My Tips

Here are a few tips which I found helped me out a lot during the Leaving Cert…

Highlight – you know all of them books in your locker, bag and floating about your room? Probably about 20 including exam papers and all of that craic. Say every book averages 150 pages, that’s 3000 pages of info… Let me tell you, come June, the last thing you’ll want to do is trawl through that lot. Take my advice; highlight the main points on a page, maybe just a few words. We only retain about 10% of what we read so we want to be reading useful stuff and not pages of crap or padded waffle.

Scan – unless you’re a geek who gets a kick out of reading books, you must scan pages quickly in order to stop your mind from getting bored or fed up. I hate reading, so in order to digest info in books; I quickly scanned pages looking at headings, key points and any diagrams available. This keeps your mind interested and ensures you don’t get bogged down reading boring black and white text – line after line.

Test Yourself – lets not fool ourselves here, there’s no point in looking at books or the internet unless you actually learn something from it. Therefore you must say to yourself ‘what did I learn from that chapter?’ or ‘am I smarter than I was 5 minutes ago?’ Learning is a three step process – observe, think, form an opinion. Unfortunately, large chunks of the Leaving Cert are just read and memorize, however what sets you apart from the rest is YOUR opinions, YOUR ideas and suggestions. However, make sure you have a sound knowledge of a subject before you go and form an opinion of it.

Sleep – it’s simple I know, but a good night’s sleep can make the world of a difference. I, myself didn’t sleep much mainly due to the fact I had a part-time job, full time girlfriend 😉 , piles of homework and this dam addictive thing you’re on at the minute – the internet. For me, it was all work and no play. Granted, I had plenty of cash coming in but boy was it tough going. I know you’ve heard it all before from parents/ teachers etc… But you need all the time you can get; try and quit any time consuming jobs or sports etc… If you’re after big points.

Keep Clean Notes – it’s simple. Everyone likes clean, neat and tidy notes with plenty of colour and a few diagrams here and there. Highlight key words and use different colour pens for headings etc… It makes the world of difference when you go to revise. I used to type out notes on ms word once in a while as my handwriting was diabolical. i had about 5 English books and a few copies full of notes and my own work and guess what i was studying the night before English – the 4 or 5 pages I’d typed out on microsoft word. That says it all.

Cheat – yeah I know, not what you were expecting?! Well I’m just like you; I’ll take shortcuts when necessary. Say you’ve an English essay due up on Monday morning. It’s Sunday night, you’ve been away all weekend, you panic and decide whether to stay up all night writing it or go with “I can’t find it, I must have left it at home”, praying to god you’ll get away with it. Well I’ve got a better solution – steal it from the net. That way, you have peace of mind that you’ve done it and it keeps you teacher happy also. The point I’m making here is that you don’t get on the wrong side of your teacher, you don’t exhaust yourself staying up all night and you don’t dent your confidence. Don’t make it a habit though.

Summarize – it’s no good reading a 300 page novel if you can’t remember the storyline. I suggest you grab a 1 page summary off the net and read it thoroughly as it will prove far more valuable than the novel itself (plus it reduces your workload). In every subject you should summarize chapters and stories down to only a page or two and come June, life will be so much easier for you.

Study Past Exam Papers – this is probably the most useful advice i can give to you. It might sound stupid, but I reckon you could pass any subject if you simply studied the questions asked in previous years. They tend not to change that much and in some cases, don’t change at all. Forget the textbooks and revision guides, just study the exam papers and the kind of questions asked. You’ll then be prepared to tackle an exam with confidence and won’t be wondering what combination of questions you have to answer on the day.

Stick Religiously to Deadlines – this sort of links in with cheating. I can’t stress enough how important it is to meet deadlines for homework, projects etc.. The last thing you want or need is a build-up of work on your desk or more importantly your mind. If you keep up with work (even if it’s by cheating), you’ll have a much healthier, lighter mind. This is crucial in my opinion, that’s why I’ve a separate page dedicated to it (time management).

Be Confident – confidence can make a huge difference points-wise. Allow me to demonstrate:

Student 1 “Ireland was formed millions of years ago underneath the sea which led to limestone rock in Ireland today as we know it”.

Student 2 “The island of Ireland was formed 789 million years ago in the southern hemisphere, a few degrees south of equator. However it was formed approximately 15000 meters below sea level, which tells us this is how Ireland’s limestone rock came about”

I’m student 2 by the way 🙂 is that true? Hell, i don’t have a clue! But what sad person is actually going to check if it is or not. If the stats LOOK right, you’ll get the benefit of the doubt. Add in all sorts of facts and figures which look right, it’ll set you apart from the guy sitting next to you (student 1).