omg….I’m in shock from just watching new moon like an hour ago…omg…that was amazing,accurate,beautiful,funny,emotional,gripping and the ending…:o I don’t want to give anything away for those of you who still have to watch it..but I thought it was much better than twilight,way more accurate…like they included the prologue! can i just say that Robert Pattinson never looked better,,,Taylor,,,*swoons*. I dont; care if Carlisle is the father…man,, he is a young, good looking father!!!:D I must say that its for the hardcore fans because people who haven’t read the books wouldn’t know what to expect and might think it dragged on. I rated it 9/10 which my brother failed to acknowledge as he hates me for liking such an unrealistic love story…well,,thats your opinion bro:P BUT Edward is a gentleman and the dream lad and Jacob is funny and great craic! Team Jedward yes I stole it from those dubliners but who cares really? overall it was a great film,,we actually (like everyone in the cinema) clapped afterwards,,,which i never do for ANY film…:D

Just so this post has something to do with school, em, i guess school was grand today. 82% in my Boland Question made me happy, lots of homework to do so i should prob start…no school as ciara also said on tuesday high fives to that! And again nothing much, i just felt the urge to openly express how much new moon rocked

Bonne Chance ^____^

I haven’t blogged in a while,or so it seems:)

I was actually in Glendalough on Friday and just got home there on Sunday night. I had to walk 50km for my silver ‘Gaisce’ award. Call me crazy, yes, I know..”what are you doing that for! it’s 6th year do you honestly have that much free time to be walking when you could be studying!! what the hell!?”. Well I didn’t do TY so I did my bronze award last year and I thought I’d go for silver this year. Simple. So yes that does mean I missed my classes on Saturday in Leeson street. I suppose i can catch up, what’s a couple of missing notes going to do? (”everything”, she says silently).

Well I have a few problems this week. ANY help is appreciated. HOW in the name of God do you study for the L.C Irish exam? I mean seriously!! I just realised I’m screwed. I have like over 200 sheets of papers with notes on ‘Clare sa spéir’ or ‘An Gealt’ and ‘Dán do Mhelissa’ etc etc. I just never learned them off, and now I have no idea how I’m going to do so in a few months. I don’t have the option of dropping down since i need the points and to top it all off, I just sickened myself this week by writing the worst irish essay ever! I thought to myself; why could I write this in French easily and I’ve only been learning that for what? five years? and why can’t I write a simple Irish essay without asking my brother how to say ‘ I went ‘ in Irish when I practically learned Irish my whole life! I’ve never been so frustrated in my life. So sad.

On a happier note (for some) Jamie is gone. Forever. No longer will my stomach churn when I see that ridiculous head of hair, no longer will I flinch when he wears inappropriate V-neck t-shirts that show all. He was a good singer I suppose. Yet, I predict Olly Walls (Murs) will win this year

I applied for the HPAT test online last week and got my CAO code too. RC001. That’s my first choice. Medicine in RCSI. You’d think after putting your first choice down there would be a sudden burst of enthusiasm and zest for the fact that “Hey I should probably study now”.Nope , not yet anyway! I had a test this week on the wonderful, evocative poetry of Eavan Boland. I didn’t do as well as I hoped, I really don’t like poetry questions because they’re just so open! for others that’s a great thing but for me, it’s hard to express my opinions in such a short time, it takes a while for me to get the gist of it and then open up.

And now, please, for the next few seconds I’m going to rant on about the momentous thing that is new moon. “OMG!! I cant wait till Friday! like, it’s going to be mad! It’ll be the first time I’ll be in the new Cinema! OMGOMG thank God Jacob cuts his hair in this one because quite frankly he’s much better looking that way.. i actually dont know what to expect:o Please stick to the books this time!:)

Merci for your patience Whilst studying for my chemistry test on naming planer compounds i was also watching the France V Ireland match. I don’t want to get into it but well done to the lads, everyone could see they were playing much better and really fought for it. I guess it was just unfortunate:( Henry knows what he did…YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!!! :K

So that’s it I think,,we shall see what the next week brings. Plenty of Xmas Exams I predict. Oh yes! I’ll be sitting a mock HPAT test this Sunday , you won’t believe how nervous I am!! I’ll blog on that later, but for now Bonne Chance and have a good week

First off, I think we should ALL just proclaim to the world wide web that we do indeed watch and enjoy watching the X Factor on TV3. I should also add that The Hills is addicting too and I should really stop watching that fake trash but I just can’t.

