After two years of preparation, hours of studying, even more hours trying to avoid it, exams and the like, yesterday finally brought some closure to the Leaving Cert. While the exams themselves seem like a distant memory, the summer has just been eaten up! With time being consumed by work over the last few weeks, results were pushed to the back and left little time for contemplating, thankfully. As a crowd of us gathered outside the school at 10am yesterday morning, the feeling of excitement and nerves was contagious. Trying to figure out what to expect was next to impossible. After each exam, I made a note of what grade I thought I may have got. The best I figured I could hope for about 510. As we queued outside the principal’s office, going in one by one to get the white envelope, I grew more and more nervous until I finally got mine. And then it stopped. Oddly followed by complete calmness. I went to a nearby classroom and opened it up there, praying there wouldn’t be the same pang of disappointment I got on getting the HPAT results. Here’s how it went (All honours… :L)

Irish B1
Maths A2
English A2
French B2
Biology A1
Chemistry A2
Economics A2

I was genuinely shocked when I saw the results. And even more so adding the points up. So much so I was convinced my adding skills weren’t the best (well only an A2 in Maths like!) When I arrived at 545 for the fifth time, I accepted I had done better than could ever be imagined. I mean Irish and English? It turned out to be a day of PB’s! Never before had I got anything great than a C2 in Irish, not even one B before in six years of class tests! Even though French didn’t count, I made and absolute hames of the oral, had a very dogey written paper, and still managed a B2. And then English, what a place to get your first ever A! Despite my bog-standard English and ropey comparative, with the help of bombastic vocab here and there I pulled out an A2! I genuinely would not have got that result without this blog. Six years on and not one class of English grammar, this finally gave me the kick in the arse needed to learn a few of the rules! The only one I wasn’t ecstatic about was Maths. I know an A2 is deadly, but I really felt if there was one paper I got the A1 in, it was Maths. I was happy too with Chem and Economics as despite not having wonderful papers, I managed to pull out the A in both. I know many regarded Biology very easy this year, but after the record I had with a spate of teachers, it was a relief to get the A1.

The results in my school were unbelievable this year. In a year of 110, at least 18 got over the 500 point mark, with one guy getting the 600, and another getting 580. Considering just 6 broke the 500 mark last year, it was a serious improvement. I have to admit the competitive nature of us all helped and was probably the reason we got on so well!

So for college, I’ve to await until Monday to find out for certain, but it looks like Actuary in UCD. It was 530 last year, so I have 15 points to spare, but applications for it increased a lot this year. Failing that, DCU seems a cert considering it was 485 in ‘09. When I look back at it now, 5 A’s and 2 B’s was quite an achievement. Despite the whole medicine thing not working out, I think I’m glad it happened. It appears far more glamorous than it actually is in my opinion. If I was to repeat the HPAT, I’d need 170+ points to get in based on last year. But we’ll see. I have the grade requirements for it in most places in the UK so it’s good to have that option open.

For the rest of you, I hope you’re all happy. They’re not the end of the world, but rather a means to an end. At the end of the day, it’s about fulfilling one’s potential. The guy who gets 360 but has been told his limit is 350 has done better in my view than the girl who could get 600, but only gets 500. That’s why it’s unfair to compare people on LC points I feel.

You’ll hear from me once more after Monday, this is the day that really matters. I hope the points don’t go up too much, for all of our sake’s!

Cillian

Well as the title suggests, it wasn’t exactly favourable; a measly 141/300. I kept waking up sporadically during the night, but at 3:40, I got the email. Even in a state of grogginess, I knew immediately I’d no hope. I’ll admit I was seriously disappointed, more so in myself than anything. It was the first test I’d ever scored below average on, but in fairness, that’s below average in comparasion to the cream of the crop. I really did think the test went well on the day, especially Section 3. I mean I actually drew out what I imagined the next box to look like, and most times they were there! I thought it was the one section where you could be sure you had the right answer, but I guess not. I was convinced I got more than half correct, but not according to ACER, as I only got 49. I guess whatever marking scheme they used really messed me over!

Anyway, I’m lucky in a way that I wasn’t hell-bent on doing Medicine. Althought it has forced me to change the ole CAO. I’ve put down BESS and Maths/Economics, so I wouldn’t mind doing them either. Actuary is still the goal however, I’ll be laughing if I get offered a place there. I hope the results went well for everyone else anyway, enjoy the rest of the summer!!

