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 I realised I could have written a good answer to that instead of the very dodgy answer I wrote for Lig Sin i gCathú (“eh so he was on one side…but then he changed sides…then he had a fight with the gardiner…) a terrible start to the paper. Then I saw the Cearrbhach question. What a lovely question! Béaloideas, the question everybody loves to answer on. I felt so proud of myself having disussed four or five characteristics of folklore in the story, but when I got home I realised the question just asked for two to be discussed, so I’m going to look like a complete gealt for not reading the question properly.
The rest of the paper was as predicted. Bímse Buan and Gealt came up, both of which everyone had predicted, as did An Mháthair and Dá mB’fhéidir Arís ár gCumman. Unfortunately by the time I got to Stair Litríocht na Gaeilge, there was less than 10 minutes left until the end of the exam and I only wrote about 10 lines on An Rúraíocht and about three sentences on Filíocht na mBard, so that’s the guts of 30 marks thrown away there. Bang go my hopes of Irish making up for English.
French today went much better, however. Foolishly I decided to leave all of French grammar until last night and was frantically trying to learn off last minute phrases on the environment, immigration and healthcare. I was blessed with the paper today; the comprehensions were wonderfully simple and the questions were very straightforward for the most part. There was enough choice for the production écrite so that no specific vocabulary was really needed. I adored that question about where we see ourselves in 2019. I wrote a passionate essay about wanting to do medicine and work with the Medecins Sans Frontiéres. Not strictly true, but I’m hoping the examiner will look kindly on my apparent compassion and desire to help others and reward me with lots of lovely French marks. The aural was also wonderfully simple and is probably the easiest there’s been in years as the people spoke incredibly slowly. Unlike Irish, I had loads of time to spare to look back over the paper and make any corrections.
Now that the big three: Irish English and Maths are all over I can actually relax a bit and do the subjects I’m more confident in. Biology is tomorrow and I’m not sure what I should be studying as the course is so huge. Sexual Reproduction, Genetics, Ecology, Respiration and Photosynthesis come up every year so I’ll probably be focusing on those. I’ve studied biology a lot over the last year and really want to do well in it, but sometimes it seems like chapters I studied even at Easter have completely slipped out of my head. Hopefully study tonight and this afternoon will refresh everything and Biology will go as well as French will.
Not that I’m making light of your distress or anything, but “Faeilge” gave me an oddly hearty laugh. Thanks!?
It is a great word 😀
Me too!
i agree with what you said about biology there is just so much to learn i have a feeling male reproduction and embryo layers going to come up this year any ideas for the experiments?
Heart and genetics are supposed to feature more prominantly on this yrs bio paper according to my biology teacher!! Expt on heart…pure piss 😀
“10 lines on An Rúraíocht a
Stair na Gaeilge was a bit nasty, but from reading the paper today it seems the SEC are a bit embarrassed about it too. They said that they will adjust the marking scheme accordingly. As long as what you wrote was factually correct, I can’t see you losing many marks in that question 🙂 I told my Irish teacher today that I ran out of time on that section and had to scramble down my answers, even though I had them studied well. She said at the end of the day all they are looking for is main points and kinda expect answers to get a bit briefer towards the end of the paper.
nd about three sentences on Filíocht na mBard”
As for French I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t get much of a chance to talk about inequality and alcohol and stuff. Although I did use alcohol as the topic over which the argument in the journal was based (a journal entry examining cardio-vascular disease and liver failure!!). Oral was decent, comprehensions were fantastic, production ecrit was good, and aural was beautiful!
10 lines on An Rúraíocht’s actually pretty good I’d imagine?
Like, you’d definitely get most of the marks for that.
Well done on the French and best of luck in Biology! PRAYING for loads on Evolution.
Dont worry about your Cearrbhach question Elizabeth! I did the same and wrote about 3 aspects instead of the required two. I’m sure the examiner will just mark us out of our best two. 🙂
Cíoptha? Wow, i cant believe they expected you higher level guys to know what that meant. I wonder whats the big attraction with medicine? There are soooo many better courses/occupations out there. Did you know that Doctors have one of the highest suicide rates? Biology in 7 hours and 12 minutes, woohoo!!!
I heard it was dentists that have the highest suicide rate actually!
I said ONE of the highest, but yes you are correct about that.
Well I really don’t see myself committing suicide any time soon! If I get sick of being a doctor I’ll pack it in and do research, no suicide needed!
Im not saying dont do medicine, if you feel its right for you the go for it. Im just saying that theirs alot of people who go into medicine for all the wrong reasons, ie money, getting to say “Hello, im a Doctor”, parents pushing them , etc. I just dont get why its so popular.
Looks like they might change the marking scheme for SnaG… Sorry, but that really annoys me. I studied it quite a bit and, while I may not have got top marks, I answered the 2 quite well. I think it’d be pretty unfair if they changed the marks – to be honest, Irish overall was almost *too* easy to predict. Most of just studied Culu – it came up. Most of us focuse on An Bhean Og and An Cearrbhac – they came up. Most of us banked an either An Mhathair or Da m’fheidir aris dar gcuman – *both* came up! They have to have some way of catching people out – especially as I think our year was far, far more preidictable than other years.
@Roisin Yeah I’m not sure if changing the marking scheme’s the right thing to do. I mean the SEC didn’t do anything wrong, all those SnaG topics are on the course, it’s not as if they threw up something completely random. At least if they make the marking a bit easier, maybe ask for fewer points or something then maybe my shambolic answers (which would have been so much better had I the time to write them 🙁 ) wont destroy my grade.
@PJ I’ve heard people say that alright, but I’ve never actually met anyone either doing medicine or who wants to do medicine that wants to do it because of the prestige or for parents. Maybe I’m just lucky though!
Changing the marking scheme? WTF? Just because people were banking on their predictions and it didn’t work out? Fuck right off. I want my marks for an Rúraíocht and Teangacha Iasachta plz.
People kicking up a fuss over nothing – annoying.
People kicking up a fuss over nothing that costs me marks – fuck right off.
What the hell is their justification? Why are the SEC listening to them?
It seems like the SEC is being very softly-softly with at atm after the whole English Paper 2 fiasco. The slightest grumbling is getting their attention.
Argh, I hate teenagers so much.
Me too. But not as much as I hate goddamn adults. Or little kids. Or old people.
Everyone else is grand.
Elizabeth – if you did do 10 lines on ruraiocht, and made an attempt at filiocht, you’ll get a decent few marks no matter what 🙂
Liam – I agree so much! I loved teangacha iasachta coming up, it had better get me a few points!