ISSU 09/06/2012 ISSU 09/06/2012

Junior Cert - Week One Review

Lorraine

Hey guys! Lorraine here! :)Week 1 was tiring! Every day coming home from the mocks I was wrecked and I can honestly say I'm even more tired from the JC! I find the days where I have 2 exams on the day the worst! On Wednesday when I came home I was sooo tempted to go to bed but I knew I wouldnt sleep that night! I wasnt able to even talk about the exams until I had something to eat or drink I was just knackered! On Friday I came home from maths and geography and slept like a baby till 8pm!Another thing Ive found about the exams is how people react to it! The people that haven't done a thing through the whole year are the ones completely panicking onthe days of the exams and the ones who have worked seem very laid back! :) So if theres any 2nd yrs or anything here reading this - START STUDYING NOW!!Another thing is how encouraging people are! Every day I get home I have everyone asking how it went and facebook messages and stuff and its nice to have the support! :)All in all, week one went OK. I'm a bit worried about my results but thats the way I am! I'm dreading week 2 but at least I'm finished this Friday! :DGood luck everyone!

Jack

Well, that's the first three days (of just six and a half, for me!) done and dusted. It was quite daunting to begin. Once I got over the whole shock of the whole thing, it felt just like the Mocks. My friends agree.Week One wasn't too bad. Wednesday was a bit nerve wrecking, naturally.Thursday was quite a long day. Irish. Not my strongest subject to be honest.Friday was the best day of the three. Geography was a welcome break and Maths Paper 1 was surprisingly nice.Week Two is up next. Maths Paper 2 and CSPE up first. Not too bad, I guess. Business on Tuesday! Business is my favorite subject, so I'm happy about it! French and History come up on Wednesday. I am kind of worried for those two, in particular. We'll see how it goes! And lastly, Science. I feel I can do well in it... after cramming on Wednesday evening!Well, the second (and final week for me!) is coming soon. It seems okay. I wish everyone the very best of luck!

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 08/06/2012 ISSU 08/06/2012

Junior Cert Maths Paper 1

David - Higher Level

Hi all, I know paper 1 was on Friday, but I wanted to leave my Maths blog until I had done them both!Paper 1 was the hardest paper one in my opinion so far. I had done all the exam papers from 2011-2004, and I had even done the 2012,2009 and 2007 mocks and I thought this paper was the hardest, but I suppose it goes by your strengths and weaknesses'. Q1 Went grand and there were no surprises - I flew through it.Q2 and Q3 Were harder for me, I'm good at algebra but I thought these questions were more complicated than usual. Q4/Q5/Q6 were tough, but nothing out of the ordinary, I don't mind functions so it wasn't too bad, but these questions I took the most time on and I think, did the worst on, for me they were just harder.

Jack - Higher Level

Maths used to be my weakest subject (well, among them anyway) but after today I feel really proud! After a quick read of boards.ie, it seems I am one of few who found the Paper easy.When the paper was handed out and I had a quick scan. Not too bad at first glance and I headed straight in to Question 1. Part A was quite easy, as A parts tend to be. Part B was also fairly easy. Part C, (i) and (ii) were very easy. However, (iii) caught me out. I just tried it and left it. Attempt marks, for the win!Next came Question 2. To my delight, Venn diagrams were not a C part! Part A was very easy. Part B... Venn diagrams... my old enemy. I've always struggled with them, but this felt like something out of Ordinary level, to be honest. Next came Part C. I needed a while to get it around my head, but after that it was grand.Next came Question 3. Part A was a tad confusing and I ended up guessing in the end. Scientific notation isn't my strongest part of Maths. Part B was fair enough. I made a very foolish error in (i). I thought 3 x 3 = 6! I was stumped for ages until I realized my error and fixed the question. Part C. Ah, Question 3, part C, how I hate thee. It turns out (after asking on boards.ie) that I was sooo close. I used - instead of +. Attempt marks shall do. I spent a good 45 minutes in total trying to work that out!Question 4 came next. Parts A and B were generic and quite easy. Part C gave me some trouble but after trying multiple times, I got it! I continued on to Question 5. Nothing I had not seen before. I flew threw Parts A, B and C. It was all very familiar.Question 6 came up last. Part A was grand. Part B was difficult to begin with but once I got my head around it, it was grand. Part C was a little confusing. I kind of made some educated guesses on how to do it!Overall, Paper One was quite easy, in my opinion. Maybe that's just me. I see a lot of people found it very hard... Even a friend of mine who loves Maths found it hard. So maybe it went well for some, horrid for others. Now to chill out for this weekend! Well... cram for French, I guess!

