Science - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes

Maria Hayes - Scoil RuainThe Science paper which I was faced with today was very good. Everything I had concentrated on, came up!!I began with the Biology questions, then Chemistry, then finally Physics.I was happy with the biology questions, usually they are very difficult but this time they weren't as hard. Same goes for chemistry and physics!The only problem with the Chemistry was we had to draw a molecule of oxygen. I forgot my compass to draw the molecule!!!Other than that I was very happy with the paper!#StateExams2017

Irish Second-Level Students' Union Welcomes Action Plan on Bullying

The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) welcomes the Government’s “Action Plan on Bullying”, which was launched in the Department of Education today. The ISSU has been strongly involved in developing this plan, with Equality Officer Mark Caffrey sitting on the Anti-Bullying Working Group which helped to develop it, and he is looking forward to its full implementation. ISSU Equality Officer, Mark Caffrey said; ‘Bullying is something which we know affects our students hugely – around one quarter of students are likely to have experienced some form of bullying in the past couple of months, and I’m delighted that an action plan to tackle this head on has been launched today.  Bullying is a serious problem, so it needs to be taken seriously. ‘Schools need to be given the necessary supports in order to manage and prevent bullying in all forms, and we need to make sure that parents are aware of the role they can plan in both preventing bullying, and intervening in an appropriate way where it is occurring.  Tackling homophobic bullying and cyber bullying are key focuses of this action plan, and we look forward to working with other partners to see it implemented’. ISSU President, Dylan Grace said; ‘Bullying can have very serious consequences and it’s important that everyone involved in education play their part in stopping bullying.  The Action Plan on Bullying is very thorough in its approach and recommendations, and I am very encouraged by the commitment shown by the Department of Education and Skills and our other education partners in tackling the scourge of bullying in our schools’. The Action Plan is available here.

LC Maths Paper 2

Ailbhe (Higher Level Maths)

WHERE WERE THE THEOREMS????????I'm sorry Mr. Chief Examiner but I happily divided my weekend amoung perpendicular distances, angles between lines and cos (A+B), I was not a happy bunny rabbit to see a grand total of zero theorems on the paper after I had so painstakingly learned them.Paper two was definitely harder but that was expected due to the lack of challenge posed by paper 1. In my wisdom I started off with question 3. "You like trig Ailbhe, get that sorted first off, we'll deal with circles, vectors and lines later".Part (a) not a problemPart (b) not bad eitherPart (c) sure I didn't know which way was up in that question In the end I resorted to using some dodgy "area of a trapezium" formula that I came across leafing through the tables for part (i). It's not on the course and I don't think I even did it for Junior Cert, but you know what they say - always trust strangers!I was very happy with Q8 which was my elective. The MacLaurin series and I have never had the best of relationships but we overcame our differences and worked it out in the end.What was most thorny about paper 2 was that it's harder to check your answers. I found that there were a lot more questions in paper 1 where you knew if you were right based on the answer you got. Paper two just left me all adrift!I have been waiting to say this sentence since day 1 of Fifth Year and I'm going to relish it for all it's worth.I NEVER HAVE TO DO MATHS AGAIN!!! EVERRRR!!!!

Owen (Ordinary Level Maths)

Back again after a weekend that could not have gone any slower!!My clock just seemed to taunt me for the whole weekend with its 'tik tok'-ing and believe me, I was not feeling like P Diddy with my head in the books! :(How and ever, the exams are now back in full swing!!Maths Paper 2... well to be honest, it was a lovely paper, couldn't have asked for a nicer more user-friendly paper! I really like the “does exactly what it says on the tin” attitude that goes with it and as for the whole simplicity of plugging numbers into formulas... LOVE IT!!No surprises on this paper I have to say and I, personally found all the questions grand... everything seemed to go well from area and volume to linear programming...  however, it left me wondering what the probability was that Irish Paper 1 would be the same!??!

LCA English & Communication

Rosemarie

First up this morning for me was English & Communication, I wasn’t too nervous to be honest - just wanted to get it over with!The exam started well with the audio visual question on enterprise, it was about a woman called Jill that was trying to set up her own business and was going around trying to get funding and advice for it. She got advice from the guy that set up Hairy Baby Clothing Co. and I hadn’t heard about that before so I thought that was cool!For my first long question, I chose the question on one of my work placements. I decided to answer it based on my placement with Waterford Youth Art. I had to discuss two of my duties, whether I thought confidentiality was important in the world of work, how it helped to prepare for the world of work and suggest advice for other students going on work placement for the first time. This question went fairly well for me... no problems anyway.In the Communications and Enterprise Section, I chose the question on the enterprise project that I did as part of the LCA programme. For my enterprise project, I was involved in organising a car wash to raise money to hold a bingo day for elderly people in the local area. For the first part of the question, I had to describe my role in the project. I liked this part of the question as it gave me the chance to talk about my role as catering manager which involved preparing sandwiches and other refreshments for the bingo day. I talked about a problem that we had with the finances for the project after that. I had a bit of a problem with the next part of the question which was about how we’d advertised our enterprise so that was probably the trickiest part of the paper for me as I found the next two sections grand as we’d covered all the stuff that was on them in class.I was just happy that it was over and I did my best with all the questions so I think it went well enough!

ISSU Commentary

This morning’s LCA English and Communications exam candidates had a nice opening to their paper with an audio visual section based on an extract from an episode of RTÉ’s, Higher Ground, a series focusing on the progress of budding Irish entrepreneurs,. The episode in question featured an Irish entrepreneur who sought advice from the owner of hairybaby.com, a very successful online business which sells clothing with quirky Irish slogans (and which offers ISSU Scholar Card holders a 10% discount!).Questions in Section 2 required students to write a letter of application and CV in response to a job advertisement, to describe one of their work placements and how it prepared then for the world of work, to give an account of their enterprise project and to extract information from a HSE informational poster on swine flu. The final question of Section 2 shouldn’t have left students feeling too much “Under Pressure” as Jedward also had a starring role with students asked to discuss their entrepreneurial characteristics among other questions.Section 3 saw students faced with questions on the takeover of online media, Hairy Baby Clothing Company got another mention with a longer feature question (again, 10% off with your ISSU Scholar Card people!), another question on the lyrics of REM’s “You Are Not Alone” and finally a question on the second Oscar nomination for Ireland’s Brown Bag Films… let’s hope “in the bag” was the verdict to be heard among students after finishing the paper!