In the end I decided not to view any scripts or get anything rechecked. I was happy with what I got, obtained my course and disastrous episodes of Deal or no Deal have taught me to call it quits while things are going well. It’s strange that this whole Leaving Cert business is completed once and for all. People say it’s nine tough months and then it’ll all be over but between waiting for results and offers, it takes the guts of a year. At first I felt a little sad it’s over (no doubt it was some form of Stockholm Syndrome) but I really wouldn’t go back for all the cans of Druids in a fourteen year old’s schoolbag. Looking at people who were in my year and did TY, with all this ahead of them yet, makes me relieved to be finished secondary school now.

Sadly this is my last post. This website has been a great resource to me since I found it in Third Year and really helpful in getting any exam related questions answered. My remaining question is, what happens now? I read the book One Day over the summer and thought this quote from it summed up the vagueness of the future pretty well;

“‘What are you going to do with your life?’ In one way or another it seemed that people had been asking her this forever; teachers, her parents, friends at three in the morning, but the question had never seemed this pressing and still she was no nearer an answer. The future rose up ahead of her, a succession of empty days, each more daunting and unknowable than the one before her. How would she ever fill them all?”

Yes there’s a lot of uncertainty but it’s refreshing after the year that was. Instead of worrying as I could easily do, I say bring it on.

To Patrick Barry, thank you for taking a chance on me (and then another one) by letting me blog here for the past two years. It’s been a great opportunity and one that I thoroughly enjoyed, although some posts from Fifth Year make me cringe just thinking about them. It’s common knowledge that Fifth Years are blissfully unaware of the plight of Leaving Certs, so hopefully I was forgiven! It was brilliant to be given full creative leeway in all my little rants and I’d like to think my writing has improved, at the very least from the days of “hiiya hunnii wu@ luff yhoo”…yes I was that First Year. Plus it was great to read posts by other bloggers going through the same thing. I hope you all got what you wanted and have a great time at college.

To upcoming bloggers, I advise you to use this blog to your best advantage. Post as much as you can and comment regularly. While I can be accused of doing neither, in the last few months I truly appreciated having this space to vent all my stress, hopes and worries.

To the Leaving Certs of 2012, I’ll share with you a few tips that I would have found helpful starting Sixth Year. First of all, don’t go into the year planning to study every hour of the day. It doesn’t happen and by October you will find yourself slacking-I should know. Instead ease yourself into the work and then do a little bit a lot of the time. Secondly, get familiar with the marking schemes and timing from your first day back. Exam technique can be just as important, if not more, than the material itself. Again, I should know. Thirdly, enjoy Sixth Year. Yes, it’s possible! Between being the oldest in the school to getting a free pass from housework due to ‘Leaving Cert fatigue’, it actually is a nice year. Too bad the exams make you forget that. Appreciate the last few months with your year, it’s all too soon that you’ll be parting ways with some of your friends for college. With that in mind, don’t become a hermit because chances are you’ll only be at home procrastinating when you could be out having a well deserved break. And good luck! Even if you dossed in Fifth Year, I think anyone can change it around in the few months before June. Oh and before you ask, I don’t know what poets are going to be on Examcraft English Paper 2.

Thanks to anyone who read my posts, commented or helped me out in the forum. Best of luck to you all in the future. And with that I say (appropriately in French as I’m still on a high from my grade), au revoir!

I knew anyone who might actually read this would be wondering what I got more than how I felt in the morning, what I wore or how I opened the results. I really don’t want to come across like I’m bragging but I’m delighted. I know some people won’t be happy with what they got but I thought it was appropriate that after two years of blogging I post the results here.

Irish-B2

English-B2

Maths-B1 (pass)

History-C1

Geography-B1

French-A2

Business-B2

I wrote a big long paragraph about how I felt when I saw each result but deleted it. There’s no need to justify it all because in the end, I got more than enough points for my first choice. Everyone I’ve talked to wants to view scripts, out of curiosity more than anything else, so I might as well (even though I’ll have to do it on my Birthday, ew). Even though I’m not counting Maths, I still think I could have gotten an A so I’ll check that out. Maybe Business too. It’s crazy how the one A I got was in French, which was my worst subject since we did it in primary school! This year I improved but still wouldn’t even get that grade in class tests so I’m ecstatic. I hope my teacher sees it! The other grades were such a relief, particularly History.

I hope people are happy with their results? Most in my school were pleasantly surprised, so the overall feeling was positive. For those who are upset, it’s hard to say the right thing but even if things aren’t working out right now, life will take you on this amazing journey in which your biggest mistakes could lead you to something fantastic. I stole some of that from my careers guidance counsellor.

Anyway, today my leg got scraped by a woman with a buggy and it’s turning blue so I should check that out. I’ll write a final blog on Monday after the offers, just to sign off. Luckily I know my course of choice awaits, because even today no one knew what it was so demand remains low.

NUIG anyone?

It feels odd to be back blogging, especially on a day some people want to be over and others want to last forever. Either way, this day has to come eventually so it’s good that I’m currently feeling okay.

I hope people had a good summer. For me it was nothing extraordinary but still nice, finding pleasure in the simple things and all that jazz. I thought it would take longer to get over the exams but after the first few episodes of Gossip Girl it felt like I had never stopped being a lazy slob (probably because I hadn’t). My highlight was seeing Bell X1 in concert, with Duke Special and Liam Finn supporting. However, that night could still be trumped if my efforts to go to Electric Picnic pan out. It starts on my Birthday and all! What better way to celebrate than seeing Arcade Fire and Interpol live?

Although I packed up all my school books in boxes (as part of a rigorous clean up that took a fortnight), the summer wasn’t without a bit of hard work. However I preferred this type of stress, which took the form of long dresses, shoes and numerous hairstyle ideas. Yes, my Debs is two weeks from tomorrow. I’m currently not looking forward to it much but maybe once this week is out of the way I’ll get more excited. After all, when this whole LC thing is over once and for all, what will we talk about? College I suppose.

