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Leaving Cert Polish

Katarzyna - Higher Level

My final exam was probably the most enjoyable of all. Everything on the paper was written and had to be answered though polish. The questions were really nice and the main topic of the paper was quite interesting and I was able to write about it.The paper began with a comprehension and six follow up questions. This year the comprehension dealt with the problem of the increase in the numbers of people in Poland who do not read. According to a study, about 65% of people in Poland did not have a book in their hands for a whole year. The comprehension explored the causes and the possible consequences of this trend. The second part involved writing a response to a quote taken out of the comprehension.Lastly, there are two essay titles and you had to choose one and write an essay on it. The two titles were "Read, to live!" and "In today's society everything revolves around "the here and now" ". I chose the second title because I was a bit fed up with writing about the importance of reading in previous questions. Generally it was an easy paper and I was really happy with it.I hope that other Polish students in Ireland also found it as good as I did!

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.

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Junior Cert Music

Shahed - Higher Level

I walked into this exam feeling like I had walking into most of my other exams; nervous, but confident. We had 5 minutes to read through the full paper at the start, and, after flicking through it quickly, I was instantly put at ease. The exam was divided into three sections. Section I (Listening) had questions 1-5, Section II (Composing) had questions 6-9 and Section III had question 10.The first six question were all listening. The first two were about Set Songs and Set Works. These were both very straightforward, almost predictable. The next question was all about Irish Music. The final part of it was a written question about collectors of Irish music and harpers, both of whom had been involved in the Belfast Harp Festival. The only part that threw me off was that the harper had to have been involved with the Festival, as I don't recall there had been a Festival harper in my book, but I managed. The next question was Dictation, when a short piece is played on the piano and you have to write it out. This is probably the hardest and most dreaded question in any music exam, but I felt like it wasn't too difficult this time. (Practice makes perfect!) The next question was Choice Songs and Works, bringing Section I to an end. This, again, was quite easy. They even played the Harry Potter theme for one part of it!There were a choice of questions in Section II. You could either do questions 6-8 or just question 9, which was Free Composition. Here, you were given a choice between three verses and you picked one and wrote for voice(s) with accompanying instrument(s) or wrote for instrument(s) which would illustrate the mood of the verse. Question 6 was a Triads question.This is where you study a short piece and answer questions on it. Question 7 was melody writing. Again, there was a wide choice here, but I chose to compose a phrase set to a given opening. Question 8 was all about Chord Progressions. There was also a wide choice here, but I chose to do the Backing Chords question (adding suitable chords to a piece of music).The third and final section/question was all about your General Study. You could take any genre, artist or group and research and write about it/them. I chose to write about The Beatles. In general, I'm very pleased with how this exam went. Best of luck to anyone doing exams this afternoon or tomorrow, you're almost free!

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Leaving Cert Economics

Emmet - Higher Level

The Economics Paper was quite difficult but none the less do-able. I mainly concentrated on the macroeconomics questions 5,6,8 and a microeconomics question 4. The economics on the government concentrated on emigration, push and pull factors, the reasons, advantages and disadvantages of emigration. The contribution of John Maynard Keynes was also asked in question 8. In question 5, we were asked about the reasons for recent global population growth, the benefits to LDC's experience economic growth and also how that growth would affect Irish firms. The economist Robert Thomas Malthus and his population theory was asked and we were asked if that theory was still relevant to today.Question 4 asked us on economic rent, supply price and transfer earnings and importance of entrepreneurship to the Irish economy. question 6 we were asked about whether3rd level students should contribute to 3rd level costs and benefits and disadvantages of that. Also the short questions had a greater variety of microeconomics questions to previous years. functions of the ECB, reasons for development of black economy and how it affects the exchequer.The short questions overall were quite nice. In retrospect, I found that the economics paper did en-devour to ask theory, it also managed to conjure up questions across the board that that required outside thinking to answer non theory based questions. the questions were articulated in such a definite and precise manner that there was no way to escape or bluff through a question. it focused on peoples knowledge of current affairs and managed to draw out their interest in the macroeconomics questions. I did find that there was a lot of sub questions which did make the paper a little more trickier and sometimes easier. I think that the exams commission did a splendid job in maintaining the integrity of the paper.

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Leaving Cert Chemistry

ISSU Commentary

Chemistry has a similar structure to other science papers with a section on experiments, short questions, and the majority of the marks going for the long questions. In both ordinary and higher level papers, section A on experiments held few suprises, and should have been very doable to anyone who had practiced on past papers as questions the questions were similar to previous years and very straightforward.The short questions in section B were probably a little more challenging on the higher level paper than in previous year, with more questions than usual towards the more difficult end of the spectrum, but the questions asked were clear and straightforward. On the ordinary level paper, the short questions were very accessible and shouldn't have posed much difficulty to students. The remainder of section B in the higher level paper was quite varied, with most questions holding some more challenging sections, but the standard was very fair for a higher level paper. On the ordinary level paper, there was a strong focus on questions related to experiments in section B, which would have been of great benefit to those who had revised them well, but may have caused some suprise to see these questions in section B as well as section A.Overall, the chemistry papers were fair on the whole, and students who had revised their experiments well and practiced past papers should have been able to manage the paper.

