Hey everyone!

I hope you all are delighted with your results and had a great night last night! It’s all finally over after nine months of having to feign interest in subjects that you honestly couldn’t give  toss about. Although it will be really weird never going back to secondary school ever again and for many of us, moving away from home for the first time…I’m delighted it’s all behind now.

After going through the longest night of my life, I finally got my results at 10 yesterday morning. Since it was my second time getting my LC results, it really did feel like it was the last chance saloon. I was shìtting it when I got that big, horrible brown envelope and was wondering how it would go down at home if I decided to just not open it. But of course, my mother wasn’t going for it and as soon as I got back to the car, she took the envelope and opened it…..and it was the best shock of my life.

A C3 in french (I seriously thought that I had failed it!), B1 in English and Business, B2 in History, B3 in Economics and a C2 in Biology…..which means 455 points…a number I was not expecting. I was so happy that repeating had paid off, despite being so reluctant in the beginning. I’m glad I did it and I advise anyone who’s not happy to repeat if they need to. It is a lot of hard work and it’s hard as your friends go to college but it is incredibly worthwhile and if you want your course badly enough, I think it’s the best way to go.

It’s been a great year and I actually quite enjoyed it (but I know it’s easy to say that in hindsight!) I wish everyone the best for the future and hope it all works out!

Business used to be my favourite subject but after today I’d happily die without seeing it again! I was so confident that this was my A1 subject, the one that would definitely get me a place in college…yeah that didn’t exactly go to plan.

The short questions were ok, I attempted all of them. The ABQ was weird! There was none of those questions about entrepreneurial skills/characteristics or how Mary could survive against the economic downturn which kinda threw me. The long questions were sick! Q1, part a, scared the crap outta me so I moved onto Q3, which was only ever meant to be my back up question but ended up being my only question in part one.

The last 3 questions 4, 5 and 7 were horrible. I had an hour to do them all in which meant..STRESS!!! All in all I did a pretty crap paper, which I really wasn’t expecting! But the worse is still to come with french and history all day tomorrow!

History is probably the most awful paper ever, simply for the fact that predictions are useless because literally anything can come up. So, the plan is an all nighter tonight and study as much as I can of history and do a bit of french in the morning. Fingers crossed anyway!

Hope everyone’s getting on well!

For the past nine months (or however long), it was constantly said to me that Boland will be on paper 2. Now, I understand the whole concept of predictions and that they’re basically guesswork and that, but even we all seemed so convinced that Boland’s name would be there in black and white that I said feck it, I might as well just learn her!

Yup, I am that much of en eejit! I laughed and joke all morning about what I would do if she didn’t come up, thinking the chances of that happening to me were slim to none. Ha! Rude awakening, my friends. As soon as I got the paper I rushed to the back of it for the reassurance that I was sorted and it would all be fine.

Then I had a major freak out moment! She wasn’t there after checking twenty times…but gammy Rich was! Half tempted to run out there and then, I made myself stay and sort out the mess I made….SEC people….I hate you!! It was probably the worst paper I had ever sat. GV&VP was a bit of a bitch and it was all over the place.

King Lear however was a beaut of a question! Loyalty and honesty and all that jazz was an easy enough answer to write, so no complaints on that question! I’m off now until Tues so really have to get started on business, history, biology and french to make up for English! I was feeling kinda depressed after the exam and contemplating a life on gear but I decided who cares?! It was one exam..not really gonna dictate the rest of my life so it’s no big deal!

Peace!

First exam is always the most nerve racking….you don’t know what to do, what to expect…it’s just a really rubbish feeling. I slept for about 3 hours last night, the rest were spent freaking out about the worst topics that could come up and everything that could go wrong today. It was stress to say the least. And to make matters worse it’s the first time in years that it is actually raining during the leaving cert..wtf?! Bring back the nice weather!

Anyway, at about 9:30, the time had finally come to face the start of (possibly) the worst exams ever! The theme was the future so that kinda made me think it could actually be relatively easy. But then after a read through the comprehensions I was sick!! They were all SOOOO BORING! (No offence Heaney!) So I randomly picked Al Gore’s speech because it was the only one that didn’t bore me to tears. The questions were fairly easy..just bullshìt really for 3 pages.

Question B was nice enough too. I did the radio talk on the importance of books for our imagination and as a form as escapism…blah blah blah. That got 2 and a half pages because I don’t think I should have written more than 2. But then I looked at the essay titles and freaked. There were a couple of short stories and speeches but only one article. I was going to chance it with the short story about the two eccentric characters but then thought i’d better not seeing as my stories tend to end up….a little bit out there….and the examiner might have though I needed a counsellor or something so I stuck to the article about being a good neighbour.

It was 4 and a half pages of drivel from me on how to be a perfect neighbour and make everyone fall in love with you…i’m actually cringing thinking back on it!So, all in all, it was pretty average. But  I’m hoping to make up for that with paper 2 by learning every quote, theme, character, poet background as possible tonight!

Hope everyone did well and good luck in paper 2!

