Dear State Examinations Commission,

Thank you so much for putting the French paper the day after Irish. It wasn’t confusing in the least. I also must express my joy at being able to spend around six hours today writing until my hand was very sore indeed. History right after French – who’s genius idea was that? Thanks, though. Seriously, it was just great.

Sincerely,

Annoyed Leaving Cert student.

On a non-sarcastic note: French was harder than last year! Not fair! Hah. History, by comparison, was a lot nicer than last year’s hideous paper. It wasn’t perfect, but at least they finally put up Church/State relations! I cobbled together something on each section, so we’ll see what happens. I was delighted that the Apprentice Boys didn’t come up like some folks thought it might. I can’t imagine trying to get 1.5/2 pages on that!

Et alors, French I will keep up with in some way or another, because I love the language; history, on the otherhand, well all I can say is see you later cramming dates and names of boring events! I can pick and choose the interesting stuff from now on.

Five subjects down; two to go. At last, the end is near!

Good luck if you’re sitting anymore exams this week. Four day break for me!

9.30am – 5.10pm must be someone in the SEC’s sick idea of a joke. I’m exhausted!
However, I am buoyed by the fact that: a) I never have to do maths again and b) I never have to hear that really annoying Ulster-Irish fella on an aural again!

Overall, honours maths was ok-ish. I’m hopeful I might have managed to scrape a bit more than last year’s D3, anyway. Paper one was quite nice, but I didn’t think it was the “seriously easy” exam some people were calling it. Paper two this morning went far better than I thought it would. I was in such a panic about it last night, but I managed to have a go at most of the questions so there should be some attempt marks anyway! Question two on vectors was lovely, but to be frank I couldn’t barely READ the option question (Q8), let alone do what it asked! Ah well, no more Maclaurin series for me either way!

Irish paper one wasn’t horrendous, but it wasn’t the lovely paper I wanted it to be. I wasn’t impressed by the essays at all! How many people in the country would be able to write about Ireland’s future in the EU in English let alone as Gaeilge?! Why bother putting an essay hardly anyone is going to do on the exam?
The first comprehension was tricky enough, but good old Ted Kennedy’s one seemed straight forward enough.
As for the aural, it went fine, but once again I can’t express my joy at never having to hear from “Seán” or whatever his name is again! I was secretly glad he didn’t get to go to Oxegen..

Good old Irish paper two is tomorrow, so I’d better go cram some of the ridiculousness that is “Stair na Gaeilge”. Cad is fiú é?! Then it’s French on Wednesday. French the day after Irish, I’m telling you, whoever makes the exam timetable has a twisted sense of humour!

Good luck!

Finally, finally, after seven long years of analysing poems, plays and novels I can safely say: I never have to sit an English Paper again!

It’s not that I don’t like English as a subject, I actually really do, but English exams can be so horrible and are definitely bad for your writing hand!

Paper one yesterday was relatively straight forward. Parts of it were a bit tricky, but luckily I could avoid those given the degree of choice we have. I did Part A from Text 2, which wasn’t the worst comprehension I’ve ever seen; Part B from Text 3, for which I wrote a not-very-exciting radio talk about books; and from the composing section, I wrote a graduation speech. It wasn’t the best paper I’ve ever done, but I was happy enough with it.

Paper two is just over and honestly, I thought it was a very nice paper. Sadly, time was against me (even though we’re given so much of it!) and I didn’t write as much as I’d have liked to. The King Lear question was very nice, quite broad too. General Vision and Viewpoint was a beautiful question, I really wish I’d done it justice! As for poetry, I instantly felt terrible for everyone who was banking on Boland to appear. Incorrect predictions are a horrible part of the Leaving Cert; it happened to me last year with Longley. Thankfully, this year I knew more than one poet and I had a choice between questions as opposed to no question at all! I thought the Kavanagh question was quite nice and I hope I answered it ok. The unseen poem wasn’t especially complex. I came up with some sort of interpretation of it and threw it down as a “personal response”.

I’ve put all my English notes into a pile and while I’ll refrain from burning them for now, I don’t want to look at them for a very long time!

Time to get stuck into some maths now. Hope everything is going ok for you so far. Good luck tomorrow with maths and geography if you do it!

Here we go then, this Leaving Cert business starts today. Just a quick post to wish you all the best of luck. Stay calm, you really do know more than you think you do!
I’ll try and blog about all the lovely exams as they happen (if I don’t get distracted by last-minute cramming!) so let me know how you’re getting on!

