LC Maths Paper 1

Ailbhe (Higher Level Maths)

As soon as I got the paper, I searched for the theorem that would tie up my grey matter in knots. It wasn't to be found. Slowly the realisation dawned. No theorems on the paper. I was caught somewhere between utter contentment and drastic disappointment. I had sacrificed precious hours and hours to learn off those god forsaken theorems in the belief that they would earn me an easy 20 marks on the day, only to find that they had been omitted. Of course this would happen, when has maths ever been a walk in the park? Even when I know my stuff it still throws a bombshell down my alley!Moving on, I actually found the paper quite easy, it’s always the paper that you find the easiest that serves up the D however! This is coming from a girl who sailed into the exam centre confident in the knowledge that I would not have to lean on the strength of maths to support the weight of my CAO form. All I was interested in was passing it. As long as I got at least 114 marks on the paper, I was out of the woods as far as maths was concerned. I'm happy to say that the long hours during which I waded through the treacle of alpha, beta, iota, delta x, quadratics, binomials and the rest somewhat paid off!I'm slightly worried it will be two for the price of one on theorems in Paper Two due to the serious absence of them in Paper 1. Who cares? Its 4 down 6 to go and I'm off to the gym!

Owen (Ordinary Level Maths)

After making great use of another lie-in, I was well recuperated after my strenuous English exam yesterday. I found myself up early enough all the same and got the brain to a quick start practicing as many questions as possible, getting all formulas in my head and stationary ready!The paper itself wasn't too extreme and had the usual variety of questions that have been asked over the past several years however there were to me anyway some debuts featuring 'roots' taking to the stage for the first time in question 3 part C and question 8 (V).However everything else was very much approachable and overall, I’m quite content without how the exam went expect for the odd C part questions but nothing to keep me down!As for some of my other exam sitters, they found the paper to be extremely difficult and a real struggle and while they had their own solution to the questions, they were able to find the exam centre door much easier than solutions for X's and Y's, making a quick and early exit!Now with the weekend ahead of me, it’s going to be jam-packed full of revision, revision and more revision with some tough exams and full days next week, but all the same we’re getting closer to the end! :D

LC Engineering

ISSU Commentary (Higher and Ordinary Level)

While many Leaving Cert students across the country used this morning for some last minute English revision, engineering students returned to their exam centres to sit their Leaving Cert paper.Higher LevelThe Higher Level paper contained no major surprises with the first and only mandatory question on the paper being quite straightforward – students were given the option of outlining Steve Jobs’ contribution to technology and the outlining the benefits of the use of accelerometer technology in mobile phones among other more technical questions.Students then had to answer four of the following seven questions with questions ranging from the mechanical testing of metals to the use of heat treatment processes in lathe maintenance to industrial welding process and their applications. Some of the questions were tricky in places but students will have been relieved with a very nice final question which would have been quite manageable even for Junior Cert HL Technology students.Ordinary LevelSimilarly, the Ordinary Level paper’s first and only mandatory question was very fair with students asking to explain “broadband” and “DVD-R” among other terminology.The following six questions, of which students had to answer three, were manageable with heat treatment and welding processes appearing on this paper too along with the application of robotics in the car manufacturing industry among other topics and again an extremely approachable final question on this paper too.Overall, a nice start to the Higher and Ordinary Level engineering papers with some challenging questions in places but a very nice optional question to finish up with on both papers.

