All last night I had myself convinced it would go above 550 again. In the last 12 years, there have only been three years where it has been less than 545, and considering applications were up 16% this year, I was getting content with settling for DCU. At this stage, I cannot even say it was down to hardwork or intelligence; in my case it was just sheer luck getting the points I needed and for the CAO to work out like that! So it looks like I’ll be starting orientation this day three weeks as a fresher in UCD, as you can probably tell I’m over the moon!

This blog all year has been amazing. Just writing down everything that was going on, even if no one read it, helped to keep the year pretty much stress-free! This website has been a God-send to any LCer looking to do well. I think we all owe its founder, Patrick Barry, a serious thanks. I was lucky enough to meet him during the year, and I have to say, the man is an absolute gentleman. He makes the lives of countless Sixth Years infinitely easier. While the whole blogging experience was entirely new to me, it was certainly an enjoyable one, and definitely worth trying next year! Hearing other peoples’ experiences of what was going on was fantastic and allowed me have a different perspective to the year.

To the class of 2010, congratulations and I hope you achieved what you set out to achieve. Hopefully I’ll see a few of ye around UCD!

To the class of 2011, relax, enjoy your last year of school, work hard and play hard. Don’t become a study slave, get now and again, the Leaving Cert is nothing to be afraid of. What you put in is what you’ll get out of it. I’ll probably write a bit more here later about what’ll help you get the most out of the year, but we’ll see.

So for one last time… good luck people!

Cillian.

Irish B1
Maths A2
English A2
French B2
Biology A1
Chemistry A2
Economics A2

I was genuinely shocked when I saw the results. And even more so adding the points up. So much so I was convinced my adding skills weren’t the best (well only an A2 in Maths like!) When I arrived at 545 for the fifth time, I accepted I had done better than could ever be imagined. I mean Irish and English? It turned out to be a day of PB’s! Never before had I got anything great than a C2 in Irish, not even one B before in six years of class tests! Even though French didn’t count, I made and absolute hames of the oral, had a very dogey written paper, and still managed a B2. And then English, what a place to get your first ever A! Despite my bog-standard English and ropey comparative, with the help of bombastic vocab here and there I pulled out an A2! I genuinely would not have got that result without this blog. Six years on and not one class of English grammar, this finally gave me the kick in the arse needed to learn a few of the rules! The only one I wasn’t ecstatic about was Maths. I know an A2 is deadly, but I really felt if there was one paper I got the A1 in, it was Maths. I was happy too with Chem and Economics as despite not having wonderful papers, I managed to pull out the A in both. I know many regarded Biology very easy this year, but after the record I had with a spate of teachers, it was a relief to get the A1.

The results in my school were unbelievable this year. In a year of 110, at least 18 got over the 500 point mark, with one guy getting the 600, and another getting 580. Considering just 6 broke the 500 mark last year, it was a serious improvement. I have to admit the competitive nature of us all helped and was probably the reason we got on so well!

So for college, I’ve to await until Monday to find out for certain, but it looks like Actuary in UCD. It was 530 last year, so I have 15 points to spare, but applications for it increased a lot this year. Failing that, DCU seems a cert considering it was 485 in ‘09. When I look back at it now, 5 A’s and 2 B’s was quite an achievement. Despite the whole medicine thing not working out, I think I’m glad it happened. It appears far more glamorous than it actually is in my opinion. If I was to repeat the HPAT, I’d need 170+ points to get in based on last year. But we’ll see. I have the grade requirements for it in most places in the UK so it’s good to have that option open.

For the rest of you, I hope you’re all happy. They’re not the end of the world, but rather a means to an end. At the end of the day, it’s about fulfilling one’s potential. The guy who gets 360 but has been told his limit is 350 has done better in my view than the girl who could get 600, but only gets 500. That’s why it’s unfair to compare people on LC points I feel.

You’ll hear from me once more after Monday, this is the day that really matters. I hope the points don’t go up too much, for all of our sake’s!

Cillian

Anyway, I’m lucky in a way that I wasn’t hell-bent on doing Medicine. Althought it has forced me to change the ole CAO. I’ve put down BESS and Maths/Economics, so I wouldn’t mind doing them either. Actuary is still the goal however, I’ll be laughing if I get offered a place there. I hope the results went well for everyone else anyway, enjoy the rest of the summer!!

Irish: In fairness, I thought it was a relatively predictable and straight forward paper, especially after last year. The essay titles might have been a bit specific and bland in that they didn’t suit people with learned-off material, but that suited me down to the ground, considering I’d nothing prepared bar a few phrases. I managed to write an absolute shed load for paper 2, the same as English paper 2 in fact! Somehow I managed a full page on Bealoideas, even though the notes in our book cover less than half of one! Just God help whoever has to correct it, for I’ve no concept of Irish grammar whatsoever!

French: Going into this on the back of an incredibly dodgy oral, the expectations were quite low. I reckon I’m possibly the only one who used the full allotted time, serious lack of time management on the comprehensions left me with forty minutes to do the written part. I spent the first twenty or so minutes writing out three pages of French expressions at the beginning, only later to use four of them, a bit of a regret to say the least, my seventh subject, or so I hope.

