Goodbye Maths! Hello Irish.

Of one thing I am certain: I will not, from this day on, ever have to do Maths again (yes, I refuse to even add or subtract simple numbers. No more, I tell you!)

Maths Paper 2, in contrast to Paper 1, was a dream. Unfortunately I had to give my paper in as I was finished early, so you’ll have to make do with what I can remember:

Q1: Simpson’s rule was lovely, looked to be a bit weird what with the width being 5 over 3 but worked out nicely in the end. I actually finished this question!! Although I fear I did the last part wrong, because I only got the radius of the cylinder. It said that both radiususes were the same, so whatever.

Q2: Coordinate geometry of the line. No problem with this either, except for the funny coordinate diagram thing where k was perpendicular to L, and passed through (1, -3). I just threw the line out from (1, -3) so that it spun out from L like a wide v. Meh.

Q3: Circle. I heard after the exam that some people didn’t like this question, but I actually got on swimmingly with it. I answered everything! Wow! You will never understand how crazy and unusual this is for me. Even the weird (c) part didn’t phase me, though then again it’s highly possible I did everything completely wrong. I found the two possible values of h to be 15 or -1. I think.

Q6: Probability. (My teacher didn’t do theorems with us and I refuse point blank to do trigonometry.) This was ok, the part (b) tripped me up a little at first because I wasn’t sure did they want fractions or have/choose or arrangements…I soon settled on fractions. I couldn’t decided what to do with (b)(iv) so I left it. Never calculating probability again!!

Q7: Statistics. Again, a cinch. I don’t mind drawing histograms and cumulative frequency curves, and these weren’t too tricky.

Section B Q11: Linear Programming. This is a really weird question. My teacher reckons they’re easier than Vectors and I guess I agree, but you really have to follow a strict guideline when doing them. Luckily I revised them like mad on Sunday evening so it was all fresh in my head this morning, and everything was grand except (b)(iii), the likes of which I have never seen before. Maths is full of surprises. 🙂

Irish Paper 1. I agonised over my essays last night and on first opening the paper and scanning the titles I freaked out. None of them, it seemed, suited my purposes at all. I eventually chose “Daoine i mBeal an Pobail” and wrote it entirely on politicians, simply because I had a nice essay prepared on them. Not A standard (most of my essays this year got C? Yes, that is a C question mark) but it will do. I wrote a little more than 2 and a half pages and was quite happy with myself, until I left the exam hall. My wonderful, diligent classmates had written 3, 3 and half, even 4 and half page essays. I felt sad, then gathered myself together for the aural, which wasn’t amazing. The first fogra flew by without me even registering half of it, but I buckled down into the next few parts and I think I pulled it together towards the end.

I am tired.

I have millions of poems, stories and Stair to learn tonight. God be with us all.

Valerie

5 thoughts on “Goodbye Maths! Hello Irish.”

  1. i thought irish was impossible!!! and the aural 10 times worsse…..an utter disaster!!!!!!…. i actually came home and cried..im the one that gave u the iriszh tips….i wish i learned them…i am so tired and stressed and have 2 learn everything 4 2moro….i know nothing!!!!!:(:(…..help!!!:(

  2. Oh god I’m so sorry to hear that! I wish I could help you but I have no idea myself, I’m just starting at the beginning of my notebook and going straight through everything. Good luck, I really hope the paper suits you better than today’s!

  3. Claire, I don’t know if it’s any use but over at rte.ie/exams Clare Grealy predicted Fhiannaiocht, Gaelteacht Inniu… and I can’t remember the rest.. Jack, Bímse and Níl Aon Ní as pass poems I think…

    You probably won’t see this before tomorrow… but just stay calm. You’ve done Irish for (at least) 2 years at a higher level. You’ll do great, just keep the head, and remember it IS only 3 hours in comparison with the rest of your life.

    Besides, we’re all in the same neurotic mess at this stage with Paper 2 🙂

    Valerie, people had probs with the circle one in our school too but I found it okay. Overall a nice paper, much better than Paper 1 I think.

  4. Got to say thanks for all the posts. Despite the fact I am sitting a french exam in like… 12 hours… I read a load of them. You’ve got some style! I’m sure you’ll do well whereever you end up! Bonne chance

  5. Ooh merci beaucoup! I didn’t post tonight cos I have French and History tomorrow and I realised tonight that I’m so rusty at the aul francais…tomorrow is going to be an awful day.

    Bonne chance yourself! Thanks for reading 🙂

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