Heading into 3rd Year next week. A few questions...

Mr Rhode Island Red

Hello everybody.

This is my first post on here, so here I go...

I'm heading into 3rd Year this day (Wednesday) next week. Failing at being modest I must say that I'm not too bad at the books. I got eight A's and a B in my end of year tests in Second year. I have seen all types doing the JC. Those that went overboard, burnt themselves out, and did terrible in the exams, and those that didn't start any decent study until well after the mocks and played a blinder.

My questions are:
What is 3rd Year like? I mean in comparison to Second Year in terms of hard work and amount of homework.

When should I start studying? I want to be a happy medium this year. Start early doing a reasonable amount of work from Day 1. I plan to do 30mins study in ONE subject each night. And maybe two half-hour sessions at the weekends. Is that a good idea or am I starting too much too soon?

Thanks,

Mr RIR

dee_mc

That sounds reasonable to me, I would recommend that students should do just what you outlined above, except I would encourage them to have one night off study per week, for example the evening of their favourite TV programme or when they had training etc! It's always good to give yourself a night off, makes you less likely to slack off on any of the other nights!
Great idea to start as you mean to go on, try to establish a study and homework regime from day 1 and you'll find things much easier.

Best of luck!

Paso Fino

I'm going into 5th year now and did my Junior Cert in 2012.

I didn't even think about studying until the mock exams. All I did up until then was continue my work on any projects (Home Ec, technology, woodwork, metalwork, etc.), took notes in class and did my homework every night to the best of my ability.

The majority of my home work in 3rd year was doing Exam Papers. These are the best way of studying as the same questions come up year in year out.

I didn't study very hard at all for my mocks and came out with 3 A's, 6 B's a C and a D. Safe to say I was highly disappointed with myself.

I then went and bought the Revise Wise books, which have to be my favorite revision books. They condense everything down into easy, manageable chunks, and only include the information you will need in the exam.

Now, I'm not going to lie and say I did no work at all for my Junior Cert but honestly, I didn't do more than at most 40 minutes of study each evening during the week, broken into 2 x 20 minute blocks of two different subjects with a 10 minute break between. I would study a subject I didn't like, and then study one I did, so as I wouldn't switch off half-way through.
At the weekends, I wouldn't have spent more than 3 to 4 hours studying, again broken up into the 20 minute blocks with 10 minute breaks, and then after an hour, take a longer 40 minute break to give yourself time to chill.

Truly, I only started studying properly around mid March, maybe a little earlier.

Don't burn yourself out too early, and make sure to take leisure time, go to the cinema with friends, go and do some sport, watch the TV, anything at all that you enjoy.

I came out of my JC with 8 A's and 3 B's, all Higher Level. So don't panic too much about it, it's far easier than it seems. For me, it just felt like another summer exam.

Mr Rhode Island Red

Thanks for the advice.

It appears that once a person starts early they get on fine.

I heard a lot about 3rd years that did no study at all until after the Christmas Holidays. When they came back they were left with 3 weeks to study 3 years of material; a position I would not like to find myself in.

Another question that has only come to mind now:
Do the teachers have the entire course taught to the students before the mocks begin? Or do we continue to learn new material right up to the Junior Cert? At what point are you told: "Right that's everything taught, ye can wire into study" ?

Thanks again

DublinArnie

Every school/teacher(s) deals with 3rd year differently in terms of "homework" I suppose. I found 2nd year to have a heavier load with homework, maybe because 2nd year is the year when everything gets serious within the class. For me, there was less homework in 3rd year but when we were given homework, it was more daunting and challenging, for example, my science teacher gave our class only the weekend to do ALL SCIENCE PASTPAPERS! Those who did it (me) found it great for study, and those who didn't don't care.

In my 2nd year summer exams, I got 7 As and 3 Bs, all higher except CSPE. I started light studying at the start of 3rd year. A friend of mine gave me his Maths past papers at the start of 3rd year, so I started doing the questions I can do. I also got him to tutor me the 3rd year maths course (5 classes per week) so I was really ahead of my maths class (maths teacher really sucked). As we got closer to Christmas, I started studying less maybe because of pure effort at this point. I got 4 As, 4 Bs and 1 C in my Christmas exams.

My point is, you don't need to study at the start. If you have the right mindset, you'll be okay, but make sure you don't leave it till the last day and give the mocks all you got, if you do great in the mocks, then there's a high chance you'll do great in the actual thing. Mocks are really important, so study for them! Got 2 As, 4 Bs, 2 Cs and 2 Ds. To be honest I only studied the day before the exam .

Also, to answer your question above this post, some teachers finish the course before mocks, others don't. It depends on your teacher and class. I didn't finish the maths course until the last week before the Junior Cert! I also didn't finish the science course in class so the teacher gave us notes to cram for the JC. A good teacher will usually finish the course in time .

Don't look at me as an example, if I could re-do the year, I would of kept a strong study habit throughout the year!

CiCi123

Hey, I'm going into 3rd year next week and I was just wondering when should I start studying? Should I begin straight away when I go back or should I wait awhile?

lukepaddy2

Guys the junior cert doesn't really matter, employees ever own about the leaving. Subjects I recommend to study are English Irish maths , languageand whatever you plan on doing for the leaving cert. It doesn't matter if you get 10 Ds or 10 As. Don't put massive pressure on yourself. One or two days a week and you'll be grand

positivealf

Study 8 hours everyday, even on weekends.

CiCi123

positivealf wrote: »

Study 8 hours everyday, even on weekends.

I think I'll lock myself in my bedroom for months and become a hermit until next June!!!:D

DublinArnie

positivealf wrote: »

Study 8 hours everyday, even on weekends.