Biology: Despite being messed about with teachers over the past two years, the exam proved to be very simple. I did every question on the paper bar the one on Plant Reproduction, and fairly confident I did well. Everyone else I spoke to had the same reaction so I reckon they’ll kill us with the marking scheme.

Chemistry: I always imagined to become an absolute genius over the five days between this and Biology, but no, the World Cup proved far more interesting! Whatever hopes I had for an A have disappeared. I spent the first twenty minutes reading over the paper, only to end up doing ten questions anyway. Every single question seemed to have six marks where you’d feel even with the book open, you wouldn’t get the answers. I mean the IUPAC name for glycerol? It’s actually not mentioned anywhere in our book. Trying to apply what I knew, I stuck down 1,2,3 trihyrdoxylpentane thinking that sounded fairly logical, but no. On wikipedia it says that it’s another name for it, but propan-1,2,3-triol was what they were looking for. I thought the question on Equilibrium was grand, except for the Kc bit. I originally got 0.0225 and thought that was way too low for something that had a 75% disassociation, so I didn’t divide by 100, only later to find out I was originally right. Sickening.

Economics: Ah Economics, always something I thought I was guaranteed and A1 in, until the night before the test. Like Chemistry, I stopped studying for it a week before the LC began, major regret now of course. Looking over the course, I realise I’d forgotten almost everything. The only saving grace was that it was fairly topical. The whole “Rent of Ability” thing kind of threw me, and no Oligopoly? Or NAMA? Odd to say the least. I did a fifth question, something our teacher always advised against, but me being an insecure rebel, I had to rush Q1 on demand, and made a pig’s ear of it. Oh well…

It feels weird to say it’s over. No big bang at the end, it just slowly faded out. The ending for me definitely was an anti-climax to the whole thing. While things started off nicely with the three core ones being simple for a change, they lulled me into a false confidence for the last two. The whole build up and suspense for the exams was simply destroyed by the time Irish was finished. I can’t honestly say how the results will go, I’d be delighted to break 500, but I’d swap any number of points just for a place in college. Speaking off that, the ole CAO could probably do with a shake up. I have managed to find one course that is basically “me”, Maths and Economics in Trinity! It was 475 last year, and only 15 points up from the mocks, so provided it doesn’t rise too much, I wouldn’t mind that!

The HPAT results are out Monday, and to be honest, they’ll count for little at the end of the day. Still, I’m dying to see the percentile score and break down of the result, better be worth getting up at five on Monday for! I know most are finished at this stage, and the sites gone quite, but I hope y’all have a good summer! I’ll be back for the results!

Cillian

Q1, sequences&series bit probably threw people, but the part B? How that deserves 20 marks is beyond me.

Q2, C(i), again, unbelievably simple, part (ii) may have thrown a few, but very easy to get marks in.

Q3, B(ii) was odd, but just an Argand diagram, straight-forward once you figure that odd. Odd in part C too, with the roots coming in decimal form, never seen it before, but it worked out all the same.

Q4, Easy a and b, induction and algebra for part C, with a sum of numbers squared. Sneaky sneaky people though, the “r=11″ bit on the bottom would have been easily missed by people.

q5, induction, logs and binomial, c(ii) was about the only challenge on the paper.

Q6 and 7, easiest differentiation questions yet, nothing odd bar Q6B(ii) where the “curve” is actually a line.

Didn’t touch integration, horrible looking part c involving logs and trig functions, but other than that, paper 1 was a breeze.
Did everyone else find it that easy? Talking to the rest of the lads after, the feeling was mutual.
Paper 2 has to be impossible, otherwise there’s going to be a ridiculous amount of As given out. It really can’t be as easy as paper 1.

Week 1 over, 3 down, 7 to go.

More importantly, what was up with English Paper 2? Yeats, Rich, Elliot and Kavanagh, I don’t even think God saw that one coming. Like half the country, I was praying for Longley and Boland. Ever since the Paper 1 mix up last year, I knew I would do Longley on the day, surely he had to come up? Failing that, Boland was a dead cert, seemingly. At 1:59, I could hear a faint Longley chant starting. You may now open your papers. F*@#. Plenty of gasps around the room. So I checked out my other options. We never studied Elliot in class, I decided last night that in fact I hate Yeats, so that left me with Rich or Kavanagh. Rich’s feministic views are quite insightful and inspiring….lol jk, I’m a man! So it was just me and Kavanagh. Some how I managed to remember my sample answer from Easter, and in fairness the question was okish. Elsewhere, things went from bad to worse with the comparative. Seeing as we ignored Vision and Viewpoint in class(not so clever now), literary genre was my option. Generally with it, you just go in and transcribe eight pages of pre-learned stuff and maybe refer to the question here and there. But not this year. This year you actually has to think about it. How does the “unexpected” add to good story-telling. How the hell can you do that when comparing under the headings of how the story is told and setting? Yuck.
Lear however was fine. I thought this was the only one with potential to be bad before going in, but no. Turns out we did the exact question in class last month on why the bad characters excite us more than the good ones. Quotes glaore, happy out.

