#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Art O'Mahony
Art O'Mahony - St Patrick's Secondary School Castleisland A chorus of ''ehhh''s filled the exam hall at 2pm as fifteen boys opened up page one of the exam to discover that Horatio and Laertes were being asked for the first time since the mid 90s! At a second glance, the first option was not as bad as had originally seemed, but I had never seen it before. In any event, as I am sure every other leaving cert pupil did, I moved to the back pages to see which poets were in store. John Donne!!! Brilliant -the panic partially disappeared. Tackled that question first to calm my nerves, taking one hour.I then moved on to do the 70 marker Theme or Issue question, using the word entertaining a hundred million times... That wasn't awful, but nor was it double-barrel as far as I can remember, so discussion was quite narrow. At 4pm I decided to approach the psychological thriller question for Hamlet, where I hopefully made up for my summary-like answer with a decent number of quotes. I mainly tuned in on the psychological war between Claudius and Hamlet throughout the drama. I hope I didn't miss the point! The unseen poem was quite lovely, leaving us with a broad selection of items to discuss.Overall, English paper two wasn't as difficult as I had anticipated, but not without its challenges. With luck, August will give the same analysis... Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017 #LC2017 #EnglishP2 
#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova
Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwaySaying I was scared is an understatement. I kept trying to believe that I wasn't nervous, but on the way to the exam in the car I felt hot tears spilling down my cheeks. I did study English enough, I was luckier than most people that were panicking in the school, girls choked back on their tears as they looked over their notes one last time.When I saw Bishop come up as a poet, I was absolutely relieved but slightly disappointed that Boland came up. Everyone else was relieved too, and I might be evil to think so but oh well!I barely squeezed in the unseen poetry, I had answered the Hamlet question on Horatio and Laertes and Vision and Viewpoint.Thankfully, I finished the paper! No need to worry about it anymore.Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-…/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017
#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Sarah Ní Chonghaile
Sarah Ní Chonghaile - Ratoath CollegeWow just when I thought I had my grade in my grasp paper 2 came along. I'm kidding it was fine but that hamlet question my god it was like a sadistic joke! Disturbing Psychological Thriller, I was very tempted to say that this describes my paper 2 but that would be unfair because my poetry went well. My favourites Boland and Keats were there for me just when I needed them! Boland was what I ended up doing but I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely the poetry was. Maybe that was to make up for Hamlet (CONSPIRACY). In fairness I did get hamlet done and it wasn't a half bad answer but it could have been better to be perfectly honest. The unseen poetry was lovely, a nice glass half full piece! And the comparative was a very fair question, very similar to other years in which general vision and viewpoint came up! Overall English was grand, paper 1 was my lifeline, paper 2 was just okay. But then again I've never been great at studying English so I can't be the perfect judge of the paper. I'm very happy that all my #beggingforboland paid off to be fair!You can read about our other LC Exam Bloggers experiences from today here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017 #LeavingCert2017
#EnglishP2 - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson
Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary So like every other student in the country i was very calm going into English paper 2....just kidding I got sick this morning.So I sat into the exam centre and it took every ounce of strength I had not to flick straight to the poetry section as I knew this would make me freak out. So I stuck with Hamlet and my initial reaction was what in the name of the state exams commission would someone say about Laertes and Horatio but anyway I did the first question about Hamlet being a psychological thriller and agreed with it.For comparative I wrote a pile of crap for the theme/issue question. I did part one and wrote about five pages for this. I actually left this question till last because I knew I'd need a lot of time for it.Finally I moved to the poetry section. I found the unseen poem nice but extremely vague? Either way I answered the second question on its theme and tone. So finally the big one, STUDIED POETRY so the favourite Boland did make an appearance but I chose to do Bishop since she is one of my favourite poets. I was slightly disheartened when Plath wasn't there at first but I got over it this.So anyway, that wasn't a paper with too much bite and at least it's over and done with! So for now I'll prepare for geography and maths paper 1. Best luck of everyone!Check out more exam blogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs-2017/issu-exam-blogs-leaving-cert-2017/#StateExams2017
#Irish - #JC2017 - Maria Hayes
#JC2017 #IrishMaria Hayes - Scoil Ruáin KillenaulePaper 1 started off as usual, the tape test. It went really well I was able to clearly understand the speaker! When that was finished I went straight to the essay to put myself in a good mood. I wrote about "when my friend and I saw a car accident when we got lost in Dublin City". I was delighted with how that went. I then did the grammar, it was easy enough too we had to write the passage in the future tense. My favourite tense! I finished off the paper with the comprehensions, they were understandable so I was very happy with them also!2 and a half hours later I got landed with paper 2. The superintendents first pointed out a spelling mistake and then I looked at the themes for Prós and Filíocht, I'll come to them in a second. I began with the Prós comprehension it went well. Then it came to the 'themes' you had to write about different places. I chose "áit scanrúil" which perfectly suited the novel I studied "Imithe" all was good. Then I moved on to the filíocht section. Read the questions and answered 2 from A and 1 from B (with great difficulty). Themes section came and all that was going on in my mind was "should have learned An tÓzón! Should have learned an tÓzón" but I dealt with what I had I chose "tragóid" (which at the time was only guessing it meant tragedy) and I wrote about "Reoiteog Mharfach". After the exam I found out that tragóid meant tragedy, I was so relieved 
?. I then chose letter B in which I had to write to a friend about how I met someone and what I did with them. Not so confident with the letter but my opening and closing paragraphs are perfect!All in all, I'm delighted with how the Irish exams went!Check out more JC BLogs here: http://issu.ie/the-issu-exam-blogs…/issu-exam-blogs-jc-2017/#StateExams2017
English - #JC2017 - Kurt Scott
Kurt Scott - Ratoath CollegeThe theme of Mystery was well suited to the new Junior Cycle English exam, and the uncertainty attached to it. The questions presented were all very fair, and gave students every opportunity to demonstrate their skills, and knowledge of the curriculum, from discussing poetic devices and their affects to contemplating the impact of visual stimuli, such as a magically themed poster.I especially liked the increased focus on analysis and opinion in the paper, as it created an opportunity for students to explore their skills as organic writers.In summation, I would say that the paper was very stimulating, fair and that the time given was just enough, which was surprising after the time challenge that was the Mock English paper. A positive and promising new Junior Cycle English paper.