Was the Leaving Cert a lot harder this year?

ninjaface

I found the Leaving Cert a lot harder than past years. Like there was something surprising on almost all of my papers.

English - Boland and Longley (need I say more?)

Irish HL - I dont even know what allergorical is in english never mind fáthchéilach or whatever it was in Irish for an Chéad Dráma.
And nobody could figure out what the an triail question actually meant in my class !

Chemistry - There was a lot of things that were on the paper that werent even in my book!

Geography - there was a question on metamorphic rocks which I couldnt find in my book, revise wise, or shortcut to success

Biology - The ecology question was very strange for some people and nobody in my class really understood it unless they also did chemistry

Did anyone else find that their exams were harder than past leaving certs ?

cman_21

I think the SEC tried to shake things up a bit this year, in that you can't just learn stuff off by heart, you have to understand it. Then again they asked really tiny details in exams like Physics and Chemistry, so they also want you to know off your stuff inside out ???

seanaor

This year, the SEC wanted to test how we could understand what we learned and apply it to different scenarios, not just rote learn and regurgitate in the exam. (At least, thats what it seems).

I think it goes back to employers complaining about 'graduates not being as clever as they used to be', or some spiel like that...

wayhey

For people looking for high grades a hard exam is good- it's much worse to get an exam that's too easy if you've studied hard!!

shwagga

ninjaface wrote: »

I found the Leaving Cert a lot harder than past years. Like there was something surprising on almost all of my papers.

English - Boland and Longley (need I say more?)

Irish HL - I dont even know what allergorical is in english never mind fáthchéilach or whatever it was in Irish for an Chéad Dráma.
And nobody could figure out what the an triail question actually meant in my class !

Chemistry - There was a lot of things that were on the paper that werent even in my book!

Geography - there was a question on metamorphic rocks which I couldnt find in my book, revise wise, or shortcut to success

Biology - The ecology question was very strange for some people and nobody in my class really understood it unless they also did chemistry

Did anyone else find that their exams were harder than past leaving certs ?

A lot of people were under the impression this year that the exams would be made more unpredictable, partly due to the rise in people sitting the exams. And, it's only right they make it more unpredictable... People are trying to cut the course and guess what's going to come up.

For English, anyone who really planned on doing well in that subject would have studied more than Boland. Even doing Rich and Boland would have made more sense, because they more or less have to put up a female poet, or else women across the country would feel their gender isn't being represented and all that feminist jazz....

For Irish, allegory is mentioned in the book, so your teacher should have covered it. An Triail had a choice of two questions, so if one wasn't understood, you could always do the other.

Chemistry was actually a very reasonable paper. It gave leeway to those who weren't so good at organic to leave it out. Experiments, SQ's were fine. It was a good paper for anyone who knew the first 14-15 chapters really well.

Geography, Metamorphic rocks is in the book. We personally left it out, cause it didn't seem likely, but our class learned over 50 essays for Geography throughout the year, so we were spoiled for choice.

And Biology didn't require any background in chemistry to answer the ecology question. Above the graph, there was a passage to explain what the oxygen demand was. It was more like a comprehension test than anything else, to distinguish those who actually use their brains in the exam, from those who just sit in the exam hall sub-consciously regurgitating everything they learned throughout the year. I thought Biology was a nice change this year, as they made it too easy last year.

Overall, the Lc was good for those who prepared for it. It seems the only ones complaining were the people that tried to cut the course, assumed predictions would come up, or else were just too lazy to study, but blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness...

Diabhal Beag

It was pretty hard all right. Will have to wait till August to see how I really did TBH

LouiseZ

The first An Triail question was a bitch, even our teacher said so.
And in my opinion Biology was harder this year than it had been in the last few years.
English was ok, our teacher told us to learn Boland, Yeats and Kavanagh (although somehow roughly 80% of the class thought he only said Boland and learned her ONLY!)
And German was a beauty this year. I did nothing for it at all except for the night before and wasn't expecting much, but after that exam I'll be very dissappionted if I don't get a minimum of a B1 , hopefully an A though.
Chemistry?..not so great.
Maths HL was lovely though!