Paper one was fine, Heaney comprehension, hopes for 2050 and the optimism speech, lovely. Quoted Einstein three times and finished on “Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs” by him. Sorted. 28 A4 pages and half a pen later, the first one was ok.
Maths tomorrow. There’s more riding on this than anything else. No pressure though, paper 2 isn’t until Monday! Hope it’s going well for everyone else!

Cillian

I always figured I’d be pretty nervous coming up to the exams, but surprisingly no. I’ve instead become rather nonchalant and collected. I’ve figured what’s done is done at this stage. For the vast majority, whatever grades I’m going to get have already been decided. All I can do at this stage is to go in and do what ever is thrown at me. What I love and hate about the Leaving Cert is choice. For me, the hardest thing I’m going to have to do for Maths, French, Chemistry, Biology and Economics is pick what questions to do, something which can be either time-consuming, or else leave you in a state of regret after the exam. But still, it’s slightly weird saying I’m actually looking forward to the next two weeks, or well at least to the challenge of it! For me, fifth-year was a write off, but to be honest, I did put the head down for the most part of this year. I recently saw a fb group, “Good grades, good social-life, adequate sleep, if you’re in sixth-year, chose any two!” In fairness, the LC isn’t something that should control your life, it’s possible to have all three with some careful planning, unless of course you’re a complete party-animal who has to go out every night of the week!

I’m conscious most people are furiously cramming so I’ll wrap up soon for I best be joining you; last-minute cramming is most certainly under-rated! I’ll leave you all with a few predictions with what should come up, if trends are anything to go by, just in case anyone is completely lost.

Economics: Oligopoly seems a cert, I reckon a Q on demand and supply, national income, trade and possibly something on NAMA in the latter of the short questions or part of a long one.

Chemistry: For the experiments, I’m going to go with a water or bleach titration for Q1, ethanal or soap for Q2 and the volatile liquid one for Q3. I reckon there’s a good chance of a full chemical equilibrium Q too. It’d be in a state of ecstasy if a full question on the option came up, but I highly doubt it!

Maths: everyone seems to think the Factor theorem, sin(A+B) and one of the rules of differentiation(if you struggle with it, try find out the logs method- it’s a gift!)

Irish: Praying for an essay on politiocht or spoirt, I doubt the recession will come up again. For paper two, Clare sa Spéir, An Bhean Óg and Fiche Blian for the prose; Jack, Nil aon Ni and Bimse for the OL poetry and Uirchill an Chreagain and an tOilean for the HL. Really can’t see them putting any of the poems from the last two years up on the HL, not after last years infamous “fiasco”.

Biology: Horrible feeling protiensynthesis is coming up, photosynthesis too, wouldn’t be surprised if the osmosis exp came up with it. Ecology with the food tests is what I’m going with from section one. As for the three questions from section three, they are anyone’s guess!

English Paper Two: I had to laugh when I seen Paddy Power have offered odds on what poets are coming up. Longley and Boland are dead certs apparently, but expect a nasty question on Longley, as just about the entire country is expecting him! Yeats and Kavanagh also seem probable. A question on Lear himself hasn’t been asked in a while, so that would be most welcome! Literary genre and Vision and viewpoint are most likely for the comparative.

French: I really hope the France-Ireland incident comes up for an opinion piece, just about all the country will slate Thierry Henry and his famous hand! The economy too I reckon has a fair chance.

Having said all that, it’ll be interesting to see what eventually has made its way onto the paper, chances are I’m completely wrong, but I’d say I represent the hopes and views of most!
I’ll probably blog Friday to let people know how it has gone. Until then, if you’re finished your exams, I hope you’re enjoying this horrible weather. If you’re like me, the very best of luck over the next two weeks, and remember, there’s no points going for being nervous! The exams themselves are just a means to an end, and by end, I mean a whole new beginning.

Cillian

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

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

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

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

Cillian.

