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!

Okay, so when I set out writing this post I intended to cover a number of topics. However, I got totally carried away and managed to only cover my French Oral before taking a look at the word count. At least this will give me the push I need to blog more often because I have plenty more rants in store! My teachers always say my answers aren’t long enough anyway.

Now it’s time for a post-mortem of the Orals. As much as relatives and teachers advise against replaying exam experiences in your head like a catchy Vampire Weekend song, it’s the very same people who are waiting around the corner saying “how did it go?” and “what did they ask you?” They didn’t ask me anything harder than what you just did, that’s for sure! I mean, how can you compress over twelve minutes of one of the most unnatural conversations of your life into a satisfactory summary for people who haven’t gone through something similar in over thirty years? My standard “it was grand, just happy it’s over” and “there were no surprises” replies have become monotonous by now. For this reason, I am going to be honest with you.

The French went well. In fact, it completely exceeded my expectations. I’m not saying I walked out of there with a spectacular mark but the time went so quickly that I worried the examiner had timed it wrong. She did say beforehand, “les maths, c’est ma bête noire”, when calculating how long to keep me in there (to my utter dismay because I had prepared that exact phrase and would now just look like I was copying her). While we’re on the topic, the examiner was a French native and one of the nicest women to grace the littered halls of my school. When she talked to the year as a whole at the start of the week and asked who her “première victime” would be, I gathered that she didn’t take herself too seriously. Or us either, I discovered, as the week went on. It became common knowledge that this woman liked to laugh. A lot. Hopefully not at the standard of French though.

Although the examiner’s kind disposition should have been reassuring, it did little to put me at ease as I waited outside room 20, with nothing but her muffled laughs to keep me company. I skimmed over notes for my favourite TV show, Gossip Girl, before the door opened and I quickly decided that confidence was key, despite the fact that I had none. Admittedly, I felt like Blair Waldorf incarnate as I strutted into the room, signed the register and took a seat. Yes, I strutted into the room. Convincing this woman that I was self-assured had made me believe it too, so even if an A is out of the question perhaps an Oscar is in order?

The tête-à-tête went nicely and I felt more like I was in a café chatting to an overly friendly waitress than in a classroom being recorded through a microphone. Knowing that the woman enjoyed a joke, I ensured that I went in there with some material. When she asked if I liked sport, I said that I keep in shape by running to the fridge. A belly laugh ensued on her behalf, although I don’t think The Comedy Roadshow will be calling me anytime soon. I was also asked about myself, my family, school, pastimes, college and my document, which posed the most problems.

Bringing in a photo of the Gaeltacht for the French Oral was not the greatest idea but not because I was tempted to speak as Gaeilge. It was because her desire to know of a typical day there required me to use the imperfect, which really is my bête noire. The worst thing was that I had planned to cover this question the previous night but ran out of time. Merde! Anyway, my newfound WWBWD (What Would Blair Waldorf Do) attitude encouraged me to carry on and pretend I knew what I was saying. I hoped she would lead on to the future of the Irish language but it was all in vain. Overall though, there were no major blanks and I got to use all the main tenses, albeit they may not have been conjugated correctly. Alors, c’est la vie!

If anyone is thinking that an overdose of energy drinks and a popular American sitcom suddenly transformed me from a very average Honours student to Audrey Tatou, I have to stress that I put a lot of study into this Oral. I know, I know, I’ve just broken rule #1 of being a cool Sixth Year- never admit that you’ve studied, ever! It’s not all sunshine and Easter eggs for me (although I’ve just eaten a nice milk chocolate one for breakfast) because my fear of the French Oral pushed all other subjects to the side for two weeks. Unfortunately this resulted in a disappointing Irish Oral…

To be continued (for anyone who actually bothered to read this one).

