History - JC2017 - Diego Brule

 Diego Alonso Brule Galleguillos - Coláiste EindeIf you can quote me from before the mocks it would be something like 'Irish history is the most boring thing ever' but, when my history teacher said one of the essay questions is always definitely Irish history, it suddenly became the most interesting topic on the course.I knew the history exam was going to be a gamble, because, even though I prepared the two definite essay questions (WWII and 20th century Irish History), The essays weren't all there was to the exams. There was a whole blank space in my mind when it came to the reformation or the middle ages.So, I went into the exam, scared by the source papers because they promised questions about Neolithic Ireland. But it wasn't that bad actually. Section 2 was reading comprehension with a bit of background knowledge, which wasn't bad either. Section 3 was very simple short answer questions which I flew through.Everything was going fine until question 4. People in history. I prepared a few of these but none came up. I decided to prepare the ones I could manage to write the most about: A woman in the Roman Empire and A soldier on the D-Day landings.Question 5 was just as tough as it was purely reformation. And then my best-prepared question: Question 6. I did part C and D of it, and it was quite easy, the only problem was, that I left this section untill the end of the exam, which meant I didn't get to finish my last essay: The Cuban Missile Crisis. But I still wrote about two paragraphs more than in the mocks. Is that good enough?I'm kind of sad I won't see history again, as it's one of my favourite subjects and I didn't get the chance to pick it for LC, but, my hand is thankful that I'm not going to be writing these huge essays anymore. #StateExams2017

French - #JC - Diego Brule

Diego Alonso Brule Galleguillos - Coláiste EindeIf there's one thing I love more than learning sciences, it's learning languages. There's something about it, that makes learning languages so interesting. Maybe it's because of the culture they carry, maybe it's the fact of being able to speak more than one language, or maybe because you think flirting will be easier in other languages.Anyways, French for me was quite simple. Grammar and vocabulary wise it's very similar to Spanish, which made the reading comprehension and written section very simple. But, Listening to it, always has been my nightmare. And of course, the exam has to start with this.Luckily though, this year's listenings were probably the easiest listenings that have come up so far (I've done all the exam papers for this too). Or maybe it's because I stayed up late last night listening to Emmanuel Macron's speeches in French?The rest of the exam was a breeze. Reading comprehension, and written. There was only one question that I can remember that asked for a word that I had absolutely no idea what it meant. But apart from that, the rest of the test went pretty good.I have to point a funny thing about this exam though, our exam centre has around 35 students, but only 6 of us did French. It's safe to say the examiner was disappointed, as she is a French teacher in her school.For the JC I'll be doing Spanish and French, hopefully for the LC I'm able to sit Italian as well! #StateExams2017

English - #JC2017 - Ellen Kenny

Ellen Kenny- Meánscoil Mhuire LongfordSo today was the first of the Junior Cert exams, starting with English. After the mocks, I think a lot of people were dreading the English exam and its restricted time; I definitely was. In the end though, I was actually surprised at the exam. Even though we still had to do the same amount of questions in the same amount of time, it felt shorter overall.The first reading comprehension was simple and quick to read, and the poetry question was particularly good since it didn't ask for any themes shown in a poem, just your own understanding of it. The only strange thing was the absence of any questions about a novel, but after asking several questions about the poems and plays we've studied, the analysis of a novel might've seemed overwhelming.The Shakespearean extract was focused mostly on staging the drama, which can be easy enough, and the final question only needed a generic argument between a teenager and parent.Overall, it definitely wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, but I suppose you can't really know how you did until September. At least I'll have to worry about the complexity of Shylock's character ever again! #JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

Junior Cert English Papers 1 and 2

Jack

My very first State exam... ever. It was quite daunting.I took my seat in the exam hall and waited the nerve wrecking thirty minutes until the paper was handed out. Once we were allowed to being, I skimmed through the paper. It seemed okay at a quick glance.I went straight into reading. Nothing too difficult, to be fair. It was pretty straight forward. I think I did okay. I took advice from the Mocks and added more quotes!I went on to functional writing next. I was happy with this question. It was easy! I opted for 1. I finished in about twenty minutes. It was a nice question to do. Not too strenuous at all!I went to media studies next. I went with the Product Placement question. It was easy enough, I guess. I managed to fit Peppa Pig in to my answer which was funny!I went back to personal writing then. I went with option 4 - mistaken identity. I was about to write about being mistaken for someone in a band but at the last minute changed to being mistaken as a murderer. Possibly a bad idea. It seemed pretty much everyone did that! Oh well. I guess it's the content that counts.Overall, Paper One was okay. I feel it went good enough!It seems I'm not the only one not exactly happy with Paper Two... It was confusing at times. Let's dive in.On opening the paper, I skimmed through and went to Drama. I chose thShakespearian Drama and I picked questions 2 and 3. They were okay. Nothing too complicated. For Question Two, I opted to do 2. I wrote about Act 1, Scene 1 and Act 1, Scene 3. I think I did quite okay with that question.I skipped poetry and went to fiction. My... fiction. What is going on. Unseen was just a mess. "Can you relate to Jane?" (paraphrasing but you know...). Really? I can't... because I'm a boy. Wow. Part two. "Is Michael an attractive character?" Wait, what? I found this confusing. I ended up writing about his personality and how he was mean for building Jane up just to bring her down and embarrass her in front of everyone. The question was not clear. People wrote about Michael's physical attraction. It seems everyone is unhappy with the Fiction question. It was terribly unfair, in my opinion. Unclear and possibly biased to girls. Studied fiction was tough. I found it hard to write about liking a character from Of Mice and Men. In the end, I just rambled on about Lennie's innocence and so forth. Hopefully it will do.I went back to poetry then. I found that confusing too! I didn't know what I was supposed to learn from thirty-six lines of boxing! I ended up waffling on about how he was nervous to begin with but gained confidence to win. I went to 2 next, which was a fair bit easier. Studied poetry was good enough, to be fair. I went with option 2 and wrote about Heaney.Overall, Paper Two was tiring and tough. I think Fiction was unclear and unfair but Poetry and Drama were okay.Now, off for Irish tomorrow. Good luck to all!

