Well I’m Stacy, I’m 18 and repeating the fabulous experience that we know as the Leaving Cert. Madness. Utter madness but here I am yet again. I will get it this time!!!

So I’m only doing six subjects this year:

French (H)

Geography (H)

Home Ec (H)

English (H)

Business (H) – taking up for the first time

Ag Science (H) – taking up for the first time

Yeah, that’s me now! So I’m hoping to do languages next year. I’m not exactly sure where I’ll go with languages but at the moment I’m thinking of law. Law with french in UCC is looking probable for CAO number one but we’ll see

I don’t mind school to be honest. Last year was a totally different story. Talk about a DISASTOR! I spent waaaay too much time in the bathroom with my best friends and not enough time in Art and Maths. We won’t get into those two just yet!

First blog completed, I really hope I didn’t bore you all too much, just yet any way.. You’ll be sick of me by the time we get to June. Which we will!

Stacy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maths-C1 (I honestly thought I had failed)

Irish-A2

English-B3 (I never read the novel for the comparative #winning) :L

History- C1 (Once again I thought I failed)

Physics- B2 (Oddly disappointed :/)

French- A2 ( I have nooooo idea where this came out of! I was so shocked )

Biology- A1

Points- 485

As I said, I am delighted Woke up many times during the night to check Boards for the CAO offers, even though I knew I had my course (Galway Science) but I still wanted to be sure. I had the gooniest smile on my face when I clicked accept

So, that’s it. The year is over and overall, it was hellish in parts but amazing in others. Galway here I come

So this was it. The moment we had all been waiting for. The product of  a year of pushing oneself to the limits, endless homework and long stressful study-orientated months.

I glanced down at the paper… and then I tallied my points up. I repeated said process three times to be sure. 555. There was no mistaking it. I had about 50 points more than I needed for my course (or so I should have, judging by entry last year). Here was my happy ending. Or perhaps, more aptly, my new beginning.

English: A1

Home Ec: A1

Business: A2

French: A2

Biology: A2

Irish: B1

LCVP: Distinction

Maths (pass): B1.

I was ecstatic. In all my months of studying, I had aimed for 525 at best. I had exceeded my own expectations and the feeling of combined relief and excitement was surreal.

To prospective Leaving Cert students- If I have any advice, it’s timing. Get it right. Whether it’s beginning a study routine, exam technique or even pencilling in a night out – it’s just a matter of finding the time to do it all. All work and no play will make you crack up. Fact. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get as much study done as you had intended way back in September, it’s never too late to throw yourself back into the LC ball game. Don’t listen to everybody else talk about their prison-like study hours… Do your own thing. It’s your life anyway, not theirs. You’ll get there. We all do. The Leaving Cert is a rite of passage and you’ll learn more about yourself in these two years than the previous four. Enjoy it.. or at least attempt to.

To Patrick Barry – Thank you for the opportunity you gave me by allowing me to blog for your website. Allhonours.ie acted as a medium through which I could vent my stress and exam concerns as well as hear from people experiencing the same thing. It allowed me to improve my writing abilities which I fully believe contributed to my A1 in English but most of all, it helped me document one of the most important years of my life.

To my fellow bloggers – I wish you all the very best of luck in college in September. We’ve heard so much about the amazing life of a university student, now it’s our chance to experience that for ourselves.

In my last post, I referred to the Leaving Cert as a domino that sets the rest of my life into action. Well, the path has been built. The momentum is present. All that’s left to do now is watch the whole show unfold… something I intend to enjoy ’til the last.

Sorcha x

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was one of my favourite subjects and so for me, Biology was a brilliant way to end the Leaving Cert. The paper was lovely (in my opinion) but I guess I should credit that to my excellent teacher and not entirely my own abilities. I actually found it to be the best out of all my exams, but then it’s a subject that has always clicked with me – it’s straightforward, no nonsense and almost completely composed of short questions. Although he who knows why male ducks migrate further south than females, please share your wisdom with those of us ignorant to the mannerisms of the duck community. I must have neglected those chapters in my last minute revision… But in fairness, it’s the kinda thing that’s meant on a David Attenborough documentary, not the Biology LC paper.

