I know I said I wouldn’t blog again until the Leaving Cert was over, nor had I any intention to until I saw everyone else updating as their exams unfolded and so I decided I’d drop by and leave my own little post too

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

EngLiish iz ovr so i cn t@Lk loiik dis nw yaaa?

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.

It is a little like Christmas Eve. There’s tension and excitement, albeit of a different form. Putting in last minute preparations, all most of us can think about is what awaits us tomorrow morning. Will we be disappointed, surprised or get exactly what we wanted? I hope the State Examinations Commission will be as kind as good ‘ole Saint Nick anyway.

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.

You seem to be maintaining the status quo. That’s not so bad. This is the comment I got after doing Brain Training on the DS this morning. Classes at school officially finished yesterday and the prospect of no more teacher motivation encouraged me to seek the guidance of Dr.Kawashima. He admittedly is quite helpful but it’s annoying me how even when I get all the notes right in Masterpiece Recital, the maximum I’ve ever gotten is 95 points. I’m pretty sure the pace has something to do with the overall score but if anyone cares to enlighten me, please be my guest! Because you know, that’s totally what this website is for… See, this is the problem with educational video games. Super Mario wouldn’t have me feeling so inadequate. Super Mario would say that I was awesome and award me with a shine sprite or a blue coin for my efforts. Then again, Kawashima has it right. My study, like my ability to play the piano, is maintaining the status quo.

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.

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with school. As a first year, I was the one who refused to rebel against the uniform – the nerd with her shirt buttoned fully up and her tie neatly in place. In second year again I played the role of the nerd; the one who studied and got good results and the one who didn’t venture out to teen discos for fear of the unknown. In third year I typified the stressed student, swotting over books for hours on end, learning Irish essays that could twist to any situation, somehow believing that whatever I obtained at Jr Cert level would greatly affect the rest of my life. I spent my junior cycle in school in a happy sense of innocence, trudging my way through studies and counting down the days until summer.  I didn’t realise how easy-going school actually was until I advanced to senior level, but then again thats life – nobody ever realises how good we have it until it’s gone. Nobody ever understands what it’s like to have no real concerns until some greater reason for stress and worry plants itself in your life. Then we panic and look back on the “good old days” where answers were two lines long and extracted directly from the paragraph word for word.

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

Monday provided a great example of pathetic fallacy, the kind you only read about in ’Bímse Buan ar Buairt Gach Ló’. On May 23rd, the day of my graduation, the unpredictable weather reflected my mixed emotions about leaving school.

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’.

Hi

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

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

To summarise though, the Irish Oral was a low-key affair. I wore navy, as I am obligated to do in keeping with the school’s dress code. I made the mistake of dragging myself out of bed at six in the morning to look over notes on the economy and this was my downfall. By nine a.m., I was too sleepy to be nervous about the exam. By twelve noon, when some Second Years walked down the off-limits corridor that was being used for the Orals, I was too tired to shoot them with a disapproving look. By the time the examiner called me in, I was exhausted. She was nice but made a lot of notes rather than eye contact, which put me off a little. In my fatigue, I kept forgetting simple words and used “deas” three times in one sentence. Grabbing at straws, I shared my poor French Oral joke with her about my lack of exercise but she merely replied with a “I suppose that’s how it is”. I know my consumption levels have increased twofold since the start of Sixth Year but even that was uncalled for, surely! I’m not going to sugarcoat it (even though the examiner seems to think I enjoy sugar quite a bit)-I’m disappointed with the way this Oral went. However, the eternal optimist in me knows that things could have gone worse. I could have fallen asleep.

Before we got the holidays, I finally completed my History RSR. Anyone who does History will understand the rush of emotions involved in handing up the project for good. Having worked on it since the start of Fifth Year, I no longer felt like I was submitting a simple project for a State Exam. I was giving my baby up for adoption. Hopefully the Department of Education can give it the care it needs, and the examiner the grade it deserves, whatever that may be. Sadly, I didn’t get my Geography Field Study completed yet but there are still three days to finish my graphs when we go back to school.

I’m not sure if anyone noticed but there seems to have been some form of a royal wedding taking place. Of course I’m joking, one look at the internet on Friday was enough to inform me that seventy-eight of my Facebook friends are going to marry Prince Harry. Should I start looking for a hat? What made me laugh was the fact that prior to the wedding, when criticising it was the fashionable thing to, most of these people sounded like they were going to resurrect the ghost of Thomas Clarke to ruin the occassion. Then come Friday afternoon, suddenly they were in love with the dress, the bridesmaids, the happy couple and the British public in general. It was hypocrisy at its finest but at least it was a break from the “passed my theory test” statuses!

I watched a few minutes of the ceremony in the morning and some highlights later on (together with the live commentary it makes it sound like a soccer match) but I was reaching a breakthrough with a History essay at the time so I returned to it after hearing “I do”. Kate Middleton wisely completed her education before settling down with William, after all. Although they first met at university, I highly doubt there’ll be any royalty attending NUIG this autumn.

That reminds me, the CAO Change of Mind form is opening soon (5th May for all those who lost the handbook) and indeed, I have had a change of mind. I couldn’t muster up much enthusiasm for my first choice and after a long think about it, I’m almost sure I now want to do Public and Social Policy instead. It seems to be a combination of all the courses I’ve considered in the past, although I’m a bit wary of the Economics element. That being said, I always would have liked to have studied Economics for the Leaving Cert if my school offered it. I guess I won’t know until I’ve tried it! My problem is that I know the career I want and have a list of others that I would thoroughly enjoy, yet I’m finding it hard to pick the course that suits me. Most of the girls in my school are the other way around, as in they know a lot of courses they would like to do but don’t have a clue where to go from there. Sometimes I don’t know which is worse.

I hope everyone had a good Easter and took the chance to take a rest as well as get some revision done. My better teachers set some work to do, which was great because it prevented me falling back into lazy habits. I’ve also noticed how considerably relaxed I’ve been without the company of a hundred stressed students the past two weeks! I would generally deem myself a laid-back person but I’m sure you all know how capable exam stress is of having a domino effect. One person gets upset about a Maths result and by the end of the day, we’re all pulling our hair out and swinging from the lampshades. Well, it hasn’t gone that far yet but with three weeks until graduation, it’s only a matter of time!

Shits hit the fan.

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.

Hello

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