bit frazzled. My teacher is a total slave-driver and scrutinizes every answer I hand up; I give 110% to it because it's my favourite subject but the studied questions are ****e. The unseen stuff should be okay, except maybe unseen poetry, but I'm good at anaylsing drama and fiction. Paper 1 is sorted; I love personal writing and functional writing, not too hot on the reading comp but media studies is grand once you know the vocab to use. I honestly don't care about anything else once I get an A in English. What should I focus on, and will I likely get an examiner marking as hard as my own teacher? They should really make allowances for nerves because English is the only test you really have to think about; the rest are all easy if you study and recall.
Oh, and out of interest, did anyone do the revision courses over easter? The Quills and Vellum ones are on next week and I was thinking of going, but they're very pricey and I need to know if they're worthwhile or not.

Desire.

45 days left until English Paper One, I do believe. :eek:

SChique00

Desire. wrote: »

45 days left until English Paper One, I do believe. :eek:

Are you doing it? And if you are, what are you doing to keep your grade up? 45 days seems a long time; 8 weeks sounds worse :eek::(

Desire.

SChique00 wrote: »

Are you doing it? And if you are, what are you doing to keep your grade up? 45 days seems a long time; 8 weeks sounds worse :eek::(

Yeah, I am... but I'm dreading English. I have done no study for it all year.

DarkDusk

For the mocks, I did NO study for English and still managed to get 83%. I didn't learn off any notes my teacher gave me or anything. I just gave my own personal opinion and that's what the examiner always loves to see. What's the point in writing down something that you don't believe in/ don't agree with?? You mightn't be that kind of person but if you practice the past papers with your teacher's notes you should be fine in my opinion..

SChique00

DarkDusk wrote: »

For the mocks, I did NO study for English and still managed to get 83%. I didn't learn off any notes my teacher gave me or anything. I just gave my own personal opinion and that's what the examiner always loves to see. What's the point in writing down something that you don't believe in/ don't agree with?? You mightn't be that kind of person but if you practice the past papers with your teacher's notes you should be fine in my opinion..

Yeah that sounds alright but the problem is my teacher never gives us any notes, they expect us to analyse our texts ourselves. I'm decent at this but when I put it down on paper they always pick away at it. Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to be brilliant at English but I've been told before that it's very good. I think my confidence has just hit its lowest. Have you done the Junior? If you have, is there anything I should pay attention to? I got 77% in the mocks which isn't half bad, but I'm seriously hoping for an A in June. :pac:

DarkDusk

No, I'm doing the Junior this year also. All I can really say about the studied questions is always relate to the question and don't wander off topic. And something that is VERY IMPORTANT is to learn your quotes. Learn quotes and more quotes off by heart. When you hand up an answer with no quotes it looks like you're lazy and couldn't be bothered to learn them.
By the way what drama text did you study??? (and fiction too)

Desire.

DarkDusk wrote: »

By the way what drama text did you study??? (and fiction too)

We did Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird.

SChique00

We did 'To Kill A Mockingbird' for the novel and 'Romeo and Juliet' for drama. Did like TKAM at first (I've always despised R+J) but I can't stick it now because of all the bloody analysis we've had to do on it. Is your teacher any good? And are you doing any revision courses? I am; in English, Business and Irish Thanks for the advice; I'm not being conceited or anything but I think a lot of it's confidence. In other words, if you believe in your bull****ting, so will the examiner! Well, that's what my teacher told me anyway

iLikePiano99

Hey

I got 7 A's and 3 B's in all higher level subjects in the Junior Cert last year. My A's were in English, Maths, Irish, French, History, Science, and Music.

I started studying before the mocks really hard about a month before...which I ended up getting 6A's in and then I took a break for a couple of weeks. Then, I started studying again during the Easter holidays. When I say I studied hard I mean I did about 6 hours on the weekends, and then on school nights I would do about an hour or two on top of homework.

I think that since you have started studying now you will do great in June I remember during the Easter holidays last year I was cramming so much! Even though I did well in the mocks...half of the stuff I had studied I had forgotten! But once I got cramming in the Easter, that really set me up for the month of May and June. So then when I went back to school in May, I was much more confident about the exams. Also, I found that in May...I didn't have too much studying because my teachers were giving me revision homework. So seriously don't worry about the exams If you are starting studying now then you have plenty of time. Also, if you have been good with studying since first year then you will have NO PROBLEM!! You will be surprised at how much stuff comes back to you when you are in the exam!

