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 maths. It’s a funny old world.
I stayed up til about one studying for my Last Ever Maths Exam. Apparently 9pm is not the time to begin to learn the entire Maclaurin series part of question 8. Like the night before paper 1, I didn’t sleep to well and spent all night with my head filled with maths, leaving me wrecked this morning, but not sick, which was an improvement on Friday at least.
The actual paper itself was OK, not good, or bad, just OK. I messed up question 8 like I knew I would but the rest of the paper didn’t go to badly. I was so thankful I remembered the existence of linear transformations before I went to bed last night, otherwise I never would have been able to do that line question. Which I think that pesky question 8 may have dashed any hopes of a B, I’ll be happy with my C if I get it.
Paper 1 Irish was a totally different story. Between Maths and Irish the corridor was filled with people cramming and learning off last minute notes. The general consensus seemed to be if the Cúlú Eacnamaíocht essay didn’t come up There Would Be Blood. I was hoping for a nice easy debate where I could use all my impressive phrases cobbled together from various Irish teachers’ notes. In the last five minutes before the exam there was quite a bit of panicking, “Oh My God! What if NOTHING about the recession comes up!” “What if there isn’t even a debate on the paper!”
If anyone is reading this who wasn’t doing their Leaving Cert today, you may have noticed a slight change in the atmosphere at about 1:30. Perhaps you felt a vibration in the air, or a shiver run down your spine? That was 55,000 students inwardly screaming “YESS!” as the most beautiful, open-ended essay question for the recession came up: “Slán leis an Tiogar Ceilteach!” I was still determined to do the debate and was delighted when I saw “Ba cheart go mbeadh an Ghaeilge roghnach do scrúdú na hArdteistiméireachta”. What a lovely debate, so open to rebuttals and impasioned speaches about our language which is “alainn, ceolmhar agus lán de mistéir”. Unfortunately, I think my arguments in the debate were a bit flimsy. If I had to actually say my speech in a debate I’d be inwardly cringing, but hopefully the examiner will see past that and will see all the lovely phrases and genetive cases scattered throughout.
The comprehensions were incredibly simple to understand, but I thought they were a bit tricky to put into my own words. “Edema” and “Bloot Clot” are surprisingly difficult to explain as Gaeilge. I’m hoping my method of changing the tiniest thing counts as “putting in your own words”.
The tape in Irish was like any other, no nasty surprises and some hilarious accents. I got the fright of my life when I closed over my booklet at the end and heard the woman on the tape say “end of tape”. I was afraid a new section was about to begin, but no, it was the end of a lovely Irish exam.
So I’m happy with how today went. Exams are so much more relaxing and less stressful when you can take your time and double check everything. God knows how many marks I would have lost if I didn’t go back and add in all those extra séimhiús and urús. I almost think Irish will make up for English now. Who knows, I may still be in the running for medicine yet!
Honours Irish Paper 2 really wasn’t that bad, I still did the scéal though.
You said that you were determined on doing a díospóireacht, but they mark an aiste written as a díospóirteacht out of the full marks (unlike in English when the total amount available for an essay written under the wrong heading is 55/100). That’s what the head of the Irish department in the school told us, as well as the person who corrected the mock.
I love the end to this post
HAPPY FACE 😀
Sometimes in Irish I literally change the syntax and count that as my own words
@Jana: I wrote the díospóireacht as a díospóireacht though, under the díorspóireacht heading (god that word lose meaning the more you say it >.<) not as an aiste. I didn’t realise they even gave you marks in English if you wrote a debate under an essay title, interesting!
Haha, I read the word éidéime and was like “oh god that sounds really like an english word…I know what it is…it’s no the tip of my tongue…” I was thinking “how could they expect us to explain that in Irish? I can barely do it through English” then I realised they explained it further down the paragraph. I thought it was a really nasty question at first!
It’s weird, but somehow Maths has crept into my heart over the last few months 🙁
I’m actually going to miss it. How pathetic.
“Edema… blood clot”… Suddenly I fear that i may not have read things as sufficiently as I thought…
^^ Good god…
Math’s was good today, much better than Paper 1.
Doing Pass Irish and that was handy, what a useless language really when ya think about it. See the people on here doing Honours, what a pathetic sight, yeah it’s nice to be able to speak another language but with all the work ye must have put into that “Goodbye to the Celtic Tiger” essay wouldn’t it be better spent at say…. ohh… Geography? Physics?
Liam, you’re dead to me.
😛
Adrian, I saw nothing about blood clots or any such thing, and was under the impression I understood what was going on, so you’re not alone in that boat!
Oh god the accents on the aural… it was so weird. It was like they were trying and failing to speak slowly in a hideously exaggerated accent. Fairly handy as aurals go though, besides that, I thought… 🙂