How are you feeling?

*Angel*

As the leaving cert is drawing closer , how is everyone feeling? I for one at the start of 6th year never thought I would be in such a mess, after the mocks I just couldn't study and now it just seems like to much to cover. I also think the stress is starting to kick in, with the hockey season over I now don't feel like I have time for sport after school and I always find it a good stress reliever.

Another questions do you now think that you'll get the points in the LC that you thought you would at the start of this year?

honru

Once I finish my Irish oral and Music practical, heavy study I go. I'll slow down once the Art practical begins but after that I still should be on track.

The good thing is, besides Irish, I like all the subjects I'm doing, so it is possible for me to get into studying them (only want to pass Irish anyway). The real hurdle for me is going to be Tech Drawing, hoping to scrape a B3 in June.

At the start of the year I was hoping to get anywhere between 475 and 500. That's now dropped to between 450 and 500.

*Angel*

Out of interest what subjects do you study? Luckily I'm really good at 3 of my subjects (A1s), quite good at another, but I risk failing French and I'm not great at English.

Tech Drawing is something I always had a knack for, I find that listing the possible questions for each topic is a good idea, so you know what possible questions could be asked. I still haven't finished the course though, even though I've got enough 4 questions on each paper.

honru

English, Art, Italian, Music and Tech Drawing at Higher, Maths and Irish at pass.

My problem with Tech Drawing is that I don't have the patience for it. Once I get studying I know I'm commiting myself to be there for, say, an hour just to practice one question. It's a subject I can enjoy though.
We've finished the course, so I'm just going to really make use of all this revision and get some study done. I'm so rusty on Paper 1.

*Angel*

Yeah they do take too long, and I find it annoying having to clear my desk and all. I always listen to music though whenever I do TD it puts me more in the mood then.

Scarinae

Ummm well I wish I'd listened to all those people who said "Make sure to start studying in fifth year, or at latest at the beginning of 6th year, and you'll be stress free". I no feel like saying that to all the current 4th and 5th years. I feel like I'm going to DIE. I haven't done any work at all and now I've got less than two months left... Ok, so I pick up stuff in class, but now I've got seven higher level subjects to cover completely and I've no idea where to start. I'd say I'm fine for Biology and English, hoping to get A1s in those, and maybe I'll be ok in Classics... But I'm aiming for 560 at least, cos that's the points requirement for my course, and I can't see it happening. Basically once my Irish oral is done I'm not going to be able to go out anywhere for seven weeks or whatever it is until the Leaving starts. Arrrghhh I can't believe I let myself do this, I'm such a procrastinating disaster...

RagShagBill

How many hours are you guys putting in each night? I'm in fifth year now, and trying to follow that advice about starting in fifth year. At the moment I'm doign 3 hours most nights, at least 2 hours every night. Hoping for around 510.

grimloch

fair play for your motivation i must say, im in fifth now and i should start getting some good ground work done to help me next year

id be very interested to find out how long people are putting in

the smiley one

I personally am getting the odd panic attack (when I say the odd I mean probably about two in total) but its just cause all these fookin teachers were giving us LOTS of tests the weeks of the orals. And I know they are only class tests and don't mean anything but I did waaaay worse than i would normally do and just felt disheartened............... (yes i know i should have be doing other subjects anyway......in an ideal world.........)

Now I'm just trying to focus, to you the truth I don't really have a "time" which I do every night. I actually end up doing between 2-3 hours every week day and more on weekends (but not too much more....) I know people who are like WORK WORK WORK OHMYGODTHELCISONLY6.5WEEKSAWAYAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! But i am not one of those.....going camping overnight and into town next week - me needs a break!!!

*Angel*

You sound to me like you're studying quite a bit of the time, enough in my opinion. You're right the teachers are piling on the tests and I just feel like I have too much to do.

I'm feeling like I could do with another year of study. I'm also feeling like teachers cared more when it was the junior cert, for some reason. They're not even trying.

grimloch

theyre probably expecing you to study yourself without them telling you to

Shyster

i suppose in juniorr cert we didnt care and the teachers did, but now when we actually do care how we do, it seems like the teachers dont.

Dinxminx

I was hysterical after my irish oral. HYSTERICAL. Saying it went badly is an understatement. A HUUUGE understatement. MASSIVE.

Anyway kind of more relaxed now but I wish we didn't have classes and just had study time instead all day every day, coz I seriously haven't started studying yet.

