Two students in Tipperary have distilled the Junior Cert science syllabus into a new revision book, and it's selling like hot cakes, writes JOHN HOLDEN.

THE TY mini company “Get Up and Go” National Finals took place yesterday. This project has always been popular in schools and has been the motivation for some impressive start-ups over the years.

Last year, two students from the Cistercian College Roscrea, Co Tipperary used the competition to compile a new science book for the Junior Cert. So far their venture has continued on an upward spiral with sales of the book already in the hundreds. Entitled Quick Questions and Accurate Answers, the revision guide has become so popular that the students now plan to sell it nationwide.

“We realised its potential early on,” explains Kevin Ryan (17), now in fifth year in the Cistercian College Roscrea. “There was so much interest in our own school. Most of the junior cert year took it on. So we have now decided to take a nationwide approach.”

That means getting the word out to as many schools as possible. How is that done? Well you start by getting the attention of local media outlets and then go from there. “We’ve had a huge response from schools in the surrounding area and it’s already in about 10 bookshops,” explains co-author Emmet Ryan (17). “In order to do that we sent letters to other schools, went on some local radio stations and did interviews with newspapers.” All in all, they have sold about 700 copies of the book, and at €10 a copy, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how well they’re doing.

It does, however, require a lot of smarts to put together a science revision book that can compete with the others already out there. The two boys believe they have an advantage over their competitors. “Nobody can understand better the areas hardest for students to grasp than students themselves,” says Emmet. “Teachers, who generally write textbooks, have degrees and masters in their fields, so it’s sometimes difficult for them to reproduce information in a way students will be able to understand. Our book is written in a very simple format: short questions and short answers in biology, physics and chemistry.”

Quick Questions and Accurate Answersis divided into the three main science subject sections, with several subsections in each. Each of these is conveniently equipped with a doodle box and some reminder questions from the previous section, just in case you weren't paying attention.

“Junior Cert textbooks changed to adapt to the needs of the new science syllabus but the format hasn’t,” says Kevin. “The information has been updated but the bulky layout remains. You still have to plow through loads of text to get the information you need, even though the exam is short questions. I went to a revision course in first year and learnt the best way to study is to constantly test yourself with brief questions and answers.”

"There is already a number of science revision books out there," adds Kevin. "But a lot of them are not that much shorter than the textbooks themselves. You could read Quick Questions and Accurate Answersin a couple of hours."

The confidence to compete with your teachers doesn’t come lightly. The two students have had to make absolutely sure everything that went into the book is factually and grammatically correct. “For our own Junior Cert exams we had compiled lots of notes in second and third year, says Emmet. “So we started by writing them out together, typing them up and sending them out to everyone in the school. But before we did this, it was imperative we double-checked with our science teacher that all the info was correct. Then, when we decided to turn it into a book, we got our English teacher to check for errors also. When you work on a project for so long, you tend to start missing the mistakes.”

NOT SATISFIED WITH just getting the book out there, the two entrepreneurs did some market research in their school among Junior Cert students and their teachers. “Students were generally positive about the book, saying they found it easier to study from, while teachers said it was good to work from,” says Emmet. “If a student isn’t going to study, he won’t study no matter how many revision books you give him. But those who would said they had something very straightforward to work from.”

The simple format of the book gives parents the opportunity to help their kids revise without feeling like an eejit. “I remember I used to hand my parents my textbook and ask them to quiz me,” says Kevin. “But they didn’t have any proper knowledge of science so couldn’t be much help. With the revision book, parents have actual questions and answers in front of them.”

Are there plans for more books after this one? “We have had to self-publish the science book and put a lot of our own money and time into it,” says Kevin. “We are in the process of setting up a website to help sales and we need to see how that all goes. But we do already have a business studies book written and we have plans for a Leaving Cert science revision book when we’ve finished that syllabus.”

Precocious kids Child prodigies who dazzled in their chosen fields

American biologist Mark Jay Sheridanreceived his first scholarship to the California Institute of Technology at age 13 and by 17 had already completed his Ph.D. Chinese physicist Kim Ung-Yongattended university physics courses at age 4, and had his PhD in physics completed before turning 15. No doubt it helped he had an IQ of over 210.

British philosopher John Stuart Millspoke several languages, both ancient and modern, fluently by age eight and was already well educated in philosophy at age 12. He even used to engage in debates with the fathers of utilitarianism (one of which was his own father), James Mill and Jeremy Bentham.

Snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivanscored his first century break at aged 10, his first maximum break at 15 and was the youngest-ever winner of a ranking event at aged 17. Tiger Woodswas playing golf while still in nappies and won the World Junior Championships when he was just eight.

In 1973 Tatum O'Nealwon the Best Supporting Actress at age 10 for her role in Paper Moon. She was the youngest person ever to win a regularly awarded Oscar.

The music world has many child prodigies from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was composing music and performing before royalty at age five, to Stevie Wonder, who signed to Motown Records at age 11 and had his first US number one hit at age 13.

Jazz legend Herbie Hancockperformed on piano with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when he was only 11. In more recent times, Icelandic singer, composer and actor Bjorkis reported to have been already studying classical music when she was five. She then went on to release her first solo album at age 11. Soon after she formed an all-girl punk band called Spit and Snot. The rest, as they say, is history.