English Paper One is in a shockingly short amount of time, so I’ll leave it at that.
Once again, good luck and see you on the other side!

Hello again. I think it’s time I stopped letting this blog gather dust and returned from my cyber-wilderness. I shan’t make excuses, in truth I have no justifiable ones, but I shall resolve to update this more often.

Oh dear, there are only two or so weeks left until my mocks start. Fantastic.  I think the panic is starting to set in just a little bit. Only a little bit though, I’ve done this before so you can trust me on one thing: the mocks are not very important. Grades wise, I mean. They do have their uses: they are a wonderful eye opener for those students who have yet to “wake up and smell the coffee” as my teacher put it the other day. And He’s right.  If you have yet to get stuck into the books, don’t panic.  Much. Panic a little bit, then take that horrible sense of dread that you will probably get as you walk into your mocks and get very familiar with it. Now try not to forget it as soon as your two weeks of fake-exams are done. Hold on to it. Channel it into some…and there are those of us who may not be very familiar with this word…s-t-u-d-y.

Seriously.  I’m not even joking. I’d never felt so scared in my life when I went to do my mocks last year, but unfortunately I forgot all about that horrible feeling as soon as I handed up my last paper. Consequently, I had to experience it all over again in June. For the non-fake-exams. Which was even worse..

Let me know how you’ve been getting on with the aul’ LC, whether it’s take one or take two (or you’re Laura Brady and doing it for the 57^th time).

Good luck with your mocks!

Sinéad.x

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday”, or so said Don Marquis. Well, Mr Marquis, story of my life. I spent the better part of sixth year mastering the art of procrastination. I could put off anything -homework, housework, study – like a pro. Bad idea. Procrastination and the Leaving Cert go together like Fianna Fáil and the Green Party – seems like a good idea to some at the time, but in the end this combination just doesn’t work out.

Hello, I’m Sinéad and, as you may have guessed, I’m repeating the Leaving Cert. I’m also taking it seriously this time. My last attempt at the Leaving Cert didn’t work out very well (and I’m not referring to the Paper Two fiasco!). I failed to comprehend the basic ‘formula’ that best represents this exam: success = study x time. There is nothing, let me tell you, that will engrain that formula onto your brain like sitting in a state exam not knowing how to answer any of the questions in front of you. It’s horrific.

My experience of sixth year was slightly odd. It never really hit me that I was doing the Leaving Cert. I felt no panic or need to study/work. Not in the run up to the mocks, not during the orals, not even the night before the English Paper One. Therefore, the two weeks I spent sitting my exams were, for want of a better term, a period of self-preservation. It was too late for dazzling results, so I opted to try not to fail anything. Intense cramming and 5am starts were involved, though I spent more time doing most of my exams then I spent studying for them. Not something I’m proud of.

I suppose now I should tell you what this last-minute approach resulted in. Well, 450 points*, actually. Not a score to be ashamed of at all. It got me my fifth choice in the first round offers – Law and Business in Maynooth. Looking back now, I didn’t put my CAO choices in the right order. My seventh choice, Economics and Politics in UCD, appealed to me more than numero five. (Ain’t hindsight grand?)

How many people have you heard of have repeated their Leaving Cert because they were five points off? I was five points off. Not five points short, mind; I had five points too many. Bitter pill to swallow.. Anyway, mistakes were made, lessons learned, etc, etc. I now know not to take the Leaving Cert too lightly. Yes, it’s not the be-all-and-end-all it’s made out to be at time, but it is important. Just as important is the CAO, which coincidentally I’m now totally unsure of, but perhaps there’ll be more ranting on that at a later date.

I’m a week into sixth year take two at my new school. It’s actually an all boys’ school (though obviously they let girls repeat there, I didn’t just wander in). I have become one of my good friend’s personal heroes because of this small detail. I don’t really see how it’s a big deal, but then again I went to a mixed school before this and she went to a convent all girls’ one. I offered to trade her for her college place and I’m pretty sure she was very nearly tempted..
I’m doing the same seven delightful (does sarcasm come across well in print?) subjects again: English, Irish, Maths, French, History, Economics and Physics. Repetition coupled with some courses changes and a new history project await me. Bring it on, I say. This time next year, hopefully both you and I shall be off in the big sch-moke, having the time of our lives. Here’s hopin’..

*Luck and generally jammy-ness played a significant part. I do NOT recommend following my hideous example! Besides, getting good points from cramming came back to bite me..karma’s a beach.