David

Hi all,I'm just back from sitting English paper two! English paper one couldn't have been any nicer! I was seriously happy with and I was proud with my essay. The reading section of paper one was kind of like a cross between media studies and a reading comprehension but it was still okay.Paper two was lovely! My timing came close though and I was worried, but I still got it all finished, the studied poetry wasn't a very nice question (either of them) for me  but the rest was brilliant, the studied fiction question was a big relief after all my worrying about not knowing my novel well enough. Studied Fiction was great as well so all in all I'm very happy. I'm not going to predict anything with a subjective subject like English, but hopefully I will live up to the A I got in the mocks... oh well no point worrying over something that I can't change!  .. I'm off to cram for Irish!

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.

LC German

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level)

Glück appears to have been on the side of Leaving Cert Higher Level Deutsch students this morning as they sat down to their aural and written papers. The majority of students will have been happy with the aural element of the exam which some have declared as being one of the easiest tapes in years.The written paper got off to a good start with a fairly straightforward first reading comprehension although the second comprehension on solar powered cinemas may have proved tricky for some in parts. However, overall, the comprehension section was approachable with a nice "Angewandte Grammatik" exercise with a particularly straighforward question on rewriting a section in the Präsens (present tense).The written compostion section was also very manageable, however, the final point of the letter option which required students to refer to dance lessons many have been difficult for some to expand on.On a whole, it was a very fair paper which well prepared students will have been delighted with - let's just hope this isn't reflected too much in the marking scheme.

JC Irish Paper 1 & 2

Roisin (Higher Level Irish)

Today we had Irish, papers one and two. They weren't terrible, but they weren't exactly easy either!Paper one started with the listening comprehension, which I felt went pretty well. It was a nice surprise! The first section of the rest of the paper was the reading comprehension, which was, for the most part, pretty straightforward. I was able to understand all the questions and had a good shot at answering them all! The second comprehension was a little bit harder, and I wasn't sure of all the answers. The question where you got a paragraph and had to transpose it in to a different tense was fine because we just had to change it to the nice, easy past tense! The fill-in-the-blanks question was pretty easy too; I was able to put in a word that made sense each time. For the last section, I chose the story about a party. It wasn't a very imaginative or exciting story, but it was a page and a half with some (hopefully) good phrases so hopefully it'll be fine!Paper two was in the afternoon. It started with the ever-dreaded unseen story. It was hard as usual, probably the worst section of the whole subject for me! I chose B for the studied story, and wrote about 'An t-Adh' under the heading of 'saol faoin tuath'. I think I answered it pretty well because I had a good prepared answer. The unseen poetry was next, and I found it easier than usual. One of the poems was about a poodle! I wrote about 'Subh Milis' for the studied poetry, under the heading 'duine uaignach'. I had a good prepared answer for this as well, and I think it was fine. The last section was the letter. I chose B, the one about being away on holiday. Again, it wasn't very imaginative but I think I managed to answer all the requirements, so hopefully it will be okay!Tomorrow we have geography, which needs some looking over, and maths paper 1, which is definitely the easier of the two maths papers, so it won’t be too bad a night!

James (Higher Level Irish)

Today was the second day of the exams. This morning I was quietly confident that the day would go well as I was happy with my two English papers yesterday. I had my two higher level Irish papers to complete today.Paper 1 suited me and I managed to answer everything well. We had a long break of more than 3 hours until Paper 2 started.I thought that this paper was more challenging than the first paper and with duration of just an hour and a half, there was more to write in a shorter length of time. However, it went well and I answered all questions. I think the toughest question of the exam was the unseen poetry on Paper 2.Overall, I'm happy with my Irish exam.

ISSU Commentary (Ordinary Level Irish)

Today’s Junior Cert Ordinary Level Irish paper shouldn’t have posed too many problems for students with some nice questions based on a very clear delivered aural tape.The comprehension section was also extremely fair with a straightforward matching pictures with advertisements exercise followed by question two which consisted of on an advertisement for the National Gallery of Ireland, a safety notice for Bord Gáis and an advertisement for dolphin-spotting boat excursions and question 3 which required students to answer questions on extracts about singer and actress, Miley Cyrus, and the author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne.The final section on composition was very predictable with candidates asked to write a post card home to their parents from a foreign holiday followed by an email to their father about an invite that they had received to a party.All in all, a nice paper!