Maths P1 - #LC2017 #OL - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownOrdinary Maths P1-So I'm someone who absolutely does not have an aptitude for maths. It's one of my least favourite subjects. I especially despise paper 1.

Shockingly I was able to actually attempt this paper. Two short financial questions, a long one on number patterns, what more could I ask for? There was one or two boxes I left blank but majority of the paper was easy to attemptsI remain unsure whether I got that many correct answers. I'm mostly hoping for high partials for marks anyway. So for the first time I didn't leave a maths exam early. I found myself writing up to the maths paper. I will be hoping for a good bit of trigonometry for paper 2!#StateExams2017

Geography - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

  Michelle Chiperi Aivazova – Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayWhat an exam! I think someone has blessed me with winging powers (not the flying kind unfortunately) which guided me through geography. The short questions were half easy half hard, which I found okay because I could answer them. I did the Biome question with my knowledge of trees and deforestation, and I absolutely winged everything else. My old teacher's croaky cigarette thick voice shouted at me from the back of my mind about the wonderful world of Brazil, which helped me through the exam.

It was brilliant even though I didn't do much work.

#StateExams2017

Geography - #LC2017 - Kate L. Ryan

 Kate Ryan - Colaiste IascaighI'm not really sure how geography went if I'm honest. The paper seemed a bit weird in places and I'm almost certain I messed up with the timing. But all in all, it wasn't the worst. I think nearly everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief when they saw the geoecology questions in section 3. Everyone in my class was betting on human interference with biomes and luckily it paid off. I doubt I could have written as much on anything else.

The regional was sound. I had predicted the tertiary question on Europe and it's not hard to write about primary activities in Ireland. I wasn't too impressed by the physical. While I predicted interaction with surface processes, the essay I prepared on volcanic landforms wasn't specific to Ireland. I had half of the essay essentially and had to throw down a couple of sentences on the giant's causeway to make up the rest.I didn't mind the human processes elective. There was a nice essay on influences on population growth, but I ran out of time towards the end and rushed the essay on land use zones. The short questions were tricky in places but overall okay.The paper was nice enough, but to be perfectly honest the problem with the geography course is the sheer volume of theory you're expected to learn off. Even if you are some superhuman who can store 300 different essays in your memory, you're not given enough time in the exam to show what you know. It can be quite overwhelming and I don't think many students left their exam thinking they done enough.#StateExams #ISSU17

Geography - #LC2017 - Art O'Mahony

 Art O'Mahony - St Patrick's Secondary School CastleislandSo at 9.30 I eagerly began with the short questions, which for the most part were relatively straight forward. At least compared to Examcraft!! The paternoster lake confused me a little and part of the coastal landforms, but over than that it wasn't awful. The weather chart was lovely for once! So I got that done in 30mins and decided to move onto the 80 marker option section at the back.

I decided to study Culture & Identity on my own rather than Geoecology because I'm really into history, so skip these few lines if you didn't do that. In any event, the essay titles in this section were lovely. "Conflicts can occur between political structures and cultural groups. Discuss." So I chose to discuss Northern Ireland, France, Belgium and the Congo. Write roughly four pages so here's hoping I got 6 SRPs from each aspect. That took me the required 35mins and calmed my nerves a small bit.So I moved from there to the Regional Section which is my favourite part. I drew Brazil in the 20 marker (if the examiner can make it out!) with the River Zinga, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia marked in. Couldn't think of a bloody mountain range! In any event, that part wasn't awful. The two 30 markers really suited me; tourism in the Paris Basin and physical factors affecting agriculture in the GDA. I'm hoping I got 15 SRPs in each of those, fingers crossed.Physical was a mixed bag -I chose a section where I knew the two 30 markers well but isostasy was poor by me. I'd be lucky to get half marks in that 20 marker. I did limestone pavement as my surface karst landscape with a diagram of carbonation occurring. Then I wrote about global distribution of volcanoes. Hopefully it won't cost me a grade...Finally, I did the Economic Section. I was caught for time so I tackled the 30 markers first. Colonialisation was pretty straight forward I think but explaining why or why not an MNC would invest in Macroom took a fair effort... So much so that I only got part ii) of the 20 marker done and the bones of the diagram. Here's hoping the project gets high marks!All in all, a mixed bag.#StateExams2017 

Geography - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownGeography as per usual involved a lot of writing and very little time to think. It was a generally alright paper though.

I was jumped straight to question one, well the second part, I had to wait on graph paper to do my sketch map! So I wrote about intrusive and extrusive volcanos. And then picked human activities with flood defences and wrote about the river Rhine.Moving on to regional I had hoped for a map of Ireland but did India instead there was no difficult features here. Followed by tertiary activities in Paris (Tourism in my case) and then primary activities in Ireland for which I picked Dublin's agricultural sector.I then did my short questions when I felt more confident about the exam. I didn't analyse these really I moved quickly but did notice there was no question on glaciers on its own.Moving to human I found this alright. It wouldn't be my strongest section. It was quite similar to both the mock papers going around. Ethnic and religion differences made an appearance to keep up with current events. I honestly shot through this section and I can't remember what question I did.Finally, I did Geoecology. I chose the human interaction question with the three headings. I was delighted to see this as if that question wasn't there I probably would've walked out of the exam! So with five minutes to spare I finished feeling as if someone had tried to hammer my hand to pieces.#StateExams2017 

Maths P2 - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayToday's paper was quite difficult!! I was feeling sick all of yesterday and I woke up feeling okay today, but the looming exams had my stomach churning. I found the atmosphere in the exam centre heavy with fear and trepidation. My brain feels a little bit foggy after the exam I must admit.#StateExams2017