So, tomorrow is the beginning of a hellish couple of weeks for us all!  In a way I’m glad the time has finally come but at the same time..PLEASE GO AWAY AGAIN!! With less than 24 hours to go I’m quite scared and no amount of reassurance is helping my stress levels at this time!

I wish I could say that I’ve done the work and I’ll fly it but I can’t really as it would be a barefaced lie! I finished school 2 or 3 weeks ago and since then I literally couldn’t do a tap. I hoped that I wasn’t the only one doing the bare minimum in what I know is the most crucial time in the run up to the exams but no, it seemed everyone was working hard and learning their stuff..it was just me! This leaves me staring at the amount of stuff I have to learn and could have learnt and freaking out. Strangely enough, freaking out does not mean that Sophie goes doing loads of history or biology…it means that Sophie goes on facebook or on the phone!

I’m dreading English to be honest, especially paper one. I can bullshìt with the best of them but I have visions of not being able to write on some random topics that I have no interest in anyway. Paper two mightn’t be too bad (hopefully) as long as Yeats, Boland and GV&VP show up otherwise…they’re might be a few problems! I tried listening to countdown to 906 on 2fm to get some guidance but I didn’t find it as good as last year.

Well, this concludes today’s pointless blog. Just want to say good luck to everyone and I hope it all goes well for ye!

Hi all!

Ok, I know it’s been ages  since I last wrote a blog so today,  I decided to get my ass into gear. I have finally started to make progress on my study! It took a while to actually force myself to sit down and open a book instead of telling myself  “ah sure it’ll be graaand! I’ll do it later”…unfortunately later never seemed to come.

So, the mocks (yeah, I know they were a while back!) gave me a good kick up the thòn. 390 out of 5 subjects…not too bad but I need to improve by 100 points. My course is 405 but I’m aiming for 500 in case I decide to go to Maynooth or Dublin instead of Limerick. I Decision making is not really a natural skill for me. My future plans seem to change drastically every 5 hours these days but I’m sure that eventually I’ll get it figured out.

I dropped Irish this year, Thank God! I couldn’t face having to sit another oral this year after the disaster that was french. I’m still cringing when I think about it. I was first in on Friday morning. You would really think that I would have spent the previous night and that morning studying, but, no….I was too cocky. Y’see this year, my french has quite improved and as the examiner wasn;t asking the hard-hitting questions, I decided to wing it.. I’d go in there and wow her with my wonderful french vocab and pronounciation and I’d get an A in My Leaving Cert French and everything would be great!

These positive thoughts remained with me as I sat outside the room, laughing and joking with not a bit of french to be revising with me. I was cool, calm and collected. That was until the door opened and I was called in. Immediately, I thought of what would happen if I ran. I don’t know why but it was my first reaction to get the hell out of there! But I didn’t. I sat down and she began to talk to me. She spoke in french and I stared at her terrified.

I signed the roll thingimajig and she pressed the button. She told me to tell her about myself. So I started with the usual stuff of my name, age, family and then that was it. My mind went completely blank. She asked me questions and I had to force her into a horrible game of charades with her trying to mime what she was trying to ask me. I was still really confused. She asked me what I wanted to do next year. Study journalism in UL, I told her. I should have shut up then but I went on to tell her I worked as a journalist for two years.

I realised what I said. She looked at me confused…I’m only 17 and I am apparently an experienced journalist…I then had to elaborate about a job I never had. I silently begged her to leave me alone about it now. Then she asked my what I did on Easter Holidays. The first time I didn’t hear her, the second time I didn’t know what paques was and the five or six times she asked my again, she had to tell me in English. What did I do on my Easter holidays?? Nothing. So I shrugged and said “J’etudie.” (I don’t know if I even spelt that right.)

Then, she asked me what I was going to do during the summer. I replied I hope to work. She asked as what and to this I had no answer in french. So, I had an instant thought, french accent on an english word, they’d have to give a girl marks for trying. Except my french accent is worse than Gerard Butler’s irish accent in PS I love you which meant that when I replied waitressing, it came out sounding  Japanese. It was her turn to look at me blankly and that ended it. The longest 12 minutes of my life.

I ran out the door as soon as (I hope!) she told me it was over. The initial high of it all being over was great. It was only later when I thought about it I realised how awful it truly was. My dislike for French has now definitely bcome even more immense. But on the polus side my history project is completely finished!! So all I have to focus on now is the written exams in, what, six weeks now?

Seriously, cannot wait until June 23rd!!

Bonne chance!

Hey peoples!
I hope everyone’s well and, ya know, not freaking out or anything! So Mocks are here again! Everyone excited?! I’m not for one.
Is it only me that thinks the mocks are more intimidating than the actual LC? I freaked out completely last year about them and then by the time June came around, I was way past caring.
Tip for this year…save the mental breakdown ’til 9 June.
The timetable for the mocks is quite nice actually, Business and French on next Friday, mid-term and then back to it on the Tuesday…plenty of time.
It seems everyone and their mother is applying for college this year anyway so unless the Government finally decide to do something productive for this country…I’d say they’ll be fun times ahead.
So I’ve made sure that there is no space on my CAO application and have applied for every course relevant to journalism and business so here’s hoping I get into one!
I’m kinda kicking myself I didn’t do my CAO properly last year. It turns out I could have got into quite a few courses….bummer anyways!!
I’m off now to stare at my English notes and TRY to get some of it to stick in my brain!