Firstly, apologise for leaving it until now to blog, but oh well! I’ll go through each of them since I was on last.

Irish: In fairness, I thought it was a relatively predictable and straight forward paper, especially after last year. The essay titles might have been a bit specific and bland in that they didn’t suit people with learned-off material, but that suited me down to the ground, considering I’d nothing prepared bar a few phrases. I managed to write an absolute shed load for paper 2, the same as English paper 2 in fact! Somehow I managed a full page on Bealoideas, even though the notes in our book cover less than half of one! Just God help whoever has to correct it, for I’ve no concept of Irish grammar whatsoever!

French: Going into this on the back of an incredibly dodgy oral, the expectations were quite low. I reckon I’m possibly the only one who used the full allotted time, serious lack of time management on the comprehensions left me with forty minutes to do the written part. I spent the first twenty or so minutes writing out three pages of French expressions at the beginning, only later to use four of them, a bit of a regret to say the least, my seventh subject, or so I hope.

Biology: Despite being messed about with teachers over the past two years, the exam proved to be very simple. I did every question on the paper bar the one on Plant Reproduction, and fairly confident I did well. Everyone else I spoke to had the same reaction so I reckon they’ll kill us with the marking scheme.

Chemistry: I always imagined to become an absolute genius over the five days between this and Biology, but no, the World Cup proved far more interesting! Whatever hopes I had for an A have disappeared. I spent the first twenty minutes reading over the paper, only to end up doing ten questions anyway. Every single question seemed to have six marks where you’d feel even with the book open, you wouldn’t get the answers. I mean the IUPAC name for glycerol? It’s actually not mentioned anywhere in our book. Trying to apply what I knew, I stuck down 1,2,3 trihyrdoxylpentane thinking that sounded fairly logical, but no. On wikipedia it says that it’s another name for it, but propan-1,2,3-triol was what they were looking for. I thought the question on Equilibrium was grand, except for the Kc bit. I originally got 0.0225 and thought that was way too low for something that had a 75% disassociation, so I didn’t divide by 100, only later to find out I was originally right. Sickening.

Economics: Ah Economics, always something I thought I was guaranteed and A1 in, until the night before the test. Like Chemistry, I stopped studying for it a week before the LC began, major regret now of course. Looking over the course, I realise I’d forgotten almost everything. The only saving grace was that it was fairly topical. The whole “Rent of Ability” thing kind of threw me, and no Oligopoly? Or NAMA? Odd to say the least. I did a fifth question, something our teacher always advised against, but me being an insecure rebel, I had to rush Q1 on demand, and made a pig’s ear of it. Oh well…

It feels weird to say it’s over. No big bang at the end, it just slowly faded out. The ending for me definitely was an anti-climax to the whole thing. While things started off nicely with the three core ones being simple for a change, they lulled me into a false confidence for the last two. The whole build up and suspense for the exams was simply destroyed by the time Irish was finished. I can’t honestly say how the results will go, I’d be delighted to break 500, but I’d swap any number of points just for a place in college. Speaking off that, the ole CAO could probably do with a shake up. I have managed to find one course that is basically “me”, Maths and Economics in Trinity! It was 475 last year, and only 15 points up from the mocks, so provided it doesn’t rise too much, I wouldn’t mind that!

The HPAT results are out Monday, and to be honest, they’ll count for little at the end of the day. Still, I’m dying to see the percentile score and break down of the result, better be worth getting up at five on Monday for! I know most are finished at this stage, and the sites gone quite, but I hope y’all have a good summer! I’ll be back for the results!

Cillian

Apparently it’s been a month since I wrote here last, it really doesn’t feel that way though. The orals seem like something from a distant past, despite the days flying by. A lot has happened since then. As the title suggests, everything is drawing to a close. We’ve had our last Sports Day, last T&F competition, our last PE, our Ceangail dinner night out, a form class trip to Leisureplex for bowling and quasar(I guess we never really grow up!) and our Grad Night, which was basically a “glorified piss up,” as one lads defined it. Our actual Graduation from school is this Thursday however. We’re all going out to the pub with the teachers after so there’s one last time to head out before the serious studying starts. Our Graduation songs are Save Tonight, Better Together and Light and Day which are pretty cool. We’ve been told we’re finishing Wednesday which leaves us with two full days left. Nostalgia is starting to set in a bit at this stage. After growing up with the same lads for six years, it’s going to be strange not seeing them around every day. School has been real good to me over the past few years, and I can actually say I was one of the few who enjoyed the experience.

