Leaving Certificate Maths Paper 2

Rob - Higher Level

I was feeling quite disheartened after the mess I made of Maths Paper 1, however Paper 2 I think will bring my grade up. I knew my theorems and proofs going into the exam so was happy to see two of them on the paper. I think the paper was clear and concise, requiring a lot of thinking but still doable. The latter parts of question 8 (involving sequences and series) were different to what I've seen before, I found them difficult to approach.Overall I'm much happier with paper 2 than paper 1. I think it was a fair yet still challenging paper. On to learning essays for Irish in just over an hour!

Joanna - Higher Level

A few people hinted to me to have a look at theorem eleven before I go into the exam... I try not to listen to tips like that because I hate the idea of gambling at an exam which is going to set me on a track for the next few years. But, I must admit, I did go over how to prove that transversal lines going through three parallels can form a paralellogram and thus it can be proved that they are cut into equal segments... And there you go, it was there!That was the first question I attempted and next the construction, both went smoothly and I had no problems with question one. My memory of the rest of the exam is a bit fuzzy, I do remember my delight at the amount of co-ordinate geometry of the circle and trigonomoetry (I had been revising shapes and circles a lot yesterday I really enjoy puzzling out measurements and points on the co-ordinate plane). Following Joan on her awful attempt at golf was actually alright, and I managed to figure out most of the odd machine part and was just on the last part when time ran out. I sketched a really quick picture of what I was going to find out and put down the formula I would have used, if I had the time. Hopefully that will count for something!Overall I was happy with the paper. Yes, there were parts that I got stuck on, or where the answers I got didn't seem to work out so I had to try again and that's probably how I ran out of time, but I also managed to apply lots of what I knew and I was happy that I filled every blank on the paper. I'm a little unhappy that my aim for this maths was to pass and not to score higher, but for a long time I wasn't confident at all doing the new Project Maths and even now, looking at the sample SEC papers gives me shivers. I'm more enthusiastic about maths today than I was at the start of fifth year, so hopefully the result I get in August will reflect it. Well, I'm fairly confident I didn't fail the papers, so whatever grade comes out, I'll celebrate it. I hope others felt okay about it too :)

Leah - Ordinary Level

Hello all, I hope you're feeling ok after Maths this morning. As I previously stated, I thought Paper I was great but, I have to say - Paper II knocked me about the place. Right from the get go, I had vague ideas on what to do but that was as good as it got. I guess that's what I get for being so cocky about Paper I!I did quite like the last question, it was easy enough and it had a lot of parts to it where you could pick up handy little marks. I liked that a lot as it was a great comfort to me. I'm sorry to say that the rest of the questions were not as nice, however.All in all, maths was ok I thought but I definitely preferred Paper I. I keep referring back to my little mantra though: attempt marks are key! I'm sure we all did our very best and, look at it this way - if Paper I was really that bad, they'd have to bring down the marking Scheme.I'm ecstatic that maths is over now and roll on the remainder of our exams. Keep up the good work and it'll all be over soon :)Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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Leaving Certificate Irish Paper 1

Joanna - Higher Level

I was very anxious when we were handed the exam paper. My teacher gave us so many essays to prepare and I had so many coloured cards with all sorts of vocabulary for the exam, I knew it was all too much and reading over it was driving me crazy. I wanted to get the exam out of the way. As much as I tried to relax, I couldn't help but tremble a bit as I could finally turn over the exam paper to start the tape exam. The CD was already playing, and there was little time to read the questions. On top of that, the recordings only played twice. Thankfully, most were easy enough to get, and some of the answers were repeated two or three times within the one recording, so we had many opportunities to listen back to try and figure out the right spelling. I'm not good with accents, so I'm not sure if it was Donegal Irish or something else, but the whole middle section was definitely more difficult to understand. However, I left no blanks and think I did okay. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself to stay calm ahead of the big essay.I was relieved when we could finally look at the essay titles. I went ahead with the one about new technologies since I was looking over cyber bullying just before the exam and could only really talk about drugs and alcohol in terms of sport, which I didn't feel would be enough. Anyway, I think the amount of time given to write that one essay (compared to how tightly packed the second paper is) is ridiculous and although almost everyone was finished long before the exam, the extra time that I had left made me particularly anxious. I finished and had almost an hour to look over. On the one hand, it was nice to have time to read over my work for once during these exams, but on the other, the longer time meant that I wrote more and I'm worried that I made more grammar mistakes than I would have made if I had tried to be more concise.Caithfidh mé admháil, tá mé ar mhuin na muice anois agus an chead páipéir críochnaithe, ach tá imní orm mar i mo bharúil, tá an dara páipéir níos deacra. Beidh an scrúdu bitheolaíocht ann amarach freisin, cinnte go mbeadh sé an lá is measa de na scrúidaithe! Ach tar éis amarach, tá dhá scrúidaithe níos éasca agam, agus níl aon scrúdu agam dé hAoine. Tá plean agam dul go dtí oifig an ISSU chun dearmad a dhéanamh ar na scrúdaithe ar feadh lá amhain agus béidir dul go dtí Stephens Green ag am lón le mo chara. Ansin, caithfidh mé a lán obair a dhéanamh ar feadh deireadh seachtaine, ach beidh mé beagnach críochnaithe, mar sin, tá mé ag súil go mór leis an seachtain seo chugain! :)