LC English Paper 2

Ailbhe (Higher Level English)

Surprised that I can still write- three essays, an answer book and extra paper later!Delighted that I now have two whole subjects under the belt, the other five look much less formidable. Sure what are Maths and Irish when they're at home?Opened the paper. Flicked to poetry. Eliot Eliot Eliot Eliot.William Butler Yeats, my old neighbour from up the road, don’t need to see you right now...Rich, what are you doing here? I'm pretty sure you didn't get a facebook invite to this event?Kavanagh, can’t say I ever really felt your whole canal vibeAh there you are Eliot, I was just getting worried! Of course Murphy's Law would have it that the poet I want would come up with the worst question on the page!Can I just ask what happened to Boland? Hard luck to anyone who put all their eggs into one basket on that one!So, confidence still intact, I leaf over to the Comparative Section. Literary Genre was not up late partying with Boland last night and made it to the exam centre. Thank God! Bit of a pesky little question: the use of the unexpected. To be honest, Billy Eliot was obviously going to end up with an invite to ballet school, Griet and Vermeer were never going to hook up and nothing really happened to conclude Dancing at Lughnasa so there weren’t too many twists and turns going on down that road! But alas I illustrated my surprise at the clever use of literary genre to incorporate the unexpected. I really learned about the use of hyperbole on that question!Lear, my wizened withered old friend, I think I digressed to the highest degree on your ' loyalty and honour triumph over viciousness and brutality' question. I more talked about good versus evil blahdeblah, might not get the aul PCLM working my way on that one!And so with about half and hour left on the clock I rounded up and reassembled my thoughts. Unseen Poetry: The Seed by Paula Meehan. Nothing too complex going down, was actually quite a nice poem. Scrawled my points across the page. Dotted my i's. Crossed my t's. Voila I was finished! Yeehaw! Congratulations everyone!

Owen (Higher Level English)

Wow thank God that's over! It feels good knowing that I have one full subject done and over with now and that I can stay away from English now for a long, long time... no need to write dreaded essays or analyse poetry.... it’s a good feeling!!Well with English not starting till 2 o’clock today, I made great use of my lie-in and caught back up on the hours missed from the night before Paper 1 while also managing to get some last minute revision in beforehand just to have it fresh in my head. I have to say that the nerves were still floating about what with there being so much to learn and even more to write down!Again got into the exam hall early and settled down before the paper was handed out, had a quick flick through...'Grand Vision and Viewpoint and Literary Genre sorted''Poetry...where's Boland?... phew Rich is here, thanks be to God!'Made a good start on my Comparative Study and did the General Vision and Viewpoint question 2, I thought it was quite broad and didn't have to focus too much on a certain aspect such as a character in question 1 so I was happy enough although at the start, I felt as though I was waffling and going off the point but when I got focused everything went fine and I thought that I had given a very satisfactory answer.Then I moved on to the Single Text (King Lear for me) and to be honest I wasn't a very happy camper with this one. Yes, both questions were nice enough but I, personally felt there wasn't enough material to give it a good stab and show off what I had learned. I settled for the first part of the question on honour and courage and its triumph over brutality and viciousness. Gave it a good effort but struggled to relate the two to each other and I just felt as if I was waffling although I did write a substantial answer and felt I covered all aspects of the question. It was a struggle and without doubt my least favourite part of the paper.Now on to the poetry and oh boy did Adrienne Rich get a serious analysing!! Completely enjoyed this part of the exam and saving it to last was a good idea, I was extremely happy with the answer I gave and confident in answering it giving plenty of quotes and covering all of the question... it proved to be a big success for me! :DUnseen poetry was a nice wind down for the last 20min of the exam and didn't prove too difficult. I answered the 2 part question at 10 marks each and found it to be very approachable!Overall, it was a nice enough paper with only one hurdle for myself with the King Lear but then again a challenge has to be expected somewhere along the way.I was content enough but others from the centre weren't too happy with Boland's no show!Others found the King Lear question to be a nasty one limiting them to display their knowledge of the play while others found the Comparative to also limit the full extent of their understanding of the modes.Maths Paper 1 tomorrow and another day less until freedom, I’ll be having myself another little lie- in tomorrow anyway! :D

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level English)