As for French, I found that relatively nice too. I mentioned before that I had spent time in France on an exchange, and so that really stood by me for the exam. However it has to be said that it was no help for the written side of things. I know I made some stupid grammatical errors, so if my results aren’t what I want them to be, I can rest assured it’s because of my opinion pieces. Structure is always the one to catch me out. Still, I was happy enough overall.

Moving on to Irish, it was a fair paper all round. I had left a substantial amount of work until it was too late… well, I thought I had. I guess the teachers are right about retaining information – somehow, most of it comes flooding back out of no where in the middle of an exam. Just as well too, because I lacked any form of motivation the night before. I was wrecked, my hands were numb from writing and in that moment I genuinely couldn’t have cared less what I said or didn’t say in the pending exam. Trust my rebellious streak to kick in days before I finish…

The following day, I didn’t have time to recover from all the writing in Irish as I had business to attend to. Literally. It was a paper I had previously struggled with, not because of it’s content but because of the timing allocated to the exam. Thirty two minutes for an ABQ? You must be joking. Forty is the average. But in such a structured exam, every minute counts. I finished it (thankfully!) with a mere three minutes to spare.  As far as the questions went, they were predictable enough. Not much on the EU front as far as I remember, but the break-even at the back was a nice treat.

Finally, I got a taste of my long-awaited freedom. I haven’t gone wild as of yet. I’m waiting until next Thursday when all my other friends finish up before the proper celebrations kick in! These past few days I’ve only gone out for a quiet drink or two and I’ve mainly spent my time reorganising things so that my life can get back to normal. My study is now clean, my diagrams are ripped off the walls and the “Hang in there kitty” poster previously mentioned a lifetime ago in my posts has been laid to rest. This kitty has hung in there long enough. Now that her stint is over, she needs her sleep. I didn’t realise it until my exams were over, but I was definitely in need of a serious amount of me time. Sleep, relaxation, sleep again… a day or two was required to wind down before I could get properly pumped up. Nothing is as sweet as waking up the day after you’ve finished exams and realising that this is the first day of the rest of your life.

To finish this post, I’m going to refer back to my final moments as an LC student. There were only three of us left in the exam room as the supervisor glanced at the clock, then towards us again as we all waited in the silence of knowing what he was about to say. I zipped up my pencil case in preparation. My exam paper was neatly folded. I couldn’t hold back a smile. This man, this absolute stranger, was about to say the words that I had waited to hear since this year began. It’s over. It’s finished. You’re done.

I will always hold a sense of nostalgia towards the Leaving Cert. It’s not that I feel any particular ties to the subjects nor the study itself (funnily enough), but it represented a part of my life that is evidently the domino that sets the rest into action. I walked out the front door of my school, down the steps towards my freedom and I swear… I never looked back.

Sorcha x

PS) My Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000484089032

So heres how the rest of the exams went

Maths Paper 2- I thought it was a lovely Paper. A few difficult c parts but nothing I shouldn’t have been able to do. That doesn’t mean it went perfectly, far from it. But I hope I managed a nice C grade

Irish I do pass so after 5 years of honours I found it a bit of a doddle. I was finished both papers after an hour so I’m not too worried about the outcome of them

French Je l’ai adoré Moi, j’adore francais donc je ne pense pas que cette examen est trop difficle. Maleheuresement je sais que ma production ecrit est faible. J’espére que j’ai gagné une b

History- Even typing this has me in tears. I cannot describe to you my disappointment in that exam. I had worked so hard all year. And not one of the essays I had prepared came up. I was just distraught. I started to panic and had to leave the exam hall. Anyone who does history knows how challenged we are for time but if I’d stayed I would have passed out. I managed to do two and a half pages on each question but it just wasn’t enough. I hopefully passed but I really cannot expect anything more than that. It was just heartbreaking. It was like Maths only 10 times worse. God, even thinking about it sends me into the depths of depression. So I’m not going to

Biology- What a weird paper? Like none of the usual things came up. In saying that, I thought it was pretty good There was alot of “from your knowledge of biology” type questions which is not how we’re trained to think. Couldn’t believe it when I seen plants in question 11 as well?

