ISSU 14/06/2012 ISSU 14/06/2012

Junior Cert Science

Clara - Higher Level

I was convinced this was gonna be a fail - it was my last exam (yay!) so all I was focusing on this morning was the sweetness freedom would bring. I couldn't wait for those two hours of my life to be over! I just had one hurdle left-scienceIt was a pretty fair paper to be honest-with some remarkably easy questions. I mean two safety precautions in the lab? They're throwing marks at you with that one!Biology: This section was probably my second best section after chemistry - I found the questions unsurprising, they seemed to be similar in format to previous years. The question on food at the very start (the one with the eggs) was a nice way to warm up and I was delighted to see no trace of ecology! Not even the breathing system. The only thing that was unusual about this section was the question on the kidneys. This was odd - I'd never say a question asked in this way before, they rarely give a list and ask for functions of parts. Thankfully I knew them! The experiment was also a challenge for me - I had really disliked that particular one!Chemistry: This section was by far the easiest in my opinion. The same basic idea as biology ie. mainly some pretty basic questions (the one about safety precautions was in this section for example) and the a few toughies to keep you going.Physics: This was the most challenging part of the paper and I think most people will agree with my there but to be perfectly honest it wasn't overly stressful. There was one stupid little question that I was just puzzling over for 15 minutes at the end but eventually I came to some sort of a logical conclusion and answered it-not sure how correct it was but!Anyway, overall not too bad a paper. With a decent knowledge of science and some common sense (combined with the 30-ish percent we already have!) everyone's a winner and has passed so not much to worry about. Now, excuse me while I go burn my books. State exams and FINALLY over for me - out for good! Good luck to everyone with the remaining exams. Viel glück (hope that's right) to everyone doing German in the morning, all those in religion later, home-ec kids and everyone with exams next week too. Soldier on with pride and knowledge!

Jack - Higher Level

My final exam!So, I went straight through Biology. There was nothing unexpected in this. Some questions caught me but over all it was okay.Next came Chemistry. Not my strongest part of Science. I managed, though.Last came physics. No calculations this year. A bit odd. Overall, Physics was grand. Some confusing questions, tho.Overall, Science was a good paper. No surprises on the Paper! It was manageable and fair.Now, SUMMER!!

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 13/06/2012 ISSU 13/06/2012

Junior Cert History

Shahed - Higher Level

Ahh, history. Probably my most dreaded exam, which is quite strange.I was anxious before this exam. I had studied, but I hadn't studied all the chapters. Thankfully though, it worked out in my favour.The first section was picture questions. These were easy for the most part, but I panicked when I saw the two Irish History questions. It was one of the chapters I hadn't really studied, but I managed.Section two was documents. One was about Magellan and the Incas, the other about Hitler. These were also easy, with nothing difficult. Next was the short questions. There was a wide range in these and I was able to do most.Next, People In History. I looked at the choices and I cried tears of pure joy! The accounts that I had learned well all came up! I chose to write about the work of the archaeologist and a factory worker during the British Industrial Revolution, both easy choices.The next question was about the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Nothing difficult here, though the mini account threw me off a little, as I hadn't focused on the Counter-Reformation, but thankfully I remembered it from studying it before.For question six, the questions were about the Middle Ages, Social Change, Irish History and International Relations. I chose the Middle Ages and International Relations; we hadn't studied Social Change and Irish history and I didn't get along very well. But the questions were easy and again, like in French, a question which I had studied right before going into the exam came up!In general, I was pleasantly surprised by this paper. All the frantic studying payed off! Now, two more exams, then SUMMER!

