LC Music

Owen (Higher Level)

Well, well I'm finally free and about time... wooooo!!After having a whole week to 'compose' myself and prepare for music, I was already feeling like I was on my summer holidays so it honestly didn't feel like I still had an exam left at all!However, this morning was a different matter, the nerves were flowing and the adrenaline was rushing but maybe it was just the excitement of finally being finished!!Got into the exam hall pretty early to run over some last minute stuff and get ready!Exam starts and the first question, the one worth the most marks, was the horrid Sea Changes by Raymond Dean... the first time EVER it had come up in question 1 and this was completely unexpected....none the less we managed to fight through it!Question 2 was Berlioz and there was nothing too unexpected here and the same with Mozart who featured in question 4 and finally the Beatles’ “She's leaving home” appeared in question 4!Irish music was very much approachable and we all found ourselves jigging away and bobbin’ our heads so it turned out to be a very enjoyable question...and lucky for me my chosen essay on Sean-nós singing even came up! :DThe aural skills didn't prove to be too difficult either and it was nice to hear a bit of Tom Jones! :DOur composition paper was also very nice as well, thankfully all the minor and tough stuff was avoidable and everything else was very manageable! :DAnd that's it!! I'M FREE!!! NO MORE EXAMS!! :DNow it’s time to put into use what we really learned in school...the function of the liver and some real 'music'!! :D Bring on the summer of 2010!!Thanks and best of luck!Owen

LC Economics

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level)

Students in exam centres across the country sat the Leaving Cert Higher Level Economics paper this morning. The paper got off to a reasonable start with some very topical short questions that would have required students to adapt knowledge from the course.Section B began with a nice long question on demand and supply covering price equilibrium and price elasticity of demand. However question 2 on the markets will have been not so nice for many students who will have been surprised that Oligopoly “did a Boland” by not bothering to show its face on the paper. It was substituted instead by monopoly which would have been a lovely question for those that had prepared it rather than over-relying on the oligopoly prediction.Labour (as a factor of production), taxation, the nationalisation of Irish banks and the International Monetary Fund appeared, among other topics, on the following questions alongside a particularly pleasant National Income question that students will have been delighted with if they had studied the topic well.Like the rest of the paper, the final long question was extremely topical with the performance of the Irish economy over the past year, the effects on the economy of our ageing population, the economic consequences of the recent increase in emigration as well as the factors influencing and the economic effects on the economy of the increase in the rate of savings in Ireland over the past year up for discussion.Overall, it was a fair paper that would have tested students’ knowledge of the course thought the lack of many straightforward "define" questions may have thrown students. Instead the paper required students to think independently and have a strong knowledge of the current economic climate.

ISSU Commentary (Ordinary Level)

Like the Higher Level paper, there were some very topical short questions in Section A of this morning’s Ordinary Level paper with the rise in unemployment and economic effects on the Irish economy of cross-border shopping.Monopoly also appeared in the markets question on the Ordinary Level paper with students asked to label a diagram of a monopoly in equilibrium as well as explaining barriers to entering the market followed by a part (c) based on the example of An Post as a monopoly.Question 2 on demand and supply featured marginal utility, the economic reasons for, effect of and measures to combat the recent decrease in demand for hotel accommodation in Ireland as well as the demand and supply for Rihanna’s recent concert at the O2… nothing to cause too much “Disturbia” for students here!The circular flow of income, the rise in emigration, the canons of taxation, the regulation of commercial banks, the European Central Bank, the recent increase in savings within the Irish economy and the rise in value of the euro against the British pound were among the topics that appeared on the following long questions.On a whole, there were no major surprises on the Ordinary Level paper with many of the same topics appearing on both the Higher and Ordinary Level papers. Students that knew the course well will have been happy with the paper.