All Irish did however was give me a big head for French. Maybe arrogance is a trait of the French, but not a good trait going into the exam. So for the following few days, I was convinced all I could do was wing it. That was until I did a mock oral with a friend. And then it hit me, I’m gonna have to learn this stuff… Me and French have never really got on well. It has always had its ways of annoying me. Not being particularly blessed with great teachers for the JC, and finally when we get a good teacher for the Leaving, she decides to leave us two weeks before our Orals to adopt a baby! Granted she hadn’t planned to leave so soon, but we’ve now had three different French teachers in three weeks, with our current one only staying if they cannot find a replacement! So with no teacher pressure, preparation kind of slacked off. I can honestly say I learned to speak the language in five days. Writing a language will only get you so far, but you really have to be speaking it regularly to get any sort of fluency going. So for five days I studied nothing but French despite Economics and Chemistry tests in between (still got 91 and 95 respectively!) I threw together some brilliant notes. I had sentences prepared using all the irregular subjunctives and what have you. Everything learned of to a tee on any subject. I still felt apprehensive about the whole thing, as I had only ever spoke French once before to a fluent speaker, while with Irish I had countless encounters. Reports said she was nice, and spent up to six minutes on the Document with some people, I had ten minutes prepared on it. Before going in, I downed half a bottle of Rescue Remedy. For those of you that don’t know what it is, It’s a whiskey-like substance with much the same side-effects I suppose. So I strolled into the room, reeking of alcohol. In hindsight, not clever. I think she knew something was up. I started with a warm ’Bonjour Madame, ca va?’ to which I just got ‘Bien’ back. Grrrrr. What about me and my ‘Je suis trés nerveux madame, c’est eprouvant!?’. That kind of set the tone for the exam. She sounded exactly like the woman off the SEC listening tests. She was a native French speaker and that worried me a little. Within a minute of the exam, she asked me if I liked ‘to shoot birds’. What the hell! How do I know this is what she asked? She turned to the side the imitated someone shooting a recoiling shotgun, I kid you not. I tried not to laugh, and began to wonder if I was drunk and hallucinating things. I muttered a childish ‘Euh…. Non, j’aime les oiseaux’. Thanks. That wasn’t the end of the bizarre questions, out of nowhere, I got a ‘So why do young people today not go to mass?’. That really threw me. I ended up giving a conflicting response and at that point I truly felt like a French man, like giving up that is. Thankfully this women picked up on a few hints. I managed to talk about the economy and NAMA for a minute or so and that was my saving grace. I weakly managed a regular subjunctive and that was it. I always thought that getting these questions during an Oral was a good thing and a sign you were doing well, but in my case, unequivocally not. I really came across as being a weak higher level student when really I am normally one of the better ones in the class. The standard is poor enough as it is and French really was my place to shine. I guess not. I would have hoped for a B from both. Irish I’d imagine so but in French, a very mediocre C. It annoys me because it’ll be a toss up between the two for my sixth subject on the day, and seeing as I got a B in the mocks in French, it’s looking less likely that it’ll make that B category come August.
If I can give any tips to fifth years, it’s to get cracking on the Oral section as soon as you return in September. Try hold a conversation in whatever language and it’s amazing how it helps. All this year there has been people I just spoke Irish to and it really gives you the confidence speaking it on the day.
I’ve decided to take the evening off as a reward, not that I’ve done much, but with 47 to go, I’m taking one last break before tearing into it for the last six or so weeks. Instead, I’m writing articles for our School Magazine, or prep for English Paper 1 as I call it. We just got our student profile forms for the yearbook, so that’s a sure reminder that the year is quickly coming to an end. With just over four weeks until we graduate, one feels that the Leaving Cert is just around the corner.
I hope the Orals went well for everyone else!
Aurevoir!

All Ireland Senior B Colleges Semi-Final. Last Saturday. Two points. Two bloody points off a schools All-Ireland. Beaten by a team from Tipperary no less. Tipperary? I didn’t even think they knew what a size 5 was down there. Seven points up at one stage, and thrown away. Their Machiavellian approach to sport is comparable to that of Edmund in King Lear, les grosse legumes (had to keep it educational)! Imagine getting to an All-Ireland final in football, it would have been a class way to end school. But hey, I still have a Dublin and Leinster medal in my pocket. Anyway, that was my crappy start to the Easter break. I probably should start with an apology for the damage I inflicted upon our belle langue, Gaelique. Even reading over it I felt like throwing up. What it did make me realise is that my Irish grammar is like that of Shakespeare, utterly non existent. So I did a bit of research. Apparently this guy, Da Animfhocail, is going around making lots of extraneous rules about when two nouns come together. Fourteen years I have studied Irish. Not once has this guy ever been taught to me. For fourteen years, I have been convinced I was rubbish at Irish. Don’t get me wrong, I probably have the best Irish teacher in the country. But if you saw one of my Aistí, you would understand. There must be a good litre of red ink used per page with corrections, lots of slight spelling changes, sheimius and úrús. I took it upon myself to actually find out when to use these grammar points, but the use of an úrú after ’na’ was never mention. Baffled so I was by things like ’fadhb na ndrugaí’ yet ’na bhpaistí’ was mícheart. Me being Mr. Logical and all that. Baffled that is until today. Fourteen years this T.G guy has escaped me, until I accidentally stumbled across him today. I’ll admit, we touched on it in the Gaeltacht last year, but like Organic Chemistry, you’re not going to get it the first time around. So fun times ahead over Easter getting to know this T.G guy…

Time is quite literally flying out the window. This time two weeks, my scrúdubhéil (imagine, prime example of the T.G, I mean, wtf is a bhéil?) will be thart. Three weeks et mon francais oral sera fini. Eight weeks and I graduate. Imagine, no more school? Ten weeks, English Paper 1 will be completed. Twelve weeks and I’ll be re-capping on my last Economics paper. Not. I shall be getting rather merry with a few friends!
It really does seem like only yesterday I was going in to help the incoming first years acclimatise to secondary school life, and the day before that, as if I were a diminutive first year with my oversized bag. Funny how the bag condition has reappeared in sixth year. My current one could probably hold a decent sized first year. Discontent with getting a bottom locker this year, all my books remain in the bag. Couple that with a few days without shaving, and my friends claim I could pass as a suicide bomber, a disguise to go with my explosive personality. Ok, awful pun I know, but sixth year really does drain all humour from you.

