Leaving Cert French
Brendan - Higher Level
Tablets and tattoos were probably not on the minds of many candidates this morning as they entered their exam hall, but they certainly were by this afternoon.The comprehensions were as to be expected. One related to a family circus and the other to strict parents. Question 1 was about whether parents give too much freedom to young people in Ireland. The diary entry is a favorite of many, but who would have though it would be a dilemma about whether or not to get a tattoo with a friend? So unpredictable.The question about banning smoking was interesting and a real test. It was not merely smoking, but a question about whether you agree with a total ban; two very different things and it would have been easy to dive in and forget about the question. I decided to take an alternative approach that although smoking damages ones health we live in a democracy and such a measure would be akin to a dictatorship. A bit of a stretch one might say, and in a way it was, but it was also a different thesis to an agreement to ban smoking totally. I did the question on tablets as an extra.French is not an exam where time constraints are a pressing concern. As a whole, I thought it was a fairly reasonable paper.
Declan - Ordinary Level
The ordinary level French paper was a very good paper. I thought the comprehensions were the finest. I did both the CV and close test (so, they can take my best one for the marks). I did the postcard about going away to Switzerland skiing with my family. It was great, didn't mind it. Although, I did forget some minor words and nearly wrote it in Irish. I did the diary entry about moving to a new house and school etc. It was pretty easy. All in all, it was a handy enough paper.
Sarah - Ordinary Level
I wasn't at all nervous for French for some strange reason.. When we got the paper I flicked straight to the back to see what the message and postcard was like, which is the ones that we chose to do. This and the fill in the blanks and CV question. I did the English comprehensions first but I thought they were a bit difficult to get the answers... I gave up after these two and went straight for the A question. The fill in the blanks was pretty straight forward. The words given were easy words and it was easy to work out the answers. The CV questions were pretty good too although one question threw me back a little cause I didn't know exactly what it meant. But I answered it and went onto the next thing. The message I thought was a bit tricky because I didn't know some of the vocab for it but other than that it was grand. Then I did the postcard and thought it was pretty simple, but one part got me. I could not for the life of me think of Monday in French... I was trying to figure it out and all I could think of was Irish... What a shame haha but it doesn't matter now! The finally I did the French comprehensions. I thought they were easier than the English ones and did them no problem! The listening was good as well. The questions given were good and it was easily understood in most parts. Overall, I thought the French paper was pretty decent and I'm quite happy 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 Cert History
Aoife - Higher Level
Well, where do we start. I was happy enough with the documents, they are always the easier question and I do enjoy the Belfast Blitz. It was a nice question.I was a lot less pleased to see Sunningdale show up with the Anglo-Irish treaty, considering I only studied the first one in school in detail, but I still tried my best. For dictatorship and democracy, I was heart broken to see I had the choice between Jarrow Crusade (a short topic) or Hitler and Mussolini's relationship with the church... That one was just bizarre.I was happy to end the paper seeing my old friend Lyndon Johnson come up at the end of my paper. Overall, I have very mixed emotions over this paper and will have to wait til August to see how it went.
Brendan - Higher Level
This is definitely one of the toughest exams. 2 hours and 50 minutes of non-stop writing to such an extent that you can barely afford to take a drink of water. Belfast during World War II appeared as the document question and was reasonable enough, although I like many, would have preferred to have seen the Treaty or the Eucharistic Congress.For dictatorship and democracy I answered on church-state relations which was a nice question. LBJ, the moon landing and race relations appeared for US and the world, however I answered on the development of the economy from the end of the war until 1989, an incredibly long and varied period of time. It was a very broad, but approachable question.My final question was on Northern Ireland and I chose the question on the Sunningdale and Anglo Irish Agreement's. It asked which was more successful and although I would have preferred a stand alone question on Sunningdale, it seemed approachable. Unfortunately, due to a combination of poor eye sight and miscalculation of time I ran out of time when 10 more minutes would have allowed me to really complete the essay. Overall it was a challenging paper. In parts essays which were predicted came up, others were impossible to call, In reality, I believe, it is such a broad course that it isn't really possible to cover every aspect.More time should be allocated for a subject that takes up a very considerable amount of students time. Students who had worked very hard would have found the paper fine, otherwise it would have been very difficult.
Declan - Higher Level
History paper was actually quite decent. When I first opened it I was praying the Anglo- Irish treaty would be there. Belfast during world war 2 came up in the documents. I felt it went fine.For my first essay, I did the topic of "Movements for Political and Social reform, 1870-1914", the question "What did Parnell contribute to the movements for Home Rule and Land Reform. I was delighted with this question, as I had it covered really well. I got over 5 pages on it, so i hope it is fine. I was glad this question came up, because I would of been badly stuck with the other questions.My second essay went well. It was Europe and the wider world; Topic 2. It was the section Nation States and International tensions, 1871-1920. I felt there were two nice questions on this section. German Foreign policy development under Bismarck and Wilhelm II and the social & economic developments in Europe during the period 1871-1914. I did the German Foreign policy, I was really happy with this question.My third section was "Dictatorship and Democracy in Europe, 1920-1945". I was banking on a good Mussolini question. I did the question on church state relations develop under Mussolini and Hitler. I felt this went only ok. I didn't really revise Hitler went (I know, how stupid), but knew a lot on Mussolini. I probably didn't write enough with this essay though.It's pretty reassuring that you have a project done with this project. I did mine on the Belski Brother, jews defying the Nazi occupied Belorussia, they created a jewish settlement in the middle of the forest. It's a quite interesting and inspirational story. They saved hundreds of lives.