But it's Summer, lets just forget the LC!:cool:

wayhey

shwagga wrote: »

A lot of people were under the impression this year that the exams would be made more unpredictable, partly due to the rise in people sitting the exams. And, it's only right they make it more unpredictable... People are trying to cut the course and guess what's going to come up.

For English, anyone who really planned on doing well in that subject would have studied more than Boland. Even doing Rich and Boland would have made more sense, because they more or less have to put up a female poet, or else women across the country would feel their gender isn't being represented and all that feminist jazz....

For Irish, allegory is mentioned in the book, so your teacher should have covered it. An Triail had a choice of two questions, so if one wasn't understood, you could always do the other.

Chemistry was actually a very reasonable paper. It gave leeway to those who weren't so good at organic to leave it out. Experiments, SQ's were fine. It was a good paper for anyone who knew the first 14-15 chapters really well.

Geography, Metamorphic rocks is in the book. We personally left it out, cause it didn't seem likely, but our class learned over 50 essays for Geography throughout the year, so we were spoiled for choice.

And Biology didn't require any background in chemistry to answer the ecology question. Above the graph, there was a passage to explain what the oxygen demand was. It was more like a comprehension test than anything else, to distinguish those who actually use their brains in the exam, from those who just sit in the exam hall sub-consciously regurgitating everything they learned throughout the year. I thought Biology was a nice change this year, as they made it too easy last year.

Overall, the Lc was good for those who prepared for it. It seems the only ones complaining were the people that tried to cut the course, assumed predictions would come up, or else were just too lazy to study, but blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness...

Are you talking about Draíocht for the Irish book? It's the one we used to use in school but it's way too hard to understand, the teacher would be translating every second word in it so we worked mainly out of her notes. Just because it's "in the book" doesn't make it fair. You'd never be asked about the "allegorical" nature of a poem in Honours English. I don't get how that's okay in Irish, especially on a question worth over 20 marks. Ask it on something smaller to separate people out sure. But personally I thought it was ridiculous. Worked really hard for that paper all year, consistently, and it doesn't show. I disagree with your last statement completely. Anyone can have a bad day in the exam hall. Anyone.

muffinz

yep it was hard, the SEC dont want nymore predicting i guess, and they want you to understand not just learn as said above!
english- boland

irish- i do ordinary and its the same every year

maths- the s&s in algebra, paper 1 was insanely hard!

spanish - topics such as the recession predicted didnt come up, but

technology was predicted and that came up, so spanish was grand

geography -there is a pattern with geography, every year there is 2 soil 1 biome, then the next year its 1 soil 2 biome, and we were due 1 soil 2 biome but 2 soil and 1 biome came up!
and the metamorphic rock! i mean we went over how each rock type was developed in 5th year but never in a million years did i think that would come up! and to be so specific as to say which rock type instead of "a named rock type you have studied"...

biology - one experiment question about a whole bunch of experiments jumbled into one?! thats unfair, but the questions were easy peasy anyway i suppose...
and the ecology was a bit weird i agree..

physics - everyone learned joules law to a tee it was so due to come up, and it didnt come up! some of the questions were wierd because they didnt give you information required which screwed up the answer a bit..

anyway thats what i think....

Seloth

A friend of mine who was repeating said to me how its weird this year.

Just every is done a bit diffrent and all the tips and supposed "patterns" were thrown off.

unknown13

No it wasn't. The SEC aren't going to go out of their way to make it harder.

aine92

unknown13 wrote: »

No it wasn't. The SEC aren't going to go out of their way to make it harder.

To be honest I think thats exactly what they did? I got on fine, I didnt come home from any exam upset because I really did put the work in, but they were total snakes, NO patterns or predictions (except maybe Clare Sa Speir every 2nd year in HL Irish) were kept to, I dont think it made it harder as such it just singled out the people who have really tried and not taken chances like relying on one poet..?

