LC History and Appreciation of Art

ISSU Commentary

Leaving Cert Art students across the country sat the written component of their exam, the History and Appreciation of Art paper which accounts for 37.5% of the marks for the subject, this afternoon.Higher LevelAgain this exam proved that predications cannot always be relied on as many students looked at the paper in disbelief at the absence of a question on Newgrange in the first section on “Art in Ireland”. Instead students were given a choice of seven questions on topics ranging from the human figure in Irish manuscripts to Irish architects and their works to “Image of Bono” by Louis le brocquy.Section 2 on European Art gave students an array of options with a question on the influence of the Christian church on the development of art and architecture during the Romanesque period followed by a question on the Italian piece of artwork, “The Flagellation of Christ” by Piero della Francesca. Among other questions was one which required students to discuss the much celebrated French painter, Paul Cézanne, as a major innovator in the history of painting. There was also a particularly broad question on the work of Raphael which any students that had studied Raphael in any kind of detail would have been able to make an attempt at so it is likely that this question will have proved popular with students.Appreciation of Art makes up the third and final section of the paper with Graffiti showing what would have once been considered to be its ugly head in question one. Students who chose this question were asked to discuss the ‘outsider’ status of graffiti and how this has changed since international graffiti artists such as Banksy have begun to exhibit their work in galleries. Question two had an Ikea-esque tone to it with the benefits of self-assembly furniture for living spaces up for discussion here. The need to preserve our architectural heritage and fashion design featured in the third and fifth sections of this section with a nice, youthful twist to the fashion design question. Many students will be disappointed on the question on art galleries which many would have been banking on as although the first part of the question was nice, the second part of the question asked students to compare their visit to a local art-gallery referred to in the first part of the question to a visit to a named national museum or gallery – students living in rural areas that had not prepared a visit to a national art gallery will have been at a disadvantage in this question.Over all, the paper covered a wide range of topics so candidates were not stuck for variety in the questions on offer but those relying on predictions will have been disappointed with this paper.

JC Religion

Roisin

Religion was quite hard and I was right up to the time at the end but I managed to answer everything. I answered fifteen of the short questions, just to be safe, questions two, three and four of section two, section three, questions three, four five and six in section four and question four in section five. It was a lot of writing but I think it was okay!I have the day off tomorrow, and my last exam is tech graph on Monday!

JC Science

Roisin (Higher Level)

Today we had science in the morning and religion in the afternoon. Science went well, I think, I was able to answer all the biology and chemistry questions fairly easily. The physics was a little bit harder, and I wasn't sure about a few of the questions, but all in all I felt the paper went pretty well.

James (Higher Level)

This morning I had my Science exam. I thought this exam would be quite tough and I was trying to put the nerves to the back of my head before the exam started. However, as I read through the paper, I was surprised not to see too many tough questions. It was challenging but equally satisfying when I filled in all answers with good detail. I finished the exam with some time to spare and was satisfied coming out of the school. This is the start of my long weekend before my Materials Technology (Wood) exam and my Technical Graphics exam on Monday. Talk then, James.

LC Biology

Ailbhe (Higher Level)

