Junior Cert Irish
Helen - Higher Level
I was quite comfortable with Irish Paper 1 as I had learned my list of phrases for my scéal/eachtra so I was ready! I find with the scéal section that no matter what the title is, you are able to twist it into a story about a fire. Quite handy! I found the listening quite alright as the places mentioned were ones that come up quite a lot. Time wise, I felt confident as I had at least ten minutes to spare to review what I had written. The comprehensions featured a lot of opinionated questions and carried on through to paper 2.I have to say, at first glance of Irish Paper 2, my heart dropped as themes such as grá, bás or brón didn't come up. I decided to go with 'misneach' and my chosen pros was Imithe by Ruaidhrí Ó Buaille Aagain I was a bit thrown when I saw the themes for the poems, I chose 'tuismitheoir' and wrote about Subh Milis by Séamas Ó Neill. Luckily I was able to slant both of my studied pieces to fit into the themes. I think I must have quickly scanned through the options for the letter as I realised after finishing the exam that I hadn't written it in the prescribed tense. However, I was pretty happy with the way the exam went.
Gearóid - Higher Level
Paper 1Firstly with the aural: it started off well with Cuid A however Cuid B didn't go so well. Cuid C went off "okay". The two comprehensions were doable. I knew about Lorde already so I knew one or two answers of the questions before. The grammar section went good. They put it up to us translating present to future tense! I finished off with 45 minutes for a story. I wrote about sitting outside the principals office and there were a few deaths in my story, a bit too morbid! Overall I liked this paper, nothing that surprised me. Thank be to God.Paper 2With the written exam, I started with the letter, which I usually find hard. I done the first choice (A) as I felt that going to the cinema was easy. I quickly went onto the seen poetry, which I wrote about a poem Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa and the subject of country life. I swiftly went onto the seen pros. I felt the themes were extremely hard, not like other years (grá, brón etc.). I wrote about Gleann seo an nDeor, it fitted in with "cineáltas" or kindness. Onto the unseen pros, the comprehension was difficult in my opinion but I tried my best! The unseen poetry were the last thing I done and I only had 10 minutes left in the exam. They didn't go the best either but I may have got half marks. Overall I enjoyed the letter but the unseen literature let me down.
Art - Higher Level
Irish Paper One: Personally, I have to say I found this year's Listening to be easier than most in the exam papers. Fortunately, we were not hit with a harsh Donegal Gaeltach accent! On from there, section two began with the Comprehensions; one on Lorde and the other or Oireachtas. I found the first one easy but overall they both seemed relatively doable. As for the Grammar, I didn't find the transformation from present to future too difficult, though I'm not so sure about the other part. Finally, we were blessed to be given two reasonable options for the Scéal; outside the principal's office and unsure why or else something that happened when you went shopping with your friend. I chose the shopping one and sort of roped in pieces from a missing person and a robbery, mixed with phrases and hopefully it'll get me through. Overall, I was relatively happy with paper one, as Irish is not a strong for me.Irish Paper Two: I nearly had a heart attack when I opened the paper to find a pretty tricky selection for the Studied Prose. I ended up using a theme from the given prose to work for mine; ainmhithe. The unseen itself I found rather challenging and I don't think I answered it too well. I then moved on to the Studied Poem where I used 'tuismitheoir' for Teilifis and sort of improvised from there. You could get away with reading one given poem if you were caught for time (which I was). Giving an opinion on The News poem wasn't impossible, though again not for the fainthearted. Finally, the letter to a friend was on a trip to the cinema. Not too bad. Overall, I found paper two a struggle and I felt demoralized heading into the final half hour. Hopefully it won't drag the grade too far down!