Clara - Higher Level

Woosh, what a paper. I don't think I've ever written so much in the last five minutes of an exam as I did on this one. I’m surprised I can even write this-my hand is so sore! As I was entering my centre all I could think was "Oh my-this is my second last exam!" I felt the rush of hope and got that good feeling you get when you feel like you're well prepared and should do well in a test as I entered my centre and I hope it was right..!History is most definitely one of my preferred subjects so I was pretty happy taking this exam-even so, I think it was not only me who taught this was a really fair and good paper. After speaking to many people in my class who took the paper, we were all agreed! So, more details, yes?Section 1, 2 and 3: I flew through them at breakneck speed. I always try to do them as fast as I can while getting them right because it gives me more time to focus on the bigger sections. Section 1 was the usual, simple common sense stuff and section two was pretty much the same-looked for very little real information. The short questions were basically ok also. There were a few little unusual questions here and there but I answered 17 of them so I'm hoping I'll get my 20 marks.Section 4 :( A) Essays... *shudders* HATED it. Absolutely everything in history that I really dislike and never really study ie. archaeology, plantations and renaissance painters was on. Nooo! But, I told myself to cop on and be brave and made a reasonable attempt at the question on plantations. (B) I was so much happier with-I knew a factory or mine worker well, so I just morphed it into an owner with some jigging around of vocab.Section 5-I almost cried with happiness when I saw the reformation had come up! I was silently preparing myself to be asked about Political Revolutions or even Plantations that I wouldn't be able to do but I got lucky and this was almost exactly like the question from my mock. I knew what I was doing!Section 6-Challenging again! Personally I read through all of them and found that I could quite happily do (A) and (D).I had prepared for a stab at (C) but it seemed like a rather difficult one-the fact that it had lots of parts turned me off it at lot and I hadn't studied Irish history as I hate it so I was delighted that the Middle Ages was (A).I know that well! I did the little questions and then the longer questions on the life of a lady in a castle and the life of a serf. (D) was good aswell. The format was unusual but the questions were reasonable-the usual choice between 3 topics and a few on war history.Good, good paper! Science tomorrow morning is my last exam-cannot wait to have it over with. Good luck everyone!

ISSU 13/06/2012 ISSU 13/06/2012

Junior Cert French

Clara - Higher Level

Well,that was a little beauty of a paper! Honestly-the hardest part of this morning so far has been getting out of bed after going to see a concert last night :P Let's dive right in and get down to the specifics:Aural: This was one of the easiest I've come across to be frank. Even the most difficult section (Section E I thought) was not overly challenging and was pleasant to listen to.Comprehensions: Again,this was child's play! Very basic with the usual format of 9 pieces with some questions at the bottom. These were interesting and the questions were very good for the most part - although there were a few more difficult ones peeping through. Nothing impossible.Written section: Postcards! Nooooooo!!! I had anticipated a note so when I saw this it was a moment of sheer panic. However, I told myself to calm down and re-read. I coped on that I DID know what to say and got writing. Very stereo-typical,"you're on holidays" postcard to a French pen-pal. Some of the points were a little unusual though, the one about celebrating your mother's birthday? No matter! Onwards to the letter I went. I wasn't surprised to see a formal and informal letter - I had studied both and therefore had a real choice here but in the end I went for the informal one. I was really happy with the letter I produced, the points were more like previous years here thankfully!The only thing there is, anyone reading this who really struggles with French will completely disagree - keep in mind it's one of my favourite subjects and I was therefore almost looking forward to this exam.Overall, I found this paper fun and easy. Au revoir and bonne chance avec l'histoire!

Shahed - Higher Level

Le Français? C'est très, très facile!I was both nervous and calm going into this exam. I had done very little French revision lately (I was mostly focusing on History), but after reading through the whole paper, I was relieved - it looked like a piece of cake!The first section of the exam was the listening comprehension. This has always been my favourite part of French exams, I do quite well on it. It was quite straightforward, nothing difficult at all.The next section was the reading comprehensions. This was incredibly easy, which is a little unusual. There are always some very difficult questions in most years, but this time, there was only one or two which were a little tricky. All in all, this was an easy section.Finally, the written section. This was the section that I had been dreading the most. There was a postcard and then either a formal or informal letter. The postcard was like every other year, nothing too unusual. For the letter, I chose to do an informal letter; I don't know formal letters very well, we hadn't done them much. I was so relieved when I saw informal letter. One of the points I had revised just before going into the exam had come up! This helped to put me at ease for the rest of the exam.As a whole, this was a straightforward exam. I was finished with about an hour left over, though I stayed and went over everything. I was quite happy coming out of it. That's another exam to tick off the list!

