emersynn's study log

emersyn

Maybe this will help motivate me and maybe I'll forget about this thread after my first post like last year. Will try my best to keep this up though
Today I got a fair amount done: for Biology I studied Bacteria and Viruses, for Chemistry I studied The Atom and Electron Configuration (we have a big test on chapters 1-4 on Thursday), I did some Functions questions for Maths, I learnt some vocab for Spanish and Japanese and I also did a few Spanish aural exam paper questions

emersyn

The subjects I'm doing are: English (H), Irish (O), Maths (H), Spanish (H), Biology (H), Chemistry (H), Economics (H), and Japanese (H). I am aiming for in and around 520 points, I got somewhere around 560 in the summer exams so hopefully everything will go well

emersyn

I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped, I was feeling very demotivated after spending 30 minutes on a Maths question and not being able to get it, and I left my Japanese book in school too - I revised chapters 3 and 4 in Chemistry and practised some exam questions and left it at that. It doesn't count as studying but I also made a list of upcoming open days that I want to go to and I had a look at the new DARE criteria which I will have to sort out soon. Tomorrow I need to finish revising Functions in Maths and Chapter 9 in Japanese as I have tests on Friday. I might do the CAO tomorrow if I have time and if not I'll do it at the weekend.

emersyn

tfw you realise you did absolutely nothing in 5th year and you have to make up for all of it now
Two weeks from today I have a Biology pre-mock exam and an Irish pre-mock oral so most of my work between then and now will be in those two subjects. Today I learned sraith pictiur 1-3 and revised chapters 1-3 of Biology. If I do 2 sraith pictiurs and 2 Biology chapters every day and I stick in revision of the Irish conversational topics I'll be fine

emersyn

I've done sraith pictiurs 1-9 and I've studied 8 Biology topics so all on schedule so far, I might get a bit ahead of schedule at the weekend touch wood or I might even find time to study another subject :eek:

emersyn

Knew I would get around to updating this eventually... I got 92% in that Biology pre-mock so I'm (hopefully) on track to an A1 in the real thing Got all the sraith pictiurs done in the end as well and I did fine in the oral. We also had a Chemistry pre-mock recently and I got 72% which was a lot higher than I expected! So I'm going to aim for another B3 in the mocks and then push it up to a B1 or higher in the real thing.
I really REALLY need to focus on Maths at the moment. If I can sort that out then I'll be set for everything. Worried about failing the mock at the moment but hopefully I'll get enough work done between now and then to rescue myself.

emersyn

Did far too much algebra today than what could possibly be healthy

emersyn

DId even more algebra today and I still have a whole chapter to go before Paper 1 mock next Monday and that's not even counting all the other paper 1 chapters haaaaa
Did some Chemistry exam questions need to revise a lot more

emersyn

DId even more algebra today and I still have a whole chapter to go before Paper 1 mock next Monday and that's not even counting all the other paper 1 chapters haaaaa
Did some Chemistry exam questions need to revise a lot more

emersyn

Did the lymphatic system
Dreading getting the mocks back

emersyn

Revised all the microeconomics chapters but i'm not sure how much went in
Looked over the maths constructions and theorems

emersyn

Did a ton of economics exam questions today, I think I've caught up with it after doing basically nothing since September

emersyn

Today was good, I did notes on economic development / LDCs for economics and for biology I did notes on homeostasis and the horrible plant transport/storage/gas exchange chapter, I also organised all my handouts from school which have been building up, I must be getting the equivalent of a tree every week in the form of handouts, I appreciate the work the teachers put into them but it would be nice to look at some of our €40 textbooks once in a while as well :rolleyes:

emersyn

Got my Spanish mock back today very early - 83% in the written which I'm happy with (4 marks away from an A!!) but then I got 59% in the listening so my overall grade was down to 76%... May want to work on the listening
Started making notes for complex numbers today, it's definitely not my favourite topic :mad: I did a Japanese essay too and I (very briefly) looked through Literary Genre notes for English, I was planning on making notes on the skeleton for Biology but it didn't happen, maybe tomorrow

Edrees98

emersyn wrote: »

Got my Spanish mock back today very early - 83% in the written which I'm happy with (4 marks away from an A!!) but then I got 59% in the listening so my overall grade was down to 76%... May want to work on the listening
Started making notes for complex numbers today, it's definitely not my favourite topic :mad: I did a Japanese essay too and I (very briefly) looked through Literary Genre notes for English, I was planning on making notes on the skeleton for Biology but it didn't happen, maybe tomorrow

83 in Spanish written part is really good ! I found the aural for examcraft tough too, it was like chinese!

emersyn

Edrees98 wrote: »

83 in Spanish written part is really good ! I found the aural for examcraft tough too, it was like chinese!

