Agh I can’t believe my time on this is almost over! I’ve been reading all the LC-ers’ blogs about finishing school and it’s crazy to think that’ll be me this time next year. Every 6th year I know has advised me to “study now. You won’t regret it!” I know I should listen but I’m far too lazy. I mean, I started my summer tests today without having done a tap of study until this morning! Every time I procrastinate, I start getting paranoid thinking I have attention disorders because I cannot focus on studying, when I know deep down I just don’t want to be stuck in my room drawing diagrams of V-shaped valleys.

Today we had the English test and the only things on it were Hamlet and studied poetry. I love English, even though I have a terrible teacher (a fact I never try to hide) and she was the one who made the test so I figured it would be easy seeing as all we did was read Hamlet, yet we were now being giving essay style questions on it. This morning, when I arrived into school, all I could hear were worried whispers of “do you think Boland will come up?” and frantic yells of “does anyone have notes on Dickinson?!” Then I started to panic, like all the other 5th years.

We study five poets out of the prescribed eight, I don’t know if other schools do the same amount? Anyway, our teacher told us that we’d have two on the test and a choice to pick one. That didn’t stop constant predictions of what was going to be coming up. A person in Class A said Frost would come up, a girl in Class B said Kavanagh would and so on… So with hints we thought the teachers were giving us, all 120 of us studied Adrienne Rich. So we were screwed if she didn’t come up. Thankfully, this afternoon a huge sigh of relief was shed when we saw her on the paper. The Hamlet questions weren’t too bad either. But next year, when we have to study all five poets, I don’t know what I’ll do. It’s so hard to study one right! And it’s not like I can leave out one because the other four could come up that we never did. Eek!

Anyways, another random thought popped up in my mind when I was reading newspaper supplements with exam hints in them. For each subject, they picked a former Leaving Cert student who got all A1’s. And it just reminded me of how, each year, the TV, radio and newspapers all interview and photograph the students who got 600 points and often, only them. Don’t get me wrong, these students totally deserve it and I know some spend every hour of the day studying and working their butts off to get those much coveted 600 points. Take that guy who got 9 A1’s though. He has to already have plenty of natural intelligence to have achieved them points because he said he didn’t spend all his time studying. I just think that there are other people who don’t get the recognition for their achievements even though they worked just as hard. What about the girl who got grinds and watched TG4 every night to secure her C2 in Honours Irish, despite the fact her teacher told her to move to Pass?  What about the guy who studied instead of going clubbing at the weekends because he needed 45o to study Architecture? What about the other guy who spent all summer on his History project? Don’t these people deserve as much, if not even more, recognition than the lucky smart cookies who don’t need to put as much as an effort in? Just a thought and I don’t mean to offend any A1 students- you know I’m just jealous!

I’ll be back next week for my last post (I won’t cry if you don’t).

Apparently it’s been a month since I wrote here last, it really doesn’t feel that way though. The orals seem like something from a distant past, despite the days flying by. A lot has happened since then. As the title suggests, everything is drawing to a close. We’ve had our last Sports Day, last T&F competition, our last PE, our Ceangail dinner night out, a form class trip to Leisureplex for bowling and quasar(I guess we never really grow up!) and our Grad Night, which was basically a “glorified piss up,” as one lads defined it. Our actual Graduation from school is this Thursday however. We’re all going out to the pub with the teachers after so there’s one last time to head out before the serious studying starts. Our Graduation songs are Save Tonight, Better Together and Light and Day which are pretty cool. We’ve been told we’re finishing Wednesday which leaves us with two full days left. Nostalgia is starting to set in a bit at this stage. After growing up with the same lads for six years, it’s going to be strange not seeing them around every day. School has been real good to me over the past few years, and I can actually say I was one of the few who enjoyed the experience.

We’ve an awards night in school tomorrow night. I’m one of the four nominated for student of the year which is up for grabs. I know I haven’t a chance of winning it as the other three lads are like Gods, but I was really honoured as it’s sixth years who get to vote for the nominees. Apparently I’m getting an award for not missing a day either which was a shock when I heard it, swine flu effectively halved the number of students in school for over a week back in November! It’s kind of like that now again with most sixth years staying at home for study. I know I’d get a million times more work done at home, but I wouldn’t miss the last few days for the world!

Another last I was especially sad about, Lost! Yes, after six years, it’s finally over! I was one of the mad people who actually got up at 5 am to watch it, but hey, it was well worth it, just so I could ruin it for the lazy people who didn’t bother getting up!