I agree with a poster above who said honestly, if you were looking for high grades in ANY subject, theres no way you should have been relying on predictions whatsoever.

Kylzer911

I'll say it for everyone else annoyed reading this, shup shwagga you nerd
;)

Joe_Dull

wayhey wrote: »

Are you talking about Draíocht for the Irish book? It's the one we used to use in school but it's way too hard to understand, the teacher would be translating every second word in it so we worked mainly out of her notes. Just because it's "in the book" doesn't make it fair. You'd never be asked about the "allegorical" nature of a poem in Honours English. I don't get how that's okay in Irish, especially on a question worth over 20 marks. Ask it on something smaller to separate people out sure. But personally I thought it was ridiculous. Worked really hard for that paper all year, consistently, and it doesn't show. I disagree with your last statement completely. Anyone can have a bad day in the exam hall. Anyone.

I agree that the An Triail question was put strangely, but there's no excuses for the An Chéad Dráma question. If you didn't know fáthchiallach, then you didn't know your teanga na filíochta well enough. HL Irish is supposed to be of a similar standard to HL English where you would be expected to write about an allegorical poem if that's what it was. I found Irish very difficult, but I didn't go into the exam expecting to understand every word - that's the nature of the beast with HL.

leavingcert 2010

im also a rpeat, and i got 525 last year

and obvioulsy i studied alot this year to get better than my last years grade, except i dont know why i feel like i didnt get an A1 in any subject

all my hardwork didnt pay off

i do 9 subjects, and all of the papers this year were really hard(btw i dont listen to predictions, i just learn everything)

the only two good papers this year were maths paper 2 and physics

the rest were all bollocks

chemistry,accounting,biology were really nasty papers

i found buisness too long

shwagga

Kylzer911 wrote: »

I'll say it for everyone else annoyed reading this, shup shwagga you nerd
;)

Well you're mature... You're not annoyed at my post. You're annoyed that you fail at life. The LC is just another spoke in your wheel of failure, and it's never going to stop turning.

chaoticmess

shwagga wrote: »

Overall, the Lc was good for those who prepared for it. It seems the only ones complaining were the people that tried to cut the course, assumed predictions would come up, or else were just too lazy to study, but blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness...

Bear in mind that just because one person finds a paper easy, doesn't mean another person will. People are naturally good at different subjects, and different aspects of those subjects.

No matter whether you have studied everything, or not, there will still be some things that you are not as good at. That's not down to being idle though.

Just because you found the papers ok and reasonable, it doesn't mean that's the case for other people. Like I said, it's not down to idleness or being lazy, it's down to luck of the draw.

For example, I found the organic questions in the chemistry paper exceptionally hard this year. Normally the organic is my best part of the paper. Overall the paper was relatively ok, but it was by no means easy. Did I study? Yes, of course I did.

LC2010HIS

Biology - friggin horrible. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after:eek:

English - Poetry was different. Kinda more open. But, its prob all to good to be true

French - Failed

History - Disappointed with Irish and div/rel his. Rest was fine. But the A is gone.

Maths- OL - I thought it was grand

Art - HL - Lovely just wish i did more for William Chambers

Irish OL - meh


I found myself thinking, especially with Bio, that it was harder:( screwed

EuropeanSon

English-Reasonable, essays were awkward.

Irish-Ok paper, medical problem caused me to eff it up.

Maths-Piss easy.

History-Fair, kind of average paper.

German-Really easy paper.

Accounting-Nasty, difficult paper.

Chemistry-Slightly tougher and different to normal, not a huge deal though.

Applied Maths-We'll see.

tehPOK

I know I'll get killed here now, but I found all my exams to be grand even Higher Maths was fine, studied like two hours before each exam and it worked (Y)

RyanK

HL English- Fair paper, I didn't rely on Boland

HL Geography - Another fair paper, that metamorphic rock question was BS.

OL Maths - Paper 2 very nice, Paper 1 not so nice.

HL History - Alright paper for me personally... Got real lucky with essays.