I’d say a lot of people, like me, have been thinking more in depth about their CAO choices over the summer. There’s been talk of who’s moving away, who’s repeating and who’s going to Yeats (Galway’s answer to the Institute)… I’m not going to lie, I had some doubts about my course. Thing is I don’t know if there’s a valid reason behind my doubts or maybe they were just the product of an idle Thursday afternoon. To add to my worries, the one other person I know who wanted to do the same course as me suddenly moves out of the country, nay the continent, altogether! Did the course really seem that bad?

So yeah, results. June and July I was able to forget about them but once August hit I started having results nightmares. They ranged from me getting the wrong results, to the school losing them, to me getting an NG in a subject simply called ‘Cats’, which is pretty ridiculous as I think I know cats better than that. The good thing is that I’m now prepared for any mishaps!

As for opening the results, there’s no real etiquette for it is there? For me the plan is to get the envelope, find a quiet corner and rip the damn thing open. I’ll take a minute to process the results, add them up (without counting Maths as Honours as I so often do and then think “I did good!”) and rejoin my friends. It may sound weird and not what some looking for solace want to hear, but I’m actually so pumped for tomorrow. I mean, the curiosity is really killing this cat and I have a nice day planned provided I don’t flee the country- going for breakfast with my friends, coming home for a nap and then (hopefully) a good night out. I spent most of today with some friends and the amount of times we just screamed “results!” would have made for a good drinking game. Tomorrow morning my friend Petra and I are going to school together for moral support/someone to freak out with.

Wow I think this was the quickest time it took to write a post. Sorry that I’m so out of practice, it has been two months! I’ve missed blogging. I’ve had a Blogspot for a couple of years but it consists mainly of pictures and despite my promise every summer, I have yet to write the great Irish novel. I might start another blog to broadcast my ramblings on but I’m unsure…

Anyway, it’s time for me to go off and listen to some motivational music. I’m appropriately listening to Frank Sinatra’s ‘That’s Life’ and I’d recommend it to you all too. I want to wish everyone the best of luck and hope you’re all happy with your results. Bring. It. On.

This may be because I’ve just FINISHED THE LEAVING CERT but I suddenly truly understand what William Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Louis Armstrong have been talking about. On my way home, I took delight in the heat, the seaside and even a piece of rubbish floating around. This view may diminish over time but once I put down the pen after History, it’s like the sun came out. Poetic, I know. Too bad English is over.

It hasn’t quite sunk in that I’M DONE (but if I keep saying it, it’s bound to stick) because I’m one of two in my school to finish today. I’m even finished before the Junior Certs. As a result, celebrations will be confined to my house tonight (wild, I know) but tomorrow I can go crazy with some friends. I know how much I’m rubbing it in but hopefully this will spur people on who have another while to go. Well, I really just want to keep bragging.

I suppose I better backtrack to the exams for a moment so I don’t get ahead of myself. Irish Paper 2 yesterday was nice and there were no major shocks, although I was a little surprised that an Cearrbhach came up as the compulsory story again. Being the only person I know that likes Lig Sinn i gCathú, I was sad to say goodbye to the Púca and the secretary, the mad gits. As for Business, I wrote at lightning speed for the whole three hours and all my hard work paid off in the sense that I knew all the answers bar some short questions but despite emerging with bruises on my hand, I could not get it done. I was gutted because I know I could have gotten the A I studied so much for otherwise. I was even talking in my sleep about how much of a tragedy it all was!

French today was lovely. As someone who is quite weak at the language, I was delighted with the written pieces in particular. I did the independence one, the diary entry and the one on social networking websites. Almost all of my material was what I had learned for the Orals, so it was great that things I didn’t mention then could be used now. I liked the listening too but have to admit I’m a bit worried about the couple who were too busy mushroom picking to notice their son was missing… I haven’t had time to dissect History in my head with all the excitement.

Oh wait, I just remembered Coleraine didn’t come up. That was a bit of a shock and the contextualisation question on the Apprentice Boys was a bit iffy, I thought. As for the Irish section, I can’t believe the economies didn’t come up! Anyway, I went for the consolidating democracy, an old reliable. The European was okay, although I hadn’t put in much work for it so I went for Mussolini. What was with the US questions? I laughed at how random it was that the moon landing and Vietnam were in the same question! None of my predictions came up but I tweaked my bus boycott essay to suit the Martin Luther King question. Of course, I didn’t get anything done but that’s a given with me and History. To be honest, my hand wasn’t able for it after yesterday. I jotted down some points in the last minute in the hope that the examiner will have pity on me. I don’t really mind with History because I never get very high marks but I hope I at least get a C3.

So that’s it. Wow, how odd. No more navy nylon, no more Hitler or Gealt or Algebra. It’s strange. Now what do I do with my life? I’ve just spent the first few minutes of freedom writing a long blog post about exams. In my defence, none of my friends are finished yet, okay! I’ll post again in August when results and offers come out and whatnot…but that’s a worry for another time! I’ll say a proper goodbye then because I’m too happy right now to be sentimental. For now I’m going to throw out all my notes, sleep for hours on end, go to the beach and tan. Oh who am I kidding, I just go red and then back to pale white again! If anyone wants to keep up with the trivial events of my life, you can catch me on Twitter here. I might as well give myself a plug.

To everyone who still has exams, good luck! Finishing is fantastic so enjoy it, be safe and have a good summer.

I had enough time today between exams to get an ice-cream cone, go home and relax on the couch. Five minutes later, I was back in the car desperately reading over my Irish essays on the media and technology. Fortunately, going over them worked in my favour when we sunk into Irish Paper 1.

