Junior Certificate History
Shane - Higher Level 
Oh my God, I am still in shock at how amazing that History Paper was! As soon as I got the paper, I went straight to the "People in History" section. I cried some real tears of joy when I saw a medieval monk and Columbus. I had studied about 12 but was still so worried going into the exam that it wasn’t enough. So I speed wrote my two essays (a page and a half and two pages respectively) and answered all 20 short questions and when I looked at the clock, only 35 minutes had gone by! So I slowed down a little and answered the picture question and the documents question. These went as fine as picture and documents questions go, but some questions were a small bit trickier than previous years.As predicted by many students, the mixture of the Agricultural Revolution, Industrial Revolution and the Famine (however minus the Famine this year) came up as the Question 5. This went very well but I was kicking myself that I didn’t know who John Kay was. For the account in that question, I wrote about three quarters of a page on farming in the agricultural revolution and was on my merry way to Q6. I studied Q6 C and Q6 D so I could focus on them in specific and not half study all the possibilities for Q6 A. I was quite pleased with 6 C and answered the accounts on the 1916 "Rising and Civil Rights in Northern Ireland". Then for Q6 D, I answered the accounts on the "Battle of Britain" and the "War in the Pacific". In the finish up, I could not literally be any happier with this paper and I am feeling so, so good about Science tomorrow! Good luck (again)!!!
Kate - Higher Level 
I've consistently done well in history, never producing anything lower than 95% in an exam so I was dreading history today. Our teacher lectured us about how people who do well in the mocks do worse because they get lazy so that was a positive note to enter the exam! I predicted that age of exploration, industrial revolution and reformation would come up. I was fearful about the possibility of revolutions appearing on the paper because I just skipped that whole section of the course.
I opened the exam and skipped everything, didn't even read anything from section 1-3. I started on question 4 and answered the question of medieval monk and Magellan (named explorer). I then moved onto question 5 and felt blessed by the SEC when I saw industrial revolution and reformation side by side. I had spent hours cramming the industrial revolution into my head and thankfully it appeared. I then moved onto question 5 and answered A - Reformation and D - International Relations. The final parts of those questions threw me. The question regarding the reformations impact on Ireland and Britain was not what I prepared for but I wrote about plantations and religious change in Britain. I wasn't too sure about how France was defeated but sure I waffled my way through it. Luftwaffe more like Luftwaffle am I right? I then returned and answered questions 1-3 without a problem.
All in all I believe that the exam went quite well for me and I'm optimistic about how I did.
Philip - Higher Level 
This paper really didn't suit me, if I'm going to be honest. I started with section 3, the short questions. These weren't particularly hard in my opinion and I'd say I got ten at least. Next I went back to section 1 where I struggled with the second question on part A but apart from that I think I managed to bluff my way through. Then I moved to section 2. This was the comprehension question and I think I did well enough in those questions. Next I did the people in history question. This was where I struggled. In part b I managed to do, I think, a good enough account of Christopher Columbus, though without dates. Then I went back to part A. I hadn't studied any of these. I tried at the renaissance painter outside of Italy question on Albert Durer but some of my points were confused with someone else so I'd say I lost a lot of marks here.In section 5 I didn't have much trouble with the comprehension based question in part A and B but part iii in each of those caught me and I didn't know what to put down. Part C was a total mess and half of what I said was made up, but fingers crossed. Finally I did section 6. I started with D as that's usually my best in section 6 and this year was no different. I was quiet confident with my long question answer (for the last time in the exam). Next I did A. I think I did fine in most of them but I struggled to find enough points to cover the effect of the reformation on Ireland and mainland Europe, though I say I picked up at least half the points, maybe more. Finally I had some time left (I thought the exam finished at 4:00 so I rushed and ended with a half hour to spare) so I spent that time doing part B in section 6, which was total waffle.Goof luck everyone in science and religion tomorrow!
