Home Ec - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova
Coláiste Einde - Galway.When I opened the paper, I panicked when I saw cheese processing. I didn't do an ounce of study in this, and I came to the conclusion that I didn't even study cheese, even though it's my favourite food :(Other then the cheese mishap, the exam went amazing!I flew through it, writing more than enough. I genuinely thought I'd be absolutely bummed for this subject, but now I think it'll be one of the best!I left the exam fifteen minutes early because I had looked through everything and I don't think there was anything else I could have done. I felt embarrassed walking in front of everyone else doing the exam, but they honestly didn't even look up to see me go.I hope they found it okay in the end!I'm not looking forward to English Paper II, but all I can do now is hope some last minute revision can help. 
Check out Jane's speech from the #EducationIs demo.
A cháirde,My name is Jane Hayes Nally.I am a 17 Year old student in St Mary's High School. I am in 5th year at the minute and I am also the president of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. We represent the second-level students in Ireland and we believe in an education system without barriers. I want to study science when I finish school. I want to go to college and I want to make my contribution to the social, cultural and economic growth of the Irish society. I want a future. I want the chance to stay in Ireland and to study in Ireland. I, and many of my fellow students are marching on this day because we need to be heard. We are telling this country that we need publicly funded education in order for us to have this opportunity. We need publicly funded education so that we get a chance to study, to better ourselves and to become qualified. But we are not alone however and we are not just students marching here today. We are among our parents, our teachers and our future lecturers. We are with members of national unions, organisations and charities. We are among people that believe in the same right to education as we do. Education Is: A human right and education is my right.Education Is: My opportunity to create, to succeed, to achieve.Education is the essential exchange of information from teacher to classroom, lecturer to laboratory, author to readership, and speaker to the world.Education Is the remembrance of history to prevent its disasters repeating itself. It's is the comprehension of science in order to react with our environment peacefully, and to further discover our universe.Education Is the art of the world’s languages, the successful communication between two people, and the appreciation of the way words can change the world.Education Is the promotion of mathematics and logic, the engine behind advancements in technology and computers, and the reason why we are edging closer to a world where 6.8 billion people could all be connected online.Education Is debate, discussion, dispute. It is an opportunity to open one’s mind, to consider ideas you could not have imagined.There is no justification for a scheme which will limit the access of Irish people to education. There is no justification for burdening our students with debts when we are in a position to fund these opportunities, just like the Cassells report deemed viable. Let us not make education exclusive to the students who can afford to fund it privately, and forcing those who must take out loans to pay more for education, | as will happen when loan payments and interest are combined. Let us not deplete the number of mature and part-time students who study in our colleges, as has been experienced in Australia and the UK. Let us open education up to all, make it equal, inclusive, and accessible.And Today we're saying: Listen US!And listen loud and clear, because we’re saying No to student debt.No to an unsustainable loan scheme.We are saying No to an unequal education system.We are saying No to limiting access to education.We are saying NO to denying me MY future! To depriving me of the opportunity to enter third level education. ME and many of my fellow students.It comes down to a choice.We have a choice in what kind of Ireland will exist in the future.By improving Irish education today, we can improve the Ireland of tomorrow.End.
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!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Junior Cert - Technical Graphics
David - Higher Level
My last morning of my Junior cycle! :O .. I'm getting old!Anyway, I did the bare minimum amount of study for TG as I've always done well in it. I got 72% in the mocks from doing no study, and having done very few short questions and having revised the whole course and short questions in class, I saw little need.Short Question's - These were easy enough, no surprises. There are only 15 and you pick 10 to do, I attempted them all, but feel I only got 11 right, but that's full marks!Long Questions - No surprises here, all the same questions came up and I did questions 1,3,5 and 6.Q1 - Orthagraphic .. this was easy, plan, elevation, end view, surface s.. the same thing over and over again! I got on well in this one!Q3. This was axonametric view, which is easy enough, it takes a while though! >< Oh well.. the complicated image didn't help either. I didn't do fantastic in this one.Q4. Transformation Geomatry, my old pal, I got 69/70 on this in the mocks, the only thing that changes every year is the actual image. I got on well enough here, but I had some trouble with the rotation part :/Q6. Ellipse and porabola.. this was a VERY fair question, my mind just decided to say ''hehe, let's not work properly for him, it'll be funny'' . I messed up on this question.. and god am I pissed off! :/ Oh well as Noah and the whale said '' l i f e g o e s o n ''Anyway, this exam was fair! And I got on well enough despite having the Mexican song from the doritos ad stuck in my head for the duration!