Rob - Higher Level

I was apprehensive going into Irish, I had really being focusing on maths over the weekend and only knew a few main phrases for the essay. We had prepared an essay on córas oideachais as well as timpilleacht, and I had written out a piece on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean a few weeks ago.I'm quite happy with how the listening went, the accents were overall easy to understand and where I didn't know a word I just wrote what I heard. On opening the page with the essay titles I couldn't believe that Córas Oideachais had turned up again as it did in the mocks. The other essay titles were also very broad and what my friends had been preparing for, táillií uisce fit in nicely to one title I remember. There was loads of choice, I think everyone was happy with what they received.As today was my only double day of exams, I'm glad its over. It feels good to be happy with a paper, especially compared to last Friday after maths. Now for Paper 2, hoping the Prós and Dánta that are expected to come up make an appearance!

Isabelle - Higher Level

After the most horrible start to the morning with Maths 2 I found this Irish paper such a treat!The listening was by far one of the easiest I have ever done (please god don’t let it affect the marking scheme!), and the essay topics were so broad that you could nearly fit anything you had prepared in! I panicked a bit when I saw córas oideachais had appeared in the debate section as I have never written a debate before but I was banking on that education system question! However it was quite a relief to have seen that in fact it wasn’t looking for a debate as such but a “píosa caint” for a radio station! Feel slightly better about probably not counting maths now!

Leah - Higher Level

Hello and welcome one and all. Wow, I must say, Irish Paper I was extremely generous! Almost too generous, some may say... Did anyone else get a sense that Paper I was a little bit too easy? Honestly, Paper I for Irish was extremely very kind.Of course, the paper began with a good old fashioned listening - which I, for one, am grateful for. It spoke at a slightly faster than moderate pace and the different accents weren't too hard to decipher. I found part C the most difficult but it wasn't all too bad at all.The Aiste titles though! Oh my god, Question B made my day. Since Fifth Year, my Irish class had a running joke that we were all too focused on the negatives in today's society. One of those negatives that we spoke about at length were alcohol and drugs. You can imagine how happy I was to see "Alcol agus Drugaí: na fadhbanna..." come up as a topic. My one problem with it though was the fact I had so much too say that I crammed it into my first few paragraphs, leaving my conclusion somewhat dry rushed.I thought that Paper was quite a nice on to get, I'm just praying Seal i Neipeal won't come up now. I suspect it will though, seen as the first paper was so broad and nice.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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Leaving Certificate Maths Paper 1

Lorraine - Ordinary Level

Hi all,I hope that your all as outraged as me right now..what on earth was that? Did they accidentally give us the honours maths paper because that was next to impossible!!I woke up to revise the itty bits that really niggle me in paper 1 but generally paper 1 is my okish paper whereas its paper 2 that Is my downfall! I spent a long time on complex numbers and going through the financial maths because they were a long question in the mocks.When I went into school everyone was feeling ok- a lot of revising going on!! When the examiner handed me the exam paper I started to scan through it making myself not rush into anything-my worst habit. I checked through the long questions and was really disappointed- no financial maths. I started back at the first question which was exchange rates- not my best question! The complex numbers question was like a different language - they brought cos into it!! I fought with myself in the exam not to panic or freak out but jesus Christ that was a horrible exam.After the exam from talking to everybody else, nobody seems to be happy with it! Some of the questions were just strange and some of them I had never seen on the sample papers never mind past papers!! I have to admit I am really disappointed and extremely worried now as paper 2 is my awful paper! At least I have the weekend to spend cramming on it and trying to get a half decent result!!

