Chemistry
December 8, 2011 in Study
I’m in 5th year now and I’ve kept on chemistry but I’m finding it really hard to learn, does anybody have any study tips? I’ve been getting C’s in the tests when I know I can do much better, please help!
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by Emma
by Amber
I’VE FINISHED PHYSICS…kinda :)
November 2, 2011 in Results, Study
Ok I’m back and my study day was about as productive as walking backwards up a mountain…Don’t know where that anology came from but there you have it. I’m now listening to Evanescence a band which got me through both my maths and Tech. Graph study for the junior cert. Unfortunately I’ve adopted a ‘no music while studying policy’ as it’s pointless because I’m doing 7 killer subjects that kind of demand brain power and not the repitition which music can help with.
YouTube is Evil! Yes I know it’s an insentient website but it’s so addictive!! Went on it this morning because my subconcious was looking for an escape and I knew deep down I wouldn’t be coming off it again. 2 and a half hours later I guilted myself into opening my physics book and decided at the rate I’d messed up the whole timetable thing the last two days, it just wasn’t going to work so I decided to just concentrate on physics today and finish the chapters which are coming up on my xmas exams next week. Good news is I finished them. Bad news is that it took my distracted brain 5 hours!! (Give or take)
I’m going to try and replicate that 5 hours but a little more productively by finishing my killer Chemistry course. I haven’t mentioned this before but I hate chemistry!! I took it because it was my favourite section in the Junior cert and my Year head offered to go out on a limb to get me into the class( I’ll explain in another post, basically it was because I don’t do Irish) I disregarded how mind numbingly boring it was in T.Y as just a bad selection of classes and topics, exasperated by the fact that I missed most of the taster classes due to being at the BT Young Scientist (Go me!! My team got Highly Commended if you’re curious 
) I might actually do a post on that in the future. It may be relevent as I know people who have done the competition in 5th and 6th year (not that I’d recommend it). But I took it, and I’ve regretted it since. I’m pretty lucky with my grades, I work hard and it pays off, but for this subject it just wasn’t working. The money situation added to the fact that I learn in my own hap hazard fashion meant that I didn’t go for grinds. So what I did around xmas in 5th year was quit complaining with the rest of the class (none of us get the subject) and just got stuck into fixing the problem. I took 1-2 chapters every weekend (on top of the rest of my study) and kept trying to improve. Thankfully it paid off in the summer exams but this year he’s given us a test each week from chapter one up to what we have studied so far and my results have been like a rollercoaster ride up, down and all around. I just hope I can pull it off when it counts in June.
I’m just so ready for this year to be over so I can go to london, get my results, start college and start having a life again. If I ever did…
by misterx
What comes before… Part B?
June 22, 2010 in Study
Weekly recommended allowance of calcium from the cheese in the title!
I was sitting in today’s Chemistry exam I had it all planned out when I saw the paper. “Fucking Atomic Theory” was to be the beautifully elegant title followed by the inspiring “Well failed that anway”.
I love Organic Chemistry. There, I said it. Hahaha I actually feel a bit guilty for even saying it. It’s like the only thing I enjoy on the course (although I have a soft spot for soap after today-sheer luck of looking at it this morning). Once again I think the SEC had just one thing to say for predictions. Okay so you can’t really accurately predict Chemistry. Or anything else. But no bleach? You’d think they’d have a sponsorship deal going with Domestos for cleaning the blood of children from their carpets. I’ll miss our games of “Really, I’m not trying to trick you, I want to give you mar-”*BANG over the head* “That’s it! Here, we can take his kidney once English is over!” It’s a bit surreal it’s all over. And of course, now that it’s finished the skies are clouded over. I regret nothing so about the mini-holiday between Biology and Chemistry. Sound out of it Jesus!
