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.

So I was at the RCSI open day this morning as the title will suggest:) Although I will probably be biased as I haven’t been to any other open day I will be very honest! I thought it was a great day,there were quite a few people, considering the road conditions, around 500+ I’d say…It ran from 10am to 2pm. We were brought into a lecture theater and were spoken to by RCSI staff, present and past students of school of med, pharmacy and physiotherapy. The admissions office also spoke to us about the HPAT, general admissions to the college, the point system and the random selection process..we were then brought up to an exhibition upstairs that included workshops and info on different subjects in RCSI. These included; biology, pharmacy,GP,pathology,anatomy and much much more, lecturers and staff members were there on hand as were pupils to answer any questions we had. We then returned to the lecture theatre to get more talks and a junior doctor’s perspective and also an idea of his time in RCSI.

Overall I thought the day lived up to my expectations. I thought the lectures were really well done, kept us interested whilst at the same time informed, the students’ attitudes were just brilliant, they were probably the NICEST people I will ever have met, they were so enthusiastic about the school and remained realistic about the whole experience, outlining the pros and cons, these students really put it into perspective,a lot of them first did different courses and then decided on medicine, their opinions really gave me at least, an insight into what the school really has done for them…I’ll always remember those students if nothing else, they were just…it’s like unnatural how nice they were!!! ha:) A 6th year med student and 4th year med student highlighted the different clubs and societies the school offers, wow…there’s such a variety of crazy, funny and basically any and everything known to man…there’s clubs for it…the latest: The friendship club, the gourmet food club and much more, RCSI is competitive in sports too, having a current student represent Ireland in the winter Olympics is something alright!

Something everyone seemed to mention was the fact that the school was very inter-cultural (and extremely proud of it),as in they have students from all over the world, the 6th year med student stating that he was of Indian descent, from Austria and spoke french,another student was from Finland and said that approx 19% of students are not from Ireland..one student commented “You see? You’re all white!!” his fellow classmate replied “Uhhh yeah, were in the minority guys…but that’s the beauty of it..” There was defo a lot of positive energy in the room.The junior doctor’s talk was really informative, gave us a realistic idea of his actual job, he strongly said that it’s nothing like Grey’s Anatomy or ER (some ppl seriously think you get to work with amazingly handsome(P.Dempsey *cough*) doctors whilst keeping interesting relationships with different people etc, etc, he works on average 65-100 hours/week. The students actually continued to commend their teachers, saying they are the best in Europe and they are insanely talented and in general very nice:) I also loved how the school was quite small,apparantly everyone knows each other and its really tight unlike a campus in UCD/TCD etc, that stood out to me i think:)

I was sitting in the theatre with 500 other people wanting the same thing as me, we all thought the same! So as you can prob guess, man were we motivated, hearing people next to me whisper to their neighbours “I’m gonna go home and study now”, “year right” were the replies..it  felt as though i was thinking aloud..over 3000 people apply for med every year, less than 40 places are available for undergrads in RCSI and its random selection…so,like I usually do, I got really nervous and started predicting the future, “omg I’ll have to repeat..how am I gonna get in…seriously though..me? I don’t study! ahh God!!!!”, I gave up though, there was no point having such a negative attitude, I can only do my best right?

We then got a tour of the college, I loved the little community-like facilities and lounge rooms, but my favourite part was the anatomy room…omg…the smell of formaldehyde was just unreal! Bodies were covered in thick white plastic and laid out in a linear pattern on metal tables, there was over 30 bodies I think….just being there was so cool..ha..i get amused way to easily:(

Anyway, I thought the day was great, I really recommend going next year if you want to do any of the following: RC001 Medicine,RC101 Graduate Medicine,RC004 Physiotherapy,RC005 Pharmacy..They like to have an idea of numbers so around about September 14th 2011 make sure to get a ticket (just check out their website and follow links). I’m more than 100% sure this is the college for me and its #1 on my CAO right now..if anything I’m motivated to study more, really am:) Hope i haven’t bored you to death at this stage, if you couldn’t make it iIhope you got an idea of how it went down, most people enjoyed it too, not only was the school of medicine well presented the other school of Physio and Pharmacy were also well introduced.