OL German- Grand.

HL Economics - A little tough but doable.

HL Classics - Nice paper, but I did way too little study.

Overall - Average LC. Not too hard nor too easy. I feel it was a little harder this year only because they took out all the "banker" questions such as Boland for English and Oligopoly for Economics.

muffinz

shwagga wrote: »

Well you're mature... You're not annoyed at my post. You're annoyed that you fail at life. The LC is just another spoke in your wheel of failure, and it's never going to stop turning.

And your wheel of arrogance will never stop either will it -.-

ManUtdFan10

English HL - Took a risk, didn't pay off. Boland, Longely, need I say more??

Irish OL - Not good at Irish but gave it my best, made a good attempt at most.

Maths OL - Horrible.... but I never have to do it again :D:D:D:D

French OL - I found it fairly decent, one I am happy with.

Geography HL - My strong subject, happy with everything even the biome question however the metamorphic rock question was ridiculous, not even in my book.

Business OL - Dropped levels on the day, regret it after seeing the higher paper, ah well.... here is hoping for a high grade.

Construction HL - Taking everything into account I should pass with ease however the written was difficult. Don't get me started on the practical exam. They changed the U-Value question slightly, part (b), not complaining as it piss easy but yet another change in this years exams.

Overall the whole leaving cert is greatly exaggerated & too much pressure is piled on us. Some things need to be revised, especially with Irish, way too much time given on the paper, also completely change paper 2 irish. That's not testing you're Irish skills it is just about learning off some of the worst stories & poems I have ever heard. There is much more that needs to be changed about the LC but I am too tired to go over the rest now.

muffinz

ManUtdFan10 wrote: »

Geography HL - My strong subject, happy with everything even the biome question however the metamorphic rock question was ridiculous, not even in my book.

Me too, Geography is my best subject, Its in one of the courses i have down for Uni I just checked my Geography revision book, it only has Sedimentary rock in it So being unprepared for it is not our fauly contrary to what other people say!

Psychedelia

I'm predicting that somehow a bell curve of results will appear anyway.

It wasn't as predictable perhaps but it was of the same standard i feel.

shwagga

muffinz wrote: »

And your wheel of arrogance will never stop either will it -.-

It's funny you should feel it necessary to intervene in a discussion that doesn't concern you. And for the record, using my own analogy to insult me is slightly pathetic... Try be more original. Arrogance has never been a significant part of my personality, but if someone interjects in a discussion, (Kylerz) with an idiotic, snide remark, I will retort.

HOBO123

shwagga wrote: »

A lot of people were under the impression this year that the exams would be made more unpredictable, partly due to the rise in people sitting the exams. And, it's only right they make it more unpredictable... People are trying to cut the course and guess what's going to come up.

For English, anyone who really planned on doing well in that subject would have studied more than Boland. Even doing Rich and Boland would have made more sense, because they more or less have to put up a female poet, or else women across the country would feel their gender isn't being represented and all that feminist jazz....

For Irish, allegory is mentioned in the book, so your teacher should have covered it. An Triail had a choice of two questions, so if one wasn't understood, you could always do the other.

Chemistry was actually a very reasonable paper. It gave leeway to those who weren't so good at organic to leave it out. Experiments, SQ's were fine. It was a good paper for anyone who knew the first 14-15 chapters really well.

Geography, Metamorphic rocks is in the book. We personally left it out, cause it didn't seem likely, but our class learned over 50 essays for Geography throughout the year, so we were spoiled for choice.

And Biology didn't require any background in chemistry to answer the ecology question. Above the graph, there was a passage to explain what the oxygen demand was. It was more like a comprehension test than anything else, to distinguish those who actually use their brains in the exam, from those who just sit in the exam hall sub-consciously regurgitating everything they learned throughout the year. I thought Biology was a nice change this year, as they made it too easy last year.

Overall, the Lc was good for those who prepared for it. It seems the only ones complaining were the people that tried to cut the course, assumed predictions would come up, or else were just too lazy to study, but blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness...