Leah - Ordinary Level

Out of all of the exams I've done so far, I was absolutely chuffed to pieces with the Paper! As soon as I opened Maths Paper I today, I could hardly contain my glee. The Paper opened with an easy enough questions about financial maths, like currency conversions and so on and - boy! I may be one of the few people to admit that I actually liked Maths.When I dropped to Ordinary Level Maths after Christmas of Fifth Year, I felt full of worry that I would get a horrible Paper in the Leaving - simply because I didn't know what to expect from the terrifying "Project Maths". However, I believe that this years Paper is the nicest one I've seen yet, including the Sample Papers that came in Examit's set of Past Exam Papers.In fairness though, I heard off many of my friends that they hated Question Eight and Nine and I have to agree but always remember; attempt marks are key! Attempt marks will be and are my blessing. With attempt marks alone you can pass Maths, which is nice considering the fact that it's either a subject you get or not at all. It just goes to show: everybody loves a trier.The only other question that stumped me was the second question to do with Co-Ordinate Geometry but I guess no one can be good at everything.Honestly, roll on Maths Paper II because I am feeling ecstatic. I'm as happy as Larry with what came up and I hope that the next people will be just as sweet! :)

Neil - Ordinary Level

After talking to many others, the general consensus seems to be that ordinary maths paper 1 was very difficult for an ordinary maths paper. I particularly found the question on sequences very difficult and honestly I thought oil barons earned more money lolOverall though, I think it was a very easy paper to pass as the question As were very simple and straight forward yet it was a hard paper to get an A1 in due to the Cs being challenging. Gods speed for paper 2 to all my fellow ordinary huns.

Shauna - Ordinary Level

Going into maths I wasn't too worried because I'm in pass and probably won't count it for points! I didn't study for it much last night as I had Honours Geography this morning and was stressed to the max about that! I went in just hoping for some nice questions though! Question 1 was about money exchange so that was grand! It all went down hill from there :(( I found the questions in the middle of the paper IMPOSSIBLE!!! I spent so long trying to figure out what I was being asked to do! The last 2 questions were do-able, although the very last part of the last question wasn't worded very well. I came out of the exam fairly depressed because I thought I would do well in maths, but found out that everyone found the paper soooo difficult so hopefully it'll be marked easy enough! LIVING FOR ATTEMPT MARKS !

Joanna - Higher Level

Ah, when I opened the paper and saw that there was no sign of DeMoivre's theorem or proof by induction, it felt like my prayers were answered! I was dreading seeing them, I spent the whole dull morning looking over them and trying to drill the steps into my head, without much progress. The fact that they weren't there was a massive relief and I felt ready to tackle anything else that may be on the paper.Looking over the questions, they looked challenging but didn't make me panic, and I found the first two questions were really manageable which helped me to stay calm (I even managed to get an answer in surd form for question two as was asked, so I was delighted!) the whole paper wasn't easy, I particularly struggled in finishing the last 3 questions. However, I put something down for every question which I was happy about. There were a few situations where I knew the figures that I got in a previous part of a question were wrong, but I knew what to do with them in the parts that followed. So hopefully, even though a lot of my final answers were a mess, the steps that I followed and the formula I used were correct and will give me enough marks to pass this paper.So, I hope I have a good few partial grades in the bag now, paper one was always my least favourite paper, so whatever I achieved should only get better after paper two! I'm really relieved because I knew this would be one of the most challenging exams and the fact that it went okay is really encouraging. Time to go over paper 2, as many biology exam questions as possible and make my way through Irish essays, summaries and vocab for the exams next week... But first, I'm taking the afternoon off and recommend it to everyone else after today :))

Isabelle - Higher Level

Today was definitely the most nervous I have been going into an exam. In the car on the way I wasnt sure whether I needed to cry or throw up (thankfully I did neither). Having got 40% on the dot in my mock Maths has been a huge source of stress for me, with my main end goal being to scrape a D3. This exam was baffling to me. Some of the questions were scarily easy and almost spoon fed the answers and then others (like the oil spill ???!) were difficult and just plain weird. Differentiation has never been one of my strong points, so when I saw that nearly every question included it in some shape or form (seriously though whats up with that??) I was quite disappointed. The financial maths question was a nice break from it all!Overall I was not overly happy with the paper, and I have pretty mixed emotions from most of my friends aswell, some thinking it was too easy, some finding it impossible. Either way I filled in every box and made some ludicrous attempts, so I'm hoping some nice partial credits will be heading my way and hopefully getting me to 40%.Now for a weekend full of the most intense cramming of my life, but maybe a well deserved break for tonight!