At first glance, I couldn’t hide my disgust at the essay titles. It was like all the bad ideas from previous years had accumulated and were put on this paper, as a last sting in the end of quite a bitter course. Next year’s gang are so lucky. Anyway, I diverted my attention away from Ceist 1 and tackled the comprehensions, one on a man teaching Irish in Poland and the other about Mary Robinson. I’ve always had the impression that Irish examiners have an obsession with Barack Obama and surprise, surprise, he had to sneak into Mary’s biography today. I thought the questions were difficult at times and didn’t like all the ones that said ‘and what does the author explain about this?’ It seemed to keep coming back to haunt me! I felt that they were asking a lot at times for a measly three marks.

When I went back to the essay titles, I noticed oh, no recession. Then I saw the speech about a lack of hope in Ireland at the moment and thought, well people are going to bring it in here anyway. Not wanting my work to go to waste either, I did the Aiste on social relationships in the age of internet. My essay on technology from English Paper 1 helped me out here, as I used most of the same ideas! Eh, I mean, it was totally original.

It must be said, that was the nicest listening comprehension I’ve ever done. I don’t think any of the questions were too challenging, except maybe in Cuid C. I liked how it was quite topical, although I think we all had a quiet laugh in the room about the mention of You’re A Star. Blast from the past much? Some of the questions didn’t require listening to the CD, like the ones on Des Bishop, Susan Boyle and the one asking what the website was (with ie on the end, it was quite clearly a website!).

From talking to friends, I think today was the nicest day for a lot of people.

Sadly, with Irish Paper 2 and Business tomorrow, I don’t know how much longer that happy feeling will stay. I’m now off to study my 13 poems, 5 stories and novel. Yes, next year’s Leaving Certs are being envied right about now.

It wasn’t impossible, I was just disappointed with how different it was to other years. Other years were so manageable, other years the same things came up all the time, in their simplest forms. This year, I thought even the short questions were tricky. I was freaking out over the “does the information office have regular opening hours?” question. How was I supposed to know? Is this a famous information office? IS SOMEONE OUT THERE TRYING TO MAKE A SICK JOKE? Then I realised it said it on the legend. Phew, crisis averted.

I thought the physical questions were awful, considering the amount of essays I had learned. I couldn’t find any with three parts I liked, so I had to settle for the one where you described the feature on the map. I really hope there was a cliff where I said there was! Even the standard human interaction with the rock cycle asked for economic impacts, rather than a general summary. Regional was the section that the examiner really transformed, from the usual ‘tertiary activities in region X’ and ‘culture in region Y’, to questions such as criteria defining a region. I did that one, as I realised how vague it was and I’m pretty happy with my EU expansion answer, fuelled purely by common sense. The elective section was fine and as for the geoecology…words can’t describe my relief that the biome came up. Twice! I did the characteristics question.

I was initially gutted with the paper but now that I’ve written it down, I guess it wasn’t so bad. What annoys me is the fact that I put in the work for that, especially for the physical section and I feel a little cheated by the SEC. Now I’m questioning the remark that all my hard work will apparently pay off with these exams, especially considering the fact that Maths, which I hadn’t studied for since Easter, went very smoothly.

I found Maths paper 1 (ordinary level) easy as pi. I think I’m allowed to boast a little about that. After all, people didn’t hesitate in telling me how spectacular their English papers went, when I’m still disappointed with my performance. Anyway, unless there is a major upset I won’t be counting Maths so it’s not like it really matters but it’s comforting to encounter a good paper. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for our friends in higher level. Hopefully paper 2 will be better and at least most people seem to feel the same way about it. I know it doesn’t make up for the whole thing but I’m sure the marking scheme will be sympathetic. The bell curve wouldn’t allow it any other way!

I’ve spent the weekend having some much-needed sleep and very little else, although I had planned to tackle some History and Irish. Everyone seems to be banking on an essay on the recession for Irish but I’d prefer something on the media. In the mocks I steered away from the common choice and went for ‘young people listen to pop music too much’. I made quite a strong argument for listening to bands such as Arcade Fire and I think I was marked favourably for being the only one to do that essay. The examiner must have been a rock fan!

Good luck tomorrow everyone.

No, I’m joking. Despite happily throwing away my English notes today, I wouldn’t go so far as to talk like the people on Facebook whose statuses I have to hide from my news feeds. Poor grammar is a pet peeve of mine (along with the phrase pet peeve), yet there I was this morning, drinking my cup of tea with Emily Dickinson.

I had prepared her, Boland and Frost and had no qualms about limiting prescribed poetry to those three. I knew at least one would come up and in fact, all three did. I was delighted to see Robert there, as I love his poetry and the question was really similar to the one on my mock paper (EXAMCRAFT or DEB-who cares anymore?), asking for the hidden layers of meaning in his poetry. The one I had done in February was about there being more meaning to his poetry than the theme of nature and I was actually able to quote the statement they used today. It rarely happens but the mock company was spot on.

However, the Hamlet questions were not what I wanted, although Claudius seems to have been on the tongue of a lot of people the past few weeks. You see, my English teacher is so awful that we read the play and honestly, that was it. We never touched themes so I went for the popular choice. I don’t think that was a great essay and would have liked something more vague that I could waffle about.

The unseen poem was fine and I made myself out to have a poetry fetish in my personal response. I spent too long on this and the other two questions though and left myself very little time for the comparitive. It was foolish of me because it’s worth the most marks, yet it’s famously neglected in favour of poetry, which you can actually fail and still get an A1. I had prepared General Vision and Viewpoint and Cultural Context, the latter came up. I don’t know about other people but I thought the question about values and attitudes making the reader uncomfortable had an air of Vision and Viewpoint about it? Anyway, I tried to quickly write up some nonsense but am really disappointed that I only managed three pages.

As for Paper 1, it feels like so long ago. I know I can be as long-winded as Polonius sometimes so I’ll try to keep this short. I did the comprehension on the train journey and started the Question B on the talk to the book club but after a few lines deemed it bland, so I switched to the article on a place you want to go to. I did it on Paris and in it made myself out to be a bit of a maneater. You don’t even want to know. I thought that other years the theme of the paper never had much bearing but agreed with the guy on the radio who said that they kind of forced it on us this year. I saw ‘mystery’ on every page and the word even cropped up today.

