Joe - Higher Level 
My maths test in the last 3 years have been mostly good but with a few poor results mixed in, and because of this I was concerned about the exam. Paper 1 is also my weaker of the two papers.
At the start of the exam I was doing well and keeping to the time restraints, as the exam progressed I became less confident. Near the end of the exam there were about 3 questions that I did not understand fully so I left out parts or answered poorly.
I don't think I did well in the paper and I was disappointed.
Kate - Higher Level 
Thank God geography went well for me because maths was a total flop. I started the exam on a positive note and when I opened the first page I was pleased with the exam. The first page consisted of putting brackets around numbers. I was delighted! I thought this can't be real, this is so easy! And then I flipped over the page and realised it was just the SEC playing a cruel prank. I found the function questions very difficult as they did not resemble any functions that I have previously done. I was stressed and flustered as I could not answer a lot of the questions.
As the exam progressed I calmed down and answered every question to the best of my ability. The only question that I enjoyed on the exam would have to be the one on the triangle and squares area. I thought that this was a different and refreshing question (probably because it was the only one I answered well). Personally, I am not pleased with how the exam went for me but it was better than my maths mock. I'm praying that paper two will save me from a failing grade!
Philip - Higher Level 
Now, in this subject I promised bias and that's what I'll give. I found this test easy enough, even if there were a few tough questions. I found it easier than our pre exams. There was no arithmetic question, the Venn diagram question wasn't hard. The question where you had to find the area of the square was hard enough, but only because it was difficult to see how to multiply with A! So the question where you had to get 3 to the power of K was hard after the first two, I came back at the end and just randomly put in numbers until I got something that worked.Anyway I finished with about an hour to spare and just looked through the paper.
Good luck for maths paper 2 and CSPE on Monday. Also have "fun" studying over the weekend.
Shane - Higher Level 
Let me start by saying, maths is my weakest subject. I got quite a shock however, when I opened my paper and saw how good (easy) it was. By far one of the easiest maths Paper 1’s I’ve come across. I don’t really know what to say other than it was a breeze up until question 9. That was when I had to start thinking about things and using my not so logistical brain. I do think it went swimmingly for me and I am hoping Paper 2 (AKA the good maths paper) will go well and I can push my mock result of a C up to a B. But this week is over and I am very happy so far with how things are working out.
Enjoy the weekend and I wish all of you and my fellow exam bloggers the best of luck in Paper 2 and CSPE!!! (although you won’t really need it)
Chloe - Higher Level 
Going in to this exam I was so nervous as maths is by far my weakest subject. I looked through the paper and decided to tackle question 11 first as it looked like a few relatively straight forward factorisations. I was into it now and I turned back to question 1. I should be ashamed here as I couldn’t remember how to get the percentage decrease but other than that q1 was quite simple, surprisingly as q1 in the mocks was nothing short of mind boggling. I continued on anyway with one question after the other and I couldn’t believe how much function work was involved. I’m not sure if I tackled them all correctly but my graphs looked reasonably okay so I was using that as reassurance! Maybe it was just me but q12 which was about the bags had a very large working out space for the method I used, this was quite off putting as I don’t know if I went about it the right way, I just subbed in numbers and worked it out like that, but I could have been very wrong!After the exam, media was preaching the statement ‘everything was fine till q8’ which I don’t necessarily agree with as some of my better questions came after this and honestly some of my worst before.Overall I don’t know whether I hated or loved paper 1, some questions were nice and others were horrible, definitely a mixed bag in my opinion! 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
