Junior Certificate Religion

Gearóid - Higher Level

I came into the exam after a long science and a two and a half hour lunch, I wandered into the religion exam hoping for the best. I started with the short questions which I found quite simple. The picture question was the same as usual, and the document was somewhat easier than earlier years.In the long questions, I did the Communities of Faith, Question of Faith, Celebration of Faith, and The Moral Challenge questions. I found I had the ability to complete these. Sadly I didn't realise the time passing and I had spent one hour at these.As the long question worth seventy marks, I had only left fifteen minutes to complete this. I wrote slightly over one page on question one on Northern Ireland which incorporated the two Christian denominations of Catholicism and Protestantism.Overall, I enjoyed this paper, not too different to the past papers, I hope it shows in September.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

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.

Junior Certificate Science

Gearóid - Higher Level

I walked into the science prepared however I was feeling a little nervous. I started with the biology section. I thought the biology section was like the exam papers I suppose, however I felt question three on the bees and the apple tree was somewhat different but manageable.I went onto chemistry then. The short questions were again not too hard. It seemed that the SEC are trying to be up to date and put a question about water and water treatment on the paper.The physics section went worse than usual. Question 8 on the refraction of light was not easy but I think I got through it. The short questions were good, one or two tripped me up.Overall I did not think the paper was too hard and I hope the marking goes my way.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Leaving Certificate History

Lorraine - Higher Level

Well I'm just out of History and thank god! First of all I have to say I think it's crazy only giving us an hour break between French and History. I really think that could be time tabled better. I was so determined to do well in French this morning that I kind of neglected History a little bit last night! I was really apprehensive and thepanic stations did set in after French. I was trying to just recap everything going through all the notes I had made out..so so many notes! The history course is a huge course and I really am glad that there is a project in it!When I got the paper I saw the Document question was on the Eucharistic Congress, not what everyone had thought but still quite a nice question. I took a flick through the paper and panicked a little bit at the Dictatorship questions but made myself do the document question just to calm down. When I finished them I decided to start with the American topic because I saw the Montgomery bus boycott and I was delighted. I figure if I can get everything I know out of the way first in exam I give myself time to search around in my brain bits of what I know about the ones I'm panicking about (weird I know :P). When I finished that I went back to the Dictatorship and Democracy question and realised in my mind I had definitely imagined a question that wasn't there! After rereading them I was delighted to see propaganda and terror in Russia and/or Mussolini. I was like BOOM! In the exam although I have to admit I would have loved a nice chunky propaganda question on Germany but sure look it. When I finished that I went to the Irish topic- my most hated topic by far. I really hadn't prepared as well as I could have for this I had learned bits on everyone but nothing solid completely my own fault! I did the question on Lemass and T.K Whitaker.I only squeezed out 3 pages on it but I can say its completely my own fault and in my sleep deprived state I was proud to even get 3 pages out! Its weird to say I'm finished History now! I only have Economics left which is next Wednesday so I have an entire week - thank god because I have completely neglected it!! :)

Isabelle - Higher Level

I think the majority of the country went into today's history exam expecting the treaty negotiations, but I have never been a fan and so was praying for the Eucharistic Congress. Not only did it come up but it came up with the same context question I have answered at least 4 times before!I was really happy that the Montgomery bus boycott came up, and even happier that it didn't even ask for anything else about the civil rights movement! Both The bus boycott and Hitlers foreign policy came up in my mocks and I did quite well in them so I was over the moon to see them again! Northern Ireland has always been my tricky section, so I was quite nervous, however one of the essays that came up was easy enough to fit both my welfare state and Brookeborough and O'Neill essay into!Overall I couldn't have hoped for a better paper, I hope you all felt the same about it too! Thank god its over!!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Junior Certificate French

