Leaving Cert Japanese
Shahed - Higher Level
At long last, the final exam! Being the only student in the whole school felt very strange, to say the least.The exam wasn't too tough. There were three comprehension questions, with questions in both English and Japanese, and plenty of grammar questions. There were also two essay questions on either your birthday or Christmas day and also about your school. These were quite nice topics, so I was happy! The listening was after the written exam and there was nothing very difficult about it.Weird to think it's all over now... It flew by! I hope you all enjoy your summer!
Please note: this post reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union
Leaving Cert Physics
Shahed - Higher Level
What a lovely paper! I was nervous before going into the exam but it turns out, there was no need to be. Everything that I'd studied had come up!The section A questions were lovely, especially the Joules' law question. I also did the refractive index and the speed of sound in air questions, both of which were nice, too.In section B, I found the most challenging question to be the one about Particle Physics. It's a simple topic, but the questions were a little odd. Thankfully, there's a lot of choice in the exam, so this didn't set me back. The Nuclear Physics, Mechanics, Electricity and Light questions were all straight forward. I found that I had time to do an extra question, which never happens to me in Physics, so I must have done something right!Physics has always been one of my favourite subjects, so I couldn't be happier with how it went. To anyone else who still has exams left, good luck! The end is in sight.
Please note: this post reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Irish Second-Level Students' Union
Leaving Cert Business
Shay - Higher Level
It was my last test. I walked into the room with fear on my face but thankfully that changed. I opened the paper to the 10 lovely short questions, relatively easy. Then came the ABQ, which was considerable easy compared to previous years. I had to do 4 questions , 1 from part one , 2 from part two and another from either part one or two. I did my first question on "people in business". This question was the easiest out of my 4 chosen questions. My next 3 questions where about "managing". They were all varied in topics. Question 5 had Maslow's hierarchy of needs but the other questions like like 5(B) we're all different and different always relate to the previous questions. Overall, I thought we got a good paper and hopefully a good result. Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert French
Brendan - Higher Level
Tablets and tattoos were probably not on the minds of many candidates this morning as they entered their exam hall, but they certainly were by this afternoon.The comprehensions were as to be expected. One related to a family circus and the other to strict parents. Question 1 was about whether parents give too much freedom to young people in Ireland. The diary entry is a favorite of many, but who would have though it would be a dilemma about whether or not to get a tattoo with a friend? So unpredictable.The question about banning smoking was interesting and a real test. It was not merely smoking, but a question about whether you agree with a total ban; two very different things and it would have been easy to dive in and forget about the question. I decided to take an alternative approach that although smoking damages ones health we live in a democracy and such a measure would be akin to a dictatorship. A bit of a stretch one might say, and in a way it was, but it was also a different thesis to an agreement to ban smoking totally. I did the question on tablets as an extra.French is not an exam where time constraints are a pressing concern. As a whole, I thought it was a fairly reasonable paper.
Declan - Ordinary Level
The ordinary level French paper was a very good paper. I thought the comprehensions were the finest. I did both the CV and close test (so, they can take my best one for the marks). I did the postcard about going away to Switzerland skiing with my family. It was great, didn't mind it. Although, I did forget some minor words and nearly wrote it in Irish. I did the diary entry about moving to a new house and school etc. It was pretty easy. All in all, it was a handy enough paper.
Sarah - Ordinary Level
I wasn't at all nervous for French for some strange reason.. When we got the paper I flicked straight to the back to see what the message and postcard was like, which is the ones that we chose to do. This and the fill in the blanks and CV question. I did the English comprehensions first but I thought they were a bit difficult to get the answers... I gave up after these two and went straight for the A question. The fill in the blanks was pretty straight forward. The words given were easy words and it was easy to work out the answers. The CV questions were pretty good too although one question threw me back a little cause I didn't know exactly what it meant. But I answered it and went onto the next thing. The message I thought was a bit tricky because I didn't know some of the vocab for it but other than that it was grand. Then I did the postcard and thought it was pretty simple, but one part got me. I could not for the life of me think of Monday in French... I was trying to figure it out and all I could think of was Irish... What a shame haha but it doesn't matter now! The finally I did the French comprehensions. I thought they were easier than the English ones and did them no problem! The listening was good as well. The questions given were good and it was easily understood in most parts. Overall, I thought the French paper was pretty decent and I'm quite happy with it! :)Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert History
Aoife - Higher Level
Well, where do we start. I was happy enough with the documents, they are always the easier question and I do enjoy the Belfast Blitz. It was a nice question.I was a lot less pleased to see Sunningdale show up with the Anglo-Irish treaty, considering I only studied the first one in school in detail, but I still tried my best. For dictatorship and democracy, I was heart broken to see I had the choice between Jarrow Crusade (a short topic) or Hitler and Mussolini's relationship with the church... That one was just bizarre.I was happy to end the paper seeing my old friend Lyndon Johnson come up at the end of my paper. Overall, I have very mixed emotions over this paper and will have to wait til August to see how it went.
