Histoire
12
The expert
HISTORY
LEAVING CERT STUDY GUIDE
Monday, January 28, 2008
Susan Cashell teaches senior history in the Institute of Education. She is an experienced examiner at Leaving Certificate level and has given lectures to the History Teachers’ Association. She is giving a lecture entitled “The marking scheme and how to improve your grade” as part of the HTAI conference for sixth years on Saturday, March 8th in the Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Registration is at 9.30am on a first come, first served basis.
Making the most of the mock exam
You may not have studied your entire course but this is a great opportunity to learn about exam format and your stamina. This could be the hall where you are going to sit the Leaving Certificate so anything that familiarises you and takes away the nerves of the real exam is valuable. Do not bring fizzy drinks to your exam; if you need a drink it should be water. Remember the toilet breaks in the Leaving Cert mean that the supervisor has to stamp your exam paper with the time you leave and it all has to be done again when you return – what a waste of valuable writing time. The key to using this opportunity is time management. Spend about 42 minutes per question and no more, or else you will endanger your mark on the next question. Danger areas include: ◆ Spending too long on the first part of the document, ie the three Cs, and not having enough time for the contextualisation; ◆ overwriting on one essay; ◆ no elaborate plans – you do not get any marks for plans unless there is something in them that is not in your essay. Remember, it’s unlikely that you will get full marks for any essay so leave a page and come back if you have time at the end. Also, any essay question that has two sections does not have to be dealt with evenly; you can get up to 50 marks on the cumulative marks (CM) for dealing with one part of a question, but both parts must be mentioned. For example, if the question is on Anglo Irish relations
The expert
HISTORY
LEAVING CERT STUDY GUIDE
Monday, January 28, 2008
Susan Cashell teaches senior history in the Institute of Education. She is an experienced examiner at Leaving Certificate level and has given lectures to the History Teachers’ Association. She is giving a lecture entitled “The marking scheme and how to improve your grade” as part of the HTAI conference for sixth years on Saturday, March 8th in the Burke Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Registration is at 9.30am on a first come, first served basis.
Making the most of the mock exam
You may not have studied your entire course but this is a great opportunity to learn about exam format and your stamina. This could be the hall where you are going to sit the Leaving Certificate so anything that familiarises you and takes away the nerves of the real exam is valuable. Do not bring fizzy drinks to your exam; if you need a drink it should be water. Remember the toilet breaks in the Leaving Cert mean that the supervisor has to stamp your exam paper with the time you leave and it all has to be done again when you return – what a waste of valuable writing time. The key to using this opportunity is time management. Spend about 42 minutes per question and no more, or else you will endanger your mark on the next question. Danger areas include: ◆ Spending too long on the first part of the document, ie the three Cs, and not having enough time for the contextualisation; ◆ overwriting on one essay; ◆ no elaborate plans – you do not get any marks for plans unless there is something in them that is not in your essay. Remember, it’s unlikely that you will get full marks for any essay so leave a page and come back if you have time at the end. Also, any essay question that has two sections does not have to be dealt with evenly; you can get up to 50 marks on the cumulative marks (CM) for dealing with one part of a question, but both parts must be mentioned. For example, if the question is on Anglo Irish relations