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Are there any sites that give tips to wayward/distracted students as to how to organise/plan their study time? - Dara Lynch, via e-mail.
This question, as well as reminding of my own Leaving Cert, had me intrigued, and as it had "Study Tips" in the about line of the e-mail, I decided to see if there is a studytips.com/ org/net. The .com version does not exist but both org and net feature the phrase "TechHeaven, Your Premier Solutions Provider!" And that's it, there's nothing else. But now those useful domain names are gone, and, presumably, available for a small fortune from whoever owns studytips.org/net.
There are no sites I can find that specifically cater for distracted students (if anyone knows of any let me know and I will forward the information to Dara), but there are plenty that should be of some use.
Pass The Leaving (www. passtheleaving.com) promises to help "relieve your exam stress" and the site should be fully functional with live tutorials, subject-based discussions, revision aids and a live teacher-manned helpdesk by the time you read this. They aim to provide a free back-up educational service to "Leaving Certificate students, who are suffering over the Teacher's Pay Dispute".
Top Study (www.topstudy. com) is marketing an online study and revision tool for the new Leaving Cert higher-level English poetry syllabus, and it is not free. However, they also have past papers and tips available free in English, Irish, maths, biology, chemistry and geography. The maths ones are particularly excellent and helpful.
Also good for maths is a new site (http://www.iol.ie/
stjoeys/Publish/index.html by Michael Timmons, a maths teacher in St Joseph's CBS, Fairview, Dublin. The site is still under construction, but already has quite a lot of information, with past papers and suggested solutions.
You can also order some past papers online from the Tipperary-based Educational Equipment Company (www. educationalequipment.ie).
Meanwhile, Leaving Cert Solutions (www. leavingcertsolutions.com), says that it "provides preparation exams with complete solutions to students wishing to maximise their leaving cert exams scores." It also says that it has "high-profile teachers preparing all solutions with an eye for how students can improve their score". That's a lot of claims, but people doing the Leaving this year will be better able to see if it lives up to its promise than I would.
The www.leavingcert.net site is also helpful for anyone studying for the Leaving this year (particularly with all the extra pressure added due to the teacher's strike). Finally, you can always find the most up-to-date coverage of educational issues on Tuesdays in this supplement and on the web at www. ireland.com/education/el