Lorraine - Ordinary Level

Hey guys! Lorraine here and I'm just home from doing Ordinary Maths Paper 1!The Exam started at 2pm and it finished at 4pm! I went in to the exam confident, I much prefer the topics on paper 1 to those on paper 2! Now? I'm in between! :P I found some of the questions really hard to figure out how to do, and for the life of me I could just not figure out how to do Q4 C - parts i and ii! It was all about - Conor bought a book for y and a jersey for 4y+6 euro. His total sum was 61 euro. I just couldn't figure out how to do it and I went over it a lot! I finished the exam at about 10 past 3! A few people had already gotten up and left but I was determined to leave feeling satisfied so I kept going over my paper.Instead of a bar chart or line graph we had to do a graph of a function question. There was only a small question on tax that I found simple enough! My graph of a function for Q6 did not look right so I re-did all of my functions and they were all right, then I re-did the graph on the spare sheet you get and it was still the same as the other graph so fingers, toes and legs crossed that it was right!Overall, I found the paper OK. I'm hoping I at least got a C in it! I'm not looking forward to paper 2 but I have the whole weekend to practice for it! I know I wasn't alone in finding paper 1 hard but lets hope that paper 2 is better! :) The weather definitely helps in the exams, I feel so much better knowing that even though I'm stuck doing exams I'm not missing out on much outside because no body else can go out either! :)I hope everyone thinks they did good in the paper 1 and Good luck for Paper 2 :)

ISSU 08/06/2012 ISSU 08/06/2012

Junior Cert Geography

Clara - Higher Level

This paper was a huge relief if I'm being perfectly honest! After being stressed to the maximum about it last night, ("Oh no-there's too much to study!"), I was so happy when I opened this paper.Short questions: These were fairly simple and it was the usual format - ie 20 questions with choices between two for 3 of the questions. There were only 4 short questions on the map/aerial photograph and they were easy. No curved line distance or anything!Long answer questions: When I first look at these I almost cried and then had heart palpitations! BUT, after reading through all of them twice I calmed down and circled every section I knew I could do well then chose from that. I answered Q.1, Q.4 and Q.5 which was about rainfall, freeze-thaw action and volcanoes. The only part that threw me a little here was the question on rainfall as I wasn't expecting it to come up, and I had anticipated that if it did the question would be on relief rainfall. I used my common sense though and I could remember the basics of it.Q.4 was a nice little one with mostly opinion-based writing. It was on world cities, industrial activity and the north-south divide. I loved that it asked about the "changing role of women in industry" as I meant I could just have a rant! A very enjoyable question indeed.Q.5 was pretty much what I had expected for the aerial photography and maps question. The sketch map was basically OK, I knew what I was looking for when they were asking for evidence of historic settlement and I was pleasantly surprised that a question on the reasons for tourism in the area!Overall a pretty agreeable paper and I hope everyone feels they did quite well on it. Good luck with maths!