Initially I freaked out at 2pm. Hell, I freaked out this morning. Chemistry is not my strong point. Chemistry teachers, if you are out there: please don’t take it upon yourself to cut the course down. Seriously. Electrochemistry 1 today really robbed our class out of it and for God’s sake Organics is so important, even if people hate it. Rant over anyway, the exam is done. I can only hope for a C3 and dream of a B1. It wasn’t as bad as expected once I dove in but yeah, it wasn’t great either. It and Irish, easily my two worst exams. Heard the equilibrium question was nice but I skipped over that (I could make 2+2= √27858…. point 6) Also thought the short questions were a little bit strange this year, like Biology? Organics qs weren’t as bad as other years but the I didn’t like Q5 at all.
Most of you will probably float on after today, forgetting all about googling “leaving cert”… I expect an explosion in blogs about “is lady gaga a man?”, “has eminem cancelled oxegen” and “lol no srsly is she a dude or whut?”. I’ll still be sticking round for HPAT results, here and there during the summer (if there’s interest?) and definitely coming up to and on results day.
Good luck with any exams not finished and have a great time going crazy!! In case this is it for some of you calling here, thanks for a great year- you’re great and all but I hope we don’t have to see each other next year Thanks for reading!
Mr X.
by elizabeth
Au revoir medicine…
June 30, 2009 in Study
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 delicious paper and luckily for me the areas I didn’t study either didn’t come up or only came up as a tiny part of an optional question. Trés bon! Unfortunately I did make a silly mistake when I drew a graph plotting atomic number against mass number instead of first ionization energy, but luckily I realised my mistake and had time to redraw the graph and do an extra question just in case.
German was sehr gut aber nicht fantastisch. Keeping with the trend of past Ger,an Leaving Cert papers very odd written pieces came up, like writing about wild animals in the city. I sincerely hope “because of the economic crisis, people cannot afford food and may kill and eat wild animals” counts as “a dangerous situation which could arise from wild animals in the city”.
Music was as good as music was always going to be, by which I mean I didn’t do a wonderful exam, but neither did I fail epically, although the last phrase of my melody was a cross between Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. I also modulated without using any sevenths, so I hope to god it sounds like an obvious modulation.
The night before the HPAT results I had a dream about the results in which I got 460 points and was delighted with myself. Of course upon waking I realised that that’s an impossible score but went to check my email still with my happy buzz from that nice dream. It only took a few minutes for that happy buzz to be replaced by bitter disappointment and then despair, followed gradually by acceptance. I did not get a good HPAT score. Oh sure, I did better than the majority of people, but that’s not enough. Even if I got six A1s, which I know I haven’t, I could get a maximum of 720 and I just don’t think that’s going to cut it. After moping around my house on my own for a bit, I decided that Human Health and Disease, if I get it, does sound like a pretty cool course. I’m thinking that I’ll do a year of that but also spend that year doing logic and spacial awareness problems, and hopefully I can improve on my HPAT score next February. Even though I’ve accepted my useless HPAT score, I still get a sinking feeling of inadequacy every time I think of it, which is part of the reason I avoided blogging about it for so long. Fortunately being in another country with a different language and culture where I can practice French, the love of my life, is a welcome distraction, and in between sunning myself and ogling tanned French boys at the beach, I’ve come to accept that come September, I will not be a med student.
(on an entirely different note, I saw this on my balcony the other night…)
by jennie
It’s all over! Chemistry and Sentimentality.
June 18, 2009 in Study
Tuesday, at 5pm, I officially finished my Leaving Cert.
I walked out of those school gates, knowing I’d never ever have to return and I’ve got to say- it felt great.
I apologise for the gap before posting- I was getting very drunk. Very very drunk.
Chemistry
This year’s Chemistry Paper was delightful. I was genuinely extremely pleased with the exam- even though my vast knowledge of Chemical Equilibrium was totally wasted on it. Where was Le Chatelier’s Principle, eh?
The experiments were all lovely, and I flew through them- Iron Tablets, Ethene/Ethyne, Flame Tests/ Anions. Jizzed my pants. I think most people did. Groans of relief and pleasure emanated from every corner of that exam hall when those pink pages were turned over.