As for the whole study situation, it’s going ok I guess. I haven’t really started killing myself just yet. We’ve had great weather of late. Great weather for study that is. I’ve been getting the Exam Brief supplements in the Irish Independent of late, and while I admit their useful, all I have managed to read so far is the student profiles. One girl claimed that recording all of the Chemistry definitions onto her iPod helped her remember them all on the day. So me being me, I copied her style for Chem. Biology and Economics too. And sure hey, if they are going to work for those, I may as well try it for my oral work. I’m not sure how successful it has been so far hearing myself ream off notes about A l’étranger, but it can only help! One thing I’ve noticed from doing masses of exam papers in Maths is that the exam is getting bloody harder each year. Algebra for example. Take any of the questions from the past three years. Easy? I shall think not! Now have a look at 1998 Q2. 5 minutes it took me to do the entire question and get the 50 marks. So to all of you who claim the Leaving Cert is getting easier and think ‘oh how hard it was back in the day,’ f!@# you! Your A1 in 1998 wouldn’t get you a C3 now!

Now that the hype of the mocks is dead and buried, it’s time for post mortems. English my best result? It’s probably evident from reading my blogs that it’s not my thing. Still, 78 left me over the moon. If I got a B2 in the real thing, I would be rather satisfied! My B3 in French is another thing I laughed at when I saw the result. Albeit a four year old mute could answer the comprehensions and get full marks, I was still pleased. Again, a subject I expect to see a C beside in August. As for the other four. I know in my heart and soul I am capable of getting A1’s in Chemistry, Economics, Biology and Maths, but a serious amount of work needs to be done. A serious amount of work = time, and well time, it’s something we’re all running out of. I got 460 in the mocks. I set that exact aim last October and thankfully I reached it. Looking around and seeing some people not even reaching triple digits is worrying, I have a friend who improved by 250 points from his mocks, albeit he 90 in them. But I really have to break 500. It’s not like I’ve a choice. Actuary was 530 in UCD last year and 485 in DCU. With applications up by 10%, it’s going to rise. Being honest, I’m not sure if I would be happy doing Primary Education or Economics and Finance in NUIM. It’s not that I think they are below me, but I love a challenge. I like to think of myself as a bit of a workhorse, and frankly, those courses are quite laid back. So how fitting, I’ve to work my socks off to work my socks off for the next four years, or I can take it easy, and take the next four years easy! Some reward eh?
Anyway, I shall wrap up, I’ve a date with this Tuiseal Guinideach guy, I’d hate to be late!
Enjoy your Easter, well except for those in sixth year, as that would be awful advice! As a learned man once told me,
‘Avoid present pleasures for future happiness’
Bon(ne) chance

Thainig rud maith amahain ó na ramhscrudú, fuair mé kic mór suas mo thóin! Thuig mé an realtacht den saol ar chead uair. Dá gheobhainn na tiorthai seo, gheobhainn ‘offer’ amhain ó an CAO, eacnamiochta i Maigh Nuad. Táim ag cónaí deich kilometres ó NUIM, ach beidh gach waster i mo scoil ag dul ann, agus gach daoine eile a aitint liom. Agus an chursa freisin, meh. Is aoibheann liom eacnamiochta, ach níl sé an rud ceanna le actuair. Ní chaillím dochas a faigheann leigis tar éis an HPAT, ach beidh gá orm a gheobhaidh timpeall 540. Tar éis mo reamhscrudu, ní fhios agam más féidir liom….

An reasuin eile a scriobh mo bhlog i nGaeilge, fuair mé amach go bhfuil mo mhathar ag léamh é. Sin  saghas ait i mo thuarim! Agus mar tír ghrá orm! Is aoibheann liom an teanga, agus ba mhaith liom a bheith liofa leis í, ach bhí mo chaighdean an ísle riomh cúíg bhlian. Ach is laoch í mo mhuinteoir ag an am seo. Tá sí ag toghtha mo rang Gaeilge go dtí Conamara i rith Casca go dtí a Gaeltacht. Tá 24 daoine i mo bhlian ag deanamh ardleibheal i nGaeilge as 125, agus i scoil cailini in aice linn, tá trí ranganna lán le daoine. Mo thuarim, tá buachailli cáic ar Ghaeilge!

Ar aon nos, aon daoine liofa ag léamh seo, tá an bron orm. Tá sé pianmhar a leamh! Dheanfaidh mé tuilleadh iarraht sa chead blog eile.

Slan ar anois!