This year’s Leaving Cert Higher Level English Paper 2 was distributed not even so much as a minute early in exam centres nationwide this afternoon.Students that had studied this year’s prescribed Shakespeare “King Lear” as their single text were faced with a choice between a statement about honour and loyalty triumphing over brutality and viciousness and a statement about the villainous characters holding more fascination for the audience than the virtuous ones in Section 1.The comparative modes of General Vision and Viewpoint and Literary Genre appeared in Section 2 much to the relief of many students as the first of the two had been widely predicted to be examined this year. Both questions were quite straightforward but with the General Vision and Viewpoint question giving a choice between two more approachable questions, the majority of students will most likely have gone for that question.“Seed” by Paula Meehan popped up as the unseen poem in Section 3 with perhaps some of the optimism of the theme of Paper 1 being reflected in the choice of this piece of poetry. Students were given the choice between two very manageable questions here before moving on to the question on prescribed poetry.Disaster struck for many in Question B of Section 3, faces fell in exam centres across the country – “Where were Boland and Longely?” Bets had been placed on Boland appearing on the paper with groups such as “If Boland doesn’t come up tomorrow, there will be war!” appearing on Facebook yesterday. Many students had placed all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, and had only studied Boland in detail as one female poet is typically examined but much to their disappointment, Adrienne Rich appeared on the paper alongside Yeats, Kavanagh and T.S. Eliot. Some also had predicted that Longely would appear, as he was the only Poet on the 2009 "leaked" paper not to turn up on the second-paper. Predictions are risky business, and are more often wrong than right. Hopefully with a Yeats’ question on the tension between the real world and the world and which he lives, a question on Kavanagh’s success in achieving his desire to transform the ordinary world into something extraordinary and the poetry of T.S. Eliot’s presentation of troubled characters in a disturbing world alongside the question on Rich’s poetry, the majority of students will have been able to gather enough points together and recall enough quotes to have been able to make a good stab at one of the four questions.  However, the fact remains that an exam that relies on peak performance over a fixed 200 minute period isn't a fair, adequate method of testing one's ability or aptitude.

ISSU Commentary (Ordinary Level English)

Students around the country also sat Leaving Cert Ordinary Level English Paper 2 this afternoon. Some nice questions on the characters appeared on the paper for those that had studied King Lear as their single text with a choice between three options for the longer questions – candidates could opt to discuss whether King Lear is a story about love or foolishness or they could choose to discuss the character and conduct of Cordelia’s sisters based on her comment “Sisters! Sisters! Shame of ladies!” or they could have gone for the final option: to discuss which of the characters they would like to play in a school production of King Lear and why. Shakespeare students will have been largely happy with this question.Section 2 saw students faced between discussing “Hero/Heroine/Villain” or “Theme” for their comparative study question – there was some very approachable questions under each with many students’ old friend, “key moment”, showing its face under the question on “Theme” so a lot of students will be delighted with that especially if they had an essay prepared in advance.“Nettles” by Vernon Scannell appeared as the unseen poem in Section 3 but students will have been relieved here as the accompanying questions weren’t too much of a stinger!Poems by Fleur Adcock, Paula Meehan, T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats were examined with some very manageable questions under the section on prescribed poetry meaning that Meehan, Eliot and Yeats appeared on both the Higher and Ordinary English Papers as Meehan was examined in the unseen poetry section of Higher Level Paper 1 and Eliot and Yeats popped up in the prescribed poetry section of both papers.Overall, a very fair paper with no major surprises!

LC Home Economics

Ailbhe (Higher Level Home Economics)