So yeah, I headed down to Leeson Street this morning again for the HPAT preparation class. It started at 10am and finished at 4pm. We got a 5 min break every so often and an hour lunch break at 12.30pm. John Maher, an ex- accountant who decided to do medicine and repeated his LC in 2008  got 600 points and was ranked in the top 1% of people who sat the UPAT (Australia), equivalent of Irish HPAT,he scored 206 out of a possible 300 and is now studying medicine in Dublin. What a guy. He’s sound out and knows what he’s talking about. We Basically got  sheets and sheets and sheets and more sheets on  tips and practice tests and prep sheets and whatever else you can think of. We worked through examples, talked about techniques and logical methods. The main points he had for us were that we need to remain positive calm and time ourselves for each question. Basic common sense but amazing how many people don’t think that way. That was a big thing. I actually thought it was great and really got me motivated. In two weeks time we’ll be back and sit a practice test and get our result to see where we need attention. Its great and I would totally recommend it to anyone who wants to do well in the HPAT but isn’t sure how to tackle it. You need at least 100 plus points in the HPAT plus around 560 points in the LC if you want to get an offer from medical colleges. My friend got 670 and he’s now in RCSI doing med.

To all those people who think HPAT prep courses are a waste of time and money (300 Euro in the institute), all I’ll say is that before, yeah, I did some practice tests and thought I did grand, I found some sections hard and others straight forward. BUT I spent around 5-10 minutes on each of the questions and would get bogged down on one’s I couldn’t understand. I had no exam technique, no time management skills and had no idea what to do if I didn’t know the answers for certain sections. Fact is, this guy has done the test and the LC, he knows what were going through, he knows what can possibly bring up marks and reduce them. I know it’s an aptitude test, not an academic test but just like anything else if your familiar with it, you’ll be more comfortable and perform to the best of your ability.

I know not everyone will go to these prep classes but what I’d suggest is to go to the HPAT Ireland website and order a practice test on-line. Practice that test whenever you feel fresh and time yourself. We were told to spend about 1 minute 20 seconds on each question. Mad I know but If you want to possibly answer all the questions on the paper that’s what you’ll have to do. You’ll get use to it just like the 100 people in my class today did. Also, buy a digital watch, much handier to read and time yourself on. Start reading boring articles in papers like ‘The Irish Times’ or ‘Financial Times’, read one’s you might not like and build up your language because the examiner wants to get you tired and bored and then read the question and say ‘what? that was no where in the text!’ but it was. Always remember that theres only ever ONE right answer and it has to be in the text itself,don’t bring up your own opinions or what you know from studying LC biology. It’s wrong. Also, if your finding a question hard chances are others are aswell,you all have the same paper, if the room is cold it’s cold for everyone?

Much more useful

Just stay positive and believe in yourself. Think of it as an Olympics for academics, don’t you want the gold medal? well then you need to work really hard and train yourself and stay away from unnecessary things that will distract you from your goal. Make the most of the few months because then you’ll be where you want to be. Just put in the effort now and if you don’t get what you want at least you can say ‘ I tried ‘.

So that’s my opinion on the HPAT. Good luck to anyone who’s hoping to do it and remember to register now!

Have a good week

Yes. I can now drive. I am waiting to be insured. I can drive.

So yeah, midterm was grand. Didn’t do as much as I hoped but I still did a small bit of maths revision…not too bad. Halloween was boring as usual since I’m not the ‘going out’ type. And now Monday. Back to work etc etc etc.