It was funny,we were eating lunch in St. Stephen’s green shopping centre and I was telling my mum about the day, she got really enthusiastic! Ha, it was funny, I was just like “Hmm,yeah pathology and forensics seemed really interesting, but then again, Dr. Hugh didn’t like it, now he’s in Psych now!”, she replied by going into detail how pathology is lab based and kind of boring if you prefer more interactions with patients and then started talking about how she loved doing the forensics module and seeing if it was animal/human blood, which way the knife went in of how the bullet cracked this and that…it went on for a while and I just sat there, listening, eating my soup and brown bread, nodded every now and then, looked up too actually…she was just so happy, so I let her proceed, recalling her time in the good ole days. Good stuff:)

Anyways, Bonne chance for now, I shall and will see you all soon =)

Hi everyone.

Long time no see. First off, lets give our selves a pat on the back for finally completing those dreaded Christmas exams! Oh it seemed infeasible at times and almost unnecessary, we may have thought the teacher’s were wicked beings for prolonging and increasing our stress levels but in the end, I think you’ll agree that indeed, it was important after all. We think we’ve done well enough for ourselves at this time, with the CAO and other preps for next year, these exams can be pushed to the side at times. I know that I could have put a tad more effort into my studying for these tests and probably won’t do as well as i hoped. BUT now I’m in study mode (bit late). I am rearing to go! I’ve made out the timetable and am dead serious about this new idea of mine. So 10am-5pm every day,5-7pm a break,7-8 another hour and then that’s that. So i’ll be doing hour blocks,  the first and last blocks go to HPAT prep and institute revision work. Sounds good written down but will i stick to it? With my super studious sister by my side i would think yes. But you never know what the holidays can bring…Anywho..I now reluctantly await my results in the mail…

I ended up going shopping in Dublin again today. I also ended up buying Wuthering Heights,many of you have probably already read this classic novel, I’ve been putting it off for years, so i finally bought it. I’ll start reading it soon, after I finish William Goldman’s ‘The Princess Bride’, a present from one of my friends. Strangely enough I never heard of it before…it’s also a film..? Who knew!? I haven’t read a good book in a while so we shall see.

My French oral was called off as my teacher was sick and absent from school for the whole week. The week we are back she’ll schedule a new one. I was seriously disappointed, I had everything prepared and was totally in the zone! As sad as my love for French might be, I’ve recently gotten worse, embarrassingly worse, it hurts to admit this but the fact that we all understand my strange feelings and alien nature of being optimistic and at times rather negative, translating the last names of people if the root is French (olly walls) makes it a bit easier to say this…I have searched the magnificent thing that is youtube for “popular French singers/bands” and have discovered a woman known to the French public as ‘Alizeé’ some of her old tracks like ‘j’en ai marre’ and ‘ j’ai pas vingt ans’ are pretty decent…ok so I really like them? yes I love them!..:( have a listen…they probably wont do anything to aid my French but I thought it was a nice idea..:) Indochine are a good band too…strange yes…:) I wonder if there’s any Irish bands? but I do think by watching ‘franny’s feet’ and ‘ni hao kao lan ‘ as gaeilge on TG4 in the mornings helps with my Irish listening because they use basic Irish,,i mean its made for 2 year olds really…(cringe!)

The problem with me not posting in ages means i write long novels for you guys and you prob skim down to the end to see if I’ve written anything decent or basically ruined your day with nonsense and nothing that’s really amazing. So iIjust want to basically finish off by saying ‘Happy X-mas’ and I hope you all have a wonderful, successful, healthy and happy new year 2010, let’s hope it’s a good one:)

p.s I’m really enjoying T.S Eliot’s Poetry…I love it actually!!!

Bonne Chance mes amis:)

-Ally

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!