Home Ec = General FiascoI think everyone will agree that on opening the paper they flicked to the infamous Q1 Section BWhhhhaaaaaaaaat?No protein? No eggs? No fish? No Meat? What is this vegetarians’ day out?!I like so many others had fallen for the intoxicating charms of predictions. The clever creators of this paper gave me the cold turkey I needed. All i could do was grit my teeth and face up to the reality of the unlikely and much overlooked (on my part anyways) Irish Food Industry taking pride of place in Q1 Section BTurning to the short questions to stroke my hair and tell me it will be alright was not the brightest of ideas. Once again a melting pot of trouble erupted. I saw before me humectants, trypsin and polyphosphates all minor footnotes in the massive tome of the Home Ec book. What was this? An enormous shock to the system for one thing.I would like to extend my deepest condolences to everyone on their recent loss of "prediction confidence". Predictions were a good friend. They lived a long and prosperous life. They were our guilty pleasure. Much like sugary food they gave a high and then leave a bittersweet taste on the palate. Speaking of palate....what was up with "the palatable qualities of fish on cooking?" That was a fishy (sorry for the sad pun) aul question!Anyway due to that stinging blow to my expectations I am going to crack open the poetry book now. Although I am making deals with the devil that Eliot and Yeats will fill the pages of my answer booklet tomorrow, I shall trawl through Kavanagh, Rich and Boland. Although I am hoping for literary genre, cultural context will get a look in and as for our old friend Lear I'm banishing (geddit) all predictions!Good luck tomorrow guys! And don’t worry too much about the Home Ec, you know what they say difficult exam = easy marking scheme! ;)Well actually I don’t know if they do say that because I just made it up!

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level Home Economics)

Two o’clock this afternoon saw Leaving Cert Higher Level Home Economics papers being opened around the country.The short questions brought no nasty surprises with a particularly topical question on consumer credit – this appeared again in Section B with a long question on consumer debt in the current economic climate. Section B also saw students faced with questions on Irish food and drinks exports, nutritional properties of meat and the factors affecting the purchasing of meat, the fish eating habits of the inhabitants of our fair isle, food preservation and the role of the family within the state, something which has also been discussed at length in the media in recent times.Students will have been largely happy with Section 3 if they had prepared their elective well. The recession appeared again in this section under the Social Studies elective followed by a very interesting question on the purpose of education and equality of opportunity in education.On a whole, it was a very fair paper and students will have done well if they knew their stuff!

ISSU Commentary (OrdinaryLevel Home Economics)

Leaving Cert Ordinary Level Home Economics was also a very fair paper with some straightforward short questions acting as a nice warm up for the longer questions.As with the Higher Level paper, the food and drinks industry featured heavily with a particular focus on milk and its nutritional values… students were led into this question with a quote from the infamous National Dairy Council ad that many of us will recall from our younger years… “Dem bones, dem bones need calcium…”The role of meat in the typical Irish diet and food preservation also featured in the ordinary level paper with a forth question on consumer rights and the final question of Section B focusing on the topical issue of disadvantaged children, their rights and physical and psychological needs.Again Section C will have posed no major difficulties for students if they had prepared their elective well – topics featured included energy efficiency, unemployment in Ireland, childcare standards and gender inequality in the home.Overall, a very approachable paper!

Thoughts on LC English Paper 1

Ailbhe (Higher Level English)

Nerves attacked this morning. I didn’t know what do to with myself. Surprisingly Elbow's, One Day Like This, actually helps a lot! Somehow I found myself at the exam hall. My desk was over by the wall. Great something to prop me up and not many distractions. Answer booklet sitting on my desk. Seconds diminishing towards 9.30 on the clock. Students in various forms of panic/calm around me. Get paper. Open paper.Flick immediately to the essays. Gosh darn it I couldn’t conveniently slot in my prewritten composition. I scan the titles muttering prayers under my breath. First one: acting, theatre. Might as well have been on Mars for all I knew about it. Second prospective candidate: neighbors. I'm not even on first name terms with mine. Scrap that. Getting slightly panicked. Third title: short story. Automatic sensors in my brain scream "AVOID AVOID, ABORT MISSION!!".And then the fourth one arrived. The beautiful uncomplicated essay on freedom. Wow perfect!So off I trot a bit of brainstorming here and there, you know yourself! Stick in a few quotes, they'll do the job. Happy out!The question B was even better. The importance of reading. I couldn't have asked for better.Comprehension, little tricky, but I think Al Gore and I saw eye to eye in the end!All in all, finished the paper with an hour to spare. Paranoid I had forgotten to do some vital component I went through the paper in a bit of a frenzy. But no I had successfully completed English Paper 1. I sat there in a vague sense of happiness, pen in hand happily illustrating my essays with comas apostrophes and other fun things like that that had escaped my in my vigour for getting my ideas on the page unscathed.It’s over now. Congratulations!! Here’s hoping for Eliot to pop in for a chat tomorrow!! :D