Jane - Higher Level
Paper one:I was fairly happy with paper one. The listening comprehension was very easy in comparison to my pre, or other comprehensions for other years. The reading comp was good I think.... I can't really remember what it was about now though. The grammar sections were okay... I was freaking when I saw the future tense but it was actually grand once I got down to it. The heading of the eactra put me off definitely. Because Irish is not my strongest subject I like to get notes from my friends in other schools who have amazing teachers and just learn them off. It worked for me in the pre but today I hadn't prepared anything in that fit into the titles perfectly. However I managed to slot in a couple of the best parts from all the essays I had learnt off into one. I was pretty pleased at the end but thinking back now I think it might be all over the place... It was like three pages long and had about a million seanfhocals! I hope my examiner appreciates all my wise old words of wisdom.Paper twoAhhhh paper two. Well first of all I spent all of the two hour break cramming for this, but I did pretty well in the studied work. I thought the headings for studied stories were strange... Usually grá or brón will come up but they were more complex this year. Lots of the girls in my year didn't even attenmpt this question as they didn't have a clue what the words meant. I quite liked this question because it made me look at the story. I had studied, Calua, and see it in a different light. Shoutout to the SEC there! Unstudied fiction didn't go so beautifully, I found the passage to be pretty wordy and the questions seemed to require long answers when there wasn't that much information there in the first place. I didn't mind poetry too much, although I didn't comprehend the complete meaning of the entire poems I could decipher what the question wanted. The letter was pretty okay too!Thankfully I've already done my Irish oral, so I have forty per cent out of the way! In conclusion, I think after finishing my gaelige Junior Cert course, that I now regard continuous assessment to be even more imperative to the Irish education system than I did before. I spent a huge amount of time cramming for this exam so I could get a good mark, from studying late at night to get up early this morning. I've been studying for Irish like this for the last half year, but it's the nature of the long blocks of text to require constant review. I wish I had a teacher for Junior Cert who would have taught me to understand the language rather than speel out pages and pages of text which I didn't understand, but would get me an A.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Junior Cert English
Art - Higher Level
English Paper One: The exam began with the reading comprehension, as always. This year's was on Mary Bück, the Irish astronomer. Personally, I found this to be not overly challenging, though I spent a good forty five minutes answering questions on it. I thought the essay titles were very open ended and relatively easy to work with, though my friend found the speech difficult. I worked with the title Tremendous Silence and wrote about a wake. The Functional question was considered to be tricky by most. Guidelines for workers in a shop was a first for the exam commission to come out with. I did the report instead which I found to be the most challenging part of paper one. Finally, there was media studies. I chose to do the question on the editor and not the report on Rotten Tomatoes. Explaining the job of the editor was pretty main stream. Then we were to give our opinion on the ice bucket challenge which was fun. I went against the writer's alternative. Finally, a page of rambling about politics did the trick on the politics question, I think...English paper two: As always, paper two drains all the energy from junior cert students as you're writing till the end. The questions on the unseen drama weren't overly tricky if I remember correctly. However the studied was more difficult to work with than usual. A sense of place was asked on poetry which shocked many students I'm sure. We then worked with two poems on ocean birds which wasn't overly challenging. The studied novel gave students the option to talk about a character or alternatively pick two words from a list. I used inspiration and gripping for Roll of Thunder. At this stage I was utterly wrecked. The Book Thief was a short extract with two scenes. I found question two and three on this to be tricky. Fortunately we only had to do one of those. The first was pretty workable. Overall, a mediocre paper, which I thought was harder than paper one.
Jane - Higher Level
Paper 1I was delighted with all of paper one. As most English Junior cert paper ones do, it followed a theme form section to the personal writing section, and this year is was astronomy. I found this a very interesting topic which insipred me to choose Stargazing as my personal writing heading. Even though I had planned beforehand to compose a speech, as soon as I saw the word a hundred things jumped out at me so I knew I had to do it!I chose the first option for function writing and I put a twist to it.. I wanted to make it jump out at my examiner for being different.. hopefully they will appreciate it!The media section was pretty nice this year, I chose the film question as reading the first part of the newspaper section nearly put me to sleep! (It was "write about the purpose of a news editor")Paper 2I decided to complete my studied works questions first, as during my pre I didnt get to finish any of my To Kill A Mockingbird question! Anyway I think this is a pretty good idea, all you second years listen up!Usually I opt for the Shakespearean Drama from section one, but today, whatever was in the air, I just couldn't handle reading Shakespeare and went for the other Drama. I have a lot of experience in Drama and so I usually love these questions, today however I found the scene quite mundane. I didnt think there was anything interesting about the passage or the dialouge and I was pretty disappointed about this!Actually, something I've noticed about this year was the use of bullet points in paper one, and having a few adjectives as part of a question and having to chose one and describe it... I found this pretty weird because they had nothing like it in past years.And now, for poetry.. I LOVED the poems! I thought both poems were fantastic and loved answering questions on them! However, even if you didnt like the poems, as a lot of my friends didn't don't be too hard on yourself because the entire question is only worth 30 marks!And now for unseen fiction...I'm not quite sure what was the matter with me today, but I had a feeling that I had a half an hour more than I actually did have (KILLER) and it was 25 past 4 and I still hadn't started the unseen fiction. I literally got no chance to even read the fiction so it was 30 marks completely gone!I was absolutely kicking myself. I have a very good English track record and have a achieved straight A's in the subject since first year, so you can imagine I was very distressed. However, I really did my best, and honestly, thats all I could do. I think if I do get a bad grade for it in September, that I should not take it to heart and not let it interrupt my enjoyment of the subject. At the end of the day, its just a little letter, so honestly, in case anyone else is on my boat... We'll be grand as long as we keep our head high!!
