How To Get A H1 In Leaving Cert Maths

We have teamed up with Cathal our Maths grinds teacher to put together a few pieces of advice to help you get a H1 in Leaving Cert Maths.

Maths is a subject that is practised NOT studied

Do not think that because you have a set of “notes” that you are sorted. 
Practice, practice, practice, especially past exam questions by topic. When you’ve exhausted that, move on to past mock questions. Students are often caught off guard at mock time that they are ill-prepared and that these styles of questions are different from their textbook. Another idea is to meet up with similarly driven students from your class at weekends/school holidays and practice together. Students often learn more from their peers than teachers. 
When it comes to developing your problem solving, make mistakes……then make better mistakes. The growth is in the struggle. 

Log Tables

…….are your friend. Give them time and attention during the school year and you’ll be rewarded at exam time. Put your textbook to the side and practice finding where formulas are in the log tables. 
When stuck on a question, you don’t have to know where every single formula is but be proactive and go to the contents page at the start to have a look if there is a formula/rule there that can help you. Don’t stare at a blank answer sheet and do nothing. Indecisiveness is not your friend.

Diagrams 

Following the last point, whether stuck on a question or just starting it….a half-decent diagram sketched out can make the world of difference, especially with wordy questions. A picture tells a thousand words. Using colours and your own numbering/annotation system can make the questions your own. 

Geogebra

an underused resource, play around with this free app/website at home or on your phone in class (with teachers permission) and you will have a much better visual grasp of functions, quadratic/cubic equations, roots etc. This will also then aid in sketching diagrams to help problem solve. 

Algebra

……..is used in every topic so you need to be comfortable with it. Particularly quadratic/cubic equations, they pop up everywhere and you need to be able to solve them in your sleep. If you struggle with this, you will struggle throughout. Ask different teachers for different methods until you find one you’re happy with. 

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