On your question about studying English...my teacher was excellent so he gave me lots of notes on the poetry and novels and the other questions. So all I can say is look over any notes that your teacher gives you and EXAM PAPERS!!!! I wrote a couple of essays throughout the year and learned them off...and luckily on the day a topic came up that fitted one of the essays I had written! Also, make sure that your essay is atleast 3 A4 pages and your any 15 mark questions are nearly an A4 page in length.Thats really all I can tell you do...hope I helped. Any more questions...PM me or reply to this post!

Good Luck!

iLikePiano99

DarkDusk wrote: »

. And something that is VERY IMPORTANT is to learn your quotes. Learn quotes and more quotes off by heart. When you hand up an answer with no quotes it looks like you're lazy and couldn't be bothered to learn them.

I got an A in English...and I didn't use any quotes. I just referenced to what happened in the play/novel. I amn't saying you shouldn't learn off quotes but I am just pointing out that they aren't completely essential to get a high grade

Slow Show

Lads, if ye wanna do well in the studied stuff in English, try to make yourself like whatever you're gonna write about. I did really well in the mocks for studied drama and poetry - full marks for the latter - because I really, really liked what I was writing about, and that showed. You have to put in a bit of personal opinion imo, if anything it shows you don't need to regurgitate notes to get by. If your studied pieces are a bit meh, then you'll probably need to just learn stuff, I got pretty lucky, a couple of poems and some parts of my novel are a bit meh. Oh, and if I'm forced to write about love I will die, my least favourite part of the Merchant of Venice. Just let me write about the 'to bait fish withal' speech and I will be very, very happy.

Geo10

I got 10 As in the Junior Cert last year (H.L... Irish, Geography, Science, Religion, History, German, Business, Maths, English and CSPE). Although I was revising at a steady pace for a few months before, I really started to knuckle down at Easter... so no, it's not too late to do really well in the Junior Cert!:):):)
You can definitely still improve in English. My teacher always gave me in the 70s in tests and essays, I got a D in the mocks.... and an A in the actual Junior Cert. English, I guess, is a very subjective subject because coming out of the Junior Cert English exam I was sure I was going to get a C or a D (whereas I thought I got an A coming out of the mocks:D:D:D). In regards to studying English, I learned great descriptive vocab and better ways of expressing emotions for essays, wrote out all the quotes I used the most for drama and learned them of (e.g I did "Merchant Of Venice", learned Shylock's mercy speech etc. etc.). Learn one poem for very theme and all the notes on it. For me regurgitation was the key to success in this section. Focus on the main themes, characters, quotes etc. in the novel too.
I was like you except instead of English, Geography was the one subject I had to get an A in.
Aim for an A in everything and if you set those standards you should get yourself much more motivated and study more... then you'll end up doing better.
Focus, but do not rely on what's predicted to come up!:)
You'll do great! Make out a study timetable from now until the Junior Cert to give your revision some stability and objectives you feel motivated to meet!

Desire.

I actually can't wait now! When we're done we basically have fifteen months of a doss. :pac:

SChique00

Desire. wrote: »

I actually can't wait now! When we're done we basically have fifteen months of a doss. :pac:

Lol, 15.... it'll be a nice change alright. Any ideas where you're doing the 'aul work experience?

Desire.

SChique00 wrote: »

Lol, 15.... it'll be a nice change alright. Any ideas where you're doing the 'aul work experience?

Yep, a full year and three months holidays after. It will be class! :pac:

No, I'll see if I can get some work with the FAI as I have a few contacts there, but I don't know if they take people for work experience.

My Dad wants me to get a Summer job. :mad:

gc2011jc

jaysus i am doing it and only startin study now seriously doing higher everything ha but i aint worried still plenty of time and if your school does a study week like ours your sorted!

Slow Show

I'm getting a bit worried about how little I'm actually doing for Easter...

