Leaving Certificate English Paper 2

Liam - Higher Level English Paper 2

"Questions that I did. Section 1: E 1. Section 2: A 2. Section 3: A 1,  B 3"OH MY BISHOP! You are a beaut. I don't say this too often, but I liked this paper.  From the second I sat down in the hall to when I got handed that pink exam paper, I was feeling a funeral in my brain! I had this exam timed out, 55 mins for prescribed poetry, 1 hr 5 mins for comparative, 1 hr for King Lear and whatever left for unseen poetry (not important to be honest).So from yesterday, you now know, I like highlighting. Today was no different. I got the paper and went straight to the back to prescribed poetry, Bishop and Dickinson, and I highlighted the hell out of them! They were the  only poets I actually knew (I wouldn't recommend only knowing 2, the stress ain't worth it!). I answered Bishop and it went quite well!Next one was comparative, Cultural Context! I actually like Cultural Context! I did the 30, 40 questions about if characters were  successful or unsuccessful in the aspects of cultural context, or something like that… lets hope I compared and contrasted sufficiently enough!Next was the single text and King Lear. Choosing the question on the tragic characters of Lear and Gloucester seemed  favourable and I had done a question like that previously in class so I had some idea on what to say.I did the unseen poetry next and only jotted a few points down for that, I genuinely am not  bothered about that. And by jotted I mean scribble like mad! It's only 20 marks at the end of the day, in comparison to the 50, 60 and 70 marks from the other questions.For once I kept my timing on track and I'm happy, enough, can anyone really be too happy when English is concerned ?

Emma - Higher Level English Paper 2 

Paper two was a dream come true!!! I couldn't be happier! I began poetry and it was brilliant - I was so lucky I studied five poets so I had 3 options on the actual paper. I chose Bishop over Eliot and Dickinson because her poems are easier to write about and I enjoy her themes, the question itself was pretty straightforward. The unseen poetry was extremely interesting and I enjoyed depicting each question- I did the two ten markers. I then went onto the King Lear question and chose the redemptive and destructive power of love- this was easy to plan, but I found I fell short of ideas so I had to elaborate a lot. However compared to previous years, I believe that the Lear questions were lovely.Then onto the comparative. We had only studied cultural context and general vision and viewpoint so I had no choice in the question. I chose the 70 mark question because I feel it is easier to focus on the three texts! Having only wrote 5 and a bit pages, I'm extremely happy and as they say quality over quantity!! I'm sure there are a lot of disappointed people because of the lack of Yeats this year, but cheer up!! There's always other papers! 

Craig - Higher Level English Paper 2 

That was one odd unseen poem just as that was exhausting.  19 pages later, and I'm at last liberated from the oppressive regime that is the English syllabus. I had a pretty nice choice in this paper. And overall, it was a good experience.Single Text wise I studied King Lear and found the "love" question to be a treat. I was expecting imagery but love was a pretty easy theme to deal with, I may have spent too much time on it though, at the expense of my other questionsThe comparative was beautiful - Cultural Context I choose, though was happy to see Literary Genre pop up there. Having studied Pats, Foster and the KIng Speech  the question on power was something of a dream. I was able to talk about the role of women, and people's inner power to overcome their personal complicationsFinally, poetry. I had studied nothing but Dickinson & Yeats from September to April, but recently decided id have to put my differences aside and get in on Bishop. I was so happy to see her come up today. Durcan, Elliot and herself were predicted and hats off to those tho who took the risk and only studied those three, to those who prayed on Yeats "being too obvious" so "he'll be put on to put us off" - my sympathies.Unseen poetry I don't know - I'd almost consider scrapping it as a piece, personally I was exhausted by the time it came to tackling it and was fearful of sounding repetitive so in my worst hand writing possible I expressed what I thought paper is meant to express. Honestly what was that?Anyhow, it was all pointless because I'm probably going to be back again next year repeating maths - which is tomorrow. Absolute yay. Best of Luck everyone! 