So, Irish & German orals over, LCVP portfolio sent away, Geography project handed up, Home Ec journal long gone.. You’d think I’d feel a little bit more positive about the LC, seeing as I have parts already completed, but no. I don’t remember ever feeling this stressed out on any other holidays! I’m not even going to talk about how much or how little I have done in certain subjects, but I really need to get more sleep & use my time better.
Mocks went well, I got 525 (Biology A1, Geography & English A2, German & Home Ec B1, Maths & Irish B3, Applied Maths.. D1). It’s more than last year’s points, but I don’t want to rely on that, in case points increase. Plus I really, really need high points in the hope of getting a scholarship. I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to work out finances for next year, because honestly, for me, that’s what will determine what I do next year, not my points. I know a lot of people are in the same situation, but I’m staying positive
The orals were.. Different to my expectations. Irish was, without being cocky, brilliant! For me at least. I got the Sliocht I wanted (Sliocht 7) and the conversation was quite natural and lively. I was fairly late, so people before me had told me that the examiner was lovely but kept talking over them or practically answering the question himself. I needed to do a good oral, so I decided that was not going to happen. I think the examiner was probably scared of me, because I kept shouting really loud, fast Irish at him.. Hey, it was MY exam! German wasn’t as good, sadly, but I expected that. General conversation was a train wreck. She wouldn’t let me dictate the conversation at all, and asked really basic things that I got confused with. Picture sequence & role play went a lot better at least! But it’s really left me wondering if I want to do German next year. My written work is excellent, I know, but I wonder what good is that when I’m not the best at speaking the language? I can have a conversation, but my Irish accent is just so strong, I can’t even make headway at a German accent! I heard myself on video yesterday, and it was like “Oh Dear God.. Do I REALLY sound like that?”
So, I should probably get my ass offline and do more work. I’ve worked out that between Grad, Sports Days & Fashion Shows in school, I only have 14 school days left after Easter. That’s enough to make anyone start on their Easter eggs a little bit early..
Chloe

Hey guys

I know , I know … I’m terrible at writing these blog things regularly and it’s not like I even have a reason other than complete laziness. So since the last time I wrote I’ve :

- Been A Vegetarian For 30 Days:

So , this all started when I was watching a you-tube clip of a ‘vlogger’ talking about how he became a vegetarian. He took the 30 day veg-pledge for PETA. I was talking to some people about it and the majority of them said they didn’t think I would be able to do it. So being stubborn I felt that I had to prove something by doing this ‘30 Day Veg-Pledge’. It was a completely no-strings attached no sponsorship needed thing so I decided why not sign up for it. I did my 30 days cold-turkey(no pun intended) and at the end of it I felt like I accomplished something. I know it may sound cheesy but after signing up for the PETA newsletter and seeing what happens to animals I’m proud I was able to play my part in helping them even if it was for just 30 days.

- Got My Tongue Pierced:

So this one doesn’t have a reason exactly. I’ve wanted to get my tongue pierced for over a year now but my Dad asked me not to get this one thing done. I had my ears and my tragus pierced already and one tattoo that he was alright about so I decided not to get it. But lately we haven’t been getting on that well so when my sister asked me to go with her to get her latest tattoo last week I saw an opportunity. On the way there I told her about wanting to get it done and she offered to pay half so I thought ‘why not?’. After-ward’s though I felt like I had let my Dad down a bit. When we got home and I saw the look on his face I knew I had made a mistake. I was in pain for about 3 days after and still have a lisp so do I regret getting it done? Absolutely. But not over the pain over the look on my Dads face when I got home.

- Put On My First Student Council Fund-Raiser:

In my school there are five different people on the student council every year. Two sixth years (Head-Girl and Vice) and three fifth years (P.R.O , Secretary and Treasurer). Since I’m in fifth year this year I decided to apply for P.R.O and I got the position. Every year the student council put on a Christmas fundraiser but this year the school calender was so hectic we decided to postpone it until after the New-Year. We were going to have a big New-Years raffle but because of the Haiti earthquake by the time our arranged date came there had already been a few fund-raising days. So we just decided to go with a simple No-Uniform Day ,easy and cheap, with a draw for a pair of JLS Live at the Marquee tickets. Altogether we raised just under €1000 which for a small enough school in my opinion isn’t that bad. The money went to the Haiti Appeal and I felt good for contributing. So all in all it was a good experience.

