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

Believe it or not, I’m not talking about finishing the mocks or anything. But you know when something finally pays off? Utter Delight.
On Wednesday, I went to the Gaeltacht as part of school preperation for orals, with about 70 others. We were in Gaoth Dobhair at Colaise Cholmcille, & I have to say, it was brilliant! I’ve already spoken of my nerves in relation to Irish, and I decided I could really benefit from being immersed in the language! It turned out to be true, because I’ve been thinking in Irish as a result & English feels strange! Basically we had four classes a day, then a céilí or Tráth na gCeist or something later. Yesterday our ‘activity’ was an oral. I was freaking out, I’m not confident in Irish after Junior Cert, but I managed to go in, and come out with a “Go hiontach!” & 78%! Needless to say I was delighted, I felt so happy that I managed to actually speak. When we started Irish Oral two months ago, my voice shook & I wanted to cry after being asked questions (I don’t know why.) and I’ve built myself up to a B2! And just to top it all off – We spent that night in Maggie Dan’s, a pizza place with a few of the girls playing irish music, & teachers giving prizes. The girls that did Irish dancing, played music, & won the quiz all got vouchers, then there were prizes for the people that made the most effort – & I got one! In that moment, I just genuinely got a sense of “I can do this.” I mean, I love Irish, I just feel it’s a weak subject And I was a lot happier with 78% in irish oral than 86% in german. I think the moment you do well in your worst subject is definitely a happy one! But, basically, the trip was amazing & definitely worthwhile, so I’d recommend a trip there. Obviously the cost is pretty prohibitive, it put me off summer courses, but the 5 days cost me €180 with no extra cost. Personally, it was worth it. Agus, mo chairde, sin é. I need sleep. I’ve forgotten what it is, & unfortunately, I have school tomorrow. Which means results. Slán!

60% of Students are Not Using Any Proven Learning Systems with Their School Work a Survey by The Leaving Cert Bootcamp Finds

From a study of 1,000 exam students, almost 60% of those surveyed are not using any proven learning systems with their school work, a study by the team behind the Leaving Cert Bootcamp has found. This figure suggests many are not maximising the time they spend studying or getting the results that reflect their potential ability.

In terms of problem areas for students, 70% reported that they needed more help with focus and motivation when studying for their exams. Over 60% noted that they felt they could improve on their time management and organisational skills and nearly 60% said that they need help improving their memory.

Respondents added that poor time management and lack of organisational skills were key contributors to stress and anxiety. Over 65% of students also said believed that exercise was important for improving academic results.

The Leaving Cert Bootcamp, in association with Bank of Ireland, is a new one-day event designed by a team of education, motivation and wellbeing experts to help students unlock the secrets of how to learn and change the way they approach exams for the rest of their lives.

Commenting on the survey results, Cormac Moore, from The Leaving Cert Bootcamp said: “These results are showing that there is a real need for an event such as The Leaving Cert Bootcamp. While schools are teaching the course content, The Leaving Cert Bootcamp will teach students how best to retain the information while they study and reproduce it in an exam situation. It will also educate them about the importance of looking after your health while you study.”

Expanding on the science behind the Leaving Cert Bootcamp, Moore said, “The Leaving Cert Bootcamp is based on the principles of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), which is the study of outstanding individuals to reveal their approach, mental strategy and mental recipe for producing outstanding results. By teaching students how other high achievers do it, we will not only boost their chances of exam success but this will also give them confidence to apply these tools to all study situations going forward.”

Some of Cormac’s top tips for effective study are as follows:

• The more relaxed you are studying, the more serotonin you are releasing into your brain. Serotonin is a powerful neurotransmitter directly linked with improved brain function so the better mood you’re in, the better results you’ll get
• For every four stone in weight you are, drink a litre of water. The more hydrated you are, the more mental energy, clarity and focus you’ll have both short term and long term for your study and exams. Avoid fizzy drinks and caffeine drinks. They give you an instant high, followed by a huge crash
• Use the information you are studying as much as possible. Your brain is programmed to delete information it doesn’t think it needs. The more you use it, the more of it your mind will store
• What grades do you want? Write down a list of percentage marks for each subject that you’d love to get – not what you think “realistically” you can get, but what would delight you if you go it. There is far more energy and motivation behind an exciting and challenging goal than a realistic one
• Time yourself in the morning. How long does it take you to get ready, wash, eat and make your way to school? When you know this, you be far more organised and relaxed in the morning because you’ll know exactly how long you need
• Get some perspective! If you live to be 80 years old, you’ll have spent 29,200 days on planet earth. Your Leaving Cert days account for about 1.1% of your life. If you mess it up, you have a life to fix it. In addition, since it’s only 1.1%, why not put the effort in now and get it done well!