Helen - Higher Level
- English Paper 1 -I felt that English Paper 1 was quite straight forward as it's not a paper which you can study for. The Reading Section was centered around the theme of astronomy which later linked with an optional question later on in the paper, in Personal Writing which was "Stargazing".In Section 2 which was Personal Writing, there was an option of 8 topics. I chose (1) Breaking the mould. I centered this piece in a short story format. It was about a boy who lived in a small conservative town and he's gay. It features the obstacles he must overcome, which includes having to tell his parents about his sexuality. He then begins to campaign for the right to gay marriage in his state. I chose this theme as it is topical and modern with regard to the recent referendum.In Section 3 which was Functional Writing, there was an option between writing a set of customer service guidelines or to write a report based on a survey within your school. I decided to go with the first option which was writing a set of guidelines. Again, I felt this was quite straight forward, as it was mostly common sense with regard to good manners, cleanliness and etiquette.In Section 4 which was Media Studies, I found it was quite relevant as it featured such trends as the "Ice Bucket Challenge" The question for this was centered around the misuse of the social media phenomenon. Question 2 of this section was centered around "Rotten Tomatoes" website, which was all about movie reviews. All in all, Paper 1 went quite well.- Paper Two -The Unseen Drama was a choice between a Shakespearean piece or a more modern piece. I decided to go with the Shakespearean piece as it was the one I was most comfortable with. It was about two lovers who were about to be separated because the male lover was about to revolt against the king. The Other Drama was about a family picnicking on a sunny afternoon in June. Question Two in the Drama section featured your studied piece. I, like a lot of the country had studies Romeo and Juliet. It was interesting to see that within both questions, the staging and how you'd go about staging and performing the play were featured.The Unseen Poetry was a surprise as it featured 2 poems in which you had to answer. The studied poem featured questions such as imagery and setting or to note what the poet had to say about either People and Nature or Adults and Children. I chose imagery and setting and I decided to go with The Daffodils by William Wordsworth.The Unseen Fiction was based on the novel, 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak. This tied in with the World War 2 topic in my history course so this aided my understanding of the questions.The studied piece questions gave a choice between choosing two words to best describe the novel from a list of words. My chosen novel was, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. I chose the words, 'Gripping' and 'Complex' to describe this piece. The other option was to describe the most interesting characters in your chosen novel which display both strengths and weaknesses.Furthermore, I was happy with how the English papers went.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert English Paper 1
Leah - Higher Level
Hello and good afternoon to the readers of this post! I hope everyone is feeling well on this fine evening and that if you're one of the "lucky" few to be going through exams at the moment, I truly hope that everyone finds the strength to do their best over the next few weeks. I myself have been inflicted with the trials & tribulations that go hand in hand with the thoughts of the Leaving Certificate today.Firstly, however, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Leah and I have never done an official State Examination - until now. As you can imagine, I was extremely nervous at the daunting prospect of my first State Exams to be so significant to my future. But, no pain, no gain - right? These past few months have been a nail biting experience but now, finally, I have made it. Alongside all of my friends and classmates, we have all reached the first day of exams.This morning I arrived at my school fully decked out in my uniform at 8:30. That's an entire hour before my exam was due to begin but I was too full to the brim of nervous energy. After waiting for what seemed like both endless hours and fleeting minutes, my exam centre was opened and slowly but surely, each of my peers poured into the centre. As the clock neared towards 9:30, I decided to make a basic plan of action for my first exam - English Paper I. I decided that my first priority was to get Section II out of the way, seen as it's worth the most marks. Luckily enough, I was blessed