Leaving Certificate Chemistry

Joanna - Higher Level

I don't want to say cram, but I definitely did some intense revision this morning. It felt good, got a lot of higher level experiments refreshed and definitions that I knew but just needed to go over. I always get this good feeling going into chemistry exams and then I open the paper, realise that I can only do like 4 questions (we need to do at least 8) and then panic sets in. This afternoon, I decided not to look at the whole paper until I had the 3 experiment questions done to reduce the possible panic.Well, the experiments were predictable. Sodium thiosulfate titration, the new experiment on the course and water. Grand. I found question 4 really nice and loved question 5 which is always kinda about the history of chemistry and Bohrs atomic theory. I can't remember all the topics, but as I flicked through the rest of the paper and realised I could make a reasonable attempt at a total of 9 questions, I was chuffed.I went on, skipping the organic chemistry which I didn't like and I found the options in questions 10 and 11 really manageable, especially the atmospheric chemistry question which I was a little nervous about.Overall, I know I didn't ace this paper, but I don't need chemistry for points or as an entry requirement, so I'm looking for an alright pass in it. After today, I feel I will be happy enough with whatever comes out in August, so fingers crossed! :)

Dáire - Higher Level

I spent all morning revising, or at least attempting to revise. My concentration was broken by the thoughts of the post leaving cert celebrations. I got to revise a few key topics.The paper was rough enough. I wasn't really prepared very well for the experiments that came up, and the rest of the paper was dodgy enough to be honest. I had been anticipating an A2, but given how that exam went, I'll be lucky to scrape a B, I think.That being said, there were simple parts to every question that I enjoyed, but there were other parts that were rotten. I attempted every question out of desperation, I didn't feel comfortable doing just the bare minimum because I wasn't sure of any of them.Obviously I am delighted to be finished, but my happiness is kind of hindered by how badly the exam went. I'm looking forward to getting my results in August, and I hope that the exams went better than I feel they did, especially chemistry. As one of my 'strongest' subjects, I'm bitterly disappointed with it.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate Accounting

Rob - Higher Level

If there is a way to NOT do a Leaving Certificate exam, I did it today. I was revising theory up until twenty minutes before my exam and on reaching my exam centre I saw a big group of third years clutching T-squares. Presuming they were now using our exam centre, I moved down to the other sixth year centre and sat down with my classmates. The paper and exam booklets were handed out, I skimmed through the pages and was happy enough to see the topics I had revised were there. It was then I was called out of the exam centre as I was in the wrong one - 5 minutes into the exam. I raced down the hall with the stationery I had on my table (including a biro running tediously low on blue ink) and then had to restart the exam in this exam centre. Great start Rob!I decided to start myself off on depreciation, a topic I've always liked. This year the question had a few extra parts including having a scrap value of 5%. I took this into account and filled out my table and in my exam state I began to convince myself I was going wrong somewhere. Even though it said to round to decimals, I convinced myself I was going wrong and so abandoned the question.I was now 20 minutes into an alright tight time-wise exam without having a single question done. I ended up racing through the rest of my questions. My cash flow didn't balance and I ended up doing Question 5 (which I usually avoid like the plague).On a more positive note, I was quite happy with my tabular statement and question 9. The theory on all questions was what I had been expecting, so hopefully I've gained marks there.Overall I'm quite disappointed with this exam. I knew the information but on the day I made bad choices and panicked under time constraints. I had been looking for an A1 with Accounting, but right now I'd be happy with a B in any form.2 more exams left, I'm feeling a little disheartened and burned out after all that. Let's hope Chemistry is nice (it never is!) :)

Dáire - Higher Level

The accounting paper was okay. I answered questions 1, 5, 7 and 9.Question 1 was a company final account, I was delighted when I saw it, being the easiest. That being said I still didn't get it to balance, I was a fair bit off. The interpretation of accounts question, question 5, was standard enough. Nothing unusual about the cash budget, question 9, or the incomplete records, question 7.I started with question 9 to build up my confidence because I'm not great at accounting. I like the cash budgets. I then did question 1, I still have never balanced one on my own. I took a good while to do those questions and I put myself under pressure to get the last 2 done in time. Thankfully, I got all the questions answered and hopefully mostly correct.I feel the exam went well, but I would advise for prospective students to set a time plan and follow it. There really isn't much time to spare in the allocated 3 hours. I was flat out until the end, and I was conscious of being the only person in the room for the last hour.I was prepared for everything that came up, which was relieving, to say the least.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate German

