Study Plan

Darkphenom

I'm just back to school and going into the leaving cert. year. I will have a mock exam next February and the big one next June. I was wondering if anyone here might have some information/tips/advice on making a study plan?

Xios

Here's my advice.
Step 1
Go to class.

Step 2
Write out the correct answer to every question in your past exam books, ask your teacher if you can't figure it out. And ask if your answer is correct, that's what teachers are there for. They'll show you where you are wrong and can improve your marks.

Step 3
Repeat step 2.

Hybrid_Theory

Xios wrote: »

Here's my advice.
Step 1
Go to class.

Step 2
Write out the correct answer to every question in your past exam books, ask your teacher if you can't figure it out. And ask if your answer is correct, that's what teachers are there for. They'll show you where you are wrong and can improve your marks.

Step 3
Repeat step 2.

^^ This.

Plus I would also recommed that you revise the 5th year material at the beginning of this year as it will really stand to you later in the year when you are trying to revise everything!

rainbowtrout

Darkphenom wrote: »

I'm just back to school and going into the leaving cert. year. I will have a mock exam next February and the big one next June. I was wondering if anyone here might have some information/tips/advice on making a study plan?

Don't spend more time making out study plans than actually studying

I'm actually being serious, you can spend more time making out a timetable than actually sticking to it.

Your time will probably be better spent on doing the homework/exam questions set for you each night by your teachers. If you have time when you have your homework done maybe tackle an exam question each night from a different subject. Don't neglect a subject because you mightn't like it. It won't help in the long run. Don't worry if you don't fully understand a question or can't fully complete it because you haven't studied the material in class yet. You can come back to it at a later date when you have. Download the marking schemes so you can check over them to see how you are doing with the work you do yourself.

One exam question in French, Maths, Biology etc etc should take you no more than 20 minutes or so on average per evening but would give you plenty of practice and familarise yourself with the exam papers.

Stalin and rugby

Teachers don't know ****, I'm serious. Alot of them will be terrible with the exception of a few. Do what you think is right and what works for you, alot of time you will be given pointless homework/excercises - DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME DOING THESE

For example... Write out a biology experiment NEATLY says my teacher. The faults with this...

1. It literally takes hours to do this.
2. It's completely pointless, you'll be learning the experiments from the book where the diagrams are drawn well - Not from your personal drawing..
3. The reason you are being asked to do this in the first place is so that in the 1 out a thousand chance that an inspector visits, YOUR teachers ass isn't on the line -.- AKA you're being told to do this to save their ass and waste your time.

You'll realise soon enough if you haven't already that some teachers are actually less intelligent than you are - It's disgraceful. I know I'm trolling but meh good luck anyway.

bscm

1) if you're doing any Science subjects, write out every question ever asked on experiments on flash cards, with the answers from the marking schemes on the back... it helped me in physics because the do tend to repeat things and answers are sometimes the same for multiple questions. Go over the flash cards for 5 minutes each evening, especially coming up to exams.

2) for English, just give yourself maybe a half hour each night to read something. Can't emphasise enough how reading can change your grade. Even if you can't finish a book cover to cover, go to a shop and pick something up.

3) Irish, you need 10-20 minutes a day to go over your poetry etc.

4) Maths requires you to sit a paper in exam conditions regularly. Ask for old mocks to stop repeating the same paper and learning answers

Make a timetable with realistic and flexible slots. There will be times when you don't want to go near Maths, but could do some other calculations in Chem/Physics. Try to end the session with something like English or going over flashcards... reading/looking over something will wind down. Always start with either the hardest subject or the most interesting. Some people prefer to get something out of the way whereas others prefer to ease themselves into studying.

Weekends are your friends. You may only be able to do an hour studying a day at many points during the year but you can make up for lost time at the weekend.

Good luck, you couldn't pay me enough to repeat the Leaving

Framble

Don't bother doing a detailed time table... you'll just feel bad when you don't stick to it and it take loads of time to do them out. In fact I'd advise against time tables in general. Decide each day what you're going to do and make sure you don't neglect the subjects you don't like.

Ash_M

I never touched an actual study time table. I find some subjects just require more time, and you're better off studying a section's worth rather than an hour's worth. Just make sure you spread it around. I used to write down what I had done that evening, and made sure that if I'd done no Geography that night, I'd start with it the next day, etc. Dividing time equally doesn't always make sense - for example, English required very little time for me, but History needed about 3 times as much.

Sunny!!

study timetable are kind of useless tbh, things keep changing, and things will pop up that will throw your timetable off. Just objective of what you want to get done is the best:)

smeal

Sunny!! wrote: »

study timetable are kind of useless tbh, things keep changing, and things will pop up that will throw your timetable off. Just objective of what you want to get done is the best:)

I agree. This happened me constantly last year. My advice would be to only make a sound study plan during holidays, that way homework/tiredness/projects and the likes cant get in your way. And if you are going to do a study plan I would stick to a 9-4 time period taking the same breaks that you would get in school. Big study blocks with big breaks in between can be a bad idea sometimes because the likely-hood of you getting bored and not returning to the books is strong (from personal experience) !

My first bit of advice would be to keep things organised, keeping seperate notes in seperate folders etc. That way notes are easily accesible during the year.

Past papers are brilliant for the layout of the paper and also for practicing questions but don't become too reliant on them as a way of predicting what will come up next year.

If making a study plan don't forget to include aural and oral study because they are equally important! I completely forgot about aural until the night before last year..

But yeah just keep a calm head and best of luck:)