Ellen - Higher Level English Paper 2 

In preparation for this exam, I visited the statue of WB Yeats in my local park and prayed to the poetry gods that he would come up on the paper, but like the rest of the country, I was sorely disappointed (and now my heart is sore). (I also prayed for Heaney to come up on the history paper so it's not looking good for him either folks). Anyways, onto the actual exam. What a lovely lovely cultural context question! We had studied Citizen Kane, King Lear and Never Let Me Go so there was power and powerless go leor. I left it until the end (probably a mistake) and had only written 4 pages with 5 minutes to go, so I figured it wasn't worth starting a new paragraph. Regretting spending so much time on the single text, I did the character question on Translations, that they are tragic but not heroic, which was all too easy to agree with. I focused mainly on Hugh, Manus and Owen but Yolland and Maire may have been the obvious choice. I struggled a bit with the unseen poem to be honest and chose The 2x10, simply because I feel it would be easier to get half marks in both. I read it completely at face value -about the legacy of literature etc- however I know some smart people connected it to art and transience and all that jazz. I was kinda happy that 3 out of the 6 poets I studied came up, (although I know some lucky suckers got 3 out of 3), after much humming and hawing, I settled on Bishop, which seemed the most straightforward, although I actually prefer Durcan and Dickinson.Anyways, the main thing is I've survived Leaving Cert English and live to see another day!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Junior Certificate Irish

Kate - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2

After a surprisingly successful English paper one and two, I was dreading Irish. Irish is not my strongest subject and without the previously prepared essays I wouldn't have survived. My biggest fear approaching the exam was in reference to the aurals. Donegal / rural Irish will be the death of me.Paper One - Paper one started off terribly and it never recovered. My hopes of getting an A rolled down the mountain along with my story. We started 10 minutes late as the examiner played the tapes but did not hand out the papers. The whole class died. I thought that they had changed the layout so you had to remember what was being said. After the disastrous start we began the paper. The aural was worse than I expected, rural Irish is what I hear in my nightmares. The grammar section was great, I predicted that Aimsir Chaite would come up and thankfully it did. I chose the essay title "an incident that happened when you are walking in the mountains" as it was the only title that I understood. All in all, I think I was okay in paper one but it could have been better .Paper Two - Paper two probably saved the day. Going in to this exam I was nervous, if not scared, due to my earlier experience. But when I opened the paper all my worry went away. The unseen prós and poetry was not as hard as I thought and was shocked that I understood the majority of them. The themes for studied poetry and prós were great. I choose 'grá' for poetry and 'duine cabhrach' for prós. Finally I did the letter. My letter was a load of waffle. I wrote about a party but I didn't understand the guidelines very well so I wrote and wrote and prayed for the best.Today had its ups and downs but I'm going into tomorrow on a positive note and hoping for the best! 

Philip - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2

Paper 1: Can I start by saying, that was the hardest listening comprehension I have ever done. But apart from that I think paper 1 was good enough. The first comprehension was on something Ihave never heard of but I think I got the answers well enough. Then I moved on to the comprehension on "inside out" which wasn't too hard.(I said alt 3 and alt 4). Then I did the verb question, I think that went well enough too. I guess we were lucky enough with it being just multiple choice. Finally I did the story question. I did the first one which was something like " wait mum you haven't heard my side of the story", you wouldn't believe the amount of people who thought it was "you need to hear the news" and totally messed up the story section.Paper 2:  Now this was a hard paper.....ok in the vampire one I answered all the questions just to try and get as many points as possible. As the studied story I answered on "An t­Adh" as "duine carduil". I decided to skip the unseen poetry for a while and I answered the studied poetry which I used "Na Blatha Craige" for with "brod". I said they were proud of their cliff. So, I decided to keep going and go back to the unseen poetry in the end. I did the letter about the party, the first one. I wrote about a page including the address. Finally I went back to the studied poetry and did every question except (A iii). I thought that first poem was REALLY bad but that the second one was good enough. So I hope ye all did well and good luck everyone in geography and maths paper 1.