The composition choices were really nice and I went for the one on technology. I could tell straight away I would have stiff competition, as it appeals greatly to our Facebook generation. What a time for me to suffer from writer’s block, as I sat there clutching at straws for an hour. I felt like I was trying way too hard to be funny-story of my life, really. I don’t work well under time constraints or with a lack of biscuits. I glared at the supervisor as she devoured her tea and cookies in an effort to summon her over.

No such luck.

People approach these last few hours before exams start in different ways. Some spend the day engaged in self-induced panic attacks. Others stay up studying until unsightly hours, kept awake only by energy drinks and suspicious calming tablets. I, on the other hand, am having a relaxation day.

Am I crazy? Quite possibly. I had a Courtney Love moment yesterday when struggling with a geoecology question and I’m not sure if I’ve fully calmed down yet. However, it’s a tradition of mine to relax before big exams, in order to recharge my batteries for the gruelling week ahead. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still so much I don’t know but at this point I think my brain deserves a rest. I’d advise people to adopt a similar approach. Don’t tire yourself out before the Leaving Cert has even begun!

Then again, I don’t think I could take the whole day off without feeling guilty, so I’m going to do a bit of Maths. I’ve neglected it in recent weeks, as it’s my only pass subject and therefore I’m not expecting to include it in my points in August. Despite that, I’d like to do reasonably well (as in, not fail it) and the nice thing is there’s no real memorising involved, just practice. Then I’m going to listen to Countdown to 806 so I don’t fall into total denial about tomorrow. I got the podcasts other days and found the Geography one particularly helpful. I listened to yesterday’s episode live but ended up sitting through thirty-five minutes of Biology and ten of Applied Maths, avidly waiting for History which was squeezed in for a couple of minutes at the end. I don’t even do the other two and felt I had learned more about them in the hour! Wow, I really love to moan.

Then I’m going to write out time plans for each subject that I can consult beforehand. The evening before each test, I’ll be quickly revising the main topics, obviously with the exception of today. English Paper 1 is something that I actually enjoy (okay, I’m officially crazy) and I’m already fluent, which is half the battle. I know which composition I aim to write, which is the serious and/or light-hearted article and I’m hoping for a speech or talk for the Question B. To get my imagination in the right place, I’m going to watch one of my favourite movies, 500 Days of Summer, tonight. After all, what better way to get my creative juices flowing than artistic imagery, hilarious jokes, inspirational quotes and a killer soundtrack?

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting over the next week so I’ll just go with the flow. Before we get our teeth into it, I want to wish everyone the best of luck. Remember, this is just a detour on the way to a beautiful summer!

But damn, I really wish it was Christmas Eve.

I only made a realistic study plan after a moment of panic last week- “I’LL BE LUCKY TO GET 5 POINTS AT THIS RATE”- so each subject gets a day, some two days, in which I attempt to cover all the main topics in very little detail. I realised the pic n’ mix study routine (revising the things I liked and ignoring the ones that required any real attention) wasn’t going to get me very far. It’s not like I’m aiming to know everything, or even close; I just want to avoid the sinking feeling you get when you come across a high mark question in a test that you can’t answer at all. Even if I have some knowledge, I can bluff pretty well. I’m hoping things will come back to me but that comedic lightbulb of inspiration has yet to appear above my head!

It seems we’re all on tenterhooks at the moment. For different people, it’s a different worry- not getting the points they want, not getting any offers they’d accept, not passing a weak subject, doing worse than friends and family did. However, as Baz Luhrrman’s ‘Sunscreen Song’ says, “the race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself”. How true. I’m not going to lie, I used to want to get more points than my brother got back in the day, despite the fact that he’s a genius who achieved A1s in Honours Maths and Applied Maths. Now I’ll be happy if I can get my course. I realised that I’ll (hopefully) have plenty of opportunities to do something remarkable in the future, that I don’t need to prove myself by getting X number of points in a state exam.

Because at the end of the day, that’s all they are. Exams. There’s so much hype surrounding the next few weeks that sometimes people forget to look at the bigger picture. I’ve had worse experiences than the Leaving Cert and have gotten through them. I know this, yet time and time again I get sucked in by the people who think this is the worst thing that could ever happen. In my defence, they can be quite convincing. A teacher was saying during the week how every year there’s at least one person who hasn’t studied much but is pretty relaxed, sticks to the timing and ends up doing very well, while others who burn themselves out studying unfortunately don’t always get the results they want.

Yes, this time next week it’ll be in full swing but this time two weeks, I’ll be enjoying my first day of freedom! I finish on the 15th so I luckily get this all over and done with in the space of a week. As it gets closer I keep daydreaming about the summer… Going out with friends, chilling on the beach, maybe going to a few concerts, learning to play more songs on the harmonica (yes I play the harmonica), living on a diet of ice-cream cones, shopping. Ah, shopping. That is, if the shops will take me in after the crimes against style I’ve committed lately. When I’m not in school, I’m wearing a combination of pyjamas and tracksuits for maximum comfort while studying and Chloe has already preached about the bed hair. Basically, I study best when I look like someone that security guards always watch closely in shops.

Well that’s all the waffling for now, my European History book awaits!

Best of luck with the studying to one and all.

In the morning we arrived to get things polished up for the evening’s mass, in a desperate attempt to convince the parents that the school hadn’t been the location of a flour fight the previous Friday. Of course there was the ritual of signing yearbooks too. My messages to friends recalled private jokes and contained promises to stay in touch, while girls I never talked to much got the standard “hey, good luck next year, I’ll miss *insert that one class we had together here* with you”. It was a good laugh and a welcome escape from the constant studying and talking about studying. It definitely did not feel like the end of five years in secondary school. Then, as the morning’s cup of coffee began to kick in, I was suddenly struck with a number of questions.

