I’ll put my hands up and admit it, occasionally I will laugh when particular emphasis is placed on the word oral in a classroom. Some people laugh at the result 69% in an exam, but sniggering at the word oral is my dirty little secret. However that doesn’t mean I’m going to discard it as a Chelsea centre-half discards his marriage. Sorry, like a Chelsea defender discards their marriage, that makes more sense. I had an epiphany last week, a good oral puts you on the road to a decent grade, and it’s lying there for the taking like an unguarded Trocaire box (I’ve never stolen, it’s purely an expression). 25% right? It’s around there anyway, correct me if I’m wrong.
Personally, I lick my lips at the thought of a nice bit’a oral in the cramped room in my school where they’re carried out. Not because it’ll be easy and effort-free however, because of course you can carry out your oral without killing yourself, but to reap the benefits, work needs to be put in. I’m lucky however, as I’ve always had a knack for the oral.
I sit down and flirt, charm, or man up if necessary, and have a right auld chat with the cupla focail en Francais that I know and come out delighted as the examiner just smiled at me and smiled at me and smiled at me. I can tell that the examiner enjoyed sucking the sentences out of me like Paris Hilton would enjoy testing Christiano Ronaldo’s Portuguese native tongue. Of course after last year I now realise that for all the beaming and confidence, you can’t beat knowledge.
To be fair I did get decent grades in mock orals, it was about the only thing I scored moderately acceptably at in honours Irish last year. But needless to say I still failed, and it goes without saying that had I practiced my oral beforehand, I wouldn’t be typing here. Of course there are questions I wouldn’t have been able to answer even if Seachtain na nGaeilge was named after me, such as what did I think about Davy Fitzgerald bringing his Waterford hurlers to a Bernard Dunne fight the night before a league game in Parnell Park after I told the examiner that I enjoyed shtick an’ ball. However I could’ve whipped out all these impressive, lengthy sentences when asked the simple questions, and that would’ve made my E a D3! Oh well, c’est la vie.
As for French, it’s very much the same. Learn, practice, and sweet Jesus if you don’t know you’re document well don’t bring one into the interrogation! I do think that sums French up.
Will I be kind and explain how TG4 and TV5 do wonders for your Irish and French respectively? Go’wan sure why not, I can’t say I’ve studied off it but I know some people recommend it. Plus, Irish is pretty shit cool nowadays innit. And we should aim to do well in it, it’s part of our culture. And as for French, that’s pretty out of this world too de nos jours oui? Learn some phrases from those and I’m sure you can throw them in to woo the examiner.;) Don’t be a Snorlax, I’m sure Annah would agree.
And remember the person opposite to you doesn’t want you to fail, they’re wicked nice, and it would only delight them to give you a great grade, and thus a great start for the written paper come June.
Oh and apologies, I’m after forgetting about the minority languages, so this one’s for the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
Fine I’ll be honest, I was just looking for an excuse to play that. But in all seriousness don’t undermine the importance of orals. Now let the innuendos and immature jokes commence!:) What’s with the word knob-rowing in Sliocht 1?:P;)
Merci Beaucoup agus Slan.
I had a lovely little blog prepared detailing the whole load of nothing I did over the midterm but then life kept getting in the way of completing it and getting it posted. I sorry.
The life thing that got in the way was an experience that left me in a very confused state. There is nothing like someone you don’t know berating you on your life choices while cameras roll in the background, waiting for any sign of emotional fragility. Yes. I auditioned for Reality TV. Fame: The Musical. It wasn’t terrible, I didn’t sell my soul to the devil (at least I don’t think I did…) and I didn’t really mind not getting through to the main event – the live shows - but all the same, it affected me in strange and unwelcome ways.
The reason I feel this is relevent to my blog is because it threw a huge mother of a spanner into my carefully organised career-picking works. As I have mentioned before, I love to sing and perform. It’s something I considered as a career for most of TY and 5th year, after which I got too sensible for my own good and decided it would be best to have something to fall back on, don’t want to put all my eggs in the one basket and all that. That’s the clever thing to do, right? So all the way through the audition process I maintained that I was not going to study Musical Theatre in college but follow my second love, Journalism. Most people found this very interesting.