Thank you! Yeah the listening was woeful :rolleyes: hopefully we get something better in June!

emersyn

I'm so angry why is the comparative even a thing why can't we just write about them separately why are the instructions so unclear what are we supposed to get out of this
90% in Japanese, 90% in Biology, 84% in Irish but that's OL so I won't be counting it (hopefully anyway!)

emersyn

No more mocks back yet
We're doing literary genre in English and it's definitely my favourite mode of the three, maybe I'll put together notes for it this week or maybe not
Finished and learned notes for the skeleton in biology
In the process of doing notes for families of organic compounds in chemistry bleaughh
Looked at Geibheann for Irish today also

emersyn

72% in Chemistry, I am happy with that considering a lot of the class failed!!
I am slowly but surely ploughing my way through notes for organic chemistry, I think I got the worst of it done today with the mechanisms for the monochlorination of methane/ethane

DublinArnie

emersyn wrote: »

I'm so angry why is the comparative even a thing why can't we just write about them separately why are the instructions so unclear what are we supposed to get out of this
90% in Japanese, 90% in Biology, 84% in Irish but that's OL so I won't be counting it (hopefully anyway!)

Japanese?! Wow! Do you do that outside school? Wish I picked up Japanese during TY two years ago.

emersyn

DublinArnie wrote: »

Japanese?! Wow! Do you do that outside school? Wish I picked up Japanese during TY two years ago.

No luckily my school has a Japanese teacher, I think there's only about 4 or 5 schools in the whole country that teach it! It's a really handy subject, the syllabus is tiny (we finished the textbook at Christmas) and once you learn the alphabets you can pretty much do half of the exam already - I don't know why there isn't a bigger demand for it, the A rate is usually around 35%! Really glad I'm able to do it in school

emersyn

Got the last of the mock results back, 545 points in total which I'm very happy with as my number one course is around 510-520.
I need to start working properly on English, I got a B3 in the mocks but I know I'm capable of an A1. My timing was atrocious which I should have foreseen in hindsight, I mean, I've done zero timed exam questions so I should probably start timing myself haha
Nearly done with organic chemistry, will be glad to finally put it to rest

DublinArnie

emersyn wrote: »

Got the last of the mock results back, 545 points in total which I'm very happy with as my number one course is around 510-520.
I need to start working properly on English, I got a B3 in the mocks but I know I'm capable of an A1. My timing was atrocious which I should have foreseen in hindsight, I mean, I've done zero timed exam questions so I should probably start timing myself haha
Nearly done with organic chemistry, will be glad to finally put it to rest

How did the maths go?

Edrees98

emersyn wrote: »

Got the last of the mock results back, 545 points in total which I'm very happy with as my number one course is around 510-520.
I need to start working properly on English, I got a B3 in the mocks but I know I'm capable of an A1. My timing was atrocious which I should have foreseen in hindsight, I mean, I've done zero timed exam questions so I should probably start timing myself haha
Nearly done with organic chemistry, will be glad to finally put it to rest

Wow congrats! Fantastic results !!!

emersyn

Edrees98 wrote: »

Wow congrats! Fantastic results !!!

Thank you! Really happy with them

emersyn

DublinArnie wrote: »

How did the maths go?

I got 62% which I'm delighted with, I was expecting to fail!!

siebey123

emersyn wrote: »

Got the last of the mock results back, 545 points in total which I'm very happy with as my number one course is around 510-520.
I need to start working properly on English, I got a B3 in the mocks but I know I'm capable of an A1. My timing was atrocious which I should have foreseen in hindsight, I mean, I've done zero timed exam questions so I should probably start timing myself haha
Nearly done with organic chemistry, will be glad to finally put it to rest

Congrats on your results! They're amazing! Keep it up

koolis02

Was it just me or was english marked super hard?? I'm usually an A1 student but only achieved a B2 in the mocks and that was the highest in my class.Normally there are 3-4 A1 students amongst us... I haven't heard of anyone getting an A1 in english so far

emersyn

koolis02 wrote: »

Was it just me or was english marked super hard?? I'm usually an A1 student but only achieved a B2 in the mocks and that was the highest in my class.Normally there are 3-4 A1 students amongst us... I haven't heard of anyone getting an A1 in english so far

Yeah our year's highest was a B2 too, they really took marks off for anything they could think of! I guess it's better to have a hard marker than an easy marker for the mocks though, I'm hoping we'll be luckier with the examiners for the real thing

DublinArnie

Oddly enough the highest in my year was also a B2 (me)! I'm usually a high C low B student so was fairly pleased.