Just one more left; Physics on Monday. Overall the whole “Leaving Cert Experience” feels like its lasted forever. It seems like a year ago since we sat English paper two but we were actually in it this time last week! Crazy really. I’m just ready for it to be  over now and to start my summer I’ll blog again Monday after my LAST LC EXAM (I refuse to repeat )

Till then,

Niamh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck tomorrow everyone.

English was a beautiful paper for me all round. Who knew how accurate the country’s predictions would be? Diary entries for the question B, Claudius, Frost, Boland, Dickinson, Theme or Issue… I don’t mean to rub it in for anyone who thought it was tricky, but that paper could not have gone any better. I was thrilled! I did Frost out of sheer loyalty – he has never failed me yet in coming up in an exam, so I felt it’d only be fitting to choose him out of my prepared Dickinson/Boland/Frost combination. I was a tad surprised that neither Wordsworth or Hopkins came up, I assumed at least one would’ve appeared (and Hopkins would’ve been quite a nice one too), but I guess the examiners needed to keep some element of surprise to the exam… Again, I don’t mean for any of this to sound cocky, things just really worked in my favour.

My English was followed by Home Economics and although that exam was an overall reasonable paper, timing got me in the end. I literally was writing frantically up until the very last minute. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn’t have been so thrilled with myself about English? I was really hoping that Home Ec would be a good paper so I was disappointed that I set my pace too slow. I managed to get it all done, and I guess post-mortems are never of any help,  but I can’t stop wondering if I’ve done enough to get the results I was looking for. In a situation like mine where I need every point going just to scrap into a course, one grade lower than planned can be potentially devastating.

Finally there was Maths this afternoon. I do pass myself, so I can’t empathise with those of you who suffered that disgusting paper earlier in honours, though I’d say paper two will make up for the trauma of today. I’ll stay optimistic for you all, even light a little candle or two for all you mathematical geniuses – from experience I can honestly say that the prayers, the medals, the daily drowning of myself in holy water – it’s all been of great help so far. Divine intervention next week? Please and thank you! Although God can work in mysterious ways – here in Donegal we got a scare the night before the Leaving Cert began – we were told that despite it being June, we were due another bout of snow. Imagine. SNOW. I almost died. It only lightly featured the following morning thankfully… had it been otherwise I may have gone into cardiac arrest there and then!

My weekend shall be spent enveloped in Irish and French with some Business and Biology thrown in for good measure. It helps that the weather has taken a turn for the worst – no sunshine, just an abundance of downpours and a general state of overcast skies. I’m loving it! Pathetic fallacy? Possibly. However this time next week my Leaving Cert experience will all be a thing of the past – even thinking of its close proximity seems incredible. Perhaps the sun will come out again then? I live in hope.

As I’ve said before, I wish nothing but the best of luck to everyone next week. United we stand guys.  And as for the sun… well a very intelligent little red-headed orphan once claimed that it’s always on the cards for tomorrow, and that therefore the sunshine and happy times are merely only a day away. Story of our lives right?

Sorcha x

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

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

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

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

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

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

No such luck.

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

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

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

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

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

But damn, I really wish it was Christmas Eve.

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

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

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

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

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

Best of luck with the studying to one and all.

In my senior cycle I quickly became sick of the study routine, the perfectly worn uniform, the falling to pieces schoolbag. After TY things suddenly became alot more serious, it began to dawn on me that I wasn’t studying for my Christmas exams, I was studying for June 2011 – papers which would stand by me for the rest of my life.