Luke - Higher Level 
I was fairly nervous before entering this exam because I really like history, I think my teacher is good and I had done well in my pre so I had fairly high expectations.Before entering the classroom where the exams were being held, I read over Durer and a solider in the D-Day landings. I did questions 1, 2, and 3. And then 6, 4, 5. This was to make sure I got as much marks as I could manage in Q.6 because it accounts for 33% of the exam. I was pretty much under pressure for time from the word go.The short questions were very straightforward, although I avoided all questions on Irish history as I knew that I would be able to avoid those questions on the exam.The night before the exam I looked through studyclix and saw what topics they predicted would come up, and I was lucky as a Renaissance artist from outside of Italy and an explorer came up in question four! I was was happy with that.Question five was the industrial revolution. It was easy, even though I hadn't looked at it in awhile because I didn't think it would come up.Question six. Before the exam I had intended to do part B, Social Change and part A which is usually a topic from the second year course but when I looked at the social change question and compared it to the world war question I decided that the world war question was the better option. I had done a fair amount of study on the reformation which turned out to be part A. of question six so I got a nice bit down for that. Then for D. World War I, I didn't think I had a lot of knowledge on it when I began but as I wrote I remembered bits and pieces of it and when I was finished I was even happier with it than the reformation question. I'm looking forward to seeing the results in September and seeing how it all worked out!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 Business Studies
Shane - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2
Business is by far one of my favourite subjects and I went into in today actually excited.Paper 1 - I started off with the short questions to ease me into the exam and just to get them out of the way ASAP. These went extremely well and I feel they were nice questions. Then I moved on to the long questions. I did Q1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. I started with Q1 and was very happy that it was a budget comparison. Then as expected on to the club accounts. I did the income and expenditure account along with my balance sheet and was rejoicing when it balanced. Then I did Q3 on economics. I laughed when I realised anybody doing HL Maths would have known from Paper 2 that there are 28 EU states and that was how most people would get there answer. Moving on, Q4 was a nice report writing question (one I expected on Paper 2) and that went great. When I had my first four questions fully finished and checked over twice, I still had 40 minutes left. I had a feeling that I would have at least half an hour left so I did Q6 which was also a great question. I loved this business paper and I thought it was a great platform to show my love of the subject and achieve a high grade.Paper 2 - This paper I knew would go well. I knew I’d do Q2 and Q4 before I started because no matter how many times I say I don’t like accounts, I am still good at them. I feel Q2 went great and I cannot describe the massive grin I had when I saw my Net Assets match my Capital Employed! In addition, I did Q3, 4, and 5. I don’t recommend anybody do Q1 as it is really time consuming and no matter how many times I tried, I wasn’t able to do them (not to mention the fact my business teacher warned us to stay away from them). Q3 on working out the daily cost went without a hitch and then so did Q6. I was happily surprised to see the appearance of an analysed cash book on Q5 and I jumped at the chance to do it. In the end, I’m a very happy person with these papers and I am just euphoric at how they went. I really look forward now to business next year, but for now, time to focus on History tomorrow! Wishing you all the best of luck in History and to anybody doing French!
Philip - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2
Paper 1 - This wasn't the hardest business paper I've done but a change to the way some of the short questions were asked caught me a little off guard. All in all though I think I got most of the short questions. Then I did the budget question which, apart from a few mistakes that I caught when I looked over it, I think I got most of the marks in that question. Next I did the club account question, which was pretty much a final accounts question and I got it to balance. It also had the questions on treasurer which come up often enough. I skipped question three because it had a lot of stuff I didn't really know. After this I skipped to question six because it seemed easier than the other two remaining questions. That went well enough, I think. Next I did the report writing question. I think part A went well, though I wasn't sure how to describe "tax credit". I think the report itself went well though, even if being given a space to write in made it slightly more difficult seeing as I had to write such a small amount on each topic. Finally I did question five so I had a spare question done. I think I got these questions done well enough though. Overall, not a bad paper in my opinion!
Paper 2 - In this paper the only question I didn't do was question 1. I don't like those questions. I think they are twice as long as a normal question for the same points. Anyway I did the Business document question to start. I think these questions are rarely too hard, with 90% of the information being given to you in the question and this year was no different. Because of that I finished this question quickly. Next I did the final accounts question which, apart from a few mistakes which I had time to go back and find before moving on, I did well in and balanced without too much trouble. The part B was easy enough seeing as you were given the formula. Next I moved back to the cost of delivery question. I had a little trouble with this as when I got to the cost of diesel for one day part I couldn't get it to divide in properly. I ended up just rounding it up and the part B went fine. Next I did the form of business ownership question which was definitely not the hardest question. Part A was pretty much what you'd expect but part B was just to draw a bar chart. Finally I did the analysed cash book. I think this was my worst question and I did it last just in case so to have a spare question. I'm not very confident with these questions but I took my best shot at it. Now, I need to go study for french and history. Good luck everybody!
