The end is near. No, not global warming… well that too, but I’m talking about the leaving cert.

Arriving late for school, desperately pushing your mind to its limits in an effort to come up with yet another unique excuse for being late. Trying to exit the school a class before lunch to have an extra half hour for lunch. Challenging the school system, the teachers and their stubborn ways. Participating in a race with 300 other students to reach the canteen and indulge in those breakfast rolls prepared with Ireland’s finest goods? Or not.

Those are some of the things that I will probably miss. That excitement and buzz that seemed to grow within the school on a daily basis. Walking mindlessly in a trance from class to class.. Actually, that was one of the downsides. It really is hard to talk positively about school for so long.

Next stop, grad mass. The night where we get drag our teachers out on the town and get drunk look back on those beutiful moments of school with our parents and teachers, as we embrace ourselves for the rest of our lives.
So from now until the 4th of July, do as Barry said - ” Hit the books. Hit them hard. It’ll be worth it”

The smell of fresh cut grass, the beams of an unfamiliar sun, the water balloons; yes the summer is truly here and the end of school is just around the corner for thousands of students. For many more this means the start of some demanding study!

Not to fear with ‘National mitch Day’ on Friday, we will get a break from the books for a short while. Seems the teachers have also picked up on this ‘national mitch day’ and decided to give us/themselves a half day… that just takes the entire fun out of the event doesn’t it!

At present I am focusing on my history research project (thing). I don’t know what I’m doing to be honest with this. Seemed easy at first, thought I would take ‘Leonardo Da Vinci’ for it as he seems to be a pretty neat guy. The whole project thing does get a little tedious after the first three pages though. I am also focusing on the art practicals these days with that exam on the horizon. It also appears that the exam papers for the practical art exam have arrived at the school… and lawfully cannot be opened. Anyone up for decent raid!

The whole thing seems to be getting a little exciting at this stage. How surprising… hello there is study to be done! I think everyone is glad just be getting the exams out of the way and moving on. I’m looking forward to the grad mass too, and the typically Irish booze up that will follow afterwards, our last moment of secondary level immaturity, our last night out (unlikely) before the big exam.

Also, can someone please get back to me on how to study?

Still looking for that winning formula,

Colin.

(*Urban Dictionary: Mitch-

Brit slang for truant. -

Teacher: Where’s Bill today?
Ben: He said he was going to mitch off.)

I have been a bit weirded out this week with the concept of an impending Leaving-Cert. In merely 4 weeks I will walk out the school doors for the very last time. I have been waiting for this day since I entered that spine-chilling portal of primary school as a junior infant. But have I? When we walk out that door, a thousand memories will depart us forever. School life as we know will be over, the past eighteen years will be nothing more than a memory, a past event, an occurrence, history.

In a matter of weeks, us scholars will enter an exam hall, and experience the torment of maturity. Over a period of two weeks, we will forget years of prized academia. Our social network will be substituted over the following months altered by our imminent transformation. A thousand faces lost eternally.

However, with on our parting we will take with us a respectable wisdom that will enable us to move on and become the proud heritage of the land of saints and scholars. With every step in life we gain a thousand years of experience, every advancement makes us a million times stronger. Live for today and rejoice tomorrow. Look at every single affair from every possible angle. Only when we are wise we are victorious, only when we have truly lived life to our fullest we can say we have gained what is known as wisdom. Wisdom is just an expression; award it your own meaning because the Leaving-Cert is merely one small step of our lives now to take that giant leap…

An overview of the past few weeks.

Today I finished my final Oral examination. My Irish and German Oral completed, along with the music practical exam completed. And the feeling is great. But what now?

Mood wise I am better than ever. I enjoy the day of school in a way I have never enjoyed it before. Which is a sure sign that it is time for me to get out of there. And by that I don’t mean I enjoy sitting there listening to the droll voices of teachers who’s own enthusiasm to teach is at the same level of the majority of students willing to learn. And I don’t blame them.

