Leaving Cert Biology

Sarah - Higher Level

I think I can hear the Hallelujah chorus... I must admit, biology is not my strongest point, so pairing it up with Irish paper 2 was a cruel blow. These were probably my two most neglected subjects, so last night consisted of two years worth of study. After a lot of tears and tantrums, I settled down for a bit of sleep, to be awoken from my rest by the sound of my alarm clock, reminding me that my study wasn't finished yet. I did a very slapdash revision of my beautiful diagrams (on flashcards!) and went to school to get a last minute look over Irish. Then, I spent exactly 85 minutes learning everything I possibly could about biology. Sadly, I only got to cover Section 1 and Section 2, but I figured I'd wing it! I don't really know what to think of the exam itself to be honest! I decided to do every question because I knew I'd have the time. I thought the question on food was nice, as was question 2 on tissues. I completely blanked for the question on the bone, so I made up lots of nice little names to accompany the diagram. I liked the ecology in question four, but I thought it was very much a case of common sense. Again, question 5 was grand, I had been expecting a lot of plants so it was do-able. The question on mutations was horrific, I had absolutely no idea what to write so I put my creativity into action and came up with some random waffling. I thought the first experiment question was mighty, I think I just wrote down the first thing that popped into my head and left it at that. The other two questions were so straight-forward that Section B just flew! After that it all went downhill... I blabbed on about the most ridiculous rubbish, but I'm hoping for pity marks. In genetics, I had a mini panic attack when I saw linkage so I just said SSYY and SsYy or something! It was a case of getting something on the page. I thought the ecology question was crazy and I used my head and wrote whatever I could using the little common sense I possess. Question 12 was lovely, just a bit of reading off a diagram really?! I made a mess of 13. Despite my amazing diagrams, I freaked and everything I had learnt turned into a bundle of confusion. I found a lot of the last two questions quite hard to understand and I didn't really know what they were looking for in some of them. Nonetheless, my biology books are now firmly shut, never to see the light of day again! In short, I found the whole paper a wee bit random. I thought some of the questions were a bit out-of-the-blue, but I must get over all of that now and go listen to some french! Hope you all found Biology okay, and I'll be back next week after Chemistry (my last exam)!! :P x

Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union. Blogs are updated daily by 6.30 pm on scheduled examination dates.