Leaving Certificate Agricultural Science

Lorraine - Higher Level 

After having to wait almost a week for this final exam I just wanted it out of the way. I didn't sleep a wink last night and words can't describe how nervous I was this morning.With Ag Science you have to answer 6 out of the 9 possible questions. Genetics and soil are definite questions so I did them but not before tackling question 1 which carries 60 marks. I answered the 6 short questions from question one with no bother. I was quite happy with them.I then did the genetics question which was a dream to be honest. In Part A we were asked to define some genetics terms, no problem there and then we had a lovely cross which I was delighted to see on the paper. There was no surprise with it at all! Cross a bull heterozygous for both traits with a polled white cow, easy. Part C of the genetics question caught me though, what was EBI? I certainly can't remember seeing that before.I did the soil question then. Again another question that wasn't too difficult but just required a little bit of thought. I think I managed it quite well. The experiment that came up here was the experiment to determine the soil texture by using a sieve. Overall it was a nice question.I'm quite happy that my question 1, genetics and soil questions were good but what came after that I'm not so confident about. I did my best with them but I found that you really had to hit the nail on the head with the answers. I just hope I've done enough to at least get a decent grade along with the project.All done now, let the celebrations begin!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 Design & Communication Graphics

 Liam - Higher Level 

I can almost smell the end of this accursed leaving cert. No more books, no more uniform, the whoppa sesh, my second last exam, I’m almost there.As most people are finished the leaving cert by now, I’m eager to get it out of the way. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with DCG. Sometimes I find it easy, sometimes hard. The theory side takes up 60% of your overall mark, while 40% went to your project. Our project this year was to design and investigate your own tap. I thought my project was pretty top notch so I was going into this exam fairly happy.From my experience of doing DCG I always found it to be the most tiring exam, so before going in I downed a berocca boost, hoping that it would give me the kick that I needed. I started off with the short questions. You are given four of these short questions but need only answer three. I usually struggle with the short questions but I was delighted to find them quite easy. After those I moved swiftly onto the long questions. It was happy days on from here thank god! I started with the road map question which was quite odd but I answered it well. I then moved onto question B-1 an intersecting planes question which went brilliantly! I realised I had lots of time left so I took it easy as I moved onto B-3, a question on curves. Finally, I moved onto C-2 a hyperbolic parabolide question. It sounds hard but it was easy.So I was pretty happy with my DCG exam. I’m even happier that there’s only one more left! Roll on music because we’re almost there!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 Technology

Kate - Higher Level 

My final exam! I finished exactly two weeks after I started. I went into this exam knowing I would do poorly. We spent all of our class time doing projects and briefs and did little or no theory. My project and brief was of an A standard with only one or two minor flaws so I went into the exam feeling ok.I opened the short questions and initially could only answer about 10 of the 32. Eventually I got 27 done to a fair standard. I moved onto long questions. I did section B 1 (a) and 2(b). 1 (a) was a lovely question about a truck. I answered that fairly well. Question B 2(b) was very difficult so I just made the whole thing up. I tried to do it as best as I could but honestly it was all waffle. I loved the question on Technology and Society. It was all about bike rentals, modern consumer technology and green technologies. This was also a load of waffle but it was more educated waffle.Overall I think that was a bad end to a fairly good run of exams, but what can you do! I'm just happy the exams are done and dusted!

Luke - Higher Level 

Yesterday I had the day off, and there comes a time in the exam period where you don't care anymore and where the communal motto is; "it'll be grand". Hence, I didn't look at a book yesterday.Because my exam wasn't until two o'clock today, this morning I said I may as well have a look at some past exam papers, basically the ones I hadn't done yet. I've been studying all year for this one, because technology is actually one of my favourite subjects. It links up with science, another one of my favorites. It's practical, it's hands on, and it just makes sense to me.I got into the exam and saw the paper was pretty nice. I did 32 short questions out of 32, the minimum to be answered being 25 so this gives me a safety net.The first long question I did was the plane. You have to design a development of a plane (the net). The second question; I had planned to do the mechanics question beforehand because this is one of my strong points, but the electronics question was so easy so I decided to go for it. You didn't even really need a knowledge of technology to do this question, just a log tables!For question three I did technology in society which I didn't really get a choice in, it was the only topic my teacher had taught us, as he designated it the easiest. I also think that bike rentals came up because the recent introduction of bike rental schemes in Ireland!Overall I'm happy with the exam. More importantly though, the Junior Certificate is finally over! Roll on Transition Year!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 Economics

