I know this was supposed to be a continuation of the Orals but I’ve been advised by a friend (after a year and a half of blogging on this, I’ve finally entrusted two friends with my URL. Who knows, by June I may have told three more!) to stop dwelling on the past. I agree with her-if you thought I had a lot to say about the French, the Irish would have been akin to a postdoctoral thesis in length.

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!

Okay, so when I set out writing this post I intended to cover a number of topics. However, I got totally carried away and managed to only cover my French Oral before taking a look at the word count. At least this will give me the push I need to blog more often because I have plenty more rants in store! My teachers always say my answers aren’t long enough anyway.

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).

The ‘How Many Days Until’ Calculator that I lazily Googled has just informed me that there are twelve days until the French orals start in my school. And what am I doing? Revising tenses, learning vocabulary, preparing my document? No, I’m playing air guitar to French songs that I found on Youtube.

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.

With little over a week until the Mocks start, the panic has swept in. The annoying thing is that I wasn’t even worried about these insignificant, poorly corrected exams until teachers and fellow students drilled the panic into my head. Of course, the issuing of Leaving Cert exam numbers during the week didn’t help my state of mind. In addition to all relevant exam material, I now have to learn a six-digit number off by heart.

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.

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned, it has been two months since my last post. Okay, I just checked and my last post was written on the 8th of November. Today is the 8th of January and now that I think about it, the LC starts on the 8th of June. What can I say, I like patterns. Of course I have a list of reasons for my absence (yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night Ciara):

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!

To quote the little old women at my bus shelter, “It comes earlier and earlier every year”. Okay, so they were talking about Christmas and I would normally complain too about the early arrival of everything Christmas-related but not this year. Everyone seems so down and out about the Budget and just the state of the country in general that I say, why not talk about Christmas? I don’t know about you all but for me I can think of no happier time. Two weeks off school (even longer this year though), mouth-watering food, busy shops, a nice cosy fire at home…Okay, snap back to reality Ciara before you break into song. What I was trying to say when I started writing this (yes, would you believe that this actually leads to something exam related?) was that while I have no problems discussing Christmas now, I think it’s too soon to start talking about about Christmas Tests. The sad thing is, the Christmas Tests are before Christmas. Crap.

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.

Hey everyone. Sorry that the title sounds like a topic for a French written piece (if I see this come up on the paper in June, Department of Education, I’m suing you for stealing my ideas). I don’t have school today and was trying to plan some revision of sorts when I started thinking about revision books and podcasts, etc.*

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.

It’s two weeks until the midterm break!

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.

It saddens me to inform you, my dear cyberspace pals, that the novelty of being in Sixth Year has finally worn off for me. I now sit here in my study, surrounded by dictionaries, folders bursting with handouts, a leaning tower of textbooks and the shattered remains of my social life. I want out!

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 longer I’m back at school, the more blissful Friday evenings are. Seriously, I’m as happy after school finishes for the week as an OAP on pension day!

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.