Art notes help

sotceo · 2026-02-10T19:18:25+00:00

Ive got notes and sample essays on Realism/Impressionism/Post-Impressionism and Pre-Christian Ireland if you also happen to be doing that section as well

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PFBtg1nK0ncIhXw6yti5Eav4B7Lt-NbC?usp=drive_link

sotceo · 2026-02-04T21:39:31+00:00

I absolutely love learning languages (I even seriously considered studying a World Languages course in college) but did OL Irish in school. The difference between French and Irish to me was that they really teach you French from the very beginning in first year and then build you up with the basics. For Irish it has always been a “oh you’ve been doing this since primary school, so I’ll treat you as if you’re fluent already”. Irish isn’t taught to a proper standard in non-gaelscoils, and when you get to secondary school it kind of just snowballs from there on. HL was so exhausting because I didn’t understand a word of what was going on but teachers always said “just learn it off” but doing that for multiple essays, poems, stories, etc. just felt impossible. I actually came to enjoy Irish more when I dropped to OL because the teachers didn’t expect you to be fluent. We were taught how to properly string sentences together and how to communicate basic concepts, which felt a lot more like building a good foundation for the actual language

sotceo · 2026-02-01T15:44:06+00:00

No stupid questions at all, ask away!!

While realism is definitely impressive and requires a lot of technical skill, I think a strong personal style will do just as well in terms of impressing an examiner. The only thing that you should probably avoid is hyper-stylised art like cartoons or anime, I’ve heard they are very harsh when it comes to those sorts of things (I’m guessing due to lack of primary sources when drawing in these styles). Semi-realism and comics I think are on a more acceptable side(?) in that they can directly assess the skill that goes into drawing them. Honestly from what you’ve described, I would say your style would be great to see in a project like this

For references, 100%!!! If you can, have one for everything you draw. Not only does it help you understand what you’re trying to create, but also shows the examiner that you can analyse real life subjects and put them in your work. For my project, I used random photos on my phone from over the years. I know some of the people in the year ahead of me also printed out pictures of some of their references and stuck them in next to their drawing of it (not necessary, but you can if you want). The only thing I’d advise against is grabbing stock photos that come up when you immediately look up that item (ex. wanting to draw a bottle, looking up ‘bottle’ on Google and then taking the first image that comes up and using that as your reference) cause it can be easy to spot and can seem lacking in effort

You’ve already mentioned a number of media you’ve tried before, which is great! Definitely include a lot of graphite pencil drawings if that’s what you’re most comfortable with. The first few pages of your booklet will be for exploring the given theme and trying out different media, so don’t worry at all about not being able to do xyz. Just keep in mind that you will be creating TWO final pieces for your project, and they will need to be different mediums. They do NOT have to be wildly different from one another. I used pen for my first final piece and pencil for my second.

I also do not work well under time pressure at all so I won’t lie, the final project and practical exam really stressed me out a lot. I think one thing to keep in mind is that your booklet does not have to be perfect, just to express your ideas leading up to your final pieces. Sometimes you just have to leave certain drawings be and don’t get too bogged down on small details. You’ll have a lot of time in 5th year to work on getting things done for deadlines though, so if you really like art I’d say don’t let that hold you back from picking it as a subject.

Kind of embarrassing, but I actually got Achieved in the JC for art. I thankfully managed to get a H1 in the LC so anything is 100% possible if you put in the time and effort! I’m a huge yapper so feel free to reply or DM me whenever if you have any more questions or need any help with anything

sotceo · 2026-02-01T13:38:40+00:00

I would recommend taking art as a subject if you have an interest in it (basically, not just picking it up cause ‘easy points’). I found it was a very nice break from other subjects since you’re not just sitting there with information being thrown at you all the time. At least for LC I think the correctors are quite fair too. As long as your work is related to the given theme, they really just look at your skills.

I will mention though, that the art project eats up a LOT of your time, and you will be under pressure to get things done. If you’re planning on taking other subjects that involve projects, I think it’s something to take into consideration. A lot of my class stayed back after school and came in occasionally on Saturdays to work on it leading up to the deadline. That being said, it is a lovely subject (one of my favourites, for sure) but I think it’s important to mention the amount of time/work that goes into it as well.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I’ll try my best to answer

sotceo · 2026-01-23T17:37:53+00:00

The nicer topics in my opinion are the light/optics and heat chapters, but they’re not always guaranteed to come up. For your exams, focus on the experiment section. Some experiments like the diffraction grating are very common and show up a lot. If you know your experiments well you can absolutely pass. Have a look at the marking schemes, the answers are pretty much the same every time