Ok this is a bit of an odd one, but where do you get your inspiration? Poetic, artistic or, in my case, what motivates you? As I was desperately trying to fall asleep on Tuesday night, this thought crossed my mind. It wouldn’t leave. Like that those annoying lyrics of a song that play over and over, it was jammed.

Famous faces kept dropping in and out of my thoughts, Obama (who should not have won that Nobel peace prize), and his goosepimple-speaches, Mary Robinson, Mary McAllese and so on. But what have they ever done that really affects me? Anything that warms my heart or chills my spine to even thin.

Random phrases took their turn early the following morning. Those quotes, those petty clichés; so annoying, but true. I’m not even going to list them, they annoyed me so I’m sure they would annoy you too. Iconic quotes always seem to make me feel as if what I have to say is pathetically insignificant – sometimes I do need to be told to shut up, I know, but wouldn’t it be nice to hear your name break that crisp silence after real quote? One that sends shivers down your spine and through every muscle in your body. I may keep dreaming!!

By this time I was on the bus to Trinnity, probably the reason these thoughts were harassing my brain. Bus = iPod = crazy lyrics that are usually meaningless mumble to me but, because of this whole philosophical mood-thingy, sounded really deep!! Example; The Blizzards – ok take “Buy it Sell it,” always seemed like an over-energetic “mumble,” but it’s about consumerism and prostitution and its actually really meaningful!! Coldplay; ok always one of the “deeper” bands, but really listen to the lyrics and it means so much more. “Clocks “and “Yellow” have to be my favourite two. Those guys will go down in history. They are immortalised by their music (it’s a half borrowed quote from my notes on Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”).

Yeats wanted desperately to be immortal, to not be hurt like a human. “Sailing to Byzantium” is by far my favourite poem of his. The quest. The journey to perfection. Isn’t that what we all want? Perfection. Maybe it’s just us Virgos, but I think not. Being self-critical is good, but there’s a limit. Oh I feel a quote coming on (courtesy of my Granny)!! “There are enough people in the world who will want to put you down without you doing it for yourself.” That’s really true! I read a book called “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers.” Read it and live it! It had so many of those confidence boosting quotes that when it made you fell all warm-and-fluffy inside!!! Let’s face it, who couldn’t do with a little boost in the auld self confidence every once in a while =D

Ok back to this inspiration thing. Well, where is more awe inspiring then the big TCD itself? Walking through the cobble courtyard, I just felt a “bubble” rise in my throat. I swallowed quickly and ended up in a coughing fit!!! I think it must have been laughter – laughter at the fact that I was walking in the prints of some of the greats – laughter at the fact that I was wandering around looking for my life inspiration instead of living my life – and probably laughter at the thought of the ridicuolous sentence being handed out to the people of this country only a few blocks away.

Well I found my inspiration later that day in an unsuspecting Cork man or his words anyway. Have you ever heard someone speak and thought “yes, this is for me”? Well I had one of those moments listening to a mini-lecture on medicine. Don’t ask me why, but this is what I want. And I can now say that without feeling guilty, because he said I could! I have always thought I would like to do medicine, but never felt right saying so because I had no answer to “why.” Among some of the people I know, it was and is thought that being ambitious is the same as being snobby. That wanting the best, is like saying what I have is inadequate. And so what if it is? I won’t regret not living my life just because a used-to-be friend thinks I’m being snobby!! Humph! (Sorry that needed to come out!!)

Well after this momentous realisation, I decided I had some changes to make, which I would do in a calm, mature manner. I dropped to pass maths the next day, and made a pact with myself not to get emotionally caught up with this person again. I will not be dragged down!!! Dropping to pass maths really was the right thing to do because I now need to come up a grade (at least) in everything else :/

For now though, my hpat preparation begins. Anyone got any tips? (I know I’m competing against you if you think about it like that, but you’ve got a head start!!) So I have six days of school left, then six days off, and then it’s up to Leeson Street for five. Having a bad biology teacher has a lot to answer for =( Anyone else heading up???
Make the most of that Christmas spirit =D

Ta ta
Katie xxx

Hey my fellow leaving certs.