We’ve an awards night in school tomorrow night. I’m one of the four nominated for student of the year which is up for grabs. I know I haven’t a chance of winning it as the other three lads are like Gods, but I was really honoured as it’s sixth years who get to vote for the nominees. Apparently I’m getting an award for not missing a day either which was a shock when I heard it, swine flu effectively halved the number of students in school for over a week back in November! It’s kind of like that now again with most sixth years staying at home for study. I know I’d get a million times more work done at home, but I wouldn’t miss the last few days for the world!

Another last I was especially sad about, Lost! Yes, after six years, it’s finally over! I was one of the mad people who actually got up at 5 am to watch it, but hey, it was well worth it, just so I could ruin it for the lazy people who didn’t bother getting up!

The old study has been put on the back burner of late. I’m unfortunately one of those people who seem to have taken the pedal off the gas in the last few week, but I’m adamant on getting stuck in once Graduation night’s finished. There’s been so many distractions the last few weeks, it has been virtually impossible to get any work done. And now with this heat wave, it’s become even harder. I’ve made a study up in the attic which is great, but this time of year it’s a nightmare. I actually sweated more yesterday while studying than while out for a jog! I reckon I’ll stop studying for Chemistry and Economics soon enough, I’ve a four day gap between Biology and them so I reckon I’ll be fine. My Chemistry teacher reckons I should ‘rattle an A’ on the day, which means a lot coming from him! I did an Economics mock paper from 2008 and managed to get 99% which I could only laugh at. Albeit an easy paper, but my teacher is an advising examiner for the LC so I was pretty proud!

I’ll probably do another blog soon with a few predictions for each subject. Till then, enjoy your last few days of school, if you’re not already finished!

Cillian.

Today marked the last of my orals with my weaker of the two, French. For the past two weeks, questions have been flying around the year such as ‘What’s she like?’ and ‘What did she ask you?’ with people trying to get some last minute prep on each exam. I’ll start with Irish. Over preparation was my only downfall here. For months, we’ve been bombarded with notes on politics, the recession, the education system and just about everything else topical that would make for an intelligent conversation. Us being the Higher level class in the year, we thought we would try steer the conversation towards these topics and try sound bombastic as Gaeilge. But no. Instead, the examiner just happened to be the nicest woman in the world. She point blankly refused to talk about any of this stuff. Walking into the room, I was surprisingly calm. I happened to be the last person in for the day, but being greeted by an ’I’m knackered’ from the examiner was the last thing I wanted to hear. Her laziness at that stage came to the fore when she asked me to read the sliocht I had facing up. I looked down and to my horror, Peig Sayers, my least favourite starred back up. Bad planning I figured. It went well however and gave her my ‘Oh Mo shliocht is fearr!’ fib. I’m pretty sure I saw her scribbling down 30 across the desk. Or 20. Maybe she could smell the lies. All I got was a ceart go leor. Thanks for your indifference like, every pass guy got an ‘Ar Fheabhas!’. Funny enough, both orals started with ‘Have you any brothers or sister….’ Although any time I threw out these ‘nascanna’ for my prepared topics, the next question was always something simple like ‘Inis dom faoi do chaiteamh amisire?’ It’s quite hard to show off whatever Irish you have when you’ve to deal with this. I came out of the exam thinking ‘great!’, but as I aptly walked into Irish class, I thought ‘Súcra, forgot to use the Modh Coinnealeach!’ I managed to use the gnáthchaite a few times, but with an Irish teacher who is actually in love with the tense and continuously talks in it, I feel ashamed of how I managed to not use it! The only consolation is that the majority of my class was relying on reeling off notes, but from trips to the Gaeltacht, I’m able to make up things on the spot fairly easca. We did a few mock orals before the test and I was always hitting the 70ish mark, so hopeful it was in and around that on the day!