Why am I saying “goodbye” to people I see every day? Why is the congratulatory banner that’s used every year for graduation being brought out? Why are they handing us out our trees? More importantly, why is it an annual tradition for graduates in my school to get trees? It’s never been explained yet every year, without fail, they are there to take home. I mean, I assume it’s symbolic of new beginnings and a little gift to help us start off our new lives, although a wad of fifty euro notes would have done that too.

The whole Leaving Cert/leaving school thing was finally sinking in.

Despite this, our mass in the evening was not as emotional as people had expected. Any sadness was overshadowed by incessant picture-taking and the comments that followed; “OMG delete”, “can we take it again, I look an elephant on the run from the circus here” and the classic “if you put that on Facebook I’ll kill you”. Of course they were uploaded anyway!

Our graduation song was Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Breakaway’. Subject to a great deal of abuse, it wasn’t my ideal choice either (I proposed Eagle Eye Cherry’s ‘Save Tonight’ and ‘In My Life’ by the Beatles, which are typical choices but for a good reason), although I figured it probably more appropriate than suggestions of ‘S&M’ by Rihanna. Sure, some people in my year may relate to those lyrics (although if that’s the case, the less I know about it the better) but ‘Breakaway’ can be applied to us all. After all, we are breaking away, from school and from life as we know it.

Why the mixture of emotions? Well, on the one hand I’m sad to leave. Whether I liked it or not, that school has been my second home and safety net since the age of twelve. It has been the setting of many new friendships and even more memorable experiences, things that will stay with me long after that tree has died of thirst.

Then I think of all that awaits and I’m suddenly excited to leave. The uniformity and mundanity are things I am happy to leave behind, as are the rules, some teachers and that suspicious smell on the second floor corridor. This really is our moment. So many possibilities lay out before us and it’ll be interesting to see where everyone goes from here.

I’m talking about school as if it’s in the past but despite the events of four days ago, it’s not over yet. I was there today and will be there tomorrow. This is how graduation in Ireland differs from the finales of my favourite American sitcoms. The teenagers in those shows attend their graduation ceremonies, all the loose ends are tied up, someone cracks a witty departing line and they drive into the sunset, while we’re left wondering which character is going to get their own spin-off show. Here, we are still popping in and out of school to study or go to helpful classes and will be sitting in the hall, in our uniforms, during the exams. In August we’re back again to get our results but after getting those, I hopefully won’t have to return there as a student again!

So it wasn’t the Hollywood goodbye, although it was an official goodbye of sorts. Even when we’re in the building in the coming weeks, it will never be like old times. Back then, we stressed about not knowing a couple of Kavanagh quotes. Now it’s a case of not remembering who Kavanagh is!

I am, like most of you out there, currently in panic mode. I don’t even want to type how many days are left until 8th June and in a way I just wish it could all be over. Then it will be time for my own spin-off. And I promise it’ll be better than ‘Joey’ or ‘The Cleveland Show’.

To summarise though, the Irish Oral was a low-key affair. I wore navy, as I am obligated to do in keeping with the school’s dress code. I made the mistake of dragging myself out of bed at six in the morning to look over notes on the economy and this was my downfall. By nine a.m., I was too sleepy to be nervous about the exam. By twelve noon, when some Second Years walked down the off-limits corridor that was being used for the Orals, I was too tired to shoot them with a disapproving look. By the time the examiner called me in, I was exhausted. She was nice but made a lot of notes rather than eye contact, which put me off a little. In my fatigue, I kept forgetting simple words and used “deas” three times in one sentence. Grabbing at straws, I shared my poor French Oral joke with her about my lack of exercise but she merely replied with a “I suppose that’s how it is”. I know my consumption levels have increased twofold since the start of Sixth Year but even that was uncalled for, surely! I’m not going to sugarcoat it (even though the examiner seems to think I enjoy sugar quite a bit)-I’m disappointed with the way this Oral went. However, the eternal optimist in me knows that things could have gone worse. I could have fallen asleep.

Before we got the holidays, I finally completed my History RSR. Anyone who does History will understand the rush of emotions involved in handing up the project for good. Having worked on it since the start of Fifth Year, I no longer felt like I was submitting a simple project for a State Exam. I was giving my baby up for adoption. Hopefully the Department of Education can give it the care it needs, and the examiner the grade it deserves, whatever that may be. Sadly, I didn’t get my Geography Field Study completed yet but there are still three days to finish my graphs when we go back to school.

I’m not sure if anyone noticed but there seems to have been some form of a royal wedding taking place. Of course I’m joking, one look at the internet on Friday was enough to inform me that seventy-eight of my Facebook friends are going to marry Prince Harry. Should I start looking for a hat? What made me laugh was the fact that prior to the wedding, when criticising it was the fashionable thing to, most of these people sounded like they were going to resurrect the ghost of Thomas Clarke to ruin the occassion. Then come Friday afternoon, suddenly they were in love with the dress, the bridesmaids, the happy couple and the British public in general. It was hypocrisy at its finest but at least it was a break from the “passed my theory test” statuses!

I watched a few minutes of the ceremony in the morning and some highlights later on (together with the live commentary it makes it sound like a soccer match) but I was reaching a breakthrough with a History essay at the time so I returned to it after hearing “I do”. Kate Middleton wisely completed her education before settling down with William, after all. Although they first met at university, I highly doubt there’ll be any royalty attending NUIG this autumn.

That reminds me, the CAO Change of Mind form is opening soon (5th May for all those who lost the handbook) and indeed, I have had a change of mind. I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm for my first choice and after a long think about it, I’m almost sure I now want to do Public and Social Policy instead. It seems to be a combination of all the courses I’ve considered in the past, although I’m a bit wary of the Economics element. That being said, I always would have liked to have studied Economics for the Leaving Cert if my school offered it. I guess I won’t know until I’ve tried it! My problem is that I know the career I want and have a list of others that I would thoroughly enjoy, yet I’m finding it hard to pick the course that suits me. Most of the girls in my school are the other way around, as in they know a lot of courses they would like to do but don’t have a clue where to go from there. Sometimes I don’t know which is worse.