Chat yaz!

Today was my first day back at school after nearly a month. How was everyone else’s? Mine was….painful to say the least. I loved seeing my friends again and having the craic but I was on a constant downer since last night when I realised I REALLY didn’t want to go back. I was tired, cold and like a complete antichrist! So, in between trying to keep my eyes open and stop trying to feel like sh!t in general, I tried to convince myself that I had to keep going to school. By the time I got to the school gate, I felt a bit better and more optimistic. I know what I want and I have to be willing to work for it, right?

But then the day got gradually worse. It turns out that I actually got more homework than I realised for the xmas holidays. So now I’m getting ready to start a few hours work on English, Business and Economics….eurgh! Now, I’m completely stressed with all that stupid work they expect to have us do on top of constantly reminding us that the mocks are in a few weeks. It’s not like we could forget!

I completely forgot how tired school can make you. It’s not even six and I’m ready to pass out! I need motivation right now…..and lots of red bull.

Chat yiz laters!!

Hello Everybody!!

Since it’s been aaaaages since my last blog, you might think I’d have a lot to say….Do I??!!! Um…no, not really….

Anyhoo, how’s everyone xmas been? I hope you all had a good one and said f*ck the study! My Christmas was pretty much spent doing Sweet FA…I barely even bothered getting dressed. But I needed the relaxing break of TV, endless cups of tea and DVDs. I’m all re-energised now though with nothing to do. So, I started my history project.

I actually love history but for some reason when it comes to tests such as the mocks and the actual LC, I can’t remember a thing! I spent 10 minutes during the last year’s history exam begging my brain to think of something about dictators but my brain let me down and I practically ran from the hall with the examiner thinking I was on crack or something. The worst bit was that for the mocks, I knew every single question that was going to come up so you think, easy peasy, right? Eh….no. I managed to fail that should-a been an easy A exam because I couldn’t think…at all! So, how do you study for history? I don’t exactly know but I will figure it out….later.

But for now, I’m focusing on my project, the one thing that doesn’t want make me want to reach for a bottle of vodka whenever I think of it. I’m doing mine on The Moors Murders. Why? I don’t know…because I can’t do something normal like The Titanic or The Holocaust, I have to go for the weird stuff. But I nearly have it done so yaaaay! Downside, I haven’t slept at night in a week…aaaargh! I really enjoyed doing the project though. It took a while to research and it involved getting in-touch with a distant cousin who now thinks I’m some sort of crazy nutjob with sociopathic tendencies (I’m not though…promise!)

On another completely random note…The CAO is completely finito. I’m adamant that I’m not going to change it on a daily basis like I did last year. Even though, I can’t make a decision to save my life, journalism in UL is my final 1st choice so fingers crossed this time!! I’ve lost my CAO number anyway so I can’t change it even if I do decide one day that I wanted to do psychology or something. I do that…A lot!

So, I think I’ve blabbered on enough now. I’m going to get going on my economics and the exciting chapter of…wait for it….International Trade…woo hoo!

(I’m such a wild wan really! )

G’luck Everyone!

Hey guys!

I can’t actually remember the last time I blogged. I’m terrible! I’ve become so lazy these days…I’m barely making it into school! But that’s been put a stop to since…..THE XMAS REPORT. I wasn’t really planning on letting my parents see it but they insisted that I give it to them. I always hated school reports. There’s always some comment or result I figure is safer not to let them see. But the results weren’t too bad…English 68, French 60, Biology 75, History 70, Business 86…fairly alright results for me but do you think the teachers could leave it at that…hmmm….no!

There had to be remarks about my high absenteeism from school. I had my father convinced that I didn’t actually have to go to school the full week and only really had to go for three days tops. Everyone was happy out with this arrangement..especially me! But now it’s been ruined. The teachers couldn’t just write good result or whatever, they had to point out the bad also. Is it really only me that understands that I can work far better at my own pace at home with my kettle at hand?? Now, my father is insisting that I go in…Everyday! That’d be fine except…I have 25 free classes a week! I don’t want to spend all that time sitting in a cold hall. And I get so much done at home….I really want to quit school…..

But on the plus side Joe won the X Factor!! He is actually sex on legs! Though my friend thinks he possibly bats for the other side…not my opinion though…himself and Mrs. Cole have deffo got something going on! And The Apprentice Final is on tonight….bets to whos gonna win?? Steve Rayner ftw!!

So, asides from the whole ‘I have to go to school thing’, Life is good!  Btw, does anyone know where I can watch Il Postino on the ‘net??

They watched it in English but….I wasn’t in….ok, maybe they do have a point….I also do have a lot of homework to catch up on….Oh shit!Gotta go!