Leaving Certificate German
Emma- Higher Level
German, for a subject I have little stamina for it went surprisingly well! The first comprehension was a toughie but the rest of the paper was a dream with the grammar being a lot simpler than other years. The second comprehension was lovely, and I managed to squeeze everything in the letter!! The listening was fairly handy and overall I was pleased with the paper!! Hopefully this grade will make up for the awful bio paper!
Klara- Higher Level
Overall this paper was quite easy although it had some weird questions thrown in. The first reading comprehension was quite difficult and so it took me quite a while to do. The second was much easier. The grammar question was lovely- prepositions and question words, very easy. I ended up doing both Außerung zum Thema, both of which were very different from anything I had prepared, one was about old-fashioned shops and the second about prejudices against people wearing hoodies and trends. With the phrases I did know it was easy to answer, however. The letter also had some very strange questions such as why Ireland is chosen as a filming site. Overall though the questions were very easy to understand. The listening was great as well, I found the questions easy to answer. The first section was a bit hard to understand, but after a while I started to make sense of what they were saying.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 Construction Studies
Lorraine - Higher Level 
I have to say, I was feeling a little nervous about this exam. Even though the material on the paper each year is predictable in my opinion, I was still anxious enough going in. To be honest the exam is a little bit of a blur already.So I got the paper and quickly scanned through it to see what questions I would answer. Question 1 is compulsory so I got stuck into that first. The question was based on a porch where you had to draw the roof, window and lintel detail. Not the easiest of questions to start off with in my opinion but after some thought I made a good stab at it and was glad to have it out of the way.I then done the question on low environmental impact. I was absolutely delighted to see this question come up as I knew this really well. We were asked to chose 3 design features that ensures the house has a low environmental impact. Easy enough and nothing too difficult about that.I then moved on to the passive house question which was question 10. You had a choice between either part A or B. I chose part A as I felt I could answer this the best. It was about heat loss and storage gain in passive houses. I found this question ok and got through it in no time.U-values is a guaranteed question on the paper every year so I had prepared this really well. After practicing so many u-value questions, I wasn't overly happy with this question. I didn't find it as straight forward as other years but I'm confident that I gave it a good attempt and got a lot of the marks.The last question I done was based on a storeroom that was being converted into a home office. Handy enough question to be fair. We were asked to give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of the storeroom being converted into a home office. Again nothing too difficult and I feel this was one of my better questions.I must say I was really hoping that wheelchair accessibility would come up on the paper as I knew this chapter inside out and I was quite disappointed that it didn't. Oh well!Overall the paper was pretty doable and gave up no surprises which I was delighted about.Now for the long wait till my the last exam, Ag Science.
Liam - Higher Level 
This was the day I was most looking forward to. I got up early, had some coco pops, poured myself a cup of coffee and did some quick revision before heading into my Construction studies exam later that evening.The construction exam is brilliant because you have so much choice! On the paper are ten questions, you only have to answer five which includes one compulsory drawing question. I was devastated to see that the flat roof came up as the drawing question, one of my least favorite chapters. I struggled my through it and onto the U-Value question. In my opinion U-Values are a straight 50 marks. They come up every year without fail and they’re almost always the same question.As I continued I was quite happy with the other choice questions. I did Q3, which was all about redesigning a house, it was a grand old question. I then swiftly moved onto Q4 a question which was about deciding where to put a house in a field, it was quite easy. Finally, I looked down at my watch to see that I had 36 minutes left, the perfect amount of time to answer my finale question, Q7, another drawing question but this time with a chimney and a slanted roof. I was delighted with this question and I finished it in no time at all.So all in all, I’m pretty happy with how that went. With only two exams left, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.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 Home Economics
Olivia - Higher Level
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 Religion
Kate - Higher Level 
Over the last few days my study has been focused on History, German and Science so I had not put any effort into Religion. This was a mistake and I knew it was but to me science, history and German require more work and matter more. After science, I spent two hours cramming the religion curriculum into my head. Entering the exam I was very stressed. Once I opened the paper it was not nearly as bad as I anticipated. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible.I flicked through the paper and circled the questions I would do and wrote some small bullet points for each question. I started the paper; short questions - easy, picture question - okay, document question - impossible. I had to forget about that and leave it to the end. I was so confused about stewardship, was it the CSPE stewardship or a different kind? I moved on and did questions 3,4,5 and 6. I thought that these questions were a lot easier than 1 and 2 (plus they were questions that you could waffle you way through). I then answered the essay question on how faith influences the lives of believers. I thought this was a wonderful question and produced a five page essay about Islam and it's impact on the lives of Muslims. Finally I returned to the document and painfully went through it. I tried my best and think I produced a good exam considering the study I did.
