ISSU 22/06/2012 ISSU 22/06/2012

Leaving Cert Technology

Claire - Higher Level

I never thought this day would come. No really, I didn't !The good thing about having technology as the last exam is the fact you walk in there with 50% already in your pocket. It's a great feeling to have especially since at this stage in the exams you have lost a lot of motivation and are just so excited for the simmer is hard to concentrate on any study!The atmosphere before the exam was buzzing. Everybody in my exam hall was smiling and happy; ready for whatever would show up on the last exam.And what did show up on the exam- was lovely! It was as if the exam was cheering you on to finish.The short questions began on a such a positive note; asking you about wind powers advantages. Most of the short questions were straight forward but some required a little more thinking. I didn't get them all but I'm happy I answered the twelve we needed reasonably well.I have always hated question 2 and 3 but today I was smiling doing them. The Olympics stadium appeared which was really cool, and relevant. I love relevant exams!The ICT option I took wasn't so bad, it's usually my favourite section but today it was a little trickier. But still a very nice section.The materials section was fabulous if you excuse my enthusiasm. It asked about materials metals and plastic in the frat part; which was student friendly. The next part linked in with our earlier project with the theme of disability; wheelchairs showed up. Seeing something familiar was really reassuring.Of course I wasn't able to answer everything but I would never have expected that!Honestly I couldn't have asked for a nicer end to Leaving Cert 2012.

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.

ISSU 21/06/2012 ISSU 21/06/2012

Leaving Cert Accountancy

ISSU Commentary

Leaving Certificate Accounting higher level candidates encountered an anticipated range of questions in an overall ‘very fair’ paper, according to many. Question 1 was as expected, and few could complain. Question 5 p (b) was presented in a somewhat uncommon way, with ‘projected’ figures being provided, rather than ‘historical figures. Some blasted the elusive way it was put, and some students reportedly missed it. Question 7, where candidates had to account for ‘Investment Income Due’ could have been a hitch, as students would be unaccustomed with handling this type of accounting entry. The ‘Disposal of Buildings’ account part of the question, was described as ‘problematic and awkward’. Another positive was Section 3, which was predicted, and the ‘cash budget’ and ‘costing questions appearing. The ordinary level paper was described as ‘fine with nothing unexpected. Overall students seemed happy, bar a few challenging parts here and there.

ISSU 20/06/2012 ISSU 20/06/2012

Leaving Cert Polish

Katarzyna - Higher Level

My final exam was probably the most enjoyable of all. Everything on the paper was written and had to be answered though polish. The questions were really nice and the main topic of the paper was quite interesting and I was able to write about it.The paper began with a comprehension and six follow up questions. This year the comprehension dealt with the problem of the increase in the numbers of people in Poland who do not read. According to a study, about 65% of people in Poland did not have a book in their hands for a whole year. The comprehension explored the causes and the possible consequences of this trend. The second part involved writing a response to a quote taken out of the comprehension.Lastly, there are two essay titles and you had to choose one and write an essay on it. The two titles were "Read, to live!" and "In today's society everything revolves around "the here and now" ". I chose the second title because I was a bit fed up with writing about the importance of reading in previous questions. Generally it was an easy paper and I was really happy with it.I hope that other Polish students in Ireland also found it as good as I did!

