Geography - #LC2017 - Kate L. Ryan

 Kate Ryan - Colaiste IascaighI'm not really sure how geography went if I'm honest. The paper seemed a bit weird in places and I'm almost certain I messed up with the timing. But all in all, it wasn't the worst. I think nearly everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief when they saw the geoecology questions in section 3. Everyone in my class was betting on human interference with biomes and luckily it paid off. I doubt I could have written as much on anything else.

The regional was sound. I had predicted the tertiary question on Europe and it's not hard to write about primary activities in Ireland. I wasn't too impressed by the physical. While I predicted interaction with surface processes, the essay I prepared on volcanic landforms wasn't specific to Ireland. I had half of the essay essentially and had to throw down a couple of sentences on the giant's causeway to make up the rest.I didn't mind the human processes elective. There was a nice essay on influences on population growth, but I ran out of time towards the end and rushed the essay on land use zones. The short questions were tricky in places but overall okay.The paper was nice enough, but to be perfectly honest the problem with the geography course is the sheer volume of theory you're expected to learn off. Even if you are some superhuman who can store 300 different essays in your memory, you're not given enough time in the exam to show what you know. It can be quite overwhelming and I don't think many students left their exam thinking they done enough.#StateExams #ISSU17

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 

English - #LC2017 - Sarah Connolly

Sarah Connolly - Ratoath CollegeI sat my first leaving cert paper this morning and it's safe to say that I was nervous going in! I woke up at 4am convinced I was late!! But I wasn't and I got to school for our usual pre-exam breakfast (despite not being able to eat any of it because of allergies!). It was a grand paper, with no curveballs thrown in there. I did the Question A from text 1 which was a lovely piece about poetry. It had a lovely 15 mark question about why poetry benefitted you in there as well which suited me lovely! I was delighted to see a question like that. I got the question A done on time (which was a first for me!). I did the Question B of text 2 which was a fabulous piece about people's reliance on online news sources. I was dead chuffed with that as we are supposedly in a “fake news” era so it was very easy to pull ideas together for that. 

I was feeling good going into my composition and there wasn't an awful lot of choice on composition to be fair but there was a speech about democracy that suited me to a tee. I was absolutely delighted to write my composition on that. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to get it done and I wrote about 6 pages (my handwriting is pretty little to be fair as I fit 15 words a line). I was dead happy with my work that I handed up. Now it wasn't perfect and I still have the big battle ahead tomorrow with paper 2 so I better go look over my last few notes!

#LC2017 #StateExams#ISSU17

Leaving Cert Japanese

Shahed - Higher Level

At long last, the final exam! Being the only student in the whole school felt very strange, to say the least.The exam wasn't too tough. There were three comprehension questions, with questions in both English and Japanese, and plenty of grammar questions. There were also two essay questions on either your birthday or Christmas day and also about your school. These were quite nice topics, so I was happy! The listening was after the written exam and there was nothing very difficult about it.Weird to think it's all over now... It flew by! I hope you all enjoy your summer!

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 Please note: this post reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union

Leaving Cert Physics

John - Higher Level

 Another hurdle cleared, and this one wasn't too bad either. To be honest I was pretty prepared for physics, and none of the questions were too mind-boggling. In the practical section I headed straight for the questions on the laws of equilibrium and the focal length of a mirror. These were pretty straightforward, and the Boyle's law question looked manageable too, but labeling the table scared me (which one's pressure?) so I answered on the electricity practical instead. This was fine until I got to the graph, which was somewhere between a line and a curve, but not quite either. I hope my explanation of its shape was sufficient. The section B questions were all pretty nice; I answered q5, q12(a),(b), and the ones on the International Space Station, the wind chimes and the particle physics option of q10. Regarding q6, does anyone know why the space station occupants experience weightlessness? I said their centripetal acceleration counteracts the gravity, but I was kind of clutching at straws. I'm sorry that I didn't attempt q11; I'm told it was easier than it looked, but overall, I'm happy. One more blog from me, then I'm done! 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.

Leaving Cert Biology

Jessica - Ordinary Level

  Well, Biology wasn't to bad, it was a hundred times better than I was expecting it to be! After spending an hour panic studying in the break beforehand convincing myself I knew nothing it turned out I do know one or two things! I was delighted to see the trusty genetics and ecology questions there, especially the little ecology paragraph with all the answers in front of us!Female reproduction also made an appearance which is never a bad thing! Have to say though after finding out that the digestive system has made the cut 9 years running and spending so much time on it over the past few weeks I was very disappointed it wasn't there!After hearing the few people who stuck with higher I'm very glad for ordinary level! I'm really happy that its over with now!   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.