LC Accounting

Ailbhe (Higher Level)

Ah the last exam has come and gone.I have never been so happy in my entire life!And to make matters even better accounting went surprisingly well! :D I spent my weekend alternating at a ratio of 90:1 sun to study.By the time I woke up this morning, I cared so little about the exam that I even pressed the snooze button on my alarm. (What a rebel, I know!) Waiting outside the exam hall, the small class that is accounting was awash with relaxation. This tranquilising atmosphere hedonised by the 25 degree heat was diluted when someone voiced their concern-  "OMG IMAGINE IF INCOMPLETE CAME UP!!!" Suddenly, the nonchalant sun worshippers were in heated debates about predicitions "No way man, not farm""If marginal costing doesn't make a show, I can kiss my first choice goodbye""Tab couldn't come up. Could it?" Thankfully once the exam paper sailed onto my desk all calm was restored. That was until we flicked to questions 8 and 9. Where was marginal? Cash Budgeting? What is this? Fortunately I had myself covered should this situation arise, unfortunately some of my friends weren't so lucky. Cash Flow Depreciation and Control made up the first section. I answered all questions. I wasn't too keen on the Depreciation as it used the lesser practiced reducing balance method which I wasn't too familair with. My Suspense and Service questions from section 2 both balanced after some probing and prodding of figures. Hopefully this means I got them correct. However in the mocks my Suspense question deceptively still balanced even though I got it wrong. I found the theory slightly difficult. It was new and deviated from previous questions. This, coupled with the fact that I immensely dislike the world of business and understand none of its mumbo jumbo jargon, left me slightly worried. But hey, I dont have to think about it until the 18th of August. Thanks for reading!Ailbhe! :D 

LC German

ISSU Commentary (Higher Level)

Glück appears to have been on the side of Leaving Cert Higher Level Deutsch students this morning as they sat down to their aural and written papers. The majority of students will have been happy with the aural element of the exam which some have declared as being one of the easiest tapes in years.The written paper got off to a good start with a fairly straightforward first reading comprehension although the second comprehension on solar powered cinemas may have proved tricky for some in parts. However, overall, the comprehension section was approachable with a nice "Angewandte Grammatik" exercise with a particularly straighforward question on rewriting a section in the Präsens (present tense).The written compostion section was also very manageable, however, the final point of the letter option which required students to refer to dance lessons many have been difficult for some to expand on.On a whole, it was a very fair paper which well prepared students will have been delighted with - let's just hope this isn't reflected too much in the marking scheme.

LC History and Appreciation of Art

ISSU Commentary

Leaving Cert Art students across the country sat the written component of their exam, the History and Appreciation of Art paper which accounts for 37.5% of the marks for the subject, this afternoon.Higher LevelAgain this exam proved that predications cannot always be relied on as many students looked at the paper in disbelief at the absence of a question on Newgrange in the first section on “Art in Ireland”. Instead students were given a choice of seven questions on topics ranging from the human figure in Irish manuscripts to Irish architects and their works to “Image of Bono” by Louis le brocquy.Section 2 on European Art gave students an array of options with a question on the influence of the Christian church on the development of art and architecture during the Romanesque period followed by a question on the Italian piece of artwork, “The Flagellation of Christ” by Piero della Francesca. Among other questions was one which required students to discuss the much celebrated French painter, Paul Cézanne, as a major innovator in the history of painting. There was also a particularly broad question on the work of Raphael which any students that had studied Raphael in any kind of detail would have been able to make an attempt at so it is likely that this question will have proved popular with students.Appreciation of Art makes up the third and final section of the paper with Graffiti showing what would have once been considered to be its ugly head in question one. Students who chose this question were asked to discuss the ‘outsider’ status of graffiti and how this has changed since international graffiti artists such as Banksy have begun to exhibit their work in galleries. Question two had an Ikea-esque tone to it with the benefits of self-assembly furniture for living spaces up for discussion here. The need to preserve our architectural heritage and fashion design featured in the third and fifth sections of this section with a nice, youthful twist to the fashion design question. Many students will be disappointed on the question on art galleries which many would have been banking on as although the first part of the question was nice, the second part of the question asked students to compare their visit to a local art-gallery referred to in the first part of the question to a visit to a named national museum or gallery – students living in rural areas that had not prepared a visit to a national art gallery will have been at a disadvantage in this question.Over all, the paper covered a wide range of topics so candidates were not stuck for variety in the questions on offer but those relying on predictions will have been disappointed with this paper.