 

Shane - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2

Paper 1: I went in to paper 1 this morning feeling relatively optimistic. Then the listening started… I was on the brink of tears listening because I am generally rubbish at them. But! Then that ended and the written exam started and my hope returned. I started with the eachtra in the mountains and as usual, I fell and broke my leg. It always works! Then I did question 2 A and was a very happy person at just seeing those 2 words, Aimsir Chaite. Then I did 2B which I feel I did well in. And finally, the comprehensions. I did the second one first (I don’t know what my problem is with exam order but whatever) and lastly, the first one. I feel this went well also! All in all, paper 1 (minus the listening) went very well.Paper 2: Then we get to paper 2… I did the first letter which went well. Then I tried my best to make Pádraic from An t-Adh fit ‘duine cairdiúil’. I did Subh Milis for the studied poetry. Then the prós question 1 and filíocht question 3. As usual, I had a limited concept of what the poems were about and wrote 11 lines on why I enjoyed the vampire story, saying I love vampire stories and the main character (basically anything to stop me from having to read the full thing!)All in all I feel I did well in Irish, with my paper 1 and optional oral being my saving grace. I hope you all did well and I will say a prayer for everybody for Maths Paper 1!!! Best of luck! 

Chloe - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2 

Paper 1: Listening was up first, I felt these were quite difficult especially having two Donegal accents laced in there making it all the more challenging but aside from that I think it went well.Irish paper one was a grand paper, I thought. The Léamhthuiscints were easy to understand and the answers to the questions weren’t hard to find in the passage, which sometimes they can be. Between both reading passages I did the grammar and briathra questions, with these I think sometimes you just get lucky and thankfully today we had Aimsir Chaite and the grammar section wasn’t too bad either! The essay choices were also really nice and thankfully an essay that I had prepared was able to mix well with the first eachtra choice.Paper 2: This wasn’t as fab….I started with the reading comprehension, yet again and was disgusted when reading the piece about vampírí as the Irish used was so advanced and I found it really difficult to make sense of! I then went on to do the studied prose. Using ‘duine gclic for Díoltas an Madra Rua which I really tried to make work but honestly it didn’t go that smoothly. I continued on with the other studied section which was poetry and I chose grá for Bean tSléibhte ag Caoineadh a Mhic. It went well but it could have gone better. I was really racing against the clock at this stage! I did the letter next and chose the one about the storm, which was really like an essay we had learned in class and so it fitted well. This was the only semi-good section of paper 2 for me ! Lastly was the unseen poem and exactly like the reading passage it was so difficult I’m not sure if what I thought the poem meant is actually what the poem meant but I had no choice but to go with it!Overall definitely a harder year than usual in my opinion!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Leaving Certificate Engineering

Liam - Engineering Higher Level 

As I woke up this morning I tried to ignore the feeling of dread I felt. Thursday was the day I feared the most. Not because of the thought of having to sit down and do English paper two in the evening, but for the engineering paper in the morning.Now I’m sure a few of you reading this are asking “what’s so hard about engineering, it’s one of the easiest subjects out there?” Sure, this may be the case for some, but for my class and me, it wasn't. The theory paper on the engineering course covers 50% of your overall mark while there’s 25% for your project and 25% for your practical. We only started doing theory two weeks ago! Yes you heard correctly! We only started to learn an entire course two  weeks ago. What did we do in fifth year? What did we do for all of sixth year? We just practiced for our practical the entire time. To anybody out there who is reading and this sounds familiar, start studying now!A few of you, I'm sure, are probably all wondering what my teacher was doing, not teaching us and all, but to be totally honest, he knew his stuff. For the last 45 years he has been teaching in my school, I don’t think anyone has failed the engineering paper. I got the surprise of my life when I went in and found that the paper was actually quite easy! With only two weeks of work with things I had never seen before I was fairly confident. We have a compulsory question for question 1 (a question about common sense) and we must answer four others out of 7. Within the first two hours I had my five questions answered and I was flying it. I even answered the others for the craic!So there you go. I'm really quite delighted to be honest. One more exam down to the whoppa sesh!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Leaving Certificate Home Economics

Cora - Higher Level Home Economics

So my exams began today and after the not so great start I had with paper one in English, I couldn’t explain to you how nervous I felt before home ec. It's a subject commonly thought to be easy, and the answers are easy most of the time, that is if you can figure out what the questions want you to say. But I needn't have worried. Home Ec was a dream, well as dreamlike as leaving cert exam could be.There were very few nasty surprises. The short questions were as always picked from random and weird parts of chapters but they weren’t the worst short questions I’ve seen either.