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert Irish Paper 2
Keelyn - Higher Level
The Irish paper this year was an absolute delight. As my teacher had predicted Nelson Mandela was one of the comprehensions and of course Seamus Heaney managed to show his face in comprehension two. As many of us had predicted Dis and An Spailpin Fanach came up although the questions were quite strange. Dis came with the usual question about the role of Sean's wife but then a question about the importance of the survey and one to do with the comhra. You picked two out of the three.The spailpin question was one about the life of the spailpin, the feeling that most effected you and soemthing about the metre of the poem which I couldn't talk about in English not to mind Irish. An trial was a nice easy question about Bean Ui Chatasaigh and her role in the drama.I was quite surprised with how lovely and straightforward this paper was and im very happy about it overall:D
Sarah - Ordinary Level
The relief of having both Irish papers over and done with! After paper one I was kind of worried that they would give a hard paper two because paper one was easy enough (I thought anyway) but my god were we blessed! I tried cramming all those poems and stories in right before the test, which worked wonders.
I opened the paper and looked to the back to see what poems and stories came up. I was quite happy with the stories that came up because I literally went over them the night before and knew them off the top of my head! And the poems that came up - all I can say to whoever put Géibheann on the paper... THANK YOU!! That is my favorite poem... I knew it so well so as you can imagine I was pretty happy to see it there, plus I went over it just before the exam so it was fresh in my mind. I thought that the two comprehensions were decent enough.
The Irish used in both the passage and the questions was easily understood, in my opinion. Same with the poems and stories, I could understand the questions easily enough, with the exception of a few of course... I'm quite glad with the paper two we got and hope everyone else is too :)
Overall though both the papers, one and two, were decent enough and I really can't complain. I'm happy as can be :) I hope everyone else feels the same way I do and good luck with the rest of the exams!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert Irish Paper 1
Keelyn - Higher Level
This paper was quite a treat. The listening was fairly straight forward and the essay titles were fairly straightforward. The only essay i learned was heroes so i was delighted to see "daoine cailiula sa la ata inniu ann". overall I'm very happy - roll on paper two :P
Sarah - Ordinary Level
Well.. Irish Paper One is not usually something I would be nervous about... but as it got closer and closer to the exam I began to feel a bit sick. I sat in the room waiting hoping that it would be something easy and to my surprise, it was! The first part was the listening. I flicked through the questions and translated the main words. They were pretty easy questions I thought so me = happy! And thankfully the people speaking on the tape were easily understood too. I got the answers pretty quick so.. (Y) I flicked to the back of the paper to where the writing section was. My teacher got us to do the story and the letter (not sure if it's the same in all schools). I translated both parts of each one, I thought that both seemed pretty easy so once again, I was happy! I did the story first. I did the one about the fog in the mountains, which came to me pretty easily because one of the Sraith Pictúir's or however you spell it was basically the story of the sentence they gave us, so I found that grandddd. Then next was the letter. I chose the one about winning the game & the party afterwards. It was pretty easy to blab on about anything in that one so there was no major difficulty. Overall, I thought it was a good exam and I'm pretty happy with my answers for everything. Hopefully you's all found it okay! :) And hopefully paper two tomorrow will be in everybody's favor! Good luck to you all! :)
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert Maths Paper 2
Keelyn - Higher Level:
The one word I would use to describe this exam is better. Paper two was nicer than paper one. Some of the questions were quite tricky especially the last long question, about a clock of all things. There was a lot of probability and statistics. I'm confident I passed it but I doubt by very much.
Aoife - Ordinary Level:
Maths paper 2..... Well, it wasn't ideal but it was decent... It was expected to be more difficult than paper 1 considering the how straight forward that exam proved to be. I feel some of the questions were just oddly phrased and I spent most of my time trying to figure out what it was asking me rather than actually doing maths. The test overall seemed needlessly complicated in words but once you could decipher it, the "maths" part was actually quite easy.
Brendan - Ordinary Level
This was a much better paper overall than Paper 1. Although parts were tricky, the 70 marks available for the question about the property tax was very straightforward and topical. The questions were not too wordy and in line with what was expected. A question about a windmill was also topical, but slightly more challenging. Section A allocated 50 marks to probability and although definitely not my favorite topic it was generally fine. Questions 3 and 4 were also fairly nice. Most candidates seemed relatively happy. A quick change of focus was undoubtedly needed with Irish in the afternoon and many students, excluding me, can see light at the end of the tunnel with a large chunk of the exams now out of the way. Best of luck with Irish Paper 2!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Junior Cert CSPE
Alex
Before the exam, my friend and I were joking with his Dad; saying if you put Eamon Gilmore for every answer you will get an A. Even if it asks who Michael D. Higgins is? And of course the man himself was on the first page... So when we began me and my friend just looked at each other and started pissing ourselves laughing. Nobody had a clue what we were on about. But anyways...CSPE... what can I say it's an "Easy A". No doubt about it it's an easy exam. Who else did the "Design a poster" Question? ;) Easiest marks I've ever got. The long Questions that did come up were very fair, you couldn't ask for a more lovely paper after Maths! I was happy with it anyways... That's all I have to say. Thanks for reading.
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.