A certain countdown tells me that there are three days and so many hours to the leaving cert. I know that it’s soon, but it isn’t starting in three days. It simply can’t be! Oh noes.
I’m all for the last minute studying, it’s gotten me through many an exam, however I’m just not feeling it at the moment. Simple as that. And I don’t mean that I find it hard to focus, or I’m feeling study guilt as I spend yet another hour procrastinating, I’m just not feeling the study thing. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the fact that I trekked to The O2 to see Beyonce last night. Yes, I forfeited over a day of crucial last minute study time in order to appreciate the diva herself (who was fantastic in case anyone cares).
I’m enjoying this new form of study apathy, it comes free from guilt and with ice-cream. Who’s enjoy the sunshine? If you haven’t seen the sun since last summer and have spent the weekend locked up indoors then sorry. But it’s PRETTY! However the short-lived good times must come to an end, or at least a temporary standstill, as it’s down to business on Wednesday. Apparently.
English Paper 1, eh? The leaving cert English course seems to be laid out in a way that perfectly suits those with an aptitude for the language, and resigns everyone else to learning off reams of monotonous literature. The leaving cert knows no balance. The course suits me perfectly, and English 1 is the only paper I can add to the “sorted” list. Besides memorizing possible essays, the most we can do for the paper now is decide which type of composition we will actually do.
Realizing that there’s actual strategy involved in this section was a bit of a revelation to me, for Junior Cert, the pre/mock and every exam I’ve ever done I basically read the titles and picked whichever one I felt like on the day. Apparently we are actually supposed to choose the style of writing we’re most suited to. Who’d have known! According to my English teacher I’m best at short story writing, so that’s that.
The leaving cert diet has been discussed at length here already (with tea, Berocca Boost and marmalade featuring heavily) but what now that the big event is almost here? Drinking litres and litres of Lucozade every day is all too tempting, however that much sugar leads to a depressing sugar low and wouldn’t exactly be a good idea for an exam that takes up to two weeks to complete. Two weeks of nutella, anyone? Another evil of exam-time: sleep deprivation. I can hardly wait to spend night after night staring at the ceiling. -sigh-
Stay sane, San Diego.
I’m thinking I might stock up on extra sleep credits this weekend. I’ll probably need them in 2 weeks’ time.
I wish you could do that but it never seems to work for me. Worth a try anyway I guess…
Pft, why even bother.
Grace, I’m with you! Sitting in the “Complacency Corner”.
It’s great here, we have kittens, sun and calippos.
Also, do the exact same thing with the English Paper 1, thats why Paper 2 drags me down, I walk in to Paper 2 expecting to be able to approach it with the same devil may care attitude… alas… 🙁
Wow, I’d be glad if I could write short storys like you… For me the choice will be made in 4 days time. Anyone thinks, that something about the recession might come up in Paper 1?
Regards from the sun 🙂
Ugh, I have a short story all ready to go. I just know something gay’s going to come up like “Life of young people during a time of economic crisis” and I’ll have to mangle it horribly to get it to fit under the title…
Complacency Corner is the place to be. No really. Beats “Shitting Myself Street” anyhow. Ahem. Paper 2 will indeed be an interesting experience. Am I prepared? Am I not? WHO KNOWS! The spontaneity keeps me alive!
Alex my short stories are usually antsy stream-of-consciousness, out of body experience soliloquy type compositions. Pretty unique, eh? Luckily the examiner will only read one, cause after about two, great big gaping holes in my strategy become apparent. Maybe something like “difficult economic times” or “your view of a changing Ireland” will appear. Hopefully it will be easily avoided.
Emerald, gay happy or gay homosexual? I doubt something that specific will be a short story. Maybe a personal essay, speech or article but hardly the short story?
I make it up as I sees it. I’m hoping that one will come up where I can horseshoe a story where some astronaughts encountering a brand new colour…cus I’d just love to see how far I could push my descriptive prowess without ever defining anything…and it’d be so, so silly. But other than that I has no plans.
Anyone hoping for Longley?
I’m Conor btw!
Gay bad.
Meh, they usually have a picture prompt, so I can always do something cheap with that. Slot it into the story with one line…
As Fall Out Boy eloquently put it, gay is not a synonym for shitty.
Yeah that’d be fun. You could do something really cheap and trite like make the story a dream…
Hey Conor!
I’m liking your story idea, do let us know how it works out 😀 Nah I’m not feelin’ Longley…not all too sure which one he is to be honest…
Weird how it takes a day for some people to show up.
Also weird to see someone use ‘horseshoe’ as a verb. Or at all =P Come to think of it, that’s probably one of the least likely words to come up in conversation (or at all) ever…
It’s probably because they haven’t commented before and therefore have to be moderated or something…
I wouldn’t say horseshoe an essay, I’d associate it more with sqeezing something in, if we’re using it as a verb like.
I can’t write short stories… My opening always goes on forever, setting the scene and such, and by the time I’ve started to get into the actual plot it’s like, oh I’m on the 6th page, I need to end this like, right now. This results in going from gradually reaching dramatic climax, to ‘…and then everyone lived happily ever after’ in like 2.4 seconds.
Discursive/personal essay ftw.
Horseshoe is the next…whatever the last thing was
My short stories don’t have any recognizable ark, they usually start right in the middle of the angst and drama, and peter off into nothingness after a thousand or so words.
Would anyone like to join me at the FORUMS?
There’s a pretty button at the top of this page. Here’s the link too 😀
http://leaving-cert.net/forum/index.php
Shoehorne! I meant shoehorne….Not horseshoe…that’s just stupid.
Longley’s the curmudgeonly looking beard man. My mocks essay was fairly bad. But I found it to be the most relaxing part of the whole thing.
Come to think of it, almost all my stories start in mid-conversation. Usually with a question or statement which turns out to be dramatically ironic in light of the rest of the story. Never really noticed that before now.
If I was writing Macbeth, it’d probably start with Duncan saying “Dude, if I get killed I’m gonna be totally pissed off.”
Although that’s not too far from how Shakespeare wrote it.
Shoehorne! I see. I still don’t get it o.o Yeah I actually enjoyed my mock essay…even though it started with some chick waking up in a pool of her own blood. It wasn’t gory at all, but realllly spacey.
I think short stories are supposed to be like that, they’re too short to do much else. If Kingship comes up apparently we have to talk about Duncan, even though his death is like the catalyst for the whole play…therefore there’s not much to say…
And again people FORUMS!
They’re all shiny and ready to be tampered with 😀
Ahh that’s what it was, shoehorne is what I’d consider squeezing something in, not horseshoe. Meh, close enough.
o__O
A shoehorn is a yoke that folk use to squeeze their feet into a shoe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoehorn)
Can’t believe you ain’t never heard of one.
I know what they are, I still don’t get it though. Why don’t people just get bigger shoes?
-punts everyone over to the forums-