Irish - #LC2017 - Art O'Mahony

  #LC2017 #IrishArt O'Mahony - St Patrick's Secondary School CastleislandI absolutely littered the aural paper with aiste phrases as soon as I got it at 9.25, for fear I would forget them by the end! The anticipation of writing the 100 marker made me neglect the cluastuiscint slightly but it was actually lovely. Bar one or two questions and many a few spelling mistakes I think I scored fairly well. I thought to dialect was clearer than normal, especially the Kerry Irish which is always lovely!I tore into the aiste from there. I was hoping to do 'Breatimeach' but was a little thrown when I saw it in the Díospóireacht section. Instead I tackled Foréigean which allowed me to use most of what I had learned. I brought in The Troubles, terrorism and a few others things and overall was quite happy with it.Here's hoping paper two is as nice!#StateExams2017

Science - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayScience was one of the two subjects in which I had prepared myself the most in. I was very looking forward to it, considering that for my LC subjects, I picked Physics, Chemistry and Applied Maths.But maybe you noticed from my subject choices that Biology isn't my strongest? Well you are correct. As I opened the paper, the biology part made everything more complicated. A combination of asking precisely about topics that I hadn't much interest in, unusual wording, and me not being able to translate scientific names to english, made those first 3 questions very frustrating.But relief came to me as I went into the chemistry section. This time, no translating required, as it was more maths, the universal language. Balancing chemical equations, lab experiments, and the fact that not one thing about hard water came up made this section very enjoyable.And last but definitely not least, Physics section. Ah, my favourite science. I flew through it, knowing all the theory behind it. I just got a bit stuck on electricity, but my log book helped me out.Overall, for me, this test was satisfying and relaxed. And I can't help but be happy that now I can completely forget about studying plants again, or mostly anything about Biology for that matter.#StateExams2017

Geography - #JC2017 - Olivia Whelan

 Olivia Whelan - Mean Scoil Mhuire LongfordGeography today was one of the subjects I was really looking forward to! I've always been comfortable with the subject geography.

As normal the exam began with section 1 , which consisted of 20 short questions , I flew through this section excited so see this years selection of questions in section 2. Section 1 was straight forward and nothing that I hadn't seen before , of course there were a few tricky ones thrown in to get the students attention. I marked the little tricky questions for me to go back on and moved onto section 2.In section 2 as usual we were given 5 question where we had the option of choosing our 3 to answer. I feel this is very helpful to the students who maybe mightn't be as strong in certain places of the course. To start I flicked through the questions and selected my best 3. Once I had decided , I began section 2. I chose to do questions 1 , 3 and 4 and I was happy with my choices. From my personal experience map drawing is confusing so I stayed clear from it on question 5.I started confidently until I realised I had taken one of the questions up entirely wrong , a quick few scribbles then sent me on my way forward! Timing was perfect but I got a slight bit nervous near the end when I still had a question left and short questions to look over , but in the end timing was perfect and I got to look over all I had written!Leaving the exam I was really happy with how I'd done and I hope to have kept the A I got in the mock.#StateExams2017

Geography - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownGeography as per usual involved a lot of writing and very little time to think. It was a generally alright paper though.

I was jumped straight to question one, well the second part, I had to wait on graph paper to do my sketch map! So I wrote about intrusive and extrusive volcanos. And then picked human activities with flood defences and wrote about the river Rhine.Moving on to regional I had hoped for a map of Ireland but did India instead there was no difficult features here. Followed by tertiary activities in Paris (Tourism in my case) and then primary activities in Ireland for which I picked Dublin's agricultural sector.I then did my short questions when I felt more confident about the exam. I didn't analyse these really I moved quickly but did notice there was no question on glaciers on its own.Moving to human I found this alright. It wouldn't be my strongest section. It was quite similar to both the mock papers going around. Ethnic and religion differences made an appearance to keep up with current events. I honestly shot through this section and I can't remember what question I did.Finally, I did Geoecology. I chose the human interaction question with the three headings. I was delighted to see this as if that question wasn't there I probably would've walked out of the exam! So with five minutes to spare I finished feeling as if someone had tried to hammer my hand to pieces.#StateExams2017 

#Irish - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes

#JC2017 #IrishMaria Hayes - Scoil Ruáin KillenaulePaper 1 started off as usual, the tape test. It went really well I was able to clearly understand the speaker! When that was finished I went straight to the essay to put myself in a good mood. I wrote about "when my friend and I saw a car accident when we got lost in Dublin City". I was delighted with how that went. I then did the grammar, it was easy enough too we had to write the passage in the future tense. My favourite tense! I finished off the paper with the comprehensions, they were understandable so I was very happy with them also!2 and a half hours later I got landed with paper 2. The superintendents first pointed out a spelling mistake and then I looked at the themes for Prós and Filíocht, I'll come to them in a second. I began with the Prós comprehension it went well. Then it came to the 'themes' you had to write about different places. I chose "áit scanrúil" which perfectly suited the novel I studied "Imithe" all was good. Then I moved on to the filíocht section. Read the questions and answered 2 from A and 1 from B (with great difficulty). Themes section came and all that was going on in my mind was "should have learned An tÓzón! Should have learned an tÓzón" but I dealt with what I had I chose "tragóid" (which at the time was only guessing it meant tragedy) and I wrote about "Reoiteog Mharfach". After the exam I found out that tragóid meant tragedy, I was so relieved ?. I then chose letter B in which I had to write to a friend about how I met someone and what I did with them. Not so confident with the letter but my opening and closing paragraphs are perfect!All in all, I'm delighted with how the Irish exams went!Check out more JC BLogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs…/issu-exam-blogs-jc-2017/#StateExams2017 

Leaving Cert Geography

Declan - Higher Level

I like Geography, so I was positive going into todays exam. I started off by doing the short questions, which usually are fine. However, I felt some of the questions were a bit tricky and I did guess I few... We have a selection and get marked on 10 in total (So, hopefully, that will be ok).Many people feel physical geography is the easiest, I prefer the regional & particularly the economic geography. I was delighted many of the questions I have covered really well came up, like the multinational companies (I had the Johnson & Johnson case study revised) and I did the case study on the Wexford coast for the question on human interaction with coastal processes. I felt these went well. I was delighted with my answer in the economic geography section, particularly the question on the impacts on the european union enlargement. Overall, I thought the long questions were pretty good.This morning in school there was a lot of predictions on the essay. Unfortunately, I'd imagine there was a lot of disappointment when the desert biome didn't come up. I was a risk taker with the essays and only had the human alterations to biome studied, goes to show stick with your instincts! Although, for future students I'd recommend be well covered for the essays (that section is worth 80 marks!!), because there was people who weren't in the best situation with only the desert biome learned.A bit of advice, don't base your exams on predictions it doesn't work out (look what happened Heaney for english paper 2).All in all, I thought it was a decent paper and I was happy with it. It's always good to know that we have a project done for this subject, it gives ya a bit of reassurance in a exam.Best of luck to you all in the exams ahead!

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 Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.