English Paper 2

Eva

Higher Level

Ursuline Secondary School, Blackrock

Akeno

Higher Level

Coláiste an Chroí Naofa

What a day, to put it simply. I won't lie, I almost missed my exam today! My mother and I thought the exam started at 14h30, but in reality, it started at 14h00! By pure coincidence, I checked the schedule at 13h53… My jaw dropped. I shouted downstairs, and we were in the car at 13h54. Luckily, I arrived only one minute late. Thankfully, my supervisor shared the same look of relief that was plastered on my face. I'm writing this blog post almost five hours later, and it is still sinking in that I almost missed my second English exam. 

Besides all of that excitement, I was relieved when I saw Heaney, Plath, and Durcan in the Poetry section. I studied all three of these poets, so I was spoiled for choice! I quite liked the unseen poem, How to Construct an Albatross, by Louise Grieg. I thought it was an easy and enjoyable poem to answer questions on. I didn't do any Comparative Study questions but I did have a brief look through the cultural context part. The questions seemed quite doable and I was pleased with the great amount of choice. For the Single Text section, I answered a question regarding the Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear. Both of the questions were beyond manageable. One prompt was about the chaos of the play, but I answered a significantly different question. The question I answered consisted of a hypothetical situation where the Fool and Kent were emitted from the drama. This question caught my attention immediately, and I was delighted to ponder it. 

Despite the whirlwind of today, English Paper 2 went well. I think I got lucky with my choice of poets. I hope I'll be lucky for the rest of the Leaving Cert!

Eiman

Higher Level

Scoil Mhuire Community School

English exam is done and overall I’m quite happy. I chose to answer the Single Text on King Lear and Poetry. I think a lot of students would have been put off with the King Lear question asking to discuss the significance of Kent and the Fool. I had prepared a question on it as a similar question came up a few years ago also asking about the significance of two minor characters in Hamlet. So I found it quite doable and was able to use quotes I learnt off. 

For poetry, I was lucky that 4 out of 4 of my studied poets came up. All the Irish poets were my personal favourites and I opted for the Boland question to discuss narrative elements of her work to discuss a variety of themes. I find it hard to tell whether I’m being purposeful in my answer compared to King Lear essays so I can’t be too sure how I got on in the studied poetry section. However, I think the question was quite broad and straightforward compared to last year’s Boland question.

For unseen poetry, I normally never understand what the poem is about and the same can be said for this one titled “How to Construct an Albatross” by Louise Greig. I do think my waffling skills came in handy to conjure up an abstract response to the poem. 

Very glad my first subject is out of the way and happy that I liked both papers. I think I’m slightly more worried about Maths tomorrow!