Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..” 

No please, make it stop!

I’ll be honest here, I’m a proper scrooge when it comes to Christmas; I hate the snow, I hate missing school because of a bit of snow, I hate making snowmen, I hate snowballs (especially when I’m pelted with them on my way to school..), I hate ice-skating, I hate the cold, I hate the commercialism of Christmas, I hate how greedy kids are, I hate how you have to give up your bed for family members who should have spent Christmas in the Bermuda Triangle – “yes Aunty Mary, I know.. “A tidy room is a tidy mind” ..” Like C’MON!

It feels like I’m the only one who feels like this but I can’t be. Can I..? C’mon, there has to be a few more people out there that have spent the morning studying and can’t understand the madness of not being in school today? No? Oh okay then..

My younger siblings were in school today so I had to bring them to school, and as our schools are conveniently next door to each other, I was tempted to go in and ask the Principal could I work on my construction project but I didn’t as I knew the answer would be no and I’d only end up cleaning the cafeteria anyway.. By the way, does anyone else do construction? It’s an absolute wagon of a subject I think 

I actually got excited earlier when I saw the snow melting, but then it started to snow again. I’m supposed to be going to the TCD open day tomorrow but in that weather I just don’t know? The only thing is, I went last year so I’m comfortable with the college, but I haven’t been to a talk on one of the courses I have on my CAO.. Ah sure, I’ll decide in the moro.

So basically this has just been a rant, or a waste of a blog.. Whatever you want to call it? I’m also thinking, (well actually no, not thinking, doing!), blogs as Gaeilge so if that interests you make sure you keep an eye out for my blogs! 

Peace out, and happy studying! 

Dia Dhaoibh!

My name’s Rebecca, but everyone calls me Becca. Unless I’m in trouble for not being home on time, then it’s the full name..

Anyway, lets get on with things! I’m eighteen, I go to an all-irish school so I’m fluent as Gaeilge and yes, I’m doing my Leaving Cert this year (woohoo!) but I’m also at a bit of an advantage as I’ve already done the Leaving Cert and I am, obviously, repeating it this year because I didn’t get enough of the lack of a social life and stress from last year!

No but seriously, I’m more focused this year, I know what I have to do and what I definitely shouldn’t do, how to make out (and follow!) study plans, how to improve on my answers and how to use notes and helpful sites effectively; and if you know me you’ll know that wasn’t me last year.. I’ve never been a bad student but I had a bit of a rough year in fifth year and instead of putting it behind me I let it follow me into sixth year and basically become more important than the Leaving Cert, which I now know was utter and total rubbish!

So yeah.. That’s me! If you’re interested in any tips I’ve found along the way, how exactly the Leaving Cert and CAO system works, what it’s really like to repeat and have to do two years work in one year, why you should work your butt off for the two years you have to instead of having to repeat like me, or anything like that just stick around because you are in for a very honest and frank account on what it’s like to be doing the Leaving Cert.. Again! 

Peace out, and happy studying!

I Apologise for not blogging these days, its totally slipped my mind. I banned myself from the internet for a while beacuse i was spending too much time on facebook,,.or should i say wasting time.

Anyways,

Since i dont do English or Irish this year

Math Paper 1 was good as i thought it couldbe, some iffy parts.Math paper2, What was going on with Question 4? Probability questions were good, loved the fact that the differnce equation proof came up though Vectors were good too..Did all 7 questions since the trig question was horrible :O I’l just hope for myB3..Business tomoro, im screwed basically! off to learn/ revise short Questions

Goodluck in the rest of your exams (: xx

How often do we think of our future? Or rather, dream about our future? Probably far too often. You more than likely spend a lot of time drifting off in Double Biology imagining holding a degree in French Law, how many children you’ll have, or maybe you just contemplate what you’ll be having for lunch that day? Whatever the case, how many of you actually spend your valuable time thinking of nothing, but just enjoying the present you’re living in?

This year will be the last year most of you will spend in a secondary school. Usually we are so caught up in the stress of exams, the worry of results, and the  prospects of college that we lose sight of what is in front of our very eyes: the last time we will ever be in sixth year in a secondary school. If I could go back (and let me assure you that nothing would prevent me from going back if I could) I would tell all of those that have meant something to me over the past six years the significance of their role in my life. Where would I be now had I not known them? And more importantly, who would I be now? The majority of us become our friends, and they; us, so how would my life be different now had I not been friends with them then? Its really now that I ask this question that I realise the absolute importance to cherish the time we have with those around us. Far too often it becomes too late and we forget to remember those that are right before our eyes.

