Hello Everybody!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

(I’m such a wild wan really! )

G’luck Everyone!

Hi All,

Hope the Christmas is going well for everyone! Few updates going live this week, including a new Twitter section which follows all tweets which mention “Leaving Cert” or “Junior Cert”.

You can check it out here:

AllHonours.ie Twitter Tracker – Leaving Cert

AllHonours.ie Twitter Tracker – Junior Cert

For those of you already on Twitter, don’t forget to follow us http://www.twitter.com/AllHonours

Hello all!
I began the week getting back HPAT results from our school. It turns out the test we got is either very easy, or the people in my school are absolute genii (plural of genius anyone?!) Basically the lowest result was 61%, or 67/110, which equates to about 180 points using the only form of marking scheme ACER have given with the highest score being 73/110 (or just over 200 HPAT points). I got 71/110 (197 HPAT points), one less than I got in my previous test but I was the second highest out of the 9 people that took the test so I didn’t feel too bad. Going on my results I would only need 530, however we’ll see next June, I think I’ll take the test anyway!

I got the chance to meet up with 2 of the other bloggers and a few more All Honours users on Friday night for a focus group with the founder of this website Patrick Barry. I have to say, the €50 from the talk was most welcome, considering the time of year! It was also great to hear about other peoples study habits from other schools and what websites they use to aid their study, so it was far from a waste of time plus I got to meet some really nice people!

Leaving Cert time table has just been published, finished this day 6 months exactly; scary or what! I only have one day with two exams so it won’t be too hectic, plus a decent break for Chemistry and Economics!

I took the liberty to fill out my CAO last week with Medicine occupying my top 3,  followed by Pharmacy, Actuary in UCD and DCU, Primary Teaching in Frobel and lastly Fiance & Economics in Maynooth! It’ll be interesting to see how that changes between now and July 1st!

Christmas Exams report arrived in the post during the week too, 100 in Maths. 97 in Biology, 90 in Economics, 86 in Chemistry, 80 in English, 68 in Irish and 64 in French. They were by the best I’ve done, but the chances of me doing that well in the LC are fairly slim!

So 2 days before Christmas, everyone excited?:D I’ve beaten all previous records and finished my shopping a full 5 days before the big day! No idea what I’m getting but that’s all part of the excitement! This year is going to be completely different to previous years, with my previous two Christmas holidays being full of Young Scientist work. Sadly, this year it is going to be replaced by study and gym work! How much study I actually do will be intesting as I usually make great plans to do work, but it never materialises

Thats all for now folks! HappyChristmas everyone and I hope Santa comes to all

Well hello all again! Still to get a pic up but hey, I guess I’ll live!
Crazy sort of week, Trinity open day on Wednesday was pretty cool. I’ve walked by it countless times but had never actually gone inside so was quite a shock when I first went in, it was like stepping into 19th century Ireland! I had only one problem however, the people. Never in my life have I heard such concentration of pseudo- American accents – they drive me CRAZY!!! Aside from that though, the day was enjoyable. I managed to get into the Physio, Pharmacy and Medicine talk. The crowds were crazy though, I heard the amount of people trying to get into the medicine talk was three times the capacity of the lecture hall! It was poor planning though, there were far bigger rooms than the one they had it in. Anyone that did make it to the med talk however was treated to an epic display of stand-up comedy! The guy, what a legend! He had everyone in the theatre in stitches!

We had our parent-teacher meetings this week. It went pretty well, all the teachers seem happy so that’s always a bonus! Got my English result back, 80%! Seriously surprised myself seeing as I never achieved anything more than 75 in any previous test! That brought my points tally up to 545 which was a serious shock seeing as I only got 425 in the summer, just shows what a bit of study can actually do!