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
Leaving Cert Biology
Sarah - Higher Level
I think I can hear the Hallelujah chorus... I must admit, biology is not my strongest point, so pairing it up with Irish paper 2 was a cruel blow. These were probably my two most neglected subjects, so last night consisted of two years worth of study. After a lot of tears and tantrums, I settled down for a bit of sleep, to be awoken from my rest by the sound of my alarm clock, reminding me that my study wasn't finished yet. I did a very slapdash revision of my beautiful diagrams (on flashcards!) and went to school to get a last minute look over Irish. Then, I spent exactly 85 minutes learning everything I possibly could about biology. Sadly, I only got to cover Section 1 and Section 2, but I figured I'd wing it! I don't really know what to think of the exam itself to be honest! I decided to do every question because I knew I'd have the time. I thought the question on food was nice, as was question 2 on tissues. I completely blanked for the question on the bone, so I made up lots of nice little names to accompany the diagram. I liked the ecology in question four, but I thought it was very much a case of common sense. Again, question 5 was grand, I had been expecting a lot of plants so it was do-able. The question on mutations was horrific, I had absolutely no idea what to write so I put my creativity into action and came up with some random waffling. I thought the first experiment question was mighty, I think I just wrote down the first thing that popped into my head and left it at that. The other two questions were so straight-forward that Section B just flew! After that it all went downhill... I blabbed on about the most ridiculous rubbish, but I'm hoping for pity marks. In genetics, I had a mini panic attack when I saw linkage so I just said SSYY and SsYy or something! It was a case of getting something on the page. I thought the ecology question was crazy and I used my head and wrote whatever I could using the little common sense I possess. Question 12 was lovely, just a bit of reading off a diagram really?! I made a mess of 13. Despite my amazing diagrams, I freaked and everything I had learnt turned into a bundle of confusion. I found a lot of the last two questions quite hard to understand and I didn't really know what they were looking for in some of them. Nonetheless, my biology books are now firmly shut, never to see the light of day again! In short, I found the whole paper a wee bit random. I thought some of the questions were a bit out-of-the-blue, but I must get over all of that now and go listen to some french! Hope you all found Biology okay, and I'll be back next week after Chemistry (my last exam)!! :P x
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.
Junior Cert Maths Paper 2
David - Higher Level
Paper 2 was a delight for me! After my worrying that paper two would be as hard as paper one, I wasn't confident going into the exam, but I soon settled when I read the questions.Q1 - I got on great, no surprises but I had trouble with part C, attempt marks will have to do for that one! Q2 - Was co-ordinate geometry, probably my favorite section of p2, so easy, so likable, for me anyway, I spent a good bit of time on this question though as I had to draw two diagrams.Q3/Q4/Q5 - Trigonometry, my least favorite part of the course, I think we went through trigonometry pretty fast in school, so I never really got a feel for it, but these questions went great, I got both theorems correct along with the construction so I got a good few marks there my teacher predicted one of the two theorems correctly, the long equiangular triangles one, but the other one was a pleasant surprise as it's shorter and easier than the other one she predicted. The rest was pretty easy too though, maybe that could be down to me trying to learn theorems all weekend getting used to it more? Who knows, bottom line - It went well.Q6 - I did no study for this, this was always easy to me, there was an ogive question which is always nice to see, no drawing of a histogram however, which was disappointing as although they take longer, they're easy marks. Q6 went great for me - thankfully.All in all, Maths was okay this year, the very hard paper 1 and the easy paper two balanced out to make it not too tough.. and not too easy :(
Lorraine - Ordinary Level
Hey guys!Lorraine here! :) I did Maths paper 2 today! Im ordinary level and I have to say, after a gruelling 3 hours study yesterday of solid maths with my sister, I think I did OK!Normally, I'm ok up to Q4 and thats when I start to get stuck. In the first few questions there was no shocks or anything, it was all whats normally on the papers. At Q4 we had to bisect an angle and we wernt allowed to use a protractor, although I'm not sure how they would know or not? :P I probably did it wrong, but I did attempt it! After that It was grand. All the usuals were there and we had the log books with all the formulas we needed in it. I think I did very well until Q6. I could do the first parts no bother it was only the last bit where I was like Arrrghhh! I attempted everything which I was delighted with.Overall, If you studyed I think you'll do well. A good few people out of my room did get up and leave and there was only 2 of us ordinary level students walking out at half 11. I walked out of my exam and there weren't many of us walking out at half 11, even though most of the year is ordinary.I felt very sorry for the honours and I looked through there paper and my God its hard! Seriously, If your doing honours fair play to you! If I find pass hard imagine what I'd be like in honours?!I think I done well and I'm happy with how I answered everything this time round.Good Luck to everybody in the exams still to come :)
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.