LC French

Ailbhe (Higher Level French)

Oh la la, sacrebleu!!Le Français s'est bien passé, non?I think this is the one exam I'm actually kind of sad to have put behind me. I really enjoyed French- the people, the accent, the culture, the fashion, the cheese- was, comment-dit, extraordinaire!I was happy to find an illustration on "le fast food". I had pas mal d'informations about manger sainement from my oral, as I was anticipating questions about my future career (dietetics).The comprehensions posed des problémes, the first one about Permet de Conduire was a little difficult...there was no verb question on it either, something I was none too impressed to see!Le Journal Intime was a highly pleasant venture altogether. Going into the exam I had vocab to express sadness and happiness, any form of anger, love, confusion, fear, would have made me look un peu "retard".I choose the emigration Question 1. Nattered on about “C'est un problème primordial de nos jours, qui malgré la croissance économique a continué s'aggraver” ...basically any sentence I managed to crowbar into my head last night.The listening wasn't too bad but some parts were a bit hazy but that’s the French for you!Bonne chance pour demain!

Owen (Higher Level French)

Whoop finished all my languages now!! :DWe're nearly there... in the last stretch of it now and even though I have two exams left, I couldn't feel any better!French today was believe it or not, très bien! :DHave to say that I was absolutely dreading this exam as it’s one of my weaker subjects but only for the fact that the social topics can be so unpredictable and I usually find myself, which is unusual for me, stuck for words!The reading comprehensions were quite do-able, one about the new driving test scheme in France and another about a girl whose husband died and she had no money so reluctantly was being sent to France to find work. There were the odd few questions which required the art of guessing... hopefully with a bit of luck this method proved to be successful!Now on to the opinion questions, my most feared part of the French paper!EMIGRATION..... lovely just like in Irish - an open doorway to complain and moan (what us Irish people do best) about the recession and the effects it has on emigration.I next found myself doing the diary entry... “PARTY, PARTY, PARTY” ... oh wait no, the party got cancelled and I was left stuck in on New Year’s Eve in front of the television with my parents! Easy to sympathise with, the emotions came flooding out about how this was the worst thing that could have ever possibly happened in the world.... worse than starvation, worse than dying, dare I even say it worse than the recession!?! I made my point very clear...to my diary anyway!For my last opinion question, I answered the question on how fashion is just as important to boys as girls. I have to say my French teacher’s love for fashion and Tommy Hilfiger came in handy here! I had a wide variety of vocabulary and phrases to give a satisfactory answer! Let’s hope the examiner will agree! :DThe listening, never usually my strong point... but for today I did manage to give the Exams Commission a run for their money! Saying that, I also missed a few ones here and there which resorted to my fine art of guessing again, they were good educated guesses though so hopefully it works out!Now with Biology tomorrow I have a lot to revise and thankfully I have a half day, so I'm going to go and make the most of it!

LC Business

Owen (Higher Level)

Ah business... my favourite subject, so much to say, so much to write about, so much common sense involved but oh so LITTLE time to do the exam!The Paper proved to be a nice little paper overall, nothing out of the ordinary in the short questions, the ABQ was a nice little piece on Management and the use of IT in business quite a walk in the park for a Leaving Cert student.The long questions again had a nice variety from EU policy to franchising and branding it was overall, a nice paper!However with the pros also come the cons, much like every other aspect of the business some of the questions were a bit vague and wishy washy resulting in again what is found in every aspect of business...waffle...but again that is the art of business and proved not too difficult to master! :DAlso the timing!! My poor hand, I now know how those monks felt writing manuscripts all day... God bless them!There was a lot of time management to be done in this exam and it was easy to let yourself go especially on the ABQ. However, I finished with 5mins to spare to have a quick glance back over and tidy things up.Now to get ready for French, oh the joys, thankfully though I have no more full days!A demain, bonne chance!

LC Irish Paper 2

Ailbhe (Ardleibhéal)

The clichéd "BIG THREE" are over. Just three more to get through.Irish passed by without much ado.Did Stair first. The choices available were not of the predicted variety. Bealoideas, Meath na Gaeilge and Colaiste Lováin were chosen.Clare sa Speir and Fiche Blian ag Fás showd up as expected in Ceist 1, which was were my pen took me after the Stair. The questions were manageable, I just hope I wrote enough to secure me the precious marcanna.I then started into An Triail. I did the Teicníochtaí Drámata. I was glad to get that jumbo sized question finished.I then turned to poetry.I couldn't do Uirchill because I never bothered learning meadaracht, little did I know how much my negligence would conspire against me. An Chéad Drama got a going over. I think I may have spelt the poet's name incorrectly, probably wasn't the best start, they should really print the poets on the paper.Jack, Níl Aon Ní and Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa were the ordinary level poems of choice. I had been banking on doing Jack and had learned off a hefty wedge of Dlí na hOidreachta, saol na tuaithe sula dtáinig an cumhacht leictreach agus araile and was disheartened to find that the question wasn't the best. Instead I turned to O’Searcaigh and O’Direáin for the ordinary level question.Was glad when 12.50 rolled around on the clock. That was definitely the toughest paper. Not only was it the same length as English paper 2 but you have a lot more to learn and more questions to answer. Not many were left standing when the final whistle was blown. Out of a starting group of about 140, I'd say about 20 or so stayed in the exam centre until the bitter end. Most dodged out early to get an extra cram for business in.Have to spend my afternoon with French now, a subject I have disregarded, lucky me!