ISSU 20/06/2012 ISSU 20/06/2012

Junior Cert Music

Shahed - Higher Level

I walked into this exam feeling like I had walking into most of my other exams; nervous, but confident. We had 5 minutes to read through the full paper at the start, and, after flicking through it quickly, I was instantly put at ease. The exam was divided into three sections. Section I (Listening) had questions 1-5, Section II (Composing) had questions 6-9 and Section III had question 10.The first six question were all listening. The first two were about Set Songs and Set Works. These were both very straightforward, almost predictable. The next question was all about Irish Music. The final part of it was a written question about collectors of Irish music and harpers, both of whom had been involved in the Belfast Harp Festival. The only part that threw me off was that the harper had to have been involved with the Festival, as I don't recall there had been a Festival harper in my book, but I managed. The next question was Dictation, when a short piece is played on the piano and you have to write it out. This is probably the hardest and most dreaded question in any music exam, but I felt like it wasn't too difficult this time. (Practice makes perfect!) The next question was Choice Songs and Works, bringing Section I to an end. This, again, was quite easy. They even played the Harry Potter theme for one part of it!There were a choice of questions in Section II. You could either do questions 6-8 or just question 9, which was Free Composition. Here, you were given a choice between three verses and you picked one and wrote for voice(s) with accompanying instrument(s) or wrote for instrument(s) which would illustrate the mood of the verse. Question 6 was a Triads question.This is where you study a short piece and answer questions on it. Question 7 was melody writing. Again, there was a wide choice here, but I chose to compose a phrase set to a given opening. Question 8 was all about Chord Progressions. There was also a wide choice here, but I chose to do the Backing Chords question (adding suitable chords to a piece of music).The third and final section/question was all about your General Study. You could take any genre, artist or group and research and write about it/them. I chose to write about The Beatles. In general, I'm very pleased with how this exam went. Best of luck to anyone doing exams this afternoon or tomorrow, you're almost free!

ISSU 20/06/2012 ISSU 20/06/2012

Leaving Cert Economics

Emmet - Higher Level

The Economics Paper was quite difficult but none the less do-able. I mainly concentrated on the macroeconomics questions 5,6,8 and a microeconomics question 4. The economics on the government concentrated on emigration, push and pull factors, the reasons, advantages and disadvantages of emigration. The contribution of John Maynard Keynes was also asked in question 8. In question 5, we were asked about the reasons for recent global population growth, the benefits to LDC's experience economic growth and also how that growth would affect Irish firms. The economist Robert Thomas Malthus and his population theory was asked and we were asked if that theory was still relevant to today.Question 4 asked us on economic rent, supply price and transfer earnings and importance of entrepreneurship to the Irish economy. question 6 we were asked about whether3rd level students should contribute to 3rd level costs and benefits and disadvantages of that. Also the short questions had a greater variety of microeconomics questions to previous years. functions of the ECB, reasons for development of black economy and how it affects the exchequer.The short questions overall were quite nice. In retrospect, I found that the economics paper did en-devour to ask theory, it also managed to conjure up questions across the board that that required outside thinking to answer non theory based questions. the questions were articulated in such a definite and precise manner that there was no way to escape or bluff through a question. it focused on peoples knowledge of current affairs and managed to draw out their interest in the macroeconomics questions. I did find that there was a lot of sub questions which did make the paper a little more trickier and sometimes easier. I think that the exams commission did a splendid job in maintaining the integrity of the paper.

ISSU 20/06/2012 ISSU 20/06/2012

Leaving Cert Chemistry

ISSU Commentary

Chemistry has a similar structure to other science papers with a section on experiments, short questions, and the majority of the marks going for the long questions. In both ordinary and higher level papers, section A on experiments held few suprises, and should have been very doable to anyone who had practiced on past papers as questions the questions were similar to previous years and very straightforward.The short questions in section B were probably a little more challenging on the higher level paper than in previous year, with more questions than usual towards the more difficult end of the spectrum, but the questions asked were clear and straightforward. On the ordinary level paper, the short questions were very accessible and shouldn't have posed much difficulty to students. The remainder of section B in the higher level paper was quite varied, with most questions holding some more challenging sections, but the standard was very fair for a higher level paper. On the ordinary level paper, there was a strong focus on questions related to experiments in section B, which would have been of great benefit to those who had revised them well, but may have caused some suprise to see these questions in section B as well as section A.Overall, the chemistry papers were fair on the whole, and students who had revised their experiments well and practiced past papers should have been able to manage the paper.