• Take breaks every 60 – 90 minutes when studying. Your mind’s concentration levels wander naturally so when you start to notice your concentration wandering after a certain while, take a break and allow it to wander

For Leaving Cert Bootcamp bookings buy online at www.theleavingcertbootcamp.com. Tickets are priced at €35 per person.

Well. That was a stressful weeks. Mocks suck. Remember the JC mocks that were actually a bitta craic cause you got extra long lunches and no homework, all you had to do was show up for two hours and maybe do a bit of study in between (Well that’s how it was for me anyway). Well in the LC mocks, you get shorter lunches, early mornings, late nights and a nice dollop of stress. Sounds fun, right?

I won’t go into any serious details with each exam incase someone reading this doesn’t want to cheat but here’s a basic summary of how my week went.

English Paper One Alot harder than I expected it to be. I kind of just expected it to go alright tho, but that was not the case. The three texts weren’t that straightforward but that’s nothing compared to the essays. Normally, one essay just jumps out at me. But nothing was appealing. About a page into it, I freaked and realised I had no more ideas. But I only had 40 minutes left so I had no choice but to ramble on for two and a half more pages. Not impressed by its shortness either but hey, we live and learn.

English Paper Two Was B-E-Autiful. Everything I wanted to came up so was delighted. Tough paper in so much as its 3hr20mins of solid writing. And you really do need that time. Exhausting stuff.

Maths Paper One Disaster. Epic Fail. Impossible. More depressing words. It was horrendous. Algebra was terrible and even my bankers (Q6,7 and weren’t that straightforward at all. Hopefully I scraped a pass.

Maths Paper Two Another awful paper. You’d swear they were trying to scare people into dropping to pass. You could just see all the honours students looking at the paper dumbfounded (or maybe that was just me). Was nicer than paper one, but still harder than any paper I’ve done before.

French Lovely. Easiest paper I’ve ever done. Was finished in an hour. Reading comprehensions were really easy and the questions were great too. The listening was a great deal harder but still very manageable.

Biology Another nice paper. Very manageable. No major complaints

That’s all I’ve done so far. Irish Paper One and Two, History, Physics and Applied Maths next week. History is gonna be hard. Timing is ridiculous. 2hr50 to write 4 essays. Impossible!

Then Mid-Term Excitement )

Niamh xx

It’s because they are MOCKING you. Believe me, whether you’re completely relaxed about them, crying yourself to sleep about them, or forgot that they existed.. They are not nice. They’re like that friend. The one you’re not actually sure why you’re friends with them. The one that just bobs about inconsequently, until you’re starting to get worried, and then BAM! They decide to turn into Ultra-Subtle-Bitch who comments on the fact that yes, you did just eat an entire five pack of Galaxies. And you can deal with this in a few ways.

1. Be the positive person who bounces around, squealing “It’s only the mocks! They don’t matter! We’re all going to be fiiiiiiiiiine and I’m going to bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone will eat it and be happy!” There is only one outcome to this outlook. Every non-positive, non-cake-eating person in your year will get sick of you and poison your cake. Whoops, your mocks definitely don’t matter, because you’re busy vomiting rainbow cake.
2. You can be the negative person who boo-hoos about the mocks and takes them very, very seriously. This results in you doing amazingly, so god-damn amazingly, that you decide you are a GOD. Everyone should worship you, because you passed your mocks. Actually, you did so damn well, you don’t need to study for the LC! Everyone says the mocks are harder than the real thing, so your results will be off the wall! Don’t worry, you’ll be welcomed back to reality when you mess up your exams because you’ve forgotten anything and everything from the mocks.