I did a mock HPAT test from the practice booklet last weekend. Section 1 seemed impossible! Time was a serious issue so it was mostly quick guesses. Section 2 and 3 I flew through however. I was a little annoyed to learn ACER won’t release a marking scheme for the test, despite forking out the guts of 30 quid for it. I got the mother to correct it and managed to get 72/110 which equates to about 65%. I then found out each section carried equal weight which meant I scored a pretty impressive 201 in total. That’s what worried me though. That would put me in the top 2% of people that took the test last year and well frankly; I don’t think I would manage to fit into that percentile! I did it under proper time conditions but my score seemed a lot higher than expected! Anyone know of anyone who done any of the practice tests last year and how they fared in the actual thing?

One full week of school left till Christmas =] Have yet to start shopping, yet alone thinking about what to get people. Despite promising myself every year I won’t leave it until the last minute next year, it’s almost two weeks to the date now, and I know I’ll still be out shopping Christmas Eve!

But hey, 18 the day after, I think I’ll defiantly deserve my few pints St. Stephens night!!
Au revoir mes amis!

Note to self: Always check start time of open days before going.

As the above suggests, like a fool, I took the only 109 bus to Belfield on Friday the 4th for the UCD open day. Got up at 6.30 and caught the bus @ 7.15, with my brothers who do this every day for school. I was really happy with myself, and it looked like there were lots of others on the bus with my idea of getting in early to beat the crowds. Well I certainly did that! At Belfield I got off the bus with the two remaining people, both students. Oooppss!
Well I suppose it meant that I got to see a lot of the campus! I spent the first hour wandering around trying to look like I knew where I was going! Lol! It’s so big! Actually huge! Nearly too big methinks =/ Did anyone else go up? Don’t get me wrong if I got the chance I’d go, but it probably won’t be my first choice!

How was the week for everyone else? We started getting our test results back…….. They actually didn’t go that badly, surprisingly. It’s a nice feeling to know that all the work you’ve done has paid off =D I was delighted with my B1 in Irish because it was so close to an A (84%) so almost there! English; meh, my teachers an easy marker. Basically anyone who hands up work gets an A. I got an A2, but I would have given myself a C!! Biology was something similar. And I passed my maths!! I was full sure that id failed so my D2 (47%) was a nice surprise =D Still waiting on some results but over all im pretty pleased =) For this time of the year anyway they’re ok…….Most of the stress ha had been piling up over the last few weeks has now been relieved….. what a feeling!! But there’s one part of my routine that’s still missing; exercise! Now I would consider myself afairly active person, especially during the summer, but now I’ve no time! Its not that im super image concious, I’m not! But I know its important to be healthy, and well healthy body, healthy mind! I did try to build 20mins a day into my time table but well, it hard to face into an accounting question at eight o clock when you know you still have chemistry to do =( Does anyone else have this problem???

Saturday night was my first night out since mid-term, and it was brilliant! It was an 18th so yes its allowable! Actualy its was a double surprise 18th. Now, surprises in Kells never are very surprising, bt this was! YAY =D The twins didnt have a clue!! Athboy was dead quiet but we had a great night. Its ok to treat yourself once in a while…………. so im going out next weekend too =P

Only two days of school this week, and Trinnity open day too. What more could you want? I love walking down Grafton street when all the christmas lights are up. CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! Well I think it will be window shopping for the mo …. broke!!!
Anyways I hope everyone has a good week…. I had better get back to some study =/
Ta ta
Katie xxx

“Genius is 99% perspiration, 1% inspiration”
“Tough times don’t last, tough people do”
“Courage is being scared to death and doing it anyway”
“Motivation gets you going, determination keeps you moving”

Even if every single one of the above is true, and my problem has always been with the latter. It just continues to remind me what a “fun and exciting” couple of months I have ahead of me…. as I have now just reminded you
Anyway I had better introduce myself. I’m Katie, doing the leaving this year (first time) and not looking forward to it one bit!!! Well that is apart from the whole college thing (wohoo!). I turned 18 at the end of august and LOVED that whole new “freedom” thing….. Then it was robbed from me, and a study desk with piles of heavy books took its place  my social life has been reduced to holidays i.e. Christmas! (Well we’ll see what we can do about that!)