with a creative mind from a very young age and so I knew my best shot would be to write a short story. Then, I chose to continue on to part B of Section I and finally, I would finish with the Comprehension. I love it when a plan comes together. With that plan in mind, I felt anxious to get going and, sure enough, 9:30 came and there was a flurry of rustling papers in the exam centre. I kid you not, it sounded like a flock of pigeons taking flight!With my plan of action in mind, I decided to do Question 1 in Section II. The question was focusing on a problem the main character had to go through and then how they had to change throughout the course of the events of short story. For me personally, I decided to write an epilogue-like ending of a book that lead onto a sequel. Each problem my character experienced were in the past and yet, they still had many more to overcome. I was incredibly lucky that my hours in bed, where I was trying to sleep last night but instead thinking of intricate plot lines had not gone to waste.As soon as I had written over four pages for my tale, I decided it was time for me to move onto the next thing. For my Question B of Section I, I chose to do Question B from Text 1. It suited me down to the ground as it was about writing a letter to the Principal of the School on behalf of the Student Council in order to reason with the Principal and their choice to get rid of a Graduation Ceremony for the students graduating in 2015. Now, as many of my close friends know, this was a question close to my heart, as I have written a letter to my school's Principal in the past and it sounded like something the Principal may have threatened to do in the past. Therefore, this Question B suited me down to the ground and I used my own past experiences of being on the Student Council to help me make it more reasonable and relatable. I was not surprised either when I learned my friend and current Chairperson of the Student Council did likewise. We had a right old laugh about that afterwards as we both had a good idea of what each of us had specifically written. It's always nice to leave your exam centre in chortles of laughter.Finally, I finished off my exam with the Comprehension. I immediately rushed to start reading Text 2 as I realised I was short on time and I finished off answering the questions in the nick of time. It turned out that I actually quite enjoyed answering on Text 2 because I love to read anything scary and I thought it was a unique moment where I could understand the thought process. Was it just me that found the first book cover image scarier than the first and the second more childlike for part (iii)?All in all, for my first "proper" exams they haven't gone too bad so far. Dare I even say it, I found Paper I fun? The topics intrigued me and even inspired me. It was a somewhat nice paper to get on the first day too. Here's hoping that Paper II will run just as smoothly and that Ní Chuilleanáin and Montague will come up on the Poetry Section! Well done to everyone who got over the first hurdle too; we're well on our way to enjoying the long summer!
Rob - Higher Level
We sat down way too early for English paper 1, the feeling of anxiety and expectation growing as the clock reached 9:30. On turning the paper over, I read the Question Bs and the essay titles.I had been hoping for an article or a speech and though the titles were okay, nothing really stood out for me. Reading through the Question As I liked Text 1, a speech by Bono at the University of Pennsylvania, I decided to go with Question B from text 3, an introduction to a book about the importance of old people.I found both the Questions A and B that I answered to be very doable. While I haven't written an introduction before in an exam, the topic was not too difficult. I enjoyed Bono's speech, as an exam text it worked well and as a speech it was very inspiring and engaging. I am not as happy about the composing part of the paper. I enjoy writing short stories, while the speech at a UN youth event jumped out at me. I decided to go with the second short story, involving a "gradual reveal of a big secret". Midway through my essay I realised I hadn't been developing the story and it was looking like a personal essay. I tried to rectify this, but ran out of time on my final paragraph. I also found the "gradual" part of this story to be challenging. It would have been much easier to just describe one big reveal in a climactic manner.Overall, I feel okay about Paper 1. It was fair. I most definitely wasn't delighted with it but it was approachable and interesting. Now the panic and cramming can begin for Paper 2, something I think Paper 1 had been shielding. Come on Montague!