I hope everyone had a good Easter and took the chance to take a rest as well as get some revision done. My better teachers set some work to do, which was great because it prevented me falling back into lazy habits. I’ve also noticed how considerably relaxed I’ve been without the company of a hundred stressed students the past two weeks! I would generally deem myself a laid-back person but I’m sure you all know how capable exam stress is of having a domino effect. One person gets upset about a Maths result and by the end of the day, we’re all pulling our hair out and swinging from the lampshades. Well, it hasn’t gone that far yet but with three weeks until graduation, it’s only a matter of time!

Now it’s time for a post-mortem of the Orals. As much as relatives and teachers advise against replaying exam experiences in your head like a catchy Vampire Weekend song, it’s the very same people who are waiting around the corner saying “how did it go?” and “what did they ask you?” They didn’t ask me anything harder than what you just did, that’s for sure! I mean, how can you compress over twelve minutes of one of the most unnatural conversations of your life into a satisfactory summary for people who haven’t gone through something similar in over thirty years? My standard “it was grand, just happy it’s over” and “there were no surprises” replies have become monotonous by now. For this reason, I am going to be honest with you.

The French went well. In fact, it completely exceeded my expectations. I’m not saying I walked out of there with a spectacular mark but the time went so quickly that I worried the examiner had timed it wrong. She did say beforehand, “les maths, c’est ma bête noire”, when calculating how long to keep me in there (to my utter dismay because I had prepared that exact phrase and would now just look like I was copying her). While we’re on the topic, the examiner was a French native and one of the nicest women to grace the littered halls of my school. When she talked to the year as a whole at the start of the week and asked who her “première victime” would be, I gathered that she didn’t take herself too seriously. Or us either, I discovered, as the week went on. It became common knowledge that this woman liked to laugh. A lot. Hopefully not at the standard of French though.

Although the examiner’s kind disposition should have been reassuring, it did little to put me at ease as I waited outside room 20, with nothing but her muffled laughs to keep me company. I skimmed over notes for my favourite TV show, Gossip Girl, before the door opened and I quickly decided that confidence was key, despite the fact that I had none. Admittedly, I felt like Blair Waldorf incarnate as I strutted into the room, signed the register and took a seat. Yes, I strutted into the room. Convincing this woman that I was self-assured had made me believe it too, so even if an A is out of the question perhaps an Oscar is in order?

The tête-à-tête went nicely and I felt more like I was in a café chatting to an overly friendly waitress than in a classroom being recorded through a microphone. Knowing that the woman enjoyed a joke, I ensured that I went in there with some material. When she asked if I liked sport, I said that I keep in shape by running to the fridge. A belly laugh ensued on her behalf, although I don’t think The Comedy Roadshow will be calling me anytime soon. I was also asked about myself, my family, school, pastimes, college and my document, which posed the most problems.

Bringing in a photo of the Gaeltacht for the French Oral was not the greatest idea but not because I was tempted to speak as Gaeilge. It was because her desire to know of a typical day there required me to use the imperfect, which really is my bête noire. The worst thing was that I had planned to cover this question the previous night but ran out of time. Merde! Anyway, my newfound WWBWD (What Would Blair Waldorf Do) attitude encouraged me to carry on and pretend I knew what I was saying. I hoped she would lead on to the future of the Irish language but it was all in vain. Overall though, there were no major blanks and I got to use all the main tenses, albeit they may not have been conjugated correctly. Alors, c’est la vie!

If anyone is thinking that an overdose of energy drinks and a popular American sitcom suddenly transformed me from a very average Honours student to Audrey Tatou, I have to stress that I put a lot of study into this Oral. I know, I know, I’ve just broken rule #1 of being a cool Sixth Year- never admit that you’ve studied, ever! It’s not all sunshine and Easter eggs for me (although I’ve just eaten a nice milk chocolate one for breakfast) because my fear of the French Oral pushed all other subjects to the side for two weeks. Unfortunately this resulted in a disappointing Irish Oral…

To be continued (for anyone who actually bothered to read this one).

Today my English teacher was stressing the importance of anecdotes in our writing so I’d like to share one with you. I discovered a charming little French song in an episode of Gossip Girl that I proceeded to look up online. I have listened to the song over twenty times since then and only recently did I venture to look up the translation. I thought that if I sung along and knew what the words meant in French it was bound to help me in the oral. However, to my utmost surprise, the song’s title actually translated into a dirty word. A dirty word which, if I were to use in the oral or any French class, would get me thrown out of the room. Well done Ciara, you sure know how to pick them. The song is called ‘Petite Pute’ by Austine – I think I’ll let you Google translate that in your own time.

I might as well touch on the mocks while I’m here, as they seem to be as talked about as Rebecca Black’s song ‘Friday’. I had a pretty generic experience of the exams and have gotten all of the results except for History. We did it on the 10th February, there are only twenty people in the class and yet, it’s the 23rd March and they’re still not back. What’s up with that? I was satisfied with my results but know there’s still room for improvement. The award for Most Pleasantly Surprised Result goes to Irish with 84%. Most Disappointing was Business at 57% (so much for being my best subject), while the award for Percentage That Made Me Laugh Immaturely was 69% in French.

I did nothing for St.Patrick’s day, in keeping with my reputation as a Leaving Cert recluse. It usually rains, the parade contains one million brass bands and you can’t walk without getting glass in your shoe that day, so I wasn’t too bothered. I actually got a bit of study done over the long weekend, although it’s gone down the drain this week as I’ve been continuously exhausted since Monday. The hardcore party animals that went out for the four days know how I feel, except at least they have an excuse.

In other news, if my Maths class gets one more person seeking refuge from the horrors of Higher Level, we have to move classroom. Just another part of the exciting tale that is my life.