Question 1 was lovely, fibre. Even if you hadn’t revised it after a quick brainstorm the answers would surely come. Question two was a nice one on fish, something my teacher had predicted and it was a nice one too nothing too bizarre or out of the ordinary, they combined that with vitamin D. Question three was a bit weird, food processing, but it wasn’t your standard question I’d never seen so many marks go for naming a freezing method and its description.  To tell the truth I’m doubting myself on that one so I did an extra question. Question four was a really lovely consumer question and thankfully no laws came up, it was just about supermarkets and an agency, lovely jubly. I didn’t do question five and I don't remember what it was but what I do know is this, if you even had a night before cram with a little bit of prediction you would have been well able for this exam, even the elective seemed doable and that's something I’ve always struggled with!

Home ec really lifted my spirits after paper 1 in English and has given me hope for the rest of these exams. I’m so delighted I have one exam done and dusted, only another eight to go! 

Ellen - Higher Level Home Economics 

I could not believe my eyes when I read through that home ec paper - literally everything my teacher predicted came up - fibre, fish, poverty, even the short questions on textiles and the environment! I chose to do the question on fish first as I felt I was strongest in that, although usually I always start with Q1, I just didn't like the look of that graph! I ended up doing the consumer studies question, something which I did not anticipate going into the exam! But the questions were nice enough- shopping patterns and merchandising techniques for 20m each.The social elective was fair as well, although I struggled a bit with the poverty definitions. I hadn't studied education much but I was able to wing the functions of education for young people. Then I looked at my watch- I only 40 minutes left for Q1 and half the short questions I'd left earlier!That table was the literally my biggest fear - no graphics and so difficult to decipher. I raced through the fibre questions, I don't know if I even answered them correctly or not, my main goal was to finish it. I was a bit thrown by the 'strategies' to increase fibre intake but I just said nuts & seeds, wholegrains etc, with a bit of public awareness campaigns thrown in for good measure. All short questions answered and it was just time to finish up. There were bullet points and tables go leor, but Home Ec is finally over!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Junior Certificate English