First of all, your post is not just rude and offensive to those students who do study hard and do try their best all year but it is downright ignorant and highlights your lack of compassion.. I studied almost 7 hours each day every weekend, 4 hours after school and as the leaving approached everything doubled .. and yet despite all my efforts and hard-work I still feel that the leaving cert was difficult this year.. granted I found some parts nice because I had them prepared and learned inside out but no matter how hard you work it never seemed like enough .. they always throw something in to throw people.
I know I cant say exactly yet how I did in the exams but I dont feel that doing your leaving cert this year was the same as other years..

and as for chemistry .... what is there to say it was hard i struggled through it and i gave that the most time out of any of my subjects .. they were definitely cutting down on A's in chem this year :P

Summerishere

Overall I found the exams do-able, but in saying that I have worked hard.

English HL - delighted, hoping for a B1/A2. Best essay I've ever written in my life. Delighted that both Kavanagh & Yeats came up, a little disappointed about Boland not coming up though.

Irish HL - overall very happy hoping for an A2/A1. Essay titles weren't as flexible as other years, my whole year seemed to use the same title. Poetry questions were a bit dodge, An Chead Drama in particular but if you knew Uirchill you were grand.

French HL - one of my weakest subjects and I was pretty happy, i found the second comprehension a bit tough though, overall though the topics we'd covered in class came up!

Maths HL - I'm happy with, I think. Paper one I found parts to be a disaster but was happy with the rest!

Business HL - SQ's were lovely if you knew them. I was very happy with the ABQ as I had studied managerial skills right before I went in. Overall very happy with LQ's, but the four questions I wanted to answer were all from Section 2. In section 1 though I found it unusual that they threw the Acts into Question One together, normally only one comes up!

Biology HL - I was thrown with the lack of study of an ecosystem question. Overall a pretty okay paper, experiments were fine, short questions pretty nice. Question on Ecology and DNA I found were worded strangely!

Music HL - we'll see tomorrow...;)

LCVP - what i can remember, I found it to be a pretty decent paper. But it was a while ago so I can't coment any further :P

MyHair

Pretty much every exam went fine for me apart from Irish.
But if I even scrape 40% in it, I will not be repeating

PARARORY

Dont think it was harder to be honest - just different and less predictable!

Biology - just a different format but at the end of the day they were looking for the same answers as always! Like the photosynthesis question has been the same ever since the course changed so its easy marks!

Home Ec - slightly tricky and we kinda got screwed over with that pie chart/short questions but its over now so whatever

Spanish - couldnt have gone better , one of the easier ones

English - Both papers were very straightforward and you were spoiled for choice if you had put in even the tiniest amount of work during the year - people giving out about Boland is pathetic - 1/8 is stupid odds!

Irish Hl - an triail was a bit tricky but even if you took the keywords out of the question and wrote about it you should have been fine ; love/human nature and vices and faults/who to blame...

One thing I dont understand Is how people did not like the essay titles? I thought they were the possible THE nicest titles ever to come up! Sure daoine oga is by far the most common essay that people do in secondary school and we could use that in at least 3/9 essays!

For all the people that expected the environment to come up and learned off related essays you could have put that in at least 2/9 essays!
Recession could have been linked in with politicians in the "daoine ata i mbeal an phobail"

Just out of interest , for the people who said they were stuck for the aiste , what topics did yas prepare?

Maths OL - perfect , could not have gone better! Fair enough there were some tricky parts but a B grade would be pretty accessible even to the weaker students.

All the language aurals that I did were really nice as well

abc12

I must say Is dán fathchiallach é an dán seo was drilled into us by our teacher for an chéad dráma and an toilean so it was there...it wasn't just plucked from the sky!
Really loved the ecology question in biology, it required you to use your biological knowledge rather than spit out facts you memorized. There were two more questions on the biology paper lke that. I thought it was great!
To be honest I have no idea if the LC was harder than before, having never done it before! All i know is i had no huge surprises - so far!