I haven’t blogged in ages! I have honestly been so busy. These Christmas exams can be really time consuming. All week I’ve had tests and today was my dreaded Irish oral. I ‘ve never had an actual oral test in Irish,so I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I rock at the French oral, ask me anything…no nerves at all. However, today was different. I was sick to the stomach thinking about the possible questions and if I was even prepared enough..but thankfully it was pretty good. It took me a while to get into it and loosen up but I got a good result. The teacher said I would get a high enough mark and if I added the odd seanfhocail I nGaeilge I’d be sorted. So you can guess that I was really proud of myself after that. I honestly sickened the teacher. Her face when I started talking about the sharp economic crisis and racism. It was like she didn’t know I could speak Irish at all, she just smiled at me and widened her eyes unknowingly… I was laughing on the inside, I really was.

I had a great experience today. Great i tell you…it was of course the much (or so I thought) anticipated event that is non other than crazy sock day. Oh yes, students are entitled to wear any socks of their choice, be it primitive, casual or wild’ ou! Any..all for a great cause. Saint Vincent de Paul of course! We raised €715 which I think is an amazing accomplishment…I felt great, wearing my old pink tights with purple polka-dots,blue ski-socks with navy polka-dots and a white and pink snowflake pattern pair of socks over those. I surely got enough attention anyway! Is it my fault for going all out in my last year? No. So there I was, a passionate young 6th year trotting around wearing three layers of brightly coloured socks, her green plaid skirt contrasting totally,yet I was smiling happily, not having a care in the world of what boring,mediocre,plain,simple,people with regular bottle green socks and tights thought. It was great…:D

I have so much homework to do this weekend and I have a french oral to prepare for now too..Monday morning I have to talk my way through the basics in French whilst also having prepared my document. My bowling trip with the french students should help doubt it. I got a surprise (as in I didn’t know about it) Art test again today, this time on early renaissance paintings. so I failed that,,or so I think at the moment..

I have also, oddly enough, been sticking to my HPAT study plan, every morning I do 3 questions from each section. Sundays, I do 10, after school study I do as much as I feel like at the time:) it may or may not help, but I’m not taking any chances. A lovely Chemistry test awaits me on Monday morning too, naming organic compounds…easy enough.

Strange, this week I’m actually positive for a change…I like that feeling.

My friends are going to the Paramore concert Saturday,,jelous much? yes:( This Saturday is the last week I’ll be in Leeson street until after Christmas,then it’s the RCSI open (so excited!!) and then I’m back to the institute:)I hope Olly (murs…walls…sorry I’m such a nerd when it comes to french ) wins I honestly think joe might,,but he’s great too ^__^..Which reminds me, my teacher asked me in the oral, do I watch TG4? Sure didn’t I say yes..so now I’m like the number one ‘an jig gig’ fan out there…love it !

Anyway, I’ve wasted enough of your study time…ha:)

Bonne chance !! XD

Bonjour my fellow students:)

So Sunday was my last HPAT class with John Maher. What.A.Ledge. That guy is probably the most supportive, enthusiastic, motivational and genuinely most suited man to do the job. What we did yesterday was our practice test, i scored 54/110 so I got 49.09% which was average on the day, man was I disappointed, I guess I’ll have to practice every week,,,one person got 77%! Basically he just said that the score we got on the day can defo be improved and we shouldn’t linger on it. I thought the whole experience was great, I timed myself perfectly and had about 5 minutes at the end of each section to look over my work. I found Section 1 to be the hardest, 2 was tricky but 3 was my strongest. I honestly gained so much from this course I can’t even explain. I am way more confident in myself and know I can perform well. I would totally reccomend this course to anyone who wants to do medicine in Ireland and needs to do well in the HPAT. Most people won’t get the 600 points (my self included) so the HPAT is a great thing and it could be the reason you enter med school. So really just again, stay positive, buy the HPAT practice booklet online (ACER/ HPAT website) practice every saturday morning to get your mind set on that certain time, time yourself, see where your weak and work on those parts. Make sure to build your aptitude,read more, do more puzzles etc that test your mind, silly and basic things that make the difference. All in all I wish you all the best of luck doing your HPAT and hope you get into the course you want Its a competitive choice alright but if you work hard at it im sure it would be much easier…

