Junior Cert Geography

Clara - Higher Level

This paper was a huge relief if I'm being perfectly honest! After being stressed to the maximum about it last night, ("Oh no-there's too much to study!"), I was so happy when I opened this paper.Short questions: These were fairly simple and it was the usual format - ie 20 questions with choices between two for 3 of the questions. There were only 4 short questions on the map/aerial photograph and they were easy. No curved line distance or anything!Long answer questions: When I first look at these I almost cried and then had heart palpitations! BUT, after reading through all of them twice I calmed down and circled every section I knew I could do well then chose from that. I answered Q.1, Q.4 and Q.5 which was about rainfall, freeze-thaw action and volcanoes. The only part that threw me a little here was the question on rainfall as I wasn't expecting it to come up, and I had anticipated that if it did the question would be on relief rainfall. I used my common sense though and I could remember the basics of it.Q.4 was a nice little one with mostly opinion-based writing. It was on world cities, industrial activity and the north-south divide. I loved that it asked about the "changing role of women in industry" as I meant I could just have a rant! A very enjoyable question indeed.Q.5 was pretty much what I had expected for the aerial photography and maps question. The sketch map was basically OK, I knew what I was looking for when they were asking for evidence of historic settlement and I was pleasantly surprised that a question on the reasons for tourism in the area!Overall a pretty agreeable paper and I hope everyone feels they did quite well on it. Good luck with maths!

Lorraine - Higher Level

Hey guys! Lorraine here just talking about the Geography exam because I have the spare time and I'm actually happy with it! :) I actually found the Geography exam grand! I was a bit worried going in because I did want to do well in this and there is a lot to learn for it!I went over all my notes a lot last night! I got 63% for this in the Mocks which is good for me :D I'm hoping to get the same again if not more! The Short Questions?! These are the ones I'm always hopeless at! I'm used to getting zero on these and for once I am very happy with them! I could answer everything and I was delighted! I found them great this year- Thank the lord!The short answer questions took me 30 mins to do so I felt the pressure to get my 3 long questions done in an hour and a half. I made myself stick to 30 mins each for these, 10 mins for A, 10 for B and etc :) The Long Answer questions?! When I first opened them up I have to admit, I did panic. I could do bits of almost each question but not a full question if you get me? In the end I looked at each question and I ticked off the bits I could do on each and started. Question 1 was grand I could do the whole lot it was just like volcanoes and frost mechanical weathering! I was very happy with that! Then I skipped straight to Q5 and did my ordnance survey map - I had to sketch it and I am not great at that but I actually for once think I did a OK job on it! They asked us about 3 tourist attractions for Carrick on Shannon (that was the map we were given) and we could choose from the OS map and the aerial map which was grand! There was a lovely little port function! :D Then I did Q4 which was grand too! It was about the roles of women and overpopulation and 2 results of this and all!

 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.