Lorraine - Higher Level

Hey guys! Lorraine here just talking about the Geography exam because I have the spare time and I'm actually happy with it! :) I actually found the Geography exam grand! I was a bit worried going in because I did want to do well in this and there is a lot to learn for it!I went over all my notes a lot last night! I got 63% for this in the Mocks which is good for me :D I'm hoping to get the same again if not more! The Short Questions?! These are the ones I'm always hopeless at! I'm used to getting zero on these and for once I am very happy with them! I could answer everything and I was delighted! I found them great this year- Thank the lord!The short answer questions took me 30 mins to do so I felt the pressure to get my 3 long questions done in an hour and a half. I made myself stick to 30 mins each for these, 10 mins for A, 10 for B and etc :) The Long Answer questions?! When I first opened them up I have to admit, I did panic. I could do bits of almost each question but not a full question if you get me? In the end I looked at each question and I ticked off the bits I could do on each and started. Question 1 was grand I could do the whole lot it was just like volcanoes and frost mechanical weathering! I was very happy with that! Then I skipped straight to Q5 and did my ordnance survey map - I had to sketch it and I am not great at that but I actually for once think I did a OK job on it! They asked us about 3 tourist attractions for Carrick on Shannon (that was the map we were given) and we could choose from the OS map and the aerial map which was grand! There was a lovely little port function! :D Then I did Q4 which was grand too! It was about the roles of women and overpopulation and 2 results of this and all!

ISSU 07/06/2012 ISSU 07/06/2012

Junior Cert Irish

Clara - Higher Level

Paper 1

Well, actually it wasn't a bad little paper in my opinion! The underlying theme seemed to be the Olympics in London this summer with the grammar section (A) being all about this and there was a further mention in the aural test. Steaming right on ahead though...Aural: I found the first and last sections to be a lot easier than the middle section. I think Cuid A was very well answered on my part and I reckon it wasn't too hard. Cuid B was by far more difficult, but not completely impossible. Cuid C contained one fine piece and one that to me was almost completely incomprehensible - I am dreadful with Munster dialects.Comprehensions: To be honest it was pretty much the same as any year so far and the Justin Bieber one was fairly similar to my mock so I was ok with them. I found some of the language difficult in both pieces but didn't seem unreasonable - it is Higher Level.Grammar: This was again, predictable.I hope every one guessed and studied the Aimsir Fhaistineach as it was Laithreach last year and Caite the year before! I was silently rejoicing at section A therefore although the irregular verbs were... well, irregular! Section B was something I was less prepared for. I've had little practice but think I've made some sensible guesses and will pick up a few marks at least.Ceapadoireacht: I glanced over the page here, taking heed that I would be writing this when I got home even though I knew going into the exam the only ones I would be attempting were scealta or an eachtra.I found the essays (Section A - Aiste) a little challenging, as with Sections C and D but I supposed this is not a format of writing I've ever used and if you were prepared it was probably quite simple and accessible.Overall, a good and fair paper. I hope I'm writing the same when I post about Paper 2 tonight... wish me luck!
Paper 2

I genuinely thought this paper was quite difficult.Why you ask? Well: Pros: The unseen was complete double dutch to me! Fortionately I at least understood all the questions and was able to go through the piece searching for key words from them and make reasonably sensible guesses. I was much happier with Section B here and had enough knowledge to write a summary of a story that fit one of the topics well.Filiocht: Again with the REALLY difficult unseen section! I had even more difficulty with this than the pros but again... some sensible guesswork was done and I'm hoping that it wasn't dreadful. Studied section was fine yet again.Litireacha: Actually,this was the easiest part of the paper in my opinion! Although the topics were nothing like I had prepared in class or studied at home I was able to use my own head and come up with the Irish I needed. I think B was a bit more difficult than A, the one I chose, but overall this section was not offensive and I reckon most people will be pretty happy with it.I'm glad that his paper is behind me - overall I was not expecting it to be easy. As I said earlier - it's Higher Level and it "does what it says on the tin" so to speak. Go n-eiri an bothar leat with the rest of the exams! Talk to you guys tomorrow :)