Sorry that this post lacks any structure and is really just a flow of random thoughts. Also, please forgive me if I seem alarmingly bland and pessimistic today, I’m tired and wanted to clear my mind.

I also had a CAO crisis during the week. They seem to be en vogue among my peers for the past month or so and I was almost getting concerned about my laid-back attitude towards my chosen courses. I eventually caught on to the craze last week when I realised Arts with Film Studies just wasn’t for me. The more I thought about doing it, the less I wanted to do it. My previous ‘certainty’ that it was the course for me quickly faded away and I rooted out all the prospectuses once again. I narrowed the decision down to General Arts and Commerce, both in NUIG. General Arts triumphed (for now) because the maths and accounting side to Commerce is pretty unappealing to me. However, I don’t like the common perception of Arts students- you know, that they’re a lazy, boring shower of so-and-so’s who don’t know what they want to do in life. Okay, I am exceptionally lazy but even that statement is a bit harsh. I’d still like to branch out into Journalism if that’s what I want in three years time.

Anyway, to cheer myself up I decided to fill up the blank spaces on my CAO with some ‘funny courses’. Yes I know, how original… Maybe I’ll just become a professional comedian instead of taking the college path. I reworked my application to include Baking and Pastry Management (I’m not laughing at anyone who actually wants to do this, if you saw my attempts at baking a sponge cake you’d understand the joke) but as it’s ten points higher than General Arts, I guess the joke is on me. I also added some construction courses, inspired by my favourite TV show to make fun of, Fade Street. If that Vogue can get an internship at Stellar from working on a building site, then why can’t I? If it’s hard to picture her bricklaying and mixing cement, it must be ten times harder to picture me, the girl always picked last in PE, doing it.

As for the Mocks timetable, it’s not the worst. We had a thorough dissection of it at lunch and after listening to comments such as “I wish French was on the Monday morning” and “I’d love to swap Tuesday’s tests with Friday’s tests”, I realised that it will make little difference to us. Either way we won’t have a large amount of time to cram but that’s okay. No don’t worry, I haven’t gone insane. I think the results will give me the kick I need to focus on the topics/subjects that need to be focused on, which I can’t seem to identify at the moment.

I must say I don’t know what I would do without my Starbucks mug these days. Its size can hold twice the amount of tea/coffee as your typical mug and it adds an air of glamour to the very unglamorous task of studying. It’s one of the only things getting me through Sixth Year. See also: Large amounts of food.

1. Christmas tests (original excuse, I know).

2. Results of aforementioned tests. Don’t get me wrong, I did fine but I was disappointed with a few of them so I tried to put in a bit of extra study to make up for it.

3. Internet boycott following aforementioned results of aforementioned tests (word of the day: aforementioned). I decided to do this because my study time consists of going on Facebook and complaining about my lack of study. Also, I realised that I remember a status a girl in my French class wrote about her rabbits two weeks ago, yet I don’t remember the French word for rabbit. Or the French word for anything… Anyway, in what seemed an attempt to spur me on in my boycott, my internet broke the week of Christmas.

4. Christmas. Who could possibly think of Calculus or the formation of a cliff when there’s mountains of food and every Harry Potter/ Indiana Jones movie ever made on TV? A stronger person than I, that’s who.

5. Internet catch-up session following aforementioned internet boycott following aforementioned results of aforementioned tests (otherwise known as stalking).

Thankfully other bloggers have been dedicated enough to keep the homepage fresh. Reading through all the posts, I’m glad we all seem to be in the same boat. However, I still haven’t filled out my CAO (I could commit the most rebellious act, which is to fill it out at 5.14 pm on the 1st of February).

I’m going to have to cut this short because I still have an essay to do before we go back to school (someone is going to have to drag me out of my bed kicking and screaming Monday morning).

Au revoir, mes lapins!

Yeah, the second we arrived back last week the teachers started calling out prescribed chapters for the exams and before you know it, everyone has made study timetables and Granny has started lighting the candles for them at mass. I’m sat here wondering where to start with all my study…Times like this I’d really like a crystal ball. Or a photographic memory. Maybe if I get Granny to light an extra big candle I might get one of the two. I think a trip to the library is in order this weekend, without my friends in tow because let’s just say they make it hard to study…ever play Hide and Seek in a library? I have. I need to finish the second draft of my History RSR anyway.

In other news, we got our Drémires this week. I know, the fun never stops in my life! For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s like a mini Irish book with essays and grammar tips, etc., aimed at LC students. It’s handy but I find the comprehensions too complex. I’ll stick to my Foinses for the most part, thank you very much. My French teacher advised our class to pick our documents for the oral in the coming two weeks. Is she serious? The oral is months away! I don’t know what to pick, any ideas? I was thinking of a picture from the Gaeltacht but I just know that’ll put me in the Irish language state of mind that I really have to avoid, considering it’s a test of French. She said it could be a picture of anything but the other class’ teacher told them it really should be French-related, so they’re all picking French movies (the same one) and French celebrities. Unfortunately I’m not as absorbed in the culture, although I like croissants (cliché much?).

I’m going to start studying in a few minutes (I promise) and then reward myself with some TV. The Apprentice- I’m addicted! And I do Business so it’s practically educational.

Can I ask, how many people reading this have purchased revision material for the LC? Or are planning to? And which ones do you recommend and which ones are so unhelpful that you’ve started using them as coasters? I’ve always been a bit sceptical about these so-called revision aids but the few that I have are actually pretty good.

I remember for the Junior Cert, there was a shocking number of girls who bought ten revision books, one for every subject. Even for CSPE, of all things. I bought one Less Stress More Success book for Irish and it was so bland it bored me to tears. Although it had a good vocabulary section, it didn’t tell you how to approach or prepare for each question. I gave up on the whole idea of revision books until late last year, when a friend gave me her sister’s Revise Wise Business book and I became pretty taken with it. Last month I bought the Geography edition of the same brand, which has since become my new bible. I love how it’s student-friendly and tells you exactly what you need to be able to answer in the exam. Of course, it doesn’t have anywhere near the same amount of information as my textbooks but breaks things down into more simple terms. Before anyone gets suspicious, I’d like to clarify I don’t work for Revise Wise, I’m just a fan…But if they’re reading this, I’m currently unemployed and free after July.