Craig - Higher Level 

A nice paper but quite abstract - it was quite difficult to know just what they were looking for. That's how I'd sum up Economics Higher Level 2016. As predicted, there was a focus on elasticity, national income and appearance. Labour popped up as a factor of production and Oligopoly was the market structure.Aside from those topics - we had a very "waffle-able" macro section - whereby a large part of Question 7 was do-able without text book knowledge. Not very typical of an economics exam and for those who did it will either excel or fail terribly - it'll be interesting to see how nice and/or broad the marking scheme is for that section.I took Questions 1 , 2 , 3 and 5. The short questions were handy so I'm not going to go into them.Question one was on Supply and Elasticity. The first question was quite nice, however I blanked on how to show a movement along a supply curve. The part b really demanded personal thinking- a theme prevalent throughout the entire paper. The 2nd part asking if PED was inelastic in the long run - I said it was , because consumers develop a loyalty to the good. Part C was based on personal thinking - this was very welcome.Question two based itself off Oligopoly, as predicted. Most students would have had this and perfect known to a T - the first question was quite unusual but very welcoming. There was however a very abstract question in the piece where it asked to show the curve facing a firm in this market. Now a kinked demand curve is split three ways, kinked, kinked equilibrium, long run kinked equilibrium - I drew the latter two, many other drew the first - it didn't specifically say what was needed but I hope I took the right choice, if it was meant to be the first - this was an extremely easy question.Labour/Employment popped up in Question 3 thank god, and this was quite nice aside from one or two definitions I may have messed up on. Then as the question got on we got to look at trends facing labour in Ireland. I thought this was very good and really rewarded students with a knowledge of current affairs.Finally, National Income was mashed up with employment- this was perfect for those who acted off predictions, as both were topics expected to come up, however if one didn't touch the employment subject, and only focused on national income this would've been a nasty loss of 30 marks. The national income question was pretty handy asking for very basic knowledge. Finally the effect of an oil spill and an increase in child benefit found its way on to the part c - continuing the trend of genuine skill application - this is a very welcome tactic to assessing .And that's it. At this stage I could get 300, 450 or 500 and I genuinely don't care. I'm done and I hope ye have all got something out of reading these blogs.  I'd like to thank ISSU for the opportunity and the work they've done, and opportunities they provide young people with; if you're looking to get involved with them - do!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 Music (Listening, Composing & General Study)

Isobel - Higher Level 

After having a few days off since my previous exam, I felt well rested and ready for my music exam. I was fairly happy with how my practical exam went, apart from a few slip-ups due to nerves. I played two songs on the piano and two songs on the ukulele.Overall I thought it was a good paper. Question 1 was set songs, in which me and my classmates nearly started laughing when our favourite funny song came up, "Click go the Shears". Hoe-Down from Rodeo came up in the set works question. I was hoping that Peer Gynt would come up, but I think I dealt with the questions fairly well. I was really happy when I saw we had to write about a collector of Irish Music in question 3, and I wrote about Edward Bunting. Next was good old dictation, (everyone's favourite... not!) I've never really been confident about it but I think it was slightly easier than the mocks, and I'm hoping that I've picked some marks up for the rhythm, bar lines and end note. Some familiar songs were played in question 5, including a Glee cover of Imagine, a U2 song, and Eye of The Tiger!I found the triads question and the answering phrase question fine, however I thought that the chord progression question was a little tricky. Question 10 went well for me, as you weren't asked to write about 3 specific features of the songs you've studied, instead they asked you to just write a general account of the songs and include information about the features.All in all, I'm happy with how it went, and I hope everyone has a great Summer. We did 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

Leaving Certificate Chemistry

Liam - Higher Level 

Questions that I did: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 & 10 (b) & (c).La chimie! Chemistry and I have come to the mutual understanding that it's best for both parties if the test is neither too difficult nor too 'doable', safe to say, Ceimic, you've lived up to our deal.Question 1, the titration. I was hoping the water titration would come up, just so it could ask me what EDTA stood for (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, for those not who have not yet seen how great water is). Alas it was not meant to be! The vinegar acid-base titration came up, which I was delighted about! Loads of calculations, so that was good!On to 3 afterwards, and all I can say is I spent enough time on this question to deduce that the graph is worth 4.5% of the exam. The question wasn't the hardest, I found it okay.I managed to somehow answer 8 of the necessary short questions in question 4, they were alright too. I've had worse!Questions 5, 6, 7 and 9 were all okay. They all had stuff that I knew reasonably well so I was satisfied after doing them, as you can tell I don't like to dwell on chemistry too much!10 was the option. I did the re dox balancing one, (b). Here's to hoping I did it right! And the second one was (c). If I didn't make it clear with physics, I like radioactivity, so that half question on it was nice !Overall, I'm reasonably satisfied with the paper. I mean I can never tell with chemistry how I do so all I can say is, we'll know in August. Cya Friday peeps!

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