ISSU 12/06/2012 ISSU 12/06/2012

Junior Cert Business

David - Higher Level

Hi all, just back from business paper 2, I had both papers today and despite not doing much study besides cramming last night, I think I did pretty well! The exams weren't easy or tough, they were okay.Paper 1:Paper 1 has the short questions as well and I did okay on this. I got two wrong I think, and a third which I'm not sure of. All in all, the short questions were grand. On this paper I did Q1,2,3,4 and 6, so that's 5 instead of four. I was happy with the questions and flew through Q1/Q2/Q4 (household budget, club accounts and Economics) then Q4 and Q6 were a little slower but still less time than recommended. I don't know if that's good or bad! Oh well, I looked over all the questions again, made a few adjustments and left about a half an hour early.Paper 2:On this I did Q2/Q3/Q4/Q5 and Q6, so again, that's one extra. I was happy with this paper, they could have made it a lot harder! Q1 Business documents and bookkeeping took me like 10 minutes :P Q2 Cash flow forecast I flew through also, it was like a shorter version of household budget, this took me about 15 minutes. Then Q4/Q5/Q6 (final accounts, credit sales and bad debts, finance and report writing). None of these were hard but they all took a little bit extra, again I was finished about an hour early and looked over them again for about a half an hour.. again, not sure if that's good or bad, I guess I'll find out in September! I was happy with this paper though and it went well. :D

Jack - Higher Level

PAPER ONE.Ah, business. Possibly my strongest subject.Paper One was very good. Section A (the short questions) were very fair. Nothing unexpected came up. I feel I did quite well.Section B was surprisingly easy.Question 1 was a nice revised budget. Nothing unexpected here. Luckily, it balanced first time!Question Two was a Club Account. Nothing unexpected came up. The Balance Sheet had been predicted by many. My accounts balanced on the first go!Question 3 was a lovely economics question. Once again, no surprises. I feel I did well.Question 4 was a very easy consumer question. I had it done in a short space of time.At this point, I had my four questions done. With just under an hour left, I tackled the remaining two as back ups.Question 5 was great. Just filling in a sheet!Question 6 was probably the hardest, yet still easy.Overall, Paper One was a very fair paper. It was quite easy to me.PAPER TWO.I quickly skim read the paper. To my delight, no ratios!I began with a lovely business documents question - Question 2. It was quite fair.I moved to Question 3 next. This was a great cash flow forecast. It balanced first time!I decided to tackle Question 6 next. It was great to see they included the template for a report! This was a lovely, fair question.I now had to pick my fourth question. I opted for Question 4. I had practiced final accounts over and over. It balanced first time sound!With another while to spare, I went to Question 5. This was an okay question.I turned my attention to Question 1. Books of First Entry. I had originally planned to do this as one of my first four, but chickened out! I did it through at a slow, calm pace. It didn't balance! I checked every single figure to find I put a figure on the Dr when it should have been Cr! But then it balanced!Overall, Paper Two was a very fair paper to all, it seems.I am extremely happy with how I did! Now to cram for History and French. My weakest subjects... Good luck!

ISSU 11/06/2012 ISSU 11/06/2012

Junior Cert Maths Paper 2

David - Higher Level

Paper 2 was a delight for me! After my worrying that paper two would be as hard as paper one, I wasn't confident going into the exam, but I soon settled when I read the questions.Q1 - I got on great, no surprises but I had trouble with part C, attempt marks will have to do for that one! Q2 - Was co-ordinate geometry, probably my favorite section of p2, so easy, so likable, for me anyway, I spent a good bit of time on this question though as I had to draw two diagrams.Q3/Q4/Q5 - Trigonometry, my least favorite part of the course, I think we went through trigonometry pretty fast in school, so I never really got a feel for it, but these questions went great, I got both theorems correct along with the construction so I got a good few marks there my teacher predicted one of the two theorems correctly, the long equiangular triangles one, but the other one was a pleasant surprise as it's shorter and easier than the other one she predicted. The rest was pretty easy too though, maybe that could be down to me trying to learn theorems all weekend getting used to it more? Who knows, bottom line - It went well.Q6 - I did no study for this, this was always easy to me, there was an ogive question which is always nice to see, no drawing of a histogram however, which was disappointing as although they take longer, they're easy marks. Q6 went great for me - thankfully.All in all, Maths was okay this year, the very hard paper 1 and the easy paper two balanced out to make it not too tough.. and not too easy :(