- Dropped Down To My First Ever Ordinary Level Subject:

This one I know probably shouldn’t be such a big deal to me but it is. I’ve wanted to be a Primary School Teacher since I can remember and one of the very first things I ever asked my Guidance Councilor on First Year was what subjects I needed to do it. She told me the main one was Higher Level Irish , so since then that’s the one subject I was adamant that I would stay at higher level until my leaving cert. But wouldn’t you know it , it’s the only ordinary level subject I do. Don’t get me wrong I loooooove Irish but I absolutely hated my teacher and felt that if I had to stay in her class any longer I would be sent away for murder. So now I have to decide on a different college course and career. No biggie there

- Watched My School Make Cork History:

I’ve been on my school basketball team since First Year but had to quit this year because of a pretty bad ankle injury Our school is quite well known for having good basketball teams we’ve either had our teams get into the Cork finals and place first or second. Or get into the All-Ireland qualifiers and get into the Top-Ten. But this year my school had three out of four of our teams in the Cork finals. The senior team won first place in Cork before Christmas and our first and second year teams played in the Cork finals last week with both of them winning. And may I just say the Second Year match was the best Basketball game I have ever watched – they were basically losing the entire game , they were down by one point with 4 seconds on the clock when Megan stole the ball and scored a lay-up. The best basketball moment I have ever in my life seen Making our school the first ever Cork All-Girls school to have three of their teams win the Cork Finals Woo … Haha

- Seen My First Ghost (I think):

So has everyone seen that story on the news a few weeks back of the haunted house in Hollyhill , Cork City ?? Well that house just happens to be a few minutes drive from my house so myself and a few friends all piled into a car Paddy’s night to go up and see what all the fuss was about. Up until that point I was sceptical about ‘ghosts’ but for some reason when I looked into the window of the then abandoned house I thought I saw something and ran for the life of me. Now stopping to re-check to see if it was just a shadow. So there’s my ‘ghost’ story. Not really sure what I saw but lets just put it this way … I won’t be going back to check if I was right.

- Had My First Grown-Up Night Out:

Alrighty so up until recently every time I went out at night to pubs , clubs etc. I was with someone I was related to – older sister , older cousins. But about a month ago I went out with just friends and I felt so independent and grown-up. I know I sound about 12 talking about feeling grown-up and I know I’m completely contradicting myself but I don’t care HA . I loved it and felt that my Mam finally trusted me enough to let me have that freedom

So there is my catch-up … I know it’s pretty boring but what do you expect ?? I have a pretty normal life

How did everyone’s pre’s go ?? Did ye all get on okay ?? Better/Worse than ye expected ?? I’m so glad I wasn’t in yer position this year

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE … ‘Til next time … Auf Wiedersehen xOx

Two weeks ago I came across something incredibly worrying. The Marshall Lerner Condition. According to our book, it states ”That a devaluation will only improve  a countries balance of trade if the sum of the elasticities for exports and imports is greater than one in absolute terms’. After pondering about that in a class test, I though to myself ’wow that means that they could both be inelastic and improve the BOT’, but then it hit me, that’s rubbish. How could it work for two that are inelastic. So instead of sum I wrote down average. And lost marks. I questioned my teacher about it (an absolute genius) and even he was baffled. I tried a few examples with the PED at -0.6 for both, (which are greater than one in absolute terms) and predictably, they dis-improved the balance of trade. Marshall and Lerner, you pair of gimps. That fact that I’ve thought this probably means there is a logical explanation, but I dare any Economics student to try it, the results are quite shocking….

All Ireland Senior B Colleges Semi-Final. Last Saturday. Two points. Two bloody points off a schools All-Ireland. Beaten by a team from Tipperary no less. Tipperary? I didn’t even think they knew what a size 5 was down there. Seven points up at one stage, and thrown away. Their Machiavellian approach to sport is comparable to that of Edmund in King Lear, les grosse legumes (had to keep it educational)! Imagine getting to an All-Ireland final in football, it would have been a class way to end school. But hey, I still have a Dublin and Leinster medal in my pocket. Anyway, that was my crappy start to the Easter break. I probably should start with an apology for the damage I inflicted upon our belle langue, Gaelique. Even reading over it I felt like throwing up. What it did make me realise is that my Irish grammar is like that of Shakespeare, utterly non existent. So I did a bit of research. Apparently this guy, Da Animfhocail, is going around making lots of extraneous rules about when two nouns come together. Fourteen years I have studied Irish. Not once has this guy ever been taught to me. For fourteen years, I have been convinced I was rubbish at Irish. Don’t get me wrong, I probably have the best Irish teacher in the country. But if you saw one of my Aistí, you would understand. There must be a good litre of red ink used per page with corrections, lots of slight spelling changes, sheimius and úrús. I took it upon myself to actually find out when to use these grammar points, but the use of an úrú after ’na’ was never mention. Baffled so I was by things like ’fadhb na ndrugaí’ yet ’na bhpaistí’ was mícheart. Me being Mr. Logical and all that. Baffled that is until today. Fourteen years this T.G guy has escaped me, until I accidentally stumbled across him today. I’ll admit, we touched on it in the Gaeltacht last year, but like Organic Chemistry, you’re not going to get it the first time around. So fun times ahead over Easter getting to know this T.G guy…