Anyway that’s before the exam even got underway! To be honest, it didn’t bother me in the slightest, but I see some people growing angry over it. We eventually got started some time just before 11. My biggest fear was blanking on the first Q, like I did in the practice test, but thankfully it was very straight forward, basically working back through a sequence of cards (I hope anyway!)
Section 1 in general went ok, it was my worst section in the practice test, so I knew I’d have to be sharp. I heard a few people say after that some of the questions were exact replicates of last years exam, hardly fair! Most Q’s went well, except for that mostquito one, horrible, just couldn’t comprehend. Otherwise, most of them were fairly good educated guesses. I timed it perfectly which was a great help, just finished as time was up!
I presumed there was a gap in between the sections considering the test is only 2.5 hours abd they say to expect to 4.5 hours from start to finish. But no. ‘Pencils down…. and you can now start section 2′. Deadly. This was everyones best section seemingly in the practice booklet, but let me tell you, they are so much harder in the real exam. It left me feeling like a social recluse. I think I might just have to get tested for Asbergers! For every question, there seemed to be atleast two right answers. Not only that, the section was more of a vocabulary test than anything to do with interpersonal skills. I know some of it is down to my own ignorance, but whether the doc was ‘nonchalant’ or had ‘unpreturbed patience’ hit me for six. I went for the latter, thankfully(again, I hope!), but if I learnt one thing from the test, I can add nonchalant to the list of adjectives used to describe me!!!
The ambiguity of the section I feel killed me slightly, but I’m hoping it went ok! The passage involving the aunt and sisters was quite horrid too, almost in impossibility for me to grasp what was going on!
Finally section 3 came around, while a lot of people I know hate it, it appears to be my forte for some bizzare reason. I loved this section because it’s the only one where you can be sure of having the correct answer. For some of them, I didn’t bother looking at the answers, but drew out what I thought the next picture was, and usually to my joy, there was one there! It was actually a joy to do this section and I managed to finish with about five minutes to spare. Without doubt, this was my best section. Whatever identifying sequences has to do with suitablity to medicine, let alone intelligence is beyond me, but I for one am glad it was on the test. I suppose this left me feeling a little inflated and confident after the test, which is good in a way I suppose. I’m looking forward to seeing the results, I’ve always scored well above what I should in apptitute and IQ tests, so I guess this HPAT thing suits the likes of me in a way. We’ve to wait until the 28th of June I believe to get the results, so fingers crossed I’ll be lying on a beach in the south of France with good news that morning!
Althought then there is the possibility it went absolutely awful, I know I sound a tad cocky from this but believe me I’m not, I’ve no idea how I done. In fact I doubt there’s a person who did the test who can tell how they really done. People have asked me for predictions, but it’s impossible. I mean I’m up against the top 3,000 or so people in the country, and to compare myself to them in an aptitude test, impossible. Being pragmatic however, unless I get 170+, there isn’t a chance. And then I wonder am I mad even applying for medicine.

Anyway anyone else who’s done the test, it’d be great to hear your views on it, seen as there wasn’t too much thread activity about it, especially those who did prep courses, did ye find they helped? I heard a few say they were of no use on the day…

Elsewhere, mock results are back, well three anyway. Four words to describe them, Kick. In. The. Arse. Apparently I did better in Irish than Economics. How I laughed when I discovered this. And then got a massive slap across the face when I realised it’s one of my A1 subjects. The only consolation is that the highest in the class was 63, and that’s the guy in our year who’s destined for 600. Anyway, our teacher who’s an Economics corrector for the LC rechecked his paper and it turns out he got 90! All of our papers are being rechecked this weekend, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll have gone up a bit seen as I wasn’t too far off 63! I’ll post my results as soon as I have them all, fingers crossed by next weekend! Biology has turned into somewhat of a disaster! We got our 3rd teacher in two years on Tuesday. She came in and told us we were basically f¥€@ed as we’ll have the course done with just three weeks to spare. Not only that, but rumor has it she’s gone again on maternity leave after coming back for just one day. It’s a pity because she’s suppose to be a brilliant teacher, but here we are, once again, teacherless! Rumor also has it our teacher from last year is coming out of retirement to finish the course with us, epic or what! As long as we can get her to stick to the point and not ask her class wasting Q’s such as ‘Miss, what would happen if I ate the guy next to me?’ or ‘is it possible to bread a human and horse?’, we should be grand, as she’s the type who would go into great effort to scientifically explain it to us! Anyway, I’ve just realised how ridiculously long this post must be. Ooops. I really should be studying. In truth I haven’t done any really study since the week before my mocks, which is exactly a month ago. Yes Cillian, model student! I apologise for any spelling mistakes, the whole blog was written on an iPod so there’s my excuse! I’ve become slightly pedantic lately, so I’ll probably corrrect it. But then again it’s me, I’ve gotten very lazy, so I probably won’t!

Anyway, it’d be interesting to hear your view on the HPAT if you took it?!

Mocks have come and gone, and not quite as bad as I thought. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best I suppose. It was crazy to see the amount of people trying to find out what was coming up. And I’m not talking about the typical no hopers. Some of the cleverest people I know had seen the papers before hand. What, could they not contain their excitement to see what was coming up? That’s probably not the answer but even still, they ruined the whole point of the mocks in doing so.

For me, it was getting the timing right. I’d never sat down to do a full paper in one go before so it was great to see what timing is going to be like with the LC. I managed to time everything pretty ok, and got everything answered and usually an extra question or two (or even all eleven in Chemistry!). English paper 2 was the only exam that I was writing until the very end, I never thought it was humanly possible for me to 21 a4 pages, but with only two or three words per line, I suppose it wasn’t too difficult! The only exam that went bad as such was Maths paper 2. I started a Biology paper at 7:30 that morning and ran a cross country race in between, so by the time Maths came around I was mentally exhausted! As far as I know I had all DEB papers, how did everyone else find them?