And I'm not one of those (REALLY ANNOYING) people who say they haven't studied but are actually learning their courses off-by-heart for the third time; I actually have not started studying for my leaving cert.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Scarinae

Dinxminx wrote:

And I'm not one of those (REALLY ANNOYING) people who say they haven't studied but are actually learning their courses off-by-heart for the third time; I actually have not started studying for my leaving cert.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Don't worry yet. Worrying is just counter-productive. Tonight, make out a study plan and tomorrow, start sticking to it. You'll be surprised by how much you can get done. My study plan has me trying to get everything covered by the day we finish school, so I can spend my study leave just going over everything again

*Angel*

Does anyone else feel like it would be more worthwhile staying home from school to study, cos most of the classes are just revising and you'd get extra time at home.

Rredwell

Fishie wrote:

Tonight, make out a study plan and tomorrow, start sticking to it.

What would your advice for a study plan be, Fishie? CVurrently I am doing 2.5 hours an evening in school (supervised study), but have yet to get into the routine of studying at home. But will start this evening.

Jane Doe

What really bugs me is that we're expected to do so many hours of study a day yet we get homework every night that takes hours. Not to mind the fact that we have tests every day! Tomorrow i have four tests and i got three essays for the weekend! I mean come on! I find it impossible to motivate myself to study but it's made worse by the fact that I don't even have time to study! Maybe i should just give up eating or try and get by on four hours sleep a night.......

Scarinae

Rredwell wrote:

What would your advice for a study plan be, Fishie?

Well I have different systems depending on the subject. For something like Maths, I think it's best to practice doing as many questions as possible - you can't just read the chapters.
A successful system I've got going for Biology and Chemistry, which would work for many other information-regurgitating subjects, is quizzing with a friend - work out a timtable between you and study the relevant chapters on your own, then get together and quiz each other on stuff like definitions. I find that works so much better than trying to study alone, because it's easy to get lazy; when someone else is depending on you you've no excuse!
For essay-type subjects like History and Classical Studies, take past exam questions and write out in point form what bits would be useful for that answer, then read over those sections to make sure you know them. Write out the odd essay to hand in to your teacher, but it's a waste of time doing that with every question. It's also handy to compare this with a friend who's doing the same subject - they may have come up with different points, so you'll both benefit from this.
As for languages, I'm not sure on the best way - I find them very difficult to study. Everyone's done their orals now so I guess identify your weak points. If it's verbs, go and learn them! If it's the aural, get a tape off your teacher and practice at home. for Irish, identify the most common questions on the poems and prose and make sure you can answer them, and for the essays, the best way is probably to write out all the main ones and get your teacher to correct them.
My intensive study plan will have me finished the courses by the time I leave school, so if I find any major problems I'm still able to ask my teachers about them.
I hope that helps a bit!

Scarinae

*Angel* wrote:

Does anyone else feel like it would be more worthwhile staying home from school to study, cos most of the classes are just revising and you'd get extra time at home.

Well, yes and no! Yes because you're right, a lot of what we're doing in class right now is a waste of time, and no because I find it hard to motivate myself at home - I could bum around until 3pm before I get round to doing anything! Ideal for me would be going into school and studying, but not having any classes

Rredwell

Thanks for the advice!

That's pretty much what I am doing in Maths. As for Biology, I read that tip somewhere else - possibly the Independent's supplement.

I finally finished my research topic in History the other day. Now all I have to do is practice re-writing it for the next 6 weeks. And I wish our teacher would ask us to ease off on the exams and concentrate on the oints required for each question. But then again we have good revision classes. We alternate between 2 European and 1 Irish, and 1 European and 2 Irish, every week, and we brainstorm for ideas.

English is annoying- we have a really bad teacher who did not start essays with us until after the mocks (and even then only gave us handouts). I know a lot of it is personal style and all, but surely there is a certain amount of technique?

I think Bio and History are my biggst worries, as they involve so much information.

Again, thanks for the advice, Fishie. I really should go home and start studying now...

RagShagBill

Yeah, I'll take that advice too fishie, I'm only in fifth year, but summer tests are on the way and it can't hurt to do well in them.

*Angel*

Fishie wrote:

Ideal for me would be going into school and studying, but not having any classes

Same here!

Camogie Playa

Yes id love to study instead of going to classes, because between sooo much writing homework you hardly have anytime to do learning at home!!I just realised to day we have what, 5 weeks left!!And whats the deal with having to write essays, it all depends on the day with essays, i see no point practising them.

Scarinae

Camogie Playa wrote:

And whats the deal with having to write essays, it all depends on the day with essays, i see no point practising them.

Well it's more so your teacher can point out things you really shouldn't be doing in an essay, and let you know about your common spelling mistakes. There's a few things that I kept doing in essays that my teacher has managed to stop me from doing! I agree with you from the point of view that it's a bit of a waste of time at this stage... My English teacher had us doing an essay every week all through fifth year andfor the first part of sixth year... Found it really irritating at the time, but now I'm really glad he did that