emersyn

Today I did the scientific method, characteristics of life, food, ecology and viruses for Biology
Officially on Easter holidays, a big shout-out to not only Jesus but also St Patrick for having your celebrations so close together this year that the holidays are merged

emersyn

Looked over radioactivity, acids/bases and rates of reaction for Chemistry today as well as some experiments (shout-out to tsmguy for the motivation ). I think I might have to just call it a day and give up on the organic chem chapters, they're causing far too much trouble than they're worth

TSMGUY

I have to admit I dropped chem last year, it was just too stressful. Got an A2 in Bio and a B1 in physics but I knew I couldn't even scrape a D at honours chem so I dropped it 3 months before the exam to save face. I loved the easy little sub questions on Q5 about which scientist made this theory or another but every other question made my brain melt.

You're a better man than me!

emersyn

Maths: Revised proofs by induction and practised exam questions
English: Did a ton on of notes on Bishop, learned quotes for her poems, really hope she comes up
Biology: Learned notes on DNA/RNA, Genetic Crosses, Variation/Evolution and Genetic Engineering & did exam questions (albeit in my head)
Holiday?? What holiday

Edrees98

How do you study English emersyn? Like what notes did you make on Bishop today??

Thanks.

emersyn

Edrees98 wrote: »

How do you study English emersyn? Like what notes did you make on Bishop today??

Thanks.

For poetry, first of all I usually do a page of bullet points about the poet - their history, their inspirations etc. So for Bishop I wrote a little about how she had a really tumultuous childhood, how she loved to travel, how she loved art and painting and how she was inspired by artistic movements like Imagism and Surrealism as all of those aspects of her life are threaded into her poetry.
Then I do a page for each poem under the headings of Language and Theme, as they are the two things that generally get asked about in the poetry question. So for example for language 'Questions of Travel' I noted how she uses sensuous imagery, rhetorical questions and a conversational tone. I also write two or three key quotes from each poem. Then at the end I use one more page to do a summary of that poet, encompassing themes that are common among their poetry and their characteristic language/style.
Finally you should look at some past exam questions and put together some brainstorms/plans.
I hope this helps!:)

Edrees98

emersyn wrote: »

For poetry, first of all I usually do a page of bullet points about the poet - their history, their inspirations etc. So for Bishop I wrote a little about how she had a really tumultuous childhood, how she loved to travel, how she loved art and painting and how she was inspired by artistic movements like Imagism and Surrealism as all of those aspects of her life are threaded into her poetry.
Then I do a page for each poem under the headings of Language and Theme, as they are the two things that generally get asked about in the poetry question. So for example for language 'Questions of Travel' I noted how she uses sensuous imagery, rhetorical questions and a conversational tone. I also write two or three key quotes from each poem. Then at the end I use one more page to do a summary of that poet, encompassing themes that are common among their poetry and their characteristic language/style.
Finally you should look at some past exam questions and put together some brainstorms/plans.
I hope this helps!:)

Couldn't have asked for better advice! What sources do you use to formulate your notes. Like my teacher primarily reads from the This Is Poetry book and never discusses the poem in class!! Also, how long would this take you because I spend like a minimum of an hour attempting to make notes and they pretty much suck. Lastly, for King Lear, how so you study it and weekly how many hours do you spend on English a week and how do you break it down.


P.S sorry for all the questions, English isn't my strong point.

Thanks.

emersyn

Edrees98 wrote: »

Couldn't have asked for better advice! What sources do you use to formulate your notes. Like my teacher primarily reads from the This Is Poetry book and never discusses the poem in class!! Also, how long would this take you because I spend like a minimum of an hour attempting to make notes and they pretty much suck. Lastly, for King Lear, how so you study it and weekly how many hours do you spend on English a week and how do you break it down.


P.S sorry for all the questions, English isn't my strong point.

Thanks.

I use a combination of my poetry textbook (New Discovery), notes we get from the teacher, online research and my own personal interpretations/opinions. The best thing you can do is form your own opinions on each poem as it shows you have engaged with the poetry and put a lot of thought into it. I would usually spend about 20/30 minutes making notes for each poem.
For King Lear, our teacher gave out handouts very liberally covering major themes, characters and key scenes so I mostly use those for revision along with the educate.ie copy of the play as it has good notes, summaries and sample essays. If your teacher hasn't given you anything topics you should make notes on are themes (filial ingratitude, love, nihilism etc), personalities/motivations/actions of characters, key scenes (e.g. Gloucester being blinded), and stylistic features (e.g. imagery). There are lots of resources available online, as well as revision books. Also I would recommend watching a version of the play on Youtube or elsewhere if you haven't already.
I spend a lot less time on English than I should :rolleyes: there are a lot of weeks when I don't do anything (apart from the exam question that the teacher assigns most weeks). Ideally you should break it down by the number of marks assigned to each question (i.e. spend the most time on the composition, then the comparative, then King Lear...) However most people will spend a lot more time on Paper 2 as it seems to require a lot more work. So make sure you don't neglect Paper 1 - familiarise yourself with the layouts of each type of composition and try to work out which one you are most comfortable with before the exam.:)

