Junior Cert English
Sophie - Higher Level
Today was the first state exam that I have ever sat. To be honest I wasn't exactly calm, despite all the “Best of Luck’s” I had received beforehand. English is not my best subject, but, of what I wrote I was pretty happy.I found paper 1 harder, which surprised me. I did not have a lot to write in one of the reading questions. But it wasn't too bad, I’m sure I made up for it in the Personal Writing section. I thought we got really good topics this year, in terms of personal writing. I wrote “A Moment of Sheer Madness”. I Would have liked to write more but, I was very conscious of the time I was spending. Section 3, I found okay, but in comparison to the topics in personal writing, they were a little boring.Finally media studies, I was happy with the media studies questions. I had a lot to write about, but my worst nightmare come true. I ran out of time and paper mid-sentence. Although I didn't finish, the exam couldn’t have ended sooner, my hand was sore from writing.After the break, I was ready for paper 2. I was delighted with the studied aspects of the paper 2. The scene I had been studying before the exam begun, ”Act 3 Scene 1”, I could use for Question 2. So I started the paper optimistically. I also liked the studied poetry question we got, because you could answer with any poem I studied. After I finished the two main parts of the paper, I realised I didn't have enough time to answer all the questions in the Fiction section. But apart from the questions I didn't answer I definitely did my best and was happy with the paper.
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.