3hn2givr7mx1sc

I didn't. Half an hour the night before maybe. Not trying to sound 'hard' or anything, but I wasn't arsed with it. I was the first out of almost every exam and I only failed 2 subjects. Honours French, which I was terrible at anyway and Art, which there wasn't even an exam for.
Waste of time and stress for most people, imo.

Legion.

I don't have time to study really I feel guilty because the only thing I've done over the Easter holidays is my Technology brief (Which I just started today and I'm doing right now:P). I'm easily capable of good grades and I'm confident that if I walked in to the exam right now I could get my honour in everything bar maybe Maths. I guess I just have no motivation and I'd rather go out while the weather is nice.

SChique00

Slow Show wrote: »

I'm getting a bit worried about how little I'm actually doing for Easter...

Ach sure we're all the same; I only really started serious studying this week and I'm still waking up at 12.30 every day - I'm such a slob lol. But yeah I was freaking out because I only realised that we have 41/2 weeks left! We should be ok if we really knuckle down when we get back to school. I'm feeling a lot more confident about English, if nothing else - thank you iLikePiano99! :D:D I'm deffo locking away the laptop though; I'll only use the computer for looking up sparknotes.com. :pac: So if I don't get posting again, good luck everyone in the same boat as myself, and for everyone else, have fun gloating at us! Thanks for the advice everyone, now all I have to do is actually get studying....

Slow Show

SChique00 wrote: »

Ach sure we're all the same; I only really started serious studying this week and I'm still waking up at 12.30 every day - I'm such a slob lol. But yeah I was freaking out because I only realised that we have 41/2 weeks left! We should be ok if we really knuckle down when we get back to school. I'm feeling a lot more confident about English, if nothing else - thank you iLikePiano99! :D:D I'm deffo locking away the laptop though; I'll only use the computer for looking up sparknotes.com. :pac: So if I don't get posting again, good luck everyone in the same boat as myself, and for everyone else, have fun gloating at us! Thanks for the advice everyone, now all I have to do is actually get studying....

Fair play for actually giving up the laptop, that seems to be my main problem. I don't know...I sort of decided I'd rather get mediocre results than study, but that's a huge cop out and it's lazy and despite it counting for next to nothing, it's the only JC I'll ever get to do. Also, I don't want to rule out applying to England so I might as well give this a decent shot before I regret it.

OK, I've had a nice relaxed Easter...I'm going to do a bit of study for today, tomorrow and Monday - no need to go overboard, just an hour or two each day and then starting Tuesday I'm going to put away the laptop until nighttime, force myself to only use my iPod for study music...and relax a bit on the weekends. I can do this...7 A's and 3 B's - it's achievable...nearly there.

iLikePiano99

SChique00 wrote: »

A I'm feeling a lot more confident about English, if nothing else - thank you iLikePiano99! :D:D

Haha No problem...glad I could help! good luck with the Junior Cert...I am sure you will do great! Just keep thinking that you have TY to look forward to (if you are doing it)

vampire of kilmainham

SChique00 wrote: »

I always studied and got good marks right from 1st year, and in the Mocks I got about 7 Bs, 1 D and 2 As. I've only really started cramming now cos it's the holidays and all but I'm afraid I won't get everything covered by June. If anybody got good marks in the Junior (I'm talking 5 or 6 As, anyways), when did you start studying properly? And if you started before April then is it too late for me? I'm going mental thanks
Oh and how do you study for HL English? It's the only thing I want to do well in, even if I fail all the others...

swat

vampire of kilmainham

long time

SChique00

vampire of kilmainham wrote: »

long time

long time? oh and btw you spelt swot wrong :D:pac:

brian93

It's not too late to start! The junior cert is pretty easy to do well in if you listen in class, do your homework and learn stuff off every now and then. I did mine in 2008 and got 8A's (should have been 9! God damn CSPE!)

I never worked for more then 2 hours any night or Sat/Sun. but you should probably start studying properly now. 4 weeks. Even if you only spend 2 hours a night actually working. Oh and no matter what anyone says... CRAM before the exam. Good luck, the junior cert is a pain! Oh and enjoy 4th year, my advice is to get involved in as much as possible

Doublechinlolz

Ill start properly today.. Hopefully anyhow...