Lorraine - Higher Level
Well, That's English Paper 1 down! I have to say I wasn’t nervous at all this morning or to be honest, at all this year! Paper 1 is generally a nice paper to start with because there isn’t an awful lot you can do for it!I got into the school this morning and I was greeted by lots of very nervous students. I went into my exam room and signed the roll book and boom I was ready! When we got the exam I straight away glanced at the Compositions and I couldn't help but smile- I had a story that I could tweak into the first title. Relieved, I went back to the Section A. The theme was Challenges which I was happy with because I was worried it would be equality which can be difficult. The first comprehension was about Bono and the second B part was writing a letter to your principal about him not allowing CLASS of 2015 to have a graduation ceremony. I chose this as my B first because the others looked fairly difficult and B is not my strong point. I started answering A then and it was about a ghost writer. I thought I did a good enough job on these. With the composition, there were two short story questions which was great for me but if you had of done a speech I think it would have been tricky as there was only one option!! I did mine about a main character who has to overcome a challenge and show how's it transformed them! I really hope it went ok! From talking to everyone, everyone seems happy enough! Overall, I think it was a good enough paper and I’m pleased with how it went. I can’t say I’m ecstatic but I never am after Paper 1! Fingers crossed for the role of women in Othello tomorrow and a bitta Montague!! :D
Joanna - Higher Level
Day one - English paper 1You can't open the exam paper until the examiner says you can, but the ink on the inside goes through a little and you can make out the picture before you turn over the page. When I got my paper I thought to myself, that's a weird looking woman. I was anticipating something about human-rights or about equality and guess what, it was Bono and a speech he gave to the UN or something. I was delighted, but rather than jump straight in I decided to check the essay questions. I had a short story in mind going into the exam and two of the composition titles suited it. Grand. Then I checked the part B’s and I was so disappointed when the part B under the Bono comprehension suited me best. That meant I couldn't do that comprehension and had to choose one of the other part A’s. I got a bit thrown because I didn't know which to choose and the hall seemed so loud with rummaging and turning pages... I took a deep breath and looked at the other part A’s. The first of the two were about ghost literature writing (not really an interest of mine) but the questions looked very similar to past examples I had practiced so I decided to give it a go. I ended up really liking it actually, and my letter for the functional writing asking to have the sixth year graduation back went well too. I had an hour left for the composition, which was tight enough, but I managed to mould my essay into the fourth title, an ending in my life that I consider important, and before I knew it, I was just starting my concluding paragraph when the examiner called out that these are the last ten minutes and no one can leave. That's when I realised just how stiff my entire arm was, but I kept going and put down the last full stops just as we were asked to put our pens down. It was over. *sigh*On the side, I must say, deciding to cycle in to the exam in the morning was a great idea. Not only did I avoid having to drink a coffee in the morning, the whole effort of getting changed and then getting on the bike loosened up my arm and the fresh air helped to relax a bit. Now, time to get some early dinner, rest and then get stuck into the selected pile of Othello, Poetry and Comparative notes waiting for me in my room. Best of luck to everyone and congratulations on surviving day one! :)
Isabelle - Higher Level
The theme of this year's English paper one was "Challenges", something pretty universal, that most Leaving Cert students can relate to going into their first exam. The choice of Question B's wasn't my favourite, (I would have liked a nice diary entry!) but I went for the letter to the Principal in the end, which was fairly straightforward!The Question A I went for was one about an article discussing the problems authors face writing Ghost Novels in a time where people don't believe in Ghosts. I actually found the article quite interesting and so it wasn't too difficult to write about. The 20 mark question wasn't about style, but instead about the images that accompanied the text, which I hadn't prepared too much on, but I thought it went quite well overall. Finally the composition -being someone who's quite active in debating and Model United Nations I was praying for a speech and my prayers were answered! There was a lovely question asking you to write a speech to be delivered at the United Nations Youth Conference in which you consider some of the causes and possible solutions to what you see as the defining struggles in our age. This question was right up my street and so the rest of the exam flew by – here’s just hoping paper 2 is kind to us tomorrow!
Asha - Higher Level
English Paper 1I still don't think it quite hit me that I was doing the Leaving Certificate until I opened the paper and started breezing through the reading comprehensions to find the one that I liked best.It didn't take more than a paragraph of the first to realise that I certainly wasn't doing that one. Likewise the question B simply didn't appeal.The next two had me stumped a bit. Once I made the decision to do the question B from text 3 that decided the matter. I quite enjoyed the piece on ghost writing and the challenges of it in a modern society. I quickly made links with other references to this in pop- culture. It was engaging although my performance is another question entirely as the comprehensions have never been my strength.I answered the question B on old people. I thought it interesting but I think I missed out on answering the first part of the question about the influence of older people on younger people. The second part was easy enough. It was a fair question overall, even though book intro's aren't something that we really covered. It was a bit of an article in the end I think or at least that's how I wrote it.As for the composition, there was never any question of my doing something that wasn't a personal essay which narrowed my options down to one. That was slightly disappointing however I digress. It was a workable title on our response to an ending or a number of endings. Fitting given that this was the beginning of the end. I managed to eek out 4 pages which is more than I've ever written for one essay so I was suitably impressed and had five minutes to spare. I regained all feeling in my hand shortly after.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
#ISSU15 AGM NSE Results Declaration
Declaration of results 2015:There were a number of exceptional candidates who put themselves forward this year, and we are pleased to announce that the following candidates were elected:[table color="blue" name="National Student Executive 2015-2016"]
| PRESIDENT | Rob O'Donnell |
| DEPUTY PRESIDENT | Joanna Siewierska |
| EDUCATION OFFICER | Jane M. Hayes Nally |
| WELFARE AND EQUALITY OFFICER | Isabelle Geraghty |
| INTERNATIONAL OFFICER | Gearóid Dardis |
| OIFIGEACH NA GAEILGE | Liam Morris |
| CAMPAIGNS AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER | Art O'Mahony |
| SECRETARY | Helen Ryan |
| STUDENT COUNCIL SUPPORT OFFICER | Alex Fogarty |
| HONORARY PRESIDENT | Craig McHugh |
[/table]Craig Mc Hugh was returned as Honorary President in line with the ISSU ConsitutionAll motions to AGM were carried. The newly elected NSE will assume office in May.