Jane - Higher Level

I was 4 and half hours into my history cram session this morning when I looked up at my exam timetable and realized, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, that it was French in the morning and history in the evening.I really did my best to look over my letter vocab as efficiently as I could, and because I thought I had two hours of a break before hand, I didn't get a chance to look at any other vocab. I went into the exam pretty stressed because of all this. While I have no great love for the language, I do have a great love of my French teacher, she's such a fab woman and I really really didn't want to let her down. The only reason I do well in French is because I want to get good grades and I confess, part of that is so she'll be happy with me.So anyway, I sit right next to the tape in my exam centre and the 2015 JC French listening comprehension comes on. It's not so bad. I understood the majority of the French, and think I got most answers right, save for maybe one or two. Next was the reading. Again, I liked it, it was easy enough, although I did have the heartbreaking feeling of; I should know this. Then the French note came up. Ugh. I would have preferred a postcard because my note dragged me down a bit in my pre. I thought the letter was grand. I could apply the paragraphs I'd learnt to it. Though the question part where they asked "ask her if she will work for the summer" was hard, I just kind of winged it. Most of the French candidates had left the building by the time it was 12 o'clock, but I never leave early, it's just against my beliefs! I think if you get 2 and a half hours for an exam, you should use them and so I did, and had to ask for extra paper to finish my letter.I'm pretty disappointed coming out of JC French. I feel the work I had done in the past three years, the hundreds of words I had learnt off as vocab, the studying for my letters, hadn't been shown. At the end of the exam, I sat there thinking how much I would have loved to have done continuous assessment for my Junior Cert French. Quel Dommage!

Art - Higher Level

Beginning with the aural, I was surprised how long it took, in comparison to Irish. Forty minutes! Anyway, I thought part A, B and C of this were pretty manageable if I remember correctly, with the exception here and there. Part D was pretty tough I thought. Part E was alright again. Unbelievably, we were informed of the mistake at the end! Overall, I thought the listening was a bit harder than I expected and might have brought my overall grade a bit down.I then did the writing questions to regain a bit of self esteem. I found the letter to be very good and was delighted the holiday in the summer appeared. I used as many useful phrases as possible. The note was manageable too if my memory serves me right. I thought these questions went well.The reading comprehensions were a bit of a mixed bag. Mostly, I thought they were good but I have to say I dropped a few marks here and there. I was a bit surprised I could understand the later ones as well as I did, because I'm usually poor there. Though I can't really be certain how well I did. Overall I was happy with how French went, and I just want to leave it at the back of my mind for the summer.Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.

Junior Certificate History

Jane - Higher Level

This was the exam that I had procrastinated until 24 hours before hand, where I decided to seriously knuckle down and you couldn't tear me away from my history book! I started with questions 4, 5 and 6. If I could ever give someone golden advice, it would be to do this in your JC History exam! People in history though, how weird. Can someone tell me why they couldn't have used a manor rather than a castle? I winged it big time. George Washington I was pretty okay with, I'd revised this one. I was disappointed D Day or Cold war didn't come up though!I could almost feel everyone freaking out around me for Part C of Q5. I did too at the start. How dare they use explorations! Once I got in to it it was grand. I just did P)B and used my own general knowledge about the British Empire. Hopefully my examiner will be impressed that I knew so much about the British economy haha. On to Question 6. well Part a was grand, kind of winged the accounts but they were okay. Very surprised with P6. They didn't us the option of the blockade! If I hadn't studied the entire cold war the night before I would have been snookered!The rest of the paper after this was pretty easy,as it always is.I regret leaving my study so late and hope this does not affect my grade! Certainty it has taken an effect on my mental health and sleep patterns though and I deeply regret that I let that happen.

Art - Higher Level

For some reason or another, maybe because it gives me a bit of confidence, I like to start with the short questions in history. To be safe, I answered around 14 to assure full marks. Then onto the pictures question. I wasn't very confident on what Picture A was, but I wrote something down. The black death and Mary Robinson were both pretty easy then, I thought. The Documents questions didn't seem to be too challenging. It's really just a matter of getting the answer from the source for the most part. I found it interesting however. If I'm honest, I think I spent a bit too long on the beginning of the paper. For any 2nd years reading, don't spend much over a half an hour and all of these.Then onto the more important ones. I decided to begin with the Long Questions on Q6 because I was most confident here. I did international developments in the 20th century and the Irish history one. Overall, I was pretty happy with both. I'm worried I wrote a bit too much in places though. One or two of the small questions on Ireland were a bit harden than usual. I then did Q5, the source questions on the age of exploration. For the most part, I was pretty happy with all of these. Finally, I left little time for Q4. I wrote up a good answer on George Washington I thought but Michelangelo was a little bare as the clock beat me.Overall, I thought it was a bit trickier than most years. I think I may have gotten a high B, but I doubt I got the A, which I'm sickened over as I love history!Please note: Blog posts reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union.