*JC 2013/2014 Off-Topic Thread*

CathalRyano

jldesign wrote: »

I know this may sound slightly stupid but this is my devious side speaking:

Is the JC set at the same time all across the country or is there any possibility someone might be able to share a tip or two like the mocks?

Beat the system

nope it's all organised at the exact same time.

DublinArnie

jldesign wrote: »

I know this may sound slightly stupid but this is my devious side speaking:

Is the JC set at the same time all across the country or is there any possibility someone might be able to share a tip or two like the mocks?

Beat the system

No point having the exam if people had the chance to get "tips". I wouldn't recommend getting tips for the mocks as what good will that do? Give the mocks all you got, and then you'll see what you need to work on.

Jijsaw

DublinArnie wrote: »

No point having the exam if people had the chance to get "tips". I wouldn't recommend getting tips for the mocks as what good will that do? Give the mocks all you got, and then you'll see what you need to work on.

Yeah Arnie as if you didn't get 'help' in the mocks

DublinArnie

Jijsaw wrote: »

Yeah Arnie as if you didn't get 'help' in the mocks

I thought that was between me and you!!!

jldesign

Cheers for the advice, It's just all too tempting to find the easy route

Jijsaw

DublinArnie wrote: »

I thought that was between me and you!!!

You and about the other 20 people I told Martin Luther was on the history mock for

spurious

The only change to the timetable would be where someone had an immediate family bereavement and was attending the funeral but wanted also to sit their exam. In that case, the person would be brought in early to their centre, would sit their exam before the others in their school, but not be allowed leave the centre until the half hour had passed where no-one else is allowed into the main exam.

So, for example, Exam 9.30 - 11.30
Bereaved person's exam 8.15 to 10.15 in a different room, with an individual supervisor.

Reasonable Accommodations is the section in the SEC that organises it at short notice. It's a bit more popular at Leaving Cert. where it also comes into play where somebody is wanting to sit two exams timetabled at the same time.

Mr Rhode Island Red

Not sure if this is the place for it, and I'm sure the forum gets plenty of this but...

What are yer opinions on TY? Would ye reccommend it? Why or Why not?

We have to make our decision around Easter and I'm not too sure as to what I should do. I'm trying not to follow like a sheep and do it/not do it because "the lads" are doing it/aren't doing it.

My only fears are getting bored in TY and not being able to get back into the swing of it for 5th Year.

It used to be a 50/50 situation in our school for many years (half do TY, half go on to Senior Cycle) but this year there were 90 Ty's compared to the norm of roughly 55 or so.

Anyhow, your views...

DublinArnie

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Not sure if this is the place for it, and I'm sure the forum gets plenty of this but...

What are yer opinions on TY? Would ye reccommend it? Why or Why not?

We have to make our decision around Easter and I'm not too sure as to what I should do. I'm trying not to follow like a sheep and do it/not do it because "the lads" are doing it/aren't doing it.

My only fears are getting bored in TY and not being able to get back into the swing of it for 5th Year.

It used to be a 50/50 situation in our school for many years (half do TY, half go on to Senior Cycle) but this year there were 90 Ty's compared to the norm of roughly 55 or so.

Anyhow, your views...

Check out the TY forum. There are plenty of opinions over there. All I'm going to say is that each school does ty differently so don't rely on all the opinions.

spurious

TY being a success or failure very much depends on the group of students in it and how the course is run in the school.

Some schools run fantastic TY programmes with all sorts of opportunities (off the curriculum) for all levels and types of learner to shine, while some (according to reports on boards) run it more or less as an extra year to Leaving Cert..

The Department are very clear that it is not supposed to be the latter. Have a chat with a few people in 5th year who did it last year and a few in this year's group.

DublinArnie

hf98kk wrote: »

Hi Im trying to find the irish aural/ listening comprehension from 2011 but I cant find it anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find it online?

Have a look on examinations.ie

IrishStuff09

hf98kk wrote: »

Hi Im trying to find the irish aural/ listening comprehension from 2011 but I cant find it anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find it online?

Examinations.ie
http://www.examinations.ie/archive/exampapers/2011/JC001ZLP017IV.mp3

Mr Rhode Island Red

Ok everybody, mocks in a few weeks time. How are people feeling about various subjects?

Maths: :rolleyes: Only 2 chapters of the honours course done so far and teacher showing no signs of picking up the pace. Maybe I'll get a D if I'm lucky

English: Happy enough.

Irish: Relatively happy. I scraped a B at the Christmas tests and if I could hold onto that grade t'would be great. Always the eachtra/aiste question that lets me down with grammatical mistakes.

Business: After having a useless teacher for the first two years, who retired at the end of last year, his replacement really turned the class around. Hoping to do pretty good.