I chose my document I’m bringing into the French oral, unfortunatly I’m just like everyone else and chose a holiday photo of my brother, sister and I at Niagra Falls, I thought I’d be able to talk about the environment and family, holidays, the usual.

It was our school’s open day last night and I decided to tag along for a bit. I ended up giving three families a tour of the school and felt amazing afterwards! don’t ask me why, just the feeling of accomplishment and general niceness was overwhelming! One mother asked me what I wanted to do, “Well I’m hoping for medicine but you know yourself, points are quite high” a few topics later she stated, “Actually I can see you as a doctor!”. I was delighted with myself and the fact that my somewhat amateur social skills were doctor like, I loved that lady.

Back  to Leeson street tomorrow morning and then again Sunday for the HPAT prep class, I’ll let you know how that goes, kind of intimidating actually… I’m weird like that though.

All in all,, a good enough week:)

Merci

Hey guys

How’s everyone? Hope you’ve got some great things planned for the midterm. I decided to make  a study timetable for this week..I’m actually sticking to it! I’ve been doing some chemistry exam papers all day and I must say, I honestly do see an improvement, I’m moving through them more quickly and I’m finding them much easier. So, seriously the best way to study is to do exam papers. I have plans to go over my biology and art too but iIcan’t seem to find my art history notes…:( I’m also feeling 100 times better, no magical mucus! I guess last week was just one of those weeks that I’m sure everyone goes through. I don’t have much news to be honest. I will report though, the weekend courses are going excellent! I have this week off then in 2 weeks time I’ll be back, plus the following Sunday I’ll have the HPAT prep course which I’m looking forward to as well. I was in RCSI on Saturday too, I got really encouraged. I don’t know, it just felt strange. I kept thinking…”You can do it…you can do it”, so what if it’s cheesy? :) It’s true I’ve got my ticket for the open day in January   Oh yeah! I’m starting my driving lessons tomorrow as well, I have no idea how that’s going to go.

So, Have a good midterm, try to study that one subject for even 20 minutes at the least and have fun, because we deserve.. and pretty much need a break! See you when I see you! XD

Hey im getting the hang of this thing now I suppose

So how was your weekend? Packed with revision and studying I hope or did someone else decide they want to turn eighteen this weekend?  Either way yours was probably better than mine.

Friday was grand, did a bit of the homework for about and hour and a half and then watched telly for the rest of the day and YouTube’d crap for the rest of the night. My bad I guess. Saturday morning-I get up at 7am and leave at around 8:15am for The Institute in Dublin. That went well, except I forgot my calculator and did nothing in Chemistry which really got me frustrated, plus I was unusually hungry afterward and that ‘chilli tuna melt’ out of the bagel factory really didn’t do the job. Then comes Dundrum. So my sister (who came along this weekend) buys a €109 jacket from M&S, I really wanted it but they didn’t have my size left. I try on a really nice (in my opinion) navy jacket from warehouse but my mother tells me it looks weird on me.

Basically i came home then, starving, angry, jealous and frustrated. And to make things better when i tried to take a nap (at around 7pm) i couldn’t. Why? Because my fricking nose was filled with magical mucus that would not disappear! (I got sick AGAIN after just recovering from the cold two weeks before. I attempted my English essay on King Lear but couldn’t get myself to finish it. I couldn’t get myself to start my Irish homework or Chemistry homework either, so i ended up watching telly again.

Sunday; I got up at 1pm and finished off the homework but watched the repeat of X factor which lead to other impulse telly watching. I just remembered i have a Biology test on Tuesday on photosynthesis. I left my notes in my locker. SOOO I have to attempt to get into the school tomorrow even though its closed (day off-3rd year PTM), otherwise I’m screwed. I decided I wanted to watch ‘ Back to the future’ and ‘WALL-E’ on Sky anytime too..a waste of like…4 hours.

So to sum up my weekend…I really messed up. Like, I feel so bad right now…I’ve never been so unorganised in my life:( and I’m about to snip off my nose at this stage too! I just keep watching the damn telly !!! I really need to cop myself on. I’m finding that I keep putting off things till…whenever. I’ll try improve on that.

