Leaving Cert Students’ thoughts on the eve of the exams

Aoife

The leaving cert is tomorrow, it’s finally here. After all the months of talking about it and referring to it, it has finally come. It took it’s time. After working hard all year I’m not too nervous about it but it’s just the case of getting out the right information and using it correctly. There’s no use getting too stressed about the exams, it’s still good to have a little bit for motivation though.English is my first exam and hopefully my wrists are still usable after it, I’m hopeful that Plath or Heaney comes up like many of the people in my year. My favourite subject is Geography but to have it combined with Maths Paper 1 wasn’t a good idea. That’s going to be a long day.I have two exams a day until the following Wednesday and then I’m off until Physics. Physics is the exam I’m least looking forward to doing but at least I will have extra time to study for and hopefully that will make a difference.Best of luck to everyone sitting their exams, Aoife

Katarzyna

Only one day left before my first exam. The exams have not started yet, but I can't wait until they are finally over. It has been a very short school year and I have worked super hard to prepare for the exams as best as I can. Now it is all about revision, exam papers and more revision. At this stage I am physically exhausted.Today is my last opportunity to recharge my batteries before the two weeks of exams. First up is English and I hope my right arm won't fall off after it. I also hope I will see the poetry of Ms Sylvia Plath or Ms Adrienne Rich on the paper. Then the worst day... Geography and Mathematics paper 1... honestly having them on the same day is not great, but I'll try to keep a positive mindset.My other exams are all on different days which is really helpful. The exam I am most looking forward to... well ehmm... yes... the exam I am most concerned about is probably maths paper two. This is because it is the project maths paper and we did not get many good exam papers for practice and also the exam is only two hours and thirty minutes and we get no choice on the paper. Thankfully I will have the whole weekend to study for it, because it is on Monday. I'm doing German as my foreign language and I hope that something about the 2012 Olympics will come up in the letter. I am doing all science subjects and while most people think that it must be very hard, it actually isn't.The exams are actually quite nice if you are into science. Generally I am very determined to simply go into the exam, be relaxed and do the best I can in all exams. I am tired and a bit scared, but I am not stressing myself out. My teachers told me many times that in order to perform my best I need to just get rest and keep under control. Lets face it... most people know their stuff and all they have to do now is just be confident in what they know and use their knowledge in the exam. That is basically the key to all exams.I have studied for long hours of day and night for almost two years and now all I have to do is answer a couple of questions. It can't be that hard, right? Well, I wish all students in Ireland the best of luck in all of their exams!!!

Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students' Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.

JC Maths Paper 1

Roisin (Higher Level)

Maths was a different story to geography... I was able to answer questions one, three and four straight off, but I couldn't get question two, five are six the first time. When I went back over it, I worked out question four, and most of question six, but question five was hopeless. :( It wasn't just me either... several of my friends came out convinced they had failed (they probably won’t have), having only been able to answer one or two questions.So I guess today was a day of mixed results, but at least it’s the weekend, and I can study hard for paper two and brush up on C.S.P.E. And sleep!

James (Higher Level)

After lunch today, I had Maths Paper 1. This exam was two and a half hours long and consisted of six questions. I managed to complete the first four without much trouble.However, question five and six proved to be difficult and I'm fairly disappointed, as I got a little caught for time. This was the toughest part of the Junior Cert for me so far.I'll continue to study over the weekend and prepare for next week. Talk soon, James.