It’s less than a week to go to the HPAT and usually I’d start getting a little apprehensive about such an event by now, but I don’t think I will be. I’m doing it in Trinity which is handy ,seen as it’s closest, but everyone else I know got UCD. As for strategies for the test, I’ve got a few worked out, so hopefully they‘ll happen! I’ve been contemplating lately the thought of if I actually was offered a place in Med school (even though there‘s ridiculously little hope!). I don’t know if it’s something that would suit me. Don’t get me wrong, I love science and the idea of helping people, but the workload I’d be taking on, it’d be like re-sitting the LC another 5 times! If I was to get in though my dream would to end up in the army, that’d be my route in!
So now for the dramatic irony, because I’m not too pushed about doing well in the exam (well of course I still want to do my best!), I’ll end up doing better in the exam than if I was hell bent on getting a place in Med school! (Nerves do get the better of me sometimes!)
So if I do get in, I’ll owe it to the fact I didn’t really mind, I kind of like that!!
It annoys the hell out of me though when you hear ‘Oh well you really have to want Medicine to get it’ comments. Absolute BS! If that was the case there would be a bloody attitude test and interviews, not an aptitude test!

That then got me thinking about my other choices on my CAO, like Pharmacy and Actuary. Frankly, all the have in common is a y of their names. Pharmacy is third and fourth, while Actuary is fifth and sixth. Being pragmatic(I hope!), I’ll end up doing one of these. I’m having serious problems deciding which one however. I went on work experience back in the good old days of TY in the local Pharmacy and really enjoyed it. I mean the guy who owns it is the nicest you’d ever meet, an inspiration of sorts. But then I sat in on two Actuary lectures in UCD and DCU during the week on economics and absolutely loved them. I met up with a guy who got 600 in his LC and he claims to love it. So I’ve been thinking, maths and economics or chemistry for the next four or five years? Hmmmm….

I have my French oral left to do later this week, and to be honest, I can wait for it. I said I’d practice for it over the midterm, but I thought I deserved the week off! I started reading Wuthering Heights again for my English comparative. And when I say again, I mean for about the 6th time, I just can’t read the bloody thing! I’ve lived off chapter summaries from the internet to find out what actually happens because I could never follow. Finally I’ve started to start comprehending what’s going on for myself! I used to love reading but ever since I’ve started secondary, sport has just taken over and I’ve never really had the time to indulge in a good book!

I’ve decided to give up Facebook for Lent, forty days I thought I could handle it. And then I discovered Lent is actually forty-seven days long, never have I felt so cheated! But it’s probably a good thing, there’s nothing worse than spending copious amounts of time on stuff like that and the feeling after. Although I’ll probably just replace it with MLIA!

I reckon it’ll be a while before any results come back, but fingers crossed by Paddy’s Day I’ll have everything back! Best of luck to all of ye doing mocks this week, and the HPAT too!!!!
Slánners!

I start mine this Wednesday. My timetable isn’t too bad, I suppose, three full days and four half ones. There’s none I’m really dreading, usually it would be Irish and French but I feel I’ve done enough for them this time. I probably should feel a little bit more worried about the exams, but any fellow sixth year I’ve talked to has proclaimed they’re screwed, so I suppose I can take some comfort in that.

I had my mock Irish oral during the week. After spending 3 weeks in the Gaeltacht over the summer, I didn’t think too much preparation was necessary, so much so that I lost my sliochtanna the weekend before and read it for the first time in the exam! Needless to say it didn’t go half as well as I thought, I most certainly won’t be trying to wing it come the real one. I still managed to get 99/150 for ten minutes of awkward conversation so I guess it wasn’t all bad! French orals are the week we come back after mid-term however; they are one thing I am not looking forward to! Speaking French has never been a strong point of mine, and never do I regret not going on a French-exchange back in TY more so than now!

I was fortunate enough to attend an Open Evening in UCD a few weeks ago for people interested in Actuarial and Financial Studies. It seemed pretty good, I got to chat to one of the lectures about the course and it seemed pretty interesting, the only think is they expect the points to rise this year so that’s a bit of a bummer seen as they were 530 last year.

Sport seems to be one thing that’s going right this year. Tomorrow our schools in the Dublin Colleges football final, so with a bit of luck, we’ll bring home some silverware. This is my fourth final with the school, and yet to win anything, so fingers crossed, it would be nice to leave the school with something! Cross-country season is back in full swing. We were up in DCU last Wednesday for the annual invitational, and our Senior team came 3rd so all in all, a good day out. The West-Leinster event is on this Thursday however, so that means I’m in school at 8 in the morning for Biology, off to the race, and then back to start Maths paper two in the evening, fun or what!

Thursday week I finish with Economics and then off for a week. No plans as of yet but looking forward to it immensely!

Best of luck to all doing exams, remember, come August they count for nothing! Bon courage!

