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

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.

ISSU 19/06/2012 ISSU 19/06/2012

Leaving Cert Spanish

Claire - Higher Level

After a week long break I was back in the exam hall today all ready to take on the Spanish exam. I both loved and loathed the fact that the Spanish exam was a week after the French one. The break was much needed as I was completely exhausted after my first week of exams. It was great that I had the chance to recharge! On the other hand the week almost dragged on and with every passing day it was harder to fond the motivation to continue. It began to feel like the leaving cert was already over! I spent less days preparing for Spanish than I intended. It was really difficult deciding what to study for the exam, so I really just prioritised my verbs and learning some useful phrases!All the "buena suerte"s must have paid off because I am really happy with how the exam went today! However I am slightly biased as Spanish is by far my favourite subject but I feel that this was the nicest exam so far.The readings were a bit random but interesting. There was one about a whale in section A, and section B included a text about emigration -very relevant in the world today! The readings were of topics you had a basic understanding of in English and I thought this was fair. The synonym part I thought was fair and much more do-able than previous years!I did the opinion piece entitled "where one lives is not important". At first glance I thought wow I have not prepared any vocabulary on this but after a quick brainstorm it was a very user friendly topic. Finally!I did the dialogue and the note in the written section. I found them much easier than I have found previous years and I thought the topics were engaging and almost fun to translate! One was about musical instruments and the other was about shopping. I was very happy because I was able to use phrases I learned for my oral work in my written section.The listening was okay. Personally I feel I did not do as well in it as I have done so before. It was a bit random! But maybe I just found it hard to concentrate because the end of the leaving is coming closer... Yay!I went into the exam worried that I would be caught for time but I'm pleased to report that was not a problem and I had a lot more time to think than anticipated.Overall, I'm hopeful that today went well. I hope everybody else is pleased with how they got on today too!In off to study Technology now, but congrats to all those who are now finished their exams! Congratulations :D

ISSU Commentary

Justin Bieber again made an appearance on a State examinations paper, for the second time in two weeks. Feedback from the higher level paper was ‘extremely positive’. The letter section caused a lot of discontent; students had to write to a Spanish newspaper about the role of royalty in today’s world. One would imagine there were very few students expecting that. This topic certainly ‘threw’ some students, and many predicted that very few actually answered it. Otherwise the paper was described as ‘good’, the comprehensions even featured an article about a killer whale. The other comprehensions featured an article about emigration in Mexico, a 12 day traffic jam in China and the problem of people not paying in restaurants. The ordinary level paper was given a positive response by most, where the richest dog in the world, and elderly man who was reunited with his car after forgetting where he parked two years previously! The written expression, where students had to write an email was ‘fine’. Overall most candidates were relatively happy.