All Irish did however was give me a big head for French. Maybe arrogance is a trait of the French, but not a good trait going into the exam. So for the following few days, I was convinced all I could do was wing it. That was until I did a mock oral with a friend. And then it hit me, I’m gonna have to learn this stuff… Me and French have never really got on well. It has always had its ways of annoying me. Not being particularly blessed with great teachers for the JC, and finally when we get a good teacher for the Leaving, she decides to leave us two weeks before our Orals to adopt a baby! Granted she hadn’t planned to leave so soon, but we’ve now had three different French teachers in three weeks, with our current one only staying if they cannot find a replacement! So with no teacher pressure, preparation kind of slacked off. I can honestly say I learned to speak the language in five days. Writing a language will only get you so far, but you really have to be speaking it regularly to get any sort of fluency going. So for five days I studied nothing but French despite Economics and Chemistry tests in between (still got 91 and 95 respectively!) I threw together some brilliant notes. I had sentences prepared using all the irregular subjunctives and what have you. Everything learned of to a tee on any subject. I still felt apprehensive about the whole thing, as I had only ever spoke French once before to a fluent speaker, while with Irish I had countless encounters. Reports said she was nice, and spent up to six minutes on the Document with some people, I had ten minutes prepared on it. Before going in, I downed half a bottle of Rescue Remedy. For those of you that don’t know what it is, It’s a whiskey-like substance with much the same side-effects I suppose. So I strolled into the room, reeking of alcohol. In hindsight, not clever. I think she knew something was up. I started with a warm ’Bonjour Madame, ca va?’ to which I just got ‘Bien’ back. Grrrrr. What about me and my ‘Je suis trés nerveux madame, c’est eprouvant!?’. That kind of set the tone for the exam. She sounded exactly like the woman off the SEC listening tests. She was a native French speaker and that worried me a little. Within a minute of the exam, she asked me if I liked ‘to shoot birds’. What the hell! How do I know this is what she asked? She turned to the side the imitated someone shooting a recoiling shotgun, I kid you not. I tried not to laugh, and began to wonder if I was drunk and hallucinating things. I muttered a childish ‘Euh…. Non, j’aime les oiseaux’. Thanks. That wasn’t the end of the bizarre questions, out of nowhere, I got a ‘So why do young people today not go to mass?’. That really threw me. I ended up giving a conflicting response and at that point I truly felt like a French man, like giving up that is. Thankfully this women picked up on a few hints. I managed to talk about the economy and NAMA for a minute or so and that was my saving grace. I weakly managed a regular subjunctive and that was it. I always thought that getting these questions during an Oral was a good thing and a sign you were doing well, but in my case, unequivocally not. I really came across as being a weak higher level student when really I am normally one of the better ones in the class. The standard is poor enough as it is and French really was my place to shine. I guess not. I would have hoped for a B from both. Irish I’d imagine so but in French, a very mediocre C. It annoys me because it’ll be a toss up between the two for my sixth subject on the day, and seeing as I got a B in the mocks in French, it’s looking less likely that it’ll make that B category come August.
If I can give any tips to fifth years, it’s to get cracking on the Oral section as soon as you return in September. Try hold a conversation in whatever language and it’s amazing how it helps. All this year there has been people I just spoke Irish to and it really gives you the confidence speaking it on the day.
I’ve decided to take the evening off as a reward, not that I’ve done much, but with 47 to go, I’m taking one last break before tearing into it for the last six or so weeks. Instead, I’m writing articles for our School Magazine, or prep for English Paper 1 as I call it. We just got our student profile forms for the yearbook, so that’s a sure reminder that the year is quickly coming to an end. With just over four weeks until we graduate, one feels that the Leaving Cert is just around the corner.
I hope the Orals went well for everyone else!
Aurevoir!

Mar ata Seactain na Gaelige ar suil, deanfaidh me an iarract a scriobh mo bhlog i nGaelige! Ta bron orm faoi an litriocht agus an gramadach, tá fhios agam go bhfuil mé cáic!Ar aon nos, tá mo thiortaí ó mo mhocks air ais. Bhí siad….Bhuel…. ceart go leor is dóigh liom. Táim fós ag fanacht ar mo thiortai i mBearla, ach seachas sin, fuair mé 445 phiontaí. Bhí mo aim timpeall 470, agus tar éis na scrudú, chéap mé gurbh é easca i gcompáiroid lena hArdtieste.
Fuair me 66 i Matá, 63 i nGaeilge (sin é mo leathscéal ar mo bhotúiní sa blog seo!) 76 i mBitholaiocht, 71 i Francais, 70 i gChemic agus 77 i Eacnamiocht. Táim dochasach go mbeadh mo thiorthai i mBearla níos mo na 65, ionas go gheobhadh 450 ó mo reamhscrudú… Bhí mé lán sásta leis mo thiorthai i Francais áfach, dá gheobhainn sin sa Ardteiste, bheinn áthas orm! Ní faigh mé B i Francais riomh go deo (Bhuel seachas an Teastas Soisereach, ní fhios agam conas fós!)