The worst thing about this year (if I can only pick one) is the confusion. Not knowing. I HATE NOT KNOWING! Yes. I am one of those people who needs to plan, who needs order so to me the big L.C. = Lots of Confusion… Until now, I had thought my life was as complicated as it could get. WRONG!

The leaving cert continually throws awkward situations, decisions and deadlines in my path. Diversions and confusing signs, two of the most hated things by motorists, and me. At the moment, sadly, that’s all we have in common. My plans to take the theory test last summer failed miserably. And, living in the middle of nowhere, public transport is next to non-existent and, well as regards cycling?  Let’s just say a broken arm at the age of 10 proved that balancing on two wheels was not for me!

Anyway, back to this leaving cert thing… why?  And, more importantly, how? Well I think we’ve all figured out that it’s just a memory game so it’s something I might be good at right? Wrong! Its seems as though my mind is so full up of useless information trying to organise itself that is just ends up like the M50 at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning. Not good. I store so much useless information about people and times long forgotten that it amazes me! And also provided a bit of amusement to my friends when a stupidly recount something that happened in primary school, expecting them to remember it. They don’t, and I’m left hanging! You’ll learn not to take me too seriously after a while, because I definitely don’t!

Back to that confusion thing again… every single year I have known, and been DEFINATE about what I want to do after my exams. Ok maybe I wanted to do a something different every year…. from medicine (found out I have a fear of injections!)…….. To veterinary (then TY happened) ……… to wanting to do “medicinal chemistry” (or something of the like last year)….. To not having a clue! *sad face*. So yes slightly panicking with the whole UCAS/CAO thing. And the fact that we have pre-mocks…….. Yes. PRE-MOCKS next week!!!! Not good on the auld stress levels. And as you guys know, when the stress levels go up, the grades go down!!

So I had better go and de-stress then….. A nice quiet hack around Tara on the nag sounds good…….. That is before De Broglie stresses me out again with his complicated electron stuff *sad face*

Ta ta for now xxx

Katie

New Moon. Edward Cullen. Xfactor. Tests. Work. Mocks. Christmas.

I know il sound like the average teen girl, but i loved new moon. I dragged a certain someone to it, but he enjoyed it, so he says . What did you all think of it? I’m planning on seeing it again next week, or seeing paranormal activity.

So school. I got 100% in economics test. ive never been so proud. and to top it off, i got 100% in intregration math test and accounting too. Its been a long way to my 60% average last year. Im begining to see the slight advantage to repeating. Even though im not fond of repeating im a little less stressed and more focused ( i think).

I was at DCU open day, kinda fell in love with the city, and the talks made up my mind that I don’t want to go through UCAS . I’ll just work hard and get what i deserve and hopefully get into UCD or DCU,   Points wise I need roughly 450, since I reckon points will rise this year, I’m going to aim for more though, really push my limits maybe, hopefully get my entry requirement of a C3 in German so I can qualify for DCU this time. woo.

I just got offered a job and the weekend.. it was spur of the moment, i felt to honoured they approached me. I agreed without thinking how this will affect me.. so within the weekend? :S ah… which come first? presumingly education.. but ahhh!! Its only 5 weeks till Christmas holiday.. by god, I really need to get into it, I just want to prove to all those people that are giving me negativity about this year, ive heard to many time that “whats gonna happen now if you get less points that last year, sickend!” I am thinking of the possibility of banning myself from facebook!

ENOUGH RANT MAY! haha

On a happy note, i havent been this happy all year. im seeing the other side of life and im going to make out a weekly timetable.. and maybe stick to this one. off to homework. Then.. XFACTOR

Byee xx

P.s i need urgent help on theory on Music..  any hints on books, or revision books?

‘Tús maith, leath na hoibre’, once known as a simple Irish proverb meaning ‘A good start is half the work’, is now my mantra of 5th Year. Or so I said six weeks ago.