It’s not over yet

Well, the exams are, but the tension and excitement is ongoing. With HPAT results on Monday, it’s weird to think that in 48 hours from now (as I type this), I’ll know what my chances of getting medicine are. A bit of a daunting thought – since I don’t exactly have the best thought-out contingency plan if it goes sour. I actually have no idea how I’ll do, I can’t even tell if I’ll do absolutely awful or brilliantly.

Besides that, I figure it’d be a good idea to inform all who’s interested (both of you) how the rest of the Leaving Cert went. The biology exam is evidently changing from the earlier exam papers, a change that you could kinda see beginning last year, and it picked up momentum this year. I thought it was a decent paper, but if you didn’t have a broad knowledge of the course it would’ve probably been quite difficult. I managed to answer every question on the paper and I was fairly delighted with it. For the now-infamous migratory ducks question, I just said “males ducks prefer the warmer climate to the south.” No doubt that’s probably horrifically wrong/oversimplified. ๐Ÿ˜›

German was definitely the most pleasant paper I’ve seen in all the years. The comprehensions were not only quite accessible, but they weren’t overly long either, so there wasn’t much difficulty with timing on the paper. The aural also went well, however, I made an absolute MESS of the weather section in Section 4. It’s kind of sickening – I just know that’ll cost me a grade, and they were very silly mistakes (thinking zehn is 6…after doing German for 5 years…FML). But it’s not too bad, I only wanted a B1 at least in German, and I hopefully got an A2. Hopefully.

Physics was a grand out paper I thought. I was a bit disappointed there was so little nuclear physics. Not even a mention of nuclear reactors, except for a measley short question on the role of neutrons in a nuclear reaction. The experiments were VERY pleasant altogether I thought. The short questions were also straight-forward, as was particle physics (the option) and the Q12 (4 parts, to do 2). I’d usually depend on a nuclear physics question to give me 4 good Section B questions, but alas, there was no full nuclear physics question, so I had to do the one of heat and waves. Both were actually pleasant enough I though, just some tedious calculation. Overall I’m happy with it.

Finally, chemistry was the only disappointment of my sciences, sadly. The experiment questions were fine, with the lovely predicted bleach titration and benzoic acid recrystallisation question. The short questions were also fine. Then it’s silly-mistakes galore for me. In atomic theory, I thought “alkali metals” were group 2, but they’re actually group 1. Sickened, 9 or 6 marks gone there. I completely misunderstood a part of the acids and bases question about the disassociation of the conjugate base of H2SO4 in water. I thought it was just the disassociation of H2SO4 in water. 6 marks gone. I got the Kc question wrong (I should’ve done the two organic chemistry ones instead of just Q6…whyyyy?!), like, I just got the wrong answer, I had the method right (I hope), so hopefully I might’ve only lost 1 mark on it. Hopefully! There are a few more mistakes, but I won’t bore you. ๐Ÿ˜› I’m kinda disgusted because chemistry has always been a favourite subject of mine…not getting an A1 wouldn’t do it justice. ๐Ÿ™

And that’s it really, English, Irish and maths were discussed in other blogs (in summary, all were grand). Next milestone is HPAT results on Monday! I’m gonna be spending my weekend celebrating anyway, have to keep myself sane.

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