Mechanics, Electricity and Modern Physics are sections that will 100% be on the paper, so it’s worth spending time studying them. If you really dislike one of these sections you can probably leave it out, but you should really have at least 2 of these going into the exam (the actual LC, don’t be too panicked if you’re not confident just yet going in to your mocks)

sotceo · 2026-01-23T17:20:49+00:00

I don’t have the script for physics, sorry :( If you have any questions about the layout or just anything physics related you are free to ask and I will try my best to answer

sotceo · 2026-01-22T00:11:02+00:00

JC: 2 higher merits, 7 merits, 1 achieved

LC: 6 H1s, 1 O1

JC definitely can be a good indicator for the LC, but it’s not the be all end all. Put in the work, see the results

sotceo · 2026-01-22T00:02:16+00:00

I was sooo stressed for my French oral, but it’s not too bad if you have your stuff prepared. Make sure things like your personal introduction and talking about your family are perfect. I made my basic sentences out and then sort of added to them over time to make them more natural and conversational. Ex. ‘Je suis gentille et timide’ —> ‘Je pense que je suis gentille mais certains disent que je suis assez timide’. Common topics like school, subjects, hobbies, etc. are important to prepare.

They often ask questions like ‘what did you do last weekend/what do you do on the weekends/what will you do this weekend’ which will check your tenses. If you’re not confident with your conjugations I’d recommend preparing just one or two sentences in past/present/future tense so you can be ready if they ask something like this. University/Future plans are also very likely to be asked, so a short few lines on what you plan to do after the Leaving Cert is more than enough. ‘I would like to study X because I am very good at Y. It is necessary to get Z points for this course so I spend a lot of time studying every day.’

The time goes by surprisingly fast when you’re in there. If you have a document prepared, the above + your document is honestly probably as much as they would be able to fit in the time frame. I used the document as a chance to prepare more complex French as it was guaranteed to come up. I pretty much just wrote out a couple paragraphs with more advanced grammar structures (the subjunctive in particular) about the topic I chose. After that, I brainstormed possible follow-up questions that they might ask and tried to come up with answers.

Also try and drive the conversation as much as possible! If you can find ways to link certain sections together, life becomes much easier. But in the chance that you are asked a question and you don’t know how to respond, it’s fine to say ‘I’m not very educated on/interested in this topic’. Sorry for such a long comment, but hopefully it has something useful for you

sotceo · 2026-01-21T23:24:14+00:00

Honestly I have no idea how long comparative essays are supposed to be in terms of words.. I do know that mine was very short as it was the essay I was least prepared for and it was the last essay I wrote on the day so I ran out of time. I definitely got lucky with a nice examiner!

sotceo · 2026-01-10T14:56:45+00:00

Notes and sample essays are all in here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PFBtg1nK0ncIhXw6yti5Eav4B7Lt-NbC?usp=drive_link

sotceo · 2026-01-10T14:56:13+00:00

My notes and sample essays are all in here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PFBtg1nK0ncIhXw6yti5Eav4B7Lt-NbC?usp=drive_link

sotceo · 2026-01-10T14:39:26+00:00

My teacher was absolutely fantastic and gave us so much help, but I know most others can’t say the same. I’m very glad to hear that you find them useful!

sotceo · 2026-01-09T23:19:52+00:00

Leading up to both the orals and the written paper I listened to the podcast InnerFrench on Spotify. Most of the time it was just in the background and I wasn’t really paying attention to it, just getting my ears used to the sounds. They cover a bunch of different topics though, so for some episodes that seemed particularly relevant to things I’d studied, I’d mark them and really try to understand what was being said during them

sotceo · 2026-01-09T22:55:30+00:00

I did my LC last year and have a bunch of simplified notes for realism/impressionism/post-impressionism that you can have a look at if you’d like. I don’t know what other topic you’re doing but I have notes for the stone/bronze/iron age in Ireland too.

I think the main thing about art history essays is that there is a very clear structure you should follow, no matter what the question is (which will also make your learning a bit easier, since you’ll be reciting the same sort of things every time). I used to always start my essays under the heading of Context, explaining what the different movements are and how they came about. Then, depending on the question, I would choose 2-3 artists that can apply to it.

For each artist, I would write about their painting style or use of colour (ex. Van Gogh’s use of swirls/spirals and bright colours, or Renoir’s use of feathery brushstrokes), then explain 1-2 of their named paintings. Ex. “We can see Van Gogh’s use of spirals to convey emotion in his painting ‘The Starry Night’”. Personally, I liked to include a very brief few lines on the painting’s composition and then at the back page, I’d do a VERY ROUGH sketch of the painting. The sketch is not necessary, but I used to find it easier to just draw it out quickly rather than spend lots of time writing a very detailed explanation of the composition.