History: Very happy with this. Great teacher and great subject in my eyes. Very Confident.

Science: **see above**

French: Grand. Comprehensions can throw me now and again but other than that I'm ok.

T-graph: I've always got a B in this, and despite often nonsensical practising I can't get that A I'd like.

Music: My dictation is HOPELESS, other than that fine.


How's everybody else feeling?

hf98kk

I'm confident enough for French, german, latin, english, history, geography. I scraped a B in a science mock at christmas so that should be ok. We haven't covered a huge amount of the course in irish or practiced too much aural so that could be hard, hopefully a B but a very possible C. Im quite good at maths but got a B at christmas and we won't have finished the higher level course so that might be another B.

nanook5

Long time no post :P

Irish : I hate the language with a passion . Got a low C at Christmas due to not fully revising . I'm starting to do revision though at the moment . It's usually the poetry that lets me down .

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Always the eachtra/aiste question that lets me down with grammatical mistakes.

Do you learn off essays of do you write them yourself?

English : I've always gotten a high B and I'm hoping for another or an A if I'm lucky

Maths : One of my worst subjects .Some sections I'm great and others I'm terrible . Lots of revision needed :mad:

Business: My best subject .I got the highest in the year (91%):D at Christmas .I'm currently a chapter ahead of the rest of my class (Because I actually work and don't talk)

History: I've always done bad in History but I decided to put the work in this year and I've been getting A's in all the class test that I've been given.I think I'll get a C or a B in the mocks due to not having the time or notes to revise section 1 and 2

Geo: Easy subject and paper.Minimal revision needed to get an A .

CSPE : Do I need to say anything ??

French : Got 79% in Christmas. My teacher is telling me I'll get an A in the mocks so hopefully .

Science :Second best subject. I'm an A student and a few quick reads over my notes and experiments and I'll be grand .

Technology: 83% in Christmas and I didn't study so maybe a day of study and I'll have an A in the bag .

Religion: What a waste of a subject and time :mad: Hate it,don't want to revise at all. D in the Christmas LOL .

So I'd be looking to get about 5/6A's and a few high B's/C's and I'd be happy to know that I have 6 months to revise for religion and history etc...

Good Luck I guess

Eims14

I have a headache just thinking about the mocks but...

English:Love this subject.I got the highest in the year at christmas from revision on the day.Hopeful A

Irish:Go to an irish secondary school so i just looked over stuff the morning of the exam and i got an A at Christmas so again hopeful A

French:Crap teacher whole class(no exaggeration)getting grinds got 84% at christmas after 6 weeks of em.A/high B

Maths:I get stuff when we do things in class but in an exam my mind goes blank.After all B's in every test ever i got a c at christmas and now i dont know what ill get.B/C

History:Love this subject just need to revise over it and ill b grand.A/B

Geography:same as history

Home-Ec:A/High B just need to revise it like geography and history

Business:Theory is fine but I just cant wrap my head around accounting.A/B/C...no.idea

CSPE:Not much to say here.A

Science:I always get c's in science cos i never study but im always like at ~65%.If i try ill get a B hopefully,fingers crossed.B/C

If i got those results ill be happy.Its just the getting up and studying is the problem...(;

spurious

All these As in CSPE...

Last year 73.4% of girls and 86% of boys DIDN'T get one.

Don't be counting chickens.

Jijsaw

spurious wrote: »

All these As in CSPE...

Last year 73.4% of girls and 86% of boys DIDN'T get one.

Don't be counting chickens.

What spurious said- I got a B

DublinArnie

For the last question on the CSPE paper, do the poster question and colour it, that question is least done... One kid did it in my class and he's the only one who got an A in CSPE. Just a tip .

CathalRyano

spurious wrote: »

All these As in CSPE...

Last year 73.4% of girls and 86% of boys DIDN'T get one.

Don't be counting chickens.

This a million times. I thought I'd get an A in it as I do usually well in other subject but got a B. Unless you know exactly how to answer the questions to get an A, there's a good chance you won't get one.

mobydopy

does anyone have a good idea for an irish eachtra (accudent story) that can adapt to different titles that could come up.

Stooped

Yeah actually know the stuff in CSPE and don't just walk in on the day expecting to stroll through it. I got a B and another lad in my class got a C.

Ninjah Tigah

Considering CSPE was one of the two subjects that I got an A (Oh joy), I think that it may be worthy to note, I didn't choose the poster question, quite simply because I hate drawing and I had no idea how detailed you had to be, which could be the deciding factor with your marks. However, if you're decent at art and want to try it, that's your choice, I hadn't drawn a poster in the 3 years of doing CSPE, so I don't know how detailed you have to be.