Dáire - Higher Level

I was more anxious before this exam than I was for English, but I was relieved when I opened the paper. I found the short questions to be very handy, especially the financial maths one, which I found nearly too easy and was searching for the catch involved. I was happy with that, because it's my worst topic.I took my time going through the paper, it took me a few minutes to relax with the paper and once I did, it was all good from there. Usually I would go mad if there was a question I couldn't answer, but I felt that time was on my side and I pulled each question apart and got through it.It wasn't a perfect paper either, there were surprisingly only a couple of parts that I could not answer. I'll hold off on predicting my grade for now but I'm nearly certain I passed off that paper alone. I hope paper two treats me as well on Monday as paper one did today.

Rob - Higher Level

I had prepared a lot on proof by induction as well as learning off my proofs and definitions for this paper. All morning I looked over these, and so I was quite disappointed to see none of them turn up in the paper.As I don't have the paper with me to analyse I can't speak about every question. I found the first 6 to be quite straightforward, except for Question 4 involving complex numbers. I tried everything with this question, swapping positions, De Moivres, adding conjugates. I couldn;t make it work.I found the rate of change question to be challenging, there was a lot of information with the different questions requiring you to fully be following what was going on with that oil spill.I was disappointed to see no theory, no induction or simultaneous equations nor any mention of surjective and injective functions. The paper was very heavy on calculus, which I can deal with, but I would have preferred some of the other topics.Overall I'm a little disappointed and disheartened. There will surely be some theory on Paper 2 now, on top of the theorems and inferential statistics to learn off. I'm still not sure about the new aspects introduced this year so will have to check up on that tonight online.Hopefully Paper 2 will be a bit kinder to me, I know not everyone was as disappointed as I was today. 8 more exams to go!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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Leaving Cert English Paper 2

Lorraine - Higher Level

Hey all,I hope your all as happy as I am right now! I really liked the fact that we weren't starting paper 2 till 2pm so you had the morning to revise which I did! I decided that I was only studying Hardy, Frost and Montague and on my head be it! I was also determined that the role of women would come in Othello and received much criticism when I kept saying it was coming up so as you can imagine I was delighted when I turned the paper and it was a question on Desdemona and Emilia! I couldn't have picked it better myself!! :D The comparative question was a bit shaky I'm not gonna lie! I was really confused what the question actually meant and wanted me to do so I did the Q2 which I know I messed up! When I turned to poetry BOOM I had the choice of Hardy, Frost, Montague and Ni Chullean!! :D The question on Montague was a really lovely question about how his evocative language shows his profound empathy for people in his poems. I can honestly say it was a beautiful paper and I actually am sad to not be studying English anymore! I'm dreading maths paper 1 tomorrow it is my nightmare- but not as bad as maths paper 2!!

Rob - Higher Level

Monty Monty Monty, thank you Monty!Nerves were running much higher this morning before the exams, with most of us depending on Montague, Frost Hardy and the beautiful Ní Chuilleanáin. I had banked too on Literary Genre for my Comparative, with General Vision and Viewpoint as a backup. Othello was always going to be a lucky guess, there were no patterns to study as it hasn't been on in so long.On opening the exam papers I raced to the poetry section where the first question that greeted my eyes was my favourite, Montague. Not only that, but his question on evocative language and empathy was almost identical to the essay I had been studying all morning. I had been totally we would receive a horrible combination of poets, but this was ideal.I started my exam on the Comparative, the Literary Genre questions was phrased differently to other years, asking specifically for just one literary technique across three texts. I had learned essays using a number of techniques, but decided to go with character creation as I could combine narration under that title too. I wrote for the full 70 minutes I had allotted, and was happy enough with my answer. Overall I found it a challenging question, definitely requiring alertness and thinking on the day,I wrote out my poetry essay before continuing on to my Single Text, Othello. I chose the character question about Desdemona and Emilia, I hadn't prepared an essay exactly like this but was able to combine what I had written before to use for this question.The unseen poetry was interesting, however talking to my friends I found they had seen completely different meaning in the poem than I had, so I'd rather forget those last panicked 15 minutes of the exam!Overall I'm quite happy. I have never like Paper 2 and the need to memorise countless quotes, but I found this paper to be approachable and interesting. Apart from the first literary genre question which may have caught out some people, the general consensus was the same.Now onto maths!