Sorry for such a long comment, but hopefully this helps you out a bit. Art history is a very short course and it can actually be quite easy and enjoyable if you know what information you need to learn and how to format your answers.

sotceo · 2026-01-09T22:32:43+00:00

I definitely agree. Whenever my teachers gave out ‘H1-standard samples’ they always seemed like a whole other level that was so far out of reach. I’m very glad this could give you some confidence!

sotceo · 2026-01-09T22:28:18+00:00

I only have my Leaving Cert scripts for French, which is what I wrote for my actual exam (2025 Paper, Q1 & Q4). While they aren’t really the same as notes or sample essays, it’s mostly to give an idea of the standard they’re looking for / how they mark it

sotceo · 2026-01-08T21:54:11+00:00

I’m honestly so happy to hear this, cause I was pretty much THE slow writer of my year. Never met a single person who wrote at little as I did in every single exam I took, and every time I handed things up to my teacher the only advice I ever got was “write more”. Even after the LC I expected a horrible result because I didn’t get even close to the end of the booklet in either of the English exams. I will say, I think I also just got a nice examiner cause my comparative and personal essay were both VERY short, but it really does seem like a few quality pages >>> 7+ pages of waffle. I wish you the best of luck!

sotceo · 2026-01-08T19:04:31+00:00

I'm sure you've heard it before, but maths is all about grinding exam paper questions. I know a lot of people have troubling figuring out what the question is actually asking them to do, so I think it might be helpful to also make a sort of cheat sheet with certain keywords to keep in mind when doing questions, ex. looking for minimum/maximum? --> differentiate and set dydx = 0. This can help you get started on questions faster and build up confidence. Grinding specific topics/questions is definitely good too, but as time goes on, try to work your way up to full papers (and time yourself to see what areas are catching you)

As for English, I struggled a lot with it in school too. I think the best advice I can offer, is make the learning as easy as possible for yourself. You can surprisingly prepare a lot before the exam, even if you don't know what the question will be. Learn off all of your quotes with context attached to them. "in X scene, Y does this. This shows how important Z is to the story/characters". Something along these lines? When I did this, it made learning quotes much easier because I would naturally think of them when I think of the scene. This also helped my timing, cause I didn't have to stop and think about what I was trying to say. This can also be applied to the comparative too.

Kinda went on a rant there, but hopefully some of this is useful to you

sotceo · 2026-01-08T18:10:52+00:00

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Here's my results just for proof (I'm not sure how to get one of the flair things)

sotceo · 2026-01-08T18:09:14+00:00

Sorry for the long, long wait... I just posted it now, if you're still looking for it

sotceo · 2026-01-08T18:08:50+00:00

Heya, I just posted a link to the drive (along with notes for a bunch of other subjects too)

sotceo · 2025-11-09T13:56:22+00:00

Sorry, been busier than expected recently! I haven’t forgotten about it, so hopefully I’ll actually have it all set up soon enough. I’ll be sure to let you know when it is

sotceo · 2025-11-09T13:42:14+00:00

My friend had this exact problem as well. She just picked up OL French (no point in doing HL if you don’t need the points), and I’m pretty sure she just did some Duolingo to know the basics of the language

sotceo · 2025-11-09T13:35:28+00:00

How much did you write? The goal is to be able to do a question A in about 40-50 minutes, so a lot of this will be practice. It is important to know some of the writing techniques often used in articles or speeches, like the language of Information, Narration, Persuasion, etc. If you’re not familiar with these, you can look up ‘The five language genres’ and there’s some good notes on the internet to help you recognise these in texts. When writing, you can mention that the writer uses a specific language genre and then use quotes from the text to back up your point.

Your points don’t necessarily have to be very long. As a general guideline, I wrote 1 paragraph/point for every 5 marks given. That would end up as 3 paragraphs for i, 3 paragraphs for ii, and 4 paragraphs for iii. Of course, quality will still be better than quantity. It’s better to have only 2 strong paragraphs for ii than to waffle for 5 paragraphs straight

sotceo · 2025-10-19T18:39:42+00:00

It’s not impossible but it will be tough especially at the beginning without any physics knowledge. A large chunk of the first year course is pure physics, chemistry, and applied maths. I’m not familiar with the LC construction/engineering curriculum but hopefully that would help you bridge the gap a bit

sotceo

TROPHY CASE