I can’t do a blog post on revision aids (or often just a blog post) without mentioning Foinse, one of my great loves in life. For any Foinse virgins, it’s a newspaper supplement that comes with the Irish Independent every Wednesday. The best part? It’s totally as Gaeilge! Although it serves as a regular newspaper, it also has a section on LC Irish, with notes on each poem and story and general tips for passing the exam. We get Dréimire in school but I find it too complex most of the time. Usually after the New Year newspapers start doing supplements on each subject, which are handy to have too.

Don’t worry all you recessionistas (I’d be one of you too if  Topshop stopped getting in such pretty clothes), there are good resources which are completely free. You can get any question you have about school answered on this website and if it’s good notes you’re looking for, I like skoool.ie. Be wary of any sample answers you get by typing ‘Leaving Cert + Subject + Sample Answer’ into Google, though. If you use them in class, you’re not guaranteed to get a high grade and if someone else uses the same website, the teacher will know there’s something up. There’s a Boland answer which has been doing the rounds a lot lately and I know people (who would never write something as cheesy as it) who’ve used it in tests and gotten less than they hoped for. Now it’s my turn to be cheesy when I say, wouldn’t you rather get the grade you deserved for something you’d done yourself? Some of you may agree but others will probably leave me comments asking for a link to this Boland answer.

A good Tuesday to you all!

* When I began writing this post, I did not intend for it to sound like one giant advertisement. It just worked out that way.

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. So I believe we have a bit of catching up to do…

Last week, I went to the NUIG Open Day and sadly, the whole event was a bit of a fail. Naturally it was full to the brim with Fifth and Sixth Years from across the country, which meant that I didn’t get to my desired talks on time and I couldn’t even barge my way into the stalls (100 students from Sligo Community School VS me). To be fair, what could NUIG do to solve the problem? Apart from perhaps airlift me from the stampede at the goodie bag table.

Of course it’s a good reflection on the university that so many people turned up. I must say, it’s pretty intimidating looking at so many strangers and thinking they could be my fellow classmates next year. The current students weren’t exactly welcoming and I’d say by my wide-eyed expression they knew instantly that I wasn’t one of them. I felt like at any moment some Third Year Commerce student would point at me and say “she doesn’t even go here!” (Did anyone get the Mean Girls reference?) Despite not attending any talks, the prospectus gives a good insight into the courses and I currently have my heart set on Arts with Film Studies. I still want to be a journalist but this way I can achieve that while at the same time being qualified in another subject I’m interested in. Did anyone else go to the Open Day? Are any of you my rivals for the 15 spaces in Film Studies?

Sorry, I feel I’ve gotten very boring since the start of Sixth year, perhaps because my only piece of entertainment is putting handouts into poly pockets. If I’m feeling really wild, I’ll sort them out by date and subject! Also on my mind is the fact that I have an English and an Irish essay to do for the weekend and for both I can pick any essay from any of the exam papers…so many options that I feel like a kid in a candy store. Or a kid in the Department Of Education. Whichever is more likely to get your heart racing.

While reading through a college prospectus yesterday, it struck me that in order to get into any course, I’m going to need quite a few of these ‘magic points’. Think about it, points obtained from Leaving Cert results really are like magic. You can’t buy them, or sell them (although what a nice money-making scheme that would be) and they have total power over your future. They decide whether you’re going to be the next Marie Curie or the next Marie Curie’s cleaner (hey, someone’s got to clean all those test tubes). And it’s looking like I’m going to require over the 460 mark for anything I want to do. I think it’s time to go into a corner and sob quietly.

On the bright side, my attention span has been at its best these past few weeks. Facebook has been so boring that I’m not even tempted to go on it and would almost rather write my essay on Fianna Fáil’s cultural policy (I said almost). At least on Saturday and Sunday evenings I can look forward to The X Factor, a break I reward myself only if I study. Which I do because I’m not going to miss Cher singing. That girl is too cool.

Is anyone else going to the NUIG Open Day on Friday or Saturday? I’m definitely going because it’s more than likely my future destination. Sunday Times University Of The Year 2009! It’s also moved up to the spot of 232nd best university in the world. Out of 252… It’s getting there.

The downside is the large menacing pile of school books in the corner of the room. Naturally, as a Leaving Cert student (those words still send a shiver down my spine), I have lots of homework and tests to study for. I am quite proud of myself though because I did a big long Irish poetry question on Thursday night that’s not due until Monday. At least that’s that out of the way.

Speaking of Irish, I didn’t mention anything in the last post about my time in the Gaeltacht. I went for the first time (and sadly the last time) this summer. If anyone is looking for a good one to go to, Coláiste Chamuis Camus in Co.Galway is the place to go! Obviously I’m going to be biased when I say that but it has an excellent reputation. They were an amazing three weeks- I met the nicest people and my Irish has improved enormously (it got to the point where I was sleep-talking in Irish). I’m so confident speaking as Gaeilge now that I’m actually looking forward to the Oral! The idea of a French Oral, however, still scares the beyjasus out of me. Anyway, we were doing some Irish listening in class a few days ago and it’s so much easier to follow it all. Fuair mé beagnach gach ceann ceart!

I’ve noticed that nearly everyone here seems to have gone to the Higher Options exhibition and I feel so left out that I wasn’t there! I only found out what it was three days ago so I’m guessing since we’re here in the isolated West of Ireland, my school didn’t bother suggesting it. Reading people’s blogs about it, it seems similar to something I went to last year near my school and am going to again this year. I really just attend those things for the free stuff.

I’m going to keep this short for today because I feel a cold coming on and want to go rest. Eh, I mean, study.