I sat there day after day wondering when it would hit me. Hit me? Yes, that burst of motivation that hits most students around this time of year all over the nation. I feel like I’ve missed that train, and was left behind. Me and a hand full of other students in the same position as myself. Surely I want to do well to get into college. And I do, I really do. But I have not an ounce of motivation inside me, to sit in a class and be told what to do.

To me the pre’s were of no benefit at all. I missed a day due to illness which affected two of my exams. I had not completed course work to be reviewed which affected a further 3 of my exams. And I got no result on one subject, as the school managed to lose my exam answer sheet. Doesn’t get any better than that.

So here I am. Laughing about the Mocks. Enjoying the weather and making the most of the last few weeks I will spend in school with my friends. Only thing left for me to do is, find the train I failed to jump aboard a while ago.

They’re over and done with! Out of the way. Now comes the bit where I deny how badly I’ve done. But of course, that can wait until Sunday. First we must go out and celebrate! Right? Isn’t that what we do here in Ireland. Any excuse for a night out.

So yeah, the past few days have been annoying with these exams going on. Finished up today with my final exam, LCVP. Which was rather easy I have to admit. The LCVP exam was rather funny tho.

You know those exams that are never done in the hall because they either require you to listen to a tape or watch a video. Well LCVP was one of those exams. As soon as we were moved out of the hall and into a normal classroom, the whole ‘exam’ effect walked right out with us, and out the front door. So everyone started talking as usual, and sharing answers. A friend of mine asked the teacher a question, which happened to be a question on the paper and she happily answered him before being told she had just given him the answer.

Teachers clearly also forget to take things seriously. Not long after (20 minute delay), the Audio/Visual exam began. Except without the visual part to it. So after another 5 or 10 minutes, the teacher finally managed to get it working. And then of course there is that high pitched tone that most people have on their phones now, which was going off on three phones simultaneously. These are all the things that take away from the seriousness of the whole idea of pres. So i ask myself, are they really worth it?

A friends mother asked her if anything expected came up in her exam. She replied “Yeah, i had to draw a venn diagram. The mother replied “Was it not English you had?”. So Louise turned around and said “Yeah…”. Sarcasm is the sugar in my tea, so i laughed for a solid ten minutes when she told me that.

I gotta go to the pub and socialize study, bye!

Kevin.

Students,

Here at leaving-cert.net we have set up an exciting new forum where you to talk with your fellow learners.

• http://leaving-cert.net/forum/

After a few simple steps in registration you can get posting with other like minded students or otherwise about all aspects of student life and the leaving cert exams.

Enjoy,

Colin.

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.

The midterm break has come to an end and apparently the pre’s start on Thursday. While sitting in a cafe yesterday my friends and I debated what day our pres were starting. One of them figured it was Tuesday or Wednesday and I was almost sure it was Thursday. So we settled on Thursday. My friend then turned to me and said “I think i forgot my bag in school actually..“, and before I could say anything he said, “I’m actually raging! I think there was a fiver in the front of it“- Which cracked us all up.

Today I sit here in the comfort of home dossing working on my LCVP modules and Construction Studies folder. I figured it was important enough to require a day off school, don’t you? Keeping in mind that both of these projects were to have been completed before the midterm break for evaluation and marking for our pres. Due to unforeseen circumstances, naturally enough, I was unable to hand them up.

However, after a week of immense study, or should I say - lack thereof, I am facing the pre-leaving cert exams someday this coming week (by now word on the street is Thursday) and I am in no way prepared whatsoever. It will more than likely result in a complete disaster, like the US invading Iraq to borrow their oil rebuild their infrastructure. Such genuine people. Another friend of mine came up with an excellent suggestion the other day, “let’s see how well we can get on without studying” and he was right. I mean, we wouldn’t want to do too good in the Pres, that might make us think too highly of ourselves and result in a lower result in the actual leaving cert. And then there’s that issue, what’s it called.. oh yeah, stress. We wouldn’t want to suffer from such a horrible disease. I have a hunch it will spread like wildfire in the coming months.

Now if you don’t mind, I have some ‘Study’ to do. :-]

~Kevin.