Exams will happen. College will happen. Friends such as the ones you know now may never happen again. So celebrate the friendship: laugh, cry, get ridiculously drunk, eat copius bags of chocolate, watch the latest weepie because you know only your best friends will watch it with you, laugh some more, spend a ferocious amount of money on THE DRESS (the one that only comes second to the one you will wear when you marry), spend a half an hour styling the short hair that you tell everybody you don’t straighten but know that they know you do, kiss girls, kiss boys, break girls’ hearts, break boys’ hearts, take comfort in your friends’ arms when you have your heart broken, sing even if you “cannot” sing, dance even though you know that we know you “cannot”, gossip, whisper, shout, be bold, be bad, be good, be helpful, be careful, be honest, be happy, help each other through the stress and strain of the Leaving Cert year, guide each other on the way to college, and tell them that you will never ever forget them even if you do lose touch because, above all, losing touch will happen.

Au revoir, mes amis,

Ian

P.S.: I hope you all did brilliantly (are doing brilliantly) in your mocks. I decided that I’d post a blog after most of them are over. Happy Valentine’s Day (I hate commercialism!) See you soon!

This week I was offered a BIG distraction from my studies. And no, it wasn’t ‘Jedward’ committing sacrilege on one of the greatest ‘Queen’ ballads. This “BIG” distraction is 5 pounds and 13 ounces, smells of talc and is lost in a few cotton blankets: I became an uncle for the first time this week. Unfortunately, I don’t know whether to treat my first nephew as an incentive or disuassion to do well in my leaving cert. because, well, quite bluntly; he’s so damn cute and I feel terrible when I’m not trawling through King Lear and composition papers, but I feel worse when I’m not cuddling “the little bundle of joy”. What to do? What to do?

It’s not that I’m not dedicated to my studies and examinations, but since the little “bloighter” came along I feel a slight responsibility to spend time with him each day. Only trouble is, I spend more and more time with him and less and less time summarising Mussolini’s Italy and the structure of a flowering plant – uh-oh!

Yet, from Monday, I’ve sworn to turn over a new leaf (in my textbooks ) and delve ever-more deeply into the leaving cert. courses. But….It’s “sooooooooo” difficult – boo-hoo! But needs must I suppose. I’m not going to get to college by spending time glowering over a baby who has no intention of comprehending what is going on around him anyway.

However, thanks to all you wonderful people at allhonours.ie I’ve found out that:

a) I DO NOT have to re-sit my maths exam;
b) I now know EXACTLY how to answer difficult questions and;
c) That I’m not the ONLY ONE struggling out there!

It’s a great support system we have here and I intend to take FULL advantage or it!

When I did get time to myself – (today!) – I found myself drawn to the comma-inducing Skytv: Will & Grace, Twilight and The Simpsons… And then we had the X-Factor! How on God’s (or Allah’s or whatever’s) Good Earth did Jedward get through again? That is not to say I was a fan of Jamie Archer’s but still, now two highly talented performers’ – (if we include Lucy) – dreams have been splattered all over Kleenex tissues and £1,000 magazine deals whilst two incredibly talent-LESS vocalists remain in a competition designed to promote the next BIG SUPERSTAR VOCALIST!

Now I’m not suggesting that ‘Jedward’ are completely useless: they are highly entertaining for two tone-deaf, turkey-legged, clumsy teens but when is enough going to be enough? When they actually win the competition and record one of the world’s worst atrocities of a record? They are almost as ridiculous as Donna and Joseph McCaul -remember them? And quite frankly; they are a complete embarrassment with the amount of musical talent this country has to offer – and what is worse is that they were chosen to represent Ireland by Louis Walsh, a fellow Irishman (a trumped-up, prima donna, bitchy Irishman, but an Irishman nonetheless). I do realise he has created highly-coveted groups before in ‘Boyzone’ and ‘Westlife’, but at least those groups had a least one or two competent singers.

We also have another “BIG” distraction for the next three weeks (which are some of the most important for revision before the mocks): ‘I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!’ As tantalizingly shocking as ‘Jedward’ are, Ant and Dec are arguably more-so. And I LOVE ‘EM! They are the best thing to happen to television since ‘Stars In Their Eyes’ – (now THAT was good television! ) – and I’m seething about the fact that under no condition shall I be able to ignore my daily dose of Z-List Celebs bickering, doing trials, eating testes and crying unceremoniously into a  6-inch camera-lens ! Why must my feeble brain be fried by tv that doesn’t matter in “the long run”?

TO-DO LIST:

a) Apply as an external candidate (late I know);
b) Finish an exam paper on each subject (if I can);
c) Apply my C.A.O. application and;
d) Actually do some work!

Well, that about sums it up for this week. What have all of you got set for this week? Is there anything that works as incentives or disuassions for you? Are you growing steadily more addicted to reality tv? Or are you, unlike me, wise enough to stay stuck-to-the-books?

Until next week,

Ian