In September of sixth year, I remember quickly glancing through my exam papers, bemusedly thinking how difficult some looked and how exceptional I was going to be at every subject in nine months time. I assumed that somewhere down the line, I would suddenly become an expert in all the subjects and be able to answer all the questions without hesitation. I believed that there’d be a eureka moment, where everything just clicked. Looking back on it now, sixth year was nothing like I expected it to be. Yes, there were the “clicking” occasions,  but these weren’t brought on by instant divine intervention, more so by hard work and hours of pouring over essays/writing out pages upon pages of answers.

This year was an experience to say the least. Over the past few months I have added several “firsts” to my school routine, things which in hindsight seem drastic and perhaps unhealthy, but also appeared to be a necessity at the time. I  have been the student who stayed up until 3am working on questions. I have gone into a class in tears because I was too tired to finish my homework the night beforehand. I spent two weeks solid getting up at 5am just to do well in class tests. I skipped so many social occasions that I was dubbed “The Hermit”. I gave up exercise. I took up exercise. I dropped it again. I went off my beloved Twitter and knocked back my time on other social networks. I studied until bedtime, going for weeks on end without watching any television. I’ve been close to the brink of exhaustion this year but now that it’s almost over, I feel a sense of achievement. Currently I’m not too stressed about the looming exams. I still feel as if there’s so much left that needs to be done and yet I simultaneously realise that there isn’t enough time to get everything I want to do covered, although given another few months I’d probably still say the same thing. I’m not panicking. I’m staying optimistic. I’m trying to keep my focus going for just a few brief weeks longer…

Yesterday was my last day at school. I assumed I’d cry but I didn’t. The truth is, leaving secondary school behind us isn’t the end, it’s the beginning. Those who have stood by us for the past few years aren’t going to leave simply because they’re destined for different universities or courses. The friends we’ve made who are meant to stay in our lives, will do so.  The lessons we’ve learned, the memories we’ve made and the growing up we’ve done will all stand by us throughout life… So in a bittersweet way, the Leaving Cert isn’t just an exam, it’s a rite of passage. It’s one of those things we need to work through in order to be equipped for the real world. It’s our passport to reality.

I doubt I will have any time over the next few weeks to blog again, so I’m taking this opportunity to wish everyone the best of luck in their exams and I sincerely hope that you all have a brilliant summer ahead. I promise to blog again once my exams are finished on the 16th (I do believe I’m one of the earliest to finish?) and maybe then I’ll have an even more grounded view of this Leaving Cert process. One thing I’m looking forward to doing once this is all over, is re-reading my posts on this blog from September onwards. It’s easy to forget the different stresses and opinions I had from the beginning right through until the end, and it’ll be something which I can keep as a constant reminder of the year that counted for so much towards the rest of my life.

See you all on the other side.

Sorcha x

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So we’re in the teens now, counting down the days. Can’t believe it’s gone so fast? 3 days left in school EVER and 27 days until I finish the LC. People always say that 6th year flies. In one way I completely get it but on the other I feel like I’ve been in LC forever.

What did everyone think of the Queen and Barack Obama’s visits? Some brilliant quotes for Paper One methinks. I honestly don’t think either one of them could have went better. The Queen’s visit was so symbolic, and helped to begin “a new circle” as Enda Kenny put it yesterday. “Didn’t he do well” a la Gay Byrne :L I was completely enthralled by Obama’s speech. The twittersphere went crazy with #IsFeidirLinn . I really wish I could have went but standing in the rain after travelling for two hours to see a dot just wasn’t appealing enough. If it was a nice day I definitely would have went. Knowing my luck if I went, I would have gotten a cold from standing in the rain, and then be sick for the exams. So couldn’t take that chance.

