Geography - #LC2017 - Art O'Mahony

 Art O'Mahony - St Patrick's Secondary School CastleislandSo at 9.30 I eagerly began with the short questions, which for the most part were relatively straight forward. At least compared to Examcraft!! The paternoster lake confused me a little and part of the coastal landforms, but over than that it wasn't awful. The weather chart was lovely for once! So I got that done in 30mins and decided to move onto the 80 marker option section at the back.

I decided to study Culture & Identity on my own rather than Geoecology because I'm really into history, so skip these few lines if you didn't do that. In any event, the essay titles in this section were lovely. "Conflicts can occur between political structures and cultural groups. Discuss." So I chose to discuss Northern Ireland, France, Belgium and the Congo. Write roughly four pages so here's hoping I got 6 SRPs from each aspect. That took me the required 35mins and calmed my nerves a small bit.So I moved from there to the Regional Section which is my favourite part. I drew Brazil in the 20 marker (if the examiner can make it out!) with the River Zinga, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia marked in. Couldn't think of a bloody mountain range! In any event, that part wasn't awful. The two 30 markers really suited me; tourism in the Paris Basin and physical factors affecting agriculture in the GDA. I'm hoping I got 15 SRPs in each of those, fingers crossed.Physical was a mixed bag -I chose a section where I knew the two 30 markers well but isostasy was poor by me. I'd be lucky to get half marks in that 20 marker. I did limestone pavement as my surface karst landscape with a diagram of carbonation occurring. Then I wrote about global distribution of volcanoes. Hopefully it won't cost me a grade...Finally, I did the Economic Section. I was caught for time so I tackled the 30 markers first. Colonialisation was pretty straight forward I think but explaining why or why not an MNC would invest in Macroom took a fair effort... So much so that I only got part ii) of the 20 marker done and the bones of the diagram. Here's hoping the project gets high marks!All in all, a mixed bag.#StateExams2017 

Geography - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownGeography as per usual involved a lot of writing and very little time to think. It was a generally alright paper though.

I was jumped straight to question one, well the second part, I had to wait on graph paper to do my sketch map! So I wrote about intrusive and extrusive volcanos. And then picked human activities with flood defences and wrote about the river Rhine.Moving on to regional I had hoped for a map of Ireland but did India instead there was no difficult features here. Followed by tertiary activities in Paris (Tourism in my case) and then primary activities in Ireland for which I picked Dublin's agricultural sector.I then did my short questions when I felt more confident about the exam. I didn't analyse these really I moved quickly but did notice there was no question on glaciers on its own.Moving to human I found this alright. It wouldn't be my strongest section. It was quite similar to both the mock papers going around. Ethnic and religion differences made an appearance to keep up with current events. I honestly shot through this section and I can't remember what question I did.Finally, I did Geoecology. I chose the human interaction question with the three headings. I was delighted to see this as if that question wasn't there I probably would've walked out of the exam! So with five minutes to spare I finished feeling as if someone had tried to hammer my hand to pieces.#StateExams2017 

Maths P2 - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayToday's paper was quite difficult!! I was feeling sick all of yesterday and I woke up feeling okay today, but the looming exams had my stomach churning. I found the atmosphere in the exam centre heavy with fear and trepidation. My brain feels a little bit foggy after the exam I must admit.#StateExams2017

#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Art O'Mahony

Art O'Mahony - St Patrick's Secondary School Castleisland A chorus of ''ehhh''s filled the exam hall at 2pm as fifteen boys opened up page one of the exam to discover that Horatio and Laertes were being asked for the first time since the mid 90s! At a second glance, the first option was not as bad as had originally seemed, but I had never seen it before. In any event, as I am sure every other leaving cert pupil did, I moved to the back pages to see which poets were in store. John Donne!!! Brilliant -the panic partially disappeared. Tackled that question first to calm my nerves, taking one hour.I then moved on to do the 70 marker Theme or Issue question, using the word entertaining a hundred million times... That wasn't awful, but nor was it double-barrel as far as I can remember, so discussion was quite narrow. At 4pm I decided to approach the psychological thriller question for Hamlet, where I hopefully made up for my summary-like answer with a decent number of quotes. I mainly tuned in on the psychological war between Claudius and Hamlet throughout the drama. I hope I didn't miss the point! The unseen poem was quite lovely, leaving us with a broad selection of items to discuss.Overall, English paper two wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, but not without its challenges. With luck, August will give the same analysis...  Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017 #LC2017 #EnglishP2 

#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwaySaying I was scared is an understatement. I kept trying to believe that I wasn't nervous, but on the way to the exam in the car I felt hot tears spilling down my cheeks. I did study English enough, I was luckier than most people that were panicking in the school, girls choked back on their tears as they looked over their notes one last time.When I saw Bishop come up as a poet, I was absolutely relieved but slightly disappointed that Boland came up. Everyone else was relieved too, and I might be evil to think so but oh well!I barely squeezed in the unseen poetry, I had answered the Hamlet question on Horatio and Laertes and Vision and Viewpoint.Thankfully, I finished the paper! No need to worry about it anymore.Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-…/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017  

#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Sarah Ní Chonghaile

Sarah Ní Chonghaile - Ratoath College​Wow just when I thought I had my grade in my grasp paper 2 came along. I'm kidding it was fine but that hamlet question my god it was like a sadistic joke! Disturbing Psychological Thriller, I was very tempted to say that this describes my paper 2 but that would be unfair because my poetry went well. My favourites Boland and Keats were there for me just when I needed them! Boland was what I ended up doing but I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely the poetry was. Maybe that was to make up for Hamlet (CONSPIRACY). In fairness I did get hamlet done and it wasn't a half bad answer but it could have been better to be perfectly honest. The unseen poetry was lovely, a nice glass half full piece! And the comparative was a very fair question, very similar to other years in which general vision and viewpoint came up! Overall English was grand, paper 1 was my lifeline, paper 2 was just okay. But then again I've never been great at studying English so I can't be the perfect judge of the paper. I'm very happy that all my #beggingforboland paid off to be fair!You can read about our other LC Exam Bloggers experiences from today here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017 #LeavingCert2017