And on that note … have a good week enjoy your Tuesday off, lament the fact that Jedward have gone or in my case have a party and celebrate ( hey maybe they’ll go back to school now and i might see them on Saturdays…FAT CHANCE:D).

and… I’m seeing new moon again tomorrow :):):):)

First off, I think we should ALL just proclaim to the world wide web that we do indeed watch and enjoy watching the X Factor on TV3. I should also add that The Hills is addicting too and I should really stop watching that fake trash but I just can’t.

So yeah, I headed down to Leeson Street this morning again for the HPAT preparation class. It started at 10am and finished at 4pm. We got a 5 min break every so often and an hour lunch break at 12.30pm. John Maher, an ex- accountant who decided to do medicine and repeated his LC in 2008  got 600 points and was ranked in the top 1% of people who sat the UPAT (Australia), equivalent of Irish HPAT,he scored 206 out of a possible 300 and is now studying medicine in Dublin. What a guy. He’s sound out and knows what he’s talking about. We Basically got  sheets and sheets and sheets and more sheets on  tips and practice tests and prep sheets and whatever else you can think of. We worked through examples, talked about techniques and logical methods. The main points he had for us were that we need to remain positive calm and time ourselves for each question. Basic common sense but amazing how many people don’t think that way. That was a big thing. I actually thought it was great and really got me motivated. In two weeks time we’ll be back and sit a practice test and get our result to see where we need attention. Its great and I would totally recommend it to anyone who wants to do well in the HPAT but isn’t sure how to tackle it. You need at least 100 plus points in the HPAT plus around 560 points in the LC if you want to get an offer from medical colleges. My friend got 670 and he’s now in RCSI doing med.

To all those people who think HPAT prep courses are a waste of time and money (300 Euro in the institute), all I’ll say is that before, yeah, I did some practice tests and thought I did grand, I found some sections hard and others straight forward. BUT I spent around 5-10 minutes on each of the questions and would get bogged down on one’s I couldn’t understand. I had no exam technique, no time management skills and had no idea what to do if I didn’t know the answers for certain sections. Fact is, this guy has done the test and the LC, he knows what were going through, he knows what can possibly bring up marks and reduce them. I know it’s an aptitude test, not an academic test but just like anything else if your familiar with it, you’ll be more comfortable and perform to the best of your ability.

I know not everyone will go to these prep classes but what I’d suggest is to go to the HPAT Ireland website and order a practice test on-line. Practice that test whenever you feel fresh and time yourself. We were told to spend about 1 minute 20 seconds on each question. Mad I know but If you want to possibly answer all the questions on the paper that’s what you’ll have to do. You’ll get use to it just like the 100 people in my class today did. Also, buy a digital watch, much handier to read and time yourself on. Start reading boring articles in papers like ‘The Irish Times’ or ‘Financial Times’, read one’s you might not like and build up your language because the examiner wants to get you tired and bored and then read the question and say ‘what? that was no where in the text!’ but it was. Always remember that theres only ever ONE right answer and it has to be in the text itself,don’t bring up your own opinions or what you know from studying LC biology. It’s wrong. Also, if your finding a question hard chances are others are aswell,you all have the same paper, if the room is cold it’s cold for everyone?

Much more useful

Just stay positive and believe in yourself. Think of it as an Olympics for academics, don’t you want the gold medal? well then you need to work really hard and train yourself and stay away from unnecessary things that will distract you from your goal. Make the most of the few months because then you’ll be where you want to be. Just put in the effort now and if you don’t get what you want at least you can say ‘ I tried ‘.

So that’s my opinion on the HPAT. Good luck to anyone who’s hoping to do it and remember to register now!

Have a good week