Lorraine - Ordinary Level

Hey guys! :) Lorraine here! I did Irish this morning! I'm doing ordinary level so I only have one paper thank the Lord!The listening competition was grand! For pass there is A,B and C. A was just 2 boxes with i,ii,iii on each and you just had to answer the questions in Irish. B and C was grand! Its literally where you write a,b,c or d into a box and then the second bit is ticking which word you hear! :D I was delighted with that it seemed easy enough! The listening only lasted 15 minutes! Then it was quarter to 10 when I started all the comprehensions and stuff!The first bit on the paper was the match all, simple! The next few bits was the reading comprehensions- Jedward and Trappatoni came up, a summer camp and piece about a shopping sale. The postcard was on the Gaeltacht and the letter was about a summer job you got. The Alt/Cuntas I found pretty impossible. I couldn't understand what I needed to do and the pictures were about a boy and a girl running for the bus when the school bag splits and they miss the bus because there picking up the books and then they walk home and get soaked. I just didn't have the vocab to answer it!I had a blog to do then which I wasn't expecting as the only things we've done for that section in class is ''I was doing my home work when Una rang me. She invited me to.... I have gone. I will be back at...'' but the blog was about a girl coming over to your house and you watch TV and listen to music etc - I just wasn't expecting it! Overall, I definitely think I passed. There were 18 in my room and at the end there were 2 of us left.The exam started at half 9 and ended at half 11. I stayed till the end and so did a girl out of honours but that was it in our room! From speaking to others about the exam, I know I'm not alone in thinking the exam was pretty doable. I finished it at 10 to 11 and I just kept reading over what I had wrote fixing mistakes and such till half 11. Pass Irish = a very happy student!

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

Junior Cert English Papers 1 and 2

Jack

My very first State exam... ever. It was quite daunting.I took my seat in the exam hall and waited the nerve wrecking thirty minutes until the paper was handed out. Once we were allowed to being, I skimmed through the paper. It seemed okay at a quick glance.I went straight into reading. Nothing too difficult, to be fair. It was pretty straight forward. I think I did okay. I took advice from the Mocks and added more quotes!I went on to functional writing next. I was happy with this question. It was easy! I opted for 1. I finished in about twenty minutes. It was a nice question to do. Not too strenuous at all!I went to media studies next. I went with the Product Placement question. It was easy enough, I guess. I managed to fit Peppa Pig in to my answer which was funny!I went back to personal writing then. I went with option 4 - mistaken identity. I was about to write about being mistaken for someone in a band but at the last minute changed to being mistaken as a murderer. Possibly a bad idea. It seemed pretty much everyone did that! Oh well. I guess it's the content that counts.Overall, Paper One was okay. I feel it went good enough!It seems I'm not the only one not exactly happy with Paper Two... It was confusing at times. Let's dive in.On opening the paper, I skimmed through and went to Drama. I chose thShakespearian Drama and I picked questions 2 and 3. They were okay. Nothing too complicated. For Question Two, I opted to do 2. I wrote about Act 1, Scene 1 and Act 1, Scene 3. I think I did quite okay with that question.I skipped poetry and went to fiction. My... fiction. What is going on. Unseen was just a mess. "Can you relate to Jane?" (paraphrasing but you know...). Really? I can't... because I'm a boy. Wow. Part two. "Is Michael an attractive character?" Wait, what? I found this confusing. I ended up writing about his personality and how he was mean for building Jane up just to bring her down and embarrass her in front of everyone. The question was not clear. People wrote about Michael's physical attraction. It seems everyone is unhappy with the Fiction question. It was terribly unfair, in my opinion. Unclear and possibly biased to girls. Studied fiction was tough. I found it hard to write about liking a character from Of Mice and Men. In the end, I just rambled on about Lennie's innocence and so forth. Hopefully it will do.I went back to poetry then. I found that confusing too! I didn't know what I was supposed to learn from thirty-six lines of boxing! I ended up waffling on about how he was nervous to begin with but gained confidence to win. I went to 2 next, which was a fair bit easier. Studied poetry was good enough, to be fair. I went with option 2 and wrote about Heaney.Overall, Paper Two was tiring and tough. I think Fiction was unclear and unfair but Poetry and Drama were okay.Now, off for Irish tomorrow. Good luck to all!