Joanna - Higher Level

I spent this morning looking over a small selection of notes and essays I prepared for myself earlier over a cup of peach tea. I was panicking. I don't know why, I spent ages looking over poets, reading over all sorts of Othello notes and polishing sample comparative essays. Well, none of it was enough to calm me. I was scared because yesterdays exam really felt exhausting and made me dizzy and I wasn't sure how today would go... Anyway, looking over Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, there was a particular sample question I liked about challenging subject matter and style in her poetry. When I opened the exam paper and saw the exact same question before me (slightly reworded) well, I almost cried with relief. The Othello question that I decided to do was about Emilia and Desdemona, apparently they were both 'weak' and didn't gain our sympathy. My response to that was that a total chauvinist must have written that because even though Desdemona was shallow and submissive, Emilia totally rocked the end of that play and her realism, development and courage at the end made her my heroine of the play! And the comparative; that I found a bit more challenging, but I referred to the question throughout my answer and stuck to the structure that followed in all my sample essays, trying to fit in quotes and references to specific key moments. I hope it worked!Overall, once again I was writing until the last minute, but I felt better doing the exam. I found it easier to get focused and also had some water with me and took a break when my hand couldn't go on after about an hour, so it was okay for the rest of e exam. The joints in my right hand are sore, but I'm glad that this exam is done and hopefully the others won't make it worse!I'm nervous about maths tomorrow. De Moivre's theorem and proof by induction are not my favourite topics at all! I always liked paper two more... I suppose I was nervous today and it ended up being fine, so maybe tomorrow will be similar. Well, I'll relax tonight with some mathstutor.ie videos and more peach tea and it should be alright... Lots of deep breaths and remember, its not in my top six and the minimum entry requirement for my course is a pass in maths, so no need to stress too much.Best of luck to everyone else!

Leah - Higher Level

Hello, hello and welcome to another exciting installment of "did I fail that subject or not?" On this weeks show, we have Leah, who thinks she totally bombed that exam and even panicked when she entered her exam centre.Seriously though, I found Paper II way harder than Paper I. I started off with the Comparative because that was worth the most marks and I chose to do Question (i) from the Theme or Issue because I didn't even want to attempt a two part question. They do not bode well for me. I don't think I did too bad on that but I may have summarised the stories a little too much? I don't really know, to be perfectly honest. That's why I really dislike Paper II, there's virtually no room for your own take on the works of Literature.Next, I decided to go to the Poetry Question and, boy, did we hit the jackpot or what! I had predicted that Ní Chuilleanáin, Frost and Montague would come up and I was right. I was so lucky in that. I decided to do Ní Chuilleanáin because I like her the best out of those three and I think I didn't fair to badly but I don't know. I always feel like that after an English test, it seems I always get marked randomly. Who knows though?Anyway, I then went on to the Unseen Poetry and I totally just hazarded a guess at the two questions in part one. Let's hope I didn't do too bad on that because I need a B1 in English for my course.Finally, I took one look at Section I, Part E and my heart dropped. I decided to do the second part out of the two options because I didn't know squat about Emilia or Desdemona. I know, I know - I should have studied them more but I was too concerned with my other subjects to even look over anything that was optional. I ran out of time for the Othello Question but I was doing so bad, it's probably best that way.All in all, I can't stress enough how important studying is and I just pray to God that I got my B. I was such a nervous wreck before and during that exam, it was unbelievable. Who knows, maybe I didn't do as bad as I thought? I am a bit of a perfectionist in that sense.