Chloe - Higher Level Paper 1 & 2 
Paper 1 - So I started with the short questions as always and found them to be very doable with some awkward question thrown in here and there.I then did the club account, which was great as income and expenditure accounts are very hard to mess up too badly, then it was time to do the balance sheet and I tried for so long to get it to balance but it didn’t (aww).Next I did the question on borrowing and saving, followed by the economics question and finishing with people at work & ICT. They were all very fair questions and I think I did quite well with this paper.Paper 2 - So I started at the back with question 6 which I felt was a really nice question and would get me settled into the exam. It definitely did as this was a topic I understood very well and so I feel my answers were strong enoughThen I went on to the business documents question, I must admit I found it quite tricky but I think I managed to make a good stab at itNext was the question on the analysed cash book and monitoring over heads, honestly it had been a long time since id looked at monitoring over heads and so I struggled slightly with this but I think my answers were good in the endI ended with the final account and balance sheet. I was going grand until I came near the end any my mind blanked I couldn’t remember the last sections of wither accounts. In the end I think I was kind of right but I was so annoyed considering it’s a question I had been prepared for!Overall I don’t feel this paper was too challenging and I’m hoping that I did wellA demain! (get it?)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 Civic, Social & Political Education (CSPE)
Kate - Common Level
CSPE is such a great exam. I love CSPE as you can actually show up to the exam with an honour grade (due to the action project). I answered every question on the exam for section one and two and did the question on voting for section three. The picture questions were quite unusual and I only recognised the Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan but I guessed the rest (quite successfully I would hope). I continued the rest of the exam and answered everything. I chose the question on voting as it had a poster and I am quite passionate on the issue of voting so this question suited me perfectly. This exam was a lovely end to my first 8 exams and I have a day and a half off to recover!
Philip - Common Level
The picture questions came with their usual clues. The girl from the Garda was in uniform, the person from Northern Ireland had a crown pin and the youngest paddies day parade leader was the only young person in the four pictures, which left one left making it obvious enough (God after describing it like that I hope I'm not wrong!). The questions with the missing words seemed perfect for me, with the only ones that weren't common sense being the ones I'd glanced at before the exam. Finally the last question on the second page was matching letters to the type of right type of energy (you know, you should probably just take the last brackets for the whole exam).So then I did the comprehension questions, doing every one instead of three and answering in full sentences to not leave myself open to being docked any marks. This was all the usual stuff, the only surprising thing was not finding a question that you could answer with "poster campaign" until the last comprehension!In the long question I did the third one, on visiting the council offices and the youth café, unlike most of the people in my school who saw the word "poster" and jumped at question four before reading the rest. I did a page on each of them and ended up asking for extra paper to do part C.So that was my CSPE exam. Now that its over lets get down to business (that is hilarious and no one can tell me otherwise).
Shane - Common Level
“I studied really hard for CSPE yesterday” - said nobody ever. I don’t know what there is to say about it. CSPE was a nice exam and it went amazing. There is something very reassuring about walking into an exam knowing you have around 60% already in the bag. I was not worried for this exam in the slightest, I got 99% in mocks and put a lot of work into writing up Darkness Into Light as my Action Project. I sat down and did the first section (which was much easier than some years). Then I moved on and did Section 2 questions 1,2, and 3. That was grand. Then I had to choose a long question. I did Question 1 on the 1916 Rising Commemorative Event because I love history and I’ve been to several 1916 events. I actually had to ask for more paper for this section which I thought was weird. Anyway I hope it went as well for all of you as it did for me and to everyone else doing business tomorrow, good luck!
Chloe - Common Level
Well after that horrific maths encounter I was glad that CSPE was next in line! It was good, I guess, to see very different faces on the first page that we wouldn’t have come across before, they were easy enough to make a stab at even I you weren’t 100% sure with one or two.The advertisements were a breeze as usual although I must admit some of the questions on raising awareness for different topics were slightly trickier than usual, maybe that’s just me though! I did questions 1, 2 and 4, skipping the refugee crisis one.Next was the long question, I was glad to see a 1916 question up and I tackled that one without a doubt. I did read through the others but they didn’t appeal that much to me. For this I basically regurgitated what my school did for the rising.So that was CSPE, way harder than maths paper 2 (joke). On to business tomorrow whoo!
