French - #JC2017 - Luke Casserly
Luke Casserly - St. Mel's CollegeI've done pretty well in French since first year so I wasn't overly worried about todays paper.It all started with the listening which I always find pretty tricky. An annoying echo in the hall made it even trickier. I think I coped well though! Section A and B were very easy but it got a little bit harder from there!Overall, the comprehensions were nice and I feel I done very well in them, but there were a couple of very hard questions in the last few extracts which I ended up having to guess.The written expression went good. I. flew through the note but stumbled with a couple of the points in the letter. I threw in a few nice phrases which I hope saved me!I'm happy with how French went and I'm looking forward to seeing the result!#StateExams2017
French - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes
Maria Hayes - Scoil RuainToday's French exam began with the listening comprehension. I am very happy with how this section of the exam went! I could understand the speakers much more easily than in the mocks, thankfully!Next I began the comprehensions which put me in the French 'zone'. I was happy with most of these questions with the exception of some of the questions in question 9. However I am happy with how I answered the questions!Last but not least I did the "written expression"! As I had thought, a note appeared as the first part of the question. I was well prepared for both a note or postcard so I didn't mind what the turnout was. I'm happy with how I wrote my note.The letter was the best part of the exam!! I love writing letters usually so this was my best section! I was delighted in the way that I could use "better late than never" in my letter. I learned this from the section 'Idioms and Proverbs' on the website/app "Duolingo". I had also prepared paragraphs for things I could be asked to write about in my letter. Thankfully nothing out of the blue appeared, except when I had to ask my pen pal if they had gone to the cinema recently. I think I handled that topic fairly well!I am delighted with how this exam went. I hope that the results won't disappoint me! Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/
#StateExams2017
Junior Cert German
Sophie - Higher Level
Today was the German exam, even though I did pretty bad in the mocks, it was hard to be nervous. It was my second last exam. We began with the listening test. It wasn't overly hard, but as usual, I ended up guessing one or two answers. Then we had matching advertisements activity and an another more detailed advert, they were both very easy. Then we had two comprehensions, I was suprised that I could understand them. I happily went on to answering the questions that followed. But then the letter came along. The first couple of paragraphs went okay, but I found it got really hard towards the end. The short note was next. I knew it was an easy one but I was completely blank for words. I wasn't very confident, but I wrote it to the best of my ability. I had about 10 minutes at the end to look over everything. To say the least, I think it went well in the end.
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert Irish Paper 1
Keelyn - Higher Level
This paper was quite a treat. The listening was fairly straight forward and the essay titles were fairly straightforward. The only essay i learned was heroes so i was delighted to see "daoine cailiula sa la ata inniu ann". overall I'm very happy - roll on paper two :P
Sarah - Ordinary Level
Well.. Irish Paper One is not usually something I would be nervous about... but as it got closer and closer to the exam I began to feel a bit sick. I sat in the room waiting hoping that it would be something easy and to my surprise, it was! The first part was the listening. I flicked through the questions and translated the main words. They were pretty easy questions I thought so me = happy! And thankfully the people speaking on the tape were easily understood too. I got the answers pretty quick so.. (Y) I flicked to the back of the paper to where the writing section was. My teacher got us to do the story and the letter (not sure if it's the same in all schools). I translated both parts of each one, I thought that both seemed pretty easy so once again, I was happy! I did the story first. I did the one about the fog in the mountains, which came to me pretty easily because one of the Sraith Pictúir's or however you spell it was basically the story of the sentence they gave us, so I found that grandddd. Then next was the letter. I chose the one about winning the game & the party afterwards. It was pretty easy to blab on about anything in that one so there was no major difficulty. Overall, I thought it was a good exam and I'm pretty happy with my answers for everything. Hopefully you's all found it okay! :) And hopefully paper two tomorrow will be in everybody's favor! Good luck to you all! :)
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Work Experience Blog - Michael