Isabelle - Higher Level

English paper 2 was by far the most emotionally draining experience of my school career. The big question everyone was asking before was which poets would come up, and the good news for anyone who had followed predictions was that all the favourites came up (with a really nice Montague question, thank the lord).However this in my opinion was the nicest part about the paper. As someone who has been loyal Literary Genre at every given opportunity, at first I was delighted to see it make an appearance of the paper; and then I read the question. One literary technique for a whole essay??? This freaked me out quite a bit and so I instead went for the theme question, which was kind of like a mixture of theme and general vision and viewpoint? ("Some texts leave readers with a largely idealistic impression of a theme, while others leave readers with a more realistic or believable impression of the same theme or issue.") This worked to my advantage as the only theme essay I have ever prepared was about what the authors were trying to say about the theme. Another thing I found strange about the comparative questions was that they both requested 3 texts, which as far as I'm aware has never happened before, as there is usually one that only asks for "2 or more". The unseen poetry was very boring, i still don't quite know if the boy's father is dead or not to be honest.Now for Othello. Quite possibly the meanest part of the paper. Luckily that morning I had briefly gone over women's role in the play so I had a basic idea of what to write for "Desdemona and Emilia are weak characters who fail to gain our sympathy" , but i was not too happy about having to write it as I knew a lot more about other questions. The second Othello question apparently carried quite a bit of controversy."The values evident in Othello have a profound influence on the outcome of the play." To be quite honest i had no idea whether the question meant the character Othello or the play itself (I have been informed now it meant the play itself - still don't know what the values of the play are...?).Overall I was happy enough with how I answered all of my questions, and think I did as well as I could have for a paper that didn't suit me as well as I would have hoped! All i can say is thank God it's over!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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Leaving Cert English Paper 1

Leah - Higher Level

Hello and good afternoon to the readers of this post! I hope everyone is feeling well on this fine evening and that if you're one of the "lucky" few to be going through exams at the moment, I truly hope that everyone finds the strength to do their best over the next few weeks. I myself have been inflicted with the trials & tribulations that go hand in hand with the thoughts of the Leaving Certificate today.Firstly, however, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Leah and I have never done an official State Examination - until now. As you can imagine, I was extremely nervous at the daunting prospect of my first State Exams to be so significant to my future. But, no pain, no gain - right? These past few months have been a nail biting experience but now, finally, I have made it. Alongside all of my friends and classmates, we have all reached the first day of exams.This morning I arrived at my school fully decked out in my uniform at 8:30. That's an entire hour before my exam was due to begin but I was too full to the brim of nervous energy. After waiting for what seemed like both endless hours and fleeting minutes, my exam centre was opened and slowly but surely, each of my peers poured into the centre. As the clock neared towards 9:30, I decided to make a basic plan of action for my first exam - English Paper I. I decided that my first priority was to get Section II out of the way, seen as it's worth the most marks. Luckily enough, I was blessed with a creative mind from a very young age and so I knew my best shot would be to write a short story. Then, I chose to continue on to part B of Section I and finally, I would finish with the Comprehension. I love it when a plan comes together. With that plan in mind, I felt anxious to get going and, sure enough, 9:30 came and there was a flurry of rustling papers in the exam centre. I kid you not, it sounded like a flock of pigeons taking flight!With my plan of action in mind, I decided to do Question 1 in Section II. The question was focusing on a problem the main character had to go through and then how they had to change throughout the course of the events of short story. For me personally, I decided to write an epilogue-like ending of a book that lead onto a sequel. Each problem my character experienced were in the past and yet, they still had many more to overcome. I was incredibly lucky that my hours in bed, where I was trying to sleep last night but instead thinking of intricate plot lines had not gone to waste.As soon as I had written over four pages for my tale, I decided it was time for me to move onto the next thing. For my Question B of Section I, I chose to do Question B from Text 1. It suited me down to the ground as it was about writing a letter to the Principal of the School on behalf of the Student Council in order to reason with the Principal and their choice to get rid of a Graduation Ceremony for the students graduating in 2015. Now, as many of my close friends know, this was a question close to my heart, as I have written a letter to my school's Principal in the past and it sounded like something the Principal may have threatened to do in the past. Therefore, this Question B suited me down to the ground and I used my own past experiences of being on the Student Council to help me make it more reasonable and relatable. I was not surprised either when I learned my friend and current Chairperson of the Student Council did likewise. We had a right old laugh about that afterwards as we both had a good idea of what each of us had specifically written. It's always nice to leave your exam centre in chortles of laughter.Finally, I finished off my exam with the Comprehension. I immediately rushed to start reading Text 2 as I realised I was short on time and I finished off answering the questions in the nick of time. It turned out that I actually quite enjoyed answering on Text 2 because I love to read anything scary and I thought it was a unique moment where I could understand the thought process. Was it just me that found the first book cover image scarier than the first and the second more childlike for part (iii)?All in all, for my first "proper" exams they haven't gone too bad so far. Dare I even say it, I found Paper I fun? The topics intrigued me and even inspired me. It was a somewhat nice paper to get on the first day too. Here's hoping that Paper II will run just as smoothly and that Ní Chuilleanáin and Montague will come up on the Poetry Section! Well done to everyone who got over the first hurdle too; we're well on our way to enjoying the long summer!