The old study has been put on the back burner of late. I’m unfortunately one of those people who seem to have taken the pedal off the gas in the last few week, but I’m adamant on getting stuck in once Graduation night’s finished. There’s been so many distractions the last few weeks, it has been virtually impossible to get any work done. And now with this heat wave, it’s become even harder. I’ve made a study up in the attic which is great, but this time of year it’s a nightmare. I actually sweated more yesterday while studying than while out for a jog! I reckon I’ll stop studying for Chemistry and Economics soon enough, I’ve a four day gap between Biology and them so I reckon I’ll be fine. My Chemistry teacher reckons I should ‘rattle an A’ on the day, which means a lot coming from him! I did an Economics mock paper from 2008 and managed to get 99% which I could only laugh at. Albeit an easy paper, but my teacher is an advising examiner for the LC so I was pretty proud!

I’ll probably do another blog soon with a few predictions for each subject. Till then, enjoy your last few days of school, if you’re not already finished!

Cillian.

You really know it’s almost time when the yearbook is finalised, when you wake up that morning and decide to actually make an effort to look decent for the graduation photos, when everyone’s given their 6th year hoodies with either your name or a nickname on the back…my friends got ‘El Diablo’ and ‘Magicman’ from some Will Ferrel movie I couldn’t be bothered to watch..but you really know its almost time when you realise your graduating next week! Ah yes, the time has come now where we finally realise that secondary school doesn’t last forever. Some of us proudly await our meeting with the principal to talk about our references, quickly remembering everything we gave to the school, be it in clubs, sports,,and even academically, prefect head boy/girl. Some others will reluctantly admit that they just didn’t give enough back to their school,passing each day as it came and now it shows. Doesn’t time really fly? I find it strange seeing as I didn’t do transition year that all my old classmates are still in 5th year while i trudged onto 6th. Sure i made some new friends and lost some old ones, but i have a feeling it just wont be the same singing Cyndi Lauper’s ‘true colours’ on graduation day with my current classmates. Just not the same sentimental value. I mean, they have memories from 1st-5th year together ,feel left out much? Yes actually, myself and a few of the other non-TYs do! If I hadn’t suggested to the Debs committee to include a page on us in the yearbook we’d have nothing. Left out as usual since were the minority. I suppose its an experience on its own.  Don’t get me wrong though, the girls in my year are all nice but I just wish we had more memories together.

So its actually been a rather hectic, emotional, anxious week for me. Canada was amazing! In short ;(or at least  I’ll try make it) we flew to Toronto first to meet up with our relatives and got a connecting flight to  St.John, New Brunswick, arriving at 2am their time or 10pm Irish time. Jet lagged is an understatement, mentally confused and physically drained for about 3 days more like! In St. John my brothers and sister went with my mum to the local high schools. I actually love the education system in Canada, they work on credits, and you need a certain amount to be able to graduate ,and they offer psychology as a secondary school subject.  So much variety. I also went to the University of New Brunswick and met with the head of the faculty of science and engineering. What a dude..loved him! He really knew what he was talking about and was shockingly positive. Basically, as I’m hoping for medicine I have to do a BSc for 4 years then do a 2 year MSc course then medicine itself. Long and different I know, but that’s how Canada does it. Anyone can get into the BSc course, I only need an average of B3s in all ordinary level subjects. I actually prefer to study that way because it gives me the time to realise if medicine is for me, do I really want to do it or think I do, can I do it? I can decide to do an arts degree as well as that ie. introduce 1-2 subjects from that degree, I’m thinking English literature and French. So if I don’t get enough points in the end of my 4 years or don’t do well enough in the MCAT (kind of HPAT but not an aptitude test,there’s Qs on science and English too) …its just so open there, so much choice and time, something I really commend!! Im already looking forward to it..and the odds are my Dad is all pro-Canada so its likely, but  I’m still working for admission here too, if all goes differently! Canadians are probably the friend list on the planet. Just thought id add that in there I also loved how french some things were, most signs were also written in french, all the people in the tertiary services spoke french too and i had 7 hours worth of free french magazines and radio channels on the plane. The hotel had a few french programmes too, i thought it was great seeing as i love french! That’s going to be a bonus.

