English - #JC2017 - Diego Brule
Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayWant me to be honest? I can say I almost didn't prepare for English, solely because our teachers simply didn't know what would come up(we're the first generation to sit the reformed English JC) but hey, it actually didn't go bad. (And if it did I can always use the excuse that it's not my first language)Exam starts, I open the paper. I immediately read 'fantastic beasts'. My heart jumps and happiness floods me as I'm sure I can answer anything about one of my favourite movies. (Sorry I didn't read the book) But under fantastic beasts were small letters: 'fantastic beasts and the people who love them'.. what? To say the least, I was disappointed. But as I finished this question, I turned the page and an actual Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts question was there, so naturally, I was happy again.You can see that I went through a rollercoaster of emotions in just under 30 minutes, not bad right? Well, there's more.Next was Poetry. I started hating myself. Why did I not go over all those quotes, I ask myself, and the funny thing is, I kind of knew the quotes, but not having them learned off word by word pissed me off. I skipped this section, only to find that next question was drama, and I was even less prepared for that.I say a prayer(not kidding) before skipping and seeing what awaits in the last question and- aha! we had to make up a TV dialogue between a teenager and an adult, confronting, obviously because we teenagers aren't capable of rational thought. (rolling my eyes hard at that one)And so I have a bit of fun making up this dialogue and then I notice there's half an hour left. I panic as I went back to poetry and drama to answer the best I can, and before I know it the time's up. But oh well, a roller coaster isn't fun without the up and downs, I still enjoyed that test, even though it was the one I had fewer hopes for.
English - #JC2017 - Ellen Kenny
Ellen Kenny- Meánscoil Mhuire LongfordSo today was the first of the Junior Cert exams, starting with English. After the mocks, I think a lot of people were dreading the English exam and its restricted time; I definitely was. In the end though, I was actually surprised at the exam. Even though we still had to do the same amount of questions in the same amount of time, it felt shorter overall.The first reading comprehension was simple and quick to read, and the poetry question was particularly good since it didn't ask for any themes shown in a poem, just your own understanding of it. The only strange thing was the absence of any questions about a novel, but after asking several questions about the poems and plays we've studied, the analysis of a novel might've seemed overwhelming.The Shakespearean extract was focused mostly on staging the drama, which can be easy enough, and the final question only needed a generic argument between a teenager and parent.Overall, it definitely wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, but I suppose you can't really know how you did until September. At least I'll have to worry about the complexity of Shylock's character ever again! #JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 
CSPE - #JC2017 - Luke Casserly
Luke Casserly - St. Mel's CollegeSo CSPE was nice and handy like I expected! The short questions were very simple. The first buildings question was linked with the pillars of CSPE which I think threw a few people off. The rest were grand, except for a fill in the blank question asking for the second name of the new UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, I was happy to get it after seeing him on the news a few days ago, but Ban Ki-Moon lovers were heartbroken.The next section involved answering questions on various documents, which again were handy.For my long question, I chose question one which was based around Age Action Ireland. I felt this was the easiest one to choose and worked out really well because it was very like ones we practiced in class.Overall I'm really happy with CSPE and hoping for the A!
CSPE - #JC2017 - Diego Brule
Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayBeing a climate change activist, and a member of the ISSU, I went into this test pretty confident, although I really didn't know what to expect. I was just praying that climate change or some other topic that I'm passionate about would come up so I can rant for a bit. (Yeah I do that a lot)And I wasn't too wrong to be confident. First few pages flew by, only being confused by anything that was in Irish because in CSPE you can kind of really use common sense to answer anything, but when there's Irish involved and you don't know a word of it you get really confused. (Even though the only Irish word that came up was Áras an Uachtaráin.)
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.
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.