Rob - Higher Level

We sat down way too early for English paper 1, the feeling of anxiety and expectation growing as the clock reached 9:30. On turning the paper over, I read the Question Bs and the essay titles.I had been hoping for an article or a speech and though the titles were okay, nothing really stood out for me. Reading through the Question As I liked Text 1, a speech by Bono at the University of Pennsylvania, I decided to go with Question B from text 3, an introduction to a book about the importance of old people.I found both the Questions A and B that I answered to be very doable. While I haven't written an introduction before in an exam, the topic was not too difficult. I enjoyed Bono's speech, as an exam text it worked well and as a speech it was very inspiring and engaging. I am not as happy about the composing part of the paper. I enjoy writing short stories, while the speech at a UN youth event jumped out at me. I decided to go with the second short story, involving a "gradual reveal of a big secret". Midway through my essay I realised I hadn't been developing the story and it was looking like a personal essay. I tried to rectify this, but ran out of time on my final paragraph. I also found the "gradual" part of this story to be challenging. It would have been much easier to just describe one big reveal in a climactic manner.Overall, I feel okay about Paper 1. It was fair. I most definitely wasn't delighted with it but it was approachable and interesting. Now the panic and cramming can begin for Paper 2, something I think Paper 1 had been shielding. Come on Montague!

Lorraine - Higher Level

Well, That's English Paper 1 down! I have to say I wasn’t nervous at all this morning or to be honest, at all this year! Paper 1 is generally a nice paper to start with because there isn’t an awful lot you can do for it!I got into the school this morning and I was greeted by lots of very nervous students. I went into my exam room and signed the roll book and boom I was ready! When we got the exam I straight away glanced at the Compositions and I couldn't help but smile- I had a story that I could tweak into the first title. Relieved, I went back to the Section A. The theme was Challenges which I was happy with because I was worried it would be equality which can be difficult. The first comprehension was about Bono and the second B part was writing a letter to your principal about him not allowing CLASS of 2015 to have a graduation ceremony. I chose this as my B first because the others looked fairly difficult and B is not my strong point. I started answering A then and it was about a ghost writer. I thought I did a good enough job on these. With the composition, there were two short story questions which was great for me but if you had of done a speech I think it would have been tricky as there was only one option!! I did mine about a main character who has to overcome a challenge and show how's it transformed them! I really hope it went ok! From talking to everyone, everyone seems happy enough! Overall, I think it was a good enough paper and I’m pleased with how it went. I can’t say I’m ecstatic but I never am after Paper 1! Fingers crossed for the role of women in Othello tomorrow and a bitta Montague!! :D

Joanna - Higher Level

Day one - English paper 1You can't open the exam paper until the examiner says you can, but the ink on the inside goes through a little and you can make out the picture before you turn over the page. When I got my paper I thought to myself, that's a weird looking woman. I was anticipating something about human-rights or about equality and guess what, it was Bono and a speech he gave to the UN or something. I was delighted, but rather than jump straight in I decided to check the essay questions. I had a short story in mind going into the exam and two of the composition titles suited it. Grand. Then I checked the part B’s and I was so disappointed when the part B under the Bono comprehension suited me best. That meant I couldn't do that comprehension and had to choose one of the other part A’s. I got a bit thrown because I didn't know which to choose and the hall seemed so loud with rummaging and turning pages... I took a deep breath and looked at the other part A’s. The first of the two were about ghost literature writing (not really an interest of mine) but the questions looked very similar to past examples I had practiced so I decided to give it a go. I ended up really liking it actually, and my letter for the functional writing asking to have the sixth year graduation back went well too. I had an hour left for the composition, which was tight enough, but I managed to mould my essay into the fourth title, an ending in my life that I consider important, and before I knew it, I was just starting my concluding paragraph when the examiner called out that these are the last ten minutes and no one can leave. That's when I realised just how stiff my entire arm was, but I kept going and put down the last full stops just as we were asked to put our pens down. It was over. *sigh*On the side, I must say, deciding to cycle in to the exam in the morning was a great idea. Not only did I avoid having to drink a coffee in the morning, the whole effort of getting changed and then getting on the bike loosened up my arm and the fresh air helped to relax a bit. Now, time to get some early dinner, rest and then get stuck into the selected pile of Othello, Poetry and Comparative notes waiting for me in my room. Best of luck to everyone and congratulations on surviving day one! :)