Joe - Common Level 
This exam was one of least concern I had done well in the mocks and was confident. The short question went well and I did question 4 in the long questions on the voting awareness event. It was an interesting question and I enjoyed drawing and designing the invite! 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 Maths Paper 2
Kate - Higher Level
I was somewhat dreading this paper due to my experience in maths paper one. After a disastrous maths paper one, paper two was delightful. Paper two is my stronger paper and I surprisingly dint' struggle with any of the questions. I answered the theorem question first (as it I would forget it if I didn't do it straight away). The theorem was wonderful, 'prove that all the angles in a triangle add up to 180'. Next I went back to the start and answered everything. The first question, I answered using trial and error so I may lose some marks but sure what can you do. The question on the inter quartile range threw me a little and I ended up doing two or three graphs to display my data. Other than that the paper was great. Compared to the difficult paper one, I was glad to have an easy paper to save my grade. All in all I thought this paper was wonderful and a nice follow up to paper one!
Philip - Higher Level
I opened this paper and went straight to the theorems while I still remembered them. I have to be honest here, I almost laughed when I saw what theorem it was. I don't think anyone would disagree that we got the easiest theorem. I mean, what are the odds? (Ok its like 1 in 5 but most of the teachers in my school were predicting the pythagoras theorem proof). Anyway I think that's enough about the theorem.After that I went back to the start and worked my way through. The paper over all went well enough, there were a few questions I found though but I think they were only five markers (but it was an irrational panic because I finished with time to spare). For some reason the graph question went against me, it just didn't seem to be working out, but I think I got most of the answers on that question. I think most of the other questions were in the log tables!
Shane - Higher Level
So, Maths is over! I could not be any happier to tell you the truth (that is until I finish TG). I feel fine about this paper. Some parts were easy, some weren’t. I was going fine until Q4 on co-ordinate geometry. I spent a lot of time studying it but still just couldn’t do it. Anyways, things picked back up after it and I was working away well. The whole feeling of this paper was also different. I sat down and started it, but everything felt quite slow. I felt like I sped through Paper 1 on Friday but this felt much longer and drawn out. I was also extremely annoyed they put the easiest theorem on the paper because I invested a ridiculous amount of time studying theorem 14 (proving Pythagoras) and then the one one the angles in a triangle adding up to 180 degrees comes up instead? Honestly, I still feel I did well but I didn’t like the format of this paper.It felt different to other years and just weird. Fingers crossed that I got the B! I will be glad to see the back of an exam year Maths class for another year. I hope you all did well in this paper and are feeling very optimistic!
Chloe - Higher Level
Well I can start by saying I am so happy that theorem of Pythagoras didn’t come up as I was dreading its appearance and thankfully to prove that the 3 angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees did. This was my first question and it was also the beginning and end of my happiness in paper 2.I can honestly say that I couldn’t answer one question with a full notion of getting it right. I was scanning my brain for inspiration and it never came. I began with the idea that paper 2 was my ‘favourite’ but that was slowly crushed as I delved into the pages. So much for relying on it to push up my grade, now that I look back paper 1 was much more straight forward!That’s my opinion, but most of my friends were the contrary I think it was just one of those exams where things just weren’t ‘clicking’ if you know what I mean.Overall paper 2 was a disaster I stuck at it though and didn’t give up with questions easily, which I’m proud of but overall I’m disappointed with it….to say the least!!
Joe - Higher Level
After doing poorly on paper one I was not looking forward to this exam.The exam itself wasn't as difficult as I had feared. I understood most question bar a few parts. The exam went well and the paper had no nasty surprises. 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 Maths Paper 1
Joe - Higher Level
Kate - Higher Level
Philip - Higher Level
Shane - Higher Level
Chloe - Higher Level
Going in to this exam I was so nervous as maths is by far my weakest subject. I looked through the paper and decided to tackle question 11 first as it looked like a few relatively straight forward factorisations. I was into it now and I turned back to question 1. I should be ashamed here as I couldn’t remember how to get the percentage decrease but other than that q1 was quite simple, surprisingly as q1 in the mocks was nothing short of mind boggling. I continued on anyway with one question after the other and I couldn’t believe how much function work was involved. I’m not sure if I tackled them all correctly but my graphs looked reasonably okay so I was using that as reassurance! Maybe it was just me but q12 which was about the bags had a very large working out space for the method I used, this was quite off putting as I don’t know if I went about it the right way, I just subbed in numbers and worked it out like that, but I could have been very wrong!After the exam, media was preaching the statement ‘everything was fine till q8’ which I don’t necessarily agree with as some of my better questions came after this and honestly some of my worst before.Overall I don’t know whether I hated or loved paper 1, some questions were nice and others were horrible, definitely a mixed bag 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
Junior Certificate Geography, Environmental & Social Studies
Joe - Higher Level
I have done consistently well with geography through out the junior cert cycle so was confident about this exam.The exam went very well. I started on the short questions and had them done in less then 20 minutes. I then did question 5 on the ordinance survey map. I spent a long time drawing the sketch map and doing the question but I gave a solid answer. I then did the question on limestone , underground feature of a karst landscape and peat. It was straight forward and I felt like I answered well. My final question was question two on ocean currents, irrigation and desertification. I was a small bit rushed to complete it but finished just in time.I feel the exam went well and it was a fairly easy paper!