Brendan - Higher Level
This is definitely one of the toughest exams. 2 hours and 50 minutes of non-stop writing to such an extent that you can barely afford to take a drink of water. Belfast during World War II appeared as the document question and was reasonable enough, although I like many, would have preferred to have seen the Treaty or the Eucharistic Congress.For dictatorship and democracy I answered on church-state relations which was a nice question. LBJ, the moon landing and race relations appeared for US and the world, however I answered on the development of the economy from the end of the war until 1989, an incredibly long and varied period of time. It was a very broad, but approachable question.My final question was on Northern Ireland and I chose the question on the Sunningdale and Anglo Irish Agreement's. It asked which was more successful and although I would have preferred a stand alone question on Sunningdale, it seemed approachable. Unfortunately, due to a combination of poor eye sight and miscalculation of time I ran out of time when 10 more minutes would have allowed me to really complete the essay. Overall it was a challenging paper. In parts essays which were predicted came up, others were impossible to call, In reality, I believe, it is such a broad course that it isn't really possible to cover every aspect.More time should be allocated for a subject that takes up a very considerable amount of students time. Students who had worked very hard would have found the paper fine, otherwise it would have been very difficult.
Declan - Higher Level
History paper was actually quite decent. When I first opened it I was praying the Anglo- Irish treaty would be there. Belfast during world war 2 came up in the documents. I felt it went fine.For my first essay, I did the topic of "Movements for Political and Social reform, 1870-1914", the question "What did Parnell contribute to the movements for Home Rule and Land Reform. I was delighted with this question, as I had it covered really well. I got over 5 pages on it, so i hope it is fine. I was glad this question came up, because I would of been badly stuck with the other questions.My second essay went well. It was Europe and the wider world; Topic 2. It was the section Nation States and International tensions, 1871-1920. I felt there were two nice questions on this section. German Foreign policy development under Bismarck and Wilhelm II and the social & economic developments in Europe during the period 1871-1914. I did the German Foreign policy, I was really happy with this question.My third section was "Dictatorship and Democracy in Europe, 1920-1945". I was banking on a good Mussolini question. I did the question on church state relations develop under Mussolini and Hitler. I felt this went only ok. I didn't really revise Hitler went (I know, how stupid), but knew a lot on Mussolini. I probably didn't write enough with this essay though.It's pretty reassuring that you have a project done with this project. I did mine on the Belski Brother, jews defying the Nazi occupied Belorussia, they created a jewish settlement in the middle of the forest. It's a quite interesting and inspirational story. They saved hundreds of lives.
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.
Leaving Cert Irish Paper 2
Keelyn - Higher Level
The Irish paper this year was an absolute delight. As my teacher had predicted Nelson Mandela was one of the comprehensions and of course Seamus Heaney managed to show his face in comprehension two. As many of us had predicted Dis and An Spailpin Fanach came up although the questions were quite strange. Dis came with the usual question about the role of Sean's wife but then a question about the importance of the survey and one to do with the comhra. You picked two out of the three.The spailpin question was one about the life of the spailpin, the feeling that most effected you and soemthing about the metre of the poem which I couldn't talk about in English not to mind Irish. An trial was a nice easy question about Bean Ui Chatasaigh and her role in the drama.I was quite surprised with how lovely and straightforward this paper was and im very happy about it overall:D
Sarah - Ordinary Level
The relief of having both Irish papers over and done with! After paper one I was kind of worried that they would give a hard paper two because paper one was easy enough (I thought anyway) but my god were we blessed! I tried cramming all those poems and stories in right before the test, which worked wonders.
I opened the paper and looked to the back to see what poems and stories came up. I was quite happy with the stories that came up because I literally went over them the night before and knew them off the top of my head! And the poems that came up - all I can say to whoever put Géibheann on the paper... THANK YOU!! That is my favorite poem... I knew it so well so as you can imagine I was pretty happy to see it there, plus I went over it just before the exam so it was fresh in my mind. I thought that the two comprehensions were decent enough.
The Irish used in both the passage and the questions was easily understood, in my opinion. Same with the poems and stories, I could understand the questions easily enough, with the exception of a few of course... I'm quite glad with the paper two we got and hope everyone else is too :)
Overall though both the papers, one and two, were decent enough and I really can't complain. I'm happy as can be :) I hope everyone else feels the same way I do and good luck with the rest of the exams!
Please note: blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.