Junior Certificate Geography, Environmental & Social Studies
Joe - Higher Level
I have done consistently well with geography through out the junior cert cycle so was confident about this exam.The exam went very well. I started on the short questions and had them done in less then 20 minutes. I then did question 5 on the ordinance survey map. I spent a long time drawing the sketch map and doing the question but I gave a solid answer. I then did the question on limestone , underground feature of a karst landscape and peat. It was straight forward and I felt like I answered well. My final question was question two on ocean currents, irrigation and desertification. I was a small bit rushed to complete it but finished just in time.I feel the exam went well and it was a fairly easy paper!
Kate - Higher Level 
Geography went great! I answered all the short questions with ease and moved on to the long questions. The long questions were good. I answered question one, question two and question five. Question one focused on karst landscapes, limestone and peat. I found this question manageable but the question about technology and peat was unusual. The second question I answered was on irrigation, desertification and ocean currents. I loved this section as it was simple and I thoroughly enjoy the section on ocean currents.Finally I answered the OS Map. I originally did not plan to answer this question but I had no choice. The map was odd and I found it tricky to draw what was required to scale, but the questions were great. A question about traffic congestion and tourism. Overall I think the exam went well for me. The questions were quite broad and I'm optimistic about how it went!
Luke - Higher Level 
Initially I was quite nervous going into the exam because I have quite high expectations for myself when it comes to this subject. I was worried population would come up because I hadn't studied them in depth. Once I got into the exam and opened the paper I gave the long questions a quick read through and I realised that it was grand. The short questions... Easy. Blew through them. 60/60.I did long questions 1,2 and 5. I dodged the population questions! I hear a lot of people were thrown by the question on Irish bogs. I manged to cram fishing, bogs, and the karst landscape before I went into the exam and thank God. The OR map was easy. I'm looking forward to continuing my study of geography for LC. Looking forward to taking a breather this weekend!
Shane - Higher Level 
I went into geography with buzz words for beaches, cliffs, soil creep, freeze thaw action and karst landscapes buzzing in my head. Of all this, I would only need one. But, it didn’t really matter. I did the short questions first. I felt these were by far the easiest compared to any year. Then I did question 1. I got a shock when I saw economic activities. I always thought (among with every JC student) that question 1’s were STRICTLY physical geography. I didn’t mind however. The questions in question 1 were very do-able and I felt as if it was a great question.I did question 2 secondly.This was the best out of 2, 3, and 4 in my eyes. I would have been rewriting Q3 part B and D (I think they were the parts) and I couldn’t do Q4 because my geography teacher didn’t do urban geography with us. I did find Q2 to be my weakest question but I did’t feel it went too bad. Then I did good ole question 5. I found this to be a good question, but I took so long to draw the coastline on the map. In the finish up, I think Geography went very well and I am over all very pleased with it!
Philip - Higher Level
So this went ok. I admit I panicked, there was about five subjects I didn't know well in the entire course. Guess which subjects came up? But after the exam I talked to a geography teacher in my school and they said they thought my answers was ok (I told them what I said). Anyway,I didn't find the short questions too hard. I'd say there were a few I got wrong though. The long questions I did were question one. The karst structure I did were pillars. Then I did question three A, B and C. Finally I did question 5 with the maps. All in all I think the test went pretty well!
Chloe - Higher Level 
Let me start by saying that the majority of my time studying prior to the JC was dedicated to geography and I still didn’t know every single thing entering this exam, its so difficult to contain everything in your brain on the day and the cramming session we had an hour before the exam I think was the making or breaking of it. I began with the short questions, usually I can find these to be sometimes slightly awkward but they were actually grand yesterday and I had them done within 20 minutes.I opened the paper and not one of the questions from 1-4 appealed to me fully so I decided to begin with question 5 (which I don’t normally do) I found the questions on the OS map relatively similar to those that had come up before and the question about traffic circulation wasn’t a regular but it was doable. I then went on to do the question on ocean currents, irrigation and desertification, from this I was only fully confident with irrigation but managed to make a good enough stab at the other two thankfully enough as we had recently studied them in class.I finished with the geographical mix question and left out the question on polders. I felt this went quite well although I was definitely waffling for some parts to fill out my answers. Overall geography went reasonably well for me and I hope my studying for this subject pays off!Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie