studying for the junior cert

James Grant

Hi i have a concern about my lad who is doing his junior cert this year.
he is only doing his revision homework and not studying is this enough as he did just ok in the mocks. we are trying to push him into studying but he is saying revision is enough

spurious

James Grant wrote: »

Hi i have a concern about my lad who is doing his junior cert this year.
he is only doing his revision homework and not studying is this enough as he did just ok in the mocks. we are trying to push him into studying put he is saying revision is enough

If he knows where he lost his marks in the mocks and is making sure he won't make the same mistakes again, if he is doing his homework to exam standard and listening properly in class, then I wouldn't be too concerned.

It's when they delude themselves with "Oh I got 23%, but everyone knows the mocks are marked harder than the real thing" that there's a big problem.

James Grant

I have said to him he should be doing 3 hrs a night weeknights and 5hrs a day weekends i think this allows him enough time away from school. after all the exams are 11 weeks away.

0000879k

James Grant wrote: »

I have said to him he should be doing 3 hrs a night weeknights and 5hrs a day weekends i think this allows him enough time away from school. after all the exams are 11 weeks away.

If he got over 85% in all his mocks, he is doing enough, if not(I suspect) you really need to motivate him, he really needs to keep on top of things, grades don't improve without work.

James Grant

His highest score was 75 and his lowest was 42 in his mocks.
But i know he is a lot smarter than this as he is doing all honours and the school has not advised him to drop down.

0000879k

James Grant wrote: »

His highest score was 75 and his lowest was 42 in his mocks.
But i know he is a lot smarter than this as he is doing all honours and the school has not advised him to drop down.

Well 75 can easily be brought up to an A and scores from 42-50, with some work can be brought up to B's quite easily also.

Try reward him also, €5 euro for every A, you know an incentive to work harder. Homework and revision work he gets in school is not enough.

For example,
for Maths he must know 10 theorems,
for Irish he must know a page and a half story and a page long letter,
for English he must be able to quote from his poems, short story and play,
for French he must be able to write a note/postcard and a letter,
for science he must know all his formulae and experiments.

These will not be learnt by homework and revision only.

I myself am in third year and am doing all my homework then about 2.5 - 3.5 hours of study a night, more on weekends, However I take Fridays off.

James Grant

Yes I feel with a little extra effort he could come out of this with good results.
Even reading these posts are good for him

0000879k

James Grant wrote: »

Yes I feel with a little extra effort he could come out of this with good results.
Even reading these posts are good for him

The important thing is to encourage him, tell him how happy he will be if he gets good results, don't discourage him and start talking about failing.

At the end of the day there is I think 11 weeks to go, he really needs to start now.

NOTE: If he wants to go to university in Britain they look at you junior cert results as well as leaving. Good luck to him, you say he's intelligent, with work he could do great!

James Grant

Thanks for your advice