One positive thing I did do over the Christmas was go to the RCSI Open Day. I won’t go into too much detail because the day was perfectly summarised in Ally’s blog, but it was awesome! The place to me has been the best med school so far, just far more friendly and warm than Trinity or UCD. The staff and students were all really nice and it was great to hear the course from a students perspective than just lecturers. And for the best thing, out of the three med schools in Dublin, the points were lowest in RCSI! Pharmacy was another course I was really interested in doing and it seems really good there. One thing that impressed me above all others about the College was the atmosphere portrayed by the students. Unlike TCD or UCD where the place feels very impersonal, the RCSI has a very small population where everybody seems to know everybody!

One thing my day at RCSI actually gave me was the will to start back studying! Up until then, I had taken a full two weeks off and had no desire to start back. The day however put things in perspective, regardless what I wanna do next year, I’m gonna have to do some serious work between now and June, I’ve officially marked January 15th as the half-way mark in the year, so the easy part is almost over!

Mocks are rapidly approaching too. 28 days in fact! I’m lucky in a sense that our course in almost every subject is complete. Biology is the one we’re a little behind on. Getting another new teacher when we go back, our 3rd Biology teacher in 3 years!

Although this Christmas wasn’t one for study, it gave me a chance to hit the gym and go out running more often! I got a Nike+ iPod sensor for Christmas. For anyone who doesn’t know what they are, it’s a little chip you put into your runner and it connects with your iPod to give you all sorts of information about your run such as distance and speed! I’ve got 50km run since Christmas Day so hopefully it’ll continue!
As for New Years Resolutions, I’ve decided I’m gonna run the Dublin Marathon in October. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 8 so hopefully it’ll work out!

I’ve just registered to sit the HPAT also. Fingers crossed I’ll get a place in Dublin. The last thing anyone would want is to get up at 5 in the morning to go to Waterford for the test! Anyone know if it’s only the RDS they use or is there other centres?

Anyway I better finish off, I still have and entire Irish Paper 2 and a Lear Q to start! Thank God I’m not back tomorrow! I’ll leave you with some funny lines I found that we’re “used” in English Leaving Cert essays, enjoy!

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease

The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for while.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

I got the chance to meet up with 2 of the other bloggers and a few more All Honours users on Friday night for a focus group with the founder of this website Patrick Barry. I have to say, the €50 from the talk was most welcome, considering the time of year! It was also great to hear about other peoples study habits from other schools and what websites they use to aid their study, so it was far from a waste of time plus I got to meet some really nice people!

Leaving Cert time table has just been published, finished this day 6 months exactly; scary or what! I only have one day with two exams so it won’t be too hectic, plus a decent break for Chemistry and Economics!

I took the liberty to fill out my CAO last week with Medicine occupying my top 3,  followed by Pharmacy, Actuary in UCD and DCU, Primary Teaching in Frobel and lastly Fiance & Economics in Maynooth! It’ll be interesting to see how that changes between now and July 1st!

Christmas Exams report arrived in the post during the week too, 100 in Maths. 97 in Biology, 90 in Economics, 86 in Chemistry, 80 in English, 68 in Irish and 64 in French. They were by the best I’ve done, but the chances of me doing that well in the LC are fairly slim!

So 2 days before Christmas, everyone excited?:D I’ve beaten all previous records and finished my shopping a full 5 days before the big day! No idea what I’m getting but that’s all part of the excitement! This year is going to be completely different to previous years, with my previous two Christmas holidays being full of Young Scientist work. Sadly, this year it is going to be replaced by study and gym work! How much study I actually do will be intesting as I usually make great plans to do work, but it never materialises

Thats all for now folks! HappyChristmas everyone and I hope Santa comes to all

We had our parent-teacher meetings this week. It went pretty well, all the teachers seem happy so that’s always a bonus! Got my English result back, 80%! Seriously surprised myself seeing as I never achieved anything more than 75 in any previous test! That brought my points tally up to 545 which was a serious shock seeing as I only got 425 in the summer, just shows what a bit of study can actually do!

I did a mock HPAT test from the practice booklet last weekend. Section 1 seemed impossible! Time was a serious issue so it was mostly quick guesses. Section 2 and 3 I flew through however. I was a little annoyed to learn ACER won’t release a marking scheme for the test, despite forking out the guts of 30 quid for it. I got the mother to correct it and managed to get 72/110 which equates to about 65%. I then found out each section carried equal weight which meant I scored a pretty impressive 201 in total. That’s what worried me though. That would put me in the top 2% of people that took the test last year and well frankly; I don’t think I would manage to fit into that percentile! I did it under proper time conditions but my score seemed a lot higher than expected! Anyone know of anyone who done any of the practice tests last year and how they fared in the actual thing?

One full week of school left till Christmas =] Have yet to start shopping, yet alone thinking about what to get people. Despite promising myself every year I won’t leave it until the last minute next year, it’s almost two weeks to the date now, and I know I’ll still be out shopping Christmas Eve!

But hey, 18 the day after, I think I’ll defiantly deserve my few pints St. Stephens night!!
Au revoir mes amis!