I had 8 questions completely done and double or triple checked by 4pm, an hour before the Paper was to be over. I did an extra two, and all the small extra bits and pieces I could manage- Lovely.
I did think the Rates of Reactions question was a tad confusing though- I left that one out completely. Also, the bit about Electrolysis in Question 10, which was luckily avoidable, was a joke. I’m sure it would have been easy had I ever so much as glanced at the chapter, but who actually thought it’d appear on the paper? Who knew? Probably most people. Not me though!
Overall- Happy with it. Maybe it wasn’t totally A1 level, but I’ve a feeling I knew more for it than I did for Chemistry last year. So I ought to beat a B1, then.
How did everyone else find it?
General reflection and sentimentality
It’s been quite the year, and I’ve definitely changed a lot. We all have.
I started off as a diligent student- willing to sacrifice everything to get as many points as possible. For about a month, I knew what I had to do, and I was willing to do it.
Unfortunately, that was last September/ October and I’ve degenerated majorly since then. It’s been a downward spiral into “How well can I get on with as little work as possible?” Well, I’ll let you all know in August.
It would be pretty damn terrible if I got less points this year than last year but, realistically, it’s very possible. Very very possible.
Choosing to repeat was a very difficult thing to do, but if I could go back a few months I’d probably decide to do it all again anyway.
While I’m turning back time and stuff, I might have decided to, y’know, work a little harder too. Maybe. But whatever.
Don’t get me wrong- it was a painful year. A year of stress and AGONY at times, but I guess it wasn’t so bad. There were countless days where I just felt too fed up to venture into school, but wasn’t allowed to stay at home- I visited a lot of friends’ houses this year, and the library became something of a second home.
I’d still say, though, that I had one of the best attendance records of all the repeats!
I met a lot of horrible people who I’m delighted I’ll never have to speak to again, but I also made some great friends and encountered some truly great people (This is where I’d like to mention me ol’ buddy ol’ chum Jephson, who just genuinely deserves a mention!) To everyone who injected a bit of life into my year- You guys RAWKKK.
I’ve left school before, so I know I won’t keep in touch with the vast majority of my newly-acquired cohorts, but I’ll certainly stay in contact with the best of them. Finally, a degree of sentimentality has hit me. Finally.
On Grad Night I cheered. On Tuesday evening, after my last exam, I screamed expletives regarding the school at my friends. But now, I guess I’ll miss the banter. The craic. The general fun.
To anyone considering repeating- I say, GO FOR IT.
It’s shocking how quickly a year will pass.
There will be days when you’ll miss all of your college-bound friends, days when you’ll resent your various subjects and days when you’ll want to empty your school bag into the bin.
But, why settle for second best? If you’ve your heart set on studying a specific thing in 3rd level and you think it’s actually within your grasp, then what’s a year?
I could have just accepted Pharmacy or Radiation Therapy this year, but I’d have always wondered what life would have been like had I actually gotten Medicine.
If I don’t get it this year, at least I can say that I tried.
So, what now?
Well, as the Leaving Cert’s now over, I haven’t got any reason to stick around writing these blogs, much as I’m sure you’d all love me to.
However, I will be back to let any loyal readers know how I get on with both my HPAT Results (Which I’m finding out on Monday. Gulp. Gulp. Terror. Fear) and, of course, my actual Leaving Cert results this August.
We did it! We can get our lives back!
So, this is it.
This. Is. It.
We can finally all get our lives back.
All of those small sacrifices we had to make, which eventually accumulated to make us total shadows of our former selves- GONE.
Make the Summer of 2009 your best one yet, I know I will.
I’m not sure what to do with myself just yet, but I’ll figure something out!
Go out, get drunk, get merry-happy. Cram as much fun as you can into the next few weeks. Just, enjoy!
Congratulations to everyone!
But, more importantly, best of luck with the results and your offers.
Class of 2009, I’m out.
