I’ve always been terribly impatient, call it a character flaw if you will. Luckily, to put off pacing around the house anticipating results I had an amazing holiday of 10 days with 10 friends in Barcelona, coming back just 5 days before results, ensuring that my nails remained unbitten and my hair not torn out. [...]

I’ve been a very bold blogger. I told myself to write about my last three exams before jetting off to France, but unfortunately holiday preparations pushed blogging into the Bac (see what I did there? Ooh La La!) seat. My final three exams, Chemistry, German and Music were thankfully straightforward and uneventful. Chemistry was a [...]

You and I used to get on so well. When I would panic over German or Music you’d look at me calmly and say “don’t worry, there’s always me, I’ll be there for you”. You were the one exam I looked forward to and felt no fear about sitting. And through it all you offered [...]

Irish Paper two went more or less the same way as English Paper two. I thought I was wonderfully prepared, but when I saw that An Bhean Óg question I almost had a heart attack. Cíoptha?! What the hell did Cíoptha mean?! I later found out it meant “torment”, which filled me with cíoptha as [...]

That’s it. No more maths. Not Now, not ever. Although, in a cruel twist of irony, the fact that I put in a bit of work for my last ever maths exam at the expense of other subjects could end up with me doing science instead of medicine, in which case there’d be lots of [...]

I seem to be the only person not overjoyed by English Paper 2. Despite both Theme & Issue AND Cultural Context coming up for the Comparative, despite the Macbeth essay being incredibly vague and open-ended and despite three of the four poets on the leaked paper coming up, I still managed to mess it up. [...]

…and that’s exactly why I don’t really mind what grade I get in maths as long as I pass. I was wrecked last night and decided to indulge in an early night, on my way to bed I passed by the living room where Big Brother was on, and that pretty much ruined all my [...]

A few hours after I wrote my meltdown post last night I switched off my laptop, took a few deep breaths and thought about what I could do to maximise my English grade on Saturday. After the initial panicky thoughts of “oh God, that was my dream paper!” I realised that the contingency paper doesn’t necessarily have [...]

I just found out that English Paper 2 is cancelled tomorrow because of a leak in Louth. English paper 2. My dream paper with Longley, Bishop, Walcott, Cultural Context and Deception and Banquo for Macbeth. The specific paper I’ve been studying towards for the past few months. I feel like most of my work has gone down [...]

I think I expected nerves to set in at some point. For days I’ve had that weird “now or never” feeling, that how I perform over these next two and a half weeks will affect what I do with my life for the next 4 years at least. The funny thing is, I might have [...]

When I was 15 I did a 3-week circus stint in which I learned basic juggling and acrobatics. I was useless at the acrobatics; having little to no upper body strength and lots of lower body weight isn’t the ideal combination for twirling through the air. Juggling and physical theatre on the other hand, I [...]

Towards the end of 5th year our English teacher gave us a handout of sample A2/A1 Macbeth essays. Apparently these were actual essays written during the LC, under the same pressure and time constraints that we’ll all be under next week. I started using them as a study guide over the past few days and [...]

That’ll be my new nickname by the end of the exams, just wait and see. My first experience of squinting like a newborn kitten was during the HPAT. I looked up and found I couldn’t see the clock properly, but I put it down to the concentration on the paper in front of me. I [...]

I often wonder how much collective weight we’ve put on as a year. Between this time last year and now I’d say we’ve easily made up for the girls we lost to the Institute by the pounds we’ve gained. Maybe we can tell ourselves it was because of a sense of loss that we ate [...]

Whoopsies, I did mean to write about Irish and Music just after they happened (which is still technically last week, though really it feels months ago) I’m sure no one was absolutely dying to hear how it went though On the Monday before the Irish Oral (which was a Tuesday) I was all ready [...]

I felt completey ready for French, there was nothing that could be thrown my way that I couldn’t speak about. I strode confidently into the exam, document clutched between my hands. I laid the envelope of photos on the desk when go tobann , I realised that what I had so happily carried with me was not [...]

I don’t normally tend to write posts in response to comments, but some people have expressed their views on these blogs so thoughtfully and articulately that I couldn’t help but acknowledge them in a post. Orlagh says: “Elizabeth, i find you and this website pathetic! you too marie and jennie!!!!! P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C get a social life for yourselfs…[Read more]

A student as smart as could be had to integrate X to the 3 She said “X to the 4, over 4 I am sure” But was out by a constant of C! I’m afraid I can’t take credit for the above piece of genius, but I thought I’d share it with you all. Anyone [...]