Shane - Higher Level English Paper 1 & 2

English! My favourite subject. I’m a massive fan of reading and writing stuff so I went in today with high hope.Paper 1: Let me start by saying I loved this paper! I started off paper 1 with my personal writing. I did the speech and was delighted with the motion, I went against the motion ‘Ireland is no longer the land of A Hundred Thousand Welcomes'. I was so delighted that I wrote 5 pages… I talked about Mary Robinson’s ‘candle in the window’ along with various other things, ending on an encouraging note to love everybody to get marks sentimental. Then I did functional writing, choosing the letter. I went back to the start and did the comprehension. I loved this comprehension because it was actually fun. When everyone in my centre opened the paper, they all laughed. Then I chose question one on media studies, talking about keeping up to date on news and Hillary’s democratic nomination.Paper 2: I always thought I’d do better in Paper 1 than 2. That was until I got 89% on paper 2 in the mocks. So I went in to paper 2 confident. I started answering on my studied drama, The Merchant Of Venice, doing question 2. I thought it could have been better (I really wanted one on themes), but hey, you have to work with what you’re given. Then I did the first studied poetry question using two of Wilfred Owen’s pens. I moved on to section 3 and did the second fiction question on To Kill A Mockingbird. Then I worked backwards, doing Unseen Fiction first. In the end, I had about fifteen minutes left to do my unseen Shakespearean Drama, and I have never written so fast.All in all, I am extremely happy with English and feel really good about it. I hope you all feel the same as me! Best of luck in Irish tomorrow!Philip - Higher Level English Paper 1 & 2 Paper 1: I started paper 1 with question 1, not because it was question 1 but because a comprehension seemed like a good starting point. I can now honesty say, I have a much more indepth knowledge on the subject of emoji than I ever expected. Next I did the media studies question. I did question 2 the one with the cartoon and the 1950s and present day comparison pictures. That was.....strange, but I think I did ok. Well I finished it. Third I did functional writing. I did the letter question, mainly because I wasn't really sure what the other one was asking. Was it a blog? Anyway in the letter I said they should buy equipment not hire someone. Last but not least I did the personal writing. I did the "a Door into the Dark" question. I think I did well enough. I took "inspiration" from a creepy pasta. I changed a good bit though. So that was paper 1.Paper 2: In paper 2 I did all the unseen questions first and those were in order. I didn't think the options were great for the drama. I really didn't like the poetry. But I thought the fiction was okay. I did the interview question and the "do you think their friendship will last" question. I said it would. Then I went back and did the studied drama. I did the "character relationship" question for Shylock and Antonio in the Merchant of Venice. then I did poetry. I answered the first question, the one where you were given a statement like "a play can change how you think and how you feel" I answered with Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decrum est". God I repeated myself SO much. Finally I did the studied fiction question. I answered on Goodnight Mr Tom and I answered the question with the "pick two from this list" thing. Anyway at least English is over that's where your most under pressure for time I think. Good luck with Irish tomorrow everyone!

Joe - Higher Level English Paper 1 & 2 

Paper 1: I woke up this morning with a combination of excitement, worry and a small amount of fear fuelled by my cram studying technique and lack of sleep the night previous.The exams itself wasn't as bad as I first anticipated. I enjoyed the reading of the emoji passage and found the questions relatively easy. I was very fortunate with the questions that came up for both personal writing and functional writing. A short story I had prepared earlier in the year fitted the criteria of a story with a "eureka moment". With the functional writing a letter was an option and this was the only functional writing piece I was confident with. In media studies I picked question one based on "Types of news consumers". I was quite unsure how to answer it correctly and was fairly confused by it.Over all the paper wasn't to bad and I was happy with how it went.Paper 2: After my reasonable success on paper one I was more confident about jumping this second hurdle.Unfortunately I did not do as well on this paper. I did the studied drama, poetry and fiction first as I knew they would be my strongest answers. Unfortunately I liked the questions that came up too much and wrote a large amount for all three. This had the knock on affect of making me have to rush the unseen questions and I was writing to the very end. The unseen fiction and drama questions were straight forward enough and I answered reasonable well. For the unseen poetry I didn't like the poem in the exam paper and was unsure about my answers.The time restraints for paper two were difficult to contend with particularly with my slow reading speed. I however got it all done and over all my questions weren't perfect but we're ok and all finished.