Time is quite literally flying out the window. This time two weeks, my scrúdubhéil (imagine, prime example of the T.G, I mean, wtf is a bhéil?) will be thart. Three weeks et mon francais oral sera fini. Eight weeks and I graduate. Imagine, no more school? Ten weeks, English Paper 1 will be completed. Twelve weeks and I’ll be re-capping on my last Economics paper. Not. I shall be getting rather merry with a few friends!
It really does seem like only yesterday I was going in to help the incoming first years acclimatise to secondary school life, and the day before that, as if I were a diminutive first year with my oversized bag. Funny how the bag condition has reappeared in sixth year. My current one could probably hold a decent sized first year. Discontent with getting a bottom locker this year, all my books remain in the bag. Couple that with a few days without shaving, and my friends claim I could pass as a suicide bomber, a disguise to go with my explosive personality. Ok, awful pun I know, but sixth year really does drain all humour from you.

As for the whole study situation, it’s going ok I guess. I haven’t really started killing myself just yet. We’ve had great weather of late. Great weather for study that is. I’ve been getting the Exam Brief supplements in the Irish Independent of late, and while I admit their useful, all I have managed to read so far is the student profiles. One girl claimed that recording all of the Chemistry definitions onto her iPod helped her remember them all on the day. So me being me, I copied her style for Chem. Biology and Economics too. And sure hey, if they are going to work for those, I may as well try it for my oral work. I’m not sure how successful it has been so far hearing myself ream off notes about A l’étranger, but it can only help! One thing I’ve noticed from doing masses of exam papers in Maths is that the exam is getting bloody harder each year. Algebra for example. Take any of the questions from the past three years. Easy? I shall think not! Now have a look at 1998 Q2. 5 minutes it took me to do the entire question and get the 50 marks. So to all of you who claim the Leaving Cert is getting easier and think ‘oh how hard it was back in the day,’ f!@# you! Your A1 in 1998 wouldn’t get you a C3 now!

Now that the hype of the mocks is dead and buried, it’s time for post mortems. English my best result? It’s probably evident from reading my blogs that it’s not my thing. Still, 78 left me over the moon. If I got a B2 in the real thing, I would be rather satisfied! My B3 in French is another thing I laughed at when I saw the result. Albeit a four year old mute could answer the comprehensions and get full marks, I was still pleased. Again, a subject I expect to see a C beside in August. As for the other four. I know in my heart and soul I am capable of getting A1’s in Chemistry, Economics, Biology and Maths, but a serious amount of work needs to be done. A serious amount of work = time, and well time, it’s something we’re all running out of. I got 460 in the mocks. I set that exact aim last October and thankfully I reached it. Looking around and seeing some people not even reaching triple digits is worrying, I have a friend who improved by 250 points from his mocks, albeit he 90 in them. But I really have to break 500. It’s not like I’ve a choice. Actuary was 530 in UCD last year and 485 in DCU. With applications up by 10%, it’s going to rise. Being honest, I’m not sure if I would be happy doing Primary Education or Economics and Finance in NUIM. It’s not that I think they are below me, but I love a challenge. I like to think of myself as a bit of a workhorse, and frankly, those courses are quite laid back. So how fitting, I’ve to work my socks off to work my socks off for the next four years, or I can take it easy, and take the next four years easy! Some reward eh?
Anyway, I shall wrap up, I’ve a date with this Tuiseal Guinideach guy, I’d hate to be late!
Enjoy your Easter, well except for those in sixth year, as that would be awful advice! As a learned man once told me,
‘Avoid present pleasures for future happiness’
Bon(ne) chance