LC Biology

Ailbhe (Higher Level)

ONE MORE EXAM TO GO!!YEEEHHAAAWWWWBiology, biology, biology… where do I start? Needing a much sought after A in this subject, I subjected myself to a heavy night of studying. Thanks God this is my favourite subject or those 11 hours at work yesterday would have been rather tiresome. I fell into bed at 1am and rose at 7.30. “Just. Two. More. Chapters.”I was ready to drop as I sat myself into the chair. In my state of hazy drowsiness, I had forgotten to bring a ruler and calculator into the hall with me. They were sitting comfortably in my schoolbag outside the door. Great. No capture recapture method for me then. No graphs either by the looks of it.Opened the paper. All predictions rang through. There were no nasty surprises lurking in the depths of the pink booklet. My confidence was greatly restored as I began to write. This wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Surprisingly all the experts were wrong. You can cram. And cram I did.What I loved about this paper was that it had evolved (geddit) from its earlier ancestors. Now that the species of question has grown more complex, a new breed has developed. I like to call it homo-think-for-yourself-erectus.The second short question was a fine specimen all together. Instead of employing the old genetics-for-Long-Q3 method, genetics were slipped into the short questions. This caused a slight ripple of surprise but calm waters were restored after I realised it was easier than it looked.Ecology moved to a whole new (trophic) level. There were graph-like creatures roaming the territory of long Q3. These questions really exemplified the whole concept of what biology is about - applying your knowledge. You had to read, understand, interpret and apply your knowledge to the graph in order to answer the question.I was disappointed to see that Protein Synthesis had devoured the usual inhabitant of long Q1 but the question's bark was worse than its bite and was easy enough to pin down.The final long question was another of the new generation progeny. You had to give reasons for statements. I know that questions like this have come up before but this year, they really broke through their endosperms of dormancy and made a remarkable comeback. Another breed of this organism was in the Ecology Question where taxonomy had to be applied. Sentences had to be declared true or false.The experiments were as predicted. I have always hated that experiment on the heart. The day we did this I spent more time butchering my heart with the scalpel than I did admiring the tricuspid valves. Once the green food dye came out to highlight the coronary arteries, I was a lost cause.....FOOD DYE FIGHT ANYONE??My other pet hate, plant mumbo jumbo, snarled at me from its lair in the third experiment question. I tried to slip in the key words here and there serial dilution, indolacetic acid, growth stimulators blahblahblah hopefully my point crossed the synapse.Once again, the second experiment question was crawling with homo-think-for-yourself-erectus. Instead of giving a question on one experiment it was based on almost every experiment on the course. This was great as it resurrected the ghost of the late night cramming session within me and really rewarded the student who had a good knowledge of the whole course rather than just relying on predictions. You had to apply your knowledge to the question once again.I think my ATP has just about been restored from last night. Let’s hope the adrenalin starts pumping to increase my mental alertness while I study for accounting. Homeostasis will be put to the test keeping me cool and calm during the weekend heat wave by the books. I'll test out my hypothesis "I will get my results, if I fight the temptations of the beach for the next three days". I'm sure it will work; I can feel it in my (spindle) fibres. ;)

Owen (Higher Level)

Ah Biology… the study of all living things!! Seeing as we are living, it should prove to be a nice exam and it being one of my favourite subjects, I was quite looking forward to getting it done!Short questions were a good way to warm up the brain cells which were quite nice and very much approachable… a good few marks to be seized in this section!Experiments and they weren't my favourite ones on the course so I wasn't very happy with this choice!I avoided the heart dissection as it is very particular and 'nitty gritty' so I moved on to the second and third choice, a nice variety in the second choice with questions ranging from all the experiments. Next was plant growth regulation and the use of IAA, an in depth experiment and you really needed to know your stuff here so lucky for me I gave it a bit of last minute revision this morning so it was quite fresh in my head!Long questions, again a nice variety from ecology to enzymes to the nervous system!I found myself doing questions 11, 13, 14 and 15 which were very manageable. However, I did find a few bits and pieces here and there that proved to be a challenge but I did give them a fairly decent attempt and used every ounce of information I knew on the topic to pick up most of the marks! As one of my friends said, 'I was basically vomiting up all the stuff that I knew onto the page just to be safe'.Everyone seemed to be quite content with how the exam went. As for me, I found myself questioning how well it had gone after the exam and whether or not I had done enough to secure the high grade which I had been banking on. However, after analysing the paper a bit further, I feel reassured that it was a very do-able paper and hopefully the generous marking scheme will work in my favour to gain the majority of marks with the 'nitty gritty' bits.Now off for a week… I'm already feeling the Freedom, on the other hand there's still study to be done for music but hey, only one exam left!! :D