CSPE - #JC2017 - Kurt Scott

Kurt Scott - Ratoath CollegeI think we were all thinking the same thing when we left our CSPE exam today, "Who the hell is the UN General Secretariat?"In all seriousness, the CSPE exam was pretty much exactly how I had expected it would be. Anyone who has practiced using the Junior Cert papers from the previous years should not have been majorly surprised with this exam.A bit of State, Explain, Example, and this exam should have been a good shot at an "A" for most of the students taking it.

#JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Sarah Connolly

Sarah Connolly - Ratoath CollegeI sat my first leaving cert paper this morning and it's safe to say that I was nervous going in! I woke up at 4am convinced I was late!! But I wasn't and I got to school for our usual pre-exam breakfast (despite not being able to eat any of it because of allergies!). It was a grand paper, with no curveballs thrown in there. I did the Question A from text 1 which was a lovely piece about poetry. It had a lovely 15 mark question about why poetry benefitted you in there as well which suited me lovely! I was delighted to see a question like that. I got the question A done on time (which was a first for me!). I did the Question B of text 2 which was a fabulous piece about people's reliance on online news sources. I was dead chuffed with that as we are supposedly in a “fake news” era so it was very easy to pull ideas together for that. 

I was feeling good going into my composition and there wasn't an awful lot of choice on composition to be fair but there was a speech about democracy that suited me to a tee. I was absolutely delighted to write my composition on that. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to get it done and I wrote about 6 pages (my handwriting is pretty little to be fair as I fit 15 words a line). I was dead happy with my work that I handed up. Now it wasn't perfect and I still have the big battle ahead tomorrow with paper 2 so I better go look over my last few notes!

#LC2017 #StateExams#ISSU17

English - #LC2017 - Alex Fogerty

  #LC2017 - #EnglishAlex Fogarty - Ratoath CollegeWell, that went well, thank you State Examinations! I was honestly so happy with this paper. I found it to be very fair and pretty well rounded. I answered Question A from Text 3, I enjoyed the theme of that particular text being childhood memories. The questions were very straight forward and I was grateful for that. I then went onto answer Question B from Text 2. Again a very straight forward question and it was actually just lovely. Asking about the biased media... All I had to was go on about Fake News and Donald Trump, easiest opinion piece, just do what I've been doing since November... Complain about Trump. Lastly, I chose No.3 for Section II of the paper. The Speech on Democracy at the World Youth Conference. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a nicer question! Loved waffling on about politics as I do best, and was even able to bring a very lovely, truthful anecdote. Loved this paper, I hope it went well for everyone else! #LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

 Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayI woke up this morning feeling quite sick to the stomach, much like the thousands of other students sitting exams today.

The morning went by in a blur, eating and getting ready and hearing everyone chatter and panic before the exam. I have a tactic- avoid and ignore everyone.The exam began with me going through the paper, trying to figure out questions and choosing topics that would suit me. I chose the short story about the tattoo, and reading comprehensions involving poetry and freedom of expression. I love these two things!I feel like the exam went smoothly, the exam hall did smell a bit yuck (I have to mention as my brain kept going back to this detail, unfortunately) but I think the exam flew by otherwise!I hope everyone else did well and isn't panicking too much. They feel like just another summer test really.#LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownYou know in a horror film when the character is approaching an empty corridor? And they shine their torch up onto the ceiling and the monster is suddenly there? Well, yeah that's how the approach to the morning of English paper 1 felt.

So, I saw the first comprehension and jumped right into it. Didn't even look at the others. (Rationality, exams and I are a non-existent combination) so I did the 'world of poetry' question A in about 30 mins. I didn't find this hard really, the visual elements to the images stood out quite clearly!Swiftly moved onto my question B from text 2. I wrote an opinion piece on news in the online world and the reliability of sources which I took as a green light to talk about 'fake news' and Trump. (Which weirdly enough I sorta predicted in my Vlog yesterday) So shoutout to the State Exams Commission for keeping it topical as ever.Finally for composing, which this year I believe had something for everyone. I did question 3 which was writing a speech about how to support democracy at the World Youth Conference and if you're anyway political like me, was a dream question. I sort of went into the history of democracy; its origins, its place in society today. While explaining how education is the best way to support it. (Guess being in ISSU has shown its benefits huh?)Overall it was a lovely paper and I'll be flat out studying for paper 2. So join in #prayingforplath and check in tomorrow for more blogs from us!#LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17

 

English - #JC2017 - Luke Casserly

Luke Casserly - St. Mel's CollegeMy first State Exam ever!! I've been pretty nervous about the English exam since the mock, as it was a massive disaster! I left four whole questions unanswered, while my last answer was not much more than a few illegible scribbles.However, I feel very happy with how the exam went today! I managed to get all questions completed and this time around, my frantic scribbles were a tiny bit readable! I flew through the first two questions on the documentary and poster. They were a nice easy way to start. After that, I was nervous about time so went through the questions very fast - So fast I'm struggling to think what questions actually came up. I was happy to see the nice poetry question pop up. I used Lovers on Aran which I had just studied the night before so I was delighted. I spent a good bit of time doing a good dialogue on the last question, which asked you to write about a confrontation between an adult and a teenager.I feel this went a lot better than the mock and am looking forward to seeing the result!

#JC2017  #StateExams #ISSU17