How much study is needed?

ampmm

Hi every one..I'm currently in 5th year and am hoping to do quite well in the lc (580+) I'm just wondering does anyone have any advice on how I should be studying, for how long etc...

I know people say keep on top of the hw and that's enough but I'd like to do more... I love the subjects I'm doing ( bar English) and I quite like studying so any advice would be helpful.... I'm doing physics, chemistry, maths, biology, French, Irish, English, applied maths...all hl...



Thanking you in advance

Xx

magicianz

Anyone who tells you a period of time you should study each day is lying and is out of touch with education.

You should break down the courses into sections and study those until you are confident in them. At the moment, you have a lot of time and you will be amazed at how fast it is possible to increase points. I came from C/D/F in all subjects to 545 and started studying in February. But thats just me and I'm far from a good figure to be benchmarking from.

As I was saying, break it into sections and get confident at those sections. For example, in maths (H) you have all your questions and each question is on a set topic. Each of these questions has a few different types of questions that can be asked and you can see this by studying the past papers. Become a master at each of those types of questions, get a number of past paper questions under your belt and carry on. Revise each section in the month before the actual exam. I can't give actual examples as I can't remember exactly what was on the exam, only the technique.

You can apply the sectioning to any subject. Like French - grammar (tenses, sentence structures, etc.) , vocab (school,pasttimes,economy, international relations, politics, etc.) and so on.

One thing that I would recommend to you that both me and my sister used is flashcards. Take your section, break it down into its core parts and fit them onto a flashcard, 1 or 2 sides. You should be able to recall everything about that topic by looking at that flashcard and eventually you will be able to recall everything from a single word.

Hope this sort of helps, give me a PM if you want me to give some examples and I'll see what I can do.

amyleaving

My french teacher told me to get a D in french you need to spent about 4 hours a week, a c about 6 hours , a b about 8 or 9 and an A over 9

mazahacka

Just keep up with all the homework, don't forget to learn stuff as well when you're given 'learning homework'. Make sure you do really good in every test, and revise well for Christmas and Summer exams. And I agree with magicianz, when you're revising / studying, break everything into sections, do questions at the end of the chapter in your textbook, and don't forget the exam papers!

I have a separate copy for all the questions from the papers in different subjects. So you do a question, and then compare your answers with the marking scheme.

In French, just keep learning a few words every day (20 mins per day is QUITE enough, if you do it every single day). Also, try listening to some podcasts on francaisauthentique.com/ -- it's a really good website for people who are learning French.

Canard

amyleaving wrote: »

My french teacher told me to get a D in french you need to spent about 4 hours a week, a c about 6 hours , a b about 8 or 9 and an A over 9

That is so untrue oh my god. I barely studied French besides my homework and some vocab occasionally and listening to French music...I definitely didn't do over 9 hours per week. It mainly depends on aptitude and whether or not you like the subject, such a general statement is a bad thing for a teacher to say.

iLikePiano99

Patchy~ wrote: »

That is so untrue oh my god. I barely studied French besides my homework and some vocab occasionally and listening to French music...I definitely didn't do over 9 hours per week. It mainly depends on aptitude and whether or not you like the subject, such a general statement is a bad thing for a teacher to say.

I have to agree! I'm sorry but I cant imagine somebody who studies french for four hours per week only getting a D in the exam. People who do no study, and only listen in class get Ds. And I also dont know how anyone could fit 9 hours of French into a week. :rolleyes:

amymak

Well I got those points anyway and I basically just kept on top of homework, listened in class and had perfect attendance.

So don't worry too much if you don't get all the study done that you'd planned. As long as you've done all the things listed above you shouldn't beat yourself up over it.

My advice for applied maths is to do many, many exam questions. The exam is fairly predictable and it gets you in the right frame of mind.

For English, DO NOT rely on predictions. We all know what happened to people last year. Also, DO NOT learn off answers. For the Single Study in particular, ensure that you know your text really well, know your quotes and after that, I would just have paragraph headings for each topic. (e.g. Theme of Deception: 1. Villain' deception. 2. Main character's deception 3. Imagery and Language etc.)

For Irish and French, I would go to a friend's house regularly and practice speaking the languages. It's one of the more fun ways to study, and you can get plenty of English chat in when you're "transitioning" between languages. Also, listen to CD's during your commute. (That thing about studying French nine hours a week is totally wrong and utterly unfeasible. I got an A2 doing half that and that includes homework.)

amyleaving

I didn't say that was my opinion , i did about 1 hour and got a c hahah but that was what my teacher said and he has alot of experience

Michael Scofield

Depends on your aptitude and attitude. If you find the work easy and listen in class then you won't need to do nearly as much as someone who finds school very difficult and at the same time never listens to the teacher.

Anyone who tries to put a timescale on it is silly.

magicianz

I think a basic flow chart can sum up this thread:

Can you answer any LC question on this topic?

- Yes: Move on.
- No: More study.

areyawell

About 40 hours a week and maybe close to 80 hours on weeks off to get over 500 points