Kate - Higher Level
Geography went great! I answered all the short questions with ease and moved on to the long questions. The long questions were good. I answered question one, question two and question five. Question one focused on karst landscapes, limestone and peat. I found this question manageable but the question about technology and peat was unusual. The second question I answered was on irrigation, desertification and ocean currents. I loved this section as it was simple and I thoroughly enjoy the section on ocean currents.Finally I answered the OS Map. I originally did not plan to answer this question but I had no choice. The map was odd and I found it tricky to draw what was required to scale, but the questions were great. A question about traffic congestion and tourism. Overall I think the exam went well for me. The questions were quite broad and I'm optimistic about how it went!
Luke - Higher Level
Initially I was quite nervous going into the exam because I have quite high expectations for myself when it comes to this subject. I was worried population would come up because I hadn't studied them in depth. Once I got into the exam and opened the paper I gave the long questions a quick read through and I realised that it was grand. The short questions... Easy. Blew through them. 60/60.I did long questions 1,2 and 5. I dodged the population questions! I hear a lot of people were thrown by the question on Irish bogs. I manged to cram fishing, bogs, and the karst landscape before I went into the exam and thank God. The OR map was easy. I'm looking forward to continuing my study of geography for LC. Looking forward to taking a breather this weekend!
Shane - Higher Level
I went into geography with buzz words for beaches, cliffs, soil creep, freeze thaw action and karst landscapes buzzing in my head. Of all this, I would only need one. But, it didn’t really matter. I did the short questions first. I felt these were by far the easiest compared to any year. Then I did question 1. I got a shock when I saw economic activities. I always thought (among with every JC student) that question 1’s were STRICTLY physical geography. I didn’t mind however. The questions in question 1 were very do-able and I felt as if it was a great question.I did question 2 secondly.This was the best out of 2, 3, and 4 in my eyes. I would have been rewriting Q3 part B and D (I think they were the parts) and I couldn’t do Q4 because my geography teacher didn’t do urban geography with us. I did find Q2 to be my weakest question but I did’t feel it went too bad. Then I did good ole question 5. I found this to be a good question, but I took so long to draw the coastline on the map. In the finish up, I think Geography went very well and I am over all very pleased with it!
Philip - Higher Level
So this went ok. I admit I panicked, there was about five subjects I didn't know well in the entire course. Guess which subjects came up? But after the exam I talked to a geography teacher in my school and they said they thought my answers was ok (I told them what I said). Anyway,I didn't find the short questions too hard. I'd say there were a few I got wrong though. The long questions I did were question one. The karst structure I did were pillars. Then I did question three A, B and C. Finally I did question 5 with the maps. All in all I think the test went pretty well!
Chloe - Higher Level
Let me start by saying that the majority of my time studying prior to the JC was dedicated to geography and I still didn’t know every single thing entering this exam, its so difficult to contain everything in your brain on the day and the cramming session we had an hour before the exam I think was the making or breaking of it. I began with the short questions, usually I can find these to be sometimes slightly awkward but they were actually grand yesterday and I had them done within 20 minutes.I opened the paper and not one of the questions from 1-4 appealed to me fully so I decided to begin with question 5 (which I don’t normally do) I found the questions on the OS map relatively similar to those that had come up before and the question about traffic circulation wasn’t a regular but it was doable. I then went on to do the question on ocean currents, irrigation and desertification, from this I was only fully confident with irrigation but managed to make a good enough stab at the other two thankfully enough as we had recently studied them in class.I finished with the geographical mix question and left out the question on polders. I felt this went quite well although I was definitely waffling for some parts to fill out my answers. Overall geography went reasonably well for me and I hope my studying for this subject pays off!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