Rob - Higher Level

My final language exam! I had prepared what I could going into the exam, revising some vocabulary for each topic. German has a habit of being notoriously difficult to predict, and this year was no different by any means.The first comprehension was surprisingly accessible, describing an old woman who has a dream of flying. Usually this is where I lose marks, however I was quite happy with it. On reading the second comprehension I was surprised to find it harder than the first, I couldn't translate all the vocabulary for the English questions. The grammar question was straightforward enough and a repeat of what we've seen in previous years.I chose the Außerung sum Thema about your friend wanting to be a pop star. I said he should follow his dream but maybe get a part time job too! The follow on questions I linked into what I had learned about engineering for my oral, so I'm happy enough with how I did here.The letter. Where did those topics come from? I found myself borrowing a lot of vocabulary and verbs from the letter itself, especially about the second hand clothing. The SEC really did choose random topics, bringing in a bit of feminism to the sports question and asking which country out of Germany, Austria and Switzerland I'd prefer a language assistant from and why. I have never seen a written paper like that before, and so am not sure how well I did.The listening test was completely different to what I've heard before too. I was shocked to find myself with just 3 answers written down in Section 1 after the second listening. Thankfully the other parts were a bit easier than this one, but overall I'm a little disappointed with the aural.It'll be interesting to see how they vary the marking scheme!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate Art History and Appreciation

Joanna - Higher Level

When I opened the art paper, I panicked. No Raphael and an Iron Age artefact that I didn't like. To top it off, an art gallery question about a local gallery, so basically the two visits to the national gallery and knowing the Carravagio in there inside out were all worthless! Not to mention the mini biography on Raphael that I had drilled into my head that morning, which felt beyond useless. What now?I took a few deep breaths and looked over the paper again. Okay, the Iron age question had a trick about 'a change' during the iron age, so they were looking to compare Insular La Tene to Ultimate La Tene in relation to the Petrie crown, and although that wasn't my favourite piece of Pre-Christian metalwork, the question itself was actually grand. Then the Renaissance question was about Leonardo da Vinci who I normally skipped during revision because he's more of an ordinary level artist (I was told) which essentially means he's too easy. But now, I could turn that around and use all the fancy words I had prepared for Raphael, like chiaroscurro and contraposto, and just sub them into a nice essay about how talented Leonardo was in relation to his famous 'Madonna of the Rocks' and then a bit about the Mona Lisa. Grand. I can honestly say, it was pretty easy, although the sketches took ages.For the local gallery question I had an epiphany about the time when. During the Polska Eire festival, a Polish artist was displaying his and his friend's work in Raheny library. Perfect! I used the bones of that experience to draft an essay and then fleshed it out with a bit of personal creativity. I have to say, my sketches were not bad at all compared to how badly I usually draw under pressure, so by the end of the two and half hour session I was really happy to seal my paper and hand it up.In the end, there was no need to panic. Now I have four days off before Chemistry and Polish and that's it, woo!Have a good weekend everyone, I'm off to catch up on this weeks sleep :)

Isabelle - Higher Level

I was really tired today after History yesterday, and I didn't get to study last night at all, and so this morning was quite stressful for me! I hadn't really studied properly for art history since before the mocks so it was quite a shock this morning trying to cram everything in! It was touch and go as to whether or not I'd even be able to attempt an answer at a question but luckily Gothic architecture and Early Christian metalwork which were two of the 5 topics I had covered that morning came up (seriously lucky). I always answer the art appreciation on the museum, with an answer learned off about the national gallery and 2 paintings in the European exhibition, but I was extremely disappointed when I saw it asked for a 'local gallery' specifically. However, I was much too tired to attempt to think of a design for a roadside sculpture, so I insisted on making my essay work and discussed how wonderful it is to live in Dublin and have such great museums in my locality's! Hopefully they'll buy it, but even if they don't, it's only 5 marks out of 50 for naming the right gallery according to past marking schemes, and the whole exams only worth 37.5% anyway, so I'm not too worried!Now for a lovely (very necessary) 4 day break until Spanish.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate History

Lorraine - Higher Level

Well I'm just out of History and thank god! First of all I have to say I think it's crazy only giving us an hour break between French and History. I really think that could be time tabled better. I was so determined to do well in French this morning that I kind of neglected History a little bit last night! I was really apprehensive and thepanic stations did set in after French. I was trying to just recap everything going through all the notes I had made out..so so many notes! The history course is a huge course and I really am glad that there is a project in it!When I got the paper I saw the Document question was on the Eucharistic Congress, not what everyone had thought but still quite a nice question. I took a flick through the paper and panicked a little bit at the Dictatorship questions but made myself do the document question just to calm down. When I finished them I decided to start with the American topic because I saw the Montgomery bus boycott and I was delighted. I figure if I can get everything I know out of the way first in exam I give myself time to search around in my brain bits of what I know about the ones I'm panicking about (weird I know :P). When I finished that I went back to the Dictatorship and Democracy question and realised in my mind I had definitely imagined a question that wasn't there! After rereading them I was delighted to see propaganda and terror in Russia and/or Mussolini. I was like BOOM! In the exam although I have to admit I would have loved a nice chunky propaganda question on Germany but sure look it. When I finished that I went to the Irish topic- my most hated topic by far. I really hadn't prepared as well as I could have for this I had learned bits on everyone but nothing solid completely my own fault! I did the question on Lemass and T.K Whitaker.I only squeezed out 3 pages on it but I can say its completely my own fault and in my sleep deprived state I was proud to even get 3 pages out! Its weird to say I'm finished History now! I only have Economics left which is next Wednesday so I have an entire week - thank god because I have completely neglected it!! :)