“Why are you here if you want to be a journalist?” they asked.
Well, um, I love singing.
I learned very quickly that you cannot simply love it. You have to eat, sleep and breathe it. I immediately felt terrible for even daring to intrude upon something that people feel so strongly about, that was so important to them. What place did I have there really?
Evidently my feelings came across, as the judges cited my indecision to completely devote myself to musical theatre as one of the reasons why I didn’t proceed further in the competition. They said they hoped that my experience there would help me decide what I wanted to do with my career. To be honest, it just left me befuddled.
I always had a little plan: earn my degree, get work experience, then go off and try my hand at theatre. Now, I feel like I was selfish for even thinking about casually dipping in to something that others have worked so hard for. Can one really have one’s cake and eat it? Or should we just pick one thing and stick to it? I don’t know.
I’m not posting this to look for advice or even to moan about wanting to follow my dream and the unicorn over the glittery rainbow but oh it’s so hard etc etc. I’m wondering what people’s opinions are on this, do you have one career in mind only that you would be happy to do for the rest of your days? Do I come off as a selfish brat in this post? Probably. For the second time in this post, I apologise.
As for the commenter on Ronan’s post who said that the bloggers this year aren’t very interesting, here’s apology number 3 (albeit a sarcastic one. Can you hear it? “Well soooo-reee.”)
Also, I want to wish anyone who hasn’t already completed their mocks the best of luck! Same to those who just did the HPAT – that’s ye, Mister X and Annah. Hope you get the marks you’re looking for.
That’s all for now, folks.
Valerie
PS: To any mock correctors that may be reading: Will you please hurry up and finish correcting our mocks? Please. I’m getting antsy.
So yesterday was the big day quite a number of us had been dreading for a few months now and i feel the need to announce to you that there is infact a god,well one for the hpat at least…
so yeah,Section 1 was,as we irish like to say,grand. Had enough time to check over it even. Not so sure about that question with the mosquitos and their wing length though,that was just plain bizarre! Section 2 was slightly harder then the practice test,I thought, but all in all it seemed to go relatively well pour moi. I actually got to check over it TWICE,I thought the clocks had stopped or something. Then it was time for the bane of my existence, section 3. I had expected to stare blankly at it for about 20 minutes before guessing every single question and seeing if my guessed answers spelled any funny words on my answer sheet,but was I the only one who found it suspiciously easy?? Like was I just delirious or did it actually make sense?? I was starting to think that my reasoning was just a tad too abstract when i looked around the hall and saw lots of people scratching their heads and giving up early but I think I might have actually gotten A decent score on that. So needless to say I left ucc with something of a spring in my step. Hopefully it wasn’t designed to be deceptively easy because that would suck with a capital PH. There’s aboot 6 days between the closing of cao and hpat results though so there’ll be time to change choices if necessary.(which hopefully it won’t be!) Oh great hpat god,please let me have done well…and if you could,would you please put a word in with your son leaving cert christ?
Well now that that’s over I guess I’m out of excuses for not really caring about the pres,oh dear…. seriously though,pres are pretty amusing in pobalscoil. I find that just sitting back and watching other people stress out is kinda fun,I’m even thinking of inventing an exam time barbie based on my friend’s hair after exams(yes I am referring to YOU sinead!). The only exam which has managed to upset my calm dispsition was maths on thursday. All was going well,english was a doddle and chemistry and french were both oddly easy so I nearly cried when I got into maths and realised that I didn’t have a clue! I Attempted 6 questions but they were some pretty feeble attempts. Afterwards I couldn’t figure out if the questions were weird or if i’m just a total dunce. Hopefully I can make up for it in paper two tomorrow but i highly doubt it. I’m starting to wonder if i’ll even manage to scrape a pass. I think this week in general might just be shit,based on the fact that I have maths 2,history and irish 1&2. It’s one saving grace however is biology which I find i’m actually looking forward to(that’s not weird is it??). I suppose that’s my cue to end this since sadly i have to study for each of the previously mentioned exams.