Thainig rud maith amahain ó na ramhscrudú, fuair mé kic mór suas mo thóin! Thuig mé an realtacht den saol ar chead uair. Dá gheobhainn na tiorthai seo, gheobhainn ‘offer’ amhain ó an CAO, eacnamiochta i Maigh Nuad. Táim ag cónaí deich kilometres ó NUIM, ach beidh gach waster i mo scoil ag dul ann, agus gach daoine eile a aitint liom. Agus an chursa freisin, meh. Is aoibheann liom eacnamiochta, ach níl sé an rud ceanna le actuair. Ní chaillím dochas a faigheann leigis tar éis an HPAT, ach beidh gá orm a gheobhaidh timpeall 540. Tar éis mo reamhscrudu, ní fhios agam más féidir liom….

An reasuin eile a scriobh mo bhlog i nGaeilge, fuair mé amach go bhfuil mo mhathar ag léamh é. Sin  saghas ait i mo thuarim! Agus mar tír ghrá orm! Is aoibheann liom an teanga, agus ba mhaith liom a bheith liofa leis í, ach bhí mo chaighdean an ísle riomh cúíg bhlian. Ach is laoch í mo mhuinteoir ag an am seo. Tá sí ag toghtha mo rang Gaeilge go dtí Conamara i rith Casca go dtí a Gaeltacht. Tá 24 daoine i mo bhlian ag deanamh ardleibheal i nGaeilge as 125, agus i scoil cailini in aice linn, tá trí ranganna lán le daoine. Mo thuarim, tá buachailli cáic ar Ghaeilge!

Ar aon nos, aon daoine liofa ag léamh seo, tá an bron orm. Tá sé pianmhar a leamh! Dheanfaidh mé tuilleadh iarraht sa chead blog eile.

Slan ar anois!

Hello all!
I hope everyone had a good Christmas!
As the title suggests, mine was spent doing sweet FA…
I have however just got news that my school is closed tomorrow, ad possibly Friday, so thank you snow!:)

One positive thing I did do over the Christmas was go to the RCSI Open Day. I won’t go into too much detail because the day was perfectly summarised in Ally’s blog, but it was awesome! The place to me has been the best med school so far, just far more friendly and warm than Trinity or UCD. The staff and students were all really nice and it was great to hear the course from a students perspective than just lecturers. And for the best thing, out of the three med schools in Dublin, the points were lowest in RCSI! Pharmacy was another course I was really interested in doing and it seems really good there. One thing that impressed me above all others about the College was the atmosphere portrayed by the students. Unlike TCD or UCD where the place feels very impersonal, the RCSI has a very small population where everybody seems to know everybody!

One thing my day at RCSI actually gave me was the will to start back studying! Up until then, I had taken a full two weeks off and had no desire to start back. The day however put things in perspective, regardless what I wanna do next year, I’m gonna have to do some serious work between now and June, I’ve officially marked January 15th as the half-way mark in the year, so the easy part is almost over!

Mocks are rapidly approaching too. 28 days in fact! I’m lucky in a sense that our course in almost every subject is complete. Biology is the one we’re a little behind on. Getting another new teacher when we go back, our 3rd Biology teacher in 3 years!

Although this Christmas wasn’t one for study, it gave me a chance to hit the gym and go out running more often! I got a Nike+ iPod sensor for Christmas. For anyone who doesn’t know what they are, it’s a little chip you put into your runner and it connects with your iPod to give you all sorts of information about your run such as distance and speed! I’ve got 50km run since Christmas Day so hopefully it’ll continue!
As for New Years Resolutions, I’ve decided I’m gonna run the Dublin Marathon in October. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was 8 so hopefully it’ll work out!

I’ve just registered to sit the HPAT also. Fingers crossed I’ll get a place in Dublin. The last thing anyone would want is to get up at 5 in the morning to go to Waterford for the test! Anyone know if it’s only the RDS they use or is there other centres?

Anyway I better finish off, I still have and entire Irish Paper 2 and a Lear Q to start! Thank God I’m not back tomorrow! I’ll leave you with some funny lines I found that we’re “used” in English Leaving Cert essays, enjoy!

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease

The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for while.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

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!