Owen (Ardleibhéal)

Wow, all I can say is thank god that today is over! There was some serious amount of writing involved in today’s exams with both Irish Paper 2 and Business!Well, well, well Irish Paper 2... the paper I've been dreading the most with its unpredictable ways, its confusing questions and usually the most ferocious paper to walk the world of the Leaving Cert!!However today for me it proved to be nothing more than a piosa páipéar! All my worries and anxiety were completely overdramatic (looks like I can relate already to the An Chéad Drama question :D).As soon as I opened my paper, I was off to a flying start with the prós question, a very approachable question on 'An Cearrbhach Mac Caba' and how we are sympathetic with him in his constant struggle with death. He's a gambler, who is lazy, spends his time playing cards and wasn't even there for his wife when she was having her baby, however for the sake of the question I decided to pledge by sympathy to the gambler after all he did change his ways in the end!Next came the An Triail question for myself, now I have to say I'm not at all into the whole ‘let’s cook our children in the oven’ thing and never found myself to be a big fan of the play but I did manage to get through the question. I did the first question on how the main conflicts of the drama come from the fault of 'something' 'something' 'something' about love, I took an educated guess anyway and decided to talk about how the main conflicts in the play were as a result of love.... I hope that's right cause I did give a fairly decent answer!Now for the poetry, to my great relief it was quite manageable. After dreading for so long what poem might come up and if I would know it in enough detail, the ones I had prepared the most made a lovely appearance. Níl aon Ní, although Cathal may be a bit dodgy, I threw myself head over heels into complete adoration of his poetry! Next came Faoiseamh A Gheobhadsa, again another enjoyable poem which shares some similarities with Níl Aon Ní so I didn't have any trouble with that.Next onto the higher level poetry....*Owen turns the page**Owen sees Uirchill an Chreagain and Owens dies a little on the inside**Owen turns the page again...AN CHÉAD DRAMA and Owen is resuscitated back to life*Thankfully one of the poems I had covered in detail phew! Although I did cover it in detail, the questions were a bit awkward and a bit of a waffle was in need but I'm sure I got the gist of it!Stair na Gaeilge...  I found myself writing about the poets and Bealoideas na Gaeilge. Thankfully I'd covered the poets but having expected something like Fiannaíocht to come up, I settled with Bealoideas with my knowledge from an Cearrbhach Mac Caba helping me out so I took a gamble with it.Overall most people were happy with the exam and the only main complaint was with the An Triail question and how it is becoming near to impossible to study at this stage with the vast variety of questions being asked on it!

LC Irish Paper 1

Ailbhe (Higher Level/Ardleibhéal)

Well after that funny little listening comprehension (clean toilets yeah right!) and the Oxegen newsletter just in to my mailbox, I don't feel like I am now 3.5 subjects deep into the abyss of the Leaving Cert.As I leave the great news to sink in, I'll give the blow by blow on Irish.I was very happy to see the debate was highly accessible"There is nothing in store for Gaeltacht areas except decline"I rattled on for cúpla leathanach.....the usual suspects appeared in my essay....Patrick Pearse, Des Bishop, TG4, Foinse, Peig...basically all the ingredients you need to make a hearty Irish stew of a Diospóireacht.Léamhthuiscints were slightly difficult in the sense that I found it hard to substitute my own words for the text. Thank God I already knew a bit about Santiago Di Compostella and Ted Kennedy, making the comprehensions run smoother!The listening comprehension was deceptively éasca, faraor, I am slightly worried that a no mercy marking scheme will be curtha in bhfeidhm?!However I am now faced into a jam-packed evening. I shall wear my pyjamas on the bus, gamble my life away, worry about drochstáid na tíre and do some underage drinking with Muiris and Thomas!Quite happy paper one wasn't too bad.....will I say it? Ah go on....Tús maith leath na hoibre!!! :D

 Owen (Higher Level/Ardleibhéal)

Well it was much to my delight that a lovely essay title came up, 'Daoine atá i mbéal an phobail' ... lovely, how much more lucky could we get!? While it might be a scourge on society in real life, the problems with the government and politics, education and health system and dare I say it the recession are a Leaving Cert Higher Level Irish student’s complete and utter life line during exam time!!Ar an taobh eile, the reading comprehensions did prove to be difficult enough and in a couple of cases, I had to resort to my old tricks of copying and pasting... thank God that wasn't too often... however, it was a bit of a downer for me considering the reading comprehensions are usually one of my stronger points, fingers crossed I still managed to get the majority of marks anyway which I'm confident enough I did... guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist!The listening comprehension proved again to be a little problematic; overall it was quite manageable and got easier as the exam went on. This may have just been a problem with my exam centre as at the beginning, we did experience some technical difficulties with people trying to fix the lights so this was a distraction for many during ‘Cuid A’.Hopefully everything went really well, overall, which I feel it did but I do tend to get caught up on the smaller parts that I didn't get instead of looking at the big picture!Now with Irish Paper 2 and Business tomorrow, I have another long and painful day ahead of me!! These full days are a killer, I'm already wrecked after today and now I have to study for two big exams tomorrow....oh the joys! Can't wait ‘til it’s over... it’s about the only thing motivating me at the mo!

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!??!

LC Geography

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level)

The country’s Leaving Cert HL Geography students had a very nice start to this morning’s paper with some really lovely short questions. Complaints had been made in recent years at the level of difficulty of the short questions so perhaps this had been taken into account in compiling this year’s paper as the questions featured on the paper were far from difficult with a particularly lovely question on “Land-use” which will have been a nice, easy markers for the majority of students.The longer questions in Section 2 and 3 had a nice balance with very straightforward questions in the physical environment section. However some students expressed difficulty with part of the first question in the regional geography section which required them to describe and explain the importance of culture in a studied region. The biome elective question also proved to be a little trickier than in past papers, this may have caught some students out if they struggled to get the three points that the marking scheme will require together.Overall, students that were well prepared and ensured that they gave enough points of information to acquire the bulk of the marks going for each question will have fared well this morning.