Christmas Break
Please be advised that the ISSU National office is closed from 5pm on Monday 22nd December 2014 and will reopen on Monday 5th January 2014.Any urgent queries can be redirected via email to secretariat@issu.ie
ISSU President to Students on JCSA.
I’m a procrastinator. But thankfully that’s what I am – I postpone things but I guess they get done in the end and people don’t notice too much thankfully; I’d thought about blogging for ISSU to keep the members in touch but look it; 6 months in and I’m only starting; well better late then never!There’s a lot fuss right now about this new junior cycle! A lot of negative and unnecessary fuss that is; and a significant amount of necessary concerns! I’m listening to these concerns, as is all of the ISSU Executive, but as the leader of this union representing second-level students on issues concerning them and as an activist with a responsibility to look out for student’s best interests; I feel it’s my job to do my job and fight for what’s best for us and for the future of secondary education in Ireland; that’s why we’re supporting JCSA.Teachers have concerns, and they’re right to on a number of grounds; I see their points but we as students have points too!JCSA originated from dissatisfaction with the old Junior Cert! Rote Learning, lack of “real life skills” after the course, and quite an unfair system overall! So students, parents and even teachers made sure this was heard; they made sure the Government and the NCCA in particular realised Junior Cert wasn’t working!Young People made all sorts of great reccomendations such as reforming the Junior Cycle to first and 2nd year and moving TY to 3rd year, and investing in it more to make it more affordable for families, and then extend the big bold stresses of the Leaving Cert to 3 years so as to reduce the horrible cramming that associates itself with final assessment!So, the government somewhat listened and somewhat didn’t , but they compromised and came up with the new Junior Cycle System which instead of giving you a giant list of stuff to know, it gives you a list of 24 skills you should possess and utilize. Click here to see these 24 Statements of Learning and Key Aspects of Junior Cycle.So, you get it; Opinions heard and Reform comes along!But, then we’ve got this nasty “continuous self assessment” and all of a sudden you think; Teachers marking my work? Marking my brothers work? Bad idea! What if he doesn’t like me and gives me a bad grade! Well now, if that’s the case then I think it’s teachers that need reform instead of our education system; as teachers should assess their students with professional experience , skill and due manner and not give anyone priority, as that would be unprofessional and that would damage education’s progression.Students are getting the wrong perspective on Junior Cycle reform, it’s not flawless, there’s some level of changes required! But don’t mind the rumours that say theres no curriculum and that favouritism will take over; because to that I answer with that two facts instead of two rumours; Schools and their assesments methods will be inspected regularly, and yes there is a curriculum and it’s much better than the original Junior Cert! Imagine this; you leave the Junior Cycle not thinking “Well that was stressful and a waste , suppose I’m ready for Leaving Cert now!” – Sorry, fellows your not, the leaving cert is rather different ! Instead you leave with instead of a stepping stone to further assesement i.e the Leaving Cert you leave with a stepping stone in your education, you leave with skills and abilities to learn and question the world around you.Students don’t need 2 lumps of stress, one at 14 and 15 and another at 17 and 18, they need education! The stress and uneccessary elements that once accompanied our Junior Cert are irrelevant and backwards, the approach the new JSCA brings us forward and I want to ask all our supporters as students to reflect on the Junior Cert and what it thought you, or more to the point what it didn’t teach you.Education isn’t about going from one exam to the other, it’s about learning!I’d encourage ye all to make your own choices and stances on this, but as an individual once opposed to these reforms I’d highly advise ye take a look at our Junior Cycle Student Perspective Document as put together by our Education Officer ; Joanna Siewerska.Wishing ye all the best,Craig McHugh,President