Isabelle - Higher Level

I think the majority of the country went into today's history exam expecting the treaty negotiations, but I have never been a fan and so was praying for the Eucharistic Congress. Not only did it come up but it came up with the same context question I have answered at least 4 times before!I was really happy that the Montgomery bus boycott came up, and even happier that it didn't even ask for anything else about the civil rights movement! Both The bus boycott and Hitlers foreign policy came up in my mocks and I did quite well in them so I was over the moon to see them again! Northern Ireland has always been my tricky section, so I was quite nervous, however one of the essays that came up was easy enough to fit both my welfare state and Brookeborough and O'Neill essay into!Overall I couldn't have hoped for a better paper, I hope you all felt the same about it too! Thank god its over!!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate French

Rob - Higher Level

I know for some people this was their last exam, while for me it was my fifth last. I'm not sure whether I'd prefer to be finished my Leaving Cert now, or whether I like having more time to study between subjects.It was strange starting a French exam with the comprehension, for the past 6 years we have always done the listening test first. Both of the texts were straight forward enough I found, especially with the final questions in English. The multi choice questions, however, weren't as obvious as in previous years. Asking about the meaning of a paragraph, I could find two options in one of the texts.I moved onto the written comprehensions and did the first option in question 1 as I cannot for my life write stories. I had revised certain topics the night before, trying to stay topical with topics such as healthcare (Ebola), politics (the referendum) and terrorism (Charlie Hebdo) being my focus, as well as drugs and technology. I was quite happy with the options that came up, especially with the final option on Voting at 16, something ISSU is working towards! I had done my document on Malala Yousafzai and youth politics, so this was really handy for this essay.The listening comprehension started well for me, however on the last section (maybe because it is only played twice) I missed two answers completely, which is annoying. French was okay this year, I have heard easier listening comprehensions but I'm happy with how the topics fell for both the written task and comprehensions (even the one about the wolves!). Now on to German!

Joanna - Higher Level

Getting out of bed was tough, but once I got to school, looked over notes and settled down in the exam hall, it felt grand. I always do the composing section first and quickly write out all the phrases and vocab I had been revising before the exam so I wouldn't stress and pause for too long when writing. It really helped when developing points on the different topics, and I found the choice really good this year. I chose to do a diary entry about a new school uniform, an opinion piece on homelessness and a piece about mobile phone addiction. The comprehensions were okay, although I found the first one a bit more challenging than usual. The second required some manipulation in the answers, and it was really odd (about a couple who had werewolf neighbours) but I got on okay. I was delighted that the last parts (where you answer in English ) were easy enough as well.Having read over my exam paper twice, I was still finished early enough so I went to get some air before the listening exam began. I was delighted that we could have a look at the paper for five minutes before the exam started (if only we could have done the same for the Irish tape test) and everything looked okay. The listening tests is one of my favourite parts of the French exam, so I got on grand.Overall I found this years paper really manageable and although quite a lot of my friends dropped down to ordinary level on the day, the ones who stuck with the higher seemed to get on well too so I'm really happy about that.

Lorraine - Higher Level

Well that's my third long day done and dusted thank god!! Ill start off with French! I went in at half 8 this morning to go over some last minute verbs stuff from the comprehensions with my teacher and I have to say I was glad I did because it was actually useful in the exam! I thought it was a really lovely paper although the comprehension (second one) was just a bit weird about neighbours being wolves!! I didn't have a problem with either comprehension thank god and then I went to the questions!The journal in time was actually a really nice question about your school bringing in a new uniform and your refusing to wear it that was fairly nice. The questions themselves were also lovely! I had been trying to predict topics and had it wittled down to water charges, ebola, emigration, unemployment, racism, terrorism, voting, gay marriage, role of women in the home, the points system, pocket money and obesity with sport..very wittled down. I was delighted to see the question on voting at 16 and the question on pocket money was lovely too! Oh and the first compulsory question I did was on how to solve he problem with homelessness which I was also really happy with.I got 40% in my premocks in French and 61% in my mocks in French and I can honestly say I worked my ass off at French since Christmas. I truly felt today that it paid off. I will actually miss speaking and studying French a lot. All in all, a lovely paper!! :)Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.