I texted my friend during the trip and got the art topics for my art exam which was this week. I personally disliked ALL the poster ones and ended up doing the batiq. I barely had any free time so ended up drawing quick ideas during dinner at a resteraunt behind my little brother’s kiddie menu. I came to school Monday and showed my teacher who hated it,,i didnt go to any of my classes that day, trying to perfect the design. On the day, Tuesday, i was sooo dissapointed with my design,,it was the worst batiq i ever made in my life, what a day to choose to do badly? I chose ‘over the back wall’. The drawing exam ie. still life and life sketching was much much better, well, I didn’t cry at home afterward so all was good! That’s yet again one less thing to worry about.How did it go for everyone else? What did you decide to do? Oh and i chose passage C for my still life, most popular one in the class it seemed.

Sooo i decided to take today off school to catch up on school work and revision.  It went well to my surprise, seeing as how reluctant i was in the morning! Wow…this is probably one of my longer blogs..?

I just can’t believe there’s only a few weeks left till the exams, it seemed only a few weeks ago when we first started these blogs, offering advice and glimpses into our pre-exam lives, I think ill re-read those posts for some moral pepping:D How do you all feel? I mean…I just have this weird feeling of unease  in the pit of my stomach and i know its staying until the exams..a hundred thoughts are running through my head, of the summer, the future, the present! Its all too much! We Leaving certs go through so much more than others. So young, so fragile..*sighs sarcastically*:D

At least I have ONE thing to look forward to this summer….BRACES!! Whooo! oh no no no, the pain is definitely not etched in my memory from the past 4-5 years of my life which I sacrificed for those metallic monsters..I loved them, I thanked them every night and looked in the mirror and complimented how amazing I looked, my smile was definitely enhanced by those beautiful pieces of wire…*cough* I honestly thought i was through with them…nope.

Bonne Chance guys!!!!

-Ally

Hello everyone =D

I’m sorry that I havn’t blogged in so long, and that my blog as Gaelige didn’t happen…… I was cramming and panicking!!

Despite having a bit of a last minute pre-oral breakdown before French (I was nervous about being nervous!!) it went ok. I wasn’t asked anything too complicated, and nothing I couldn’t answer, just the regular bits about family, friends, sport etc. Despite this, I came out the exam feeling slightly disappointed! Maybe it was because I had learned so much and didn’t get to use most of it…. Anyway, I felt that I hadn’t done enough to make French into an A1 subject and so proceeded to pile on the pressure for Irish!

You see, I’ve figured that either Irish or French needs to be an A1, and the other an A2 for me to get the points…. Lovely positive thoughts to have right before heading into an exam huh? So, as you can guess, I was a nervous wreck going into Irish. I got through my sliocht (uimhir 5) without any problems. Then the fun began – I couldn’t remember how many people were in my family (I knew how to say it but if you’d asked me in English I still would have been like uuuuuuuuuhhhhh…). If first impressions really count that much I’m screwed!!! =( After that I suppose it got better. I wasn’t asked a modh coinnealach question, lots of people weren’t, but I managed to squeeze some in somewhere. Anyway, they’re over, and I’m just praying they went ok.

It’s amazing how much more time and energy I have now to do actual proper study- not just going up to my room, wandering around for a bit, coming back down and pretending I got “loads” done!! (Please tell me I’m not the only one who did that…) I think it might have something to do with “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” or one of those clichés. Anyway, motivation seems to come a bit more easily now. After all, 7 and a half weeks and it’ll all be over. SCARY thought!!

We had our yearbook photos taken last week (on the windiest day EVER) and that just made it all seem a bit more real- the whole leaving the school thing. I kind of grasped that fact that the leaving cert was coming (to get me!!) a while ago, and yea college and parties as well as hopefully studying what I want. It just hit me then, the whole sentimentality aspect of it all, “there are people in this photo with me now that I may NEVER see again.” Ok, we mightn’t get on. We may have had our differences, but if you are used to seeing the same faces 5 days a week, about 35 weeks a year for 6 years it gona be a bit of a change (tear!). I’ve been in school with a few of the girls since junior infants :O crazy huh? When I said this to a friend in school, she simply replied “well, if you want to see some people again, you’ll make the effort. If you don’t you won’t!” Still, what if I’ve shared “the best years of my life” with people I’ll never meet again?

On a similar note, we are also preparing for our graduation. The songs are amazing!! My friend made up her own words to a song to make it applicable to our school. I don’t know the original name, but it goes like “Follow me and everything’ll be alright….” (I think!!). So, like thousands of girls up and down the country, as well as worrying about exams etc. I also have to find time to shop for a dress!! Gawd I say it like it’s a chore lol!!

Well I had better get back to the books for now.

Hope everyone is getting on ok, and not over stressing.

Ta ta

Katie