Oh yeah, i also booked myself for the HPAT prep class in the Institute of Education in November…I’ve read so many articles about people who are for and against it, its pros and cons… the ‘Irish Medical Times’ (Dad’s weekly read ) had about 2-3 articles in it about how people don’t benefit from it..its just a money making scheme etc etc. In my opinion, i think if i sat down, looked at a few questions and was showed some logical and practical ways of attempting them id psychologically be prepared for the test, and therefore would prob perform much better?..sure we’ll see!

I should really get some sleep now so ill talk to you all later Thanks for putting up with my pessimism, i really appreciate it

*WARNING: If you don’t have the time of day and think im a waste of pixelated space then don’t read on. The Following is a compressed (or so i thought..not so much after re-reading this thing) version of my life in the past 2 weeks.

Paramore- Song called “Careful” (click&listen=your new oxygen)

Hey everyone:)

yes im back already! let me first start off by saying “OMG PARAMORE’S NEW ALBUM IS AMAZINGGG!!”

feel free to agree

So yes,ive been quite busy the last few weeks.

• I finally passed my (2nd) theory test,
• bought paramore’s album,
• got a loan of muse’s new album from my friend,
• become addicted to mocha lattés,
• been given the most brilliant news that carlow’s three screen cinema is going to have a new location + ten screens,
• improved my pronunciation of “J’aime” in French all thanks to Kevine (a great french exchange student (well..22 year old) who does lunch time conversation classes in school.
• become friends with another french speaking girl named Marionne (From Belgium )
• Suprisingly got an A2 in two of my chemistry tests,
• Applied for my silver ‘Gaisce’ Award, AND
• had enough time to clean my room.

All that plus I still go to Dublin on saturdays for the revision courses. Which are going quite well. My biology teacher is great as is my french teacher as is my legend of a chemistry teacher from..wait for it…Monaghan! oh yeahh:D what an accent.

This week though, has been horrible with regards to school work. I just got back from my Parent Teacher meeting a few hours ago. The teachers have gone M-A-D with the homework and test this week just so they have something to present our parents with..For God’s sake! Do they not understand that we (mostly) do six other subjects and that those six other teachers give us the same amount of homework!? Its so unfair. I do evening study for 2 hours and this week i found i still had work and tests to study for when i got home at 6pm. Now add an hour for dinner and the usual shower,i usually went to bed at say….12-1am every night!

That is both unhealthy and unfair..where are our rights people?! they should really have some tests prior to the day of the meetings,its easier for us and them aswell.

Anyway, the meeting was fine. Better than i thought (we accompany our parents btw) and not as nerve wrecking as i expected. Most of the teachers (bar Art) said id be well able for the As. So, naturally.. i was delighted. My art teacher just told me to loosen up a bit because J.C art isn’t the same as L.C art. (btw what do you think of the J.C themes this year? I like the one about light and sound..and the out and about one ain’t to bad either:)) other than that i was a happy little camper. I don’t know why but when your teacher’s praise your work and believe in you ,,, you feel the same way! It’s brilliant!

I have my revision course in the morning so i better head on up and finish my last bit of homework.

BUT … If i have any bit of advice for anyone at this stage ,its to keep on top of your homework. I mean, don’t let it slip away. “Ah sure ill do it tomorrow after i watch (insert soap, series, film name here)”. No you actually wont!!!! YOU WONT I SAY!! do it now!…go on…get up off your arse reading this and DO YOUR HOMEWORK…….NOW! you won’t regret it keep working on improving what your finding hard and talk to your teachers about it. thats why they’re there. Ask questions in class because now is the time you should, not when your teacher’s revising for the mocks and assumes you have it understood.

just keep your eye on the prize really.

600 points……….