David

Hi all,I'm just back from sitting English paper two! English paper one couldn't have been any nicer! I was seriously happy with and I was proud with my essay. The reading section of paper one was kind of like a cross between media studies and a reading comprehension but it was still okay.Paper two was lovely! My timing came close though and I was worried, but I still got it all finished, the studied poetry wasn't a very nice question (either of them) for me but the rest was brilliant, the studied fiction question was a big relief after all my worrying about not knowing my novel well enough. Studied Fiction was great as well so all in all I'm very happy. I'm not going to predict anything with a subjective subject like English, but hopefully I will live up to the A I got in the mocks... oh well no point worrying over something that I can't change! .. I'm off to cram for Irish!

ISSU 05/06/2012 ISSU 05/06/2012

Junior Cert Students’ thoughts on the eve of the exams

Clara

So,it's the night before the first exam! English Paper 1 looms above the heads of us Junior Certificate students to be tackled at 9:30 in the morning.EEEK! I wish everyone the best of luck to begin with.I'm feeling a little nervous this afternoon because English is one of my favourite subjects and it's one I really want an A in-97% in the mock is hard to live up to.Hopefully the topics I'm looking for in my studied poetry (adresses an issue)/fiction(setting,setting,setting!) come up.I plan on spending my evening cramming a little for geography on Friday and watching lots and lots of television to calm myself down (counts as revision for media studies if I watch lots of adverts,right?). An early night shall be had by me.Praying that the weather stays like this for the next few weeks-I really don't fancy sitting exams in the blazing heat we had yesterday, particularly because my exams are being held in a kitchen of all places....Wish me luck anyway! I shall be speaking to you soon-blogging about the Irish exam on Thursday.

Lorraine

Hi guys!I'm Lorraine and I'm doing my Junior Cert tomorrow! :OI have to admit, I'm a tiny bit nervous. Ive been sent 2 cards with Good luck on them and a Facebook mail and lots of status updates on Facebook but it doesn't stop me still being terrified, but the cards have motivated me!Something that hasn't motivated me? All the people from my year writing on there Facebook's about how they cant be bothered studying and there more concerned about the finale of Desperate Housewives tonight! That definitely puts me off studying because if they aren't bothered why should I be? When I'm like that I look at all the Good luck cards and think about how well the rest of my family done in there Junior Certs and I'm back on track!Tomorrow, I have English paper 1 and 2. I'm doing honours! English is one of the exams I most want to do well in, for the simple reason that I want to be an English Secondary School teacher and it wont look too great on my CV that I failed it in the Junior Cert! I've always done well in English, in the mocks I got the highest result in my class so imagine if I failed it? :OI have to admit, I started studying at the start of third year because I really want to do well in the exams. It might have cost me some friends because I'm such a ''nerd'' but hopefully it will have gained me some great grades!! I probably should be studying more now but I look at weekend's as my day's off but that has slowly turned into any day off being my day off!I'm off to study now! I think this is being published after the exams and if so I hope you all get the results your hoping for! Good luck! :)

Jack

So. Junior Cert, 2012. Three years' worth of hard work boiling down to one week (for me, at least!) worth of exams - day to day, back to back. Let's do this!I've been studying quite hard for the past few weeks. I began studying in September - and I am glad of that. Murphy's/Sod's Law came through, and I've become really tired and lazy in the past two or three days, just before the exams. I'm finding it hard to study in the final few days. Of course that would happen...In terms of subjects, I am most nervous about French and Irish. I am really anxious about them. I feel quite okay with the rest of the subjects. I feel quite under prepared for Irish (mainly, the poetry and letter) and French (pretty much all aspects of the subject!). My standard of French is extremely poor. But, with work (lots of it....) I might be able to nab a B. I got a C at the Mocks, so here's hoping.Surprisingly, I feel quite calm and collected right now. I pretty much guarantee that to change when I walk in to my school and I see all the official-ness of the whole exam process. The fact that I begin my first State exams tomorrow hasn't really set in. Until tomorrow morning. Oh dear... That's something the Mocks don't prepare you for. I guess "Be Calm" by fun. will become an anthem of sorts for the exams! "Be caaaaalm!"Well, now I must go and try fit in a final few hours' of study before the exams. I have much left to do... Irish letter, poetry, listening, English revision... Oh dear.I wish the best of luck to all doing the exams! :33

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.