Chloe - Higher Level English Paper 1 & 2 

Paper 1: At 9:30 am I couldn't believe how relaxed I was, we were about to begin our first Junior Certificate exam and honestly you would never have known! I’m not sure if that was a good or a bad thing!I went in chronological order, not changing the order of the questions up or anything and so reading was up first! I was quite happy to see a piece about emoji on the paper I must admit! The questions, I thought, weren't too bad but they need some thinking.Okay so I had learned an essay word for word over the last couple of days and I prayed to the high heavens that it would work for me. It did! I can’t describe how happy I was! I chose option 4 which was adding in a small phrase ‘….but tell them I was here all day’ or something like that I’m not 100% sure.Functional writing was next and honestly, I had had an inkling that a letter would appear. At this stage I had the last reading section question still to finish and I was under time pressure for sure! Letter writing is definitely one of my stronger points so I was buying time with this question as it was actually quite similar to one I had seen beforeOh media studies! I completed question A which was about news consumers and at this stage I was writing so quickly I thought my hand was going to fall off!At the end of the day I felt paper 1 was a lovely paper, obviously it contained some tricky pieces but what exam doesn’t!Paper 2: At 2:00pm we entered the exam hall and I can’t describe how I was feeling when the paper lay in front of me but I didn’t feel ‘into it’ I was praying that I’d boot into work mode asap and thankfully I did half way through the first drama.It wasn’t a surprise to see a question about stage direction laced in here as they had been coming up quite a lot but still I opted for the comparison question along with the first drama one, as to be honest I really hate questions on scene direction!Again I steered clear of the stage like question for the studied drama and focused my answer on question 2 which I chose ‘an unexpected event’ and ‘contrasting characters’ I found these fair enough to answer. I had studied The Merchant of Venice.I loved the poem in the unseen section but the questions were slightly more difficult especially the question on the ‘narrators impression of the woman encountered on the tube’ as I felt there wasn’t much info in the poem to delve into and so, I struggled with this.So, I'm kind of obsessed with ‘The Lake isle of Innisfree’ and again, this is one that I was hoping would suit the question. I chose question 2 and used it as a poem suitable for a wedding. I know, sounds odd but I made it work!This fiction section was so ugly I absolutely hated it, I couldn’t follow it properly or anything maybe this was because I was rushing to finish the whole fiction in 30 minutes or maybe you guys thought so too!The studied fiction also wasn’t my best friend but I completed question 1 and decided to choose Atticus Finch to join me on the desert island and also choosing to leave Bob Ewell behind.Overall paper 2 was okay but I definitely didn’t find it easy by any means.Hope all of you guys got on okay, I’m sure you all did it great!Anois, Gaeilge!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Leaving Certificate English Paper 1

Craig - Higher Level English Paper 1

D-Day! June 8th 2016. English Paper One. The paper that can make or break a person if you ask me. But that's probably the overly dramatic thought process that is compulsory in consuming students who want to do anyway decent in the English exams, it's all about "BS" - English is, or so my teacher says.Paper One for me was done back ways, like I've always done. But for those who do things the right way I'll start with Section 1:The three choices had "A comedy of errors" of which I didn't touch. Some story about a dog called "One eye" and his reclusive owner who is trying to save him, and then a speech from Obama on Space. I took Question A from text two, it was rather do-able in that it asked to identify narrative language and aesthetic language, of which the piece was undeniably consumed by. There was also an opportunity to take an in depth look at the mental state of the main character, I said he had characteristics of mild aspergers due to his obsession with routine, and was obviously very anxious and perhaps overcoming a near suicide due to his reference of "I must go on". It really showed the triumph of the human spirit, and I found the piece very engaging and enjoyable.I took Question B like most people in my year from the Obama piece. I wrote about how Lyndon Johnson and Nixon set up in jet fuel flames the promises of a great society in Vietnam and Florida, and that Obama shouldn't do the same. I found it very enjoyable writing indirectly, even though he will never see it to one of the most inspirational people of our time.Finally, essay wise - I wrote the speech. Number 7 in fact on what it means to be Irish. I talked about our pursuit of fairness and our obsession with identity and blatantly said that we should not fear the erosion of our culture by others, for we have enriched other cultures by spreading ours.And that was it, I walked out of the exam hall - sweating on what is definitely the most humid day of the year. Let's hope English Two is just as kind. Best of luck everyone! 

Liam - Higher Level English Paper 1 

Questions that I did; Section 1: 3A, 1B. Section 2:2When I went into the exam I took out the highlighter and went crazy. I highlighted the paper's theme, 'Journeys' and then started at the back at the section 2 options. I highlighted the key words on the short story and personal essay questions and moved on to the B questions in section 1. After reading them , 1B stood out to me so I went for that. Then it was deciding the As. I liked the topic of 3, Obama's speech about the future of NASA so I went for that one.I timed it out and spent 60 mins reading the comprehensions and doing the A questions, 30 mins on the B questions and the remaining 80 mins on the composition.  The A questions I didn't find too challenging, but it was really writing enough and having sufficient points that gets me. I really liked the B question, a speech, as a judge judging posters for Shakespeare's play "The Comedy of Errors". 1 and 2 were first and second , were yours the same ? And even the short story, I did the one about the mistaken identity, based on text 1. All in all it went fairly well.English wouldn't be my favourite subject, but sure it was grand! 