I arrived in Tara Station on Monday at ten o’clock on my first day of two weeks of work experience with the Irish Second-Level Students Union. I went up to the 9th floor in Liberty Hall and introduced myself to Charlotte. I started with doing the TY survey on the ISSU website. Unfortunately I could not complete all of the survey as I’m not finished TY let. I then started a survey for those who have completed TY to see student’s opinion on TY and see how it can be of higher quality for the students involved. Tuesday I arrived in and met Isobel I was told to go on twitter and follow any secondary schools in the country that were on twitter. When I first looked at the list of schools I was a little stunned as there were 722 schools in the country. In the first fifteen schools seven were on twitter. Around eleven me and Isobel went to Mount Carmel Secondary School were she was going to give a talk on Student Councils, how they should be run and what the different roles are. I found this talk beneficial for myself as I am a member of the student council in my school. When we went back I continued with following more schools on twitter with some success. On Wednesday I resumed following secondary schools on twitter. It was a bit difficult to find some of the right schools as some schools had similar names with schools in Britain and the U.S. Later on in the afternoon I tweeted all of the schools I had followed since Tuesday asking if they had registered for our Dublin regional seminar. On Thursday I was calling schools in Co. Dublin asking if they had received a letter from us about a Dublin regional seminar we were holding with the Department of Education about TY students giving there feedback on the programme. Some schools that I called had no knowledge of the letter or of the event so after talking to the secretaries I emailed the schools that I had connected. I could only hope that most of them would register for Monday. Friday I started calling schools from Co. Kildare asking the same as yesterday but I got the same response. One of the members of the Board of Directors came in and helped me and Isobel with contacting some schools. After lunch I was putting a cover letter and two posters in envelopes for schools in Connacht for our regional seminar in Galway City on the 18th. We decided to address the Letter directly to the TY Co-ordinators of each school to make sure they received them. On Monday morning I went to the Department of Education & Skills instead of Liberty Hall. (I did get a bit lost trying to find the place) It was the first of a two day event we were holding with the Department in the clock tower on the grounds of the Department. My task on the first day was to observe and participate in the seminar. We were split in to groups of about 4/5 and were asked different questions of how we liked and disliked TY and if we had any changes for TY. After lunch we had a talk from Mark the president of the ISSU about student councils and student voices. There were then elections for the education panel, welfare and equality panel and regional representatives. I was elected for the education panel. Tuesday I was assisting Isobel and Charlotte with the seminar. My role was to give out paper, pens etc. and walk around and help the groups if they needed anything. I stayed with one group in particular as only one of the four in the group was in TY. I tried to persuade the other three about doing TY but they didn’t really seem keen. On Wednesday I was looking at the CSPE Curriculum to see how it can be reformed and how it can be more appealing to students. After searching up on ideas and coming up with some myself there is a demand for a greater look at politics and rights and to make it optional for Leaving Cert. I looked up other countries in Europe to see if they had any thing similar to CSPE in there own countries. France has ECJS which is quite similar to CSPE. On Thursday I was contacting schools in Co. Galway, Westmeath and Clare for our Galway regional seminar and asking if the TY Co-ordinator had received the letter and if they were planning on registering for Monday’s event. Most Co-ordinators couldn’t come to the phone as they had class but I passed the message about the seminar onto the secretaries. Now it’s Friday and I’m glad I choose to do my Work Experience with the ISSU I have learned a lot over the past two weeks and every one in the office has been great. I would recommend everyone to at least do one week of work experience here.
JC French
Roisin (Higher Level)
Today we had French and history. The day started with French and I felt that it went pretty well. The listening section was easy enough; I think I only missed one or two answers. The reading comprehensions were all fine, except for number nine which was pretty tricky. The letter wasn't too bad either, I had all the vocab for it and I hope, all the right verbs! The short note was easier than the letter, I thought, but it usually is! Overall, I thought French was fine!
James (Higher Level)
This morning I had my French exam. This exam started with the tape section which was not too difficult to understand or answer. There were then several comprehensions to be answered in English. For the final part of the exam, I had to write a note and a letter in French. Learning my notes helped with this part of the exam. The last comprehension was tough but I feel the whole exam went well.