So really guys, the mocks are no big deal. There’s no point in freaking out, and trying to cheat – Just give them a go. They don’t mean a thing! Good luck to everyone doing/ starting/ getting results from their mocks. Mine don’t start for another three weeks, so I have a while to wait. Maybe I should study for them rather than writing horribly off-putting blogs..
Chloe

AllHonours.ie has seen an increase of over 300% in traffic since we relaunched the site as a social Q&A.  In true exam season style, activity has exploded and we are confidently heading towards an exciting milestone of an estimated 20,000 registered users and over 100,000 Q&A’s for the end of February.  Yesterday alone (7th Feb 2011) we had over 45,000 unique users visiting AllHonours as students prepare for their mocks.  We are certainly on target to reach over 1,000,000 visits for the 2010/2011 school year, making us one of the busiest and most visited dedicated Leaving Cert and Junior Cert websites in Ireland.  Keep spreading the word and best of luck to everyone in the mocks.

Update: 61,000+ unique visits to AllHonours.ie yesterday, Tuesday 8th Feb.  Busiest day yet!

Update: 75,000 unique users yesterday, Wednesday 9th Feb!

Hello

Once again it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but getting my thoughts out is just not happening lately :L Such a busy month. Finally, I fully realise why people in Leaving Cert always gave out about the Leaving Cert. It’s awful. And for all you people out there who are like “It can’t be that bad” I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it is. And for anyone who tells you otherwise, they’re either lying or superhuman. Everything you do, you feel like you should either be studying or sleeping. But when you’re studying you want to sleep, and when you actually go to bed, your brain is too jumbled with information to calm down. It’s a never ending cycle. Just crap. Thank God It’s only one year. And for anyone who repeats, you’re a better person than I. Under no circumstances will I be doing this again next year. I’m actually lucky that the things i genuinely want to do aren’t the most popular. Physics FTW

Speaking of courses, what did everyone put on the aul CAO?

Very very happy with mine. Number 1 is Science in Galway and 2 is Science in Maynooth After that it’s just random Physics and Biotechnology Courses around the country But I really want to get Galway. I love the city. I love the College, the course. Everything. So excited. Just to get through this flipping LC first.

Mocks start Monday. I’m nervous. Today was so stressful because the more teacher’s wished us luck, the more nervous I got. Still it’ll be an experience.

Anyone who does history will understand the serious lack of time in the exam. Why we get 3 hrs for science subjects where answers are rarely more than a paragraph and in history we have to write 3 full essays and 1 half essay in 10 minutes less is beyond me. Even that extra 10 minutes would make such a difference. Ridiculous.

Anyways Good luck to everyone doing their mocks

Niamh

I decided to be a sheep today, and just go along with the general flow of blogs.. CAO & Christmas tests? Fairly calm about both actually. I’m expecting evil eyes for admitting this, but I filled my CAO out in November. The week CAO opened. I was bored that week.. Needless to say, I’ve tweaked it slightly, putting down a few random courses for the craic, but overall it’s consistent. At the moment, it says:
1. Trinity Law and German
2. UCD Law with Politics
3. DCU Economics, Politics and Law
4. TRINITY Business, Economic and Social Studies (BESS)
5. UCD Business and Law
6. Trinity Business Studies and German
7. DCU European Business (German)
8. Trinity Computer Science, Linguistics and German
9. DIT Journalism with a Language
10. UCC Government
It used to have a lot more Law courses, but Law & German has stayed on top. I LOVE German. Me & German are tighter than JD & Turk. Oh yeah.
So other than that: Christmas tests. We didn’t have them. Since we missed three weeks of school, official exams were cancelled, to be replaced by class tests. It was HORRIBLE! Picture this: Still having to do the same tests, just with less time / spread out, while still receiving homework. Can’t say I’m a fan of it.. But I did a test in English, Irish, Geography, Applied Maths and German.
English – Haven’t gotten back. It was basically only the A part of a comprehension. If I fail, I will be amazed.
Irish – An average of 72.5%. I got 13/20 in poems & stories, then 32/40 in A Thig Na Tit Orm. It’s grand.
Geography – 96%. Definitely happy with this
Applied Maths – 70%. It’s okay-sh :/ I got the highest, which may say something about the test, or else the class (including me) is just thick.
German – Average of 89.5%. A reading comprehension, listening comprehension, oral & Schriftliche Produktion. Pretty happy!
In the rest of the thrills & excitements that my life consists of, my Parent Teacher Meeting was two days ago. Happy with that too, was given predictions of an A in German, Home Ec, Geography, & maybe Maths. B in Irish & Applied Maths, and my Bio & English teachers didn’t turn up.
I apologise for the dullness of that blog, it was clearly uninspired. With the amount of homework & after school things, I have no energy to construct full sentences, never mind interesting ones. I pinky promise to try come up with enthusiasm next time!
Chloe.

