Science - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayScience was one of the two subjects in which I had prepared myself the most in. I was very looking forward to it, considering that for my LC subjects, I picked Physics, Chemistry and Applied Maths.But maybe you noticed from my subject choices that Biology isn't my strongest? Well you are correct. As I opened the paper, the biology part made everything more complicated. A combination of asking precisely about topics that I hadn't much interest in, unusual wording, and me not being able to translate scientific names to english, made those first 3 questions very frustrating.But relief came to me as I went into the chemistry section. This time, no translating required, as it was more maths, the universal language. Balancing chemical equations, lab experiments, and the fact that not one thing about hard water came up made this section very enjoyable.And last but definitely not least, Physics section. Ah, my favourite science. I flew through it, knowing all the theory behind it. I just got a bit stuck on electricity, but my log book helped me out.Overall, for me, this test was satisfying and relaxed. And I can't help but be happy that now I can completely forget about studying plants again, or mostly anything about Biology for that matter.#StateExams2017

Maths P2 - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayPaper two is the easier of the two, I said. It won't be that hard, I said. Well, this maths paper 2 was just about the most confusing maths paper I've done up to now.When I first opened the exam at 9:30, my sleepy self immediately wanted to cry at the complexity of the questions, even at the beginning at the paper. But I worked through the easy ones first: some statistics, simple volumes, simple trigonometry. I left one or two blank spaces as I moved on.As my brain was getting warmed up, the complexity of the questions seemed to disappear, and I worked through the paper ever so relaxed, until I came to a very difficult trig question and a proof that was easy but I hadn't studied recently so I just skipped it for the time being.11:45: I finish all the simple parts of the exam, having left behind three questions to look over. The challenge had begun. I did the proof which actually was very easy, and I filled in a probability question that I had left blank. Now, to the final boss, the trig question, in which I had no idea what theorem they were asking about (It was a very weird circle)How did I conquer it you might ask? I used the legendary technique of staring at it, as if was going to give me the answer. But eventually, it actually worked. After 10 minutes or so of staring at it, I noticed something that allowed me to do the maths to find out the measurement of the angle they were looking for.After all this was the easier of the two papers, its simplicity hidden away under confusing wording and contexts, and very little information. I'm pretty happy with it, and I guess it taught me: There is no such thing as a question you don't know the answer to, you just haven't stared at it for long enough#StateExams2017 

Maths P1 - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes

Maria Hayes - Scoil Ruain KillenauleHigher Level

To sum this paper up in one sentence, I would say "It was a stiff paper!" Apart from the 3 questions which stumped me the paper was very doable. Ratios, functions, sequences, algebra and factorising all came up in the paper, like you'd expect.Ratios, exponential sequences and fixing a quadratic equation were the questions which stumped me. However I am delighted with the rest of the paper. Bring on Monday!#StateExams2017

Maths P1 - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayHigher Level

If I previously said that I wasn't prepared at all for English, for Maths it was the complete opposite (I completed all my maths EDCO past exam papers). I was very looking forward to this exam as I had complete confidence in all its topics, except in sequences. And guess what topic was 3 out of 15 questions in the exam? Sequences.But still, I managed to finish all questions with 50 minutes to spare, so I used this extra time to go back to these confusing sequence questions to smooth out whatever messy maths I had already done, and it went surprisingly well. This is in no small part thanks to the log book, which provided me with a beautiful formula for a 4-part question that otherwise I would've left completely blank.So after this rather uneventful test which was easier than I expected, I signed out 15 minutes before the exam was over and went over to my friend to discuss the hard questions, only to destroy my perfectionist hopes. I walked out of the exam feeling I scored a good 95%-98%, and then after talking to him I realised I probably already lost around 10% in stupid mistakes. And by stupid, I don't mean not knowing how to do the maths, I mean reading a question wrong and doing a completely irrelevant set of maths. Maybe this explains why I found it so easy?But oh well, I'm making these kind of mistakes ever since 1st grade (I think it's called 1st class here?). Hopefully one day I'll learn to read.All my hopes and dreams now with paper 2, which in my opinion, is the easier of the two. (Anyone wanna teach me how to read from here to Monday?)#JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17

Geography - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes

Maria Hayes - Scoil Ruáin Killenaule

The geography exam today was a tricky paper because I wasn't expecting some of the questions to come up! However I was pleased with the turn out!

I began with section 1. I got through that with little difficulty except when we were asked what kind of settlement a "ecclesiastical settlement" was. I guessed "religious". It turned out to be correct! That was 3 marks gained!

Then moving onto Section 2 I spent 10 mins going through the questions and seeing which questions I wanted to do. I chose Q2, Q4 & Q5. Question 2 was all to-do with rivers!! I was delighted because I love rivers! Question 4 was all about Climate! Another favourite of mine! Finally Question 5 was the Map question. We had to draw an aerial photograph of Macroom, followed by why a certain area is perfect for building a hotel! Followed by 3 points on the map which showed evidence of historic settlements. It was tricky as I only had 10 minutes left in the exam so I was racing through the question!

I think that it was a successful paper and I'm happy with how it went.

#StateExams2017

Geography - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayHigher Level

Geography, geography. Geography has always been a gamble for me, partly because I've lived everywhere at this stage and have a fair amount of general geographic knowledge, and partly because I only study my favourite parts and hope they come up. And very luckily, Today's short questions were all of the simple things that I knew and section II was precisely the topics I loved (or that I've done so many times that I don't even have to think about it).And so at 9:30 am, I open the exam. I flew through the first few questions, and I come across this typical developed/developing world map, which I never liked because it basically portrayed every country outside Europe and Asia as messed up, poor and evil. I come from Chile (South America), so I was always against how geography class made 'developing' countries look like.But in this map, for the first time ever, Chile was in blue, or 'developed'. I celebrated this in silent glory for a few seconds and then got back to my exam.Then, the feared, the Section 'wrist-breaker' II, came around. I flicked through the 6 questions and picked three to answer, which were ones that I'd prepared essays on: Rivers and humans, Economic activities, and the OS map and aerial photograph.I finished all of this with about 10 minutes to spare (including some Van-Gogh quality diagrams) and was about to hand it up when I realised I forgot to answer a part of a question (throwback to CSPE), so, naturally, I rush this last part and finish just in time, and walk out of the exam hall feeling triumphant, having conquered one of the tests that I feared the most.Next up was Maths, but first, a burrito break at Boojum.#JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17