Hope you’re all as happy as I am with the hpat!
Annah
What a wake-up call the past 2 weeks have been. As we really get going with orals and projects, I have to say that I’m pretty worried about what I might see in my envelope in August. It seems like there isn’t enough time left to cover everything, at least not enough to secure the points needed for Medicine. Sure, I’m confident that I could hit the 450-500 range right now but breaking that barrier? Valerie, you got it in one: Mockadoodledoo.
I’m a week back into the swing of school, correcting mocks, getting results (which I’ll post when I get them all)… it’s been pretty busy. I hope it went well for everyone, there can be a bit more open discussion in the coming weeks about the papers, wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone that doesn’t want it to be.
Now to deal with the proverbial elephant hiding in this post. Saturday 25th. HPAT. I’ve done the practice test. 71/110. Section 1 and 2 are definitely my strongest on the sample and that was under proper timing conditions. 3 is a bit of mess, although I’m well aware that Saturday is going to be tough. Harder questions, more harder questions and probably HPAT staff whipping us and spraying us with boiling, salty water.
So over the past few days I’ve really been considering what my contingency plan is. Ok, summer consists of Job and Party On with Added Oxegen. But after? I don’t know, I’m seriously considering repeating if things don’t go to well. Either that or take up a course I kind of sort of want. Still, plenty of time. You guys?
Good luck to everybody, Mocks, HPAT or otherwise!
Maybe it’s a mixed-school thing. Personally I think it’s a female thing, but without doubt it’s not female only. People, wonderful people might I say, not being aware that they just like anyone else have their limits. To be blunt, people who think that they’re the cream of the crop, but in reality are nothing other than average or below the mean level of intelligence.
I don’t like it when people think I’m degrading them, but I do like honesty. From my previous bout with The Leaving, I’ve experienced girls with the I’m Lauren Conrad syndrome. Usually very attractive, and average in school until Senior Cycle stuff. Then it becomes, “I want to live in luxury with the Gucci bags, with boy’s chins hitting the floor when I walk in, I’m so confident, and to be frank, more intelligent than the rest of you”. No my dear, you’re not. You can try, and you do to be fair, which gains you much admiration, well mine at least. But you’re still not bright.
Honey, wake up and smell the roses. Intelligence levels have been decided long before you were fifteen or sixteen. You’re not going to get 570 points come June. No doubt some girls will, more girls than boys, but the girls I’m on about will be short of that without doubt. And this isn’t a vendetta against beautiful women, if a beautiful woman is intelligent and has been impressive during her schooling then there’s no reason as to why she wont get 600 never mind 570. I know them too. But people who frown upon others for being “like retarded” when the fact is they too were closer to the bottom than the top on entering secondary school. Stop eating books. Nobody thinks you’re intelligent if you’ve not slept and spent thirteen hours looking over business or physics the night before an exam. They just think you’re a, well, silly is the word. Especially when the exam returns with anything but an A.
Then it comes to “what are ya looking to do next year?”. Oh Dental Science. Oh Law with French in Trinity. Oh Actuarial and Financial Studies. All high points and ambitious targets. Well they’re too ambitious for a lot of people. You can learn off a mathematical formula, you can quote a poem word for word, you can learn a date in history, but come exam time you will be found out. You’ll still achieve an amazing Leaving Certificate for someone so average, but you wont get the course you want. And while you might be disappointed, everyone else will just think you’re a delusional fantasist because you thought you’d reach your target in the first place.
However don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t admire these people more. They are so determined and driven that it’s hard not to wish you were as committed to study as them. I can’t say I’d like to do as much as them, I believe there’s a point where it becomes too much. But if I could do half I’d be fulfilling my potential. However the point is my potential is above those mentioned. And that’s not arrogance it’s the truth. If I worked as much as them I’d take the Leaving as a piece of piss. But they will work more, and wont acquire a place in their desired course next year. And that’s the saddest thing. Unless of course they’re an up-their-own-hole cunt. That’s a good one then.:)
Oh and noone in my current school falls into this category! Purely last year and people I knew from other schools in years gone by. (Dodged that bullet).
Regards, preparing for a backlash, Ronan Morrissey.
I really really really really really wish life was more like pokémon!! wouldn’t everything be so much easier? no need for an education if you just train some super class pokémon and then kick everyone’s ass! I bet gym leaders never had to go to college, or members of team rocket for that matter. I really need to stop watching cartoons….
anyway..so it’s day 4 of my 9 day ‘working break’,or so it’s been dubbed by the teaching units of pobalscoil na trínóide and 4 days sitting at a desk without contact from the outside world is really making me wish my pres were before the mid term. Lucky valerie and the majority of other people! Studying is great and all but without breaks which involve actual social contact it becomes somewhat unpleasent,and unpleasentness is no friend of mine. Also when staring at your pre timetable becomes slightly entertaining when compared to what your actually supposed to be doing then you know your kinda in trouble. So i’m taking a break from studying for my leaving cert, so that i can complain about it ^_^
I’ve been studying Lear for the last hour or so and all i can come up with aside from the whole play being a bit of a mind fuck, is that Cordelia is a total biatch. If say your mam or dad was going senile and they asked you to tell them that you loved them wouldn’t you friggin well do it?? I know i’d sugar coat it and possibly hang bells off it,So I find this whole business of her not being able to compromise her ‘integrity’ as a big croc of sh*t tbh. Seriously,she’s just a self righteous biatch and she’s just as stubborn as the guy who we’re all supposed to say was a fool to use the love test and blah blah blah. Apparently it’s tipped that a question about COrdelia as a role model is gona come up this year and i really hope it does,just so i can write a nice long essay about how i think she’s a total biatch. Being negative is so fun in exams,it’s quite similar to bitching about people so my being a teenage girl comes in quite handy.
I should probabley go study some more,since I haven’t even finished reading wuthering heights and i’m planning on writing an essay on it next tuesday so that’s all for now folks
Annah
I’m really sorry I haven’t posted in ages (though it was probably nice to have a break from my constant prattling on and on), mocks have sort of taken over my life. I wasn’t actually planning on that happening at all, but when I come home from a day’s thinking and remembering and writing, oh the writing – well, I’m too tired to function. No doubt everyone is experiencing the exact same thing.
It’s a Saturday. I’m supposed to be studying for my Maths 2 and Irish 1 exams on Monday but I’m having the most horrible trouble concentrating. So here I am!
As of Friday I have Maths 1, English, History and all my Art practical work done. Let me take a moment to discuss History.
IT WAS AWFUL.
Every kind of awful. I couldn’t answer any of the questions on Sovereignity and the Impact of Partition. Three questions we haven’t even covered (thanks, teach) and the one I could possibly have done I hadn’t studied, of course. I wrote the saddest, sorriest, most irrelevant page of history I’ve ever written and promptly gave up. Dictatorship and Democracy: fine. America: kind of ok, I had to bullshit, which I don’t really like doing. Document Question: the only case study I didn’t look at came up, that’s how it always works, isn’t it? It was funny actually, I think I jinxed myself. Right before the exam I was studying* with my history classmate and I said “OMG I bet ~this~ will come up.” And it did. Grr.
(*chatting, insulting historical figures and generally avoiding study)
After the loveliness that was English, History was wayyy disheartening. I had a bit of a sulk later on in the evening and threw aside the schoolbag in favour of singing class and trying to find my doppelganger for Facebook (no one’s ever told me that I look like anyone, which is great for everything else except Doppelganger week.)
Next Thursday, the 11th, and it’ll all be over. My year is planning on going absolutely mental for the midterm, y’know, to get it all out of our system. I recently realised how much I love doing stuff that isn’t studying. I dream about going to the cinema, or even oh! going to Penneys! (Yes, Ballina has a Penneys. It’s kind of our landmark.)
Hope everyone’s having a more pleasant mock experience than I’m having.
Til next time, my dears.
Valerie
Firstly, I would like to clarify the title, for those of you who don’t do Spanish. The sentence says: “It seems that I can speak spanish”.
A week ago, I went on examinations.ie to get my hands on some past Portuguese papers. After downloading a few of them, I started getting curious about what exams for other subjects are like, so I decided to check them out. I saw a bunch of options that I would never take up, and I was just about to go back to getting my past Portuguese papers when I saw the possibility to pick Spanish. So I opened up the page for the Spanish Leaving Cert Paper 2009, and after downloading it, I started to go over it.
To say that I was astonished would be an understatement.
I was able to pick up most Spanish vocabulary quite easily, given the fact that it is somewhat similar to Portuguese, and the standard of Spanish necessary for the Leaving Cert is the same as the standard of French. Immediately, a thought formed in my head: Were I to take up Spanish for my Leaving Cert, I would have even more chances of maximizing my points. An A1 in French, Spanish and Portuguese would be 300 easy points. Of course, that is assuming that I’ll be able to get an A1 in the three exams. Despite how easy they might seem to me, life has its ways of ruining fun for people, and I might not do well in them.
That said, Spanish has a listening exam, which leads me to believe that it must have an aural exam as well. So I have 4 months left to learn how to write and speak spanish properly, seen as I seem to be able to read and understand spanish, but I have no experience in actually writing it or using it. And that’s in addition to the 7 other subjects I am already doing. It’s going to be tough, but the rewards will be great if I manage to master it until the Leaving Cert.
So I took up Spanish, yesterday, and now I’m just waiting for the mocks to come, so I can see just how well I actually do, as opposed to how well I think I do. This also is the end of my period of laziness. I’ve been studying quite a bit lately, solving past papers. They give me the ability to review the whole course for a subject in only three hours, which seems like a very good way to use my time and to revise everything.
I’m curious, by the way. Did anyone here sign up for any additional subjects after starting fifth year (or even as late as me)?
If anyone out there has been reminded literally a bazillion times in the last ten hours that there are quite literally two cao applicants for every one college place,then i feel your friggin pain!
There i was on the bus this morning happily listening to my iPod and ignoring my friend,as per usual, then on comes mister newsman on the ol’ wireless and declares that there has been a 10% increase in cao applications and somehow this amounts to there being but one place for every two aspiring students. Now being as I am a ‘modern’ youngster i chose to discount this since nothing that comes out of the radio is much good anyway(a theory i developed based on my serious dislike of colum and jimjim). So i got to school and all seemed normal,The newspeople’s nugget of wisdom was mentioned in passing but that was it. My theory was seeming to hold up well and nobody seemed too bothered about it,until school actually began and the teachers got involved. Long story short I have now been reminded of the sad facts so very many times that i’m actually starting to become a teensy bit troubled about it,what if I actually don’t get to college at all?? Will my only option be to grow a beard and join the circus?? Now that is a disturbing thought..almost as disturbing as the thought of repeating, i skipped TY for a reason afterall I DO NOT LIKE SCHOOL and if i had to go back for another year i think i might just crack up! So anyone else just a tad worried?
On a lighter note,maths grinds are the best thing that have happened to me since i discovered how to work a tv! they can be pretty expensive but if anyone is struggling with maths then i would highly reccomend them. Maths is possibly the very craziest of our subjects what with all the irrelevant nonsensical stuff we have to make sense of,but it is actually starting to make a itty bitty bit of sense to me since i started grinds. The point of complex numbers and matrices may still elude me but I suppose that’s why we get a choice on the paper,so we can choose things which actually matter.
That’s all for now folks,I have a history project demanding my immediate attention.
Annah