Emma - Higher Level English Paper 1 

English paper one was completely different to other years!! The comprehensions were extremely specific and the part B's were very tough. The essay titles weren't the best and there wasn't even an article which I was hugely disappointed about! I myself was happy enough with the comprehensions and the part B, but I found I was waffling on for my speech which was about travelling before working or going in to further education! The essay titles again were extremely specific, and none were general like other years. Overall it didn't go horrible but it could have been a lot better. Hopefully there will be a nice paper two tomorrow to make up for the paper one!!   

Cárthach - Higher Level English Paper 1 

So, after waking up not knowing was it actually the first day of exams and to my father's absolute cracking joke saying it was called off, I showed up to the school in quite a good mood and had a chat with my friends, we discussed the timing of Paper 1 quickly to make sure we knew that crucial element of exams (especially for a slow writer like myself).Before we knew it, it had started and I was well underway on the most difficult part of the whole exam, starting!After choosing the B part, I spent what felt like a very long time choosing the right Comprehension, but once I began on the second comprehension it got easier, even if the questions required referring back to a lot of examples in the text and the complexity of the narrative was a challenge in itself.I didn't actually get to finish the (iii) part worth 20 marks, so this was the low point of the whole exam, but I did the thing I had prepared to do, drive on and stick to the rigid time plan I had agreed on!The next 35 minutes was spent on a blog post...an uncommon type of B question. The task was to criticise President Obama's decision to spend $6 billion dollars of public money on NASA. This wasn't the worst either, time pressure yet again forcing me to rush the ending! Overall, I was happy with this option, but the rareness of a blog coming up in functional writing certainly put people off!The composing question was difficult to choose in my opinion! As someone who usually is suited to personal essays, the option was a more solely narrative approach on describing an urban journey. I live in the Gaeltacht, with 4 donkeys, I didn't think this was very suitable for me! My other preference was a speech at a class debate with a motion for or against 'young people should travel the world before entering the workforce or furthering education'. A nice title, but I felt I wrote it in a very unorganised way, but wrote a sufficient amount and hopefully I'll be awarded for sticking to the speech style, but content was lacking, perhaps other things weren't right either, trying to be positive now and look forward to being finished!Overall, It was a fairly fine day to begin with, not brilliant, but fine! If only the rest will be the same!My aim is not to engage in over-thinking such as what I could've, would've and should've done. It's finished now and only another load of papers to get through before freedom! Hup! 

Ellen - Higher Level English Paper 1 

That's it: the myth of the Leaving cert finally debunked- it's all just another exam. These were my first thoughts as soon as I sealed up the answer booklet. As for the exam itself, you never really know about English Paper I because it's so objective. There was mixed reviews in my school, some tears, some sighs of relief. I myself was so happy when I saw the theme was journeys!I was having nightmares last night about visual elements of texts so naturally when I saw the first text I ran a mile. Obama's speech about NASA was my natural choice, and I was able to bring in my knowledge of the Moon Landing from history. Was it just me or were the questions way more personal this year - 'in your own words what were the changes'? And 'in your opinion what are the disadvantages?'For QB I did the competition entry, which I wasn't really sure what the format was supposed to be. I did a letter while other people described the cinematic qualities of the text in detail, so we'll see how that goes. The composing section was not bad at all and offered lots of choice, including a nice debate about young people traveling. I chose to do the descriptive essay about an urban landscape and wrote about my time in Jerusalem. I've never written something from the second person before so we'll see how this goes..! All in all I feel it was quite an approachable paper. 