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Maintenance Grant 2012-2013 Information for New Entrants

Going to College? Apply for a Maintenance Grant TODAY!

If you will be starting college (or a new course) in college next September, you can apply for a maintenance grant now. You do not need to know what course or where you will be studying to apply.How do I apply?

Register on www.grantsonline.ie with your PPS number.
Log into the system and complete your application (this can be saved).
When you submit your application, you will get a confirmation e-mail.
Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) will contact you by post with following an initial assessment. You may be asked to post them photocopies of documents to support your application (e.g. tax certificates, proof of address etc.).

An information video about applying for a maintenance grant is available here. Am I eligible for a maintenance grant?There are four criteria under which grant applications are assessed, you must fulfill all four criteria. Full details are available on www.studentfinance.ie.

You must be studying an approved course at an approved institution.
Your gross income must fall at or below specified levels to qualify for a grant and to determine what the amount of that grant would be. Full details are available here (http://www.studentfinance.ie/mp9556/check-reckonable-income-limits/index.html)
You must have been resident in Ireland for 3 out of the last 5 years.
You must hold (1) EU, EEA or Swiss Nationality; (2) Humanitarian leave to remain in the State; (3) Official Refugee status; or (4) Permission to remain in Ireland as you are married to an EU national employed here.

NB: This document does not purport to be a legal interpretation of the Student Grant Scheme 2012 and it does not cover all aspects of the measures contained therein. Copies of the Scheme and Regulations 2012 can be downloaded from www.studentfinance.ie or can be accessed from Local Authorities or Vocational Education Committees. The Student Grant Scheme and Regulations 2011 are liable to change during the academic year.

admin 19/06/2012 admin 19/06/2012

Leaving Cert Spanish

Claire - Higher Level

After a week long break I was back in the exam hall today all ready to take on the Spanish exam. I both loved and loathed the fact that the Spanish exam was a week after the French one. The break was much needed as I was completely exhausted after my first week of exams. It was great that I had the chance to recharge! On the other hand the week almost dragged on and with every passing day it was harder to fond the motivation to continue. It began to feel like the leaving cert was already over! I spent less days preparing for Spanish than I intended. It was really difficult deciding what to study for the exam, so I really just prioritised my verbs and learning some useful phrases!All the "buena suerte"s must have paid off because I am really happy with how the exam went today! However I am slightly biased as Spanish is by far my favourite subject but I feel that this was the nicest exam so far.The readings were a bit random but interesting. There was one about a whale in section A, and section B included a text about emigration -very relevant in the world today! The readings were of topics you had a basic understanding of in English and I thought this was fair. The synonym part I thought was fair and much more do-able than previous years!I did the opinion piece entitled "where one lives is not important". At first glance I thought wow I have not prepared any vocabulary on this but after a quick brainstorm it was a very user friendly topic. Finally!I did the dialogue and the note in the written section. I found them much easier than I have found previous years and I thought the topics were engaging and almost fun to translate! One was about musical instruments and the other was about shopping. I was very happy because I was able to use phrases I learned for my oral work in my written section.The listening was okay. Personally I feel I did not do as well in it as I have done so before. It was a bit random! But maybe I just found it hard to concentrate because the end of the leaving is coming closer... Yay!I went into the exam worried that I would be caught for time but I'm pleased to report that was not a problem and I had a lot more time to think than anticipated.Overall, I'm hopeful that today went well. I hope everybody else is pleased with how they got on today too!In off to study Technology now, but congrats to all those who are now finished their exams! Congratulations :D

ISSU Commentary

Justin Bieber again made an appearance on a State examinations paper, for the second time in two weeks. Feedback from the higher level paper was ‘extremely positive’. The letter section caused a lot of discontent; students had to write to a Spanish newspaper about the role of royalty in today’s world. One would imagine there were very few students expecting that. This topic certainly ‘threw’ some students, and many predicted that very few actually answered it. Otherwise the paper was described as ‘good’, the comprehensions even featured an article about a killer whale. The other comprehensions featured an article about emigration in Mexico, a 12 day traffic jam in China and the problem of people not paying in restaurants. The ordinary level paper was given a positive response by most, where the richest dog in the world, and elderly man who was reunited with his car after forgetting where he parked two years previously! The written expression, where students had to write an email was ‘fine’. Overall most candidates were relatively happy.