Leaving Certificate Religion

Leah - Higher Level

Hello hello, long time no see! I expect you're all feeling well and happy today because it is the final day of exams. I realise that the vast majority of you may have been finished for quite some time. For me on the other hand though, I had 9 days leading up to the final day. As the 19th got closer and closer, I could feel my skin crawl. I was itching to be finished with the aul' before it even started.Anyway, so I woke up this morning with just under 2 hours sleep under my belt and I could tell that today was going to be both the best day of my life and worst. Note: this may or may not be a bit of an exaggeration. Anyhow, when I got to my exam centre, I could feel all of my nerves in the pit of my stomach, lying in there like a pile of rocks. When I finally opened the Religion Paper, however, I felt a bit of relief.The paper itself was tough - I'm not going to lie. I mean, the way I look at Religion as a subject is that the questions are always disguised as fact-based questions but all they are truly looking for is for you to praise some higher being. That's just my opinion though, I could be wrong. I'm not an examiner, after all.For me, the questions were a bit confusing so I started on what I thought I knew best - Unit Three. I did Section I: The Irish Experience as my elective and that question was fairly handy. I then moved onto Unit Two and that one was somewhat more difficult. I got through it though and finished Unit One by the skin of my teeth. I really was blessed, in that sense.I remember when it came to my Religion Mock Exam and I was so tight on time but I felt really comfortable time-wise this time around. I'm just praying I got at least a C2 now. I did a good project though so that will help. It's all in God's hands now though.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate Applied Mathematics

Asha - Higher Level

Finally done! Today was the last now I can proceed to hibernate for a while.I have to say, after all the hype it was an extremely nice paper. I did questions 1-5 and 10. The part A of qt 1 was either deceptively easy or just easy and B was not much worse. Considering the advice not to do qt 1 first I thought it was fine so I did. As for two I will admit to having been thrown off a little by part B but you couldn't have asked for a nicer 10. Both A and B were reasonably handy.I didn't think there was anything spectacular about the other questions. If you knew your stuff but I guess all we can do now is wait! I'll see you all on the other side in August!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate Polish

Joanna - Higher Level

Polish was making me nervous. It's one thing being fluent when chatting with friends, its another writing essays and stuff. I practiced essays with a friend until late last night and then again this morning, so going into the exam I felt ready but a bit drained.The topic for the comprehension was a surprise - fanaticism, all about extreme states and opinions, but not about terrorists and ISIS as you'd imagine, it was more an analysis of the psychology of satanist teens wrecking graveyards and football fans getting into fights after matches, ready to die for their team. Not really a topic I'm comfortable in English, but thankfully the questions were easy enough and most answers came straight from the text.Then the 100 word opinion piece, that was okay. I partially agreed with the quote that was given so I had a lot to say about it, being careful not to directly translate from English but to formulate grammatically correct Polish sentences. Then the 300 word essay was next.The topic that I did was a quote from "Socrates" about the richest person being the one who has the least. It wasn't too bad, just chatting about living in a materialistic world and how we need to appreciate things that we take for granted, like family and friends.Overall, I took my time and wrote enough to feel happy handing it in. My written Polish isn't the best, but I think the exam went well. Walking out of it felt surreal.It's all finally over! Woo!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate Design & Communications Graphic

Rob - Higher Level

And so my final exam came. I've always liked DCG but skewed lines and dihedral angles can give me trouble sometimes, and these were all over the paper today! I only managed to get three of the short questions done and I know I didn't do one fully correct, so I'm a little worried I may have lost a grade there.The roads question was straight forward enough, however I found the part saying two lines were level confusing. We're they just level individually or both at the same level? I chose what was easier to draw so hopefully this will pay off.I found some of the final parts in the other questions challenging. I managed to do 5 long questions altogether which I'm quite happy with.After an absolutely diabolical chemistry exam, I'm glad I finished my leaving cert on a more positive, reassuring note. Overall I'm a little disappointed, I feel I was really burned out this week in particular. If ever there is proof that our current system needs changing, it's after seeing the amount of stress the current leaving cert causes. If continuous assessment was more widely used, I know I would have gotten better grades and more points.Let's hope we're all happy in August!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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.