Conor - Higher Level English Paper 1 

WHY DO WORDS, PHRASES AND PUNCTUATION KEEP ENDING UP IN COURT? TO BE SENTENCED.Yes, I will begin every blog post with a themed pun. If you feel ill, it has worked.For those that were experiencing great nerves this morning, the starting point of the Leaving Certificate 2016 examinations, we as a nation did not make it easy for them:“I think I will turn on the radio; listening to some songs should allow me to feel relaxed.”[turns on radio]“TODAY MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE LEAVING AND JUNIOR CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS, WITH OVER –”[turns off radio]“Okay, maybe I will just stick to songs on my phone.”[looks at phone]YOU HAVE 23 NEW MESSAGES“What? They’re ALL relatives, wishing me good luck? I didn’t even think I had 23 relatives.”[turns off phone]“Maybe I’ll just sit on the couch in silence.”[parents enter]“Oh my God, OH MY GOD, today’s the big day! We best drive you now to avoid the traffic.” “Mom, Dad, it’s six in the morning. The exam isn’t for another three and a half hours!”“Well, better safe than sorry. Come on, polish your shoes and let’s get going. You need to make a good first impression with the examiner.”After meeting my classmates inside the waiting centre thirty minutes prior to the examination, it was perplexing to see that the calm people were those about to take the examinations, whilst the parents were experiencing heart palpitations and saying “Jesus, I don’t smoke, but if it will help with the nerves, I need a drag now.” It is ironic, seeing as they are the ones saying “worrying solves nothing”, yet they are the ones trembling. Our belief is different. To quote a student in my year: “They’re just summer exams with a fancy name.”On receiving the exam paper, the first thing one should do is take note of the theme of the paper. This year, it was the theme of “Journeys”, and we were met with comprehensions, varying from Shakespearean plays to space travel. In fact, I think most students belittle the theme, based on how eclectic the theme itself is. One thing to note was that in the Shakespearean text, which was a writer’s telling of ‘The Comedy of Errors’, it asked to include reference to a Shakespearean text that you have studied. I can imagine most students thought mutually: “Paper Two in Paper One? What next? Construction of an orthocentre in my poetry question? Madness!” But I found it quite intriguing, in that it allowed us to view the works of Shakespeare as a collection, taking notice of the admirable literature he has provided us. If you care to avail of it, you might mention a thing or two about ‘The Comedy of Errors’ when answering on Lear tomorrow. Make your essay stand out. That is what ensures a great result.Unless you write something like “Juliet Capulet, Julius Caesar, Romeo Montague, Mercutio: if you take these character's names apart you can spell out Illuminati. Therefore, Illuminati confirmed.” Maybe you ought to avoid that. There seemed to be little complaint drawn towards the composition section as well. In fact, the overall paper was deemed by most to be rather accessible, and even enlightening, in that they begin to explore concepts that they hadn’t even considered before. That is a wonderful quality of literature, I find. You are met with a world that was once held underneath a blanket, and grow a hunger to try to lift it out of the shadow that it once occupied. The paper also gave confidence to students in their ability to write, due to the broad nature of the paper, one that will certainly be required for the battle we face tomorrow.As the exam ended, and people were comparing what questions they completed, it moved on to the topic of tomorrow’s paper, and making predictions. One would swear that the nation is holding a large bet on who comes up in the poetry. My advice: leave it. Listening to predictions may cause you to forget your strongest poet (bad), study a poet that you have little understanding on (worse), and, as we have seen with many, MANY, predictions, leaving you without anyone to answer on in the exam, because you have only focused on one poet (worst). Stick to what you know now, and don’t get flustered by what other people are saying. No one knows what is coming up. Poets and other questions have repeated themselves. All I can imagine is the person writing the exam with a random number generator choosing the poets, thinking: “If only they knew…”. But I am getting ahead of myself here. This is for tomorrow.So, the conclusion for the day is as follows: most seem pleased with the start, and are now preparing profusely for Paper Two tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and relatives are beginning to relax. For the most part. Hopefully students are getting into the routine of things now, and will take the approach of giving the exam their all, and moving on as soon as it is finished. The more you think like this, the sooner the #whoppersummersesh seems to approach. That is a time parents should be worrying about.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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie