Was the Leaving Cert a lot harder this year?

irish_man

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 ?

well geography was very tough.
that metamorphic Q was a joke.
and the fold mountains....:mad:

I still cant believe people did only one or two poets.
I did three and i thought i was cutting it tight.

all of an chead drama is allegorical.
i find it hard to believe that you didnt know that its all over my irish book.
Sure its the main idea of the poem. the way it works on 2 levels.

apart from geo every thing was fair

Cipango

Personally it was the easiest in many ways. Spanish and Physics were a hell of a lot easier than previous years in my opinion and Geography and Economics were average.

English was a little tricky in places E.g. the comparitive was VERY badly worded and was a stupid question for literary genre.

Maths P1 OL was a bit of a challenge but it was helped by and easy paper 2.

Overall i feel that i got very lucky with questions and cant wait for August 18th to see if my hard work paid off!

Cipango

cman_21 wrote: »

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 ???

I agree with this though, for those that do very well this year, its because they deserve it, not because they narrowed down everything to the bare minimum according to predictions.


**NOTE TO 5TH YEARS**

PREDICTIONS ARE NOTHING! DONT CONFINE YOURSELF!!

HOBO123

you would be silly to follow predictions .. you should learn everything as best you can and maybe zone in on the best predictions and know them very well but have a wider knowledge of the course also... no one can 100% predict what will come up and if you follow all the predictions its most likely because you have only decided to study at the last minute...

Joe_Dull

ManUtdFan10 wrote: »

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.

By that reasoning, should the English syllabus just consist of essays and comprehensions? Nobody asked you to "learn off" any of the prós or dáin, you have to comment on them, just as you do in the English.

For a language the vast majority of us have been studying for 14 years, it doesn't seem like a huge ask to study a tiny percentage of the rich literary culture we have in this country written as Gaeilge.

Irish isn't, and shouldn't be, taught at the same level as French at second level. If any changes are to be made, then make them to the OL course.

_Exasperated_

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 ?

I have to agree with the Chemistry and English one lol. Good thing I studied Rich and Boland but paid more attention to Boland .

Chemistry was disastrous. I'm not getting an A1 this time round. As for Physics it was a lovely paper. It seemed to focus on the application of Physics rather than the theory bit. I don't do Biology so I wouldn't know :-/

Ohh yeah I would've never imagined that the bomb calorimeter question would come up. It wasn't even in revise wise and we never covered it in class. 12 marks wasted

ManUtdFan10

irish_man wrote: »

I still cant believe people did only one or two poets.
I did three and i thought i was cutting it tight.

I thought studying anything other then Boland was valuable time wasted as everybody, teachers included were betting their mortgage on her coming up this year. I studied her & also did Longely in great detail. I remember thinking to myself about studying Kavanagh but I just thought it would be a waste of time, which I was desperately running out of so I left it....... the rest is history now.

ManUtdFan10

Joe_Dull wrote: »

By that reasoning, should the English syllabus just consist of essays and comprehensions? Nobody asked you to "learn off" any of the prós or dáin, you have to comment on them, just as you do in the English.

For a language the vast majority of us have been studying for 14 years, it doesn't seem like a huge ask to study a tiny percentage of the rich literary culture we have in this country written as Gaeilge.

Irish isn't, and shouldn't be, taught at the same level as French at second level. If any changes are to be made, then make them to the OL course.

Sorry if I caused confusion but I was talking about the OL course. I have never even seen a higher level Irish paper, if you are doing HL Irish then yes keep the poems & stories there because you most likely understand them & can write about them however with ordinary you just pick an emotion from the choices given & then tell the story. I am very weak at Irish, always have been.

It is an achievement for me to be doing ordinary level & for me to pass it, I would be delighted. I put a lot of work into learning things for the stories, less so for poetry but the notes I learned I still don't know what they mean but they make sense & will get me the marks I need, that is not knowing the language, that is just learning a bulk load of stuff, keeping it in your head & writing it down. I could get a B in the subject from just the stuff I learned off by heart but I still know a terribly small amount of Irish.

mercurypink

Having spent the last two years looking through past papers, and then sitting these ones this year, I'd definitely say the majority of subjects were harder than previous.

MATHS HL: I'm no maths wiz, and while paper one was cac, paper two was nice, so hopefully I'll get a C.

ENGLISH HL: LOL Boland... Fortunately I had Kavanagh covered as well, but the Literary Genre questions were just nasty

IRISH OL: Pretty much the same as every other year.

FRENCH HL: Lovely. It's normally one of my worst subjects, but I came out quite satisfied

BIOLOGY HL: I personally found the paper grand, but it was definitely a bitch of a paper. Those diagrms looked like they'd been drawn by a righthanded person with their left hand which was broken at the time.

ACCOUNTING HL: Pants. JUST PANTS. I'd loaf the ****er that set that paper if I ever had the chance!

HISTORY HL: It was fair. Some of the questions were a bit tricky, but the only reason I got caught out was due to me not learning some of the section XD

Remember though, they still have to have a certain amount of As every year. If everyone found something hard, it's the same as if everyone found it easy. So hopefully we won't get screwed too badly. Here's hoping!!

FordieMUFC

Maths OL - Seeing as I dropped from higher after xmas I thought it was very easy.

Geography HL - Elective was tough. And a few questions were tricky. Not annoyed at the fact that the questions were hard (because you expect it) but the fact that there was simply too many marks going for things in the book with very little detail. That's not being snaky, it's just being a ****.

Business HL - Completely did the same as the metamorhpic rocks in geog with this in a good few questions. As my friends said, they're meddling with peoples futures by trying to catch people out, when they really didn't examing people that knew in great detail the acutally IMPORTANT parts of the course, not strategic or operational planning which have a great total of 8 lines and counted for 33% of a question :rolleyes:

English - HL, if you had the work done, you should've been fine.

French HL -besides the second comprehension, IMO exactly what you come to expect from French in the leaving cert.

Chemistry HL - absolute joke the fact that they asked things we were told not to learn by our teacher and even stuff that wasn't on our course :eek::rolleyes: trying to catch people out isn't the word, basically just throwing in a question to make people lose marks.

Irish OL - absolutely piss (if you had the study done, but I didn't open an Irish book all year ) my oral and aural will get me like 50% anyway I say

randylonghorn

unknown13 wrote: »

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

They are, I think, aiming to make it slightly less predictable though.

And though I have sympathy for those caught out these year, I'm afraid I think that's a good thing ... might decrease some of the rote learning based on tips and predictions.

Kylzer911 wrote: »

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

I'll say it for the mod team, personal abuse is not welcome around here. Infracted.

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.

Being provoked does not give you license to fight back in the same vein. There is a Report Post button - use it. Infracted.

muffinz wrote: »

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

Tone it down several notches, please.

NTMK

mercurypink wrote: »

e.

ACCOUNTING HL: Pants. JUST PANTS. I'd loaf the ****er that set that paper if I ever had the chance!!

I see they didn't go easy after the 08 paper controversy

Joe_Dull

ManUtdFan10 wrote: »

Sorry if I caused confusion but I was talking about the OL course. I have never even seen a higher level Irish paper, if you are doing HL Irish then yes keep the poems & stories there because you most likely understand them & can write about them however with ordinary you just pick an emotion from the choices given & then tell the story. I am very weak at Irish, always have been.

It is an achievement for me to be doing ordinary level & for me to pass it, I would be delighted. I put a lot of work into learning things for the stories, less so for poetry but the notes I learned I still don't know what they mean but they make sense & will get me the marks I need, that is not knowing the language, that is just learning a bulk load of stuff, keeping it in your head & writing it down. I could get a B in the subject from just the stuff I learned off by heart but I still know a terribly small amount of Irish.

Oh sorry ManU, bit of confusion there! I agree with you, it is unfair to force the literature on OL students and it definitely turns them off Irish. The OL paper should be far more language focussed and maybe even condensed into one paper like French - with the emphasis on reading and writing. Perhaps they could get a greater chunk of the marks for the oral exam as well. At least that way OL students might actually learn a bit of Irish, instead of seems to be the case now (as with yourself) and they more or less learn off by heart or give up completely.

Also, the general standard of Irish teaching seems to be absolutely abysmal - it certainly was in my case ...

randylonghorn

Joe_Dull wrote: »

Perhaps they could get a greater chunk of the marks for the oral exam as well.

Aren't they giving more emphasis / marks to the Oral from next year? Or is that just at HL?

muffinz

shwagga wrote: »

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.

I just think its so rude to assume that just because someone did bad in the paper, they automatically did no/little work.
Ive studied Geography every weekend for the past 2 years, and even I wasnt prepared for the Metamorphic rock question.
I dont like your arrogance. I did so much work on Genre over the years, aswell as V&V, but I was way more prepared for Genre. It was an awful question in the paper, but just because I did bad in the question doesnt mean Im a lazy git whos done nothing over the years. Because I did plenty.
"blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness..."
The english Genre Q was very hard, I wasnt idle or lazy, it comes down to the paper at the end of the day.
Just because you think its easy doesnt mean other people will. Have respect for the people didnt do well, but who really did try hard throughout the years.

Kylzer911

Ah no malice was meant, my leaving went very well, take it with a pinch of salt . :cool::cool::cool: Summer :cool::cool::cool:

Joe_Dull

randylonghorn wrote: »

Aren't they giving more emphasis / marks to the Oral from next year? Or is that just at HL?

If they are then that's a step in the right direction

Seloth

OL maths -Horrible

Hon English - Meh twas Ok I guess,I didnt get caught out

OL Irish
-Quite happy with myself

Hons Bio-I dont know...I think I did ok but yeah...

Hon His -Same as Bio,ran out of friggin time!

Hon Eco - The whole oligopoly fiasco...bloody hell how did it not come up!

Hon Ag.sci 0- ridiculouse!!!,It was hard than biology with the most off the wall questions and q1 and things I never heard about before!

I thought I'd do great in eco and ag and **** in bio and his but was the other way round practically.

Jack Leahy

Seloth wrote: »

Hon Eco - The whole oligopoly fiasco...bloody hell how did it not come up!

The only 'fiasco' is you being lazy and bothering to listen to predictions.

Fad

Jack Leahy wrote: »

The only 'fiasco' is you being lazy and bothering to listen to predictions.

Dont be so abrasive please.

kthnxbai.

Jack Leahy

Fad wrote: »

Dont be so abrasive please.

kthnxbai.

Ok. Though if you weren't a moderator, you'd be getting an even more abrasive reply :P

unknown13

Jack Leahy wrote: »

Ok. Though if you weren't a moderator, you'd be getting an even more abrasive reply :P

The Thunderdome >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

randylonghorn

Well, here's another moderator saying "cop tf on ... now!"

'k?

Jack Leahy

muffinz wrote: »

I just think its so rude to assume that just because someone did bad in the paper, they automatically did no/little work.
Ive studied Geography every weekend for the past 2 years, and even I wasnt prepared for the Metamorphic rock question.
I dont like your arrogance. I did so much work on Genre over the years, aswell as V&V, but I was way more prepared for Genre. It was an awful question in the paper, but just because I did bad in the question doesnt mean Im a lazy git whos done nothing over the years. Because I did plenty.
"blame the difficulty of the paper for their idleness..."
The english Genre Q was very hard, I wasnt idle or lazy, it comes down to the paper at the end of the day.
Just because you think its easy doesnt mean other people will. Have respect for the people didnt do well, but who really did try hard throughout the years.

[/QUOTE]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.[/QUOTE]

Moderators, is this not what you should concentrate on if you don't like abrasiveness? :P

Fad

Jack Leahy wrote: »

Moderators, is this not what you should concentrate on if you don't like abrasiveness? :P

I think you should you learn to keep your thoughts to yourself tbh .

Next step is an infraction.

Jack Leahy

Fad wrote: »

I think you should you learn to keep your thoughts to yourself tbh .

Just asking, but is that not what a forum site is for? Like please correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's the case it's hardly fair to ban be for not keeping my thoughts to myself! By all means put me in my place if I'm wrong, but is there not a lot worse going on here... that's all I'm saying!

unknown13

Jack Leahy wrote: »

Just asking, but is that not what a forum site is for? Like please correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's the case it's hardly fair to ban be for not keeping my thoughts to myself! By all means put me in my place if I'm wrong, but is there not a lot worse going on here... that's all I'm saying!

Have you ever heard of a Private Message (PM)

Jack Leahy

unknown13 wrote: »

Have you ever heard of a Private Message (PM)

yes, yes I have. But Boards is much more fun in the open air

unknown13

Jack Leahy wrote: »

yes, yes I have. But Boards is much more fun in the open air

I dont want to read someone questioning a mod's decision or actions. Use PM's.

Fad

Jack Leahy wrote: »

Just asking, but is that not what a forum site is for? Like please correct me if I'm wrong, but if that's the case it's hardly fair to ban be for not keeping my thoughts to myself! By all means put me in my place if I'm wrong, but is there not a lot worse going on here... that's all I'm saying!

Questioning a mod about their moderating within a thread is not on in general.

If you want to go to Feedback/Help desk, start a thread by all means.