Lorraine - Ordinary Level

Hey guys!Lorraine here! :) I did Maths paper 2 today! Im ordinary level and I have to say, after a gruelling 3 hours study yesterday of solid maths with my sister, I think I did OK!Normally, I'm ok up to Q4 and thats when I start to get stuck. In the first few questions there was no shocks or anything, it was all whats normally on the papers. At Q4 we had to bisect an angle and we wernt allowed to use a protractor, although I'm not sure how they would know or not? :P I probably did it wrong, but I did attempt it! After that It was grand. All the usuals were there and we had the log books with all the formulas we needed in it. I think I did very well until Q6. I could do the first parts no bother it was only the last bit where I was like Arrrghhh! I attempted everything which I was delighted with.Overall, If you studyed I think you'll do well. A good few people out of my room did get up and leave and there was only 2 of us ordinary level students walking out at half 11. I walked out of my exam and there weren't many of us walking out at half 11, even though most of the year is ordinary.I felt very sorry for the honours and I looked through there paper and my God its hard! Seriously, If your doing honours fair play to you! If I find pass hard imagine what I'd be like in honours?!I think I done well and I'm happy with how I answered everything this time round.Good Luck to everybody in the exams still to come :)

ISSU 11/06/2012 ISSU 11/06/2012

Junior Cert CSPE

Lorraine

Hey guys!Lorraine here :) I'm just going to blog a little about the CSPE exam because I remember most of the paper so why not go on and on about it :PThere is such a stigma about CSPE and I think we have all at one stage cracked a few jokes about CSPE but if you actually try with it you'll be a happy person when you get your results. It's an Easy A so why not get an A?!60% percent of the exam is gone before you even go into the exam! The action project is worth that and I'm hoping I got the 60%! My class went to the Zoo for Stewardship for our Action Project and I'm not messing, it was class! Definitely a day out to remember and I still remember loads of facts from it. We were brought around for an hour and a half with a woman who told us all kinds of deadly information and then we were allowed to go around on our own for about 3 hours. For weeks after we all worked on our RAP forms and had them all completed.The actual exam? People were all like ''Ah sure this be grand!'' and some of the teachers were even cracking jokes about it :P The paper was 40% and I reckon I've passed anyway! The first question, the picture one, was photos of like the Dáil or the UN Parliament etc and you had to write the name under the pic and where it was located. I genuinely don't think I done well there cause we have never looked at them places, I obviously knew the Dail but who knows about anything else?! :)Q2 was all the short answer questions, it was mostly all about voting and the systems and stuff. Pretty easy stuff! Then we were told to pick 3 out of 4 of the next questions to do, its kinda like a reading comprehension, you get the info and you write the answers. They were based on the age card, charity shops etc. I always answer all of them.Section 3 was grand. 2 of the questions were about posters but they did have questions with them like. I chose a question about why a youth center should be in the area and I had to write a letter to a local TD on behalf of my class etc etc It was grand.I didn't leave, and I don't plan on leaving any of my exams early. There was 5 of us left at the end and I was working till the end-3pm! :)Good luck in the next few days all! Business tomorrow :O :(

Shahed

Ahhh, CSPE. Probably the easiest exam you will ever do in your life.I already had 60% of my final grade finished. For our Action Project, my class and I invited Gillian van Turnhout from the Children's Rights Alliance to speak to us about the rights of young people. It was very informative and enjoyable.The written exam itself was quite easy. Though most people seemed to have finished early, I was writing to the very last minute. I took my time at the start, so that slowed me down a little.Section 1 was probably the easiest it has ever been. There was nothing difficult about it at all. It was a great start. Section 2 again was easy. I planned on doing all the questions in that section, but I ran out of time. Here's hoping my answers are good! Section 3 was a breeze. It had a good variety of questions, nothing too difficult.Overall, it was a good paper. It was a nice break from the harder exams. Now to cram for French and History!

Jack

Well. CSPE. The hardest exam of the lot. Obvious sarcasm!There's not much I can really say about this exam. 40% of the marks were secured with my Action Project. My class invited the President to our school, so we wrote about that.The written exam covered that last handful of marks. Just 80. It was grand. Nothing hard. Nothing unpredicted. Nothing out of the blue.I finished Section 1, three questions from Section 2 and a question from Section 3 at about 1.50, so I went on and did an extra question and finished shortly after 2.00. I read over a few times, and decided to leave early. There was no point staying longer.There is not much one can say about CSPE, besides the above. At least tomorrow is Business! my best subject!