Edrees98

Thanks a lot emerysn!! I really appreciate your advice and also for taking time out of your day to help me. I wish I had the same enthusiasm that you have about English. Let's see what happens tomorrow! By the way, if you ever have any queries I'm at your service!

DublinArnie

emersyn wrote: »

For poetry, first of all I usually do a page of bullet points about the poet - their history, their inspirations etc. So for Bishop I wrote a little about how she had a really tumultuous childhood, how she loved to travel, how she loved art and painting and how she was inspired by artistic movements like Imagism and Surrealism as all of those aspects of her life are threaded into her poetry.
Then I do a page for each poem under the headings of Language and Theme, as they are the two things that generally get asked about in the poetry question. So for example for language 'Questions of Travel' I noted how she uses sensuous imagery, rhetorical questions and a conversational tone. I also write two or three key quotes from each poem. Then at the end I use one more page to do a summary of that poet, encompassing themes that are common among their poetry and their characteristic language/style.
Finally you should look at some past exam questions and put together some brainstorms/plans.
I hope this helps!:)

Wouldn't learning two or three key quotes per poem limit you? I've got five quotes per poem, but granted a lot of them are two words or so.

Very structured method you have!

emersyn

DublinArnie wrote: »

Wouldn't learning two or three key quotes per poem limit you? I've got five quotes per poem, but granted a lot of them are two words or so.

Very structured method you have!

Ah sure it'll be grand :P thank you!

emersyn

haha been actively avoiding this page because I've done virtually nothing and I've had this constant feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach for weeks and it's getting pretty unbearable
Spanish: A few exam paper comprehensions
Chemistry: Started equilibrium notes, cried for a bit about the calculations
Maths: Half a differentiation exam question
English: Thought about how much I want to fight T.S. Eliot

emersyn

nearly one month later....
Maths: Started differentiation revision
Japanese: 2015 short essay question
Biology: Human reproduction notes and exam questions
English: Was planning on finishing my Yeats notes over the long weekend but I went and left everything in school so I started Dickinson notes using the internet

emersyn

I've done about 1000 maths questions over the last three days. My brain keeps trying to somehow factorise the letters out of words. I need to get the maths exam done this is ridiculous
Finished Yeats revision, started King Lear revision
Over the next week and a half I'm only going to study English, Maths and Biology as I have a whole free week between Biology and the rest of my exams, so I'll use that to study the last four

emersyn

Finished algebra and complex numbers today, probably my last revision of those topics before the exam
Started revising cultural context for English

emersyn

English: Finished cultural context revision, did some brainstorms for exam questions
Biology: Revised amoeba and diffusion/osmosis
My head feels like it's going to burst any minute, I would happily do every single exam tomorrow just to get them over and done with

TSMGUY

emersyn wrote: »

English: Finished cultural context revision, did some brainstorms for exam questions
Biology: Revised amoeba and diffusion/osmosis
My head feels like it's going to burst any minute, I would happily do every single exam tomorrow just to get them over and done with

Anyone who gives a damn about these exams feels the exact same way! I've literally had to do shadowboxing and jumping jacks to psyche myself up for more study. GETTING HARD NOW!!! WON'T BE LONG NOW!

emersyn

English: Revised literary genre for the comparative, really hope it comes up. I'm thinking I might just skim over GVV, it's my least favourite of the modes by far
Biology: Revised bacteria, fungi and viruses

emersyn

Maths: Did series/sequences, financial maths, theorems and constructions. I've covered all the paper 1 topics now apart from differentiation/integration
English: Revised the themes in King Lear
Still have to do differentiation/integration, Eliot/Dickinson/Plath, the rest of King Lear and maybe glance over general vision and viewpoint in case the worst comes to the worst. Will be tight but I think I'll be ok

Edrees98

Hello emersyn, how are you gearing up for Spanish?

emersyn

Edrees98 wrote: »

Hello emersyn, how are you gearing up for Spanish?

Kind of burnt out at this stage, I watched The Lion King in Spanish last night so that's gotta count for something I've been working fairly consistently throughout the year so thankfully I think I'll be fine as it's fairly hard to cram for a language, on the night before I'm going to look over my opinion pieces and hope for the best