Section 1, read over previous papers, they tend to repeat questions very often. If you do that, you'll find them easy enough I feel.

Section 2 is another ball-game, that requires you don't just think "Yeah, this's easy" and dive into the questions, you'll regret it. Read through the questions before you make a start on them, decide which you're going to do. There's not many ways you can practise Section 2, other than doing previous papers.

The question which I did from Section 3 was option 4. Bóthar. I did this solely due to the fact that it was a question that you can answer easily if you pay attention with your project. As long as you pay attention to your project, you should be capable of doing Section 3 with relative ease. However, make sure you try your hardest to fill the available space, regardless of if you're just rambling...

If you go into CSPE thinking "Hah, it's all just common sense" prepare yourself for a quick downfall and at best a B grade. There's an element of common sense, that doesn't mean it's a majority. Also, anybody that walks out of the CSPE exam saying "Hah, I got an A, no problem" at least 30 minutes before the exam ends has gotten a B or below, unless they can write hell-a-fast.

Mr Rhode Island Red

nanook5 wrote: »

Long time no post :P
Do you learn off essays of do you write them yourself?

Combining stuff we have learnt off with our own material to make it seem like we wrote it ourself

nanook5

Mr Rhode Island Red wrote: »

Combining stuff we have learnt off with our own material to make it seem like we wrote it ourself

At least your learning something My essay,poetry and letter are all 100% learned off . I'm using my memory skills more than my language skills :rolleyes:

gaeilgeor

Is there a bell curve in junior cert business? , by the way I am a new person to boards.ie

spurious

gaeilgeor wrote: »

Is there a bell curve in junior cert business? , by the way I am a new person to boards.ie

Yes there is a bell curve, though I don't see what people's issue is with the bell curve. It's a way of doing away with people saying your 2014 JC A in Business is not worth the same as an A from 2009.

gaeilgeor

spurious wrote: »

Yes there is a bell curve, though I don't see what people's issue is with the bell curve. It's a way of doing away with people saying your 2014 JC A in Business is not worth the same as an A from 2009.

Would there be a bell curve in most subjects.

spurious

It's in every subject at every level in most examinations in the world.
Unless the exam questions are exactly the same every year you have to have a way of standardising the results and the bell curve does that.

People seem to forget it works both ways. If you feel you did badly on a very 'hard' exam (compared to other years), the bell curve will mean you've the same chance of failing as on an 'easier' paper.

**Edit**
To try to explain:
Say one year we have a very simple History exam and when they start to correct it, it seems 90% of people are getting a B or an A and no-one is failing, because the exam was too easy compared to other years.
They will re-adjust the marking scheme to get roughly the same percentage of fails (or As and Bs) as in previous years.

This will not affect you if you had the correct answer. The people it affects are those who may have got partial marks on a question.

So for example:
Question: What was the name of the valley where Pharaohs were buried?
Accepted answers pre-bell-curve:
The Valley of the Kings; Thebes; Luxor.

After the bell curve they may decide to only accept 'The Valley of the Kings', so those who answered the other answers would lose marks.

It's kind of difficult to explain, but there is nothing sinister about it.

DublinArnie

spurious wrote: »

It's in every subject at every level in most examinations in the world.
Unless the exam questions are exactly the same every year you have to have a way of standardising the results and the bell curve does that.

People seem to forget it works both ways. If you feel you did badly on a very 'hard' exam (compared to other years), the bell curve will mean you've the same chance of failing as on an 'easier' paper.

**Edit**
To try to explain:
Say one year we have a very simple History exam and when they start to correct it, it seems 90% of people are getting a B or an A and no-one is failing, because the exam was too easy compared to other years.
They will re-adjust the marking scheme to get roughly the same percentage of fails (or As and Bs) as in previous years.

This will not affect you if you had the correct answer. The people it affects are those who may have got partial marks on a question.

So for example:
Question: What was the name of the valley where Pharaohs were buried?
Accepted answers pre-bell-curve:
The Valley of the Kings; Thebes; Luxor.

After the bell curve they may decide to only accept 'The Valley of the Kings', so those who answered the other answers would lose marks.

It's kind of difficult to explain, but there is nothing sinister about it.

I think the bell curve is a horrible thing, but you're right that without, the exams would be pointless. I think a different system needs to be in place, with some thought put into it.

Say only the top 10% are allowed to get As on a subject for JC. Someone got 87%, and they get put down to a B because that mark is the lowest and doesn't qualify in the top 10%(10% of people who got As got higher than 87%). Why does this person get the B then? It doesn't make sense, the person fairly got an A and just because they 'can't give everyone As' they have to drop the grade down. I know that it has to be down so not everyone is getting As and Bs and so on but it really annoys me. :mad: