This morning I had a fry cooked up for me as promised. What a start to the morning. I ended up setting my alarm for 6am to begin my 2 years revision for the English course. I gambled and decided to learn one poet that morning, having only briefly skimmed through Boland.

As soon as I was seated, I flicked through the paper to see what poet had come up. And lucky I was, there he was, Derek Mahon. The gamble had paid off, having only revised one single poet. I read through all the questions on the paper and then began doing what I like to call, a ‘memory dump’. I began writing out all the names of poems, authors and texts. Then quotes from each poem I had learned that morning.

The Othello question wasn’t as bad as I had expected. I never got around to learning any quotes, so I had to resort to the only one I knew. “Oh honest Iago”. I was tempted at times to make up my own quotes, but I figured that might not go down well. I ended up writing about 5 pages in total, probably having spent a little too much time on the question.

With Othello out of the way I began the Comparative question. Theme & Issue, something I had not prepared for at all. Most people seemed to learn off A standard essays and write them out again. I got caught for time in this question as I got bored during part B and moved on to the Poetry section.

The final section went down quite well, though I found it hard to answer the question properly. I had the knowledge and the quotes so I may have gone off topic a small bit. Oh well.

Discuss English Paper 2 in the Forums!

This morning was different. I woke up, and my mother went to the shop to get me fresh rolls. Something I’ve never experienced in this house before. And I’ve been promised a fry in the morning! Maybe the leaving cert isn’t so bad after all?

So I ate some food, hopped into car and tuned into Spin South West to listen to those fools ‘waffle’ even though they claim not to. I arrived at the school in time and ready for exams. We were sent to the canteen for a motivational speech, which was rather humorous. Of course we were expecting breakfast rolls or something.

I headed for the hall, found my seat and sat down. First things first, I had to prepare my red, blue and black pen, obviously! Then make sure I had remembered the right exam number. I had my eye on the clock. I was in my zone, my table, my workspace. The smell of fresh exam paper. The excitement in the hall. You could feel it.

Then we began, the hall went quiet. I read over the questions in text 1 and text 2, decided what questions i was doing and crossed out the others. Then it hit me that there was 3 texts. So i rushed to have a glance at the third text. I went for question A - Text 1, Question B Text 3. By the time I had read over the paper, had a good look around me, and sufficiently chewed a pen it was already 10am. And then in walks another guy from our year who had ‘overslept’. It was bound to happen to someone.

I then made my way through the paper trying to stay as motivated and interested as I could. And in fairness to the department, I think the texts they gave us this year were rather fair. So I finished up the A & B questions and turned over the page to the Composition question. Having prepared for the short story question I decided to change to personal essay in the last minute. Which I’m hoping was my strong point of the paper. I actually enjoyed writing the personal essay unlike previous years.

I finished about five or ten minutes before the exam ended. I have to say I was pleased with the overall exam so far, but then again I’ve stopped using my own judgement after the pre’s.

Join the Forums Discussion - English Paper 1

I am pleased to take these vital moments of my evening to welcome you thrill seekers to the adventurous reality of the leaving cert with the participation of your fellow student (or not) Colin Lowry.

Let me tell you if you find it difficult to study, you’re not alone. If you don’t find it hard, I envy you. My past week on midterm consisted of less study than a school week, and now I find myself stuck in the middle of the mock exams. This morning I prepared myself well, I had set my alarm for 7.30am. I miserably awoke to the “harmonious” song of the early birds and that default fanfare alarm racket; following this I fell back to sleep! It was only at 8.20am I decided it would actually in my best interests to
get up, always trust your body clock.

Without further nuisance (or breakfast), I was sitting diligently in my desk evaluating my paper.

“English – Higher Level – Paper 1

Getting to grips with it, I flicked through the pages - yes, I can deal with this. I happily moved through the paper, but in our stressful situation, we lose all sense of time! In an exam, never trust your body clock! Allocating a mere 35 minutes to the second section of the paper - worth half the paper, I panicked… I panicked! Not bothering studying for paper 1, in my life, I chose the first question my eyes met on the final page, question 1.

“Okay, okay… an article, finest, lash down a few points there or a bit of brainstorming I suppose.”

Finished, oh the satisfaction of completing the paper is sheer pleasure. A solid 2 page article completed in 30 minutes of a 2 hour and 50 minutes exam, worth 50% of the entire paper, I have to say that I felt pleased with myself. Looking around the hall, every student as still writing and an afterthought of worry struck me as to why I wasn’t.
Exiting the hall, everyone was discussing the exam. I tuned into one such discussion,

“Yeah, so section 2, how many pages? 4, 5, 6? I must have spent a good 70 minutes on it.”

Oh well… there goes my 100marks. With a full day ahead of me the plan was to hit the library. Didn’t happen, rarely does. This is the reality of students doing the leaving cert, many consider it laziness, I like to think… PS3 raging hormones.

Here I am 11.00pm and with paper 2 in a few hours, which I am told requires real study, I plan to get in touch with my studious side.

O, Honest Iago!

I wonder if all this writing counts as some form of study,

Colin.