How’s everyone feeling in the run up now? Everyone is taking days of school (Like me today) and the year is getting seriously depleted. The tears have already started. I know i’m a sap :L All my friends laugh, but I’m genuinely sad. It’s not my friends I’m gonna miss, I know i’ll see them, and keep in touch. It’s all the acquaintances, girls who’s number’s I don’t have, girls who I’d meet in the hallway and have a bit of banter with, the random times our year goes mental.

Last Friday, we all dressed up as farmers and played a soccer match against the teachers. I wasn’t really looking forward to it but honestly, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in school.

We finish this Friday. Traditionally we play some prank or go mental but there’s nothing planned yet. In the morning we have our awards then we spend the day watching Public Speaking Videos, Talent Show Videos, Our Fiddler on the Roof and possibly our Form and Fusion. Unfortunately, I make an appearance in all of these Sure it’ll be a piosa craic?

So on the actual study front I’ve decided I’m not writing any more History or English essays. Anything I have at this stage I’ll learn and hopefully that’ll see me through. I’m coming to the end of the Maths Papers and they are getting seriously difficult. I’m gonna go back to 2010 after I finish 1997.

Oh and I decided not to sit the Applied Maths exam. I know some people think I’m crazy but honestly, I’ve never really given it the time it needs, I was probably gonna fail it again and I get to finish four days early, and I was never gonna count it for points. I still have my 6 honours subjects so it’s all good

We got out 6th year hoodies yesterday. Love mine so much And Spectrum (our yearbook) is coming on Friday. Loads of “Miss You, Good Luck” jobs. The sixth years get a booklet of profiles which our friends have written about us. Its basically

<insert student name> love to <insert embarrassing moment> with <insert boys name> and <insert another boys name> while saying <insert silly quote>

Ah it’s all in good fun. When we were writing them the whole 6th year was full of “OMG that’ s funny” and “Are we being to mean? No? Okay ” Anyone who takes them seriously needs to learn how to take a chill pill

That’s all for now I’ll be back again before the exams

Till then,

Niamh x

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!

I’ve been constantly reassured by my teachers that I’m on the right course. I’ve gone from failing history exams to passing them, to getting B’s and high C’s, with study of all things. I’ve gone from poor maths results to nothing lower than a 72% since my Mocks. English has been improving constantly, Music has been improving, I’ve currently locked in a 3 way deadlock with two others in my French class for BEST PASS STUDENT ( free window to lick and mc donalds voucher ) . Business i have been doing well because apparently my common sense answers are getting the marks and Economics hasn’t been touched.

I’m not sure what’s going wrong, but Business for me seems like I’m answering things in my own way, own examples. Getting the exact same marks. So it’s making me wary of my study. I’m not doing any of the laws or that. I’m getting through the course by knowing my ABQ’s and EU chapters since we are a very lucky year that covers us over both long question sections.

However, I do not want to coast. I did quite well in my mocks for such little work and i know i could achieve a course i need with the same lack of effort. It would be an arts course of some form, which i now am considering for other reasons. (LOL). I’ve thought about it tonight as i was booking olympic 2012 tickets ( Judo, Wrestling and Hockey btw ).

My parents have spent the guts of 25,000 € for my secondary school education.

That is a lot of money, especially when you consider there are people in public schools who will do better than me in the leaving cert. You could argue that I’m not just paying for an education, this will mould the person i am , some people would argue that’s a positive and negative thing. The qualities i have picked up in my school i would not have picked up else where. The girls i have given ample reason to call me a dickhead. The people i have met. The experiences i have had.

I’m not debating other people in other schools would not get molded to fine people, meet great people and have better experiences than i have.

I now want to get a good leaving cert because i don’t want that money to go to waste . I’m probably in a lucky position that I’ve been doing a little bit of work here and there, a bit extra over easter. This is the final motivational push that could end up getting me an extra 50-80 points in the leaving.