Let me know on 11th September if that worked for you

fuzzy_cactus

Ah well now, the junior isn't anything to be too stressed about, it's pretty much an extended summer test that everyone forgets their results in within a couple of years :P
That said, it's a good practice run for the leaving, try out different amounts/types of studying and then you'll know what works for you before you start into the heavy stuff in fifth year. Overall, don't kill yourself with work but don't do nothing or it's a hell of a surprise when you have to study for an exam that actually matters... And sure it's nice to get good results when you open the infamous brown envelope in September
On a sidenote, Jesus this really takes me back, I'm starting college next month :eek:

positivealf

fuzzy_cactus wrote: »

Ah well now, the junior isn't anything to be too stressed about, it's pretty much an extended summer test that everyone forgets their results in within a couple of years :P
That said, it's a good practice run for the leaving, try out different amounts/types of studying and then you'll know what works for you before you start into the heavy stuff in fifth year. Overall, don't kill yourself with work but don't do nothing or it's a hell of a surprise when you have to study for an exam that actually matters... And sure it's nice to get good results when you open the infamous brown envelope in September
On a sidenote, Jesus this really takes me back, I'm starting college next month :eek:

^ That plus you should try your best at every exam because JC still have some influence over your LC levels. Of course i was obviously joking about studying 8 hours a day, try at least 1 and 1/2 hours of studying. You'll be fine

Eims14

I was going to start studying at the beginning of the year and do about an 1hr and a half after homework until after Christmas and the go up to about 3hrs after that.I know that probably seems a bit excessive but I go to an all-Irish school so I have to put a bit more work in and as well as that my friends are all the 10as want to be doctor types and I know they'll be doing the same thing if they haven't already started during the summer.. It's gonna be a fun year for me

smiles_1998

Eims14 wrote: »

I was going to start studying at the beginning of the year and do about an 1hr and a half after homework until after Christmas and the go up to about 3hrs after that.I know that probably seems a bit excessive but I go to an all-Irish school so I have to put a bit more work in and as well as that my friends are all the 10as want to be doctor types and I know they'll be doing the same thing if they haven't already started during the summer.. It's gonna be a fun year for me

That's the same amount I'm planning on doing (I say planning because I tend to procrastinate) ...I find it's easier to keep studying when your friends are interested in doing well too- that's a lot of what kept me studying for the 2nd year summer exams

CiCi123

I find it hard to study because sometimes we have so much homework that theres not much time for studying after! Its also hard to fit in sports and music lessons around all the work:( I need to work on my time management!!!

spurious

For JC if you keep up with your homework and listen properly in class, making sure to ask questions if you don't follow something, you'll be fine.

As a plus, the understanding of the subjects that this will give you will be a great help for LC as you will have a solid foundation to build on.

MmmPancakes

Hey man!

End of year exams are very different from the Junior Cert, the 80 minute maths exam you're used to transforms into this monster 5 hour long paper. Practice exam papers all the time, do your revision (start doing serious study after the mocks) and know the exam layout, know how long to spend on each section. Timekeeping is a huge part of being successful, it really is very important.

Take history for example:
12.5 Minutes on both the Pictures and Documents
15 on the short questions
33 minutes on the biographies
25 minutes on question 5
50 minutes on question 6

That will leave you with some quick time to run over your paper.

The workload is quite heavy in 3rd compare to 2nd, you'll see your homework become exam papers and learning work primarily.

For your language watch Tagesschau every day on the internet (if you do German) it gives a summary of the weather and some news pieces, you can pick up valuable vocabulary there. As for subjects with project work, make sure you don't slack, if you go past your deadline that's it, you can't finish it.

For Maths practice exam questions (same stuff comes up every year, Paper 1 is algebra and arithmetic and Paper 2 is geometry and trig and statistics and what not)

Irish is probably the hardest exam you'll come across. Forget those silly 10 line comprehensions in your Summer exams, in Paper 2 in Irish you have to show your understanding of a page long extract from an Irish novel in questions. Make sure you learn your verbs, and learn off vocabulary and most importantly learn the question words which come up in the questions (Come up almost every year), Cen, Ca etc..

Just Learn your stuff for English and you'll be fine

Hope this helps

Bluestrike

Guys, don't get too stressed out on the JC, the only thing that matters is that it allows you to do higher level at the leaving cert (but not always)
I heard a saying before (probably on here) : the JC is for your parents, the LC is for yourself. Its just preperation for your leaving cert and to give you a taste of what a state exam is like. The examiners are not out to get you and will give you marks if you deserve them. At the start of school, just do the homework in class and maybe 10 minutes at the end to review what you did in class. If you listen and keep on top of your schoolwork you will be fine and then you can ramp up the workload and study closer to the exams. No point doing 2 hours on your very first day

positivealf

Bluestrike wrote: »

Guys, don't get too stressed out on the JC, the only thing that matters is that it allows you to do higher level at the leaving cert (but not always)
I heard a saying before (probably on here) : the JC is for your parents, the LC is for yourself. Its just preperation for your leaving cert and to give you a taste of what a state exam is like. The examiners are not out to get you and will give you marks if you deserve them. At the start of school, just do the homework in class and maybe 10 minutes at the end to review what you did in class. If you listen and keep on top of your schoolwork you will be fine and then you can ramp up the workload and study closer to the exams. No point doing 2 hours on your very first day

So it's a bad idea to start studying 4 hours a day? Well I'm doing HL math and also my languages, French, English and Irish need to improve so I'm gonna study for them too. As for the rest I just revise when I come back to school and I just realized that this is a JC thread when Im doing LC. But anyway what do u think?