ONE MORE EXAM TO GO!!YEEEHHAAAWWWWBiology, biology, biology… where do I start? Needing a much sought after A in this subject, I subjected myself to a heavy night of studying. Thanks God this is my favourite subject or those 11 hours at work yesterday would have been rather tiresome. I fell into bed at 1am and rose at 7.30. “Just. Two. More. Chapters.”I was ready to drop as I sat myself into the chair. In my state of hazy drowsiness, I had forgotten to bring a ruler and calculator into the hall with me. They were sitting comfortably in my schoolbag outside the door. Great. No capture recapture method for me then. No graphs either by the looks of it.Opened the paper. All predictions rang through. There were no nasty surprises lurking in the depths of the pink booklet. My confidence was greatly restored as I began to write. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Surprisingly all the experts were wrong. You can cram. And cram I did.What I loved about this paper was that it had evolved (geddit) from its earlier ancestors. Now that the species of question has grown more complex, a new breed has developed. I like to call it homo-think-for-yourself-erectus.The second short question was a fine specimen all together. Instead of employing the old genetics-for-Long-Q3 method, genetics were slipped into the short questions. This caused a slight ripple of surprise but calm waters were restored after I realised it was easier than it looked.Ecology moved to a whole new (trophic) level. There were graph-like creatures roaming the territory of long Q3. These questions really exemplified the whole concept of what biology is about - applying your knowledge. You had to read, understand, interpret and apply your knowledge to the graph in order to answer the question.I was disappointed to see that Protein Synthesis had devoured the usual inhabitant of long Q1 but the question's bark was worse than its bite and was easy enough to pin down.The final long question was another of the new generation progeny. You had to give reasons for statements. I know that questions like this have come up before but this year, they really broke through their endosperms of dormancy and made a remarkable comeback. Another breed of this organism was in the Ecology Question where taxonomy had to be applied. Sentences had to be declared true or false.The experiments were as predicted. I have always hated that experiment on the heart. The day we did this I spent more time butchering my heart with the scalpel than I did admiring the tricuspid valves. Once the green food dye came out to highlight the coronary arteries, I was a lost cause.....FOOD DYE FIGHT ANYONE??My other pet hate, plant mumbo jumbo, snarled at me from its lair in the third experiment question. I tried to slip in the key words here and there serial dilution, indolacetic acid, growth stimulators blahblahblah hopefully my point crossed the synapse.Once again, the second experiment question was crawling with homo-think-for-yourself-erectus. Instead of giving a question on one experiment it was based on almost every experiment on the course. This was great as it resurrected the ghost of the late night cramming session within me and really rewarded the student who had a good knowledge of the whole course rather than just relying on predictions. You had to apply your knowledge to the question once again.I think my ATP has just about been restored from last night. Let’s hope the adrenalin starts pumping to increase my mental alertness while I study for accounting. Homeostasis will be put to the test keeping me cool and calm during the weekend heat wave by the books. I'll test out my hypothesis "I will get my results, if I fight the temptations of the beach for the next three days". I'm sure it will work; I can feel it in my (spindle) fibres. ;)

Owen (Higher Level)

Ah Biology… the study of all living things!! Seeing as we are living, it should prove to be a nice exam and it being one of my favourite subjects, I was quite looking forward to getting it done!Short questions were a good way to warm up the brain cells which were quite nice and very much approachable… a good few marks to be seized in this section!Experiments and they weren't my favourite ones on the course so I wasn't very happy with this choice!I avoided the heart dissection as it is very particular and 'nitty gritty' so I moved on to the second and third choice, a nice variety in the second choice with questions ranging from all the experiments. Next was plant growth regulation and the use of IAA, an in depth experiment and you really needed to know your stuff here so lucky for me I gave it a bit of last minute revision this morning so it was quite fresh in my head!Long questions, again a nice variety from ecology to enzymes to the nervous system!I found myself doing questions 11, 13, 14 and 15 which were very manageable. However, I did find a few bits and pieces here and there that proved to be a challenge but I did give them a fairly decent attempt and used every ounce of information I knew on the topic to pick up most of the marks! As one of my friends said, 'I was basically vomiting up all the stuff that I knew onto the page just to be safe'.Everyone seemed to be quite content with how the exam went. As for me, I found myself questioning how well it had gone after the exam and whether or not I had done enough to secure the high grade which I had been banking on. However, after analysing the paper a bit further, I feel reassured that it was a very do-able paper and hopefully the generous marking scheme will work in my favour to gain the majority of marks with the 'nitty gritty' bits.Now off for a week… I'm already feeling the Freedom, on the other hand there's still study to be done for music but hey, only one exam left!! :D

JC History

Roisin (Higher Level)

This afternoon, we had history… probably my worst subject. I was lucky in that the paper was fairly simple, and I think I'll have done okay. The picture and documents questions were fine, and I was able to answer the required ten out of twenty short questions. For my people in history question, I chose an archaeologist and Robespierre. I was able to answer question 5 pretty well, I think, and I chose questions A and B for question 6, the Renaissance and Social Change. All in all, history went better than I thought it would, so I was pleased with that! On tomorrow's schedule is science in the morning and religion in the afternoon.

James (Higher Level)

This afternoon, I had History. I answered all six questions and felt I was spoiled for choice as all the chapters and notes that I had studied came up on the paper. This was a nice exam and I'm happy with the way it went for me. I have my Science exam tomorrow morning so I'll keep studying for that one tonight.

JC French

Roisin (Higher Level)

Today we had French and history. The day started with French and I felt that it went pretty well. The listening section was easy enough; I think I only missed one or two answers. The reading comprehensions were all fine, except for number nine which was pretty tricky. The letter wasn't too bad either, I had all the vocab for it and I hope, all the right verbs! The short note was easier than the letter, I thought, but it usually is! Overall, I thought French was fine!

James (Higher Level)

This morning I had my French exam. This exam started with the tape section which was not too difficult to understand or answer. There were then several comprehensions to be answered in English. For the final part of the exam, I had to write a note and a letter in French. Learning my notes helped with this part of the exam. The last comprehension was tough but I feel the whole exam went well.