However i know i will relapse and be wary. I want to work in Radio or Media or Journalism. I was on the Radio tonight, took the show by myself for the first time ever and interviewed Irelands leading MMA promoter. Complimented after it. Then after it , invited up to cover the show on Saturday ( I was already going to ) now told the Hotel is booked anyway for the Friday and there’s a room down for me if i want it.

I’m daring to dream. I was told countless times by my guidance teacher he thinks i will be the rare exception to the rule, that i will be successful in life regardless of what i do. Personality counts for a lot more than points in the leaving cert and a bland CV. I didn’t want to hear that. That didn’t motivate me, that scared me and made me rest on my laurels the more i think of it.

You need a clear work station to perform well. My books are all over my desks in my room.I’m going to go upstairs now and re-arrange it so the two desks are together. So tomorrow when i am unable to go to roses house ( last blog, great study done outside in her garden last week. She took my phone off me which worked ) i will make myself sit down.

At the end of the day, I know I’m going to need to do a course of some form. My main want for the next few years is to train flat out in BJJ and maybe MMA. This could come in Dublin. If i have to do an Arts course to allow me to work on my writing and English. While plugging away training, meeting people , covering events and getting my name out there. It’s a viable solution. Probably not a poor back up either.

I type my blogs how i speak, so as you have noticed by now the short sentences, the commas which indicate breath,,,,marks. I’m sorry.

I suppose the hard work starts tomorrow. I mean, the work you don’t want to do ( Economics, History , Business definitions ). Just typing it out has made me not want to do it already.

A Tout a L’heure

Andrew.

Hope everyone’s enjoying the break. I know we have to study but as my year head said, we still have another 6 weeks of this, so take the break while we can. To people getting up at 6 to study, 1) Fair play yo you but 2) take at least one lie in before we go back. Personally, I don’t like getting up early, so I haven’t set an alarm so far. Sleep is to important, or so I’m told.

So the orals. French and Irish. They went reasonably okay. French firstly. Well our examiner was so nice Thankfully. Some people were annoyed she didn’t push them enough but I felt that I was able to show off what I knew. The hardest question she asked me was on my document. I changed it from the mock oral because there was too much scope. Now, it was a picture of my grandad playing the uillean pipes. She asked me how do you promote the making of uillean pipes. Turns out, there had been a report on the radio that morning about how uillean pipes were being shipped in from abroad. Just my luck, eh? I stumbled around it so I hope she was a nice marker.

Irish was pretty good too At the beginning of the week the examiner asked loads of really tough questions and had no difference in questions for honours and pass. Queue panic. People were crying, hyperventalating, learning of spiels about the floods two years ago, the differences between Fianna Fail and Fianna Gael (I didn’t even know there were any) and any other random question he asked. Well as it happened, he settled after Monday. I was on Wednesday and got to spend most of it talking about Science I got Sliocht 10, which is the shortest, I think?

43 days, 0 hours, 12 mins and 26 secs left.http://LCTimer.com #LeavingCert

Got that tweet this morning. Any time someone tweets the word “Leaving Cert”  this bot tweets you and tells you how long you have left. When you retweet it, it’s usually met with “OH MY GOD FML” or something along those lines.

Anyone here use boards.ie? I was on it the other day looking at the Easter plan thread. So much BS in my opinion. People studying 10 hours a day with 1 half hour break. If it is true they’ll be burnt out by the end of May.

Oh yeah, I handed up my History Research Topic as well. I did like  my topic, but my god I was never so happy to see someone die, for the simple reason I knew it was coming to an end. I did it on William Joyce – “Lord Haw-Haw”. Really interesting. It was so hard to get it down for the word count. Thankfully, I did. Now just to write a gazillion essays over the break. I have 6 done so far so maybe 4 more by Wednesday?

Good luck to everyone doing the LCVP exam next week

I’ll blog more often now, because for the next 6 weeks my whole life will be about the LC. :p

Bring it on :L