Getting an A1 in home ec

MissCupcake

is it possible to get an A1/H1 in leaving cert home ec? I know that only a small percentage do. Did anyone on here get one, and does anybody have any tips? thanks

happywithlife

Obviously it is possible but requires a lot of hard work. It also requires a H1 in the journal. Personally as a teacher who has corrected higher level in the past I would say you need to know every nitty gritty detail for the short questions - practice those repeatedly as I feel people forget to practice them. Do ord level short questions too for revision. Make sure to lay your answers out in neat precise points - bullet point format is repeatedly suggested as best practice in chief examiners reports - a bullet point may still be several sentences long but will avoid waffle. Identify your point, explain it, and give an example to link it back to the question. Obviously read questions carefully and make sure you are answering correctly. If doing social questions make sure to finish your point with a reference back to the question to make sure you it the nail on the head. Discuss the 'discuss' questions - really tease out your answer. Use your common sense - I've seen people to box clever so to speak and pick up marks because of how they've phrased their question. And equally I've seen good students loose marks because they didn't fully round off their point. Happens for example in the last part of the compulsory question. Oh and for heavens sake link your points together! It's so frustrating in a nutrition question for example to get all the information on say each nutrient and then the functions are written as a paragraph afterwards - correctors won't link the information up esp in question 1 so when you talk about a nutrient do its function there and then too. If doing a nutritive and dietetic value question and you feel you need to repeat information my advice would be err on the side of caution and repeat for example the function of the nutrient as each point is marked separately.
Keep a tight eye on time. I think most start with short questions but bear in mind to move on quickly. Then do your elective and compulsory question in whatever order you're most comfortable with. Finish with the two fifty mark questions in section b. If time does run out, pause and write down all the headings for each part left to do leaving loads of room in between. Identify your points in bullet points under every heading. Then go back and put in two or three key words for every point. You won't have time to write full sentences but you are better off picking up a load of marks for identifying your points then panicking and just writing one full point under one heading.
All that is just my own opinion of course. Listen to your teacher. Look at what feedback you've been getting on your tests and homework - are you routinely falling down on any one type of question? Are you always being told to expand answers more? Or use bullet points? Etc
Hope this helps! Best of luck.

MissCupcake

happywithlife wrote: »

Obviously it is possible but requires a lot of hard work. It also requires a H1 in the journal. Personally as a teacher who has corrected higher level in the past I would say you need to know every nitty gritty detail for the short questions - practice those repeatedly as I feel people forget to practice them. Do ord level short questions too for revision. Make sure to lay your answers out in neat precise points - bullet point format is repeatedly suggested as best practice in chief examiners reports - a bullet point may still be several sentences long but will avoid waffle. Identify your point, explain it, and give an example to link it back to the question. Obviously read questions carefully and make sure you are answering correctly. If doing social questions make sure to finish your point with a reference back to the question to make sure you it the nail on the head. Discuss the 'discuss' questions - really tease out your answer. Use your common sense - I've seen people to box clever so to speak and pick up marks because of how they've phrased their question. And equally I've seen good students loose marks because they didn't fully round off their point. Happens for example in the last part of the compulsory question. Oh and for heavens sake link your points together! It's so frustrating in a nutrition question for example to get all the information on say each nutrient and then the functions are written as a paragraph afterwards - correctors won't link the information up esp in question 1 so when you talk about a nutrient do its function there and then too. If doing a nutritive and dietetic value question and you feel you need to repeat information my advice would be err on the side of caution and repeat for example the function of the nutrient as each point is marked separately.
Keep a tight eye on time. I think most start with short questions but bear in mind to move on quickly. Then do your elective and compulsory question in whatever order you're most comfortable with. Finish with the two fifty mark questions in section b. If time does run out, pause and write down all the headings for each part left to do leaving loads of room in between. Identify your points in bullet points under every heading. Then go back and put in two or three key words for every point. You won't have time to write full sentences but you are better off picking up a load of marks for identifying your points then panicking and just writing one full point under one heading.
All that is just my own opinion of course. Listen to your teacher. Look at what feedback you've been getting on your tests and homework - are you routinely falling down on any one type of question? Are you always being told to expand answers more? Or use bullet points? Etc
Hope this helps! Best of luck.

Thanks a mil for all the advice, really appreciate it! I'm doing home ec as an extra subject, but I did my journals with a teacher. I had them checked by my teacher and a past exam corrector, so i'm hoping i've gotten an A1 in those- my teacher thinks so anyways. You're completely right about the short questions. I got 87% in my pre- lost the marks on the short questions so its clear thats where I need to practise. What do you think about doing a table to answer the compulsory question? thanks again!

Vilas

Definitely possible. I'm pretty lazy so I ended up studying just the day before and got a B2. Mind you that I also absolutely hated the subject and only joined it in fifth year, no prior experience. If you actually give it a bit of study you'll get your H1 easy.

happywithlife

Doing the table ensures you stick to the formula or template as it can get a bit repetitive as you go through it. Say part a requires 5 points; in my experience students get full marks in their first two points but then start loosing marks as they forget to link functions or whatever to their point. You must keep referring back to the question.
Print out the short questions and do in bulk and you will see the repetition and sequence of questions. Do each set several times and you will keep improving.