Philip - Higher Level 
Now this is an exam everyone did a lot of study for! (sarcasm, so, so much sarcasm) Anyway I got short questions done quickly and I think I got at least ten. Next I did section two and I did every part so I had a spare. This was mostly total bullology but that's what the examiners want! Then I moved on to section 3. This went ok and I think I did some pretty good answers. Next I did section 4 question 1, 4, 5 and 6. These are usually the hardest questions in the paper and although this was still true I think all in all I did well enough.Finally I did section 5 and I did question 2 on Jesus and the type of Messiah that was expected. I did just under a page and a half. Then I had about five minutes to spare and I went back and started question 2 on section 4 but I didn't get that finished.Good look everyone whose doing home ec or German tomorrow, my next(and last) exam is tg so good luck to everyone doing TG and woodwork on Monday.!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 Business
Craig - Higher Level 
So IDA doesn't stand for International Development Association - and my break even chart wasn't perfect, but by god what a nice exam. After such an exhausting few days - doing business this morning was somewhat relaxing! The ABQ on Units 2,3,4 were a little bit dodgy after question 1 as you'd struggle to quote from the text for question 2 and question 3 , but all in all - "its only business" and as predicted "twas grand".There was a lovely International Business Question on Question 3 - simply looking for us to demonstrate some basic knowledge on the benefits and disadvantages of TNCs in Ireland , while the People In Business Question was lovely - Performance, Agreement , Frustration Breach, a half a page on the NCA and a pretty basic question on Unfair Dismissals .The Breakeven question carried a lovely 40 marks for basic understanding of the topic, I think I pulled in the majority of marks here but the second break even point might have cost me a high grade over all, as I couldn't figure out how they should intersect which was a bit of a knock (honestly though at this stage I don't care I'm too bloody tired).Finally, the question on Planning Organising and Controlling was lovely - as predicted in the mocks - Matrix came up after that, I can hardly remember, but it was nice.The Short Questions weren't too bad either - I struggled with Job production (didn't touch that chapter) and I think the European questions might have had a wee trick in them but overall they were pretty nice - soothing, even.As a pointer for anyone who god forbid finds themselves reading this next year having to do French, History and then Business the next day, it's actually quite soothing. Today was a walk in the park compared to yesterday - safe to say the worst is over now!
Emma - Higher Level 
Business was an absolute lovely paper! Not what I was expecting at all. The short questions took me a bit of time to see what they actually wanted but I managed to get 9 done leaving out question number 1. I then went onto the ABQ and did the first part but realised I'd spent WAY too long explaining the skills, so I moved on to the long questions and left 4/5 pages to come back to the ABQ. The long questions were lovely but extremely long and they were asking for a lot in each part. I did 1, 4, 5, 7. I stayed away from anything financial or the break even chart because they take me forever. Once I finished those I had 25 mins to spare and I went back and did the rest of the ABQ. I'm lucky I write extremely fast but from reading others reactions, it is evident that not everyone has the ability to complete the paper in the given time. The business exam is a timing game, because most of the information is straightforward enough once you know it. 3 hours to write a booklet and 5 pages really really doesn't suffice and my fingers are still killing me!!But overall the paper was kind and I was extremely pleased leaving the exam, which is always a good sign! (I hope!) 2 more left!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 Science
Chloe - Higher Level 
So science was my second last exam and I was really dreading it. There is so much information to retain and I was nervous that I hadn't studied some of the chapters as well as I should have.To begin I went through the exam question by question and I came across a few that at first I wasn't quite sure of but then the answers dawned on me when I checked over it again. The question on germination was a disaster for me, as honestly I hadn't revised it and so I just took a complete guess. Other than that I feel I was comfortable enough with most of the questions and I'm happy with how it went.It definitely feels brill to have the exams almost done and dusted with just one more to go for me which is woodwork! See ye on Monday for that!!
Shane - Higher Level 
Ok. I was dreading this exam, which sounds ridiculous because I had put A LOT of study time and effort into it. I made sure I did a really good coursework B and spent hours checking my lab manual, writing experiments, re-writing experiments and making sure I had them all. So I was a little bit (a huge bit) on edge. However, when that exam paper was put in front of me, I rejoiced at how it was a very nice paper. I was convinced after the beauty that was Business and History, the SEC would want to wipe the smile off of my face. Yet, they only made it bigger.The biology section was a little harder than previous years but was very manageable and all students who studied should have done well. I was in my element (insert wink emoji) doing the Chemistry section because that is my stand out favourite part of the course. Physics was also a great section but they put the weirdest experiment on it! I cannot wait to do Chemistry and Physics next year after how that went:) I’m just insanely happy with Science and I am looking forward to recovering from this week now that I’m off until Monday!!! Best of luck to you all doing exams tomorrow!
Kate - Higher Level
I am generally an A student in science so I felt quite prepared for this exam. I spent hours last night learning chemical formulas, balanced chemical equations, formulas and units. To my shock horror not one question on chemical formulas or equations came up and only one question on physic formulas. Other than that the exam was a lot better than anticipated.
I looked over the exam first and then I answered chemistry, physics and finally my least favourite - biology. I answered every question without much trouble. Overall I thought that this was a lovely exam and I am quite happy with how I did.
Philip - Higher Level
So I didn't find this paper too hard, a lot of pretty tough questions but I think I managed to get an answer out for most of them. I worked through the paper in the order it was given and didn't find much trouble throughout. I had went through past papers last night and the marking schemes to check my answers. There I made a lot of mistakes but I knew them today and I was lucky enough that a good few of them came up. I did struggle with the questions on circuits but apart from that I think it went well all in all.It went better than I expected, I was really dreading this exam yesterday!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