Owen (Higher Level English)

Wow finally D-Day has come... the official start to exams, now one step closer to FREEDOM!After having a slightly restless sleep due to the nerves and excitement of finally getting started, I was up early and raring to go.I had myself focused and was feeling confident about millin’ these exams out of it! All my hard work had come down to this, now it was time to show them what I was made of... although of course the old nerves were still in there somewhere!Well em… so I had a bit of hiccup with the paper, I was given paper 2 instead! Haha... only joking we all got paper 1 and a fairly nice paper it was too, I have to say and so everyone who sat the paper in Lucan Community College would agree. I found it had a great deal of variety that left plenty of room for your own individual take on things.I, myself chose the Section A about Al Gore, as I find myself experienced in speech writing having taken part in the Concern Debates for the past 2 years. I then moved on to Section B of Text 3, the radio talk about the importance of books in our lives and today's world. I enjoyed this piece as it gave me a chance to add in some humour. Lastly, I chose the composition piece on the speech to one’s graduating class which required me to encourage my audience to be optimistic about the future, again putting my debating skills to good use so I thought it went fairly well.Timing seemed to be a bit of an issue and I gave myself a little fright when I ended up only finishing my Section A at 10:45! However, I did manage to make up time and finish the exam with just enough time to give the paper one quick read over and correct any mistakes.The overall consensus from my exam centre was one of satisfaction, self-confidence and success... a good start to the Leaving Cert of 2010, I think. Well, so I hope anyway!Now off to study for paper 2.... my poor hand!:(

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level English)

Thousands of students across the country can now breathe a sigh of relief as many have at least one completed paper under their belts.Higher Level English paper 1 was handed out FACE-UP in all exam centres this morning thankfully avoiding a repeat of last year’s exam leak! Its theme, "The Future", could be said to have instilled a feeling of optimism in students as they began to tackle the paper, giving them some indication of light at the end of the tunnel and life after the Leaving Cert. The first comprehension text was based on an interview with Seamus Heaney; the Nobel Prize winner was tipped to appear on the paper in some form following the celebrations of his 70^th birthday in 2009, while Al Gore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech and an extract adapted from Ray Bradbury’s, Farenheit 451, featured in the second and third texts respectively. The Section A questions were definitely manageable although tricky in places while the Section B questions were very approachable across the board with students given the option of writing a letter or the text of an interview or radio talk.The composition section had some comparatively difficult titles to offer students when past papers from recent years are taken into consideration. However as usual students were given titles that spanned various writing styles so there was bound to be something to suit everyone.Keeping in mind its theme of “The Future”, students that may not be so sure that their efforts will be as fruitful as they had dreamed shouldn’t lose hope – no matter what happens over the next few weeks, with perseverance and determination, goals can still be reached!

ISSU Commentary (Ordinary Level English)

Students up and down the country sat down to “Facing Danger” glaring up at them as the theme of this morning’s Leaving Cert Ordinary Level English paper 1 – they couldn’t be blamed for feeling slightly uneasy about what kind of questions faced them over the page with a title like that greeting them! However Section 1 brought comprehensions on the adventures of international athletes, an extract from Tim Severin’s, The Brendan Voyage, and a question based on four images without any particular deadly surprises. The Question A parts of all questions were straightforward providing students engaged well with the texts so nothing too alarming here or in the Question B parts which gave students the option of writing the text of a talk, a competition entry or a promotional piece for a website. Having made it through Section 1 unharmed, students were left with the choice of seven titles for the composition section. However this shouldn’t have proved to be too treacherous as a nice variety of titles were given allowing plenty of scope for the imagination. Overall, students should have made it safely through paper 1 and will just have to wait and see what dangers face them on paper 2 tomorrow….