600 points……

6…..or whatever you need

as for me, it’s way past my bedtime so i should go.Bonne Chance

-Ally

Hello allhonours users,

Ally (astatinee) here…ok so blogging? doesn’t sound too difficult…but I suppose with me being so busy studying this year I shouln’t even have time for this kind of thing..oh yess..I know I’m not alone people. You’re probably sitting there giving out to yourself, “why the hell didn’t I study like I said I would over summer! now I’m definitely screwed for chemistry!” either that or your taking it easy until Christmas. Just let me remind you the mocks are too close after that.

Its so weird..fifth year seemed to just fly by and now its all about the CAO, make sure you know your course codes, what’s your aptitude? Are you going to the debs? Start revising! Same old things the same teachers say.

For most of us we are hoping and praying to god that we get into the course we want because we don’t really have an alternative..but for those lucky few who are expecting 600 points I suppose I can only say congratulations. I didn’t do Transition year. My Parents were sticking to their idea that TY was pointless, I obviously revolted and am reluctant in saying they were right. So TY was apparently fun and you did tons of projects and went here and there but I mean, how many of you who did TY actually took the extra time to go over your weak subject……thought so.

I promised my self that I’d try to get all As in my Christmas and summer exams….I ended up getting 2As, Bs and a D. Then I made a time table to study over summer but of course, invitations to this and that..next thing you know its September already.Why is it that the goals we make we rarely ever stick to?

Well i got a wake up call over summer. Well…that’s what I call it. So I’m hoping to get into RCSI for medicine, lets pretend I’m an optimistic A standard student. I found out that a girl in my school got into RCSI and I felt,almost jealous. Then, my friend’s brother also got into the same college for the same course. I thought to my self what was I doing over summer that I never gave any time to the subjects I needed to improve on? I kept saying I’ll do it tomorrow etc etc…so now my parents (and Dr. Dad) are expecting me to get medicine and I have no idea what to do if I dont and I really do want to get into medicine myself because I love the whole science-biology-helping people aspect of it and its something I would love.

Points are really high, I’m doing pass maths, I hate chemistry (remember now, I’m an optimistic A standard student ) so I decided that I would start studying a few days ago. And I’m proud to say I’ve stuck to my plan, although today it was chemistry’s turn and I gave up on it after half an hour,but i’m getting there. Basically if I don’t feel like studying I remind my self that I NEED 500+ points so if I want what I want I NEED to make an effort. Quite honestly,thats all you need to get enough points. If you make the effort of learning the subjects you dont like and improving on them, if you have a goal (as in “I need such and such points”) and if you have faith in yourself that you CAN and WILL improve …then you will.

so thats my new plan of action…keeping my goal in mind.. sometimes its hard , with being friends with ‘the girl who got 11 As in her Junior Cert.’ who is sure of getting her favoured career choice.

Fact is even when you get into third level education you’ll have to work hard since its new material. Put in the effort now..I turned down an invitation to go see Dorian Gray (that new Film) and im hoping I wont regret this but..I said I wouldnt go the paramore concert in december either because I have a study session planned then. Im not going to completley isolate myself from the world. Just prioritise. It’s the last year of secondary school and the last year you’ll probably see your friends so take lots of photos and do enjoy it but have your limits.

So that was my attempt at life coaching, psychology is my second choice ha, ( I can see you shaking your head saying “this one’s mad, God help her anyways..”..yeah thanks).

Oh yes, to try and boost my points, my parents have enrolled me in a revision course in Dublin. Last weekend was my first day. I swear i checked the train time table and a train was going from Carlow to Dublin at 6.30am. 6.15am…train station is locked. So i end up driving to the place with my mother and taking the Luas and then a taxi to St. Steven’s Green. My god ive never been so cold in my life! But the actual place itself was good enough. I’d say I’ll improve on my Biology anyway.

Well its about 11.35pm and like i said, I was meant to be studying chemistry…I’ll shove that in with Irish tomorrow (does anyone else think those 500 poems are unnecessary? Well, thats another story). I should be going to bed now so ill talk to you all tomorrow. Study after school at 4.15pm…brilliant. Orthodontist appointment at 5.00pm…lovely.

Excellent things await me.