Isabelle - Higher Level

The theme of this year's English paper one was "Challenges", something pretty universal, that most Leaving Cert students can relate to going into their first exam. The choice of Question B's wasn't my favourite, (I would have liked a nice diary entry!) but I went for the letter to the Principal in the end, which was fairly straightforward!The Question A I went for was one about an article discussing the problems authors face writing Ghost Novels in a time where people don't believe in Ghosts. I actually found the article quite interesting and so it wasn't too difficult to write about. The 20 mark question wasn't about style, but instead about the images that accompanied the text, which I hadn't prepared too much on, but I thought it went quite well overall. Finally the composition -being someone who's quite active in debating and Model United Nations I was praying for a speech and my prayers were answered! There was a lovely question asking you to write a speech to be delivered at the United Nations Youth Conference in which you consider some of the causes and possible solutions to what you see as the defining struggles in our age. This question was right up my street and so the rest of the exam flew by – here’s just hoping paper 2 is kind to us tomorrow!

Asha - Higher Level

English Paper 1I still don't think it quite hit me that I was doing the Leaving Certificate until I opened the paper and started breezing through the reading comprehensions to find the one that I liked best.It didn't take more than a paragraph of the first to realise that I certainly wasn't doing that one. Likewise the question B simply didn't appeal.The next two had me stumped a bit. Once I made the decision to do the question B from text 3 that decided the matter. I quite enjoyed the piece on ghost writing and the challenges of it in a modern society. I quickly made links with other references to this in pop- culture. It was engaging although my performance is another question entirely as the comprehensions have never been my strength.I answered the question B on old people. I thought it interesting but I think I missed out on answering the first part of the question about the influence of older people on younger people. The second part was easy enough. It was a fair question overall, even though book intro's aren't something that we really covered. It was a bit of an article in the end I think or at least that's how I wrote it.As for the composition, there was never any question of my doing something that wasn't a personal essay which narrowed my options down to one. That was slightly disappointing however I digress. It was a workable title on our response to an ending or a number of endings. Fitting given that this was the beginning of the end. I managed to eek out 4 pages which is more than I've ever written for one essay so I was suitably impressed and had five minutes to spare. I regained all feeling in my hand shortly after.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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Well done on your results!

Congratualtions to the Class of 2013!

 The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all examination candidates upon receiving their Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied results today. Speaking today, the ISSU Education Officer, Robert C. O’Donnell said;“Today will be the one of the most exciting times in your life, bringing to a close the results of 5 or 6 years of work from 1st year all the way to 6th year, and the beginning of the next chapter of your life. Today relax, and enjoy the opportunity to celebrate your work and your achievements. I and the ISSU would like to congratulate you on your success and hope you are happy with your choices and wish you all the best for the future. Don’t forget that there are plenty of facilities available to students including school guidance counsellors, family & friends , exam helplines and online resources to help students during this time.” ISSU President, Mark Caffrey added;“On behalf of the ISSU I would like to congratulate all Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied students who have put in a lot of hard work over the pas number of years which culminates in today’s results. We are aware that many students still have concerns about the Project Maths syllabus, which is only in its second year of leaving cert examinations. In order to get student feedback on this issue, we are running a survey on www.issu.ie, the results of which we will feedback to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, and the Department of Education and Skills.” The ISSU urges students to use the National Parents’ Council post-primary (NPCpp) exam helpline (1800265165) to seek independent advice from qualified guidance counsellors if you are unsure of your options over the upcoming days. Online advice and support is available from ISSU on issu.ie.

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