Oh the irony of Ireland having a meltdown.. Because it’s covered in snow.. Which refuses to melt. God I’m funny! Right? No? Well there goes No. 1 on my my list..

1. Become a comedian. What better time to crack jokes than when your country is in disarray? Try come up with a few new snow puns, because really, we all know we love them. If that’s proving to be snow fun, count how many times you can bring the recession into a conversation. Zero points if you just try to end everything by saying “Because we’re poor!” Minus three points if you rob the idea from Facebook.

2. Watch TV. Ah, the old faithful. Stick on the box and turn into a couch spud. Refuse to allow your mammy to turn it off because you are LEARNING. X Factor is helping you with your Music homework. D’Apprentice is contributing to your Business knowledge. I’m A Celebrity is about Geography. The Panel brings you up to date on Current Affairs, perfect for CSPE! Not to worry if you don’t actually do any of these subjects – coming up with all of these excuses requires creativity, similar to English!

3. Facebook. Oh it was obvious that it’d feature in the list SOMEWHERE. But just in care you’re really bored, post a new status. One of those really annoying, unbearable ones that goes “Like this & I’ll tell you what I like about you!” You can take up an entire evening by checking who has liked it, then wondering what to do when someone whom you don’t like, likes it. It also takes quite a while to come up with a compliment for someone whom you haven’t actually seen since Junior Infants, before they moved to Monaghan and added you as a friend eleven years later. The panic you will face is useful: “Oh My God, what am I supposed to write about her?! I barely know her! Okay, let’s think calmly.. Oh Jesus she’s gone offline! Before I wrote back! Now she thinks I HATE HER!! Calm.. Calm.. ‘Dear Mary, I like how you borrowed my pink crayon in Junior Infants. Hahahahahahahahaha!!!’ Right. There. Sor’ed” This is similar to the panic you will face in an exam. Think of it as practice.

4. Eat. No, this does not require snow. If you are anything like me, you will have doubled your diet since you began an exam year. You will also only use exams as an excuse to eat what you could eat anyway. But you need brain power! Your parents will try convince you that fish, and vegetables, and icky things are best for you, but ignore them. THEY’RE JUST TRYING TO GET THESE ICKY THINGS OUTTA THE WAY SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO EAT THEM! Because they would then get to eat the chocolate. The chocolate which has been proven to aid happiness. You need to be happy. You need sugar for energy. Clearly, you, as a student, need chocolate. Or ice cream. Remind parents that during winter, you need extra calories to create body heat. Reassure them that you are eating brain food and saving them money because you’re making your own body heat. You don’t need central heating.

5. Be at one with nature. Go for a long, relaxing walk in the snow. Skip through the fields. Glide down the road which is free from cars. Spin around while snow falls. Reason with yourself that maybe William Wordsworth WAS right about nature. You love nature, and you’re so peaceful that you will ace your exams because you have had a spiritual resurrection. Smile and breathe deeply. Then fall and whack your hip and curse and cry and rub your hip and look around hoping that no-one has seen you. Trudge back home, muttering under your breath about how you hate nature and it’s useless, and there’s a reason we have technology. Sit by the fire and ring your daddy to ask him to put more coal on the fire because you’re cold. He will do this because you are facing exam stress and cannot be aggravated. Put on your slippers to find your feet have broken out in blisters due to the wellies you wore which were three sizes too small. Decide that you are sick and tired of trying to amuse yourself.

6. Study. Realise that your novel ways of studying aren’t really helping you. Go into your room and sit down at the desk with all your books, which you haven’t organised in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui because you’re only trying to fool yourself. You now know this and are going to fight the urge to procrastinate. You sit down, determined to work, open your Irish book.. And the electricity goes. Oh well, no-one can say you didn’t try!

P.S. Another great way to amuse yourself is to write a nonsense blog, then spend half an hour praying that nobody actually follows this advice.

Dia Dhaoibh!

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

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

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

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

Peace out, and happy studying!