Leaving Certificate Art, History & Appreciation

Ela - Higher Level 

I was never confident with Art, hence why I didn't do it for the Junior Cert. But to be able to do a certain course I am interested in, I needed to do it for the Leaving. But it was too late because I already picked my subjects, so I had to complete the course outside of school so I had no clue what my classmates were covering in their art class. My strongest aspect of the Art exam was the practicals. I could do it all day, and after opting for craft, it did feel like all day. I took to the still life and life drawing like a duck to water. It was probably the most relaxed I've ever been in exam conditions. It couldn't have been better....then today happened.I wasn't confident with Art because I am useless at History, so you can imagine how my day went. However, my wish for a nice General Appreciation question was granted in the form of answering on a film based on a comic or graphic novel. I almost cried with happiness. I was in my spiritual home talking about the Avengers! I never would've imagined answering a question based on one of my favourite films so that was a handy question for the day. Then I flicked back to Section 1 and 2. I answered on High Crosses, or at least attempted to. I had quite a while to 'think' about the question because there was no chance of me being able to answer the European Art section. Heartbroken was the word, because I was so prepared for El Greco. So I did what I could in the situation I was in and I'm happy it's over. If it did go worse than I thought, I have that beaut of  the Maths exam to fall back on. 9 exams down, 2 to go!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.Zeminar is an event for Generation Z, particularly those aged between 15 and 19, and their parents, teachers, mentors and coaches. It will take place from 11th - 13th of October 2016. For more information see www.zeminar.ie

Leaving Certificate Art History and Appreciation

Joanna - Higher Level

When I opened the art paper, I panicked. No Raphael and an Iron Age artefact that I didn't like. To top it off, an art gallery question about a local gallery, so basically the two visits to the national gallery and knowing the Carravagio in there inside out were all worthless! Not to mention the mini biography on Raphael that I had drilled into my head that morning, which felt beyond useless. What now?I took a few deep breaths and looked over the paper again. Okay, the Iron age question had a trick about 'a change' during the iron age, so they were looking to compare Insular La Tene to Ultimate La Tene in relation to the Petrie crown, and although that wasn't my favourite piece of Pre-Christian metalwork, the question itself was actually grand. Then the Renaissance question was about Leonardo da Vinci who I normally skipped during revision because he's more of an ordinary level artist (I was told) which essentially means he's too easy. But now, I could turn that around and use all the fancy words I had prepared for Raphael, like chiaroscurro and contraposto, and just sub them into a nice essay about how talented Leonardo was in relation to his famous 'Madonna of the Rocks' and then a bit about the Mona Lisa. Grand. I can honestly say, it was pretty easy, although the sketches took ages.For the local gallery question I had an epiphany about the time when. During the Polska Eire festival, a Polish artist was displaying his and his friend's work in Raheny library. Perfect! I used the bones of that experience to draft an essay and then fleshed it out with a bit of personal creativity. I have to say, my sketches were not bad at all compared to how badly I usually draw under pressure, so by the end of the two and half hour session I was really happy to seal my paper and hand it up.In the end, there was no need to panic. Now I have four days off before Chemistry and Polish and that's it, woo!Have a good weekend everyone, I'm off to catch up on this weeks sleep :)

Isabelle - Higher Level

I was really tired today after History yesterday, and I didn't get to study last night at all, and so this morning was quite stressful for me! I hadn't really studied properly for art history since before the mocks so it was quite a shock this morning trying to cram everything in! It was touch and go as to whether or not I'd even be able to attempt an answer at a question but luckily Gothic architecture and Early Christian metalwork which were two of the 5 topics I had covered that morning came up (seriously lucky). I always answer the art appreciation on the museum, with an answer learned off about the national gallery and 2 paintings in the European exhibition, but I was extremely disappointed when I saw it asked for a 'local gallery' specifically. However, I was much too tired to attempt to think of a design for a roadside sculpture, so I insisted on making my essay work and discussed how wonderful it is to live in Dublin and have such great museums in my locality's! Hopefully they'll buy it, but even if they don't, it's only 5 marks out of 50 for naming the right gallery according to past marking schemes, and the whole exams only worth 37.5% anyway, so I'm not too worried!Now for a lovely (very necessary) 4 day break until Spanish.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

LC Business

Owen (Higher Level)

Ah business... my favourite subject, so much to say, so much to write about, so much common sense involved but oh so LITTLE time to do the exam!The Paper proved to be a nice little paper overall, nothing out of the ordinary in the short questions, the ABQ was a nice little piece on Management and the use of IT in business quite a walk in the park for a Leaving Cert student.The long questions again had a nice variety from EU policy to franchising and branding it was overall, a nice paper!However with the pros also come the cons, much like every other aspect of the business some of the questions were a bit vague and wishy washy resulting in again what is found in every aspect of business...waffle...but again that is the art of business and proved not too difficult to master! :DAlso the timing!! My poor hand, I now know how those monks felt writing manuscripts all day... God bless them!There was a lot of time management to be done in this exam and it was easy to let yourself go especially on the ABQ. However, I finished with 5mins to spare to have a quick glance back over and tidy things up.Now to get ready for French, oh the joys, thankfully though I have no more full days!A demain, bonne chance!