LC Students' thoughts on the eve of the exams

Ailbhe

T’was the eve before EnglishIt was the best of times it was the worst of timesAt the moment I’m flitting between various personalitiesThere’s the " It’ll be ok Ailbhe you have loads done, just relax and it’ll soon be over"and then the Devil appears on my shoulder -"you know Ailbhe, rumour has it this is the year the prediction book is being thrown out the window, you don’t stand a chance!"and of course there’s the denial -“ I can’t believe they expect us to learn all this, I mean it’s just crazy! Who do they think they are?"The careless nonchalance " I just don’t care anymore what's done is done, where do i sign up for the repeat class next year? I'm off to the beach!"Of course turning on the radio doesn’t soothe my turbulent mind.You'll always have the sure footed bright spark with his/her words of "encouragement""well I don’t know about you guys but I've done every paper since Jesus was knee high to a grasshopper, I've sat 5 mocks and got over 95% in each and I’m planning on a heavy duty all nighter buffering my books up with coffee and my swollen confidence."To be honest guys, I think we all go through each of these characters; the question is who do you want to be 12 hours away from the test paper?Speaking for myself, I’m planning on drawing the final curtain on the revision early tonight. I will turn off the notes I have playing on my iPod and listen to some much needed Passion Pit. I will take an early night. I will delve into my current bedside accompaniment, George Orwell and see what's going on in the land of 1984. I will turn off the light and hopefully succumb to the etherised (thanks J Alfred Prufrock!) state of mind known as dreaming!

Last minute tips and tricks:

Read the newspaper today. Paper one can be greatly adorned with a fantastic array of general knowledge/current affairs.Exhume your old Junior Cert English book and dust off the section on functional writing this is invaluable to Question B.Bring every colour of highlighter know to man to the exam with you. For the comprehension highlight part (i) in pink, part (ii) in orange and save the brashness of yellow for part (iii). Or use your own discretion on the colours if you're not feeling the pink!As for Home Ec, this is my favourite subject and is quite an accessible exam if it wasn't for the God awful timing. Tonight make out a pretty little colour co-ordinated chart of the RDA's and any other short nuggets of information you are inclined to forget. This will really help you in the hour between the two exams and also gives you a chance to test out all the new stationary you got for the exams! Don’t deny that you love the new rulers, biros, highlighters and pencils you have festooned on your desk! ;)All in all just relax. Banish the doubt, denial and frustration. You are that overzealous student designed to instil fear into the hearts of others. Attack the exam with ferocity. Three hours and it’s all over. Forever!

Owen

Wow can't believe that the Leaving Cert starts tomorrow, its hard to believe that the past 14 years of education pretty much comes down to the next 3 weeks!As I find myself approaching the last few hours before the adrenaline rush, heart thumping and hair pulling exams aside, I don't quite know how I feel?!?Yes of course I'm nervous and I’ve got that heart stopping feeling like I've nearly fallen off a chair or lost my mobile so when I think about it, yes anxiety overwhelms me but all for 2min maybe even less and then I get over it. I realise that I've put in the work and there's not much more I can do but give it my best shot sure even if things don't work out, people make their own destinies, right?, not exam results... although saying that, they probably do help!Tonight, on the eve of English Paper 1, all I can do is take some well deserved time to relax and unwind with some TV, maybe a movie, a bit of PlayStation or just hanging out with some friends and prepare myself for 2moz - nothing worse than going into an exam completely stressed out! Hopefully the paper 2moz will be a nice little warm up for rest of the exams, not too much study involved but a hell of a load of writing... think I'll be getting an early night!